Subjects:

A: It’s up to your federation whether or not subjects are allowed in. If they are permitted, they will automatically follow their overlord in or out.

A: Federations are (theoretically) alliances between equals, so independent diplomacy is required to initially form one. As noted elsewhere, vassals may be brought into federations (whether they like it or not) depending on federation law.

No and yes. Yes, you can release a 1-planet sector with the intention of starting a federation, but they would need to be independent for you to be able form it.

Federation Laws:

A: No, there is no way for you to influence the ethics of other empires. The cohesion penalty is meant to be offset by having to assign more envoys to the federation.

A: There are currently no laws to influence other empires like that within the federation, but we’re certainly open to the idea. Once Federations is released we’ll be gathering your feedback as always

A: Same as the answer above.

A: There are currently 14 categories of laws, with each category having 2-5 laws.

A: There is in fact a Challenge Type called Thesis, which very much mimics what we think you are looking for. It’s available to all federation types.

A: Yes we can! In dev diary #158 you could see most of the laws, but there are some things that have been changed or added since then. We now have the Strongest Succession Type, which is split up into different categories like Economy, Fleet, Tech or Diplomatic Weight. We have also added two new Challenge Types: one which is a bidding process where you spend ECs to become the president, and another one which is an academic thesis. We will definitely show off all these things in more detail on a stream sometime in the future.

A: There are no current plans for it, but adding it wouldn’t be too difficult. If it becomes a very requested feature, it may be something we can add later.

A: While we originally wanted to implement this, it ended up excessively costly to implement in a satisfactory way. We added Diplomatic Weight as an election option to represent the empires of your federation holding a democratic referendum.

A: There is in fact a voting law that determines “Vote Weight”. By default, it is set to “Equal”, which means every member gets one vote. It’s possible to change it to Diplomatic Weight, however.

A: Federations will always go to war together, and there are no current plans to change that. Although we can see why that could be cool in certain cases, we don’t think it's not worth all the issues it can potentially cause.

A: High Centralization will have a larger negative impact on monthly Cohesion, which means more Envoys will need to be assigned to maintain it.

Federation Fleet:

A: Yes, federations will be able to construct a Juggernaut.

A: We are planning to tie the Federation Fleet max size to the Fleet Contribution Law. The higher the contribution – the larger the maximum size.

A: Although we have tossed around the idea of being able to delegate “war leader”, there are no current plans on changing that behavior. Currently the president controls the fleet, but we’re not against picking up the idea again in the future.

Federation Types:

A: We’re discussing possibly opening up the federation types if you have finished certain Tradition trees. For example, if you finish Supremacy it would allow you to form a Military Alliance regardless of your ethics or civics.

A: It depends on what type of empire it is. The default one is open to all, research is open to machine empires, and Hegemony is open to Rogue Servitors. (Even if Traditions would unlock certain federation types, the Prosperity tree would still not let gestalt empires start a Trade League.)

A: Good question! Being in a federation will increase xenophile attraction, but being in certain federation types will increase attraction to certain ethics. Authoritarian for Hegemony. Militarist for Martial Alliance. Materialist for Research Cooperative.

A: Yes, it will be possible to change your federation type. Doing so will reset your progress, however.

A: The logos are tied to the federation types, so they would have the same logo in that case. It’s not really used as an empire flag, however.

A: Because they have no game mechanics that are directly tied to the archetype. There is no reason that they wouldn't fit into one of the federation types that we already have. We have some ideas or mechanics we may want to add later, that would add some additional depth, however.

A: No, you will not be able to design the other empires. They will be randomly generated and will match some of your ethics.

A: There are federation laws that determine how the president is chosen. Setting the Succession Type to Strongest and the Succession Power to Technology would mean that the empire with the most researched technologies will be the president. These laws are not restricted to a tech federation

A: Yes, the president of a Hegemony can get a war goal to force other empires into the federation.

Federation Perks:

A: Yes, we can share more of those. We will be streaming some time in the future to show off more some stuff in more detail.

A: The perks are tied to the different federation types, not ethics, and each type has 13 perks.

Fallen Empires:

A: Depending on the federation’s succession laws, the awakened empire may seize control of the it. That could be good, or… not so good.

A: There have been some changes made to the War in Heaven to interact in a better way with federations. For example, the leader of the strongest federation will now get the first chance to turn their federation into the League of Non-Aligned Powers.

A: See above answers.

A: Subjects won’t defect, but others may. You can punish them for their treason if you can beat their new overlords.



Breaking Federations:

A: The focus on Federations is mostly on cooperation, so there are no new mechanics for subterfuge in that manner. It would have to be in another expansion with another focus. You do have some ability to engage enemies in a non-warlike fashion, but that is done through resolutions and the Galactic Community.

A: There are no new mechanics that allows you to do that directly, but it may be doable through resolutions in the Galactic Community. If you get the president denounced and sanctioned, perhaps the other members will dislike them enough to try to get rid of them, or leave the federation.

A: Sounds like you successfully changed the federation type from Galactic Union to a Hegemony. (This does reset the progress of the federation however.)

Misc.:

A: Although we’re very happy with the reworked Federation system, nothing is certainly set in stone. We are very open to making changes due to popular requests.

A: The trailer is a representation of the federation being formed. Although there is no mechanic to merge them into one empire, they will change colors on the map to match each other if the Unions mapmode is on.

A: No, it’s currently not possible to merge federations.

A: There are no current plans to tie the trade lanes into federations or subjects.

A: There are no current plans to add functionality to merge federations. Although the idea is cool, it's a complex and costly thing to implement and therefore hasn’t been a priority.

A: It is possible. We have no current plans on imposing any limitations on the player’s ability to do that, but we will have to see what the future holds.

A: No current plans.

A: No, you can only be a member of one federation.

A: You are still able to propose changes to federation laws, assign envoys or work to improve your standing. Most of the federation perks will benefit you as well.

A: There are no special interactions at this time.

A: Although it is something we have discussed and we want to improve at some point, it will not be coming in the next update.

A: We did discuss the idea, but ended up dropping it due to other priorities. Although federation-related events will not be in the next update, we’re very open to the idea and it may be something we want to do in the future.

A: Yes, it's possible to improve diplomatic relations with the new Improve Relations diplomatic action.

A: While you need a “willing thrall” to initially form the federation, hegemons do have a wargoal to force additional empires into their fold.

A: No, you cannot form or be in a federation with only 1 member.

A: There are currently no resolutions that only affect federations.

A: Not at this time.

A: There are no new mechanics that directly allow you to mess with a federation, but it is certainly possible to target certain empires through the Galactic Community and the resolutions. For example, you can collect favors to pass resolutions that make your enemies in Breach of Galactic Law, which leaves them open to sanctions.

A: Many tools exist to deal with a stronger entity than you in Stellaris. You could form your own federation with their rivals, you could focus on tech or economy and overwhelm them, you can interfere with them diplomatically through the Galactic Community, or you could consider joining them. (Or you can make a covenant with the End of the Cycle out of spite.)

A: We believe that Inward Perfection is a very strong civic, and that it will continue to be strong even after Federations.

A: There is no current plan on adding a specific mechanic to dissolve federations. (Though removing federation members through subjugation or other CBs could cause it to dissolve.)

A: There are some changes to traditions. Certain civics that were previously locked out of most diplomacy options, such as Barbaric Despoilers and Criminal Syndicates, have had these restrictions reduced to varying degrees, which affects the traditions available to them.

A: No, there are not any current plans for it.

A: Although there will be new technologies coming with the update, there are no new technologies that directly affect federations.

A: There are no current plans for buildings that would only exist if you are a part of a federation.

A: Currently it's only possible to build in your own space, but we’re looking into if it’s not too much trouble to allow building gateways in federation space as well.

A: As much as we’d want it, there are currently no plans for shared projects like Dyson Spheres.

A: Criminal Syndicates will be able to join and form federations, including Trade Leagues. They retain the current restrictions on Commercial Pacts, and there are no mechanics preventing them from tormenting other federation members or suffering the consequences.

A: There is no current plan on making any changes to how wars are conducted between federations.

A: There are no current plans on adding that type of information, but it is something that we have discussed. It would be useful to be able to see requests from subjects and allies.

A: We've all had funny and cool things happen, but @Eladrin probably takes the win with something that happened in an internal MP game: While playing an aggressive hegemon in a multiplayer game, forcing all the nearby empires to become my megacorp’s subsidiaries, my subjects changed the succession law to Challenge by Combat while I wasn’t paying attention. Boy was I surprised when my term ran out. This also lead to the AI kicking out another player from the federation, and then declaring war on them!

A: We’ve made no changes to how territory is controlled.

A: The empires created by the Common Ground and Hegemon origins take two of the guaranteed habitable worlds around your homeworld (generating them as necessary if you reduced them in the game settings). As such they’re almost guaranteed to encroach on your borders, which compensates for the generally strong start. Your AI minions will follow normal expansion rules, generally being willing to create an outpost in a system two jumps away from another system they occupy.

Hello everyone!In last week's dev diary we talked about the new Q&A format that we will be doing for the next couple of dev diaries. We asked you to post your questions regarding the federation rework, and we're glad to see so many questions!Next week's topic will be the Galactic Community, and you can already post your questions here Anyway, let's begin with the Q&A: