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Dev Diary #8 - The Situation Log and Special Projects

Fellow sentients!

Do not be alarmed. I have been summoned to your pitiful quaint planet to tell you a little bit about Special Projects and the Situation Log.

As you play the game and venture out into the galaxy, you will eventually come upon Special Projects. These projects are sometimes spawned by the Anomalies that were discussed in last week’s Dev Diary, but they can also be triggered by other events. They typically represent a specific action that can be performed by the player, and in that respect they function a bit like the decisions you might find in some of our other games.

Most projects are centered around a location (often a planet, but it could also be an object in space), and many require the presence of a Science Ship and a skilled Scientist before they can be started. Others may require the presence of a warship, or a troop transport, or something else entirely. It depends on the project.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_02_20151109_event.jpg


While the cost of some projects is only a time investment, others will require research efforts within a particular field, such as physics, to complete. Technology research progress is diverted to the project at the expense of your current technology research in that field, temporarily halting all progress. In other words, you may want to hold off on that physics project for a while if you are just about to finish researching a new shield system!

A few examples of Special Projects could be boarding and investigating a derelict space hulk, performing an archeological dig on the homeworld of a dead civilization… or perhaps fishing something out of the atmosphere of a gas giant. Projects can also appear on your colony worlds, and they may be time sensitive.

So what do you get for completing a Special Project? Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that depends on the project. You might get an advanced alien warship, or a new technology, or any number of other bonuses and advantages. Sometimes the reward might simply be staving off an imminent disaster on one of your colonies.

To help players keep track these projects, we have added something called the Situation Log to the game. This screen works like a quest log in many ways, and you will find all currently available Special Projects here. You can also follow your progress in certain event chains, with various Points of Interest listed that can be visually tracked on the map. A Point of Interest could be a strange signal emanating from a distant star system, which will remain in your log until you send someone to investigate.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_01_20151109_situation_log.jpg


That’s it for now. Next week, renowned interstellar gangster Daniel “grekulf” Moregård will take time out of his busy schedule to tell you more about how planets work in Stellaris - including planet modifiers, surface tiles, buildings and resource collection!
 
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I want to play it so badly
 
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Disasters sound fun, and I personally enjoy that that might be the reward for a special project, keeps a nice new amount of issues to deal with.
 
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very cool. this is the 'RPG' part of the game, and i really like it.
I assume that every playthrough will try to give different special projects? so the Precursors special project will not always fire?

oh oh. in the second screenshot....SPACE STATIONS!!! exciting!
 
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So...I'm usually against pre ordering and tend to see the concept of it as anti-consumerist but in this particular instance...

big_thumb_814a4bfd896e9238ff6a3f9555e7e55e.jpg
 
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Fellow sentients!

Do not be alarmed. I have been summoned to your pitiful quaint planet to tell you a little bit about Special Projects and the Situation Log.

As you play the game and venture out into the galaxy, you will eventually come upon Special Projects. These projects are sometimes spawned by the Anomalies that were discussed in last week’s Dev Diary, but they can also be triggered by other events. They typically represent a specific action that can be performed by the player, and in that respect they function a bit like the decisions you might find in some of our other games.

Most projects are centered around a location (often a planet, but it could also be an object in space), and many require the presence of a Science Ship and a skilled Scientist before they can be started. Others may require the presence of a warship, or a troop transport, or something else entirely. It depends on the project.

View attachment 142320

While the cost of some projects is only a time investment, others will require research efforts within a particular field, such as physics, to complete. Technology research progress is diverted to the project at the expense of your current technology research in that field, temporarily halting all progress. In other words, you may want to hold off on that physics project for a while if you are just about to finish researching a new shield system!

A few examples of Special Projects could be boarding and investigating a derelict space hulk, performing an archeological dig on the homeworld of a dead civilization… or perhaps fishing something out of the atmosphere of a gas giant. Projects can also appear on your colony worlds, and they may be time sensitive.

So what do you get for completing a Special Project? Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that depends on the project. You might get an advanced alien warship, or a new technology, or any number of other bonuses and advantages. Sometimes the reward might simply be staving off an imminent disaster on one of your colonies.

To help players keep track these projects, we have added something called the Situation Log to the game. This screen works like a quest log in many ways, and you will find all currently available Special Projects here. You can also follow your progress in certain event chains, with various Points of Interest listed that can be visually tracked on the map. A Point of Interest could be a strange signal emanating from a distant star system, which will remain in your log until you send someone to investigate.

View attachment 142321

That’s it for now. Next week, renowned interstellar gangster Daniel “grekulf” Moregård will take time out of his busy schedule to tell you more about how planets work in Stellaris - including planet modifiers, surface tiles, buildings and resource collection!
I proposed quest system for CK2 this seems very similiar to what I proposed (though much better). It seems really awesome, I hope some of these ideas will trickle back to other future paradox titles and sequels. The anomalies, the technology system and this (as well as the focus trees from HoI) seems like great ideas that should definatly be used for inpsiration for how to handle things in other paradox games.
In these titles you're workign on you seem to take everythign you have ever done to the next level. Mainly by out of the box thinking (which is much better than just more of the same which many developers do).
 
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very cool. this is the 'RPG' part of the game, and i really like it.
I assume that every playthrough will try to give different special projects? so the Precursors special project will not always fire?

oh oh. in the second screenshot....SPACE STATIONS!!! exciting!

Is it just me, or does the space station seem a bit unproportionally big compared to a planet, particularly a continental world at that. @Goosecreature does space station size scale with tech advances cause it should IMO.
 
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Every DD makes me more and more eager to play this game!
 
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Btw, is unity a planet or a moon cause the body it seems to be orbiting in the background doesn't seem to be a star. And if unity does turn out to be a moon, the outliner should be rectified to show settlements/territories/planets+moons.
 
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That’s it for now. Next week, renowned interstellar gangster Daniel “grekulf” Moregård will take time out of his busy schedule to tell you more about how planets work in Stellaris - including planet modifiers, surface tiles, buildings and resource collection!

HYPE HYPE HYPE! PDOX dont let us down on this! we want the WOWWWW not mehhhhh factor! ;););););):):):)
 
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