Hello Console Players!
As we announced earlier this week, Stellaris: Console Edition Synthetic Dawn Story Pack releases May 12th!
We have a really long dev diary today, just going to take the time to remind you these things may not be exactly as they might appear in the end-product, have not-final numbers and potentially unfinalized UI.
Pop Jobs
Something we haven’t really explained yet is Pop Jobs, and while DD#2 explained where Pop Jobs come from, there are some nuances that everyone should be aware of. Pop jobs come in two types, capped, or the normal type of jobs are provided by buildings and districts, and once there are no more jobs available, these pops become unemployed (more on this later). However there is another type of Pop job; uncapped jobs. These jobs are given generally by species and/or citizenship rights. For example, a pop who’s species is set to livestock will work in a special livestock job, which requires no upkeep, very little housing (again, more on housing later) and produces food each month.
Pops will automatically fill empty jobs that they are capable of holding, based on their species traits and strata (...again, more later). For example, an industrious pop will take a mining job from a non-industrious pop of the same strata. Players can also increase or decrease the priority of specific jobs, ensuring some jobs are filled before others, but there is no more manual assignment of a specific pop to a specific job.
In addition to resource production, there is also a wide variety of Jobs related to administration and tending to the needs of other Pops. For example, Clerks are service industry workers that produce a small number of luxury goods and increase the Trade Value of the planet as a result of domestic economic activity in your cities, while Enforcers are your police, working to suppress dissent and reduce Crime on the planet. Some Jobs are rarer than others - Crystal Miner Jobs are only possible on planets that have Rare Crystal deposits, and some anomalies add unique planetary features that create Jobs that might only exist on that particular planet. Some Empires, such as Hive Minds and Machine Empires, also have their own special Jobs that are not available to others.
Strata and Unemployment
Whether a pop is employed or not, the vast majority of pops will belong to a Stratum, representing a social class of your population. The exact stratas vary depending on the type of empire, however as a rule non-Gestalt pops will usually be divided into three categories:
There are other strata however, for example, enslaved pops. Slave pops require very little consumer goods, however, are only allowed to hold resource production jobs. Higher strata jobs are always filled first from their own strata and then from the strata below their strata.
For example, if a building is built that creates a ruler job, a specialist pop will be promoted to the ruler strata (if their species rights allow it), and if there are no unemployed specialists, a worker pop will be promoted to a specialist (again, if allowed by species rights). This leaves one worker job free, providing there are no unemployed worker pops. If you were then to remove that building, the ruler pop would become unemployed. However, pops that have been promoted to a higher strata will refuse (for a time) to take a lower strata job, and will become unhappy and have a negative effect on stability for the planet. Certain traditions can make this process go faster.
Housing
With the removal of the tile system, we have introduced Housing. Housing represents the living space required for one pop to live, or in the case of robotic pops, the support and storage infrastructure they require. The base housing required for 1 pop is 1 housing, however certain factors (traits, strata, job, etc) can either increase or decrease this value. Housing is not a hard limit, but a soft cap, and planets that are over their housing limit will continue to grow pops, but receive penalties including reduced pop growth and negative effects on Stability/Happiness.
Growth and Migration
Under the new Growth and Migration system in Console Edition 2.2, each planet has five different variables that determine its demographic direction: Pop Growth, Pop Decline, immigration Pull, Emigration Push and Pop Assembly.
Planet Stability
In the 2.2 update, Planetary Stability is one of the most important factors for determining productivity on a planet. Planetary Stability is influenced by a number of factors, including Happiness, Housing, Amenities and Crime. Stability ranges from 0% to 100%, with a base level of 50%. Above 50%, and planets will receive bonuses to resource production and immigration pull, but below 50% will experience penalties to resource production and increased emigration push. Below a certain threshold, unrest events such as hunger strikes and terrorist bombings may start to occur, which can lower stability enough that an armed revolt may start after a time.
Pop Happiness and Approval Rating
Pop happiness is another major factor in determining planet stability. Each planet that contains at least one pop with free will has a Pop Approval Rating, that is the average happiness of the Pops, modified by their political power. Each pop has a political power value based on their strata and living conditions. For example, a Ruler pop living in a stratified economy will have an immense degree of political power, and their happiness may be more important than the happiness of a dozen worker pops. However, pops with no political power can still drag down your approval rating, so a planet with a vast mass of angry slaves will need some rulers to keep them in line. On a pop level, happiness no longer affects your pops productivity, so to ensure your planets are productive you now only need to make sure your Stability level is high. Individual Pop Happiness is not entirely without effect though, as the happiness of a Pop determines how likely it is to adopt your governing ethics, and also affects how much Crime it generates (see below for further details).
Amenities
Amenities represent the infrastructure, facilities and jobs required to cater to the day-to-day needs of your population. Excess amenities will cause increased Pop Happiness, while a lack of amenities will decrease Pop Happiness. Capital buildings and ruler jobs produce a small amount of amenities and may cover the needs of a fledgling colony, however highly urbanized planets will need to dedicate at least some of their infrastructure and population to amenities-producing buildings and jobs (such as entertainers) to keep the population happy.
Crime
Something else that we wanted to achieve with the new system was to create the potential for social and political unrest without necessarily having it take the form of a direct penalty or revolt, especially on heavily populated worlds. Crime is a value generated by virtually all Pops with free will, and can vary between 0 and 100% on a planet. Happy Pops produce less crime, while unhappy Pops produce more crime, but only Pops at a perfect 100% happiness produce no crime at all.
Crime has no actual direct penalty, but instead may result in events such as smuggler rings or organized crime taking root on the planet. These events and conditions are generally detrimental, but may also open up certain beneficial opportunities and decisions that would not be available on a planet with perfect law and order. Nonetheless, a very high level of Crime is generally something to be avoided, as crime can lower stability and also result in Pops leaving their ordinary jobs and moving into special Crime jobs that appear on the planet and which take resources away from your empire rather than producing them. To combat Crime, you can build buildings such as Precinct Districts that create crime-suppressing Enforcer jobs. In general, empires that rely on repression and inequality to keep their Pops in line will need to employ more Enforcers.
Whew! Well that’s it for today folks! It’s going to be an exciting week for Stellaris: Console Edition, next week we will have a special Dev Diary on Monday highlighting some of the unique empire types in the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack. Keep your eyes peeled everyone and have a great weekend!
// AC, Community Manager Stellaris
As we announced earlier this week, Stellaris: Console Edition Synthetic Dawn Story Pack releases May 12th!
We have a really long dev diary today, just going to take the time to remind you these things may not be exactly as they might appear in the end-product, have not-final numbers and potentially unfinalized UI.
Pop Jobs
Something we haven’t really explained yet is Pop Jobs, and while DD#2 explained where Pop Jobs come from, there are some nuances that everyone should be aware of. Pop jobs come in two types, capped, or the normal type of jobs are provided by buildings and districts, and once there are no more jobs available, these pops become unemployed (more on this later). However there is another type of Pop job; uncapped jobs. These jobs are given generally by species and/or citizenship rights. For example, a pop who’s species is set to livestock will work in a special livestock job, which requires no upkeep, very little housing (again, more on housing later) and produces food each month.
Pops will automatically fill empty jobs that they are capable of holding, based on their species traits and strata (...again, more later). For example, an industrious pop will take a mining job from a non-industrious pop of the same strata. Players can also increase or decrease the priority of specific jobs, ensuring some jobs are filled before others, but there is no more manual assignment of a specific pop to a specific job.
In addition to resource production, there is also a wide variety of Jobs related to administration and tending to the needs of other Pops. For example, Clerks are service industry workers that produce a small number of luxury goods and increase the Trade Value of the planet as a result of domestic economic activity in your cities, while Enforcers are your police, working to suppress dissent and reduce Crime on the planet. Some Jobs are rarer than others - Crystal Miner Jobs are only possible on planets that have Rare Crystal deposits, and some anomalies add unique planetary features that create Jobs that might only exist on that particular planet. Some Empires, such as Hive Minds and Machine Empires, also have their own special Jobs that are not available to others.
Strata and Unemployment
Whether a pop is employed or not, the vast majority of pops will belong to a Stratum, representing a social class of your population. The exact stratas vary depending on the type of empire, however as a rule non-Gestalt pops will usually be divided into three categories:
- Rulers: These pops represent the ruling class of your citizens, be it government officials or wealthy elite. Ruler pops have a much greater impact on Stability than the other two classes, and require more consumer goods to be happy.
- Specialists: This stratum represents the educated population working in more skilled positions. Specialist pops typically work with refining resources or performing intellectual tasks, and require more consumer goods than workers to remain happy.
There are other strata however, for example, enslaved pops. Slave pops require very little consumer goods, however, are only allowed to hold resource production jobs. Higher strata jobs are always filled first from their own strata and then from the strata below their strata.
For example, if a building is built that creates a ruler job, a specialist pop will be promoted to the ruler strata (if their species rights allow it), and if there are no unemployed specialists, a worker pop will be promoted to a specialist (again, if allowed by species rights). This leaves one worker job free, providing there are no unemployed worker pops. If you were then to remove that building, the ruler pop would become unemployed. However, pops that have been promoted to a higher strata will refuse (for a time) to take a lower strata job, and will become unhappy and have a negative effect on stability for the planet. Certain traditions can make this process go faster.
Housing
With the removal of the tile system, we have introduced Housing. Housing represents the living space required for one pop to live, or in the case of robotic pops, the support and storage infrastructure they require. The base housing required for 1 pop is 1 housing, however certain factors (traits, strata, job, etc) can either increase or decrease this value. Housing is not a hard limit, but a soft cap, and planets that are over their housing limit will continue to grow pops, but receive penalties including reduced pop growth and negative effects on Stability/Happiness.
Growth and Migration
Under the new Growth and Migration system in Console Edition 2.2, each planet has five different variables that determine its demographic direction: Pop Growth, Pop Decline, immigration Pull, Emigration Push and Pop Assembly.
- Pop Growth: This is the base level of pop growth on the planet, from natural reproduction and immigration. A planet will only have one species growing at a time, but due to immigration, any species that would want to grow on the planet will potentially be able to grow on the planet.
- Pop Decline: Represents the decline of certain species on the planet, and usually is the result of shifting demographics or purging.
- Immigration and Emigration: Each planet has an immigration pull and an emigration push value generated by Housing, Stability, Unemployment, etc. For example, an overcrowded planet will have a higher emigration push than immigration pull.
- Pop Assembly: Pop Assembly refers to a planet’s capacity for constructing artificial (generally Robotic) Pops, and comes from certain Jobs provided by special buildings. Each unit of pop assembly provided by jobs will contribute one growth towards the currently assembling pop. A planet can have both growing and assembling pops, and there is no link between pop assembly and emigration/immigration aside from the potential for assembled pops to create overcrowding and unemployment.
Planet Stability
In the 2.2 update, Planetary Stability is one of the most important factors for determining productivity on a planet. Planetary Stability is influenced by a number of factors, including Happiness, Housing, Amenities and Crime. Stability ranges from 0% to 100%, with a base level of 50%. Above 50%, and planets will receive bonuses to resource production and immigration pull, but below 50% will experience penalties to resource production and increased emigration push. Below a certain threshold, unrest events such as hunger strikes and terrorist bombings may start to occur, which can lower stability enough that an armed revolt may start after a time.
Pop Happiness and Approval Rating
Pop happiness is another major factor in determining planet stability. Each planet that contains at least one pop with free will has a Pop Approval Rating, that is the average happiness of the Pops, modified by their political power. Each pop has a political power value based on their strata and living conditions. For example, a Ruler pop living in a stratified economy will have an immense degree of political power, and their happiness may be more important than the happiness of a dozen worker pops. However, pops with no political power can still drag down your approval rating, so a planet with a vast mass of angry slaves will need some rulers to keep them in line. On a pop level, happiness no longer affects your pops productivity, so to ensure your planets are productive you now only need to make sure your Stability level is high. Individual Pop Happiness is not entirely without effect though, as the happiness of a Pop determines how likely it is to adopt your governing ethics, and also affects how much Crime it generates (see below for further details).
Amenities
Amenities represent the infrastructure, facilities and jobs required to cater to the day-to-day needs of your population. Excess amenities will cause increased Pop Happiness, while a lack of amenities will decrease Pop Happiness. Capital buildings and ruler jobs produce a small amount of amenities and may cover the needs of a fledgling colony, however highly urbanized planets will need to dedicate at least some of their infrastructure and population to amenities-producing buildings and jobs (such as entertainers) to keep the population happy.
Crime
Something else that we wanted to achieve with the new system was to create the potential for social and political unrest without necessarily having it take the form of a direct penalty or revolt, especially on heavily populated worlds. Crime is a value generated by virtually all Pops with free will, and can vary between 0 and 100% on a planet. Happy Pops produce less crime, while unhappy Pops produce more crime, but only Pops at a perfect 100% happiness produce no crime at all.
Crime has no actual direct penalty, but instead may result in events such as smuggler rings or organized crime taking root on the planet. These events and conditions are generally detrimental, but may also open up certain beneficial opportunities and decisions that would not be available on a planet with perfect law and order. Nonetheless, a very high level of Crime is generally something to be avoided, as crime can lower stability and also result in Pops leaving their ordinary jobs and moving into special Crime jobs that appear on the planet and which take resources away from your empire rather than producing them. To combat Crime, you can build buildings such as Precinct Districts that create crime-suppressing Enforcer jobs. In general, empires that rely on repression and inequality to keep their Pops in line will need to employ more Enforcers.
Whew! Well that’s it for today folks! It’s going to be an exciting week for Stellaris: Console Edition, next week we will have a special Dev Diary on Monday highlighting some of the unique empire types in the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack. Keep your eyes peeled everyone and have a great weekend!
// AC, Community Manager Stellaris
