Hi again, Console Edition players!
I’m AC, and I’m the Community Manager for Stellaris and Stellaris: Console Edition! Hope you guys are all getting as hyped as we are for the upcoming release of [redacted]! Today we’re here with another dev diary, this one focusing on planets, buildings and districts!
The planetary rework is extensive, and will be covered over the next two console dev diaries.
Again for all the PC users here, you probably know all of this stuff, but you folks can enjoy the shiny new UI screenshots, and complain about the not-final-numbers and placeholder UI along with the console players, to whom most of this stuff is brand new!
Fleet Manager
The fleet manager is a new interface that allows you to overview and manage your navies, and lists all fleets in your empire. Each fleet has a template, which is a saved configuration of the ship classes and designs that are planned to be included in that fleet. Templates can be created and edited without ever building a ship, then pressing “Reinforce” will cause your shipyards to start building the ships, and they will automatically regroup at the fleet’s homebase.
Fleet templates make reinforcing your fleets after combat easier, simply press reinforce and nearby shipyards will automatically rebuild your losses (providing you have the resources available to build them, but more on resources will be in a later dev diary). There is also the option to upgrade the selected fleet, upgrade all your fleets, as well as attempt to reinforce all your fleets -- if you can afford it.
You also will get the ability to retrofit designs, for instance if you have two corvette designs. Select the design you want to change, select retrofit, select the new design, and select upgrade. The ships will attempt to upgrade at the nearest shipyard, and if there’s a lot of ships to upgrade, they will be spread amongst the nearest starbases.
Planetary Rework
The planetary rework coming in Console Edition 2.2 is a massive change to how Stellaris is played in the Console Edition. Tiles have been completely removed from the game in favor of a system that allows us to do many things that were never possible with the 25 pop limit in the old planetary system.
Tiles and buildings have been replaced by a system that we feel better represents planetary features and gives the feeling of a planet where pops live their lives rather than a “resource gathering hub”, as it is in the current system.
Deposits
Under the old tile system, deposits were simply clumps of resources placed on a tile, which would be gathered by a pop and determined what types of buildings were most efficient to place there. Under the new system, deposits are more akin to planetary features and terrain. Every planet type will have (at least) some deposits unique to its planet type. For instance, grasslands will not spawn on Arctic worlds. Most deposits also directly affect the number of districts and what type can be built on planets.
However, there are rare deposits that give other bonuses, that give rare resources or research bonuses to a planet. Deposits can also have deposit blockers, reminiscent of tile blockers in the old system, that will block access to their districts until the blockers are cleared through an expenditure of time and resources.
Districts
Districts make up the core of how planets are developed in the 2.2 Console Edition. Districts represent large areas of a planet dedicated to resource gathering or habitation. The main planetary districts are: City Districts, Generator Districts, Mining Districts and Farming Districts. However there are special planet types (ie. habitats, ringworlds and [redacted]) that will have special districts, as well as special empire types that will have special districts (ie. Hiveminds get hive districts instead of city districts).
Districts will directly affect how your planets contribute to your empire’s economy. A heavily urbanized world with research buildings will generate lots of trade value and research, but as a trade-off will not produce raw resources vital to your empire’s upkeep and expansion.
A planet’s deposits and planetary modifiers will affect this decision, for instance a planet with lots of mineral deposits and a high quality minerals modifier will make a great mining planet -- but what if it’s also in a great place for a trade hub? The objective of the planetary rework is to create diverse and distinct planets that each have their own role to fill in your empire.
Buildings
In the 2.2 version of the Console Edition, buildings are specialized facilities that provide a variety of jobs and resources that are not suitable for large-scale resource gathering. For example, instead of your scientists working in a physics lab on a physics deposit (whatever that is..) you now instead construct a Research Labs building, which provides a number of Researcher jobs that conduct research for your empire. Buildings are limited by the number of pops on a planet, with every 5 pops unlocking a new building slot.
Buildings are sometimes limited to one per planet, for instance the Autotchton Monument, while you can have as many Alloy foundries as your building slots will allow. Buildings can still be upgraded to more advanced structures, however as a rule there will be far fewer upgrades to do, and those upgrades will generally require an investment of rare and expensive resources, so upgrades are more of an active choice over something you simply click your way through after unlocking a tech.
That’s it for today! Thanks everyone for reading part one of this subject, and be sure to join us next week while we discuss Pop Jobs, Pop Strata, Unemployment, Stability, Amenities, and Happiness/Approval Rating. We also may have a surprise coming next week, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled!
I’m AC, and I’m the Community Manager for Stellaris and Stellaris: Console Edition! Hope you guys are all getting as hyped as we are for the upcoming release of [redacted]! Today we’re here with another dev diary, this one focusing on planets, buildings and districts!
The planetary rework is extensive, and will be covered over the next two console dev diaries.
Again for all the PC users here, you probably know all of this stuff, but you folks can enjoy the shiny new UI screenshots, and complain about the not-final-numbers and placeholder UI along with the console players, to whom most of this stuff is brand new!
Fleet Manager
The fleet manager is a new interface that allows you to overview and manage your navies, and lists all fleets in your empire. Each fleet has a template, which is a saved configuration of the ship classes and designs that are planned to be included in that fleet. Templates can be created and edited without ever building a ship, then pressing “Reinforce” will cause your shipyards to start building the ships, and they will automatically regroup at the fleet’s homebase.
Fleet templates make reinforcing your fleets after combat easier, simply press reinforce and nearby shipyards will automatically rebuild your losses (providing you have the resources available to build them, but more on resources will be in a later dev diary). There is also the option to upgrade the selected fleet, upgrade all your fleets, as well as attempt to reinforce all your fleets -- if you can afford it.
You also will get the ability to retrofit designs, for instance if you have two corvette designs. Select the design you want to change, select retrofit, select the new design, and select upgrade. The ships will attempt to upgrade at the nearest shipyard, and if there’s a lot of ships to upgrade, they will be spread amongst the nearest starbases.
Planetary Rework
The planetary rework coming in Console Edition 2.2 is a massive change to how Stellaris is played in the Console Edition. Tiles have been completely removed from the game in favor of a system that allows us to do many things that were never possible with the 25 pop limit in the old planetary system.
Tiles and buildings have been replaced by a system that we feel better represents planetary features and gives the feeling of a planet where pops live their lives rather than a “resource gathering hub”, as it is in the current system.
Deposits
Under the old tile system, deposits were simply clumps of resources placed on a tile, which would be gathered by a pop and determined what types of buildings were most efficient to place there. Under the new system, deposits are more akin to planetary features and terrain. Every planet type will have (at least) some deposits unique to its planet type. For instance, grasslands will not spawn on Arctic worlds. Most deposits also directly affect the number of districts and what type can be built on planets.
However, there are rare deposits that give other bonuses, that give rare resources or research bonuses to a planet. Deposits can also have deposit blockers, reminiscent of tile blockers in the old system, that will block access to their districts until the blockers are cleared through an expenditure of time and resources.
Districts
Districts make up the core of how planets are developed in the 2.2 Console Edition. Districts represent large areas of a planet dedicated to resource gathering or habitation. The main planetary districts are: City Districts, Generator Districts, Mining Districts and Farming Districts. However there are special planet types (ie. habitats, ringworlds and [redacted]) that will have special districts, as well as special empire types that will have special districts (ie. Hiveminds get hive districts instead of city districts).
Districts will directly affect how your planets contribute to your empire’s economy. A heavily urbanized world with research buildings will generate lots of trade value and research, but as a trade-off will not produce raw resources vital to your empire’s upkeep and expansion.
A planet’s deposits and planetary modifiers will affect this decision, for instance a planet with lots of mineral deposits and a high quality minerals modifier will make a great mining planet -- but what if it’s also in a great place for a trade hub? The objective of the planetary rework is to create diverse and distinct planets that each have their own role to fill in your empire.
Buildings
In the 2.2 version of the Console Edition, buildings are specialized facilities that provide a variety of jobs and resources that are not suitable for large-scale resource gathering. For example, instead of your scientists working in a physics lab on a physics deposit (whatever that is..) you now instead construct a Research Labs building, which provides a number of Researcher jobs that conduct research for your empire. Buildings are limited by the number of pops on a planet, with every 5 pops unlocking a new building slot.
Buildings are sometimes limited to one per planet, for instance the Autotchton Monument, while you can have as many Alloy foundries as your building slots will allow. Buildings can still be upgraded to more advanced structures, however as a rule there will be far fewer upgrades to do, and those upgrades will generally require an investment of rare and expensive resources, so upgrades are more of an active choice over something you simply click your way through after unlocking a tech.
That’s it for today! Thanks everyone for reading part one of this subject, and be sure to join us next week while we discuss Pop Jobs, Pop Strata, Unemployment, Stability, Amenities, and Happiness/Approval Rating. We also may have a surprise coming next week, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled!