ramp up the race creation

[VoodooDog]

Hi,

as of now, every species is kinda the same. sure they have different ethics and all that, but all species have the concept of moral, all eat organics and all can build factions.

i would like to know if there are plans to diversify that?

for example there could be species who are lithotroph. meaning they eat something like rocks. they would have no food production what so ever and can therefore live on barren planets (it may be hard to balance, but iam certain it is balanceable).
another example would be a race without any concept or moral (maybe a borg like race where you have one
consciousness, controlling billions of drones).
or how about species who live underground, they would get a 50% (or 100%?) max pop boost on every planet they live on (hard to balance but sure balanceable!).

i would love to see such things and would like to know if there are any plans in this direction.

greetings


ps: these where just a few examples of racetraits out of Master of Orion II which i would love to see in stellaris.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

About the most we know about this sort of thing is that Wiz feels that a proper "hive mind" species would have to exist sufficiently far outside of the current mechanics that it would need a DLC/expansion to be something they'd add- a logic I feel rings true for a lot of these ideas.

Making Barren worlds habitable by lithotrophs, for instance, would completely upend the habitability mechanic and make it largely irrelevant- ignoring that it already follows shaky logic given a lithotrophic organism might very well still need a breathable atmosphere and "traditional" temperature range.

I'm not opposed to any of these mechanics, mind- they just won't ever work for a "normal" civilization and thus exist on the same level as "Let us play Space Nomads!" ideas. They'd need a whole new layer of mechanics and balance that can only be adequately filled through a large DLC.

 

[VoodooDog]

i remember that wiz statement, indeed. and i would be happy with a large dlc or addon for it.
just want to know if stellaris will go in this direction anywhere in the future.

 

[CapitanBlanco]

^ I don't think we'll be getting a definitive answer to that question any time soon. I don't think the dev team has lent any serious thought at all to diversifying the range of playable species, quite frankly.

 

[aono]

for example there could be species who are lithotroph. meaning they eat something like rocks. they would have no food production what so ever and can therefore live on barren planets (it may be hard to balance, but iam certain it is balanceable).

Making them eat rocks is very simple, actually.
Food is a thing that specie eat. So for this creatures food will be minerals, so every pop will not have food maintenance but mineral one. Same with robots who "eats" energy. Also such specie can make food for satellite species in empire, so you don't need to ban food production to them. I would be surprised if nobody mod it already.
But about barren planets things actually going another way. Barren planets are barren because they're unusable. There are no "nutritious" rocks there, and nothing actually useful at all. Robots who don't eat food can't colonize barren planets as well.
To change it you must change barren planets by engine meaning, not species.

another example would be a race without any concept or moral (maybe a borg like race where you have one
consciousness, controlling billions of drones).

I'm not sure I'm understands. Borg actually had concepts, moral and agenda.
Maybe that's of moral, not or? Race without moral is quite achievable - it's fanatic materialists. They scold such conception in their description. Well. Borgs are fanatic materialists and xenophiles (in their twisted way), so I believe it fits.
That's, by the way, a thing I wanted - to have twisted ways. But as I understand Utopia, devs actually reduce ethic inner diversity, locking in one understanding. Pity.

or how about species who live underground, they would get a 50% (or 100%?) max pop boost on every planet they live on (hard to balance but sure balanceable!).

As with lithotropes, it's not a problem it's hard to balance. It's hard to implement on current engine - for now we have rules "one planet tile = one population unit" AND "habitable planet have finite and definite tiles, set on galaxy generation". It can be bypassed by adding another "planet" on the same orbit with some "shadow" art or something. By engine means it will be the very different, unlinked planet, but you'll have your second set of tiles to fill.
I'm just not sure "subterranean" as is should gives so much.