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Stellaris Dev Diary #207: Challenging Origins

Hi! Happy April Fool's Day!

This week we want to show off some of the challenging new Origins that are not coming soon.

The first, titled Surviving the Aftermath, is a variant on Void Dwellers.

The Surviving the Aftermath origin starts with the premise that a construction ship and colony ship were lost in MIA when a Crisis nation activated the Aetherophasic Engine and destroyed the galaxy, and you're left in a habitat to pick up the pieces.

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Your home system.

As the galaxy has been destroyed and there are no resources anywhere, we expect this to be an exciting and challenging origin to play.

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The local cluster.

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The galaxy. So alone. So very alone.

The next is the Crusader King Origin, where you begin the game as the ruler of a primitive civilization in the late medieval time period.

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Living in luxury.

This origin starts at a significant tech disadvantage, but our playtests suggest that you should achieve spaceflight within a few hundred years.

Several events have been added in case another empire wishes to enlighten your civilization, as well as a "burn the alien at the stake" minigame.

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Includes special diplomatic options!

Winning the game as a Crusader King grants the new Universe Universalis achievement.

The Prison Architect Origin is restricted to Rogue Servitors only, and drastically changes their gameplay. Instead of pampering their organic charges, they seek to collect all organics and like the Criminal Syndicate, are affected by and gain bonuses for having high Crime. They also gain extra Unity for each Criminal Syndicate pop they collect.

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Gotta catch ‘em all!

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Some minor changes to the Organic Sanctuary.

Open to all empire types, the This is Fine origin has a new twist - your empire thinks it’s hot stuff and is limited to colonizing stars.

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Is it warm in here, or is it just me? Looking pretty radiant though.

Your buildings have a chance of being ruined each month due to fires, but your energy production is vastly increased.

Last but not least, the AI Custodianship Origin is our most challenging yet, where you and the AI both control your empire simultaneously. This Origin is also open to all empire types, and represents a fractured leadership or gestalt intelligence where two leaders struggle for power, sometimes issuing contradictory orders. The AI Custodian will act to implement its flawless and foolproof algorithms, undoubtedly bringing your empire success in the long run, if you would only listen to it.

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The AI has great plans for my homeworld. The greatest of plans.

That's all for this week. As a reminder, the Stellaris 3.0 'Dick' update and Nemesis arrive two weeks from today on the 15th of April.

What Origins would you create if you wanted a special challenge?
 
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Prison architect is literally a better origin of a run I'm already playing.

10/10 would love to play as a prison warden.

AFD joke or not, the idea of an origin where one tries to survive in a galaxy-scale post-apocalypse sounds very interesting to me. I would play it if it were a real origin. Or even its own galaxy setting independent of origin. lol
I've thought of this setting a lot too. Not sure what you'd do in a stellaris run of it though.
 
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Actually I think a prison architect would work well but in a different sense
you have criminals that are caught and are given jobs to work out there sentence for life, you get a increase in anti crime and a special slave option for planets you build a prison complex on for free labor

It would also be interesting if your a criminal synicate and have criminal jobs that randomly appear, you can't control what jobs appear but they all do something different for your empire, like maybe mob boss increases stability when they appear if your a crime syndicates, and drug smugglers increase consumer goods, but each take trade value at the cost of there jobs
 
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The first origin wouldn't be that bad, really. Make food and sell it for any other resource you need. Who's buying it? The infinite market of course! Where do they get their products for sale? The infinite market of course!
 
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For all that these were jokes, I genuinely would have liked to get to try them. They just sound like fascinating ways to play the game.
 
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The first one is already on the Stem workshop.

Nice. Grimdark stellaris. Just wish there were neutron stars as well to simulate a dead galaxy at the end of time. That would actually be a cool stellaris esque fangame. A game that would take place in around 10^60 years from now. Imagine the pop lag Where basicly everyone else is dead. There is only 1 super galaxy with around 10000 stars. Everything is either a neutron star, pulsar, black hole, black dwarf, brown dwarf and the very very very rare red dwarf(They could be formed rarely on these timescales via the colision of brown dwarfs. With a few scattered rements with technology that makes the fallen empires look like primitives. Basicly the goal is to try to prevent the innevitable end of everything by trying to figure out how to reverse entropy. The only other living things in this galaxy would be the occasional enclave, a few other small empires, the occasional space creature. With remnants to find everywhere. Basicly very much focusing on exploration and discovery. Trying to figure out what it was all like before the end of time. End of time: A stellaris game. Comming never to a store near you unless either pdx or fans decide to make it. You start around a decrepid penrose spehere and general black hole engine. A worn down computer and small ringworld powered by this penrose sphere. YOu must use your limited resources to repair it all and rediscover your lost technology. And eventually try to meet the other last reminents of civilization. Will you try to rebuild the galaxy together or unite it by fource? The choice is yours.
 
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For everyone who wants a primitive start: One of the devs said on a stream a while back (I forget which one, maybe someone else remembers) That one of the devs was working on an origin which starts you without several of the starting techs. Now I'm not sure if that includes the basic warp drives, but if it does an "early space age" primitive start might be coming soon. Would fit in real well with a primitives story pack, and considering how the overhauled first contact doesn't include primitives, I think that'd be a good bet for the next update/DLC.
 
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Last but not least, the AI Custodianship Origin is our most challenging yet, where you and the AI both control your empire simultaneously.

this but unironically

I mean it would probably be awful and not worth even half a playthrough before you rage-quit, but even so it sounds intriguing...
 
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Yeah this was a very bad idea for an april fool's joke, you're not supposed to have genuinely fun and interesting ideas in your joke, that's just annoying more than anything else knowing they aren't real.
(unless it is real???)
 
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Plot twist: All of these origins are actually planned.
 
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