Stellaris Dev Diary #364 - Sights Unseen

by Eladrin

Hello again, Stellaris Community!

Last week we looked back at where we’ve been, and today we’re going to look at possible themes I think we might explore in the future. Like the past few dev diaries, this is one where we’re actively soliciting your thoughts.

If you haven’t had a chance to add your bit of feedback to The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com], you still have a couple of days left - it’s going to stay active until the end of November.

Today is the 3.14.1592 release day, so before we get to the main diary I’ll start with the final release notes.
3.14.1592 Release Notes​ The 3.14.1592 patch addressed the following issues - I’ve bolded new additions (all under Bugfixes) since last week’s diary:

Balance​

• Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
  
• Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
  
• Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
  
• Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
  
• Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
  
• Remove minor artifacts production from Decentralized Research edict
  
• Rework Mutated Voidworms fleets content and scaling, aligning them similar to Prethoryn Brood Queen fleets

Bugfix​

• Clone Soldier Ascendants can now cyberize
  
• Fix to AI machine empires spawning as Despicable Neutrals without The Machine Age
  
• Necrophages no longer create an endless series of replacement pops when purging on the Synaptic Lathe
  
• Accelerate juveniles animation speed
  
• Added Insider Trading and Trade Focus traits to each other's opposites block to stop them appearing together since they almost cancel each other out.
  
• Added Orbital Ring variants for Beastport/Hatchery/Vivarium descriptions in all supported languages
  
• Civics added in Grand Archive can now be swapped from the regular to corporate version and vice versa
  
• Clarified the texts of the Cultivated Worldscaping decision and planet modifier
  
• Deleting a design now keeps you in current designer type
  
• Enclaves and Marauders satisfy Xenoist Contact Demand
  
• Extreme Contortionist DNA now gives rare crystals instead of motes to be more consistent with the event that gives it
  
• Fix an issue where Cognitive Node should be selected by the Leader Infected event
  
• Fix blocked Tiyanki Graveyard event chain when capturing them
  
• Fix Boarding Cables capturing literally anything - thanks for the fun screenshots
  
• Fix Breeding Status displayed in view that was not always correct
  
• Fix Fossilized Endoskeleton specimen localization
  
• Fix Mercenary Enclave Stations unable to build ships
  
• Fix Cloaked Patternwalker missing string
  
• Fix scoped localizations for Memorial For Bubbles specimen
  
• Fixed an unlocalized string showing up when you tried to return starbases at times. Also added linebreaks to the same tooltip.
  
• Fixed recommended DLC tooltips in multiplayer
  
• Fixes a bug with too wide portrait on Empire Design Selection View
  
• FX for ship auras are now displayed
  
• Improve Cordyceptic Drones fauna damage modifier text in tooltip to make it clearer what it exactly affects
  
• Life Tree Protectors now don't move away from their system
  
• Lost colony parents using Sol as their system will no longer spawn two Siriuses if the guaranteed habitable worlds slider is set to 1.
  
• Mutated Voidworms fleets now don't use naval capacity
  
• Mutated Voidworms now don't show they can upgrade anymore
  
• Orbital Assembly Complex holding now correctly boost Beastport and Hatchery on Orbital Ring
  
• Precursors can no longer be discovered on Astral Scars
  
• Prevent duplicate specimens from being found in the same empire
  
• Removed the unused h_dna string
  
• Stop showing upkeep part of message when leader upkeep is zero in hire leader confirmation dialog
  
• The Diplomacy Tradition Finisher now properly refers to Officials and not Envoys.
  
• Voidworms now stop bombarding if the Immunity technology is researched (before crisis)
  
• Worm-Riddled Gate is now correctly accessible if Voidworms are captured instead of killed

AI​

• AI won't build infinite science ships when trying to build frigates anymore
  
• Fix AI that was not willing to build Shipyards

Stability​

• Fix a crash when a tooltip references the concept of a tradition that doesn't exist
  
• Fix crash when Voidworms try to act on empty fleets
  
• Fix OOS when riftworld station is built
  
• Fix saves affected by the crash when an AI without a Grand Archive tries to capture a Space Fauna
  
• Fix Voidworms CTD
  
• Fixed issue with resolving the user home dir on linux that leads to CTD

Unless critical bugs in need of a hotfix arise, this will be the last planned Stellaris release of 2024. I want to avoid potentially destabilizing the game just before the winter holidays.

Now, on to the main dev diary.
Infinite Frontiers​ Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at the basic vision of Stellaris and discussed how Stellaris has changed over the years.

This week I want to talk about things we potentially might want to explore in the future.

This is not intended to read as a timeline or a list of promises, but an open discussion about things I consider possibilities and why.
Biological and Psionic Ascension
First things first, I strongly believe that remastering the remaining Ascension Paths is a top priority. The Machine Age dramatically improved Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascensions, and gave machine empires proper ascension choices, but left the others behind. Biological Ascension isn’t in a good state right now mechanically or as an overall experience. Psionic Ascension is better off as it is affected tangentially by most content releases, but is a bit too reliant on random events and luck. Both of these Ascension Paths will be revamped, though since they are very distinct from one another, I intend on having them focused on in two separate releases.

Warfare and War Resolution
At some point in the future, I’d like to see us revisit war and war resolution, and enable more of the scenarios that occur in the “Stellaris Cinematic Universe” of our trailers. When the Gamma Aliens attacked the UNE colony of Europa VII, the Commonwealth of Man did not wait patiently for an invitation to war before summoning the Apocalypse. Humanity was threatened, and they acted. More fluid rules around joining and leaving wars are needed, and betrayal is not supported to my satisfaction. (Secret Fealty exists, but I don’t find it enough in its current state - other mechanics currently prevent them from seizing the chance for freedom at what would be the most opportune moments.)

Biological Ships
While rearing and mutating space fauna was added to Stellaris in the Grand Archive story pack, I feel that it’s not the same fantasy as true bioships. These are vessels that your people grow and fly around in, or that have more symbiotic relationships with their pilots. I think those systems would probably pair nicely alongside Biological Ascension.

Factions and Politics
Governments in Stellaris may hold a grudge against you for centuries for your atrocities but pops and factions are very quick to forgive and forget. There are no revanchist or irredentist factions that make trouble when borders change, nor variety within the factions themselves. I’d also like to see factions have their own tenets and goals and different ways that you can deal with them. There have been a lot of calls for an “internal politics” expansion, but I think that it would really be politics and culture in general, affecting both your empires and those around you.

If we were to do something along those lines, I’d also want to add some variant of factions to Gestalt empires - maybe Instincts for Hives that grow more dominant based on your behavior or Directives that compete for priority in Machine Intelligences. They’d have to feel different from individualistic factions, however. Among individualistic factions, I could see the tenets of an Egalitarian faction from a Shared Burdens empire being very different from the Egalitarian faction in a non-Worker Coop MegaCorp, and these tenets might also be used to define the beliefs of your Spiritualist factions. I’d certainly want to explore spreading my factions into other empires.

Espionage
Espionage is a related system that isn’t satisfying its promise currently, as Mr. Cosmogone reminds me during every design meeting.

It’s difficult to keep track of spy networks, is generally of low impact, and has no real counterplay. But he’s got schemes.

Playable Nomads
Finding different ways of playing the game can be popular - landless adventuring in Crusader Kings III, for example, makes me wonder what we could do with nomadic fleets in Stellaris. The key questions there end up being “why are they nomadic”, and “how do they interact with more standard empires”. Origins could also be opportunities to “table flip” the normal economic or political models of Stellaris.

Pirates and Crime
Space Piracy is a popular fantasy - we touched on it a bit with the Treasure Hunters origin in Grand Archive, but they could mesh well with the Nomads idea mentioned earlier or even a factional political expansion. Crime and Deviancy aren’t terribly engaging systems at the moment either, and might benefit from wider examination.

Species Packs
When it comes to species, I could see us examining what kinds of life could arise on molten or frozen worlds, much like we did with Toxoids. Like Toxoids, they’d likely need some restrictions on what they can do with those worlds (as they’re 10x more abundant than normal habitable worlds), but they’d be interesting to explore. Players often ask for gaseous or energy creatures - the first are already represented to an extent by the Dathnak and the latter by the Unbidden. I feel that energy beings may go too far into fantasy “elementals”, so I’d like to stay away from them if possible. Expanding the existing species phenotypes could also potentially be interesting - Plantoids II, for example.

Scenarios
“Scenarios” are another proposal that I’ve seen a number of times over the years - would it be interesting to have scripted game modes with custom rules, and events already in motion?

They could lean hard into already established universes with asymmetric starts. Perhaps the game starts off with communications from a Xenophile empire that tells you, Pre-FTL Earth:


Hacked together example. Not anything real.​

A system like this could allow for challenges or narratives that can be completed in a relatively short play session compared to a standard Stellaris campaign, or could otherwise completely change the pace or nature of the game. It could also be used to craft competitive experiences - at past PDXCons we’ve featured mods like Survival: Necroid Invasion or Ark of Ascension - I could see things like that fitting into the system.

Alternate game modes tend to be fairly binary though - they’re either not used very much, or they’re incredibly popular - not much in between. What kinds of things would you want to see in these sorts of game modes, if anything?
So What Did I Miss?​ This was a bit of a stream of consciousness dev diary, so I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of possibilities.

What do you think I missed? Are any of these especially attractive or repellent? Where do you want us to go?
​ Next Week​ Next week we’ll be reacting to your responses to this one.

The days are getting shorter and the snows are starting here in Stockholm, so I expect I’ll keep this one pinned for the next two weeks.