A little over two weeks on from the launch of Stellaris 4.0 and the Biogenesis DLC, things are starting to stabilize. Developer Paradox has just launched Stellaris patch 4.0.13, the latest in a long string of updates delivering more performance improvements, balance tweaks, and bug fixes for the space 4X game. As the studio looks ahead to the Shadows of the Shroud expansion, game director Stephen 'Eladrin' Muray ponders how success is measured in Stellaris, and ways that its enemy AI can provide a more rewarding challenge.
Muray begins the new best 4X games sing.
"Our goal is for AI empires to feel like actors in the galactic play, acting in a manner consistent with their origins, authorities, civics, and ethics rather than always picking the 'meta' play," Muray explains. "They do still need to put up a bit of a challenge, though, especially at higher difficulties. The first economic goal we make for our AI is 'please don't collapse in an economic death spiral,' and it's actually far better at that in 4.0 than it was in 3.x. The current AI does not meet the second, 'provide an adequate challenge,' goal though."
According to Muray, the computer places a large focus on striving to reach preset resource goals based on their economic plans. These will scale, meaning that if a target is met one month, it will be raised for the next, ensuring a constant thirst for expansion. This is also a great way to have them exhibit their society's ethics; "Materialists scale their research targets faster than other empires, so they'll inherently be more likely to build research specializations, while Spiritualists are more likely to have a lot of unity specializations."
Muray notes that one way the team tests if the AI is working as expected is to use benchmarking. "What kind of fleet power, alloy generation, and research generation should they have by 2230, 2250, 2300, and so on? Around what year should they hit 10k fleet power?" He contemplates whether these milestones should be shifted based on personality types, or if that might lead to situations where "friendlier" empires become too weak.
"I've got my own set of benchmarks that come from running 3.14 and from the multiplayer community, and in general I'm okay with Grand iral [difficulty] being significantly harder than it was in 3.14," Muray says, "but I'm interested to hear what you all strive for? How much research and alloy production do you try to have 10 years, 30 years, 100 years [in], and when the end-game crisis comes calling?"
If you want to give your thoughts to help improve the challenge provided by computer-controlled opponents in Stellaris moving forward, you can do so recent interview with Muray, where he discusses the success of Biogenesis, celebrates the creativity of its Wilderness origin, and declares his intent to continue getting weirder in the future.
Looking to spice up your next campaign? Here are the best space games on PC right now, in case you're eager for another adventure among the stars.
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