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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.

stellaris_dev_diary_14_01_20160104_diplomatic_contact.jpg

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.

stellaris_dev_diary_14_02_20160104_fallen_empire.jpg

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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Aliens are always standing by windows. There are places other than by windows to stand. Stupid aliens.
 
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It is a bundle of sticks. It means that they are stronger together. The symbol originated in Italy.

It's one of the symbols of the ancient Republic of Rome, and before that, the Etruscans - the fasces. (Hence "fascist.") It is a bundle of sticks, with an axe stuck in. You'll also find the symbol on older American dimes.
 
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I am somewhat worried that these fallen empires could block species / races that use warp lanes from expanding through their territory, but not the other 2 types of space travel. How will this balance issue be dealt with?
 
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Well this look promising. Any chance for a Fallen Empires Crossfire kind of scenario?
 
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What happens technology wise if you invade/annex a Fallen Empire planet?

Edit: specifically if you let their technologically more advanced citizens live
Their friends show up and reduce you to ashes?

It is a bundle of sticks. It means that they are stronger together. The symbol originated in Italy.
Not quite the fasces is a roman symbol a bundle of sticks originally all of diffrent lenght or widht, roman judges carried them to represent that they could sentence anyone to being beaten with any of them without need for a trail. Outside of the city of rome it also contained an axe, to represent the added right to sentence a person to death without trail.
 
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Be careful you don't wake the dragon.
 
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Honestly i care... but look at that map! it's beautiful! :eek:
Capture.png

This is the best map I've ever seen in a sci-fi 4x game

I don't like the political borders. The shape and edges don't look right to me, kind of like broken cracker chunks.
 
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My word that sounds good, cheers for the DD Jormungandur and a Happy New Year to the Stellaris team :D. Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labour, hopefully this year if we're lucky (I know you guys have said 2016, but I'm always a little cautious of release windows until they're a bit more concrete, but not trying to suggest you won't have it out then, just that nothing's certain except death, taxes and comets :)).
 
I don't like the political borders. The shape and edges don't look right to me, kind of like broken cracker chunks.

The edges could use some work, probably would be better if they were softer and more like soft curves instead of jagged edges, but the way the map-color is the background-color of their "flag" and how their symbol and name all show up on the map when zoomed out is absolutely beautiful, and a great UI decision.

Just having "France" written on the map might be fine in a game like EU4, since we all know roughly what France is, but in a game with random alien races it just wouldn't be enough of an identifier. The system they have here is much much better at making it easier for the player to both remember and understand at a glance who's who.
 
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Well I see many have noticed and commented on the fasces, but in the same screenshot there are also (perhaps less obvious but IMO still clear) Wheel-of-Dharma and Lotus symbols. I guess this is something like an "ethos" mapmode?
 
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