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Hello everyone!

Today we aim to shed some light on the upcoming changes for the 1.2 “Asimov” update.

Border Rework
Something we did not like with how Stellaris played out towards the mid-game previous to 1.2, was how that the player tended to get locked in and blocked from exploring or gaining access to the rest of the galaxy.

In the upcoming update we aim to correct that issue by reworking how border access works. By default, everyone will have open border access to other empires’ borders. An empire may close its border through a diplomatic action, and access is denied to your rivals by default.

closed border.jpg


We hope that this will make the game feel less constrained towards the mid-game.

Another valuable addition is that when you give your ships or fleet a Return order, but they cannot find a valid path home, you may set them as “Missing in Action”. While ships are missing in action, they will be invisible to you and reappear within your borders within a certain amount of time.

Expansion Cost
To reduce exploits of the open borders, we have chosen to introduce an Influence cost to colonizing planets or building Frontier Outposts. This cost will be based on the range to your closest owned system.

expansion cost.jpg


Embassies & Trust
A significant change in 1.2 is the removal of embassies and the passive opinion increase they provided. In the “Asimov” update, players will have to gain trust by cooperating with the AI. Trust is gained over time by having some sort of treaty with the AI.

Diplomatic Changes
A number of diplomatic statuses that were previously available through trade have now been changed into being Diplomatic Actions available through the diplomacy screen. We felt that some of these actions did not really feel in place, and that they were too hidden, in the trade interface.

diplomacy screen.jpg


We have changed how cooperating with the AI happens. It is no longer as easy to enter into an Alliance with the AI, and you have to start off by gaining their Trust through research agreements, guarantee independence, non-aggression pacts and defensive pacts.

Defensive Pacts are a new diplomatic action that allows two empires to be called into wars if any of them should get attacked.

Joint War Declarations
Another new diplomatic feature is the possibility to invite other empires to your wars. The AI will not join your wars if their Attitude towards you is not at least neutral and they have something they also want from the target.

invite attackers.jpg


All things combined we hope that these changes will make the mid-game feel less static and will open up more possibilities for interesting situations to occur.

Join us again next week for more details about the upcoming 1.2 "Asimov" update!
 
Will there be a beta version?
 
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I hope that scroll bar is gone in the final.
 
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I just posted no DD and DD is HERE WOW!! Thanks

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I hope you guys added lots of new artwork and
Diplomatic Incidents: This is a whole class of new scripted events that causes more interaction with the other empires.
and more of the other types of Incidents.


These will be the things I am looking forward to the most!!!
 
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Since the new Influence costs for expansion, is there any chance that new ways of gaining Influence are implemented? Preferably connected to the ethos/government form, since different values mean different forms of political capital (and this gives the opportunity to reinforce different styles of play)?
 
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Question is why are they keeping in the "rival" mechanic when removing the "embassy" mechanic? Seems a bit lopsided to me. Rivaling should also be a more or less automatic result of the interactions and relations, no?
 
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Question is why are they keeping in the "rival" mechanic when removing the "embassy" mechanic? Seems a bit lopsided to me. Rivaling should also be a more or less automatic result of the interactions and relations, no?

Currently it's one of the best ways of gaining extra influence, so they can't remove it without vastly disrupting that. It also makes it easier to designate who you're specifically targeting, to tell other players (especially the AI) who you have chose to hate. And of course, there's still a difference between non-interaction, slight dislike, and open hostility/rivalry.
 
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Question is why are they keeping in the "rival" mechanic when removing the "embassy" mechanic? Seems a bit lopsided to me. Rivaling should also be a more or less automatic result of the interactions and relations, no?

Rivalry is more a mechanism of internal politic with effect on external politic than a real relation construction. You use propaganda based on hate of others to gain influence on your people. It's a classic in politic. The actual mechanism seems to correctly simulate this.
 
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Looks nice. I'm a little concerned what the removal of embassies will do to FE relations - while the embassies were too strong and kind of cheesy in placating an FE, some kind of placating seems necessary. Otherwise you can get awfully close to war with them just from negative ethics traits relative to theirs and then a slight bit of border friction.

I'm also a fan of the influence cost for remote colonies, but perhaps puzzled by the base 30 cost, which seems *high* for what I assume would be a colony inside your existing borders?
 
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Looks like these are some good improvements that will further deepen the diplomatic aspects. Thank you for this diary!

I'm a bit worried about the removal of embassies though, so for that I will remain more sceptic.
 
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Sadly, that you make further illogical limitations on creating of alliances, now it's nearly impossible to make them on difficulties higher than normal.
 
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Will all Stellaris DD-s be on Tuesday from now on?
Wiz said on Twitter it was delayed due to illness. I imagine they'll still pop up on Mondays to keep everything spaced out (CKII usually gets its DD on a Tuesday).
 
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