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Stellaris Dev Diary #234 - Aquatics and 3.2 are out, now what?

Come all you young spacefarers, listen to me! I’ll sing you the song of this dev diary!

Space shanty? Sing-along version? Amazing.

Today we’re back with another dev diary, and today we’ll be talking a little bit about our next steps. But first and foremost I’d like to thank everyone in the community for showing such great appreciation for Aquatics and the 3.2 update. The Aquatics Species Pack is the best-selling species pack to date, and going by the Steam review it also seems like it’s very well-liked. The future is looking bright, and together we will be able to make Stellaris bigger and better than ever before!

Speaking of the future, let’s take a look at what we have on the horizon for the game.

Unity Rework
Back in dev diary 215 we mentioned a Unity rework that we’ve been working on. Progress is fairly good, and we’ve made some interesting changes that we’ll be talking about SoonTM. The target for this change is currently the 3.3 February Update, but due to the spiciness of the changes, we’re also looking into the possibility of making an open beta with the changes earlier than that, so that we can include more community feedback for the 3.3 February Update. You’ll be getting more information about the details of the unity rework and a possible open beta as we get closer to the end of the year.

AI
We’re very happy to see that many of you have reacted positively to the AI improvements done in 3.2, and we appreciate your feedback and help. We still have a lot of more changes we’re working on, such as additional economic improvements and taking a look at the Take Point feature, to only mention some examples. Just like with the Unity rework, we’ll be talking more about these in detail in the near future.

Situations
We are looking into creating a new Situations system, similar to the Disasters system in EU4. The goal is to be able to move things like Deficits and Revolts, and similar struggles, into this new system. Since we don’t want to undertake too many changes at once, it’s likely that new Situations will be added over multiple updates after the system itself is released. Although work has started very recently, we’re very much looking forward to being able to share more progress about this in the future as well.

Buffing the Backlog
In terms of adding new content to older DLC, the priorities going forward will be to buff Nemesis and Necroids. We have no concrete plans we’re ready to share yet, but if you have thoughts for additions you’d love to see, please let us know!

And more…!
There’s a slew of other improvements, bug fixes, content additions to look forward to in future updates. I can’t really mention them all, because in all honesty, a lot of things like this aren’t planned and happen because we have a passionate team that works on many small things they think would make you, the players, happy!

----------

That is all for this week folks!

Here’s the transcript from the Discord Q&A session we held last week:

Question by Asiak:
Do you think we could conceivably ever get an Angler type civic for Megacorps?
Answer
Yes. It's in aquatics.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Cape of FFTPASD (DO NOT PING.):
How do Dragon Hatcheries work and how many dragons could one potentially get?
Answer
[REDACTED]
Answered by
Caligula


Question by MarkDey:
If reinforcing fleets have been moving to their destination fleet, and then their path is cut, do they appear back at the station where they were built (losing progress on their travel time) or do they appear at a friendly starbase that is closer to their destination?
Answer
Fleets that have already entered the MIA state will arrive at their destination regardless of what happens to their path after they take off.
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by Carpe Venenum:
Criminal Syndicates are very fun, but are known to be nigh-unplayable in singleplayer because of AI spamming police precincts even with meager levels of crime. Will AI improvements in Herbert address this issue?
Answer
There haven't been specific changes to Criminal Syndicates in Herbert, but there have been some changes regarding how the AI deals with crime. (IIRC, also including sometimes making the Crime Deal if it makes sense.)
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Comrade Musk:
Can you give any indications for how much the species tab lag has been improved?
Answer
We weren't able to look at it for 3.2, but we are hopeful that we will be able to make some improvements in this regard for 3.3
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Walter the Walter Keeper:
Two questions since I am greedy. 1. What gave you the idea of fishy boys? 2. Will Gestalts (robots at least) get the ability to be lost colony? I think the idea of a lost drone fleet becoming sentient is so cool.
Answer
1: Who wouldn't want to play fishies? Honestly it's been one of our most requested species ideas for years and we felt confident we could do it justice now. 2. I am constantly on the lookout for new hive content to explore that one has a high chance of getting in since it's quite minimal work for nice flavor.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Data:
Return to Crab or Evolve to Monkey?
Answer
:walter:
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by FlantingCort:
What species pack themes and ideas have you considered and abandoned?
Answer
None, really. We have a lot of thoughts, and its just a matter of priorities (what is cooler comes first?)
Answered by
dpgb


Question by DatBoiTim:
How do Gaia worlds, Ecumenopili, Ring Worlds and habitats overlap with the aquatic trait?
Answer
They don't suffer from living there but they don't excel there either.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by trndr:
do aquatics get a special "so long an thanks for all the fish" message as crisis?
Answer
No but they should.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Blackhole:
There's been a lot of discussion recently about static defenses, and whether sole starbase defenses are sufficient. Are there any plans to re-add static military defense stations around planetary bodies with appropriate resource requirement balancing? If not, why? Considering you can park a fleet for a similar effect, although this means that you are building hyperdrives for nothing and looks weird.
Answer
It's possible that we'll look at orbital defenses in the future. Not for Herbert.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Fiiral:
Is there a plan to add an galaxy option to disable the galactic nemesis AP and all related mechanics?
Answer
Generally speaking, we'd love to add more advanced game options in the future. The game has grown, and I feel like there's a need for it.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by MarkDey:
Modding: Changed terraforming costs to use the post-Megacorp economy system Will the energy and time costs be changing for terraforming, or is this a reference on how to invoke terraforming commands via mod scripts?
Answer
It basically means that one can make terraforming processes cost various resources (not just energy), and make more sophisticated modifiers to affect what the price is. We haven't played around with the former point to date, but we made terraforming to ocean worlds cheaper with the Hydrocentric ascension perk this way.
Also, it means that we can make the AI budget for it, which allowed us to ensure that the AI is able to terraform a lot better now.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Positivity:
Why can't Rogue Servitors build alien zoos? RS love protecting the little meatbags, and they make organics so happy when they vibrate atop their laps.
Answer
One of the issues there is that the buildings that provide bio trophy jobs are already very very efficient but it's not impossible that we could take a look at it.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by ClassyPilot177:
Will we ever get a definitive answer to how large pops are?
Answer
Will we ever get the true answer to the meaning of life?
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Froozigiusz:
Will you ever do a community event update in which fans will be able to make events (or other things) that will be incorporated into vanilla?
Answer
There are a lot of issues with selling things that people haven't been paid to produce. We did do something similar to this, last year with our Mod Jam, but we wouldn't be able to include these in the base-game. We on Community would like to do more of these in the future, as working with the modding community was a lot of fun.
Answered by
MrFreake (Stellaris CA)


Question by Runei:
What was the reason you decided to cap the amount of times you can increase a planet sized with the use of ice? Does this not inhibit fun things such as one planet challenge and RP playthroughs?
Answer
Balance purposes, mostly. The ability to add additional districts to planets had to be comparable with other similar effects such as Mastery of Nature.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Strategiser:
when is stellaris multiplayer getting a "Resync" button similar to Hoi4?
Answer
Stellaris is in a different situation than HoI is when it comes to "Out of Sync" issues. Implementing resync would take some time and overall, we currently feel that our time is better spent trying to fix the cases that trigger Out of Sync errors.
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by Helicopter200:
Can we terraform barren Worlds with aquatic collosus?
Answer
No, you will still have to find a terraforming candidate and use the regular system.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by AiLystAP:
Shared Burden empires have the dubious function of actually having their pops demote slower (-45% pop demotion time) than an empire that picks the Harmony tradition (-75% pop demotion time). Aren’t they supposed to have their pops demote faster than any other empire? Will this be fixed?
Answer
The Shared Burdens living standard stacks with the civic for a total of -90%. (It's true that under Utopian Abundance they're lower.)
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Hot Coffee - Secret Drake Priest:
Roughly how much better would you say the AI is in 3.2? If I normally play on GA, what setting would give me the same difficulty?
Answer
You will be able to find out on monday
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Scooby:
Would you able to expand your ocean paradise origin planet with Mastery of Nature / Hydrocentric?
Answer
Yes. Both can be used on the Ocean Paradise.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by MordridtheBlack:
So...when will you finally cave and let us play as Despicable Neutrals? I have a lust for gold, power and was born with a heart full of neutrality.
Answer
have you considered playing inwards perfectionists and just ignoring the galaxy?
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Siper:
Will the two teams alternate months or is it just a shoot n' go for now?
Answer
The custodians will aim to release a patch roughly every 3 months even if there are other releases coming out at the same time, more polish for the people!
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Kiwibaum:
Pleasure Seekers and Slaver Guilds seems like an obvious thematic combination, but you are not able to combine them. What is the reason for that and any chance that will change?
Answer
It has a lot to do with how living standards are handled in the game currently. They are done through code and are quite rigid, we are exploring solutions to it.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Hot Coffee - Secret Drake Priest:
Any plans to balance ship classes more? Currently once you hit late game it's not worth building anything but battleships. It would be nice to have each ship be useful.
Answer
Ship balance will continue in future updates. Right now the rock-paper-scissors between Corvettes, Artillery Battleships, and Hangar Battleships exists to a degree, but it would be nice to have a more defined role for Destroyers and Cruisers even in the late game meta.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Alex B:
If a bug is still unaddressed after a patch, should we bump the report on the forum or resubmit a new report?
Answer
There is a feature on the forums for upvoting the bug ticket, but if it's not gaining enough attention, you can make a new ticket with an updated save game. This helps both QA to verify the issue and the people who work on solving the issue, as old save games may make the bug harder to work with overall. Thank you for submitting bug reports, they are super valuable to us!
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by Inksitor:
Does saves from 3.1.2 (Single and Multy saves) will be compatible with 3.2?
Answer
Saved game compatibility is not guaranteed, it has a lot to do with that it's very time consuming for us to test old saves just for the first few days after a new expansion shows up. It shouldn't crash at least.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Anno:
Any thoughts on how the Custodian program itself is going? It’s revitalized a lot of my interest in Stellaris knowing base-game improvements are being made and older features are getting updates. So I hope it’s working out well for PDS too! Thanks for all your hard work.
Answer
From my perspective it's going really well. It's great to see devs being able to step up and take initiative for how to improve the game. We've also seen a lot of positivity from the community, and hopefully it will also draw in more players to play regularly. It's a bit too early to really know how successful the Custodian Initiative is, but if we can repeat the success of 3.1 Lem for every update for about 1 year, it would be really great.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by ultron64:
Are you Planning to Update Ground Combat soon?
Answer
No.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by MarkDey:
Are there elements from the design or development of Victoria 3 that you feel would work well in Stellaris?
Answer
We already added hypercapitalism in MegaCorp. We do need more monocles though.
(Just kidding. We do look at the other games for insights and ideas, but directly porting things from the other games isn't something that we're likely to do.)
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Z A C H A R Y:
Is there any focus right now in future updates to reduce late game engine lag?
Answer
So the short answer to this would be to refer you to our recent dev diary on performance: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4491772591075421290
In terms of a longer answer, as you can see in that DD, we've made some improvements for 3.2 and we are quite likely to make further ones in 3.3. But it's hard to make firm promises on this sort of thing, since a performance improvement in one regard might be cancelled out by something else that is done between versions - be it design changes, AI improvements that mean more pops and more ships, or... well, any number of things.
(The longest answer would be to point out that "lag" is the wrong term unless the game is literally freezing - as I know can happen in some circumstances in certain UIs, which is something we definitely want to improve - and the performance issues we face are largely not related to the engine, but rather to the specifics of Stellaris - e.g. a lot of the improvements for 3.2 are based on optimising pop factions)
Answered by
Caligula


Question by ClassyPilot177:
Are there any plans to make ground battles more involved or dynamic?
Answer
No current plans. Reworking ground combat is unlikely to happen as its a lot of effort for relatively little gain.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Cape of FFTPASD (DO NOT PING.):
What determines if an AI will build ecumenopolises? Do any ethics/government modifiers affect it?
Answer
Nothing to do with ethics or such. They check if they can afford it and do it if they can.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Alex B:
Have you considered letting the AI use the martial law decision to help with stability, like how they can now make deals with crime lords?
Answer
Maybe we should
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Chillie:
*Are there any planned changes to shared burdens civic in the future? I feel like stratified economy is really powerful living standard and would want to see egalitarian options such as shared burdens or utopian abundance buffed to make them a little more equal.*
Answer
It is quite boring I agree Comrade. I would very much like to work on that.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Dregnitor:
Are there any further plans to re-balance civics more in the near future? Some civics, such as criminal heritage or barbaric despoilers have become so neglected that having no civics at all is a better choice than picking any of these
Answer
Yes, civics will continually be adjusted, tweaked, and modified.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by ArmoredHero11:
Do you have plans to add in more internal affairs like cults, governmental branches, etc to the game?
Answer
No concrete plans, but we totally agree it's something we'd love to do.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Lumin:
Is there a possibility of moths being added to the game as a species? I like moths
Answer
I like our friendly flyer
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Onimorphus:
Some time ago we had on one of the Dev diaries the mention about the Unity and Admin cap rework, can you share at least how far are you all on that process, are you still on the testing ideas phase, so we as the community can still throw ideas around to help, or have you already found some interesting path to follow towards the new systems?
Answer
We're actively working on it, but progress is pretty good. We'll probably start talking about it at the beginning of next year. It's looking quite interesting, and opens up for a lot of interesting things in the future.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by no honor among us:
also is there actually a way to actually address an overflow issue? many modders have to deal with whatever limitations to make sure their mods not causing overflows, and somehow it's been this way for years
Answer
Not really, to be honest. (I assume you are referring to integer overflows - if you mean stuff like modifiers reducing cost going past 0, we do make sure to fix those as we encounter them)
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Chillie:
is there any particular reason why habitation districts on habitats do not unlock building slots?
Answer
Habitats are intended to feel cramped and small. The low number of building slots and districts are intentional primary challenges for habitat heavy runs.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Morebits:
Modding: Have you ever played with Gigastructures or ACOT (Ancient Cache of Technologies)?
Answer
No but I do enjoy the absurd screenshots from it I see from time to time.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Asiak:
Are there any plans for a QoL pass on the empire select screen? I'd really like just a basic folder system to sort my empire builds.
Answer
There are currently no concrete plans for bigger changes in the empire select screen. If you have specific improvement suggestions such as sorting options or what you proposed here, feel free to post them in our suggestions subforum https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-suggestions.943/
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by OptimalRandyRoblox{BakerBail}:
Is there any chance of us seeing some more story packs like Leviathans, Distant Stars, or Ancient Relics or standalone dlcs like Event Horizon?
Answer
I sure hope so as I want to write for them!
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by OneOf99:
With how consumer goods work now, they feel like nothing more butnan upkeept mechanism with no real value. They also kinda make amenities redundant, since they both have the same thematic function yet are separate resources. Are there plans to further divide their uses and perhaps make consumer goods more useful when in surplus?
Answer
I agree, and I'm not a huge fan of consumer goods. I'd love to be able to figure out a way to have repeat spending of consumer goods, to improve parts of your empire. For example, building research projects (similar to how you can spend to build ships, but that dont actually create entities like ships).
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Helicopter200:
do primitive aquatics will live on surface or underwater?
Answer
Yes.
(Your headcanon is correct, whichever you picked.)
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by bulbonic_gaming:
do you guys plan on making the console version up to date with the pc version. Thank you.
Answer
The console version is not made by us and is made by the super talented Tantalus and they always work on catching up but they will probably never work in conjunction with us to release simultaneous releases.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Blorg Lover:
Are the custodians interested in implementing any of the elements cut from older DLC that exist as ghosts in the stellaris code? Like the traits and origins that were never finished?
Answer
It depends a lot on why they were cut. In many cases, it is because they simply proved not to be as good ideas in practice as we had thought at first, in which case they are best left forgotten.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Golden Excellence:
One question I've had for a long time is how many people does one pop represent. For example, if I have a planet with 20 pops how many millions/billions/trillions of people are on that planet?
Answer
It varies based on the narrative we need to tell. Sometimes it can be up in the millions and sometimes it represents individuals (such as when the Caravaneers party a bit TOO much!)
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Chillie:
did you think about buffing democracy and oligarchy to make it more equal in terms of strength when compared to their more authoritarian neighbours? Mandates are just too weak.
Answer
Yes the government types are quite boring right now and could do with a rework.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Blade Champion with Vaultsword:
would you rather make friends with sapient electricity or sapient gas?
Answer
Sentient gas could smell really bad, I feel like it would be safer with an electrical entity.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Ellie ✨:
Is there a reason Rogue Servitors aren't able to pacify Amoebas like xenophiles and pacifists can?
Answer
That sounds like an oversight, feel free to make a bug report about it!
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Kiwibaum:
What are that chances that ascension paths will be touched and expanded on?
They seem to be such a standout part of the game and are in a weird place. The balance could use improvement, bio ascension has to fight with how gene modding works in empires with many species and for stuff like Borg it would be nice to have middlegrounds like bio-mechanical-ascension that sits in between bio and robot ascension.
The problem of expanding them is that they are sitting behind an expansion that is already super valuable I imagine?
Answer
APs are a very important part of the game, and its very likely that they will keep getting updates, balance changes and other types of improvements over time.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Siper:
Do we have a gestalt representative in the team, who will one day fight for the buff of hiveminds and robots?
Answer
Hi hello, I hang out here quite a bit. I am always trying to bring more flavor and play styles to them. Especially hives ;)
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Perthro:
How will species with the aquatic trait fare on Ecumenopoli, Habitats, Gaia Worlds, Ringworlds etc. Will they still get the debuff applied to them when they are on basic dry planets?
Answer
On "ideal" planets, they get neither buffs nor penalties (this includes ecumenopolises, gaia worlds and ring worlds). On habitats, they will get penalties.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Zro Prophet Psi:
Question, if you could actually take an ascension path irl, what would it be?
Answer
Synthetic
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Cape of FFTPASD (DO NOT PING.):
Will there be buffs for certain underused civics (like Feudal Society) in the next few updates?
Answer
Yes. Feudal Society is absolutely on my list of civics most in need of review.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Helicopter200:
Will energy beings and gas beings will be added in future?
Answer
Maybe
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Fabricator General Elowiny:
Will we ever see the Hunters ingame or get more lore about them?
Answer
Never say never but they are more fun when they are mysterious imo.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by MordridtheBlack:
If there was one thing in the game that you could just remove, without anything tied to it being effected, what would it be and why?
Answer
Ground Combat (Note that this is my personal opinion, not that of the entire dev team)
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by ArmoredHero11:
What efforts are being done to bring back rebellions and civil wars in order to spice up the game?
Answer
We hope to improve them in several ways, but no concrete plans to share at the moment.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Zro Prophet Psi:
Is there any intent to add more primitive events? I find it hard to believe that the Earth humans wouldn't notice a giant space station around a star... and their planet.
Answer
I'd love to have a chance to expand on primitive themes and stories, and give them a bit more "memory" of events that have happened to them. No immediate plans though.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by MarkDey:
What would you like to see implemented that would increase the Exploration part of Stellaris during the mid-game/end-game when all systems have been surveyed?
Answer
I would like to work on my story packs that would add new and interesting things to discover and explore such as ancrel.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Lumin:
How much for a human apple?
Answer
Eat the Envoy!
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Money LLC CEOverlord("PPP"):
Will we be seeing more changes to espionage & its effects in the future? it seems like a system w/ a lot of promise
Answer
It's a feature us custodians are constantly looking at to add new content too. We don't have any concrete plans right now but multiple of our internal pitch documents include the espionage system.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Alex B:
As a modder, I'd love if we could get a small info file in each common folder saying which overwrite type it uses. Any chance of that?
Answer
To be honest, the method of overwriting is often not something that is intentionally set in a certain way by us. I'd personally like to see about making the system a bit more unified sometime, but I'm not sure when we will get around to this.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by MarkDey:
The Unbidden, Aberrant, and Vehement frequently do not stop at a planet to bombard it and devour the inhabitants life force; instead, they destroy the space station and then move on, and the station is automatically rebuilt in a month. Should those dimensional invaders have a preference for planetary bombardment?
Answer
This issue is something we are still working on. It was created when we solved an issue of the crisis AI getting stuck and didn't do anything. Their goal when doing this is getting to their nemesis to destroy them and they aren't interested in the empires that stand in their way. We wouldn't want them getting stuck bombarding a planet for a very long time instead of terrorising the galaxy like they are meant to, but they also shouldn't ignore inhibitors unless designed to do so. For the Unbidden factions, we would like them to use their jump drives to achieve this, but it is work in progress that I expect might take some time and experimentation to get right.
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by tr33:
Will Dry and Cold Planets also get some love with civics?
Answer
Not in the immediate future, but there are a lot of interesting themes to draw from that we could explore at some point.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Hot Coffee - Secret Drake Priest:
Any chance you could make events like slave uprisings, rebellions and robot awakenings more likely to happen? Currently they're really uncommon and it would be nice to see more of them.
Answer
I'd like to.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Chillie:
is there any actual reason why Egalitarian empires cannot use espionage to incite riots and uprisings in authoritarian empires? For FREEDOM
Answer
In general we try to shy away from operations that would be annoying for you the player but it does seem like a fun playstyle.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Cape of FFTPASD (DO NOT PING.):
Will more interactions with Marauders be added?
Answer
I have some ideas but nothing is in the work quite yet.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Helicopter200:
the next DLC after aquatics will be species pack or expansion?
Answer
We won't confirm nor deny the presence of future species packs or expansions. You'll find out in due time
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Specknik:
since we have locked Civics in the game. wouldn't it a great opportunity to add Ascension perks to them to improve on the them?
Answer
That and tradition trees are a good idea takes notes
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Phoenixhet:
any ideas for spiritualists going foward?
Answer
With the unity rework we are working on internally it should hopefully be a lot more powerful.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Siper:
will gestalts ever be able to make anything else rather than a galactic union? Or is that always gonna be the case?
Answer
Rogue Servitors can form Hegemonies currently, and Machine Intelligences can form Research Cooperatives.
Internally we've discussed the possibility of providing other ways of opening up the other Federation types to all Empire types.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Blade Champion with Vaultsword:
what are your thoughts on an 'Eldritch' species pack featuring truly alien beings that are more akin to Lovecraft's aliens than anything from Earth which is what most of the portraits took inspiration from?
Answer
IÄ IÄ IÄ. It's a cool idea for sure, who knows what the future holds?
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Inksitor:
any chance of an Religion DLC? like be able to create your own religion with traits like the one in CK
Answer
Something I have discussed with my lead a few times. Sounds like it would be a good premise for a story pack.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by George, The (Un)-Ascended:
Will technocracy get buffed? the cg upkeep kinda killed..
Answer
We have no plans for further adjustments to Technocracy, but if the data we collect suggests that we should, we'll consider it.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Glitch_Gizmo:
Will Psionics be getting more improvement later down the line? We have seen the Bio and Synthetic path being the most common routes but Psionics being a path locked under society and as a rare tech, shouldnt it be considers physics for diversty?
Answer
We're aware of which ascensions players favour, and have been discussing various things - but nothing concrete and no timelines for changes that we can talk of.
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Phoenixhet:
Hey guys! Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! Here is mine: When creating a species pack I’m sure you have a lot to think about, What was the most challenging aspect of creating aquatics? Thank you!
Answer
For my part (design-side), it was coming up with what exactly we wanted to do content-wise, since Stellaris as a setup doesn't really easily lend itself to species living underwater. So we had to be quite creative about how we fit that sort of player fantasy into the game. (Obviously, I cannot speak for the artists and sound team, who did a lot of great work on the new species and ship sets!)
Answered by
Caligula


Question by StormOurBeloved:
Will you make keyboard and mouse an input option on the Console version?
Answer
Hi! We are the devs of the PC version of Stellaris so unfortunately we can't answer this. The brilliant studio that develops the console version is called Tantalus
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by Gothic:
is Jeff the true God of the Stellaris multiverse
Answer
this is deep stellaris lore. But really it's Steve. Not Jeff.
Answered by
JoJo (QA Lead)


Question by Jammy, Mindless Drone:
What system will replace admin cap?
Answer
Admin Cap will be removed, and you will use Unity to upkeep for things like Edicts. You won't be able to avoid the penalty from sprawl, like it used to be. We'll have to balance the rubberbanding effects and should also add a game option for how harsh you want the penalty to be.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Tsundere Saph (Definitely a Hat):
I noticed that newer Paradox games such as Stellaris have done away with the message options from older games such as EU4. Is there any chance that we can get them back? Being able to "popup and pause" when important events like someone declaring war on your rival is really important. With the icon spam at the top of the window in Stellaris, I often end up missing important events, whereas in EU4 I never have that problem as I have all critical events setup to popup and pause to notify me.
Answer
It's very unlikely we'll use the old message system like some of our old games used to have. It led to worse UX because it was too easy for devs to set proper defaults. I do sympathize with the thought of having that level of customization for some message options. It's unlikely to change, but its something we're aware of and would like to solve.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Shadow 42:
Concerning the ability to mine ice from asteroids etc, will there be an icon on the galaxy map show where you can get it. Also is there a way for you to get access to ice outside of your borders? As expanding the size of your planets is only good for tall empires yet it would appear that only wide empires will have any meaningful amount of ice inside of their borders.
Answer
There will be a tooltip when you hover over the solar system in the galactic map
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Fiiral:
Any Chance we will get an FTL improvment? Not as in (re)adding warp or wormholes but refining current hyperdrive? There are for example multiple unused modifiers relating to FTL.
Answer
We have some ideas regarding galaxy navigation and FTL, but nothing that I can share at this time.
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by Ellie ✨:
Is there any plans to buff Shattered Ring? They got hit by their last nerf way too hard, right now they're basically a worse Remnants origin, with terrible habitability and no guaranteed worlds at all. It might as well be one of the weakest origins in the game right now.
Answer
No current plans, we're looking at a few options but nothing to speak of yet.
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Cape of FFTPASD (DO NOT PING.):
Since we have new mechanics for some extant species classes (Fungoids), will other classes get exclusive traits too? I'd like to see some kind of flight trait for avians!
Answer
We are constantly looking for places to put that. For aquatics we chose to make the trait portrait agnostic again but we might return to the design again.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Shadow 42:
Is life seeded geting any love?
Answer
Their starting world is now size 30
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Junkan:
are there any plans to allow players to terraform planets into tomb worlds with the new terraforming system? especially since now with the tomb world planet perks that would make a tomb world build vv economicly friendly.
Answer
No current plans, but it's something that players have been asking for, so we'll keep it in mind for the future.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Siper:
will you guys stop making cool updates? you’re making the other games look bad…
Answer
No current plans.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Phoenixhet:
I know you guys have to be hush hush about future info, but with stellaris approaching being 5 years old, can we expect more major updates and expansions going forward? Or is the sunset just around the corner?
Answer
Stellaris will be strong for many years to come!
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Milo:
Is ancient clone vat still not working if you have other races (it supported 20 pop of any type AFAIK)?
Answer
I think they behave better in 3.2 but if the issue persists. Bug report it after release. Well be haunting the forums more actively and can pick it up
Answered by
JoJo (QA Lead)


Question by EliteSpectre:
While I find the Aquatic and ocean world stuff really cool they seem to still be weaker than Gaia worlds even with the ascension perk as 15% minerals and energy is way weaker than 10% everything and the 10% happiness further cements it's lead. Was it ever meant to compete with it or do you believe the extra district slots from the ascension perk will make it worth it
Answer
The aquatics features are available a lot earlier, as in the first ascension perk you grab compared to gaia this will give you a powerful headstart.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Onimorphus:
Have the idea of single system/planet "city-state" like neutral entities ever been considered? To add more doverse 'non-player-like empires' forces that could be relevant to the game?
Answer
We've discussed things like non-playable empires, and how they could be like city-states. No concrete plans for developing it further, however.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Helicopter200:
Any plans for new megastructures or it will be possible to add gigastructures?
Answer
If we feel like there is a good place to add new mega structures we will add them there, they work better when they work with the theme of a patch.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Helicopter200:
Will be there a feature that writes Galaxy's and Your empire history?
Answer
There are currently no plans, buuuuut... This is such a cool concept and something I'd love to work on! Make sure to get a suggestion in on the suggestions forum! https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-suggestions.943/
Answered by
Monzun (Code Custodian)


Question by MordridtheBlack:
Could we have some more Tradition Trees, Ascension Perks and Perk Slots if possible please? Sometimes I feel constrained by what we have now and often stick to using various mods to add more in. Nothing crazy mind you, maybe another row of of Traditions and another 4 Perk slots, as for perks themselves I'll leave that up to you guys.
Answer
One of the factors we consider is the opportunity cost, limitations to what you can take is a useful part of the systems (thus we know players can't have all traditions/perks/etc...)
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by AiLystAP:
Any plans to add events to the Stellar Shock modifier? At the moment, it seems like the primitives just roll over once you conquer them? Where's the plucky resistance fighters? Our non-violent resisters? The whole implications of absorbing a primitive civilization into a interstellar one? The possible Greater Xeno Unions to oppose us?
Answer
A very good idea, if we ever make a concerted effort to look at primitives this should definitely be something we add alongside with it.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Hot Coffee - Secret Drake Priest:
If you could add anything to the game, without having to do any coding and it working perfectly first time, what would it be?
Answer
I'd fix the AI and performance
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Onimorphus:
Knowing that it would be quite a endevour, but, is there any hope of we getting shipset specific models for the megastructures? Some look quite off with just the texture replacement we currently have
Answer
Unlikely to happen.
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Blade Champion with Vaultsword:
how likely is it that we might get more civics that give unique Government Types?
Answer
If the flavor makes sense we will for sure add them, the technology is not blocking us in a way there it's more fitting designs into it.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Phoenixhet:
the all species packs end with “oids” think plantOIDS, humanOIDS etc. how much effort was put into finding an “oids” for aquatics!
Answer
Aquatoids didn't really flow off the tongue, and other options like "Thalassoids" weren't really an improvement, so in the end we decided not to force it and just go for what sounded like what we were making.
Answered by
Caligula


Question by Sencorer:
Will the new colossus wipe out all life in the planet if fired on enemies, change the type of planet but keep the pops on there, or cant be fired on enemies?
Answer
The Deluge colossus will kill all non-Aquatic life on non-Oceanic planets when it terraforms the planet. It can be used on your own planets if purge is allowed. (Primitive planets can only be Deluged if you have full interference policies set.)
Answered by
Eladrin


Question by MarkDey:
Is there an easy way to find out where pre-sapients are living in one's territory?
Answer
Scrolling out and looking around I would suggest. The icon is pretty noticable.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by Gaspi2:
since DA have already their own version of collossus, won't barbaric despoilers and NA ascession perk guys get mass-abductor type collossus that will simply abduct all pops from planet? Possibly allow also rogue servitors to have it.
Answer
The visuals on that would be great, just need to check if our artists have a floating cow 3D asset.
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Tsundere Saph (Definitely a Hat):
@dpgb : Responding to the messaging issue. I'm not sure what "worse UX" means but even a simple option like being able to able to right click one of the notification icons and set it to popup and pause the game (such as when someone declares war on you, it popups and pauses by default) would be great. Thanks for keeping this issue in mind.
Answer
Yeah, I agree that settings for pause on popup etc. are desirable. No concrete plans atm tho
Answered by
dpgb


Question by Froozigiusz:
Shouldn't smaller planets have easier time in building new discrits and buildings because of smaller gravity?
Answer
Could be an interesting way to balance small planets compared to large planets.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)


Question by EliteSpectre:
Is functional architecture getting back the -10% building and district upkeep now that it's losing the extra building slot it got
Answer
No
Answered by
Alfray (QA)


Question by Blackhole:
Could you add an easier way to track Unbidden anchor systems that are revealed within sensor range? On a huge galaxy you have to manually click on hundreds of stars to find targets.
Answer
I think a programmer on our team would want this too as in our current Dev MP we are hunting them down.
Answered by
Iggy (Content Design)
 
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It is a bit constricting, but what I'd prefer to see is more ways to mitigate the restrictions, so that players can make choices about how they want to focus their empire. For instance, the Ascension Perk "Universal Transactions", available to a Megacorporation, negates the Influence Cost of all Commercial Pacts, which Megacorps need to thrive. It's a good way to mitigate Influence cost for a specialized empire, and it's the kind of thing I'd like to see more of as the game continues to mature.
That's one of the things I like about LEM - I'm forced to make choices, can't be good at everything.
 
From comments above come down in the middle of ColorsFade and KNakamura - you can mitigate, but the bigger you get, the more sectors, the farther away from empire capital, the more factions, the more races - the steeper the cost to keep it all together. As posted above - if this is the direction we are going then some A-perks become more important: Shared Destiny and One Vision - which in my limited interface with guides I don't see as much traffic on. Just hope the changes end up being something more than all-or-nothing, and are completely thought out ideas.

To KNakamura's points - that's what the Foundation is all about.

Peko?: franchising - under Ethics & Civics Classic covers this idea nicely with Federalized Control technology - - edicts cost 1/3'rd more, but clerks produce administration representing delegated authority.

Millibot:
Like the idea of less than happy pops sucking down unity, that works.
Adding to your idea of banking unity - think it should be convertible to influence.
Sectors: agree on core, from that the outer ones should generate a command radius, based on capital level affecting sprawl, then in turn that gets nerfed based on how many sectors away from the core.
Like the the Mastery of Nature concepts, denying a conqueror the benefits of it.

One way to handle the bigger empires should have more problems to make big fleets but its heresy with Stellaris: Enforce resource expediture by sector and not the magic we have now - that could go along way, freighters to carry alloys, ect to bank up shipyards. Believe Distant Worlds 2 is all about that. There's structure and skeleton for that now.
Sure would make piracy and marauders more exciting and Ladies & Gents: Commerce Raiding could become a thing.
This would certainly replicate the cost of a merchant fleet and the cost of losing one in a war - just like real history:
British Empire - ect.

I don't see a need to make ships more expensive just because the empire's big - not about the size, its about marshalling the resources in the right place. Texas has plenty of oil and wind, but you have to get the power transmitted and the oil refined and transported to where its used.

I'd like to see ship design all under one roof - battleships with modules for construction and research - armed cargo vessels, we had that in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Again, make leaders generic and give them a unity and influence rating - a general could lead ground troops or be the President or lead military research. Now you've got a good tool to integrate faction politics right into your sector government.

I'll repeat it again from above - - PLEASE DON'T GET RID OF CULTURAL WORKERS, DEVS, PLEASE, that should still be part of unity production as a part of the cost of holding a large empire together.
 
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On the Unity/Admin Cap rework, for now we can only speculate, I just hope that we will have both a internal and external use for Unity. As so many have already pointed, a lot of current Influence uses sound more like the sort of thing that should be consuming part of the Unity poll, mostly about the 'expansion' aspect of Influence (the system claims, habitat/megastructures, planetary decisions increasing districts). Just like in the older versions, when colonizing required Influence, maybe that could be changed to involve the Unity and Empire sprawl instead.

Maybe adding some sort of 'cultural influence / soft diplomatic power' mechanic towards enemy empires using Unity would be interesting, inciting revolts or greatly reducing the time to incorporate conquered planets that are near your empire borders, as a alternate gameplay to the more direct conquest approach (thinking on the other extreme, as playing a Unity powerhouse Pacifist empire that causes the neighbor empires to fracture and form more 'alliable' fragments, aligned to your ethos, a way to expand diplomatic without direct war).

Going briefly on the 'wide X tall' discussion, the way I see it on Stellaris, this argument should be more about a 'dense X spread' empire, by that logic, stuff that either expanded your territory (more systems, more colonies, more pops,...), or helps you improve stuff you already own (habitats, megastructures, planetary improvements, production improving buildings,...) should, both, increase your Empire sprawl. So the player choice would be "do I invest on expanding my territory, or improving what I already have", and that mixed with the Empire sprawl malus being stronger the 'further form your capital' your systems are (so something that would involve the sector system too), would allow for a more 'natural' way of having both 'tall' and 'wide' empires, from gameplay point at least.

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The AI seems to be doing better, from my brief testing around at least, but still quickly lapses behind on the tech progression and all that entails. The player being able to snowball tech so much seems to me as a problem of both the AI limitations, and a problem of how Tech became (again) the new 'main focus' in place of Pop Growth (in parallel to Alloys, as is since 2.2, mostly). Now we will have to wait more news on the Admin rework, to see if/how the snowballing will be addressed.

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I'm not really familiar with much of EU4, but having a place to consolidate all the more important 'alerts' and events stuff that need our attention, as the anomalies, unrests, special projects and similars, sounds like a really god idea, and using it as a platform for more events, like the mentioned 'revolts', would be quite the step towards having a solid base for a more developed internal politics gameplay, that's constantly requested.

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About the older DLCs, for Nemesis I add my voice to the chorus, that the spy/intelligence/operations system is currently not really that impactful to justify using it a lot. Beyond adding more operations, or buffing them, as many already suggested, some things that could be added to the system are:
  • adding some passive effect to the assets we acquire, beyond the base bonus to infiltration. Could be either syphoning some resources if the asset is a bureaucrat, or causing some unrest event if a pop icon, for example. Some effect related to the asset type.

  • adding some aspect of counter intelligence to our own empire, as to identify potential enemy operations, or screen out and identify enemy assets.

  • being able to define a 'standard' operation to be running on our spy network after certain level of infiltration, like constantly monitoring for a opportunity to steal tech, or fomenting unrest/piracy. The overall 'current focus' of our spy network on that empire. The intent would be reduce needed micromanagement for a spy focused empire.

  • add some way to do a 'relic heist', now that would be either building on previous suggestions, a quite long and complex process, that really, really, should be avoidable with your counter intelligence, or, at least identifying the relics that a enemy empire posses, and giving our empire a casus-belli to acquire it like the already happens with the 'Galatron'. (...or, who knows, maybe, one day, we get some stealth ships... the possibilities.... so many possibilities... XD)
About the custodian/emperor, and the crisis I couldn't still test it myself properly yet, but form what I saw on some streams, indeed the mechanics could get some more polish, the ideas are good, but stuff like losing your federation bonus on becoming the emperor could be mitigated by the emperor being able to chose a 'Galactic Imperium Focus', maybe as a resolution, that gives similar bonus to the different federations types, increasing in power according to the Imperial Authority.

Adding more resolutions is always welcome too, one could be to set the Terminal Egress system as a 'neutral' system (maybe under the Galactic Defense Force control if present), or one that does something about the 'home systems' of the native space fauna/crystals/ancient drones.

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On the Necroids, one thing that could still see some more improvements is the Reanimator Civic. It is awesome the addition of reanimating some of the organic leviathans, but that hit on 2 problems. One is that none of the leviathans that can be ressurected belong to the DLC, so its a mechanic dependent on other assets, and without it we get, if memory serves, just one other possible thing to reanimate, that's from a random event (and the leviathans themselves are random too), so in the worse cases the civic still just adds a alternative job to the military academy, and the undead armies. The ability of reanimating the enemies on ground combat is fun, but it hit the other problem that is, although having a lot of flavorful stuff (undead armies, xenomorphs, gene supers soldiers, warform mechas, titans... ), ground combat in general is still that secondary aspect of war.

So my idea (similar to what @DrFranknfurter suggested), is adding to the reanimators some 'undead pop' assembly, that would be a base value per reanimator job, like with robots, but would be inversely affected by a species life expectancy (to represent more, or less, individuals naturally dying), together with a 'undeadfy' purge option (for those that don't want to wait time do its work...). The pops produced that way would have a Reanimated trait, that would work similar to the Nerve-stapled, limiting the 'undeads' to basic worker jobs, and reducing the maintenance and housing needs, but also adding a bit of crime/unrest to the planet, so heavy reliance on reanimated workers would require some investment on enforcers, to keep the 'shambling workforce' inline.

Also we could allow for reanimation of some of the tyanki / space amoebas defeated in combat, but I see that this could get out of hand really easy... zombie space fauna everywhere.... o_O.

And now that we got the origin for Hiveminds (that was the most direct addition that could be suggested XD), maybe somehow get the Necrophage origin (or a new parallel one) to work/make sense for Machine Empires? Maybe as one alternative to the "processing" purge/livestock options that the machines already got, but converting bio-pops to robots instead? (maybe with some risk of 'rebellious escapees' building a underground haven and hacking your servers... that should already be a event that happens with the 'normal' processing honestly... XD).

It somewhat conflicts with DAs, so maybe that's an idea for when we get some grater rework/improvement of gestalts in general (that I really hope is also on the custodians list...;))
 
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From comments above come down in the middle of ColorsFade and KNakamura - you can mitigate, but the bigger you get, the more sectors, the farther away from empire capital, the more factions, the more races - the steeper the cost to keep it all together.

This is what I like about Administration Buildings - mitigation. As long as we have a route to mitigation, I'm cool with whatever changes they make, because I'll be one of the players that invests in the infrastructure to mitigate sprawl penalties. I don't like the penalties. Other players don't care, and go over the cap, and take the penalties. More power to them.

But the quote was pretty specific. They said we'll be unable to mitigate sprawl. That's a fundamental change that I don't support.
 
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Someone in the thread mentioned species causing higher pop sprawl, and I really love that idea as a nerf to xenophile. Right now, playing xenophobe is fun and RP-oriented but is a terrible idea from a min-max view. Making it so multispecies empires are harder to manage would be a beautiful fix.

Sort of a penalty like "100 - percentage of species that are starting species or robots in your empire" (starting species, NOT founder species, because otherwise syncretic and necrophage get whacked).
 
Someone in the thread mentioned species causing higher pop sprawl, and I really love that idea as a nerf to xenophile. Right now, playing xenophobe is fun and RP-oriented but is a terrible idea from a min-max view. Making it so multispecies empires are harder to manage would be a beautiful fix.

Sort of a penalty like "100 - percentage of species that are starting species or robots in your empire" (starting species, NOT founder species, because otherwise syncretic and necrophage get whacked).
I think it should be harder for everybody to manage many species, more expensive than now, but easier for xenophile, harder for xenophobe, and everything in between for the rest. Not sure how the game even punishes for having multiple species. Xenophobe maybe fun, but it should come at a cost. If an empire wants to do that then they have to "wear the hat".
 
On the Unity/Admin Cap rework, for now we can only speculate, I just hope that we will have both a internal and external use for Unity. As so many have already pointed, a lot of current Influence uses sound more like the sort of thing that should be consuming part of the Unity poll, mostly about the 'expansion' aspect of Influence (the system claims, habitat/megastructures, planetary decisions increasing districts). Just like in the older versions, when colonizing required Influence, maybe that could be changed to involve the Unity and Empire sprawl instead.

Maybe adding some sort of 'cultural influence / soft diplomatic power' mechanic towards enemy empires using Unity would be interesting, inciting revolts or greatly reducing the time to incorporate conquered planets that are near your empire borders, as a alternate gameplay to the more direct conquest approach (thinking on the other extreme, as playing a Unity powerhouse Pacifist empire that causes the neighbor empires to fracture and form more 'alliable' fragments, aligned to your ethos, a way to expand diplomatic without direct war).

Going briefly on the 'wide X tall' discussion, the way I see it on Stellaris, this argument should be more about a 'dense X spread' empire, by that logic, stuff that either expanded your territory (more systems, more colonies, more pops,...), or helps you improve stuff you already own (habitats, megastructures, planetary improvements, production improving buildings,...) should, both, increase your Empire sprawl. So the player choice would be "do I invest on expanding my territory, or improving what I already have", and that mixed with the Empire sprawl malus being stronger the 'further form your capital' your systems are (so something that would involve the sector system too), would allow for a more 'natural' way of having both 'tall' and 'wide' empires, from gameplay point at least.

A hybrid use of influence AND unity might be a good idea as costs for more things. Its there now once you get Ascension Theory as something to spend unity on once you've run through all the traditions and a-perks. This would have a nice integral effect on governing growth, making you make more unity to marshal your empire for expansion - it builds in mechanics that make it harder to get to empire sprawl in the first place adding to whatever mechanics implement empire sprawl once you get there. Consider colonization - make it half leader persuasion: influence and half unity: consensus among the pops (partially from persuasion of leadership, good gov, and investments in building unity - again cultural buildings). This way you'd have to inherently balance empire growth with Society cohesion=tradition growth. Sweden: my health care and education is well taken care of, but I can take a nice fast train to Stockholm and see the Vasa and Nordiska museet, but I'm a relatively homogeneous country of about 10 million in a country the size of California. I think the devs really need to think carefully through how each ethics-civics combo processes expansion & culture & political cohesion - what are the stress points for a hive mind? for example - distance from the homeworld would be one in my mind.

Completely agree that Tall shouldn't be a panacea for Empire Sprawl, but it would just substitute population-development for distance from capital effects. Developed + spread out should be the real challenge. Planets and sectors splitting off when unity-happy-stability falls off, progressively more likely below 50%.

Another good compromise between can't mitigate empire sprawl-can: make empire sprawl - let's call it empire cohesion - cost go up in a low-medium geometic fashion - a parabola that's fat on the x axis and skinnier on the y, while the mitigations are either low linear increased effects or lower geometric.

What would be smart is to make whatever empire sprawl-unity changes player adjustable like population growth was with Dick - that was a really good approach.
Personally I disagree with the pop increase target pool number being affected by overall population, but do completely agree with increase tied to planet capacity - but I can adjust that to something I like under the current system.


I play with bigger than standard galaxies - usually 2000-2500 stars - about 40 empires, which stretches the game design I think, so making allowing adjustments to pop unity-empire sprawl really come into play. The same could probably said going the other way - if your small enough it shouldn't matter.

Also, to Paradox's own point - there's no way they can playtest their changes better than whole player population can, or think of all the angles, even if they crowd beta the changes prior to release - its just numbers, diversity of thinking, and human nature. Affects any game playtesting everywhere. The beta crowd testing though would probably sketch out problems to be solved though and its also a good idea.
 
Thanks for destroying brainslugs anomaly, after another cash grab useless specie pack, this is what the game absolutely needed.
Wait, how did they destroy the brainslugs? I didn`t see them say that they removed it or something, am I missing something?
 
I've said it before, but the game is at a point where they do need to do PTR. There are enough random events, some of which are really rare. For example, I saw Aspec's video on rare stellaris events and didn't even realize there was a thing called the crystal enclave. Throw in all the choices that some can make that aren't gated by rarity: eithics, civics, government type, origins, species traits, starting system and planet type. You have lots of room for something to go wonky and complete bypass the devs attention, that might get caught by a player.

I'd also argue that you always have the risk of group think with any developer testing. As in the developers might all bounce enough ideas and opinions off of each other, that certain things get ignored because he group think becomes "well no one would try that" in the subconscious of the entire team. Then it turns out said thing is really broken and gets discovered because some RPer decides to try random thing in what is suppose to be a chill game.
 
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I've said it before, but the game is at a point where they do need to do PTR. There are enough random events, some of which are really rare. For example, I saw Aspec's video on rare stellaris events and didn't even realize there was a thing called the crystal enclave. Throw in all the choices that some can make that aren't gated by rarity: eithics, civics, government type, origins, species traits, starting system and planet type. You have lots of room for something to go wonky and complete bypass the devs attention, that might get caught by a player.

I'd also argue that you always have the risk of group think with any developer testing. As in the developers might all bounce enough ideas and opinions off of each other, that certain things get ignored because he group think becomes "well no one would try that" in the subconscious of the entire team. Then it turns out said thing is really broken and gets discovered because some RPer decides to try random thing in what is suppose to be a chill game.
Can think of very good examples of this happening in a very well-playtested, major release for the wargame Advanced Squad Leader, and many further examples of what we call "un-balanced dog" scenarios that were well playtested. However, per your post - a small limited group playtested them.