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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.

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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what about god like empires?
empires that never fall become so high in the evolution that they just left the mortal existence and become god like creatures in another dimension?
like the xel'naga in starcraft
 
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what about god like empires?
empires that never fall become so high in the evolution that they just left the mortal existence and become god like creatures in another dimension?

a) I dislike that trope a lot
b) They'd be gone so they just be a precursor race, and not a fallen empire

like the xel'naga in starcraft


Xel'Naga never existed in our dimension dontcha ya know. Isn't it fun when Blizzard retcons shit again and again?
 
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The galaxy is vast, old and unknown. ... some [species] 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.
I wonder if those words mean that we can choose to start a game playing a race that is unaware of what exists in the vast, old and mostly unknown universe? And when this race after a couple of years or decades of exploring the area around their home planet all of a sudden come across another civilization, get an event about something that seems to be other technology or another kind of life? Or are everyone supposed to already know about some of the other civilizations that exist somewhere in the universe and whether they are civilized or hostile?

I think it would've been fun if we didn't know anything when we start playing and that when we do experience a close encounter of the third kind we aren't sure about what the result will be. Are they hostile or will it be possible to live together in peace and do trade with each other?

I also wonder if it will be possible to mostly concentrate on trade and try to become something like a Space Venice, which means becoming a center of space or galaxy trade.
 
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I wonder if those words mean that we can choose to start a game playing a race that is unaware of what exists in the vast, old and mostly unknown universe? And when this race after a couple of years or decades of exploring the area around their home planet all of a sudden come across another civilization, get an event about something that seems to be other technology or another kind of life? Or are everyone supposed to already know about some of the other civilizations that exist somewhere in the universe and whether they are civilized or hostile?

I think it would've been fun if we didn't know anything when we start playing and that when we do experience a close encounter of the third kind we aren't sure about what the result will be. Are they hostile or will it be possible to live together in peace and do trade with each other?

I also wonder if it will be possible to mostly concentrate on trade and try to become something like a Space Venice, which means becoming a center of space or galaxy trade.

You know how in other 4x games, you encounter an enemy and then can engage them diplomatically, even look up their racial background and traits? In Stellaris, you won't be able to do that. They'll be Anomaly A, that you then have to research and put resources on.

So the procedural universe probably implies a level of random exploration potentials for the human player, because you won't be able to automatically predict ahead of time using meta game knowledge, what is going on or who you are facing.

There's also backstory for your species, hidden anomalies that may only be unlocked at certain tech levels or traits or due to other events in the universe, which will paint a little story of how your species came about.
 
what about god like empires?
empires that never fall become so high in the evolution that they just left the mortal existence and become god like creatures in another dimension?
like the xel'naga in starcraft

Yep. I find the idea of a race going "... You know what, why even bother?" in regards to further expansion and development, followed by a descent into decadence, a far more sensible possibility. We've even seen it in human history, how a civilization that was far more developed than their peers just suddenly... lost most of their drive.
 
Out of curiosity: who?

Two varieties (the latter is more important):

- Administration gets increasingly incompetent and turns towards civil strife even in the face of external pressure. Classical cases of Rome, The Ottoman Empire (not more technologically ahead than Europe though). Not really what we're looking at though.

- Stagnation ending with inward focus with very slow technological development and almost willful ignorance of the outside world: The best example is probably Ming and Qing China and 18th-19th century Japan. What we're facing here is a civilization that, unlike China and Japan at those times, was technologically ahead of the surrounding universe, yet still stopped their expansion and looked inward, perceiving themselves as the enlightened "Middle Empire" of the universe, so to speak.

Why would they need to expand, they were already the greatest empire in the galaxy? Why would they need to improve, when they were already perfect?

It's not hard for me to imagine an alien face falling upon such attitudes, especially with no nearby rivals. The Renaissance was unquestionably aided by the states need for one-upmanship, in culture, in war and in art.
 
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You know how in other 4x games, you encounter an enemy and then can engage them diplomatically... and so on
No I have never played a 4x game before so I don't know how that works. But all what you wrote seems interesting though, and will probably be something of a challenge and maybe more like a real-life scenario.
 
Out of curiosity: who?

The Visigoths vs the Romans in Spain. The Franks vs the Romans in France. The Saxons and Germanic tribes vs the Romans.

Also the Arabs, camel riders, vs the Syrians, Persians, and Byzantines, who had mega tech like high steel or iron weapons, plus cataphracts and horse archers.

No I have never played a 4x game before so I don't know how that works.

Oh, I see. Well, in most 4x games, the species are pre generated, so you can generally get a sense of who you are dealing with, even if you don't know how they will play. They use the same technology tree as you, you can sort of predict their capabilities based on whatever tech tree spot they are on vs yours. The diplomatic situation is pretty one layer, so you can easily see that as well. Whereas the sector system in Stellaris would be used by the AI as well, so you can support rebellions indirectly the same way foreign powers can support rebellions in your own sectors and pops.
 
Ahh, Vorlons. Literally the only somewhat kind of 'friendly' ancient race in Babylon 5. Everyone else was hostile or completely apathetic and ignored everyone (even if they accidentally broke your ship. Couldn't even get their number for the insurance). Approaching any of the elder race's claimed space was often lethal, especially the Vorlon's; Shadow space was literally safer to stumble into, they were more likely to give you board and room or 'let you pilot' one of their sweet battleships if you declined their hospitality than murder you like the Vorlons usually do. The Vorlons also spent more time figuring out the best way to make a simple statement cryptic than actually doing anything (Kosh virtually never attended League meetings), and the only reason why they even really bothered to interact with the younger races basically comes down to a bet between them and the Shadows of who could guide the younger races better.

In short, elder races are dicks.

they would be an interesting take on a fallen empire because the Vorlons were supposed to guide the youngers races but had lost their way and didnt have any really direction or purpose besides proving they were right or better than the shadows ... and thats what i understand they mean by fallen empires, they may be powerful or maybe not but they are all politically and culturally stagnant
 
what about god like empires?
empires that never fall become so high in the evolution that they just left the mortal existence and become god like creatures in another dimension?
like the xel'naga in starcraft

i was thinking something similar ... it would be cool to meet races so advanced that they are beyond anything we can understand, they dont care about creating empires and dominating the other species, they are just out there doing their own thing and do not care or worry about what the younger races


watch from the 0:34 mark onwards and that is something i think would be cool to see in the game or in later expansions
 
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First Ones Going Their Own Way, like Men Going Their Own Way, or Going Galt.

It's like someone in Minecraft being told that they could build an empire and get taxes from people in order to build their spaceship, if they pay a Syndicate a "cut" of their products. If that someone could use gather all the stuff for himself and do the work himself, they probably would choose that. While others would prefer to delegate and create a hierarchy of servants and workers, them at the top or middle.
 
I would love to play as a Fallen Empire.