• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #160 - Origins Full Reveal

Hello everyone!

In our previous dev diary #155 we talked about Origins, and today we will be returned to the topic by going through Origins again, but in more detail.

Please note that although this is a pretty exhaustive list, there is no guarantee that these Origins will necessarily match what will be in Federations once it is released.

What are Origins?
Origins allows you to pick a background story for your empire. An empire can only pick one Origin.​

upload_2019-11-12_16-32-52.png

Prosperous Unification is the “default” Origin.

There are currently 18 Origins in the game, where some of them were converted from previously being Civics. Origins that were converted will be unlocked by the same DLC that they were unlocked by when they were civics.

Origins are not meant to be balanced against each other, but rather balanced within themselves (as in they don't start in severe resource deficits or "feel broken" by themselves). There are Origins that are "stronger" than other Origins.

The Origins
Prosperous Unification: Start with 4 additional Pops and 2 additional Districts. (Available to everyone)

Mechanist: Start with 8 Pops being robots, and the ability to build more. (Utopia)

Syncretic Evolution: Start the game with 12 Pops being of another species. (Utopia)

upload_2019-11-12_16-33-46.png

Life-Seeded: Start on a Gaia World. (Apocalypse)

Post-Apocalyptic: Start on a Tomb World. (Apocalypse)

Remnants: Start on a Relic World. (Ancient Relics)

Shattered Ring: Start on a Shattered Ring World. Your empire lives on the only intact section of the ancient megastructure, and it is possible to repair most of the other sections. (Federations)

upload_2019-11-15_10-26-2.png

Also starts with Habitat habitability preference.

Void Dwellers: Start on a Habitat above your destroyed, former homeworld, and with 2 more habitats in your home system. Completely adapted to living in habitats, and start with the technology to build new ones, but also suffers a penalty to living on regular planets. (Federations)

Scion: Start as the vassal of a Fallen Empire. (Federations)

upload_2019-11-12_16-34-49.png

Galactic Doorstep: Start with a dormant Gateway in your home system, which can be investigated and reactivated. (Available to everyone)

Tree of Life: Only for Hive Minds. Start with a powerful Tree of Life on your homeworld. Disastrous if you would somehow lose control of it. Colony ships also plant a sapling on new colonies. (Utopia)

upload_2019-11-12_16-35-5.png
upload_2019-11-12_16-35-10.png

On the Shoulder of Giants: Investigate a series of Archaeological Sites related to a mysterious benefactor. (Federations)

upload_2019-11-15_10-44-10.png

Meteorite colony ship.

Calamitous Birth: Lithoid Only. Start with a Massive Crater on your Homeworld. You are also able to build Meteorite Colony Ships, which colonize planets in a more dramatic fashion. (Lithoids)

Resource Consolidation: Machines only. Start with a Machine World as your homeworld. (Synthetic Dawn)

Zi0m58PMJx0I1FMIMHFA7EWL1vI2ClddP2CRVMaeGPLtWX6UHTE3hIhX9I9GdcbcE_M71tYq4QdZkb38UWb0y54gSHMcwFusdRBbO0KIKoMf7x2DZp2O0qEQE0cC-hWWXE_HMMAX

Comfy federalized start.

Common Ground: Start with as the leader of a Galactic Union federation, and with The Federation tradition unlocked. (Federations)

Hegemon: Start with as the leader of a Hegemony federation, and with The Federation tradition unlocked. (Federations)

upload_2019-11-12_16-36-15.png

Doomsday: Your homeworld is doomed and it will explode after 64 years, so you need to find a new home for your species. (Federations)

Lost Colony: Another empire with the same species as you will exist somewhere in the galaxy. (Available to everyone)

---

That is it for this week! Next week we will be back and we will be talking about some of the new things affecting diplomacy, such as Envoys.
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
Reactions:
I really like the look of these though. Also like we don't have a released date. Looking forward to it, but when it's ready

Well we might not have a date, but after Jamor's comment about meeting agreed release windows and considering the state Megacorp/2.2 was released in - I would say that it's reasonable to expect that it's going to release when it's scheduled to release regardless of whether it's ready. Which is one of several reasons that I won't be buying this until sometime after that if at all.
 
I'm gonna love this origin, but it seems it might be a bit overpowered if it boosts megastructure tech chances like normal ruined ones, and especially if the galactic wonders perk is still dependent on having a repaired megastructure.
It probably means you have ring world or gaia habitibility which is a problem for productivity on normal planet colonies.

Pretty balanced I'd say.
 
Resource Consolidation: Machines only. Start with a Machine World as your homeworld.

Uuuuuh, I love it!

Although that Doomsday origin might be the best origin for power play. Depending on how great the rescource bonus is. 64 years of massive ressources will turbostart your development massively. And by that time you'll likely have colonized a bunch of other planets already.
Gotta try that one out.
 
I didn't see anything about Ressource Consolidation. Could you explain in more detail the benefits of Scion aswell as Tree of Life? Is it possible to attack an empire thats vassal to an FE or will you simply get crushed by the FE? How about expanding as a vassal to an FE?

You mentioned that Tree of life was supposed to grant empire-wide bonuses but the images give the impression that its Home-planet only which would be quite dissapointing. Keep in mind that for the longest time and up to this day non-Devouring Swarm Hivemind has suffered from extremely poor civic choices because most of them are either boring or mediocre to bad effects compared to what Machine empires or regular empires have access to. We are still hoping for a huge civic update similar to what regular empires received.

Many of us are asking themselves if this new Tree of life civic could be a way to make non- DS Hivemind somewhat playable if its bonuses were good enough.
 
Option "Lost colony" have identity species + traits or species + traits + governments? I'm asking because Fanatic Purifiers have +200 relations for same-species Fanatic Purifiers. The option of forcing the game to create an alliance of two FP in a later game sounds interesting :)
 
Sorry, I missed to include that one. I've added it now.
Well, looks like the Machine Empires get the strongest option, as usual :p
Does that also include the ability to create others?
 
Awww, that Galactic Doorstep one is disappointing. I was expecting it to be some kind of L Cluster start

It indeed is a tad underwhelming. Considering how late gateway restoration comes up in the tech tree, by that time you'll likely have found several other gateways to set up as fleet-base by then.

I'd like to see them change this origin to be either a wormhole or an activated gateway. A single activated gateway in the galaxy won't do much, but it would save the cost of reactivating a gateway once we unlocked the technology.
 
Is there more to the "Galactic Doorstep" one? I'm a bit confused.... you just have Gateway in your space? Isn't that fairly common with RNG anyway? Is it just a normal gateway? Are there events etc. associated with it?
It's at your homeworld which I've never seen happen normally, and I usually play with gateways & wormholes on 2x-2.5x.
So it could be kinda handy, but yeah, seems very lacklustre compared to starting on a ringworld for example..

With pop growth as it is right now, Doomsday will defenitly be one you only take as a challange (provided you just don't resettle all the pops from the home planet otherwise its not that big of a challange)
Surely evacuating the population would be the only moral and logical choice for a fledgling galactic polity to make in this scenario?

I'm really looking forward to playing a syncretic evolution hivemind.
 
These look great. What I think would be really nice is to add some more flavour variations on the more 'vanilla' start. For instance, as well as Prosperous Unification, you could have something more like 'Global Conquest' where your homeworld is unified as the outcome of a war (which might give you a boost to military infrastructure, but either less pops or a stronger tendency for your people to reject governing ethics).
 
I love the origins and their implementation, but I do have a few points and questions:

First, as a suggestion. For role-play/custom empire purposes, I would've like to see a version of Lost Colony that doesn't then spawn another empire of the same species. Since then you can't control what that other species is. I like that origin, but I wish there was another one that was then just "Nomadic Origins" that gives something like a small habitability bonus on all worlds and a penalty on your 'homeworld' but most importantly does not then spawn another empire.

Second, as a question, how pre-determined are the story-lines of the Remnants and On the Shoulder of Giants origins? Is this going to be something open to interpretation, or will it give you a specific narrative for what your empire's origin/history was?

There's a lot of narrative in these origins, which is good since Stellaris needs more, but I'm wondering about how prescriptive this narrative will be in the context of making custom empires where you've got your own ideas about what the Remnants' precursor civilization was like or whose Giants' shoulders they would've stood on? What's the balance you're aiming for?
 
I won't lie, I'm bit disappointed.
- only one default origin (which doesn't even make sense for all ethics)
- 4 origins are just former civics
- Remnants, Shattered Ring and Void Dwellers are nice to have but they are just variations on already explored themes and trivially easy to make. 7/18 origins are just "you start on that rare planet type".
- Scion is heavily dependant on the kind of interactions you can have with your FE overlord. It has potential to just be extremely boring.
- Galactic Doostep sounds very underpowered and uninteresting. Lost Colony seems to be in the same situation (you don't have any bonus, and unless there are cool events about the other empire of the same species, it doesn't sound very fun either).
- Tree of Life sounds just like an overpowered modifier. Calamitous Birth looks similar.
- On the Shoulders of Giants, Doomsday looks fun, depending on what kind of stories it generates.
- Common Ground and Hegemon sound fun but that screenshot gives me the impression that early expansion will be a mess in such a clustered start.

Wait & See I guess but I was hoping for more. I feel like I only have the possibility to try 5 or 6 potentially fun origins, and I already know some of them won't be that fun anyway.

Additionally, many origins are locked behind DLCs, so that's kinda horrible for people who didn't buy them. They get... 3 origins to pick from? I really, really think that we need more default, government dependant origins.