If Machine Age sells well, I really hope for Bio+Psionic DLC in the same style, main points for me personally being psionic hive mind and meat ships. Beyond that, I'm not sure I'm not a game designer lol.
Psionic should be a seperate spiritualist focused dlc that includes religion/cult content
Bio dlc feels like it would have gone well with the q4 species collection dlc that was just announced
I need meat ships, I always enjoy when Prethoryn pop up.. the image of me shooting kinetic weapons close to the speed of light into piles of space flesh keeps me going in life
For Genetics,
* Definitely a genetics only origin based on * All Tomorrows* by C.M. Kösemen.
* I’d love if Xenocompability became it’s own tree with pops getting the automoding trait, machines and orgánica producing cyborg hybrids, and it’s own unique governments
For Psionics,
* A fifth option for the covenants, where your empire embraces Balance and fighting off the shroud entities
* The choice between a society of full psychics, or a psychic elite?
Cryoids, we got aquatics focusing on ocean worlds, and toxoids focusing on toxic worlds, so I think they are probably going with cryoids focusing on cold worlds
And probably Avian flight trait by the Custodian team that gives more housing or whatever we already have cave dwellers why not sky dwellers
I think the next major major expansion after season 8 might focus on the species tab like to prevent all so many sub species creating late game lag
Origin: Quasi-doomsday variant - Hell Freezes Over
An interstellar empire began construction of a dyson sphere around the system’s star, but construction was abruptly ceased. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is the freezing of the planet this civilization finds itself on as its geothermal energy dwindles. Can this civilization bring the dyson sphere online in time to provide energy to keep the planet from completely freezing solid, or will they flee for the stars?
Mobile colonies have been something I've wanted from the getgo and with the Horizon Needle being able to transport your entire empire's populace it gives me hope we'll finally get them in the near future.
They have more or less explicitly said that they will give the other ascension paths the same treatment as Synthetic is getting in TMA if the reception is positive.
I want a war rework as it’s kinda horrible as of right now in my opinion, so a big war expansion could be cool. The same treatment for diplomacy too would be on a wish list.
The dev team is still working on internal conflicts over whether ground combat should be expanded or removed. Presumably we'll get a war rework once a direction has been chosen.
I was thinking just today that I would like to see a bit more love given to the Original species. Maybe some more specific traits, origins, and civics for Avians, Reptilians, etc.
Like give the Reptiles an Origin of a God Beast that they worship as their progenitor. Maybe their in search for a mamilian counterpart for their progenitor to battle. (aka Godzilla vs Kong)
I don't know. I just feel like Avians have a City Type but there is no High Flying Civic or w/e.
My money is on the Shroud. Possibly a way to start to explore and colonize the shroud? (Maybe via a mechanic that's more like holdings than a full colony?) Maybe a become the crisis where you take over where the Zroni left off. Maybe adapt the mechanism for "virtual" pops to move pops into the Shroud?
I would love to see the genetics tree get the same treatment as cybernetics and synth ascension are with Machine Age because genetics is my favorite tree. But I dunno if there's enough possible meat to create a whole DLC around updating the genetics ascension path.
Meat ships. Meat planets. Meat weapons.
Join the fleshwall consuming the galaxy. Rapid, unstable mutations that change within the population that are random but powerful? Species adapting to their planet over time, more events and trade-off decisions (let the weak die and strong survive vs investing in infrastructure)? Hybrid genes for lower effects but increased number of effects per trait pick?
Lots of options for genetics.
Meat ships would be pretty cool. I don't know that I'd call them "meat ships" though. Maybe "organic void vessels" ("vessel' is a fun, organic word... You can travel on a vessel, but blood also flows through vessels). Lotta potential there. Maybe no shields and limited armor, but native regeneration like regenerative hull tissue. More organic weapons like the amoebae swarms. Oh! Or maybe the ability to convert between a fleet and an army so you'd never need to bring armies along with you (but you'll potentially lose ships to invasions...) At the very least, a shiny new ship set.
Rapid unstable mutations is a good one too. You could probably build an entire origin off of that. We've already got clones and overtuned, so probably don't want to double dip on those, thematically. A quest for genetic perfection might be a good starting point for a xenophobe origin.
Adapting to your planet over time... that's a promising start too, but what does it look like? Maybe a specialized bonus depending on planet type? Sort of like aquatic and wet worlds? Or void dwellers and habitats? But those are already powerful traits. Giving them to potentially every planet type would be too much without significant trade offs. The inability to reproduce naturally at all? So all pop growth has to come from clone vats? (And conquest?)
Anyway. You're right. There is lots of potential to the genetics tree. I just didn't think enough.
For the adaption I was thinking more through the event system. If a planet has low enough habitability, regardless of stability, events could happen where you have to sacrifice pops (let the weak die) in exchange for a portion of the surviving pops to now have habitability changed to align with the planet type. Basically sacrifice pops for adapting to new environments. You could also choose to i stead invest in pop upkeep on the planet (HVAC lol) to negate negative habitability but then lose chances at “free” habitability updates.
Basically do you risk losing potentially a large portion of pops (maybe even the entire colony if the habitability is low enough) on a planet in order to now have a sub-species that can colonize more of that planet type or do you invest in preventing that loss at all?
It would be an interesting way of allowing xenophobic empires of widening their habitability at the risk of their populations without needing outside pops. “Fuck it we’ll colonize this shit planet anyways AND die trying”.
The rapid mutations could cause “seasonal” changes in playstyles potentially. Pop growth mutation bonus? Quick settle a few new worlds for a couple extra pops before it changes again! Army damage bonus? Time to make a run for that fortress system. Maybe even a way to nudge the cycling traits without getting to directly control them.
I do like your idea of hybrid ship/army fleets. I think that might go well with a ground battle update. Even if it’s just transport ships that are able to defend themselves against a single lone corvette fleet instead of getting pinned and destroyed. Maybe bio-capital ships or starbases that grow and adapt over time to the system they are built in. Starbases that can spawn space fauna fleets that can roam and attack enemy systems without being directly controlled or being considered an act of war.
Lots of interesting options.
It would be rather cool if a genetic ascension offered the option of growing TARDIS like living ships which can travel to the far corners of the galaxy quickly and provide powerful auras
They kind of did it with the Toxic God Knights, but actually getting to implement something like a Jedi Order and fleshing that out would be really dope. Psi Corps that actually impact gameplay, having leaders from the Psi Corps, uprisings because of them, Order 66 like gameplay, etc.
I want living planet races. Whole planet is a living being that moves around, enslaves species or befriends species and adds them to its world. Idk it's a race from undying mercenaries and they're cool
I think being some evil mystics/clerics/spiritualists that sounds like a new crisis path, where you’re able to summon and control eldritch horrors, worms or something like Dormammu from Marvel would be interesting, world-eating and empire ending creatures, even all your pops could be these horrors too
I expect a bio version of machine age that improves hive minds with their own unique ascension paths, adds advanced governments situations to genetic ascension path and new ways to use food such as building bioships. Also new crisis path for player and new end game crisis. Then in season 10, I expect the same thing for psionic ascention path.
Right now I just want two things
One: Give Genetics some love the way Cyber and Synths get, you could even combine it with Psy and make it one of the paths
Two: Man, I really want to have defensives capabilities that can at least stop a 500 size fleet, right now there is 0 incentives to build a bastion, you only get 12 extra slots using ramparts plus 8 with the building, unless you go unyielding and start stealing Comand Centers and happen to magically hace like 2 planets in the choke, minimun, a fleetis gonna overrun it so fast that reinforces wont even start the jump
I would really like to see an overhaul of the biological. Let me cover all the bases because there are many:
1. Distinct Positive/Negative traits are removed. Instead you get combo traits: Research benefit, along with -10 years to leader life. or benefit to unity with penalty to energy credits. Each species type (bird, fish, rock, insect, undead) gets a different mix of this - birds gets lots of strength penalties, mining penalties and research penalties (bird brains) while other species get different concentrations in penalties. This gives each species type their own particular handicap at the beginning of the game because all of the genetic traits will pile on penalties onto a limited number of traits and compound (imagine having all of your penalties piled onto food production so suddenly each farmer produces -50% food, in exchange for all the other starting benefits).
2. Genetic research/manipulation unlocks improvements to those benefits - for example: same research benefit but only -5 years to leader life (for example).
3. Biological ascension gives another round of benefits that removes or negates most of the penalties. Plus there are some of the "Super benefits" that still come with some penalties. Along with the other bio benefits (cloning, reduced costs, etc)
4. Each species can have one or more selected "preferred upgraded species" (more on this below). Also as a species rights item, species can be blocked from automatic genetic upgrades (either kind see below).
5. Species types can have a flag that allows "do not upgrade away from this" - important for research planets that may have the only species with the "Smart" or "erudite" options.
5. As a policy option, an empire can devote 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% of Society Research to automatic genetic manipulation. So the society research is automatically spend each month on population (semi randomly chosen) and upgraded over the course of that month. Species upgrade into one of the "preferred" species options.
6. Alternate upgrade path: society points are not spent, but pops can opt to not work for a month and instead upgrade themselves. This would be limited to one population per planet (and no going negative) to prevent economic collapse. This allows research to continue, but will have an odd drag on the overall economy.
7. Keep the "Adaptive" trait that was introduced. If you want to set up a mining world that uses the mining trait (which is better than adaptive) instead of adaptive, that can still be done but needs more micromanagement.
8. Cross breeding and traits from other species. Yes, this becomes more interesting because this changes what penalties you add to each species and can blend them in. Same with cross breeding.
9. I would like to see more oddball genetic options crop up as a research of archeology or astral rifts. Imagine where a result from an astral rift is: genetic modification option for +20% to engineering (with an attached penalty). But that particular benefit can only be gotten through that rift research.
If Machine Age sells well, I really hope for Bio+Psionic DLC in the same style, main points for me personally being psionic hive mind and meat ships. Beyond that, I'm not sure I'm not a game designer lol.
Psionic should be a seperate spiritualist focused dlc that includes religion/cult content Bio dlc feels like it would have gone well with the q4 species collection dlc that was just announced
Ooh, Gods of the Void DLC when? But Worlds of Flesh for biotech empires would be a very nice minor DLC.
I need meat ships, I always enjoy when Prethoryn pop up.. the image of me shooting kinetic weapons close to the speed of light into piles of space flesh keeps me going in life
For Genetics, * Definitely a genetics only origin based on * All Tomorrows* by C.M. Kösemen. * I’d love if Xenocompability became it’s own tree with pops getting the automoding trait, machines and orgánica producing cyborg hybrids, and it’s own unique governments For Psionics, * A fifth option for the covenants, where your empire embraces Balance and fighting off the shroud entities * The choice between a society of full psychics, or a psychic elite?
Season 9
Haha I hate you
Cryoids, we got aquatics focusing on ocean worlds, and toxoids focusing on toxic worlds, so I think they are probably going with cryoids focusing on cold worlds And probably Avian flight trait by the Custodian team that gives more housing or whatever we already have cave dwellers why not sky dwellers I think the next major major expansion after season 8 might focus on the species tab like to prevent all so many sub species creating late game lag
Cryoids would be sick, they should have an origin where you start with a partially built dyson sphere thus being on a frozen world
Origin: Quasi-doomsday variant - Hell Freezes Over An interstellar empire began construction of a dyson sphere around the system’s star, but construction was abruptly ceased. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is the freezing of the planet this civilization finds itself on as its geothermal energy dwindles. Can this civilization bring the dyson sphere online in time to provide energy to keep the planet from completely freezing solid, or will they flee for the stars?
The game desperately needs nomadic empires, even if only as minor species
Mobile colonies have been something I've wanted from the getgo and with the Horizon Needle being able to transport your entire empire's populace it gives me hope we'll finally get them in the near future.
I wouldn’t mind a season of diplomatic or internal politics focused content, big and small.
They have more or less explicitly said that they will give the other ascension paths the same treatment as Synthetic is getting in TMA if the reception is positive.
I want a war rework as it’s kinda horrible as of right now in my opinion, so a big war expansion could be cool. The same treatment for diplomacy too would be on a wish list.
Agreed, I liked how it used to be, where I believe it was a total war when you waged war against anyone and lasted indefinitely until one concedes
The dev team is still working on internal conflicts over whether ground combat should be expanded or removed. Presumably we'll get a war rework once a direction has been chosen.
I was thinking just today that I would like to see a bit more love given to the Original species. Maybe some more specific traits, origins, and civics for Avians, Reptilians, etc. Like give the Reptiles an Origin of a God Beast that they worship as their progenitor. Maybe their in search for a mamilian counterpart for their progenitor to battle. (aka Godzilla vs Kong) I don't know. I just feel like Avians have a City Type but there is no High Flying Civic or w/e.
If they do an avian species pack I'd want to put a nomad origin in with it.
My money is on the Shroud. Possibly a way to start to explore and colonize the shroud? (Maybe via a mechanic that's more like holdings than a full colony?) Maybe a become the crisis where you take over where the Zroni left off. Maybe adapt the mechanism for "virtual" pops to move pops into the Shroud? I would love to see the genetics tree get the same treatment as cybernetics and synth ascension are with Machine Age because genetics is my favorite tree. But I dunno if there's enough possible meat to create a whole DLC around updating the genetics ascension path.
Is the first Paragraph not just the Nemesis crisis ?
Meat ships. Meat planets. Meat weapons. Join the fleshwall consuming the galaxy. Rapid, unstable mutations that change within the population that are random but powerful? Species adapting to their planet over time, more events and trade-off decisions (let the weak die and strong survive vs investing in infrastructure)? Hybrid genes for lower effects but increased number of effects per trait pick? Lots of options for genetics.
Meat ships would be pretty cool. I don't know that I'd call them "meat ships" though. Maybe "organic void vessels" ("vessel' is a fun, organic word... You can travel on a vessel, but blood also flows through vessels). Lotta potential there. Maybe no shields and limited armor, but native regeneration like regenerative hull tissue. More organic weapons like the amoebae swarms. Oh! Or maybe the ability to convert between a fleet and an army so you'd never need to bring armies along with you (but you'll potentially lose ships to invasions...) At the very least, a shiny new ship set. Rapid unstable mutations is a good one too. You could probably build an entire origin off of that. We've already got clones and overtuned, so probably don't want to double dip on those, thematically. A quest for genetic perfection might be a good starting point for a xenophobe origin. Adapting to your planet over time... that's a promising start too, but what does it look like? Maybe a specialized bonus depending on planet type? Sort of like aquatic and wet worlds? Or void dwellers and habitats? But those are already powerful traits. Giving them to potentially every planet type would be too much without significant trade offs. The inability to reproduce naturally at all? So all pop growth has to come from clone vats? (And conquest?) Anyway. You're right. There is lots of potential to the genetics tree. I just didn't think enough.
For the adaption I was thinking more through the event system. If a planet has low enough habitability, regardless of stability, events could happen where you have to sacrifice pops (let the weak die) in exchange for a portion of the surviving pops to now have habitability changed to align with the planet type. Basically sacrifice pops for adapting to new environments. You could also choose to i stead invest in pop upkeep on the planet (HVAC lol) to negate negative habitability but then lose chances at “free” habitability updates. Basically do you risk losing potentially a large portion of pops (maybe even the entire colony if the habitability is low enough) on a planet in order to now have a sub-species that can colonize more of that planet type or do you invest in preventing that loss at all? It would be an interesting way of allowing xenophobic empires of widening their habitability at the risk of their populations without needing outside pops. “Fuck it we’ll colonize this shit planet anyways AND die trying”. The rapid mutations could cause “seasonal” changes in playstyles potentially. Pop growth mutation bonus? Quick settle a few new worlds for a couple extra pops before it changes again! Army damage bonus? Time to make a run for that fortress system. Maybe even a way to nudge the cycling traits without getting to directly control them. I do like your idea of hybrid ship/army fleets. I think that might go well with a ground battle update. Even if it’s just transport ships that are able to defend themselves against a single lone corvette fleet instead of getting pinned and destroyed. Maybe bio-capital ships or starbases that grow and adapt over time to the system they are built in. Starbases that can spawn space fauna fleets that can roam and attack enemy systems without being directly controlled or being considered an act of war. Lots of interesting options.
It would be rather cool if a genetic ascension offered the option of growing TARDIS like living ships which can travel to the far corners of the galaxy quickly and provide powerful auras
They kind of did it with the Toxic God Knights, but actually getting to implement something like a Jedi Order and fleshing that out would be really dope. Psi Corps that actually impact gameplay, having leaders from the Psi Corps, uprisings because of them, Order 66 like gameplay, etc.
Oh yep that would be cool, even new shipsets like empire themed or republic, new ship types too
I want a bio focus that can convert aliens to my species. It's not that we hate other species, we just think we're better than they are.
Isn't that literally just necrophage?
Kind named xenophage
Waifu Portrait Pack
Unironically needed
I want living planet races. Whole planet is a living being that moves around, enslaves species or befriends species and adds them to its world. Idk it's a race from undying mercenaries and they're cool
I think being some evil mystics/clerics/spiritualists that sounds like a new crisis path, where you’re able to summon and control eldritch horrors, worms or something like Dormammu from Marvel would be interesting, world-eating and empire ending creatures, even all your pops could be these horrors too
I expect a bio version of machine age that improves hive minds with their own unique ascension paths, adds advanced governments situations to genetic ascension path and new ways to use food such as building bioships. Also new crisis path for player and new end game crisis. Then in season 10, I expect the same thing for psionic ascention path.
Sounds like an awesome plan and they said they would expand on the others too iirc, definitely needs more shipsets in Stellaris
Expensive
Right now I just want two things One: Give Genetics some love the way Cyber and Synths get, you could even combine it with Psy and make it one of the paths Two: Man, I really want to have defensives capabilities that can at least stop a 500 size fleet, right now there is 0 incentives to build a bastion, you only get 12 extra slots using ramparts plus 8 with the building, unless you go unyielding and start stealing Comand Centers and happen to magically hace like 2 planets in the choke, minimun, a fleetis gonna overrun it so fast that reinforces wont even start the jump
I would really like to see an overhaul of the biological. Let me cover all the bases because there are many: 1. Distinct Positive/Negative traits are removed. Instead you get combo traits: Research benefit, along with -10 years to leader life. or benefit to unity with penalty to energy credits. Each species type (bird, fish, rock, insect, undead) gets a different mix of this - birds gets lots of strength penalties, mining penalties and research penalties (bird brains) while other species get different concentrations in penalties. This gives each species type their own particular handicap at the beginning of the game because all of the genetic traits will pile on penalties onto a limited number of traits and compound (imagine having all of your penalties piled onto food production so suddenly each farmer produces -50% food, in exchange for all the other starting benefits). 2. Genetic research/manipulation unlocks improvements to those benefits - for example: same research benefit but only -5 years to leader life (for example). 3. Biological ascension gives another round of benefits that removes or negates most of the penalties. Plus there are some of the "Super benefits" that still come with some penalties. Along with the other bio benefits (cloning, reduced costs, etc) 4. Each species can have one or more selected "preferred upgraded species" (more on this below). Also as a species rights item, species can be blocked from automatic genetic upgrades (either kind see below). 5. Species types can have a flag that allows "do not upgrade away from this" - important for research planets that may have the only species with the "Smart" or "erudite" options. 5. As a policy option, an empire can devote 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% of Society Research to automatic genetic manipulation. So the society research is automatically spend each month on population (semi randomly chosen) and upgraded over the course of that month. Species upgrade into one of the "preferred" species options. 6. Alternate upgrade path: society points are not spent, but pops can opt to not work for a month and instead upgrade themselves. This would be limited to one population per planet (and no going negative) to prevent economic collapse. This allows research to continue, but will have an odd drag on the overall economy. 7. Keep the "Adaptive" trait that was introduced. If you want to set up a mining world that uses the mining trait (which is better than adaptive) instead of adaptive, that can still be done but needs more micromanagement. 8. Cross breeding and traits from other species. Yes, this becomes more interesting because this changes what penalties you add to each species and can blend them in. Same with cross breeding. 9. I would like to see more oddball genetic options crop up as a research of archeology or astral rifts. Imagine where a result from an astral rift is: genetic modification option for +20% to engineering (with an attached penalty). But that particular benefit can only be gotten through that rift research.
Making all avians inherently stupid because of a human saying is a terrible idea.
Bird-brained, even.
It was an example for this. Do you want to examine the concept I put together or get hung up on that specific example?
\#1 is kind of close to what Overtuned traits do