What is everyone hoping for in the next DLC?

[GloatingSwine]

As for what gestalts do in an internal politics DLC?

Make 'gestalt' a 2 rather than 3 ethic pick. That allows you to be a gestalt with a particular interest and opens up more civic possibilities (a Xenophile hivemind that is so interested in other races it gently infiltrates them and takes over, before getting 'lonely' and starting with another civ say?) and restyle their factions as moods or impulses. That would be a better hook point for it and give them some versitality.

I wouldn't use the standard ethics, I'd give them a set of "personalities" that governed how they interact with the rest of the universe. Things like Cooperative, Domineering, Inquisitive, Hostile, etc. You would pick one at the start and be able to change it more freely than a standard empire can change ethics, because you're just changing your mind.

 

[methegrate]

well that's the thing politics is also cold war, so it really works well to fill that in, and to give some ideological justification for the galaxy consuming maelstrom of all out war (or all out liberation war, depending on your flavour) in the later stages of the game which gives you some sort of stake in it all.

Oh, absolutely. I think politics/geopolitics definitely should be the middle game, and we need more internal politics mechanics to make that happen. I also think you're absolutely right that the narrative arc for the middle game should be the events that take empires from fledgling nations to the grand conflicts which define the late game.

I think what I'm getting at is that we also need a clear sense of identity for that gameplay. We've had lots of new "stuff" added over the years, from the galactic community and espionage to archeology, but none of it has ever seemed to solve the problem that mid-game Stellaris is mostly spent watching Netflix and waiting for the next war. Part of the reason for that is that I don't think they've ever identified the simple, core gameplay that these mechanics should support.

That's where I'd start at least. Thematically, players are supposed to spend the middle game building relationships with other empires and stabilizing their own. Practically, how does this translate into what the player is actually supposed to be doing during this time?

 

[Eled the Worm Tamer]

Really they could do with taking a look at the game arc in general and extending it from where it is to something that takes us from those first faltering steps, all the way to becoming fallen empires in our own right. As it is, things happen too quickly but also nothing happens.

 

[Farbros]

Just 2 Letters "A.I."

 

[Astax]

Hmmm I wanted something related to Core Worlds... which is a cluster like the L Cluster, but in the middle of the map. It is very dense region that is rather inhospitable to life, though possibly the original place of Lithoids. The area there would be a lot more dense with stars, and a lot fewer planets, leading to weird "systems" of many stars orbiting each other, with a sprinkle of barren rocks that could survive this. It could be possible that there is a rework of barren worlds, making them colonizable by lithoids and machine empires. A lot more precursor stuff, maybe we learn Core used to be the seat of government of an old galactic republic/empire to which many of the fallen empires belonged to.

 

[Bezborg]

I just want more ship sets and city sets and a general wealth of visuals.

I don't have any hope of a major rework of any element of the game at this point. So let them do what they do best: skins

 

[Foxosaur]

I would really like to see the WiH revisited and 'fixed up' as part of a free update. For me the WiH can often be more enjoyable than the end game, as the league of none-aligned powers anyway but its a bit broken / out dated.

Along with that a story pack DLC that gives more dynamic stories around FE's and even some interesting fluff for the end game crisis. Maybe even a rare or very time consuming opportunity to open up diplomacy as an equal to an AE and maybe some bargaining with Crisis to target a particular direction of the galaxy for the next ten years. All written up in some nice stories