Influencing Starting Position

[illapa]

Hey Devs,

Just wondering if you've considered giving us a way to influence our starting positions. In other 4x games there were similar things. For example in Civilization certain countries would always start on coastline. Some would always spawn on rivers etc.

Maybe letting us in Stellaris choose a starting position like if we want to start near the outer part of the galaxy, inner part of the galaxy, inside one of those weird Nebulas that give modifiers.

I just thought it'd be a nice way to add a bit more flavor to a species. Starting near the center might help more for people who want to be really diplomatic, off in the corner for xenophobic isolationists, maybe certain planet types are more likely in center or near the edges (gravity of giant black hole leading to different types of stars), maybe you want to evolve in a weird nebula that gives bonuses/penalties and base your entire species around that bonus/penalty.

 

[dezuman]

Hey Devs,

Just wondering if you've considered giving us a way to influence our starting positions. In other 4x games there were similar things. For example in Civilization certain countries would always start on coastline. Some would always spawn on rivers etc.

Maybe letting us in Stellaris choose a starting position like if we want to start near the outer part of the galaxy, inner part of the galaxy, inside one of those weird Nebulas that give modifiers.

I just thought it'd be a nice way to add a bit more flavor to a species. Starting near the center might help more for people who want to be really diplomatic, off in the corner for xenophobic isolationists, maybe certain planet types are more likely in center or near the edges (gravity of giant black hole leading to different types of stars), maybe you want to evolve in a weird nebula that gives bonuses/penalties and base your entire species around that bonus/penalty.

I don't see a problem with this as long as it can be disabled for multiplayer/ironman in case it might provide unfair advantages.

 

[mordocai]

There's some preset starting systems (Sol is one) and you can mod more. As evidenced by the multiplayer stream they appear to work in multiplayer as well (I don't like this personally, hopefully can be turned off).

 

[sethfc]

I like this, it's in alot of other 4x games (well not alot, but several) and it's actually a good feature, as some of us enjoy different positions (I like the edge of the galaxy typically) and it makes sense for customizing a race.

 

[dave1927p]

seeing as how this is Paradox afterall, it will most likely come in the form of a paid DLC.

 

[mordocai]

seeing as how this is Paradox afterall, it will most likely come in the form of a paid DLC.

As a paradox fanboy, I find the implication disturbing. Paradox has some of the better DLC out there. Quite a lot of features make it into the base game with an update that comes out at the same time as the DLC and the DLC features themselves are usually themed. I would imagine this kind of feature would come through one of the updates not a DLC.

 

[illapa]

I think it could really help add to replayability and some customization. In other paradox games we could pick a nation based on ideas in Europa and starting position and be fairly sure what type of game we would be playing.

Say mineral rich worlds are closer to the core. Pick closer to the core, take traits for minerals and strength and call yourselves space dwarfs.

Pick you WANT to spawn in or near an anaomaly/nebula. Say the nebula has a giant penalty to shields. Screw shields become a race of only armor and be a really turtle like empire that has a huge advantage in their nebula.

I think it could lead to some cool settings if we could do something to "weigh" where we spawn what kinds of stars/planets are near us so we don't have to just keep restarting a game over and over until we like our starting position for how we want to play that game.

 

[Hericage]

When you customize your species you can also pick system initializer as we call them. For instance you can choose to start in the Sol system and you'll find Mars etc in your home system. This initializer can also affect nearby systems. If you start in the Sol system you'll also be able to find Alpha Centauri nearby.
These things are very easy to mod and what you describe is perfectly possible to do by adding more of these initializers. In multiplayer all players would need to have this mod enabled

 

[illapa]

When you customize your species you can also pick system initializer as we call them. For instance you can choose to start in the Sol system and you'll find Mars etc in your home system. This initializer can also affect nearby systems. If you start in the Sol system you'll also be able to find Alpha Centauri nearby.
These things are very easy to mod and what you describe is perfectly possible to do by adding more of these initializers. In multiplayer all players would need to have this mod enabled

That's really good to hear. Any chance you'll be expanding on initializers in the future? It just seems like something in other 4x games that Stellaris didn't seem to have.

 

[Aegrim]

When you customize your species you can also pick system initializer as we call them. For instance you can choose to start in the Sol system and you'll find Mars etc in your home system. This initializer can also affect nearby systems. If you start in the Sol system you'll also be able to find Alpha Centauri nearby.
These things are very easy to mod and what you describe is perfectly possible to do by adding more of these initializers. In multiplayer all players would need to have this mod enabled

Think he also meant choosing the very outer rim of a spiral galaxy, somewhere in an arm, or near the very centre. The actual position, not just the systems etc.

 

[illapa]

Think he also meant choosing the very outer rim of a spiral galaxy, somewhere in an arm, or near the very centre. The actual position, not just the systems etc.

What I personally want it to start in one of those weird nebula like anomaly regions but I'm sure there are people out there that really want certain spawns.

 

[chaostk]

When you customize your species you can also pick system initializer as we call them. For instance you can choose to start in the Sol system and you'll find Mars etc in your home system. This initializer can also affect nearby systems. If you start in the Sol system you'll also be able to find Alpha Centauri nearby.
These things are very easy to mod and what you describe is perfectly possible to do by adding more of these initializers. In multiplayer all players would need to have this mod enabled

One question, if you use the sol initializer, but on the species home planet use a different name than earth, will it be the name you chose but everything else with the name for our system, or does it overwrite the home planet to always be earth?