Stellaris Dev Diary #206: Directing Nemesis

[Liggi]

Are there any espionage operations that we haven't seen yet?

 

[Tamwin5]

No, that is currently not possible, but I can't think of any case where that would be necessary with the Operations we have either. A good idea to keep in mind for the future tho.

The main use that I've seen discussed is sabotaging multiple starbases as a devastating opener to a war. Early game just taking out a border bastion will be doing the majority of the work, but late game taking out all of someone's shipyards would be more what you'd be trying to do. Also if there was some sort of "disable/hack gateway" operation, that'd be another one you might want multiple unless it hit all of an Empire's Gateways.

 

[Anonim97]

Also while we are on topic of discussing stuff like directing I have an answer, that either You as a game director or someone from the "legal side" of Paradox could answer.

We all know that Stellaris has lots of references and jokes to other franchises - from Dune, through 40k and Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy to Star Wars (which Galactic Imperium has been heavily based on). There are so many Easter Eggs that it has it's own Wiki page.

So my question is - at what point reference stops being just a reference or an easter egg and starts being "violation of intellectual property" (or however it can be called)? Let's take a Dune for example - in Stellaris there exists Arrakis systems, it exists in just a name only, there is no guaranteed planet on there from what I recall. Would putting a guaranteed desert planet over there be considered violation? Or maybe it would still be okay? How about both guaranteed desert planet with Dust Caverns modifier? Would it still be okay or not?

I'm asking because in some dev diary in the past - Dev Diary #202 to be more specific - some reference pictures have been deleted and I'm guessing it's because of copyright law or some other stuff related to it.

 

[Tamwin5]

What about empires which are all about domination like Driven Assimilators, are you railroaded into killing everyone as the crisis?

Also was wondering, with the changes to pops and planetary management, have the bonuses bio-trophies provide been changed?

Well, considering that the purge perk only unlocks the ability to purge, not makes it mandatory, you should be good. Also one of the things you can do to generate dread is maintain vassals, so you don't necessarily need to kill other empires too.

 

[Darkspysrival]

I hope that the normal crises still fire if you become one. I'd love to see an interaction between a Psionic Crisis Empire and the Prethoryn;

"We're here, hurry up and eat before OH CRAP THE HUNTERS GOT HERE FIRST!"

 

[grommile]

And you guys actually lose too, because I would've been okay with paying 5 or 8 euros for the espionage feature on its own, but I'm not going to drop 20 euros for something that I don't find fun.

If they satisfy you, they upset everyone who gets put off by seeing a list of eleventyone million DLCs.

 

[Madwwwizard]

Did we ever find out what the aetherphastic engine does?

 

[Paradoxon]

If they satisfy you, they upset everyone who gets put off by seeing a list of eleventyone million DLCs.

Obviously things aren't all black and white, each solution has its pros and cons, but between "oh no I have two DLCs, one at 8€, the other at 12, in my list instead of a single one at 20" and "oh no in order to buy that 8-euro-worth content I also have to pay 12 euros for content that will decrease my enjoyment of the game", one does seem more inconvenient than the other, at least in my opinion.

And that's without discussing deeper solutions, like a more harmonious planning of the DLCs: instead of developing Nemesis alongside espionage, have a DLC that falls more in line with the feature while keeping the Nemesis idea for a later date, for example as one of the story packs. Obviously it's too late for that specific DLC, but that's something that's worth consideration for future developments and, for that, one needs to question the validity of the "a bit of everything for everyone" kind of DLC.

 

[domein]

I really wish that there were additional effort dedicated to QoL improvements of previous expansions, like expansion planner for megacorp branch offices, or shifting systems between bordering sectors

 

[rapter200]

Will Nemesis and the 3.0 update make Criminal Heritage a viable civic for Megacorps?

 

[Silyus]

Thanks for the insight. It's always helpful to see the design process behind the expansions.

Utopia was about internal politics and customization,

I sincerely hope that this part will be expanded in the next DLC. Playing CK3 last week made me realise how much uncapped potential there is for internal affairs and politics in Stellaris.

 

[Madwwwizard]

Oh is this a DLC request thread? This is what I got:

1. Better UI for ground combat
2. Galactic Plague crisis
3. Space Unicorns
4. Something with Dinosaurs
5. Something using the center of the galaxy

 

[Dark_wing]

Have simultaneous espionage operation been removed completely or can they be modded back in?
It might be an idea to create a define that governs how many espionage operations you can run simultaneously in the same empire.

 

[aveRAGEboii]

I can't wait for this update and dlc. I'm just interested, if the end-game crisis (scourge, unbidden, contigency) will also occur, if you become BtC. Will AI also be able to become the crisis or even better multiple AIs ?
Let's say I'll make a galaxy full of purifiers, exterminators or swarm. About 20 advanced empires of the same species, which are just the leftovers of a sadistic empire that used to conquer full galaxy and I'm trying to kill them as new specie that evolved luckily on a different planet. Can for example 10 of them become BtC? Because it would be really awesome and also a carnage, if yes.

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

I think it was written somewhere that AI empires can become the crisis, but they are less likely to do so if any other empire is doing that already.

 

[SeraphAscending]

Thank you for this dev diary!
I just love reading them, because it feels like honest community interaction and not a sales pitch. - Not just this one, but all of the ones i read (the last ~30 or something)

As we’ve talked about in the past, finding a strong theme is one of the most important things that we do. Whenever we’ve had ideas (and there are many) we usually categorize them in a “box”. Each of our expansions has picked features from different “boxes”; Utopia was about internal politics and customization, Apocalypse was about warfare, Megacorp was about economy, and Federations was about diplomacy.

Along the way there’s usually more ideas in a box than we can fit into an expansion, so many of the ideas we’ve had for previous expansions get moved to a new expansion. For example, the “diplomacy box” contained too many good ideas that we wanted to work with, so Federations focused more on “good” diplomacy, whereas Nemesis focuses more on “evil” diplomacy.

Can you give us a rough idea of the current content of these boxes (quantitatively)?
I assume most boxes are decently filled and could spawn multiple minor and major expansions, so we can't extrapolate the next DLC from that alone.
I am just very curious to hear what idea groups you have most potential plans with.

 

[Methone]

With the Galactic Community in place, it made sense to allow players to play “the baddies” which aims to destroy the galaxy

But you already have that! Have had it for 3+ years!

The idea to allow players to become the crisis is not a new one

The feature isn't new. I just... I just don't understand the decision process going on here.

 

[jayparadoritox]

I thought this was a really fascinating read and I also really appreciated your honesty on some of the shortcomings of the project. I think you've ultimately made great choices in what you've devoted your limited time to, and reading about the ways you've come to make those decisions has been, as I said already, fascinating.

On the subject of laying the groundwork for the most important features now and then having other things make an appearance later, do you think there's any way we could see a reintroduction of the concept of "bandwidth"? When it was announced in a previous dev diary that this was going away in favour of a one-espionage-at-a-time system, I couldn't pretend I wasn't disappointed. Reading your comments today on cognitive load has certainly been valuable, however, and I appreciate that choice again.

But, if given more time in the future to work out how it could be implemented correctly (maybe it's a specific choice an empire can make, at the expense of other features, in the way megacorps work), could we see a reappearance? Bandwidth was one of my favourite aspects of Endless Space 2's hacking system, working to upgrade it as much as possible and then deciding on the most important hacking operations at different tiers of power. I understand Nemesis still gives you the tough choice of which operation to run, but the sense of building ES2 gives its hacking-focused empires is a lot of fun.

Can't wait to play Nemesis in any case. Thank you for the diary, and long live Stellaris!

 

[Tamwin5]

But you already have that! Have had it for 3+ years!

The feature isn't new. I just... I just don't understand the decision process going on here.

Yes, players could be effectively an existential crisis to the galaxy for quite some while... but there weren't any mechanics to accentuate that or decisions to embrace that. So when you get to the point in the galaxy where the other empires don't really matter, you can just go full crisis or imperium and really step into the roll of owning the galaxy, rather than just a bunch of clean up wars against the remaining empires.

 

[OnyxAbussos]

LOVE IT!!
Thank you.