Stellaris Dev Diary #55 - Unity and Traditions

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, things are constantly changing during development, so it's hard to balance stuff before the whole thing is completed.
During my past few test games (usually done at home in my private time - yes, it's that much fun) both unity cost and unity gain fluctuated wildly. But rest assured, that we have a close eye on the pacing.

 

[grekulf]

Those who want more info on traditions might be wise to check my twitter today and next week

 

[domein]

Will this tall traditions somehow keep your 250k fleet neighbor from coming over and punching you in the face with invitation to vassalize?

 

[Comrade_Beria]

Another hiatus? It almost makes me want to move to Sweden.

 

[BrokenSky]

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)

Mostly its the Adopt, 5 policies and a Finisher than makes it look like a civ 5 rip off. Can't wait for a mod which ups it to 7 or 10 policies in each tree.

 

[Ipsissimus]

This sounds very good. This is shaping to be the best paradox game! Can't wait for Victoria 3!

 

[Andy_Dandy]

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

You might not have heard about something important when designing games called opportunity costs.

 

[Cat Crusade]

Isaac Asimov would like to have a word with you on planets covered in government buildings.

Not saying I'm against the ideas of government buildings, but a planet filled with monuments does strike me as an odd concept. A tourist hub, sure. A government hub, sure. Monuments all over and no production of anything substatial whatsoever might be a bit pushing it. Although I suppose alien culture could justify it in the end - perhaps a vanity project of a civilization that wants to leave its mark on the galaxy or show off its wealth and influence to other star nations. So I suppose it might be just me finding this idea weird.

Funny, because the first thing my mind went to was that it'd be really neat if the mechanic encouraged you to redevelop your homeworld into a proper "bureaucratic hub" with all your tombs and ministries and such on it.

The thing that strikes me about it, is tombs and monuments aren't bureaucratic buildings in the tradtitional sense. They're more cultural landmarks. They produce impressions on observers and a sense of pride, feeling of cultural heritage but do not actually practically enhance bureaucracy the way a planetary capital complex designed to host offices and collect government data would.

But eh, like I said I find the concept of a planet of monuments kind of odd and strikingly unergonomic when those monuments would block the ability to exploit the planet's natural resources.

 

[Madzai]

I am quite capable to read Unity is used to unlock traditions, and you gain (as per Wiz) most of these traditions fastest by not establishing such a tradition with your actions.

It is illogical to gain a Tradition by not engaging in anything which would actually be considered a traditional behaviour. More importantly, it is not good game-designing to arbitrary penalise a player for doing well.

But we decide that is traditional and that's not by choosing a Tradition, no? So it's quite logical. But i think that to choose a particular Tradition we ether should have a proper Ethos or any activity related to said Tradition - f.e., to choose Military tradition you either should be Militarist OR engage in war at least once.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I am quite capable to read Unity is used to unlock traditions, and you gain (as per Wiz) most of these traditions fastest by not establishing such a tradition with your actions.

It is illogical to gain a Tradition by not engaging in anything which would actually be considered a traditional behaviour. More importantly, it is not good game-designing to arbitrary penalise a player for doing well.

It isn't "arbitrarily penalizing" the player to make a mechanic that gives you more points for a smaller, well-crafted and well-managed empire over a larger, sprawling one. If you have a large, sprawling empire, then you don't really need (or get as much benefit) from the Traditions.

It's not as if you CAN'T unlock traditions as a bigger empire- you can absolutely spec into conquest while waging wars and then do better at wars, probably with specific Traditions that make you gain more unity from conquering enemies.

 

[Bromatheos]

Lifting features from other games is legit. That's literally what Blizzard does, lift all the best features and then polish them to a high shine.

 

[I am Sovereign]

I hope the sector AI will be smart enough to build those monuments or at least not demolish them as it did with other unique buildings in the past.

 

[Elin]

I like this.

Just plse Wiz read the posts on the forum complaining about the problems in Stellaris before adding new content. Thx!

 

[Uxigadur]

Each iteration makes this game more colorful and actually better!
Keep the good work!

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

There should also probably be a time limit before you can toggle something back on and off again.

Maybe turning a Tradition off would cost Unity as well? Not as much, probably, but something.

 

[Swuul]

I don't think you grasp game design as much as you think you do.

Accumulating Unity points slower when you're a big massive conquest-driven empire is an entirely reasonable means of balancing broad vs. tall empires.

I would like to know your credentials in game design to have such certain opinions. Your opinions quite frankly defy logic, and it would be very cool to know in which development group(s) you have been in. I am not a game designer, but I have history from 1980's of being an alpha and beta tester in various games, so I have had the privilege to follow quite a few game designs (some of them very successful, some went down the drain before they even got released).

Anyway, like I mentioned already an umpteenton times, a small group is more in unision, and sure, they should get more Unity points. But if those Unity points are then used to buy Traditions which the small group has absolutely no history of, while the larger group with a long history in the Tradition in question is given a malus, then we are on weak ice. It fails logic, and it is a method to arbitrary punish a player doing well, both which are not signs of good game design.

 

[Umega]

Nice, these are very much like the EU4 national ideas and traditions! A good way to add more flavour to your empire.

 

[Kinkness]

I haven't been this excited for Stellaris since pre launch.

 

[djkris105]

1 month with no dev diary? Can't you just write some blorg poetry about friendship and post it next week? xP

 

[Philthy]

There are other things to life than work. Even when your job is as great as mine.

I wish companies here in the states understood that...