STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[garbon]

I've still yet to go back.

[Zanza]

Stellaris has some major flaws that make the mid game dull and repetitive, but I really like the aspect of exploration which is only strengthened by DLCs like this one.

[garbon]

This that will happen in an eventual 1.5 patch seems nice.

Pop Ethics Rework
Another mechanic that never quite felt satisfying is the ethics divergence mechanic. Not only is it overly simplified with just a single value determining if pops go towards or from empire ethics, the shift rarely makes sense: Why would xenophobe alien pops diverge away from xenophobe just because they're far away from the capital of a xenophobic empire? Furthermore, the fact that pops could have anything from one to three different ethics made it extremely difficult to actually quantify what any individual pop's ethics actually mean for how they relate to the empire. For this reason we've decided to revamp the way pop ethics work in the following way:

Each pop in your empire will now only embrace a single, non-fanatic ethic. At the start of the game, your population will be made of up of only the ethics that you picked in species setup, but as your empire grows, its population will become more diverse in their views and wants.

Each ethic now has an attraction value for each pop in your empire depending on both the empire's situation and their own situation. For example, enslaved pops tend to become more egalitarian, while pops living around non-enslaved aliens become more xenophilic (and pops living around enslaved aliens more xenophobic). Conversely, fighting a lot of wars will increase the attraction for militarism across your entire empire, while an alien empire purging pops of a particular species will massively increase the attraction for xenophobic for the species being purged.

Over time, the ethics of your pops will drift in such a way that it roughly matches the overall attraction of that value. For example, if your materialist attraction sits at 10% for decades, it's likely that after that time, around 10% of your pops will be materialist. There is some random factor so it's likely never going to match up perfectly, but the system is built to try and go towards the mean, so the more overrepresented an ethic is compared to its attraction, the more likely pops are to drift away from it and vice versa.

Faction Rework
One thing we feel is currently missing from Stellaris is agency for your pops. Sure, they have their ethics and will get upset if you have policies that don't suit them, but that's about the only way they have of expressing their desires, and there is no tie-in between pop ethics and the politics systems in the game. To address this and also to create a system that will better fit the new pop ethics, we've decided to revamp the faction system in the following manner:

Factions are no longer purely rebel groupings, but instead represent political parties, popular movements and other such interest groups, and mostly only consist of pops of certain ethics. For example, the Supremacist faction desires complete political dominance for their own species, and is made up exclusively of Xenophobic pops, while the Isolationist faction wants diplomatic isolation and a strong defense, and can be joined by both Pacifist and Xenophobe pops. You do not start the game with any factions, but rather they will form over the course of the game as their interests become relevant

Factions have issues related to their values and goals, and how well the empire responds to those issues will determine the overall happiness level of the faction. For example, the Supremacists want the ruler to be of their species and are displeased by the presence of free alien populations in the empire. They will also get a temporary happiness boost whenever you defeat alien empires in war.

The happiness level of a faction determines the base happiness of all pops belonging to it. This means that where any pop not belonging to a faction has a base happiness of 50%, a pop belonging to a faction that have their happiness reduced to 35% because of their issues will have a base happiness of only 35% before any other modifiers are applied, meaning that displeasing a large and influential faction can result in vastly reduced productivity across your empire. As part of this, happiness effects from policies, xenophobia, slavery, etc have been merged into the faction system, so engaging in alien slavery will displease certain factions instead of having each pop individually react to it.

Factions have an influence level determined by the number of pops that belong to it. In addition to making its pops happier, a happy faction will provide an influence boost to their empire.

[Zanza]

They'll build one of the better features of Civ V into the game:

[garbon]

I don't see how that's all so great...

[Josquius]

Anyone played at all lately?
Awakened empires much fun?

[garbon]

Just today I have started playing with that Star Trek mod. Kinda fun as humans as early you get the founding federation nations wanting to have migration treaties with you. Also those migrations can then trigger resentment so within a decade or so in, I started having xenophobic pops on Mars pushing for Martian independence.

[garbon]

Just today I have started playing with that Star Trek mod. Kinda fun as humans as early you get the founding federation nations wanting to have migration treaties with you. Also those migrations can then trigger resentment so within a decade or so in, I started having xenophobic pops on Mars pushing for Martian independence.

Via a scripted event, Mars eventually revolted as a result of Vulcan pops in my empire/ scripted crackdown after a Vulcanised was murdered. Vulcan ai (coincidentally?) then cancelled our freedom of migration agreement.

After crushing the rebellion, another faction formed for Martian independence until eventually most settlers on Mars were Vulcan and there was no longer a problem with   xenophobia.

[Zanza]

I like where this is going - but if it is only lategame, it might be too late for me as I find the midgame boring. 

Ascension Perks
The idea behind the Ascension Perks is to provide more unique unlockable features for Empires, and to provide the player with the ability to determine an 'endgame' for their species: What their empire is striving towards. Perhaps your goal is to go all-in on AI, replacing the frail biological bodies of your pops with immortal machines, or to harness the psionic potential of your species and reach a higher form of existence, allowing your empire to tap into other planes of being? All these and more are covered by the Ascension Perk system.


Each time you complete a Tradition tree, you will unlock one Ascension Perk slot, of which there are 8 in total. There may also be other ways to unlock slots, such as from certain rare technologies or as a reward for a particular event chain. This slot can then be filled with any of the Ascension Perks available to you. The final number of perks is not yet set down, but there are currently more than 20 and there will likely be more added. Ascension Perks have pre-requisites, which can for example be a particular technology or tradition, a certain number of Ascension Perk slots to be unlocked, or a specific ethos or government type. Some Ascension Perks are one-offs that simply provide a bonus to a particular area of your empire: For example, a bonus to border range, or cheaper terraforming. Others unlock new features, such as the ability to construct new types of space structures (more on in later dev diaries).

Finally there are the three 'Species Endgame' paths: The biological path, the spiritual path and the synthetic path. These three paths each consist of two perks, the first of which unlocks access to the second once a number of other pre-requisites have been met. The paths are mutually exclusive, and once you start heading down one of them, the other two are locked off.
The Biological Path focuses on mastery over biological evolution. The first level of it gives access to more gene points and significantly cuts the cost of genemodding projects, while the second level expands the options available during genemodding in addition to further providing more points and less cost.
The Psionic Path focuses on developing the psionic potential of your population. The first level unlocks new psionic technologies and benefits, while the second level allows your empire to reach a higher level of existance and communicate with the beings present there.
The Synthetic Path focuses on the replacement of biology with machinery. The first level allows you to turn your population partly synthetic through the use of cybernetics, while the second level replaces your biological pops with robots, turning your empire entirely synthetic.


That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the concept of species rights and obligations.

[garbon]

Latest update seems like they went a bit over the top in letting you decide policies towards different species individually. Crazy amount of policy choices particularly with the paid features.

Course more detail is appreciated particularly given that the choices are a bit cosmetic/role playing.

Oh and pops will now have needs (consumer goods). Just energy/mineral suck though not what Vic had.

[Zanza]

Sounds like a good DLC and patch to me so far. I'll get it of course.

I hope the patch after that will make warfare more interesting. The current doomstack wipes enemy fleet and then a long, long siege campaign starts which will then grant you 2 or 3 out of 100 enemy planets thing is a bit boring...

[Zanza]

[jimmy olsen]

Watching cKnoor and Wiz's newest stream. Looks like there's been a fair number of changes since I last played. Going to have to buy the latest DLC and get back into this once I get home.

[celedhring]

Can't say the features in the new DLC do much for me, besides giving viability to "tall" empires. I'll probably still get it soon after release, since I'm itchy to get back to the game.

[garbon]

I'll continue to pass and wait for deep discounts.