Hello Console Fans!
Community Manager AC here, with another Stellaris: Console Edition Dev Diary! Today we’re going to be talking about a new feature coming in the Apocalypse Expansion, the Marauders, and a new mid-game crisis, the Great Khan. But first, we have some more details about the 2.2 Update that, again, we didn’t have time to share before release.
Piracy Rework (Free in Console Edition 2.2)
Some of you may have already noticed a few more pirates around your galaxies. In the current version of Console Edition, after the Birth of Space Piracy event has fired, Pirates will be able to spawn in empty systems bordering your empire. These pirates will attack your systems and pillage your stations until they are destroyed, and will grow stronger the later you are in the game. They are especially likely to spawn in empty systems that are fully surrounded by your borders.
Marauders (Paid Apocalypse Feature)
Marauders are a new type of nomadic non-playable empire that those with the Apocalypse Expansion can encounter in the galaxy. They are a relatively technologically primitive FTL civilizations that gave up planetary living in favor of living on ships and stations in a handful of resource-rich systems. They subsist mainly on raiding each other and extorting tributes from settled empires, and are hardy warriors and expert ship crew, who manage to muster impressive fleets, despite their relative lack of technology.
Marauders are always hostile to regular empires, but will generally stay in their systems unless they are raiding, or the Great Khan has risen (more on this later).
Marauders will occasionally set out to raid settled empires that they have established contact with, before raiding they will give their target empire a chance to pay them off with tribute in the form of food, energy or minerals. If you refuse, they will send a fleet to your empire’s territory, pillaging stations and raiding planets, stopping only when they are either destroyed or are satisfied with the amount of booty they have amassed. Settled empires can also pay a Marauder empire to conduct a raid on one of their rivals, to divert attention from themselves as well as potentially weakening their military and economy. A Marauder empire can be wiped out by destroying all stations and ships in their home systems, but these systems are well defended and will take a powerful mid to late game navy to deal with.
Settled empires can also enlist the aid of Marauders as mercenaries. At the start of the game, Marauder Admirals and Generals can be hired, these leaders have a high starting skill and special traits, and after a certain amount of time has passed, the ability to hire Marauder fleets will also be unlocked. Marauder fleets cost a large sum of energy up front, but you do not pay upkeep on their ships and do not count towards your naval cap. They also cannot be merged, split or disbanded, and have a leader that cannot be reassigned. This fleet will be hired for five years, at the end of which time, you will either have to renew the agreement or the fleet will return to the Marauder you hired it from.
The Great Khan (Paid Apocalypse Feature)
This is an event chain that can trigger after a set amount of time has passed, where one of the Marauder empires unifies under a Great Khan. Once this happens, the Marauder empire becomes a Horde, and will begin expanding in all directions, claiming empty systems and sending fleets to destroy the Starbases of any empire that will not submit to the Khan. At any time, it is possible for a regular empire to submit to the Khan and become a Satrapy, a type of subject that has to pay part of its income and naval capacity in tribute to the Khan, but is otherwise left to its own devices. The Horde will grow stronger for every system it conquers and Satrapy it acquires, but it is a fragile construct, held together only by the personality of the Khan. If the Great Khan is killed in battle or falls victim to disease or assassination, the Horde will collapse, at which point one of several things will happen to the Horde and its Satrapies: It may dissolve into a myriad of squabbling successor states, or a new, democratic Federation may form out of its ashes. Regardless, the appearance of the Khan and the Horde is sure to shake up the galactic scene of any game in which it makes an appearance.
That’s it for this week. We have one more Dev Diary next Monday, before the Apocalypse Expansion and Humanoids Species Pack release on June 25th! Next week’s Dev Diary will be on two of the biggest (pun intended!) features of the Apocalypse Expansion, Titans and Colossus!
Community Manager AC here, with another Stellaris: Console Edition Dev Diary! Today we’re going to be talking about a new feature coming in the Apocalypse Expansion, the Marauders, and a new mid-game crisis, the Great Khan. But first, we have some more details about the 2.2 Update that, again, we didn’t have time to share before release.
Piracy Rework (Free in Console Edition 2.2)
Some of you may have already noticed a few more pirates around your galaxies. In the current version of Console Edition, after the Birth of Space Piracy event has fired, Pirates will be able to spawn in empty systems bordering your empire. These pirates will attack your systems and pillage your stations until they are destroyed, and will grow stronger the later you are in the game. They are especially likely to spawn in empty systems that are fully surrounded by your borders.
Marauders (Paid Apocalypse Feature)
Marauders are a new type of nomadic non-playable empire that those with the Apocalypse Expansion can encounter in the galaxy. They are a relatively technologically primitive FTL civilizations that gave up planetary living in favor of living on ships and stations in a handful of resource-rich systems. They subsist mainly on raiding each other and extorting tributes from settled empires, and are hardy warriors and expert ship crew, who manage to muster impressive fleets, despite their relative lack of technology.
Marauders are always hostile to regular empires, but will generally stay in their systems unless they are raiding, or the Great Khan has risen (more on this later).
Marauders will occasionally set out to raid settled empires that they have established contact with, before raiding they will give their target empire a chance to pay them off with tribute in the form of food, energy or minerals. If you refuse, they will send a fleet to your empire’s territory, pillaging stations and raiding planets, stopping only when they are either destroyed or are satisfied with the amount of booty they have amassed. Settled empires can also pay a Marauder empire to conduct a raid on one of their rivals, to divert attention from themselves as well as potentially weakening their military and economy. A Marauder empire can be wiped out by destroying all stations and ships in their home systems, but these systems are well defended and will take a powerful mid to late game navy to deal with.
Settled empires can also enlist the aid of Marauders as mercenaries. At the start of the game, Marauder Admirals and Generals can be hired, these leaders have a high starting skill and special traits, and after a certain amount of time has passed, the ability to hire Marauder fleets will also be unlocked. Marauder fleets cost a large sum of energy up front, but you do not pay upkeep on their ships and do not count towards your naval cap. They also cannot be merged, split or disbanded, and have a leader that cannot be reassigned. This fleet will be hired for five years, at the end of which time, you will either have to renew the agreement or the fleet will return to the Marauder you hired it from.
The Great Khan (Paid Apocalypse Feature)
This is an event chain that can trigger after a set amount of time has passed, where one of the Marauder empires unifies under a Great Khan. Once this happens, the Marauder empire becomes a Horde, and will begin expanding in all directions, claiming empty systems and sending fleets to destroy the Starbases of any empire that will not submit to the Khan. At any time, it is possible for a regular empire to submit to the Khan and become a Satrapy, a type of subject that has to pay part of its income and naval capacity in tribute to the Khan, but is otherwise left to its own devices. The Horde will grow stronger for every system it conquers and Satrapy it acquires, but it is a fragile construct, held together only by the personality of the Khan. If the Great Khan is killed in battle or falls victim to disease or assassination, the Horde will collapse, at which point one of several things will happen to the Horde and its Satrapies: It may dissolve into a myriad of squabbling successor states, or a new, democratic Federation may form out of its ashes. Regardless, the appearance of the Khan and the Horde is sure to shake up the galactic scene of any game in which it makes an appearance.
That’s it for this week. We have one more Dev Diary next Monday, before the Apocalypse Expansion and Humanoids Species Pack release on June 25th! Next week’s Dev Diary will be on two of the biggest (pun intended!) features of the Apocalypse Expansion, Titans and Colossus!
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