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Hello everyone!

Today we aim to shed some light on the upcoming changes for the 1.2 “Asimov” update.

Border Rework
Something we did not like with how Stellaris played out towards the mid-game previous to 1.2, was how that the player tended to get locked in and blocked from exploring or gaining access to the rest of the galaxy.

In the upcoming update we aim to correct that issue by reworking how border access works. By default, everyone will have open border access to other empires’ borders. An empire may close its border through a diplomatic action, and access is denied to your rivals by default.

closed border.jpg


We hope that this will make the game feel less constrained towards the mid-game.

Another valuable addition is that when you give your ships or fleet a Return order, but they cannot find a valid path home, you may set them as “Missing in Action”. While ships are missing in action, they will be invisible to you and reappear within your borders within a certain amount of time.

Expansion Cost
To reduce exploits of the open borders, we have chosen to introduce an Influence cost to colonizing planets or building Frontier Outposts. This cost will be based on the range to your closest owned system.

expansion cost.jpg


Embassies & Trust
A significant change in 1.2 is the removal of embassies and the passive opinion increase they provided. In the “Asimov” update, players will have to gain trust by cooperating with the AI. Trust is gained over time by having some sort of treaty with the AI.

Diplomatic Changes
A number of diplomatic statuses that were previously available through trade have now been changed into being Diplomatic Actions available through the diplomacy screen. We felt that some of these actions did not really feel in place, and that they were too hidden, in the trade interface.

diplomacy screen.jpg


We have changed how cooperating with the AI happens. It is no longer as easy to enter into an Alliance with the AI, and you have to start off by gaining their Trust through research agreements, guarantee independence, non-aggression pacts and defensive pacts.

Defensive Pacts are a new diplomatic action that allows two empires to be called into wars if any of them should get attacked.

Joint War Declarations
Another new diplomatic feature is the possibility to invite other empires to your wars. The AI will not join your wars if their Attitude towards you is not at least neutral and they have something they also want from the target.

invite attackers.jpg


All things combined we hope that these changes will make the mid-game feel less static and will open up more possibilities for interesting situations to occur.

Join us again next week for more details about the upcoming 1.2 "Asimov" update!
 
1) Only fully built starports give warscore
that would be better but doesn't solve the fact that I can't choose when or where to have starports, or how many to have.

Removing sectors - which is essentially what your "optional AI" is, is a dumb solution.
how is optional AI "removing sectors"? this conflation of sectors and AI is bewildering. sectors and AI are different things. a sector is a grouping of planets into a single entity, so that it might be macro-managed rather than micro-managed. AI is a discarding of responsibility and decision making. the problem is that paradox seems to think that the only way to achieve macro-management is through AI, but that's not true. nevertheless, really I just want an option to fix the broken game.

I'm just going to use the forum's ignore feature.
very well
 
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I'm just going to use the forum's ignore feature. I tried, quite hard, to explain some very simple concepts and you are unwilling or unable to grasp them.
hope you dont mind i use the ingore feature for him as well nice to tell me there is one :)
some people make my brain aua

For a game that "broke sales record" at release, I'd hoped for a different amount of love and attention. Just a thought.

you guys are just out of your mind ...
the first hotfix for the problems was around in a few 1-3 days
the first big MAJOR patch was out not even 1 month after realise and now 2-3 month later another one is coming ...

oh jaeh sure they ignoring the game totaly ... i dont know maybe they work more then they write ... maybe they told us the guy making the stuff is ill maybe u dont read
 
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Border access should be a multi-level system:

  • open, go anywhere
  • open, but stay out of our home world system
  • open, but stay out of any system where we have a colony or outpost
  • closed

I would rather make the levels:

* Closed
* Science ships only (default)
* Miltary access allowed
* Colony ships allowed through

In THAT order.
 
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Can we have a fix for having to click a million times for anything related to tiles? It's really cumbersome to click upgrades, slaves, robots and so on and we're forced to as sector AI doesn't do it for us (properly). Surely a mass-build click or mass-upgrade or mass-slave or whatever click can't be impossible? Even if it were a planet-wide click only instead of sector-wide, it'd really cut down on the tediousness or not workingness in the game.
 
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I see the changes to diplomacy like a combination of how the traits system in ck2 plays with the EU4 diplomacy system. If they can pull this off it will be amazing and probably its flagship game/feature in years to come. Considering you have Wiz working alongside Groogy, I can't really see how this won't succeed since they were behind the ck2/eu4 projects that used both the previously mentioned features.

Ck2 trait system: For the longest time I glossed over these and just played how I wanted to play and picked options in events I wanted and left the outcome up to RNGesus. What I came to realize, after watching both Bjorn and Tobias play in Wurst Wedding, that traits play a part in how the outcomes of various things transpire. So you can better understand how a fanatical spiritualist will behave to a fanatical Materialist when trying to understand how to proceed as their mutual neighbor now, instead of just assuming everyone hates each other and wants to win the game. Now you can play a political game that is more akin to the plotting system of CK2 or diplomacy in general in EU4. I'm looking forward to this change and hope its successfully implemented.
 
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Can we have a fix for having to click a million times for anything related to tiles? It's really cumbersome to click upgrades, slaves, robots and so on and we're forced to as sector AI doesn't do it for us (properly). Surely a mass-build click or mass-upgrade or mass-slave or whatever click can't be impossible? Even if it were a planet-wide click only instead of sector-wide, it'd really cut down on the tediousness or not workingness in the game.


You do have the option to enslave all of a certain species pop on a planet when you click enslave. Sometimes its quicker to do that, then emancipate the ones you don't want enslaved. I feel your pain on the mass-upgrade planet button. Really wish that was there. Since i'm wishing I also want a sector setting that enslaves all pops working food and/or minerals and will emancipate them if they are moved to energy or science. I also want a snapping turtle alien for my avatar but I didn't see one available... sad panda.
 
sectors and AI are different things. a sector is a grouping of planets into a single entity, so that it might be macro-managed rather than micro-managed. AI is a discarding of responsibility and decision making.

But the divestment of responsibility is the point: the idea is your empire has grown too extended to for all decision making to be routed through the centre (i.e. the player), so it is devolved to sector administrations.

From the point of view of the centre (the player) the non-controllability of the activity of the sector administration is a meant to be a problem that you factor into your strategic calculation.

Earlier you said:
I don't get this. You're saying that I can't defend the buildings that I didn't choose to build? Yes. That is exactly the problem. I have not decided that I want to defend these things. They are vulnerabilities that are forced upon me, that I have no ability to think about or decide. My ability to strategically decide where and when to build them is taken from me. I have no say whatsoever. When I build a colony, that is a vulnerability that I accept and choose. Not so with a starwort.

What you are asking for is to choose strategically which problems you have to handle strategically - to not have challenges to your activities 'forced upon you' unless you invite them. But an aspect of strategy is handling problems your external environment forces upon you, including ones that arise as consequences of your actions.

You've acquired territory, which necessarily takes infrastructure. You've necessarily had to grant freedom to the sector, which has inevitably used that freedom to build infrastructure, independent of your strategic design. As its under the centre's (your) ultimate jurisdiction, its destruction is a loss for you, even if it is not under the centre's direct administrative control. As the strategic brain of the centre, you have to plan on that basis, which may mean coming to defence of their investment decisions. Even if they're not ones you would have preferred they made. Either that or give up your jurisdiction by making the sector independent.

Which isn't to say the AI shouldn't be improved, or that the warscore problem shouldn't be fixed.
 
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Embassies & Trust
A significant change in 1.2 is the removal of embassies and the passive opinion increase they provided. In the “Asimov” update, players will have to gain trust by cooperating with the AI. Trust is gained over time by having some sort of treaty with the AI.

So the concept that "Relations" are the only indicator of your relations to the AI (how much they like/trust/willing to help you out) has gone out of the window for a second counter named trust?
And i thought you guys didnt want the numerous Indicators like in EU4 (Trust, Favors, Relations, Liberty Desire) to reemerge in this game?

I am quite sure i am not happy with that decision.

EDIT:

Joint War Declarations
Another new diplomatic feature is the possibility to invite other empires to your wars. The AI will not join your wars if their Attitude towards you is not at least neutral and they have something they also want from the target.

Does "they also want something" include weakening an threatening enemy without actually gaining Space?
B.c. sometimes you would simply be interested in destroying the Fleet and Stations of a Rival for example.

EDIT2:

1) AI has been changed to be more fair when setting up wargoals, and less prone to accept unfair wars.

Why not set it up in a way that the AI offers you a certain Percentage of the Wardemands (e.g. 40%) and you can choose for your self what you want from the war.

Also what about large alliances that are not federations yet, how to deal with the fact that there often is not enough warscore to give something to everybody?
 
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Thank you for the diary!

I have a question about this:

Expansion Cost
To reduce exploits of the open borders, we have chosen to introduce an Influence cost to colonizing planets or building Frontier Outposts. This cost will be based on the range to your closest owned system.

Will this vary depending on the FTL type empires have?

I've tried Warp and Wormhole so far and what I've noticed is they allow for different kinds of expansion and power projection.

So with warp you have a fairly continuous territory and a discernible frontier and you (roughly) proceed across contiguous space in a growing cluster. Spatial distance is an important factor here and this would seem to fit the influence cost by distance pretty well.

But with wormhole your field of operations depends on the structure of your logistics (the wormhole station network you build and starport positions), semi-independent of spatial distance. You can range quite far and squeeze into gaps. It's a kind of 'non-frontier' expansion. Would an influence cost based on wormhole stations, or number of jumps, rather than range better suited? (Or is range calculated as wormhole jumps?)

(I haven't tried hyperlanes yet but as that's about command of a fixed network maybe some of the same considerations would apply?)
 
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Border Rework
(...) By default, everyone will have open border access to other empires’ borders. An empire may close its border through a diplomatic action, and access is denied to your rivals by default.
Getting the AI to open its borders for civilian ships costs 200 minerals tops, which is no cost at all, since you're swimming in minerals anyway. Any 'constraints' on mid game exploration are purely the product of one's imagination. And at any rate, by the time you need open borders, most systems are already surveyed, and any anomalies - which are the sole reason to continue exploration at this point - have been cleared out.

Ugh. It's like a devious ploy by Stellaris AI to get Paradox to let it freely colonise in my space. Guess I'll have to close borders to every single civ I ever encounter. I'm not sure if I even care about the relations hit. GET OFF MY LAWN.
 
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From the point of view of the centre (the player) the non-controllability of the activity of the sector administration is a meant to be a problem that you factor into your strategic calculation..
That's all well and fine, but it just happens way too early. Five planets is very little and then you are forced to hand over planets. Or when you conquer a bunch of planets you can't spend any time with them. You just have to hand them off. That's no decision at all.

This is much, much better in Crusader Kings 2 because you have several layers of administration. And even then you can build in the territory of your vassals! They will do it on their own if they money, but you can step in. Why isn't that possible in Stellaris? Why can't the despotic emperor tell a sector governor to build something and hand him the money to do? Even in democratic governments, the central government can start projects in a subdivision's territory.
 
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I'm disappointed they're removing embassies. Ignoring their effects on the gameplay, I feel they're one of the few things in the game which provide a bit of immersion (it's fun to imagine the opening of one of your embassies on an alien planet).
 
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I'm disappointed they're removing embassies. Ignoring their effects on the gameplay, I feel they're one of the few things in the game which provide a bit of immersion (it's fun to imagine the opening of one of your embassies on an alien planet).
What immersion? It's a click and then they're there. It's not like you have ambassadors who do things . There are no events for embassies now. Even without embassies they have said that they will introduce diplomatic events.
 
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that would be better but doesn't solve the fact that I can't choose when or where to have starports, or how many to have.


how is optional AI "removing sectors"? this conflation of sectors and AI is bewildering. sectors and AI are different things. a sector is a grouping of planets into a single entity, so that it might be macro-managed rather than micro-managed. AI is a discarding of responsibility and decision making. the problem is that paradox seems to think that the only way to achieve macro-management is through AI, but that's not true. nevertheless, really I just want an option to fix the broken game.


very well

The problem will be corrected in Asimov, it is considered to be a bug. The IA (Sector and Empire) will not build again and again spaceport during a war.
 
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What immersion? It's a click and then they're there. It's not like you have ambassadors who do things . There are no events for embassies now. Even without embassies they have said that they will introduce diplomatic events.

Yes, but the "click and they're there" is what adds immersion. You imagine in your head that an embassy is being built, and your ambassador has landed on their planet.

Embassies may be poorly implemented at the moment, but I honestly hope they get added back in at a later date with a bit more to them.

You don't make a content-light game deeper by removing stuff.
 
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This is relatively minor, but it would be nice if we could lock in specific fleet names. I've gotten pretty tired of having to rename a fleet with an Admiral just because I merge it with a couple more ships. It's also very inconsistent on which name it chooses to stick with; sometimes it goes with the name of the fleet with more battle power, others it goes with numbers or whichever fleet happens to be moving.

Thanks for the great game! Looking forward to Asimov.
 
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