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Stellaris Dev Diary #193: Signal Discovered

Hello everyone!

This week we are going to talk about something new that we’ve been working on - namely improving first contact and extending the exploration aspects of the game. All of this is work in progress and may not accurately represent what the game will look like once all of this work is finished. A lot of UI is very much work in progress, so don't pay too much attention to icons or such.

Background
Exploration has always been one of the best parts of Stellaris, and it is perhaps what sets us apart from other games that follow similar themes. Looking back, Stellaris has mostly revolved around the physical exploration of space, discovering an ancient galaxy full of wonders. We believe that exploring and uncovering the galaxy is such an important and fun aspect of the game that we really want to dive deeper into those experiences. We intend to take the next steps by improving the means by which you can establish communication and make the process of learning more about alien civilizations a part of the exploration gameplay.

In this dev diary we will be outlining some of the changes and additions that we are currently working on, so that you can get an idea of what to expect from our next big update.

First Contact
The first steps we are taking is that we are changing how first contact works. First contact is now a much more engaging process with interesting choices that are supported by great narrative.

When you first have an alien encounter you are able to set a policy for what your approach will be. First Contact Protocols is a policy option that lets you dictate your stance when it comes to dealing with newly discovered alien civilizations. Each option has different effects that should suit different types of diplomacy.

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Friends..?

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First Contact Protocol Policy options.

First Contact Investigation
In order to establish communication with the alien contact, an Envoy will need to be assigned to the First Contact Investigation. The investigation will then be able to begin, and it will run through stages and will contain events similar to an archaeological dig site. The reason why we chose a system similar to archaeology is because its a great way of letting a process run over time in a way where it can also deliver some narrative along the way. The difficulty of the first contact investigation will be affected by things like how friendly the target is, or how difficult it is to translate their signals.

Since First Contact now uses an Envoy, that also means that it no longer pauses Society Research, and it is possible to run multiple first contact investigations simultaneously as long as you have the Envoys required.

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

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The events that you can get depend on the type of empire you are, and on the type of alien you are trying to contact.

There are friendly/peaceful paths as well as ... less so.

As a xenophobic empire with an aggressive first contact protocol it is possible to secure a couple of specimen for a closer look.

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The choices you make during first contact can also have long-term effects on your relationship with the alien empire. Choose wisely and decide which trade-offs you are willing to make. Are you perhaps a materialistic and xenophobic empire that values scientific progress above all?

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Stay on your side of the galaxy and all can be well.

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Let’s agree to disagree.

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That is all for this week! Next week we’ll be showing you some new features that allow you to explore maps like the one posted here below.

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There are special events for a bunch of different kinds of countries, basically all the ones you currently have to do first contact projects with (e.g. marauders, enclaves, tiyanki) plus a couple more (caravaneers, for instance).

Fallen Empires are so far advanced that they have known how to communicate with you ever since you left your puny planet, so nope, they will still tell you to keep off the grass as soon as you get anywhere near their systems!
Will there be new and reworked events if they're your first encounters?
 
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Just a question: does anyone here NOT want Envoys to be full leaders with Traits and Levels?

Agree = I want them to have traits and levels
Respectfully Disagree = I do not want them to have traits and levels

I want to take the temperature here, and see if it can help convince @grekulf to follow through on making them full leaders.
Traits at the very least would be really cool.
 
Just a thought but with the new potentially aggressive style of first contact and game play that would involve has there been any thought of adding a special type of new military ship, an explorer class ship with a potential special military officer with the explorer trait. The ship can operate independently and explore star systems itself, be significantly bigger than a standard science ship but have the armaments of a corvette to represent the larger staffing by military scientists but like science ships it would need an explorer officer to actually survey and explore new systems.

Adding guns and armor makes tat ship capable of driving off unknown alien ships that are unarmed, science ships, which would be something an aggressive nation would want to do. Maintain control of the immediate area of exploration. But the tradeoff woul dbe speed as it would never be able to be anywhere near as fast as a normal science ship.
 
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Wouldn't it be funny if it was actually REDACTED under REDACTED?

Edit: Also,finally, my favorite first contact strategy is going to be mechanically represented. Dissassembling xenos to learn how they work. Don't worry. We'll try to put them back together. Emphasis on try.
 
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When you first have an alien encounter you are able to set a policy for what your approach will be. First Contact Protocols is a policy option that lets you dictate your stance when it comes to dealing with newly discovered alien civilizations. Each option has different effects that should suit different types of diplomacy.

1606378897174.png

Friends..?

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First Contact Protocol Policy options.
How will this interact with the Galactic community? For example,
  • Will the GC be able to pass a policy to force all GC members to only use one of those 3 policies (at risk of breach)
    • E.g. A militarist/xenophobic-dominated GC might force all its members to use aggressive contact to quickly assess threats to protect the wider community.
    • A pacifistic/xenophilic-dominated one would vote to only allow peaceful first contact.
  • OR could we see a special GC First contact protocol which will fast-track the first contact process giving the target nation more info on the wider GC
    • (think Council first contact protocols in Mass Effect... even if they often ended in the Council teams getting slaughtered).
Also How does this first contact event chain change for primitive empires?
Currently they dont have any real diplomacy with FTL-empires and it shows the little primitive hammer icon over their world right away, and its pretty obvious what they are (seeing as they lack space ships lol).

As "Xenobiological data" is highlit as a key term, is that going to be a new resource in 2.9?

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Stay on your side of the galaxy and all can be well.

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Let’s agree to disagree.
Is REDACTED in red part of the obfuscation mechanics (that we cant see certain responses or effects with insufficient intel) or is that just censored for a future DD?

Could we please get some modding commands for terra incognita, to make it "regenerate" or re-appear?
  • I'd love to play/make a "hard mode" mod, whereby the galaxy is always "greyed-out" if you lack sensor coverage (e.g. low or medium intel as well as the no intel level).
  • Heck you could even make this a game mechanic by adding "Shroud generators" to starbases or as megastructures, that will re-hide the map for that(and local) star systems - like GAP generators from C&C Red Alert 1 lol.
  • Right now I think there are only like 2-3 places where terra incognita is exposed to modding, and they're all just variables in defines, with no way to manipulate the TI layer, via script or events, itself (aside from increasing intel level from a star from None to X).
 
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What's Intel?

Btw. what happens if species X encounters species Y and both X and Y have already made contact with Z?
Reasonably it should be possible to combine X-Z and Y-Z translating software into X-Y translating software pretty fast.
 
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1 - I like the idea of building intel for first-contact events.

2 - Is that first image a pop-up? Having more pop-ups -- one for every alien empire -- would make the game worse. Let me set my empire policy in advance.

3 - Using an Envoy for xenophile diplomatic contact makes perfect sense, but it seems weird to use that same Envoy for 'phobe military assault and vivisection.

4 - Diplomatic Corps now has early-game value in addition to late-game value. That's neat. I hope there are more ways to increase Envoys, though -- they're going to be even more valuable than their current incarnation.

5 - Espionage hints are fun. The fans are apparently building intel on the next feature. We don't even have an envoy, yet here we are vivisecting dev posts.
 
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Just a thought but with the new potentially aggressive style of first contact and game play that would involve has there been any thought of adding a special type of new military ship, an explorer class ship with a potential special military officer with the explorer trait. The ship can operate independently and explore star systems itself, be significantly bigger than a standard science ship but have the armaments of a corvette to represent the larger staffing by military scientists but like science ships it would need an explorer officer to actually survey and explore new systems.

Adding guns and armor makes tat ship capable of driving off unknown alien ships that are unarmed, science ships, which would be something an aggressive nation would want to do. Maintain control of the immediate area of exploration. But the tradeoff woul dbe speed as it would never be able to be anywhere near as fast as a normal science ship.

"Exploration in force", I like it!
 
This is by far the major thing I wanted to see adressed in ages since Stellaris was released. First contact should be something mysterious, not a "bam; I know everything about you".

Great!
 
Does this system continue throughout the whole timespan of the game? Does it speed up the process over time? Or are communications still shared eventually?

Also, what happens when new empires are created during the game?
 
It's really cool to see first contact being updated. Using a form of the archeology system to help spice up contact and create storylines that won't necessarily always be the same is really neat and will ad to the world building of the exploration phase. Really keen to see these ideas in action, alongside *REDACTED*.
 
It's easy to see how envoys could be fun, but its also easy to see how it would be really annoying to have to manually adjust which envoys are working on what. Especially with a re-assignment cooldown. I think a better option would be to be able to specialize your foreign office somehow. No promises! :)

We already have that micro in the game. You are encouraged to swap in the most suited researcher when you start researching a new tech, because if their research speed traits. You are encouraged to swap in another scientist close before you finish a tech to get the most optimal chance to draw the techs you want, just to immediately swap them out after you rolled for the tech cards.
Same for admirals. Stack sub light speed on a general and use them to move fleets over longer distances, but swap them out before they enter combat for a admiral with better combat traits.
I don't mind adding the same to envoys, because the manually adjusting your leader part is already in the game.

I also hate having to do all that leader juggling and would prefer if that whole system would get scrapped and reworked to some kind of Mini-Leader-building game
 
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after we established contact do we then instantly know everything about the empire as is the case now? Meaning every newly colonized planet will be shown on the map, every new outpost will be known instantly and so on.



I would think that would be logical maybe for empires we have a close relation with. maybe also for enemy empires that tell us "thats ours. go away" but for a devouring swarm neighbor for example... would be more a stretch.



just to brainstorm: A fog of war for empires after contact is established could be nice too. We do not know who has system ownership now because the last System Info is 2400 days old and something like that (like in... i do not remember what games.. saw it once or twice.) And it could be the perfect opportunity to establish a space news network for info about distant wars :D
 
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It's much easier - as soon as they realise they are speaking the same language, communications are established. (I.e. there's some special flavour events)

I hope it's not stated that they speak *exactly* the same languages in the flavour events, as they'd still have been exposed to languages developing in different directions for a very long time!
 
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