Stellaris Dev Diary #363 - A Journey of Exploration

by Eladrin

Hello, Stellaris Community!

Today we’ll start with preliminary release notes for 3.14.1592, then look back at the past at all of the changes Stellaris has gone through and summarize the feedback you all gave in the dev diary two weeks ago - The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com]. We’re still reading the responses to that one and will continue doing so, so if you haven’t had a chance to add your thoughts, please add them!

Preliminary Release Notes for 3.14.1592​ If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing the 3.14.1592 patch sometime next week.

These are our preliminary release notes:

Balance ​

• Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
  
• Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
  
• Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
  
• Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
  
• Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
  
• Remove minor artifacts production from Decentralized Research edict
  
• Rework Mutated Voidworms fleets content and scaling, aligning them similar to Prethoryn Brood Queen fleets

Bugfix ​

• Accelerate juveniles animation speed
  
• Added Insider Trading and Trade Focus traits to each other's opposites block to stop them appearing together since they almost cancel each other out.
  
• Added Orbital Ring variants for Beastport/Hatchery/Vivarium descriptions in all supported languages
  
• Civics added in Grand Archive can now be swapped from the regular to corporate version and vice versa
  
• Clarified the texts of the Cultivated Worldscaping decision and planet modifier
  
• Deleting a design now keeps you in current designer type
  
• Enclaves and Marauders satisfy Xenoist Contact Demand
  
• Extreme Contortionist DNA now gives rare crystals instead of motes to be more consistent with the event that gives it
  
• Fix an issue where Cognitive Node should be selected by the Leader Infected event
  
• Fix blocked Tiyanki Graveyard event chain when capturing them
  
• Fix Boarding Cables capturing literally anything - thanks for the fun screenshots
  
• Fix Breeding Status displayed in view that was not always correct
  
• Fix Fossilized Endoskeleton specimen localization
  
• Fix Mercenary Enclave Stations unable to build ships
  
• Fix Cloaked Patternwalker missing string
  
• Fix scoped localizations for Memorial For Bubbles specimen
  
• Fixed an unlocalized string showing up when you tried to return starbases at times. Also added linebreaks to the same tooltip.
  
• Fixed recommended DLC tooltips in multiplayer
  
• Fixes a bug with too wide portrait on Empire Design Selection View
  
• FX for ship auras are now displayed
  
• Improve Cordyceptic Drones fauna damage modifier text in tooltip to make it clearer what it exactly affects
  
• Life Tree Protectors now don't move away from their system
  
• Lost colony parents using Sol as their system will no longer spawn two Siriuses if the guaranteed habitable worlds slider is set to 1.
  
• Mutated Voidworms fleets now don't use naval capacity
  
• Mutated Voidworms now don't show they can upgrade anymore
  
• Orbital Assembly Complex holding now correctly boost Beastport and Hatchery on Orbital Ring
  
• Preccursors can no longer be discovered on Astral Scars
  
• Prevent duplicate specimens from being found in the same empire
  
• Removed the unused h_dna string
  
• Stop showing upkeep part of message when leader upkeep is zero in hire leader confirmation dialog
  
• The Diplomacy Tradition Finisher now properly refers to Officials and not Envoys.
  
• Voidworms now stop bombarding if the Immunity technology is researched (before crisis)
  
• Worm-Riddled Gate is now correctly accessible if Voidworms are captured instead of killed

AI ​

• AI won't build infinite science ships when trying to build frigates anymore
  
• Fix AI that was not willing to build Shipyards

Stability​

• Fix a crash when a tooltip references the concept of a tradition that doesn't exist
  
• Fix crash when Voidworms try to act on empty fleets
  
• Fix OOS when riftworld station is built
  
• Fix saves affected by the crash when an AI without a Grand Archive tries to capture a Space Fauna
  
• Fix Voidworms CTD
  
• Fixed issue with resolving the user home dir on linux that leads to CTD

Okay, now on to the main dev diary.

Where We’ve Been​ A long time ago in a galaxy generated far, far away, on May 9th, 2016, Stellaris was released.

We all took our first steps out into the stars, filled with a universe of possibilities and wonders. I was there picking my FTL type and favored weapons and experiencing those early days the same way many of you did.

Each of the Expansions changed Stellaris in their own way.

The first really major changes came to Stellaris in 1.5 in the Utopia expansion, when Ascension Perks were added. These shook the game up so drastically that when Apocalypse changed the face of war in 2.0, they ended up moving into the base game.

Apocalypse and 2.0 included a huge number of other changes as well, changing how system control works and removing the different FTL types. I mark this moment as the point where Stellaris began moving from a pure 4X game to more of a hybrid of 4X and GSG. That transition continued in the next major shakeup with MegaCorp and 2.2, which replaced the economic model, changing from tiles to the pop and job system we still use today.

Federations and the 2.6 update added the Galactic Community, revamped Federations, and changed the way we think about empire creation by adding Origins to the game. Most of the Origins started off relatively simple, but as we added more they steadily grew in complexity. (Knights of the Toxic God, I’m looking at you.)

The intel and exploration changes of Nemesis brought us to the 3.0 update, as they fundamentally changed the early stages of the game. Nemesis also brought us our first player Crisis path, Galactic Nemesis, which was originally simply called “Become the Crisis”.

3.1, the Lem update, wasn’t an expansion release, but it changed how the Stellaris team operated, for the better. This was when we began the Custodian Initiative[forum.paradoxplaza.com]. The Custodians have done an excellent job polishing old content up to our modern expectations, fixing bugs, adding new quality of life features, and generally improving the game.

Overlord and 3.4 added improved subjugation mechanics and added the Situations system which has become an incredible tool for the content designers. We also expanded automation at this time, revamping planetary automation and letting unemployed pops find their way using the automatic resettlement system.

The leader system underwent massive changes in 3.8 when Galactic Paragons added leader traits and attempted to make them a more interesting system to play with. This system remained in flux until 3.10, when they finally reached a state where we were happy with the results. Sometimes change needs a little iteration. 3.8 also added Cooperative gameplay, making it much easier to teach your friends how to play Stellaris.

This year brought the Expansion Subscription option to make it easier to get into Stellaris, and The Machine Age and 3.12 began the process of elevating the Ascension Paths to new heights. The positive reaction to The Machine Age and the success of the Season 08 Expansion Pass strongly affected our plans for 2025, and made us also reflect upon questions like “what is a Crisis anyway", “what is ‘winning’”, and “can we remaster two very different Ascension Paths in a single year”.

The Story Packs, Species Packs, and other content added to Stellaris in their own ways as well, adding to the deep lore of Stellaris and expanding the possibilities.

So Much Glorious Feedback​ I want to thank everyone for the enormous outpouring of feedback that we’ve received over the last couple of weeks. As I noted last week, I’ve been reading every response to Dev Diary 361, and I’ve been keeping tabs on responses on several different platforms. If you haven’t had a chance to give your feedback, don’t worry, you’re not too late. I’ll be keeping The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com] pinned in our forums until the end of November.

This section will be my musings on the feedback and some of the things it made me think of. Not everything I talk about here is viable or going to happen, but if you’re being this open with me I owe it to you to return the favor.

Based on the feedback you’ve all given, the consensus is that you’re very amenable to change to address engine or system limitations, and that we should not feel constrained by what is already there if we feel we can find a way to make things better. Many of you did note that the initial implementations of changes aren’t typically perfect, and that they take iteration to achieve their goals. (So we should be careful with what we decide to take on at once!)

Some of the questions that I offered as proposals were a bit leading - I did want to know what you all thought about the existing pop mechanics, for example, because I’m very interested in improving their performance and addressing several other quality of life and mechanical issues with the current systems. Your responses have strengthened my belief that tackling planets is a correct course of action, and you should expect some experimentation in next year’s Open Beta.

I’d like to move us over to a system more similar to the pop groups used in Victoria 3 - though with a Stellaris spin on things. We’re not likely to go as deep in the simulation as Victoria does, but I think that we can likely split pop groups based on species, ethics, and factions. Some of the granularity we have right now might slip though, so I’m eager to get to doing some prototyping and seeing what the pros and cons are of such a change, as well as what the performance implications would be. The economic implications are huge.

Fleets are unlikely to get major changes this year, but a number of you identified them as a place where we can do a lot of major improvements, along with many aspects of war. We’ll talk a bit more about these next week.

Trade is almost certainly going to change. Very few of you seemed terribly fond of the current system, and it’s both terribly bad for performance and mechanically difficult to understand for new players. While I like the general idea behind the trade routes, I don’t think they add enough benefit for their costs. We’re likely to revamp it into a proper resource, though I’m also considering ways of also using it to simulate supply lines and local planetary deficits. If we end up pursuing the latter, gestalt empires would need access to trade or at least, something similar. That could potentially open up more opportunities for MegaCorps and diplomatic pacts, and we’ll have to find new ways of using pirates.

Next Week​ Next week I want to look at some of the things I think we’re still missing. Player fantasies that we either do not support or do not support well enough in Stellaris at this time. Like The Vision dev diary, I’ll be asking for your feedback there too, so think up on this over the next week if you want to help influence where we go next.

See you then!