• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination

Congratulations, [Employee.GetFirstName]!

Due to consistently meeting or exceeding performance goals and receiving high marks from both your manager and colleagues, you have been selected for termination at the end of this quarter! Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated by all of us here at Dodacorp™, and we’re lucky to see you go!

Your manager will be in touch with you to provide instructions related to termination benefits, reallocating your Dodacorp™ retirement credits to your next of kin, and the necessary paperwork for your desired post-termination arrangements. As a valued member of Dodacorp™, remember that you have an employee discount on cremation services from our partners at Burnatech™ and don’t forget that you can claim your complementary Eternal Interment™ urn from our Repositrexx™ subsidiary.

Ask your manager about securing a spot for your urn on the Wall of Honor™, the most desirable places are going fast!

Please make sure to complete all of the requisite forms by the first of
[Employee.TerminationDate.PreviousMonth] so you don’t miss this exciting opportunity.

We’d like to thank you again for your service here at Dodacorp™, and appreciate that your sacrifice today will lead to record profits tomorrow!

Sincerely,

[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullName]
[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullJobTitle]

Dodacorp(tm) image - NOT JEFF


---

Inspired by the extreme popularity of CK2’s Sunset Invasion, we continue our exploration of mortality with two more civics that we’re planning for an upcoming release, the Death Cult and Corporate Death Cult.

Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Death Cult civic - sadly the Curators aren’t allowed to secretly be a death cult

Corporate Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Corporate Death Cult civic - ritual murder for funds and prophet


Available to Spiritualist empires, empires with either of these civics replace the Temples that Spiritualists can normally build with Sacrificial Temples that provide both Death Priest and Mortal Initiate jobs.

Sacrificial Temple - NOT JEFF

Sacrificial Temple building - funny how there always seems to be a Help Wanted sign in the window

Death Priest - NOT JEFF

Death Priest job - dedicated to improving game performance

Mortal Initiate - HOPEFULLY NOT JEFF

Mortal Initiate job - the benefits are to die for


Death Cults that have Mortal Initiate positions filled gain access to three new Sacrifice Edicts that let them perform the ritual slaughter to the gods (or whatever force your empire’s pops believe in). They’re a bit fickle though, and the magnitude of the benefits varies, but the more blood that is shed, the more likely you are to get the better blessings.

Sacrifice: Togetherness - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Togetherness edict - let’s remember the good times we had together

Sacrifice: Harmony - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony edict - you can finally get that corner desk and red stapler you wanted

Sacrifice: Bounty - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Bounty edict - it’s like voluntary purging that doesn’t get you yelled at by the Galactic Community


Sacrifice: Togetherness and Sacrifice: Harmony each have a base cost of 50 influence, Sacrifice: Bounty costs a base of 100 influence. These are, as usual, modified by things that affect Edict costs (such as the Spiritualist modifier).

When the Sacrifice is made, the Death Priests will inform you as to how it was received by the divine.

Sacrifice Event - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony - should have built more Sacrificial Temples, these are rookie numbers

Despite being societies revolving around ritual murder (and the Sunset Invasion joke), the theme of these civics is intended to be one of voluntary sacrifice, where the sacrifices are appreciated and honored. As such, it is not open to Fanatic Purifiers, who would probably have a more... uh... aggressive policy.

I know last week I said that we would try to take a glimpse into life in the Mishar Cabal, but they spaced the journalist sent to interview them after they "saw too much". We'll see what we can share about them soon.

Next week we’ll reveal what’s hidden under the blurred text in the Death Cult civic and maybe even meet
JEFF
.
 
  • 68Like
  • 39Love
  • 26Haha
  • 7
  • 5
  • 5
Reactions:
"death priest"

are you thinking what i am thinking, fellow tech priests?
 
Rogue Servitor needs a version of that civic.

None of my other empires would be interested in it, but being a Rogue Servitor who occasionally makes his pet organics fight each other to the death would be amazing.
 
Can't you just add plaques and other diseases?

I'd imagine plaque would extremely trivial for space age civilizations considering it's a minor inconvenience for modern industrial countries.
Screenshot_20200921-141522_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
  • 10Haha
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Medical workers are underpowered! Make dentistry matter again!
Give it teeth?

But yeah the building should provide +10% habitability or something.
 
While this civic has nice flavour I fear it will be mostly useless.
Does every pop killed increase the bonus by 5% or do the required pops scale with empire size. If the first one then a single citadel of faith might be enough for the full bonus. Do you then close the jobs on other planets? Also the pops regrow slower than you sacrifice them, that leads to resettle requirements. The initiate job is also very bad and should just be worked the moment before a sacrifice. Can't it be good in itself, like the tech output of a researcher or an even larger one? Technocrats have a huge unity bonus, why not give spiritualists a tech boost?
If the required pops scale with empire size you need to kill large parts of population the 5% pop growth isn't enough to even get close to sacrifice regularly. Spiritualists already have the lowest pop growth, because they hate robots. Do we need to drain them of even more potential pops?
Why does the edict cost influence? Isn't the pop loss enough?
The unity bonus seems not worth to take until traditions become more useful and ascension perks aren't as tech dependent.
Happiness bonus leads to increased stability and increased production bonus. If it's worth it depends on the amount of pops you need to kill for the full bonus and your initial production, but it might not be worth it early/mid game. And instead put the pops to work in regular jobs. You could manually close and open the initiate job and let them work a more useful job until the sacrifice. I don't like the thought of that added micro. Also another stability increasing civic like the one from last weak doesn't require you to kill pops for stability. Why not take that one instead?
The mineral and energy sacrifice could be worth it, if your production is large enough.

After this and last weeks devdiary it seems new civics aren't balanced well. That's sad, because their rp potential is great, but without balance that means nothing.
 
will the corporate version of this civic have unique TV or energy bonuses instead of regular resources and/or a unique corporate building or is it just a reskin that is available for all empires?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
I have an idea for the next DLC, it could be called the "Grand Game Fixing cult" , where the Dev team give us the new "Crisis AI fixed" species pack, along with the "fixed war in heaven" and "fixed sector automation" civics for the little price of nothing!

Good idea?
 
  • 10
  • 1Like
  • 1Love
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
  • 5Haha
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Yup "interesting" fits the bill quite well. (As written it is actually intersting that may allude to some intergalactic sting going on).
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Thnx for this, exactly what I needed to bring this clown spectical to a close. I'm off this stupid ride for good.

The irony of the termination notice in Dev diary is also so sweet.
 
The sacrifice, especially for Megacorps, can be considerably more pragmatic and transactional than the direct kind of ritualised devotional religious suicide people are talking about.

The suicide can simply be the fulfilment of a contract; for whatever reason the devotee has offered themselves almost as a commodity for a payment or other benefit to others. Maybe they have accrued debts that will be cleared by their sacrifice. Maybe it will help lift their loved ones out of poverty. Whatever. Your sacrifice is a meaningful and valuable thing, and valuables....are a commodity.

And you don't even have to go too fanatical about it either. Example? The Ferengi. They absolutely, indisputably put business on a spiritual level. When Quark sold his own body because he was terminally ill, he was required to fulfil his contract and die to provide the goods he had sold even though his terminal illness turned out to....not be. But they don't run around screaming about the Great Material River or whatever the hell it was to the extent that they sound like religious zealots.
 
In 3.00 I was planning to play with the death cult.
I did not do this before because buildings would be destroyed and pops on planets kept growing.
Now in 3.0 this will change and since planets stop growing when at their capacity and buildings no longer tied to population numbers it seems that the death cult civic is a lot stronger.

I was planning to use it with the imperial cult (for more edicts and edict cost reduction) and use also all the resource edicts (who have been buffed to 50%). This way I should be able to get more than a 100% worker resource output (50% edict + 10% worker edict+ 10% authoritarian + 30% sacrifice) and even more with slaves.

Is there anything else I need to know about the death cult civic in 3.0?
 
  • 1
Reactions: