• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #109 - 2.0 Post-Release Support (part 2)

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. As mentioned in last dev diary, we are still in full post-release support mode and until we are ready to get back to regular feature dev diaries, we're not going to have full-length dev diaries. Instead, we'll use the dev diaries to highlight certain fixes or tweaks coming in the rolling 2.0.2 beta update that we feel need highlighting. All the changes listed below will be coming in the next 2.0.2 update, which we expect to have with you soon.

Species Rights Changes
Both in order to fix some bugs caused by traits that alter species identity (such as Psionic ascension path traits), and to expand player freedom, we've made some changes to species rights. There are no longer any traits that cause a species to be considered entirely distinct from its parent species, so a Psionic or Hive-Minded Human pop is still considered to be a subspecies of Human. As it would then no longer make sense for all Human subspecies to share the same rights, we've added the ability to set rights for subspecies, so you can have, for example, different levels of military service and living standards for different subspecies of the same species living in your empire. However, there will still be certain restrictions for subspecies of your primary species, so if your empire is Human, you will not be able to purge a Human subspecies unless that subspecies has been majorly altered (such as being turned into Hive-Minded humans)
2018_03_22_3.png


Food Trading & Negative Food Spirals
We've had a bunch of feedback on AI and player problems with ending up in negative food spirals where a lack of food would cause starvation, reducing happiness and causing unrest, which would reduce food production, making starvation worse and creating a vicious cycle. To address this we've made a couple of changes. First of all, unrest and low happiness no longer reduce food production (they still reduce food from processing/livestock, as that represents the pops fighting back against being eaten). Secondly, we've improved the AI's understanding of food trading, so that it should heavily prioritize trading for food when in starvation. Finally, for those with Leviathans, we've added the ability to trade Minerals/Energy for Food and vice versa with the Trader Enclaves.
2018_03_21_1.png


New Marauder Events
In order to make it less of a pure loss prospect to start near Marauders, we've added some positive events that can only fire if your empire is bordering Marauders. These benefits might include gaining resources, pops, free ships and leaders, or temporary buffs to the effectiveness of your fleets.
2018_03_22_1.png


Occupation Armies
Since the army rework in 2.0, it's become significantly easier to snipe back planets that were recently taken by the enemy, as these planets lack a garrison to defend them. For this reason, we've implemented a new type of army type called Occupation Armies. When a planet is occupied, the occupier now spawns a garrison force of these Occupation Armies (the exact type varying depending on species just as with defense armies). Unless destroyed by battle or bombardment, the garrison force remains until the planet is either annexed or reverts to the owner's control.

Weapon Range Modifier
Since this is a topic that keeps coming up (because the way weapon range is implemented in the code is extremely complex and there is no one single weapon range modifier bug to fix, but a bunch of different places where it has to be hooked in correctly), I just wanted to mention that we've done some additional fixes, and believe that the modifier should now be fully functional. We've also implemented a separate ship_modifier entry for ship sizes that can be used to apply certain modifiers (such as firing rate and weapon range) that do not work in the regular ship_size modifier (as that modifier is applied to the ship design, and not the ship itself).

That's all for now! Remember that these are just a selection of tweaks/fixes, and there are many more that were not listed here but will be included in the patch notes when we next update 2.0.2. See you next week!
 
Dev diary thread was accidentally deleted somehow while being scheduled for posting. This reply is to bump it back to the top.
 
Could you give some insight to how weapon range functions? If I have BBs with X weapons and L weapons, do they stop as soon as the enemy is within range of the X weapons or do they continue in to a predetermined distance that ignores any weapon ranges you might have?

Seems to me having superiour weapon range allows you to fire a second before your enemy, and then it's all the same as it all just boils down to a brawl.
 
Thanks for the excellent work Wiz (and team)!


What are the odds we could see a rapid building system (like we see with mechanical pops) for actual planet-side structures?
(check box, spam building)
 
If I create multiple empires with the same species name, portrait and traits, will they still be considered a separate subspecies? Will xenophobes want them without citizenship now that it's an option?
 
Could you give some insight to how weapon range functions? If I have BBs with X weapons and L weapons, do they stop as soon as the enemy is within range of the X weapons or do they continue in to a predetermined distance that ignores any weapon ranges you might have?

Seems to me having superiour weapon range allows you to fire a second before your enemy, and then it's all the same as it all just boils down to a brawl.

The combat computer decides the distance they stop at (unless they have Swarm behavior). This distance is modified by weapon range modifier, so a ship with a longer range will stop further away (for example, Artillery ships normally stop at range 100, but will stop at range 150 if they have +50% weapon range).
 
Nice, all look like good fixes. Have the CB issues with AEs been resolved? Currently this pretty much makes part of the lategame nonexistent.

Yes.
 
Weapon Range Modifier
Since this is a topic that keeps coming up (because the way weapon range is implemented in the code is extremely complex and there is no one single weapon range modifier bug to fix, but a bunch of different places where it has to be hooked in correctly), I just wanted to mention that we've done some additional fixes, and believe that the modifier should now be fully functional. We've also implemented a separate ship_modifier entry for ship sizes that can be used to apply certain modifiers (such as firing rate and weapon range) that do not work in the regular ship_size modifier (as that modifier is applied to the ship design, and not the ship itself).
Finally! Thanks alot for that.
 
Could you give some insight to how weapon range functions? If I have BBs with X weapons and L weapons, do they stop as soon as the enemy is within range of the X weapons or do they continue in to a predetermined distance that ignores any weapon ranges you might have?

Seems to me having superiour weapon range allows you to fire a second before your enemy, and then it's all the same as it all just boils down to a brawl.

IIRC battleships will end up advancing to about medium weapon range, but may stop before small weapons are in range if you have the Broadside bow.

Getting the first volley in can be useful because scoring casualties first biases the whole engagement in your favour, so range bonuses working consistently coupled with high alpha strike will be very useful.
 
All nice changes, I was waiting for :).
I hope that we still get a claims view and I haven't read anything about the problem that the claims from my vassals comes first (and my claims were ignored) when ending the war.
All claims should be reset (with full influence payback) if a system gets a new owner.
 
Species Rights Changes
Both in order to fix some bugs caused by traits that alter species identity (such as Psionic ascension path traits), and to expand player freedom, we've made some changes to species rights. There are no longer any traits that cause a species to be considered entirely distinct from its parent species, so a Psionic or Hive-Minded Human pop is still considered to be a subspecies of Human. As it would then no longer make sense for all Human subspecies to share the same rights, we've added the ability to set rights for subspecies, so you can have, for example, different levels of military service and living standards for different subspecies of the same species living in your empire. However, there will still be certain restrictions for subspecies of your primary species, so if your empire is Human, you will not be able to purge a Human subspecies unless that subspecies has been majorly altered (such as being turned into Hive-Minded humans)
View attachment 349689
That's really interesting !
But how would the pop growth be handled ? You have two pops growing at the same time with reduced speed (like for every other case where you have two species growing at the same time) ?
 
The combat computer decides the distance they stop at (unless they have Swarm behavior). This distance is modified by weapon range modifier, so a ship with a longer range will stop further away (for example, Artillery ships normally stop at range 100, but will stop at range 150 if they have +50% weapon range).

Does the combat computer counts for individual weapon range when stopping the ship?

For example, if a BB has a 150 range XL weapon and a short range Medium weapon, will the BB stop when all weapons are within firing distance? or will it stop the moment one of the weapons is within firing range but disregarding the others (some weapons will be unable to fire).
 
Will there be changes to achieve a 'limited victory' in liberation/subjugation wars. This was mentioned in last weeks dev diary but it wasn't clear if it will come.