Hello Console Edition Community!
By now I hope you’ve seen the announcement - if not - Stellaris: Console Edition Overlord will release on March 8th!
Get it today as part of Expansion Pass Five!
This release will complete Expansion Pass Five, there’s still more in the pipeline for Console Edition, so you can put down your plasma pitchforks for now. For today, we have to get into the paid features of Overlord, since release is less than two weeks away!
If you missed last week’s Development Diary, we made some significant changes to vassalization (You can read up on those changes here). Part of that rework was adding three new Specialty Vassal types to the game.
These Specialty Vassal types can be proposed and agreed upon by either Overlord or Subject during Subject Agreement negotiations. This allows you as a player to choose to become one of the Specialty Vassal types, and gives you more agency on how your game progresses, even though you have lost some – if not all, of your own independence. Additionally, the Imperial Fiefdom Origin (more on the Origins included in Overlord next week!) allows you to choose a specialization from the start of the game.
The three vassal types are:
Rewards of Loyalty
We talked about Loyalty last week, and here it is again, but this time when applied to Specialty Vassals, it takes on a whole new meaning: Your loyalty controls how quickly your specialty will level up. Each specialization has three levels, and each level adds more bonuses and/ or penalties, in addition to unlocking new abilities for the vassal.
The higher your Loyalty, the faster your Specialization Levels up
Bulwark Specialization
Bulwarks are meant to be the defensive bastions of your empire, guarding the borders with your hostile neighbors and get hefty defensive bonuses with each Tier Unlocked. Most of these bonuses will remain even on higher tiers, but Bulwark Penalties and Bonuses replace their lower-level effects from tier to tier.
At Tier 2, a Bulwark’s Admirals will gain one of three special traits, and can trade these leaders with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, Bulwarks can construct a Bulwark Battlewright, a construction ship that repairs all friendly ships in the system.
Scholarium
A Scholarium is dedicated to the advancement of science, and gets powerful bonuses to research, and the ability to find Research Caches in their space, which yield increasing amounts of stored research, and occasionally technologies.
As with the Bulwark, the Scholarium’s Bonuses and Penalties are replaced from tier to tier, but at Tier 3 amount to a considerable Naval Capacity and Ship Build cost.
At Tier 2, Scholarium Scientists get one of three special traits, and can also be traded with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, the Scholarium can build the Scholarium Arctrellis, which interrupts ships piloted by AI in its system.
Prospectorium
The Prospectorium excels at resource extraction, and gets powerful bonuses to resource collection and production, including the uncanny ability to find increasingly lucrative resource deposits in their space.
In turn, Prospectoriums pay increasing penalties in monthly Scientific Research.
At Tier 2, Resource Discovery gains a chance to discover Alloys and certain Special Resources. Governors also gain one of three special traits, and can be traded with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, Resource Discovery gets even more powerful with the addition of Zro, Dark Matter, and Living Metal deposits, and the ability to Strip Mine a planet, adding extra mining districts.
Galactic Community
With all this Vassalization going on, it makes sense that the Galactic Community would get involved. Overlord includes two new resolution lines, in the Suzerains and Sovereignty category.
The Intergalactic Directives line of resolutions protects the rights of subjects and encourages the preservation and release of weaker societies.
On the other hand, Bureaucratic Surveillance focuses on the rights of the overlords, and requires keeping subjects on a short leash, and encourages the use of Holdings. Resolutions in this category may only be proposed by empires that are actively an Overlord of another empire.
Overlord also comes with three new enclaves, two that you will find out in the galaxy, and one that you will create yourself. These new Enclaves offer new opportunities, new events, buffs and new things to do out in the galaxy.
Salvager Enclave
The Salvagers are a friendly and pacifistic bunch of scrappers and mechanics. Focused on engineering, these tinkerers love nothing more than scrapping old ships, refurbishing them, and sending them on to find new homes.
The Salvagers are a cautious people, and will only offer you a few services at first - allowing you to scrap a fleet in their system for alloys, and offering deals on battle-proven starships
However, after you gain their trust they will offer you a broader array of options, from creating a Salvage Works building to salvaging your battle debris.
Shroudwalker Enclave
In Overlord, you may find a mysterious Shroudwalker enclave out in the galaxy (Or start in contact with one, if you choose the Teachers of the Shroud origin!). The Shroudwalkers delve deeply into the mysteries of the Shroud, seeking to understand the unknowable.
They are willing to instruct your people in the ways of the Shroud, as well as willing to look into the possibilities of your future, as well as provide insights about other empires.
It is also possible to obtain a Shroud Beacon, allowing your fleets to take a shortcut through the Shroud. Traveler beware, traveling through the Shroud is not like traveling through space, and you can only hope that your ships travel unnoticed.
Mercenary Enclave
Unlike the other two Enclaves in Overlord, you can choose to construct a Mercenary Enclave: the chosen fleet must have an Admiral, must be above size 50, be in a system you control with no other Enclave, the system must have a moon or asteroid, and you must have at least 1 available Mercenary Enclave Capacity.
Mercenary Enclave Capacity by default starts at zero. You can raise this by choosing one of several civics: Warrior Culture, Barbaric Despoilers, Private Military Companies each adds one potential Mercenary Enclave, while the Naval Contractors Civic adds two.
Additionally, the Lord of War Ascension Perk also gives one extra Mercenary Enclave Capacity, as well as increasing Diplomatic Weight from fleet power, and increasing the rate at which your Mercenary Enclaves pay dividends.
The newly formed Mercenary Enclave has a few options for those interested in procuring security services. The empire that controls the primary starbase of the Mercenary Enclave’s system is considered their Patron, and has additional interactions with them. If business is going especially well, the Patron will even receive dividends from the Enclave.
Anyone that has communications with a Mercenary Enclave can rent their fleet for ten years, if they can afford the cost. Prices vary depending on what the Mercenaries think of you, as well as whether you are their Patron or not.
As time goes on, the Mercenaries will research technologies, reinforce, and build up their fleet, but their Patron can reach out and provide a helping appendage. If they have an excellent relationship with the Mercenaries, a Patron can even ask them to break an active contract - but they’ll have to provide some recompense to their current client and won’t be very happy about it. Reputations are everything in this business.
There are also three new Galcom resolutions that further enhance Mercenary Enclaves, plus an additional two resolutions unlocked by the Federations DLC. This line of resolutions focuses on encouraging the empires of the Galactic Community to leave the fighting to professionals. It allows empires to create more Mercenary Enclaves, increases the rate Mercenary Dividends are paid out, and places significant limits on non-Mercenary navies.
Whew! If you actually made it this far, thanks for reading! We have one more Development Diary left before release on March 8th, next Friday we’ll talk about the Origins and Megastructures coming to Overlord, and then the Wednesday after that.. you’ll be able to play it!
By now I hope you’ve seen the announcement - if not - Stellaris: Console Edition Overlord will release on March 8th!
This release will complete Expansion Pass Five, there’s still more in the pipeline for Console Edition, so you can put down your plasma pitchforks for now. For today, we have to get into the paid features of Overlord, since release is less than two weeks away!
If you missed last week’s Development Diary, we made some significant changes to vassalization (You can read up on those changes here). Part of that rework was adding three new Specialty Vassal types to the game.
These Specialty Vassal types can be proposed and agreed upon by either Overlord or Subject during Subject Agreement negotiations. This allows you as a player to choose to become one of the Specialty Vassal types, and gives you more agency on how your game progresses, even though you have lost some – if not all, of your own independence. Additionally, the Imperial Fiefdom Origin (more on the Origins included in Overlord next week!) allows you to choose a specialization from the start of the game.
The three vassal types are:
- Prospectorium - specializing in resource collection, a Prospectorium pays basic resource subsidies to their Overlord, in exchange they will get new abilities allowing them to generate more resources
- Bulwark - the defensive Bulwark gains bonuses to defense platforms and starbases, and acts as the fortified frontier for their Overlord, in addition to getting basic resource subsidies from their Overlord
- Scholarium - dedicated to the advancement of Science above all else, the Scholarium pays research to their Overlord, but gets bonus Research from their Specialization, as well as new abilities giving them even more research at regular intervals. To offset this, the Scholarium has significant penalties to Naval Capacity and Ship Build Cost/Upkeep.
Rewards of Loyalty
We talked about Loyalty last week, and here it is again, but this time when applied to Specialty Vassals, it takes on a whole new meaning: Your loyalty controls how quickly your specialty will level up. Each specialization has three levels, and each level adds more bonuses and/ or penalties, in addition to unlocking new abilities for the vassal.
The higher your Loyalty, the faster your Specialization Levels up
Bulwark Specialization
Bulwarks are meant to be the defensive bastions of your empire, guarding the borders with your hostile neighbors and get hefty defensive bonuses with each Tier Unlocked. Most of these bonuses will remain even on higher tiers, but Bulwark Penalties and Bonuses replace their lower-level effects from tier to tier.
At Tier 2, a Bulwark’s Admirals will gain one of three special traits, and can trade these leaders with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, Bulwarks can construct a Bulwark Battlewright, a construction ship that repairs all friendly ships in the system.
Scholarium
A Scholarium is dedicated to the advancement of science, and gets powerful bonuses to research, and the ability to find Research Caches in their space, which yield increasing amounts of stored research, and occasionally technologies.
As with the Bulwark, the Scholarium’s Bonuses and Penalties are replaced from tier to tier, but at Tier 3 amount to a considerable Naval Capacity and Ship Build cost.
At Tier 2, Scholarium Scientists get one of three special traits, and can also be traded with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, the Scholarium can build the Scholarium Arctrellis, which interrupts ships piloted by AI in its system.
Prospectorium
The Prospectorium excels at resource extraction, and gets powerful bonuses to resource collection and production, including the uncanny ability to find increasingly lucrative resource deposits in their space.
In turn, Prospectoriums pay increasing penalties in monthly Scientific Research.
At Tier 2, Resource Discovery gains a chance to discover Alloys and certain Special Resources. Governors also gain one of three special traits, and can be traded with their Overlord.
At Tier 3, Resource Discovery gets even more powerful with the addition of Zro, Dark Matter, and Living Metal deposits, and the ability to Strip Mine a planet, adding extra mining districts.
Galactic Community
With all this Vassalization going on, it makes sense that the Galactic Community would get involved. Overlord includes two new resolution lines, in the Suzerains and Sovereignty category.
The Intergalactic Directives line of resolutions protects the rights of subjects and encourages the preservation and release of weaker societies.
On the other hand, Bureaucratic Surveillance focuses on the rights of the overlords, and requires keeping subjects on a short leash, and encourages the use of Holdings. Resolutions in this category may only be proposed by empires that are actively an Overlord of another empire.
Overlord also comes with three new enclaves, two that you will find out in the galaxy, and one that you will create yourself. These new Enclaves offer new opportunities, new events, buffs and new things to do out in the galaxy.
Salvager Enclave
The Salvagers are a friendly and pacifistic bunch of scrappers and mechanics. Focused on engineering, these tinkerers love nothing more than scrapping old ships, refurbishing them, and sending them on to find new homes.
The Salvagers are a cautious people, and will only offer you a few services at first - allowing you to scrap a fleet in their system for alloys, and offering deals on battle-proven starships
However, after you gain their trust they will offer you a broader array of options, from creating a Salvage Works building to salvaging your battle debris.
Shroudwalker Enclave
In Overlord, you may find a mysterious Shroudwalker enclave out in the galaxy (Or start in contact with one, if you choose the Teachers of the Shroud origin!). The Shroudwalkers delve deeply into the mysteries of the Shroud, seeking to understand the unknowable.
They are willing to instruct your people in the ways of the Shroud, as well as willing to look into the possibilities of your future, as well as provide insights about other empires.
It is also possible to obtain a Shroud Beacon, allowing your fleets to take a shortcut through the Shroud. Traveler beware, traveling through the Shroud is not like traveling through space, and you can only hope that your ships travel unnoticed.
Mercenary Enclave
Unlike the other two Enclaves in Overlord, you can choose to construct a Mercenary Enclave: the chosen fleet must have an Admiral, must be above size 50, be in a system you control with no other Enclave, the system must have a moon or asteroid, and you must have at least 1 available Mercenary Enclave Capacity.
Mercenary Enclave Capacity by default starts at zero. You can raise this by choosing one of several civics: Warrior Culture, Barbaric Despoilers, Private Military Companies each adds one potential Mercenary Enclave, while the Naval Contractors Civic adds two.
Additionally, the Lord of War Ascension Perk also gives one extra Mercenary Enclave Capacity, as well as increasing Diplomatic Weight from fleet power, and increasing the rate at which your Mercenary Enclaves pay dividends.
The newly formed Mercenary Enclave has a few options for those interested in procuring security services. The empire that controls the primary starbase of the Mercenary Enclave’s system is considered their Patron, and has additional interactions with them. If business is going especially well, the Patron will even receive dividends from the Enclave.
Anyone that has communications with a Mercenary Enclave can rent their fleet for ten years, if they can afford the cost. Prices vary depending on what the Mercenaries think of you, as well as whether you are their Patron or not.
As time goes on, the Mercenaries will research technologies, reinforce, and build up their fleet, but their Patron can reach out and provide a helping appendage. If they have an excellent relationship with the Mercenaries, a Patron can even ask them to break an active contract - but they’ll have to provide some recompense to their current client and won’t be very happy about it. Reputations are everything in this business.
There are also three new Galcom resolutions that further enhance Mercenary Enclaves, plus an additional two resolutions unlocked by the Federations DLC. This line of resolutions focuses on encouraging the empires of the Galactic Community to leave the fighting to professionals. It allows empires to create more Mercenary Enclaves, increases the rate Mercenary Dividends are paid out, and places significant limits on non-Mercenary navies.
Whew! If you actually made it this far, thanks for reading! We have one more Development Diary left before release on March 8th, next Friday we’ll talk about the Origins and Megastructures coming to Overlord, and then the Wednesday after that.. you’ll be able to play it!
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