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Stellaris Dev Diary #15 - Fallen Empires

Hello and happy new year! I’ll be your substitute Doomdark for today and in this week’s dev diary we’ll take a closer look at Fallen Empires.

The galaxy is vast, old and unknown. New species constantly flare into existence and some are even able to take their first cautious steps towards other stars. Of those that do some are arrogant enough to assume that they are the first and only chosen. They fail to realize that others may have taken those same steps before them, others who have found amazing wonders and unraveled their secrets, others who reached the furthest edges of knowledge only to crumble away. Those others are called Fallen Empires.

These are once-glorious empires that for unknown reasons have stagnated and often fallen to infighting or crippling apathy. That which once covered hundreds of systems have shrunk to a fraction, barely held on to by superior technology and what little remains of a once glorious fleet. Fallen Empires are isolationist and will look at newer species with disinterest or outright contempt. Diplomatic attempts are futile and they will most likely attack any unknown ships entering one of their remaining systems.

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The response of Fallen Empires vary greatly when approached. It is rarely friendly though.

Design Reasoning

We’ve added Fallen Empires to the game for a couple of reasons. They have the potential to enable some really cool stories and there is a bunch of different directions we can take to ensure players get a different experience from game to game. Players should never feel confident in how a Fallen Empire may react to different events in the galaxy. If left alone they might resurge as a reaction to a galaxy-wide threat or become outraged when their most holy planets are colonized by lesser races.

Gameplay-wise the Fallen Empires can act as a potential source of advanced technology for players willing to invest the military forces required to defeat one of their fleets in battle. In Stellaris, all ships destroyed in combat will leave debris behind and through reverse engineering a player may discover the technologies required to build the weapons and components equipped by those ships. Players can also invade planets belonging to Fallen Empires, allowing them to utilize whatever advanced buildings placed there. This of course means dealing with a new species within the Empire.
While the rewards may be tempting, players may want to consider the risks before attacking a Fallen Empire. Who knows what horrors they have unearthed during the ages, what forbidden secrets their planets hold within, what captives might be unleashed should their wardens be struck down.

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Fallen Empires will use a separate series of models for their ships and stations.

Next week the good Goosecreature will be back with a dev diary on the events and mishaps that may befall colonies and their inhabitants. Until then!
 
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Well I'm guessing they'll add more unit packs in time, this is paradox we're talking about.
 
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There's only 6 types for the other (what was the limit?) 30 factions.

What I'm getting at is, wouldn't it make more sense if the fallen empires could be based on any of the total 7 total types of design instead? ( and had them modified to represent the most high tech versions ).
 
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Though they are not designed to be played, you can tag switch to them. Also in the setup there is flag "is_playable" with currently is set to = no. But if you just switch to "yes", then they turn up in the Species creation wizard as an option.

What, or who, is this "Species creation wizard?" Is it the species creator everyone uses or something else?
 
What, or who, is this "Species creation wizard?" Is it the species creator everyone uses or something else?

I think this is referring to the part of the new game menu where you create your species and empire.
 
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What, or who, is this "Species creation wizard?" Is it the species creator everyone uses or something else?
Obviously a one man fallen empire that created all the species. ;)
 
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how exactly does a fallen empire un-stagnate itself?

have a strong ruler take power or something?

Think how alexios Kommenos took over Byzantium and led the revival that revamped it for a 100 years.

And can a new species starting out turn into a fallen empire over the course of a game?
 
how exactly does a fallen empire un-stagnate itself?

have a strong ruler take power or something?

Think how alexios Kommenos took over Byzantium and led the revival that revamped it for a 100 years.

And can a new species starting out turn into a fallen empire over the course of a game?
The byzantine emprie wasn't really a fallen empire before manzikert and alexios took power right after that happened. The revival of the komeni was more about damage controll for things that happened right before their time than the resurgence of a long lost superpower.
Think more along the lines of someone saking them out of their complacency by waging war on them, or doing things that they think are dangerous. Same can be said for the byzantines ofcourse, it took losing anatolia for them to be shaken out of their superiority complex and actually work together, that was probably why the komeni rivival happened, because the nobles of byzantium reaised that they actually could be defeated.
 
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And can a new species starting out turn into a fallen empire over the course of a game?
Shouldn't be that, just get enough unrest among your populace. The rebels and infighting will occupy you for the next few centuries. Would be interesting if there could be technophobic rebels, which can damage your research progress and stalling your technological progress.
 
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Furthermore, archaeology should pick up artifacts from the fallen empires in what was their maximum range to help you fight that same fallen empire. In time, you may be able to discover their story.

There should be some chance that their race splintered into multiple sovereign entities. This might be like Vulcans and Romulans who split as a result of civil war, or it could be like the British freely giving up their empire. There could be a situation of a once mighty empire divided into little Italian city-state like system-kingdoms. It could be that the uplifted slave-soldiers over through the intelligent machine builders, and now have no idea how anything works.

All of this.
 
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Blingatron 8000, now with more bling.
A bit late but....
HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH OF A VORLON?
Do you even Babylon 5 mate?
 
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Sorry if this has already been asked but do the differently coloured suns mean something? In the screenshot there are red yellow and blue ones plus others with some different effects around them.
 
As a Magic: the Gathering player, it's a bit weird seeing a bunch of people getting excited about Fallen Empires. ;-)

Also I wonder how long it will take until there are constant threads claiming that space Bizantium is once again being nerfed and should be able to blockade ennemy star systems.
 
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Sorry if this has already been asked but do the differently coloured suns mean something? In the screenshot there are red yellow and blue ones plus others with some different effects around them.
Yes as a general rule the blue ones burn hotter than the red ones. It's probably more complicated than that though but I'm not an astrophycisist so that's as much as I know.
 
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What I'm getting at is, wouldn't it make more sense if the fallen empires could be based on any of the total 7 total types of design instead? ( and had them modified to represent the most high tech versions ).

I think the FEs are supposed to look so radically different from everyone else due to them being so far ahead of you.
 
Kosh-Naranek-babylon-5-10955700-438-648.jpg


"u wot m8"
Ahh, Vorlons. Literally the only somewhat kind of 'friendly' ancient race in Babylon 5. Everyone else was hostile or completely apathetic and ignored everyone (even if they accidentally broke your ship. Couldn't even get their number for the insurance). Approaching any of the elder race's claimed space was often lethal, especially the Vorlon's; Shadow space was literally safer to stumble into, they were more likely to give you board and room or 'let you pilot' one of their sweet battleships if you declined their hospitality than murder you like the Vorlons usually do. The Vorlons also spent more time figuring out the best way to make a simple statement cryptic than actually doing anything (Kosh virtually never attended League meetings), and the only reason why they even really bothered to interact with the younger races basically comes down to a bet between them and the Shadows of who could guide the younger races better.

In short, elder races are dicks.
 
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