Stellaris needs more interactions between species

[Monphat]

Hello! Stellaris is a really good game and I am glad to say that I quite enjoy it. There was a lot said about its pros and cons, suggestions and problems requiring attention. I personally want to bring attention to one thing that I’ve rarely seen mentioned: species don’t seem to interact with each other. One of the most interesting things about any sci-fi story, especially of space opera kind, is how vastly different species with vastly different cultures meet and learn each other, how they work with, befriend and hate “the alien”. It is one of the main narrative drives for Star Trek, Babylon 5, Mass Effect and all other great works which obviously inspire and influence Stellaris. As a result it is quite jarring to see interactions between species so barebones if any at all. Game needs more immersion.

For example, Humanity settles stars and after some time meets Monkey Empire. Monkeys have similar yet different ethics, weird combination of traits and are willing to ally humans. So in some time close ties are established and migration treaty is signed, creating a situation where humans and monkeys work side by side on same colonies and ships. This is HUGE for both species. It is actually hard to see at least small portion of ramifications of humans actually living side by side with aliens. Politics, economics, culture would be very much different in both nations as a result of this. And that is not limited to this peaceful migration scenario: species in xenophobic empires would be just as changed by living side by side with enslaved races and reverse is obviously true as well. Even without living side by side notion of alternate sentient life out there, even if it is limited to diplomatic screen, is guaranteed to have huge consequences for any species.

In my first playthrough humans encountered Fanatic Materialist Fallen Empire with ringworld around star as the first non-human sentient species. What were results and consequences? “Population is concerned” was written in the event window. Really? That’s it? Just some concern and life goes on as it used to? Later, actually bordering another, more equal race in terms of power, also had no ramifications whatsoever inside human systems. Later, migrating flocks of aliens and coexistence with them were also treated as usual business. My point is: things of great importance are glossed over in Stellaris and this greatly limits potential of this game on conceptual level.

Time for suggestions.

Expanding on diplomacy seems viable and quite easy to implement. Aside to crucial gameplay things like alliance/rivalry and trade maybe we can have some sort of completely optional dialogue options with other empires like we have with enclaves. Those dialogues were one of the things that really made Stellaris feel more than generic 4x game. Nothing too fancy but ability to ask aliens about their ethics, traits, homeworld, let player tell something about his/her nation, maybe add some small consequences for these dialogues like small opinion bonuses and maluses, something like that. Many possible combinations of alien makeup will keep things fresh.

Now, compared to relations between governments, modelling and showing species relations and interactions is a much harder task. This goal would require a complex approach on various levels: events, policies, newly announced traditions all should try to make player feel that world is indeed alive.

Obvious option, but also really limited one is to make lots of different story arc events to make the world more alive and show how species react to each other. Problem is that good story events are not that easy to write and they are essentially onetime tricks in all current Paradox games: first time they are interesting, second time you don’t read and just automatically deal with it. So in general adding some would be really nice, but it is a crutch, not a real solution.

As far as new mechanics go improved internal empire management would really help in this regard. What I would like to see in game is a sort of Interior Ministry or Public Relations Chamber or something like that where you can interact with your population directly. This Ministry could let player track ongoing events in your empire that are objectively happening but are not recognized by game mechanics. If a number of modifiers are triggered various results would flow. In my example with monkeys, if there is a sizeable xenophobic population among humans, sizeable amount of migrating monkeys may provoke clashes on planetary level or nationwide and player would have to choose how to resolve the crisis.

In similar way, if monkeys were to have some traits like “intelligent” and humans are just humans something else could fire up, like “Humanity learnt a lot from our new neighbors but some are worried that we rely on alien science too much” with new choices available. It is not to be limited to coexistence, you can create situations where it is about aliens “out there”. Like, for example, Fanatic Xenophilic Militarist Empire bordering Xenophobic Collectivist (Authoritarian) slaver racist nation. Player may not be interested in a war but population may very well not be ok with such atrocious enemy so close. Interior Ministry mechanic would allow population to present player with a petition to start liberation war against, say, ant Empire. Player obviously may go through with it or refuse and face some consequences. And finally this system may be used just for relations inside founder species as well. In short, various combinations of modifiers between species and individual groups would cause dilemmas and would allow player not only to have greater influence on the game but also make it more immersive and alive.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I think that perhaps part of the problem is that, for a game with a narrative bent to its events, its hard to not only come up with enough material for all possible contact scenarios and sorts of intermingling, but also in such a way that it still allows the player to RP their own imagined society.

 

[Galleblære]

I like the narrative up and until you actually make contact with the aliens. Then the sense of mystery is lost, and actual contact (as you say) is rather dull. It would be cool if first contact with an alien species was a multi layered process, with a sense of wonder, fear, aggression or whatever your edicts would indicate.

It would be cool if the game generated a sort of in-game wiki for each alien you encountered. At first the wiki would be minimal, maybe even just calling the alien species for "Alpha aliens". Once more information becomes available through in game mechanics and events, the wiki fills out, and you get to know your alien neighbors better, for better or worse. I imagine this could be quite expansive, biology, culture, history etc.

Or maybe you want to keep contact non-existent and remain enigmatic, attacking any ship you encounter? You should be able to do that as well.

 

[Oscot]

I like the narrative up and until you actually make contact with the aliens. Then the sense of mystery is lost, and actual contact (as you say) is rather dull. It would be cool if first contact with an alien species was a multi layered process, with a sense of wonder, fear, aggression or whatever your edicts would indicate.

I agree with this. I mean, First Contact does already give you one event, but I think, as you say, it would be nice if it were a more weird and difficult process.
Obviously you can't / wouldn't want to do that with every ayy lmao you meet, or it would happen 50 times a game and become thoroughly boring.
So maybe there's some researchable tech that unlocks after First Contact, "Streamlined Xenolinguistics" or something, that dials the process back down to the default we have now for all species subsequently encountered.

 

[Monphat]

I think that perhaps part of the problem is that, for a game with a narrative bent to its events, its hard to not only come up with enough material for all possible contact scenarios and sorts of intermingling, but also in such a way that it still allows the player to RP their own imagined society.

True. Imagination will always be the key and there is no way to account for all scenarios. However, focusing on common and predictable situations like migration crisis, controversial policies, clashes between opposing traits for different species etc. may result in something productive and just make this game better. For example, basics for dialogue system I mentioned are already in place. Different empires talk differently based on their ethical makeup, you'd just need to expand on it.

I like the narrative up and until you actually make contact with the aliens. Then the sense of mystery is lost, and actual contact (as you say) is rather dull. It would be cool if first contact with an alien species was a multi layered process, with a sense of wonder, fear, aggression or whatever your edicts would indicate.

Agreed. What I am really interested is how your own population reacts to alien existence. As I've said, in my playthrough there was Fallen Empire with ringworld around star very close to human borders. Notion of something so powerful, ancient and advanced living so close to humans is both intriguing and horrifying. I can totally see something like Piligrims from Endless Space spawning righ there, with their desire to learn and build bridges with aliens and also something like Cerberus from Mass Effect, which wants to protect humanity from alien threat, also appearing within your game. Again, you can't account for all scenarios and variations, but you still can do at least some of them. First Contact, bordering aliens, co-existence with aliens are some of scenarios that you are more or less guaranteed to encounter so working on those is important.

 

[Galleblære]

I agree with this. I mean, First Contact does already give you one event, but I think, as you say, it would be nice if it were a more weird and difficult process.
Obviously you can't / wouldn't want to do that with every ayy lmao you meet, or it would happen 50 times a game and become thoroughly boring.
So maybe there's some researchable tech that unlocks after First Contact, "Streamlined Xenolinguistics" or something, that dials the process back down to the default we have now for all species subsequently encountered.

Oh definitely. The "wow" factor of meeting a new alien species would probably have diminished quite a bit once you run into species #10 But the first few handful species you encounter.. there should be more substance to.

 

[Winterwolf00]

Oh definitely. The "wow" factor of meeting a new alien species would probably have diminished quite a bit once you run into species #10 But the first few handful species you encounter.. there should be more substance to.

Yes it would go from "OH MY GOD THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN OUR PEOPLE'S HISTORY!" to "Alright folks First Contact scenario we do this by the book."

 

[Zaltys]

First contact, in general, seems like something that should be expanded.
For instance, instead of learning everything about the species all at once, their traits could be revealed over time one by one..

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Yes it would go from "OH MY GOD THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN OUR PEOPLE'S HISTORY!" to "Alright folks First Contact scenario we do this by the book."

That depends entirely on the density of other intelligent species and their relative dispositions and similarities.

If the galaxy has three intelligent species including you, first contact with the other two is going to be a Big Deal both times, moreso if they're not similar to each other.