Hello everyone!

We’re back for this week’s installment of the Stellaris Dev Diary. This week we will covering a mix of paid and free features. More exactly, we’ll be talking about the Slave Market, Unity Ambitions and new Mandates. I bet I know which one you’ll want to read about first, so let’s start with that one.

Before we start I need to reiterate that this dev diary contains things that are WIP, with non-final numbers, interfaces or mechanics that might change.

The Slave Market (PAID)
To better facilitate slaver playstyles, we’ve added the Slave Market feature to MegaCorp. This will allow more easy transfer of slaves between empires. In MegaCorp, nothing can stand in the way of the pursuit of profit.

Access to the Slave Market is granted once the Galactic Market is founded. Only empires that also have access to the Galactic Market will be able to use the Slave Market. Only Pops that are currently Slaves are able to be sold on the Slave Market, but anyone can buy them (either to set them free or to put them to work). We're also considering making (non-Gestalt) robots that do not have citizen rights buyable and sellable on the market.

To sell a slave you select one or more Pop(s) on a planet (it must be enslaved). Right now the interface shows planets as the drop-down, but we will be changing it so that you first select a species, and then the list shows the different planets. We’re tweaking the interface right now, so some things might look a bit different as the next couple of weeks pass.

When you have decided which slaves to sell, they will be put on the market. The price of slaves is 500 ± the cost affected by traits. The traits that make them good slaves drives the price up, while things that make them bad slaves drives the price down. Many traits will not affect the cost of a slave.

To buy a slave, you select a destination planet and then simply click the buy button. This will complete the transaction and move the pop to your selected planet.

We are considering adding a simple bidding process as an additional step, but at this time we cannot promise that we will have time to add it before the release of MegaCorp.

Unity Ambitions (FREE)
Because of the changes to the economy system, with Unity coming from multiple sources and being a more integrated resource, we wanted to make sure that Unity is always useful. Previously a paid feature in Apocalypse, Unity Ambitions have now been made a free feature in 2.2 'Le Guin'.

Mandates (FREE)
Since we've added a bunch of new mechanics with 2.2 'Le Guin', we now have a lot more things that we can hook into. As a result of that, we have reworked and added a bunch of new mandates for democratic empires. They usually go along the lines of building more districts, building more stations to gather resource, to increasing monthly income etc.

That is what we have for this week. Next week we’ll return with a Dev Diary about what the community can expect in terms of new Modding capabilities for 2.2 (hint: It's a *lot* of new capabilities).

Don’t forget to tune into Twitch for the Dev Clash at 15:00 CET, so you can see us whack at each other with our new pointy sticks! You can also watch a summarized version on YouTube.

 

[Kakotheres]

Can non-slave empires buy slaves in order to liberate them? Such actions could even cause some consequences via event chains such as encouraging slaver empires to capture more slaves, thereby making this practice, while well intended, morally problematic. Would make for some interesting situations.

Only Pops that are currently Slaves are able to be sold on the Slave Market, but anyone can buy them (either to set them free or to put them to work).

Looks like you can! As you've suggested, probably a bit of a Cobra Effect as far as incentives go.

 

[Verx90]

Quick question about the mandates:
Does the AI check, if your empire is able to fullfill the mandate? Like "We can't build more mining districts or stations, because we are maxed out, therefor we don't have that as a mandate."

since you ,as player , are not the leader itself, you don't decide the " main focus of he's campaign" , so you end up with promisses that you may not be able to accomplish . if destroying your minning station, to build news one work, just do some "" modernizzation""

Will caretakers have option to buy slaves to give them a proper mandatory pampering?

anyone that have access to the galatic market, will be able to buy ( so evryone exept purifier-exterminator-devouring swarm)

Somewhat off topic, but have you taken a look at the cloning vat building and thought about making it function like your robot spawning building, allowing you to choose which pops will spawn on a particular planet?

cloning vat clone enought ppl to make an army, not a pop itself , it (for lore) could be used to give a "bonus" to the grown chance of a particular race\pop , but the sistem its made in a way to "simulate" a planet where all pops grow, but the race with the possible faster grown rate will spawn enought ppl to make a pop of theyr race .

I think (fanatic) egalitarian empires should not be allowed to use the slave market. Even though they set the slaves free, they would be directly funding slaving empires and slavery. That should at least cause a massive happiness penalty for egalitarian factions.

its not important the price , its important equality . you will end up declaring war on them and free those slave if you can , if you can't , you buy and free them .

Is the slave cost strictly set to energy credits or will it be possible to demand e.g. minerals as a payment for slaves?

energy credit are the money of the game, even if all resources can be used to obptain energy, enrgy can be used to buy anything . i can see you worry that energy credit worth will go down the hill if there are too many empires with lots of energy , but you can still use that energy to buy minerals .

@Wiz
What about bio-sabotage exploit? When you engeneer absolute trash of a species, who breed fast, absolutely useles and worthless and spam them to AI?

this is even a strat,?i can't see this be actualy usefull even against IA since it have a bit too much of a roundabout way , and since tile sistem is gone and pops don't actualy block something, and from how works work ( best pop, will take the job) and since some living standart use even uneployed pops , i can see you trying to outhousing someone but its realy a wastefull strat.

you know, any empire that have any kind of genetic enegeniering can revert such "bad" traits since they give free gene modding . but yea, i hope they will make the IA work realy hard with gene modding with this expansion .

 

[Annihilat0r]

I think (fanatic) egalitarian empires should not be allowed to use the slave market. Even though they set the slaves free, they would be directly funding slaving empires and slavery. That should at least cause a massive happiness penalty for egalitarian factions.

its not important the price , its important equality . you will end up declaring war on them and free those slave if you can , if you can't , you buy and free them .

I disagree. Imagine a modern government would buy drugs from a drug cartell and destroy the drugs. Yes, you did destroy the drugs and maybe prevented a few people from becoming addicts, but you also funded the drug cartel with money! Which will give them the possibility to continue their drug business. Same thing with slavers - you give them money to continue their slavery. That should be a no-go for (fanatic) egalitarians.

 

[Caligula Caesar]

Everyone except Exterminators, Purifiers and Devouring Swarms can buy.

Can an egalitarian country buy slaves to in effect purchase their freedom?

 

[JosunUrashima]

So a query with Mandates in regards to Democratic Empires- will it be possible or has it already been implemented to have the possible mandate be affected by the faction that a ruler comes from?

Also, an in general thing, can we see leaders getting their own ethics and this effecting the draw/pull to that leaders ethics if their different from the more dominant strain? Or will we perhaps be seeing more events that can happen on planets or for the nation as a whole that will provide access to a means to shift ethics of pops?

 

[Death Dragon]

Quick question about the mandates:
Does the AI check, if your empire is able to fullfill the mandate? Like "We can't build more mining districts or stations, because we are maxed out, therefor we don't have that as a mandate."

You can actually always build new districts, you just have to redevelop existing ones. Doesn't sound too bad to be honest. Might give you a small reason to dedevelop planets and cause some social problems.

 

[Askanas]

Unity Ambitions (FREE)
Because of the changes to the economy system, with Unity coming from multiple sources and being a more integrated resource, we wanted to make sure that Unity is always useful. Previously a paid feature in Apocalypse, Unity Ambitions have now been made a free feature in 2.2 'Le Guin'.

You guys are just awesome!

 

[Aicrag from Rivenspire]

So the only thing that I still dont see clear:
If I put some slaves for sale, are they still in my planets or are they "stored" somewhere until sold

 

[Madzai]

Will there be some kind of mechanics that ensure that Empires with fitting Ethics actually sell slaves? I mean, right now, a POP, is a valuable resource, unless it's mid-game and planets are full additional POP maybe almost be always better than momentary energy gain. And about slave quality, will AI be better at creating proper "templates" for POPs in bio-ascension(and even without it). Sure, buying some POP for different climate and basic jobs is good, but will there be real endgame "proper" "good "POPs available on market?

 

[Makavcio]

Let me point out a problem with mandates that slightly bothers me now.
Mandates like building new space mines or research stations become simply impossible to accomplish after midgame because everything is colonized already. Also, having the same mandate all the time is rather boring. It would be nice if a candidate's mandate could at least rotate or be picked among suitable options.

Last but not least, a token boost of secondary resource, like 6 months of unity, is rather not worth the effort. Two simple techs with proper traditions award you the same bonus. It's negligible and therefore I'm usually not even interested what their mandates are now. Rewards like +%boni to things related to ruler's faction would be much nicer, like higher resource yield from xeno slaves, higher immigration attraction, more happiness, higher job mobility. Please don't go with the easiest and most boring option.

 

[grandad1982]

Can an egalitarian country buy slaves to in effect purchase their freedom?

Yes. It even says do in the dd.

 

[Kapitalisti]

If I go Biological Ascension, why can’t I produce and sell Sterile slave POPs, ones that won’t reproduce?

Obviously, them being Sterile means that they’re worth less, but the idea is that them being Nerve-Stapled, Very Strong and Industrious more than compensates, and so other empires, including AI empires, should still want to buy them.

So basically a galactic megacorp Monsanto with even fewer scruples?

 

[Caligula Caesar]

Yes. It even says do in the dd.

Can you quote the line? Somehow I still don't see it.

 

[WhapXI]

If I put some slaves for sale, are they still in my planets or are they "stored" somewhere until sold

They're still on your planet, still living and working and eating and things. They're just available for sale. There'll likely be a pop-up letting you know they've gone. Selling them to the market is not an instant way to get rid of pops (unless the market is robust). If nobody's buying, they aren't moving.

 

[WhapXI]

@Caligula Caesar

Access to the Slave Market is granted once the Galactic Market is founded. Only empires that also have access to the Galactic Market will be able to use the Slave Market. Only Pops that are currently Slaves are able to be sold on the Slave Market, but anyone can buy them (either to set them free or to put them to work). We're also considering making (non-Gestalt) robots that do not have citizen rights buyable and sellable on the market.

Just before the first image.

 

[Heretic Saint]

Neat diary! I often find something in the updates that doesn't quite sit right with my personal preferences, but this is one of those cases where I just can't.

Admittedly, the price for slave Pops seems a bit high, but .. not final numbers, et cetera. I'm particularly delighted to hear that robots will also be marketable; this can definitely become a neat aspect of a high-tech megacorp!

Crossing fingers that actual bidding will be implemented, too, or that at least the prices will fluctuate depending on supply and demand. Ideally, megacorps with more "product" should be able to engage in price-dumping. It's a legitimate tactic to acquire market dominance, right?

Quick question about the mandates:
Does the AI check, if your empire is able to fullfill the mandate? Like "We can't build more mining districts or stations, because we are maxed out, therefor we don't have that as a mandate."

I think that better than a check whether a Mandate is possible (would that be realistic, considering we're talking campaign promises? ) would be a sort of prioritization, where only Mandates about things that are considered a "current issue" get thrown into a pool, from which they are then chosen by candidates based on Ethos/Faction compatibility. Meaning, for example, that a lack of Housing should increase the chance for the Urbanization Mandate to pop up.

"Sterile" would have to be a negative trait. Any empire can remove negative traits by genetic engineering. What's the point?

To be fair, genetic engineering costs both time and energy credits. I can totally see the point in offering sterile slaves as merchandise that would be (much) cheaper to acquire, but simultaneously represents a more continuous source of revenue. And the best part is: the more cheap slaves the consumer buys, the higher the cost for Trait removal would become.

For the perfect combination make the slaves short-lived as well. Planned obsolescence ftw!

Side note: this hypothetical Sterile Trait should, of course, only trigger once the slaves actually enter the market. Or there should be some way to clone them, so that you do not have to rely on natural breeding. It should also reduce their price significantly, so that they are still somewhat attractive to purchase. A budget entry model, so to speak. "Little Dictator's First Slave".

I think (fanatic) egalitarian empires should not be allowed to use the slave market. Even though they set the slaves free, they would be directly funding slaving empires and slavery. That should at least cause a massive happiness penalty for egalitarian factions.

I wouldn't necessarily say a Happiness penalty per se, but it definitely should be a Faction Issue.

On the other hand, I can totally see some Egalitarians actually buying the "let's just buy all the slaves" rhetoric due to shortsightedness. This is kind of where I again have to say I'd really like if there was a chance for Ethoses to be represented by more than just one Faction that always has all the same Issues. Maybe a future update will give us actual political parties with more of a focused agenda.

Easy way to make it work: make the sterile trait locked behind bio ascension. Make the bio ascension traits only removable by empires with bio ascension (representing that their mastery of genetic engineering is so advanced that other cultures can't fathom how to unravel their modifications to a genome without making it non-viable).

I think locking it behind Ascension would be too much. However, assuming this Sterile Trait is a specific technology, removal could require having it researched as well, representing insight into the necessary genomes. This way, the tech card's rarity would still represent a considerable hurdle to Trait removal (together with the modification's cost in EC), but at the same time you wouldn't "force-lock" an empire into something as restrictive as the sadly still mutually exclusive Ascension trees.

Thinking about it, I could even see potential in an event-style campaign where an Egalitarian empire that has researched this tech would make it available to others as part of a galactic anti-slavery campaign? The donor would have to pay a bunch of EC to engage in this technology transfer, but it could generate Unity and please the Egalitarian Faction, whereas other empires would still have to expend EC and time to re-model their slaves in order to have the Trait removed. Sterile Slaves would thus lose their value on the market, so the slaver selling them would just have to adapt. Since I'd consider something like this a late-game occurrence, however, it might seem fair.

 

[208]

Such actions could even cause some consequences via event chains such as encouraging slaver empires to capture more slaves, thereby making this practice, while well intended, morally problematic. Would make for some interesting situations.

Most slaving empires in Stellaris wouldn't enslave for the purposes of making a profit off of slave sales, they do it as a consequence of conquest and the need to work their planets. However, they may well sell into the slave market more regularly if there's a steady income to be made (although that would probably require allowing slave pops to grow to be of any galactic consequence, which some slaver empires might not want to do).

Although I don't see a way to do it right now, it would be interesting if empires could interdict slave trade in some way - in theory, slaves have to make their way from seller to buyer somehow, and if they should need to pass through territory where slavery is illegal they may end up being caught (and becoming either refugees or free - in both senses of the term - citizens in the liberating empire, depending on policy). More zealous anti-slavery empires might even help fund enforcement efforts in other empires to put more of a cost/risk on the slave trade.

@grekulf : Does the slave market take a cut of the price, or does the selling empire get the entire fee paid by the buyer?

 

[Longherin]

Most slaving empires in Stellaris wouldn't enslave for the purposes of making a profit off of slave sales, they do it as a consequence of conquest and the need to work their planets. However, they may well sell into the slave market more regularly if there's a steady income to be made (although that would probably require allowing slave pops to grow to be of any galactic consequence, which some slaver empires might not want to do).

Not that I disagree (because this is exactly what I do when I play as an enslaving empire) but it is worth noting that the difference in living space between now and 2.2 is going to change this equation. We'll no longer be restricted by tile size when it comes to barbaric despoiling, so going space viking sounds like it's going to be a more viable option.

 

[Cat_Fuzz]

Will there be some 'Apocalypse only' unity ambitions?

 

[Pancakelord]

Will it be possible to buy slaves for certain purposes?

E.g. I want to buy some weak slaves (as they're considered "cheap" by the market) which can fill the role of my Domestic servant class - where they wont be doing any digging.
Or some cheap nonadaptive slaves (adaptation doesnt seem to affect armies) to be put to work as battle thralls? or are slaves bought as general chattel slaves and assigned by the player/AI afterwards?

Also, if I buy a slave as a democratic nation and want to free them, how will that work? will it just plop them on a planet in my empire (potentially annoying egalitarian factions whilst i am trying to find/select the slaves and make them free), or does a separate dialog box pop up, after purchase, saying e.g. "Do you want to free/shackle this pop?"