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Stellaris Dev Diary #184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination

Congratulations, [Employee.GetFirstName]!

Due to consistently meeting or exceeding performance goals and receiving high marks from both your manager and colleagues, you have been selected for termination at the end of this quarter! Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated by all of us here at Dodacorp™, and we’re lucky to see you go!

Your manager will be in touch with you to provide instructions related to termination benefits, reallocating your Dodacorp™ retirement credits to your next of kin, and the necessary paperwork for your desired post-termination arrangements. As a valued member of Dodacorp™, remember that you have an employee discount on cremation services from our partners at Burnatech™ and don’t forget that you can claim your complementary Eternal Interment™ urn from our Repositrexx™ subsidiary.

Ask your manager about securing a spot for your urn on the Wall of Honor™, the most desirable places are going fast!

Please make sure to complete all of the requisite forms by the first of
[Employee.TerminationDate.PreviousMonth] so you don’t miss this exciting opportunity.

We’d like to thank you again for your service here at Dodacorp™, and appreciate that your sacrifice today will lead to record profits tomorrow!

Sincerely,

[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullName]
[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullJobTitle]

Dodacorp(tm) image - NOT JEFF


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Inspired by the extreme popularity of CK2’s Sunset Invasion, we continue our exploration of mortality with two more civics that we’re planning for an upcoming release, the Death Cult and Corporate Death Cult.

Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Death Cult civic - sadly the Curators aren’t allowed to secretly be a death cult

Corporate Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Corporate Death Cult civic - ritual murder for funds and prophet


Available to Spiritualist empires, empires with either of these civics replace the Temples that Spiritualists can normally build with Sacrificial Temples that provide both Death Priest and Mortal Initiate jobs.

Sacrificial Temple - NOT JEFF

Sacrificial Temple building - funny how there always seems to be a Help Wanted sign in the window

Death Priest - NOT JEFF

Death Priest job - dedicated to improving game performance

Mortal Initiate - HOPEFULLY NOT JEFF

Mortal Initiate job - the benefits are to die for


Death Cults that have Mortal Initiate positions filled gain access to three new Sacrifice Edicts that let them perform the ritual slaughter to the gods (or whatever force your empire’s pops believe in). They’re a bit fickle though, and the magnitude of the benefits varies, but the more blood that is shed, the more likely you are to get the better blessings.

Sacrifice: Togetherness - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Togetherness edict - let’s remember the good times we had together

Sacrifice: Harmony - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony edict - you can finally get that corner desk and red stapler you wanted

Sacrifice: Bounty - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Bounty edict - it’s like voluntary purging that doesn’t get you yelled at by the Galactic Community


Sacrifice: Togetherness and Sacrifice: Harmony each have a base cost of 50 influence, Sacrifice: Bounty costs a base of 100 influence. These are, as usual, modified by things that affect Edict costs (such as the Spiritualist modifier).

When the Sacrifice is made, the Death Priests will inform you as to how it was received by the divine.

Sacrifice Event - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony - should have built more Sacrificial Temples, these are rookie numbers

Despite being societies revolving around ritual murder (and the Sunset Invasion joke), the theme of these civics is intended to be one of voluntary sacrifice, where the sacrifices are appreciated and honored. As such, it is not open to Fanatic Purifiers, who would probably have a more... uh... aggressive policy.

I know last week I said that we would try to take a glimpse into life in the Mishar Cabal, but they spaced the journalist sent to interview them after they "saw too much". We'll see what we can share about them soon.

Next week we’ll reveal what’s hidden under the blurred text in the Death Cult civic and maybe even meet
JEFF
.
 
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This just makes my Inward Perfectionists more immersive. They are the Descendants of Zarqlan. #1 Breach the Shroud and become God-King Zarqlan II and change to a Divine Authority. #2 Reform to Death Cult/Memorialist/Exalted Priesthood. #3 Grab Nihilistic Acquisition. #4 Prophet.
 
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01. An other entire dev-diary about just one civic that any hobby-modder can still add by him-/herself ?
02. Is in-distinctiveness the new design-approach of this game ? Example: If I would be this "death priest" then I would be very confused whether I'm a cultural worker ( unity ), a researcher ( society-points ) or an entertainer ( amnesties ). And yeah, I get it, it's all !
03. About this "mortal initiate" ...
Since there is no way of saying: Species X can only work Job Y and Z we must disable and enable jobs at that level constantly, until out of pure randomness the one species POP we want to sacrifice takes up the job.
Ever wasted a thought on that ?
 
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Could we get an alternative Spiritualist FE that demands pops for blood sacrifices or they'll wake up and conquer the galaxy?

FE variants are something I would love to see added!
 
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How much bonus does each sacrificed pop produce? 1% each? 5%? With a cap of 30% that means you have a limit on how many temples you can build before you are sacrificing people for no reward. Is there an opinion penalty? I would imagine more enlightened empires would take issue with death cults even among spiritualists.
 
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My main concern is that this is way too weak, because more pops is pretty much always better, and sacrificing pops in order to get a bonus would require a truly *massive* bonus to make up for it.
The Edicts do all come with a 5% Pop growth bonus, which, if you sacrificed a single pop, will cause you to break even in population by the expiry of the Edict once you have 10 planets. It is a weird civic, though. The fact that the Acolytes don't produce Amenities mean you're down in Happiness relative to normal Spiritualist Empires.
 
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Oh god I love this dev' diary...

No. They have to be volunteers. People forced into it don't taste as good.
Code:
        is_sapient = yes
        is_enslaved = no
        is_being_purged = no
        is_being_assimilated = no

No mention to Nerve Stapled and Serviles. Perfect. :cool:
 
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We couldn't have one that say, sacrifices a planet for faster FTL travel for some time could we?

It could require a minimum number of pops, a developed colony (upgraded from Frontier; not recently settled), and perhaps a special planetary designation (like Forge World, Mining world, etc). So the planet and it's inhabitants are raised on their purpose.
 
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That's the Curator civic. We really didn't want them becoming Death Cults, since it makes it much more sinister when they ask you for your Scientist. Of course, since they have to be Materialist, it was a bit of overkill explicitly banning them from it, but oh well.
So, is this just a Civic for the Curator Enclaves from the Leviathans Story Pack, similarly to how primitives have Civics that basically only serve as placeholders and have no gameplay effect, or did I miss a Dev Diary between this one (#184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination) and the previous one (#183 : Memory Allocation) that talked about an actual new Materialist Civic? Because I'm pretty sure there is no 'Ancient Preservers' Civic in 2.7.2 'Wells' and the previous four DD's since after the summer break didn't talk about one either, so you simply saying "That's the Curator civic." and offering no further explanation makes it sound like I am missing something really obvious here.
 
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So, is this just a Civic for the Curator Enclaves from the Leviathans Story Pack, similarly to how primitives have Civics that basically only serve as placeholders and have no gameplay effect, or did I miss a Dev Diary between this one (#184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination) and the previous one (#183 : Memory Allocation) that talked about an actual new Materialist Civic? Because I'm pretty sure there is no 'Ancient Preservers' Civic in 2.7.2 'Wells' and the previous four DD's since after the summer break didn't talk about one either, so you simply saying "That's the Curator civic." and offering no further explanation makes it sound like I am missing something really obvious here.
They mean the Fallen Empire I think. The ones who ask you for your scientists, etc.
 
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Corporate Death Cult? Isn't that kind of redundant? That's just basic capitalism, reaching its inevitable conclusion.

So, joking aside, that's a nice civ. One I never, ever will use for my own empires. But it's a sweet new option to make potential enemy empires even more evil. Slaver + death cult? Space Aztecs, here we come!
 
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So, is this just a Civic for the Curator Enclaves from the Leviathans Story Pack, similarly to how primitives have Civics that basically only serve as placeholders and have no gameplay effect, or did I miss a Dev Diary between this one (#184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination) and the previous one (#183 : Memory Allocation) that talked about an actual new Materialist Civic? Because I'm pretty sure there is no 'Ancient Preservers' Civic in 2.7.2 'Wells' and the previous four DD's since after the summer break didn't talk about one either, so you simply saying "That's the Curator civic." and offering no further explanation makes it sound like I am missing something really obvious here.
The Curator Enclaves have the Ancient Preservers civic, it's part of how they get created. I don't think it is shown anywhere, since they have a modified contact panel. But I did admittedly mix up the Curators and the Materialist Fallen Empires a bit while joking around.

The enclave related civics are civic_ancient_preservers, civic_trading_conglomerate, and civic_artist_collective.
 
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I love the humour in these DD's! (and of course the features presented)
 
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The Curator Enclaves have the Ancient Preservers civic, it's part of how they get created. I don't think it is shown anywhere, since they have a modified contact panel. But I did admittedly mix up the Curators and the Materialist Fallen Empires a bit while joking around.

The enclave related civics are civic_ancient_preservers, civic_trading_conglomerate, and civic_artist_collective.

I think the question was a bit more "why list that as a requirement at all", since to my knowledge neither fallen/awakened empires, nor the curators, get other civics, so there should be no reason to list them.

Maybe I am overlooking something else though, would gladly be corrected.
 
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