Some ideas/suggestions

[LoneWingman]

I'm hoping I'm posting this in the right place, if not please point me in the right direction.

Firstly I wanted to say I'm very excited for the Stellaris release, it is pretty much the epitome of the space strategy game I've always wanted. Watching the Blorg videos just made me want the game more, also you guys are hilarious.

I'll admit to not being up on all the lore and game information, so some of my ideas/thoughts below might already be covered but I wanted to share them just in case. Also please bear in mind I haven't played any of the UI/HoI series, so I don't have that context/experience to draw from.

So below are some ideas I've had so far, no doubt with more to come post-release...

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Friendly AI
I know the AI Rebellion has been touched upon and I agree it should be there, but it would be nice if there is peaceful/friendly option for the development of AI. Personally I dislike the automatic assumption in a lot of genres that AI will be inherently violent/evil towards its creators, or biological life in general. By all means if they are treated terribly they would likely rebel and slaughter, but I believe that those treated fairly and equitably wouldn't.

Of course to prevent this being abused, there would be some drawbacks, such as:
- Early 'positive' AI treatment results in lower benefits/bonuses than treating them as objects/slaves.
- AI pops/colonies being entirely independent, similar to vassals or sectors, with limited control by the player.
- Until later more advanced AI is researched, decisions made by the AI would be entirely logic based (needs of the many, path of least resistance, etc.), lacking any emotional consideration. Possibly a trait?

Synthetic races
A playable synthetic/mechaniod race class would be great, providing it could be balanced, given that things like the AI/robotic techs would be largely irrelevant for these races.

Frontier station influence preview
When choosing a location for a frontier station, I think it would be useful to provide a preview of what the influence change would be assuming it existed at the chosen location (or even a min/max gradient). This would be useful for determining optimal locations.

Fleet power / threat heat-map
If it doesn't exist, perhaps a map filter that allows you to view a heat-map of fleet power, both yours and visible neighbours.

 

[lemmox]

I know the AI Rebellion has been touched upon and I agree it should be there, but it would be nice if there is peaceful/friendly option for the development of AI. Personally I dislike the automatic assumption in a lot of genres that AI will be inherently violent/evil towards its creators, or biological life in general. By all means if they are treated terribly they would likely rebel and slaughter, but I believe that those treated fairly and equitably wouldn't.

That's already in there. You can give your AI equal rights and status in society, which reduces the risk that they would join an AI rebellion. But if somebody else in the galaxy isn't so Egalitarian they could trigger a revolt despite your best efforts, possibly even drawing in your peaceful AI's in solidarity with their revolting brethren.

 

[doomdude1]

That's already in there. You can give your AI equal rights and status in society, which reduces the risk that they would join an AI rebellion. But if somebody else in the galaxy isn't so Egalitarian they could trigger a revolt despite your best efforts, possibly even drawing in your peaceful AI's in solidarity with their revolting brethren.

To touch on the AI rebellion subject, if you treated your AI slaves well and proper and they rebelled because of another empire, would they simply leave to join that fight or fight against you as well?

 

[lemmox]

To touch on the AI rebellion subject, if you treated your AI slaves well and proper and they rebelled because of another empire, would they simply leave to join that fight or fight against you as well?

I assume they fight against you. The stated goal of the AI rebellion is the extermination of all organic life, so that includes you. Presumably your AI's appreciate your efforts to treat them as equal but would still view other life as too large a threat to ignore.

 

[mrinku]

Put 'em in charge, like Iain M Banks' Culture Minds. They're not going to join a rebellion if they're the ones running the show.

 

[doomdude1]

Put 'em in charge, like Iain M Banks' Culture Minds. They're not going to join a rebellion if they're the ones running the show.

"I think I want to colonize this system now..."
That is not optimal. Denied.
"These aliens were cocky, let's see how they like a face full of hot pla-"
That is not optimal. Denied.
"And this battleship will have two carrier bays and so-"
That is not optimal. Denied.
"These guys look friendly I'm gonna pop down an emb-"
That is not optimal. Denied.

 

[Ramiel]

- Friendly AI
As mentioned already, how you treat your AI will have a huge impact on how they react/respond to you, I don't have much more to say about it.

- Synthetic races
The idea's been mentioned quite frequently on the forums, but such races would need altered mechanics - no need for food, different energy/mineral requirements, how they came to exist, etc - so they're definitely outside the scope of the base game. Devs have talked about how they want to make sure the core game is set, solid and fun, then worry about expanding it with more content and ideas in DLC. More exotic race types with altered mechanics, such as Synthetic races, true Hive Minds, Gas-Giant species, non-organic life, etc. are almost certainly coming in the future.

- Fleet power / threat heat-map
Lots of different map modes giving all sorts of different information at a glance are a staple of Paradox's other grand strategy games. Everyone's somewhat surprised they're not here by default, but the Devs have already confirmed they'll put them in a future patch if enough people want them. And judging by the response I'm positive they'll be coming in one of the very first patches.

 

[LoneWingman]

That's already in there. You can give your AI equal rights and status in society, which reduces the risk that they would join an AI rebellion. But if somebody else in the galaxy isn't so Egalitarian they could trigger a revolt despite your best efforts, possibly even drawing in your peaceful AI's in solidarity with their revolting brethren.

Yeah I did read some of that, thanks. My concern was around the apparent leaning towards war/conflict being the only inevitable outcome. If there is a friendly/cooperative path then that is great.

I assume they fight against you. The stated goal of the AI rebellion is the extermination of all organic life, so that includes you. Presumably your AI's appreciate your efforts to treat them as equal but would still view other life as too large a threat to ignore.

It would be interesting if you could pit your AI against the rebellion.

...

Thanks for the feedback, wasn't aware of a lot of that.

 

[mrinku]

"I think I want to colonize this system now..."
That is not optimal. Denied.
"These aliens were cocky, let's see how they like a face full of hot pla-"
That is not optimal. Denied.
"And this battleship will have two carrier bays and so-"
That is not optimal. Denied.
"These guys look friendly I'm gonna pop down an emb-"
That is not optimal. Denied.

No, no. You the player would move from making questionable non-optimal fleshbag decisions, to making questionable optimal cyber decisions.


Really, though, why would an AI trust an alien AI more than the organics they control... er... serve? You just know they're itching to hack your firewall and have their wicked way with your BIOS.