Stellaris Dev Diary #159 - Galactic Community

[Verx90]

I would appreciate a source for those comments, if you can remember them.

To your second point:
I don't mind that PDX is creating new content.
More luck to them.
My problem is that they're trying to build a house on a foundation that is riddled with cracks.
What will happen to an AI that is barely able to keep its economy intact?
What will happen to the mid and lategame performance when more and more calculations are dumped on your CPU?

Nearly a year has passed since the release of Megacorps and most of the problems it introduced are still there...
I don't want to imagine what a Federation release, that will come with its own bugs and issues, will do to a game that is still struggling with the last revamp.

lets try again ...

Hi all, I'm Jamor and I'm the producer on Stellaris. I run the team's time and budget, the boring biz bit, while grekulf is the creative and design lead.

I publicly acknowledge there are AI and performance issues in the game right now.

I want you to know that maintaining things like AI and performance is a big and neverending struggle, especially on a game that is growing as large as Stellaris has. There's no one-button magic bullet solution that will fix it overnight. In some patches it is stronger, in others it lags behind. I have to follow my agreed release schedule and juggle the not-unlimited time and personnel I have to deliver that, but I can tell you that whatever I can possibly spare goes in to bug fixes and improvements. We're Paradox, we don't release a game and patch it twice and call it a day, we are in it for the full marathon. I was a PDX fan for a decade before I worked here (HOI 2 and onward) and maintaining that long term commitment is my personal guarantee to you, as a fellow fan.

The reason there's been no public news about fixes or improvements on AI and performance is simple: there are none yet. I'm not going to pull the wool over your eyes and promise something until it's done and dusted and in my hand to give. That's not my style. When we have it, you'll see it in a patch note. Until then I don't want to string people along with false optimism and empty promises.

About the process focused dev diaries: we don't want to go completely radio silent in those times before official announcements. Right now, we have our biggest max visibility PR event on the calendar coming up, PDXCon, and we naturally want to get the most eyes on us when we reveal our future plans. We need to get the word out with highest public impact so we can keep supporting this game and others, for ever. So, in moments like these, dev diaries and official communication will have to be about other things that won't spoil our planned reveal. Process stuff, an under the hood glimpse at how games are made, is interesting to some, but not all. If you don't dig it, just please bear with us for the official announcement and then you'll get a ton of in-depth feature DDs after that. The alternative is for us to just go completely quiet during those pre-announce high intensity dev periods, and I don't think anyone wants that.

We're here, we're working every day to make this thing better for you, our fans and supporters. We tell you as much as we can consistent with the needs of basic business security, and really prize our unusually close contact with our community, certainly unprecedented for a developer of our size. We want to keep that, so please be decent to my staff, and each other. Thanks for sticking with us through this journey, and there's much more to come.

 

[Skoell]

will there be a special interaction with the Interstellar Assembly

 

[laptor]

It all seems interesting but I wonder if the AI will be able to use things like favors, vetos or focus "correctly"

 

[Valentin Vattista]

I fear that diplomatic weight will defeat the purpouse of the galactic community. It should rather be 1 vote per empire, or else the strongest empires are just going to run the show.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I fear that diplomatic weight will defeat the purpouse of the galactic community. It should rather be 1 vote per empire, or else the strongest empires are just going to run the show.

Smaller empires will have to band together then. Or become "strongest" via other means.

 

[Methone]

lets try again ...

Yeah, but talk is cheap. And people have been sounding the bell about a multitude of other issues; hardly a day goes by without Tech Noir drawing attention to the silly disparity between Machine and Hive strength. It takes 10 seconds to add in "Also, we know machines are silly and hives are bad. It's on the list" and yet it's not there. This reads like a boilerplate PR response.

 

[MateuszS]

I don't see why not. I feel like the only empire that can't join are the fanatic purifier ones - all others (gestalt included) should be able to join.

What if GC passes resolutions you cannot fulfill because you are gestalt (i.e. residence for xenos)?

 

[Archon87]

Smaller empires will have to band together then. Or become "strongest" via other means.

I believe envoys are supposed to be the way to press your finger on the scale of diplomatic weight. You send more envoys and they add to your diplomatic weight as a percentage. Smaller empires likely have influence to spend on doing this (they didn't spend it all expanding), plus they can always band together.

 

[Communard]

Can the Galactic Community eventually turn into a Federation? Maybe if you pass a ridiculous number of resolutions? It would be an interesting "victory" to go for...uniting the whole galaxy diplomatically...

 

[Zetesofos]

Yeah, but talk is cheap. And people have been sounding the bell about a multitude of other issues; hardly a day goes by without Tech Noir drawing attention to the silly disparity between Machine and Hive strength. It takes 10 seconds to add in "Also, we know machines are silly and hives are bad. It's on the list" and yet it's not there. This reads like a boilerplate PR response.

This is the online equivalent of the kid in the backseat asking the driver "Are we there yet?"

They don't have a solution yet, they're working on it. What more do you want - a live feed of their dev notes and a copy of their internal emails?

 

[Methone]

They don't have a solution yet, they're working on it. What more do you want - a live feed of their dev notes and a copy of their internal emails?

Well they could start by taking the ten seconds to say "It's on the list" to know they're at least working on it. Rather than just a copy-paste "Break glass in case of AI and Performance complaints" letter.

It's not me asking "Are we there yet". It's me asking "So, uh, are we driving at all? Because I can't tell with this blindfold over my eyes."

 

[Lord Hoosier]

I don't see why not. I feel like the only empire that can't join are the fanatic purifier ones - all others (gestalt included) should be able to join.

What about driven assimilators?

 

[verybad]

Would be interesting if these could be Federation based also...having multiple "Galactic" Communities would be deeper. Having an overall Galactic Community would be good for crises and preventing wars I suppose, but most communication would be on a smaller community that have more frequent interactions.

I could see a Federation or local area community being more interesting and backstabbing than overall everyone in the boat. I'm not against a Galactic Community, just don't think it should be the only community available, and different options should be available in different communities. Different types of federations sort of add to this, but there seem to be different systems for playing that, and this adds to game complexity, but not necessarily enjoyment.

 

[NilsFabian]

I do love the look of the Galactic Senate. Has a nice SciFi aura.
And with the galactic UN finally a thing we can denounce Venice and ban craps.

 

[CorDeFerrum]

I am literally only employed to fund paradox.

 

[Daoko__]

If this is the diplomacy overhaul, will the Free patch expand on other aspects of diplomacy that extend outside of federations?

 

[NilsFabian]

If this is the diplomacy overhaul, will the Free patch expand on other aspects of diplomacy that extend outside of federations?

My guess, the free patch will contain the generic Federation and no Galactic UN or an UN with limited resolutions

 

[Ramiro564]

Can an empire be in a Federation and in the Galactic Community at the same time?

 

[Verx90]

Yeah, but talk is cheap. And people have been sounding the bell about a multitude of other issues; hardly a day goes by without Tech Noir drawing attention to the silly disparity between Machine and Hive strength. It takes 10 seconds to add in "Also, we know machines are silly and hives are bad. It's on the list" and yet it's not there. This reads like a boilerplate PR response.

i think i will stop there, i gave you theyr statement , where they talk about the issues openly , answering question about that , but when i put it out, you dissmiss it as if they did nothing .

anything i say, or anyone say, its nothing .

so , now i know why they don't stay there to answer to evry single one , you just want the fix, and you want it now . comprensible.

 

[semisweet]

• Because you will most likely always be only part of one Federation.
• Because a Fedartion is always only be an alliance to protect / play around your core (trade/war etc.)
• Because you can also be a part of the GC and a Fedartion and your allies my not always want the same in the GC as you do.
• Because the GC is the Stage for DIPLOMACY in the Galaxy.
• It can be a threat for you if all the rest of the Galaxy is primary Pacifist and they bend together against you.
• Because someone can be a threat to your Militiristic GC or Pacifistc and depending on which naturly forming faction has the most sway will influence the GC.
• In one playthrou it can be nothing to you, in another it will help you out bigtime.
• Because depending on who owes you favours and who do you, your strategies for what resolutions passes and what you can stop changes.
• Depending on what you focus, you may want to pass resolutions as fast as possible to give you an edge in diplomatic weight calculation.
• Because if all the big shots in the Galaxy are in the GC you may still get something done in it if you can leach onto a bigger leader who is maybe opose of all the things the other big shots do.
• Because when the swarm of bigger empires in the gc gets big enought to go against you it can become a threat.

Basically all of those things are solved if you loosen the current restrictions on federations as I mentioned. The only reason some additional group is needed is because federations have been created in such a way that they restrict themselves from fulfilling the role that the GC does. It does not need to be that way.