If there has been one consistently requested feature people have been clamoring about, is wanting to see military ships capable of doing scientific surveys. It is something so innate to Star Trek that it has been the very first feature request we have seen immediately after launch, and it remains the most requested feature. Some of those ever-so-frequent requests can be amusing, written as though the idea is novel, original and never has occurred to any before
Of course, easier said than done. Stellaris strictly separates civilian and military ships. They have different UI, AI, pathfinding and priorities. A military ship simply can not be given the role of a science ship, only a dedicated science ship can do all those wonderful little things.
What about giving a science ship some ways to defend itself? This is where it gets tricky, of course. In the very first year of developing New Horizons, all the way back to 2016, when I was still young and beautiful, we’ve discovered that what we can do is place an aura component on a civilian ship that damages all ships in its range – basically, acting like a mine aura. The ship does not actually fire, it simply damages the enemy slightly.
We considered adding the option, but it simply felt wrong, unintuitive and not in the spirit of Trek. Having a ship like the Enterprise, not firing its weapons, just pinging at the enemy? Not fun at all. The aura ended up in the wonderful NSC mod, which used it for a time until changes in aura made all damage auras system-wide (and not radius bound), and the effect was dropped.
Sometimes it 2.0 it was discovered that it IS now possible to give a science ship sections with weapons (something that was simply not possible before). Sounds great, right? A ship with both survey capacity and weapons. Everything we actually wanted.
But the ship is a ‘hack’. It is still a science ship, which means the AI does not see it as a threat, attacking it only as a very low possibility, and not intercepting, chasing it and prioritizing it, as it would with military ships. It’s not much better for the controlling player since because it’s a civilian ship, it has no UI options to attack or retreat.
Adding such ships to the game would be a huge exploit, something players can easily do to inflict grave damage on the AI, who will not be able to defend themselves from it, or use this ability… and it just won’t be fun, since the player can’t even properly control the ship.
So, we skipped on that option as well, which also ended up in NSC mod, where players would encounter it from time to time and ask for its introduction.
The fact of the matter is, we always been looking at the feature, and also at the concept of hero ships in general. For a time, the mod team’s opinion about hero ships and much of the game feature has been divided between two approaches.
My approach, as a game designer, tends to be very mechanics driven. I prefer, as much as possible, to give the player mechanics, features, actual gameplay options that are integrated into the game. For example, I would prefer adding Planet Killer weapons the way Paradox did it with the Apocalypse DLC – a system where the weapon is part of the ship, where you research it, equip it, and actually press a button to fire it.
The other approach is narrative driven, using the engine’s event system to ‘hack’ in systems. As an example, take the ‘federation council’ mechanics, or Obsidian Order/Tal Shiar espionage mechanic. Those are entirely based on events. Considering the flexibility and availability of events in Clausewitz, it’s the approach we used to take many times.
So, when it comes to Hero Ships, like Enterprise, the view was that we will make a series of events related to those ships, to give them additional uniqueness and strength. Hero ships changed a few times during the last three years, with the way we handle their upgrades and overall level of power, and while we thought of various things to do with them, nothing truly materialized. Currently, the Enterprise chain does not even continue past the TOS-era Constitution-class Enterprise.
But recently the good fellows at NSC have made a fresh discovery. The new Colossus class ship comes with a new type of ship behavior, the one that allows a military ship to act and move during combat – making a ship that can actually DO things during combat. The ship behavior component was lifted and created a new ‘exploration ship class’.
With the new ship behavior, things came full circle. It gives the player a level of control and precision that didn’t exist prior with the hack-y armed science ships, and while the UI is still not perfectly suited for the task, it’s still a type of ship that is distinct enough in its behavior and movement to make it fun and interesting to play.
From there, we also see a possible solution to how to hero ships, but also how to give players finally a way to do what they have been waiting for 3 years – give them a proper Starfleet ship, that can both explore and fight.
So, what does it actually mean, and how do we get away with the exploits issue of this all?
This means that in the next major update, hero ships will change yet again. Initially, they are going to be a unique Starfleet mechanic, and only buildable by the player.
The player will be limited to only building one hero ship at a time, and they will tend to cost a bundle in naval capacity points. Hero ships will be their own archetypes, meaning new classes in the archetype will replace old ones. You will get NX, Constitution, Excelsior, Ambassador, Galaxy and Sovereign hero ships in the archetype, and if you wish to unlock the option to build a new hero ship class, you will have to disband your existing hero ships.
Hero ships will also introduce a new mechanic that we have wanted to add for a long time – prototyping. Basically, you’re going to HAVE to build one ship of the class in order to prototype it, before you can continue improving your fleet. This means that you are going to have to build a constitution hero ship before you can proceed to build an excelsior hero ship. And yes, this means you can expect to see a bit more of a ‘tech buffer’ between hero ship classes, especially between the Ambassador and Galaxy class.
Hero ships will come with +50% to health, but also with -50% to combat damage and range. This will ensure that they can not be exploited too easily in combat. So while yes, your ship could be quite deadly in the hands of a skilled player, weaving in and out of combat, the relatively lower damage compared to the relatively higher naval capacity would simply mean that you can build pure military ships that will give you a lot more bang for your buck.
You can also expect hero ships to be slightly more limited in what components they can equip, and they will not have multiple sections to choose from, or enjoy from refits (and yes, I do realize the Enterprise did see multiple refits, but for various reasons, including balance and tech flow, we’re going to forgo this for now).
This could have resulted in players simply not bothering to build the ship, but I do not believe it will happen. The extra health will ensure your ship will stay in the battle, and it’s a lot of fun to directly control your ship in combat. In addition, those ships will be able to equip one unit of the new “flagship modules”, which will be VERY powerful and will open a LOT of interesting possibilities for the players.
Hope you are all excited about everything we have planned for you for our next major update.
Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise.
– Commander William T. Riker