Brainstorm thread

[puggle999]

The clearest one for me is more federation types. I think its very limited at the moment and has a very limited incentive for a powerful empire to join them.

Apart from that, more portraits, species types.

I'd also like it if you could tell sectors to auto-colonise within their boundaries if they have enough income to sustain it

 

[Gaussia]

Recruting armies should cost food, not necessarily much, but a little.
(In the case you just have started on growing the next pop the food would be removed from the future, so no food surplus for som time or so).
(Would want to avoid removing pops to recruit an army, but some food cost could simulate the manpower required)

 

[Dr_Creeptor]

You make a very good point. We don't have any silicon-based life forms yet, do we?

All that I want is a silicon girl, with silicon lips and silicon hair.

That's an Eiffel 65 song. I'm not a freak,

 

[chassepatrick]

People saying more ship classes. But the game has self built ship classes... there is 4 base sizes and around that you can make many classes... What you're actually asking for is more sizes. Battleships already make Carriers (hanger attachment), Dreadnoughts (all big guns), Battle-cruisers (light armour/heavy guns).

I am not sure if adding more ship hull sizes will do anything but just make it more complicated... there are already 5(?) 4 normal and 1 super big one that military governments can make.

I'm interested in trade, free trade, companies and the like outside of your control. Would be interesting to see the rise of a trade federation like in Star Wars.

ALSO! POPs making colonies without your permission. it would be interesting to see a new nation pop up from people who have fled war/desire a different type of society/overpopulation... Would add a different dynamic.

 

[Fex]

-More galaxy types. Like two systems that are slowly becoming one.

 

[S.C. Watson]

Still image custom races.

Animating is hard. Making a few .png images with transparent backgrounds and dropping them in some folder is easy.

That's already supported. We don't know the specifics yet (file type, size, etc.) but you can have still image custom races.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Well, without actually digging in to the game (is it may 9 yet?), it's a little tough to say. But...

Big missing element I'd point to is espionage. Stuff like the fleet assessment (inferior, superior, equivalent) and more should be tied to espionage, which shouldn't be limited to something your ambassadors (embassies here) do. Plus more proactive measures, of course.

Higher levels of diplomacy. Stuff like the UN isn't really represented atm, both Federations and Alliances are too binding.

On that note, different Federation systems. The rotating one is a little weak, I'd like to see elections or trial by combat or something.

Army builder! This would be fairly high level stuff, you'd be specifying the nature of your entire assault or defense armies, with a variety of addon slots and some force compositions to tweak.

Origin selection. Are you the standard issue species that figures all this FTL stuff out by themselves? Are you the last remnants of a really, REALLY fallen empire? Were you uplifted by some long-vanished race of precursors? These would come with different benefits and penalties, as well as influencing the AI.

Change the borders system. The current one might work just fine, but I really like the claimed space versus controlled space idea that got floated around here. We'll see if it's needed after launch.

Wonders, all that suggested stuff sounded awesome. I like the idea of Really Big Projects in general, really.

More traits.

Bigger factions. This is kind of a weird one. I was thinking about how I'd like to see Spiritualist empires (especially ones with spiritualist governments) have to contend with religion. That religion could then be spread, or other religions could begin to convert your pops, or there could be heresies... but it doesn't make much sense for just Spiritualists to have to contend with them. So there'd have to be a kind of equivalent for everybody? Factions founded on specific ethics and origins that can spread between and influence empires.

Also, provisionally because this might be in the game, I'd like to see Factions try to maneuver your (and the AI's) actions to their advantage in ways that don't involve outright rebellion. Think strikes, protests, that sort of thing.

 

[tilcir]

I think they should add:

• New FTL (Specifically the Infinte Improbability Drive from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
• New Races (Crystalline entities)

That's all I feel they should add, I can't say until the game releases.

I would love a mod that made the IID possible.
Should be a super rare tech and it should require some rare resource so you could only have one (or maybe 2...) of them.
It should also have some kinda problematic drawback when you use it.

Hell... make the tech research start an event line...

Damn it... now I want to mod...

 

[HotIceHilda]

Gravity types, it would be odd for all species to be able to live comfortably in the same gravity. I know there is compatibility types for planets, but it doesn't diversify planets enough. Finally, the ability to hire mercenaries. Many other sentients have made good recommendations in this electronic thread as well.

 

[chassepatrick]

I like the idea of mercenaries... heck even mercenary races. Or militarist POPs becoming mercenaries in a pacifist empire.

-Espionage DLC
-Nomads DLC
-mercenaries DLC
-Trade DLC

that's a year sorted

 

[doomdude1]

I'd really, really prefer it if Paradox didn't slap a DLC pricetag on basic things like espionage, trade, pop managment and whatnot and instead saved it for new race packs or actual expansions. That being said, I'd like to see

- reworked vassals (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/making-vassals-useful.922409/)
- different layout for races, the window thing kind of gets under my skin
- more sector autonomy that's toggleable, like sector colonization within the systems added (so the sector doesn't expand itself)
- piracy to be dependant on sector/non-sector presence of ships/outposts/military stations
- sector patrol fleets meant to combat pirates, space boogiemonsters and such to be able to be controlled by the player via toggle
- planetary distance from the homeworld, the farther away your basic pops (your race) are from the homeworld, the less happy they are (with certain ethos?) since they're a "backwater world"
- same goes for conquered races, who want to be closer to their original homeworld, also to lengthen the period of them wanting independence, something akin to X times lifespan of race (let's say 2 generations)

 

[Lowki]

I think variety in portraits, backgrounds and the ability to modify my leaders would be good.

I'd like more political options, internal and external. At the moment I like the idea of an "opposition Party" in Democratic societies which would supply the next likely leader in the electoral cycle.

More ship types, obvs

Trade will likely need some help too but I hope it doesn't get too complex

Excited to see the base game first, mind you!

 

[Gaussia]

You require pops to build buildings:
- Can't Build a building in an empty tile (have to move pop there).
- No production in tile during building process.
- Can build in several tiles at once.

 

[tilcir]

I'd really, really prefer it if Paradox didn't slap a DLC pricetag on basic things like espionage, trade, pop managment and whatnot and instead saved it for new race packs or actual expansions. That being said, I'd like to see

- reworked vassals (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/making-vassals-useful.922409/)
- different layout for races, the window thing kind of gets under my skin
- more sector autonomy that's toggleable, like sector colonization within the systems added (so the sector doesn't expand itself)
- piracy to be dependant on sector/non-sector presence of ships/outposts/military stations
- sector patrol fleets meant to combat pirates, space boogiemonsters and such to be able to be controlled by the player via toggle
- planetary distance from the homeworld, the farther away your basic pops (your race) are from the homeworld, the less happy they are (with certain ethos?) since they're a "backwater world"
- same goes for conquered races, who want to be closer to their original homeworld, also to lengthen the period of them wanting independence, something akin to X times lifespan of race (let's say 2 generations)

What would you consider being a "real" expansion for stellaris then?

Knowing paradox, their expansions have big themes and huge changes to game play.
And a lot of it is free if you do NOT want that part of the game.

I am expecting expansions to INCLUDE things like espionage, FOR FREE, but actually add things like another way to play the game on top.
Like a bunch of new mechanics to make races that do not work like the current setup... of course, these races probably would have a lot to do with espionage.

 

[Turin the Mad]

Intel should be based on what you see and are told by the others, the rest you need "spy planes" for.
Getting an initial picture of borders is one thing, an estimate of how strong a navy another empire has is another.

I don't care for HOI3's espionage system all that much. I'd rather espionage is either implemented later or never happens than deal with such a system in the core game.

 

[tilcir]

Intel should be based on what you see and are told by the others, the rest you need "spy planes" for.
Getting an initial picture of borders is one thing, an estimate of how strong a navy another empire has is another.

I don't care for HOI3's espionage system all that much. I'd rather espionage is either implemented later or never happens than deal with such a system in the core game.

Hmm send in the cloaked ships.
Could do a whole race focused on subterfuge.

 

[sangriacus]

Personally I spent my morning thinking of this, and in my opinion what would make a great DLC/Expansion is some sort of "Human Legacy DLC" in which humanity left its home planet in diferent groups.
What I mean, Imagine that we discover a fast, cheap way to travel trhough space and instead of merging humanity into one government each government (or at least sectors) went on their own, being this different human races with which you can play, I know it may sound a little racist or xenophobe, but it could happen, being the factions something like this:
-Australia and New Zealand
- China
- Japan
- India
- Middle East
- Africa
- Russia
- Western Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Latin America
- USA
And maybe some more indepth changes in human pops, actually I don't even know if there are humans and I already pre-purchased it, I'm doing my best to not over-hype myself

 

[tilcir]

Personally I spent my morning thinking of this, and in my opinion what would make a great DLC/Expansion is some sort of "Human Legacy DLC" in which humanity left its home planet in diferent groups.
What I mean, Imagine that we discover a fast, cheap way to travel trhough space and instead of merging humanity into one government each government (or at least sectors) went on their own, being this different human races with which you can play, I know it may sound a little racist or xenophobe, but it could happen, being the factions something like this:
-Australia and New Zealand
- China
- Japan
- India
- Middle East
- Africa
- Russia
- Western Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Latin America
- USA
And maybe some more indepth changes in human pops, actually I don't even know if there are humans and I already pre-purchased it, I'm doing my best to not over-hype myself

You can sort of do that already.

Create your own human factions and populate them in the galaxy.

You might still meet a few aliens as fallen empires and pre ftl, but at least those will be rare and unique.

I might actually do this for a play through.
Although, with other names than nations.

 

[sangriacus]

You can sort of do that already.

Create your own human factions and populate them in the galaxy.

You might still meet a few aliens as fallen empires and pre ftl, but at least those will be rare and unique.

I might actually do this for a play through.
Although, with other names than nations.

But I meant those different regions to be different POPs and thus, when they grow into big comunities in your planets they seek to separate from you, haven't gone into much detail, but I meant this to have different mechanics for interaction between humans

 

[doomdude1]

What would you consider being a "real" expansion for stellaris then?

Knowing paradox, their expansions have big themes and huge changes to game play.
And a lot of it is free if you do NOT want that part of the game.

I am expecting expansions to INCLUDE things like espionage, FOR FREE, but actually add things like another way to play the game on top.
Like a bunch of new mechanics to make races that do not work like the current setup... of course, these races probably would have a lot to do with espionage.

I'll use CK2 as an example, in my opinion:
Good DLC - Rajas of India (tons and tons of content just added on top of the game), Sunset Invasion (completely optional and not necessary), music (again, optional)
Bad DLC - Republics (can't play as anything but feudal by default), unit visual packs (they are literally simple models, no need to slap a price tag on them) etc.