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.

 

[Etrutian]

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.

Literally the Monsanto of space. This is incredible.

I second this idea.

 

[Sweawm]

I think that anyone who is using the market to liberate slaves should have to pay a higher price than one who wasn't. Slaver Empires would be very reluctant, especially Xenophobes, to sell if they see other empires freeing up slave populations. Since these empires make gains from the market themselves, letting pops be liberated from it hurts them in the long run. At least when they sell to a fellow Slaver Empire, that empire might a few decades later, sell back a few more pops that grew from the one they bought.

More importantly, this feature should really serve to buff the ethics that do allow slavery (Authoritarian, Xenophobe), because right now, they are some of the weaker picks balance wise. Increasing prices for everyone else would ensure they at least get the highest chance to actually buy as well as sell, considering how fast pops do sell based on what's been seen.

 

[Badesumofu]

More importantly, this feature should really serve to buff the ethics that do allow slavery (Authoritarian, Xenophobe), because right now, they are some of the weaker picks balance wise.

Wut? Slaver Guilds - Mining Guilds build is about as strong as it gets in 2.1.

 

[KonradKurze202]

I hope AI empires will use the Slave Market and it won't just sit there. This seems like an awesome feature, but if the AI never/rarely puts up slaves for auction then it will just end up being an MP feature.

 

[Sweawm]

Wut? Slaver Guilds - Mining Guilds build is about as strong as it gets in 2.1.

There's a reason the most picked Ethic statistically has been confirmed to be Xenophile. One enables easy cohesion and high happiness with a large diversity of species, who can be used interchangeably, and has a faction with lots of ways to draw pop's into it, whereas the other, you have very limited use of your Pop's, everyone hates you, and the mere usage of higher than decent living standards turns all your pops Egalitarian and riling for an ethics shift. Getting some more minerals than if you just used regular miners or totally subservient robots is your sole concession for choosing the latter.

 

[Verx90]

So the galaxy is mineral starved, and you are producing minerals, shouldn't this be a good thing? Isn't this how the market is supposed to work?

No , you are producing slave . If they will always cost "only" ~450 enegy , the moment the worth of energy decrase , the worth of slave decrease , even if pops are anyway important . If you cant change this price , if the market get to the position were energy is overflowing , the worth of slave will be reduced , and you will have much less gain from selling them , if you can put them to work, anyresource thheycan produce insteat is more worth , if they cant produce , you are giving them out cheaply.

 

[Etrutian]

There's a reason the most picked Ethic statistically has been confirmed to be Xenophile. One enables easy cohesion and high happiness with a large diversity of species, who can be used interchangeably, and has a faction with lots of ways to draw pop's into it, whereas the other, you have very limited use of your Pop's, everyone hates you, and the mere usage of higher than decent living standards turns all your pops Egalitarian and riling for an ethics shift. Getting some more minerals than if you just used regular miners or totally subservient robots is your sole concession for choosing the latter.

Whats easy and whats powerful are two different things. Xenophile is great for long-game survival. But the min/max to slaver/miner guilds exists to dominate a map.

 

[Verx90]

Are slaves held under non-chattel forms of slavery (e.g. a caste system) allowed to be sold? This seems like it would be immersion-breaking.

They are not slave , ofc you cant sell them .

 

[Jaggeh]

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.

Except it's not an abstraction. It's a physical place, in the galaxy, you have to discover before you can use it. It's exactly like a physical (or virtual ebay) market where people buy and sell.
Markets in ye olde days were created by people - usually nobles and later local governments or corporations - and were supported by farmers, craftsmen etc. I'd prefer it if empires could "found" a market and other local empire could use it. If it was, for example, an ascendancy perk* then only those empires that want to focus on trade would pick it. They could then set a "tax" to skim a bit off each trade, other empires may be reluctant to go to war with them for fear of being frozen out.
And because other empires could found a market the galaxy may contain several and the best ones (central, less tax, most allies etc.) would survive and others would fade.
I feel this would provide more alternative reasons for interactions between empires and add more dynamism to the galaxy.

Oh, btw, I realise it's all to keep complexity down. While I would love the private sector to be somehow represented in Stellaris (with regards to trade, tax, production etc.) I understand that some aspects have to be abstracted. I just feel this bit of functionality seems a little "cheap" for such an important part of intergalactic relations.

* not saying it should be but it would limit the amount of empires that would use it.

 

[pacja]

Could we get a sorta of "Free our kin" wargoal against civs who buy slaves belonging to our race from the market? More or less like Stop Atrocities, but limited to same race pops and forcing the loser to send them to the liberator's home planet. And/or an option to get those pops back in peace treaties even if the initial wargoal was different. From an rpg point of view, I'd like to wage war in order to free my fellows enslaved and then sold by invaders after a lost conflict.

 

[Zarpaulus]

They are not slave , ofc you cant sell them .

Yeah, it was briefly mentioned in one of the other Dev Diaries that Authoritarians won't be able to enslave their own kind anymore, unless they have Slaver Guilds I think.

Could we get a sorta of "Free our kin" wargoal against civs who buy slaves belonging to our race from the market? More or less like Stop Atrocities, but limited to same race pops and forcing the loser to send them to the liberator's home planet. And/or an option to get those pops back in peace treaties even if the initial wargoal was different. From an rpg point of view, I'd like to wage war in order to free my fellows enslaved and then sold by invaders after a lost conflict.

Casus Belli.

It sounds like a good idea, though I don't see how they'd be able to buy slaves of your race unless you've lost a planet to slavers or been raided by Marauders or Despoilers.

Maybe it'll also allow you to claim planets with a majority population of your species?

 

[spinoza013]

Can't wait to be a Blorg trader

 

[pacja]

unless you've lost a planet to slavers

Yes, this is exactly what I had in mind. Maybe the case isn't common enough to justify the required work by the devs, but would add much flavour. Especially honorbound civs should go great lengths to achieve that (and maybe even suffer unrest or a unity malus until they declare war?).

 

[a_lost_hero]

at this time we cannot promise that we will have time to add it before the release of MegaCorp.

IT'S SNNNN!

*spores everywhere*

 

[Kayden_II]

To sell a slave you select one or more Pop(s) on a planet (it must be enslaved).

When you have decided which slaves to sell, they will be put on the market.

To buy a slave, you select a destination planet and then simply click the buy button.

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.

Don't you think, that this, especially with an additional bidding-process, is a bit too micro-heavy since as far as I know, we will deal with way more POPs than before ? ...

I think, that I would appreciate a more passive and general process, that slaves from empire A (respectively B) aren't allowed to "migrate" into empire B (r. A) as long as both empires haven't signed a "slave-trade-treaty" ...
Everytime a slave from A (r. B) "migrates" into B (r. A), empire A (r. B) gains EC(s), whereas empire B (r. A) loses EC(s) ...
("Migrates" means in this case, that empire A (r. B) has "sold" this slave to empire B (r. A), but since migration is a passive process, it's way less micro-heavy) ...
On the slave-market, there're tools for empire A (r. B) to select the (sub)-species they want to sell / buy and to set the (general) prices of the (sub)-species-POPs they want to sell / buy ...
(So, instead to sell / buy individual POPs, these (general) prices of the (sub)-species-POPs influence the migration-variables of these (sub)-species) ...
(So, if you've decreased (r. increased) the prices of your own slaves (you want to sell) then the emigration-push of them (towards other empires) increases (r. decreases), whereas and if you've increased (r. decreased) the prices of foreign slaves (you want to buy) then the Immigration-pull of them (towards your empire) increases (r. decreases)) ...

The price of slaves is 500 ± the cost affected by traits.

500 EC(s) for a single / puny POP ?^^ + Have you considered, that we have a pretty restrictive storage-cap in regards to our resources ?^^ ...

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'.

Yeah, that's good, altough I would appreciate a better approach (in the future) to deal with (redundant) unity since it's pretty obvious, that these unity-ambitions (as well as the EC-campaigns) are just edicts, which have to use unity (r. EC(s)) since it was necessary to, well, ..., deal with redundant unity (r. EC(s)).

 

[klopkr]

We're also considering making (non-Gestalt) robots that do not have citizen rights buyable and sellable on the market.

I hope that they get their own market tab instead of just being sold through the slave market.

Everyone except Exterminators, Purifiers and Devouring Swarms can buy.

I understand that they don't usually communicate with other empires but I think that the idea that they are willing to pay for species to exterminate would be fun.

I mean if they're already giving up their fellow abominations for a price who's to say it's not a good opportunity to cleanse the universe of some xenos so nobody can have them? Better to use some spare resources to have xenos hand delivered to be exterminated. Plus what if the horror of horror happens and the xenos get a hold of some of your glorious species and put them up for sale on the market. Surely Exterminators, Purifiers and Devouring Swarms can put on a brief facade to save their species from the abominations!

 

[Xephos Demonslayer]

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).

So you're talking about modding next week... History has shown that you typically do this around the same time the release date comes out. Really, considering everything, there's a very real possibility we'll get Le Guin by Christmas.

Edit: Called it!

 

[Orinsul]

Looks fantastic
didn't expect non slavers to be able to buy but thats brilliant

I mean if they're already giving up their fellow abominations for a price who's to say it's not a good opportunity to cleanse the universe of some xenos so nobody can have them? Better to use some spare resources to have xenos hand delivered to be exterminated. Plus what if the horror of horror happens and the xenos get a hold of some of your glorious species and put them up for sale on the market. Surely Exterminators, Purifiers and Devouring Swarms can put on a brief facade to save their species from the abominations!

buy xenos to eat

 

[Stonewall]

What might be kind of cool is to be able to conduct slave raids on neighboring empires where you kidnap their pops and then sell them to the slave market.

 

[Artificial Idea]

Thanks, I hate it.