Stellaris Dev Diary #193: Signal Discovered

[Elfwind]

You're able to have fleets follow other fleets by just right clicking them, useful if you need your corvette fleet to keep pace with your main battle fleet. You might be able to do the same with setting them to follow science vessels, I've never thought to check

No I already know about that. I mean like escort like American fighter jets escorting Russian bombers out of their airspace. If nations can take hostile actions with science ships I want to have my military prevent such by escorting them out of our space pre-contact and perhaps after if they wish to add it.

 

[MichaelJanuary]

As a xenophobic empire with an aggressive first contact protocol it is possible to secure a couple of specimen for a closer look.

Hey Dx2, in which orifice do you think the internal probe should be inserted?

 

[Ragob]

Guys imagine a fallen empire or regions in the galaxy that no one knows about. If you send ships they are "lost" and no one knows what happened to them (in the case of the fallen empire its so advanced that will not waste its time with lesser species so they just want to be left alone). We can have a region in the galaxy that you will slowly discover as tech advances unlocking great mysteries. That would be so cool!!

 

[Mineskum]

Are the ethics of the nation going to be hidden as well? From the example we the player know a federation builder will be quite peaceful. If it was hidden from us we wouldn't know if this nation would be hostile or not.

 

[fodazd]

Another thing about first contact, especially aggressive first contact, is that it allows you to do things that you can't do anymore once contact has been established. For example, you can shoot down their science- or construction ships without having to declare war with a "regular" CB first. In my personal opinion, it would be cool if we could still do that once contact has been established. I have often wished I could be hostile toward certain empires even if I don't want to conquer anything or have any other demands beyond "don't come near my space with your ships".

Have any of you ever wished that there was a "I want to shoot down your construction ships so you can't expand in my direction anymore!" CB?

 

[Mythox]

sooooo when can we already have the patch ??? =)

 

[Olterin]

As much as I like that this is being expanded, I feel like (for example) fanatically xenophobe (especially isolationist) empires should have a way to avoid establishing contact. This shouldn't be a one-sided process, it should require input from both sides to properly establish contact.

Of course, as a consequence there'd be no formal diplomatic relations and thus hostile acts could continue to happen without a formal war declaration.

 

[WeeBigTerd101]

Hello everyone!

This week we are going to talk about something new that we’ve been working on - namely improving first contact and extending the exploration aspects of the game. All of this is work in progress and may not accurately represent what the game will look like once all of this work is finished. A lot of UI is very much work in progress, so don't pay too much attention to icons or such.

Background
Exploration has always been one of the best parts of Stellaris, and it is perhaps what sets us apart from other games that follow similar themes. Looking back, Stellaris has mostly revolved around the physical exploration of space, discovering an ancient galaxy full of wonders. We believe that exploring and uncovering the galaxy is such an important and fun aspect of the game that we really want to dive deeper into those experiences. We intend to take the next steps by improving the means by which you can establish communication and make the process of learning more about alien civilizations a part of the exploration gameplay.

In this dev diary we will be outlining some of the changes and additions that we are currently working on, so that you can get an idea of what to expect from our next big update.

First Contact
The first steps we are taking is that we are changing how first contact works. First contact is now a much more engaging process with interesting choices that are supported by great narrative.

When you first have an alien encounter you are able to set a policy for what your approach will be. First Contact Protocols is a policy option that lets you dictate your stance when it comes to dealing with newly discovered alien civilizations. Each option has different effects that should suit different types of diplomacy.

View attachment 656133
Friends..?

View attachment 656134 View attachment 656136 View attachment 656137
First Contact Protocol Policy options.​

First Contact Investigation
In order to establish communication with the alien contact, an Envoy will need to be assigned to the First Contact Investigation. The investigation will then be able to begin, and it will run through stages and will contain events similar to an archaeological dig site. The reason why we chose a system similar to archaeology is because its a great way of letting a process run over time in a way where it can also deliver some narrative along the way. The difficulty of the first contact investigation will be affected by things like how friendly the target is, or how difficult it is to translate their signals.

Since First Contact now uses an Envoy, that also means that it no longer pauses Society Research, and it is possible to run multiple first contact investigations simultaneously as long as you have the Envoys required.

(Envoys do still currently not have traits or levels, but it is something we are actively discussing.)

View attachment 656138

View attachment 656139​

The events that you can get depend on the type of empire you are, and on the type of alien you are trying to contact.

There are friendly/peaceful paths as well as ... less so.

As a xenophobic empire with an aggressive first contact protocol it is possible to secure a couple of specimen for a closer look.

View attachment 656140
View attachment 656141
View attachment 656142​

The choices you make during first contact can also have long-term effects on your relationship with the alien empire. Choose wisely and decide which trade-offs you are willing to make. Are you perhaps a materialistic and xenophobic empire that values scientific progress above all?

View attachment 656144

View attachment 656154
Stay on your side of the galaxy and all can be well.

View attachment 656146
Let’s agree to disagree.​

----------------

That is all for this week! Next week we’ll be showing you some new features that allow you to explore maps like the one posted here below.

View attachment 656152​

Glad to see the system getting more flavor!

 

[Drachasor]

Hmm, seems like there should be a capability to have periodic events that happen in an empire give envoy mission opportunities for other empires. Some things might be sabotaging a project (like if they are trying to activate the L-Gate), and others might have the option to provide help (such as if an empire has a doomed homeworld, helping them evacuate it). It would be interesting if, in the future, you could also assign another leader with an envoy for certain things, such as, hypothetically, if an event made a disease outbreak on one of their planets, so you assign an envoy and science leader to help their research for a cure -- or you get an envoy to steal information on the disease which you could either use yourself or develop a cure and hand it to them.

It would be more involved way to improve or damage relations by actions your civ does.

 

[Tamwin5]

I just hope that they will all feel like logical choices with their respective bonuses.

So many games has a first contact that basically consists of two choices: A bad one which gives you -20 opinion, a neutral one or a good one that gives you +20 opinion.

It's not hard to make enemies. And if you play xenophobic a lot of empires already hate you. So you want to keep them as friends or neutral for as long as possible. So what happens is that there is never an incentive to choose any of the bad options as they will just make them hate you faster.

I've always been thankful that the different options for introducing yourself in Stellaris has never actually carried any opinion modifiers with them. So if that Is changing there needs to be a good reason to not just choose the good/happy option every time. Be it influence, modifiers or something else. They need to be equal.

Well, we know that a hostile first meeting gives you +33% [REDACTED] on the empire, so it looks like being hostile at the first diplomatic stage gives a bonus to espionage (it's in one of the images they shared, third from the bottom).

I'm pretty sure if you use aggressive first contact policy you can invade the worlds of uncontacted empires, it just immediately establishes contact. It may have been removed from the game at some point after 2.2 though.

As someone who just played an isolationist Fanatic Purifier in MP, I can confirm it does not work that way in the current version of the game. But that just sounds like a work around, and with first contact getting a proper overhaul it's an aspect that shouldn't be forgotten.

 

[Ezumiyr]

While the changes are cool, I can see three paths for First Contact Events.
1/ We can get them all - or close - in one game if they trigger for each empire, in which case it will become tedious, especially if several empires can share the same first contact events (I'm not really ready to vivisect all the empires I need to meet).
2/ You can get to know new empires by proxy, meaning that first contact events are only for the first empires you meet (and a few isolated ones).
3/ There are a lot of possibilities that give personality to each empire on the map. I can't imagine how many different events it would require. And I hope everyone realize you can't realistically expect every first contact to be a unique story.

3/ would ideally be true but I hope it's 2/. It would help giving more personality to your neighbouring empires, while the farther ones would feel more distant. And I think it's good that the first contact events add some contrast that makes neighbours feel closer while other empires feel more like strangers. It reminds me of how in space opera, your "favourite enemies" can often feel closer than vague menace, like the Klingons compared to the Shapeshifters.

 

[HFY]

Hey Dx2, in which orifice do you think the internal probe should be inserted?

The exhaust port, duh.

Many Bothans died to bring you this information.

 

[Calvax]

Another thing about first contact, especially aggressive first contact, is that it allows you to do things that you can't do anymore once contact has been established. For example, you can shoot down their science- or construction ships without having to declare war with a "regular" CB first. In my personal opinion, it would be cool if we could still do that once contact has been established. I have often wished I could be hostile toward certain empires even if I don't want to conquer anything or have any other demands beyond "don't come near my space with your ships".

Have any of you ever wished that there was a "I want to shoot down your construction ships so you can't expand in my direction anymore!" CB?

I've thought before it would be cool if rivalry made each others fleets hostile if in neutral territory. This way you could have boarder skirmishes where you attack each others fleets in unclaimed systems, trying to hold them long enough to build an outpost. Not sure how the AI would handle it though, sounds like the type of thing that could be really hard for it to understand.

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

Another thing about first contact, especially aggressive first contact, is that it allows you to do things that you can't do anymore once contact has been established. For example, you can shoot down their science- or construction ships without having to declare war with a "regular" CB first. In my personal opinion, it would be cool if we could still do that once contact has been established. I have often wished I could be hostile toward certain empires even if I don't want to conquer anything or have any other demands beyond "don't come near my space with your ships".

Have any of you ever wished that there was a "I want to shoot down your construction ships so you can't expand in my direction anymore!" CB?

That would be tantamount to a declaration of war and your opponents would not be understanding; you would get invaded all the same.

You could just do a Humiliate CB if you want a war that much [only need to rival them to do it, which you can do with envoys.

 

[Malecord]

Curious to see how this intel mechanic will actually work.

 

[Col. W. T. Philmore]

Probably, you will also look into diplomatic events priority, for example, I am not very interested in that some dudes on the other end of galaxy made economic treaty between each other, or something like that.
In the meantime, I am quite interested, whether my neighbor is building relations with my rival and is going to join his federation, or something like that.

 

[Atreides]

It's easy to see how envoys could be fun, but its also easy to see how it would be really annoying to have to manually adjust which envoys are working on what. Especially with a re-assignment cooldown. I think a better option would be to be able to specialize your foreign office somehow. No promises!

Certainly true - but envoys having various diplomatic/espionage related skills that they start with/acquire would create some nice differentiation. I am envisioning something very similar to the espionage agents from La Resistance.

 

[OnyxAbussos]

LOVE IT. THANKS.

 

[Senfmann]

Love it so far.
A suggestion (don't know about the possibility regarding in difficulty to program):
Is it possible to have a system like in the Legends series, where you start out in Cold War and this being the default stance? Meaning you can destroy vessels inside your own space and can send some over to their space and they can do the same. (This would make border closing somehwat redundant though, since it's immediately bans you from crossing borders, instead of being able to do it with the danger of being shot down.)
Would be useful to cross borders to discover or claim systems beyond them. Would really like that. (Maybe a supply mechanic but that would be too much to wish for)

 

[kwheeler]

At that point, you may as well just scrap science ships entirely and add a Science Probe that goes in the ship weapon slot. Then you could have ship components that improve your exploration capabilities, which would mean tradeoffs between scanning speed, sublight speed, defenses, weapons, and so on.
"Do I pick the Supplementary Image Processing Systems for a bonus to anomaly discovery, or do I play it safe and install an extra set of shields?"

Of course, this would all be much more interesting if science vessels still played an important role mid-lategame. Imagine how much science you could fit on a 'battle'ship.

I think science vessels in mid-lategame should advance with technology breakthroughs to become cloaking ships. About the time you start running low on anomalies and archeology sites to explore, you should start gradually unlocking techs for cloaking so you can use the ships for espionage and scouting within hostile territory.