Stellaris Dev Diary #143 - Changes to megastructures

[grekulf]

Hello everyone!

We are back with a dev diary outlining some of the changes we’re making to megastructures in a future update. We’ve recently felt that the Galactic Wonders ascension perk feels a little bloated when it unlocked up to 8 different things, in addition to it being a little awkward that you suddenly got access to so many vastly more powerful structures.

We didn’t like that Galactic Wonders became so much of a non-choice due to unlocking so many things, so it will now be possible to unlock most of the megastructures without having to dedicate an ascension perk for it.

Galactic Wonders
We are making some changes to Galactic Wonders so that it no longer unlocks all megastructures, but rather only unlocks the most powerful megastructures. In addition, they are also unlocked as technology options rather than as finished schemes ready for construction. This means that you will still have to research the technology to build a Dyson Sphere, which also means it becomes a choice if you want to first focus on the Dyson Sphere or the Matter Decompressor (they are both Physics technologies).

Megastructures
The other megastructures – Strategic Coordination Center, Mega Art Installation, Interstellar Assembly, Science Nexus and Sentry Array – are now instead of their own unique technologies. It is now possible to build these without having the Galactic Wonders ascension perk.

The megastructures are split into different research categories. Strategic Coordination Center, Mega Art Installation and Interstellar Assembly are all Society research. Science Nexus and Sentry Array are Physics. All of these new technologies have mega-engineering as their prerequisite.

At the same time we are also taking the opportunity to look over the placement rules for megastructures, as they were not entirely consistent. The 5 mentioned here above should now follow similar rules for placement.

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That’s it for this week! Next week we’ll be back again

 

[grekulf]

I amuse you need the dlc to have access to the tech either utopia or megacorp?

Yes, the same ownership requirements apply.

I hope something similar happens to Voidborn sooner rather than later. Deep space habitats would be bread-and-butter solutions for spacefaring societies, not something elusive.

Yeah, I'd like to do something with habitats in the future. I agree with your sentiment.

 

[grekulf]

... inflate the built time and cost and buff Master Builders to reward the societies which decide to focus their efforts on engineering projects.

I have been thinking something similar as well. Nothing is set in stone atm

 

[grekulf]

It's a good direction, but I really hope it's not all.

• Habitats and Ringworlds need a serious buff and reworking to be viable and true to their lore purpose. Currently Habitat districts and building choices are insultingly weak, and Ringworlds just behave as huge Gaia worlds with no minerals, which with the way admin cap and building limit works, makes them sub-optimal. Fewer but bigger districts would be a good way to go. And please give us more building slots if we just made a whole solar system into one artificial planet!
• Dyson Spheres and Matter Decompressors need to produce more resources to be worth having - currently a couple of systems geared towards high trade value can produce more energy than the full output of a star, which is quite unrealistic. Or leave them at 1000 resource but let us build more of them!
• Mega Art Installation would need an empire % Unity Production increase like Science Nexus does with Research Speed to be worth building.
• And for the love of The Worm give us a way to build more than 1 Megastructure at the same time if we can afford it!

For the most part I agree, but I can't guarantee that it will all happen simultaneously, or as you say. I do know I would like to have multiple levels for habitats tho.

 

[grekulf]

so since most mega structures aren't an ascension perk any more, is there a reason why Habitat's are still a perk?

I do partly understand why they would be, since starting to live in space is a massive investment/step forward.
but.... a habitat does seem easier to build then a science nexus.

maybe link habitat sizes with starbase upgrade techs?
this could allow for habitats to be an earlier option while still scalable into the late game.

I would like to have multiple levels of habitats, but that also requires more planning since you want the visuals to also reflect that. I can't promise anything more than saying I like the idea.