I love the changes to Anomalies, BUT: Anomalies need to respawn!

[GnoSIS]

I love the changes and going back to the model where anomalies would fail!

However this is 50% of the Job!

We need to have a system that would allow anomalies and space exploration to happen within our empires, throught the game. A slider setting in ther game setup would also be needed to determine the frequency of apearance. Also there should alwaus be a minimum of let's say 1 per 6 years for each empire, even if they control just a single system - while large empires would benefit from more anomaly spawn, due to their size.

This would open the way for more traditions and civics and stuff for such a game play, even perhaps a modifier or some lifestyle/political choice for more anomaly spawns?

I do understand that some of them are really powerful, and that repeated "farming" would be OP, but there's nothing preventing you to add a rarity, MTTH, or even just block them from the "repeatables pool"

This is needed for the mid/end game to have more meaning and for science ships to be relevant as well.

I understand that this is a large change, but it's something worthy of consideration.

 

[Neolaris]

la idea me parece bastante buena

 

[TSBasilisk]

Distant Worlds 2 has a good approach to this issue, I think. A quick survey like in Stellaris won't identify everything about a planet. Instead the surveying is an on-going process requiring either a dedicated ship or a colony to speed things along.

So add a mid or late game technology that gives Science ships the ability to perform deep scans on already surveyed planets with a chance to turn up a new anomaly or resource.

 

[Ryika]

Anomalies are largely written from the perspective of a species that's a newcomer among the stars though. Does it really make sense that a race that has been exploring space for a century, is in contact with dozens of other empires, and has seen some of them fall apart... would be surprised to find space ship debris of an old species, or an asteroid that has a pirate hideout on it?

Plus, the selection of anomalies is already somewhat limited even for the current version of the game where they're only found in the early game... if we stretch that into the later parts of the game, we'd pretty much find them all in every single game. That sounds very repetitive to me.

So while I do agree that we need more events that happen later in the game, I don't think the proposed implementation would really be a good solution. Personally, I'd prefer a proper story-dlc ala Distant Stars, but focused on the later parts of the game. Maybe more epic discoveries if the sense of exploration is important, but events focused on your empire would be great, too.

Additionally, some of the existing anomalies could be extended with events and developments. We find all of those things early on, put a research station on them, and then we never hear anything from them again, even though some anomalies definitely have more storytelling potential in them.

 

[TSBasilisk]

Split the anomalies into three categories: Early game only, any time, and mid-game only. Early game anomalies include all the obvious ones, like asteroid features and debris. Mid-game ones are harder to spot, like structures on a Toxic planet. You'd also adjust anomaly spawm chances to keep the chances roughly the same as before.

 

[Coconut_Cookie]

Anomalies are largely written from the perspective of a species that's a newcomer among the stars though. Does it really make sense that a race that has been exploring space for a century, is in contact with dozens of other empires, and has seen some of them fall apart... would be surprised to find space ship debris of an old species, or an asteroid that has a pirate hideout on it?

Plus, the selection of anomalies is already somewhat limited even for the current version of the game where they're only found in the early game... if we stretch that into the later parts of the game, we'd pretty much find them all in every single game. That sounds very repetitive to me.

So while I do agree that we need more events that happen later in the game, I don't think the proposed implementation would really be a good solution. Personally, I'd prefer a proper story-dlc ala Distant Stars, but focused on the later parts of the game. Maybe more epic discoveries if the sense of exploration is important, but events focused on your empire would be great, too.

Additionally, some of the existing anomalies could be extended with events and developments. We find all of those things early on, put a research station on them, and then we never hear anything from them again, even though some anomalies definitely have more storytelling potential in them.

I think this is more of a pacing problem of the game. Space is supposed to be big, how much of it do you think you can cover in a century? The early game is over way too quickly even compared to older versions of the game. The anomalies could also be spread out over different levels of scanning equipment like @TSBasilisk said. Endless Space 2 for example has something like that too. In ES2 each level of scanning equipment allows you to scan higher tier anomalies (curiosities in that game) and reveals the locations of the next higher tier anomalies.

Maybe increasing the story telling of the anomalies could be achieved by making most or some of them interact with the ethics of your empire, or with one of your strata or maybe the factions system. Maybe research could be approached differently too. Instead of giving a science income a anomaly could give a specific buff to a specific field of research but only if you build a unique building there. I've been thinking about this. What if the standard lab would be restricted a bit, by being buildable only on highly developed worlds or higher upkeep for example. Research would then be slower but there could be a additional type of science building that has the effect of reducing the cost of specific types of research. It could be balanced in such a way that research would roughly be just as fast but you could have empires that are exceptionally good at materials research for example. A lot of anomalies could then give more unique bonusses instead of generic research points.

 

[GnoSIS]

Anomalies is really a bad word.

We live on earth and we are still discovering locations and things we didn't know they existed.
Not only that, but we also create "anomalies" or situation in our history that we "discover" later. Regardless, space is vast, I can easily imagine us making discoveries in our solar system alone for thousands of years, and then we would also be adding to that list as well.

Events would be a very generic descriptor...

 

[currylambchop]

No thank you, I don’t want to have to micro more things.

 

[Slaughter]

Honestly, I think the real issue is that after the early game, the game goes from 4X to 3X. There's nothing to explore, except perhaps a few systems which are gated behind Fallen Civilzations, Wormholes, Marauders, space monsters and Leviathans, and the L-Gate. The thing is, space is so vast... and yet, by the mid-game, there are few if any surprises left. All that's left for your Science Ships is to spend an eternity boosting research and take a look at battle debris.

 

[SirBlackAxe]

Split the anomalies into three categories: Early game only, any time, and mid-game only. Early game anomalies include all the obvious ones, like asteroid features and debris. Mid-game ones are harder to spot, like structures on a Toxic planet. You'd also adjust anomaly spawm chances to keep the chances roughly the same as before.

You'd also need to make allowances for running out of new systems to scan - midgame anomalies should probably not be discovered by surveying science ships, but noticed by starbases, research / mining stations, or colonies in systems you control. You'd still need to send a science ship over to investigate, but you wouldn't need to have remaining unclaimed and unsurveyed systems at midgame to even have a chance at the midgame anomalies.

 

[TSBasilisk]

This goes back to my earlier post about essentially having a "deep scan" mechanic like in Surviving Mars. You'd be able to re-scan previous planets for a chance at previously hidden anomalies. Maybe include a GC law forbidding use in another empire's space to prevent anomaly yoinking.

 

[InvisibleBison]

I love the changes and going back to the model where anomalies would fail!

Where was it said that they're going back to having anomalies that can fail?

 

[safe-keeper]

Anomalies are largely written from the perspective of a species that's a newcomer among the stars though. Does it really make sense that a race that has been exploring space for a century, is in contact with dozens of other empires, and has seen some of them fall apart... would be surprised to find space ship debris of an old species, or an asteroid that has a pirate hideout on it?

Deep Scan/late-game anomalies could be different from the earlier ones.

 

[Zoomy]

Rather than more anomalies, I'd rather the game expands on the idea of spawning archaeology sites in the mid game.

 

[hart30]

There already was done sth like this with some digsites being able to be discovered on long claimed space. So all thats needed is more of those. Also in the next patch terraforming will also grant the chance to find digsites/anomalies. So the devs definitely work in this direction.

 

[Liggi]

Yeah, there's an easy solution here... no archeology sites until the midgame. Or, have them spawn, but require additional technology in order to be able to properly excavate them.

There's usually SO much going on in the early-game that it's actually hard to pay attention to Archeology Sites. With 4-5 Science Ships, even on Normal speed you end up with a lot of anomalies etc. to read.

If Archeology Sites started to get excavated in the mid-game after the majority of the exploration was done, it'd give us something additional to do / read in a part of the game that has a bit of a lull.

Also: while we're on this, can we stop having the bloody Chosen of Zarqlan spawn so often? It's basically guaranteed if you have a Spiritualist Fallen Empire, and the player gets it EVERY SINGLE TIME. Let the AI be the Chosen! Why am I always the Chosen!?

 

[Me_]

Endless series of games have a nice mechanic where places of interest get "reseeded" so to speak. Personally, I would like to see a "second-wave" discoveries as a separate group of stuff that can be discovered on already settled and mined etc. planets, asteroids and stars past some arbitrary point (mid-game date?).

 

[Starfury]

Where was it said that they're going back to having anomalies that can fail?

Nowhere

They only mentioned that they removed anomaly failure and this lead to some anomalies always showing up (whereas before, you could fail a few times before getting to it) and I guess the OP misinterpreted this.

Back in 2018, we removed anomaly failure from the game. This meant that every single time you encountered the Gigantic Skeleton anomaly category, you would always get the Gigantic Skeleton anomaly, for it was the only one in the category.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Rather than more anomalies, I'd rather the game expands on the idea of spawning archaeology sites in the mid game.

Archaeology sites and colony events are supposed to take the place of anomalies in the midgame. Colony events tend to be a bit more trouble than they're worth though* and because they always spawn super fast after popping the colony down they're functionally also an early game event type.

More colony events that only happen after the colony has reached a certain age threshold (and aren't all ways to just screw the colony over) and ones which happen on conquered and/or integrated colonies which have different options and outcomes for different government types would be good. And these don't need to be world changing events, they can have the kind of minor outcomes that a lot of weaker anomalies do as well as more permanent changes (modifiers, new features, etc.), just something to interact with as colonies grow and change.


* Let me take a moment to expound my hatred for the Abandoned Terraforming Equipment colony event. Of its four possible outcomes, one is always negative (Tomb World, colony dead), two are negative in 75% of cases (random planet type has 75% chance to be less habitable than it started, plus one may kill the colony with monsters if you didn't prebuild armies expecting them because the colony is new and weak), and only one is genuinely positive.

So your choices are to gamble on a one in three chance of a positive outcome (plus spend on armies, almost certainly in the early game still), or to accept a permanent -10% happiness malus to the planet which you can never remove, even if you do complete terraforming on it later. The event sucks, and it's almost guaranteed the first time you settle an off-perfect habitability planet. If that's a very early colony for you the setback of having it go dead or to 20% hab can be amazingly annoying. It's almost never worth taking the risk of actually doing the project.

It's not the only one, the Pheromones event chain has basically no chance of a good outcome and a bunch of costs and penalties along the way so the only sensible way of dealing with it is to shut it down at the first opportunity.

 

[methegrate]

I love the changes and going back to the model where anomalies would fail!

However this is 50% of the Job!

We need to have a system that would allow anomalies and space exploration to happen within our empires, throught the game. A slider setting in ther game setup would also be needed to determine the frequency of apearance. Also there should alwaus be a minimum of let's say 1 per 6 years for each empire, even if they control just a single system - while large empires would benefit from more anomaly spawn, due to their size.

This would open the way for more traditions and civics and stuff for such a game play, even perhaps a modifier or some lifestyle/political choice for more anomaly spawns?

I do understand that some of them are really powerful, and that repeated "farming" would be OP, but there's nothing preventing you to add a rarity, MTTH, or even just block them from the "repeatables pool"

This is needed for the mid/end game to have more meaning and for science ships to be relevant as well.

I understand that this is a large change, but it's something worthy of consideration.

Maybe... Personally, I'm not sure how much value we get out of anomalies as-is. Adding failure back in will definitely be great, but otherwise they're just the same bundle of pop up text boxes that I've seen a dozen times before. After you've seen a given anomaly once, you've seen it. Personally I tend to just click through them by now without even reading.

I'm not sure that having them respawn would change that. Stellaris was always intended for exploration to be the early gameplay, giving way to middle gameplay built around politics and diplomacy. Instead of having a band-aid of respawning anomalies, I feel like they should just finish building out the middle of the game.