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[forsaken1111]

Also apparently some worlds are terraforming candidates even if barren.

https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/status/823857962439573504

[forsaken1111]

So new Dev Diary is out. Space habitats are intended to allow empires to build tall when you don't have the option to go wide and expand territory. You can build them around any uninhabitable planet which is not a moon or asteroid and they have a unique set of buildings. They will only have tile resources if the planet had a resource that a mining station/research station could have worked, that resource will appear in the habitat.

Habitats will be good at energy and research, bad at food and minerals. Oh and they're part of the paid DLC coming up, not a freebie

And apparently 'something big' is coming next which they have kept a secret.

[Majestic7]

I can haz ringworldz and fill them with cats?

[forsaken1111]

I can haz ringworldz and fill them with cats?

With mods you already can actually. There are a few for building and/or restoring ringworlds

[Cruxador]

Sounds good to me, but nothing super exciting about it, especially since they didn't even show the unique graphics for it.

Wide empires can do it, of course, but there are other tradeoffs and balancing levers (such as consumer goods) that make it more worthwhile for a smaller empire.

And again, as I said, this is more about ensuring that small empires don't run out of options. Big empires *should* be stronger than small empires, the question is just how much and in which ways.

Gotta say, I agree with this philosophy.

[forsaken1111]

worse, mods have already done pretty much everything he's talking about regarding orbital habs

[Cruxador]

Eh, as a rider on a ride-along effect on a larger DLC, I don't mind it. Providing an officual version of things is good for unifying modding efforts.

[Retropunch]

Yeah, this is super bland and meh, and pretty disappointing really. Basically, they're just more planets with slightly less interest and a few new buildings. I can't get excited about that in any way really. If there were mechanics around orbitals that made them more unique (like if they were trade centres for a proper trade system or something) then I could get on board, but this is just 'more planets if you run out'

More than that, I like the idea that tall empires don't have to stagnate, but this feels as though it should be a minor addition to the base game instead of a major part of a paid expansion. If they feel that tall empires are broken, that should be released as a patch not a paid DLC.

[forsaken1111]

The way I see it, this is another system modders can hook into, not much more. The orbital habs are pretty vanilla but they should help modders do some cool stuff.

[Ultimuh]

Megastructures are confirmed.
As well as a teaser vid of sorts. (actual vid here)

[Cruxador]

Mega structures are cool and all, but I'm still way more interested in the changes to mechanics. Megastructures sound like basically just "get some better resources" mostly.

[forsaken1111]

Sounds like the intent behind megastructures is to allow you a path to develop even if you're boxed in on all sides and unable to expand, you can develop 'internally' by building stuff instead of expanding out.

The mechanical changes to pops and ethics are much more interesting to me, but the megastructures are also cool.

[Retropunch]

Mega structures are cool and all, but I'm still way more interested in the changes to mechanics. Megastructures sound like basically just "get some better resources" mostly.

Yup, this is pretty much as bad as I'd imagined. Everything in this expansion is just a re-skinned variation of a planet or new techs. I can't see a reason for buying this, as there are tons of mods that add extra planet diversity and techs already. The pop ethics and stuff is interesting, but I honestly can't see it doing a great deal in reality.

I'm pretty much resigned to them not being able to actually deliver any new mechanics like trade or whatever - I imagine they've programmed themselves into a bit of a corner mechanics wise, and can only really add 'more stuff'. I've seen it happen with software projects before where they've been unable to add anything that doesn't work like a version of x (where x would be a planet type in this case) due to how they've coded the very framework of the software.

I could be wrong, but as they haven't added anything fundamental in two big updates (and have instead gone for stuff no one really asked for at all) - it kinda leads me to believe that they just can't, so are trying to just add stuff on top of it to pad it out. If it isn't that, then they're just being lazy.

[Descan]

Alternatively, it's taking longer that they thought to add stuff so they're delaying while they work stuff out.

Not saying that's happening but it's not a dichotomy like you implied.

[Retropunch]

Alternatively, it's taking longer that they thought to add stuff so they're delaying while they work stuff out.

Not saying that's happening but it's not a dichotomy like you implied.

I definitely had that line of thought for the first DLC, and I'd have kept thinking that if they showed any indication that they were working on actual mechanics. The first DLC was very, very story heavy, so I thought that might be because programming resources were working on mechanics. So far though, we've had nothing to indicate that - I've not even heard them speak about trade, espionage, actual characters etc.

I don't completely rule it out, it just seems very, very unlikely we're going to see any major developments past new content for what we've got.