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Stellaris Dev Diary #15 - Fallen Empires

Hello and happy new year! I’ll be your substitute Doomdark for today and in this week’s dev diary we’ll take a closer look at Fallen Empires.

The galaxy is vast, old and unknown. New species constantly flare into existence and some are even able to take their first cautious steps towards other stars. Of those that do some are arrogant enough to assume that they are the first and only chosen. They fail to realize that others may have taken those same steps before them, others who have found amazing wonders and unraveled their secrets, others who reached the furthest edges of knowledge only to crumble away. Those others are called Fallen Empires.

These are once-glorious empires that for unknown reasons have stagnated and often fallen to infighting or crippling apathy. That which once covered hundreds of systems have shrunk to a fraction, barely held on to by superior technology and what little remains of a once glorious fleet. Fallen Empires are isolationist and will look at newer species with disinterest or outright contempt. Diplomatic attempts are futile and they will most likely attack any unknown ships entering one of their remaining systems.

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The response of Fallen Empires vary greatly when approached. It is rarely friendly though.

Design Reasoning

We’ve added Fallen Empires to the game for a couple of reasons. They have the potential to enable some really cool stories and there is a bunch of different directions we can take to ensure players get a different experience from game to game. Players should never feel confident in how a Fallen Empire may react to different events in the galaxy. If left alone they might resurge as a reaction to a galaxy-wide threat or become outraged when their most holy planets are colonized by lesser races.

Gameplay-wise the Fallen Empires can act as a potential source of advanced technology for players willing to invest the military forces required to defeat one of their fleets in battle. In Stellaris, all ships destroyed in combat will leave debris behind and through reverse engineering a player may discover the technologies required to build the weapons and components equipped by those ships. Players can also invade planets belonging to Fallen Empires, allowing them to utilize whatever advanced buildings placed there. This of course means dealing with a new species within the Empire.
While the rewards may be tempting, players may want to consider the risks before attacking a Fallen Empire. Who knows what horrors they have unearthed during the ages, what forbidden secrets their planets hold within, what captives might be unleashed should their wardens be struck down.

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Fallen Empires will use a separate series of models for their ships and stations.

Next week the good Goosecreature will be back with a dev diary on the events and mishaps that may befall colonies and their inhabitants. Until then!
 
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Yeah soul Hunter is a bit of a drag, i think season one definitely had some of the weakest in the show overall. Though i usually dont skip it, there are only like three episodes in the entire show i would skip and i cant remember them that well.

I never have a problem with watching even the bad S1 episodes, because I know it will get a lot better. I prefer not to rewatch the final season, because I know it will not. Since everyone thought the S4 would be the series finale, the final season is left like an inflamed appendix, useless but also harmful.
 
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But we can recreate those races. I want some truly alien races that 'break' some rules that the human player has to follow to create an unique experience.
Something that makes you scratch your head and go WTF!

Yes, you are correct. Any of us could theoretically save game switch, then see what all of their traits are. Then we could play them in that game. Or we could create them in a new game. But then all the others would...again, be randomly generated. Thus...unknown.

I guess one could go through all the FTL species in a given game, write down all the traits, and thus make sure none of one's adversaries are truly alien. In that way, one could develop strategies against them more easily. But then, this is not really how the game is supposed to be played. It's a bit like cheating.
 
I never have a problem with watching even the bad S1 episodes, because I know it will get a lot better. I prefer not to rewatch the final season, because I know it will not. Since everyone thought the S4 would be the series finale, the final season is left like an inflamed appendix, useless but also harmful.
S5 did have some good arcs, the Centauri conflict for example, and the finale for S5 was the original finale for S4. If nothing else, Sleeping in Light is worth watching.
 
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I am amazed B5 survived such a bad first season.It would be canned these days no doubt.Terrible acting by the lead Sinclair,poor make up and Aliens.It just looked like a terrible low budget star trek.It did become very good with the Shadow war.
 
B5's last season was a mixed bag that had one really good arc (the Centauri conflict and the rise/fall of Londo [with both being the exact same event]) and one.... less good arc (the Telepath underground and Byron). And Sleeping in Light still ranks as one of my all time favorite series finales.

Really though, most of the blame can be put on the network for jerking JMS around. Something which would continue and reach truly disgusting levels with the spin-off series Crusade.

I am amazed B5 survived such a bad first season.It would be canned these days no doubt.Terrible acting by the lead Sinclair,poor make up and Aliens.It just looked like a terrible low budget star trek.It did become very good with the Shadow war.

Man, everything involving Sinclair takes on an extra layer of tragedy once one learns of Michael O'Hare's struggling with his mental illness during filming.
 
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less good arc (the Telepath underground and Byron).

The telepath theme was always better as promoting these lone wolf characters, villain or ally. It lost a lot of its edge when they paired her up with some hive mind of hedonistic Fall of Rome decadence.

I think creating an opposite, someone who projects a field where psionics doesn't work and everyone can have peace of mind in their own mind, free of external control or manipulation, would really piss off the Psi corps villains and provide an interesting dichotomy between the female psionic characters.

Just as there are humans today who have a charismatic or powerful aura, who tend to be easily able to convince or get people to do their bidding, so there are also humans who tend to be immune to exactly that kind of influence or leverage. Mentally speaking, they are a fortress. A fortress that's also kilometers underground, so nobody knows it is there.

Man, everything involving Sinclair takes on an extra layer of tragedy once one learns of Michael O'Hare's struggling with his mental illness during filming.

I thought he was playing up his backstory actually, but I didn't see the episodes when he was introduced. Just the end of his arc.
 
One of the best things about paradox games as well as the strategy are the stories formed in the player's mind. Paradox adding features like this and post-human species is a beautiful addition and predicting the future in a great well, as well as looking like some fun extras to play around with. I think paradox could be one of the best for it, if you know the past well you've got a good chance to make some sound predictions for the future, and history is the setting for all other previous games. Nice dev-diary, I'm stoked!

I've got a hope there's a prediction or mechanic that the ultimate beings or entities in the universe are something reminiscent of lovecraft's old Gods which made inspiration for the reapers in the Mass Effect franchise. Or at least a trail of ominous hints that something more powerful is controlling lesser spcies and easter-eggs would be great. :D
 

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Yeah, I am excited about the imagination aspect of Stellaris, seeing things that puzzle the player and the player can try to piece together what happened even though there is no answer to what actually happened since it's just a game. In an area near the starting system, I found a fallen empire and nearby, an inhabited planet where a similar looking species to that of the fallen empire resided. Why do they look strikingly similar? Perhaps that planet was once a colony, and it was abandoned due to the fallen empire's inability to stay together. Or was it the result of a rebellion where that planet grew too powerful economically and politically? Why are they less technologically advanced than their fallen empire brethren? Did all the technology just wear out and was never replaced because they didn't have the minds or resources to do so? Was it the result of one of their leaders believing that advanced technology was a curse and forced this civilization to go backwards? I don't know, but situations like these where the player can try to formulate a story to occurrences in the universe will make Stellaris very immersive and I cannot wait for this game.
 
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Fallen Empires are isolationist and will look at newer species with disinterest or outright contempt. Diplomatic attempts are futile and they will most likely attack any unknown ships entering one of their remaining systems.
Players should never feel confident in how a Fallen Empire may react to different events in the galaxy. If left alone they might resurge as a reaction to a galaxy-wide threat or become outraged when their most holy planets are colonized by lesser races.

After resurge, will diplomacy with fallen empires be possible? In other words will they bacome like usual players, only with different disigns of ships/stations and technologies?
 
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In Stellaris, all ships destroyed in combat will leave debris behind and through reverse engineering a player may discover the technologies required to build the weapons and components equipped by those ships.

Is it possible to implement practices to reduce tech leakage from wreckage? For example, militaries may destroy their own vehicles when abandoning them... Perhaps a self destruct function would help, but also take up precious space and add the chance of accidents.
 
Can Goosecreature write the following Dev Diaries? I love his narrative!
 
I fear, today DD is already a work in progress. No changing who writes it.
You will love it anyway :)
 
Does anyone know ETA for next dev-diary?
Just yesterday I got interested in Stellaris, and I don't know if it will be out soon, or should I get on with my life;)
 
Next DD should arrive today between 00:00 and 23:59. ;)
 
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Oh okay. DDs for some games come out on more or less fixed hour. IIRC CK2's come out around 13:30 tuesday.
 
Paradox usually release their Dev Diaries around post-Lunch, 11-12.
 
Please stop posting into old DDs on DDD. (Dev Diary Day) ( Just kidding of course :) )

Every time I refresh and see the words "Stellaris Dev Diary" on top of the forum, I get excited, only to see it's an old one. Of course it's only a millisecond to realize this, but it's the worst millisecond of all. :)
 
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Please stop posting into old DDs on DDD. (Dev Diary Day) ( Just kidding of course :) )

Every time I refresh and see the words "Stellaris Dev Diary" on top of the forum, I get excited, only to see it's an old one. Of course it's only a millisecond to realize this, but it's the worst millisecond of all. :)
With that, I agree.
 
I know a dev diary is never late, and arrives exactly when PDS wants it to...but the dev diary is late.:p