Stellaris Dev Diary #193: Signal Discovered

[kwheeler]

To be honest, I don't remember the names of my governors, scientists, admirals or generals... So I doubt I will for envoys. I only care about dem levels and traits. Is this truly different for you?

It is for me. I grow attached to particular characters and imagine how they interact with each other--but I'm kind of narrative-driven in my gameplay rather than strategy-driven.

 

[kwheeler]

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!!

I'm torn. On one hand, that is really mysterious. On the other, it could potentially be crippling if you fly in your main fleet and they vanish--leaving you helpless at a possibly crucial juncture in the game. I'd say that if you start to fly a fleet of more than one ship into a Fallen Empire, as soon as you set the path/command to the ships, you get a generic pop-up event in which you hear rumors of missing probes and vessels in that sector--so you have a bit of warning and don't cripple yourself.

Single science ships though? Fair game for a disapparition.

 

[PalmettoExplorer14]

This looks great! It will be nice to see what choices spiritualist empires get during first contact events!

 

[Troyen]

Maybe we should have an Origin where a Fallen Empire has set up an Observation Post over our planet.

Sounds like a great tweak to the start of the Scion origin.

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!!

Would work really well with the fanatic xenophobe FE.

 

[Kayden_II]

"Fine" ... Back to business towards full attention on new incomplete, buggy, unotimised and unbalanced stuff like this first-contact-extension and this ( my guess ) new espionage-DLC, right ?

Edit: If you want to improve first contacts then rethink the situation that whole map-parts get 100% revealed as soon as first contacts are established. ( I mean the whole map-parts from the empires you've established first contacts with ). Also rethink sensor-ranges: "1" is actually enough for star-systems as well as hyperlane-connections. The space-combat-stats matter, so give sensors more than just improved tracking if necessary in order to keep them relevant. EDIT-END.

 

[StellarisFan1]

I hope they add sabotage to fleets, planets and stations! + Kill leaders and governors, scientist admirals and steal resources and science points! Ability to spoil relations between bot empires and destroy federations from within! And most importantly, let them add stealth to the fleet and alter the sensors !!!!!!!!!!!! The ability to build structures or modules to create the Fog of War is worth rebalancing the sentinel complex.

 

[HighKings_Ruin]

I'd really like to see a system where first contact can be delayed or outright terminated, I like the idea of my empire being this unknown threat in the galaxy that no one has been able to contact and have been having a load of difficulty gaining intel on. This would be really good for inward perfectionist empires too.

 

[Olterin]

"Fine" ... Back to business towards full attention on new incomplete, buggy, unotimised and unbalanced stuff like this first-contact-extension and this ( my guess ) new espionage-DLC, right ?

Edit: If you want to improve first contacts then rethink the situation that whole map-parts get 100% revealed as soon as first contacts are established. ( I mean the whole map-parts from the empires you've established first contacts with ). Also rethink sensor-ranges: "1" is actually enough for star-systems as well as hyperlane-connections. The space-combat-stats matter, so give sensors more than just improved tracking if necessary in order to keep them relevant. EDIT-END.

They, uh, did. Rethink the whole revealing map-parts part. Look closer at the attached screenshots in this dev diary - the full extent of the borders is only given away by the empire name tag, not by actual borders or system information.

 

[Calvax]

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.

Cloaking seems like something that could work well with the sensor system. Sensors in stellaris currently work by giving vision based on number of hyperlanes away. A cloak module could be a simple flat reduction. E.g. +3 sensor can scan up to 3 systems away, revealing ships and stations. A fleet/ship with a +1 stealth module can only be deteced by these sensors if its within 2 systems.

Ideally, but this could be really resource intensive, there'd be a "running silent" stance that causes fleets to path around systems in which they'd be detected, and they'd evade distant fleets that are moving in a way that could detect them.

Also this system would be a bit of a pain unless it came with a some UI improvements. A sensor mapmode that colour codes systems based on sensor coverage (so you can see where to send stealth ships) and icons on the mapmode show colour stealthed/detected fleets at a glance.

 

[Dragatus]

Looks very good. Exploration has always been the best thing about Stellaris and extending it further will only make the game better.

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!

We're already swapping around our scientists, so that wouldn't be all that different. Though scientists do not have a re-asignment cooldown. Maybe just drop the cooldown?

 

[kwanzaabot]

It is for me. I grow attached to particular characters and imagine how they interact with each other--but I'm kind of narrative-driven in my gameplay rather than strategy-driven.

I grow attached to my archaeologists in particular, since I'm checking in on them a LOT, and I typically seek out scientists with archaeology specialties when a dig arises, and choose them specifically for that purpose. So I see them go from a meek level I grad student, to a level III or IV expert in their field... and then they die mysteriously when there's an accident on-site. :'(

If envoys are treated similarly, I have a feeling I'll be much more invested in them.

 

[TauGDS]

Similar to what a few others have said, I think that splitting off the Archaeology (and now First Contact) stuff off into their own tabs from the situation log would help with clutter, especially in the early-mid game with all the sites that are in the log but since they aren't in your space you can't do anything with them

Also, EPSIONAGE!

 

[MrReaper182]

Yes exploring and discovering things are fun but what makes Paradox games head and shoulders above other strategy games is the way you make politics in your strategy games front and center of the experience (like in Victoria 2 or Crusader Kings 3) and this game could use more politics between the different factions and groups running the empire people are playing as. The reason lots and lots of people want Victoria 3 is because of the politics was so fun and unique in that game and the reason Crusader Kings 2 got a squeal so god damn fast was people loved the politics within that game. This game was moving in the right direction after the Federations DLC but I wanna see the politics for players empires expanded upon because doing that could make Stellaris even better than the Crusader Kings and Victoria series.

 

[Alastor]

Though this is an interesting change, I am a bit concerned at how it will work out in a huge galaxy with dozens of entities to contact. It runs the risk of being a bit tedious if this process keeps on repeating and repeating. Hopefully there is enough variation to keep it fresh.

Another point to consider is that this addition is enhancing the early phase of the game. Yet, arguably, the early phase is already interesting and gives you quite a few things to do. It's the relatively barren middle phase that needs more attention. Hopefully, we see some changes focused there too.

And let's not forget the late phase either, though I guess there the focus should still be on performance improvement above all else.

 

[Calvax]

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.

Speculating here but if these news-type notifications only occur now if you have intel on a relevant party, then because the players can priorities where to focus their intel gathering you'd get what you want naturally falling out of that.

 

[Calvax]

It runs the risk of being a bit tedious if this process keeps on repeating and repeating. Hopefully there is enough variation to keep it fresh.

Maybe after you've met X% of the galaxy a rare social tech, "Universal Translator" could have a high chance to appear allowing you to accelerate or skip first contact for this reason.

 

[Kolonel]

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.

I couldn't agree more.

I really like the idea of fleshing out first contact, sounds right up my alley as roleplayer.

 

[UltimateTobi]

Though scientists do not have a re-asignment cooldown. Maybe just drop the cooldown?

I'd go the other route and have cool downs (travel times) for every Leader.

 

[Deshiba]

I'd go the other route and have cool downs (travel times) for every Leader.

The method doesn't really matter. There's no reason to have envoys be different from scientists, governors, generals and admirals. Their single function in a field of different aspects is pretty much identical after all.

If envoys get a different game mechanic, it might be wise to convert all of the other leaders to that same mechanic. Otherwise the game will become more difficult to grasp for newer players then it already is.

 

[Calvax]

There's no reason to have envoys be different from scientists, governors, generals and admirals. Their single function in a field of different aspects is pretty much identical after all.

Pretty sure the only reason they're pseudo-leaders now is that without a tweak to how leader assignment works it would be a pain to remember where an Envoy was when you replaced them. Currently if you lose any other kind of leader you can find out what job just became empty pretty quickly, either by glancing at your notifications or the outliner. This is because your slots for other leaders are pretty much intended to always be filled (every fleet has an admiral, every science ship a scientist, every sector a governor etc). So not only is the list of slots small, a recently vacated slot is obvious because it's likely the only one.

With envoys you could potentially send them to any other empire, or a federation, or the GC. For Envoys to not be a pain you'd need at least notifications for exactly where an envoy was just lost, if not a planner of some sort that shows recently vacated positions.