Stellaris Dev Diary #193: Signal Discovered

[mial42]

If you don't do the first contact, you don't get the influence if it's a normal empire or an enclave. It's possible to get setups where you have lots of normal empires and enclaves you just came in contact with that you want to get that first contact stuff done for the influence.

Yes, they can change those bonuses, but that is actually easier said then done. Right now the things that give envoys are considered pretty good. If you make that pointless, you have then have to come up with something that continues to make those worth taking. Yes, some will still have the diplomatic weight bonus but the current one will only get you so far. Also IMO I find the envoy setup more interesting as a finite resource because it means having to make trade offs. Do you boost your clout in the GC or federation even more, but risk having the jerk neighbor be more keen on going to war with you? Do you pop an ambassador out of your federation to boost you GC clout so you can kill or help a bill. Do you pop one out of the GC or off of improve relations so that you can stop your federation's cohesion from tanking? There are a few other things you can do. Yes, most will probably just throw every envoy they have into the GC, but that doesn't remove the fact that we have some interesting decision making with the current finite envoy setup. I bring this up because I know the obvious solution people will suggest if increased envoys won't matter and let's be honest, you'll never have zero envoys kind of implies infinite number, would be to increase diplomatic weight or add it in the case of xenophile ethics. Yes, diplomatic weight is strong and useful, but it lacks interesting decision making choices and IMO that would make that route a step back overall.

I'm leaning towards we get finite envoys for what we currently have and first contact works off it's own thing because I'm pretty sure if the devs were going to scrap the current system, they'd come out and say it now. Maybe not give us the details, but given the lack of confirmation despite people asking, it seems like an overhaul of the current system isn't in the cards.

Alternately, you could just not have inward perfection remove an envoy, which would solve the issue completely, no?

 

[alex5050]

Nice Idea !

 

[kwanzaabot]

Hot dang , that's an eternity away

In pandemic time, it's a million years

 

[MichaelJanuary]

I'd really like to see a system where first contact can be delayed or outright terminated, I like the idea of my empire being this unknown threat in the galaxy that no one has been able to contact and have been having a load of difficulty gaining intel on. This would be really good for inward perfectionist empires too.

This is how devouring swarms and similar should operate.

 

[Nerkos_The_Unbidden]

I took them saying no zero envoys to mean you cannot start with zero envoys, not that you will never run out of envoys.

 

[Kingsleydale]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned here by anyone else, but I really think it would be awesome if the archeology style events which you are using for first content could be applied to uplifting or infiltrating primitives.

 

[Peko?]

you'll never have zero envoys kind of implies infinite number

There are in fact an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and infinity. I have a hard time seeing how 0< implies infinity.

 

[Dragatus]

There are in fact an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and infinity. I have a hard time seeing how 0< implies infinity.

That's because you're thinking like a mathematician and not like a programmer.

I've seen plenty of games where the code (or script) used negative numbers to signify an infinite supply of something.

 

[PaulCl]

There are in fact an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and infinity. I have a hard time seeing how 0< implies infinity.

I think it's unlikely we get an irrational number of envoys. Though we may get a number of irrational envoys.

 

[Tamwin5]

There are in fact an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and infinity. I have a hard time seeing how 0< implies infinity.

The mis-interpretation is that they considered sending off an envoy to a task as "losing" it, so if all your envoys were sent out doing something you'd be at 0 and so the only way to never be at 0 would be to have infinite envoys.

It's based off a flawed understanding of the premise, but the logic itself is sound after that.

 

[SavageJack]

It may be interesting to have a Scientist with Expertise: Statecraft give a bonus to first contact somehow.
On a small tangent, there are so many different classes of anomaly at the moment, why not have different Expertises give bonus to different types of anomalies?

 

[Tamwin5]

It may be interesting to have a Scientist with Expertise: Statecraft give a bonus to first contact somehow.
On a small tangent, there are so many different classes of anomaly at the moment, why not have different Expertises give bonus to different types of anomalies?

Except it's Envoys who make first contact. If envoys do end up getting expanded to full leaders, then they'll almost certainly have a trait (or maybe more) related to first contact.

 

[Daoko__]

Sad how exploration is touted as one of the best aspects of the game but rarely has any relevance outside of the early game, would have definitely liked to see more done in general exploration.

 

[monsterfurby]

I like the way this is going. Making elements that used to be boring busywork more engaging and deep is a good course of action. I'm not seeing this as a real gamechanger so far, but from the looks of it, the overall focus seems to be on making peacetime interactions with other empires more interesting, and I'm all for that.

Finally, we can learn from the Minbari and decide not to make "greet them with gun ports open" our first contact protocol (unless we are massively overpowered and the other guys don't happen to be humans).

 

[Blazer351]

This looks good not gonna lie

 

[methegrate]

(Envoys do still currently not have traits or levels, but it is something we are actively discussing.)

This is a small thing, but what about giving envoys species-related traits? So one envoy might be exceptionally skilled at communicating with mammals, while another might be better at building relationships with fungoids?

It would make some intuitive sense, and as an added bonus would give species classes a role in the game beyond aesthetics.

 

[Ninking]

I hope that "counter espionage" is handled differently to how it is like in EU4, where you need one of your diplomats permanently assigned to each of your enemies. Hopefully you don't need one envoy per adversary.