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[Mephansteras]

You know, I can't argue with that. Though we'll have to see how all this works in practice, I think he's got a better philosophy on game design.

[Teneb]

That's kind of cool I guess, but I'd honestly just like to see all of the special projects redone this way.

I have been thinking about similar things as well. First thing is first though, and I want to see how the new content works out, and then rework/add more to this system.

I like this approach

[Cruxador]

You know, I can't argue with that. Though we'll have to see how all this works in practice, I think he's got a better philosophy on game design.

In terms of the system, he's pretty much covered all the bases. The remaining places were it could fall down seem mostly like details - if these are too common, too easy, or the benefits too small, for example - but those numbers are pretty easy to tweak. Or if they're powerful enough to sway the game (which the most important ones could be, I reckon) and they're not adequately communicated to the player. Aside from that, there's just the concern of the writing. That team is the same though, either entirely or mostly, so we have a pretty reasonable idea of what to expect based on the writing that's already in anomalies and events and stuff. There's also an issue of writing quantity - it could be like the precursor events and habitable world surveys and all that, where once you've done it once, it's boring. Hopefully the quantity and the design of these will be such that the only common ones are reasonably generic and easy, so it doesn't become tiresome, and the bigger set piece ones come up rarely enough to be interesting when you do get them.

It's also a good idea to notice that these are essentially the colonization events that were part of the intended design in the beginning but didn't make it in by launch, and then when Wiz was put in charge he just never did anything for them, despite knowing that the number one complaint was a boring midgame, because he doesn't believe in event based design. His position is that it isn't an effective use of dev time since once you see it, you've seen it, while new mechanics allow for emergent possibilities. And that's true. But especially in Stellaris where we don't have actual nations to rely on, an excessive reliance on emergent gameplay without narrative flavor to tie it together just winds up being a mediocre and boring "grey goo" gameplay. This archaeology stuff could go a long way to solve that issue.

[Egan_BW]

"Okay, what have you learned?"
"Xenoarcheology is a deeply disturbing field of study."

[Criptfeind]

tbh though... I think wiz made a lot of mistakes, but I totally agree in this case. Story based events with some minors bonuses? This seems like it'll very quickly just be more text to click though without bothering to read, like all the current exploration stuff. I don't see how it'll make the game more fun outside of maybe the first game you play with it. Actual interesting mechanics and interactions that create interesting gameplay is what stellaris is sorely lacking and desperately needs, and although wiz totally failed to provide those, I'm not seeing any evidence that this new guy will either.

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic. (Although who wouldn't be pessimistic after megacorp?). We'll see, and I'm glad there's someone new to at least give it a try because I was done hoping the team that gave us megacorp would ever fix the game.

I do like that they are things outside your border. More like, grey area of who owns what and stuff happening outside of your empire is great, and a first step towards stellaris having something to do other then just map paint constantly.

[Cruxador]

"Okay, what have you learned?"
"Xenoarcheology is a deeply disturbing field of study."

Now there's someone that would write some great archeology chains. Considering they got Alexis Kennedy in before, it's not beyond the realm of possibility either.

[ZeroGravitas]

"Okay, what have you learned?"
"Xenoarcheology is a deeply disturbing field of study."

Now there's someone that would write some great archeology chains. Considering they got Alexis Kennedy in before, it's not beyond the realm of possibility either.

agreed - i would love to see more alexis kennedy events

also wiz's opinion on design is mostly... not great. he gets a lot of stuff right as far as what's bad with certain things, but he's not that great at coming up with replacements. some of his stuff was ok in stellaris, some not.

[Sartain]

I feel like this expansion might have the right idea, in that most of the fun stuff in Stellaris is basically just fire and forget and has very little bearing on your game. You find an anomaly, you research it, you get some minor bonus. Big whoop. There's a handful of events that does better, like the Titanic Life study which isn't that interesting in itself but then suddenly, you get access to a new type of army, or the one with the stored synth personas that you can suddenly use to actually get new pops in-game once you have Droid tech. Unfortunately, Stellaris has a lot of events that it does not expand and which in fact does very little to affect your game overall. I would love if the design had gone for a more layered approach, where anomalies generally could give you events that would in turn potentially give you access to other events, research paths, societal models, population modifications and whatnot, dependent and affected by the choices you've already made in the game. In fact, I think that was the original intent of the game but it was probably a hugely complicated undertaking and instead the game turned into "paint map, click box, choose boring reward" for the most part.

[Cruxador]

tbh though... I think wiz made a lot of mistakes, but I totally agree in this case. Story based events with some minors bonuses? This seems like it'll very quickly just be more text to click though without bothering to read, like all the current exploration stuff. I don't see how it'll make the game more fun outside of maybe the first game you play with it. Actual interesting mechanics and interactions that create interesting gameplay is what stellaris is sorely lacking and desperately needs, and although wiz totally failed to provide those, I'm not seeing any evidence that this new guy will either.

The focus on sense of place is a big deal, though. If it was just "here's a canned bit of narrative" that would be one thing, that's how anomalies work, but this has potential to do a lot more than that.

"Okay, what have you learned?"
"Xenoarcheology is a deeply disturbing field of study."

Now there's someone that would write some great archeology chains. Considering they got Alexis Kennedy in before, it's not beyond the realm of possibility either.

agreed - i would love to see more alexis kennedy events

In this case I meant Howard Tayler, the writer of what Egan linked. Not that bringing back Alexis Kennedy wouldn't also be good, but I doubt they will. Part of the purpose of a collaboration like that is to show off what you got to each other's audiences, and that's a benefit that you only really get the first time.

[Criptfeind]

I don't really get what the different in potential is in a bit of random narrative floating in space vs a slightly longer bit of random narrative on a planet. I mean, sure, it has potential, but so does everything else, I don't get why this is a big deal or significantly different then the current random exploration things.

Also whoops, rereading the dev diary I see I misread a bit, these won't be happening outside your borders, but rather inside them well. So much for my open faced opinion sandwich.

[Cruxador]

I don't really get what the different in potential is in a bit of random narrative floating in space vs a slightly longer bit of random narrative on a planet. I mean, sure, it has potential, but so does everything else, I don't get why this is a big deal or significantly different then the current random exploration things.

Muh sense of place

Also they happen in the mid game.

[Telgin]

Looks like we're getting new precursors, and their galactic locations will now be randomized:

Dev Diary

I'm hoping they still do something to balance how OP the First League are, but at least randomizing the locations is something of a start to encouraging people to not just regenerate galaxies until they get the First League because of where they spawned.  Then again, I guess for single player it's fine for people to do what they want, so making that a galaxy generation option would be nice.  Mods will probably change it back to how it used to work too.

Really though, I'm hoping the archaeology system will make the precursors interesting and maybe relevant throughout the game.  Or at least until midgame.

[Dunamisdeos]

Seems neat!

[Rolan7]

Friiiick, I'm still jonesing for Megacorp.  Do we think it's going on sale soon?  Maybe when this coming DLC comes out, right?  I'd love to finally pick up Apocalypse too, but more for Life Seeded/PostApoc/BarbaricDespoilers than the silly colossi.

Do we have a rough schedule for the DLC?  The archaeology stuff seems potentially interesting, looking forward to how they innovate, but I mostly want pops on the market.  And more options to maximize the trade-value game.

[Paul]

The new archaeology interacting with the precursors and artifacts looks cool. And I'm glad to see precursors randomized - although being able to investigate all the precursors instead of just one would be nice too - being limited to the first one we stumble across is dumb. If I conquer the area of two precursors I should be able to investigate and eventually find both of them if the AI doesn't do it first.

Friiiick, I'm still jonesing for Megacorp.  Do we think it's going on sale soon?  Maybe when this coming DLC comes out, right?  I'd love to finally pick up Apocalypse too, but more for Life Seeded/PostApoc/BarbaricDespoilers than the silly colossi.

Do we have a rough schedule for the DLC?  The archaeology stuff seems potentially interesting, looking forward to how they innovate, but I mostly want pops on the market.  And more options to maximize the trade-value game.

Megacorp is 25% off on https://www.wingamestore.com/product/9943/Stellaris-MegaCorp/