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Dev Diary #8 - The Situation Log and Special Projects

Fellow sentients!

Do not be alarmed. I have been summoned to your pitiful quaint planet to tell you a little bit about Special Projects and the Situation Log.

As you play the game and venture out into the galaxy, you will eventually come upon Special Projects. These projects are sometimes spawned by the Anomalies that were discussed in last week’s Dev Diary, but they can also be triggered by other events. They typically represent a specific action that can be performed by the player, and in that respect they function a bit like the decisions you might find in some of our other games.

Most projects are centered around a location (often a planet, but it could also be an object in space), and many require the presence of a Science Ship and a skilled Scientist before they can be started. Others may require the presence of a warship, or a troop transport, or something else entirely. It depends on the project.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_02_20151109_event.jpg


While the cost of some projects is only a time investment, others will require research efforts within a particular field, such as physics, to complete. Technology research progress is diverted to the project at the expense of your current technology research in that field, temporarily halting all progress. In other words, you may want to hold off on that physics project for a while if you are just about to finish researching a new shield system!

A few examples of Special Projects could be boarding and investigating a derelict space hulk, performing an archeological dig on the homeworld of a dead civilization… or perhaps fishing something out of the atmosphere of a gas giant. Projects can also appear on your colony worlds, and they may be time sensitive.

So what do you get for completing a Special Project? Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that depends on the project. You might get an advanced alien warship, or a new technology, or any number of other bonuses and advantages. Sometimes the reward might simply be staving off an imminent disaster on one of your colonies.

To help players keep track these projects, we have added something called the Situation Log to the game. This screen works like a quest log in many ways, and you will find all currently available Special Projects here. You can also follow your progress in certain event chains, with various Points of Interest listed that can be visually tracked on the map. A Point of Interest could be a strange signal emanating from a distant star system, which will remain in your log until you send someone to investigate.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_01_20151109_situation_log.jpg


That’s it for now. Next week, renowned interstellar gangster Daniel “grekulf” Moregård will take time out of his busy schedule to tell you more about how planets work in Stellaris - including planet modifiers, surface tiles, buildings and resource collection!
 
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One thing I noticed in the screenshots of this DD might cause some err... consternation among people. Now in previous DDs along with Dev statements we see that when you start a game you get along with your home planet, a science ship, a constructor ship, and a small military fleet. In this DD however, we see that the science ship and military fleet is still around but the constructor is gone. We do see a small space station in the relative vicinity of the home planet.

I wouldn't read too much about the game set up in the screenshots; they're probably set up specifically to show certain things with dev-mode trickery. You can see that the empire in the game is clearly space humans, but there's no Earth and stuff.
 
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it seems like half the people camping stellaris thread just want to make imperium of man and purge everything
lol

Right? Humans are always the last option when other options are present for me. Especially eradicate everything humans. Unless they get special mechanics. I might have to reconsider if they have special mechanics.
 
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it seems like half the people camping stellaris thread just want to make imperium of man and purge everything
lol

Variety of thought and life forms is heretic in itself because it's chaothic. Thus it all must be purged.

And personally my first game will be Starshiptroopers like federation of Earth then Imperium :cool:
 
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It would be interesting to know if it will actually be possible to eradicate a species. Not just defeat their primary empires but to remove all their POPs from the universe.

I'll need to figure out how to remove all these obviously genocidal humans from the universe. Everybody will be safer that way.
 
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Is it just me, or does the space station seem a bit unproportionally big compared to a planet, particularly a continental world at that. @Goosecreature does space station size scale with tech advances cause it should IMO.

On the solar map, the planets and stars aren't to scale. In these space environments, being to scale wouldn't be a good idea for GUI usage and ease. They are relatively sized though, meaning smaller is smaller and larger is larger, but the amount should probably fit the UI first.

It would be interesting to know if it will actually be possible to eradicate a species. Not just defeat their primary empires but to remove all their POPs from the universe.

I'll need to figure out how to remove all these obviously genocidal humans from the universe. Everybody will be safer that way.

I did hear they mentioned genocide as one option, but didn't get any more details.

Right? Humans are always the last option when other options are present for me. Especially eradicate everything humans. Unless they get special mechanics. I might have to reconsider if they have special mechanics.

If they have unique DNA traits, which are needed to unlock some specials on their homeworld, you might need to keep them alive for the Ultra Tech.
 
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And you dont?

Please report to your local commissariat office for immediate execution.

I just want to enslave freak-looking alliens and genetically manipulate the cute-looking ones. Am I that wrong? :confused:
 
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So when you say "others will require research efforts within a particular field, such as physics, to complete. Technology research progress is diverted to the project at the expense of your current technology research in that field, temporarily halting all progress." Do you mean this is going to be another 4X Game where a Massive Interstellar Empire with Billions if not Trillions of citizens is completely incapable of performing even the slightest bit of multitasking? Will this stop progress across your Entire Empire or just for that single Ship?

Because if this is another game where researching even two things at the same time is physically impossible then I'm honestly kinda losing interest because that is a stupid game convention that really needs to die.
 
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The special project resource investiture reminds me of Endless Legend minor race village quests and the various challenges in Alien Legacy.

If Goose is more thinking along the lines of the latter, then it will be an interesting experience. Quests often seem unnecessary or rather minor side quests, but in Alien Legacy, you had better drop everything and put all research/military on the current disaster, or else your game might just end horribly. And sometimes, looking around in mysterious corners of the galaxy will trigger a trap... before you are ready.

The concept or idea of using my Research Staff to solve threats, rather than a military, is a strict departure from many RTS or 4x games. Research is the strategic goal, it isn't the tactical solution to many problems in those other games.
 
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So, right here, you see those yellow patches on the night side? That, my friends, is the light of settlements visible on the night side of a colonized world. It's right there on the game map people.

Dude that is hardly new unless you stopped playing 4X after MOO.SOTS went further and added racial settlements lights on the planets.