• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #55 - Unity and Traditions

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we'll be talking about a new feature coming in the 1.5 'Banks' update called Traditions and Unity. As before, I can't talk about when Banks will be coming out, only that it's a while away and we have quite a few dev diaries to go through before we get there :)

Traditions and Unity
One thing we have mentioned as a big priority for Stellaris is adding more empire customization and more ability to roleplay diverse empires. We have also talked about our desire to allow for the existance of 'tall' empires. Traditions and Unity is a feature that aims to tackle both these topics by adding 7 new Tradition trees and a resource called Unity that is used to unlock them. Unity is an accumulative resource that increases each month, and is primarily gained through the construction of government buildings such as monuments, mausoleums and temples. Unity is spent on adopting Tradition trees and purchasing individual Traditions. Each Tradition tree has a starter bonus, five unlockable bonuses and a finisher bonus that is gained once the entire tree is filled out.
2016_12_15_4.png


The seven Tradition trees are as follows:
Expansion: Focuses on growth through rapid colonization.
Domination: Focuses on maintaining control over your population and subjects.
Prosperity: Focuses on economic growth.
Harmony: Focuses on maintaining a happy and diverse population.
Supremacy: Focuses on growth through military conquest.
Purity: Focuses on strength through homogenity and dominion over other species.
Exploration: Focuses on exploration and scientific discovery.
2016_12_15_3.png


The cost of unlocking a Tradition depends on the size of your empire, as well as how internally stable it is. Unhappy factions, minority species and slaves all increase the cost of adoption Traditions further, though these effects can be offset or even canceled out entirely by adopting the right Traditions for the empire you intend to build. Overall, small harmonious empires will unlock Traditions more quickly than large, expansionistic ones. Which Traditions you unlock also has a significant impact on the ethics of your population, and so can be a useful tool to either strengthen your existing empire ethics or further a planned empire-wide shift towards a different set of ethics altogether.

You may have noticed a certain part of the Traditions screen that I have not yet mentioned in this dev diary. That's because it's actually the subject of the next dev diary! However, since the Christmas holidays are coming up, most of the Stellaris team will be away, so dev diaries will be on hiatus until January 12th. Tune back in then to find out all about the Ascension Perks and how you can use them to build the empire of your dreams.
 
Last edited:
  • 198
  • 53
  • 3
Reactions:
Straight up rip-off of Civ5, then? Good, I love that game. :p

You may be shocked to find out that there are other features in Stellaris 'ripped off' from other games, for example colony ships. ;)

(The mechanics of Traditions differ from those of social policies, especially where Ascension Perks are involved, but I can understand thinking so from the interface)
 
  • 43
  • 15
  • 1
Reactions:
Is this going to be part of the DLC or the free update?

Unless explicitly said otherwise, free update. Everything detailed in this DD is free.
 
  • 69
  • 21
Reactions:
Another hiatus? :D
Daaaamn, I really look forward to Thursdays because of dev diaries... :(

Holidays! This should be the last hiatus before Banks though.
 
  • 28
  • 2
Reactions:
Sweet! It just sounded like the sort of thing that would be part of a DLC

We're trying to avoid putting fundamental gameplay systems into the expansions. Creates too much of a headache when we want to iterate on those systems in the future. Don't worry, there will be plenty of paid stuff to talk about when we're ready to talk about it. ;)
 
  • 52
  • 13
Reactions:
Wait wait, so tradition resource is gained by...waiting and mining? Shouldn't Purity be gained by purging and enslaving xenos because, that kinda what tradition means - doing something often? It's not that fun to sit for years and then instantly became fanatic purifiers overnight or peacefully exist for ages and then suddenly you realize you have a long tradition of conquests
 
  • 30
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
Is there anything to spend unity on, beyond traditions? Otherwise, it's just going to accumulate once you've got all the ones you want...
 
  • 4
Reactions:
I suppose the text instead of a tree for most traditions is placeholder?

Also, I don't suppose we can get some more examples of traditions? ;)

The tree shows up when you mouseover or unlock a tradition.
 
  • 26
Reactions:
Wait wait, so tradition resource is gained by...waiting and mining? Shouldn't Purity be gained by purging and enslaving xenos because, that kinda what tradition means - doing something often? It's not that fun to sit for years and then instantly became fanatic purifiers overnight

There are other ways to gain unity as well, some ethos/tradition specific.
 
  • 55
  • 3
Reactions:
Will this tall traditions somehow keep your 250k fleet neighbor from coming over and punching you in the face with invitation to vassalize?
 
  • 9
  • 3
Reactions:
We're trying to avoid putting fundamental gameplay systems into the expansions. Creates too much of a headache when we want to iterate on those systems in the future. Don't worry, there will be plenty of paid stuff to talk about when we're ready to talk about it. ;)
Learnt that the hard way from retinues, huh?

Definitely a fan of this new system, loved the policy trees of Civ 5. Almost wish we could get them in EU4 and CK2 (or EU5 and CK3).
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Unless explicitly said otherwise, free update. Everything detailed in this DD is free.
Hot damn, if this is free, I'm excited to see what features you have in store that have a price tag attached to them
fd.jpg
 
  • 14
Reactions: