Hello everyone!

Last week we talked about how the Galactic Community can elect a Custodian to unite them against an ongoing crisis, and this week we aim to continue that story.

The Unbidden invaded the galaxy, and in order to defeat the crisis you needed to ask for additional powers, and the length of the war underlined the need for more permanent powers. Those powers were very nice to have, and they are powers that you may not want to give up so easily.



Remember that time when you needed to make your custodianship perpetual? Those were the days.​

It would be better if you could find a more permanent and legitimate solution. Besides… wouldn’t the galaxy be safer under your leadership anyway?



When a Custodianship is granted on a perpetual term limit, the Custodian can propose a resolution for the creation of a Galactic Imperium.​

Proclaim the Galactic Imperium
Citizens of the galaxy! On this day we make history as we transition into a new, and brighter future! Under this New Order, our ideals and rights will be protected. We hold these rights to be self-evident and we will defend them by force of arms. No star shall be lost to the enemies of our Community and together we will repel all attacks from within or without. Let our enemies learn to fear us: those who challenge our resolve will be crushed.
– High Chancellor Nilapatep, during the proclamation of the Galactic Imperium



Long live the Imperium!



Long live the Emperor!​

When the Galactic Imperium is created, all federations that were previously in the Galactic Community will be disbanded.



There is a New Order in town.​

The Galactic Imperium cannot be proclaimed during a War in Heaven.

Galactic Imperium
Once created, the Galactic Community ceases to exist and turns into the Galactic Imperium instead. Some things will be familiar, and some things will be entirely different.



Will the Imperial Senate Comfort the Fallen?​

The Galactic Emperor will gain access to a number of new resolutions, and a number of resolutions that are similar to those that were available to the Custodian.



There is much work to be done in the Galactic Imperium.​
The Galactic Emperor retains the powers available to the Custodian, e.g. such as Conclude Session and Freeze Resolution. They will also have a permanent Intel bonus against members, and gain an additional bonus to Diplomatic Weight.

Your Ethics will shift towards Fanatic Authoritarian, shift your Authority to Imperial, and you will get a new government form. Your Civics that are incompatible with your new position will be removed and you will gain a new unique Civic.



The emperor will gain a new unique Civic that doesn’t occupy a Civic slot.​

Hive Minds, Machine Intelligences and Megacorps are not blocked from proclaiming the Galactic Imperium, and have their own slight twist on it.

A Megacorp that forms the Galactic Imperium gains access to regular civics as well as corporate civics.

Imperial Armada
If there was a Galactic Defense Force during the previous Custodianship, it will be converted into the Imperial Armada instead.

Imperial Authority
The power that the Emperor holds over the Galactic Imperium is reflected in Imperial Authority. Depending on the strength of the Imperial Authority, different things can happen.



Members of the Galactic Imperium can choose to Strengthen or to Undermine Imperial Authority.

The Galactic Emperor gains access to a new Operation – Target Seditionists – which will prevent the target from undermining Imperial Authority with their envoys for a certain amount of time.

Those opposing the lawfulness of this New Order will also gain their own tools. The Weaken Imperial Authority Operation will do exactly what it promises. Should Imperial Authority fall below 50, they also gain access to the Spark Rebellion Operation, which will also do exactly what you would expect.

Rebellion
The rebels have chosen to light the flame, and the galaxy is in turmoil once again.

Those who refuse to join the rebels will join a loyalist federation instead, and a war will be declared that pits these two federations against each other. All rebel empires will leave the Imperium for the duration of this war.

If the Rebels win the war, the Imperium is dismantled and reverts back into the Galactic Community. All Rebels will rejoin the Community, Council members lose their seats, and all Loyalists get a temporary debuff to their diplomatic weight for a few years, meaning their influence in the reborn Galactic Community will be limited to begin with. The former Emperor will get even greater diplomatic weight penalties which will also last longer.

If the Loyalists win, the Rebels are all forced back into the Galactic Imperium and they get temporary debuff which lowers their diplomatic weight for a few years. In addition, Imperial Authority is greatly increased.

Regardless of who wins, the Rebel and Loyalist federations are disbanded.

If the war ends in a Status Quo/White Peace, the Rebels secede from the Imperium, and their Federation stays intact.

A Galaxy on Fire
With Nemesis we wanted to focus on the things that can go wrong, we wanted to focus on disruption and chaos. With one crisis defeated, the next crisis might be just around the corner, and it will be up to you to navigate the delicate balance of the galaxy.

Will you light the flame, or will you restore the balance?

Who will be your Nemesis?

Hello everyone!

Today we’re back again with yet another dev diary; number 200 in fact. It sure has been a very exciting journey for Stellaris, and I think it is only going to get better! Nemesis is shaping up to be a very interesting addition to Stellaris, and today we thought we would talk about another headline feature for our upcoming expansion – namely the Custodian.

While some empires seek to set the universe on fire, others need to find their destiny as its defender. As we mentioned last week, the Galactic Community will get their own tools to fight the crisis, and that is what they can do by electing their chief crisis fighter.

We are setting the stage for these two nemeses to battle over the fate of the galaxy, and it is up to you who will win.

Becoming the Custodian
As soon as there is a Galactic Council, the Galactic Community can propose to elect one of the council members to become the Custodian. It is possible to have multiple proposals going at once, but as soon as a resolution is passed that elects a Custodian, others cannot be proposed anymore, as the choice has already been made.



Concrete evidence that my lithoids should rock the Custodianship.​

The AI is more likely to vote for a Custodian when there is some sort of crisis going on, which can be a Marauder crisis, end-game crisis, “Become the Crisis”-crisis or any of the other things that can happen.



Time to get to work.​

Powers of the Custodian
In order to be effective at their role, the Custodian must gain access to some special powers. The Custodian may need to be able to affect which resolutions move to the Senate Floor, so they have extended powers to be able to influence that more directly.



The Custodian in the Galactic Community.​

Prematurely End Session: A Custodian can end the current session after half of its voting period, which will pass or reject the resolution being voted on depending on the voting situation at the time.

Emergency Measures: The Custodian can use the Emergency Measures power to send a proposal to the Senate Floor, but has a much lower cooldown than regular council members.

Shared Intel: The Custodian will gain some Intel on all other members of the Galactic Community, such as knowing their Relative Fleet Power.

Freezing proposals: The custodian can pay 200 influence to freeze a resolution for 4 years, making it impossible for the resolution to move to the Senate Floor for the duration.



Brrrr. Will you be resolute and wait it out..?​

Custodial Resolutions
There are a number of new Resolutions that are tied to the Custodian. Let’s take a look at some of them:



Wanna read more about the Galactic Resolutions and Galactic Defence Force? See the forum post here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfBJjAhaJXw

Paradox Interactive is proud to announce the new expansion coming to Stellaris - Nemesis!
Determine the fate of the galaxy by pulling strings behind the scenes with new espionage mechanics. Choose to become the Galactic Custodian to counter Galactic threats, or take the menace option to BECOME the crisis - Nemesis gives you the most powerful tools ever available in Stellaris.

Ultimately, you will have to decide whether to grasp the reins of a galaxy spiraling into chaos – or ferment the chaos yourself.

Will you find a way to take power through diplomacy and subterfuge, or will you stand on the sidelines as the stars go out one by one?

You can wishlist Nemesis now here!

Hello everyone!

Today we’re back with another exciting dev diary to talk about a new feature in the upcoming Nemesis expansion for Stellaris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfBJjAhaJXw&feature=emb_title

For far too long has the galaxy remained safe from player hands. In fact, more often than not, the player has needed to be the defender of said galaxy. No more! Finally has your time come to become the crisis!
​
Becoming the Crisis
Your first step towards becoming the biggest threat to the continued existence of the galaxy is to pick the associated ascension perk. You need to have 2 other Ascension Perks unlocked before you can select Become the Crisis. The Ascension Perk is available to most types of empires, but xenophiles, pacifists and rogue servitors are unable to have the color purple as their favorite.

There is no limit to the number of players that can pick it, but the AI will be less likely to do so if there is another empire that already has it.



Donning the purple, the Stellaris way.​

Upon picking the Ascension Perk, your path of destruction has begun. You will forfeit other opportunities to focus on your newfound goals.

Becoming more menacing
As soon as you have chosen to Become the Crisis, you get access to a new UI tab where you can see your current crisis perks, and menace objectives.



Work in progress. Names or descriptions may not be final.​

As you perform certain evil deeds, you’ll be rewarded with Menace. Some of these are rewarded upon reaching an objective, while others are rewarded over time while certain conditions are met (such as having a vassal).

To reach the next Crisis Level you will need a certain amount of Menace, and you will also need to finish a special project to take you to the next level. You will need to repeat the process of gaining more Menace and finishing a special project 4 times before you can reach the final Crisis Level.


Finishing the 1st special project, which takes you to Crisis Level 2.​

Crisis Perks
Each Crisis Level unlocks certain Crisis Perks, which can unlock bonuses or new types of ships. As you become more menacing, you’ll also become more powerful through these perks.




A crisis needs to keep its options open.



Some of these ships cost minerals to build. Crazy concept, isn’t it?

You can unlock the following ships:

• Menacing Corvette
  
• Menacing Destroyer
  
• Asteroid Cruiser
  
• Star-Eater

[/b]
[/list]
The further you progress, the more interesting things start to become.

Existential Crisis
The final level for the crisis is no mere label, as you will be able to threaten the very existence of the galaxy.



As the final level is unlocked, an Aetherophasic Engine Frame appears in your capital system. The frame requires a lot of dark matter to upgrade, and upgrading is something that you definitely want to do. Other empires may be less happy about the outcome.



Getting such a large amount of dark matter is no easy task, so a special gathering device has to be used – let us present the Star-Eater. Star-Eaters do exactly what it sounds like – they eat stars.


Behold! A large dark matter deposit.​
Your new goal as a crisis is now to gather as much dark matter as you can, so that you can upgrade your Aetherophasic Engine. The stars are now your fuel towards a different future.

Should you succeed, everyone else will lose.

The galactic community will also get their own tools to try to stop you, which is something we’ll dive deeper into next week

Hello again!

Now that we've gone over several of the basic Operations, this week we want to go over Provocations.

Operations vary in risk and consequences. The simplest Operations such as Gathering Information and Acquiring Assets will only rarely cause major issues between the two Empires, while Stealing Technology or Sabotaging Starbases is more frowned upon and can cause some diplomatic issues. Provocations are the types of acts that the galaxy as a whole will generally take a dim view to, treating them as war crimes. Expect blowback and repercussions from them, even when they are successful.

Part of these repercussions is modelled by the loss of Infiltration - whether it be that parts of your Spy Network are compromised, security holes have been closed in response, or "friends" within the empire stop being quite as friendly. The flashier and messier the operation is, the more your network will be impacted.

Provocations will usually cause the greatest losses of Infiltration, making it difficult or impossible to run other operations in that network until it is built back up.

One Provocation that we're planning is Arm Privateers (Provocation, Economy). It's a fairly advanced Operation requiring an Infiltration level of 60, and has the primary objective of disrupting the target empire by providing weapons and funding to violent and unstable individuals.



Surely nothing will go wrong with this plan.

The weapons are untraceable, so it'll be fine.



These are a trustworthy group, right?

Your spymaster makes a good point there though.



Last chance to back out.



Privateers or pirates?

The Privateer fleet disabled the local starbase and set up their own little pirate base. Their fleet strength is based to a degree on the fleet strength of the empire it was created in, so while it is likely to be only a temporary annoyance, it can prove incredibly useful if deployed at the right time.

As noted during the events, these fleets are hostile to everyone, including their original patrons.

The nastiest Operation to date is the Crisis Beacon (Provocation, Technology).



Surely nothing will go wrong with this plan either.

Crisis Beacon is an extremely difficult Operation to pull off, but if successful, will add the target's capital system as a target of interest to an ongoing End-Game Crisis. It currently has the highest Infiltration level requirement (80) and cost of any Operation. This will typically require an extremely well developed Spy Network with numerous Assets.

If all goes according to plan, this will usually result in the Crisis sending a fleet to "investigate" it in the friendly way that they do when visiting systems.



Goodbye! We'll miss you!

As with many Operations, things can develop in different ways depending on what's going on.



The last time we'll hear from them.

Shortly thereafter, the bait is set.



It's like Prethoryn catnip.

The sacrifice of our operatives (and the rest of the Spy Network that we had built up in the Anathurian Nation) bought us a bit of time as it diverted a Prethoryn fleet away from our own territory. The Swarm chose to support that fleet with other resources, leading them away from our border nicely.

Now, this sort of Operation is definitely an act of war, and we're currently discussing exactly what the consequences should be if you get caught performing such a heinous deed. At the very least, your target is not going to be happy at all with you. (And if you have a Xenophilic faction they might not be too pleased.)

That's this week's dossier of secret information. Next week we'll continue to talk about the Crisis a bit.

Hello!

Today we’re going deeper into some of the things you can do with the Spy Networks your envoys carefully built up last week.

As noted there, building up a Spy Network will passively provide Intel on the empire they are in as their Infiltration Level increases. (This was previously called “Spy Network Level” but has been renamed for clarity.) Once they've built up enough strength, you can choose to run Operations within the empire. A strong Spy Network can have sufficient bandwidth to run multiple Operations simultaneously.

Like First Contact, Operations use a variant of the Archaeology system first introduced in Ancient Relics. Unlike Archaeology and First Contact, however, when Operations complete objectives necessary to complete their mission, they usually do not require your intervention unless something important has come up.

When starting an Operation, you have the option of assigning a single Asset to the mission.

Operations have an energy credit cost to initiate as well as energy upkeep while ongoing. Most Operations pause for your final approval before they initiate their final step, but your operatives can be given permission to launch as soon as it is ready in the UI.

Covert missions are a little tricky, and sometimes things are a little unpredictable. If problems arise during the mission, your spymaster may contact you seeking guidance. Do you provide them with additional resources to bribe the problem away, have them dedicate a larger portion of the Spy Network to the mission (assuming they have any unallocated Infiltration available), or do you scrap the mission and leave the Asset assigned to the mission out to dry? Likewise, even when things go according to plan, sometimes your operatives have to take what they can get - while other times they may stumble upon far more than they expected.



Yes, you can run operations within a hive.

Completing Operations often has an impact on your Infiltration Level - some resources get compromised or otherwise unusable, and depending on the Operation you performed, a hornet’s nest of security may have been stirred. If you had an Asset assigned to the Operation, you will often be given a chance to use them as a scapegoat, burning them to protect the rest of the Network.


We’ve split Operations into four different categories, and here’s a more detailed summary of each type and a few of the Operations we’re planning. (As always with in-development sneak peeks, these are subject to change.)

Subterfuge Operations are common Operations that work to improve the state of the network or do good old fashioned spying on the target empire. Gather Information, Acquire Asset, and Steal Technology are examples of planned Subterfuge Operations.

Sabotage Operations are dedicated to destruction of tangible or intangible things. Sabotage Starbase and Diplomatic Incident are examples of planned Sabotage Operations.

Manipulation Operations twist the truth and replace it with better truths that serve your empire’s needs. Smear Campaign and Extort Favors are examples of planned Manipulation Operations.

Provocations are the most extreme Operations that are almost guaranteed to have blowback. These tend to be relatively difficult to pull off but have major results. Arm Privateers is an example of a Provocation.


Gather Information (Subterfuge) is one of the simplest Operations, requiring an Infiltration of 20 or higher to initiate. Your spymaster will send their operatives out to, well, covertly gather information. After a relatively short period of time the spymaster will deliver a dossier containing the intelligence to you, which might grant a bonus to current Intel level or provide an Intel Report granting increased Intel on a category for a time period.

It’s not the most glamorous of missions, but should rarely backfire in a spectacular manner. Since Intel decays slowly (currently set to 1 point per year), the Gather Information Operation provides a fairly consistent way to learn more about the galaxy.

Assigning an Asset to the mission will skew the results towards the Asset’s interests, significantly increasing the chance of getting an Intel Report targeting the empire’s Government, Diplomacy, Military, Economy, or Technology.



Many Jeferians died to bring us this work-in-progress screenshot.




Operations do not always produce the same results.

Steal Technology (Subterfuge, Technology) is another one that has created a stir on the forums. Through a variety of means, your agents will attempt to gain access to the research databases of the target. Depending on how things go, several outcomes could occur - they might be able to get some hints as to how a technology works (granting it as a research option and providing some progress), they may be able to leave a backdoor (increasing your empire’s research speed for a time), or if things get messy, they could just destroy whatever research they can (inflicting penalties on the target). Your operatives can only take research that your empire has the hope of understanding, so you must meet all appropriate prerequisites.

This leads to an interesting situation where you ideally want to be spying on an empire of greater technological prowess than your own, but that in itself is riskier since they may have a better chance of catching your operatives.



These blueprints are like an Escher drawing.

The Enigmatic Engineering Ascension Perk will block these attempts, as it makes your technology impossible for other empires to reverse-engineer. The spying empire will not know this, however, until they try.



The Sensor Range effect has been replaced as well.

Smear Campaign (Manipulation, Diplomacy) is dedicated to working against the relationship two empires may have. After the first chapter completes, you'll have the choice of which relationship you wish your operatives to attempt to diminish. Later, your agents will inform you of the tactics they want to use, with different schemes proposed based on the nature of the selected empires.

In this example, I'm trying to create rifts within a nearby federation by running Smear Campaigns.



And finally my agents have informed me that they're ready to unleash misinformation upon an unsuspecting foe.





Meanwhile, over in the Ztrakpor Confederated Domains...



Since their Counter-Espionage measures did not detect our shenanigans, it seems that our agents chose to kick things up a notch and add sabotage of research facilities to the false charges. They've caught wind of our false-flag operation as if they had actually uncovered an operation being being performed by their so-called ally!

The galaxy shall hear of this!


Assets have been mentioned a few times now, and the Acquire Asset (Subterfuge, Government) is the most consistent way to gain them. It’s possible to gain Assets through random events during other Operations, but tempting them into your service is much more reliable.

Each Asset has two categories they excel at - one of each from Subterfuge, Sabotage, or Manipulation, and Government, Diplomacy, Military, Economy, or Technology. When an Operation is initiated, you can assign the Asset to be part of it, and for each category that matches, the Asset will make completing the mission easier.

Assets in regular empires are generally everyday people - a disgruntled bureaucrat, an ambitious criminal underling, or a sympathetic pop icon. In gestalt empires, they may be deviant drones that your operatives have found a way to utilize to their advantage, or they might be objects that they have taken control of - a damaged pheromone emitter, a deviant labor drone, a hacked coordination system, or a virus introduced into an engagement protocol.



Blorg. James Blorg.

Hask'Endek here specializes in Subterfuge and Government related activities, making them especially effective when assigned to the Acquire Asset mission. It turns out that having a bureaucrat able to sift through government records to find other potential marks is incredibly helpful!

If complications arise, having an expendable lackey around to take the fall for your operatives can also be attractive. While you may lure them into service with promises of support and glory, they’re really just pawns in your greater galactic schemes. Often, their true fate is to be "cleaned up" as a loose end to preserve the Spy Network's Infiltration Level after an Operation completes.

That's it for this week. Next week I plan on going over some of the other, nastier Operations. redacted.png

See you then!

-ðsžšåÞя©Â£ŠŘ§Ů½æآé-
Attn: Spymaster Utra, daughter of Roba,

Our operatives have provided information on the activities of the vile Paradoxians. Despite their attempts at secrecy, we have managed to acquire some intel. The images our agents have taken appear to be of crude prototypes that they are still refining, but we thought it best to pass this dispatch along now so you can better prepare for the future.

Agent Tiny Sorbet signing off.
-‚ا© ŘŮ æ¢Ã£»£æ¢Ã -•

Hello and happy new year!

In Dev Diaries 193 and 194 we explored the mysteries of first contact, hidden information, and intelligence gathering through diplomatic means.

It may come as a surprise to many, but sadly there are starfaring civilizations out there with whom peaceful co-existence and mutually beneficial diplomatic ties are simply not an option. Against these threats, it may prove useful to utilize the more intrigue-oriented members of your society, and turn to espionage.

Espionage and covert operations are a frequently requested feature that seem to be natural extensions of the intel system that we’ve described in the recent dev diaries. With the obfuscation of knowledge, naturally there should be systems to acquire that information.


Envoys will have a new diplomatic task available to them called Build Spy Network. They will take their place as the Spymaster of a network of covert operatives and agents that they will grow in power over time. Needless to say, the other empire will not be informed of your envoy's new position.


Build Spy Network diplomatic action


Baby steps.

While an envoy is managing a Spy Network as Spymaster, the Network will grow over time - quickly at first, but slower as the Network gains in strength. Networks are far faster to build in large, sprawling empires, and if the target empire’s Encryption rating is much stronger than the spying empire’s Decryption, growth may also slow to a crawl. (Machine Intelligences have a natural knack for Encryption and Decryption, while Hives and psionic empires tend to excel at Counter Espionage.)

Unmanaged Spy Networks (those without an envoy directing them) pause all ongoing activities and rapidly decay.

Spy Networks initially cap out at a maximum level of 50. Several things such as civics or edicts can increase it, and if you have acquired (disposable) Assets within the target empire they also provide a boost - each Asset increases the Spy Network cap in that empire by 5.

Assets are useful pawns, hacked backdoors, deviant drones, or other resources that could come in useful to your Spy Network. An Asset could be a disgruntled Bureaucrat that's been passed over promotion one too many times, a faulty Pheromone Emitter that your operatives have found a way to manipulate, or even a Logistics System that you've hacked into. More details about the acquisition of Assets and their uses will be in a future diary.


Here’s a non-comprehensive sample of some civics, ascension perks, and edicts that have been updated during this espionage pass. Several new Encryption and Decryption related technologies have also been added. (Numbers are still subject to change!)



Some civics lend themselves nicely to covert activities.




Others can modify Counter Espionage, making the lives of enemy Spy Networks easier or more difficult.


Tell us your secrets.


No, really.



More of the new Edicts.


Now that you’ve built up your Spy Network, what can you do with it?

Back in Dev Diary 194 we had a redacted value shown in the Intel breakdown tooltip - Spy Network level is that third hidden value alongside Diplomatic Pacts and Trust.


No more redactions here.

While your Spy Network passively provides intelligence, you can also have them be more active. Your Spymaster envoy can send agents out, using the Network's bandwidth ("Spy Power") to run Operations within the targeted empire while they stay safely at their base.

Operations exist in the following major categories:

• Subterfuge - Information gathering and operations that improve the spy network itself
  
• Sabotage - Ruining things (physical or immaterial)
  
• Manipulation - Replacing the truth with your own improved version
  
• Provocations - Don't do these, they're bad

Most Operations also have a subcategory of Government, Diplomacy, Economic, Technology, or Military, matching the Intel Categories.

More details on how to perform Operations (and how Assets can be used to improve them) will be the focus of next week’s diary. See you then!

Hello everyone!

We’re approaching the end of 2020 and we in the Stellaris team wish you the happiest of holidays! This year has certainly been a challenging one for many reasons, but under the circumstances we’re still fortunate to be working in an industry that has been relatively untouched by world affairs. All we can do is be thankful for what we have, and try to help those around us.

We’re also thankful for the many fans that support us and are excited for the things that we have in store for you all. There’s still a few months of development left, and starting next year our dev diaries will be showcasing the remaining features. I hope you’ll be as excited to read them as we’ll be about talking about them!

While Federations was about cooperation and order, our next upcoming addition to Stellaris is sure to provide a different experience. The fate of the galaxy may be in your grappling appendages, and to what end will you guide it?

Although those hints may be subtle, what I can unveil is the topic of the dev diaries we’ll be starting the new year with. Many of you have astutely noticed that we have been showing clear indications of Espionage being added to the game, and that is indeed what we’ll be talking about in the beginning of 2021.


Work in progress. Game development is fun, and sometimes during development, unintentional circumstances can occur.

I won’t reveal too much about Espionage yet, but I can say that it will tie heavily into Intel and information gathering, but also other things. Similar to how we work with a lot of other systems (like archaeology), we usually combine the new game system with fun and interesting content. We don’t want a feature where you just perform an action and wait until you get a result – we want there to be events and random occurrences along the way.

Starting in the new year we’ll be talking about all of these new features, covering everything from spy networks, to operations, assets and how they tie into Intel. We’re very excited to soon be able to share the progress our team has made.

A lot of teamwork goes into making new features for a game, and each profession contributes to different parts. We’re currently looking for a lot of talent to add to our strength, so that we can keep improving Stellaris and making more new cool content. We have great ambitions for the future, and we need to bolster our ranks!

We’re currently looking for:
Senior Producer - Do you want to help us run our game projects?
Senior Game Programmers - Do you want to help us implement cool new features in the game? Do you want to help us with performance, AI or is something else your speciality?
Mid-level Game Programmers - Do you want to help us implement cool new features in the game? Do you want to help us with performance, AI or is something else your speciality?
Lead Artists - Do you want to help us lead our artists and make sure we can deliver the right assets at the required quality?
Tech Artist - Do you want to be the interface between our artists and our programmers? Do you want to help us create the correct tools so that your colleagues have an easier time with their tasks?
Senior Concept Artists - Do you want to help us add more cool things to the game? We need more people to help us draw things like space dragons, cool new ships or JEFF.
Senior 3D Artist - Do you want to realize the concepts drawn by your colleagues, and perhaps build ships or megastructures?

If any of those roles sounds interesting and well-suited for you, or if you know someone who might be, please don’t hesitate to apply!



Our next dev diary will be on January 14th, but until then: Happy Holidays and stay safe out there! Happy New Year, and let’s make 2021 a great year!

Hello everyone!

Last week we started talking about some of the changes we’re making to establishing first contact, and as promised, today we will continue talking about how you can learn more about alien empires.

All of the things we are talking about today is work in progress and may not accurately reflect the finished product. That said, we still want to hear your thoughts and read your feedback!
It always felt like there was so much missing potential when it came to learning more about alien civilizations in the game. We didn’t like that you had so much information as soon as you established communication with an alien empire – all of their borders would be revealed, and the diplomatic window would reveal most of the other information. We aim to change a lot of that.

We want alien civilizations to feel more mysterious and unknown. We want the experience of learning more about alien empires to be an equally important and fun aspect of exploration.

As we briefly showed last week, we are making some changes to fog of war, and what type of information you will be getting about other empires.

You will no longer see all of the systems and borders occupied by the empire you have recently contacted, but it will now instead be tied to how much Intel you have. This really makes alien empires feel way more mysterious, which is something that we really like.


The information on the empire to the galactic south-east is very limited. We can see their homeworld and the borders explored by our science ship.


The galaxy as seen from the yellow empire in the top-right. There are a bunch of empires that we know very little about, and there are still more that are undiscovered.​

Like mentioned above, our primary objective is to make alien empires feel more mysterious and unknown. We wanted to hide information and allow you to learn more about other empires as you gain more Intel on them. Our goal is to make the Intel game a part of the exploration aspect of Stellaris.


An alien empire recently established communications with us. Friends..?​

Let’s take a look at how we have designed the Intel game to work.

First off there is Intel, which is a value between 0 and 100. You have a current Intel value, and you have a “target” Intel value, up to which it can grow. You usually have an Intel floor, which is the lowest value it can be, depending on a couple of factors such as:

• Diplomatic Pacts (Research Agreements, Commercial Pacts etc.)
  
• Trust
  
• REDACTED (doesn’t look like anything to you)

[/b]
[/list]

Depending on things like diplomatic pacts, trust or other things, your Intel will grow over time.​
Information is split between different Intel Categories, such as Government, Military, Diplomatic, Economic, Technology. Categories can have different Intel Levels as well, ranging from None to Full. The Intel categories and their levels are what determines what information you have access to. Here are some examples:

• Low Government Intel (Intel: 10) would reveal basic things like empire name, authority, ethics, capital location.
  
• Low Military Intel (Intel: 40) would reveal starbases and relative military power.
  
• Medium Government Intel (Intel: 40) would reveal civics and origin.
  
• Medium Diplomacy Intel (Intel: 50) would reveal the opinion breakdown and let us see which diplomatic pacts they have with other empires.
  
• The Intel you have on another empire heavily influences the Intel Categories, but it is not the only driving factor. It is also possible to have a higher Intel level in a certain category than what you would normally get from your level of Intel. One such example is Intel Reports, and we’ll talk about some other examples in future dev diaries.

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Intel Reports allow you to gain more information in a certain category, on a timed basis. It would be, for example, possible to gain an Intel Report which lasts for 720 days and gives you a High level of Military Intel, whereas otherwise High Military Intel might require you to have 80 Intel on the empire.

It is said that knowledge is power, and intel is a form of knowledge. Power usually fades, and so does Intel. It is possible to lose access to information that was previously accessible. In some cases, this information will now be displayed as stale.


Intel, now in the scent of working from home for months.​
The last information you had about the empire was that they were far weaker than you on many accounts, but perhaps they have strengthened their fleets by now? Stale Intel can also mean that you may no longer see if the borders for an empire change or not.

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That's it for this week! Hopefully you've gained some Intel into how the game is changing for the upcoming expansion