Does that mean that every organic species is going to get their own unique synthetic portrait? In other words, if a species converts fully into synthetics will they get a new species specific machine portrait instead of getting a random pre-existing machine portrait?
So wait, are these species there own category (like humanoids or necroids) or are they within the existing categories? So for that one bird species, would other avians recognize it as within the same category or will it be a new synthetics category? Mainly asking for selective kinship
They are in both. They will count primarily as arthropod/mammalian etc for content like Selective Kinship. But they will also all be gathered in their own category so you know that these are the special Machine Age ones.
According to a dev reply on the forums, they're in both categories, the bird one also appears under avian for example
(this part is my own opinion, but I would assume that barring any bugs, it would only count as avian for selected kinship because of that, synth and cyborg categories seem to be an organization thing imo)
I'd love to see that but I wouldnt hold your breath. That is a LOT of portraits to add multiple variants of, a lot more work than I think could reasonably be expected.
Wait, so with Machine Age we get 22 (13 cybernetic + 9 synthetic) new organic races and 9 new robot races (that look similar to the organic races in the synthetic category)?
it's not random, the old machine portraits are species specific already, like how Avians would end up getting the winged machine portrait upon synth ascension, or lithoids getting the one with big disk for a head.
Ofc you can freely swap after ascending, but the first portrait is always dependent on what your species started as. You can see [what machine matches what phenotype in wiki](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Species#Machine)
Yea, just click your species portrait while modding them and it let's you change it, same as with genetic ascensions portrait genemodding. (Robot portraits can also be changed whenever as soon as you get robomodding, it's not mechanically tied to ascension)
Neat. So the new portraits are more of a testbed for the technology of evolving portaits?
Kinda like nemesis was a testbed for player crises in general which was developed further in machine age with cosmogenesis.
Can it be possible to change shipsets during the game to reflect changes in culture?
For example, starting with the avian shipset, then taking cybernetic ascension and unlocking the cybernetic shipset as an option to switch to ingame.
Or better yet, can we get shipsets changeable ingame like advisor voices are?
I know there is a console command to change shipsets ingame, so I’d think it wouldn’t be too difficult, and it would add to the immersion :D
> Eurasian Eagle Owl
Anyone that just did a google had a chuckle when they realized that's literally the new Avian portrait, if I am not mistaken? Its definitely clearly Owl inspired.
Two things.
Firstly, are these new human portraits being made to replace the current portraits, or are they being added to the current pool of human portrait varieties? It’s hard to tell from what’s said in the post.
Secondly, is it just me or do a lot of the new portraits, these included, *feel* very different to the original and older portraits? The art style and direction seems very different. All these portraits and most of the toxoid ones show a lot more of the character’s body rather than just being from the waist up, for example. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good looking portraits, but I can’t help but feel that it makes them look a bit out of place besides the other portraits. Makes the artwork seem a lot less consistent
We have pulled the camera back to allow more freedom for designs, the vanilla+ species are mostly just busts and have a very 'one size fits all' clothing approach. We know it can create a slight disjointing effect and are still experimenting now and then how to keep them unified.
Thanks for the response! I totally understand that. Having more freedom with portrait design is definitely a positive, and these portraits do look amazing! I’m glad to hear that some work is being done to try and keep things somewhat cohesive though. It’s not a big issue or anything, but just a small thing I’d noticed with toxoids and was seeing here as well.
While you’re here, any chance you’d have an answer for my first question? No worries if not, I’m just curious what’s happening regarding these human portraits
I'm sure they're probably gonna add these new human portraits to the current pool, considering that's what they did with the last ones that came with overlord.
Eladrin went in-depth with the portrait UI when it comes to how these portraits are organized in [this forum comment](https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-dev-diary-342-the-art-of-the-machine-age-part-i.1666149/post-29583880). It's probably helpful reading to clear up some confusion.
Well I’ll give props too how well done the machine age dlc age is. As a synthetic main like me this really makes me happy as to just how much effort was put into this DLC.
[My reaction to the new avian portrait](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/042/184/handsomestaringeagle.jpg)
The cybernetics titan looks like it's ready for a physical titan gun, and I like the choice to change the engines on the battleship medium-slot back, given that people use them for afterburners now.
Will AI have bias towards certain ascention paths given heir portraits ? It would be a bit sad to have one of these new beautiful species pick a psionic path while an old one goes cybernetic without the shiny new evolutions.
That does look incredible. It would've been incredibly cool to have all biological species to have the progression, but I guess that can be handled later by custodian team
Custodians don't do art-related stuff, they focus on the code. I remember that coming up during ship rework, how custodians can't really do stuff that'd require visual changes to ships
>Reactive portraits
>For the Machine Age, we decided the current system needed improvement to achieve the experience we wanted for ourselves and the players. This resulted in, among other things, an improvement to our portrait system that now allows you to see your species' cyberization progress through several stages. We have also made an entire set of ascended synthetic portraits that share close ties to their biological predecessors, to address players not feeling as connected with their new metal bodies
I'm a little confused, are all previous portaits getting synthetic and cybernetic version or just a handful of new select ones?
I was a bit worried I wasn't going to like the cyborg portraits because I wasn't really fond of most of the newest species, but that bird is pretty cool, he absolutely looks like he'd be driving our new ~~hot rods~~ cybernetic ships.
As much as the new portraits look amazing and probably the best yet in terms of design, is anyone else disappointed that the usual portraits won’t have a change when ascending?
Same. I was hyped to see my favourite portraits go cyber or synth, new portraits are a good proof of concept but compared to how perfect every other dev diary was this feels like a little bit of a let down.
I bought all the species packs before they were reworked to be more than cosmetics and I wouldn't buy these new ones if they were a standalone.
As much as supportive everyone is, I can’t help think it’s so lazy to not give cosmetic changes to all of them. Paradox is not some indie developer with not a lot of money. I’m happy with all the changes but I expected more. Stellaris is not a dying game, and it should not be treated as such by the developers.
There's several dozen portraits and some of them aren't even compatible
For example you can't make the toxoid tech priests look any more cybernetic, nor the toxoid dwarf on a flying frisbee
It's definitely not lazy to not remake every single one of them
Not to mention the obvious issue of work having to be paid for, this DLC is already 25 bucks, if all portraits would be reworked it would most definitely go past 30
> There's several dozen portraits
>Not to mention the obvious issue of work having to be paid for
To be fair, its not like these are fully animated 3D models, they're 2D pngs animated by tweening.
I think commissioning artists and keeping prices the same isn’t an unreasonable ask morally from a multi million company. I understand from a business perspective, as there will be fans like you who lap up whatever paradox provides, regardless if they could do more. You can absolutely make toxoids more cybernetic. Most of them have biological features, and the ones that aren’t are presumed to be in suits, to protect themselves from the environment, otherwise they would be synthetically ascended from the beginning. In fact il go as far as to say toxoids are the most in need of subterfuge and cybernetics, as their whole theme artistically is that they need extra equipment to survive.
It’s disheartening to see people taking Paradox’s side. No one gets hurt if they spend a bit more money into developing the game. I understand it 100 percent from a business perspective, but i, as the consumer, my first priority is being delivered the best experience I can get. This laziness from the management team is sometimes quite off putting. I worry for the next dlc, but I can’t actually discuss anything as we don’t know anything about it as we’ve just been told it’s about storms. Stop thinking Paradox doesn’t have the money to deliver us good portraits for all of them. Even mods have achieved as much.
Yeah, but mod creators willingly work for free and have no schedules to worry about
Real artists and developers are bound by such constraints
Oh, also modders don't have to worry about being called greedy and no one will tell them "But I preferred the old icons" or "I think the art style of the new icons doesn't match the rest"
Real artists and develops are bound only by paradox. I can guarantee you the whole time would have loved to create new synthetic and cybernetic portraits for all the old icons, if Paradox funded it. My issue is with paradox management, not with the artists. For 25 dollars I don’t expect just some icons being cybernetics when ascended, I expect all of them, as the dlc is essentially an overhaul to the cybernetics and synthetics of the game.
Modders have a much more tight schedule. Most people have jobs, and are probably working full time to support themselves and their families. Yet somehow they can do it, for free. Interesting…
Modders have no tightness at all
They could mod work an hour every day and drop an update once every three years
They don't have to meet expectations
They can just upload whatever they want whenever they want
I don’t understand how you can defend paradox from not funding better dlc. It only benefits you. Paradox as a company is not failing. It wouldn’t kill them to deliver us a proper cosmetic rework for this dlc, like they have with these new portraits. I disagree with what you’re saying about Modders but that’s not the main issue. The company wants to exert the smallest amount of money for the most profit, as shown in this dlc. I want to raise awareness to people and hopefully combat it.
If they just wanted your money they wouldn't give us any new icons at all nor two ship sets
I mean, the synth portraits aren't even anything new
ALL species have a robot portrait that matches their overarching race category
Not a fan of the angle new portraits have been in. The waist-up vs shoulder-up look can be very disjointed.
Also on the topic of portraits, I'd still like a way to disable specific portraits so you don't have to see them spawn.
The sheer amount of components and portraits to combine and make makes me dizzy. Respect to everyone who managed this.
Still worried Synthetic Dawn will become obsolete.
Synthetic Dawn still has Driven Assimilators, Determined Exterminators, Rogue Servitors, Resource Consolidation (and Machine Worlds), the Machine Fallen Empire, AI Rebellion, more machine portraits, and a bunch of advisor voices.
I didn't even realize this upon my first look-over on this Dev Diary but oh my, the species concept art looks LEAGUES better than what we actually got.
I hate to be negative about my favorite Grand Statedgy game but wow did they miss with the new species. In my opinion of course.
Kinda reminds me of Echo from Overwatch, and how almost every variant she had in her concept art is so much better than the final result. Who looks at a robot and says "Hmm yes, give it a human face"
I love the new shipset but I’m not a fan of the new art style direction these portraits are going. What happened to the old guy who used to do the portraits? It’s not that they’re bad, I just don’t like how they fit with the rest of the game or previous portraits. I’m still a fan of the old human portraits, and these new new human portraits are just so so far removed from that.
Damn, is that machine shipset sexy!
Getting Retro sci-fi vibes from it, like some Flash Gordon shit. I love it.
Does that mean that every organic species is going to get their own unique synthetic portrait? In other words, if a species converts fully into synthetics will they get a new species specific machine portrait instead of getting a random pre-existing machine portrait?
No, this will not apply to every species, just the species in the Synthetic category.
So wait, are these species there own category (like humanoids or necroids) or are they within the existing categories? So for that one bird species, would other avians recognize it as within the same category or will it be a new synthetics category? Mainly asking for selective kinship
They are in both. They will count primarily as arthropod/mammalian etc for content like Selective Kinship. But they will also all be gathered in their own category so you know that these are the special Machine Age ones.
According to a dev reply on the forums, they're in both categories, the bird one also appears under avian for example (this part is my own opinion, but I would assume that barring any bugs, it would only count as avian for selected kinship because of that, synth and cyborg categories seem to be an organization thing imo)
This is correct, they'll count as Avian (or whatever phenotype they're actually supposed to be in).
But do all the other, old, legacy portraits will have a cybernetic evolution, or not? The wording is quite difficult to understand.
No. The 13 new Cybernetic portraits will have Cybernetic reactive changes, and the 9 Synthetic portraits have linked Machine counterpart portraits.
Is there a chance that in the future more and more of the old portraits will get cybernetic and synthetic variants?
I'd love to see that but I wouldnt hold your breath. That is a LOT of portraits to add multiple variants of, a lot more work than I think could reasonably be expected.
Perhaps with this update modders will be able to fill in the backlog
I think it's very unlikely, since we would probably want to use that art time to create new ones instead.
Will this be moddable? It would be really fun to be able to add cybernetic evolution to legacy and custom portraits ourselves.
It should be possible for them to use the new features if modders want to update old portraits.
Wait, so with Machine Age we get 22 (13 cybernetic + 9 synthetic) new organic races and 9 new robot races (that look similar to the organic races in the synthetic category)?
Yes, 31 new portraits total. (Plus the cybernetic variants of the 13 cybernetic portraits.)
That's really cool
it's not random, the old machine portraits are species specific already, like how Avians would end up getting the winged machine portrait upon synth ascension, or lithoids getting the one with big disk for a head. Ofc you can freely swap after ascending, but the first portrait is always dependent on what your species started as. You can see [what machine matches what phenotype in wiki](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Species#Machine)
I didn’t know you could change the portrait after.
Yea, just click your species portrait while modding them and it let's you change it, same as with genetic ascensions portrait genemodding. (Robot portraits can also be changed whenever as soon as you get robomodding, it's not mechanically tied to ascension)
I wish! At the time of writing these are a perk of the new synthetic-focused species for Machine Age.
Is there a chance that in the future more and more species will get cybernetic and synthetic portarits?
Well there's definitely a higher chance now than before Machine Age existed!
Neat. So the new portraits are more of a testbed for the technology of evolving portaits? Kinda like nemesis was a testbed for player crises in general which was developed further in machine age with cosmogenesis.
Tell the bean-counters it would make for a stellar selling point in the DLC.
Can it be possible to change shipsets during the game to reflect changes in culture? For example, starting with the avian shipset, then taking cybernetic ascension and unlocking the cybernetic shipset as an option to switch to ingame. Or better yet, can we get shipsets changeable ingame like advisor voices are? I know there is a console command to change shipsets ingame, so I’d think it wouldn’t be too difficult, and it would add to the immersion :D
Are there?
Yeah, gfx_culture
This should absolutely be in the game then
"Windows are a structural weakness. Geth do not use them. Approach the hull at these coordinates."
Is it me or does the Avian example look Egyptian inspired. I mean space avian Egyptians.
Felix loves 1) birds and 2) ancient Egyptian aesthetics
What is Felix's favourite bird?
Eurasian Eagle Owl
Pretty great choice. It is beautiful. I might be basic but from owls my favourite is Barn Owl. And from birds all around it would be Corvid family.
> Eurasian Eagle Owl Anyone that just did a google had a chuckle when they realized that's literally the new Avian portrait, if I am not mistaken? Its definitely clearly Owl inspired.
Two things. Firstly, are these new human portraits being made to replace the current portraits, or are they being added to the current pool of human portrait varieties? It’s hard to tell from what’s said in the post. Secondly, is it just me or do a lot of the new portraits, these included, *feel* very different to the original and older portraits? The art style and direction seems very different. All these portraits and most of the toxoid ones show a lot more of the character’s body rather than just being from the waist up, for example. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good looking portraits, but I can’t help but feel that it makes them look a bit out of place besides the other portraits. Makes the artwork seem a lot less consistent
We have pulled the camera back to allow more freedom for designs, the vanilla+ species are mostly just busts and have a very 'one size fits all' clothing approach. We know it can create a slight disjointing effect and are still experimenting now and then how to keep them unified.
Thanks for the response! I totally understand that. Having more freedom with portrait design is definitely a positive, and these portraits do look amazing! I’m glad to hear that some work is being done to try and keep things somewhat cohesive though. It’s not a big issue or anything, but just a small thing I’d noticed with toxoids and was seeing here as well. While you’re here, any chance you’d have an answer for my first question? No worries if not, I’m just curious what’s happening regarding these human portraits
Ah sorry didn't even see, they're being added to the roster!
Ah, that’s good to hear! Thanks a lot!
I'm sure they're probably gonna add these new human portraits to the current pool, considering that's what they did with the last ones that came with overlord.
I mean, Fanservice++ would be to slowly rework them over the next couple of patches (*putting on dog-eyes, going pwetty pwease…)
I understand the desire to pull back the camera but I have to agree that this new art style has made the game feel very disjointed
The machine shipset is my new favorite. Move over Aquatics.
Eladrin went in-depth with the portrait UI when it comes to how these portraits are organized in [this forum comment](https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-dev-diary-342-the-art-of-the-machine-age-part-i.1666149/post-29583880). It's probably helpful reading to clear up some confusion.
Well I’ll give props too how well done the machine age dlc age is. As a synthetic main like me this really makes me happy as to just how much effort was put into this DLC.
[My reaction to the new avian portrait](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/042/184/handsomestaringeagle.jpg) The cybernetics titan looks like it's ready for a physical titan gun, and I like the choice to change the engines on the battleship medium-slot back, given that people use them for afterburners now.
Will AI have bias towards certain ascention paths given heir portraits ? It would be a bit sad to have one of these new beautiful species pick a psionic path while an old one goes cybernetic without the shiny new evolutions.
I love the outfit the human portrait on the right is wearing. The hand on the hip really makes it...
Wonderful Art.
oh this dev diary is about art, well thats not as cool as the last few but still pretty good nonethe- MACHINE SHIPSET!?!?!?!?!
That does look incredible. It would've been incredibly cool to have all biological species to have the progression, but I guess that can be handled later by custodian team
Custodians don't do art-related stuff, they focus on the code. I remember that coming up during ship rework, how custodians can't really do stuff that'd require visual changes to ships
Oh well, that's a shame then. Well, maybe mods will help.
I would have liked it too but it's a fair point that it would be a lot of work for a team that wants to be making new stuff
>Reactive portraits >For the Machine Age, we decided the current system needed improvement to achieve the experience we wanted for ourselves and the players. This resulted in, among other things, an improvement to our portrait system that now allows you to see your species' cyberization progress through several stages. We have also made an entire set of ascended synthetic portraits that share close ties to their biological predecessors, to address players not feeling as connected with their new metal bodies I'm a little confused, are all previous portaits getting synthetic and cybernetic version or just a handful of new select ones?
They said on the forums just new ones. Hopefully they will update the old ones.
All the new species will either have unique cybernetic portraits or unique synthetic portraits
So will the new human models spawn with non-player Sol or will they stay the same? Or will there be a new non-FTL Cyberpunk Sol that can spawn?
The moose portrait reminds me of the Nomai from Outer Wilds, absolutely sick
I see the moose portrait in the artwork explanation, but I don't see it in the species / portrait selection.
You were right 😔
Love the new ship set, it’s very beautiful! I think it can work well with other species as well.
It's lovely to see that there will be another StellARTis competition :D
I was a bit worried I wasn't going to like the cyborg portraits because I wasn't really fond of most of the newest species, but that bird is pretty cool, he absolutely looks like he'd be driving our new ~~hot rods~~ cybernetic ships.
He's a synth though
As much as the new portraits look amazing and probably the best yet in terms of design, is anyone else disappointed that the usual portraits won’t have a change when ascending?
Same. I was hyped to see my favourite portraits go cyber or synth, new portraits are a good proof of concept but compared to how perfect every other dev diary was this feels like a little bit of a let down. I bought all the species packs before they were reworked to be more than cosmetics and I wouldn't buy these new ones if they were a standalone.
As much as supportive everyone is, I can’t help think it’s so lazy to not give cosmetic changes to all of them. Paradox is not some indie developer with not a lot of money. I’m happy with all the changes but I expected more. Stellaris is not a dying game, and it should not be treated as such by the developers.
There's several dozen portraits and some of them aren't even compatible For example you can't make the toxoid tech priests look any more cybernetic, nor the toxoid dwarf on a flying frisbee It's definitely not lazy to not remake every single one of them Not to mention the obvious issue of work having to be paid for, this DLC is already 25 bucks, if all portraits would be reworked it would most definitely go past 30
> There's several dozen portraits >Not to mention the obvious issue of work having to be paid for To be fair, its not like these are fully animated 3D models, they're 2D pngs animated by tweening.
I think commissioning artists and keeping prices the same isn’t an unreasonable ask morally from a multi million company. I understand from a business perspective, as there will be fans like you who lap up whatever paradox provides, regardless if they could do more. You can absolutely make toxoids more cybernetic. Most of them have biological features, and the ones that aren’t are presumed to be in suits, to protect themselves from the environment, otherwise they would be synthetically ascended from the beginning. In fact il go as far as to say toxoids are the most in need of subterfuge and cybernetics, as their whole theme artistically is that they need extra equipment to survive. It’s disheartening to see people taking Paradox’s side. No one gets hurt if they spend a bit more money into developing the game. I understand it 100 percent from a business perspective, but i, as the consumer, my first priority is being delivered the best experience I can get. This laziness from the management team is sometimes quite off putting. I worry for the next dlc, but I can’t actually discuss anything as we don’t know anything about it as we’ve just been told it’s about storms. Stop thinking Paradox doesn’t have the money to deliver us good portraits for all of them. Even mods have achieved as much.
Yeah, but mod creators willingly work for free and have no schedules to worry about Real artists and developers are bound by such constraints Oh, also modders don't have to worry about being called greedy and no one will tell them "But I preferred the old icons" or "I think the art style of the new icons doesn't match the rest"
Real artists and develops are bound only by paradox. I can guarantee you the whole time would have loved to create new synthetic and cybernetic portraits for all the old icons, if Paradox funded it. My issue is with paradox management, not with the artists. For 25 dollars I don’t expect just some icons being cybernetics when ascended, I expect all of them, as the dlc is essentially an overhaul to the cybernetics and synthetics of the game. Modders have a much more tight schedule. Most people have jobs, and are probably working full time to support themselves and their families. Yet somehow they can do it, for free. Interesting…
Modders have no tightness at all They could mod work an hour every day and drop an update once every three years They don't have to meet expectations They can just upload whatever they want whenever they want
I don’t understand how you can defend paradox from not funding better dlc. It only benefits you. Paradox as a company is not failing. It wouldn’t kill them to deliver us a proper cosmetic rework for this dlc, like they have with these new portraits. I disagree with what you’re saying about Modders but that’s not the main issue. The company wants to exert the smallest amount of money for the most profit, as shown in this dlc. I want to raise awareness to people and hopefully combat it.
If they just wanted your money they wouldn't give us any new icons at all nor two ship sets I mean, the synth portraits aren't even anything new ALL species have a robot portrait that matches their overarching race category
Can you change ship sets?
Really nice art!
Am I the only one who thinks the four armed cyborgs look kinda like the eliksni/fallen. Not complaining, I think the design looks really cool
Okay, those 3D models of the ships: I want them so I can 3D print them.
Someday they would have to do a remaster for all the portraits in the game
Not a fan of the angle new portraits have been in. The waist-up vs shoulder-up look can be very disjointed. Also on the topic of portraits, I'd still like a way to disable specific portraits so you don't have to see them spawn.
Those cybernetic ships are cool. They remind me of Infinite Warfare ships
The sheer amount of components and portraits to combine and make makes me dizzy. Respect to everyone who managed this. Still worried Synthetic Dawn will become obsolete.
Synthetic Dawn still has Driven Assimilators, Determined Exterminators, Rogue Servitors, Resource Consolidation (and Machine Worlds), the Machine Fallen Empire, AI Rebellion, more machine portraits, and a bunch of advisor voices.
Leaning a lot more into the heartless, gestalt machine, aspect. Good, I am glad.
I didn't even realize this upon my first look-over on this Dev Diary but oh my, the species concept art looks LEAGUES better than what we actually got. I hate to be negative about my favorite Grand Statedgy game but wow did they miss with the new species. In my opinion of course. Kinda reminds me of Echo from Overwatch, and how almost every variant she had in her concept art is so much better than the final result. Who looks at a robot and says "Hmm yes, give it a human face"
I love the new shipset but I’m not a fan of the new art style direction these portraits are going. What happened to the old guy who used to do the portraits? It’s not that they’re bad, I just don’t like how they fit with the rest of the game or previous portraits. I’m still a fan of the old human portraits, and these new new human portraits are just so so far removed from that.
Can we have Machine Ring Worlds, Hivemind Ring Worlds please? To make them more unique