Stellaris Dev Diary #46 - Enclaves

[Seomis]

Hmm, not what I was expecting from a name like Enclaves.

I admit I was also expecting "Space San Marino"

 

[Andy_Dandy]

Those prices seem egregious. 3 energy per mineral?

If anything it is too cheap. Any cheaper and it would seriously threathen and harm game balance.

 

[Krebsig]

Resources and other goods Enclaves offers have fixed price or depend on relationship with Empires?

On side note, i'm surprised that proper Pirates aren't presented as separate enclave that breed troubles but can be used to harass other Empires in "Privateer style".

Some sort of "mercenary guild"/pirate/privateer station would be a cool enclave.

 

[klingonadmiral]

Ah, but these are the finest quality minerals from some of the best and most ethical quarries in the galaxy. Honestly, this rate is a steal, but we like you that much.

See, that's your problem. Why shall we be interested in buying your horrendously overpriced minerals when we can get the same amount for much cheaper by just putitng some fox-people or what have you in the mines without feeding them? Catching two birds with one stone for all that we are concerned for. You better adjust your prices, xenos, or your home station may be designated as a test target for our next generation of batttleships.

(Seriously though, mines give you at least 2 mins/energy)

If anything it is too cheap. Any cheaper and it would seriously threathen game balance.

With any other empire I can trade ressources at nearly 1:1, not 0.33333:1

And even then I'm never buying minerals, only energy, minerals are ridiculously easy to come by

 

[Extradaemon]

I expected that Guardian to be a tad larger... More of a large winged snake than a big headed butterfly like the artwork suggested

 

[LeeDub]

Originally, Heinlein was supposed to be an update accompanying a full-fledged expansion, but we chose instead to do a Story Pack so that the Stellaris programmers would be able to focus on bug fixing, UI improvements and improving/reworking features in the free update.

Curious: was Leviathan going to happen anyway or is the idea of "Story Pack" a result of this shift of priorities? Leviathan is looking like a small but interesting improvement, seems sensible to assume that others of this type are coming.

As an aside, one of my pet peeves of the current DLC model is that once a feature is added through it, it's probably not going to be touched upon much more. These Enclaves, for example, sound like a good addition, yet with quite a bit of unfulfilled potential. Maybe these Enclaves would give you quests. Maybe you could receive quests that directly involve these Enclaves. Maybe Pacifist Xenophile Fallen Empires take a shine to them, maybe some others treat them with disdain.

So I guess an extra question would be: do you think this DLC model locks you out from further developing potentially interesting features on account of "not everyone has DLC XYZ"?

 

[minami26]

Hi @Wiz,
Will these "Enclaves" fulfill the past Dev Diary's Heinlein intention of "Living Solar Systems" with the little ships moving from planet to planet to stations and enclave bases? if so what could we expect?

 

[MAHak]

Will Enclaves remain 'neutral' if a "War in heaven" breaks out?

 

[stavern]

I loved CK2 and played 1208 hours on it over the years. Conclave ruined the game for me and not played it since march 6 if too believe steam. When I read about Enclave here I thought of Conclave and feared some council stuff to be introduced. Glad that is not the case.

 

[CaptBasil]

Those prices seem egregious. 3 energy per mineral?

The price reminds me a lot of Settlers of Catan, where you were able to trade any resource 4:1, or 3:1 with a trade harbor for a specific resource.

I don't mind a resource conversion like this in a board game, but it feels unnecessarily gamey in a 4X game. Also, I don't really see the point in doing this anyway, since you'll always get a better deal from other empires (unless everyone hates you and/or is dead).

 

[Andy_Dandy]

With any other empire I can trade ressources at nearly 1:1, not 0.33333:1

Not true, since that requires a very good standing with them (so it's rather rare on not too low difficulties) + that they'll need to have alot to trade away to be usefull.

It's not good for the game with a 1:1 rate for trading of energy and minerals. Should be pretty obvious, and at least is to the Developers (and that's the essential part).

 

[Xykon]

I loved CK2 and played 1208 hours on it over the years. Conclave ruined the game for me and not played it since march 6 if too believe steam. When I read about Enclave here I thought of Conclave and feared some council stuff to be introduced. Glad that is not the case.

You should take a look at CK2 again, the Reapers Due free patch allows you to turn off coalitions and shattered retreat (which, I assume, is what 'ruined' the game, to use your overly dramatic turn of phrase).

Interesting dev diary. I'll have to pick up this DLC once it's out.

 

[LemonMonk]

It would be fun to run a protection racket, whereby enclaves in your space that don't pay could be destroyed/impeded/enslaved.. assuming that your species ethos allows it.

 

[Lamahorse]

@Wiz, can we have some rework of star charts?

It would be nice if sharing star charts, didn't prevent one from ever surveying planets. Revealing system bodies and leaving them grey, might be a nice touch.

Otherwise, sharing star charts is a terrible idea as it locks out your scientists from doing anything!

 

[Crissa]

What benefit will purchasing star charts have over exploring with your own ships? Will buying the charts negate the ability to find anomalies? (Regarding the latter, I'll admit that I haven't played in a while, due to HoI4, and when I do I never trade for the charts, so if this has been changed so you can still find anomalies after getting access to other empires' data, I am unaware of it (but would be happy to learn that it is the case.))

Yeah. Since surveying nets leader skill faster than researching, buying/trading for star charts in the current game is a bad idea.

(Although in 1.2.5 it seems that anomalies just plain don't show up where others have fully mapped.)

Maybe the maps give Medium results instead of Full? (names and planet types, but not full surveys?)

-Crissa

 

[Pyramid_Head]

What will be the point of star charts if by buying system information you are blocking Shience Ships from possability of exploring and procuring anomalies and other beneficial stuff?
Edit: Ah, already same questiones in the thread appeared

 

[Kapi96]

The enclaves feature sounds pretty interesting.

Kind of disappointed about the music being included rather than sold separately though. I don`t like paying for things that I`ll never use.

 

[Praetorian44]

Enclaves sound very interesting. They also kind of remind me of Civilization.

 

[Ezumiyr]

See, that's your problem. Why shall we be interested in buying your horrendously overpriced minerals when we can get the same amount for much cheaper by just putitng some fox-people or what have you in the mines without feeding them? Catching two birds with one stone for all that we are concerned for. You better adjust your prices, xenos, or your home station may be designated as a test target for our next generation of batttleships.

(Seriously though, mines give you at least 2 mins/energy)

But you don't have to choose between the two. You can both exploit your Pop and buy Minerals.

I agree that minerals-sellign Enclaves are kinda useless, though. Until now you needed to have good relations with other empires in order to have interesting deals. Now you just need to find an Enclave... And in mid/late game it's even worse. We already have too much minerals (and even credits) at this point.
Civ5's city states provide unique ressources and more diplomatic power. Traders provide energy or minerals, which is maybe only good in early/mid game, and is very punctual anyway.

I can't imagine how the devs didn't think of giving them unique ressources to trade. That was the obvious thing to do...

 

[Wizzington]

But you don't have to choose between the two. You can both exploit your Pop and buy Minerals.

I agree that minerals-sellign Enclaves are kinda useless, though. Until now you needed to have good relations with other empires in order to have interesting deals. Now you just need to find an Enclave... And in mid/late game it's even worse. We already have too much minerals (and even credits) at this point.
Civ5's city states provide unique ressources and more diplomatic power. Traders provide energy or minerals, which is maybe only good in early/mid game, and is very punctual anyway.

I can't imagine how the devs didn't think of giving them unique ressources to trade. That was the obvious thing to do...

Did you read the dev diary? It explicitly says they have unique resources to trade.