Paradox Interactive has revealed to add two cooperative gameplay modes to their space grand strategy video game, Stellaris. This feature is planned to be included in the 3.8 ‘Gemini’ update, which will likely be released around late June or early July 2023.
In a new Dev Diary, Paradox Interactive provides an in-depth look at the implementation of two co-op modes to Stellaris. According to the developers, the reason for creating two co-op modes is based on surveys indicating there are two distinct reasons players want to play together- some want to play in co-op simply to enjoy a casual game with friends, while others prefer a competitive game experience that pits friends against each other. As such, Stellaris has developed two distinct modes of play to support both goals – Cooperative PvE and Competitive PvP.
Starting in 3.8 update, there will be a new main menu entry for launching a Cooperative PvE game in which all human players control the same empire. This will take players to the Game Browser screen, where one of them can choose to host a New Game in the same way that the usual Multiplayer flow works. The hosting player will go straight to Empire Selection, where they may create a new empire or select one they’ve created previously as normal, then select the Galaxy Settings for the game and start the session.
Unlike regular Multiplayer, the Cooperative PvE flow skips the Game Lobby and does not require co-op players to choose an empire. Once the game has begun, these players will hotjoin directly to the hosting player’s empire. For the most part, Cooperative PvE is treated the same as single-player PvE.
In contrast, the process of creating a Competitive PvP game will resemble the process of creating a standard Multiplayer game. One player will host the server by selecting “Allow Coop.” Other players can join the Game Lobby and invite other people to join their empires. Empires that have been opened for cooperative play will display a “inspect” icon to their portrait, allowing potential players to view the empire’s features before joining. For more competitive players, the primary player of the empire will have the ability to lock it, requiring a password for joining or inspection.
Stellaris will also be adding several additional features to the co-op user interface along with some other updates, which you can read more about on the Stellaris Steam page.
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