It's a good day to be a space nerd, as Paradox Development Studio and Paradox Interactive have announced Stellaris: Ancient Relics.
This is a new Story Pack, that will allow you to sift through the rubble of ancient civilizations in Relic Worlds, to piece together exactly what happened to them and maybe come out of it with some fun new toys for your own civilization in the process. Check out the stylish teaser, which gives little away but still helps me get quite excited at the same time:
Direct Link
Features:
- Said Ancient Relics: Collect and acquire valuable relics in your adventures as rewards for overcoming major crises or after completing a dig at an archaeological site and solving the chapters. Each relic gives significant benefits to your empire to aid in your interstellar escapades.
- Those Who Came Before: Encounter clues about two extinct Precursor civilizations, the Baol and the Zroni, the former a sprawling hivemind of plantoids, the latter some of the most the most powerful psionics to have ever lived. Players can investigate these home systems to understand who they were and, more importantly, what one can learn from their demise.
- Relic Worlds: Once filled with teeming life, these Relic Worlds now lie dead, replete with desolate ruins and dormant mysteries. Players can excavate guaranteed archeological sites on these worlds to explore these remnants and bring to light powerful relics and artifacts.
- Dig In: Hit the dirt on a variety of enigmatic and alien worlds with more archeology sites available for your empire to study… or plunder. Each site begins a story with between one and six chapters to investigate. Retrace the history to discover artifacts and relics that can be boons to your empire.
- Matter of Artifacts: Learning from history is much more than parables and antiques, it can often be the key to understanding one’s own place in the galaxy. Utilizing archaeological research, discover Minor Artifacts, a new resource type which can help empower one’s empire.
No release date yet for Ancient Relics other than "soon".
I honestly love that they keep expanding their games like this, I'm not a huge fan of their other titles but Stellaris is great. Even without any of the expansions, Stellaris has come along very nicely since the initial release.
Don't own Stellaris? Good news for you then, as it along with other DLC is on sale on Humble Store. Stellaris itself currently has 75% off so it's a good deal. Otherwise it's also on GOG, Steam and the Paradox Store.
Anyone else get a Star Trek vibe from the closing riff of the trailer music.
Quoting: Maath$173 for a video game is hard pill for me to swallow.
Choose an alternative:
a) The first version of the game released is declared "the video game" and they never add any new content to it.
b) They continue to add content to the game, but do it entirely at their own expense, never charging you extra.
c) They develop all this extra content at their own expense over the course of many years, and then release it all as "the video game".
d) They release the first version as "the game", and then future expansions are sold as standalone sequels.
Quoting: rustybroomhandleQuoting: Maath$173 for a video game is hard pill for me to swallow.
Choose an alternative:
a) The first version of the game released is declared "the video game" and they never add any new content to it.
b) They continue to add content to the game, but do it entirely at their own expense, never charging you extra.
c) They develop all this extra content at their own expense over the course of many years, and then release it all as "the video game".
d) They release the first version as "the game", and then future expansions are sold as standalone sequels.
Since I'm a gamer from when games came on plastic cartridges, I would choose A. Or perhaps C. From the gamer's perspective, either of those is identical, if you aren't following their development.
Or perhaps I would choose E: make the game and all DLC free-to-play, and let the whales subsidize it by buying skins. I'm currently playing Path of Exile, entirely for free, and I can't possibly imagine this game giving me $173 worth of value. The current gaming industry is weird, to say the least.
Quoting: Maath$173 for a video game is hard pill for me to swallow.Then don't spend $173 on it. The base game offers more than enough content to keep you busy for dozens of hours, and if you want more then wait for the inevitably deep discounts during sales.
Quoting: MaathSince I'm a gamer from when games came on plastic cartridges, I would choose A. Or perhaps C. From the gamer's perspective, either of those is identical, if you aren't following their development.
Or perhaps I would choose E: make the game and all DLC free-to-play, and let the whales subsidize it by buying skins. I'm currently playing Path of Exile, entirely for free, and I can't possibly imagine this game giving me $173 worth of value. The current gaming industry is weird, to say the least.
Then I have good news for you: Paradox's model fits you perfectly. Wait seven or eight years until development has stopped and buy the "complete edition" at 40€, giving you option C.
As far as I am concerned, considering the hundreds of hours that I happily spent with Stellaris so far, I still got far more enjoyment for money than the largest part of the other games in my library.
Quoting: Maath$173 for a video game is hard pill for me to swallow.Yeah, yeah, someone always says something like this. Then someone else points out that in terms of $ per hour played, it's still a great deal compared to most games. And that the notion you have to buy all the DLC to get a decent game out of it is greatly exaggerated; I myself have, I dunno, around half of them?
Then there's usually some back and forth. Maybe we could skip it this time? Edit: Oops, already too late!
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 14 May 2019 at 4:24 pm UTC
Quoting: Maathmake the game and all DLC free-to-play, and let the whales subsidize it by buying skinsThat would royally piss off 99% of Paradox fans and that's a conservative estimate.
Please, the world is already full of free-to-play shovelware, leave Paradox alone. If a DLC looks too expensive, simply not buy it.
Last edited by callcifer on 14 May 2019 at 4:23 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: Maath$173 for a video game is hard pill for me to swallow.Yeah, yeah, someone always says something like this. Then someone else points out that in terms of $ per hour played, it's still a great deal compared to most games. And that the notion you have to buy all the DLC to get a decent game out of it is greatly exaggerated; I myself have, I dunno, around half of them?
Then there's usually some back and forth. Maybe we could skip it this time? Edit: Oops, already too late!
Ah yes, I see it now. I became aware of this business practice at another web site and another Paradox title. I checked this one and baulked at the price. But, then, people pay thousands on Star Citizen. Perhaps the personal economic decisions of video game purchases is not an interesting topic of discussion.
As others said, the base game by itself has a lot going for it too, you don't need the expansions.
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