Welcome, space traveler. This week’s development diary tackles the situation log with open claws and flailing tentacles.
The best way to begin to understand the situation log is by getting a grip around the “projects” mechanic, which litters the cold and vacuous galaxy of Stellaris. Projects are like random events where you can change the direction of your people or decide the fate of an extraterrestrial species. They also act as a repository for multi-step quests and event chains. Goosecreature, the lead scripter for Stellaris, explains
To help players keep track these projects, we have added something called the Situation Log to the game. This screen works like a quest log in many ways, and you will find all currently available Special Projects here. You can also follow your progress in certain event chains, with various Points of Interest listed that can be visually tracked on the map. A Point of Interest could be a strange signal emanating from a distant star system, which will remain in your log until you send someone to investigate.
These special projects will add a nice sprinkle of flavor at the right moment, or they could completely alter your colonial front line as your forward operating planet is demolished by mole people… Not an official species (yet.) As you can see in the image above, players will have some very interesting choices when encountering new situations, anomalies, and other strange occurrences in space.
Also, you will need your science people to do science things on their science ships. These scientific anomalies and subsequent projects will sometimes need a certain type of scientist with the right skills or attributes to properly trigger. The situation log will keep track of these things for you. Special projects could potentially be ” boarding and investigating a derelict space hulk, performing an archaeological dig on the homeworld of a dead civilization… or perhaps fishing something out of the atmosphere of a gas giant. Projects can also appear on your colony worlds, and they may be time sensitive.” The clock is ticking…
Come back next week as we explore the planets and topographic information of Stellaris.
