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Stellaris Dev Diary #184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination

Congratulations, [Employee.GetFirstName]!

Due to consistently meeting or exceeding performance goals and receiving high marks from both your manager and colleagues, you have been selected for termination at the end of this quarter! Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated by all of us here at Dodacorp™, and we’re lucky to see you go!

Your manager will be in touch with you to provide instructions related to termination benefits, reallocating your Dodacorp™ retirement credits to your next of kin, and the necessary paperwork for your desired post-termination arrangements. As a valued member of Dodacorp™, remember that you have an employee discount on cremation services from our partners at Burnatech™ and don’t forget that you can claim your complementary Eternal Interment™ urn from our Repositrexx™ subsidiary.

Ask your manager about securing a spot for your urn on the Wall of Honor™, the most desirable places are going fast!

Please make sure to complete all of the requisite forms by the first of [Employee.TerminationDate.PreviousMonth] so you don’t miss this exciting opportunity.

We’d like to thank you again for your service here at Dodacorp™, and appreciate that your sacrifice today will lead to record profits tomorrow!

Sincerely,
[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullName]
[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullJobTitle]

Dodacorp(tm) image - NOT JEFF


---

Inspired by the extreme popularity of CK2’s Sunset Invasion, we continue our exploration of mortality with two more civics that we’re planning for an upcoming release, the Death Cult and Corporate Death Cult.

Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Death Cult civic - sadly the Curators aren’t allowed to secretly be a death cult

Corporate Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Corporate Death Cult civic - ritual murder for funds and prophet

Available to Spiritualist empires, empires with either of these civics replace the Temples that Spiritualists can normally build with Sacrificial Temples that provide both Death Priest and Mortal Initiate jobs.

Sacrificial Temple - NOT JEFF

Sacrificial Temple building - funny how there always seems to be a Help Wanted sign in the window

Death Priest - NOT JEFF

Death Priest job - dedicated to improving game performance

Mortal Initiate - HOPEFULLY NOT JEFF

Mortal Initiate job - the benefits are to die for

Death Cults that have Mortal Initiate positions filled gain access to three new Sacrifice Edicts that let them perform the ritual slaughter to the gods (or whatever force your empire’s pops believe in). They’re a bit fickle though, and the magnitude of the benefits varies, but the more blood that is shed, the more likely you are to get the better blessings.

Sacrifice: Togetherness - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Togetherness edict - let’s remember the good times we had together

Sacrifice: Harmony - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony edict - you can finally get that corner desk and red stapler you wanted

Sacrifice: Bounty - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Bounty edict - it’s like voluntary purging that doesn’t get you yelled at by the Galactic Community

Sacrifice: Togetherness and Sacrifice: Harmony each have a base cost of 50 influence, Sacrifice: Bounty costs a base of 100 influence. These are, as usual, modified by things that affect Edict costs (such as the Spiritualist modifier).

When the Sacrifice is made, the Death Priests will inform you as to how it was received by the divine.

Sacrifice Event - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony - should have built more Sacrificial Temples, these are rookie numbers

Despite being societies revolving around ritual murder (and the Sunset Invasion joke), the theme of these civics is intended to be one of voluntary sacrifice, where the sacrifices are appreciated and honored. As such, it is not open to Fanatic Purifiers, who would probably have a more... uh... aggressive policy.

I know last week I said that we would try to take a glimpse into life in the Mishar Cabal, but they spaced the journalist sent to interview them after they "saw too much". We'll see what we can share about them soon.

Next week we’ll reveal what’s hidden under the blurred text in the Death Cult civic and maybe even meet
JEFF
.
 
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EhWhoAmI said:
Can we also kidnap pops from other empires to sacrifice them to the blood gods?
Click to expand...
That would be horrible!

So... Uh... Yes.

(If you have the Raiding bombardment stance available.)

zombiak said:
ALL HAIL JEFF
Click to expand...
PRAISE JEFF.

edwardlego said:
so can the mortal initiates be slaves?
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No. They have to be volunteers. People forced into it don't taste as good.
Code: 
        is_sapient = yes
        is_enslaved = no
        is_being_purged = no
        is_being_assimilated = no
 
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Aeroclub said:
I mean, Corporate Death Cult? Giving your life so that someone else gets profit?
Am I the only one unable to wrap my head around that? I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how would species like that think or feel. Seems to be kind of immersion-breaking...
Click to expand...

Don't forget that some "Megacorporation" have a sect logic more than a corporate one. Can be really interesting if we can combine them with Criminal Heritage like the Gospel civic. So we can sacrifice converted people on other planets.
 
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I think this civic is really interesting. Maybe this could have some synergy with psi-ascension if you have a shroud pact? It's also interesting that the sacrifices can't be slaves, which will maybe prevent xenophobes from just killing xenos off in this way without having to purge them. Sentient robots apparently can also be sacrificed with full ai rights?

My main concern is that this is way too weak, because more pops is pretty much always better, and sacrificing pops in order to get a bonus would require a truly *massive* bonus to make up for it.
 
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zombiak said:
When you try to click on REDACTED, the hint pop-up says Jeff.

ALL HAIL JEFF
Click to expand...
For those who don't know it, in the latest Star Contol game Jeff is an very advanced AI probe who helped out a primitive race when they were in trouble which then started to worship it as a god.
starcontrolorigins.gamepedia.com

Jeff

Jeff is deity venerated by the Mowlings. He seems to hang around a lot in their Home System of unkown, trying to save them from their accident prone tendencies and untimely deaths. The god the Mowlings venerate is actually a very advanced, AI equipped, space probe. It has been fabricated by an...
starcontrolorigins.gamepedia.com starcontrolorigins.gamepedia.com

Not sure if that really is the intended reference, but it would fit the theme.
 
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Aeroclub said:
I mean, Corporate Death Cult? Giving your life so that someone else gets profit?
Am I the only one unable to wrap my head around that? I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how would species like that think or feel. Seems to be kind of immersion-breaking...
Click to expand...
not at all. look at the USA
 
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fodazd said:
I think this civic is really interesting. Maybe this could have some synergy with psi-ascension if you have a shroud pact? It's also interesting that the sacrifices can't be slaves, which will maybe prevent xenophobes from just killing xenos off in this way without having to purge them. Sentient robots apparently can also be sacrificed with full ai rights?
Click to expand...
I agree, that would be really cool. I think most/all civics should improve where you get new functions over time. This is a perfect example. It could also slightly raise your chances of getting a Covenant.
 
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AlazkanAssassin said:
How about a comment on that new but unredacted civic, “ancient preservers”?
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That's the Curator civic. We really didn't want them becoming Death Cults, since it makes it much more sinister when they ask you for your Scientist. Of course, since they have to be Materialist, it was a bit of overkill explicitly banning them from it, but oh well.

Ixal said:
Not sure if that really is the intended reference, but it would fit the theme.
Click to expand...
No, ours is different. There are many divergent paths to Jeff.

UltimateTobi said:
Will the AI be able to make proper use of those Civics?
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It's a pretty easy one for them to use, build a building, use an edict once in a while.

They will only use the Sacrifice edicts if they're at least semi-relevant to the situation at hand, rather than murdering people every chance they can.
 
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Eladrin said:
That's the Curator civic. We really didn't want them becoming Death Cults, since it makes it much more sinister when they ask you for your Scientist. Of course, since they have to be Materialist, it was a bit of overkill explicitly banning them from it, but oh well.
Click to expand...
Could we get an alternative Spiritualist FE that demands pops for blood sacrifices or they'll wake up and conquer the galaxy?
 
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Cool stuff, very flavourful and I like that you included MegaCorps this time.

Speaking of which, would you please consider finally adding some sort of expansion planner of branch offices? Playing a megacorp is just not fun, unless you ignore branch offices more or less, which is sad and also less fun. Please?
 
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edwardlego said:
i don't see a minimum required stability or happiness ( ಠ ͜ʖಠ)
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No citizenship or xenophobe requirement either, from what I can see .... meaning you can be a fanatic xenophile sacrificing all your resident-status refugees on dedicated "sacrifice worlds" lol.
"Yes just step in to the temple and we'll sort out your paperwork...."
 
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This smells like a buttload of micromanagement, every time I want to click that button.

Since there is no way of saying: Species X can only work Job Y and Z we must disable and enable jobs at that level constantly, until out of pure randomness the one species POP we want to sacrifice takes up the job.

Gotta be honest with you, that sounds like a horrible pain in the rear end.
 
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Eladrin said:
Despite being societies revolving around ritual murder (and the Sunset Invasion joke), the theme of these civics is intended to be one of voluntary sacrifice, where the sacrifices are appreciated and honored. As such, it is not open to Fanatic Purifiers, who would probably have a more... uh... aggressive policy.
Click to expand...

I'm not totally sure I understand the thinking here.

Why couldn't a society have a philosophy of purging all xenos while still internally keeping its death cult culture to its own population? I'm similarly unsure what about inward perfection prevents death cults, unless inward perfection is some specific anti death ideology.

When I heard "death cults" the first thing that poped into my mind was that Start Trek episode where a normal prosperous society would euthanize everyone over 60 for the greater good.
 
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Too real.

I worry a little - will the sacrifice events lead to a bunch of ruined buildings across your empire, as populations drop below the levels required to support the buildings?
 
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