Stellaris Dev Diary #223 Lem 3.1 Patch Notes (Relase September 14th, 2021)
We go through a quick overview of the patch, then through the PDX feature video, then through all patch notes together. Best “watched” as a podcast.. because extremely long Patch Notes 😀 Watch here:
Stellaris Dev Diary #222 Moddability in the Lem Patch
All about the changes to Variables, Sprite Sheets, Randomness, “Other Cool Stuff”, New Effects and Triggers and Modifiers as well as New Documentation Files, watch here:
Stellaris Dev Diary #221 Lem Patch – Quality of Life, Balance, etc..
Stellaris – Fantastic Changes with the Lem Patch coming: Shattered Ring World Origin, Void Dweller Origin, Ecumenopolis, Hive Worlds, Machine Worlds, Criminal Megachurches, Civics: Beacon of Liberty, Imperial Cult, Idealistic Foundation, Environmentalist, Parilamentary System, Efficient Bureaucracy, Nationalistic Zeal, Functional Architecture, Subspace Ephapse, Divided Attention, Constructobots, Rogue Servitors, Slaver Guilds, Indentured Assets and Technocracy will be changed, mostly buffed! Let’s go through the massive changes list of the Lem Patch – Release Date: September! Watch here:
Stellaris Dev Diary #220 Clone Wars? Humanoids Species Pack DLC Rework
We learn about two new Civics: Masterful Crafters which changes your Artisans to the better Artificer Jobs and Pleasure Seekers which help make the life sweet and also increase Pop Growth as well as unlocking the Decadent Lifestyle Living Standard. Finally we’ll get a new Clone Army Origin which will allow us to start as abandoned Clone Soldiers.. a new Challenge Origin? More here:
We will be able to choose 7 tradition trees now from a selection that is defined by our government, species and DLCs. Also, some traditions get more modified, Diplomacy especially gets a lot more diplomatic. In general, traditions, traditions adoption effects and early traditions get better for early game, finishers and later traditions get better for late game. As a candy gift, there’s now 3 more traditions trees: Mercantile (for everyone, economy / trade), Unyielding (Nemesis DLC, military / defensive) and Subterfuge (Nemesis DLC, espionage). Watch more details now:
Stellaris Dev Diary #218 Plantoids + Fungoids Rework
Plantoids and Fungoids will get access to three new traits and two new civics, namely Phototrophic, Radiotrophic and Budding. Phototrophic replaces half of your food upkeep with energy upkeep, radiotrophic does the same but additionally you get +30% habitability on tomb worlds and you don’t need energy upkeep on tomb worlds, making this a great pick together with the post-apocalyptic origin. Budding lets your people assembly new pops.
Additionally, there are two new civics: With catalytic processing, you can use food to produce alloys and with the crazy Idyllic Bloom you get a method to transform planets into Gaia Worlds without even having the perk.. and faster!
Stellaris Dev Diary #217 was about the introduction of a special task force of programmers caring for only the bugs of the game.
Stellaris Dev Diary #216 Necroids Rework
Necrophage Hive Minds will be possible and Reanimated Armies and Death Cults get buffs as well as other changes like.. Necromancy in battle (!), among them slightly nerfing the start of Necrophages. Watch here:
We look into the proposed changes for the Lem Patch, specifically: Which Species Groups will get which kind of changes or additional option? What about the “imbalanced” science strategies for Ring World and Void Dweller starts? And will Admin Capacity have to go? Watch now:
Stellaris Dev Diary #214
About the new Stellaris Custodians Team keeping the game in good shape to play and.. the first mention of the free Stanislaw Lem Patch, featuring New Stuff for Old DLCs, Selectable Traditions Trees, more Balance and Quality of Life – watch here:
Crusader Kings 3 – Royal Court Expansion Development Diaries
Crusader Kings 3 – Learning Languages
How we’ll be able to learn new Foreign Languages in CK3 Royal Court, what the advantages will be (halving your foreign culture malus e.g.), how many languages you’ll be able to learn and the entertaining events around the Learn Language Scheme. Watch here:
Showing off how they recorded the Audio and Music for the new Royal Court DLC with a teaser, a Cue Song with fanfares to show off the new music at the end of the video. Watch here:
There is a new and bigger format for the New Court Events that will include a court scene and a rather detailed description as well as hyperlinked characters. Let’s also have a look at 8 new events presented in the Dev Diary. Watch here:
What will your vassals do for you? Or what will you be able to do as a vassal? Patch 1.5 and the Royal Court DLC will spice your life up there with two new actions: Petition Your Liege to give you something or help your with something or Pay Homage to Your Liege which is a pledge of loyalty which can be done once for every liege. A very, very important action to get started with your new ruler.. you better bring gifts! More details.. watch here:
Illustrious new positions like Court Gardener, Seneschal, Bodyguard, Food Taster and regionals like Keeper of the Swan.. and more will be added to Crusader Kings 3 with the Royal Court DLC. Find out what they can do for you in the video, watch now:
Crusader Kings 3 – How to Hold Court in the Royal Court DLC
We learn about lots of events you will have with the repeatable Hold Court decision, one of the hallmarks of the new DLC. Over 100 events will be there for our entertainment and to lead the realm well that will include characters from your realm and their worries, land claims, relatives and so on. Also you’ll see events concerning artifacts, peasants, holyness and much more that will sometimes need some of your attributes to help you decide or help you make successful decisions. Lots of fun is waiting for us. Learn more here with many examples – watch now:
Crusader Kings 3 – Artifact Mechanics and Gameplay, Royal Court DLC
In this, we learn about the actual use of the artifacts for you. How can they support you? In combat tactics, combat prowess, gaining prestige, piety and making friends, in saving money and even getting better knights, unique artifacts will support you and your grand court. But is there an equipment limit to them and how does that apply to your court? We’ll take a deeper look – watch here:
Crusader Kings 3 – Royal Court, Throne Room Artifact Displays
A beautiful show of artifacts that we’ll be able to show in our throneroom: From holy relics to books, from chests to statues, from tapestry to heraldry – and how it was designed. Watch here:
We learn the main wait how to get artifacts now: Inspired guests to your court. They need shelter and money and they’ll start creating an artifact for you, depending on their skill either a.. for example… book from learning, a weapon from prowess and martial.. etc. It’s not the only way to get artifacts but the main one, also to make guests more relevant. And the more Grandeur you’ll have, the more you’ll get these inspired guests – click here to watch more:
Crusader Kings 3 – Additions to Carantanian and Indian / Hindustani Cultures
Writing about the in-depth flesh of history, we get an introduction into some of the new people and Cultures while changes to the actual historical maps are announced. The Carantanian Culture is a rather not so well known Alpine Slav Culture from around 1000 AD, while Hindustani is now understood as a hybrid of two original cultures that will be added to the game… learn more here:
Crusader Kings 3 Patch 1.5 / Royal Court – To Combine or Split Up Cultures to Create your own
We will be able to create an own culture not only by creating a wholly new one but by combining two existing cultures, preferrably in our realm, to create a Hybrid Culture that has – also unique – elements of the two root cultures. It will also work the other way round: You will be able to split up your own culture if you don’t want to be part of a great culture anymore, giving it a unique twist. In both cases the obvious advantage will be that you will become the Culture Head – but that’s not all there is to it. Learn more here:
The changes to Culture will come with a free patch. We will now be able to define a culture of our own, comprised of five Pillars – Heritage, Ethos, Language, Martial Tradition and Aesthetics. This can and will deliver many interesting bonuses for gameplay. Additionally, on an even more specific level, we will have traditions that we as a Cultural Head can choose for said cultures. Their prestige cost is higher or lower depending on how much they fit the Pillars of Culture. A defined culture will also have Cultural Acceptance with Cultures that are similar to it or whose members have friendly relations towards each other and which live in the same realm. Animosities will, on the other hand, decrease Cultural Acceptance.
Crusader Kings 3 Royal Court: Throne Room and Grandeur!
The Throne Room and the Grandeur mechanic (similar to an over-time-prestige) will unlock different mechanics for your game: You gain Grandeur, this unlocks Throne Room / Court levels, these levels unlock additional mechanics like Hold Court (first level, lots of action, gaining more grandeur every time), inviting creative people, watching “parties” and more… watch here:
Crusader Kings 3 Royal Court: Vision and FAQ
CK3 will get its first BIG EXPANSION and it’s about fleshing the Throne and Court out. From King upwards, your court will never be the same with tons of MINOR TITLES that will also have gameplay consequences beyond the ones of CK2, with ARTIFACTS, SPECIAL ACTIONS and the opportunity to PIMP THE COURT. Also, CULTURE gets what you want it to be. It’s a giant vision and we look at everything that is known so far. Watch / listen here:
Hey friends, Victoria 3 has just been announced. Here, I will cover its development, documented by the Dev Diaries in Video form with commentary and summaries of them in text form on this blog, from latest to earliest. All the best, Your Immanuel Can
Victoria 3 – Relations and Infamy
Relations: Will come as a number and in categories for number corridors. For example Neutral, Cordial, Amiable, … or even down to Hostile. The corridor will be from +100 to -100, this represents the relations. Certain corridors, like Cordial for a Non-Aggression Pact, unlock certain relations / actions. The relations are the same for both parties between them. This means if someone wants to have bad relations with you to for example declare war on you, you can stop that by repairing relations diplomatically. Crazy! Also: Infamy, the Bad-Boy rating is back. Infamy will hurt you on the World Stage, decreasing your diplomatic image. Fewer empires, especially Great Powers, will regard you as friendly. And then you might declare your interest in a Strategic Region….
The new order from Great to Minor, from Recognized to Unrecognized Power is a dynamic one. Ranks come from Prestige, but not absolute Prestige. There is also not an absolute number of Ranks for Great Powers and such, rather it’s determined from Prestige and being Recognized or Unrecognized. A lot of prestigious countries will lead to more Great Powers while there could also be only one Great Power if things are going extreme. This, and how you get Prestige or Recognition, in detail here:
Migration is going to be a big driver of population change in the game. It gets triggered by bad state of living and starvation in the pop’s home country, then pops start moving to other states with better job opportunities and standard of living and if possible with no discrimination. There is also the Mass Migration special event that gets triggered by starvation, very low Standard of Living and high Literacy – then, a state is selected where people will migrate to, based on Migration Attraction, Discrimination, logical path to take (e.g. trade routes), laws, jobs etc.. – there are also direct influences like Decrees and Migration Policy. Watch the details here:
Victoria 3 – States
Victoria 3’s states are a dynamic AND static system at the same time. State regions have certain characteristics they can inherit to states which are the puzzle parts that form state regions. The characteristics of states will be distributed to states depending on their size. The size of states is dynamic, often influenced by how many governments control different states in a special state region. Furthermore they are incorporated or not incorporated, are capital or market states and might be very important or might even have surprises in them – discoverable resources – learn more about that and click here:
Victoria 3 – Slavery
One doesn’t just approach Slavery like any other mechanic. It’s a horrible problem, but it has been part of history, so it will be in the game like any other.. form of employment. A horrible, hellish employment where a human is treated like their are owned by someone or something else. Everything in this Dev Diary is around the Economy and the Political Problems of Slavery. More details here:
Victoria 3 – Political Movements and how they work
Political Movements will be a way to support or try to hinder you to change your country and government. Pops and Interest Groups will target specific elements of your agenda and depending on their support or their opposition it gets easier or harder to push through. You’ll always be supported by loyalists while radicals are a danger to your society and plans. How does it all work out? Watch here in detail:
Victoria 3 – Standard of Living – Living the Life.. or not 😀
Victoria 3’s Standard of Living System: How you give your pops a better Standard of Living. What are the consequences of low or high standards of living? How does the Wealth of Pops influence their standard of living, birth and death rate and loyalty? And of course.. the Economy? Let’s get into it! Watch here:
How does the Treasury work in the absence of.. Lump Sum Gameplay. You can now have all the money that you want to build or buy things for your state – but at a price. The price will either be diminishing your Gold Reserves or will get you into State Debt which will cause interest. There are limits to both Gold Reserves or State Debt though where they will become less effective (Gold Reserves) or dangerous for your state (State Debt). How will this dynamic state economy work? Watch here:
Jobs, Qualifications, Employment: How and why pops accept jobs, how they reach qualifications for jobs, what stops them from having qualifications and what helps them. How they can even become aristocrats (enough wealth and.. not belonging to a discriminated group). What roles literacy, education, wealth and ethnicity play in the whole job system.. fascinating, long read or… video – watch here:
Market Access and its repercussions are a big thing in this Dev Diary: You need to provide enough infrastructure to make your goods flow, otherwise they are stuck locally, leading to lower prices locally but shortages on the National Markets! But how do you get Infrastructure? Sources include geography, buildings and the Railways. Which institutions use it? From industries and people and also state institutions but to which amount? Learn more details here:
Victoria 3 – National Markets, the Power of Economy
What makes a Victorian (National) Market? How does it work and what is its (pricely) result? We learn that the new economy market system will not have stockpiles but instead the market as such acts as a stockpile for everyone by determining a price of supplies by a system of actors on the market that will push sales and demand requests to the market.
The number of their requests is limited by Market Access, market infrastructure, so the actual price can differ in local environments (not connected to the National Market) and the National Market.
Local environments are not as limited by infrastructure whereas National Markets are. For example, if you overproduce one good, it will be proportionally take a bigger part of the Market Access Infrastructure and might hurt the overall access to all goods in the market by proportionally shrinking them and – the total Market Access always in mind – there will be less of everything else in the bucket if you fill your overproduction stones in.
A fascinating system with more advantages than disadvantages and with a lot of dynamics.. limited somewhat by the base price corridor system. Learn more in the video:
Victoria 3 – Institutions and how they will work in the game
Institutions: Which kinds of institutions will be there (schools, health, police, social security etc), how they will influence your state and how they come into existence. From Interest Groups to Laws to Institutions. Their types of effects and just a general outlook into more specifics..
Laws, which kinds of laws we will have access to and their implementation. There are Economy Laws, Power Structure Laws and Human Rights laws. For their implementation, you must seek support from Interest Groups and the implementation will lead to approval or disapproval from Interest Groups as a feedback process. How this will be able to form your state and which kinds of freedoms and creative choices we will have in the process is the topic of the Video and the Dev Diary.
Victoria 3 – Interest Groups and Internal Politics
Pops belong to Interest Groups to make their political power, or clout, do things together. An Interest Group is the sum of the political power of the people supporting the Interest Group. Their political power comes from wealth and status. The Interest Group has ideologies it wants to push politically. If you support their ideologies through political actions, they gain approval and unlock their positive traits for your country. If you oppose them, they will unlock negative traits that will be bad for your country. If they are powerful enough…
Pretty interesting. More details and screenshots here:
The Production Methods in Victoria 3 will vary a lot, the number of options will be limited by technology. Their use will not be a simple upgrade process but a selection that will depend on what your society needs at the current moment. Production methods can increase income but they will also change society:
The Goods system in Victoria 3 features four types of Goods: Staple Goods for the poorer and middle class citizens, Luxury Goods for the well-off citizens, Industrial Goods to produce specialized Goods in Factories and Military Goods to supply your armies. How the system works and if it’s all so clear cut or not we’ll learn in the video:
The Buildings system in Victoria 3 will in general be more hands on and there will be five types of buildings in Victoria 3 – Subsistence Buildings, Urban Centers, Government Administrations, Private Industries and Development Buildings like Railroads and Ports. You will need the right people to work in them – even Railroads – or the buildings will just produce costs. On the other hand you will be able to build and customize everything a little more in the buildings yourself.. watch more here:
Victoria 3 will have a Capacities instead of a Mana System. This means that you will have to provide a constant stream of the following four capacities to avoid negative modifiers and to provide positive modifiers instead: Bureaucracy, Authority, Influence and Money. Bureaucracy is about the organization of the state, Authority covers the control of the state over its subjects, Influence represents the foreign policy power that you can exert diplomatically. Watch more, also the historical background, here:
Victoria 3 – Pops and Pop Mechanics – First Overview
The lead designer outlines all kinds of data about pops. Pop groups, pop classes, pop workplaces, what kind of data are connected to the pop and why the pops are the foundation of society and economy. A nice look into the coming bottom up scaled economy model. Watch here:
Victoria 3 – The Art – First Look
Paradox has released an art document for Victoria 3 and what we can expect in terms of UI and flavor. We take a look at its Victoria glory and look how it shows connectivity and terrain of a now globalized world. Watch here:
Victoria 3 – The Economy of Victoria 3 – Vickynomics
We take a look at the Vickynomics document, outlining everything in the Victoria 3 economy game mechanics. It seems a bottom up mechanic, based on population units, driven by their needs, and the needs of the government, influenced by infrastructure, trade, economic and political power and much more. We take a detailed look and connect it with real world history. Watch this:
Victoria 3 – Dev Diary 0 – The Vision
The four pillars Victoria 3 will be based upon, making the game more accessible and giving it more character. A nice early insight by Wiz / Martin Anward. Have a closer look and watch here:
Hey there, space fans and friends, let’s have a look together at what will be in the Stellaris Nemesis Expansion and the 3.0 Dick Patch for it. I’m bringing you a summary of the Dev Diarys with Video Links. When Stellaris Nemesis DLC is out, I’ll transform the page into an info page about Stellaris Nemesis in General. As the Dev Diaries build on each other, they are sorted “Oldest to Latest” at the bottom below the line. New Patches and Dev Diaries after/at release etc come ON TOP here.
Stellaris might get a ship model preview browser (Dev Diary 213). That is it, that is all, read here:
Patch Notes here, so you don’t have to read – watch / listen here:
Stellaris Open Beta 3.0.3 Changes Preview: Pop Growth, AI, Balance and more.. continued – watch here:
STELLARIS OPEN BETA 3.0.3 PATCH NOTES Dick / Nemesis: Pop Growth Changes, Balance, AI, Bugfixes and More..
Stellaris Dick + Nemesis Patch 3.0.3 Preview: Big POP GROWTH and other changes coming, also Stellaris Patch 3.0.2 – watch here:
Stellaris Nemesis Roleplay – Crisis 25 and Grand Admiral – SNAIL WARS starting now, watch here:
Stellaris Dev Diary 209, New 3.0.1 Dick Patch Update – Bugfixes and Balance changes galore
In this update there is everything in: From fixes to the fresh stuff, to balancing some things out, to improving the AI, to some changes in modding and finally tackling a lot of bugfixes even of very old stuff! Enjoy, watch and / or listen here:
——————————————————————————————————————–
Stellaris Dev Diary 191, Resettlement and Automation Rework
Resettlement, Automation, and Automation AI Rework. Love the Huge Changes: Resettlement UI and Cost, Civics, Government, Sector and Planet Building AI / Automation, Transit Hubs for the Greater Good: It’s on the way and it’s GREAT!
Stellaris Dev Diary 192, Economy Rework
Extreme Rework of the Economy – Pops, Jobs, Economy, Growth and More! With a rework of Pops, the respective Pop Growth, Economy, Job Stacking, Specialization and further refinement to Resettlement as well as reacting to the Community this is a patch we can.. hopefully.. FULLY GET BEHIND.
Stellaris Dev Diary 193, First Contact Rework
First Contact, First Contact Investigation. First Contact is replaced by an Archeology-Like System of playing through a story of events to get to know another empire. How you first respond to an empire is going to influence your relations for a long time.
Stellaris Dev Diary 194, Espionage Foundations
Fog of War, Intel, Intel Categories. We learn that we need Intel to discover more of a map of an empire. More knowledge about an empire comes from spying on them. Knowledge has categories and levels in the categories.. like technology, economy, fleet, etc..
Dev Diary 195 was “Happy Holidays” 🙂
Stellaris Dev Diary 196, Spy System and Adaptations
Envoys, Spy Networks, Changes, New Technologies. Your Envoys work for you in the espionage business. Espionage is a minigame with events that you need spy network points for. So the first action for your Envoys is to build a Spy Network in a foreign empire. You can then use the spy network points to perform certain actions, called Operations. Operations come in Subterfuge, Sabotage, Manipulation, Provocation. A lot of updates on Techs, Policies and also: New Techs.
Stellaris Dev Diary 197, Operations Galore
More Operations and Spy Assets. Going into detail on the Operations “Gather Information”, “Steal Technology”, “Smear Campaign” – How getting Assets will help you with spying and how they’ll work.
Stellaris Dev Diary 198, Provocation Operations
Provocations are the most dangerous operations for both sides. You’ll have Arm Privateers and Crisis Beacon (directing the Crisis to someone) at your disposal. Say Hello to the Prethoryn, Giant Enemy!
Stellaris Dev Diary 199, Become the Crisis
Shows a New Ascension Perk – how you can become the Crisis and what its effect will be on you and the Galaxy. A new point system for “evil deeds” will be used to give you points to determine when you can get a new “Crisis Tradition” – getting a skill tree for being a Crisis that unlocks powerful forces. Also: New ships, ship models.. for example the “Star Eater” – that eats.. stars!
Stellaris Dev Diary 200, Galactic Custodian
With the help of the Galactic Community, you can now gain special powers, resources, resolutions and the Galactic Defense Force to help you protect the galaxy and its inhabitants better. But what will happen after the Crisis?
Stellaris Dev Diary 201, Galactic Imperium
In the ultimate power move as a Galactic Custodian, you can replace the Galactic Community and become Galactic Emperor. How and when you can do that and what advantages and new mechanics it will bring is in here. Watch:
Stellaris Dev Diary 202, New Imperial Ship Models
We learn about the art and design process and the visual development of the new imperial ships and bask in the glory and beauty of all the imagery revealed to us – from sketches to fully working models – watch here:
Stellaris Dev Diary 203, Visual Effects: From Supernova to Ship Weapons
We look at three videos that show us examples of new visual effects around the Stellaris Nemesis Expansion: A Star Destroyer / Supernova effect, an Imperial Titan Ship and an Aetherophasic Engine (Mystery!) – and we also learn about the creative process of VFX artists.
Stellaris Dev Diary 204, Scripting and Moddability – Deep, Interesting, Audio-Style
Stellaris Dev Diary 205, Updated Features for Patch 3.0 “Philip K. Dick”, included in Stellaris Nemesis
The New First Contact and Espionage systems in depth, and the new trailer with a.. Borg Cube? So many insights. Long and concise 🙂
Stellaris Dev Diary 206, Patch 3.0 and Nemesis: A Development Journey by Daniel Moregard
Going over ideas and challenges of the Development process in Nemesis. Mainly about Espionage, Intel and the unique Become the Crisis UI, as well as the Custodian Circle with the “Diplomatic End Game Crisis.”
Stellaris Dev Diary 207 was an April’s Fools Day Joke, still very entertaining, but I don’t want to cover it on this info based site. Look it up on the forums, it’s fun to read 🙂
Stellaris Dev Diary 208, Full Patch Notes Nemesis and Dick 3.0 Update!
So many changes, good, surprising, thorough, for everything from First Contact to Becoming the Crisis, from changes for modders to tons of bugfixes, Pop Growth repairs.. and I’ve read it all out for you so you can chill fly through it.. here:
An overview about the Stellaris Federations and 2.6 Verne Patch and an outlook towards Stellaris development in 2020. (From latest to earliest).
Learn more about the upcoming new features, mechanics and giant ships and how they will affect the game!
The Complete Stellaris 2020 Outlook: Federations DLC, Patch 2.6 and Beyond
A summary of all Development Diaries and Videos, and an outlook using the official roadmap for 2020 and Stellaris, garnered with tons of screenshots. You can have it all here:
Giants of Space: Juggernaut (Singular Ship) and Mega Shipyard (Megastructure) in Stellaris Federations
With the Federations DLC you will also get access to projects for your fleet, and supporting your fleet, on a much larger scale. The Juggernaut can be as much as a mobile station, and the Mega Shipyard just increases the ship production of your empire by a huge amount:
New Diplomatic Features in Stellaris 2.6
This goes deeper into the opportunities for interaction in the 2.6 Stellaris patch. The Galactic Council, again, and Diplomatic Power as a new measurement of power that will also give you Diplomatic Weight to influence the Galactic Community and your Federation:
Origins coming with Stellaris 2.6 and Federations DLC
You might be familiar with the concept of starting civics for special cases and governments – they will not leave you throughout the game, like syncretic evolution. These, and a lot of other civics, have been transformed to starting civics: Anyone with any government will be able to take them.
And of course there will also be new ones, based on the DLCs your own, and a handful of free ones that will come with the base version of the game.
More in the video:
Big Federation Rework & the Galactic Community in Stellaris Federations DLC and the Stellaris 2.6 Patch
The whole system around Federations will be reworked. There will not only be the possibility of Federations; also, around the galaxy, the so called Galactic Council will be roughly what the UN are in Civilization: Creating the laws of the galaxy; binding for all who stay in the Galactic Community (this is voluntary – you can leave it).
Some types of empires won’t be in the Galactic Community, or unable to join Federations.
There will be different types of Federations, e.g. Research-, Trade- or War-based.
More in the videos:
Administrative Changes & Empire Sprawl
From flat modifiers to percentage-based mechanics and how it will influence Hive Minds, Machine Empires and tall / wide strategies.
Crusader Kings 2 Holy Fury – Patches and epic scope Let’s Roleplay Pagan Vikings on Hard The Lords of the Fjords 🙂
Structure: Dev Diaries from latest to oldest, then the Let’s Roleplay (where YOU can have children) In so far: Dev Diary 113, Dev Diary 112, Let’s Roleplay THE LORDS OF THE FJORDS
CK2 Dev Diary 113, More details and how the Wonders will work. Joy! 🙂
Let’s Roleplay Hard Crusader Kings 2 – THE LORDS OF THE FJORDS
Hi, great to have you here 🙂
I’m not sure how much of a collection that will be, as a minimum we have our community LP:
Here comes our earliest start 769 Scandinavian Norse Pagan Roleplay, THE LORDS OF THE FJORDS – have fun watching and Happy Gaming 🙂
Like very often, you can be in the world, too. How? All kids we can name and give a childhood focus YOU can choose to name and give them their focus. You can be one of the gods steering the direction of the game from behind the curtains 🙂
The game is on hard, to have some kind of challenge, too, while we roleplay our characters in the world they live in – joyful Norse Pagans, vikings from 800 on, that will have adventures, conquests, births and deaths until the bell tolls 🙂
There is A LOT of Stellaris coming with the Megacorp expansion, I’m continously adding content to the post.
In this post so far:
Stellaris Dev Diary #140 Constant Improvements 2.2x
Stellaris Dev Diary #139 Support and Repairs – Roadmap for 2.2x
Stellaris Grand AI Tournament, Megacorp Edition
Stellaris Corporation Civics Overview
Let’s Roleplay Stellaris Megacorp: MEGACORPSE INC. (Playlist)
This post will be continously updated with community fun videos like the Grand AI Tournament, guides and news about 2.2 and Megacorp from the point of release.
You can already start creating and sending me some empires and corporations because we’re going to have a new GRAND AI TOURNAMENT! Contact me via Comments or mail to thoughtfulgaming ( at ) hotmail.com if you want to be added to the Tournament’s Mailing list, too.
Stellaris Dev Diary #140 Constant Improvements 2.2x
Stellaris Dev Diary #139 Support and Repairs – Roadmap for 2.2x
Dev Diary #139 „Let’s fix these“
by Daniel Moregard (promoted from the Stellaris team)
Basically he is a cool guy and will gain more profile as he becomes more prominent. Seems a little bit more down-to-earth from the first glance but if you read his twitter from time to time he definitely also has a VISION.
Pop Growth
„can feel wrong“
„adjusting how pops are chosen for growth“
„especially for planets where they have low habitability (that should only be done as a player choice)“
Current Pop Growth
Makes your population incredibly diverse for no logical reason, because you only have one „growing“ spot. It’s the game’s limitation on pops causing this and that is ultimately the problem. It results in very illogical developments, like that your main population should have the most frequent absolute pop growth (because of their base mass).
In fact, after you have immigrants, your original pops often basically stop growing in numbers. That is illogical, but supported by the growth formula that supports lower-in-number pops to be grown.
What, then, is a solution? The pop system is necessary for the game and its diverse species but fails to adapt to the reality of normal population growth mechanics.
Realistic Pop Growth System
Solution? I’d love to say it’s easy, but it’s not.
To simulate real pop growth and then have „pure species pops“ coming out of it, you need a very complicated system.
Pop growth of a population needs to be calculated for every species and sub species separately and parallel, like in the old system. Say one pop is simulated by the number 1 million people of species x, then that number will rise continously. You will have two pops once you reach 2 million, then you have another pop. Of course, to have ONE ADDITIONAL POP, or million, will be much quicker for a population of 10 or 50 million.
This will result in low-number species have incredibly long times to get to a second pop. Due to the diverse nature of the game if you play xenophile you’ll have a very long time before you have ANY POP GROWTH AT ALL as a species diverse empire in the middle and end game with the migration treaties.
But mixed species pops cannot work in workplaces, so there’s that.
So you’d have to have buildings giving you hundreds of thousands of jobs to give the other species the chance to have a VISIBLE effect at all. Everything would have to be inflated in numbers. And then, Stellaris stops being visually easy and goes the way to become a strategic space simulation rather than a strategy game, so I’m very curious about their solutions they come up with.
Ship Upgrades
„Improving the Ship Upgrade mechanics so that if you cancel at 99% it will still leave some of your fleet with the upgrades rather than doing nothing“
Reasonable. They want to do it ship by ship which is totally logical and feels just the right way to do.
„Tweaking upgrade costs and time“
It has been a complaint that creating new ships was actually always cheaper than upgrading old ones which is a reasonable complaint. Why was that a game mechanic at all? Because the thing you PAY FOR with the increased cost is keeping your crew that will accumulate experience. You could say you need to pay them extra for a while to make them still available when their new ship comes up.
Ultimately, simulating crews separately would solve a lot of problems but it would also make the game more complicated which, again, makes it less of a game. But it is also reasonable that slightly upgrading your ship and exchanging parts while the core stays the same shouldn’t cost more than an actual new ship. So let’s keep it simple and just reduce upgrade costs and, maybe, increase ship costs a bit to compensate.
Planet View UI ETC
„Will clean up the district view“
„will make special resources visible better“
„will be able to prioritize one job per strata by giving it stars“
It sounds to me that they know they’re in a deep swamp with the new Planet View UI, so let’s just see what they can do to make it better step by step.
I love multi species empires, so my priority would be to give pops preferred jobs, or rather a priority to get certain jobs easier, well that’s not bound to the planet view but a general rule. But really, multi species empires at the moment are a mess, just like the planet view UI.
The steps they mentioned though WILL make things better and then we’ll probably see other prominent steps to make everything better, so believe in change and, probably, believe in SCRUM management.
The Stellaris Megacorp Grand AI Tournament is now accepting submissions: Do You also like to create Stellaris Empires? Watch the video and join the fun 🙂
To get you started here’s a first overview about the civics, ideas and synergies of a Megacorporation (Stellaris Megacorp DLC)
But now: Paradox has delivered! And we will as well: Here you go – have fun watching and Happy Gaming 🙂
Our Let’s Roleplay Megacorp on Grand Admiral / 5x Crisis – MEGACORPSE INC. Schedule: Daily 4 PM GMT+1
Got a bad case of the flu, so cannot update at the moment.
Hi there 🙂 Wanted to have all the news for Europa Universalis IV Dev Diaries for the 1.25 Update in one place, for you (and also me) to look things up and to enjoy the development.
Organization: First You see the Playlist (Newest Video first), then the Dev Diaries for the 1.25 Update from latest to first with Video / Summary / Original Dev Diary Link
Have fun watching and happy gaming 🙂
Playlist (Newest First)
Rule Britannia! British Isles Immersion Pack announced 🙂
You can already pre-order the promising thing – what do you get for the 10 Euro / Dollars / ..?
New Missions for the British Isles and also states like Wales that might come up if England breaks
Industrial Revolution: Coal – you’ll be able to use highly developed industries in your highly developed provinces with the help of coal – a hidden and very powerful resource that will replace some of the original resources the land had, leading to an empire-wide boost of 5% production
Innovativeness: You get rewards for being the first at ideas and techs and this reduces ALL of your power costs and army and navy tradition decay. But if you fall back, this value dwindles – so better stay on top!
Naval Doctrine: Adopt a general strategy for your fleets, giving you bonuses to ship maintenance, trade power or battle performance.
Anglicanism / Anglican Church: A new Protestant faith can appear in England with unique bonuses and abilities, among them a +50% bonus to Innovativeness
Knowledge Sharing: Help or get helped with the spread of institutions in alliances or for your subjects – for the price of 10% of the receiving party’s income.
Trade Steering: Force your defeated enemies to have their traders push their trade – and profit – your way.
There’s also some extras. Fredman’s Epistles are bundled with the… NO. There’s new music by the great Paradox composers fitting to the content, also, there’s a new Unit Pack for the British Isles, with plenty of uniforms, among them also Irish nations, Northumberland nations or Cornwall even 🙂
Dev Diary 6th of February 2018 Innovativeness & Knowledge Sharing
In the upcoming Immersion Pack, Rule Britannia, we will have even more and fresh MECHANICS, too!
Innovativeness
Gets increased by +2 for every idea or tech you’re first in and by 0.005 per month when you’re ahead of time.
Rewards are scaling: At 100 Innovativeness (cap), your power cost for anything is reduced by 10% and your Army / Navy Tradition decay is changed by -1%.
England is OP: The new Anglican Faith will boost your Innovativeness Gain by +50%!
If you’re falling behind and receive neighbour bonuses though, your Innovativeness goes away by -0.03 per month.
Knowledge Sharing
For 10% of your income, you can beg an alliance partner to share their knowledge with you for 10 years, spreading the missing Institutions “in the area where their capital is situated” by +1 per month.This is done so that Tall Empires make (more) sense technologically and can become world leaders in technology. It would be hard to do it outside of Europe, though 🙂
Dev Diary 30th of January 2018 Anglican Church, Industrialization (Coal!) and Smiling Countries 🙂
TLDR Summary: In the upcoming Immersion Pack we will get the option to choose the Anglican Church with England in the time of the Reformation with unique actions resembling that of the Papacy (plus divorces!). Also, coal gets added as a hidden resource, unlocked with Admin Tech 21 and Enlightenment – its manufactory gives an empire-wide boost to trade!
Also, country names can span over water when it makes sense, to make the names more beautiful (and readable) 🙂
TLDR Summary: In addition to the usual quests, we get missions like in Hearts of Iron 4. You’ll be able to go certain mission paths, unlocking more missions of different directions on the map or in the gameplay but they are not mutually exclusive: Over the course of the game, you can complete all of them. This is part of the free Update and specific for every country in the game. It really looks VERY promising 🙂
Dev Diary 16th of January 2018 Ireland Galore! Also Scotland, England, Wales, France, Burgundy and the Low Countries reworked.
TLDR Summary: Ireland gets a complete rework with lots of new independent kingdoms and own national ideas. Scotland, England and Wales have had some provinces reworked and added, Scotland being buffed a bit as well as the English provinces on the continent (development-wise). France gets a province and development rework. Burgundy as well, as well as a new inland centre of trade (Dijon). The Low Countries around the Netherlands and such get more provinces and development to show their high economic power. Very cool to have some of the “original” content reworked so thoroughly!
About The Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire – Beta Impressions & Character Creation Talks
I’m regularily doing some stream events with my subscribers where we look at the Backer Beta in a chilled and relaxed and thorough way, from normal gameplay to the character classes and their general workings, and good ways to “build” them.
This is the result of streams and feedback from the streams – you cannot call the character talks guides, but if you want to use them as such they will give you a solid foundation for the game for at least Hard difficulty.
More will be added to this post as the streams expand, so you can bookmark and check for regular updates 🙂
We have, so far, two YouTube playlists here, one for the impressions of general gameplay and graphics, the second for character talks, at the moment for Fighter, Ranger and Monk.
Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire Beta Impressions in 4k60p
Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire Character Talks / Analysis Backer Beta (Tank Fighter, Ranger, Monk in general)
I hope you like what you see, I certainly do, and so have fun watching and Happy Gaming, Your
Snail Wars 2 – the Snedi Knights – Massive Galaxy Community Let’s Play / Roleplay 80+ Community Empires (Now Patch 1.9.1, 4k60p etc.)
As a follow-up series to the smaller (only HUGE) community empire Let’s Roleplay of Snail Wars, the Snail Wars 2 / Snedi Knights are featuring a Massive Galaxy of 100 empires, 80+ of them community made and Roleplay Introductions to most of the episodes. Hey, you don’t want to miss the “Snail Voice” and the plans of the Nautiloids to re-invoke their massively powerful tentacle god Nautilon?
Gameplay Specs:
â–º STELLARIS Roleplay Hard – Snail Wars – The Snedi Knights: Testing Ground of the Elder Gods in a MASSIVE GALAXY full of COMMUNITY EMPIRES (~80) – Featuring a COMMUNITY COUNCIL. What does that mean? Every few episodes you will have the chance to influence the Let’s Roleplay through decisions that will be made together: Comment to make proposals, vote and comment to decide together with your host which decisions will be taken – which planet shall we settle on? Which empire shall be attacked? How shall leaders be (nick-)named?
GAME SETTINGS: Massive Galaxy Mod (everything else Vanilla), Hard Difficulty, Roleplay House Rules to add roleplay spice, 80+ empires, 2500 stars, 4k60 graphics as long as the stability allows (then 1440p60 or 1080p60), the Nautiloids are Spiritual, Militarist, Xenophobes, Weak, Repugnant, but very adaptable and rapid breeders living under a theocratic empire.
â–ºSTORY: Fleeing from a whole galaxy hunting them, the Snedi Knights of the Nautiloids have arrived in a new galaxy, after a flight through a mysterious black hole where they were separated from the other Nautiloids. This splinter group of our timid snails is a little more militarist and listens less to authorities. Also, they love a little fun more than the average Nautiloid… again, they want to prepare the galaxy for the arrival of their legendary tentacle god Nautilon and this time, they’ll be even more decisive…
â–º Watch the over 70 Community Empires https://youtu.be/T8SMi9chE5A
that will ENRICH and DEFINE this Let’s Roleplay.
