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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!
 
No details of how any of this works, and everything in this DD we already knew.

No mention of combat rebalancing - is this even a thing?

No mention of changes to how influence is gained since it seems to be used for many, many more things.

This was supposed to be the "Big Reveal" DD about Asimov, and it revealed nothing.

0/10. Two thumbs down.
 
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I can't possibly be the only one that feels majorly let down by this DD.

Asimov was supposed to add so much content and so many reworks. Instead we get more required things to spend the least available resource on, and no attention to the actual issues that exist in the game.
 
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I can't possibly be the only one that feels majorly let down by this DD.

Asimov was supposed to add so much content and so many reworks. Instead we get more required things to spend the least available resource on, and no attention to the actual issues that exist in the game.

They do say they'll have more info next week, and that this one was delayed due to illness, so I assume Wiz will be back with more of the info you're eager for next week (hopefully).
 
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I can't possibly be the only one that feels majorly let down by this DD.

Asimov was supposed to add so much content and so many reworks. Instead we get more required things to spend the least available resource on, and no attention to the actual issues that exist in the game.

Hello everyone!

Join us again next week for more details about the upcoming 1.2 "Asimov" update!

*Sigh* Burned in a second timeframe.
 
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I hope that scroll bar is gone in the final.

Speaking of scrolling things... war goals. Oh dear space-lord above. Trying to scroll through available war goals against an alliance or federation is just a nightmare. I'm really hoping Asimov comes with a heaping pile of relevant UI improvements. If you could somehow use a combination of the galaxy/system maps and the Declare War panel to assign goals... mmmph. That'd be so nice. Right now I can barely find a single planet I want ceded or liberated, and then once I manually drag it over, the darn list resets itself.
 
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"We are surrounded by enemy fleets! We are doomed!"
"Fear not! Let's go missing in action"
:p
 
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I can't possibly be the only one that feels majorly let down by this DD.

Asimov was supposed to add so much content and so many reworks. Instead we get more required things to spend the least available resource on, and no attention to the actual issues that exist in the game.
What makes you think this is all that Asimov has to offer? Usually Paradox paces their Dev Diaris and shows content gradually. Your reaction seems like this was supposed to be all there is to Asimov, when we in fact know that's not the case - a rough outline for Asimov was given before and this DD states this is just a piece of the patch that is presented.

I may not be content with only this information (which is why I asked some questions) but it doeasn't mean one has to get upset. Getting upset over devs not telling us all when the patch is so far away and still being developed and balanced seems... unreasonable.
 
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I do admit I was expecting to read more about the changes mentioned in their stream and more about the events they are supposed to be adding mid game. Hopefully these will be mentioned in the next dev diary because atm this feels like they are running around with a nerf hammer.
 
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I am a little disappointed by the DD - not that the features themselves are bad, but this is all stuff covered by Wiz in the stream last week. There doesn't seem to be anything we didn't already know.
 
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Too soon to tell how all these changes will play out as midgame transitions to endgame, but I'm still extremely concerned about the tendency of the galaxy to calcify into you and whatever allies/federation you've managed to put together versus literally everyone else, mostly because the "threat" malus is such a huge blunt instrument. Unless/until 95% of a standard playthrough stops being a really slow victory lap, I think AI reactions to specific player actions - most specifically, waging war and achieving war goals - need to be made much more context-sensitive. And heck, that couldn't hurt regardless.
 
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What makes you think this is all that Asimov has to offer? Usually Paradox paces their Dev Diaris and shows content gradually. Your reaction seems like this was supposed to be all there is to Asimov, when we in fact know that's not the case - a rough outline for Asimov was given before and this DD states this is just a piece of the patch that is presented.

I may not be content with only this information (which is why I asked some questions) but it doeasn't mean one has to get upset. Getting upset over devs not telling us all when the patch is so far away and still being developed and balanced seems... unreasonable.
Because that was the talk all last week, how this week's DD was going to show us so much of the cool stuff Asimov is bringing.

...and they included not one thing that wasn't already announced, which makes me wonder if there is ANY content beyond what was already trickled out.

And the fact that there is no teaser about, "Next week we'll discuss ship combat" or "Next week we'll discuss new midgame content" tells me next week won't tell us anything of value either.
 
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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.

Great feature, you often have other empires you like but not good enough to form an alliance with. They had little value before but now can we still together fight the "bad boys". One also has to be more careful with diplomacy in general now, it is no longer save to piss off a weaker unaligned empire.
 
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Thanks for the heads up. :)
Any chance we're also having at some point an indication of the FTL the other empires are using?
Maybe an icon in the diplomacy screen?
 
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I kinda liked to 'trade' my non-aggression and guarantee of independence for a monthly sum of energy and minerals. A little extortion now and then is a good thing!
 
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I kinda liked to 'trade' my non-aggression and guarantee of independence for a monthly sum of energy and minerals. A little extortion now and then is a good thing!
I hope this "new" diplomacy hasn't removed the abilty for us to buy friends like that. I like the diplomacy now, where I can pay someone a few thousand minerals to lock up a non-aggression pact for 30 years so I know my southern flank is ok.
 
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Speaking of scrolling things... war goals. Oh dear space-lord above. Trying to scroll through available war goals against an alliance or federation is just a nightmare. I'm really hoping Asimov comes with a heaping pile of relevant UI improvements. If you could somehow use a combination of the galaxy/system maps and the Declare War panel to assign goals... mmmph. That'd be so nice. Right now I can barely find a single planet I want ceded or liberated, and then once I manually drag it over, the darn list resets itself.

I agreed completely, until I learned to stop worrying and love the search function.
It really does work quite well in the war goals screen (especially considering the damn resetting yes)
 
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