Hello everyone! Today well be talking about some big stuff namely the Juggernaut and the Mega Shipyard. Both of these new behemoths are a part of the upcoming Federations expansion. Juggernaut Stellaris has been in development for many years and, and if theres something we know for sure its that big ships are cool, and bigger ships are even cooler. With this flawless logic in mind, we obviously wanted to add something even bigger than a Titan. Mobile starbases is something that we know has been widely requested, so why not hit two avians with one lithoid?
Visually, the Juggernaut has the shape of a giant pair of wings. The juggernaut is as much a mobile starbase as it is a massive warship. Although the Juggernaut works like a mobile starbase in some regards, it will not project borders or control ownership or systems. A Juggernaut instead functions like a forward base of operations during offensive campaigns where you can repair your ships. The Juggernaut will not have starbase modules or buildings instead it will count as always having 2 Shipyards (which means it can build, repair and upgrade ships).
The Juggernaut can be designed in the ship designer, and features 2 XL turrets, 6 hangar slots and 5 medium turrets.
In addition, the Juggernaut gets access to a couple of new and unique aura components.
The Juggernaut will be unlocked by a technology which requires Citadels and Battleships to be already researched. A Starbase will also need to have a Colossal Assembly Yard in order to be able to construct one. The Colossal Assembly Yard is required for (and unlocked by) both the Colossus and the Juggernaut.
The Juggernaut will have an empire limit of 1. Mega Shipyard New Megastructures are always nice, because we all want more ways to show off the glory and magnificence of our empires. The Mega Shipyard is exactly what it is, a giant shipyard that allows you to build a lot of ships really fast.
The Mega Shipyard will also provide ships with +100 starting XP, so that it will not matter where you build them. Generally speaking, are trying to avoid design that creates incentives for players to engage in more micromanagement that may not be fun. We believe the choice of where to build a ship (because it would cost less, or gain more XP somewhere) is an example of micromanagement that is not very fun. The only incentive is to avoid loss aversion, which is not a good. Incentives should generally be positive.
The Mega Shipyard is unlocked by a technology which requires Mega-Engineering (like the others). Its found in the Society tree and belongs to the Military Theory category.
The Mega Shipyard will have 3 stages (in addition to construction site): Mega Shipyard Framework - 10 Shipyards, +33% Ship Build Speed, +100 Starting Ship XP Mega Shipyard Core - 20 Shipyards, +66% Ship Build Speed, +100 Starting Ship XP Mega Shipyard - 30 Shipyards, +100% Ship Build Speed, +100 Starting Ship XP The bonuses to Ship Build Speed will be empire-wide. Keep in mind that these numbers are work-in-progress and may change. --- That is all for this week! Next week will be the last dev diary of the year, before the holidays, and we will be doing a round up of the year. Also keep an eye on our social media channels, as we will be sharing some more screenshots of the Juggernaut and Mega Shipyard. As always, you can also read this Dev Diary and comment on our forums.