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Stellaris: Federations is the latest expansion to Paradox Interactive’s space Grand Strategy game . In the four years since the 1.0 release of Stellaris, Paradox has regularly updated the Sci-Fi themed strategy game with both small content add ons and big, game-changing expansions. Federations falls into the latter category, adding two new mec🧸hanics and reworking an existing aspect of the game in a major way. All three of these changes make it easier for players to characterize and tell a story about their Galactic Empire.
The new mechanic players will likely encounter first is, fittingly, the Empire Origins modifier found in the Empire Creator of the game. The Empire Creator was a more innovative aspect of the initial release of Stellaris. It allows players to tailor-make their faction in addition to choosing from a premade selection of states. The original version of the creator allo✨wed players to choose the traits of their space empire’s species, homeworld, and government. The new Origins tab of the creator lets players also choose their empire’s history. There are eighteen different backstories to choose from ranging fr⛎om the peaceful Prosperous Unification to the grimmer Post-Apocalyptic and everything in between.
The second new mechanic is the Galactic Community. Players will encounter the mechanic in the mid-game of a Stellaris playthrough after they encounter a few of the other empires on the map. They will then be given a vote on whether the Galactic Comm𝐆unity will be formed. When one is formed, it functions something like the United Nations of modern Earth. The Galactic Community passes laws that govern the different member states and can issue economic sanctions to those who disobey. Depending on a player’s strategy and playstyle, engaging with this system could be helpful, harmful, or irrelevant so allowing players to opt-in makes some sense. Players who do opt-in will encounter a system that incentivizes engaging with the game’s existing trade and diplomatic mechanics. Doing so can get sanctions imposed on their enemies and also avoid sanctions themselves. A player of a pacifistic empire might trade resources for fav💞ors in the galactic senate to avoid a military readiness bill that would require them to build warships, for example.
Finally, the Federations mechanic received a major re-work in the expansion that shares its name. If the Galactic Community of Stellaris is analogous to the UN, then Federations are akin to regional alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In earlier versions of Stellaris Federations were fairly simple. They allowed a player to pool military resources with another empire in exchange for a minor handicap to their home empire's overall strength. The new system adds different types of Federations to the mix as well as fleshing out the way players interact with the Federation. Alliances can now be formed for trade, protection, or to assert political influence. Previously, Managing a federation revolved around recruiting member states and building military fleets. Now there are a variety of laws and regulations that can tweak what the player empire gets from and contributes to their Federation.
All three of these changes to Stellaris ꦜmake it easier for players to inject the gamꦅe with a personalized story. For a game in a genre that can be dry and impersonal, they are a welcome change.
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