Interview with Paradox Interactive on 4X space exploration game, Stellaris

A: Out of all the species, which one is your favorite? Or portrait? I don’t know what to call them since they change all the time.

H: We have created a lot of portraits but I think it will have to be the Red Mushroom Man. I see you laughing, but he is a really beautiful character.

A: Of the 4 available ship hull sizes, are options endless for players to create their own ships?

H: Well, how they look can’t be changed that much, they have three sections, a front section, a mid section, and an aft section. They can be changed around, but there aren’t endless options to change the look of the ships. However, there is an enormous variation in what you equip them with, even if you can’t see it for free, with different weapon systems and such.

A: Can we bomb a civilization back to the stone age?

H: Yea, sort of. They won’t got back to the stone age but you can really destroy a planet with orbital bombardments.

A: Something I missed in Civilization V was vassal states and map sharing?

H: We've got it, absolutely. We have vassals, protectorate, and “sectors” which is a mix between a vassal and an administrative entity, a micromanagement alleviation. In Stellaris you will always have direct control over about five planets for the start to the end of the game. So the rest are under some sort of vassal control.

A: So politics are important to have an eye on?

H: Definitely! Internally you have different political parties, or factions, where population units group up politically and can cause a lot of problems for you if you don’t keep an eye on them.

A: You have to keep the people happy while ruling the galaxy?

H: There is a bit to keep an eye on internally, so a good tip is to enslave grumpy “pops” before they start causing trouble.

A: Great solution!

H: Classic.

A: If you conquer you get to name it, that is the rules?

H: Yes.

A: Will Stellaris come to consoles sometime in the future?

H: I’m not going to say “no,” it’s one of those things that depends on how the game is received and such.

A: Are these types of games considered “too complex” for consoles? There aren’t too many 4X games on them.

H: No. I see that as an opportunity to. I would like to announce it to consoles, but we have no plans for it, but it is not impossible at all. There is a chance

A: Have you managed to conquer the whole galaxy?

H: Well, I have played a fair bit, I got more than 800 hours in it, but I think that the biggest was somewhere between 400-500 stars.

A: Will the galaxy keep on growing or does it stop somewhere?

H: No, it doesn’t expand. If is finite and you see the whole map from the start but it is under “fog of war” so players don’t exactly know what and who lives among the various star systems.

A: How do you communicate with the different species? Do you just walk up to them and say “hello”?

H: No, it’s a bit different in Stellaris because the first time you encounter a new alien you don’t really know what they are, they get a classification and nothing more. They might just be called “The Bogies” or “The Screamers” or something and you have to research them. If it turns out to be another empire then the communications with them opens up and then you can start doing deals and such. Before you do that all aliens are pretty much the same. You can attack other empires before you make contact with them, they will always remember that, of course, if you were to do that. So you get some sweet initial hostilities that you would expect in a sci-fi world.

A: So it will be like in many other games, if you attack then they will remember for thousands of years and kill your women and children for it?

H: Yes, that’s roughly how it will go, “we can never trust you” and “you can never trust a Klingon”.

A: Will all the civilization you encounter be space travelers?

H: No, you can encounter those who are living in the middle ages or the stone age. You have an important choice on how you should act towards them. The different “ethics” you chose when you created you empire will affect this as well. If you are a pacifist or a xenophile, you can’t just invade and kill the poor people or enslave them, but if you play as a different type of empire then you can kill and enslave as much as you’d like. Pacifists for example usually builds observation posts, it's a bit like the Star Trek “Prime Directive” where you only observe the cultures that haven’t discovered space flight yet.

This also goes hand in hand with the replayability, I want the game to have different rules for the different ethics combinations you chose at the beginning.

A: How steep is the learning curve in Stellaris?

H: It's looking good in Stellaris, that’s one of the good things with 4X games, everyone starts small and you get to learn the game while growing. It gives us the advantage to games like EU IV where you can start as an already big nation like the Holy Roman Empire and have a lot to take care off which can be very overwhelming, but here we can introduce the players to one feature at a time. You have rather few technologies and buildings at the beginning, like you usually do in these types of games, and that makes the learning curve much easier to get through.

A: Will the tech-tree be randomized every time as well?

H: The system we have is quite special and it is also connected to the game feeling new and fresh each time. It’s not a visual tree you can look at and see like “I want gamma lasers so I have to take this way”. You could say that it is like a card game or something similar where you draw three cards, technologies, from the deck and you choose one technology to do research on and the other two card goes back in the deck. But it’s not completely random, techs that are cheap, or fits your combination of ethics tends to float to the top of the deck. It is some kind of tech-tree, you can expect to get certain technologies in certain order but it is all depending on many factors, empire ethics, and what scientist is leading the science.

A: So the main scientist matters as well?

H: Yes, scientists has different traits, so if one scientist is good at “Rocketry” then things like “missile techs” tends to get pulled from the deck.

A: Will it be like in EU IV where you get to marry away people to create relations?

H: No, characters doesn’t have that role in Stellaris, it would be fun to maybe develop that at some point, but we don’t have it now.

A: Community mods, it that something you want to support?

H: Absolutely, modding is one of our cornerstones. We really expose the game to the mod community. We have a Mod Community Managers who takes requests from modders so we can add it to our games and make it easier for them.

I think people are already working on total conversion mods, and on this Monday the first Dev Diary about modding gets released. It will be in detail, like a modding guide so people can start making mods now.

A: Will the get released on Steam Workshop or do you have your own platform?

H: It will be on Steam Workshop and most likely on our site as well. And probably on other sites as well.

A: When playing Stellaris, will gamers be able to leave their computers or will the “one more turn” mentality kick in?

H: I think you’ll get sucked in once you start, we don’t have turns but the same feeling will be there.

A: You said that there won’t be turns, will time keep on ticking so you won’t have to press “end turn” all the time?

H: Exactly! It will be exactly like in EU IV with pausable real time with a normal speed with the option to slow it down or speed it up, you can also stop time completely to see what’s up, give orders, and such. That’s the format we make games in, and it works well in multiplayer as well, in our opinion.

A: What does the combat look like? Will it be in real time or simulated?

H: The combat is in real time, you see all your ships in your fleets, how they act during battle, how they are shooting and getting blown to bits. But you can’t give orders to individual ships, it’s not tactical combat.

A: You send them to battle and they will do their thing?

H: Yes, that’s how it works.

A: Is Stellaris playable already?

H: Absolutely, we are releasing it May 9, so it would be pretty sad if it wasn’t. We are just checking that everything is working the way it is supposed to work.

A: That was all the questions I had, it was great meeting you.

H: Likewise.

Well, that was a read and a half. It sure looks like Stellaris will be the game that puts Paradox on the map even for those who generally don’t play their games. It will be a complex game yet easy to understand.

On May 9 the world will get to see if they managed to create the sci-fi 4X games fans of the generation so desperately wants.

Oh, I also didn’t get any socks like I did when I visited Fatshark.

A: This game is quite complex, you mentioned how all the aliens are different each time you play, a lot of ethics, politics, and all that. How hard was this game to make?

H: It was very hard for us because we have built it on our Clausewitz engine, the same engine that Crusader Kings II and Hearts of Iron 4 is running on. This time we had completely different set of demands for like how the map would look, and ships should move dynamic, big demands for multiplayer like “hot joining” a game in progress. It has been a great challenge, even when it comes to things like design since we now had to do thing we didn’t have to do and think about before. 4X is something we haven’t done before. It has been difficult to do.

A: How long has it taken since you started on this game to when it gets released?

H: I think we started with pre-production in 2013, I think.

A: So it has taken its time.

H: But of course, at the start it wasn’t “full speed ahead” and we were testing different concepts.

A: What does the future look like for Stellaris? Is there anything special planned?

H: Yes, the first expansion is pretty much done and we have a plan on what we want to do. The plan is to do with Stellaris like we have done with Europa Universalis IV (EU IV) and Crusader Kings II (CK II), this game is going to have a long lifespan and we want to release many expansions to it alongside with free content.

A: Are you allowed to tell the name of the first expansion?

H: Nope, I am not allowed to do that, I can’t say anything about it. I can only say that we have given it a lot of thought.

A: Are expansions and DLC anything you think about before the release of the game? Or is it something that comes later?

H: No, we think about it. We need to have a plan for the game that stretches one year forward so we know what to do. We also have more long term plans as well. A lot depends on how the game is received by people and what the people wants and things like that, it’s not carved in stone and we can change when we see that the people wants something else.

A: How is the DLC going to be released? Will it be like Europa Universalis with one skin there, one building there, one unit over there, or will it be more like Cities: Skylines with bigger bundles of content?

H: I really want to point out the difference on what we internally call “DLC”, which is only cosmetic, music, portrait packs, and so on,  and “expansions”.

Cosmetic DLC will most likely be bundled like in CK II and EU IV where you can get like south Indian portraits, a music pack, and a skin or similar that is one bundle and that is probably how we are going to do in Stellaris as well.

A: Do you have any idea on what price range it will be for DLC and expansions?

H: It will be very similar to EU IV, that’s what we are aiming for. Those who have played out games will be familiar with it, it will be the same model, maybe with a few exceptions, it all depends on what happens in the future. (Editor's note: Bigger expansions for EU IV costs about 20€ or $20).

A: You mentioned free content updates, will they be like more species, ships, or more like gameplay mechanics and such?

H: It can be anything. When we design an expansion it is because we think that the game needs to be improved in some ways or it would be fun to add certain features. When you do that you realize that some changes are too fundamental so we can’t really charge for them because we won’t be able to keep on building on the game in the future. So we decide to release it for free and we charge for something else instead. I see it all as a new expansion, even the free content, it’s part of the expansion.

A: A bit like Cities: Skyline then, when a new expansion comes with i.e. weather effects like rain then everyone gets rain, you don’t have to pay for it.

H: That’s exactly how we are going to do it.

A: Most strategy games gets a fair bit of DLC like Civilization 5, Endless Legend, EU IV, and unfortunately they feel a bit old when you buy then 2 years later without all the DLC. How will Stellaris minimize that risk?

H: It’s nothing we are really thinking about. What usually happens is that we lower the price or bundle together older content packs. Honestly, it’s more of a question for the sales department. We on the design side of the game don’t really think about it too much.

A: You design.

H: Yea, we stick to designing, haha!

A: Have you hidden any Easter eggs in the game? The community loves Easter eggs.

H: There is a more than a few hidden in there. That is a typical thing that we’ll sneak in with every update.

A: Can you hint about one of them?

H: Eh, yes, or no, rather. I don’t think I can.

A: The PR department will start yelling at you if you do?

H: Something like that.

A: What are your goals for Stellaris? It is a new IP and all

H: Oh… It is a new IP and I really want it to be as replayable as we can possible make it. With everything being procedurally generated then everything then everything should feel fresh every time you play it. That’s something we will keep working on after release as well. The hard thing with procedurally generated games is to give the same immersion, the feeling that you can relate to all the aliens you meet and feel that they all are unique, that’s definitely something I want to keep working on. But the replayability is one of our biggest goals, and that Stellaris will be one of our most accessible games ever released by Paradox and maybe get in new players that hasn’t really been into our games before.

A: Will there be some sort of static mode so you won’t have to get a new experience every time so players can learn a certain tactic or play a certain way?

H: We will support so called “pre-scripted” galaxies for when people makes total conversion mods like the Star Wars galaxy or whatever. That will be possible to make. It’s also possible that we ourselves will release such scenarios if it turns out to be something the players wants.

Paradox Interactive is one the biggest creators of Grand Strategy games like Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron. They are known for making big and complex games with a lot of depth to them and their newest game, Stellaris, definitely won’t be an exception to the already award winning formula.

Stellaris will be a bit different than what Paradox fans are used it, it is a 4X, a genre within strategy "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate", which is something that posed a great challenge for the team, but from the looks of it the made it through with flying colors.

The interview was translated from English to Swedish by yours truly.

Atle (A): We’ll start with a very basic question: For those who don’t know, what is Stellaris?

Henrik Fåhraeus (H): Stellaris is a Paradox Interactive take on a 4X game, so it’s a mix of the Grand strategy game we usually do and the classic 4X games like Civilization and Masters of Orion.

A: Then we’ll take maybe the most important question: what type of gamer is Stellaris aimed towards? Hardcore fans of strategy? More laid back players? Space lover?

H: Space lovers definitely, everyone who loves science fiction, but also everyone who enjoys 4X games in general. It is a bit less hardcore than many of our other games. So we are trying to reach a broader audience this time. But even our hardcore fans should appreciate and enjoy the game. The further you get into the game the more Grand Strategy it becomes.

A: If we look at Paradox’s other strategy games then we see that Stellaris is a bit different. Why did you decide to create the type of game Stellaris is instead of doing what you are already good at?

H: Yea, well, people have been asking us for quite some time if we are going to make a science fiction game, something not based in history, and also people in our studio has been lobbying for us to do it sometime. So it feels like natural progression. I mean, what is the future if not some kind of history that has yet to happen? It was natural for us, and also took the opportunity to make something that we haven’t been able to do before because history is a fixed object. So it was fun, a new challenge.

A: What, if any, games were used as inspiration for Stellaris?

H: Hm.. There were so many. Personally I’ve played almost every 4X game developed, so that makes up quite a few games. Let’s put it like this: Master of Orion 1 and 2 of course, important inspirations, the Civilization games naturally, a game called Distant Worlds, what more… I wanted the feeling of FTL with some random events, adventure, explorations, and such. And an old personal favorite, Star Control 2, a fantastic game. Those were my biggest inspiration.

A: From all over the 4X world, basically.

H: Exactly!

A: How did you or the team come up with all the alien species that exist?  Are they your own creations or did you borrow a few?

H: Not really, the thing is, the races you encounter are all randomized. Sure, we have a few pre-scripted choices so when you start a game you get to pick which ones to play as this civilization. So we’ve created some preset species, but it is not them you will encounter out there in space, they ones you meet are procedurally generated. They come with a portrait, different combinations of ethics and behaviour. All this is to surprise the players and make it feel fresh and new each time you play it.

A:  It’s very dynamic?

H: Very dynamic and very procedural.

A: So the same portrait doesn’t mean the same civilization?

H: No, it can something completely different, they can have a different name, have different clothes, and have a different behaviour.

A: How easy will it be to just pick this game up and play?

H: That has been one of our obsessions, accessibility, it’s been hard to get into our games. So we have made everything we possible can to make this our most accessible game ever and I think we have succeeded with that. We have our in-game tutorial, the advisor system, and we have given the GUI a lot of thought to not make it so “overwhelming” but to be easy to use.

A: I spoke with Dan Lind (Hearts of Iron 4 Team Lead) and he said that they failed with that in Hearts of Iron 3, it was too much information and not the greatest GUI.

H: Yes, that’s the thing with most of our games, those who aren’t Paradox fans has a hard time to get into them and that is something we have really been working on improving.