Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[Storyfag]

Also, are there mods that replace the furry races with human ones? Like a Dune mod or shit like that?

You don't need mods for that. The game allows you to create custom races and force their spawn at game start.

 

[Space Satan]

DD on splitting the team

Greetings!

Today I am here to announce some very good news! Stellaris is not slowing down, but rather picking up the pace! We at PDS Green are very happy to announce our new “Custodians” initiative as well as the next free update, coming sometime after summer.

The Custodian Team
Stellaris as a game has been very exploratory, and the game has seen a lot of big changes over the years. I want to start by giving some insight into why we’ve chosen to focus on this initiative.

As we’ve released more expansions we’ve had to take longer and longer between each release, as we’ve needed to spend more time on focusing on quality, making sure each release is as stable as possible. Paradox Development Studio also looks very different today vs. how it looked just a few years ago. Things take longer, there are more processes in place, and there are a lot more people involved. Because each release is now further apart, it makes it harder for us to address some of the outstanding issues that might be affecting the community between DLC releases.

As we’ve added more content it's also been harder to polish and maintain all of the amazing existing content that we’ve added over the years. We want to keep creating new cool experiences for Stellaris, but we also want to be able to maintain a high quality for the base game itself, and for older content.

What we have done now is that we’ve staffed up, and split the Stellaris team into two teams that focus on different aspects of the game. One team, that we call “the Custodians” team, will focus on free updates that we aim to release every 3 months, while the “expansion team” will focus on creating new content for the game.

Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:

• Tweaking game balance
• Adding new content to old DLC
• Polishing existing content
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements
• AI improvements
• Multiplayer stability
• UI and quality-of-life improvements

This does not mean that the game will suddenly “be fixed” or done (whatever that means). Together with you, the community, we now have a better opportunity than ever to keep improving the game. In fact, I think working with the community is going to be crucial to really make this work well. We are going to need to improve how we communicate with each other, so that we can better understand each other.

What “The Custodians” initiative is not
It is very important that you understand that “The Custodians” initiative is no magic bullet or quick fix. We’re in this for the long run, and we hope you are too.

We will need to manage our expectations and small, incremental improvements with more regular updates should be our approach.

Honoring Stanislaw Lem
The first free Update, the Lem Update, will be named in honor of the Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Stanislaw Lem is famous for works such as Solaris, which has already inspired the Stellaris you know today. The Lem Update is currently scheduled for release sometime after summer.

To set expectations more clearly, the Lem Update will be a bit more ambitious and larger in scope compared to what you can come to expect from “Custodian” updates in the future. The reason is that we’ve had a longer time to work on it than what is planned for future updates. It’s also important to note that as of now, the Lem update is scheduled to be a standalone free update, and will not be associated with a paid DLC.

The Lem Update planned features:

• Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
• Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
• Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
• And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

We will go into more detail about these features in future dev diaries, but for now I will leave it at that. We’ll be back next week to talk a bit about some thoughts regarding game balance.

No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.

 

[zapotec]

Almost finished my first playthrough, what a boredom. I got stomped by the contigency something.

I don't understand how to beat them, i had a total fleet power of around 200k then they arrive with dozens of ship of about 80k power, i thought my overlord awakaned empire would protect me instead he splits his huge fleet in small 20k ships and got stomps.

Rest of galaxy didn't stand a chance

I'll try Hearts of Iron IV now, i hope it's better than stellaris and EuIV

 

[Storyfag]

Almost finished my first playthrough, what a boredom. I got stomped by the contigency something.

I don't understand how to beat them, i had a total fleet power of around 200k then they arrive with dozens of ship of about 80k power, i thought my overlord awakaned empire would protect

If you still have an overlord when the endgame crisis arrives, you're playing it wrong.

 

[zapotec]

Better i go back to Master of Orion 2

 

[TemplarGR]

I'll try Hearts of Iron IV now, i hope it's better than stellaris and EuIV

Nope. Every Paradox game is the same with a different skin.

Better i go back to Master of Orion 2

Endless Space 2 is a good alternative. Try the definitive edition.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Almost finished my first playthrough, what a boredom. I got stomped by the contigency something.

I don't understand how to beat them, i had a total fleet power of around 200k then they arrive with dozens of ship of about 80k power, i thought my overlord awakaned empire would protect me instead he splits his huge fleet in small 20k ships and got stomps.

Rest of galaxy didn't stand a chance

I'll try Hearts of Iron IV now, i hope it's better than stellaris and EuIV

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2265420196

 

[Forest Dweller]

How Stellaris peacetime stack against, say, CK2 or Imperator 2.0 or Vic2 ? Is there some meat in it that's fun to engage for someone who plays these games for the peacetime and don't care about map painting?

You won't be map-painting at all in the beginning of the game. Stellaris definitely has the most "directed" experience of Paradox games, divided into distinct "phases." There's literally settings for "Mid-Game start" and "Late-Game start" in the options menu when you start a new game, with specific event chains that become unlocked when you pass those points. You start out with simply one system and knowledge and the surrounding systems (and thus no knowledge of any other species). Thus the early part of the game is heavily focused on exploration and discovery. Eventually you'll encounter other species, and then the balance will start to tilt to diplomacy and warfare around the mid-game. In the late game there are specific galactic "crises" that are allowed to occur, which sort of provides a climax to a game.

I actually found the exploration element to be the most enjoyable element. It's definitely the part that makes it most unique from other Paradox games. The only thing that can compare is discovering the New World in the EU series, and that's not really the same, since you know what's there already (unless you use the Random New World feature from that EU4 DLC). I guess that's what makes this a "Grand Strategy/4X hybrid," since you could say the "Explore" part of 4X is missing from their other games.

 

[Nahel]

You won't be map-painting at all in the beginning of the game. Stellaris definitely has the most "directed" experience of Paradox games, divided into distinct "phases." There's literally settings for "Mid-Game start" and "Late-Game start" in the options menu when you start a new game, with specific event chains that become unlocked when you pass those points. You start out with simply one system and knowledge and the surrounding systems (and thus no knowledge of any other species). Thus the early part of the game is heavily focused on exploration and discovery. Eventually you'll encounter other species, and then the balance will start to tilt to diplomacy and warfare around the mid-game. In the late game there are specific galactic "crises" that are allowed to occur, which sort of provides a climax to a game.

I actually found the exploration element to be the most enjoyable element. It's definitely the part that makes it most unique from other Paradox games. The only thing that can compare is discovering the New World in the EU series, and that's not really the same, since you know what's there already (unless you use the Random New World feature from that EU4 DLC). I guess that's what makes this a "Grand Strategy/4X hybrid," since you could say the "Explore" part of 4X is missing from their other games.

The problem is after the early game it becomes increibly boring. And even the early game after one or two games. Techs are too generic. Nothing like a alpha centauri where you really feel your possibilities increase

 

[Ravielsk]

How Stellaris peacetime stack against, say, CK2 or Imperator 2.0 or Vic2 ? Is there some meat in it that's fun to engage for someone who plays these games for the peacetime and don't care about map painting?

You won't be map-painting at all in the beginning of the game. Stellaris definitely has the most "directed" experience of Paradox games, divided into distinct "phases." There's literally settings for "Mid-Game start" and "Late-Game start" in the options menu when you start a new game, with specific event chains that become unlocked when you pass those points. You start out with simply one system and knowledge and the surrounding systems (and thus no knowledge of any other species). Thus the early part of the game is heavily focused on exploration and discovery. Eventually you'll encounter other species, and then the balance will start to tilt to diplomacy and warfare around the mid-game. In the late game there are specific galactic "crises" that are allowed to occur, which sort of provides a climax to a game.

I actually found the exploration element to be the most enjoyable element. It's definitely the part that makes it most unique from other Paradox games. The only thing that can compare is discovering the New World in the EU series, and that's not really the same, since you know what's there already (unless you use the Random New World feature from that EU4 DLC). I guess that's what makes this a "Grand Strategy/4X hybrid," since you could say the "Explore" part of 4X is missing from their other games.

The problem is that after your first time there is little else to see. Most events present multiple choices but have only one outcome and the few that do not tend to be randomized so you can see the same thing 100 times and never see the "B" outcome. On top of that what is in the game is the very definition of ineffectual. Most anomalies and events have absolutely no effect on your empire long or short term and the few that have are such present such minuscule changes that they barely matter. Yeah, sure Khan's Throne is cool and all but that relic and its methods of acquisition are the exception, not the rule.
Even with mods installed I barely ever see the exploration phase factoring into later phases beyond having an easier time with rare resources. It seems like there is a lot out there but there really is not.

 

[zapotec]

It's all smoke and mirror

 

[Space Satan]

Hello everyone!

First I want to thank you for the overwhelming support that you’ve shown us with announcing the Custodians initiative. It’s been really fun and motivating to see so many positive responses, and for that we’re truly thankful. At the same time, I must admit that it is also a bit scary in the sense that we shouldn’t have the expectation that this will suddenly resolve any issues you might have with the game, or that we’ll be able to deliver large amounts of significant changes with every update. Let’s appreciate this opportunity and make the best of it

Species Pack Gameplay Themes
Last week we already talked about what the Lem Update (honoring the author Stanislaw Lem) would focus on, but I’d also like to go into more detail regarding some things.

We mentioned that we would be adding gameplay to the Humanoids Species Pack and the Plantoids Species Pack, and although I won’t talk about the exact details yet, I do want to talk a little about how we approached it, and the themes we chose.

Plantoids was a bit easier, because there are some obvious fantasies. Going around the themes of growth and plants we’re adding some new traits, civics and origin. We felt like it made sense to open up these gameplay additions to both Plantoid portraits as well as for Fungoids.

Humanoids was a bit trickier, because there are no direct fantasies that apply to them in general, so we instead chose to focus on fantasies that align with things like dwarves, elves, orcs or humans. The Civic we showcased last week was an example of how we made something inspired by a traditionally dwarven fantasy.

Let us know about any ideas or thoughts you have regarding those

We will be talking more about these in much greater detail later, but that may possibly be in August.

Game Balance
We’re going to take a look at reworking some of the major outstanding balance issues that we’re having.

One example that I want to talk about is the issue with Research Booming, where power players can essentially outpace other empires due to focusing a lot on research. What enables this is usually Districts that provide Researcher Jobs, which is relatively easy to gain access to early on through Origins such as Shattered Ring or Void Dwellers (the latter not being nearly as strong).

For Shattered Ring we are looking into changing the start from a pure “end-game” Ring World, to be more of an actual “Shattered Ring” that you need to repair before you gain access to the powerful Districts of the Ring World. Putting additional emphasis on the fantasy of restoring this ancient megastructure to its former glory can be a fun addition to the Origin itself. Although we haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing, changing the start to be a Shattered Ring that you can restore with the Mega-Engineering technology is a likely route.

Unity & Empire Sprawl
Beyond Lem, we are also going to take a look at Empire Sprawl and Unity. The design for Admin Capacity was never really something that I felt worked out, and we never finished the design that was intended for it. Continuing to use Admin Cap as a mechanic also feels a bit like a dead end due to multiple reasons (ranging from design to technical), so we’re instead going to look into another solution.

I have a design for doubling down on using Unity as the resource for internal management, removing Admin Cap entirely, and to make Empire Sprawl something that you can never mitigate anymore. More sprawling empires will always suffer harsher penalties from Empire Sprawl, and we’ll instead focus on how Unity can be used internally to mitigate some of those penalties. Examples could be Edicts that have a Unity Upkeep Cost, and perhaps reduce the Research Cost Penalty induced by Empire Sprawl. Angry Pops could potentially also have a Unity Upkeep Cost, to represent the drain on your society.

Note that these ideas are very much in their infancy and very prone to change. We will probably start talking a bit more about that once Lem has been released, but I wanted to share some thoughts with you so that we could gather some initial feedback.

------

That’s all for this week folks! We’re in the middle of reviewing our dev diary schedule, so we’re hoping to be back with 2 more dev diaries before we take a summer break. We’ll keep you in the loop as we go.

 

[TemplarGR]

It's all smoke and mirror

Like all Paradox games.

 

[Thane Solus]

Wow, Paradox never ceases to amaze me. I played 3.0 for a day after not playing since like 1.5 or less. Its another game, and its awfull, i mean i like the fleet management, limit on fleet, energy for leader and a few QOL here and there, but that planetary management is horrendous, and removing the FTL, was absolutely retarded. Uninstalled and after i read on forums, i installed 1.9 and had a blast. I might try when bored 2.1 as well, for qols, since it has everything new, but it brings the freaking lanes...

To justify the existence of gazilions expansion and dlcs, they start breaking their games, its hilarious. They shouldve made Stellaris 2 with that stupid planet management and lanes...

Surprisingly CK 3, was ok, i finished it, but after a few dlcs/expansion they will break it) Did they managed to destroy Hoi IV, or they made it better?

 

[Norfleet]

If you still have an overlord when the endgame crisis arrives, you're playing it wrong.

I don't think I've ever had an FE survive to the earliest possible awaken date before I snuff them in their sleep, or a crisis arrive before I had won the game, on standard dates.

 

[Average Manatee]

If you still have an overlord when the endgame crisis arrives, you're playing it wrong.

I don't think I've ever had an FE survive to the earliest possible awaken date before I snuff them in their sleep, or a crisis arrive before I had won the game, on standard dates.

It's basically impossible to not dominate the galaxy before 2400. It's weird that these are still the default dates, it's basically carebear difficulty even for 1st time players (nevermind that AI with no difficulty bonuses is also carebear as hell with how easy things are). Or maybe rather than carebear I should describe it as journalist difficulty. Defaults should really be changed to 2250 and 2300.

To justify the existence of gazilions expansion and dlcs, they start breaking their games, its hilarious. They shouldve made Stellaris 2 with that stupid planet management and lanes..

Yeah, the AI fundamentally just can't handle both the new planet system (ai economy dies unless it has +100% bonuses) and the new FTL system (travel times are so long to respond to anything that conditions change before the AI gets there and it ping-pongs around, also can't merge fleets at all). And even for players, it's annoying and a hassle to handle unless you play "tall", which means only micromanaging a few planets for hundreds of years.

 

[IDtenT]

Nobody plays like you do, Average Manatee.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nobody plays like you do, Average Manatee.

You say nobody when I'm quoting someone who apparently plays the same, curious.

 

[IDtenT]

Nobody plays like you do, Average Manatee.

You say nobody when I'm quoting someone who apparently plays the same, curious.

It's an expression.

 

[Norfleet]

Yeah, the AI fundamentally just can't handle both the new planet system (ai economy dies unless it has +100% bonuses) and the new FTL system (travel times are so long to respond to anything that conditions change before the AI gets there and it ping-pongs around, also can't merge fleets at all).

With the speed of the FTL system, it makes you wonder why they even bothered having an FTL system. We could just be slowboating it like real men!

 

[what am i doing]

Yeah, the AI fundamentally just can't handle both the new planet system (ai economy dies unless it has +100% bonuses) and the new FTL system (travel times are so long to respond to anything that conditions change before the AI gets there and it ping-pongs around, also can't merge fleets at all).

With the speed of the FTL system, it makes you wonder why they even bothered having an FTL system. We could just be slowboating it like real men!

When I do play Stellaris I tend to play tall simply to avoid the hassle of actually having to move my navies any great distance due to how slow it is.

 

[Raghar]

Did they managed to destroy Hoi IV, or they made it better?

They released naval combat DLC which killed naval combat.

 

[Ravielsk]

Yeah, the AI fundamentally just can't handle both the new planet system (ai economy dies unless it has +100% bonuses) and the new FTL system (travel times are so long to respond to anything that conditions change before the AI gets there and it ping-pongs around, also can't merge fleets at all). And even for players, it's annoying and a hassle to handle unless you play "tall", which means only micromanaging a few planets for hundreds of years.

The problem is that PDX remade the planetary management and FTL speeds from quick reactionary system to a slow planning one. So any move, no matter how minuscule requires some kind of long term planning. Which means that actions takes in 2335 must have been pre-planned at least in some way in 2334 or earlier. This is of course impossible for the AI to do without making stupid especially when that planning has to extend to decades with megastructures. This leads to retarded mistakes where the AI is constantly building alloy foundries to get the alloys for the war but leaves everything else barren so after its stockpile inevitably depletes it enters a death spiral where it does not have enough minerals to build new districts, after which it begins to starve because of non-existent agriculture, after which all production goes to shit because no food and so on until the AI with 100% bonuses to everything cannot even raise a couple of corvets to protects its own homeworld.

All because in the moment spamming alloy foundries was the right decision.

 

[XenomorphII]

Any good asymmetrical campaign mods (ie there is an established map and powers and you simply pick who you want to go with ala the other pdox games)? The missed opportunity by pdox to make a space game of their own by making it a 4x just like everybody else is a shame.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

the star trek mod surely has.
there were also star wars and 40k mods, no idea if they've been finished in the last years.