Stellaris Dev Diary #132 - Ecumenopolis and Megastructures

[McGrey]

Ecumenopolis, [...] The ascension perk is only available for non-gestalt empires

But... why? Is there any good reason for that? There already seems to be at lot of stuff in this expansion, gestalts have no access to. Most things have a more or less reasonable explanation, but I can't figure out why here. Wouldn't Hive Minds with their rapid breeding not be even more likely to build a planet spanning city/hive/cityhive?

 

[Orphalesion]

I love the new Eucomopolis and I'm very sure I will use it often, because city planets like Trantor and Coruscant are simply awesome. The whole concept of a city that covers a whole planet is simply....fascinating.

The only little, personal nitpick I have a bit is that I kinda wish there was more than one appearance for the city planet. Like maybe one additional one with blue/cyan lights instead of orange to make it appear more sleek/utopian.

 

[fliorcid]

I think a planet for breeding might be a suitable type of planet for Hive Minds. There they breed like rabbits and send their drones to populate other planets.

 

[Glideronic]

I think gestalt should have an Ecumenopolis of its own - something like a Hive with its own features standing apart from those in Ecumenopolis

 

[hewhoispale]

I don't see any reason why gestalt empires -- organic or machine -- shouldn't be able to build ecumenopolises. If anything, they'd be more likely to take on such a project than regular empires since the will of their hive mind is law.

But... why? Is there any good reason for that? There already seems to be at lot of stuff in this expansion, gestalts have no access to. Most things have a more or less reasonable explanation, but I can't figure out why here. Wouldn't Hive Minds with their rapid breeding not be even more likely to build a planet spanning city/hive/cityhive?

Because non-sapient drones don't live in cities? Ant's don't live in apartment buildings and Blackberries don't have houses.
Things that don't build cities don't build city planets.

 

[Spidee]

Question:

Since Trantor and Corrusant are happening. Will lack of food kill pops, or once they are grown, they exist? I am not planning on starving anyone out, I am asking for a friend.

 

[DominusNovus]

Already did. Go back and find it.

I decided to be helpful to that poster instead:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ary-124-planetary-rework-part-4-of-4.1117775/

Note that this info is already out of date, since it was written when infraatructure was still a thing.

 

[Little Red]

Hi Wiz, loving how the update looks so far.

With the addition of four megastructures, doubling the amount of them in the game, a concern has arisen. As it stands in the current version, MegaStructures takes decades to build. In addition to the massive amounts of resources you put into them, megastructures require an absurd amount of time to build. Without any build speed bonuses this can easily be over a century, but the problem is only compounded by the fact that you can only build one megastructure at a time.

Since you are adding more -- and doubling the potential time investment, not to mention the time that Ringworlds take to build... do you think there's a chance of making it so empires can build more than one megastructure at a time? I'd say either make it a perk of Master Builders, make it so some Pops can have "Megastructure Builder" jobs if there are enough, or make it a function of administrative cap, i.e. every 100 AC lets you build one more megastructure in parallel.

In my experience, the main limit of megastructures isn't resources or influence -- it's time. Please help alleviate this, I don't want to wait two centuries to build all these, I want them to be relevant when the game is actually competitive.

 

[SilverTalismen]

Yes, machine worlds have new mechanics in 2.2. Hive Minds may get some sort of hive world, not yet decided.

Please give Hiveminds a Hiveworld of some sort, I mean they already produce and consume raw materials why not have the hiveworlds boost pop growth and food and other productions?

 

[Spidee]

Hi Wiz, loving how the update looks so far.

With the addition of four megastructures, doubling the amount of them in the game, a concern has arisen. As it stands in the current version, MegaStructures takes decades to build. In addition to the massive amounts of resources you put into them, megastructures require an absurd amount of time to build. Without any build speed bonuses this can easily be over a century, but the problem is only compounded by the fact that you can only build one megastructure at a time.

Since you are adding more -- and doubling the potential time investment, not to mention the time that Ringworlds take to build... do you think there's a chance of making it so empires can build more than one megastructure at a time? I'd say either make it a perk of Master Builders, make it so some Pops can have "Megastructure Builder" jobs if there are enough, or make it a function of administrative cap, i.e. every 100 AC lets you build one more megastructure in parallel.

In my experience, the main limit of megastructures isn't resources or influence -- it's time. Please help alleviate this, I don't want to wait two centuries to build all these, I want them to be relevant when the game is actually competitive.

I love the Admin cap limit. Or make the time it takes to build the things scale. Your AC/100 (or 500) determines the number of active MS projects you can have. For every project over this, extend the building time. So for a small empire building 1 item could be slower than for a big one (or 1 could be the default number).

 

[Delthor]

Will gestalt empires still build an art installation? Or will it be renamed somehow?

Also, I imagine devouring swarms won't get access to the interstellar assembly, but the other purifier stole empires can, since they do get diplomacy with other machines/same species?

 

[WhapXI]

With the addition of four megastructures, doubling the amount of them in the game, a concern has arisen. As it stands in the current version, MegaStructures takes decades to build. In addition to the massive amounts of resources you put into them, megastructures require an absurd amount of time to build. Without any build speed bonuses this can easily be over a century, but the problem is only compounded by the fact that you can only build one megastructure at a time.

I think the time prohibition is intentional. It shifts the building of Megastructures from "Build Science Nexus -> Build Sentry Array -> Build Dyson Sphere -> Build Ringworlds ad nauseam" Now the order you build them in will be a meaningful choice, because there probably won't be enough time to get them all online.

 

[EuropaCam]

I thought I heard Wiz say on the announcement stream that they will be able to produce food (although placeholder art etc etc may not show it)? May be wrong.......

Yes, he said in the recent stream that an Ecumenopolis would be able to build hydroponic facilities for some food production...but even so, such worlds are going to be almost completely dependent on outside sources.

 

[Ridixo]

Yes, machine worlds have new mechanics in 2.2. Hive Minds may get some sort of hive world, not yet decided.

Why not make Machine Worlds the equivalent of ecumenopolis? Both are more or less the same, a planet with heavy infrastructure to house lots of pops in a manner convenient to their empire. My legions of faithful drones already can turn a planet into a machine-like ecumenopolis, that is a planet tailored to lots of pops and production.

 

[Leo103]

Will all nations be able to build a Interstellar Assembly or is there some sort of limitation to this.

 

[NilsFabian]

Interstellar Assembly

A meeting place for galactic powers, increasing immigration attraction and global opinion of us. The Interstellar Assembly has 4 levels with the following effects:
Immigration Pull: 25%/50%/75%/100%
Other empire's opinion: 10/20/30/50

Don't get too attached to this Children.
This Megastructure is in for a big Change once the Diplomacy Update runs this will be reworked or at least the model for the Galactic UN or at least Federation Headquarter.

 

[Ridixo]

Because non-sapient drones don't live in cities? Ant's don't live in apartment buildings and Blackberries don't have houses.
Things that don't build cities don't build city planets.

Still Stellaris hive minds and machine empires can have huge industrial infrastructure buildings. IIRC GC will need less housing, still they will need foundries, farms, generators and mineral mines. So, why not make a planets of just that things? At least ME can build an ecumenopolis, and they already have an special planet terraformation perk, maybe they can get not the same, but something equal at least. Maybe Hive minds can turn the planet in something alike to the infested planets of the prethorym, that is kinda a good idea.

 

[GregoryTheGreat]

My apologies if this has already been mentioned and I missed it, but it would make sense for Rogue Servitors at least to have access to the Ecumenopolis or equivalent, so that they can have as many happy biotrophies as possible.

 

[stilgarpl]

The Matter Decompressor works similar to the dyson sphere, but using technology far too complex to try to explain here, it extracts minerals instead of energy. It has 4 levels which provide:

It would be funny if the description said that the way it works is trivial and easy, but there isn't enough space to describe it. Like in Fermat Last Theorem

 

[Kukumarro]

From an inmersion point of view, the Ecumenopolis equivalent for a hive mind should be a planet where the hive mind is the whole ecosystem, rather than just living on top of the ecosystem (like we humans do). From the gameplay point of view, the standard Ecumenopolis is a way of playing tall, while the Hive mind is supposed to fit a wide build.

An Ecumenopolis is a highly specialized planet, therefore very productive but dependent on imports of raw ressources and very vulnerable. Instead, a would-be hive world should be self-sufficient though less productive than Ecumenopolis (think that hive minds already get more jobs from their districts and need less housing than standard empires). It could be some perk that allows them to invest energy to transform the ecosystem and get 100% habitability and no limitation on agrarian districts, get extra housing from non-residential districts (because they work in the surface and live under it), or something in that theme.