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Stellaris Dev Diary #144 - Megastructures, Habitats and Minor Artifacts

Hello everyone!

First of all, I’d like to follow up on last week’s dev diary by sharing some more things we’re trying out with Megastructures (and habitats!).

After all of that, we also have something new to talk about!

Let’s start from the beginning – which of course leads us to the Mega-Engineering technology itself.

As always, numbers may not be final and temporary things may be sighted.

Mega-Engineering
Mega-Engineering is still a rare technology, but will now be more likely to appear as you build more Habitats and Citadels. This means it is way more likely to appear if you are performing actions in the game that would lead you towards the route of building larger and more powerful structures.

Master Builders
The Master Builders ascension perk no longer unlocks mega-engineering or adds size to habitats, but instead increases the number of megastructures you can simultaneously build by +1. What about increased habitat size you ask? Well, keep on reading!

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Habitats & Voidborne
Habitats are no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk but is rather a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology. Habitats now have a default of 80% habitability. We’re also experimenting with that some of the habitat’s districts will depend on which planet they are built over. In case you build one above a planet with mining deposits, this could happen:

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Voidborne ascension perk now increases habitat size by +2 and increases Habitat habitability by 20%. This should mean it becomes more of a choice for specialization, rather than feeling it is a non-choice.

As a final note on habitats, it might be worthwhile to reiterate my thoughts that I eventually want to add different levels/sizes to habitats. It is however not something for the immediate future, but a little further down the road.

Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing.

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Minor Artifacts
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Some of you might recognize the icon for what was supposed to become arcane technology, that partially got into 2.2. It was something that I was personally working on, but that didn’t work out as I had imagined it, and that I didn’t get enough time to finish with other things taking priority.

In the next upcoming DLC, you will be able to come across Minor Artifacts. “Minor Artifacts” is a broad term that includes any smaller and nameless artifact left behind by ancient civilizations. They are never gained passively every month, but will rather have to be found.

What are they used for, I imagine you asking? Well, the basic functionality is that they can be consumed in so-called artifact actions. There are a bunch of different actions that can be performed by consuming Minor Artifacts, with varying effects for each.

Some of these actions will be locked behind a technology, which some may also recognize.

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Arcane Deciphering allows you to consume Minor Artifacts for a random technology-related bonus.

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That’s it for this week! Happy Easter everyone! Next week we’ll be back again :)

P.S. Attaching an Easter present

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I miss playing this game. Next time it's on sale I'm gifting it to my buddies and kicking off a MP campaign :)
 
Err, 4k energy from a full dyson sphere? That seems more than a little strong. I want 10 of them!
At the current output (1k energy), a measly planet can outpace a full blown, stellar construct, Dyson sphere. At least this way a Dyson sphere can outpace a planet without reaching ridiculous levels of output
 
Any chance we are going to be getting civic updates for Hiveminds? They feel very left out at the moment. What about making use of the Corporate tab for an infesting Hivemind to create buildings on other planets costing food and influence? What about something similar to a driven Assimilator? What about Hiveminds getting bonuses to pop growth in the lategame when all other empire have acess to ecumenopolis growth and/or growing organics+ robots for up to 20-30 growth a month? Really Ecumenopolis do need a nerf in terms of pop growth or flat ressource output. A huge city plannet shouldn't outgrow a Hive world thats literally 1 organism for breeding drones.
Non Devouring Swarm Hiveminds just feel like a mediocre empire type to play thats easier to manage but lacks many options and opportunities.
 
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Habitats are no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk but is rather a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology.
Oh god yes, now I can start Building Habitats, never got the Habit because to me it was just a wast to give up an Ascension perk in order to build a Habitat.

Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing.
Sounds good to me, A Ring System was easily a huge part of my empire, but Maybe if you nerf the effect do you plan to tweak the Price or are the Special Segement boost OP enough?

In the next upcoming DLC, you will be able to come across Minor Artifacts. “Minor Artifacts” is a broad term that includes any smaller and nameless artifact left behind by ancient civilizations. They are never gained passively every month, but will rather have to be found.
This sounds really great. My guess / hope small hints to advanced Technology like class 3 shields when you are still stuck with class one or Research boost.

But what About this upcoming DLC? Minor artifacts a part of the DLC. Here'S hoping that you can collect artifacts to fill Museums. But please don't Forget diplomacy, espionage and the combination of both of it. Federations.
 
Definitely nice that the ringworlds are becoming more unique but that ring world segment still feels a bit underpowered. And I don't know how happy my devouring swarm will be with these segments. Unless those agri-segments provided +30 agri-done jobs then that's a net loss for them.
 
interesting. i like the idea that habitats can potantially "inherit" a district type of their parent planet (mining district on habitat example). not sure if the 80% baseline habitability is a big enough deal and the +20% bonus is enough to make voidborne feel worthwhile.

but i fully agree with the basic idea of making habitats a tech and turning the ascencion perk into a boost rather than unlocking the feature.

out of curiosity - will they still be a "utopia" feature or will they be moved to the baseline features of the vanilla game?
 
Well, that certainly sounds good.

I love the idea of using citadels and habitats as a way to heighten the odds of getting Megaengineering. Better flavor-wise and gameplay-wise. Master Builders is now more situationnal, but possibly better in some cases. Minor artifacts are an interesting addition. I'm a bit worried about the increasing role of RNG (absence of a certain path to get MEng, random bonus for Artifacts), but it can be better.

Habitats are more tricky, since, according to your mockup, some habitats district will be removed to make place for ressources ones. If the counterpart is less restrictions on buildings, it may be a net increase. Maybe the way Guili's did it (planet-side deposits provides -powerful- jobs, and that's it) may be better.

Now, Ringworlds. I tried to theorycraft Ringworlds in several ways, and the crux of the issue now is : they don't have enough building slots ; and others megastructures are better at most of what they can do. Overcharging districts in segments is a decent idea (reduce admin overhead for same abilities), but does not quite solve the fact that Dysons spheres are just better at energy. And while providing a 4th segment option is a must, a Science segment doesn't make much sense, since by the time you can build it, you are near the end of the tech tree (and can build a Science Nexus if required). I'm honestly not very confident it will do anything to make them better, at least for standard empires.

But I'm glad you are doing a minor rework of megastructures. They are one of the most fun aspects of Stellaris, and I always enjoy toying with them.
 
The ringworld mechanic with segments is what I would like to see for sectors, ie at some point in the game your planets gets grouped into sectors where you stop managing individual planets and instead manages your sectors (by building more powerful ”districts” like the ringworld segments.)
 
Won't the 80% habitability for habitats quite easily become 100% through various techs?

Also, from what I can see a habitat would add more to empire sprawl than a Ringworld segment would. Is that intended?
 
Also, I played a democratic empire lately and my inicial leader vanished again after lost elections. I though that shit was patched a months ago :/
 
Nice !
Really looking forward to this. Just one thing, why would one of the ringworld district/segment type be specifically an artisan segment, and not a technician or foundry segment ?
 
Hello everyone!
Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing

I hope we can see some version of the "mini ring" from the Gigastructures mod, that can be used to expand a planet's district capacity. Though balanced in a way that you can only really do this for a few to a handful planets.