We do know that we will most likely see a super weapons DLC in the future, but apart from this we obviously know nothing about it. (Which is fine btw)
I still would like to do some dreaming about how I would like to see something like this in Stellaris. I am not a native English speaker and this turns out to be one of my longest English forum posts yet, so please bear with me.
I am all hyped for Stellaris because it tries to do things different from other similar themed games. That made me think about super weapons and their implementation in the game. Most 4x games with super weapons implement them in a very boring way. Lets take the new Master of Orion as an example. You can build a so called Doom Star there and fit it with a stellar Converter Which is able to blow up a whole planet with a simple mouse click. That's a fun thing to do! At least the first time you do it. Maybe even the second time you do it. But it becomes dull fast.
The thing is that such a mechanic has no depth. You just click a button and annihilate a planet. That's why I think instead of super weapons which are able to destroy whole planets or kill several ships with one shot or something like that it would be way more interesting to have a gameplay element which I will call "technical marvels" in this post.
Technical marvels explained
A technical marvel is an achievement in technology which can be considered the pinnacle of science. There might be more advanced science and technology in the future but this achievement is something its creators will always be remembered for by others.
Those technical marvels shouldn't only be hard to archive but also of great political and social importance.
How to research technical marvels
Technical marvels should be obtainable by different means. Before you build them you have to figure out how to build them. There could be several ways to do this, depending on the specific marvel.
Science:
This is the obvious one. You have to get lucky and draw the right research opportunity. But that shouldn't be all you have to do. You might have to draw several research cards to complete the project and maybe you also have to use your science ship to conduct research on three different star types, a black hole and two pulsars.
You might also have to conduct some field tests, which you have to do either on another empire or on a pre-spaceflight species. Or maybe you have to build a laboratory and bring three pops of a specific pop type (like mammal or fungoid) as test subjects there. You could get them from your own population or abduct them from somewhere else.
Fallen empires:
There are powerful fallen empires out there. You might have to steal the knowledge from them (maybe by conquering a planet from them, with all the associated consequences?) or maybe you're even able to acquire them through diplomatic means.
Ancient relics and/or ruins:
Several pieces of some old technology are scattered over a certain area of the galaxy. By conducting several research projects you might be able to locate them. You have to collect and research them all. If someone else gets there first, this could become very interesting.
Probably those events could even be mixed.
How to build technical marvels
After researching a technical marvel you have to build it. This should be a ginormous undertaking and you have to be prepared to spend major resources and time on it.
First you have to assign a leader for the project who oversees the whole thing and might bring some bonuses for it. If he dies or has to be replaced while the project is still ongoing this might cause a setback for the project.
Then you have to chose a system where you want to build your technical marvel. An Ark of Knowledge would probably better located at your core systems while a battle station of epic proportions is probably better suited for some system near your rival or enemies.
Now the project starts and the building process begins. Since this whole thing will consume loads of resources there would be a slider for how much of your economy you want to commit to the project and a button to pause it completely. Things like slavery or some edicts might also influence the speed at which the project progresses.
You also might have to invest some special resources.
Complications while building the technical marvel
Of course such an undertaking might bring some trouble with it. I have some ideas for this too.
Opposition within your own nation:
There might be a fraction of your society which thinks putting so much strain on your economy for a single project is wrong or some people might be unhappy with the ethical issues some of those projects entail. This could produce another faction which you have to deal with.
Opposition from other nations:
Maybe your neighbor or even several of them aren't to keen on you building that epic construction which will push you in front of everyone else. Especially empires of equal power or those who you would become equal to could have an issue with that. Or maybe your ally doesn't like what you're doing because of his empires ethics and asks you to stop.
Fallen empires:
That one is kinda obvious. Some of those fallen empires probably don't like to see you playing with such powerful technologies. Who knows what they will do to stop you?
Accidents at the construction side:
There could also be random accidents at the construction site. But those should be rare, since random penalties are always... meeeeeh.
What I could imagine here is something like a big explosion which sets back the project a bit and sends some radioactive wreckage on a course to the nearest planet. If its occupied, bad luck.
Depending on the approach you take with the project there could also be things like slave revolts or even a sabotage from rebels (if you have any).
Gameplay surrounding finished technical marvels
After building the technical marvel the real hassle only begins! Issues like opposition from inside and outside your empire would obviously persist, if not taken care of.
Also you still would have to assign a leader for your technical marvel who controls it and they obviously cost huge amounts of maintenance (in most cases).
Additional to that technical marvels should be persistente objects which can be captured similar to planets. Your enemies might be able to take it from you but you would also be able to take it back.
Some ideas for technical marvels
Last but not least I also have ideas for some interesting technical marvels which would go beyond "press a button and a planet blows up". Those may or may not be inspired by known sci-fi stories.
As with every super unit in any game balance is obviously going to be a tough thing with those.
Stellar Forge:
A big space station which is placed above a star and uses the stars energy to produce ships. The gravitational forces produced by this put massive strain on the surrounding planets and degrade them over them.
Overseers Station:
A station which allows vision over a huge area of the galaxy. Other empires probably won't like to see you spying on them.
The Node:
A station only available to those species with access to hyperlane technology. It consumes huge amounts of energy credits but redirects all hyperlanes within an specific area at itself, creating a hyperlane node. Its also heavily armed.
If that's to powerful it could be changed to only affect a specific amount of lanes which have to be selected.
The Catcher:
A station only available to those species with access to warp technology. It consumes huge amounts of energy credits but is capable of two things.
1. It accelerates your own warp travel within its range.
2. It can pull enemy fleets out of warp and onto itself within its range. (Those fleets would have to be detected first.)
The station is also heavily armed.
The Warden:
This construct requires the sentient AI research. A construct which is build at an uninhabited planet within an (hopefully) uninhabited system. The system would require to have at least X amount of planets.
The Warden is an AI which will take control of the whole system it was build in and start building a fleet there. It's restricted to the planets in this exact system but after building a small defense fleet it would send out small to medium sized fleets to patrol and protect your empire. It won't leave your empire.
You also REALLY don't want to draw the Ai revolt crisis with this "marvel" in your empire.
The Cita... ehem... eeeeh... Core Station:
A really big station which has to be rebuild from an ancient wreckage. It has its own pops and provides bonuses to your empires stability and some other values. It can also be elected as the headquarter and seat of presidency of a federation, which would create bonuses for the whole federation.
Lets just hope no one comes back and tries to reclaim it...
The Planetkiller:
Wait... didn't I say super weapons like that are boring? Well... yes... and no. I think the mechanics surrounding such a weapon should have some depth. So here is my proposal for one such a weapon.
A big ship with reasonable combat values. It has a weapon which can annihilate a planet. BUT this weapon requires a good chunk of energy credits and maybe some sort of special resource to fire. Also some sort of spool up time would be nice.
Additional to that it would have political consequences to fire that thing. It would be like dropping an atomic bomb on another country in today's time. If you're unlucky it even cause a fallen empire to go all "Dude..." on you.
The Ark:
A station which requires you to small arrays in every of your systems to use it effectively. This station is your empires answer to death. Every member of your empire will be uploaded to the station, when he dies. It brings some interesting bonuses aimed at moral with it (I am not sure if something like moral is in the game.) and also allows you to use your leaders beyond their death.
The Aurora:
An old sentient being which is part of a huge derelict space ship. After repairing the ship and reviving (or awakening) the sentient being it becomes part of your fleet and acts as a fleet leader with unique bonuses and the ability to perform instant jumps with its fleet. The icing on the cake would be, if it could be elected as nation leader.
Hopefully nobody starts seeing it as some sort of god and worships it or something like that...
The Dimensional Pyramids:
Three artifacts which have to be placed on three pyramid shaped space stations in three systems near to each other. Once this is done they create a rift in space and open up a new system at the center of the pyramid triangle. This systems would be of high value with a huge planet with 100% habitability for your founder species and some other decent planets in it.
Everything will be fine as long as no one destroys one of those pyramids...
The Bastion Station:
A battle Station of epic proportions. Its like the usual defense stations but... more. A true statement of military power. This station can protect an entire system and puts a stop to all but the most powerful fleets.
------------------------------------
Okay. That's it for now. I just wanted to get this out of the system and have some writing practice. If you took your time to read this please tell me what you like and what you didn't like or what other ideas you have.
Also please be aware that I know that some or maybe even all of those ideas might be not technical feasible or to expensive to develop. I am just a bit dreaming here.
Edit:
Added the Bastion Station
I still would like to do some dreaming about how I would like to see something like this in Stellaris. I am not a native English speaker and this turns out to be one of my longest English forum posts yet, so please bear with me.
I am all hyped for Stellaris because it tries to do things different from other similar themed games. That made me think about super weapons and their implementation in the game. Most 4x games with super weapons implement them in a very boring way. Lets take the new Master of Orion as an example. You can build a so called Doom Star there and fit it with a stellar Converter Which is able to blow up a whole planet with a simple mouse click. That's a fun thing to do! At least the first time you do it. Maybe even the second time you do it. But it becomes dull fast.
The thing is that such a mechanic has no depth. You just click a button and annihilate a planet. That's why I think instead of super weapons which are able to destroy whole planets or kill several ships with one shot or something like that it would be way more interesting to have a gameplay element which I will call "technical marvels" in this post.
Technical marvels explained
A technical marvel is an achievement in technology which can be considered the pinnacle of science. There might be more advanced science and technology in the future but this achievement is something its creators will always be remembered for by others.
Those technical marvels shouldn't only be hard to archive but also of great political and social importance.
How to research technical marvels
Technical marvels should be obtainable by different means. Before you build them you have to figure out how to build them. There could be several ways to do this, depending on the specific marvel.
Science:
This is the obvious one. You have to get lucky and draw the right research opportunity. But that shouldn't be all you have to do. You might have to draw several research cards to complete the project and maybe you also have to use your science ship to conduct research on three different star types, a black hole and two pulsars.
You might also have to conduct some field tests, which you have to do either on another empire or on a pre-spaceflight species. Or maybe you have to build a laboratory and bring three pops of a specific pop type (like mammal or fungoid) as test subjects there. You could get them from your own population or abduct them from somewhere else.
Fallen empires:
There are powerful fallen empires out there. You might have to steal the knowledge from them (maybe by conquering a planet from them, with all the associated consequences?) or maybe you're even able to acquire them through diplomatic means.
Ancient relics and/or ruins:
Several pieces of some old technology are scattered over a certain area of the galaxy. By conducting several research projects you might be able to locate them. You have to collect and research them all. If someone else gets there first, this could become very interesting.
Probably those events could even be mixed.
How to build technical marvels
After researching a technical marvel you have to build it. This should be a ginormous undertaking and you have to be prepared to spend major resources and time on it.
First you have to assign a leader for the project who oversees the whole thing and might bring some bonuses for it. If he dies or has to be replaced while the project is still ongoing this might cause a setback for the project.
Then you have to chose a system where you want to build your technical marvel. An Ark of Knowledge would probably better located at your core systems while a battle station of epic proportions is probably better suited for some system near your rival or enemies.
Now the project starts and the building process begins. Since this whole thing will consume loads of resources there would be a slider for how much of your economy you want to commit to the project and a button to pause it completely. Things like slavery or some edicts might also influence the speed at which the project progresses.
You also might have to invest some special resources.
Complications while building the technical marvel
Of course such an undertaking might bring some trouble with it. I have some ideas for this too.
Opposition within your own nation:
There might be a fraction of your society which thinks putting so much strain on your economy for a single project is wrong or some people might be unhappy with the ethical issues some of those projects entail. This could produce another faction which you have to deal with.
Opposition from other nations:
Maybe your neighbor or even several of them aren't to keen on you building that epic construction which will push you in front of everyone else. Especially empires of equal power or those who you would become equal to could have an issue with that. Or maybe your ally doesn't like what you're doing because of his empires ethics and asks you to stop.
Fallen empires:
That one is kinda obvious. Some of those fallen empires probably don't like to see you playing with such powerful technologies. Who knows what they will do to stop you?
Accidents at the construction side:
There could also be random accidents at the construction site. But those should be rare, since random penalties are always... meeeeeh.
What I could imagine here is something like a big explosion which sets back the project a bit and sends some radioactive wreckage on a course to the nearest planet. If its occupied, bad luck.
Depending on the approach you take with the project there could also be things like slave revolts or even a sabotage from rebels (if you have any).
Gameplay surrounding finished technical marvels
After building the technical marvel the real hassle only begins! Issues like opposition from inside and outside your empire would obviously persist, if not taken care of.
Also you still would have to assign a leader for your technical marvel who controls it and they obviously cost huge amounts of maintenance (in most cases).
Additional to that technical marvels should be persistente objects which can be captured similar to planets. Your enemies might be able to take it from you but you would also be able to take it back.
Some ideas for technical marvels
Last but not least I also have ideas for some interesting technical marvels which would go beyond "press a button and a planet blows up". Those may or may not be inspired by known sci-fi stories.
As with every super unit in any game balance is obviously going to be a tough thing with those.
Stellar Forge:
A big space station which is placed above a star and uses the stars energy to produce ships. The gravitational forces produced by this put massive strain on the surrounding planets and degrade them over them.
Overseers Station:
A station which allows vision over a huge area of the galaxy. Other empires probably won't like to see you spying on them.
The Node:
A station only available to those species with access to hyperlane technology. It consumes huge amounts of energy credits but redirects all hyperlanes within an specific area at itself, creating a hyperlane node. Its also heavily armed.
If that's to powerful it could be changed to only affect a specific amount of lanes which have to be selected.
The Catcher:
A station only available to those species with access to warp technology. It consumes huge amounts of energy credits but is capable of two things.
1. It accelerates your own warp travel within its range.
2. It can pull enemy fleets out of warp and onto itself within its range. (Those fleets would have to be detected first.)
The station is also heavily armed.
The Warden:
This construct requires the sentient AI research. A construct which is build at an uninhabited planet within an (hopefully) uninhabited system. The system would require to have at least X amount of planets.
The Warden is an AI which will take control of the whole system it was build in and start building a fleet there. It's restricted to the planets in this exact system but after building a small defense fleet it would send out small to medium sized fleets to patrol and protect your empire. It won't leave your empire.
You also REALLY don't want to draw the Ai revolt crisis with this "marvel" in your empire.
The Cita... ehem... eeeeh... Core Station:
A really big station which has to be rebuild from an ancient wreckage. It has its own pops and provides bonuses to your empires stability and some other values. It can also be elected as the headquarter and seat of presidency of a federation, which would create bonuses for the whole federation.
Lets just hope no one comes back and tries to reclaim it...
The Planetkiller:
Wait... didn't I say super weapons like that are boring? Well... yes... and no. I think the mechanics surrounding such a weapon should have some depth. So here is my proposal for one such a weapon.
A big ship with reasonable combat values. It has a weapon which can annihilate a planet. BUT this weapon requires a good chunk of energy credits and maybe some sort of special resource to fire. Also some sort of spool up time would be nice.
Additional to that it would have political consequences to fire that thing. It would be like dropping an atomic bomb on another country in today's time. If you're unlucky it even cause a fallen empire to go all "Dude..." on you.
The Ark:
A station which requires you to small arrays in every of your systems to use it effectively. This station is your empires answer to death. Every member of your empire will be uploaded to the station, when he dies. It brings some interesting bonuses aimed at moral with it (I am not sure if something like moral is in the game.) and also allows you to use your leaders beyond their death.
The Aurora:
An old sentient being which is part of a huge derelict space ship. After repairing the ship and reviving (or awakening) the sentient being it becomes part of your fleet and acts as a fleet leader with unique bonuses and the ability to perform instant jumps with its fleet. The icing on the cake would be, if it could be elected as nation leader.
Hopefully nobody starts seeing it as some sort of god and worships it or something like that...
The Dimensional Pyramids:
Three artifacts which have to be placed on three pyramid shaped space stations in three systems near to each other. Once this is done they create a rift in space and open up a new system at the center of the pyramid triangle. This systems would be of high value with a huge planet with 100% habitability for your founder species and some other decent planets in it.
Everything will be fine as long as no one destroys one of those pyramids...
The Bastion Station:
A battle Station of epic proportions. Its like the usual defense stations but... more. A true statement of military power. This station can protect an entire system and puts a stop to all but the most powerful fleets.
------------------------------------
Okay. That's it for now. I just wanted to get this out of the system and have some writing practice. If you took your time to read this please tell me what you like and what you didn't like or what other ideas you have.
Also please be aware that I know that some or maybe even all of those ideas might be not technical feasible or to expensive to develop. I am just a bit dreaming here.
Edit:
Added the Bastion Station
Last edited:
- 47
- 1
