Stellaris Dev Diary #129 - Tradition Updates

[Turelus]

Could this be locked behind authoritarian ethics? It doesn't make much sense in a free society. There can still be the same effect simply by something like "Efficient Police" or "Law and Order". Just investing more in police that still operate under regular laws.

Agreed, as this has bugged me since the tease last week. It's an awesome one and I love the reference and theme but it will just feel weird to take it as a fanatic egalitarian pacifist/xenophile empire.

Otherwise I really like these changes. Some of the "must haves" removed or altered which does make me feel like I might adopt some different traditions in new orders.

 

[pryr]

I see traditions for levelcaps of rulers, governers, admirals, but not generals and sciencist. That seems weird.

 

[CheesySnake]

No they aren't, you never played as a synthetic ascended empire ?

Ah ok, I see now. I had machine empire and synth in my head as being synonymous.

 

[Calvax]

A tradition tree should stick to a theme or a playstyle

Glad to see traditions getting attention and that some of the descriptions have been changed to fit multiple themes. Domination, aside from its very name, has some flavour that could fit even into equal societies (workplace motivators could be grimdark commissars, dystopian propagandarists or therapists whose job it is to oversee worker fulfillment). It's a shame that there's till plenty that don't match particular playstyles, "pursuit of profit" doesn't fit an empire which is communitarian or has rejected greed for spiritualist reasons. And other than RP there's no reason not to pick every tradition, it's a detriment not to. Unity Ambitions provide an alternate sync but given that ascension slots only unlock with traditions it's a real hamstring not to fill them out despite how poorly they fit your theme and playstyle.

 

[Dmitrius]

I notice that the usual line of the update being a long way off is missing just a rebuff against a solid release date.

Just a different author's language choice or a slip that the update might not be too far off it would certainly make sense given that the scale of the reveals seems to be tapering off.

 

[ShockMeSane]

While these changes all look nice and will likely result in a more balanced Tradition tree, I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a missed opportunity not adding a few more trees so every empire doesn't just end up with maxed out traditions (i.e, exactly the same as each other) by 2350. Perhaps they've found another solution to prevent this, but I'd really like the Traditions Tree to be more like Ideas groups in EUIV, where you know for sure from the start of the game that you're not going to be able to choose a large chunk of them.

 

[grekulf]

The amount of tedious work to do all those screens and cut them, and ost them is impressive!

I can confirm that it took way longer than I would have wanted. Especially to also convert that into thumbnail form for the forum. The drudgery of ordinary life hit me hard.

 

[sortulv]

...we will continue to mercilessly tease...

Have you no mercy, fiend?

Also, I notice that all unity boosters are gone from the trees. That will have a huge impact...

 

[Gaussia]

The new trees seems just to be a bounce of modifiers? What about the unique and fun bonuses?

 

[grekulf]

He's talking about post synthetic ascension, not machine conciousness.

@grekulf - any chance of seeing the adaptability tree? The current version is one of the cornerstones of my favorite empire.

I will show it on the stream today. 16:00

 

[Netherim]

Please take plunder war goal and raiding stance from the useless Barbaric Despoilers civic and add them to some tradition, maybe diplomacy. And please, do something for Diplomacy tradition itself: if one person doesn't want to form federation, there are 2 traditions that are useless.

 

[Sousuikakka]

What is "Administrative Cap"?

 

[Sigma 582]

The new traditions don't give any unity boost which is probably good as unity-boosting ones are being replaced with meaningful and actually useful ones.
Will it mean that generally traditions in 2.2 will take longer to unlock than they are taking in 2.1 (as unity generation is lower)?

 

[nfmarque]

The paradise dome from harmony is gone?

 

[ViolentBeetle]

Does it mean now everyone can demand vassalization again?

It's a niche mechanics that shouldn't have an entire tree devoted to it, but I still feel it's something that needs to be unlocked.

 

[grekulf]

What is "Administrative Cap"?

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

A few comments/suggestions....


1.) The one in Domination that says the enforcers are combining the roles of Judge, Jury, and Executioneer... that sounds very on-point for flavor IF you're playing as an Authoritarian-type empire, but conversely completely in conflict with the concept of say a Fanatic Egalitarian Democracy where they'd nearly certainly not concentrate authority so [instead having a jury system, etc.]. May I suggest EITHER enacting a Tradition Swap on that Tradition - keeping it as is for more authoritarian type empires or ones with Autocratic Authorities, but giving more egalitarian empires [or non-police states] something different - OR, keep the effects the same, but have a pseudo-tradition swap where you get an identical effect but the descriptive text for it is different.

2.). The new Kinship tradition as an effect is fine, but "Kinship" seems somewhat an odd name for it now given its effect. I might suggest renaming it.

3.). Utopian Dream - perhaps it could also/alternatively involve something that improves the ability of the government to produce amenities/luxuries for fulling the dream.

3.). General point, and this is also true of traditions in the current build of the game too- there are no specific traditions currently in existence for improving the level caps of Scientists or Generals specifically - although the new version of Polytechnic Education does give a blanket +1 level cap to everyone. In contrast, Domination gives +2 level cap to Governors [in both the current and upcoming version, as well as +2 to rulers in the upcoming version], and the upcoming LeGuin version's Supremacy gives Admirals +2 level caps [and it used to do the same in older versions]. But there are no such specific +2 bonuses for Generals or for Scientists. And that leaves the maximum levels that you can get them all up to after traditions are applied, all other things being equal, uneven, which feels slightly awkward. e.g., in LeGuin, Level 8 Governors, Rulers, and Admirals, but only Level 6 Generals and Scientists.

 

[damnt512]

So how do you vassalize other nation now without the domination tradition ?

 

[The Founder]

It doesn't literally have to be that exact thing for your empire. You are allowed to come up with your own idea of how it would work.

I keep telling them that. They keep disagreeing. Apparently you have to spell it out for them with a Description Swap.

At least for the "Judge Dread" Corp I do know a egaltiarian counter:
"The price of Freedom is eternal Vigilance". It would also be a Wing Commander 4 reference on top of it

Until you tell us what exacatly the penalties for going over that size are, that does not answer anything.
Mostly it is about how severe those are. Are they like "Over Core Sector Limit" severe?
What do they penalize?
Where do tehy cap?
Are there any optiosn to increase it that can be re-used to have a huge supported empire?

 

[Juboboman]

So the 1 free merchant job per 50 pops is that empire wide pop count or just per planet? Unless growth is much easier than presently it seems kind of weak to grow a planet to 50 just for one extra job.