Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sirus]

One small thing that jumped out at me:

We have created a great many (ca 100) unique, animated portraits for the weird and wonderful races you will encounter as you explore the galaxy.

That...that is wonderful. So many 4X games I've played have just one, maybe two portraits for each race, so that every human faction in (insert game here) looks identical. Such a tiny detail in a very nice dev diary but I love it so.

[Aklyon]

Or they have several portraits, but only one animated one that gets used for everything.

[Sirus]

Hmm, maybe.

[Culise]

It's worth remembering that these hundred portraits are also being spread across six general categories rather than tied many-to-one to specific races within those categories.  So, to borrow examples from MOO, Mammalian portraits could encompass Humans, Psilons, Elerians, Mrrshans, Gnolams, and Bulrathi.  It'd be nice to have more than one for each specific species, but I'm not so certain that will be the case. 

[Teneb]

I'm thinking it'll be maybe a single portrait per "species" (I'm guessing the names and such will be semi-randomized), so we can have multiple games with different ones, rather than Human, Alien 1, Alien 2, etc in each game.

[GundamMerc]

Yes, the battletech FTL is instant, but recharge is between one to two weeks, assuming you don't have a battery system in the jumpship to carry enough charge for a second jump. This does present the very real possibility that you can jump into a hostile system and lose your jumpship because it can't get back out in time.

Also, prior to 3070 or so, no one except the clans have warships, and jumpships were both irreplacable and practically unarmed, so surrendering it was considered the logical thing to do.

After 3070, everyone has piles of warships, and the whole universe went a bit out of whack.

So basically exactly what I said.

[Majestic7]

After that last DD, [hype intensifies]

[Teneb]

It is monday, and you know what that means.

Looking good so far, especially tending towards victoria-style pops.

[Culise]

Sirus will be happy as well - multiple portraits per race confirmed, albeit to varying degrees of diversity, and I am more than pleased to eat my words on that matter. ^_^

Now, as you remember from last week’s diary, there are about a hundred different alien race portraits in the game. Thus, we initially felt that lesser leaders should not have actual portraits, because we could not possibly produce enough of them to provide the requisite variety. But then, the artists started to experiment with different backgrounds and clothes, which thankfully proved sufficient to allow all leaders to show a portrait.

The different types of leaders all use different sets of clothes. This helps increases variety, but also reinforces their role, with admirals having a militaristic uniform, governors being more casually dressed, and scientist being a bit more techy. Clothes are shared between some of the more similar species, because creating five unique apparels for each species is just an enormous amount of work. (Not all species wear clothes though; it would be odd if this was every alien race’s custom.)

I expect that humans will be by far the most popular race to play. Therefore, they are getting some special attention with different ethnicities, genders and hair styles. There is nothing stopping modders from doing the same for other races, of course! For example, the system could easily be used for other things, like an insect race where you have a multi tiered system, with one appearance for the ruler, a completely different morphology for your Pops, and a third for your leader characters...

Oh, and also, if you remember the last dev diary, the human polity pictured is Individualist 2x, Xenophile 1x.  Just a curiosity to point out, but nothing much further (yet). 

[Teneb]

Sirus will be happy as well - multiple portraits per race confirmed, albeit to varying degrees of diversity, and I am more than pleased to eat my words on that matter. ^_^

Now, as you remember from last week’s diary, there are about a hundred different alien race portraits in the game. Thus, we initially felt that lesser leaders should not have actual portraits, because we could not possibly produce enough of them to provide the requisite variety. But then, the artists started to experiment with different backgrounds and clothes, which thankfully proved sufficient to allow all leaders to show a portrait.

The different types of leaders all use different sets of clothes. This helps increases variety, but also reinforces their role, with admirals having a militaristic uniform, governors being more casually dressed, and scientist being a bit more techy. Clothes are shared between some of the more similar species, because creating five unique apparels for each species is just an enormous amount of work. (Not all species wear clothes though; it would be odd if this was every alien race’s custom.)

I expect that humans will be by far the most popular race to play. Therefore, they are getting some special attention with different ethnicities, genders and hair styles. There is nothing stopping modders from doing the same for other races, of course! For example, the system could easily be used for other things, like an insect race where you have a multi tiered system, with one appearance for the ruler, a completely different morphology for your Pops, and a third for your leader characters...

Oh, and also, if you remember the last dev diary, the human polity pictured is Individualist 2x, Xenophile 1x.  Just a curiosity to point out, but nothing much further (yet). 

I think we may be able to customize the human policies if we choose to play as them. I wonder if the devs are right in that humans will be the most popular pick. Makes me want to try a megacampaign when Stellaris is close to launch.

[BFEL]

I think the first thing I'll try to play as is Militaristic Xenophiles. "Murdering you is just our way of saying hi!"

[Dutrius]

"We think you are great! Now join us or else!"



_{Resistance is futile.}

[a1s]

This might be a bit obscure, but

Spoiler: Militaristic++ Xenophobe+ (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Militaristic++ Xenophile+ (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Individualist++ Xenophile+ (click to show/hide)

Do you get it? It's because there's only one (ship) of them!

[USEC_OFFICER]

Spoiler: It's not obscure enough for Bay12 (click to show/hide)

I wouldn't put the Ur-quan of either kind as Xenophiles. I mean, their great schism was whether it was better to murder alien species or enslave them after all. Militaristic++/Xenophobe+ verses Militaristic+/Xenophobe++ maybe? The battle thralls thing could also fit into Collectivism, but that feels like a bit of a stretch...

[Dostoevsky]

Highly militaristic doesn't necessarily mean an all-consuming desire to conquer, right? Seems like it'd be possible to have a strong military tradition + etc. while still being interested in other cultures/species. The human government in Mass Effect seemed rather like that.