Hello again Console Fans!
AC here, hope everyone had a great holiday season! We’re here to talk about more features included in the MegaCorp Expansion for Stellaris: Console Edition, releasing January 26th.
Ecumenopolis
That’s right, the MegaCorp expansion will allow you to decide to turn a planet into an ecumenopolis, a planet entirely covered by a city. No more restarting to get the right precursor chain, or stealing one from that innocently fallen empire (you monster).
In order to create an Ecumenopolis, you first need to unlock the Arcology Project Ascension Perk, which is available to non-gestalt Empires, and requires Anti-Gravity technology. This unlocks the Planetary Decision “Arcology Project”, which requires all districts on the planet to be city districts, as well as a substantial amount of resources, influence and takes 10 years to complete.
Ecumenopolis replace the regular districts on a planet with special districts unique to this planet type. These districts are Residential Arcology, Foundry Arcology, Industrial Arcology, and Leisure Arcology.
Ecumenopolis will quickly become the center of your industrial base, and definitely worth building towards during your playthroughs.
MegaCorp Authority
The MegaCorp Expansion comes with a new “Corporate” authority type, that represents an interstellar empire that is structured like a business, focusing on trade, building tall, and generating large amounts of energy credits. Empires using the new “Corporate” authority will be able to use the regular ethics (unlike gestalt and machine intelligences), but come with their own unique set of civics (that we will discuss in a later DD). Corporate authorities also use the Oligarchic election format, with a new leader elected every 20 years from a pre-selected pool of candidates.
The Corporate authority also comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks. MegaCorps get a higher administration cap, but also take double the penalty from being over their administration cap. This means that MegaCorps are ill-suited to controlling large amounts of territory, and should focus on claiming fewer, better quality systems and planets.MegaCorps also have special variants of the Administrator and Culture Workers, called “Executive” and “Manager” respectively, that produce trade value to their other effects.
Branch Offices
To offset MegaCorps’ maluses to directly controlling territory, they also have the ability to construct a Branch Office on the planets of other Empires. Branch offices are accessed from the “Branch Offices” tab on the planet screen, and unique Corporate Buildings can be created by the controlling MegaCorp. Branch Offices can normally only be buildable on planets owned by an empire that you also have a Commercial Pact with (although there are ways around this, that we will cover in next week’s DD).
Branch Offices generate income for the owning MegaCorp, based on the amount of trade value present on the planet, and so are best built on worlds with a large number of pops. Branch offices are limited to one building per 25 pops, up to a maximum of four.
Branch office buildings are generally mutually beneficial, generally giving the MegaCorp and the planet owner a bonus, or bonuses, but with the MegaCorp generally benefitting more than the planet owner. Moreover, many Corporate Buildings will also increase trade value, which benefits both the planet owner and the MegaCorp.
While Branch Offices require a Commercial Pact to be established, cancelling the Commercial Pact does not automatically close them down. If you choose to cancel a Commercial Pact with a MegaCorp, the Branch Office will operate as an “unlicensed” branch office, and you will gain the “Expropriation” Casus Belli on the MegaCorp. If you declare an Expropriation war, be sure that you will win, otherwise you may wind up as a Subsidiary of the MegaCorp (more on this next week). It is also not possible for a MegaCorp to establish a Branch Office on the planet of an empire they are at war with, or have an active truce with.
That’s it for this week folks, see you again next week where we will talk about Subsidiary Wars and the new civics included in the MegaCorp Expansion!
AC here, hope everyone had a great holiday season! We’re here to talk about more features included in the MegaCorp Expansion for Stellaris: Console Edition, releasing January 26th.
Ecumenopolis
That’s right, the MegaCorp expansion will allow you to decide to turn a planet into an ecumenopolis, a planet entirely covered by a city. No more restarting to get the right precursor chain, or stealing one from that innocently fallen empire (you monster).
In order to create an Ecumenopolis, you first need to unlock the Arcology Project Ascension Perk, which is available to non-gestalt Empires, and requires Anti-Gravity technology. This unlocks the Planetary Decision “Arcology Project”, which requires all districts on the planet to be city districts, as well as a substantial amount of resources, influence and takes 10 years to complete.
Ecumenopolis replace the regular districts on a planet with special districts unique to this planet type. These districts are Residential Arcology, Foundry Arcology, Industrial Arcology, and Leisure Arcology.
Ecumenopolis will quickly become the center of your industrial base, and definitely worth building towards during your playthroughs.
MegaCorp Authority
The MegaCorp Expansion comes with a new “Corporate” authority type, that represents an interstellar empire that is structured like a business, focusing on trade, building tall, and generating large amounts of energy credits. Empires using the new “Corporate” authority will be able to use the regular ethics (unlike gestalt and machine intelligences), but come with their own unique set of civics (that we will discuss in a later DD). Corporate authorities also use the Oligarchic election format, with a new leader elected every 20 years from a pre-selected pool of candidates.
The Corporate authority also comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks. MegaCorps get a higher administration cap, but also take double the penalty from being over their administration cap. This means that MegaCorps are ill-suited to controlling large amounts of territory, and should focus on claiming fewer, better quality systems and planets.MegaCorps also have special variants of the Administrator and Culture Workers, called “Executive” and “Manager” respectively, that produce trade value to their other effects.
Branch Offices
To offset MegaCorps’ maluses to directly controlling territory, they also have the ability to construct a Branch Office on the planets of other Empires. Branch offices are accessed from the “Branch Offices” tab on the planet screen, and unique Corporate Buildings can be created by the controlling MegaCorp. Branch Offices can normally only be buildable on planets owned by an empire that you also have a Commercial Pact with (although there are ways around this, that we will cover in next week’s DD).
Branch Offices generate income for the owning MegaCorp, based on the amount of trade value present on the planet, and so are best built on worlds with a large number of pops. Branch offices are limited to one building per 25 pops, up to a maximum of four.
Branch office buildings are generally mutually beneficial, generally giving the MegaCorp and the planet owner a bonus, or bonuses, but with the MegaCorp generally benefitting more than the planet owner. Moreover, many Corporate Buildings will also increase trade value, which benefits both the planet owner and the MegaCorp.
While Branch Offices require a Commercial Pact to be established, cancelling the Commercial Pact does not automatically close them down. If you choose to cancel a Commercial Pact with a MegaCorp, the Branch Office will operate as an “unlicensed” branch office, and you will gain the “Expropriation” Casus Belli on the MegaCorp. If you declare an Expropriation war, be sure that you will win, otherwise you may wind up as a Subsidiary of the MegaCorp (more on this next week). It is also not possible for a MegaCorp to establish a Branch Office on the planet of an empire they are at war with, or have an active truce with.
That’s it for this week folks, see you again next week where we will talk about Subsidiary Wars and the new civics included in the MegaCorp Expansion!
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