When you see an alien, you shoot it. Video games, right? This is the lesson of Halo and XCOM and many, many more. When a scaly guy with tentacles starts bringing his slime trail your way, you blast ‘em. But what if there was another way? What if–hear me out now–you could engage in diplomacy?
Stellaris, for reference, is a sci-fi themed strategy game from the makers of Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis that’s going to try to split the difference between those types of grand strategy games and a Civ-like 4X experience. Diplomacy is certainly more of a factor in the former than the latter, so you might be curious how exactly Stellaris will handle relations between galactic empires.
Empires will have base opinions of each other, modified by their actions and their ethical beliefs. Trade deals will be in play, allowing you to negotiate goods and services as well as nonagression treaties and guarantees of independence.
But that’s for empires on equal footing. You may also subjugate an empire as a tributary (where they pay you regularly), a protectorate (which you’re beholden to protect), or a vassal (which will have to follow your lead in all diplomatic actions and join in any wars you declare). A separate factor called Liberty Desire will determine if your subjects want independence and when Episode IV of your space opera will take place.
You can check out the full dev diary over at the Paradox Interactive forums. There’s certainly depth to these diplomatic options, but do you really want to talk treaties when you can talk laser guns and space wars? In either case, you may have a while to wait, since there’s no official release date for the game, though a Steam store gaffe suggests it may be sooner rather than later.
