Update 6 September, 2016: Space creatures are getting some big changes in Heinlein too. Read on for the details.
As part of the patch 1.3, codenamed Heinlein, update for Stellaris there’s a lot of changes coming. Revealed in a developer diary today, another part of this is changes to space creatures. Rather than randomly spawning they’re going to have regions of space dedicated to them, making them a little more realistic in how they’re placed.
Get grand with these excellent strategy games.
In the dev diary, it’s explained that different regions of space will have their own native life forms. You might find the crystalline systems, at the center of which will be a boss crystalline entity, who if defeated gives “significant rewards.”
Space pirates are also receiving an update tied to this. They’re being put into the same class as other ‘creatures’, launching attacks at neighbouring systems and having a home base to destroy. This is the solution the team has come up with for their lacklustre implementation in the base version, and the lack of trade ships for them to go after.
This all necessitates a rebalance pass on creatures as a whole, their rewards and power levels. The eventual aim is to make encounters rarer but more impactful, meaning you’ll want to actually deal with them rather than seeing them as an annoyance to be out-researched later or barely registering once your ships are buffed up.
All this is coming free, with the unannounced DLC portion remaining undetailed. Expect news on that soon, while next week will see the reveal of Enclaves.
Update 15 August, 2016:Another developer diary for Stellaris’ next big patch.
Paradox continue their dev diary series focusing on Stellaris patch 1.3, Heinlein, this time going over the major changes made to combat ships and fleets. They’re calling it the Fleet Combat Overhaul (fitting!) and it should change everything.
The main thrust is to give ships actual roles based on their sides. Currently, finding a particularly effective single construction is the best way to build a good army. In the future, you’ll have to mix between corvettes, destroyers, cruisers and battleships to counter each thing your opponent fields.
This is done through the addition of weapon slots for specific types, meaning not every hull can host every weapon. No bombardment sniper weapons on your corvettes. This, on top of some specific redesigns, changes how ships can be built.
They also say as part of these changes there’s a big balance pass on, well, everything been conducted. Get the full details in the blog.
Original story 8 August, 2016:Stellaris continues its promised intergalactic expansion with patch 1.3, titled Heinlein. Paradox are planning on getting it out the door in October, and want for it to focus on “addressing community feedback.” In the first of several dev diaries, game director Martin Anward has revealed four major planned features.
Here’s a summary of what’s being added:
- Auto-exploration for science ships, unlocked as a technology in the mid-game so large empires don’t have to worry about it but it’s still a big part of the early game.
- Rally points for ships, meaning they’ll automatically leave their build location and head for a fleet or planet. Should help with, you know, wars.
- An expansion planner to more easily see planets where improvements or colonies can be made within your empire.
- Big strategic resource improvements to make them, simply, more interesting.
Details on all that in the developer diary itself, which is promised as the first of a few about this patch. The next will feature the fleet combat overhaul also coming in this patch. Anward alsoc promises a massive number of bug fixes, UI improvements and quality of life buffs. They’ll also be issuing at least one more hotfix before October addressing a couple of bugs.