The ISU is designed to have fewer options than the Federation, but it should still be able to get new members in. I'll test when home.
[Mod] ST: New Horizons: A Stellaris Total Conversion
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That would defeat the entire point of the Federation mechanics. The Federation also isn't the Dominion.
EDIT: By any chance would you guys be able to share the emblem you made for the Interstellar Union? I only ask because I'm considering writing an Andorian-wank timeline thingy on the Alternate History Discussion Forum, or at least attempting it.
Josun - will need to do that when home unless another developer can do so. Can't open DDS files at work. 
On a different subject, keeping with our Klingon improvements in our next update I've made a few additions. While Discovery era Klingons (Series 1 at least!) look different from their Motion Picture-onward designs, we didn't want to confuse players by having both in the mod. That said, we are going to be adding some Discovery era uniforms and adding a few skin colour variations to I feel manage to bridge the two design styles without appearing unconnected:
On a different subject, keeping with our Klingon improvements in our next update I've made a few additions. While Discovery era Klingons (Series 1 at least!) look different from their Motion Picture-onward designs, we didn't want to confuse players by having both in the mod. That said, we are going to be adding some Discovery era uniforms and adding a few skin colour variations to I feel manage to bridge the two design styles without appearing unconnected:
Josun - will need to do that when home unless another developer can do so. Can't open DDS files at work.
On a different subject, keeping with our Klingon improvements in our next update I've made a few additions. While Discovery era Klingons (Series 1 at least!) look different from their Motion Picture-onward designs, we didn't want to confuse players by having both in the mod. That said, we are going to be adding some Discovery era uniforms and adding a few skin colour variations to I feel manage to bridge the two design styles without appearing unconnected:
Probably for the best since discovery is moving toward more tng Klingons
Will make our lives so much easier, yes!
And for those wondering, that's Kol of the house of Kor's armour.
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Josun - will need to do that when home unless another developer can do so. Can't open DDS files at work.
Appreciate it. It's a really cool symbol and as a big fan of the Andorians, I love the idea of them taking the lead instead. And I've had the idea for the timeline thing bouncing about my head on and off for about half a year anyways (before learning about the Interstellar Union it was instead based on just the Andorian Empire expanding faster and harder and absorbing powers into it
)Is that ISU bug thing the other in fact a problem, or an isolated bug? Was contemplating going ahead and doing a run as Andoria for shits and giggles.
On a different subject, keeping with our Klingon improvements in our next update I've made a few additions. While Discovery era Klingons (Series 1 at least!) look different from their Motion Picture-onward designs, we didn't want to confuse players by having both in the mod. That said, we are going to be adding some Discovery era uniforms and adding a few skin colour variations to I feel manage to bridge the two design styles without appearing unconnected:
I like this, especially given it makes it seem like there is more racial difference among the Klingons.
The ISU bug should be fixed in next hotfix. The Federation council events after the first screen had restrictions on them that limited to the UFP only. Those have been removed since the restriction can happen on the first screen.
Great, looking forward to the fix and being able to make a new run as them!
As a query, I'm thinking of doing it in the smaller, medium sized milky way galaxy. What are the Empires in that one and is there anything major missing from it compared to the big canon map?
Nothing major missing, just some minors aren't there. Better performance and it's a bit faster paced too due to a small galaxy overall.
Schweeeeeet~
Side note- is there any plan to bring Habitats into the mod for all races? Something akin to the ones that the base game has?
If it's what I'm thinking of, it's not really Trek, the closest would be the Yorktown I guess from Beyond.
*Squirms about excitedly waiting for the hotfix patch thingy so I can do an interstellar Union run, or play as dominion.*
@Walshicus Messing around as United Earth on the Medium Milky Way map. Klingons and Romulans were both missing their background thingies in their diplomacy menu's, both for the view out the window and the room.
Also, the First Federation is rather huge on the map. Not a bug, just a statement of surprise
Also, since just messing around right now, what's the event code thingy for having the wormhole make itself known?
Also, the First Federation is rather huge on the map. Not a bug, just a statement of surprise
Also, since just messing around right now, what's the event code thingy for having the wormhole make itself known?
I've also noticed that on the medium map, the Romulan's vassal is way out of position. Like almost in the Delta quadrant.
For some reason i cant declare war on any Empire as Borg. I know they need to be neighbours but not even the ones that have a border with me work.
Is it bugged or am i missing something?
Is it bugged or am i missing something?
On medium milky way, the Rakhari Free States have that weird naming issue where they're NAME_rakhari_free_states
Also the Kareema Foundation is missing their ship set. Again. The only time I've ever seen them get to use their actual special ship set (unless it's been removed) was when playing as them.
Also the Kareema Foundation is missing their ship set. Again. The only time I've ever seen them get to use their actual special ship set (unless it's been removed) was when playing as them.
Dev Diary 5: The future of resources in New Horizons
Hello everyone!
This is Harel again, balance lead for Paradoxical Design Group. It has been a busy time here for us – all hands are on deck working on the next major update, which will include the Romulan and Klingon ship overhaul.
Since the balance work on the ship overhaul is done, I have moved on to the next big task – preparing as much as possible for the future Stellaris 2.2 update, Le Guin. There are a lot of questions surrounding this update from our fans, so I thought I would address them. However, this comes with a LOT of caveats, so please read carefully.
The importance of careful reading
Change is games is always contentious. The player community is always divided along some line. Changes in STNH are twice as problematic – as they include both people upset over the changes in the base game, and people upset over the corresponding changes in STNH. This is even truer when we are discussing our plans for an update that is not out yet, where a lot of variables are still unknown and when we ourselves don’t know if our plans will work.
So please, read everything here with a grain of salt. This is very important. We are making all of these plans based on just publicly available information from PDX and a lot of guesswork. Its very possible some things we write here will simply not work in practice.
I will try my best not to go into specific values, and it's possible that once we go and implement our changes, something will not work as intended. Barring code changes, these are our plans – we might change them based on feedback and balance work after 2.2 launches, but not before.
People often ask us about future Stellaris updates. Either what our plans are, are we going to adapt to the changes, and how we release updates so quickly. The answer to the second question is always yes since we have no choice. We must adapt to every change in the base game. The answer to the third question is that we lay down as much of the groundwork as we can, based on Paradox’s dev diaries. Then when the patch updates we all work together to get things ready. Its hard, but we are used to it by now.
I should also say since people are talking about Megacorp, is that our policy has not changed. We are not going to get major features behind DLC’s. We are reviewing several options but in principle, something game-changing in a DLC will usually be remained outside of STNH. Smaller things, like the slave policies in previous DLC’s, or the slave market in Megacorp, will probably be included. Bigger things will not.
That is not to say STNH will not change drastically for 2.2. It will… but it will do so, as we promised in the past, for the base version. No DLC required.
About STNH vs Vanilla
While we are speaking about caveats, this is a good time to talk about something else that should be considered when reading about our future, or when reviewing STNH in general.
In STNH, we have a different gameplay approach then the one PDX aims with the base game. Under Martin Anward, or Wiz, the PDX team adopts a strategy to encourage more meaningful strategic decisions. From a game design point of view, our goal is to increase the meaningful choices available to the player.
To an extent, those strategies overlap. But while PDX teams try to streamline the core gameplay as much as possible, we try to increase the choices the player has. That means more detailed economy and ship design. STNH is slower, more meticulous and strategic, as well as a lot more narrative driven. The result is a game that feels very different from Stellaris.
Overhauling ships – yet again
So, what ARE we going to talk about in this dev diary? We have a lot of plans and theories about how things should work. We will detail some of them in the weeks and months before release. Today, I’m going to discuss strategic resources.
As was explained in Stellaris dev diary 120, the economic system is changing, and strategic resources will now become like currencies. Any ship, component, building, army or weapon can now include a price in strategic resources, can produce resources, and can require resources as upkeep. Those resources no longer provide modifiers, but instead can simply accumulate and be spent on things, just like energy or minerals.
This is clearly amazing for STNH – we have many, many ideas, and I am sure you guys have some as well (and we look forward to hearing them and implementing the suitable ones). Finally, for example, we can create utilities that produce research and give them to some Federation ships – so you can have a Galaxy class ship actually ‘doing science’. Or we can have Hirogen occupation armies generating trophies – which you can then go around and use to purchase unique and powerful Alpha Hunters armies.
Today, I will focus on ships and the new strategic resources.
Ships in Star Trek are composed of thousands of components, and many of them require unique and rare materials, compounds, alloys and elements. How many times did we hear the crew of Voyager hunting for a special element that they were running out of? Or the episode where the Enterprise crew hide in the nacelles, that were covered with Osmium. A dedicated trekkie would want us to bring in all those elements into the mod.
This sounds great until you consider the nightmare of trying to balance and place so many resources, the need to make alternatives if a player has no access to that mineral, the need to make the AI work with the system and the limitation of the UI when you juggle around too many strategic resources.
So, my hope is to make a system that is richer than vanilla, retains the spirit of Trek and gives the player meaningful choices – yet still is simple enough to use without major issues.
The new Dilithium… and Trade
The first strategic resource that will be overhauled will be Dilithium. No more a convoluted system to increase naval cap, Dilithium will be a currency used in the creation of every warp engine of every military ship. Ships will also require upkeep of Dilithium crystals, and the old exploration vs combat warp engine choices will now force the player to choose between either warp engines that are more expensive to build but cheaper to maintain (allowing you a bigger fleet overall but will take longer to get there), or cheaper engines, and costlier maintenance.
In addition to Dilithium, another key resource will be “crew”. Academies on your planets will generate a new type of resource, of "crew", depending on the size of your population. Bigger ships will require more crew, both to build and to maintain. Players will also be able to raise slave crew (cheaper yet slightly less effective), and Federation players, for example, could choose to place human, Vulcan, Andorian or Tellarite crew on their ships, each a different resource, and each granting different bonuses.
As your empires grow bigger, they will have more ships, and their upkeep will dig into your dilithium and crew’s free income, reducing the rate in which you can build new ships. Since crew mechanics will favor planets with a big population, this mechanic should give tall empires another small edge and make that gameplay style more viable.
Dilithium and Crew will be the only resources that every ship will require. As ships grow more advanced, they may require additional resources for the hull material, shields, energy weapons and torpedo. The type of hull will dictate what material you will need, and so will your choice of beam or cannon weapons.
The goal is that no ship should require more than 6 types of strategic resources, which I consider to be the reasonable top limit in term of UI and player management. This will be adjusted after release if we feel that we can reasonably support more resources.
What happens if you don’t have those resources and can’t produce the ship you want? Here we are planning to introduce a major change to our ‘starport’ system. The starport buildings today allow the player to exchange energy for various resources, dictated globally by the player’s export policy.
This method works… but its clunky. Our plan now is to introduce some fun changes. The new ‘trade value’ system in 2.2 will not generate energy but instead, it will generate LATNIUM, a new strategic resource. The starport buildings will consume Latinum as upkeep and will provide any strategic resource you wish in exchange. You could also change this production per planet, using the new Decision system that replaces edicts. For those asking, we will probably change this for the Federation, so they will not use Latinum but something else.
We hope that the starport system, coupled with the galactic market, should let players obtain missing resources and to compensate for any AI issues.
In conclusion
I hope you enjoyed the small glimpse into our plans, but I caution again that everything here is subject to change and should not be seen as final.
The possibilities offered in the new economic system in 2.2 are truly exceptional.
What are you most excited about in 2.2?
Hello everyone!
This is Harel again, balance lead for Paradoxical Design Group. It has been a busy time here for us – all hands are on deck working on the next major update, which will include the Romulan and Klingon ship overhaul.
Since the balance work on the ship overhaul is done, I have moved on to the next big task – preparing as much as possible for the future Stellaris 2.2 update, Le Guin. There are a lot of questions surrounding this update from our fans, so I thought I would address them. However, this comes with a LOT of caveats, so please read carefully.
The importance of careful reading
Change is games is always contentious. The player community is always divided along some line. Changes in STNH are twice as problematic – as they include both people upset over the changes in the base game, and people upset over the corresponding changes in STNH. This is even truer when we are discussing our plans for an update that is not out yet, where a lot of variables are still unknown and when we ourselves don’t know if our plans will work.
So please, read everything here with a grain of salt. This is very important. We are making all of these plans based on just publicly available information from PDX and a lot of guesswork. Its very possible some things we write here will simply not work in practice.
I will try my best not to go into specific values, and it's possible that once we go and implement our changes, something will not work as intended. Barring code changes, these are our plans – we might change them based on feedback and balance work after 2.2 launches, but not before.
People often ask us about future Stellaris updates. Either what our plans are, are we going to adapt to the changes, and how we release updates so quickly. The answer to the second question is always yes since we have no choice. We must adapt to every change in the base game. The answer to the third question is that we lay down as much of the groundwork as we can, based on Paradox’s dev diaries. Then when the patch updates we all work together to get things ready. Its hard, but we are used to it by now.
I should also say since people are talking about Megacorp, is that our policy has not changed. We are not going to get major features behind DLC’s. We are reviewing several options but in principle, something game-changing in a DLC will usually be remained outside of STNH. Smaller things, like the slave policies in previous DLC’s, or the slave market in Megacorp, will probably be included. Bigger things will not.
That is not to say STNH will not change drastically for 2.2. It will… but it will do so, as we promised in the past, for the base version. No DLC required.
About STNH vs Vanilla
While we are speaking about caveats, this is a good time to talk about something else that should be considered when reading about our future, or when reviewing STNH in general.
In STNH, we have a different gameplay approach then the one PDX aims with the base game. Under Martin Anward, or Wiz, the PDX team adopts a strategy to encourage more meaningful strategic decisions. From a game design point of view, our goal is to increase the meaningful choices available to the player.
To an extent, those strategies overlap. But while PDX teams try to streamline the core gameplay as much as possible, we try to increase the choices the player has. That means more detailed economy and ship design. STNH is slower, more meticulous and strategic, as well as a lot more narrative driven. The result is a game that feels very different from Stellaris.
Overhauling ships – yet again
So, what ARE we going to talk about in this dev diary? We have a lot of plans and theories about how things should work. We will detail some of them in the weeks and months before release. Today, I’m going to discuss strategic resources.
As was explained in Stellaris dev diary 120, the economic system is changing, and strategic resources will now become like currencies. Any ship, component, building, army or weapon can now include a price in strategic resources, can produce resources, and can require resources as upkeep. Those resources no longer provide modifiers, but instead can simply accumulate and be spent on things, just like energy or minerals.
This is clearly amazing for STNH – we have many, many ideas, and I am sure you guys have some as well (and we look forward to hearing them and implementing the suitable ones). Finally, for example, we can create utilities that produce research and give them to some Federation ships – so you can have a Galaxy class ship actually ‘doing science’. Or we can have Hirogen occupation armies generating trophies – which you can then go around and use to purchase unique and powerful Alpha Hunters armies.
Today, I will focus on ships and the new strategic resources.
Ships in Star Trek are composed of thousands of components, and many of them require unique and rare materials, compounds, alloys and elements. How many times did we hear the crew of Voyager hunting for a special element that they were running out of? Or the episode where the Enterprise crew hide in the nacelles, that were covered with Osmium. A dedicated trekkie would want us to bring in all those elements into the mod.
This sounds great until you consider the nightmare of trying to balance and place so many resources, the need to make alternatives if a player has no access to that mineral, the need to make the AI work with the system and the limitation of the UI when you juggle around too many strategic resources.
So, my hope is to make a system that is richer than vanilla, retains the spirit of Trek and gives the player meaningful choices – yet still is simple enough to use without major issues.
The new Dilithium… and Trade
The first strategic resource that will be overhauled will be Dilithium. No more a convoluted system to increase naval cap, Dilithium will be a currency used in the creation of every warp engine of every military ship. Ships will also require upkeep of Dilithium crystals, and the old exploration vs combat warp engine choices will now force the player to choose between either warp engines that are more expensive to build but cheaper to maintain (allowing you a bigger fleet overall but will take longer to get there), or cheaper engines, and costlier maintenance.
In addition to Dilithium, another key resource will be “crew”. Academies on your planets will generate a new type of resource, of "crew", depending on the size of your population. Bigger ships will require more crew, both to build and to maintain. Players will also be able to raise slave crew (cheaper yet slightly less effective), and Federation players, for example, could choose to place human, Vulcan, Andorian or Tellarite crew on their ships, each a different resource, and each granting different bonuses.
As your empires grow bigger, they will have more ships, and their upkeep will dig into your dilithium and crew’s free income, reducing the rate in which you can build new ships. Since crew mechanics will favor planets with a big population, this mechanic should give tall empires another small edge and make that gameplay style more viable.
Dilithium and Crew will be the only resources that every ship will require. As ships grow more advanced, they may require additional resources for the hull material, shields, energy weapons and torpedo. The type of hull will dictate what material you will need, and so will your choice of beam or cannon weapons.
The goal is that no ship should require more than 6 types of strategic resources, which I consider to be the reasonable top limit in term of UI and player management. This will be adjusted after release if we feel that we can reasonably support more resources.
What happens if you don’t have those resources and can’t produce the ship you want? Here we are planning to introduce a major change to our ‘starport’ system. The starport buildings today allow the player to exchange energy for various resources, dictated globally by the player’s export policy.
This method works… but its clunky. Our plan now is to introduce some fun changes. The new ‘trade value’ system in 2.2 will not generate energy but instead, it will generate LATNIUM, a new strategic resource. The starport buildings will consume Latinum as upkeep and will provide any strategic resource you wish in exchange. You could also change this production per planet, using the new Decision system that replaces edicts. For those asking, we will probably change this for the Federation, so they will not use Latinum but something else.
We hope that the starport system, coupled with the galactic market, should let players obtain missing resources and to compensate for any AI issues.
In conclusion
I hope you enjoyed the small glimpse into our plans, but I caution again that everything here is subject to change and should not be seen as final.
The possibilities offered in the new economic system in 2.2 are truly exceptional.
What are you most excited about in 2.2?
