STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[Josquius]

Some more infos, based of a German site's video:
- dozens of alien races, all factions randomly generated (Paradox says from "7 phaenotypes"  - I guess race groups like Distant Worlds)

Generic Hu-moms
Industrial Robots
Evillllll lizards or something
Intelligent pseudo-humans
Useless masked espionage aliens
Quick breeding bugs
Rocks that can live anywhere

[garbon]

Someone's helpful summary: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-we-know-so-far.875779/

[Martinus]

I hope there are setting options where you could decide the degree of alien/racial diversity in the galaxy. This should range from your usual space opera fare, to humans as the core with outskirts populated by alien races (WH40k), to humans only (Dune), with a possible option of minor races/factions having alien life.

[Barrister]

I hope there are setting options where you could decide the degree of alien/racial diversity in the galaxy. This should range from your usual space opera fare, to humans as the core with outskirts populated by alien races (WH40k), to humans only (Dune), with a possible option of minor races/factions having alien life.

Doesn't sound like it - they specifically say you never know what kind of opponents you might face.

The biggest risk to me of this game is that with so many options it becomes very difficult to balance them all, and as a result there quickly becomes one "right" way to play the game.

[jimmy olsen]

I think HoI has always been the one series that has never interested me as they don't seem to have ever got the mechanics right.

2nd one worked for me.

[garbon]

Great?

[garbon]

https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/3hma09/giant_bomb_interviews_henrik_fahraeus_about_the/

• Pre-scripted maps are supported, specifically for modders to be able to create and share their own
  Nebulas, voids, and other things will get in the way of FTL travel, but the galaxy map necessarily won't be as full of geographic choke points (e.g. mountains, rivers) as in earth-based GSGs
• Creating alien factions is an interesting new challenge, compared to the "crutches" of modeling history
• Major lore influences: "basically everything" -- most of the team has read and watched a lot of scifi, provided them with a "treasure chest" to rely on; Henrik specifically mentions the Foundation series
• Major game inspirations: other Paradox games, Distant Worlds, Sword of the Stars, Civilization series
• Not going the automation route (a la Distant Worlds and HOI3); no bang for your buck in creating systems that are complicated but end up invisible to the player
• A lot of effort going into scripting and branching stories ("storylets") giving a lot of different variation
• A lot of effort has also gone into developing Clausewitz engine into a space game
• Classic 4x start: home planet, science ship, construction ship and a fleet; you send out your science ship to survey your home system
• Characters are sort of a cross between EU4 and CK2 (don't marry and have kids, but still have personalities, traits, stories)
• Conquest isn't as easy as in classical 4X games -- you need a claim to the planet, need to occupy the planet and finally win it in a peace treaty (like in other Paradox games)
• Diplomacy similar to EU4: alliances, non-aggression pact, civilian and military access
• New diplomacy feature in the notion of the "federation": you invite alien species into an alliance and can suggest you take it one step further and make a federation. You are still sovereign states, but an elected federation president in charge of foreign policy. The whole federation has a common federation fleet (which can take the best ships from each federation member), while each member retains their own also.
• Different races have different ethos/ideologies, as do each individual "population unit" -- no good or evil ideologies. Example: a fanatic spiritualist POP will react badly to certain technologies (e.g. uploading consciousness into computer) and become discontent, coming together into factions with a political leader character and demanding change. You can negotiate with them, treat them harshly or wait for the rebellion and wipe them out. Factions can also perform actions less extreme than revolts, such as sabotaging your economy.
• Wants to avoid the game becoming too "spreadsheety" and predictable like other 4X games, by surprising the player and throwing unforeseen obstacles in their path.
• Tech is more of a deck of cards than a determinative technology tree, preventing the player from min-maxing and encouraging exploration and unpredictability.
• Other than humans, every race will be procedurally generated in every game.
• Two victory conditions: conquest and technology (which they're still planning/working on).

I guess a big bit will be how they manage that randomness factor.

[celedhring]

Different races have different ethos/ideologies, as do each individual "population unit" -- no good or evil ideologies. Example: a fanatic spiritualist POP will react badly to certain technologies (e.g. uploading consciousness into computer) and become discontent, coming together into factions with a political leader character and demanding change. You can negotiate with them, treat them harshly or wait for the rebellion and wipe them out. Factions can also perform actions less extreme than revolts, such as sabotaging your economy.

Vicky is back with a vengeance.

Game looks good, though. I hope they can pull it off.

[jimmy olsen]

Different races have different ethos/ideologies, as do each individual "population unit" -- no good or evil ideologies. Example: a fanatic spiritualist POP will react badly to certain technologies (e.g. uploading consciousness into computer) and become discontent, coming together into factions with a political leader character and demanding change. You can negotiate with them, treat them harshly or wait for the rebellion and wipe them out. Factions can also perform actions less extreme than revolts, such as sabotaging your economy.

Vicky is back with a vengeance.

Game looks good, though. I hope they can pull it off.

Massive uprisings of space anarchists, here we come!

[Alcibiades]

http://www.pcgamer.com/stellaris-how-paradox-plan-to-make-an-infinite-grand-strategy/


Sounds pretty good.

[Jaron]

Time to get my spreadsheets ready!

[KRonn]

Agreed, sounds good, innovative and very re-playable.

[ulmont]

First dev diary:

Hi everyone!

Today, we will kick off a series of weekly dev diaries for our new game, Stellaris. We intend to keep feeding you with more information every week until release! This will be a while, but hopefully we won't have to resort to interns sharing their opinions on beekeeping or new snazzy shoes... Anyway, in this first entry, I thought I'd simply give you some background on the project and the vision I have for Stellaris.

So, how come we decided to make a space game of all things? Well, the idea has been kicking around the office ever since Europa Universalis II was released (we ended up making Hearts of Iron instead.) Ah, those were the days... Now, as you may know, our ambition is to eventually cover the entire "human timeline" with our games... including the future. So, in essence, making a space game is both something that has had a lot of support internally among the developers (seeking freedom from the shackles of history) and that many of you, our faithful players, have requested over the years. When the decision to make a space game was finally made by the powers that be, I wrote two different design outlines, and the one that would eventually become Stellaris was chosen (no, I will not tell you what the other one was!)

The vision statement the for Stellaris is: "The galaxy is ancient and full of wonders." That sounds pretty vague eh? However, I think it captures the spirit of what we are trying to do, when you recall the type of games we make at PDS... I want to make Stellaris the most replayable of all of our games (which, granted, is a pretty tall order!) The galaxy should always be unknown and surprising. That is why there are no "major races" in the game, and such a great variety of discoveries you can make. In the same vein, there is no fixed technology tree - but more on that later.

Stellaris diverges from all of our other games in certain key respects:
It is not historical.
It features a symmetrical start.
You start out small.
Most of the world is unknown.

The last three points happen to be defining features of "4X" games, so - although I somewhat dislike the term - Stellaris is in many ways a 4X game; a pretty crowded niche these days. However, we are not trying to recreate classics like Master of Orion. Stellaris is quite a new and different beast, but the symmetrical, small start offers two great advantages: The game can appear deceptively simple for new players. I.e. it can have a much smoother learning curve than our infamously hard-to-learn historical games. Secondly, it allows us to focus on the first X; eXploration, which I personally feel has always been the most neglected one.

The early game is thus characterized by exploration and discovering the wonders of the galaxy. We have put a lot of effort into making this part of the game feel fresh and unique every time you play. Then you start coming into contact with rival space-faring races and soon you reach the mid game, when there is not much left to colonize and your easy expansion grinds to a halt. At this point, the map stabilizes into the Stellaris equivalent of the world map in Europa Universalis, and the stage is set for a classic Paradox Grand Strategy experience...

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-1-the-vision.882808/

[The Brain]

How do I load troops onto transport spaceships?

[crazy canuck]