AI Rebellion removed from base game in 1.8 and locked behind DLC paywall

[Seon]

From what I hear they are *more likely* to join the Contingency if they were *allowed citizen rights* rather than if they weren't, as Contingency is explicitly an extremely advanced hostile ancient AI of some kind and decreased security measure and increased computing power inherent in a nation that allowed individual synths to have self awareness means more security vulnerabilities for it to exploit.

 

[Fourthspartan56]

Paradox's Stellaris: Making you pay for bug fixes since 2016

Lie. Bug fixes have been part of the free patches since day 01.

 

[grandad1982]

If a component of your new car doesn't work as designed and also just doesn't work replacing it with a newly designed and manufactured component (designed to fulfil the original role) is a fix even though it's also a replacement.

 

[Seon]

It's not the case. It is an ancient evil awakening and has little to do with the previous AI rebellion. Wiz himself has said so yet people don't believe it.



So not the same, instead of an AI rebellion it's an ancient AI awakening. Those are different things.

Well, it's not "Your own synths have gathered together to form a true machine consciousness which is now leading a revolt and a crusade against all organic life form" deal. Instead, it is a hostile ancient AI, recently come out of hibernation, which has had millenias to build up an army and a fleet who is also sending out signals to all machines in the galaxy to... lead a revolt and a crusade against all organic and non compliant machine life forms...

The basic idea of a galactic war between machines and organics still remain the same though. The Contingency just adds actual teeth and a face to rally the remaining friendly machine empires and organics against rather than it being a game of mole whacker it once was.

 

[TempusxX]

the contingency and the AI rebellion is still the same they just changed the name and then gave the rebellion weapons, ships

 

[Everstill]

We still have to see how the Contigency works.

If they conquer planets, enslave/purge organics, build bigger fleets with the planets resources and do something like Hack other Empires Synths and Robots to rebel on planets, they will fundamentally work just like the old AI Crisis but with a better presentation.

But if they become Unbidden 3.0 that is a big fleet that just destroy worlds.... then we could consider the old AI Rebelion/Crisis removed.

In this case, the part of "AI rebellion removed from base game" will be true and the guy have legit arguments to be pissed off. But the "Locked behind paywall" is not true in any case because the new "Machine Empire Rebels" is a different mechanic.

 

[BrokenSky]

@Wiz Can I get a clarification on this: is the current AI crisis being removed, and if so, is something else being put into the free game to replace it for those without the DLC, and if so, what?

 

[grandad1982]

@Wiz Can I get a clarification on this: is the current AI crisis being removed, and if so, is something else being put into the free game to replace it for those without the DLC, and if so, what?

Dev only option at the top of the thread.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Honestly I'm thrilled that they're delivering on their promise of creating a "early-to-mid-game-crisis" for AI uprisings by putting in the new mechanic into the Story Pack.

I've purposefully designed entire games to trigger the AI Uprising crisis before and it loses miserably, every time. The Contingency will be a welcome change in that regard, even if it does wind up being "Unbidden 3.0" honestly. I've never managed to see the damn Prethoryn yet. Just some variety in fleets and flavour would be nice, where I'm standing.

 

[Vanhal]

Since 1.7 i don't see anything other than Prethoryns anyway, just like the base game

 

[Strich]

Sorry but I have to take the site from Hype, at least a bit:
I like the new Contigency, although it will just be a Unbidden 2.0

But I bought Stellaris and Paradox promised me an AI Uprising. Now an outside force, just like the Unbidden, comes to the galaxy and devours all lifeforms.
The AI Uprising never worked, so paradox decided to give up and will replace it. So I wont get, for what I paid: an AI Uprising.

I totally understand WIz, when he says, that from a game mechanic point of view I bought stellaris and I was promised to get 3 end game Crisis, one related to synth. But thats just abstracting things far enough to save your ass ^^. Wiz could also claim, we were promised with end game crisis, doesnt matter if they are related to synth or unbidden or whatever you call endgamecrisis x, y and z.

I really liked the comparison: Taking out the scourge because it never worked, replacing it with Endgamecrises [Insert random name] and calling it the fullfilment of the promised features, because feature wise it is technically an end game crisis.

But I have to repeat: I dont care that much about what exactly the end game crisis is. I dont mind the switch to the Unbidden 2.0 or whatever it will be. I will buy FOR SURE the story pack. it is absolutly awesome!

 

[Drachenfels]

Have you even played against the rebellion? It used to be a century of making starport and lost tiles until you get the Voigt kampf prompt. I'm glad the old mechanic is thrown and locked behind any wall.

OMG, I need to do achievement before it's put into limbo.

 

[Drachenfels]

So I wont get, for what I paid: an AI Uprising.

That's right, but it's merely a semantic. Paradox could stop developing game and you would not get working AI Uprising either. Discussion ends here, I guess. They could keep game unchanged for ever, people who bought the game would have what they paid for or they can keep working on a game. In that scenario some stuff will be lost, other stuff changed. One has to be realistic and not yell "I paid for it, I demand now!"

When you go to crappy movie in cinema after seeing good trailer, do you got upset that you didn't get what you paid for? My point is, common myth says that in capitalism companies are being paid for delivering what people want. And then you have industrial salt in the food, chlorinated chickens, phones with pre-installed apps. So no I do not buy this "I paid for it", Paradox did probably the best thing he could, given circumstances for a better good.

 

[Strich]

I know this has nothing to do with the topic itself, but let me clarify, that, at least for the eurpean union, this statement is very very dangerous for the gaming industry:

... Paradox could stop developing game and you would not get working AI Uprising either. Discussion ends here, I guess. They could keep game unchanged for ever, people who bought the game would have what they paid for or they can keep working on a game. In that scenario some stuff will be lost, other stuff changed. One has to be realistic and not yell "I paid for it, I demand now!"

From the legal aspect (I can only talk about german and european law) you bought a game, a piece of software, and you are accountable for any defects on it. The EU customer has a right to redress, as the eu calls it. Yet, there was never a gamer, who tried to sue a software developer for that reason. Mostly because the developer always trys to patch the software. But the point is, he has to fix the product until it meets the standards promised.
Your point is dangerous because the gaming industry should try to avoid those suits at all costs, because I think the outcome is very likely worse for them than the actual situation.
(btw, i am a legal professional in Germany, I dont want to brag about that, I just want to avoid those, you have no idea about the law etc. I have at least a little bit knowledge on that field)

When you go to crappy movie in cinema after seeing good trailer, do you got upset that you didn't get what you paid for?

Yes I am. I absolutly am upset in those cases (ice age comes immediatly to my mind). But your comparison is flawed. I am not upset about Stellaris not giving me joy while playing although the trailers promised me that. I am "upset" (in fact I am not upset at all ^^), because the "trailer" promised me x and i dont get x.

Paradox did probably the best thing he could, given circumstances for a better good.

I totally agree on this point!

 

[TheFunMachine]

For the old AI crisis: good riddance. The one time I got it, it was like being whipped with warm lettuce. Mechanically it was so flawed. I'd much rather Paradox just rip out something that will not work.

 

[Tim_Ward]

Some people in this thread need to attend to the dev diaries. Specifically, they need to read Wiz 6:1, which says:

The chance of the Contingency waking up is directly tied to the prevalence of Synthetic life in the galaxy, and should it wake, it will attempt to use its signal to control Synthetics and force them to aid it in its implacable task of galactic sterilization. Unlike the previous AI crisis, the Contingency has formidable fleet assets with which to carry out this task and has to be fought both in space and at home, as it makes use of subversion and infiltration to soften up its targets before the sterilization units arrive.

So, you still have the key elements of the AI Crisis as it was originally envisioned are there: robot uprisings popping up throughout the galaxy, of threats from within and without. What it adds is this new concept of the Contingency, which makes sense of the elements that were already in the crisis but didn't actually fit the lore of the original - the AI Homeworld that just appears.

The reason the old AI crisis fundamentally didn't work (aside from all the bugs - most of the time it just sat around and did nothing, didn't purge organic pops, purged the wrong pops etc - it was a clusterfuck) is that it's supposed to start from isolated uprising and glow into a galactic threat on the strength of the bonuses that machine pops and their government type gave them. Against late game empires, that was never going to happen. I don't care how good your research buffs are. That's why it's now been given this big ass fleet to start with.

 

[Mr Thursday]

While some of the paid content has been disappointing, e.g. Leviathans failed to deliver on story and mechanics instead being Shops in Space and a Big game hunt, the best addition to the game (in my opinion) is Horizon Signal. A free story pack that managed to do story with actual game effects. It showed that story and game mechanics are not mutually exclusive. I think that removing the failed A.I. crisis which could never work as a Galactic menace, which was the aim of the crisis (we were sold a game with 3 galatic crisis but only 2 worked), and replacing it with a working A.I. themed crisis is a better fix.

 

[Summin Cool]

Starting to think hype is right. The issue here is that we are getting an update that removes the old AI crisis and replaces it with a midgame crisis with a similar mechanic. Then we have this Contingency behind a paywall.

Is this Contingency a similar thing as to what we got previously or is it going to be the usual here is the flavour of the game fleet to destroy? Because that what these things boil down to. Is it a better concept that the previous version and would it potentially play better if the old AI crisis wasn't so useless?

Lastly, consider the Contingency and the Old AI crisis, why shouldn't old broken content be replaced by free content to fix it? Why shouldn't say, the midgame crisis be behind the DLC paywall and the Contingency be free but with additional features if you buy the storypack?

 

[--Yigito123--]

Starting to think hype is right. The issue here is that we are getting an update that removes the old AI crisis and replaces it with a midgame crisis with a similar mechanic. Then we have this Contingency behind a paywall.

Is this Contingency a similar thing as to what we got previously or is it going to be the usual here is the flavour of the game fleet to destroy? Because that what these things boil down to. Is it a better concept that the previous version and would it potentially play better if the old AI crisis wasn't so useless?

Lastly, consider the Contingency and the Old AI crisis, why shouldn't old broken content be replaced by free content to fix it? Why shouldn't say, the midgame crisis be behind the DLC paywall and the Contingency be free but with additional features along with the fixed AI crisis if you buy the storypack?

You got it backwards.

The Contingency, that is the end game crisis and the replacement to the AI crisis, is in the free patch. The AI Uprising, the mid-game crisis that isn't in any way related to the old AI Uprising crisis apart from the name, is the one behind the paywall.

 

[Strich]

Some people in this thread need to attend to the dev diaries. Specifically, they need to read Wiz 6:1, which says:



So, you still have the key elements of the AI Crisis as it was originally envisioned are there: robot uprisings popping up throughout the galaxy, of threats from within and without. What it adds is this new concept of the Contingency, which makes sense of the elements that were already in the crisis but didn't actually fit the lore of the original - the AI Homeworld that just appears.

The reason the old AI crisis fundamentally didn't work (aside from all the bugs - most of the time it just sat around and did nothing, didn't purge organic pops, purged the wrong pops etc - it was a clusterfuck) is that it's supposed to start from isolated uprising and glow into a galactic threat on the strength of the bonuses that machine pops and their government type gave them. Against late game empires, that was never going to happen. I don't care how good your research buffs are. That's why it's now been given this big ass fleet to start with.

So nice! That makes it even better and not just Unbidden 2.0. Thank your for quoting that part. I do not have the time for a 24/7 forum observation ^^