Heeeeello Februa...rch...
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Ahem ahem... So anyways, this month we're doing not just one MMR, but two! The March Monthly Mod Report is actually not getting delayed or merged into this one! It's still coming up later this month, but today we'll be going... back in time a little bit! Juuuust like a couple of weeks!
This one was originally supposed to be posted back in February and be all about the upcoming Lhûren rework. And you may have also noticed that it has a poll!
I would really love you to toss your votes at this poll, so uncharacteristically, we'll be staying strictly on topic today!
SO! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO!
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Elves of Stellaris (Lhûren Rework)
As you might remember from the December MMR, we announced that the Lhûren would be getting a comprehensive rework, encompassing everything from their internal politics, Subject mechanics, to the Origin itself. Last time, we outlined most of the general features of the rework and while some of them might change during development for either technical or UX reasons, it should have at least given you a good idea of the direction we were going with.
Since then, a few of the ideas have crystallised and we've had some time to polish up the details, but today, I'd like to touch upon something... that I've been been unable to make up my mind on.
Namely, the useability of the Origin and Civic outside the holistic context of the Lhûren preset empire. Sooo, in the original rework concept, I did not really put much thought into how the Civic would work if it was divorced from the one-sector-challenge nature of the Origin and its intended storyline of rediscovering a galaxy the Lhûren civilisation had once left behind.
Here's my little dilemma: do I go all-in on the synergy between the Civic and Origin (much like we designed the pairings in MEC: Asari) and effectively make it so you have to use both together or neither at all. Or... do we try to be more flexible, and design the Civic's functions to operate regardless of Origin and government form?
It's about time I started to work on the Celestial Favor mechanics, so I will have to make up my mind sooner rather than later because that will dictate the next few steps of development and will be very problematic to change after the fact.
SO! Let's have a poll! You get to help me decide (and you can take the blame if it turns out to be a terrible idea, no pressure! n_n)
The options are:
- Synergy
The originally intended approach whereby the Celestial Grace Civic requires the Celestial Throne Origin and vice versa. The Jiedushi mechanics would be specifically balanced around a single-sector playstyle and Celestial Favor mechanics are optimised around the Imperial Government and the Origin's narrative of preserving and developing the home planet. - Standalone
This will be more challenging to implement, but the result should be a Civic that allows the Celestial Favor and Jiedushi mechanics to be more adaptive, featuring support for short-lived species, non-authoritarian governments and wide expansion playstyles.
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Please cast your votes and if you have any additional thoughts, we'd love to hear them too!
The poll will run for roughly a month, and we'll announce the results and outline our plans based on them the next time we have a Lhûren-themed MMR!
The actual March MMR will be coming later this month, and that one is going to feature progress on PORTRAITS 2.0 as well as Veiled Realms reboot! Please look forward to it! >o<
Until then, you can join our cute community on Discord and become one of the coolest cats who never miss any Team Nessassity news!