Stellaris Dev Diary # 420- Scientific Arcships, Waylines, and the Sacred Path

by Eladrin

Greetings, Stellaris Community!

For years we have said that moving planets are impossible. For years, we said even mentioning it would make programmers cry. We like to do the impossible, and we also (apparently) like to make our programmers cry.

Despite having to change the carpets twice due to water damage, colonies have been separated from planets! (This is gonna break your mods.)

Stellaris 4.4 ‘Pegasus’ and the Nomads expansion will be released on June 15th.

tl;dr? Listen to the video Dev Diary on YouTube instead!

I’ll pass over to Alfray Stryke to share more details.

Hi folks, roughly a year ago I spoke to you about ships that were made of meat, today we’re instead talking about ships that aren’t made of meat, namely Arkships and Logistic Ships.

As a reminder, consider all screenshots in this Dev Diary to be from WIP builds of the game. Numbers, UI elements and text may change in the final release.

Arkships act as Colonies, Shipyards, and hybrid Military/Science ships for Nomadic empires. For today’s discussion, we’ll be focusing on Scientific Arkships with Civilian and Military Arkships to be explored in future Dev Diaries.

To begin with, when creating a Nomadic empire, the Arkship selection screen replaces the Homeworld selection screen.

Choose your starter!

Scientific Arkship Tiers

The three different Arkships at Tier 3.

This allows you to select your empire’s starting Arkship. Over the course of the game, you will be able to research the other Arkship classes in addition to technologies that enable the construction of new Arkships or upgrading the Tier of any Arkship you own. 

Although the three Arkship Classes differ in specialisation, they all:

• Carry the colonies of Nomadic empires.

• Act as mobile Shipyards.

• Come equipped with strike craft and point defenses.

• Enable unique fleet orders.

Nomadic empires also have access to the Arkship Development Council Agenda, which replaces the Infinite Opportunities Agenda as your starting Agenda. 

Scientific Arkship Development

The modifiers provided by this Agenda depend on your starting Arkship class, thus for a Scientific Arkship we gain modifiers suitable for economic and military development. As you progress through the technology tree, this Agenda will grant progress in all Arkship technologies.

All Arkships have access to an array of fleet orders, of which the top four should be familiar to most players.

• Bombardment Stance

  • Select the bombardment stance of the Arkship.

• Build Megastructure

  • Opens the build menu for Megastructures, Arkships, and Waystations

• Fleet Stance

  • Select the Fleet Stance of the Arkship

  • [c]<\[Insufficient Intel] Combat behaviour of the Arkship is awaiting decryption of the Military-Class Arkship intel packet.>[/c]

• Fleet Automation

  • Allows selection of Automated Orders for the Arkship.

Let’s let the Commander try to do some surveying, it’s his passion!

• Survey

  • As per the Science Ship order, but with either a Scientist or Commander in charge of the Arkship fleet.

• Deep Scan

  • A more thorough version of Survey, Deep Scan, has a chance to reveal previously undetected Resources, Anomalies, or Archaeology Sites. Although celestial objects can be Deep Scanned multiple times, the chance of a discovery drops for each successive Deep Scan. This also [c]<\[Insufficient Intel] Awaiting decryption of the Civilian-Class Arkship intel packet.>[/c]

  • This order requires the Arkship satisfies one of the following requirements:

    • Is a Scientific Arkship of Tier 2 or 3

    • Is equipped with an Advanced Sensor Array Module

    • Is equipped with a Subspace Imaging Spinal Mount

  • Like Survey, this order requires that the Arkship fleet has a leader in charge.

• [c]<\[Insufficient Intel][/c]

  • [c]This fleet order is awaiting decryption of the Civilian-Class Arkship intel packet.>[/c]

• [c]<\[Insufficient Intel][/c]

  • [c]This fleet order is awaiting decryption of the Civilian-Class Arkship intel packet.>[/c]

• Spinal Mount Ability

  • Most Spinal Mounts that can be constructed on an Arkship grant an additional special ability.

Do note that Arkships cannot research Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, or Astral Rifts, but can complete some Special Projects. This is because we don’t want your entire colony being eaten by a dimensional horror or whatever other evil our Content Designers have made for the last decade. For researching Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Astral Rifts, and Special Projects Nomadic empires still have access to Science Ships.

Arkship Design & Upgrading

Ship Controls tab in the Arkship Colony UI

As Arkships are unique, we felt it appropriate to give them a custom UI for their design and upgrading, which is found in the Ship Controls tab of the Colony UI for Arkships. This tab replaces the Armies tab.

The top of the UI shows the Arkship Class and Tier, current HP, Armor, Shields, Pops, and Cloaking Detection (if the First Contact DLC is enabled). To the right you have buttons to upgrade the Arkship Tier and view the currently equipped ship components. Note that components on an Arkship are automatically upgraded depending on researched technologies.

Sometimes science requires firepower.

To install additional components or add additional functionality to the Arkship, you can build either internal Systems or external Modules.

The categories of Systems are:

As an example, here’s the Ancient Suspension Field module, which adds 3× Large Ancient Suspension Field components to the Arkship.

The categories of Modules are:

As an example, here’s the Advanced Sensor Array, which increases the effectiveness of the Arkship’s sensors.

Finally, Tier 3 Arkships can equip a single Spinal Mount located between the habitable arms of the Arkship. These are powerful late-game installations, designed to be mobile kilostructures.

Today we’ll show off the Capital Shipyard and the Subspace Imager.

On an Arkship, a shipyard can be used to build districts!

The Capital Shipyard does not grant access to any Spinal Mount Ability. Instead, it acts as a mobile “Kilo-Shipyard”, improving the construction speed of the Arkship and construction queues available.

With enough of these we could unveil the galaxy!

Tier 3 Scientific Arkship equipped with 6× Advanced Sensor Arrays Modules and a Subspace Imaging Array Spinal Mount

The Subspace Imaging Array is the ultimate mobile sensor array, capable of tracking enemy fleets at incredible ranges. In addition to the modifiers it provides, it also enables the Subspace Image System fleet order. This allows the Arkship to Deep Scan an entire system at once, with a much higher chance of success, while also having the chance to discover previously undiscovered Hyperlanes or Wormholes.

Logistic Ships are the Nomadic replacement for Construction Ships. They are primarily used to construct new Waystations, collect resources from Waystations, conduct Special Projects that require Construction Ships, and [c]<\[Insufficient Intel] Awaiting decryption of the Civilian-Class Arkship intel packet.>.[/c]

Although Logistic Ships can construct Megastructures, they are incapable of building new Arkships. Unlike Construction Ships, the maximum number of Logistic Ships a Nomadic Empire can support is restricted by technologies and their Waylines.

Each Logistic Ship has an internal resource stockpile which is transferred into your empire stockpiles whenever they visit an Arkship. This stockpile can be viewed both in the fleet UI for Logistic Ships and the Outliner. The collection of resources from Waystations and dropping them off to Arkships can be automated.

Perhaps I lied a bit when I said that we're going to be talking about ships that aren't made of meat. When using a Biological Shipset, these ships will, in fact, be made of meat. 

Waystations are how Nomadic empires exert influence over a system without claiming it as theirs. Depending on the installed modules, Waystations collect resources from celestial deposits, observe pre-FTL civilisations, allow for megastructure construction, and more.

All Waystations, regardless of level, use your Station Capacity. This differs from Station Capacity for Starbases, where Outposts are exempted. Incidentally, we’re looking at having Orbital Rings and Deep Space Citadels use 1 and 3 Station Capacity respectively.

Instead of technologies related to improved Starbases, Nomadic empires gain access to technologies to improve their Waystations and Logistic Ships. 

Oh yeah, Waystations can cloak!

Waystation Stockpiles depend on installed modules and local system resources.

Waylines!

If multiple Waystations are built in neighbouring systems, they will automatically form a Wayline. , appear in the Outliner as a single entry, with a dedicated UI to show all Waystations in that Wayline.

Depending on Modules installed on the Waystations, Waylines are capable of propagating modifiers to systems and empires connected to them. 

Nomadic empires can build Waystations in systems owned by Settled empires, though doing so will incur Opinion Penalties, scaling with the number of Waystations present and various policies of the empires involved.

To remove this penalty, Nomadic empires can sign Diplomatic Agreements with Settled empires to allow Waystation construction within their systems. 

Likewise, two Nomadic empires with neighbouring Waylines can also sign a Wayline Pact. Regardless of the empires who have signed the agreement, a Wayline Pact allows for both to benefit from the Wayline modifiers of the other, and for their Waylines to propagate each other’s Wayline modifiers.

Now onto PDS_Bojj to discuss the next of our Nomadic origins.

Hey, I'm PDS_Bojj! I'm a Content Designer on Stellaris. I'm here to talk about The Sacred Path, the new spiritualist origin in our upcoming Nomads expansion.

Nomadic empires are defined by their wandering, but what if your wandering had a purpose? The Sacred Path is an origin for Spiritualist empires whose ancestors left behind a set of star charts marking a number of sacred sites scattered across the galaxy. Your people believe they are duty-bound to find them all. Whether that duty is divine obligation, historical curiosity, or just a really old story someone wrote down once... Well, that's for you to discover.

Let’s get our pilgrimage on…

The Consecrated Community

When you start with The Sacred Path, your Arkship comes with a unique district specialization: the Consecrated Community. This replaces your standard civilian jobs with three new roles that reflect your empire's spiritual hierarchy:

• High Pilgrims - Your elite clergy. They produce Unity, and they are Very Serious About The Path.

• Devoted Adepts - Specialist researchers and interpreters of scripture. They also make your ships faster, which I find very on-brand for a nomadic priesthood.

• Faithful Acolytes - The everyday faithful. They keep the lights on and food on the table, which even the most devout pilgrim appreciates.

Your first decision comes almost immediately. After five days of travel, your council brings the ancient star charts forward and asks the question everyone has been avoiding: are you following this pilgrimage out of faith, or are you going to chart your own path? This choice influences which of your three classes benefits most in the early game, so it's worth thinking about your playstyle before you click.

Woah, this Community is so Consecrated!

The Sacred Sites

From here, the origin unfolds as a series of special projects: survey sacred sites, each one a remnant of your ancestors' journey. I won't spoil all of them, but I will say each site has a distinct identity and asks you a different question about faith, history, and what your empire actually believes.

Eye am what eye am. Eye am my own special creation.

A few highlights:

The Cradle is a sacred location where your ancestors supposedly received divine guidance - except there's no physical evidence of any presence whatsoever. You can declare the faith validated anyway, or accept that history may have been embellished somewhere along the way. Both choices have consequences.

The Intelligence is an ancient AI that greets your survey team with the message: "Worship is enabled. Peace may now commence." You can venerate it, bring it aboard your Arkship, or destroy it.

Allow the “Mechsiah” into your pulmonary organ.

The End of the Path

After visiting all sites, your empire faces its defining moment: was any of this real? Did the ancestors receive divine guidance, or did they just write down a very compelling story?

The real Path was the epiphanies we had along the way.

The Sacred Path is an origin for players who want their nomadic run to feel like a journey - one where the choices you make along the way shape not just your modifiers, but how your empire understands itself by the end of the game. I'm really proud of how it came together, and I'm excited to see which endings people gravitate toward. My bet is on The Intelligence evoking some strong opinions in the community.

That's all from me for now!

PDS_Bojj

What’s Next? Nomadic Dev Diaries:

Here’s a non-exhaustive preview of the dev diary schedule, subject to slight changes if we suddenly remember a feature:

So next week, we’ll be taking a trip on The Forever Cruise, and go over Contracts and life on an Arkship. We’ll also take a closer look at the Civilian Arkship and reveal another Spinal Mount.

See you then!