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[Octavianus]

Stellaris Dev Diary #23 - Multiplayer

One of our longstanding issues with multiplayer is that clients desynchronize, which is usually solved by having the host rehost the game, but this can be quite a menace when playing multiplayer with 20+ people, so we’ve decided that this is an issue we should prioritize higher in Stellaris. Thanks to persistent testing and fixing of out-of-syncs as soon as they happen, we’ve managed to make Stellaris our most stable multiplayer experience yet, allowing us to run stable multiplayer with up to and probably more than 32 players. We test our multiplayer stability weekly by playing multiplayer with our betas and the developers on the project, and it’s loads of fun.

Looks like empire emblems on the top left corner of the UI are back

 

[Human_me]

One more thing which affects the multiplayer experience on an early stage is that players are anonymous until you have established communications with their empires, making you unable to know whether the first aliens you meet will be your greatest allies or your worst enemies.

Next week is all about the AI.

That's a pretty awesome feature.

I'm looking forward to the AI diary, as I'm always playing single player on these games. The AI is the most important aspect of any 4x game, its my only concern with Stellaris at the moment.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

32 players is pretty insane for these kinds of games, I'll be happy with a stable 12 in HoI4 for example. Nice to have higher counts, but will rarely be used.

 

[eschiver]

Hype. I need more details on battle system.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Really looking forward to next week's DD on AI.

 

[bjaelke]

I'm skeptical of this fixing out desynchronization. Sure you guys test it, but you guys are in an office where you develop the game and I assume logically that this is the same place where you test synchronization for multiplayer. But how do you know your solutions will actutally work when you got people from Europe, USA, Asia, etc all playing in one game with various internet connections as opposed to the testing in the office.

The betas we test with are all over the world.

Excellent.

 

[DirtyCase]

Crusader kings 2 is one of my favorite games. I also sunk a rediculous amount of time into Galactic civilizations 2, and sins of a Solar empire (I prefer non turnbased). Consrquently I'm stoked as hell for this game. I love me some grand strategy, especially so in space.

 

[DiscoShark]

One more thing which affects the multiplayer experience on an early stage is that players are anonymous until you have established communications with their empires, making you unable to know whether the first aliens you meet will be your greatest allies or your worst enemies.

Okay, that's an insanely cool feature.

 

[Keasar]

So the release date used to be February 16th, have they said anything what they currently aim at?

 

[Chariot]

So the release date used to be February 16th, have they said anything what they currently aim at?

The date was never February. That was just a placeholder that was taken down quickly. They did never state when they will release it. Probably on "it's done when it's done"-course. Paradox can do make a game without binding themselves to a official date, they know that players react very positively to good games and very horrible to bad ones.

 

[Cameron122]

This game!!!!

 

[Keasar]

The date was never February. That was just a placeholder that was taken down quickly. They did never state when they will release it. Probably on "it's done when it's done"-course. Paradox can do make a game without binding themselves to a official date, they know that players react very positively to good games and very horrible to bad ones.

I see. Still, would have been nice to know roughly when to expect this cause I am really looking forward to giving this a shot, it looks like it could be the game that finally got me into Paradox Grand Strategy games.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I see. Still, would have been nice to know roughly when to expect this cause I am really looking forward to giving this a shot, it looks like it could be the game that finally got me into Paradox Grand Strategy games.

Not before GDC, probably.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The date was never February. That was just a placeholder that was taken down quickly. They did never state when they will release it. Probably on "it's done when it's done"-course. Paradox can do make a game without binding themselves to a official date, they know that players react very positively to good games and very horrible to bad ones.

They learned to Polish games, but forgot how to Finnish games. That's the Swedish for you.

 

[jman2050]

They learned to Polish games, but forgot how to Finnish games. That's the Swedish for you.

No

Spoiler

r

way

 

[Mindlog]

Large team strategy games brew so much hatred.

As good a place to ask as any: Where's the best legit place to get Imperium Galactica II?
I checked GOG, but only Old-Games.com has it. For free.... Not sure if I trust that.
I can only find iOS and Android digitally. You can emulate that on PC, but the interface sucks :\

 

[spiritfox]

They learned to Polish games, but forgot how to Finnish games. That's the Swedish for you.

But Poland is not a Nordic country.

 

[Cameron122]

Large team strategy games brew so much hatred.

As good a place to ask as any: Where's the best legit place to get Imperium Galactica II?
I checked GOG, but only Old-Games.com has it. For free.... Not sure if I trust that.
I can only find iOS and Android digitally. You can emulate that on PC, but the interface sucks :

I want to know too. Never played it except for iOS. Really enjoyed my time with OpenIG.

 

[Human_me]

First screenshot of a Fallen Empire fleet?

I discovered it on Martin Anwards (Project Lead of Stellaris) Twitter.
He encountered it immediately on a New Game.
He declares war on them.
It apparently did not end well.

 

[Poodlestrike]

First screenshot of a Fallen Empire fleet?

I discovered it on Martin Anwards (Project Lead of Stellaris) Twitter.
He encountered it immediately on a New Game.
He declares war on them.
It apparently did not end well.

Damn, lol. I'm getting flashbacks to my CK2 games playing as Axum. "I'll declare war on the Egyptian Caliphate, they're busy, it's probably safe."

*14k pissed of Egyptians later*

"FUCK."

 

[bjaelke]

The game will be shown to the public for the first time later today at the PC Gamer Weekender show. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that the reveal will be streamed: http://www.pcgamer.com/catch-the-highlights-with-the-pcg-weekender-livestream/

I love playing @StellarisGame ! 4 hours into this weekends campaign so far.. The fleet just looks awesome!

But the campaign has barely started.. The galaxy is vast! I love playing with 1000 systems in @StellarisGame

My empire is large and strong, but the neighbours don't like our fanatic militaristic attitude..

 

[ZZMitch]

Oh man that full galaxy picture..

 

[Chariot]

I JUST WANT TO PLAY THIS FINALLY THIS LOOKS TOO GOOD GODDAMNIT

 

[Poodlestrike]

Goddamn, it's looking good.

Wish they'd just take my money already...

 

[Mercador]

I haven't read all the thread but do you think it would be like Haegemonia: Legion of Iron? I really loved that game, it's was the perfect scope for this kind of game in my opinion.

For those who doesn't remember, it was a game back in 2002;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haegemonia:_Legions_of_Iron

 

[RulkezX]

I haven't read all the thread but do you think it would be like Haegemonia: Legion of Iron? I really loved that game, it's was the perfect scope for this kind of game in my opinion.

For those who doesn't remember, it was a game back in 2002;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haegemonia:_Legions_of_Iron

No. It's a Grand Strategy like CK or EU. Haegmonia was a RTS Homeworld cline. Was it not?

The new stuff looks awesome. This game is my #1 want this year.

 

[bjaelke]

No news from the PCGamer panel so here's a few more pictures from @producerjohan

I guess the shields stopped that missile... @StellarisGame

But that destroyer has sure taken some damage in this battle..

 

[Anno]

Great new screens. Why can't this just be out now?

 

[Rosur]

Great new screens. Why can't this just be out now?

Yea can't wait to play this.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Really want a look at the various ship styles. Hope there's a bunch of them... I never bought any of those unit packs for CKII or EU4 but I might here.

Also wondering how much our customization options impact ship appearance. Love little details like that. Seeing the weapons, armors, modules, etc.

 

[Octavianus]

Stellaris Dev Diary #24 - AI

Artificial Personalities
A major challenge when making the Stellaris AI has been the randomized nature of the game. With thousands of different combinations of ethoses and traits, there's a risk that every AI Empire ends up feeling the same to the player, or fall into a very basic categorization of 'aggressive aliens' and 'peaceful aliens'. I as the AI programmer might know that an AI with Fanatic Collectivism makes their decisions differently from with plain old vanilla Collectivism, but it might all look the same to a player who doesn't have this foreknowledge.

In order to address this problem, we've implemented a system of AI Personalities that govern almost every aspect of how they behave, such as who they'll pick a fight with, which trade deals they are interested in and how they budget and utilize the resources available to them. This personality is determined by their ethos, government form and traits, and will be shown to the player when diplomatically interacting with that Empire. To feel recognizeable to the player, all of the personalities are rooted in sci-fi tropes, so that you'll immediately know who the Klingons are to your United Federation of Planets.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Perfection.

Although I did not expect the Yahg (ME2 Lair of the Shadowbroker) looking motherfuckers to be the good guys of the setting, but that's rather the point, I suppose.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Damn the Larongo race looks terrifying, some sort of demon-arachnid (the eyes)-rabbit-alien hybrid.

 

[Octavianus]

Man, I can't wait to try to take over the galaxy with my glorious militaristic fanatical xenophobic avian race, only to have every other race declare me as a rival, form an aliance against me and subsequently beat me into a pulp with their combined might.

 

[Lister]

Can we make custom races as well?

Also, 32 player multi-player? We're gonna have a GAF multi-player game going, right guys?!

 

[bjaelke]

Can we make custom races as well?

Also, 32 player multi-player? We're gonna have a GAF multi-player game going, right guys?!

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.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...laris-dev-diary-5-empires-and-species.887487/

 

[Poodlestrike]

Can we make custom races as well?

Also, 32 player multi-player? We're gonna have a GAF multi-player game going, right guys?!

Custom races yes.

As to the second thing... hopefully!

 

[Lister]

You know, reading through the latets AI update... all I cna think about is how I want to do that. I want to be writing AI or developing 3D engines, I want to make games, game slike this, games with depth and endless replayability.

Feel like I'm wasting my time writing boring software for boring companies. Just a sill tangent, but man, this thing just lit a fire under me.

Really looking forward to this game!

 

[eschiver]

What a great DD on AI. The dev responses in that DD is superb.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

Damn the Larongo race looks terrifying, some sort of demon-arachnid (the eyes)-rabbit-alien hybrid.

It's the Shadow Broker!

Edit: Err, that'll teach me to read the page from the bottom upward!

 

[Human_me]

Another Screenshot! Yay!

 

[Poodlestrike]

Another Screenshot! Yay!

I see something that looks like organic ships!

GET HYPE!

 

[belushy]

How does this game keep looking better and better? Give me early access!

 

[jtb]

amazed it took Paradox like a decade to finally doing this... I've been dying for a Europa Universalis-as-space-opera type game for as long as EU has existed basically.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I wonder if the Fungoid species have an Ork-looking portrait set.

That'd be a fun nod.

For playing Orks, I'm thinking Fanatical Militarism and that's it. Their culture's only goal is to wage war on fucking everyone. Maybe throw in a little Xenophobia, but that's not really true, they like other species just fine it's just that their favorite thing about them is blowing them up.

For my first playthrough I'm gonna do my standard "Humanity at their best and brightest." I'm thinking Xenophile +1, Individualist +1, and Materialist +1. The proud independent explorers and inventors. How 'bout you guys?

 

[Lister]

Wasn't there supposed ot be some footage released?

 

[Anno]

eXplorminate @eXplorminate
@TroyGoodfellow So, when can we haz this? We neeeeeedz this, sir...

Troy Goodfellow@TroyGoodfellow
@eXplorminate Hang tight. News soon.

In response to a tweet Troy put out regarding some playtesting. Hopefully soon means really soon

 

[bjaelke]

In response to a tweet Troy put out regarding some playtesting. Hopefully soon means really soon

4 more days.

On Tuesday, March 15, 2016, which actually is the first day of the event, the company will host a press conference “to highlight a number of forthcoming projects for the year, ans share their latest news with fans and media.” If you are not attending GCD, for whatever reasons may be, you will be able to watch the entire presentation live on Twitch. This one starts at 5.00 p.m. Pacific Time, on March 15, and can be streamed via Paradox’s official Twitch channel.

Finally, Paradox will have demo sessions of a wide variety of their titles in development, such as Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris, and another title that has yet to be revealed.

http://imgmr.com/pc-news/paradox-has-a-grand-strategy-for-gdc/

 

[CzarTim]

Devs have been teasing something big for GDC. Praying for a surprise release

Spoiler

I know it won't be

 

[RulkezX]

Devs have been teasing something big for GDC. Praying for a surprise release

Spoiler

I know it won't be

Early access though....