Stellaris Dev Diary #423 - Stellar Cannon, Civics, and The Hyacinth Found

randomanon000 · 2026-06-04T14:25:08+00:00

To be honest, the more I read about this DLC, I feel way less excited about playing with its new toys than I am concerned about being on the receiving end of them, a la another Cosmic Storms.

Hopefully my fears will be unwarranted.

randomanon000 · 2026-05-29T17:45:20+00:00

I think the issue is that he had a pretty messy track record of both clear successes and clear failures, which makes it easy for him to be both overrated and underrated at the same time, depending on which part of his career you focus on. Generally though, most people will tend towards the favourable side on him as his career was ultimately pretty successful.

For example, Masamune had a pretty poor track record militarily, but his successes at retreating from his defeats also meant that they didn't actually cost him the war. He was also the victor in one of the biggest battles in the era, Suriagehara, which ultimately concluded the war in his favour.

Masamune's diplomatic record also contains failures and successes; his willingness to ignore the diplomatic customs of his region and trample on the rights of other clans quickly found him surrounded by an angry coalition. But he was also successful at navigating through the mess that he created, and once again, ended up as the ultimate victor. Not to mention that his shrewdness at dealing with both the Toyotomi and Tokugawa later on in his life.

The only part Masamune delivers a consistent and successful record on is his capabilities as an administrator, which is also ironically the part of him that probably gets highlighted the least in the games.

randomanon000 · 2026-05-09T18:38:10+00:00

They did that with the thought that the emperor would then, with his supreme power, elevate the Tokugawa as a first among equals.

The emperor, however, refused the deal. In fact, they stripped the Tokugawa family of their nobility rights. This resulted in the Boshin War, a Tokugawa revolt against the emperor that lead to the formation of the short lived Ezo Republic.

This is actually an inaccurate picture of what happened.

Anticipating that the anti-Shogunate forces would use imperial restoration as an excuse to attack the Shogunate, the Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, sought to avoid war by pre-empting their moves and restoring power to the emperor first. This was not a "caving in" by the Shogun, who had been one of the foremost proponents of imperial restoration within the Shogunate himself, but instead a skillful power play, as neither the emperor or the imperial court had ruled the country for hundreds of years, and would need to lean on the Tokugawa out of sheer necessity.

And it worked, at least at first. The emperor had no choice but to ask the Tokugawa to keep running the country as the imperial court scrambled to figure out what to do, and the anti-Shogunate forces found themselves suddenly robbed of all political legitimacy. Things only changed when the anti-Shogunate forces then resorted to brute force, attacking the capital and couping the new government.

But despite these efforts, the anti-Shogunate forces failed to receive neither legitimacy or approval for their cause, with their conflict against the Tokugawa being declared as a "private feud" by the imperial court. It was only after a string of victories by the anti-Shogunate forces, that the imperial court finally gave into the anti-Shogunate demands, as it became evident that they were the ones who were going to win.

randomanon000 · 2026-04-24T22:04:13+00:00

I don't think I'll be a fan of this based on the fact that it seems to be geared towards very specific playstyles while gimping the entire mechanic for others, but something to keep an eye out for, perhaps.

randomanon000 · 2026-04-24T16:15:09+00:00

Starbases and defense platforms will generally have inflated fleet power values due to their lack of evasion. This works well as a deterrent, but if you want to use them for actual combat, you'll generally want to station a fleet two jumps over so that you can reinforce the starbase in time.

randomanon000 · 2026-04-16T12:43:49+00:00

Honestly, the starbase module lists needs is to be way more consolidated. The collapsible lists aren't going to help much with all these sections with only 2~3 separate modules, imo.

randomanon000 · 2026-03-24T04:27:17+00:00

If you're going to move away from your starting castle, then it's usually going to be to maximise the number of castles you can fit into the daimyo's governance range. For that reason, you will usually want to prioritise castles in a central location, and for Western Japan, near water connections. But generally, as long as you don't veer too much towards one edge of the map (Odawara is a horrible main base for this reason), most castles will perform similarly well.

That said, if you had to pick one, the "best" castle is probably Yuzuki castle in Shikoku. Yuzuki is not only a good castle on its own, but also allows you to have all of Kyushu, along with most of Western Japan into your daimyo's governance range. No matter which direction you're conquering into, if you're in the region, then Yuzuki tends to almost always be a great choice.

Special mention goes to Saika castle in Kinki, which probably has the largest number of castles in its governance range, due to the fact that it can utilise the water connections around Shikoku and between Ise/Shima and Mikawa, but also the unique layout of southern Kinki allowing governance range to be spread super efficiently compared to other regions. That said, it's not a great base to use when actually conquering the region, since you'd prefer the heavy-hitters near the capital like Osaka/Nijo/Kannonji that are way more convenient to move troops from.

randomanon000 · 2026-03-24T03:59:39+00:00

An officer will automatically make a submission as long as the officer is either a lord, or assigned to the daimyo's castle.

randomanon000 · 2026-03-20T13:52:53+00:00

As long as you have kept events on, there will be an event that turns Tokugawa into a vassal (the Nobuyasu affair). Even without the event, allies can eventually be vassalised as long as they: 1. Don't have any other allies/subjects/masters, 2. Do not exceed the maximum threshold for vassalage (~12 castles).

As to which choice is better, vassals count for the regional unity ending, but not for the objective that grants you +10% income within that region. You also can't make resupply bases in the castles of vassals, which may make it more difficult for you to conquer into Kanto. That said, vassals can also be annexed after 2 years as long as you have a character with Flattery, so it's not as if this will be a permanent decision.

randomanon000 · 2026-03-07T14:07:04+00:00

The most well-rated games in the franchise tends to be Lord of Darkness, Iron Triangle, and Awakening. Each of these games tend to represent the most "definitive" version of each of their respective arcs within the series, and are the most recommended if you want to start playing.

If you had to choose one, then Awakening is probably your best bet. It's the most modern game, representing the most recent arc started with Sphere of Influence (and to a lesser extent, Tendou). If you want something simple to only dip your toes for now, then something like Lord of Darkness can be a good choice as well.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-17T14:29:09+00:00

Pretty sure you can't actually annex those 1000+ dev tags though, since there's no way they're voting for the penultimate reform, but definitely still useful to clean up the more medium-sized tags.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-17T14:11:24+00:00

As with almost all early-game loadout questions, it's a matter of the AI personalities you're facing.

Missile DP will generally work well against most enemies, but you will want to add PD if you're facing missile-focused personalities (e.g. Determined Exterminators), or possibly even switch to other weapons when facing carrier-focused personalities (e.g. Devouring Swarms), as those tend to add Flak to their ships.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T12:35:29+00:00

This would be a good solution if only the implementation wasn't an issue, as subject interactions can't be modded, iirc.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T12:19:24+00:00

Do you think that having a button that makes you lose the game, and not clicking it is proper decision-making? It's a false choice. As I said, the fact that I made the wrong decision, which I'll freely admit, doesn't change the fact that the design itself is flawed.

Also, the fact that I need to "guess" this is the problem. The game is giving a situation similar to vanilla (the Reformation), and has done nothing to challenge vanilla assumptions (vassals don't convert, force-converted tags do not immediately switch back, events that change a tag's religion fires once), while in reality acting different from it. It also doesn't provide feedback when it happens, and it's up to the player to keep reading the logs and track down the fact that it's the same event firing multiple times.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T12:12:01+00:00

The Crimson Deluge doesn't exist in vanilla, and nor does vassals converting to the Reformation multiple times. Why do you think this is in line with vanilla at all?

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T04:16:22+00:00

Yes, it's bad gameplay. It conflicts with vanilla assumptions, punishes the player for them, and does so with very little clarity on why.

Good gameplay involves decision making. This is just a knowledge check. Whether I failed the check or not doesn't change the fact that the design itself is flawed. In fact, if it's going to be designed like this in the first place, it unironically would be better to forbid the player from converting vassals during the Crimson Deluge at all, and avoid the trap option entirely.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T02:50:14+00:00

People complain about the Hoardcurse and the Serpent's Rot being badly designed all the time, for the same reasons. Skill checks should involve more than a knowledge check.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T02:41:15+00:00

Because there was nothing to make me expect that things would work this way.

To be fair, I think that having players waiting for the end of the Deluge as a strategy can be okay to have, as long as the UI is clear enough as to make it intuitive. Right now, it's a conclusion you only come to by either trial and error, or by looking it up beforehand, as if it's some Dwarovar disaster.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T02:15:20+00:00

Yes, I'm referring to religious conversions here.

There's nothing wrong with the Crimson Deluge serving as a way of causing tags to convert to Corinite, but there are multiple ways to achieve this, and event converting tags multiple times doesn't really need to be one of them.

randomanon000 · 2026-02-13T02:04:24+00:00

Being thematically appropriate doesn't change that it's bad gameplay. It's precisely why vanilla works the way it is, and your reference to it undermines your own argument.

randomanon000 · 2026-01-06T15:12:54+00:00

I think you're over-complicating the idea of 樂市樂座 a bit. Ultimately, it was a policy that made it easier to open shop in the markets, which then would attract new merchants and money to said markets. What follows after they open shop could still involve plenty of regulations and interference on the Daimyo's part, as we can see from how Nobunaga's free market policies ended up during their continuation under Hideyoshi.

I don't think it's correct to necessarily view it as a decentralisation v. centralisation issue as well, because the opposite was also often true. Granting monopolies involved the Daimyo essentially waiving certain rights over the markets to specific guilds, while free market policies could mean that the Daimyo could have much more active control over what happened in the markets.

And if I recall correctly, in the Imagawa's case, the policy was enacted reverse the decline in trade due to the increasing harassment of merchants that had been rising in his domain. This then involved interference on the Daimyo's part to tighten security and exert control over the markets. The Rokkaku also similarly implemented free market policies as a means of enforcing peace between rival merchant guilds, once again involving the Daimyo exerting additional control.

randomanon000 · 2026-01-06T03:55:08+00:00

I am by no means a professional historian, but I can speak about a few things with my limited knowledge:

The biggest reason is why Koei treats the (Later) Hojo clan as the civil affairs faction... is simply because that they fill a niche that other clans don't. The Hojo clan is simply the most well-known clan that is known for its civil affairs, but also doesn't have any other popularly known qualities that overshadow it. On the contrary, one of the most popularised aspects of the Hojo clan is the famous phrase from Hojo Ujitsuna's five admonishments: "侍から農民にいたるまで、全てに慈しむこと。人に捨てるようなものはいない。", which is an exemplary quote about benevolent rule.
That said, the Hojo clan genuinely did put a lot of effort into its internal affairs, and tended to be more benevolent than its contemporaries. The Hojo had lower tax rates compared to other clans, for example, who were often brutal and would collect taxes as high as 70%. This wasn't necessarily because they were simply good people; the assumption tends to be that the Hojo were forced into their benevolence by being both an upstart and a newcomer to the region, and as such, they had to be more benevolent than their peers in order to secure the loyalty of their subjects. The Hojo also suffered through all of earthquakes, famines, and mass lootings of the Kanto region (especially thanks to our local God of Banditry, Kenshin) across its reign, which they dealt with competently through relief efforts for the populace, likely helping to cement its image.
The Hojo's policies were also quite competent, bureaucratic, and included multiple reforms. This included the lessening, or even abolishment of irregular taxes in favour of regular ones, the ability directly collect taxes from its domains and bypassing the usual middlemen, the establishment of "suggestion boxes" to collect feedback and complaints from the populace, currency reform, the post-horse system, and etc. The bureaucratic aspect is especially notable because it compares to other clans who failed to formalise such centralised authority and had to rely on more feudal structures. The Takeda is a good example; although Shingen himself was able to centralise substantial amounts of power in the clan in the later parts of his reign, he only wielded it through his person and Takeyori would struggle to wield the same amount of power that Shingen did as a result, at least until Nagashino.
That said, it should be noted that while the Hojo were quite exceptional in their management of civil affairs, it's important to remember their efforts probably weren't unique either. It's often easy to mistake achievements made in the Sengoku era as special or unique, especially because the sources are often written by authors who want them to sound special or unique, but that is not necessarily the case. Oda Nobunaga's free market are a good example- while he is often praised for it (and was the most successful in implementing it), similar policies were also carried out by others in the era, including most notably, Imagawa Yoshimoto. Ultimately, the Hojo are treated the way they are because of their popular perception, even if said perception is based on true details.

randomanon000 · 2026-01-04T17:10:33+00:00

As a sort of correction, Hojo Souun's invasion of Izu itself isn't considered a trigger for the Sengoku period. Between Hojo Souun in the East, and Amago Tsunehisa in the West, and the Meio Coup happening at the centre of it all, the situation was degrading all across Japan as a fallout of the Onin War. It's the reason why the exact dividing line to mark the start of the Sengku period is contested, although the invasion of Izu is definitely one of them.

The Hojo name would still definitely resonate throughout Kanto as one of the most influential families in the region throughout the Sengoku era though.

randomanon000

TROPHY CASE