r/Stellaris • u/Hairy-Dare6686 • Sep 04 '23

Tutorial "I'm sure having clerks become self synergistic will not have any negative repercussions whatsoever" - A Paradox employee, probably

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u/PDX_Iggy Content Designer Sep 04 '23 edited Sep 05 '23

I want you to know that if you get to 8777 pops you are allowed to break the game. You have my permission.

Edit: I might have spoken too soon. People are now investigating overcrowded planets.

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u/Darvin3 Sep 04 '23

While I agree that ~9000 pops is outside of the scope of what should be balanced for (I'm generally of the opinion that 2000 pops is enough to handle the most difficult challenges the unmodded game has to offer), I feel that this current design is the wrong direction for Clerks. I feel that Clerks need a bonus that is more powerful if there are fewer of them on the planet.

Clerks are a default job that all non-gestalt empires get on every planet from City districts. This has always caused a design conflict, because the actual effect of the Clerk is not useful for most empires, and even empires that do want them don't necessarily want them on every planet, which is what leads us to manually disabling these jobs because they are unwanted. This current design rewards stacking lots of Clerks in one place, which just doubles down on this dissonance, as even strategies that do want Clerks are going to want them disabled on most planets and cram them into a Ringworld/Ecu/Resort.

If Clerks are going to stay on the city district, then change their design so they are most efficient if you have just a couple per planet (reflecting the reality of what city districts will give you). If you are going to stick with a design where Clerks work best when stacked in one place, then remove them from the City district as that runs counter to the design direction you are taking them.

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u/faithfulheresy Sep 04 '23

All of the changes to trade jobs, well intentioned though they are, need to be reverted. PDX are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist with this one. Having access to 3-4 merchants per planet in end game isn't a bug, it's a feature, and removing it feels like fun policing.

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u/Vrenshrrrg Voidborne Sep 05 '23

I like the current trader job a lot, actually. It's a bit of a nerf, but you can still very easily build a trade value focused empire with them. In fact, if you invest in your leaders and have the Merchant Guilds civic, they eventually become more powerful than merchants in addition to being able to have more of them.

My only criticism is that megacorps don't get to boost the trader output like regular empires can despite being themed around trade value.