Stellaris Dev Diary #200: The Custodian

[CaptainGrimlock]

So Nemesis won't work without Federation?

Great idea, anyway

P.S. TO all dislikers - What are you respectfully disagree with?

The Galactic Comunity is in the base game, you just get special features like the galactic council with Federations

 

[CaptainGrimlock]

Also, the “Glimrock” empire?
Really?

 

[Zhuljin]

Will an AI Galactic Custodian actually be effective at fighting a Crisis? Generally, the AI do have a tendency to not be able to organise any effective response against any of the Criseses at the moment, has this been addressed at all with new AI behaviours?

Additionally... if an AI chooses to "Become the Crisis", will they actually be a threat? Will they have any unique behaviours over and above the current AI for, say, Fanatic Purifiers?

Indeed it is a really nice idea keep up the good work!
but like all things in stellaris if the A.I, cant handle it its no fun.
so can we get a dev diary on how the A.I is being improved to implement the new features?? (and old ones )

 

[The Shacks]

Need the ability to shape what kind of civs are allowed into the community, maybe we're all free thinking organics and we dont trust that freaky hivemind in the corner always talking to itself and accidently refering to us as biomass, or the driven assimilator that raises resolutions on one hand but prepares to force us all to be cyborgs on the other. In some Galaxies the ....eclectic nature of the community can feel odd narritvely.

Aswell, do hope the galatic defence force has some events tied to them during their 'independent tag' period between custodians. Can we have the soldiers go rogue or seize power for themselves Mamaluk stylio.

 

[Jarolleon]

still think they should just make some story packs that add more events for leaders, envoys, spies, fleets, etc as a money making holding action while they tweak the AI and bugfix after this....

I always like the events for people in CK... made me feel like they were people.

The sheer scale of Stellaris makes character-focus a bit harder to do well though.

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

We definately need a galactic community map mode to see those who are part of the community, the custodian/council members as well as those who are not part of the community and those who can never be part of the community (FP, DS, DE, Crisies...)

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

The sheer scale of Stellaris makes character-focus a bit harder to do well though.

I think it's possible on the level of Super beings

 

[TimeMask]

Sometimes I wonder if there are any good guys in stellaris x'D

 

[MxRant]

They will patrol Community space, and if a crisis appears, they'll focus on attacking it.

How they will interact with amoebas and crystals if they'll meet one? Will they be pacified for them on default?

 

[Spartakus]

So, does that mean, uhm... that the crisis, er.... works now?

 

[The Wolf with the Dragon]

Not a fan of the ability to prematurely end a session. Feels like, especially in multiplayer, people are very slow to notice that a vote is going on and this would just be abused completely.

 

[Calvax]

Not a fan of the ability to prematurely end a session. Feels like, especially in multiplayer, people are very slow to notice that a vote is going on and this would just be abused completely.

That's part of the risk for allowing someone to be a custodian I guess. Being able to end the session early and push through votes is probably a necessity. The AI doesn't tend to prioritise galactic focus votes atm, it would be frustrating to be the custodian only for no useful custodian policies to pass in your term. It looks like it's a 30 year term, which normally would get 5 votes through. That's not a lot to push through changes you need as custodian.

 

[SeraphAscending]

I did notice that, but honestly I'm not holding my breath on it amounting to a ton more than the rest of the GC being Very Displeased with you and maybe having a few maluses applied, lower influence or something like that. I would love for there to be an actual serious consequence, some real diplomatic stuff, and I will very gladly be surprised and proven wrong, but if you're strong enough to maintain Custodianship then I'd imagine you're probably strong enough to either easily deal with or just completely ignore whatever gets thrown at you, the game has always had a problem with meaningfully impacting a player that's snowballed their way to success.

I do think that will be the case, but it strongly depends on how it's implemented. Slowly accumulating maluses that still reach critical points can be bad.
For example: Losing all diplomatic agreements over time.

If that comes with a new CB "Remove Custodian from Council" (once a certain threshold of general disapproval is reached) that multiple members of the GC could join, you could have an issue at your hand if you don't keep the senate - or at least it's powerful members - in your favor. (Akin to Independence/Claimant factions in CK3)

 

[SeraphAscending]

Sometimes I wonder if there are any good guys in stellaris x'D

Well, there are a lot of folk that think they are the good guys

I doubt you'd find a driven exterminator, a rogue servitor or democratic crusaders that isn't convinced they are doing the universe a favor.

 

[SeraphAscending]

Not a fan of the ability to prematurely end a session. Feels like, especially in multiplayer, people are very slow to notice that a vote is going on and this would just be abused completely.

I think they said you can end it prematurely after half the session time. That is still a long time.

 

[Lavilledieu]

Seems like an interesting feature to spice up the game. I have two worries now:
- Will the AI be able to handle being a Custodian?
- I find federation fleet management and ship designing already very confusing, adding yet another thing there would make things really difficult. Plus, updating/changing your ship design three times (own fleet, federation fleet, custodian fleet) will get tiresome.

 

[UltimateTobi]

So... what's the downside of being a Custodian? I've only seen benefits.
So it'd be the modus operandi for every playthrough to become the Custodian (if you don't want to become the Crisis, which also does not have downsides except the galaxy hating you? (At least some form of "penalty"/downside.)).

 

[Pancakelord]

if you don't want to become the Crisis, which also does not have downsides except the galaxy hating you?

The downsides of custodianship are probably even more diplomatic notification spam...

 

[Alblaka]

Great idea, anyway

P.S. TO all dislikers - What are you respectfully disagree with?

Adding more "win moar" buttons to a game that lacks any challenge in achieving a victory position that allows you to press those buttons to begin with.
If you're the single largest military power in the game by 2350, you don't need to become a crisis, nor custodian, nor wait for the already obsolete crisis with it's terribad AI, or a pointless War in the Heavens, or megastructures, or fancy big ships that let you destroy planets you have no trouble seizing instantly, or flying shipyards that can replace ships your superior fleet never loses.

 

[CiderMuffin]

Adding more "win moar" buttons to a game that lacks any challenge in achieving a victory position that allows you to press those buttons to begin with.
If you're the single largest military power in the game by 2350, you don't need to become a crisis, nor custodian, nor wait for the already obsolete crisis with it's terribad AI, or a pointless War in the Heavens, or megastructures, or fancy big ships that let you destroy planets you have no trouble seizing instantly, or flying shipyards that can replace ships your superior fleet never loses.

Honestly yea this. This is just more fluff onto a problem of this game, being powerful takes very little effort and it's so easy to just conquer the galaxy. Sure it's time consuming but once you can build your own powerful fleet (which let's be real, you can do mid-game with relative ease)

This is what lead me to always build tall nowadays because my resources are limited but near the end of the game my country still ends up as a megastructure fueled mega-empire on the level of the olds. Honestly, even being able to become an old would've been a better feature then everything in the nemesis we've heard so far.

Custodian and Crisis are just more fluff on stuff that's already doable in the game. Crisis entirely on it's own is an annoying feature that the devs think is new and interesting but in reality has been a civic in almost every species and expansion, the only difference is you get a perk and a perk screen.