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Stellaris Dev Diary #56 - Ascension Perks

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we'll be talking about a feature that was hinted at in last dev diary, Ascension Perks. Ascension Perks are related to the Traditions and Unity system, but is a paid feature in the (unannounced) expansion accompanying the 1.5 'Banks' update, rather than a part of the update itself. Those without the expansion will get full access to the Traditions and Unity features, but not to the Ascension Perks themselves.

Ascension Perks
The idea behind the Ascension Perks is to provide more unique unlockable features for Empires, and to provide the player with the ability to determine an 'endgame' for their species: What their empire is striving towards. Perhaps your goal is to go all-in on AI, replacing the frail biological bodies of your pops with immortal machines, or to harness the psionic potential of your species and reach a higher form of existence, allowing your empire to tap into other planes of being? All these and more are covered by the Ascension Perk system.
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Each time you complete a Tradition tree, you will unlock one Ascension Perk slot, of which there are 8 in total. There may also be other ways to unlock slots, such as from certain rare technologies or as a reward for a particular event chain. This slot can then be filled with any of the Ascension Perks available to you. The final number of perks is not yet set down, but there are currently more than 20 and there will likely be more added. Ascension Perks have pre-requisites, which can for example be a particular technology or tradition, a certain number of Ascension Perk slots to be unlocked, or a specific ethos or government type. Some Ascension Perks are one-offs that simply provide a bonus to a particular area of your empire: For example, a bonus to border range, or cheaper terraforming. Others unlock new features, such as the ability to construct new types of space structures (more on in later dev diaries).

Finally there are the three 'Species Endgame' paths: The biological path, the spiritual path and the synthetic path. These three paths each consist of two perks, the first of which unlocks access to the second once a number of other pre-requisites have been met. The paths are mutually exclusive, and once you start heading down one of them, the other two are locked off.
  • The Biological Path focuses on mastery over biological evolution. The first level of it gives access to more gene points and significantly cuts the cost of genemodding projects, while the second level expands the options available during genemodding in addition to further providing more points and less cost.
  • The Psionic Path focuses on developing the psionic potential of your population. The first level unlocks new psionic technologies and benefits, while the second level allows your empire to reach a higher level of existance and communicate with the beings present there.
  • The Synthetic Path focuses on the replacement of biology with machinery. The first level allows you to turn your population partly synthetic through the use of cybernetics, while the second level replaces your biological pops with robots, turning your empire entirely synthetic.
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That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the concept of species rights and obligations.

Also about eating pops.
 
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I'm absolutely LOVING these new traditions and ascendancy perks. Not only will they make each and every empire feel more unique and give a general gist of their 'culture', but will make late game more fun. On a side note, I hope some of these more extreme perks take time to fully implement and the process doesn't necessarily have to be smooth and without problem.

Here's a question, though - will some of these perks change the way you can interact with some of the end-game crises? For example, the AI rebellion will not be automatically hostile towards you if your population is entirely synth, or you can actually engage in limited diplomacy with the Unbidden if you have transcended, etc.

Also, I hope that the 'master terraformers' can terraform barren worlds into habitable ones(for a steep price and time, of course), so their perk isn't just '+50% terraforming speed' or something like that, but actually feels powerful and unique.
 
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Hapchazzard said:
I'm absolutely LOVING these new traditions and ascendancy perks. Not only will they make each and every empire feel more unique and give a general gist of their 'culture', but will make late game more fun. On a side note, I hope some of these more extreme perks take time to fully implement and the process doesn't necessarily have to be smooth and without problem.

Here's a question, though - will some of these perks change the way you can interact with some of the end-game crises? For example, the AI rebellion will not be automatically hostile towards you if your population is entirely synth, or you can actually engage in limited diplomacy with the Unbidden if you have transcended, etc.

Also, I hope that the 'master terraformers' can terraform barren worlds into habitable ones(for a steep price and time, of course), so their perk isn't just '+50% terraforming speed' or something like that, but actually feels powerful and unique.
Click to expand...

The exact details of how going fully synthetic etc will affect endgame crises is something we're still working out. More on that later.

The ascension perks are not just 'click perk to make everyone synthetic', special projects, events etc are involved.
 
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Wiz said:
The Synthetic Path focuses on the replacement of biology with machinery. The first level allows you to turn your population partly synthetic through the use of cybernetics, while the second level replaces your biological pops with robots, turning your empire entirely synthetic.
Click to expand...
Just wondering, how does this interact with the AI endgame crisis?

Edit:
Ninja'd
 
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Wiz said:
The exact details of how going fully synthetic etc will affect endgame crises is something we're still working out. More on that later.

The ascension perks are not just 'click perk to make everyone synthetic', special projects, events etc are involved.
Click to expand...

Can I pick a side in AI crisis?
 
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Since becoming synthetic is one of the perks I am wondering if we will still be able to get synthetic race as starting pick in some future expansion?
 
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Wow, this seems really really epic. Thank you guys over there in the cold North for such awesomeness.

I do have a question though, do the top levels of the Endgame ones contain special game mechanics that are different from normal empires?
 
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Wiz said:
Others unlock new features, such as the ability to construct new types of space structures (more on in later dev diaries).
Click to expand...

Ringworld confirmed?!

I really love the ideas of those ascension perks but we don't know too much about it (events involved, new portraits for race etc...)

I hope EVOLUTION MASTERY evolve your organic body to extremely adaptive thing (like Prethoryn, Tyranids, Zergs...) with organic stuff and evolution/adaptation for only goal. Coz it seems logic that TRANSCENDANCE will transform you into energy beings and SYNTHETIC EVOLUTION would make you robotic. EVOLUTION definitly deserve something cool too!
 
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AtarashiiSekai said:
Wow, this seems really really epic. Thank you guys over there in the cold North for such awesomeness.

I do have a question though, do the top levels of the Endgame ones contain special game mechanics that are different from normal empires?
Click to expand...

They contain unique mechanics not otherwise available, yes.
 
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For example, a bonus to border range, or cheaper terraforming. Others unlock new features, such as the ability to construct new types of space structures (more on in later dev diaries).
Click to expand...
giphy.gif

We'll be able to build new thingies? Maybe space stations? Entire ringworlds?
Looking forward to it.
 
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Good! I wonder though, if it's al DLC content does that mean we won't see any more ascension perks in the future. I hope that perhaps a few more 2-step endgame huge concepts could be added in the future.
 
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