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.

 

[Jaggeh]

Meh.

I'm not a fan of a "galactic market" that just "exists". I don't know how to rationalise it. If I run an empire capable of travelling the stars and terraforming planets then surely I'm capable of trading slaves with other empires. Why do I have to explore the entire galaxy to find some magic slaver market?
Also, do those slaves have names? Wha? If I control hundreds of star systems and 10s of planets, all well developed, my empire pop could be in the 10s of billions - and so I can hand pick individuals to trade as slaves... Surely late game I'd be trading 100 units off slaves or 1000? Not Bob the squid and Fred the moth.

I'd prefer decent trading options between empires/federations.

I love the new planet management though - but still not a fan of pop units which represent, er, I guess anything between 100 people and a million depending on the game stage. That's probably the bit of Stellaris that irks me the most. "Mwuhahaha, tremble at the might of my empire and population of 30". Terrified...

Of course, I'll still get the DLC as Stellaris sates the itch no other space game can. Oh well. It's Paradox - there will be plenty more DLC and more surprises around the corner.

 

[Utik]

It's a nice feature. I just wish there were a dynamic price mechanism for slaves, determined by supply and demand, like for the other resources. I get that slaves are a more heterogeneous good than the other resources, but I still think such a system would be doable. If you sell a slave, you push down the market price for slaves. On the buyer side, they can buy slaves of any species sold, at one point or another, as slaves (pushing up the price). Since pops don't represent any particular number of individuals and there are third parties involved, there doesn't even have to be a counter since the slaves could easily be bred by third parties once purchased. It would be even cooler if each species had a its own market price. They would still be (imperfect) substitutes, but species with particularly valuable traits would still be more valuable as slaves and thus more likely to be enslaved. A militarily weak empire would then have an incentive to give its population negative traits to avoid being enslaved, just like some tribes in Africa give their women the repugnant trait by putting big plates in their lips in order to prevent neighboring tribes from stealing their women by force.

 

[Jularbo Kizn]

Conquer a race and genetically modify them to be great slaves and sell them on the galactic Market
Fuck yeah one can now play as the Kaminoans from Star Wars. They will probably be retconned in the next Star Wars movie so will be great to continue their legacy in Stellaris.

 

[Calvax]

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.

Locking it behind the ascension perk came to mind to address the point made that "why wouldn't an empire just genemod their pops". If the slaves in question are being sold with traits that most empires do not have access to then this issue goes away. Sterile being a technology would also be fine, though I think it would only really benefit bio ascendees.

 

[thistlekymera]

Can I sell a race as a matter of policy? EG as a purge type? Would be perfect for my Isolationists...

 

[WhapXI]

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?

I think that'll depend on the species rights for the particular slave you're buying. Will likely need a little micro after you buy them.

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?"

I imagine if you've outlawed slavery entirely then the pop will be instantly free, or else it'll depend on your default species rights for a new species. Hopefully there'll be a popup for something like "warning, the pop you're about to buy won't be a slave because of your default rights/policies".

I'd prefer decent trading options between empires/federations.

I imagine it as an abstraction. There isn't some stock market or corn exchange where this stuff takes place. The "galactic market" exists to that devs don't have make, the players don't have to navigate, and the AI doesn't have to attempt to understand a complex web of treaties and foreign private actors.

 

[Madzai]

I imagine it as an abstraction. There isn't some stock market or corn exchange where this stuff takes place. The "galactic market" exists to that devs don't have make, the players don't have to navigate, and the AI doesn't have to attempt to understand a complex web of treaties and foreign private actors.

Aside from the fact that you HAVE TO discover it, and "founding father" get bonuses.

 

[Leinad]

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.

It really isn't that easy. You might argue that it supports the slavers and gives additional incentives but you could just as easily argue that those slaves would be sold anyways and you might be the only buyer who can free them. The context also matters in this scenario. What if you are actively trying to fight those that sell slaves, you know it's possible to stop them but in the meantime they can still sell slaves. Wouldn't it be better to buy those slaves and free them?
Imagine a scenario in which for example the US could have bought the lives of Jews. Are you really arguing they shouldn't have done it to save them?
So I don't think that it should be a no-go for fanatic egalitarians, the context matters a lot. The only scenario in which it would be absolutely clear cut is you are the only buyer of slaves or offer a disproportional incentive for slavery.

PS: Maybe don't think of them as "slaves", consider them as victims of ransom by terrorists. The official line of many (democratic) countries is that they don't deal with terrorists but the reality is that they will negotiate and thus it creates the same dilemma. For a fanatic egalitarion society every slave would be like one of its own citizens captured by terrorists.

 

[hewhoispale]

Also, do those slaves have names? Wha? If I control hundreds of star systems and 10s of planets, all well developed, my empire pop could be in the 10s of billions - and so I can hand pick individuals to trade as slaves... Surely late game I'd be trading 100 units off slaves or 1000? Not Bob the squid and Fred the moth.

You are trading in uncounted thousands of souls. That's the species name for a pop unit, not an individual's. The game doesn't track individuals outside of leaders.

 

[Zarpaulus]

Would it be possible for empires with observation posts over primitive worlds to abduct slaves for the market?

I can see Authoritarian/Xenophobe Megacorps doing that, currently it looks like you would need to invade or bombard as Despoilers to take primitive slaves.

 

[Strigoi Tyrannus]

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.

A modern government won't buy the drugs, it takes them by force, seizes your money and belongings and then puts you in prison. After that it sells the drugs for profit.

 

[Kukumarro]

Marauder empires abduct pops when they raid planets of an empire that refused to pay tribute. Could these abducted pops end up in the slave market? It would be great if, before the slave market is created, the marauders could be contacted by anyone to access their slave stock.

 

[Omniscient]

Slaves have to be sold by a specific empire in the current implementation. We're looking into adding the ability for slaves to be sold by the market itself (for example, refugees ending up on the slave market on occasion might be one way that happens).

It would be useful if you could do this. It would allow me to make events where pops taken by Marauders can end up on the market.

 

[WhapXI]

Would it be possible for empires with observation posts over primitive worlds to abduct slaves for the market?

I can see Authoritarian/Xenophobe Megacorps doing that, currently it looks like you would need to invade or bombard as Despoilers to take primitive slaves.

I hate to be the one to bring up the pop numbers argument buuut... pops represent something like millions or billions of individuals. Primitive civs only have something like half a dozen pops to begin with. The idea of kidnapping an entire continent's worth of peasants using a science staff armed with lenses and sensors in order to put these aliens who haven't heard of bacteria to work in my hyper-efficient hydroponics chambers seems kind of silly.

 

[Jorrhast]

@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?

It will also be cheap so AI will buy it before any others... or not? I hope not but something tells me that'd be the case(cheapest lot wins).

 

[Highlordelliot]

I hate to be the one to bring up the pop numbers argument buuut... pops represent something like millions or billions of individuals. Primitive civs only have something like half a dozen pops to begin with. The idea of kidnapping an entire continent's worth of peasants using a science staff armed with lenses and sensors in order to put these aliens who haven't heard of bacteria to work in my hyper-efficient hydroponics chambers seems kind of silly.

Pops can range anywhere from a million to a trillion spending on species type, traits, habitability, planet type, and the technology your empire has.

 

[ShardOfSoul]

It really isn't that easy. You might argue that it supports the slavers and gives additional incentives but you could just as easily argue that those slaves would be sold anyways and you might be the only buyer who can free them. The context also matters in this scenario. What if you are actively trying to fight those that sell slaves, you know it's possible to stop them but in the meantime they can still sell slaves. Wouldn't it be better to buy those slaves and free them?
Imagine a scenario in which for example the US could have bought the lives of Jews. Are you really arguing they shouldn't have done it to save them?
So I don't think that it should be a no-go for fanatic egalitarians, the context matters a lot. The only scenario in which it would be absolutely clear cut is you are the only buyer of slaves or offer a disproportional incentive for slavery.

PS: Maybe don't think of them as "slaves", consider them as victims of ransom by terrorists. The official line of many (democratic) countries is that they don't deal with terrorists but the reality is that they will negotiate and thus it creates the same dilemma. For a fanatic egalitarian society every slave would be like one of its own citizens captured by terrorists.

In a real economy the slave trade is dependent on supply and demand, even if the slaves would be sold anyway the addition of more buyers would cause an upward price push incentivizing an increase of slaves to fill market demand and maximize profit. If a fanatic egalitarian society starts mass buying slaves, prices of slaves will go up and slave-driving empires will produce more slaves. Of course as this is a game that will not be fully represented but it does reflect economic reality.

 

[Muhrks]

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""

Suuure... But you are aware of, that this kind of modernizzation is not possible in the current build?
If a leader want to build 4 new mining stations, but I already built all, i could destroy 4 of them, of course. But then I need to build up 8 stations, because the counter is at -4/4
The only way to accomplish this is, to conquer new territory and destroy those stations with your fleets, while in war...

 

[Grz349]

Slaves have to be sold by a specific empire in the current implementation. We're looking into adding the ability for slaves to be sold by the market itself (for example, refugees ending up on the slave market on occasion might be one way that happens).

Will it be possible to negotiate for pops with a specific empire, aka ransoming?

 

[WhapXI]

Pops can range anywhere from a million to a trillion spending on species type, traits, habitability, planet type, and the technology your empire has.

For sure, my point being that an observation station isn't equipped to covertly perform what amounts to genocide.