Just in time for the beginning of the holiday season, Paradox has gifted us with an important game development. This week, Stellaris wants to fill us in on Spaceports, Rare Resources, and why we won’t always be settling down on a planet’s surface.
Spaceports are permanent off-world installations that, at their largest, can host thousands of your citizens in a kind of “Haloesque” quasi-planet. These ports will be the main hub of activity before anything reaches your planet; making them trade and production hot spots. Because of their massive size, Spaceports will, according to game designer Jormungandur, be constructed off-world.
As it is too large for a construction ship to build, the spaceport is instead constructed by an established colony. When finished, the spaceport orbits the planet offering basic off-world defenses and the ability to construct and repair ships. The spaceport starts out small and can be upgraded in steps, a total of five times, where each upgrade adds additional toughness, damage output, the ability to build larger ships and most importantly additional module slots.
Each spaceport will also have 5 modules for the player to upgrade and customize. Like most other aspects of Stellaris, these modules will be sensitive to factors both within your control and outside of it: species-specific ethos, rare resource acquisition, scientific breakthroughs, and geographic location. The effects of these modules can range from, “additional defenses (Reinforced Hull Structure for added toughness, Fighter Squadron to combat raiders), benefits to economy (Hydroponic Farms to grow additional food, Solar Panels to gather energy) and ship support (Crew Quarters for lowered upkeep of ships while docked) as well as refining and utilizing different rare resources.” Just don’t let something else destroy that spaceport that you’ve been upgrading since the beginning of the game. You might just cry.
Not every source of energy or food is easily got in Stellaris, making players chase after elusive rare resources. Like their name implies, rares will have abnormal functions in your cosmic production: this also can range from economic to military or even something more nefarious. The use of other abnormal resources might yield unexpected results
A source of Engos Vapor could either be used to boost the thruster speed of all ships built within the spaceport or be pumped into the local atmosphere to soothe the local populace. Monopolizing a few of these resources offers great potential for a trade empire to flourish or a warlike one to take whatever else they desire. These Spaceports will be the hub of your planetary activity, but allowing players to change these ports to their liking will guarantee a unique play experience time and time again. Also, these ports can cap rare resources which create a sense of real tension in the game. That you could potentially have a cosmic trading empire without a dominant military is tantalizing indeed.
So, will you be tapping those rare resources in a bid for galactic conquest? Let us know in the comments below.
