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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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Now THIS could be really cool. Imagine an Empire that's resource-poor that develops specialized ships for swooping in after a battle and salvaging the wreckage as quickly as possible....

We are smart.
 
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Can you play as a fallen empire? Or atleast tag switch?

Though they are not designed to be played, you can tag switch to them. Also in the setup there is flag "is_playable" with currently is set to = no. But if you just switch to "yes", then they turn up in the Species creation wizard as an option.
 
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Ohh I really~ like those ships! Most I have previously seen make me think of advanced humans in a battle star galactica style. Those look more alien and make me think of the Protos for some reason.

This was the idea behind the design. Since these races are way older than the playable starter races, we wanted their ships to reflect this with way different designs.
As for the protoss look, the Molluscoid are even more Protoss looking, then again, Protoss look very similar to Vorlons.
Any race with gold / yellow / beige armor, and blue or turquoise glowing tech, with organic shapes look similar to protoss.
 
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Though they are not designed to be played, you can tag switch to them. Also in the setup there is flag "is_playable" with currently is set to = no. But if you just switch to "yes", then they turn up in the Species creation wizard as an option.
So, do all races have tags like in Victoria 2? What happens with species that fracture due to civil war, is there a dynamic tag creation in game? Does that mean if modders want to add more races they also have to create tags?
 
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So, do all races have tags like in Victoria 2? What happens with species that fracture due to civil war, is there a dynamic tag creation in game? Does that mean if modders want to add more races they also have to create tags?

I'd imagine that dynamic tags are in the game, like X-something etc.
 
So, do all races have tags like in Victoria 2? What happens with species that fracture due to civil war, is there a dynamic tag creation in game? Does that mean if modders want to add more races they also have to create tags?

I'd imagine that dynamic tags are in the game, like X-something etc.

Dynamic CK2 style tags were confirmed in an earlier thread.
 
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Question! Are the ancient horrors the FEs may or may not be locking up on their planets on the same tier as game ending disasters? And if so does that mean I could theoritically trigger such a cataclysm earlier than usual if I pushed really hard to amass the military might to smash one of the FE's early in the game?
 
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Think it is weird we can't conduct diplomacy with them. Sure they are isolationist but like...just would make sense that diplomacy is possible...and even trade...possibly through a proxy...I find it hard to believe that a long lasting empire doesn't at least conduct commercial enterprise at all.
 
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Think it is weird we can't conduct diplomacy with them. Sure they are isolationist but like...just would make sense that diplomacy is possible...and even trade...possibly through a proxy...I find it hard to believe that a long lasting empire doesn't at least conduct commercial enterprise at all.

I'm thinking of the Qing Dynasty or Tokugawa Shogunate. Diplomatic relations exist, but they like to pretend that they don't and will generally regard you as not worth the trouble.
 
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As for the protoss look, the Molluscoid are even more Protoss looking, then again, Protoss look very similar to Vorlons..

Ivanova: "Zog? What do you mean zog? Zog what? Zog yes, zog no?"
Marcus: "It's leaving. My guess is zog means no."
Ivanova: "Like hell. I am not letting them leave here without saying yes."
Marcus: "Really? And how do you propose stopping them? Perhaps a big red and white sign with the word 'Stop' on it? I'll put a bucket on my head and pretend to be the ancient Vorlon god Booji."
Ivanova: "That's it!"
Marcus: "Fine, I'll get a bucket."
 
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Won't it get repetitive if all Fallen Empires use the same models for ships and stations?

Or will there be some variations in colors/glow/textures/modular assembly to tell them apart anyways?
How common do you think they'll be?
 
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How common do you think they'll be?

The DD seem to suggests there will be at least a few of them each game.

"The galaxy is vast, old and unknown. New species constantly flare into existence"
"others who reached the furthest edges of knowledge only to crumble away. Those others are called Fallen Empires."
 
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Very nice, very nice... how low is the chance for the Fallen Empire to be diplomatically inclined towards your species?
 
Won't it get repetitive if all Fallen Empires use the same models for ships and stations?

Or will there be some variations in colors/glow/textures/modular assembly to tell them apart anyways?

There's only 6 types for the other (what was the limit?) 30 factions.
 
There's only 6 types for the other (what was the limit?) 30 factions.
Oh If you add the RGB Colours in 8 bit you get about 16 Million different colours :3