Wiz's Twitter Teasers

[Scourgeclaw]

IIRC, there was talk about what Jump / Psi Jump drives were going to be doing in an environment wherein Hyperlanes are the only form of FTL-- given that the shape of the vessel resembles an alcubierre-drive, I would guess that the vessel is meant to be the housing for said Jump Drive, and will do what Wiz stated Jump drives will do in 2.0: let fleets jump a certain distance off the Hyperlane grid at the cost of some combat capacity for a certain time.

Guess we'll find out tomorrow during the DLC announcement

 

[The Founder]

My guess is it's some kind of a superweapon for either destroying Starbases ("not by conventional means" ring any bells?) or for destroying planets and habitats. I'm just hoping it's not some hard counter against Starbases, since that sounds like it would undermine the goal of making stationary defenses viable pretty badly.

As long as that ship is a Titan Level ship, killing starbases with it will not exactly be a early game thing.
There is even a decent chance it would be a T5 technology.

IIRC, there was talk about what Jump / Psi Jump drives were going to be doing in an environment wherein Hyperlanes are the only form of FTL-- given that the shape of the vessel resembles an alcubierre-drive, I would guess that the vessel is meant to be the housing for said Jump Drive, and will do what Wiz stated Jump drives will do in 2.0: let fleets jump a certain distance off the Hyperlane grid at the cost of some combat capacity for a certain time.

Guess we'll find out tomorrow during the DLC announcement

Just something of note: The itteration of hte Jumpdrive Wiz talked about was the "currently tested version". So the bonus for Jumpdrives could end up very differently from what we have.

 

[Topias]

As long as that ship is a Titan Level ship, killing starbases with it will not exactly be a early game thing.
There is even a decent chance it would be a T5 technology.

Sure, but consider what Wiz said back in the DD.

...the design intent is that if you invest into them, Starbase defenses will scale against fleets across the whole game rather just being completely outpaced in the late game as military stations and spaceports currently are in the live version.

Wouldn't adding a late game hard counter against Starbases go against this principle? I guess you could say the Titan's not a fleet, but it would still undermine the viability of stationary defenses for what seems like no reason. I guess they could compensate that by adding a similar hard counter against fleets as well, but how would you balance something like that?

This is of course assuming that it's not just something that can basically destroy a Starbase that's already been defeated and occupied. Not sure why you would want do that, but someone will surely find a gimmick like that funny.

 

[Riftwalker]

it looks like a giant gun with an FTL drive being housed around the gun.

I think it's probably either a doomsday weapon or some type of fleet support ship. maybe either long range combat or allowing a fleet to jump drive before jump drive tech via spending resources on a titan class ship just to do that. the thing has no weapons on it, so it's not a normal combat ship, but if it;s a long range weapon, i can imagine the whole ship being a spinal gun with a Wave motion Gun.

 

[Princess Stabbity]

The thing that makes me curious isn't the ring but the vertical hole in the back with a red lightning emitter. If we ignored the ring, the main structure kinda resembles a mass relay, but it's obviously not one. It has ship engines and a ring... But I can't see what the ring is for. I doubt it has anything to do with FTL (it would probably have engines on it, like the Clone Wars hyperdrive ring if it did) but as it is, if there is anything important about it it's either located along the edges (inner and/or outer) or inside of it.

Being the size of a Titan and being EVEN more visible indicates importance and uniqueness. And the hole in the back with VFX means it's carrying some kind of high-tech Applied Phlebotinum generator. The obvious assumptions would be either some kind of superweapon or some kind of transmitter. Maybe a mobile FTL inhibitor? A cloak that makes the fleet invisible to sensors? Carrier for various buff/debuff auras? But... no, I don't think so. There's no reason any of those things would need to be so big.

So I suppose by process of elimination it must be...

...

...

...

HALF LIFE 3!

It's a SPACE VALVE! It makes sense!

 

[Razzlie]

I think that's the superweapon.

It seems to be a titan on the left for scale, so that thing is absolutely massive.

For scale, you can see how huge a Titan is compared to a Battleship, and how a Titan is dwarfed by these things.

 

[Ixal]

I think that's the superweapon.

It seems to be a titan on the left for scale, so that thing is absolutely massive.

For scale, you can see how huge a Titan is compared to a Battleship, and how a Titan is dwarfed by these things.

I doubt its a superweapon.
Considering the hype about tomorrows DD it is likely that PDX announces its new DLC there, so all teasers this week are likely paid content. And superweapons would be a bit too gamechanging for a dlc.

 

[Tale]

My best bet is superweapon. The ring, while it does look very much like you'd expect of a wormhole, may instead be going for a supercollider look. With the idea being that it builds up the blast energy in the ring before unleashing it through the ship. And the ship ultimately looks like a gun.

I doubt its a superweapon.
And superweapons would be a bit too gamechanging for a dlc.

They have no problem putting gamechangers in DLC. And superweapon doesn't have to be that gamechanging depending on its restrictions.

 

[EntropyAvatar]

And superweapons would be a bit too gamechanging for a dlc.

Why would they be more game changing the megastructures or ability to play as machines, devouring swarm, etc?

 

[ciurra]

I would like if Titans Will be designed to deal with either starcitadels or other Titans and to a lesser degree with battleships while being useless against others ships classes

 

[nfmarque]

My best bet is superweapon. The ring, while it does look very much like you'd expect of a wormhole, may instead be going for a supercollider look. With the idea being that it builds up the blast energy in the ring before unleashing it through the ship. And the ship ultimately looks like a gun.

They have no problem putting gamechangers in DLC. And superweapon doesn't have to be that gamechanging depending on its restrictions.

My bet is some kind space siege engine, because wiz said in the status quo twitt that he would be back with some specialized ship for cracking the starbase.
I can be totally wrong.

 

[krios41]

it looks like a giant gun with an FTL drive being housed around the gun.

I think it's probably either a doomsday weapon or some type of fleet support ship. maybe either long range combat or allowing a fleet to jump drive before jump drive tech via spending resources on a titan class ship just to do that. the thing has no weapons on it, so it's not a normal combat ship, but if it;s a long range weapon, i can imagine the whole ship being a spinal gun with a Wave motion Gun.

I have been reading that site for an hour now...
thanks for wasting my time, i don't regret it

 

[Ixal]

Why would they be more game changing the megastructures or ability to play as machines, devouring swarm, etc?

Machines is just another civic with slightly altered colonialization. Robots have been in the base game anyway and can be used to the same effect. And a swarm is just another purifier.

Megastructures also only offer more of what you already have with the exception of the sensor tower. But visibility was no big deal in Stellaris so far.
Notice how even the basic ascension perks will be made available to everyone because they are too game altering?
Superweapons would fundamentally alter the way combat is done and would introduce a big divide in the player experience between players with and without the DLCs which always have to be kept in mind in the future. That is exactly the thing PDX wants to avoid with making certain feature free.

 

[Tale]

Superweapons would fundamentally alter the way combat is done

A superweapon is little more than just an iteration upon existing concepts. Advanced bombardment being the most popular one. Basically does the same thing a fleet can already do, just at a different arbitrarily defined speed.

But other ideas, like fleet decimators or starbase crackers, are still just iterations.

They're not any more fundamentally gamechanging than the ability to build 4 25 slot planets in a single system.

 

[Ixal]

A superweapon is little more than just an iteration upon existing concepts. Advanced bombardment being the most popular one. Basically does the same thing a fleet can already do, just at a different arbitrarily defined speed.

But other ideas, like fleet decimators or starbase crackers, are still just iterations.

They're not any more fundamentally gamechanging than the ability to build 4 25 slot planets in a single system.

That depends on what superweapons can do. If they are just "even bigger ships" which follow all the normal rules you are correct (but Titans already fill the rule so there is no point of even bigger superweapons).
If they allow you to do something not possible otherwise like completely destroying starbases or make other make other aspects of the game irrelevant like bombarding/destroying planets from outside the range of defensive stations they will fundamentally alter the way combat is done in Stellaris.
Only DLC owner being able to build cannons in EU4 would be compareable.

 

[Tale]

That depends on what superweapons can do. If they are just "even bigger ships" which follow all the normal rules you are correct (but Titans already fill the rule so there is no point of even bigger superweapons).
If they allow you to do something not possible otherwise like completely destroying starbases or make other make other aspects of the game irrelevant like bombarding/destroying planets from outside the range of defensive stations they will fundamentally alter the way combat is done in Stellaris.
Only DLC owner being able to build cannons in EU4 would be compareable.

Yes, any feature has the capability of being a fundamental change depending upon how that feature is implemented. That's how things work.

We're back to it not being something particular of superweapons.

 

[Lumpy]

That depends on what superweapons can do. If they are just "even bigger ships" which follow all the normal rules you are correct (but Titans already fill the rule so there is no point of even bigger superweapons).
If they allow you to do something not possible otherwise like completely destroying starbases or make other make other aspects of the game irrelevant like bombarding/destroying planets from outside the range of defensive stations they will fundamentally alter the way combat is done in Stellaris.
Only DLC owner being able to build cannons in EU4 would be compareable.

A more fitting analogy would be only DLC owners being able to build elite units like janissaries in EUIV. If you take them out of the game (for the player and the AI), the game is still a functioning framework which can work without them. The same would be true for superweapons in Stellaris. The game had none thus far, so it would still work without them.

 

[The Founder]

A more fitting analogy would be only DLC owners being able to build elite units like janissaries in EUIV. If you take them out of the game (for the player and the AI), the game is still a functioning framework which can work without them. The same would be true for superweapons in Stellaris. The game had none thus far, so it would still work without them.

I asume that if there are Superweapons, there will be a "free Superweapon" around that everyone can build. Kind of how you can only use 1/4 Slavery Tyeps without Utopia.

 

[Lumpy]

I asume that if there are Superweapons, there will be a "free Superweapon" around that everyone can build. Kind of how you can only use 1/4 Slavery Tyeps without Utopia.

Maybe, we can't tell for sure. I think the one thing we can be certain of is that if they are part of the DLC, they won't change the overall gameplay in a fundamental manner. If it is, for instance, a planet cracker to bust heavily fortified worlds instead of having to invade them, they are more or less a gimmick that is not needed for functional gameplay, since you have other means at hand to achieve the effectively same result. If, on the other hand, there is a certain fortress type that can only, and only be defeated by one of those things, it would be an entirely different story. But that is not a very likely scenario to begin with.

 

[Tale]

Heck, you can't have machine uprising events without Synthetic dawn. That's pretty significant. Can't have War In Heaven without Leviathans.

These are gamechangers whenever they happen.