Will there be army and parliament updates in the future?

[Metz]

Now that the game is almost maxed out in terms of content, an area that seems like it is missing content is that of armies and parliaments.

Armies seem to be the more simple part of the game where you just spam build armies and have them on standby for when you need to occupy planets in wars. Despite recently playing again after not touching the game for a couple of years, so far, I have only seen one type of unit which is the assault unit (for UNE). I may be wrong but I don't think there are any armor or support units. Not sure either if orbital bombing directly helps combat the same way CAS helps combat in HoI4. I also wonder if it would be possible in the future to have army recruitment consume pops or consume pops indirectly by taking "workers" (soldiers) from barracks which then uses pops to fill out those jobs.

4.0 seems to have added the faction system whereby factions as they gain strength, over you the chance to change your government civics. I think the system is nice but it could be expanded to have a sort of parliament/congress (when government type is applicable) where you visually see what % of the government is what (similar to the US congress mechanic in HoI4). This could be tied into changing/passing laws and they could also issue you requests (like journals in Victoria 3) where you get relations bonus with that political faction if you accomplish certain things (improve relations, declare war, trade, etc.). Additionally, these political factions could also have leaders that can eventually become officials to help shift your government civics/ethics in a different direction if they take a spot in your council.

 

[Calvax]

Armies almost certainly not. The devs have mentioned many times that they don’t have plans to expand or otherwise complicate invasions. “Ground army rework when” is even a bit of a joke between the community and devs.

An internal politics rework we might get. Pop groups do give a great foundation for that and the player surveys at the end of last year had one on internal politics. The devs have also mentioned ideas along these lines like having conquered pops spawn resistance civilian jobs, fleshing out how military expansion works with more social elements.

I wouldn’t expect it any time soon though my fervent hope is that since those surveys were done (and apparently received thousands of replies) it helped set the plan for next years content. I’d love to see a war and politics rework in 2026.

 

[3ishop]

Armies not really. Might be some quality of life updates for it at most, along with just new flavours of army for new empire types/events/threats. It's just such a minor system where it's not worth the time and cost for a throw away system by what has been said - closest to a rework I've heard from the Devs was possibly just removing it but that could of also been sarcasm over the rework requests.

I have only seen one type of unit which is the assault unit (for UNE). I may be wrong but I don't think there are any armor or support units.

Early on there will be limited unit types. Need to unlock different army types via chains. Clone building gets clones of species in your empire with army rights, then got robots leading to robotic armies and so on. Armour is part of an army as is support.

I also wonder if it would be possible in the future to have army recruitment consume pops or consume pops indirectly by taking "workers" (soldiers) from barracks which then uses pops to fill out those jobs.

Just makes those units terrible choices which they already tend to be the worst option by the mid game point. There's lots of army choices by then that wont need pops and if you can choose a unit that is better in combat and doesn't harm your economy to be built?

 

[Artas99]

I understand the developers' intentions not to complicate the assault army, but they could at least visualize that it loads not only infantry but also, for example, tanks, through a mixed cost, i.e., 75 food and 25 minerals

 

[Foxosaur]

I expect we'll get an internal politics dlc in time for a slowing pace of the game itself...

At least that's my hunch anyway.

 

[WoodenP]

It's a terrible and disappointing decision but, yes, the current batch of Stellaris devs have said they won't update armies in any meaningful way and often laugh openly about it in the discords. Only for the reason that they're just not fans of it.

 

[3ishop]

It's a terrible and disappointing decision but, yes, the current batch of Stellaris devs have said they won't update armies in any meaningful way and often laugh openly about it in the discords. Only for the reason that they're just not fans of it.

Not really, it's also an issue of the value of such a rework. So far not seen a single one that does anything but overly complicate it while keeping it the same e.g. you still just drop a doomstack on enemy worlds, go off to manage other elements until you get the victory pop-up.

 

[WoodenP]

Not really, it's also an issue of the value of such a rework. So far not seen a single one that does anything but overly complicate it while keeping it the same e.g. you still just drop a doomstack on enemy worlds, go off to manage other elements until you get the victory pop-up.

I definitely agree and am also cynical that this particular team would do it well, I won't argue with that. But presumably they have confidence in their own abilities, the reality is that they just don't care about the storytelling at that scale. They'd rather prioritise reworking the planet UI over and over and over, or fallen empire buildings.

(And perhaps more precisely, they might think you should just play other PDX titles for ground combat?)

Spoiler

To be fair they haven't totally abandoned it, we had the star base army builder recently enough. And usually there is some small token here and there.

 

[3ishop]

I definitely agree and am also cynical that this particular team would do it well, I won't argue with that. But presumably they have confidence in their own abilities, the reality is that they just don't care about the storytelling at that scale. They'd rather prioritise reworking the planet UI over and over and over, or fallen empire buildings.

(And perhaps more precisely, they might think you should just play other PDX titles for ground combat?)

Spoiler

To be fair they haven't totally abandoned it, we had the star base army builder recently enough. And usually there is some small token here and there.

Well they do know what they can do better than we might, especially with knowing what's going on behind the scenes.

I don't think it's about caring for it, but also the pay-off. For the reworks it has a much grander aim which in general army reworks don't, they tend to run to the exact same result...so why bother?

Yeah there's been QoL changes to it mostly, which is a good step to improving it personally and was my request for any army rework lol.

 

[Jay Sherman]

Now that the game is almost maxed out in terms of content

 

[Ilab]

Armies almost certainly not. The devs have mentioned many times that they don’t have plans to expand or otherwise complicate invasions. “Ground army rework when” is even a bit of a joke between the community and devs.

An internal politics rework we might get. Pop groups do give a great foundation for that and the player surveys at the end of last year had one on internal politics. The devs have also mentioned ideas along these lines like having conquered pops spawn resistance civilian jobs, fleshing out how military expansion works with more social elements.

I wouldn’t expect it any time soon though my fervent hope is that since those surveys were done (and apparently received thousands of replies) it helped set the plan for next years content. I’d love to see a war and politics rework in 2026.

I also recall (I am quite sure of it) them saying that it was indeed not for this year, perhaps for 2026 or maybe later. As they already had 2025 planned and also wanted to bring development cadence down a bit.

I think they said it around the first survey or shortly after it.