Stellaris is finally adding an "impossible" feature: "even mentioning it would make programmers cry"

“For years we have said that moving planets are impossible,” Stellaris Game Director Stephen ‘Eldarin’ Muray remarks. “For years, we said even mentioning it would make programmers cry. We like to do the impossible, and we also (apparently) like to make our programmers cry.” He’s referring to the upcoming Stellaris Nomads DLC, which separates colonies from planets to introduce nomadic empires to the space strategy game. It’s a fundamental shift in how you can approach a campaign, and fellow developer Alfray Stryke explains how it works.

In Stellaris Nomads, you can choose to run an empire unbound by systems and worlds. In their place is your Arkship, which acts as your primary habitat. They’re colonies, shipyards, and everything else you need, all in one mobile home. To start with, you’ll have the choice between a Civilian, Military, or Scientific Arkship, and it’s the latter of these that we’re looking at here, although additional classes will be available to research as your civilization progresses.

Your Arkship carries your colonies, functions as mobile shipyards, comes ready equipped with strike craft and point defenses, and enables unique fleet orders. As a nomadic empire, your starting agenda is Arkship Development, which provides modifiers designed to enable progress across the full range of potential Arkship tech.

From your Arkship you’re able to set its fleet and bombardment stance, initiate the construction of Megastructures and other Arkships, conduct surveys and deep scans, and more that’s yet to be revealed. To represent their unique nature, there’s a custom Arkship UI that handles their design and upgrades, giving you options to study your current components and potential upgrades by tier.

“Do note that Arkships cannot research anomalies, archeology sites, or astral rifts,” Stryke notes, “but can complete some special projects. This is because we don’t want your entire colony being eaten by a dimensional horror or whatever other evil our content designers have made for the last decade.” You’ll need specific science ships to undertake these, then.

In place of construction ships, nomadic empires use logistic ships, which can construct and collect resources from Waystations. These are your primary way to influence and control a system without claiming it through traditional means. They can be set to collect resources, observe nearby civilizations, and so on. By building them in neighboring systems, you’ll automatically create Waylines, which are functionally interstellar trade routes that can bump modifiers to any systems and empires they connect to.

Attempting to construct a Waystation in a system that’s owned by a Settled empire will lessen their opinion of you, although you can counteract this by signing diplomatic agreements to keep them happy that you’re not looking to cause trouble. You can also make pacts with other nomadic empires that will let you both benefit from each other’s Wayline modifiers.

Wrapping up today’s deep-dive is a first look at one of the four new origins in Nomads. The Sacred Path is a fleet of pilgrims, adepts, and acolytes seeking enlightenment, all under the banner of the ‘Consecrated Community.’ Standard civilian jobs are eliminated in favor of a three-tier spiritual hierarchy, and your campaign will be defined by travel between distinct sacred sites that will pose questions about your faith, history, and what you actually believe in.

From the very start, you’ll have to make a decision that the council has been awkwardly avoiding: Will your belief guide your way at all costs, or will you work to chart a path of your own? “This choice influences which of your three classes benefits most in the early game,” Content Designer ‘PDS_Bojj’ explains, “so it’s worth thinking about your play style before you click.” Then when it’s all said and done, will you have confirmed yourselves the benefactors of divine guidance, or simply enthusiastic storytellers?

Stellaris Nomads launches on Monday June 15, priced at $24.99 / £20.99. It’s also included in the Stellaris Season 10 bundle for $49.49 / £41.59. You can head here to take a closer look at this brave new era.

Expect plenty more deep dives into what’s to come in the Nomads DLC before it actually arrives. Next week, Paradox will be talking about Civilian Arkships, how day-to-day life actually works, and the second origin, Forever Cruise. We’ll also be getting more details about the Stellaris 4.4 update ‘Pegasus,’ which is set to arrive alongside the expansion.