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Stellaris Dev Diary #175 - Space Fauna

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned last week, we have begun working on a larger free update targeted for May, and it would be fun to share some of the new things you will be able to discover.

2.6.3 is still planned to be released as an opt-in beta SoonTM, so stay tuned for more information about that.

But for now, let’s continue and talk a little bit about what you’ll expect to see in the free May update.

Background
We’ve felt that the galaxy sometimes feels a bit empty now, compared to how it used to back in the day. Since the AI is a bit more proactive in hunting down hostile space fauna you are encountering these alien lifeforms much more seldom. We wanted to reinvigorate the galaxy with more alien life, and allow them to continue existing for a longer period of time.

Tiyanki
The tiyanki now have a home system, Tiyana Vek, which can continue to spawn more space whales throughout the continuation of your game, unless the tiyanki in the system have been hunted to extinction. The spawning of new tiyanki will also depend on galaxy size, which sets an upper limit for how many fleets can spawn (in relation to already roaming around).

upload_2020-4-2_11-42-6.png

Tiyana Vek, in all its gaseous glory.​

The tiyanki themselves have also been updated, and there are now hatchlings in addition to the previously existing Bulls, Cows and Calves. The roaming tiyanki fleets are now also a bit more randomized in their compositions.

upload_2020-4-2_11-42-38.png

Space whaling.​

Hunting the tiyanki will yield energy credits and exotic gas, but xenophile empires will not approve.

upload_2020-4-2_11-43-0.png

Successful hunt. No, bounty numbers are not final.
​
Space Amoebas
Similar to the Tiyanki, the space amoebas now also have a home system from which they can spawn. The space amoebas spawning behaviour is slightly different from the space whales. The amoebas that spawn in the home system will have a cooldown, but may occasionally leave their system in large numbers and seek a new home.

upload_2020-4-2_11-43-27.png

Behold! Amor Alveo, home of the amoebas.
​
As before, it's possible to complete the Amoeba Pacification Project to turn them non-hostile if you are a xenophile or pacifist empire. If you have pacified the space amoebas, it's possible for some of them to spawn in your territory. These amoebas will be friendly towards you, but perhaps not to your enemies!

Galactic Community
As we showed last week, there will also be a few new resolutions that allow you to decide how the galaxy should feel about the tiyanki.

upload_2020-4-2_11-43-52.png

With the Tiyanki Conservation Act, an empire that kills a tiyanki will become in Breach of Galactic Law.

With the Tiyanki Pest Control, an empire will be in Breach of Galactic Law while they are harboring any Tiyanki within their borders.

We’re also working on a resolution for pacifying amoebas, which you can propose if you have already pacified them. Empires will get a choice whether or not they will agree to pacifying the amoebas, which will share pacification if they agree.

-----

These are the first steps we’re taking towards reinvigorating the galaxy a bit. We’ll give you more information in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for future dev diaries!
 
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That's pretty cool! 2k gas is a bit OP though, maybe shrink that number by an order of magnitude. Or maybe Tiyanki are rarer to spawn than I assume in which case it might be fine.

But in that vein, could we farm/milk tiyanki as a monthly source of exotic gas? Considering how exotic gases are needed for research, energy, and pop growth, as well as shields, sublight speed, and plasma, they are by far the most critical strategic resource, so having another way of getting it reliably is pretty useful. Also nice for empires which don't have gases in their initial territory, since that is a pretty massive penalty otherwise. This would furthermore provide lots of options for political/flavour events etc as well, with xenophiles opposing the exploitation/culling of tiyanki and xenophobes opposing the continued existence of tiyanki, weighted against the empire benefit of exotic gases income.

Also, it would be helpful to have amoeba pacification available for anyone who isn't xenophobe or militaristic. Empires without these ethics should have no reason to be unable to try and pacify the amoeba.

If the home systems happen to be in xenophobe territories and are killed, could there be a genetics project to revive them?

Lastly, I do echo sentiments in the rest of the thread about the bugs. Some of them are pretty severe and I would like to see a bugfix patch as soon as possible. As cool as these new features are, they should not come at the expense of delaying the playability of the game. I understand that not everyone in the dev team can do the bugfixing and those who can are already working on it, but I don't mind having micro bugfix patches be released as soon as a bug is fixed, even if that means lots more patches in a short time period.
 
I'm no Tiyanki Hater. But we had a dev diary in November saying that the Stellaris brand had taken a hammering and Federations was being paused for polish and now it's come out with Juggernaut and Galactic Councils bugged (both headline features). The Machine Uprising (a Synthetic Dawn headline feature) also seems to have problems and Multiplayer desyncs seem to be rampant (from what's written on the forums).

I'm all in favour of new stuff, but there seems to be a distinct lack of humility in these Dev Diaries. These posts are the MAIN communication between devs and players and the only words coming to a mention of issues is "There's hopefully an opt in beta soon".

Yes, you fixed the Juggernaut... which shouldn't have been released in that state.

In future if you want us to praise your new content (looks good tbh) acknowledge that issues exist. This is a conversation. We tell you stuff is busted regularly (and we try to be nice about it), tell us regularly "This issue is being fixed, patch is being tested." or "That's a tough issue, it'll miss the next patch."

Bottom line: Good update, tone deaf delivery. When we tell you "this major part of the game is broken" please acknowledge the fact.

We love the game you work on. You obviously do too. I can see you're trying to fix things. We just need to look at the 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 bugfixes to see that you are. But when people hand over money for your hard work and say "This main feature is not working" don't reply "BUT SPACE COWS!"

All the best, I know that everyone around the world is having a tough time and despite that you guys are working on building things to entertain, distract and provide enjoyment. Thank you. Take care of yourself (devs and players).
 
I would appreciate these additions:

1. GC Resolution: Leviathan Protection Act.
* "Let's preserve these ancient and awe inspiring wonders. They're irreplacable."

2. Empire Option: Amoeba Breeding.
* Like literally breeding or cloning more.
* Stage one, they are neutral to you.
* Stage two you breed them and imprint them to you like Bubbles, so you can have an Amoeba Fleet.

3. Empire Option: Crystal Planting.
* Does not require system ownership. Science Ship goes into system, does a special project, and then after a short window so it can get out of the way, a small crystal fleet appears in the system and grows slowly over time. These would still be exactly as hostile as all other crystals. Player or empire decides why they would think this is a good idea.
 
Sound like exciting changes, I do miss seeing the wildlife roam about after all the empires try to exploit or eradicate them somehow, but I do have one question. Will this update mess with existing save games? I don't want to have to start over a game I've become invested in because a new update breaks things.
 
DrNukeLear said:
I'm no Tiyanki Hater. But we had a dev diary in November saying that the Stellaris brand had taken a hammering and Federations was being paused for polish and now it's come out with Juggernaut and Galactic Councils bugged (both headline features). The Machine Uprising (a Synthetic Dawn headline feature) also seems to have problems and Multiplayer desyncs seem to be rampant (from what's written on the forums).

I'm all in favour of new stuff, but there seems to be a distinct lack of humility in these Dev Diaries. These posts are the MAIN communication between devs and players and the only words coming to a mention of issues is "There's hopefully an opt in beta soon".

Yes, you fixed the Juggernaut... which shouldn't have been released in that state.

In future if you want us to praise your new content (looks good tbh) acknowledge that issues exist. This is a conversation. We tell you stuff is busted regularly (and we try to be nice about it), tell us regularly "This issue is being fixed, patch is being tested." or "That's a tough issue, it'll miss the next patch."

Bottom line: Good update, tone deaf delivery. When we tell you "this major part of the game is broken" please acknowledge the fact.

We love the game you work on. You obviously do too. I can see you're trying to fix things. We just need to look at the 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 bugfixes to see that you are. But when people hand over money for your hard work and say "This main feature is not working" don't reply "BUT SPACE COWS!"

All the best, I know that everyone around the world is having a tough time and despite that you guys are working on building things to entertain, distract and provide enjoyment. Thank you. Take care of yourself (devs and players).
Click to expand...

The freaking dev diary literally says a patch is close to being released. What exactly do you want here?
 
Maybe if you pacify the Amoebas, claim the home system, and have Bubbles, once he grows up, you can send him to that system to become the Amoeba Patriarch and teach the other amoebas to follow your commands?
 
Next DD, Space Flora!
Show me the space moss

Also looks great, it'd be cool if it was federation level too? so you could have pro-whale federations and anti-whale ones before the galactic community takes a stance?
 
monkeypunch87 said:
I know, you are trying to be funny, but yeah, I wouldn't mind an exactly mentioned release date and time.
Click to expand...
I'd be happy with "this week", "next week" or "probably tuesday, no guarantees". As I learned again at work today, just because it looks simple, the team is in agreement that it is probably simple and no red flags are raised, it does not mean it actually is simple. It is only more likely to be.
 
permanently_afk said:
If you don't like the stuff, you have a very simple choice: Don't buy. Oh, wait. Its free.
Click to expand...

It's not free, because Federations was actually a priced DLC, that I regrettably bought prior to realizing how shallow the content provided in it and the accompanying updates actually were. Given the Economy AI rework, and the not-entirely-terrible framework they laid down with Senate+Federations, I figured I might wait to see on whether they will fix that shallowness... but then forgetting about the content 2 weeks later and proudly proclaiming to move on to the next chunk

is just adding insult to injury.

But you're right in that the mistaken choice to buy into promises a 2nd time (the first disappointment being Lithoids, really, albeit it was more of a mechanic quality issue there) is on me. Won't happen again though, because as you rightly pointed out, I'll simply not buy any further Stellaris DLC until the devs get their shit together and patch up the content I already paid for.
 
Nahadoth said:
The freaking dev diary literally says a patch is close to being released. What exactly do you want here?
Click to expand...

Does it address the GC issues?
I imagine so - but it doesn't say.

Does it address the desyncs?
Probably, I think I saw a dev post that they were working on it - but others may not have seen the post.

Does it address the machine uprising?
II imagine so - but it doesn't say.

Does it address ethics shifting still be broken?
Probably, I think I saw a dev post that they were working on it (they found another bug they hadn't fixed) - but others may not have seen the post.

Is it soon as in weeks or soon as in days?
A patch coming soon could mean that they have 101 miscellaneous bug-fixes of little bugs, but the big stuff is taking longer. I assume it's fixing at least two of the three things I've mentioned, but it's an assumption because of the lack of clarity - it could be all three, it could be the addition of Esperanto as a language.

What would I like?
Clarity.

permanently_afk said:
Probably ritual self-flagellation by the devs before every post. You know, like the crying managers in Japan when they have to apologize for a mistake.
Click to expand...

Nope. Just a small note saying. "We're aware of issue X. We're on it." will do. Ritual self-flagellation is completely unnecessary and takes time away from bug hunting.

permanently_afk said:
I'd be happy with "this week", "next week" or "probably tuesday, no guarantees". As I learned again at work today, just because it looks simple, the team is in agreement that it is probably simple and no red flags are raised, it does not mean it actually is simple. It is only more likely to be.
Click to expand...

Yeah - any of the above, preferably with an overestimate in the amount of time taken.
 
Maybe think about it like this then. They are nomads, possibly even from another galaxy, but they chose one system in the galaxy that had conditions favorable to rearing their young in. A sort of a cosmic oasis or watering hole for them to congregate in. Some choose to still wander though, possibly looking for other such systems to call home or searching for specific kinds of gas giants to feed on.
 
DrNukeLear said:
What would I like?
Clarity.
...
Just a small note saying. "We're aware of issue X. We're on it." will do.
Click to expand...

You've mentioned that they've already said that for two of the things you're still complaining about anyway. There are something like 1000 bug reports in the bug report forum since the 2.6, and even considering the many duplicates, that's a lot of small notes to write, and everyone has a different perception of what the important bugs are to deserve the notes. Compiling that much detail on what they're working on isn't really different than patch notes, which will come with the beta patch.
 
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