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Stellaris Dev Diary #144 - Megastructures, Habitats and Minor Artifacts

Hello everyone!

First of all, I’d like to follow up on last week’s dev diary by sharing some more things we’re trying out with Megastructures (and habitats!).

After all of that, we also have something new to talk about!

Let’s start from the beginning – which of course leads us to the Mega-Engineering technology itself.

As always, numbers may not be final and temporary things may be sighted.

Mega-Engineering
Mega-Engineering is still a rare technology, but will now be more likely to appear as you build more Habitats and Citadels. This means it is way more likely to appear if you are performing actions in the game that would lead you towards the route of building larger and more powerful structures.

Master Builders
The Master Builders ascension perk no longer unlocks mega-engineering or adds size to habitats, but instead increases the number of megastructures you can simultaneously build by +1. What about increased habitat size you ask? Well, keep on reading!

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Habitats & Voidborne
Habitats are no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk but is rather a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology. Habitats now have a default of 80% habitability. We’re also experimenting with that some of the habitat’s districts will depend on which planet they are built over. In case you build one above a planet with mining deposits, this could happen:

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Voidborne ascension perk now increases habitat size by +2 and increases Habitat habitability by 20%. This should mean it becomes more of a choice for specialization, rather than feeling it is a non-choice.

As a final note on habitats, it might be worthwhile to reiterate my thoughts that I eventually want to add different levels/sizes to habitats. It is however not something for the immediate future, but a little further down the road.

Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing.

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Minor Artifacts
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Some of you might recognize the icon for what was supposed to become arcane technology, that partially got into 2.2. It was something that I was personally working on, but that didn’t work out as I had imagined it, and that I didn’t get enough time to finish with other things taking priority.

In the next upcoming DLC, you will be able to come across Minor Artifacts. “Minor Artifacts” is a broad term that includes any smaller and nameless artifact left behind by ancient civilizations. They are never gained passively every month, but will rather have to be found.

What are they used for, I imagine you asking? Well, the basic functionality is that they can be consumed in so-called artifact actions. There are a bunch of different actions that can be performed by consuming Minor Artifacts, with varying effects for each.

Some of these actions will be locked behind a technology, which some may also recognize.

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Arcane Deciphering allows you to consume Minor Artifacts for a random technology-related bonus.

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That’s it for this week! Happy Easter everyone! Next week we’ll be back again :)

P.S. Attaching an Easter present

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Didn't release - are we living on the same planet?
They released one tiny hotfix and 3 patches for Megacorp. That's not more than for the other DLC. It's not "extended support" and they certainly didn't fix many of the issues with the game like the broken AI. I guess that's what they planned all along, but then they shouldn't have made it sound like they'd put more effort into it than usual
 
And yet we're somehow on patch 2.2.7?
Not really a great point.

2.2.1 was essentially a release-day patch. 2.2.2 was a hotfix 13 days later immediately before the Christmas break. Then there was essentially a month of radio silence.
2.2.4 beta started on January 18th (about a month post-launch) (2.2.3 was officially released on this date)
2.2.5 beta on February 7
2.2.6 Beta on March 6
2.2.7 released April 4
If you take out the month of radio silence, Megacorp has received about 100 days of support. Just because there were a significant number of versions doesn't imply much was extended.

Distant Stars 107 Days (2.1 - 2.1.3)
Apocalypse 82 Days (2.0 -> 2.0.5)
Synthetic Dawn 84 Days (1.8 -> 1.9.1)
Utopia 71 days 1.5 -> 1.6.2
Leviathans 50 Days 1.3 -> 1.4.1

Overall, Megacorp has received more patch VERSIONS than any release since the base game. Overall, it currently stands as (technically) the longest supported version of the game from "First to Last Patch", but that's only because it's the first version to release across the Christmas break. Looking back, that actually might be telling.

So Paradox can, essentially, argue that Megacorp DID receive "extended support" as promised. It actually did.

Since I'm the guy that screamed loudly about the bad optics (at length) and how the marketing team failed the dev team, I'll come to the dev team's rescue:

The numbers don't lie: Megacorp and 2.2 HAS received the longest and most extensive support of ANY dlc in Stellaris history.

Also, speaking OUTSIDE of what I can prove, I'm reasonably certain the next DLC is a story pack based on civics, backgrounds, and precursors which is scripting-heavy but not developer-heavy, which means the coders are probably still shackled to their desks crushing all of the bugs that Megacorp introduced.

If I was on the marketing team and if I was @grekulf and @Dnote I would be talking about those things. I'd probably even have the art department and the music people be working on cool stuff for the story pack so that when you find cool stuff it looks cool. Because cool art and cool music along with cool teasers about spiffy background civics and a new ascension perk or two will get the fans all kinds of fired up.

And well, I'd fire the marketing and PR team. Because they've failed you spectacularly. But I've been saying that for months.

Edit: Oh, and I'd fix the text bug in my signature. Because that would make me happy enough to buy stock in Paradox.
 
I wouldn't expect habitat expansion to run through the district blocker system: Starting Domination and an edict net you 58% reduced blocker cost. Either a governor or mastery of nature can push you near zero, and getting all four is more than enough to clear blockers for free.

Stacking blocker cost reduction is already a huge win when you find Fen Habbanis. Setting up habitats so that Mastery of Nature is almost as crucial to your build as voidborne would be weird.
That's a very good point. Either "blocker cost reduction" would need to be unavailable for habitat growth (same mechanic as blockers, but not affected by the same modifiers), or else the base cost of the (small, incomplete) would need to be adjusted upward so that you couldn't get a full-size habitat for crazy-cheap... but then you have the weird thing where, as you say, Mastery of Nature would be relevant for habitats. Or... maybe you pay the full price for the habitat up front, and the "blockers" just take time to "clear", not resources? A less-perfect realization of the original idea, and not likely to actually be impactful, though. Never mind. Either the "blockers" are unaffected by standard clear blocker cost reduction (Voidborne could give a "habitat section" cost reduction, where building habitat sections works just like clearing blockers...), or else some other mechanism entirely should be used.
 
That's a very good point. Either "blocker cost reduction" would need to be unavailable for habitat growth (same mechanic as blockers, but not affected by the same modifiers), or else the base cost of the (small, incomplete) would need to be adjusted upward so that you couldn't get a full-size habitat for crazy-cheap... but then you have the weird thing where, as you say, Mastery of Nature would be relevant for habitats. Or... maybe you pay the full price for the habitat up front, and the "blockers" just take time to "clear", not resources? A less-perfect realization of the original idea, and not likely to actually be impactful, though. Never mind. Either the "blockers" are unaffected by standard clear blocker cost reduction (Voidborne could give a "habitat section" cost reduction, where building habitat sections works just like clearing blockers...), or else some other mechanism entirely should be used.

We have the planetary decision system that could be used for these things. We can upgrade planets to arcologies, increase their district count, all the good stuff.

On another note, can we also get repeatable techs that are far more expensive than usual repeatables, that further increase the megastructure build cap? It would allow me to no longer have to use mods to not make megastructures feel like a chore, but rather a new stage in my empire's glory.

As for the habitat and ringworld reworks... Well, I'm having shivers at how good they are going to be now. No more admin-cap gobbling and most importantly, I can see that research district there~
 
On another note, can we also get repeatable techs that are far more expensive than usual repeatables, that further increase the megastructure build cap? It would allow me to no longer have to use mods to not make megastructures feel like a chore, but rather a new stage in my empire's glory.

Or maybe gradually increase it depending on your population, say 1 capacity per 500 pops under your direct or indirect (vasalls) control? I like the idea!
 
Looking good!

Some of you might recognize the icon for what was supposed to become arcane technology...

I'm way too late to the party as I noticed this just now, but I read that 'arcane' part as possible plans for SPACE WIZARDS! Are we getting space wizards? Add some deeper religion stuff in the mix as well, and we might even get GALAXY POPE vs SPACE WIZARDS -themed DLC!
 
Looking good!



I'm way too late to the party as I noticed this just now, but I read that 'arcane' part as possible plans for SPACE WIZARDS! Are we getting space wizards? Add some deeper religion stuff in the mix as well, and we might even get GALAXY POPE vs SPACE WIZARDS -themed DLC!
Calm down, buddy. General consensus is that 'arcane technology' is was meant as 'hard to understand precursor technology'. The same way a Quantum Mechanics textbook might be described as 'arcane' by someone who doesn't understand it.

Besides we already have psionics for Space Wizards.
 
Calm down, buddy. General consensus is that 'arcane technology' is was meant as 'hard to understand precursor technology'. The same way a Quantum Mechanics textbook might be described as 'arcane' by someone who doesn't understand it.

Besides we already have psionics for Space Wizards.

You really killed my wild nerd dreams just there. But sounds reasonable and I feel dumb when you put it like that :cool:
 
I want to expand on this idea a bit. The basic idea is to let players have something akin to a marauder empire, living in space habitats instead of on planets.

Background:
Something drastic happened to this species' homeworld's biosphere - or the whole planet - before they developed interstellar flight. Desperate to survive as a species, they built massive but primitive space habitats and packed as much of their population aboard as possible. Conditions were terrible and supplies were short, and for decades it looked like they might perish anyway, but eventually the population stabilized at a fraction of what it had been before the collapse. A century of selective breeding and primitive genetic engineering later, these people are now well-adapted to their void dwellings (and the dwelling to them), at the cost of having lost much of their ability to cope with planetary gravity and natural biospheres. Their population rebounding, the inhabitants of the <N> void dwellings have turned to other scientific pursuits, and have developed the first hyperdrives. A galaxy full of open space awaits...

Start Conditions:
  • Starts with <N> (probably 2-4) habitats in one system, each "built" to size ~5 (if enlarging habitats by building or "clearing blockers" is a thing) but possibly having some special blockers like "long-depressurized module" that block some districts without costing as much to clear as it would to build the habitat out to full size.
  • No habitable or inhabited planets, but one of the planets has the Terraforming Candidate modifier, representing either the original homeworld or a planet that could one day become habitable.
  • Starts with one habitat each around good sources of mining and generator districts, with enough of those districts to provide a starting income.
  • Starts with enough hydroponic farms to feed the population, and a small surplus.
  • Standard starting starbase, navy, civilian ships, leaders, and home star system size, etc.
Civic Properties:
  • Starts with the Habitats technology.
  • Starts with the technology for hydroponic farming.
  • Starts with Habitats preference: +<H>% (H ~=30) habitability on habitats, but all planets have base 0% habitability (like Life-Seeded).
  • Starts with the benefits of the Voidborne AP (however it ends up being implemented, it should be enough to give Habitats full habitability, possibly unless the species is non-adaptive) but cannot select this AP.
  • Starts with <N> habitats and the ability to build more, but no homeworld.
  • Incompatible with Agrarian Idyll, Life-Seeded, and Post-Apocalyptic (and with any other "background" civics that wouldn't make sense).
  • Cannot be added or removed after the start of the game.
Balance:
  • This empire has no lack of potential habitable space, but needs to spend massive amounts of alloys and influence to build it.
  • Early-game, saving up for even one more habitat will mean neglecting your navy and outposts for a long time; mid-late-game, you'll finally be able to comfortably settle all those planets you found.
  • You won't need to expand as much in order to find habitable space (promotes tall play), but your economy will probably be unusually dependent on mining stations and you will need more colonies (produces 2 sprawl each even before districts) than a normal empire (promotes wide play), so you can go either way.
Problems to address:
  • The existing building and district availability on habitats might make this idea inviable, in which case either they will need to be changed (which it looks like might already be happening, even beyond the "mine orbital body" districts?) or need to be special-cased for empires with this civic.
  • The existing (and silly) population growth mechanic would reward having multiple "colonies" like this from the start of the game; this could either be "naturally" balanced against in other ways (such as lack of housing), balanced by penalizing growth rate of empires with this civic, balanced by reducing growth rate on habitats in general, or balanced by making population growth sane and reasonable (i.e. based on population, so it doesn't matter whether an empire has 30 pops on one planet or spread across three habitats, in terms of total growth rate).
  • It's unclear what Habitat habitability would mean for ringworlds, ecumenopoli, and Gaia planets. I'm inclined to say the first is fully habitable (what is a ringworld but a habitat on a system-wide scale?), and both of the others are base of 50% habitability at best. The civic might also forbid building ecumenopoli, which would be a significant penalty unless ecumenopoli are nerfed hard or habitats are buffed hard enough (say, by giving them ecumenopolis-like districts) to make up for the lack.
I actually really love this idea, and would like Paradox to implement something like this.

If it were to go in, I would really appreciate it if the devs gave Megacorps an equivalent civic. I'm not sure why Megacorps are currently discluded from so many of the other origin civics.
 
I was thinking of Habitats and wouldn't the logical change to them along the already proposed changes be that you upgrade the already build mining and research stations? It would remove the clutter of having to destroy the station to build a habitat.
 
This sounds interesting!

As a final note on habitats, it might be worthwhile to reiterate my thoughts that I eventually want to add different levels/sizes to habitats. It is however not something for the immediate future, but a little further down the road.
Hm.
Maybe starbases can hybridize with habitats? I mean, they are big badass space stations, and citadels should house a lot of populations
 
@grekulf a question.
Habitat habitability=80%.
I have researched 2 +5% habitability techs or have +20% habitability race trait
Will my race have a 100% habitability for habitat or it is locked to 80% and only could be raised to 100% via Voidborne?
 
I personally like the changes but have only one concern... to me, for gameplay pruposes, the ring world should be far bigger than the Oeucumenopolis... Not sure that will be the case with those changes though...
 
I personally like the changes but have only one concern... to me, for gameplay pruposes, the ring world should be far bigger than the Oeucumenopolis... Not sure that will be the case with those changes though...
Ringworlds are bigger than Ecumenopoli. They have "less districts" because they don't have districts at all, they have "segments", which are effectively mega-districts.
 
I personally like the changes but have only one concern... to me, for gameplay pruposes, the ring world should be far bigger than the Oeucumenopolis... Not sure that will be the case with those changes though...

Ringworlds are bigger than Ecumenopoli. They have "less districts" because they don't have districts at all, they have "segments", which are effectively mega-districts.
A Econumenopolis Production "District" has 10 Jobs, 10 housing.
The shown Ringworld Segement has 20 workers, 20 housing. So roughly a ratio of 2:1
Ringworlds should still be 4 "Planetlikes"* per full structure. So they can take 20 of those "Districts called Segments"*

However we also learned that Ecumenopolis districts now cost rares to build(50) and maintain(2). So them being still a bit ahead is balanced via other means.
 
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