Make Like A Tree And Warp: Stellaris Plantoids DLC Out
New plants, new patch
Paradox today released the first bit of paid DLC for Stellaris [official site], adding a Plantoid species type to their space strategy game. It's only a collection of cosmetic doodahs but they are pretty ones - check out the gorgeous new portaits. Aren't those great? I'm not being funny, right, but I am enjoying imagining how they would feel to the touch. Meanwhile, Paradox have also returned from their summer holidays to work on the next major free update, nicknamed 'Heinlein', and they've started teasing features such as a new Federation victory condition.
£5.59/7,99€/$7.99 will get you fifteen new plantoid portraits, new cityscape art, and new templates for plantoid civilian and military ships. I'm not super keen on the ships, which mostly look like regular spaceships with leaf-shaped panels, myself. It seems a missed opportunity for beautiful curving, branching, organic architecture.
A wee patch has launched alongside Plantoids, bringing a few fixes and tweaks and letting Plantoids owners face them as AI opponents [Update: You do need to own the DLC to face them, contrary to what I originally said].
If you don't fancy paying for cosmetic trifles, hey, you can hit the Steam Workshop to download player-made species for free. I like that Paradox are releasing professional-quality add-ons for players who want them - they're really nice plantpeople! - and it's not like the art team would be coding fixes and new systems if not for this.
Paradox played a bit with Plantoids on this weeks's livestream, by the way.
So, Heinlein! Paradox explained in a new dev diary this week that their plans for update 1.3 have changed a bit since they first announced it.
"Ever since we released the game, we've received some fantastic feedback from our players, far more than we felt that we were able to address in 1.1 and 1.2," said game director Martin Anward. "As such, Heinlein will be a patch focusing on addressing community feedback and implementing community suggestions. "
Anward's teased a few Heinlein features on Twitter, including a new Federation victory condition, Ctrl-Shift-clicking to add orders to the start of the queue, a border distance modifier, and rally points. Paradox plan to reveal more in next week's dev diary.