Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today marks the first dev diary about MegaCorp, the major expansion accompanying the 2.2 'Le Guin update', and the topic is the titular feature of MegaCorp: MegaCorporations. As said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art, prototype interfaces and non-final numbers.

MegaCorporations
A MegaCorporation is a type of empire that uses the new 'Corporate' authority added in MegaCorp. It is an interstellar empire that is structured like a business, and is focused on trade, building tall and generating large amounts of Energy Credits. Unlike the other two new authorities added in Utopia and Synthetic Dawn, the Corporate authority does not have a special ethic, but rather can support any combination of the regular empire ethics - you can play your MegaCorp as an authoritarian spiritualist corporation with indentured workers, or an egalitarian co-op that looks after the welfare of its citizens. Regardless of your ethics though, the Corporate authority has the Oligarchic election format, with a new leader elected every 20 years from a pre-selected pool of candidates.


The Corporate authority comes with its own special set of civics and a number of advantages and drawbacks. MegaCorps get a higher administrative cap (how large your empire can grow without suffering penalties such as tech and unity cost increases), but take double the penalty that normal empires do from being above said cap. This means that MegaCorps are ill-suited to controlling large swathes of space directly, and should focus on claiming fewer, better quality systems and planets. MegaCorps also have special variants of the Administrator and Culture Worker jobs called 'Executive' and 'Manager' respectively, that both produce trade value in addition to their other effects.



The Corporate authority fully replaces the old 'Corporate Dominion' civic for those who have the MegaCorp expansion, but Corporate Dominion is still available as a civic pick if you do not have MegaCorp.

Branch Offices
To compensate for their deficiencies when it comes to controlling territory directly, MegaCorps have the ability to construct Branch Offices on the planets of other empires. A Branch Office is a separate part of the planet screen that is managed by the controlling MegaCorp, where said MegaCorp can construct special Corporate Buildings. Branch Offices can normally only be established on the planets of regular (non-Gestalt, non-Corporate) empires that the MegaCorp has signed a Commercial Pact with. Commercial Pacts are trade agreements signed between two non-Gestalt empires that allow each empire to gain income relative to the size of the other empires' collected trade value, and is a part of the free Le Guin update. For MegaCorps, however, they additionally open for the MegaCorp to establish Branch Offices by paying a fixed sum of Energy Credits.


Branch Offices generate income for the owning MegaCorp based on the amount of trade value present on the planet, and so are best constructed on planets with a large number of Pops. Additionally, for every 25 pops on the planet the MegaCorp can build one Corporate Building, up to a maximum of four. Corporate Buildings are typically mutually beneficial, providing the Corp with some sort of modifier (such as Naval Capacity) or production of a resource (such as Alloys), and giving the planet owner some sort of modifier (such as Amenities) or an increased number of jobs. Many Corporate Buildings also incrase trade value, which benefits both the owner of the planet and the MegaCorp. As a general rule however, the MegaCorp will always benefit more than the owner of the planet.


While Branch Offices require a Commercial Pact to be established, cancelling the Commercial Pact does not automatically close them down - once a MegaCorp is established on your planets, it's not that easy to get rid of! Instead, any empire with a planet where a MegaCorp has an 'unlicensed' (no active Commercial Pact) Branch Office will get the 'Expropriation' Casus Belli on the Corp, which if pressed successfully in war shuts down all Branch Offices on that empire's worlds, with the attacker gaining a sum of Energy Credits for each office shut down. However, one should be careful not to declare an Expropriation war they might lose - if the MegaCorp forces surrender on the attacker, the attacker is forced to become a Subsidiary of the MegaCorp (see below for details). It is not possible for a MegaCorp to establish a Branch Office on the planet of an empire they are at war or have an active truce with.


Subsidiaries
Subsidiaries are a special kind of subject available only to MegaCorps, and replacing all the other normal forms of subject (Vassal, Tributary, Protectorate) for them. Subsidiaries have some diplomatic independence, and can expand into new systems and wage war among themselves, but are required to join the MegaCorp in their wars and pay 25% of their energy credit income to their Corporate overlords. Subsidiaries can not be integrated.


In addition to their more straightforward 'regular' civics, MegaCorps also have two gameplay-changing Civics, Criminal Heritage and Gospel of the Masses:

Criminal Heritage
Criminal Heritage has no ethics requirements but cannot be added or removed once the game has begun. It turns the MegaCorp into a criminal syndicate that cannot enter into Commercial Pacts, but does not need the permission of other empires to establish Branch Offices on their planets. The income of their Branch Offices scales to the level of crime on the planet, with a higher level of Crime providing more income, and they have their own set of Corporate Buildings that generally increase crime on the planet in addition to their other effects. Criminal Corporate Buildings are not entirely negative for the owner of the planet, however, especially if that owner has opted to co-exist with criminal elements on the planet. It is also possible to counteract Criminal Syndicates by heavy use of law enforcement, as a low level of crime on the planet will both cut into the income of the Crime Syndicate and makes it possible for an event to fire where law enforcement shuts down the criminal Branch Office on the planet and blocks any further such offices from being built for a time.


Gospel of the Masses
Gospel of the Masses requires spiritualist ethics and can be freely added and removed after the start of the game. It turns the MegaCorp into a MegaChurch that gains a large boost to spiritualist ethics attraction and which gains economic benefits from spiritualist pops on their planets and branch office planets in the form of increased trade, representing tithing and a general cult of consumerism and spending. They can build a special Temple of Prosperity building on their branch office planets which boosts Spiritualist attraction, resulting in more spiritualist pops and economic benefit to both the MegaChurch and the owner of the planet, though an empire that does not wish its pops to start turning Spiritualist may want to consider carefully before allowing the MegaChurches to gain a foothold on their planets... assuming they have a choice in the matter, as Gospel of the Masses can be combined freely with the Criminal Heritage civic.


That's all for today! Next week we're going to continue talking about the MegaCorp expansion, on the topic of Ecumenopolises and new Megastructures.

Stellaris: MegaCorp introduces a revolutionary new way to conduct business on a galactic scale by seamlessly synergizing new markets and city planets with state-of-the-art citizen solutions and more marketable human capital. Alongside a host of free updates coming to Stellaris, the new MegaCorp DLC will include:

• Corporate Culture: Chief Executive Officers of a MegaCorp can conduct business on a galaxy-wide scale with a host of new civics. By building Branch Offices on planets within empires they have trade agreements with, the MegaCorp can add a portion of the planet’s Trade Value to their own network. Using the new Corporate Authority, construct an economic powerhouse and dominate galactic trade - for a brighter future.
  
  
• City World: With Ecumenopolis, players can increase the population density of core worlds to truly epic proportions, eventually creating a planet-spanning megacity.
  
  
• Caravaneer Fleets: Keep an eye out for the Caravaneers, nomadic interstellar wheelers-and-dealers who stay aloof from galactic politics, and always have a bargain up their sleeve. Expect surprises when these master traders wander through your space or when you visit their home systems.
  
  
• More Megastructures: Budget has been approved for your own glorious Matter Decompressor, Mega-Art Installation or Strategic Coordination Center to acquire new scaling capabilities for your megalopolis.
  
  
• Galactic Slave Market: Buy and sell labor on an industrial scale, set them free or keep them as livestock. The choice is yours!
  
  
• VIP Status Comes with its Perks: Keep your economy competitive in a cutthroat galaxy with additional Ascension perks.

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of new technologies that we have added in the update. As said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

New Economic Techs
As part of the economic system and planetary management changing, we also had to deal with how the various technologies governing resources and the economy would change. Previously, new economic technologies would usually unlock building upgrades, leading to a spree of upgrade-clicking across your planets when your empire got access to a new level of mining technology or similar. As one of the stated goals of the planetary rework was to remove unnecessary micromanagement, we decided to split resource technologies into two types: Raw Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce basic resources such as Minerals, Food and Energy and Advanced Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce advanced resources such as Consumer Goods and Alloys.

Typically, Raw Resource Technologies provide an instant and straightforward bonus to production, such as a bonus to mineral output from Miners, while Advanced Resource Technologies offer upgrades to buildings such as Foundries into more efficient versions that provide more of that particular type of resource production job. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule (for example, buildings like Mineral Purification Plants that improve planet-wide mineral yields) but as a general rule it holds true. Also, we are aware that some people consider straight bonus technologies to be boring, but it would both be unfeasible and entirely undesirable for all of the hundreds of technologies that you can research in Stellaris to require active engagement on the part of the player - we'd simply end up with a whole lot more of the same kind of tedious chore that was the old building upgrade system.




We've added several new technologies for Mining and Research stations that increase their efficiency, so space-based resource extraction now increases with time and technology just as planet-based resource extraction does. There's also a number of new technologies related to rare resources such as Exotic Gases to either be extracted from natural deposits, or synthetically created in the event your natural deposits are insufficient for your needs.




Specialized Planet Technologies
Of course, not all the new technologies are related to resources. One of the advantages of the new planetary management system is that it allows us to create planets that are truly different from each other, and one of the applications of this potential will be technologies that allow you to designate a highly specialized role for a planet. Currently, there are two specialized planet technologies planned for Le Guin, Penal Colonies and Resort Worlds, each of which unlocks a decision that allows you to transform a newly colonized planet into a Penal Colony or a Resort World, respectively. At time of writing, you can only have one of each of these in your empire at a time, though this may change before release.

• Penal Colonies are planets where the other colonies in your empire can dump their criminal elements. Penal Colonies have vastly increased crime, but get an increase to immigration pull and also reduce crime on all your other planets. You can only make a planet a Penal Colony while it still in the newly colonized stage (ie: before upgrading the capital at least once). The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Penal Colony.
  
• Resort Worlds are planets that have been set aside for tourism and leisure. Resort Worlds cannot have any districts built on them, and cannot support resource-producing buildings, but have maxed-out habitability for all pops (representing climate-controlled resorts) and increase amenities on all other colonies in the empire. Resort Worlds have their own special set of capital buildings that provide some housing. You can only make a planet into a Resort World if it has no districts and no buildings (besides the capital) constructed on it. The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Resort World. Depending on what we have time for, it's possible that the 'quality' of the resort world will impact how much amenities it will give other planets (for example, a Gaia World would be an ideal resort).

Finally, in no specific order, here's an assortment of some (but far from all) of the new and changed technologies you can expect to see in Le Guin:





That's all for today! Next week we're going to be doing a dev diary, I just can't tell you what it's going to be about just yet. I'm pretty sure you're going to find reading it to be a net gain though, so stay tuned!

Note: For a closer and more detailed look at the images for each of the Tradition options, check out the full thread at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/1123421/

Hello everyone! Today you will be able to enjoy yet another Stellaris development diary, so that the drudgery of ordinary life gets momentarily replaced with excitement and joyous anticipation. As promised we will continue by detailing the features in the free 2.2 'Le Guin' update, and the topic will be the traditions and how they have been updated to work with our new game systems.

As per usual I of course have to reiterate that we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when 2.2 ‘Le Guin’ is coming out, and that images may contain placeholder art, interfaces and non-final numbers.

Lets get started then! Updating the traditions was of course a necessity with the reworked economy, but a secondary objective was also to make the themes of each tradition tree be more well-defined. A tradition tree should stick to a theme or a playstyle, while also making sure the bonuses are as unique and fun as possible.

Expansion
The Expansion Traditions are themed around colonizing faster, growing a large population, and generally having a large empire.


Domination
The Domination Traditions are no longer focused around vassals, but are instead focused around reducing crime, better workers and slaves, and better rulers and governors.


Prosperity
The Prosperity Traditions are themed around improving planets and making specialists better.


Harmony
The Harmony Traditions are themed around sustainability, amenities, and stability.


Supremacy
The Supremacy Traditions are themed around domination of space. You will be able to field larger fleets and upgrade more starbases, while both of them will also be stronger.


Diplomacy
The Diplomacy Traditions are themed around federations, the galactic market and trade.


Discovery
The Discovery Traditions are themed around research and space exploration.


That covers most the traditions and how they have been updated to the new system. As you saw, some of them still have some work that needs to be done. They are also still prone to change and numbers are non-final and all that.

Tune in for a short stream today where I’ll be talking some more about the traditions, and perhaps showing up some the more unique traditions for gestalt empires and purifiers.

Next week we will continue to mercilessly tease you about the upcoming update by showing some of the New Technologies, so make sure to mark it in your calendars!

Hello everyone! We’re back yet again for another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, and as promised last week, the topic will be Decisions and Planetary Bombardment.

And before we get right into it I of course have to reiterate that we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when 2.2 ‘Le Guin’ is coming out, and that screenshots may contain placeholder art, interfaces and non-final numbers.

Decisions
Planetary edicts are gone - long live Decisions! Decisions is a new feature that will replace the old Planetary Edicts. We’ve always wanted to do more with planetary edicts, and Decisions now allow us to do a lot more cool stuff. Some Decisions can be enacted on any planet (colonizable or not) in your empire’s borders. Decisions can cost any resource, and can also require a certain amount of time to pass before the effect will take place. For example, the Mastery of Nature Ascension Perk now allows you access to Land Clearance – the Decision (see image below). Some Decisions will have toggle options – like for example Martial Law. Enacting the Martial Law Decision allows you to later on Revoke Martial Law should you wish to do so.



The system will be fully moddable and we’re looking forwards to seeing what cool stuff the community can come up with.

Planetary Bombardment & Devastation
To better fit with the new systems, bombardment has been slightly reworked.

When a planet gets bombarded it will suffer Devastation. Devastation ticks up from 0 up to 100, and is a direct penalty to your planet’s housing, amenities, trade value and pop growth. Clearing Devastation will take time and cost resources, as one would expect.

Fleets, as you know, have different Bombardment Stances – each with its own effect on how fast Devastation ticks up and how large chance there is for a Pop to be killed during bombardment. The higher the Devastation is on a planet, the higher the chance is for a Pop to be killed. When a building slot becomes invalid due to no longer having the amount of Pops required for it to operate, the building occupying it will become Ruined. A Ruined building may be repaired once the requirements of the building slot are once again met.



For those concerned that Devastation is too punishing, rest assured that we will be looking into that. Recovering from Devastation should never feel like an impossible task.

Next week our we will continue covering the features of the 2.2 ‘Le Guin’ update with the topic of Tradition rework. Because this week’s dev diary is a bit shorter, I’ll leave a teaser for next week. Enjoy!

This new version of PDX Multiplayer is now ready for testing, with huge improvements to connectivity and stability, as well as expanded in-game features to help you connect with friends and play together regardless of which platform the game was purchased from! Before we go fully live with it, we want to offer it to interested parties as an OPT-IN BETA PATCH.

This will help us expose the system to greater stress and find issues before full release. We're putting this optional beta out on Steam right now, but we're not asking you to help us test it for nothing: 2.1.4 also includes the debut of the much-requested STELLARIS MULTIPLAYER OBSERVER MODE.

We're happy to finally have observer features available like in other PDS games, to allow you to spy on your friend's MP in the most benign or horrible ways you can imagine!

See below for the full patch notes.


Please note this is an opt-in patch. You have to choose to activate it.

Go to: Steam Library -> Right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose "2.1.4_beta"

There it is, folks! Give the new MP and observer mode a try, play with your friends across all PC distribution platforms, send us the issues you find, and we'll work together to produce the best possible full release version.

Are you ready for the Stellaris Dev Clash?

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of Trade Value and Trade Routes. As said before, we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when Le Guin is coming out, only that it's a long time away and we have many more topics to cover before then. Also as said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

Trade Value
Trade Value is a new value that's being added in the Le Guin update for non-Gestalt empires, representing the civilian and private-sector economies of these empires. All Pops generate a small amount of Trade Value based on their living standards, with higher living standard Pops generating more trade value, and is also produced by a number of different jobs such as Clerks and Merchants. Additionally, Trade Value can be found as deposits in space, representing various resources that don't have a direct industrial application but might still be desirable to your population (for a real-life example, think of things like as precious stones used in jewelry). Trade Value has no inherent purpose, but can be turned into other resources by being exploited, representing taxation and tariffs imposed on the civilian economy by an empire that has the necessary infrastructure in place to benefit from it.


In order for Trade Value to count as exploited, it has to fulfill two conditions:

1) There must be an upgraded Starbase in range from the system to collect the Trade Value. By default, upgraded Starbases can only collect inside their own system, but their collection range can be extended by constructing additional Trade Hub modules, with each module extending the collection range by a single system up to a maximum of 6 hyperlane jumps away. You do not need to build an orbital station to collect trade value from planets - this is done automatically if it is in range of a collecting Starbase.

2) Once collected, Trade Value needs to be sent to your capital system. This will be done automatically if the Starbase collecting is located in said capital system, but otherwise the Starbase must be connected to the capital through a Trade Route (more on that below).

Trade Value that is successfully exploited will be converted into other resources (currently, trade value is turned into energy credits at a 1:1 conversion rate, but which exact resources it becomes is fully scriptable and may differ depending on your empire type) and added to your monthly income.


Trade Routes
Trade Routes are paths are that used to connect remote Starbases to your capital in order to exploit the trade value collected there. Each upgraded Starbase can support a single Trade Route by connecting to another Starbase, which is where the first Starbase will send all of its collected trade value. For example, an empire might have a remote Starbase (we'll call it starbase A), which is sending trade value to another Starbase closer to the capital (starbase B), which in turn sends on both its collected trade and all trade sent to it by starbase A on to the capital. The player has full control over which Starbase sends its value where, and can redraw routes, though there may be an efficiency loss on a newly drawn route for a time.

This means that if starbase A collects a value of 10 from the systems around it, and starbase B collects 15, 10 value will be sent from A to B and all 25 combined value is then sent on to C (the capital) and is successfully exploited. Any trade value that fails to reach the capital, either because of lack of collection, lack of a route, or piracy (more on that below) is wasted - the empire gets no benefits from it - so it'll be especially important to ensure any populous colonies that are generating a lot of trade value are properly connected via trade routes to your capital.

Trades routes will have a special map filter showing routes, protection and piracy, and is also planned to be visualized inside the systems, but more on that later.


Piracy and Trade Defense
Of course, all that lucrative merchandise being moved through space won't exactly go unnoticed by the less savory elements of your empire. Over time, piracy will begin to accumulate along trade routes, especially routes with a high degree of trade value moving through them. For each system with piracy that the trade route passes through, a certain amount of the trade value will be lost. To combat piracy, an empire can make use of a combination of Starbases and fleet Patrols. All upgraded Starbases will have a trade protection value, that is essentially a minimum amount of trade value that will always make it through any system under their protection, regardless of the level of piracy (representing heavily escorted merchant convoys). By default, this trade protection is only for the system they are located in, but can be extended to additional systems by building defensive modules such as Hangar Bays.


Additionally, any military fleet can be given orders to patrol a route between two Starbases to actively eliminate pirates and reduce the amount of piracy in the systems. The old system of spawning pirate ships in empty systems adjacent to your empire will also change - instead, pirate fleets may spawn in systems where a large amount of trade value is being lost to pirates. Overall, pirate fleets is something you will experience less often and can actively work to prevent, but will be more of an actual threat when they do spawn. We will most likely keep some sort of piracy for having a sprawling empire with a lot of unprotected connections, possibly by simply raising the amount of piracy experienced along your trade routes, or some sort of efficiency penalty. We may also have a system similar to the old pirates for Gestalts, since they do not have access to Trade Value or Trade Routes.

(Yes, we know the grammar/spelling is wrong, no need to point it out)

That's all for today! Next week we're continuing to talk about the Le Guin update, on the topic of Decisions and Planetary Bombardment

Previously you were able to revert back to earlier versions of Paradox Development Studios (PDS) games at will on Steam. These specific versions predate the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - hence they are not compliant with the new policy.

In order to continue our endeavor to reach full GDPR compliance, we have designed a new system regarding the access to earlier versions of PDS titles: from the 1st of October 2018 onward all previous versions of PDS titles will be locked under a Steam password.

After 1st October, you will need to log into the Paradox Plaza website with your Paradox Account to access the codes for previous branches of each game that you own. This will, however, require you to link your Steam account to your Paradox Account. In an effort to comply with the GDPR, this is something we need to put behind the Paradox logins as it requires agreement to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use to adhere to the GDPR guidelines.

To get the codes for previous versions:

• Go to https://accounts.paradoxplaza.com/games and log in (or create) your Paradox Account.
  
• You will have to link your Steam and Paradox accounts to see your games - where your codes will be listed.
  
• To link your Steam and Paradox Accounts: simply go to the Settings tab. Under Steam account click connect (you will then be redirected to Steam to confirm your action).
  
• With that done the Games tab on Paradox Plaza will show the list of codes needed to revert to previous versions.
  
• See below to revert to older versions under passlock.

How to switch to old branch versions:

• Go to your Steam Library and select your game of choice.
  
• Right-click and select Properties.
  
• Under the “BETAS” tab.
  
• Enter the relevant code retrieved from Paradox Plaza and click “CHECK CODE”.
  
• Select the version you wish to play and wait for Steam launcher to finalize the switch.
  
• If the previous step fails, exit the game, right click properties, local files, Verify integrity of game files and wait for all files to be verified.

For FAQs and further discussion on this subject, please visit the main thread for these changes on our forum at this link: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/1120883/

Sector Rework
Sectors have always been a bit of a controversial feature. Even if you disregard arguments about the general level of competence of the sector AI, the fact that sectors effectively force the player to cede control over all but a few of their planets has never gone down well with certain players. In truth, the decision to force players to give planets to sectors was very much a result of the old tile system - because of the sheer amount of micromanagement that was involved in managing a large number of planets, it was decided that automation was necessary, and also to make that automation mandatory (barring mods) to effectively force players to not make themselves miserable by micromanaging the tiles of a hundred different worlds. With the planetary rework in the Le Guin update, we no longer feel that this mandatory automation is needed any longer, and so we've decided to rework the sector system entirely.

Instead of being autonomous mini-economies, sectors are now administrative units in your empire, with their layout decided by galactic geography, with each sector corresponding to a cluster of stars in the galaxy. Sectors are automatically created when you colonize a planet in a previously uncolonized cluster, and your 'core sector' is simply the cluster in which your capital is located. All interfaces that are relevant to sectors and planets (such as the outliner) are now organized by collapsible sector entries, allowing for better overview and management of a large number of planets. As before, each sector can have a governor assigned to it, but sectors now automatically send all of their production to the empire stockpile instead of having their own fully realized economy. However, since we still want players to be able to offload some of the planetary management when controlling a large number of worlds, it is still possible to allocate resources to a Governor, who will use those resources to develop the planets under their control. This of course means that there is no longer any core sector limit, and anything that previously used to give a bonus to core sector planets has either been changed into a different bonus or removed altogether.

(Note: Image is highly WIP and has missing elements)


Faction Happiness Rework
Factions are also changing in Le Guin, though not to nearly the same degree as sectors. Most of the core mechanics of factions will remain the same, but Faction Happiness is being changed into something we call Faction Approval, measuring how much a Faction approves of your empire's policies. Where previously Factions would only give influence when above a 60% happiness threshold, Factions now always give some influence, with the amount scaling linearly to their Approval, so a 10% Approval faction will give only 1/10th of the influence that a 100% Approval faction gives you (the amount they give also still scales to their share of power in your empire). Faction Approval is also no longer directly applied to Pop Happiness, but rather will affect the happiness of Pops belonging to that faction at different thresholds, with small boosts to happiness at higher levels of approval and increasingly severe penalties to happiness at low levels of approval (effectively swapping the influence threshold for various happiness thresholds).

This should mean that even small boosts to faction approval now directly translates into influence gain, and that factions almost always give *some* benefit, even if that benefit may be outweighed by the unhappiness and unrest they can cause. We're also hoping to have time to review the faction issues, tying them more directly to policies to make them easier to understand. For example, instead of demanding that all species have their rights manually set to Full Citizenship, the Xenophile faction might demand a certain empire-wide policy setting that forces the equal application of species rights across all species.


That's all for today! Next week we're continuing to talk about the Le Guin update, on the topic of Trade Value and Trade Routes.

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of the Galactic Market. As said before, we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when Le Guin is coming out, only that it's a long time away and we have many more topics to cover before then. Also as said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

The Market
The Market is a new interface accessible from your topbar, where you can buy and sell resources. Resources are bought and sold for Energy Credits, with their prices dependent on a variety of factors such as whether the Galactic Market is founded, supply and demand, and possibly also from various events. On top of the actual price of the resource, there is also a Market Fee which has to be paid for any sale or purchase, equal to 30% of the purchase value. This Market Fee is there so that it will not be possible to make money by purchasing and then immediately re-selling resources at a higher price. Resources can be purchased either in bulk, or by setting up a monthly trade, where you for example specify that you want to sell 20 food and buy 10 minerals per month, and can set a minimum sale/maximum purchase price, if you want to ensure that major fluctuations in price do not disrupt your empire's economy too much.


Internal vs Galactic Market
At the start of the game, empires only have access to the Internal Market, which represents trading with actors inside your empire such as corporations and local governments, or in the case of Gestalt Consciousness empires, resource reprocessing. The prices on the Internal Market are set to always be higher than those on the Galactic Market, so relying too heavily on trading will be disadvantageous in the first few decades of the game. Some empires, such as Devouring Swarms, may only ever have access to the Internal Market (this is something we're still testing and balancing) and so might get better prices there. Once the game has progressed to the point where at least one empire knows about at least 50% of the other empires in the galaxy, the Galactic Market will eventually be founded. One empire that meets the criteria is picked as Market Founder, and their capital system becomes the Market Capital, spawning a special station and map marker to denote it. From then on, any empire (barring possible restrictions for Devouring Swarms and the like) that knows of the Market Capital system has access to the Galactic Market and is able to trade on it. The controller of the Market Capital get a reduction in their Market Fee and increased trade value for their trade routes (more on that in a later DD).


Prices on the Galactic Market are always lower than those on the internal market, though the actual prices will fluctuate based on supply and demand - every time Minerals are sold on the market, prices will drop, and conversely, every time they are bought prices will increase. The purchases and sales you make on the Galactic Market do not just affect your own prices but also those of other empires, so that it is possible to for example massively drive up Food prices by purchasing a huge amount of food, damaging the economy of any empire that is reliant on importing it. It isn't actually possible for a resource to 'run out' on the Market, so you will always be able to purchase critically needed resources, though the cost of doing so may be extremely prohibitive. However, some resources (such as Dark Matter and other rare strategic resources) will not be available until they are actually accessible to empires on the market in large enough quantities, and are not available on the Internal Market at all. The aim of the Galactic Market is to make it so that it is actually a viable strategy to specialize your economy, importing resources that are difficulty for your empire to produce and exporting resources that you can produce easily in large quantities.


Trader Enclaves
Since the Market has much of the same functionality as the Trader Enclaves from Leviathans, we're also changing said Enclaves for those with the Leviathans Story Pack. Instead of trading food, energy and minerals, Trader Enclaves will sell rare resources (Rare Crystals, Volatile Motes and Exotic Gases) in the form of monthly trade deals offered at advantageous prices. Each Trader Enclave will offer only one of these resources. Additionally, once you reach 50+ opinion, Trader Enclaves will sell special Governor-type leaders with unique, trade and commerce related traits. Finally, if you control the home system of a Trader Enclave AND have 50+ opinion with them, you will be able to build a special Starbase building in that system which lowers your Market Fee, allowing for cheaper trading on the Galactic Market.

Finally, just a note to say that we're ignoring the Slave Market tab of the Market screenshots on purpose - this is something that will be covered in a later Dev Diary.

That's all for today! Next week we're continuing to talk about the Le Guin update, on the topic of Sectors and Factions.