PDXCON is now in full swing and the announcement are being handed out like candy. First up, Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio have announced Stellaris: Federations and Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack.
Stellaris: Federations announcement trailer:
Direct Link
Currently, Paradox are only saying Federations will be available later this year. Once we have a confirmed date, we will let you know. Federations feature highlight:
Expanded Federations: With expanded diplomacy capabilities, players can build up the internal cohesion of their Federations and unlock powerful rewards for all members. Whether you join a Trade League, Martial Alliance, or Hegemony, membership can be extremely advantageous.
Galactic Community: Unite the space empires with a galactic senate that can vote on a wide range of resolutions to drive legislative agendas. For example, players can pass a resolution to increase commitments to collective defense or funnel profit towards wealthy elites. Members can also sanction those who defy the community, and enact a single galactic focus. Sway the senate to position yourself as a leader, trading favors and maneuvering, doing whatever it takes to gain influence among schemers.
Origins: Each empire has a story that shapes its path. Give your civilization deeper roots with the new system of Origins. By choosing an Origin, players can flesh out their empire’s background and alter its starting conditions. Whether it’s Void Dwellers who have abandoned their homeworld to live in perpetual orbit, or a society that worships and protects a powerful Tree of Life, you can lay the groundwork wisely for the seeds of your empire.
New Constructions: Construct glorious new projects for your empire like the Juggernaut, a massive mobile starbase that provides a moveable repair base even in enemy territory, or the Mega Shipyard, a new megastructure that can churn out fleets with incredible speed. Offering both tactical advantages and a good dose of shock and/or awe, these are sure to be an asset to any space empire.
This sounds like a pretty epic update! I've just recently started up a new game of Stellaris with GamingOnLinux contributor Samsai so this is all quite exciting. It's already a huge game and being able to have a much more detailed Federation is going to make games a whole lot more interesting in the later game.
As for the Stellaris: Lithoids Species Pack, it's one of their much smaller packs but it's not all cosmetic changes this time. It will include 15 new portraits for Lithoids and 1 of a Lithoid robot, a new voice pack and Mineral-based ship models. Additionally, it comes with a new play style that has a focus on mineral production, relentless colonization of even the most marginal worlds, and refusing to cede an inch of your empire. They also have an announcement trailer for this pack:
Direct Link
Unlike Federations, Lithoids Species Pack has an actual release date of October 24 and will be priced around $7.99 / £5.79 / €7.99.
If you want to know more and wishlist/follow each of them you can do so below:
Meanwhile, Stellaris (the base game) and existing expansions/DLC have big discounts. You can find them on Humble Store, GOG and Steam.
I will be going over other Paradox news today too, stay tuned.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Philadelphus Oct 20, 2019
Federations I'm less enthused about; we haven't really seen much in the way of teasers from the developer diaries yet so we don't really know much about what's in it. The Origins thing does sound cool (that was one of the things revealed), where they're taking some civics that you could only select at the start of a game and not switch away from (like Life Seeded) and making them into a new Origins system, where you get to pick an origin for your species. It sounds like they've expanded it out a bit beyond just the obvious civics that already exist, too. I'm excited to hear about the two mentioned there, Void Dwellers and Tree of Life. The new mega-structures also sound interesting, since I almost always end up building as many as I can. :)
I'm excited at the idea of a general diplomacy improvement (I hope they mimic the range of possible interactions available in EU IV, for instance), but I'll have to see what it entails before getting too excited at the specifics. Like I suspect a lot of people, I've never found federations particularly fun in Stellaris, but if they can turn that around I'm definitely interested.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me