Paradox Can Into Space With [Stellaris]

quarthinos

Scott Manley got a look at the current in-house build when he was at GDC. It's potato quality, cause he was using his iPhone, but some interesting things! For example, at 1:36 you can see the standard EU 4 "reasons we hate you" mouseover in the diplo screen.

Elvenshae

Smurph wrote: »

Come for the spaceships, stay for the Victoria 2 style population simulation. Awesome. I really need a new Paradox game to play

Yes, yes, yes ...

since they ruined CKII.

/recordscratch

What?

Smurph

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Come for the spaceships, stay for the Victoria 2 style population simulation. Awesome. I really need a new Paradox game to play

Yes, yes, yes ...

since they ruined CKII.

/recordscratch

What?

I'm not a fan of the recent Conclave changes. But I've calmed down since posting that and have had more time with it since. It's not ruined, just a little less fun and moving in the wrong direction imo.

Elvenshae

Smurph wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Come for the spaceships, stay for the Victoria 2 style population simulation. Awesome. I really need a new Paradox game to play

Yes, yes, yes ...

since they ruined CKII.

/recordscratch

What?

I'm not a fan of the recent Conclave changes. But I've calmed down since posting that and have had more time with it since. It's not ruined, just a little less fun and moving in the wrong direction imo.

Ah. I haven't run into anything problematic with them, yet, other than all my vassals being pissed off that their highest-stat-is-6 selves aren't invited onto the Council.

CuddlyCuteKitten

My first race is going to be some kind of hive race with fanatical collectivism. The other ethos I'm not so sure about but either spiritual, pacifist or materialistic. I wonder if going above a 100 % slavery acceptance has any effect.

Donnicton

So it's been almost about two years since The Logic Factory(Ascendancy, if anyone remembers that 4X from 1993 - and The Tone Rebellion) shut its doors mysteriously and quietly, and let its domain of 20 years lapse in registration(logicfactory.com) and stopped updating their facebook page entirely. Ascendancy 2's hinted development look like it's abandoned as well. The iOS version also appears to have disappeared from the app store after briefly being available for free just prior to the company's disappearance.

Just for a lark I contacted the squatter who scooped up the domain and "the lowest we will go at this point" is fifty grand for the domain - classy.

Well, I suppose I could be glad that Ascendancy didn't get the "opportunity" to become one of those "modernized" 4X games. Though this - in its own way - is also and end to an era.

This is why I'm hoping that Stellaris could come into this genre to give it the boost that it's been sorely in need of all these years. I don't want the only thing remotely comparable to "decent" to come to 4X in recent memory to be Endless Space.

KetBra

This looks great.

Pops are always great, more paradox games need them

Smurph

Ran across two good articles about the end game crises you can encounter:

PC Gamer
PC Games N

Sounds like we'll have Skynet, Warp Demons, and Tyranids to start out. Plus maybe some business with the fallen empires starting expansion and offensive war again. Sounds like it's heavily influenced by Sword of the Stars 1, which is awesome.

Kadoken

That sanctuary thing they talk about sounds like a Halo...halo

Donnicton

Smurph wrote: »

Ran across two good articles about the end game crises you can encounter:

PC Gamer
PC Games N

Sounds like we'll have Skynet, Warp Demons, and Tyranids to start out. Plus maybe some business with the fallen empires starting expansion and offensive war again. Sounds like it's heavily influenced by Sword of the Stars 1, which is awesome.

"If you're using jump drives on your ships, there's risk that you will tear a hole in reality—that's also one of these dangerous technologies—and something will come through from another dimension."

Axen

@Donnicton

Hah, actually in one of the videos they did mention that one of the events that can trigger is your people on one of your planets uncovering an alien obelisk and becoming brainwashed/possessed by it. :biggrin:

WotanAnubis

Donnicton wrote: »

So it's been almost about two years since The Logic Factory(Ascendancy, if anyone remembers that 4X from 1993 - and The Tone Rebellion) shut its doors mysteriously and quietly, and let its domain of 20 years lapse in registration(logicfactory.com) and stopped updating their facebook page entirely. Ascendancy 2's hinted development look like it's abandoned as well. The iOS version also appears to have disappeared from the app store after briefly being available for free just prior to the company's disappearance.

Ascendancy was my favourite space game before Alpha Centauri came around.

It was so weird. I think my favourite race were the melancholy lizard people who were great at inventing stuff under stress. Or the very subversive... things (I never did manage to translate what their picture was actually supposed to be showing) that stole other people's tech. Or the six-armed, many-gendered lava-eating beasts who could live basically everywhere (so many useless lumps of rocks colonized just because I could). Or the jellyfish who could move between the stars faster than anyone else.

But I really hated the brainflies that kept resetting everybody's ships to the start of the whatever starlane they were in.

Corehealer

They basically looked at Halo/WAR40K/Dead Space/Aliens/Terminator and a bunch of other science fiction/popular media and cherry picked ideas for cataclysms that fit their setting and gameplay criteria for game changers without being balance breakers or lose the game style CK2 your heir died affairs.

Thumbs up to that; must have been an enjoyable planning stage to choose what ideas to implement and change to fit the game/avoid lawsuits.

Seriously though, can I have this game now please?

Slym

I love how unabashedly they show their inspiration for each of their stories they've built out of their mechanics

Vic

Axen wrote: »

@Donnicton

Hah, actually in one of the videos they did mention that one of the events that can trigger is your people on one of your planets uncovering an alien obelisk and becoming brainwashed/possessed by it. :biggrin:

That sounds like a potential Dead Space reference, which I would be hella down for.

Smurph wrote: »

Ran across two good articles about the end game crises you can encounter:

PC Gamer
PC Games N

Sounds like we'll have Skynet, Warp Demons, and Tyranids to start out. Plus maybe some business with the fallen empires starting expansion and offensive war again. Sounds like it's heavily influenced by Sword of the Stars 1, which is awesome.

And now I'm thinking about Sword of the Stars 2 again. This bitterness will never fade.

Kana

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Come for the spaceships, stay for the Victoria 2 style population simulation. Awesome. I really need a new Paradox game to play

Yes, yes, yes ...

since they ruined CKII.

/recordscratch

What?

I'm not a fan of the recent Conclave changes. But I've calmed down since posting that and have had more time with it since. It's not ruined, just a little less fun and moving in the wrong direction imo.

Ah. I haven't run into anything problematic with them, yet, other than all my vassals being pissed off that their highest-stat-is-6 selves aren't invited onto the Council.

Hey, it's a game about feudalism, not meritocracy!

Corehealer

Kana wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

Smurph wrote: »

Come for the spaceships, stay for the Victoria 2 style population simulation. Awesome. I really need a new Paradox game to play

Yes, yes, yes ...

since they ruined CKII.

/recordscratch

What?

I'm not a fan of the recent Conclave changes. But I've calmed down since posting that and have had more time with it since. It's not ruined, just a little less fun and moving in the wrong direction imo.

Ah. I haven't run into anything problematic with them, yet, other than all my vassals being pissed off that their highest-stat-is-6 selves aren't invited onto the Council.

Hey, it's a game about feudalism, not meritocracy!

Yes, but you want as the player to try and inject as much merit into your characters and vassals as you can to get as much value out of them as you can to ensure the stable maintenance and expansion of your realm. Just because the characters themselves are all selfish social climbing nobles with clubfoot doesn't mean you can afford to ignore merits and appoint just anyone to be your Spymaster and not expect a knife in the back or incompetent auditing of foreign and domestic threats.

Unless you wanna do it because it would be fun to see how the character in question would want to try and kill you if they are ambitious. I always found the 'send their carriage off a cliff' idea to be amusing, for example.

Basil

Vic wrote: »

And now I'm thinking about Sword of the Stars 2 again. This bitterness will never fade.

Ah. Sword of the Stars 2. A quote comes to mind:

Hate. 
Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. 
There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. 
If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. 
For you. 
Hate. 
Hate.

-I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

It gets the sentiment across.

Platy

The problem with Conclave is mostly overdesign

Like the council member personalities, what do some of those even mean

Elvenshae

Platypus Beirut wrote: »

The problem with Conclave is mostly overdesign

Like the council member personalities, what do some of those even mean

They tell you how they'll vote in most instances.

Assuran

As a reminder, the next installment of the Blorg's quest to find friends starts at 1500 CET (or, about 1 hour 45 minutes from this post) on Paradox' twitch channel.

edit: Stream is live!

Donnicton

RIP space hitlerbirds

Assuran

The Blorg befriended them to death.

Platy

Elvenshae wrote: »

Platypus Beirut wrote: »

The problem with Conclave is mostly overdesign

Like the council member personalities, what do some of those even mean

They tell you how they'll vote in most instances.

Except it is not apparent at all how a "Glory Hound" would vote on stuff like title revocation

You're left with no explanation

Elvenshae

Platypus Beirut wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

Platypus Beirut wrote: »

The problem with Conclave is mostly overdesign

Like the council member personalities, what do some of those even mean

They tell you how they'll vote in most instances.

Except it is not apparent at all how a "Glory Hound" would vote on stuff like title revocation

You're left with no explanation

My guess (not looking at the game or anything) is that a Glory Hound wouldn't care that much about it, and will vote depending on the skills / bribes of the other councilors. Glory Hounds are more concerned with external stuff, and not on picking on the small guys.

Ark Evensong

Another monday, another Dev Diary.

Stellaris Dev Diary #27 - Music & Sound

Greetings interstellar explorers!

Welcome to the next entry of our dev diaries. This one is all about the sound and music that will help Stellaris become a galaxy worth exploring. Stellaris is the first project from Paradox where we have had a dedicated Audio department in-house and we hope that it will be something that our players will notice.

Soundtrack:

Hi, my name is Andreas Waldetoft aka Jazzhole and I am the music composer here at Paradox.

When I got hold off the news that we were doing Stellaris. I excitedly and immediately started thinking on what kind of direction to go with the music. I can remember myself as a young kid in the 80’s sitting in my room reading comics and listening to my father's records. That included a lot of Vangelis and Mike Oldfield which ended up being two of the biggest inspirations for the sound of Stellaris soundtrack. The idea of the music for Stellaris is getting back to that feeling I had as a kid, the feeling of infinite possibilities and what might be out there among the stars and galaxies.

There was a lot of experimentation before we found the right vibe for the music. But I always wanted to blend the otherworldly sounds of synths with the organic sound of an orchestra and ethnic instruments, to create a soundscape that would feel right at home in Stellaris. To make the feeling of exploration and journey across the galaxy I decided to not make the music too static and ambient. I wanted melody and a beat to push us forward to the unknown, sometimes with odd time signatures to really emphasize that push.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuELLd3Ec4U

I hope you will enjoy the direction we took with the music, and I really hope to write music for Stellaris for years to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCv6YQMJtUg

Sound Design:

Hi, My name is Björn Iversen aka Metal King and I’m the Audio Director here at Paradox and I have been responsible to create a stellar soundscape for Stellaris.

Where we start with the sound design?

It’s a challenge to work with Sci-Fi from a sound designer’s perspective since basically everyone will always compare your work to the great classics such as Star Wars. Star Trek, Starcraft, Mass Effects and much more. For this project I asked around a lot in the team to try get hold on what kind of “sound” they wanted Stellaris to have. After getting a grip on what kind of soundscape my colleagues wanted (or what they think they wanted) I started to create audio assets with their reference in my mind but also added with “my touche” to the overall sound design.

I went through a lot of different sound effects in our archives and as well going around the office and hitting every locker, desk, door or anything I could find that I think would sound awesome. I even started recording our elevators in the old office when they went up and down. I also started looking into different VST synthesis (basically digital synths) that could do awesome sound effects or really weird effects.

After finding the “neat-sound” resources I loaded them into my program and started modulating them all with various effects. For inspiration to create these assets I did some research to see how the audio team did when they created all their iconic sound effects for the original Star Trek. It was really inspiring to see how you could also create your own assets with help of simple tools.

You're able to find a .zip file attached to this post* that contains some audio samples on the sound design if you want to listen.

Ambient:

Something that was important for us from the beginning was to emphasize the feeling of the galaxy being vast and full of wonders, so I really wanted to create a deep soundscape. Since you can zoom in really close to ships or zoom out to get a better view of the entire system I wanted there to be a sound effect for ships when you zoom in on them, for example to hear their engine hum or if you’re admiring the planets you would hear the planet’s own “hum”. But having great background audio is also important for creating a big soundscape (even if there is no sound in space!) so I created several layers for the background ambient for our solar system. This was to create a background that feels like it is always moving, but wouldn’t take too much of your attention.

GUI:

Usually the hardest sound effects to create, especially in a strategy game, since it is the sound effects players will hear the most of throughout the game. Therefore it was important for us to create as many various “click” SFX we could so the player won’t get tired of them. From the beginning I started out with only “digital” created audio resource that I mixed and tweaked with different effects, but later on I started to record several “organic” sound sources to get the right sound. I actually made a longer session of recording a kazoo, which was not well received in the office..

After many iterations we came up with a style of GUI sound effects that is hybrid between digital and recorded audio sources that we’re pleased with. Try to guess what we have recorded to achieve desired sound!

Weapons:

Even if we wanted to create a deep soundscape you got to have a little more punch/action to some of the sound effects to give more life and what better opportunity when you’re in a space battle! Considering the subtle ambience, there was no question that the weapons sound effects should sound big and take space! It was also important that the sound for the weapons would change depending on the distance from the battle (remember, deep soundscape!) so if you are watching a encounter far away the weapons doesn’t sound clear, are kind of muddy and with echo but it’s a opposite experience when you zoom in closer to the encounter. Then you can hear much more of the details from each weapon type.

But it is easy to forget that the sound effects needs to be consistent with the overall feeling so we didn’t want to go too “Michael Bay” on the sound effects (or just only a few times).

Voice Over:

We wanted to give VIR, our dear advisor, a bigger presence for the player so we had auditions for the role before hiring a VO artist to bring more life to VIR. It is a perhaps a first for a PDS game to have VO at all. Except for teaching you how to play the game, VIR will also keep you updated throughout the game to make it easier for you to run your empire. VIR will notify you if your Pops are short on food or that one of your Science Ships has completed its survey.

This was a short summary for the music and sound design in Stellaris, we could ramble on forever about the audio, but hope that you enjoyed some of the samples!

Next entry will be an interesting one when the Project Lead speaks about Stellaris.

*: On the original post, not here.

Anarchy Rules!

Very Mass Effecty, with a touch of Bladerunner. I approve!

antherem

"Thanks for joining the effort to unlock exclusive Stellaris rewards! Your crew haven't seen you around for a while and still need your help."

Then my crew should have come up with a better idea than a clicker.

Rhan9

I think I'll go with the Age of Technology humanity from 40k. None of the incompetence of the Imperium, with more goodies. A bit less Emprah-y though.
Hmm...

I think I'll just go with a competent Imperium instead.

Corehealer

A competent Imperium is one that lets it's guard down while also using Warp technology. Inevitably, you'll be winding up with demons and Fallen Empires that hate your guts for unleashing demons just like they did a long time ago.

Donnicton

More like Age of Technology Imperium will develop an AI and allow it to run out of control and the resulting war devastates all space travel for the next several thousand years.

Which incidentally since you can totally do in this game, is entirely a thing that you should be allowing to happen.

Phillishere

You know, considering how free WH40K is with licenses these days, Paradox could probably put together an official "For the Emperor" DLC pack.

Rhan9

Yes, all of those things will happen, but MY imperium will overcome and arise even greater.
Of course, there will be the required quota of purging xenos etc.

Throw enough SCIENCE at any problem and it will be solved.

Vic

I'm planning on going full Space Federation/Galactic council. All races shall coexist in harmony, in an interstellar society built on rationality and science.

Of course, the first warring empire, rogue AI or other interstellar threat that comes along will immediately wipe the floor with my peacekeeping starfleet and destroy all I have endeavored to build, but hopefully the ride there will be interesting!

Donnicton

Vic wrote: »

I'm planning on going full Space Federation/Galactic council. All races shall coexist in harmony, in an interstellar society built on rationality and science.

Of course, the first warring empire, rogue AI or other interstellar threat that comes along will immediately wipe the floor with my peacekeeping starfleet and destroy all I have endeavored to build, but hopefully the ride there will be interesting!

Nah, all you have to do is hire Captain Hero of the USS Make-Shit-Up like a certain other Federation and you'll be fine.

Kadoken

I wish you had more ethos points. I want to be a Martial Spiritualist Collectivist Xenophobe but I can only pick two or be fanatic in one.

Elvenshae

Vic wrote: »

I'm planning on going full Space Federation/Galactic council. All races shall coexist in harmony, in an interstellar society built on rationality and science.

Of course, the first warring empire, rogue AI or other interstellar threat that comes along will immediately wipe the floor with my peacekeeping starfleet and destroy all I have endeavored to build, but hopefully the ride there will be interesting!

You need to invest more heavily in Peace Guns, Harmony Torpedoes, and Joy Beams.

That way, when the first warring empire shows up, they can have the myriad benefits of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation explained to them at length.

I bet they'll be so encouraged that they can't wait to join your party!

And if they won't, then it might be time for ... The Utopia Device.

Kadoken

Ethos is chaos

Grey Paladin

Step 1: Get robot governors.
Step 2: Become The Culture.
Step 3: Profit.

The Ender

Elvenshae wrote: »

Vic wrote: »

I'm planning on going full Space Federation/Galactic council. All races shall coexist in harmony, in an interstellar society built on rationality and science.

Of course, the first warring empire, rogue AI or other interstellar threat that comes along will immediately wipe the floor with my peacekeeping starfleet and destroy all I have endeavored to build, but hopefully the ride there will be interesting!

You need to invest more heavily in Peace Guns, Harmony Torpedoes, and Joy Beams.

That way, when the first warring empire shows up, they can have the myriad benefits of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation explained to them at length.

I bet they'll be so encouraged that they can't wait to join your party!

And if they won't, then it might be time for ... The Utopia Device.

I legitimately hope that it's possible to solve problems via Picard Monologue instead of gun batteries. It would make Stellaris one of very few games with such an option.


Unfortunately, what's been shown so far doesn't make me hopeful.