[2023] Stellaris Dev Diary #315 - The Velvet Glove

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

3.9.2 has been released with a handful of bugfixes.

STELLARIS 3.9.2 PATCH NOTES

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#################### VERSION 3.9.2 ######################​
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Balance

• Pre-FTL empires now have reduced technological development before the mid-game year.
  
• Catalytic empires can now build bio-reactors.

Bugfix

• Anomalies that reward Scientist Expertise traits now apply those traits to the Cognitive Node for gestalt empires.
  
• Blocked empires without the Scientific Method technology from constructing research districts.
  
• Federations End should no longer spawn empty habitats if the pre-FTL slider is set to 0
  
• Fix a CTD when loading a save containing an invalid species archetype
  
• Fix for wrong value for evasion in ship design.
  
• Fixed being able to build multiple gaia seeders on a single planet.
  
• Fixed Fallen Empires not triggering their monthly random events
  
• Fixed pre-ftl civilizations that naturally progressed to the Early Space Age being unable to become space faring.
  
• Fixed Secrets of the ... no longer granting Expertise traits.
  
• Fixed stage 4 gaia seeders being buildable, but immediately destroyed by non-Idyllic Bloom empires.
  
• Fixed the Colonial Remains deposits not spawning for the Remnants origin in some cases.
  
• Fixed the Patron achievement not firing.
  
• Fixed the Prethoryn getting stuck because their starting system contains an FTL inhibitor that prevents them from expanding
  
• Fixed the Surveyor not spawning resources in some cases.
  
• Gardening Drones will no longer have an unlocalized string.
  
• Habitat Central Complexes constructed around stars should now be placed further away, so they no longer clip into the star.
  
• Industrial designation is now only available on habitats for gestalt empires, if they use consumer goods.
  
• Merc enclaves now inherit their shipset from their creator.
  
• Paradisiacal Habitat modifiers in Ithome's Gate no longer use placeholder icons.
  
• Restored -25% penalty if the government doesn't have a head of research.
  
• Set a manual planet size for the Toxic God star asset, as it otherwise counts the large visual effects as part of the planet.
  
• The Crystal Splitter will now hopefully stop blowing up Fruitful Partnership colonies
  
• The spiritualist fallen empire will now wake up if you eat their holy worlds.
  
• The knights will no longer try to quest if you pacify their habitat.

Performance

• Removed MTTH from anomaly.6710, bane of ship events, horror of designers
  
• Removed MTTH from assorted fallen_empire_tasks events
  
• Removed MTTH from communications_spread.1 and communications_spread.3
  
• Removed MTTH from crime.1, crime.40 and crime.41, plus added pre-triggers to all crime-events
  
• Removed MTTH from fallen_empires.1, fallen_empires.3, fallen_empires.10, fallen_empires.11
  
• Removed MTTH from leviathans.660 and leviathans.662
  
• Removed MTTH from pop.1-13, madness that should have never existed
  
• Removed MTTH from random caravaneer events (cara.4000-4050)
  
• Removed MTTH from refugees.5, scourge of the game, destroyer of performance
  
• Removed MTTH from the Migrating Forests event chain (colony.1 to colony.12)
  
• Removed MTTH from the Orbital Debris event chain (colony.171 and colony.171)

UI

• Added new main menu gradient

Modding

• Added researchers_add.txt and archaeoengineers_add.txt inline scripts for buildings.
  
• Added chemist_add.txt, factory_add.txt, foundry_add.txt, refiner_add.txt and translucer_add.txt inline script for buildings.

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3.9.3 is currently planned for a few weeks from now, and will include some more bugfixes as well as some diplomacy changes that we’ve pulled in. The recommended DLC screen updates I mentioned a few weeks ago have shifted to 3.10 at the earliest.

Let’s talk about Diplomacy now.
Diplomacy and Trust​ A common complaint since the release of Overlord and the 3.3 ‘Cepheus’ update is that the galaxy frequently degenerated into a handful of powerful vassal blocs, and things like Federations only formed rarely. A significant cause of this was due to the willingness of AI empires to quickly diplomatically submit to more powerful empires, even if the difference in power really wasn’t all that high. This then led to a snowball effect, as newly encountered empires would generally be less powerful than this already established bloc.

We’ve made a few minor adjustments to AI Acceptance in past releases, but decided that we need a more impactful change to delay this sort of behavior. We do want it possible for these political formations to form, but it shouldn’t be a fast and virtually guaranteed phenomenon.

Trust is an existing concept that grows over time between empires that have diplomatic ties. It grows up to a Trust Cap based primarily on the magnitude of those diplomatic ties, but is also affected by traditions and other sources of modifiers. Since the release of Federations and the 2.6 ‘Verne’ update, Envoys could be assigned to Improve Relations to waive most of the requirements for diplomatic pacts - this has now been largely shifted over to Trust and having an Embassy with the target or the Diplomatic Networking tradition.


The Centralized Yibrak Systems would like to join your network.

These requirements will change the initial flow of the game quite a bit - it’ll be harder to meet someone and have a Commercial Pact, Research Agreement, and the like a few days after finishing first contact, but similarly as a MegaCorp it’ll be rarer to encounter an AI Empire that already has their fill of Commercial Pacts and refuses to enter any more. It takes a bit of getting to know one another before they’re willing to entwine their economies or swear eternal allegiance to one another.


Let’s not be too hasty, maybe get to know one another first.

SPOILER: SOME PRELIMINARY 3.9.3 DIPLOMATIC PATCH NOTES

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Balance

• Rebalanced requirements for diplomatic treaties to require trust.
  
• Having less than 50 Trust with an empire imposes a -100 Acceptance to them becoming your subject or overlord.
  
• Removed the ability to trade favors.
  
• Insulting someone decreases their Trust of your empire.
  
• The Intimidation menace perk now allows you to ignore diplomatic requirements for proposing subjugation.

AI

• The AI will no longer request to become the subject or overlord of another empire unless they have 50 Trust with the other party.
  
• Certain AI personalities (Federation Builders, Spiritual Seekers, Migrating Flocks, and Peaceful Traders) are now 25x more likely to select Diplomacy traditions.
  
• The AI will no longer request to be subjugated by empires that are equivalent or weaker than them.
  
• Trust between nations is now visible in the main diplomatic screen.

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As another general diplomatic change, we’ve removed the ability to trivially trade favors between Empires. The traditions related to them and the Extort Favors operation will be the most consistent source of favors going forward, though in time we plan on adding more to various events that feel like they really should include a favor exchange. (This pass will not be complete in 3.9.3.)


All values are subject to change, but we’re generally pretty happy with them so far.

Internal testing has shown these changes to be pretty effective at reducing the vassalization blobs while still allowing them to form either over the long term or through judicious application of violence. (Subjugation wargoals do not require trust.) This also gives a potentially interesting hook for the Smear Campaign operation when we revisit Espionage sometime in the coming updates.

Next Week​ Next week we’ll be examining a potential 3.10 feature - the Leader Consolidation and trait balancing.


Hey wait, who put you in charge of that planet?

See you then!