Hello Stellaris Community!
We want to thank each and every one of you for a fantastic PDXCON! While we hope that we can see you all in person next year, with COVID-times, this was the best outcome we could possibly hope for!
While we didn’t have any major PC announcements, we did celebrate Stellaris’ 5th anniversary with the 5th anniversary trailer, we also have some 5th Anniversary wallpapers from our amazingly talented art department. On Console, we announced Expansion Pass Four, which brings Console Edition up to the rough equivalent of PC 2.8.3 and includes Federations, the Ancient Relics Story Pack, and the Necroids Species Pack.
We also had a number of panels over the PDXCON weekend, each covering a different segment of the processes and design choices made in the game, from the overall game design philosophy, to the tech and processes behind the game, to designing the species. We’ve gathered up all the links to the panels so that you can watch them without having to scroll through 72 hours of PDXCON VODs.
We hosted a Stellaris Developer Q&A on the PDXCON Discord, with 7 devs answering over a hundred community questions. We had a lot of fun doing this, and hope to continue to do this sort of thing in the future!
We also hosted the Stellaris LAN Party on the Official Stellaris Discord, we had over a thousand players sign up to play games, with 91 days of playtime spent on voice in discord over the weekend. We also had four devs (shout out to Eladrin, duplo, Sir Rogers, and Alfray Stryke!) come into discord and play multiplayer games with the community, which was a rare opportunity for some genuine PDXCON-style interactions with the community during this virtual event. We want to thank everyone who played and hosted this weekend.
Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic PDXCON, and we can’t wait to (hopefully!) see you all in person at the next one!
We want to thank each and every one of you for a fantastic PDXCON! While we hope that we can see you all in person next year, with COVID-times, this was the best outcome we could possibly hope for!
While we didn’t have any major PC announcements, we did celebrate Stellaris’ 5th anniversary with the 5th anniversary trailer, we also have some 5th Anniversary wallpapers from our amazingly talented art department. On Console, we announced Expansion Pass Four, which brings Console Edition up to the rough equivalent of PC 2.8.3 and includes Federations, the Ancient Relics Story Pack, and the Necroids Species Pack.
We also had a number of panels over the PDXCON weekend, each covering a different segment of the processes and design choices made in the game, from the overall game design philosophy, to the tech and processes behind the game, to designing the species. We’ve gathered up all the links to the panels so that you can watch them without having to scroll through 72 hours of PDXCON VODs.
- Stellaris at the PDXCON Announcement Show (Featuring Daniel Moregård - Game Director, Stellaris)
- Fanatic Egalitarians - Bringing Stellaris to Consoles (Featuring David Giles - Producer, Tantalus, David Doe - Designer, Tantalus, Adam Clarke - Programmer, Tantalus, Hosted by: Pontus Rundqvist, PMM)
- Defining your own space - Making Great Stellaris Content (Featuring Aspec - Content Creator, EnigmaticRose - Content Creator, OldManMordaith - Content Creator, Stefan Annon - Content Creator, Hosted by: Graeme DJ Crawford - Community Ambassador)
- How to Conquer the Galaxy without really trying (Featuring Regunes - Content Creator, UMAR - Content Creator, Stefan Annon - Content Creator, Byron Aytoun - Embedded QA, Stellaris, Joseph Gardener - QA Lead, PDS, Hosted by: Graeme DJ Crawford - Community Ambassador)
- Fanatic Xenophiles - Creating Characters for Stellaris (Featuring Frida Eriksson - Senior Artist, Arctic, Emma Jonsson - Artist, Arctic, Hosted by: Graeme DJ Crawford, Community Ambassador)
- Fanatic Spiritualists - The Philosophy Behind Stellaris (Featuring Gemma Thomson - Content Designer, PDS, Stephen Muray - Game Designer, PDS, Daniel Moregård - Game Director, Stellaris, Hosted by: Anders Carlsson - Live Content Producer)
- Fanatic Materialists - A look at Stellaris Tech (Featuring Lorenzo Berni - Tech lead, PDS, Gustav Palmqvist - Programmer, PDS, Pierre du Plessis - Content Designer, PDS, Gwenael Tranvouez - Tech Lead, PDS)
- We Make Games - Grand Strategy Designers (Featuring Martin Anward - Game Director, Victoria 3, Alexander Oltner - Game Director, Crusader Kings, Dan Lind - Game Director, HOI, Daniel Moregård - Game Director, Stellaris)
We hosted a Stellaris Developer Q&A on the PDXCON Discord, with 7 devs answering over a hundred community questions. We had a lot of fun doing this, and hope to continue to do this sort of thing in the future!
| Question |
| Are you working remotely at the moment or do you work in the office? |
| Answer |
| Yep we have been working from home since March of last year. It was kind of amazing to watch happen. The decision was made and within 2 days everyone had got themselves set up at home, with kit being sent out from the office. It's not been easy but we're all very fortunate we could do it |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Not a Question, just wanted to thank the Stellaris team for such a great game |
| Answer |
| This isn't an answer, but thank you for the praise! |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| when will we get brighter color customization for empire? |
| Answer |
| No plans at current, but it's certainly something we'd consider. Just a case of finding the time to do the groundwork so it applies to all the shipsets in the right way etc. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Can we have something like Private Gates that only our empire (or those we choose to allow) can use? |
| Answer |
| I believe we recently changed Gateways so they're only usable by your empire (or your allies) |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| I for one like our new pop overlords! The nemesis dlc made me actually finish a game for the first time as the win condition made that possible without mopping up all of the map. Are there any plans for different nemesis types in the future or is that somehow moddable? |
| Answer |
| If you mean, do we want to add more content to Operations, Becoming the Crisis etc. Now we have the features in and know what works best it's something we'd like to consider, plenty of new cool operations we could add for example. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Is the faction system going to be reworked? It's sadly a minor feature that could be much more interesting |
| Answer |
| I see a lot of potential ways we could expand in the sphere of factions and internal politics. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see it as something we explore in a future release. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Necroids was excellent, and Caligula is my favourite content dev on Stellaris. Can we have more like Necroids from him soon please? |
| Answer |
| Why thank you! Necroids was, to be honest, a blast to make for all involved, so - without promising anything specific - such content is likely to come in future. Also, I can neither confirm nor deny reports of attempts to clone me. |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Any chance of expanding the diplomatic options for dealing with, for example, the Khan or other NPC only factions? |
| Answer |
| Nothing on the books right now, but a solid candidate for something we can revisit and expand upon. Even if it's just adding more Khan death events |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| any plans to revisit the Origins? I feel there's so much more potential for interesting and unique starts |
| Answer |
| We agree! Since they were introduced, Origins have indeed become a valuable part of our storytelling toolbox — see also, Necrophage in "Necroids". I can't speak to any future plans with them, of course, but Origins are always at least under consideration. |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| What is your favorite piece of Stellaris music? |
| Answer |
| Historically my favorite piece of Stellaris music is Synthetic God! |
| Answered by |
| duplo |
| Question |
| Should I open this Shielded World we just found in some unimportant outer spiral arm of the galaxy? |
| Answer |
| Always open sealed worlds, nothing will ever go wrong! |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| Are you planning on adding more customisation options for aliens like we can see in humans, maybe even done by freelancers? |
| Answer |
| Customization is one of the best parts of Stellaris, which also sets it apart from other games that are similar. Adding new customization options is something we like to do with most new DLC releases. This Question seems to relate mostly to cosmetics like costumes for the characters, however, and for that topic I can only say that it's something we've wanted to do, but never really got to with other priorities in mind. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Can we expect more separatist forces within own nation, like it happens sometimes with AI? |
| Answer |
| At the moment, the AI has the same separatist mechanics as the player, but it is worse at dealing with it. So partly, we want to make the AI better at keeping itself stable, but also, the separatist mechanics are quite old and in need of reworking, so hopefully at some point in the future we'll be able to revisit it (no promises there though!) |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Whats your perfect Sunday look like? |
| Answer |
| Waking up at 12:50 and start answering fan Questions |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| How did Fallen Empires and Crises came to be? |
| Answer |
| End-game crises were an idea that was born long ago, before the initial release of the game. A lot of ideas are based on common sci-fi tropes. Having the galaxy be invaded by a hostile force is something that makes sense, and is a really good rough edge to shake things up. By a similar token, Fallen Empires is just something that really makes sense considering out leading motto of the galaxy is ancient and full of wonders. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Are we getting music pack made by some band/music guy like in Hearts of Iron 4 game? |
| Answer |
| Well with this Question you have started an argument as to who the music would be by. We like the idea! But Trying to figure out who the artist would be without gladiatorial violence seems tricky. duplo Does have a lyre though... |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Will you be investing more in the Cloning Caligula project that you can neither confirm or deny exists? |
| Answer |
| REDACTED |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| Hello ! Do we have any chance to get full-sized portraits ? |
| Legs, tail and other limbs. Not important to gameplay, but really funny could be. |
| Answer |
| Any suggestion that our Starfish aliens have legs is strictly non-canonical. (In all seriousness, yes it would be quite cool, but not plans at present) |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Were there any mechanics or features that players ended up using in a way you didn't intend, not necessarily due to exploits but functionality or interactions you didn't anticipate? |
| Answer |
| All of them. |
| No, really. |
| The players are much better at finding edge cases and hilarious combinations than we are. |
| Gemma specifically mentions "People strip mining Wenkwort Artem and turning the utopia into an industrial hellscape." It was the first thing she did and it was enlightening. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Which feature that you added to the game are you most proud of? |
| Answer |
| I have worked a lot on the new intel system, from the investigation on the performance implications to the actual code architecture of it. It was a challenging and continuously evolving task, but I am definitely proud of it, how it changed the game, and how scriptable and flexible it ended up being. |
| Answered by |
| duplo |
| Question |
| Any thoughts on the technology card system? It's one of the few systems unchanged and I wonder if there are any exciting future plans for it? |
| Answer |
| It's very unlikely that we'll make any significant overhauls to the tech system. The tech system, if changed, is something that would be more likely to change in a sequel. That doesn't mean we wont make any changes, it just means that large changes are very unlikely. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Whats the meaning of life? |
| Answer |
| 42 |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| Could we see a map with multiple galaxies that open up earlier or after end-game, maybe Prethoryn Fleets home galazy, Unbidden's dimension/galaxy, etc |
| Answer |
| Multiple galaxies is a very cool idea that would be fun if it could be possible, but due to the realities of being constrained by computing power, it would be very difficult to pull off if we want to have much depth. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| are there ground combat reworks/improvements planned for the future? |
| Answer |
| No current plans that we can share, but any system can attract the gaze of game design at any time. We're unpredictable children of chaos. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Can we see more galactic shapes or setups in future? Like, twin galaxies, or clusters connected through wormholes, etc. |
| Answer |
| don't have current plans, but I'm not gonna lie, it would be super cool! |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Over the last year we got more options for our empire flags, which is one of those things that seems small but can actually add surprisingly much to the game. In fact I built several custom empires specifically around cool flag designs. Any chance we could also get more color options? I'm particularly missing white. |
| Answer |
| No immediate plans but something we are aware people want, there's quite a few flag pack mods out there and the like. Just a matter of finding a good time to tackle it. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| I love all the small stories my hapless explorers stumble upon, dig up or get eaten by in the vast void. Any chance there will be more of them? |
| Answer |
| It's quite likely, yes! We often look into means of reviving older content, similar to how we added more events and such for space fauna (space crystals, tiyanki, etc.) for last year's anniversary patch. Space is certainly rife with mishaps! Always wise to keep an eye out for new and surprising hazards. |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| Are you planning on adding new species archetypes? Like Lithoids |
| Answer |
| We're always having new ideas and working on new content, but we cannot give a specific answer |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| We've seen a lot of amazing mods and additional content made by the community, especially stuff for the ModJam which was amazing! I noticed that Cities Skylines does Content Creator Packs, is there a plan at all for something similar to Stellaris? Personally, I think it would be a great way to support some of the amazing members of the modding community. |
| Answer |
| User-generated content (UGC) is something that has a lot of potential, and it's very neat to be able to include community content in a more supported fashion. A reason why I think it's hard to make work well for Stellaris is due to the simple fact that our games tend to change quite a lot. What happens if you have bought a piece of content that was community created, but it stops working due to changes in the base game? It would be impossible for us to guarantee that anything you bought on the community market would still work. Although I certainly like the idea itself, I'm very weary of the potential risks and problems. To sum up, its something that makes sense, but we're not sure how to properly support it in a fair way. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Do you consider reworking the Shroud? I, as a spiritualist enjoyer, fell that psionic ascension is a little underwhelming |
| Answer |
| Maybe not a full rework but we are certainly aware that Psionic Ascension is feeling a bit anemic. We've got some ideas! |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Where did the idea of Stellaris first arise from? Was it a mish mash of other space games or something completely new? |
| Answer |
| The concept of Stellaris was originally created by Henrik Fåhraeus (aka Doomdark). The vision was to create a space 4X game with a lot of focus on exploration. The galaxy is ancient/vast and full of wonders. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Has the QA team had any Bizarre Adventures while testing the game? |
| Answer |
| My boss dresses strangely and strike poses, please send help |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| Any plan to redesign the gal market price curve, because currently in end game more than half of the minerals of the galaxy can come from it and the price still stays low? |
| Answer |
| It's very likely that the galactic market price normalizes too fast. Prices should probably return to the average slower, and it's something I've been thinking about doing a balance pass on. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| What are your thoughts on Stellaris' election/succession mechanics? Would you like to eventually expand on them? |
| Answer |
| Very much in the "okay" pile, it's an older system that might be worth a revisit but they do the job. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Can we expect to see another improvement on the diplomacy system - something more in line with EU4 maybe adding features like forcing religion, forming trade leagues, making marches, warning people, threatening war and even maybe royal marriage if the right govt type? (I feel like EU4 is miles ahead on diplo and should be emulated ASAP) |
| Answer |
| We would certainly like to improve the diplomatic options in Stellaris, and I think EU4 is a good comparison for something like that. I share your sentiment that it's something I'd want to strive towards, but I can't make any promises for what that might entail. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Galactic Emperor cannot wage wars against members of the Galactic Empire atm. Not sure if this is a bug or feature? For now galactic custodian seems to be much more flexible, as he can do almost everything as Galactic Emperor, but can claim and annex territory of other empires, humilate them, or whatever. Are you planning to change this for the Galactic Emperor? |
| Answer |
| as long as pax galactica is effect this is fine, if not. bug report on the forum plz! |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Does the AI utilize intel in decision-making? For example, is the AI more hesitant to declare war if it doesn’t have any or very little military intel? |
| Answer |
| The AI does take Intel into account for war declarations. |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| Do you consider to create something like the Legacystuff in the boardgame for the pc and console versions ? |
| Answer |
| It would be incredibly cool but we don't have any plans right now. (I personally think it'd be super cool to see the empire you won a game with show up as a fallen empire in the next one.) |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Any plans to change how leaders work? There's multiple things that could use improvement, from how easy it is to get immortal leaders to how low value +% exp gain to the scientist/governor macro to be "optimal" etc. |
| Answer |
| See another answer. Leaders are fine right now, but we're open to giving them a once over. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Is there any more plans to reduce the lag on late game in large/big or even medium maps after the pop growth update? |
| Answer |
| Work on performance is never over. We're pretty happy with the performance as of Nemesis but there's still work to be done. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| would it be possible to expand upon Precursor events? They feel as though they don't contribute as much as they could. Great potential for Halo level catastrophes |
| Answer |
| We have added to precursors in the past with Ancient Relics adding the Baol and Zroni, so it's certainly the sort of thing that we could imagine adding to in future. |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| 2 parts Question, What's the weirdest/funniest bug you guys encountered? and what was the hardest bug to track down and fix? What language is Stellaris programmed in? |
| Answer |
| Funniest bug encountered in my opinion? During the development of Federations, we encountered a peculiar issue: some AI countries started sending envoys to asteroids. Even now we do not know if they were trying to convince the asteroid not to crash on their colony or maybe to rival them for some easy influence. The hardest one I have encountered? Some ships not being destroyed during a battle and following the attacker fleet as some sort of pets: sounds harmless and easy, but it's not. |
| Answered by |
| duplo |
| Question |
| can the IA become the galactic emperor by itself and how to make it happen, I'd like to collect all the steam achievement? |
| Answer |
| It can and does! |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Do you think there is intelligent life out there somewhere? Or are we alone in this vast and wonderfull cosmos |
| Answer |
| Sometimes I think the best proof there's intelligent life out there is that they haven't contacted us |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| What is your favourite blorg colour? |
| Answer |
| Octarine. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| When you finish an anomaly there's sometimes a follow up special project which requires you to stop what you're doing to click it to start it. Any plans to make this a smoother/automatic action for the player from the event window? |
| Answer |
| If you can forgive a vague answer as I attempt to speak on behalf of our UX colleagues: quite likely! Refining the UX and generally improving the quality-of-life of the game is an ongoing project for our user experience team. How events play out in the UI has been a part of that, and continues to be so. We content designers love to see that sort of thing smoothed out, too! |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| do you considere having more tools to dicriminate (the mathematical sense) our pops so we can have an easier time modifiing their traits or giving them different rights? |
| Answer |
| I'm not sure I understand what you mean exactly. Can you expand on your Questions, please? |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| Any new DLC planned this year for Stellaris? |
| Answer |
| There is plenty of cool stuff on the way! Can't talk about it just yet but keep an eye out |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Any chance for leviathans and fallen empires getting power sliders just like endgame crisises? Those seem to fall behind for players who already crush the grand admiral difficulty. |
| Answer |
| Not sure, adding new options like that can be quite a bit of work and in this case it'd only really benefit a small section of players who can smack around FE's with ease, but maybe! |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| In the Stellaris universe, was the Roswell incident a alien empires nations ship or scout sent to earth, or just a "weather balloon" |
| Answer |
| By asking that you already know too much. |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| If there is Alien life out there and they come to Earth and see all the movies we have made about blowing them up etc what do you think their reaction will be? |
| Answer |
| On the one hand, I'd be just as intrigued to see how they react to the stories we tell about us blowing each other up. On the other: almost every one of those alien invasion films also begins with exposing glaring deficiencies in our planet's defenses! So who knows — maybe said aliens can simply work out how to exploit those, and improve where our fictional versions of them failed. |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| are you satisfied about the pace of the different mechanics of the game (battle and destruction vs fleet rebuilding time, tech curve vs lengh of the game, ship speed vs speed of a war, ...) |
| Answer |
| I think snowballing is a bit to fast right now, especially tech. I also don't like that Unity is so easy to gain without really having to focus or think about it. A lot of it these issues are compound by the fact that we never got around to properly complete the intended design for empire sprawl / admin cap etc. I have some ideas for how we want to improve that in the future. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| There will not be an anniversary update this year, right ? (If you do not count the 3.0.3 Patch (altough you said its the last update for 3.0 so who knows ?)) |
| Answer |
| no Anniversary patch, the timing didn't quite work out with wrapping up work on Nemesis. The art we did put out in celebration is pretty damn sick (the one with Jeff i currently my desktop background) |
| Anniversary patches aren't dead just bad timing this year. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| have you ever thought of doing a cinematic for when the game boots up to showcase some of the stuff |
| Answer |
| It's certainly a neat idea, but its not something we've chosen to prioritize. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| If a blorg becomes part of a hivemind (via assimilation), does the hivemind count as a friend? |
| Answer |
| Hivemind is the friendliest way of being friends. |
| Answered by |
| duplo |
| Question |
| Are there plans on adding new victory conditions? |
| Answer |
| If our future content fits in with adding a win condition to go along with it. Yes! But also maybe something we can do independently (Science victory anyone?) |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| ever since the release of stellaris 3.0, repeal resolutions and breaches of resolutions have been broken beyond compare, are there plans to fix this for 3.1, or to hotfix them for 3.0.3? |
| Answer |
| I'm not aware of any resolution being broken to the extent you're talking about. Can you give us a bug report on the forums with a save and we'll give it a look. |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| Any chance for an expansion of the diplomatic system? Especially for influencing the stance AI-Empires have on each other. Starting wars with clandestine skullduggery is fine, but I want to make my friends also love each other (and strengthen my federation) ... |
| Answer |
| We've discussed "matchmaking" between empires, and it's possible that we'll see ways to improve relations between two different empires somehow in the future. |
| Then the discussion degenerated into the theoretical design for a Blorg Dating Sim. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Moah when I want to change my pops trait, I would like to only change my farmer to be agricultural and my technicians to have the energy generation bonus, but curently I can only select pops by planet and I waned to know if you will put more selection category (like jobs or social class) |
| Answer |
| Nothing like that is planned at the moment |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| What Stellaris mod(s) have impressed or inspired you the most? |
| Answer |
| To give a full (and not completely serious) answer: |
| - All of mine |
| - There are some insane mods out there that do things we didn't even think was possible by sheer force of will (and thousands of lines of scripting). On occasion, the modders showing me their scripts has even persuaded me to make time for adding code support to make their work easier! |
| - I always love seeing total conversions like AlphaMod and Star Trek. And the visuals on the likes of Real Space are awesome. |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| do you take in account the most OverPowered build in the balancing process of the game? |
| Answer |
| No. We consider it to some degree but only to a point. Simply too many variables when it comes to build optimisation and the vast majority of players don't play that way. |
| Answered by |
| JoJo (Stellaris QA Lead) |
| Question |
| Are there any plans to add espionage operations that aren’t obviously hostile or even beneficial to the empire that the operation is being conducted on? For example, having decryption codes for a rival empire being mysteriously “found”? |
| Answer |
| We have plenty of ideas for additional Operations for future DLC, but I can't promise when that would be. Something I've wanted, as an example, would be to have an underground railroad kind of Operation that could increase the chance for you to rescue pops that are being purged, and move them to your empire. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| So, about that Blorg-dating-Sim .... asking for a friend here ... |
| Answer |
| I really want to do that! |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| when will we get a stereotypical "little green men" race of aliens to create an empire with? |
| Answer |
| We have some green lizards that are absolutely perfect for that purpose - and I can tell you that having a species with the adjective "Little Green" can be pretty hilarious! |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Any ideas about what could be done about ground combat to make it more interesting, if possible? |
| Answer |
| Ground combat is very unlikely to be a priority for Stellaris. I wrote a bit about it on the forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...irecting-nemesis.1464165/page-7#post-27394635 |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Has there been any thoughts of adding more relics in the future? I love uncovering them! |
| Answer |
| Yes! Relics are great. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| What's your favorite origin and why? |
| Answer |
| I really enjoy playing Scions. I love when I'm dying and daddy comes and saves me! |
| Answered by |
| duplo |
| Question |
| Any plans to make xenos more alien? They feel somewhat human at the moment, although the descriptions in the custom empires hint at interesting variations. |
| Answer |
| In a way, that's a tricky one to answer! We try to leave as much of the xenos' personality and stories to you, the player's, imaginations — and try not to intrude too much on that. The preset empires are one way we try to provide the foundation of some more alien stories, as you say, and we ensure that every event text we write can suit as many species as possible. It's a delicate balance, though! Too alien may be just that — too alien to relate to, being the human players that (most of us) are. |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| Is the artificial intelligence going to be reviewed/reworked in the next updates? Thanks! |
| Answer |
| We're constantly working on the AI and the feedback we gained from the AI open beta was incredibly useful. There's a lot of investigations and experiments we're trying internally with the AI. Can't give you a timeline, but more improvements are coming. |
| Answered by |
| Byron "Alfray Stryke" (QA) |
| Question |
| If a blorg had to choose between a friend and a friend and one was not going to be a friend afterwards anymore. Which friend would the blorg choose? |
| Answer |
| If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. - By putting off the decision until the heat death of the universe, they will both remain the Blorg's friend. |
| Answered by |
| Stephen "Eladrin" Muray (Designer) |
| Question |
| Are there any plans to add a larger selection of weapons to the game? |
| Answer |
| No current plans to add more weapons, even though its always cool. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| Have there been any sci-fi franchises in particular that inspired certain elements of the game so far and any plans for cross-overs/collabs with other franchises/games in the future? |
| Answer |
| We have fans of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Philip K. DIck on the team. Of course Star Wars is always a big inspiration, and we all have our obscure scifi stuff we like (CL Moore is mine), and there's Animé as well. So in conclusion: all of them pretty much |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| Ok hear me out, tripods they worked in war of the worlds why cant we use them for conquering other planets? |
| Answer |
| There happens to be a giant tripod statue in an English town I used to live in, and I'd be lying if I said I'd never fantasised about it coming to life and conquering that part of Surrey. I am totally on board with that idea — so long as they're not every bit as susceptible to toppling over as an AT-AT. That.. could make an invasion awkward. ;D |
| Answered by |
| Gemma Thomson |
| Question |
| what about system modifier (like pulsar negating shield), do you plan to add more of this kind? |
| Answer |
| No, once we added those, we decided we'd never ever touch that again. Wait, wait, that's not right. Maybe, maybe not, I can't say for certain (it's the sort of thing I could imagine us adding). But at the moment there's a significant problem with their visibility, in the sense that you really need to know about them to know that they are having an effect (I say this having once spent 20 minutes trying to work out why my fleet had no shields in a certain system!), so personally I have hopes that we'll be able to improve the UI for system modifiers, if we ever add more of them. (Also, I've had modders poke me quite a few times asking for megastructures and the like to have system modifiers, which seems like a cool idea) |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| when we will get XL and T missile weapon like asteroïdes launcher? |
| Answer |
| No current plans, but it's something I've wanted to do forever. It's just lower priority than other things. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
| whatever happens to all the space junk we have in Earths atmosphere? Was it harvested for materials or still floating up there causing troubles |
| Answer |
| How do you think the caravaneers got started? |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| I know you will not promise anything, but what would you think about an aquatic species pack ? |
| Answer |
| https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1153460015 |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
| Question |
| Any data on how many non-human players there are? |
| Answer |
| there are only other fellow humans like us, fellow human. |
| Answered by |
| Moah |
| Question |
| [Will we get the origin that makes you start on Hive World, Just like, there is one already for Machine World?] |
| Answer |
| It's something that makes sense. If memory serves right, the reason why we didn't add it for Federations was that it felt a bit uninspired. It's something we'll take with us and see what we can figure out. |
| Answered by |
| Daniel Moregård |
| Question |
Planet modifiers and planet expeditions/away teams DLC when?  |
| Answer |
| We tried to do some field research for that, but the last team we sent out has not reported back in quite some time... I'm sure nothing bad has happened and it is not at all connected to the "HAK HAK HAK" that seems to be resonating across our comms systems. |
| Answered by |
| Caligula |
We also hosted the Stellaris LAN Party on the Official Stellaris Discord, we had over a thousand players sign up to play games, with 91 days of playtime spent on voice in discord over the weekend. We also had four devs (shout out to Eladrin, duplo, Sir Rogers, and Alfray Stryke!) come into discord and play multiplayer games with the community, which was a rare opportunity for some genuine PDXCON-style interactions with the community during this virtual event. We want to thank everyone who played and hosted this weekend.
Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic PDXCON, and we can’t wait to (hopefully!) see you all in person at the next one!
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