So Stellaris is a grand 4X strategy game currently in development by Paradox and to be released on the 9th of May. I for one am very excited for this game and since I haven't seen many News about this game apart form the initial announcement at the gamescom last year, I wanted to present all the information I currently have about this game in one neat little thread so that everyone can see whether the game would be something for them or not.
There is quite a lot information about the game available, but it's mostly in developer diaries and interviews on the developers forums and not many people tend to visit those sources.
If you prefer a more visual form of information than a wall of text, there are also frequent streams of the game on the developers twitch channel
https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
They stream the game every thursday at around 15:00 CET. Both previous streams have allready been uploaded to youtube and total about 3 hours of footage.
Coming to the actual explanations I will divide the information into the topics exploration, species, research, planets, diplomacy, war and unique aspects. Enjoy.
Exploration
Species
Research
Planets
Diplomacy
War
More
So, got any questions? I will do my best to answer them. If you have more advanced or complicated questions you might want to visit the developers forums under
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/stellaris.900/
There will be a new developer diary each monday and a thread to a new stream each thursday. Generally if your question is posted within the first 1-2 hours after the DD goes up or the stream ends the developers will search those threads for questions and answer them.
There is quite a lot information about the game available, but it's mostly in developer diaries and interviews on the developers forums and not many people tend to visit those sources.
If you prefer a more visual form of information than a wall of text, there are also frequent streams of the game on the developers twitch channel
https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
They stream the game every thursday at around 15:00 CET. Both previous streams have allready been uploaded to youtube and total about 3 hours of footage.
Coming to the actual explanations I will divide the information into the topics exploration, species, research, planets, diplomacy, war and unique aspects. Enjoy.
Exploration
Exploration plays a big part in the early game of Stellaris. Similar to other 4x games every ship that visits a star system will discover all planets located in that star systems and their rough types. For more information you will need special science-ships in stellaris.
These ships will scan all objects in a star system to gain more information about them. This can tell you how inhabitable a planet can be for your species. It will also uncover so-called orbital ressources, which specifies ressources which can be exploited by orbital mining or research stations without the need for a colony. The stations can however only be build if the star system is inside of your zone of influence.
Additionally the science ships will be able to uncover anomalies. Anomalies are special research opportunities. They will have a difficulty level and a base-failure chance. If you scientist has a higher level than the anomalies difficulty level the failure chance will get lower, if the scientist has a lower level the failure chance will get worse.
Failure, in most cases, generally just means that the anomaly dissapears and with it any advantage you could have gotten out of a successfull research. There is also the rare possibility of a catastrophic failure which will have negative consequences. These can range all the way from killing your scientist to blowing up the planet. Caution is advised.
But the risks may be worth it. Successfull analysis of an anomaly can have all kinds of different advantages. It can add a lot of orbital ressources to a planet, it can give temporary powerfull modifiers to you entire empire. Or it can lead to missions.
Missions represent larger research projects that can be undertaken, usually resulting in even bigger rewards. Some missions can just require you to spent some research effort for a time, for example in order to decipher a recovered alien artifact. Other missions might even send you on a hunt for artifacts. If you uncover an artifact of a precursor race you can get a mission to find more artifacts of the same precursor race. Finding all artifacts will lead you to the home planet of the precursor race which generally will contain various goodies.
These ships will scan all objects in a star system to gain more information about them. This can tell you how inhabitable a planet can be for your species. It will also uncover so-called orbital ressources, which specifies ressources which can be exploited by orbital mining or research stations without the need for a colony. The stations can however only be build if the star system is inside of your zone of influence.
Additionally the science ships will be able to uncover anomalies. Anomalies are special research opportunities. They will have a difficulty level and a base-failure chance. If you scientist has a higher level than the anomalies difficulty level the failure chance will get lower, if the scientist has a lower level the failure chance will get worse.
Failure, in most cases, generally just means that the anomaly dissapears and with it any advantage you could have gotten out of a successfull research. There is also the rare possibility of a catastrophic failure which will have negative consequences. These can range all the way from killing your scientist to blowing up the planet. Caution is advised.
But the risks may be worth it. Successfull analysis of an anomaly can have all kinds of different advantages. It can add a lot of orbital ressources to a planet, it can give temporary powerfull modifiers to you entire empire. Or it can lead to missions.
Missions represent larger research projects that can be undertaken, usually resulting in even bigger rewards. Some missions can just require you to spent some research effort for a time, for example in order to decipher a recovered alien artifact. Other missions might even send you on a hunt for artifacts. If you uncover an artifact of a precursor race you can get a mission to find more artifacts of the same precursor race. Finding all artifacts will lead you to the home planet of the precursor race which generally will contain various goodies.
Species
Species in Stellaris are defined by various factors. The visual representation of the race is an animated picture generally used for diplomacy or leader portraits. These are seperated into various phenotypes like mammalian, fungoid, reptilian, anthropoid(insects), molluscoid and avian. All of these have around 16 different alien appearances to them in order to avoid meeting the same aliens over and over again. Aside from the visual aspect the phenotype will also play a certain role in diplomacy, as it is easier to deal with aliens that are similar to you.
Going into more gameplay each species also has certain traits. The selection of traits is fairly standart for an 4X game. You start of with two points and can select traits were positive traits cost you points and negative traits give you points.
In order to specify your empire there's also the ethos.
The ethos of your empire specifies on which foundation your empire is build of. There are 8 different ethos and 2 of them always contradict each other the ethos and their contradicting ethos are:
Pacifict <-> Militarist
Materialist <-> Spiritualist
Collectivist <-> Individualist
Xeniphile <-> Xenophobe
You can use 3 points to select your ethos and each ethos cost 1 point. You can also choose to become a fanatic in one ethos which will cost 2 points instead. The ethos will give generall benefits to your empire.
Additionally the ethos will also influence which government types you are able to choose.
There are 15 different government types availible, which generally provide different bonuses to your empire. Additionally Absolut governments are able to build certain great projects for each ruler. So a militarist dictatorship would have the ability to build one extra-big, extra-strong ship during the lifetime of each ruler.
There are now only 2 major choices left in order to create your empire. First you will need to select your original method of faster-than-light travel.
In stellaris species will have the choice between 3 different kinds of ftl-travel at the start of the game.
1. Warp - Warp-ftl travel allows the free travel of ships between star systems. This offers a great deal of flexibility but comes with some downsides. Warp-travel requires a lot more energy than other ftl methods and thus needs more ship-slots dedicated to energy generation. Additionally it is the slowest form of ftl travel and ships are unable to more for a short time after arriving in a star system from ftl-travel giving enemies opportunity for an ambush.
2. Hyperdrives - Hyperdrives allow the travel of the stars using pre-generated hyperlines. This is very similar to games like the new MoO. It's not as flexible as warp-travel but has the advantage that it doesn't require as much power and is significantly faster than warp-travel. The downside is that it is easy for enemies to fortify hyperlane travel-points, which free warp-travel might be able to circumvent.
3. Wormhole-generation - Another form of ftl-travel comes from wormhole generation. This requires building dedicated wormhole generation at the edge of your star system, which are able to setup two-way wormholes to another star system. The wormholes can only be generated for a short time and will instantly collapse after use. However they allow fleets to instantly travel to another star system without any travel-time. However the wormhole generator will generally need time to generate the wormhole and larger fleets will require more and more time for wormholes to be generated. This can be very powerfull for striking into the enemy empire without warning, but has the distinct problem that wormhole generators will present a large weakness of any empire using them, since the desctruction of these generators can leave their fleets standed in a system without a way to return.
The last choice is about the starting weapon system of the empire.
1. Kinetic weapons are short-range and good against enemy shields.
2. Laser weapons have a medium range and are able to penetrate the armor of enemy shields.
3. Missile weapons have a very long-range but can be easily shot down by point-defense weapons.
Going into more gameplay each species also has certain traits. The selection of traits is fairly standart for an 4X game. You start of with two points and can select traits were positive traits cost you points and negative traits give you points.
In order to specify your empire there's also the ethos.
The ethos of your empire specifies on which foundation your empire is build of. There are 8 different ethos and 2 of them always contradict each other the ethos and their contradicting ethos are:
Pacifict <-> Militarist
Materialist <-> Spiritualist
Collectivist <-> Individualist
Xeniphile <-> Xenophobe
You can use 3 points to select your ethos and each ethos cost 1 point. You can also choose to become a fanatic in one ethos which will cost 2 points instead. The ethos will give generall benefits to your empire.
Additionally the ethos will also influence which government types you are able to choose.
There are 15 different government types availible, which generally provide different bonuses to your empire. Additionally Absolut governments are able to build certain great projects for each ruler. So a militarist dictatorship would have the ability to build one extra-big, extra-strong ship during the lifetime of each ruler.
There are now only 2 major choices left in order to create your empire. First you will need to select your original method of faster-than-light travel.
In stellaris species will have the choice between 3 different kinds of ftl-travel at the start of the game.
1. Warp - Warp-ftl travel allows the free travel of ships between star systems. This offers a great deal of flexibility but comes with some downsides. Warp-travel requires a lot more energy than other ftl methods and thus needs more ship-slots dedicated to energy generation. Additionally it is the slowest form of ftl travel and ships are unable to more for a short time after arriving in a star system from ftl-travel giving enemies opportunity for an ambush.
2. Hyperdrives - Hyperdrives allow the travel of the stars using pre-generated hyperlines. This is very similar to games like the new MoO. It's not as flexible as warp-travel but has the advantage that it doesn't require as much power and is significantly faster than warp-travel. The downside is that it is easy for enemies to fortify hyperlane travel-points, which free warp-travel might be able to circumvent.
3. Wormhole-generation - Another form of ftl-travel comes from wormhole generation. This requires building dedicated wormhole generation at the edge of your star system, which are able to setup two-way wormholes to another star system. The wormholes can only be generated for a short time and will instantly collapse after use. However they allow fleets to instantly travel to another star system without any travel-time. However the wormhole generator will generally need time to generate the wormhole and larger fleets will require more and more time for wormholes to be generated. This can be very powerfull for striking into the enemy empire without warning, but has the distinct problem that wormhole generators will present a large weakness of any empire using them, since the desctruction of these generators can leave their fleets standed in a system without a way to return.
The last choice is about the starting weapon system of the empire.
1. Kinetic weapons are short-range and good against enemy shields.
2. Laser weapons have a medium range and are able to penetrate the armor of enemy shields.
3. Missile weapons have a very long-range but can be easily shot down by point-defense weapons.
Research
Research always plays a big part in 4X games. In Stellaris research is divided into three fields. Physics, Society and Engineering. Each research department gets lead by an scientist, whose traits will influence the speed and availability of research.
When selecting a new research the game doesn't let you go through a research tree towards certain goals. Instead you are presented with 3 different research options, which are randomly selected from a pile. There is still a clear progression, as you will need to complete earlier research to unlock laters ones, but the progression through the possible research will generally not be the same for each race.
The available research options will also be influenced by various factors.
If the lead scientist of a department has a specialty in a special field, he will be more likely to get research options for that particular field. The ethos of your empire will also influence which kind of research you get. Spiritualist empires will be more likely to research psy-abilities while materialist empires will be more likely to get cybernetics.
Additionally special research projects can be unlocked through completing certain missions or scanning the debry of ships or space monsters. Additionally getting a lead scientist with the "insanity" trait can lead to some very crazy research options but bears the danger that these research options might not actually lead to anything.
When selecting a new research the game doesn't let you go through a research tree towards certain goals. Instead you are presented with 3 different research options, which are randomly selected from a pile. There is still a clear progression, as you will need to complete earlier research to unlock laters ones, but the progression through the possible research will generally not be the same for each race.
The available research options will also be influenced by various factors.
If the lead scientist of a department has a specialty in a special field, he will be more likely to get research options for that particular field. The ethos of your empire will also influence which kind of research you get. Spiritualist empires will be more likely to research psy-abilities while materialist empires will be more likely to get cybernetics.
Additionally special research projects can be unlocked through completing certain missions or scanning the debry of ships or space monsters. Additionally getting a lead scientist with the "insanity" trait can lead to some very crazy research options but bears the danger that these research options might not actually lead to anything.
Planets
Planets in Stellaris are represented in a number of tiles. Each tile can harbor one population unit, which will gather any ressources that the tile provides.
Tiles can be improved by building buildings on them, but this requires care as it can destroy the potential of some tiles. If a tile naturally produces minerals and a mine gets build on the tile, which gather more minerals, the overall output of the tile will be the natural output in addition to the output of the building. If the tile would instead naturally produce food and a mine gets build on it, it would only output the minerals that the mine is producing and the food would be lost.
Additionally some tiles of a planet might be blocked. These can generally be removed through the use of minerals and energy, but some require more care. While the tile-blockers on your homeworld can be removed straight away, certain research projects will be required to remove tile-blockers on alien planets. Additionally these alien tile-blockers might have unique properties. One planet might have forests that are able to move. Not only are these tile-blockers harder to remove, but they would be able to destroy your buildings should they move into a tile that allready contains a building.
Additionally to the normal ressources there are also strategic ressources. These can be uncovered through research and, when mined, can be used to build extra strong buildings or modules.
Modules are used for spaceports. Spaceports are used for building the various spaceships that are needed for space exploration and conquest. These Spaceports can be upgraded with a variety of modules that get them to generate extra ressources or make them better for the defense of the planet.
Tiles can be improved by building buildings on them, but this requires care as it can destroy the potential of some tiles. If a tile naturally produces minerals and a mine gets build on the tile, which gather more minerals, the overall output of the tile will be the natural output in addition to the output of the building. If the tile would instead naturally produce food and a mine gets build on it, it would only output the minerals that the mine is producing and the food would be lost.
Additionally some tiles of a planet might be blocked. These can generally be removed through the use of minerals and energy, but some require more care. While the tile-blockers on your homeworld can be removed straight away, certain research projects will be required to remove tile-blockers on alien planets. Additionally these alien tile-blockers might have unique properties. One planet might have forests that are able to move. Not only are these tile-blockers harder to remove, but they would be able to destroy your buildings should they move into a tile that allready contains a building.
Additionally to the normal ressources there are also strategic ressources. These can be uncovered through research and, when mined, can be used to build extra strong buildings or modules.
Modules are used for spaceports. Spaceports are used for building the various spaceships that are needed for space exploration and conquest. These Spaceports can be upgraded with a variety of modules that get them to generate extra ressources or make them better for the defense of the planet.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy plays an important role in Stellaris. Upon first contact with aliens, nothing will actually be known about them. You will be unable to see their zone of influence or communicate with the aliens. Contact can be established through a special, quick research project for each alien race or just waiting for the aliens to establish communications themselves.
During these times it is actually possible to reenact the first-contact war from Mass Effect. Since no diplomatic restrictions are in place yet it is possible to attack ships, stations or even planets of the aliens freely. It is even possible to conquer an alien planet during this phase, but once an alien planet is conquered contact will automatically established and further aggression will require war. But the aliens are unlikely to forget any aggressions commited before communication was established.
Once communication is established it is possible to commicate with aliens. It is possible to trade with them for ressources or certain aggreements. Technology trading is however not possible.
Additionally it is possible to send an embassy to increase relations, though the number of embassies you can have at any given time is limited. It's also possible to declare them your rival, which will increase you influence. They can also be asked to join an alliance, which means every war will be fought together or even a federation, which represents a tighter alliance with a sequentially switching president.
During these times it is actually possible to reenact the first-contact war from Mass Effect. Since no diplomatic restrictions are in place yet it is possible to attack ships, stations or even planets of the aliens freely. It is even possible to conquer an alien planet during this phase, but once an alien planet is conquered contact will automatically established and further aggression will require war. But the aliens are unlikely to forget any aggressions commited before communication was established.
Once communication is established it is possible to commicate with aliens. It is possible to trade with them for ressources or certain aggreements. Technology trading is however not possible.
Additionally it is possible to send an embassy to increase relations, though the number of embassies you can have at any given time is limited. It's also possible to declare them your rival, which will increase you influence. They can also be asked to join an alliance, which means every war will be fought together or even a federation, which represents a tighter alliance with a sequentially switching president.
War
First lets talk about ships.
Similar to other 4x games, ships can be customised to fit you need. Ships are build from one up to three core segments. Different core segments will have different numbers of weapons and utility slots. Weapons slots determine which weapons can be used on a ship, while utility slots range from power generators to power your ships over shield generators and armor to fighter bays in bigger ships. Research will unlock more and more customisation options as the game progresses.
As we have allready covered you are automatically somewhat in a state of cold war if you meet an alien species that you haven't established communications with.
Declaring war on another empire that you do have communication with is a lot more formal. The aggressor issues a formal declaration of war towards the empire and now chooses his reasons for going to war. The reasons are represented as wargoals. Possible wargoals include taking planets of the enemy or vassalizing another empire forcefully. Relative to their respective worth each wargoal has a cost associated with it. The total cost of all declared wargoals cannot exceed 100. To actually enfore the wargoals you have to gather warscore whitch ranges from -100 to 100. Warscore is gained through defeating fleet and starbases and conquering planets. When negotiating a peace you can select the wargoals that you want enforced from the wargoals you selected during the declaration of war. Whether or not the AI will accept the peacedeal will depend on how the war is going and how much warscore you have compared to the cost of the wargoals you are trying to enforce.
When defending from an enemy attack you will also be able to select wargoals of your own up to a cost of 100. Unlike the aggressor however the defender is able to do this up to a year after the war has been declared, so his decision can be influenced by how the war is going at the moment.
The cost of certain wargoals can also be influenced. It will be cheaper to demand a planet that has members of your primary species residing on it, since all your really doing is liberating members of your species.
Similar to other 4x games, ships can be customised to fit you need. Ships are build from one up to three core segments. Different core segments will have different numbers of weapons and utility slots. Weapons slots determine which weapons can be used on a ship, while utility slots range from power generators to power your ships over shield generators and armor to fighter bays in bigger ships. Research will unlock more and more customisation options as the game progresses.
As we have allready covered you are automatically somewhat in a state of cold war if you meet an alien species that you haven't established communications with.
Declaring war on another empire that you do have communication with is a lot more formal. The aggressor issues a formal declaration of war towards the empire and now chooses his reasons for going to war. The reasons are represented as wargoals. Possible wargoals include taking planets of the enemy or vassalizing another empire forcefully. Relative to their respective worth each wargoal has a cost associated with it. The total cost of all declared wargoals cannot exceed 100. To actually enfore the wargoals you have to gather warscore whitch ranges from -100 to 100. Warscore is gained through defeating fleet and starbases and conquering planets. When negotiating a peace you can select the wargoals that you want enforced from the wargoals you selected during the declaration of war. Whether or not the AI will accept the peacedeal will depend on how the war is going and how much warscore you have compared to the cost of the wargoals you are trying to enforce.
When defending from an enemy attack you will also be able to select wargoals of your own up to a cost of 100. Unlike the aggressor however the defender is able to do this up to a year after the war has been declared, so his decision can be influenced by how the war is going at the moment.
The cost of certain wargoals can also be influenced. It will be cheaper to demand a planet that has members of your primary species residing on it, since all your really doing is liberating members of your species.
More
Here I describe other aspects of Stellaris that didn't fit into the other topics
- Endgame crisis - To keep the end of the game interesting there are certain crisis that can happen which will need a lot of effort to be resolved. Invaders from another Galaxy could come in from the side and start conquering system or too ambitious advancements in robotics could lead to an uprising from all robots in the galaxy.
- Ending the game - There are victory conditions to the game. We don't know all them yet, but it has been confirmed that the standart conquest victory can be achieved. Additionally there will be a victory condition about finding artifacts of one particullary hard-to-find precurser civilization.
- Ringworld - There will apparently be a Ringworld present in the game, protected by ancient and powerfull guardians.
- Endgame crisis - To keep the end of the game interesting there are certain crisis that can happen which will need a lot of effort to be resolved. Invaders from another Galaxy could come in from the side and start conquering system or too ambitious advancements in robotics could lead to an uprising from all robots in the galaxy.
- Ending the game - There are victory conditions to the game. We don't know all them yet, but it has been confirmed that the standart conquest victory can be achieved. Additionally there will be a victory condition about finding artifacts of one particullary hard-to-find precurser civilization.
- Ringworld - There will apparently be a Ringworld present in the game, protected by ancient and powerfull guardians.
So, got any questions? I will do my best to answer them. If you have more advanced or complicated questions you might want to visit the developers forums under
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/stellaris.900/
There will be a new developer diary each monday and a thread to a new stream each thursday. Generally if your question is posted within the first 1-2 hours after the DD goes up or the stream ends the developers will search those threads for questions and answer them.
