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Stellaris Dev Diary #218 - Plantoids Gameplay

Hello everyone!

I hope you have had a great summer thus far, and let’s hope we can enjoy the rest of August as well. The team is starting to return from their vacations and we’re eager to start finishing off the Lem Update so that we can ready it for release in September.

As mentioned in dev diary 214, we’re going to Buff the Backlog by adding some gameplay to existing DLC. Today we’re here to talk about an addition coming in the Lem Update, and more specifically what additions we are making to the Plantoids Species Pack.

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We are adding 2 new Civics and 3 new Species Traits to the Plantoids Species Pack. Let’s start by taking a look at the new Traits.

New Traits
We have added 3 new traits that require the species to be either Plantoid or Fungoid.

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New traits and their cost.

Phototrophic: Is mutually exclusive with Radiotrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep. Requires your species to be Plantoid or Fungoid.

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Instagram-friendly?

Radiotrophic: Is mutually exclusive with Phototrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep. It also makes it more beneficial for your Pops to live on Tomb Worlds, as their energy upkeep is removed. Requires your species to be Plantoid or Fungoid.

1628152940722.png

Contrary to popular belief, this species does not sustain itself by consuming ancient communication equipment.

Budding: This trait allows you to produce some pop assembly. Multiple Species with this trait can help provide pop assembly on potentially another species. For example, two species with the Syncretic Evolution Origin can together assemble one of the two. This trait can probably be especially great for a Hive Mind species.

1628152963518.png

New Civics
Let’s continue taking a look at the Civics. Both of these new Civics are available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds. Only Idyllic Bloom requires you to be a Plantoid or Fungoid.

Catalytic Processing: This Civic lets you produce Alloys with Food instead of Minerals. Starting Districts have been adjusted to be balanced when using this Civic. Regular Empires and Hive Minds convert 9 Food into 3 Alloys. Machine Empires turn 12 Food into 4 Alloys.

1628152990301.png

Catalytic Processing is available to many types of empires, but not all of them.

Idyllic Bloom: This Civic lets you transform planets into Gaia Worlds by building Gaia Seeders and upgrading them. The Gaia Seeders have 4 phases, with the 4th and final phase triggering the terraformation of the planet to a Gaia World. Available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds.

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----

That’s all for this week folks! We’ll be back again next week, so until then, stay safe and be well.
 
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I'm slightly confused... Phototrophic just seems like a worse version of Radiotrophic?

The latter gives you everything the former does, and more. Is this intentional?

EDIT: As people have pointed out, and I also just noticed, Phototrophic is a cheaper Trait.
 
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I'm slightly confused... Phototrophic just seems like a worse version of Radiotrophic?

The latter gives you everything the former does, and more. Is this intentional?
It's also cheaper at 1 point rather than 2.
So if you aren't planning on going tomb world heavy, you can stick with the cheaper option.
 
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I'm slightly confused... Phototrophic just seems like a worse version of Radiotrophic?

The latter gives you everything the former does, and more. Is this intentional?

Completely intentional, Radiotrophic costs more and gives you bonuses for living on tomb worlds, whereas Phototrophic purely gives the energy upkeep trade.
 
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Does the Gaia Seeders need to stay after the planet is fully terraformed ?
I mean can we destroy the building to free the slot without turning the planet back to desert or whatever ?
 
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Not a fan to lock traits to certain portraits. It limits a player's imagination and creativity. Why can't I build a species of rocks that sustains itself of radiation? Or a post apocalyptic one that evolved that trait? Why limit things artificially to a certain portrait? Just because the most common stereotype for a trait like that is a plant?
 
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They seem pretty cool to me. It's not a massive overhaul or a huge content dump, but it's given us some fun new Plantoid / Fungoid specific options and a bit of flavour.

As part of a free patch, I'm here for it.

It's technically part of a DLC though.
It makes it better than before sure but I think they could have go just a little bit crazier here.
 
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I don't understand the negative responses here. This stuff is thematically cool and adds some much-needed flavor to a relatively underwhelming DLC.
 
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I don't understand the negative responses here. This stuff is thematically cool and adds some much-needed flavor to a relatively underwhelming DLC.

Lithoid and Necroid, which are the benchmark for making old DLC better, both have an Origin which is lacking there. Or at least it seems there won't be an origin for this DLC. But it may just be that they didn't show it.

Also I personnally would like to see the Plantoid and Fungoid ship set revisited to looks more unique and awesome.

And I guess some people still want the bioships. Although you kinda can do it with the civic and pretending you "alloy" is biomaterial. Just don't look at your ship and it works.

Anyway it's not that it is bad. Far from it. Just a little tiny bit under the announced benchmark (Lithoid / Necroid). Nothing critical but still.
 
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I like the adding of small little flavour things to all the species categories. I hope that some day, all species categories will have their own gameplay quirks.
 
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I really like older DLC getting additional content. :)

Regarding the new traits:
-> Phototrophic is flavorful, but it doesn't strike me as particularly useful. Even for 1-point traits, there are considerably better options.
-> Radiotrophic might actually be pretty good if you have an easy way to terraform planets into tomb worlds. Still not among the best 2-point traits though.
-> Budding sounds like the strongest of the new traits. Actually worth picking maybe, but I don't think it's strongest on hives, because they already have a pretty high base growth.

Regarding the new civics:
-> Catalytic processing *might* actually be pretty good, especially for hives.
-> From what I can see here, idyllic bloom is just a more expensive version of the world shaper AP, which doesn't sound all that strong to me.
 
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Looks neat so far! As a Hive Mind player, loving the fact that the civics can also be used with them. More Hive Mind love plz <3

Also I personnally would like to see the Plantoid and Fungoid ship set revisited to looks more unique and awesome.
I hope they don't do anything to the Plantoid ships, they're my second favourite set after Avian. I love how they look.
 
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Do the planets stay as Gaia worlds if Idyllic Bloom is removed? Similarly, if a planet isn't fully Gaiafied and the civic is removed, do the seeders hang around? Can the project be finished?
 
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