Stellaris Dev Diary #160 - Origins Full Reveal

[kalauer]

On the Shoulder of Giants: Start with an Archaeological Site related to a mysterious benefactor. (Federations)

Will this include a specific range of random (maybe even unique to the Origin) sites, fully randomized sites or a single unique site?

If the last one is true, the outcome might as well be shown on the Origin selection screen. The second option seems like a huge gamble thus I assume the first option is the one?

 

[Blayze]

Nothing else matters with this game until they fix the performance issues.

 

[kalauer]

All empires would lose a valuable centre of resource production. Which is hardly a game ender. A hive mind could stand to lose much more, we don't know yet, but it looks like it could be very bad.

Yes, alot of gamestyles show some kind of centralization on the home world and potentially others. I would really like some strong incentive for decentralized empires and the Origins might just be the way to do this. However, I might just not be inventive enough, maybe there already is a business case for strong decentralizedd play...

 

[EmperorZelos]

Less yapping, more tapping the keyboard! RELEASE IT ALREADY!

 

[Kanaric]

Nice Mycon from Star Control colonization lol.

Nothing else matters with this game until they fix the performance issues.

Get off the laptop or 10 year old PC. Runs fine for me.

 

[Spaceception]

Less yapping, more tapping the keyboard! RELEASE IT ALREADY!

No, release when ready. Personally, I probably won't get it until post-launch support, or even 2.7 actually.

 

[Gothbert]

Awww, that Galactic Doorstep one is disappointing. I was expecting it to be some kind of L Cluster start

An L Cluster start origin would be really interesting although a bit boring in the beginning as you won't have any interactions with other empires.

 

[Kanaric]

A missed opportunity in my view. A lot of people would have used it and I'd have bought the DLC for it alone. I'm going to buy the DLC anyway, but you get my point.

Some Dune themed "spice melange" Zro resource starting point would be cool for a psionic start.

 

[Hyomoto]

Personally I like the idea of origins serving as a sort of difficulty modifier. If you want them balanced just give the option to force a specific start in multiplayer games and then go wild adding in interesting starts.

 

[Kanaric]

Void Dwellers - here comes the 0 planet challenge!

Seems good for terravore

 

[Gothbert]

May I suggest to give this origin some more teeth? 64 years is way too lenient, and won't lead to a different game experience. Can anyone here honestly say they don't always have 10+ colonies 64 years into the game?

Agreed. 20 to 30 years would be much better because your colonies will potentially still be significantly under-developed. Also, does the shattered homeworld provide mineral resources in the same way that cracking a planet does?

 

[Sifer2]

Pretty cool. Though the origins available outside of DLC are noticeably weaker/boring. Especially Galactic Doorstep unless there are some noteworthy quests tied to it. I know Lost Colony has one since I assume that's Commonwealth of Man's questline repurposed for it. But it's honestly hard to imagine any quest events for these Origins coming anywhere close to something like letting you just start on a shattered Ringworld. I mean that's the ultimate reward of entire Precursor questline just given to yourself for free on year 1.


edit: Oh also I hope we eventually get an Origin to start as a Primitive civilzation. With a questline that jumpstarts your tech. And events involving discovering some other civ had set up an observation outpost. Let you play it from the other way around lol.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Pretty cool. Though the origins available outside of DLC are noticeably weaker/boring. Especially Galactic Doorstep unless there are some noteworthy quests tied to it. I know Lost Colony has one since I assume that's Commonwealth of Man's questline repurposed for it. But it's honestly hard to imagine any quest events for these Origins coming anywhere close to something like letting you just start on a shattered Ringworld. I mean that's the ultimate reward of entire Precursor questline just given to yourself for free on year 1.

I suspect that the CoM may continue to be a "special case" in that they have a unique event chain about finding another lost colony ship. More likely, the Origin will just force-spawn a parent empire of the same species as you. No special events, just a way of guaranteeing your species exists elsewhere in the galaxy and maybe has an opinion modifier towards you without having to pre-build and force-spawn one yourself.

(The advantage, in this model, would BE the randomization, in not knowing what became of your homeworld since you lost contact with them.)

As for the Galactic Doorstep one... eh. It's a free gateway in your capital, which is nice no matter how you slice it. Maybe there's an event chain to open it earlier, who knows, but even just as a free gateway I'm pretty cool with it.

 

[Shadowstrike]

I feel like Galactic Doorstep should actually be having an open wormhole in your home system. That would both be an advantage, and potentially a disadvantage, rather than having a gateway (which is strictly speaking, always a good thing).

 

[Kiyosen]

Responses are in red. For the origins that were underwhelming to me, if you're hiding stuff about them from us, at least say that you are. Helps with hype.

EDIT: There was an edit in the OP and some answers from a dev so irrelevant/edited feedback is crossed out. OP-edited stuff in brackets. It's somewhat sad that the origins are not meant to be balanced against each other but as long as they're interesting in terms of both gameplay and immersion, I'm fine with it.

The Origins
Prosperous Unification: Start with 4 additional Pops and 2 additional Districts. (Available to everyone)
What exactly are the additional districts? An extra city district and generator district? Extra mining and generator district? And is this dependent on what kind of empire you picked? Regardless, seems a bit underwhelming to me (cue the "but 4 extra pops is really good" and the "but it's a generic origin").

EDIT: Crossed out previous opinion.

Mechanist: Start with 8 Pops being robots, and the ability to build more. (Utopia)

Syncretic Evolution: Start the game with 12 Pops being of another species. (Utopia)

Life-Seeded: Start on a Gaia World. (Apocalypse)
*has picture that tells more than the description* Leaves me with potential questions for pretty much most of the origins that weren't originally civics. Personally think this origin needs a buff but just a personal nitpick so not a big deal if it isn't.​

Post-Apocalyptic: Start on a Tomb World. (Apocalypse)

Remnants: Start on a Relic World. (Federations)
Unless this specific relic world will always spawn with agriculture districts, Materialist Lithoid Remnants are looking quite nice. Dev answered that all four basic district types will be in this relic world.

Shattered Ring: Start on a Shattered Ring World. Your empire lives on the only intact section of the ancient megastructure, and it is possible to repair most of the other sections. (Federations)
Meanwhile, Lithoids in a Shattered Ring World doesn't seem appealing at all because Ring Worlds normally don't have mining districts (similar concern to Remnants). Dev answered that there will be stuff in your starting system that can be mined so it's probably fine for Lithoids but harder.

Void Dwellers: Start on a Habitat above your destroyed, former homeworld, [and with 2 more habitats in your home system]. Completely adapted to living in habitats, and start with the technology to build new ones, [but also suffers a penalty to living on regular planets]. (Federations)
Assuming that your species will get a Habitat preference, this would feel a lot like Life-Seeded except worse since Habitats normally have 6 max districts.

EDIT: 2 other habitats in the system, eh? Very interesting indeed.

Scion: Start as the vassal of a Fallen Empire. (Federations)
There's going to be an issue with people who turn off Fallen Empires and having a random empire roll this. Randomly generated empires should NOT roll this origin [if there are no fallen empires that an empire can be a Scion of].

EDIT: Edit in brackets.

Galactic Doorstep: Start with a dormant Gateway in your home system, [which can be investigated and reactivated]. (Available to everyone)
Like people have been saying, seems very underwhelming even if you turn it into an L-Gate. Wormhole plus the tech to explore them on the other hand...

EDIT: One of the main reasons why I disagree with a gateway is that in terms of resources, alloys are king. Unless alloys are no longer the main thing to go for, you're probably going to make enough alloys in later stages of the game that the cost for a gateway (aside from time) is somewhat trivial. Wormhole tech at least allows you to have an advantage of potentially being in multiple parts of the galaxy right from the get-go either for better communications or faster travel for military ships. Dev also said that many of the origins will have their own events and event chains associated with them. If this is not changed to be about wormholes, then maybe at least have events unique to this origin that are worth it.

Tree of Life: Only for Hive Minds. Start with a powerful Tree of Life on your homeworld. Disastrous if you would somehow lose control of it. [Colony ships also plant a sapling on new colonies.] (Utopia)
I remember seeing in the Stellaris Twitter that colony ships are more expensive but provide a planet with their own tree sapling. Also, can saplings [eventually] become grown up trees? And what happens when a non-hive minds takes this tree?

On the Shoulder of Giants: Start with an Archaeological Site related to a mysterious benefactor. (Federations)
No information on this one, which is understandable. That site better be worth it though. A little surprised that this one isn't locked to Ancient Relics but I'm gonna guess that's because Ancient Relics is a story pack and not an actual expansion.

Calamitous Birth: Lithoid Only. Start with a Massive Crater on your Homeworld. You are also able to build Meteorite Colony Ships, which colonize planets in a more dramatic fashion. (Lithoids)
Actually seems interesting. Curious about the crater though.

Resource Consolidation: Machines only. Start with a Machine World as your homeworld. (Synthetic Dawn)
Unrelated, but speaking of machines, would be nice if they were more balanced. Their base growth can become ridiculous. Potentially (assuming no assembly speed modifiers, looking at you Cybrex/Contingency relics), synth empires can get +8 base growth and machine intelligence can get +5 base growth so an easy fix would probably be reducing the amount of replicator/roboticist jobs from the capital building. [Roboticists' pop assembly speed should probably be reduced too (maybe from 2 to 1.5) since you're also going to get more assembly speed from The Flesh is Weak ascension perk.] Sorry, just a big gripe for me.

EDIT: The origin itself is fine IMO. Would be nice if there's a hive world start for hive minds though. Also an addition to the above in brackets.

​

Common Ground: Start with as the leader of a Galactic Union federation, and with The Federation tradition unlocked. (Federations)
That screenshot doesn't look very comfy to me. I'm going to assume that the other empires in the federation are random species based on its picture. HOWEVER, what about their ethics and stuff? Random? In line with your own? A mix of both?

EDIT: Dev answered that the empires will be randomized but will mostly be in line with your own ethics. The federation benefits better be worth being cramped with two other empires.

Hegemon: Start with as the leader of a Hegemony federation, and with The Federation tradition unlocked. (Federations)
I'm looking at the screenshot for Common Ground and I'm worried about this one too. Questions for Common Ground apply to this as well.

EDIT: Refer to Common Ground edit.

Doomsday: Your homeworld is doomed and it will explode after 64 years, so you need to find a new home for your species. (Federations)
64 years doesn't feel like much of a challenge at all...

EDIT: Regardless, the resource boost from your starting planet seems nice so I'm okay with it.

Lost Colony: Another empire with the same species as you will exist somewhere in the galaxy. (Available to everyone)
Nice for flavor, but doesn't seem worth using gameplay-wise. Is there anything nice gameplay-wise?

EDIT: Dev said that many of the origins will have their own events and event chains associated with them. They better be worth it.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

I feel like Galactic Doorstep should actually be having an open wormhole in your home system. That would both be an advantage, and potentially a disadvantage, rather than having a gateway (which is strictly speaking, always a good thing).

I think the vanilla ones are there to just be “generally helpful”, arguably the extra pops and districts are far more powerful.

I’m wondering what “On the shoulders of giants” gives you from the site .... is it random? Psi related? Based on your ethics? Just a special chain? I guess we’ll see.

 

[Spaceception]

As for the Galactic Doorstep one... eh. It's a free gateway in your capital, which is nice no matter how you slice it. Maybe there's an event chain to open it earlier, who knows, but even just as a free gateway I'm pretty cool with it.

I hope there's an event chain or something. I get that not everything needs to be equally great, but what does simply having a free gateway do? Save you influence, and a few thousand alloys in the late game, when you typically have more than enough anyway?
That's a very long time to receive the benefit, when you could easily choose another origin like Mechanist or Shoulders of giants and get something useful from the start. So if you could open it earl(y/ier than normal) maybe to a special system, that'd be nice.

 

[Shadowstrike]

Oh sure, I don't think having a pre-built Gateway is that great. It saves a pile of energy and alloys, at most. But thematically, the idea should be that you occupy some important point in the galaxy (like say, a wormhole), and that brings both advantages and disadvantages, which makes gameplay more interesting, than simply having an extra gateway.

 

[Skrafin]

I sure do hope we get to see all federation perks soon and maybe, possibly a release date?

 

[Pointyearedgit]

I hope there's an event chain or something. I get that not everything needs to be equally great, but what does simply having a free gateway do? Save you influence, and a few thousand alloys in the late game, when you typically have more than enough anyway?
That's a very long time to receive the benefit, when you could easily choose another origin like Mechanist or Shoulders of giants and get something useful from the start. So if you could open it earl(y/ier than normal) maybe to a special system, that'd be nice.

They could add a weight to the tech draw like mechanist already does for droids.