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Stellaris Dev Diary #200: The Custodian

Hello everyone!

Today we’re back again with yet another dev diary; number 200 in fact. It sure has been a very exciting journey for Stellaris, and I think it is only going to get better! Nemesis is shaping up to be a very interesting addition to Stellaris, and today we thought we would talk about another headline feature for our upcoming expansion – namely the Custodian.

While some empires seek to set the universe on fire, others need to find their destiny as its defender. As we mentioned last week, the Galactic Community will get their own tools to fight the crisis, and that is what they can do by electing their chief crisis fighter.

We are setting the stage for these two nemeses to battle over the fate of the galaxy, and it is up to you who will win.

Becoming the Custodian
As soon as there is a Galactic Council, the Galactic Community can propose to elect one of the council members to become the Custodian. It is possible to have multiple proposals going at once, but as soon as a resolution is passed that elects a Custodian, others cannot be proposed anymore, as the choice has already been made.

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Concrete evidence that my lithoids should rock the Custodianship.

The AI is more likely to vote for a Custodian when there is some sort of crisis going on, which can be a Marauder crisis, end-game crisis, “Become the Crisis”-crisis or any of the other things that can happen.

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Time to get to work.

Powers of the Custodian
In order to be effective at their role, the Custodian must gain access to some special powers. The Custodian may need to be able to affect which resolutions move to the Senate Floor, so they have extended powers to be able to influence that more directly.

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The Custodian in the Galactic Community.

Prematurely End Session: A Custodian can end the current session after half of its voting period, which will pass or reject the resolution being voted on depending on the voting situation at the time.

Emergency Measures: The Custodian can use the Emergency Measures power to send a proposal to the Senate Floor, but has a much lower cooldown than regular council members.

Shared Intel: The Custodian will gain some Intel on all other members of the Galactic Community, such as knowing their Relative Fleet Power.

Freezing proposals: The custodian can pay 200 influence to freeze a resolution for 4 years, making it impossible for the resolution to move to the Senate Floor for the duration.

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Brrrr. Will you be resolute and wait it out..?

Custodial Resolutions
There are a number of new Resolutions that are tied to the Custodian. Let’s take a look at some of them:

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Galactic Defense Force
In order to protect the galaxy from threats from within and from beyond, the Custodian is able to construct ships for a Galactic Defense Force. The GDF is very similar to a federation fleet in the way it works, with the exception that it’s under the control of the current Custodian.

Should there cease to be a Custodian, the GDF will become an independent entity until a new Custodian is established.

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Once again, similar to federation ships, the GDF ships can be designed in the ship designer., which can be accessed from the Galactic Community UI.

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GDF? Ship just got real.

A Galaxy on Fire
After you have gloriously hammered the crisis into obscurity, your service as a Custodian is no longer needed, and the powers that came with the responsibility could be returned.

Maybe it was a really tough fight, a war the galaxy is sure to remember, and maybe you needed to ask the Galactic Community for more powers in order to win against the crisis – powers that you may not want to give up so easily...

This very much captures what we are trying to do with Nemesis. After one crisis has been defeated, maybe the next one is just around the corner… and this time it's a diplomatic one.
 
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Does the AI have been rewritten to make the GC working correctly? Cause currently I don't see the point of being custodian if it means controlling half the galaxy to pass this resolution.

Also what's the name of the update (author)?
 
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So Nemesis won't work without Federation?

Great idea, anyway

P.S. TO all dislikers - What are you respectfully disagree with?
Well, namely because
A)[redacted]
B)marauders are from Apocalypse
C)in case you were talking about the galactic senate, that one’s on the base game

and

D)the Khan was only used as an example, and from the wording it’ll work with any crisis (i.e for example the three from the base game

so you’re basically complaining for the sake of it.
 
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Will there be any other difference between a Federation and GC fleet?

Maybe, to give Federations more flavor, could you add a feature where you can "standardize" fleets with your members if you're President? Since they're smaller entities, that are more diplomatically united, it may be easier to get all members to agree on more specific details. There could be a cohesion or opinion bonus of some sort if you comply with it. And once you make a certain design for ships, you can flag it, and all fleets in your federation, whether your own, or the AIs, will upgrade to that design. That way if you're fighting a war or crisis, you can have some cohesiveness and the AI won't be stuck with inferior designs. Although they'll be limited by their tech, so even if you put down tier V lasers, they may be stuck with tier III. So you would want to gray out any weapons not every member has access to.
 
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The Galactic Council will be unlocked for owners of Nemesis as well. You will not need Federations to unlock it and the Custodian.
But you won't have access to the special features of Federations? How will the Galactic council work if that's the case?
 
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Also one more question:

What happens with the Galactic Defense Force when Custodianship ends? Does it remain passive and just sit there on it's own doing nothing? Or maybe it starts patrolling along the borders?

...Or maybe it goes full independent and starts attacking the empires that are in breach of galactic resolutions? :eek: (I know that one is not gonna happen, but imagine that)
 
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Can we declare war on the GDF if it becomes an independent entity? It seems like it might sometimes be necessary to launch a pre-emptive strike on it to prevent the ships from falling into the hands of a new Custodian that's likely to be a problem for us the Galactic Community's continued well-being...

Obviously, the Galactic Community might frown on such an act, but it sometimes doesn't know what's best for us it and someone might need to take drastic measures as a result...

By the time the crisis is defeated, I will probably have enough diplomatic weight to block any attempts to vote me off. But maybe not, let's see.

Well, you could always make a "strategic withdrawal" sacrificing some "unimportant" systems to the crisis that just happen to belong to someone that's likely to get uppity and to have sufficient diplo weight to be a bother...
 
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Why do I get a huge Palpatine vibe here?
I love the ideas behind it but oh my. This is going to make me ruler of the Galaxy so much easier. Only thing now that has to be prevented is going to make Space Ulm the guardian of the Galaxy.
 
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Could a custodian use the GDF to attack other empires?
GDF is like a federation fleet. What reward or motivation would a Custodian or any other empires have in building the GDF? For the custodian there is a danger of losing the GDF. For am empire there is no motivation to build the GDF. The GDF might even be a threat.
 
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Once again, similar to federation ships, the GDF ships can be designed in the ship designer., which can be accessed from the Galactic Community UI.
Will there be a working auto update for the ships? Federation ships normally don't get the newst equipment and some ships aren't upgradable at all.

Maybe it was a really tough fight, a war the galaxy is sure to remember, and maybe you needed to ask the Galactic Community for more powers in order to win against the crisis – powers that you may not want to give up so easily...
Thats slander. Of course I want to give up the powers after the crisis had been defeated but, there is the rebuilding to be organized and the prethoryan are waiting beyond the rim of the galaxy. Just because I've defeated one crisis doesn't mean that the galaxy is safe now.

I'll have to very reluctantly keep the powers to guard the galaxy. Sorry.
 
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But who is going to propose it on the floor of the Senate. Who is going to be your Jar Jar :D
I will find someone >: ) (a little bird whispered to me: "Espionage will settle the deal").
 
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