Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[Riel]

For me the best part of Stellaris is up to mid game. Sometimes the Khan is very interesting. I once had no option but to accept vassalization, spent like 40 or 50 years to become free again. it was a fun game because unlike regular vassalization the khan won't integrate you, so I oculd actually play it. So the new DLC about vassals can be quite an improvement for Stellaris by expanding this concept

 

[Storyfag]

For example, a species could have:

Thought: How it thinks, how its brain works
Locomotion: How does it move (like, through feet, tentacles, slithering, flagella, swimming fins, you get the idea)
Senses: (Sight? Hearing? That kind of thing)
Feeding: (Omnivore? Carnivore? Herbivore? Lithoid? Radiotrophic? Photosynthetic? More than one of those?)

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

But what would the gameplay effects of that be?

 

[mondblut]

Thought: How it thinks, how its brain works
Locomotion: How does it move (like, through feet, tentacles, slithering, flagella, swimming fins, you get the idea)
Senses: (Sight? Hearing? That kind of thing)
Feeding: (Omnivore? Carnivore? Herbivore? Lithoid? Radiotrophic? Photosynthetic? More than one of those?)

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

How the fuck do their slithering and hearing matter in SPAAAAACE? Their brain works by processing sensory input and making conclusions. They move on spaceships. They sense with radars.

Feeding is the only thing that makes a difference, and that's been around since Master of Orion. Stellaris already has species that use all kinds of resources for food, including other species, no?

 

[Storyfag]

For example, a species could have:

Thought: How it thinks, how its brain works
Locomotion: How does it move (like, through feet, tentacles, slithering, flagella, swimming fins, you get the idea)
Senses: (Sight? Hearing? That kind of thing)
Feeding: (Omnivore? Carnivore? Herbivore? Lithoid? Radiotrophic? Photosynthetic? More than one of those?)

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

But what would the gameplay effects of that be?

Making every race interesting and unique?

How. Will. They. Be. Unique. In. Gameplay. Terms?

You know, gameplay. The thing where your pops take jobs and produce resources that you can use to hire scientists and explore star systems, to claim said systems, and to produce a space navy to keep them. How does being a flagellating radiotrophe of extremely acute hearing affect that?

 

[Norfleet]

Making every race interesting and unique?

This sounds like "You are special and unique, just like everyone else."

 

[Space Satan]

Stellaris Dev Diary #248 - Special Prospects

• Thread starterEladrin
• Start dateYesterday at 13:00

Hello again!

In last week’s dev diary, we discussed the basics of negotiating subjugation contracts and showed you some holdings. This week we’ll present Specialist Vassals and do a deep dive into the Prospectorium, reveal more holdings, and share the names of the five Origins that are coming in Overlord.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.

Keeping Track of Your Agreements

We felt that it would be useful to have a centralized screen for keeping track of all of your subjects, and added a summary screen tab next off the Contacts panel.

The Agreements tab shows all of your vassals (or all of your overlord’s vassals if you’re a subject) and lets you examine the terms of the agreements. It also lets you know whether or not you’re taking full advantage of the number of holdings you could have, and lets you get more details on subsidies or tithes through tooltips of those terms.

It also provides you with a convenient way to go to the negotiations screen we showed you last week.

Agreements Summary Screen

Specialist Empires are an advanced form of subject contract that excel at certain tasks but are deficient in others.

We are introducing three Specialist Empire types in Overlord.

• The Bulwark: A bastion of defense that leaves basic resource acquisition to others.
• The Prospectorium: Excels at resource acquisition but has weaker research.
• The Scholarium: Specializes in research but relies on their allies for military support.

Similar to how Federations advance or degrade based on Cohesion, Specialist Empires improve based on loyalty, gaining additional perks and strengthening their bonuses and penalties as they level up through three tiers.

After negotiating a specialist agreement, it takes some time for the subject to convert into tier 1 of their specialty. This is based on their ethical compatibility with the specialist type and the empire size of the subject.

Several agreement terms are locked or have minimum values - a Bulwark contract, for example, must include basic resource subsidies from their overlord and a defensive pact from the subject, and the Prospectorium must provide a resource tithe to the overlord in exchange for research subsidies. These minimum terms ensure that at least some of their deficiencies are covered so they can thrive and fulfill their intended obligations to their overlord.

The Prospectorium

Let’s take a deeper look at the Norillga Citizen Compact. Our snailian friends are a tier 3 Prospectorium.

Prospectoria are all about resource acquisition, and this is reflected in their abilities and perks.

Even when they were just beginning, they had a large penalty to scientific research and a handful of production based bonuses. As they became more specialized, the magnitude of each increased.

Prospectoria have a chance of discovering caches of resources or even new deposits each year, and the variety of things they can discover increases as they tier up. These discoveries produce a special project that must be exploited by a Construction Ship.

As might be expected, over time it’s helpful for them to have control of a reasonable area of space if you want them to keep finding things.

The overlord also gains a bonus for having at least one “advisor” of each specialist type. Having a dozen Prospectoria will not increase the Prospectorium Advisory benefit.

The third tier 1 perk, Prospectorium Supply, is tied to the Hyper Relay Network, so we’ll get back to that one in a future dev diary when we talk about that.

At tiers 2 and 3, Prospectoria gain several permanent research options that are of potential interest to them.

Their leaders, including those already employed by them, also gain some additional special traits. These are in addition to any other traits they may have…

…and they can trade them to their overlord through diplomatic trade deals. Higher skill leaders are, of course, worth considerably more than new ones that just came out of the leader pool.

Their last Tier 3 perk lets them replace agricultural features with more mining districts, helping them feed the forges as they become industrial powerhouses.

Internally, we’ve found that Specialist Empires provide an interesting cooperative playstyle where multiple empires can work together to cover for each other's deficiencies.

Holdings, Part Two

A question that came up many times last week related to deprioritizing Overlord jobs from holdings. Any of these that provide benefits for the overlord behave like Criminal jobs and cannot be deprioritized. Specific numbers on them are also still subject to balancing and change.

This week we’ll start with a mostly beneficial holding.

With the Overlord Garrison, you can help your subjects if they’re having problems with crime. Having a strong military presence on your worlds forces loyalty, but the populace of the planet might not be quite as happy about the occupying presence.

The Satellite Campus holding produces research for both overlord and subject, paid for by the subject. If the planet owner is gestalt, these will consume energy or minerals as appropriate rather than consumer goods.

This week’s civic and origin based holding previews are all about spreading the defining traits of your civilization to your subjects.

Overlords with the Citizen Service civic can build Recruitment Offices to spread their message of patriotic service to their subjects.

Zero cost, zero upkeep, free science! No real downside!
The Experimental Crater is unlocked by the Calamitous Birth origin, and allows the lithoid overlord to “test” asteroid colony ship designs by hurling them at a convenient space on their subject’s planet. They usually don’t miss the test site.

Except for when they do.

And just as the lithoids can spread their love of explosions to their subjects, the subjects of Death Cults can enjoy the same right to become Mortal Initiates that their own citizens can. As is right, they get to partake in some of the benefits of the sacrifice.

Last week I promised one machine holding, but I’ll share two instead.

The first is a bit of a mean one, with four jobs that produce research for the overlord. Organic brains aren’t very efficient or orderly though, to be honest.

“Mind Thralls” sounds like a great job, right?

More benevolent machines (specifically Rogue Servitors) can instead give their subjects a taste of what awaits them should they allow full integration. Hive-minded pops don’t quite understand what’s going on, but find the experience quite novel.


New Beginnings

We revealed the icons for the Origins in the Overlord Announcement diary, but now it’s time to attach names to them.

Imperial Fiefdom

Teachers of the Shroud

Slingshot to the Stars

Subterranean

Progenitor Hive

Each week one of these will be previewed in detail by one of our friends in the community, with summarized details included in that week’s dev diaries.

Next Week

Next week we’ll be visiting the new Enclaves in Overlord, looking at the Bulwark, revealing even more holdings, and maybe even an Ascension Perk.

Don’t forget that we have video versions of these dev diaries on the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

stop adding. start fixing.

 

[Tyrr]

stop adding. start fixing.

Fixes don't sell DLC.

 

[Mortmal]

Sure they wont make money fixing, vassalization in stellaris is the worse idea you can have, you better annex everything as your vassals wont do anything in war and can barely manage their economy . Make base features useless to sell an overpiced dlc, shady business as usual.

 

[Average Manatee]

Vassals are useless in Stellaris and this will change none of that, barring exploits. At best you could have them handle your energy/minerals/food needs and minorly decrease your tech costs that way. But the way research and alloys work any of those that your vassal takes away from you is a net loss because the vassal can't do shit effectively with them.

I'm sure there will be some meme origin start like how Hegemony works where you start with 2 vassals that is overpowered and cheesable to the max.

 

[Mortmal]

Vassals are useless in Stellaris and this will change none of that, barring exploits. At best you could have them handle your energy/minerals/food needs and minorly decrease your tech costs that way. But the way research and alloys work any of those that your vassal takes away from you is a net loss because the vassal can't do shit effectively with them.

I'm sure there will be some meme origin start like how Hegemony works where you start with 2 vassals that is overpowered and cheesable to the max.

Of course the new feature will be overpowered they always do that.

 

[Delterius]

vassals might be fine with starnet ai. i don't even know if the mod still works, but when i used it the ai pretty much didn't need cheats to be effective.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Dyspaire]

Protect the Space Kitties!!

 

[Riel]

Anyone think Progenitor Hive is kinda lame? Biggest take-away I got from it is being able to create vassals, something other gestalts can't.

I think the bonuses are pretty good, level 10 leaders are meaningful and the other bonuses are good too. That said I too find the origin underwhelming just as I find Prosperous Unification pathetic, I like Origins that change the way the game plays and certainly this is one of those origins I will stay away from.

My favourite origins are: Necrophages and Void Dwellers. And then the rest of origins that change significantly the home planet: ring, gaia, post apocalyptic...

The problem with Void Dwellers is that micro management spirals out of control by mid game and playing it becomes a chore. Let's hope the changes in automation are good (here's to wishful thinking ....)

 

[baturinsky]

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

If those details has some gameplay effect they can be implemented as traits.
If they have no gameplay effect, it can be just flavor text and sprite.

 

[Average Manatee]

Anyone think Progenitor Hive is kinda lame? Biggest take-away I got from it is being able to create vassals, something other gestalts can't.

Vassals are useless in Stellaris and this will change none of that, barring exploits. At best you could have them handle your energy/minerals/food needs and minorly decrease your tech costs that way. But the way research and alloys work any of those that your vassal takes away from you is a net loss because the vassal can't do shit effectively with them.

I'm sure there will be some meme origin start like how Hegemony works where you start with 2 vassals that is overpowered and cheesable to the max.

Have you seen the newer diaries?

I don't think so, the new features for vassals are VERY interesting. Prospectorum seems to be the best so far, but the research one is cool too. Bulwarks seem kinda lame to me, they're essentially a vassal made to be devoted to starbase defenses and such. I can see the appeal but kinda lame to me. And the possibility of getting things like buffed leaders and such are pretty good

Vassals are also far more useful now because the difficulty level bonuses will actually affect them now.

There's also the cool possibility of using habitats to turn otherwise useless empty sectors into something actually worth something. Say, a Prospectorum - which is interesting because it can get you new resources.

Fixing vassals would require fixing AI which is impossible for Paradox.

Everything else isn't fixing vassals, it's just bribing players to use them with artificial bonuses.

 

[Ravielsk]

Fixing vassals would require fixing AI which is impossible for Paradox.

Fixing the AI is only the second step. The first would be to fix the time scale the game operates on. The core reason why the AI sucks is because the game is built around very very long term thinking where colonizing a planet is a investment that only pays off after 5 or so hours(unless you are exploiting the hell out of migration and growth curve on a dozen other planets) and even then only if its for a specific purpose like mining, farming, alloys etc. With megastructures it gets even worse because simply due to the sheer amount of time they take to make you start building them 10-20 hours before they are actually needed.
The AI simply cannot operate on such a time scale and so the only thing it can do is randomly based on weight values perform actions that only mimic doing something. The game would first have to speed up by a factor of 10x for the AI to even have a chance of being good but for some reason PDX and its cucks insist that the game being selectively slow as hell is some deeply baked in feature without which it cannot exist.

 

[Riel]

Fixing vassals would require fixing AI which is impossible for Paradox.

Fixing the AI is only the second step. The first would be to fix the time scale the game operates on. The core reason why the AI sucks is because the game is built around very very long term thinking where colonizing a planet is a investment that only pays off after 5 or so hours(unless you are exploiting the hell out of migration and growth curve on a dozen other planets) and even then only if its for a specific purpose like mining, farming, alloys etc. With megastructures it gets even worse because simply due to the sheer amount of time they take to make you start building them 10-20 hours before they are actually needed.
The AI simply cannot operate on such a time scale and so the only thing it can do is randomly based on weight values perform actions that only mimic doing something. The game would first have to speed up by a factor of 10x for the AI to even have a chance of being good but for some reason PDX and its cucks insist that the game being selectively slow as hell is some deeply baked in feature without which it cannot exist.

I disagree AI is not trying to win or to have fun, it's just following a set of rules, if that set tells it to build 734 ring worlds it will attempt to do so. I do agree more with what I understand is your implicit message here, stellaris is misleadingly complex, writing a set of rules for the AI to follow that adapts to all races, technologies and tactical situation to provide a challenging gaming experience to the player (because AI is there for that no to play best) is very complex. What is very difficult to forgive Paradox for is that their AI is unable to run a basic economy without collapsing due to lack of basic resources.

*Note that there were improvements in 3.3 in this regard.

 

[Ravielsk]

Fixing vassals would require fixing AI which is impossible for Paradox.

Fixing the AI is only the second step. The first would be to fix the time scale the game operates on. The core reason why the AI sucks is because the game is built around very very long term thinking where colonizing a planet is a investment that only pays off after 5 or so hours(unless you are exploiting the hell out of migration and growth curve on a dozen other planets) and even then only if its for a specific purpose like mining, farming, alloys etc. With megastructures it gets even worse because simply due to the sheer amount of time they take to make you start building them 10-20 hours before they are actually needed.
The AI simply cannot operate on such a time scale and so the only thing it can do is randomly based on weight values perform actions that only mimic doing something. The game would first have to speed up by a factor of 10x for the AI to even have a chance of being good but for some reason PDX and its cucks insist that the game being selectively slow as hell is some deeply baked in feature without which it cannot exist.

I disagree AI is not trying to win or to have fun, it's just following a set of rules, if that set tells it to build 734 ring worlds it will attempt to do so. I do agree more with what I understand is your implicit message here, stellaris is misleadingly complex, writing a set of rules for the AI to follow that adapts to all races, technologies and tactical situation to provide a challenging gaming experience to the player (because AI is there for that no to play best) is very complex. What is very difficult to forgive Paradox for is that their AI is unable to run a basic economy without collapsing due to lack of basic resources.

*Note that there were improvements in 3.3 in this regard.

You can disagree but you are simply wrong. You cannot write "rules" for every race and tech combination for the AI to follow(especially because half of empire growth is straight up RNG) when the action the AI is supposed to respond is a 2-20 hour long process that may or may not finish then the response will be equally as lackluster and sluggish. You straight up cannot program a "if...then...else" statement in Stellaris that would work with any level of consistency simply because of the time it takes for the "if" to even emerge and the "then" to happen.

This is why the AI past 1.9 is and always will be broken because most operations within the game have been stretched out beyond reason but the AI remained the same with PDX only adjusting weight values(a.k.a probability) without any real adjustments to its logic or process. Simply because that is the only thing they can do within the slow framework of the current game. It would be like coding a video editing software that tries to predict where you will cut your video on the timeline two hours later based on the changes you made to the first 2 minutes of the timeline. Its simply not going to work no matter what.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I like Origins that change the way the game plays and certainly this is one of those origins I will stay away from.

Same.

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

If those details has some gameplay effect they can be implemented as traits.
If they have no gameplay effect, it can be just flavor text and sprite.

The problem is that the traits system is too limited. Its why Civics were split into Civics and Origins, Civics was just not doing it anymore, too broad.

My idea was more of a "Full Species Customization".

The thing is that aparently minor characteristics can end up being very important if handled right.
Its funny, humans in sci-fi tend to be portrayed as the Mario or puny Earthlings. The one exception is often HFY fiction where humans are often portrayed as some badass species for some reason.

For example, did you know humans are a pursuit predator? If there are stats we have bonuses in, it would be Endurance and Intelligence. We're like, the Terminators of the Natural Kingdom. We can literally out-tire most species in a pursuit, they can out-run us but we can out-tire them. This is also significant because Pursuit Predation seems to lead to being a Social Species, and I guess you can see where I'm going with this.

In simple terms, rather than having a small set of general traits, you would have multiple sets of traits for certain broad characteristics. For example, is your species oviparous (lays eggs) or viviparous (infants grown within mother)? Does it breathe oxygen or something else? Things like that.

This would be more of a Stellaris 2 thing tbh. I suspect that Stellaris 2 would use CKIII's fancy 3D character system for species, but adapted for space aliens. Essentially, go Full Spore on customization.

 

[Axioms]

I like Origins that change the way the game plays and certainly this is one of those origins I will stay away from.

Same.

So instead of a lame list of traits, you would be able to configure your species' details. Imagine making a bunch of rock-eating slithering monsters who can hear but see better than a hawk.

If those details has some gameplay effect they can be implemented as traits.
If they have no gameplay effect, it can be just flavor text and sprite.

The problem is that the traits system is too limited. Its why Civics were split into Civics and Origins, Civics was just not doing it anymore, too broad.

My idea was more of a "Full Species Customization".

The thing is that aparently minor characteristics can end up being very important if handled right.
Its funny, humans in sci-fi tend to be portrayed as the Mario or puny Earthlings. The one exception is often HFY fiction where humans are often portrayed as some badass species for some reason.

For example, did you know humans are a pursuit predator? If there are stats we have bonuses in, it would be Endurance and Intelligence. We're like, the Terminators of the Natural Kingdom. We can literally out-tire most species in a pursuit, they can out-run us but we can out-tire them. This is also significant because Pursuit Predation seems to lead to being a Social Species, and I guess you can see where I'm going with this.

In simple terms, rather than having a small set of general traits, you would have multiple sets of traits for certain broad characteristics. For example, is your species oviparous (lays eggs) or viviparous (infants grown within mother)? Does it breathe oxygen or something else? Things like that.

This would be more of a Stellaris 2 thing tbh. I suspect that Stellaris 2 would use CKIII's fancy 3D character system for species, but adapted for space aliens. Essentially, go Full Spore on customization.

They can't shove CK3 characters into Stellaris until they make them actually interesting in CK3 first.

 

[Riel]

The final patch notes were published, other than what we already know I found interesting that now Corporations won't create rival corporation when releasing or creating new vassals, more incline. I am actually quite hopeful this time I will be able to play a game to the end.... we'll see.

Spoiler

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 3.4.0 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
Overlord Expansion Features
###################

• Three new advanced subject types called Specialist Empires have been introduced, which excel in certain areas while having deficiencies in others.
  • Bulwark - A bastion of defense that leaves basic resource acquisition to others.
  • Prospectorium - Excels at resource acquisition but has weaker research.
  • Scholarium - Specializes in research but relies on their allies for military support.

Similar to how Federations advance or degrade based on Cohesion, Specialist Empires improve based on loyalty, gaining additional perks and strengthening their bonuses and penalties as they level up through three tiers.

• New Constructions and Megastructures
  • Hyper Relays - Chained together, Hyper Relays permit high speed fleet travel and projection of effects to systems connected via the network.
  • Orbital Rings - Built around your worlds, Orbital Rings act similarly to Starbases and allow further development or defense of these core planets.
  • Quantum Catapult - The galaxy is within reach as the Quantum Catapult lets you fling ships across the galaxy, though with questionable accuracy. Yeet.

• New Enclaves
  • Salvager Enclave - A generally friendly bunch of tinkerers, obsessed with engineering, battle debris, and restoring or scrapping antiquated ships.
  • Shroudwalker Enclave - Disciples of the Shroud, the Shroudwalkers can call upon its powers to create shroud tunnels, or to attempt to divine the future - if you dare.
  • Mercenary Enclave - Empires can release a fleet to create a self-reinforcing Mercenary Enclave that brings dividends back to their patron. But remember, business is business, and concepts like loyalty don’t pay the bills.

• New Origins
  • Imperial Fiefdom - Your first steps into space were brutally short. Immediately subjugated alongside several others by a powerful and decadent overlord, you begin the game as a Specialist Empire of your choice.
  • Teachers of the Shroud - Your civilization was identified as a civilization of interest long ago by the Shroudwalkers, who carefully nurtured your development as their visions instructed. Your species begins with the Latent Psionics trait and in contact with the Shroudwalker coven.
  • Slingshot to the Stars - The Slingshot to the Stars origin explores how a nearby Quantum Catapult could shape your civilization. The histories of your people are filled with tales of brilliant lights flashing across the sky before the long seasons of darkness.
  • Subterranean - The underground homes of Subterranean empires grant defensive and mining benefits while allowing them to avoid hostile environments on the surface, at the cost of slower expansion.
  • Progenitor Hive - Hive-Mind only (also requires Utopia). The hive relies on the presence of the powerful offspring of the progenitor, guiding the hive’s will with incredible skill. Protect them well, for the drones are lost without their presence.

• New Ascension Perk - Profit from conflict with the Lord of War Ascension Perk.

• New Galactic Community Resolutions - Debate the place of Mercenaries and the rights and responsibilities of subjects and overlords with three new lines of Resolutions.

• New music tracks - 4 new songs added to the game and Original Soundtrack

• New Achievements - Show the galaxy who leads them with 11 new Steam achievements.

###################
3.4 “Cepheus” Features and Changes
###################

• Situations - Include a new system for tracking and interacting with ongoing stories in your empire
  • Deficit Situations will trigger if you have a negative monthly balance of a resource and it runs out.
  • Revolt Situations may trigger on planets with low stability, overhauling previous rebellion mechanics.
  • Machine Uprising Situation replaces old Machine Uprising event (requires synthetic dawn)
  • Leviathan Situations celebrate your great triumphs when besting such mighty beasts.
  • Other narrative Situations have been implemented to add even more flavor to your campaigns.

• Negotiation of Subjugation Agreements - The terms of subjugation agreements can now be negotiated and changed. Some terms that can be altered include:
  • Integration Possibility
  • Diplomatic Freedom
  • Ability to Expand
  • Resource Subsidies and Tithes
  • Defensive and Offensive War Responsibilities
  • Overlord Holding Limit
  • Sensor Sharing

The default terms of some contracts have been updated to fit the new system, and some specific terms or settings require Overlord.

• Allegiance Wars - The Pledge Secret Fealty diplomatic action has been added, which allows subject empires to secretly plot with a new overlord. This permits a War of Allegiance - a new war goal that allows empires to fight other Overlords for control of subjects that have pledged secret fealty to them. All subjects that have pledged secret fealty will turn on their former overlord during the war.

• Subject Changes/Improvements:
  • Overlords can now build a holding on Subject Planets (holdings may require certain civics, origins, or DLC)
    • Overlord Garrison
    • Emporium
    • Aid Agency
    • Ranger Lodge - Environmentalist Civic
    • Noble Chateaus - Aristocratic Elite Civic
    • Recruitment Center - Citizens Service Civic
    • Gaia Seeder Outpost - Idyllic Bloom Civic (requires Plantoids)
    • Tree of Life Sapling - Tree of Life Origin (requires Utopia)
    • Dread Outpost - Reanimators Civic (requires Necroids)
    • Sacrificial Shrine - Death Cult Civics (requires Necroids)
    • Reemployment Center - Permanent Employment Civic (requires Necroids and Megacorp)
    • Franchising HQ - Franchising Civic (requires Megacorp)
    • Communal Housing Outreach - Shared Burdens Civic (requires Utopia)
    • Organic Haven - Rogue Servitor Civic (requires Synthetic Dawn)
    • Experimental Crater - Calamitous Birth Origin (requires Lithoids)
    • And twelve more holdings with Overlord.
  • Subjects now have a Loyalty value, rather than loyalty solely depending on their opinion of their overlord.
  • Subjects’ ethical compatibility with their Overlords may result in a monthly loyalty bonus or penalty.
  • Having more than one subject adds a monthly loyalty penalty to all subjects, which can be worked around with various civics and or the Shared Destiny ascension perk.
  • Subjects and Overlords have a bonus to infiltration growth on each other.
  • Operations on your subject or Overlord are reduced in difficulty.
  • Additional trade deal options between subjects and Overlords have been added.
  • Releasing a sector as subject now grants an initial 100 intel on that subject.
  • Integration is disabled by default.
  • Sectors released as subjects can now inherit the following origins from their parent empire, where appropriate - Progenitor Hive, Subterranean, Void Dweller, or Calamitous Birth.
  • Gateways (and Hyper Relays) can now be built in subject space.
  • AI Subjects of Player Empires now receive AI bonuses as if the difficulty level of the game were one level lower, rather than losing their bonuses entirely.

• MegaCorp Improvements as both Overlords and Subjects:
  • Empires that are the target of Impose Ideology wars or those created from Status Quo peace deals are no longer rival Megacorps, but instead Oligarchies with the Merchant Guilds civic.
  • Corporate Overlords can establish branch offices in their non-corporate subjects without having to sign a Commercial Pact. Likewise, corporate subjects with a non-corporate overlord can open branch offices in their overlord and fellow subjects.

• Major improvements to Planetary Automation:
  • Planetary Automation scripts based on designation are now more focused regarding what they build.
  • Right clicking on the planetary automation button will now open a menu which allows you to customize your focus of planetary automation: for instance, as well as the designation based focus (“build more minerals buildings”), it lets you enable handling of amenities and housing, crime, as well as more specialized building options such as psi corps.
  • Sector automation and planetary automation have been unified into the same system (sector automation will activate planetary automation for all planets in the sector, and assign relevant planetary designation types to the planets unless overridden.)
  • Additional planetary or sector automation options have been added:
    • Added a Unity sector automation setting
    • Forge, Factory and Industrial designations are now available on Ring Worlds
    • Fortress world designation is now available on Machine Worlds and Hive Worlds

• Automatic Resettlement Improvements
  • The Auto Resettlement formula for picking which planet pops will be resettled to has been improved: it is now easier to steer pops towards your capital and other special worlds (e.g. ring worlds).
    • Pops will now pick which planet to auto-migrate to based on which planet has the most free jobs, rather than the least. They also now take free housing into account better
    • "Ideal" worlds such as ring worlds, gaia worlds, hive worlds and machine worlds now have a 50% higher score when pops are deciding where to automatically resettle to. So they are more likely to want to move to your newly-founded ring world, for instance. Capital world planet designations also have a +10% score, and freshly founded colonies have 25% from their designation.
  • The resettlement tooltip (found by hovering over unemployment in the planet view) now provides far greater insights into how the system works, including showing the reasons pops cannot automatically resettle or the planet they are most likely to resettle to.
  • The outliner has been updated so planets with unemployed pops that are auto-migrating are now shown a yellow suitcase. The red suitcase should only appear if the planet actually requires your attention to resolve the unemployment problem.

• Various AI improvements with a focus on military behavior - full details in section below

• Added 73 new flag emblems, 63 new flag backgrounds and 47 new flag colors (including white!).
  • 12 new emblems each to match the Plantoid, Lithoid, Necroid, Aquatic, and Imperial shipsets
  • 6 new emblems for the Corporate and Legion categories
  • 1 new emblem for Paradox Arctic in Umeå

• Added improved human portraits, with 5 phenotypes, 5 eye colors, 7 clothing styles and many, many hairstyles (including facial hair)!

• Added Japanese and Korean language support.

###################
Balance
###################

• Subjugation casus belli is now automatically granted towards inferior empires.
• The Parliamentary System civic now allows factions to be generated much earlier in the game.
• Defense Platforms now have increased range, fire rate, tracking, and hull points, and are faster to build.
• Base market price for slaves doubled from 500 to 1000 energy credits to make selling pops more viable. Slave traits cost Modifiers for the Slave Market have been increased by roughly 10 times for positive ones and 4 times for negative traits.
• Endgame Crises can now happen after 25 years rather than 50 of the End Times.
• The Plunder wargoal now increases the chance to steal relics (that aren't the Galatron) to 50%.
• The Numistic Administration trait no longer provides an increase to energy output, it now provides a +33% output to trade value from jobs.
• Removed the requirement to have an upgraded capital building in order to build research labs or rare resource manufacturing buildings
• The Shared Destiny AP no longer affects subject integration cost or trust, instead removes the monthly loyalty penalty from having multiple subjects. Additionally, it can now be taken by Corporate empires.
• The Grasp the Void AP now grants increased draw weight for FTL travel techs.
• The Unbidden can no longer spawn in pulsar systems (as the star will disable their Dimensional Portal's shields)
• Resistance is Frugal no longer grants your strongholds a unity production of 3, instead it gives you 0.5 unity for each defensive army you have.
• Strength of Legions and Warbots now start with rank 3 Admirals and Generals.
• Espionage Operations now cost Influence to start rather than Energy Credits. Costs have been reduced by a factor of 10.
• Low Military Intel is now gained at 30 Intel instead of 40 and Medium Military Intel is now gained at 60 Intel instead of 70. The effects of Medium and High Military Intel have been swapped - medium now allows you to view ship loadout, high now grants visibility of location of military fleets.
• Added a nanites deposit to the Scavenger Bot system so you can use the reward you get for killing it.
• The Subterranean empire from the Seismic Disturbances event chain now spawns with the new Subterranean origin.
• Numistic Data Modeling technology now provides +5% Trade Value.

###################
AI
###################

• With sufficient Intel, there will now be a notification that the AI is planning to declare war on the player.
• Fixed a variety of AI military fleet behavior issues, including:
  • AI will be better at merging fleets where that makes sense (e.g. during peacetime, or when they have the same mission)
  • Fixed issues where your allies would follow your take point command even though they were not hostile to your targets, and several other issues with take point and follow fleet behavior
  • AI will now more actively engage hostile crises if they or their allies have been attacked by them
  • Fixed an issue where an AI fleet could get trapped in an enemy system by a disabled starbase. It will now approach the starbase to capture it.
• AI will now enable buildings that have been disabled.
• AI will now scale the production of rare resources according to the size of their economy.
• Moderately reduced the frequency of how often AI will sell slaves on the market.
• AI will now only consider jobs producing at least 3 amenities when doing the planet amenity balancing logic.
• AI will now declare "death spiral status" if they have 0 minerals and a negative mineral income. Jobs consuming minerals will be deprioritized until a sufficient mineral income has been reached and the empire can start rebuilding itself.
• The AI will now wait for a period of time before changing planet designations when taking over a player empire in multiplayer.
• AI members of a federation will no longer propose a vote on a law change that has been proposed in the last 10 years by anyone in the Federation.
• The player now gets a notification when the AI has recalled their embassy.
• AI will now only propose an embassy if they have a positive +50 relation and remove their embassy if they have lower than -50
• The AI is now better at dealing with non-standard colony ships (e.g. private colony ships, Lithoid colony asteroids).
• AI will now sell resources more aggressively to buy what they need in order to recover from death spiral type situations.
• Fixed several issues with Galactic Community voting, AI will no longer propose resolutions against their alignment, AI can recall their proposals or vote against their own proposals in some situations where it makes sense. Tooltips will now show the reasons an AI empire is voting the way they are.

###################
UI
###################

• Added new section in outliner for loaned out fleets (lease timer and its tooltip).
• The alert for diminishing resource stockpiles now properly only lists resources which you will imminently run out of.
• Added tooltips for agreement presets and specialist types to the Agreements view.
• The outliner will now tell you about blockers you can remove if you are approaching the planet's carrying capacity and therefore suffering growth penalties.
• Improved the layout of the Host DLC icons and surrounding elements in the Multiplayer Lobby.
• Moved the “Copy Server ID” functionality to a separate button in the multiplayer lobby.

###################
Performance & Stability
###################

• Optimized calculations for whether you are in breach of any galcom resolutions, which should provide a boost if many sanctions have been passed.
• Improved the performance of using triggered economic category modifiers.
• Improved performance of bypass handling in pathfinding to account for the fact that there are now many more of them in the galaxy (via hyper relays).
• Adjusted various ship textures for improved performance.

###################
Other Improvements
###################

• Significantly improved pop job assignment weightings:
  • Automatic scripted handling of resource output, trade and amenity bonuses and penalties from traits, i.e. pops with the better traits for the job will more reliably take the job. This eliminated many errors where we had imperfectly attempted to achieve this result in a much less robust and more verbose way.
  • Weighting now takes into account output penalties from low habitability
  • If you are in deficit, jobs producing that resource will now be weighted significantly higher, so your pops won't ignore mining jobs while your empire burns for lack of miners.
• Added new Subjugation War Terms policy, which sets the default Agreement Terms used when subjugating other empires through war.
• You can now nominate other empires to Custodianship, provided they meet the requirements.
• Idyllic Bloom has been improved by allowing construction of the Gaia-Seeder buildings (and holding!) to be built on a wider range of planet types, in exchange for increased upkeep, depending on the empire’s terraforming technology. In addition, the civic can now be combined with the Life-Seeded and Shattered Ring origins. Finally, Idyllic Bloom empires start with a Phase 1 Gaia-Seeder on their capital where appropriate.
• Shroud Entities that propose Covenants will now prefer empires that have ethics or civics that match their outlook. The End of the Cycle is more likely to offer a Covenant if another empire is a level 5 crisis.
• Several improvements to Baol/Zroni spawning: they will no longer spawn arc sites in your capital system, one of the Baol arc sites is now vastly less likely to spawn in someone else's territory, and they are a bit less likely to all spawn in a heap in neighboring systems.
• Modifiers giving administrator output now correctly reflect the sort of administrators the empire uses.
• Individual names for game objects can now be localized, allowing players to read names in their own language.
• Renamed the Corporate and Gestalt versions of Catalytic Processing to Catalytic Recyclers and Organic Reprocessing respectively.
• Quget.

###################
Bug Fixes
###################

• Federation allies in Common Ground and Hegemony origins no longer start with 0 resources (sometimes therefore falling into deficit immediately)
• Multi-path jumps should now show proper arrows.
• Bypass travel times are now correctly specified in days.
• War exhaustion icon now displays the correct values when resuming a saved game.
• Fixed the appearance of invalid em dash characters in a Crisis diplomacy message and a First Contact/Diplomacy tutorial event.
• Update to VIR's diplomatic tact subroutines: the tutorial no longer refers to enclaves as likely possessing an animal intelligence.
• Added a scrollbar to planetary production resources in planetview so they don't overflow.
• Fixed a variety of issues and oversights where the job weight scripts would not take into account all production bonuses given by traits.
• Fixed certain megastructure construction positions.
• Planet automation can now use resources from the shared stockpile even when not part of a sector.
• Fixed some cases where you would get popups that instantly disappeared while being in a federation.
• Fixed DLC icons in the Multiplayer lobby sometimes escaping outside of their container.
• Fixed Ancrel.4078 "Fire" event triggering for species that don't eat food.
• Fixed order of repaired ringworld segments for ruined and partially ruined ringworlds.
• Added emissive_recolor_crunch on some ships and turrets that lacked it
• Deviant drones no longer provide trade value based off their living standards.
• Gestalts can no longer get the Numistic Data Modeling tech.
• Fixed rare case where the empire flag would be randomized for empires created in MP.
• Fixed certain colony designation effects not having Planetary Ascension multipliers applied to them,
• Fixed a bug where empires could sometimes (e.g. on revolts) end up registering as owning more starbases than they actually did for a time.
• Fixed the ship reinforce button sometimes telling you repeatedly that there are no available shipyards.
• Enrolled engineers in the Curator's seminar on "Ringworld Repairs and You!" (Repaired ringworlds from the shattered ring origin and alpha refuge no longer have display issues).
• The shard will no longer inform the player twice about its demise.
• Fixed an issue where the list of supporters for an upcoming resolution in the Galactic Community didn't refresh correctly when clicking between two Resolutions with the same number of supporters.
• Fixed armies being mistaken for buildings in some build queue tooltips
• Here Be Dragons empires are now less amazed to see an Ether Drake (it's still a remarkable occurrence, but not something the likes of which they've never seen before)
• Fixed an issue where only one pop would switch jobs when shift-clicking to change job priority
• Sectors released as subjects by empires with the Pompous Purist civic will have the civic removed.
• Fixed some issues with AI Uprising Empires, where the created empire would have unreasonably large fleets, but could also immediately go bankrupt in several resources.
• Fixed issue with scrollbars ending up outside of the technology window in the "researched” tab of the technology view.
• Fixed Starbase triggered station modifiers not always applying properly (which means that now e.g. Offworld Trading Companies have an effect again)
• Fixed some cases where countries would have policies set that they were not meant to be allowed to choose.
• Fixed players being unable to replace e.g. a Mining District with an Industrial District if they were already replacing two Generator Districts with Industrial Districts.
• Fixed scrollbar for DLC feature descriptions not being reset.
• Fixed unlocalized DLC names in Multiplayer lobby.
• Fixed tooltips for Mortal Initiates.
• Fixed truncated data percentage in fleet view (in simple chinese).
• Fixed fleet orders and activity text localisation overlaps.
• Non-Disclosure Agreements in the Subterfuge traditions now correctly states that it increases Infiltration Required for hostile operations, rather than saying it increased the cost.
• Added alternate text and event rewards for when Gestalt empires with the Doomsday origin colonize their first planet.
• Transit Hubs no longer have incorrect and outdated text referring to previous versions of the automatic resettlement system.
• Improved tooltips for Plunder wargoal.
• Fixed federation background not rendering correctly
• Fallen Empires spawned from the Scion origin have the correct graphical culture.
• Fixed some issues where Artificers had the Artisan icon in certain texts
• Fixed missing modifier icon for Ancient Trading Route
• Fixed a rendering issue with drop pods.
• Fixed a rendering issue with the mammalian orbital habitat.
• Fixed some megastructures not animating properly.
• Fixed hyperlane shader.

###################
Modding
###################
Script Values, Variables and Modifiers:

• • Added scripted_modifier directory where you can define new modifiers you can use in static_modifiers and apply via modifier:<modifier>
  • Solved issues where certain modifiers (or static modifiers in modifier fields) were not useable in certain places due to load order issues
  • Added the ability to use mult = value:script_value in triggered modifiers
  • Added support for “square = yes”, “square_root = yes”and “pow = x” in script values
  • The game will no longer spit out errors about event targets if you try to feed a parameter with decimal places (e.g. 0.5) into a script value
  • Added trigger check_economic_production_modifier_for_job to simplify job weights; rolled out script values across job weight calculations
  • Amended the distance_to_empire to support use of script values (both it in them and them in it)
• Agreements, Subject Types and other Subjugation Topics:
  • Added new 'agreement' scope type
  • Added new database in common/agreement_presets for scripting presets of subject agreements
  • Added new database in common/agreement_term_values for scripting different options for subject agreement terms
  • Added new static database in common/agreement_terms for scripting terms for subject agreements
  • Replaced triggers can_be_subject, is_subject_type, and has_tributary with as scripted triggers
  • Added new 'subjects' trigger to check how many subjects a country has, regardless of agreement preset
  • Added agreement_event as an event type, along with an agreement_event effect
  • Added on_agreement_change_accepted on action that triggers when a subject agreement negotiation has been accepted
  • Added remove_secret_fealty effect to remove a secret fealty pact between two countries
  • Added trigger has_secret_fealty_with to check if there is a secret fealty between two empires
  • Add 'has_monthly_loyalty' trigger to check a subject's monthly loyalty
  • Add 'has_loyalty' trigger to check a subject's loyalty
  • Added an agreement_preset trigger for checking the selected preset in the agreement scope
  • Added new effect for setting the preset of a subject agreement
  • Added the effect set_agreement_terms for setting the terms of a subject agreement
  • Added a trigger to check if a subject agreement has an active specialization for a specified specialist type
  • Added a trigger to check the specialist level of a subject agreement
  • Added a trigger to check if a subject agreement has a specific specialist perk active
  • Added use_demanded_terms parameter to set_subject_of effect for applying agreement terms of previously demanded agreement diplo action
• Added highly scriptable Situations system with many flexible parameters, effects and triggers
  • Situations are now their own scope (accessible via “any_situation”)
  • You can fire a new Situation via start_situation effect
  • The properties of the Situation are customizable in the common/situations folder. A documentation file provides full information on what parameters are available within the system (e.g. how fast the Situation progresses, what happens at various stages of it, and how the interface should look)
• Added ImGui UI System
  • DearImGui is a third party UI development tool that helps us rapidly develop debug UIs.
  • Use “ImGui show” command to view a list of available views.
  • Use “ImGui show <view name>” to open an ImGui view.
  • Current release contains demo views and a “fleets” view for viewing internal fleet and ship data.
• You can now specify a pop faction as the location of your event and the button will take you there.
• Added scripted checks to diplomatic actions such that it is possible to forbid AI from doing diplomatic actions via script.
• Country types can now be given limited_military_construction and limited_leaders, which will let them build fleets and hire leaders but bypasses most other construction.
• Turned effects store_galactic_community_leader_backup_data and restore_galactic_community_leader_backup_data into scripted effects using new, more flexible effects for storing and restoring backup data of a country
• Added on_colony_yearly_pulse
• Added on_colony_25_years_old on_action
• Added planet_garrison_strength trigger
• Converted has_citizenship_rights from a scripted trigger into a trigger. This makes its performance significantly better (useful as it is checked a lot)
• Added disable_building and ruin_building effects
• You can now use num_districts in country scope
• Global script variables can now be accessed in localization with $@VariableName$
• Added "direction = corewards/rimwards" parameter to spawn_system
• Added trigger to check if a country has a Secret Fealty pact from a subject of the target country
• Error logs within scripted effects and triggers will now have useful file locations again
• Shifted script for how many of each ship an AI wants to build from country_types to ship_sizes.
• Shifted script for which armies an AI wants to build to the army_types entries from country_types
• It is now possible to limit which ships an aura will affect by using a 'limit' trigger in the aura block of the ship component script
• Add support for scoping to last_created_design
• Add script lists for owned ship designs
• Added remove_ship_design and remove_global_ship_design effects
• Added modifiers ship_friendly_territory_fire_rate_mult, ship_friendly_territory_accuracy_add, ship_friendly_territory_accuracy_mult, ship_friendly_territory_evasion_add, ship_friendly_territory_evasion_mult, ship_friendly_territory_shield_add, ship_friendly_territory_shield_mult, ship_friendly_territory_tracking_add, ship_friendly_territory_tracking_mult that is only active while in a friendly territory
• Added count_starbase_buildings trigger
• System scope is now supported on count_starbase_buildings and count_starbase_modules.
• Added owner_type option to buildings to specify if a building is a holding or not
• Added effects add_starbase_component and remove_starbase_component to add and remove ship components to starbases that are standalone from modules and buildings
• Added empire and ship wide windup modifiers for all bypass types. Following the "mod_<bypass_type>_<empire|ship>_windup format
• Added quantum catapult modifiers
• Added on_pop_resettled on_action
• Added the ability to do country_add_ethic = random
• Added triggers num_researched_techs_of_tier and can_research_tier
• Added a replaceable block to starbase modules taking scope From: Starbase, FromFrom: Starbase.Owner
• Added a script folder common/tradable_actions that can be used for scripting actions that can be traded in trade deals
• Improved performance of checking “all” on count_x script lists, and also fixed some cases where it was not possible for it to return true.
• Added define for how long the AI will wait before proposing a federation law change after a change in that category has been proposed: AI_FEDERATION_PROPOSE_LAW_CATEGORY_COOLDOWN

 

[Space Satan]

Honestly I coulв but this DLC for relays only. Endlessly moving fleets to some shitholes on a fringes of your empire drove me crazy to the point where I stated playing shattered rings to concentrate my empire in as few systems as possible.

 

[Average Manatee]

Honestly I coulв but this DLC for relays only. Endlessly moving fleets to some shitholes on a fringes of your empire drove me crazy to the point where I stated playing shattered rings to concentrate my empire in as few systems as possible.

Nice of Paradox to sell us DLC to fix problems they created (fleets being so slow that it takes years to get anywhere). Kind of annoying that they created the problem *checks calender* 4 years ago and are only now fixing it.