[2023] Stellaris Dev Diary #302 - Leaders and 3.8.3 Balance Changes

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

by Eladrin

Hello again!

We’ve been working on a balance and bugfixing update, which should hopefully be coming to you early next week. Today I’ll be going over some of the things that will be in it, as well as go into why we’ve prioritized certain fixes over others.

STELLARIS 3.8.3 ‘GEMINI’ PRELIMINARY PATCH NOTES

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#################### VERSION 3.8.3 Patch ######################​
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Improvements

• It is now possible to rename council positions by clicking on council position name in the council view.
  
• Added additional event chains to Under One Rule.
  
• Under One Rule now will take into account if the ruler was bad or good towards citizens.
  
• Added a checkbox to toggle automatic expansion of a sector in the sector editor
  
• Made the three different "Terraforming Candidate Discovered" events turn into messages if you have already found one before.
  
• The pre-sapients that worship the Beholder now have the Psionic trait.
  
• The Beholder's Psi-Inoculation process is now a pair of decisions to toggle it on and off, instead of a decision to be enacted for each pop you want to become psionic.
  
• The Animator of Clay has blessed the corroded one.
  
• Imperial Heirs will now be more likely to adopt the class of the current ruler if you have the Philosopher King civic.
  
• Imperial heirs will now have their chosen class weighted by civics and traditions that give bonuses to specific leader classes.
  
• Added the Reorganize Council agenda, which allows reselection of unlocked council positions without the need to reform the government.
  
• Beholder now has a recruitment event, and Azaryn's recruitment event has a couple more options
  
• Added a checkbox in the army tab of the planet view to control if a planet is used via the sector army builder or not
  
• Added scroll wheel speed settings
  
• Leaders in the leader pool that start with a negative trait, now correctly gets one less additional negative trait during their lifespan.
  
• For players without Galactic Paragons, leaders will more often get traits that match if they're assigned as councilors or not.
  
• Increased the age span of new leaders, but weighted towards the middle. Initial Leaders will now also be roughly the same age as pool leaders.
  
• The edict fund is now shown in the council view.
  
• Imperial empires can now crown a Chosen One to be the Divine Sovereign if the Chosen One is the current ruler or heir.

Balance

• Legendary leaders do not count towards Leader Capacity.
  
• The Eager trait now has an additional effect: these leaders will not contribute towards Leader Capacity until they reach level 4. Assigned some event spawned leaders the Eager (II) trait.
  
• Admirals that command fleets hired from marauders no longer count towards your leader cap.
  
• XP Penalties for going over leader capacity have been reduced. The LEADER_CAPACITY_XP_SCALE define has been added for modders to be able to easily adjust this number.
  
• Military fleets led by an Admiral can now explore unsurveyed hyperlanes. (This does not permit Admirals to survey planets, anomalies, or wormholes.)
  
• Admirals no longer give Fleet Command Limit based off of their level.
  
• Researching Galactic Administration now removes the cooldown for government reform, this was previously only done if you obtained it via Statecraft traditions.
  
• Rebalanced many traditions and ascension Perks.
  
• Opener for Aptitude traditions now gives +1 trait, moved from the Finisher. This is retroactively applied to leaders that have been hired or are in your leader pool.
  
• The Empire Needs You now gives -25% Leader Hire Cost instead of +1 Leader Capacity.
  
• Specialist Training now gives +25% Leader XP Gain.
  
• Psychological Profiling now gives -25% Leader Upkeep Cost in addition to -1 Max Negative Traits.
  
• Healthcare Program now gives +20 Leader Lifespan instead of +10 Leader Lifespan.
  
• Aptitude Finisher now gives +1 Leader Capacity and +1 Leader Trait Pick options instead of +1 trait.
  
• Science Division now gives -10% Scientist Cost and Upkeep instead of +20% Scientist XP Gain.
  
• Polytechnic Education now gives +10% Leader XP gain instead of +20%.
  
• Colonial Viceroys now gives -10% Governor Cost and Upkeep instead of +20% Governor XP Gain.
  
• War Games now gives -10% Admiral Cost and Upkeep instead of +20% Admiral XP Gain.
  
• Mind and Body now gives +10 Leader Lifespan instead of +20 Leader Lifespan.
  
• Finisher effect for Statecraft now grants Galactic Administration as a research option with 25% progress instead of giving the tech for tree.
  
• Resistance is Frugal now also gives -10% General Cost and Upkeep.
  
• Imperial Prerogative now gives +2 Leader Capacity in addition to its existing effects.
  
• Transcendent Learning Prerogative now gives +2 Leader Capacity, +1 Leader Pool Size and +33% Leader XP gain.
  
• Aptitude Tradition "Champions of the Empire" now gives bonus per Leaders' levels. Effect is now a flat -2 Empire Size per Governor level, and 0.5% Exp per Scientist level (and 2 Naval capacity per Admiral/General level)
  
• Guardian trait maximum effect is now +33% Defense Platform Damage and Hull Points.
  
• Frontier Spirit trait maximum effects changed to -10% Colony Ship Cost and +50% Colonization Speed and +1 starting pop for colonies.
  
• Cyborg generals now increase planetary combat width.
  
• Reduced passive experience gain by 30% for Progenitor Hive leaders from level 1-6 and 50% for Progenitor Hive leaders between 7-10.
  
• Gray Eminence destiny trait now reduces the effects of empire size, instead of reducing empire size directly. Updated Aturion Efficiency to match Gray Eminence.
  
• Now imperial rulers do not lose imperial heir trait, so they don't become worse when they take over the country.
  
• Lowered the spawn chance for the legendary paragon Keides by 75%.
  
• Autocannons are no longer valued at three times their intended military power.
  
• Now criminals are also unhappy when under oppressive autocracy civic
  
• Kai-Sha's "Expanded Contact Network" event will now upgrade her Shady Contacts trait if she already has it. And gives intel on other empires if it has already been maxed out.
  
• Replaced -20% Empire Size reduction for Aturion Efficiency trait with -10% Empire Size Penalty.
  
• Leader traits that have base resource production now produce the market equivalent of 8 energy/month for tier 1 and 32 energy/month for tier 2.
  
• Aggressor admiral sub-class now gives +7.5% weapon damage.
  
• Artillerist II trait now gives +7.5% tracking.
  
• Fortifier trait now scales between -5% Starbase upgrade cost and -5% Defense platform cost at tier 1 to -10% Starbase upgrade cost, -10% Defense platform cost, +5% Starbase hullpoints and +5% Defense platform hullpoints at tier 3.
  
• Armada Logistician trait ship upkeep maximum reduction is now -10%.
  
• Military Pioneer trait maximum effects are now +20% Ship Build Speed and -10% Ship Build Cost.
  
• Guerilla Tactician now gives a flat 10 Evasion instead of a +50% Evasion multiplier.
  
• Architect of War now gives -10% Military Ship Cost.
  
• Charisma trait now has a maximum Edict Upkeep reduction of -10%
  
• Removed -5% Military Ship Cost from the Strategist sub-class
  
• Geological Consultant trait maximum effect reduced to 9 months of unity per blocker removed.
  
• Retired Fleet Officer trait maximum effects reduced to +20% Ship Build Speed and -10% Ship Build Cost.
  
• Agrarian Upbringing trait now checks for country_uses_food = yes instead of being biological.
  
• Shipwright maximum effects reduced to +10% Ship Build Speed and -10% Ship Build Cost.
  
• Frontier Spirit maximum effects reduced to -10% Colony Ship Cost and +45% Colonization Speed.
  
• Architectural Sense maximum effects reduced to -10% Buildings and Districts Cost, -5% Buildings and District Upkeep, +25% Planetary Build Speed.
  
• Experimenter trait now gives a maxium of 2×Leader Level Research Points per month.
  
• Explorer trait maximum effects reduced to -10% Science Ship Cost and +25% Anomaly Research Speed.
  
• Expansionist maximum effects reduced to -10% Outpost Alloy and Influence Cost.
  
• Great Researcher trait now gives 5×Leader Level Research Points per month.
  
• Taskmaster trait XP reduced from 600 to 500. In return it now has soldiers produce 2/2/2 Energy/Minerals/Food (for countries that use food) or 3/3 Energy/Minerals (for countries that don't)

Bugfixes

• Under One Rule now changes to Imperial Authority when transitioning to Galactic Emperor or Psionic Sovereign.
  
• Intellectual Espionage trait now takes into account all researcher category jobs on the planet.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Expanded Hive Warren would get deleted if there was no remaining unupgraded Hive Warrens on the planet
  
• Updated all researcher jobs to check for Academic Recruiter.
  
• Increased the army upkeep from Disorder II trait.
  
• Chainbreaker trait now requires Egalitarian ethics.
  
• Honored Warmaster trait now requires Xenophile ethics.
  
• Commented out cut prospecting decision.
  
• Kidnapper trait now checks that the general's owner allows slavery instead of checking their ethics.
  
• Taskmaster trait no longer gives an undocumented +5% Building Speed per soldier job.
  
• Now you can't terraform with Azaryn without launching her special ability.
  
• The Death of a Great Leader event should no longer fire when you send a leader off to the Keepers of Knowledge.
  
• Cloaked Ships will no longer block starbases from being rebuilt.
  
• Moved gestalt nodes further apart from each other in the council view so that trait picking doesn't get blocked when they have a lot of traits.
  
• The planet visuals should now update properly when planets change class
  
• Fixed an issue where traits given via event options would not correctly display triggered effects
  
• The ambience sound effect played in the council view is now properly affected by the ambience volume slider
  
• Fixed an issue where leaders that changed empires would retain their council position in their old empire
  
• Fixed a bug where modding the species appearance would not apply to the ruler
  
• The Scholarium Investigator leader trait now gives +25% Assist Research Efficiency instead of failing to give 10% Research Speed as a non-council trait.
  
• Fixed a COOP bug where it was possible for several players to unlock council positions at the same time resulting in duplicates
  
• If there is a wormhole in the capital system, then the Keides wormhole will spawn in a random neighboring system 1-2 jumps away
  
• Cordyceptic Stargazers now correctly spawn with an amoeba fleet again.
  
• Fixed Eager Explorer empires spawning with an extra scientist.
  
• Slaves are now properly set under dystopian living standard
  
• Any Gestalt empire generated after game start (e.g. from machine uprising) should now correctly get their Gestalt council nodes.
  
• Hyperdrive technologies no longer show duplicated icons.
  
• Fixed issues where starbase modifiers would apply to defensive platforms when they shouldn't
  
• Fixed an issue where pre FTL empires spawned from the necrophage origin would spawn in orbit of their planet
  
• Fixed a bug where ships would sometimes stop following its target when they entered a hyperlane
  
• Zroni Relic will now add 1 level to the leader, but won't choose trait on random it will be up to player to chose the trait.
  
• Fixed notification map ping staying visible for some time after dismissing the notification.
  
• Fixed a bug where some traits would not properly localize their names when their modifiers are part of tooltips
  
• Fixed a bug where the Insightful trait tooltip would duplicate headers for its effects
  
• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to unassign envoys from their current task
  
• Fixed Resilient trait to properly adjust for synths. Did the same for destiny trait which was giving leader life span
  
• Crusader Spirit Opinion Modifier: Now it gives -80 opinion towards everyone of different ethic and +20 to the same ethic empires
  
• Fixed issues with the fleet manager where the buttons to increase and decrease the number of ships would not work correctly when using shift or ctrl modifiers
  
• Rogue Scientist event chain shouldn't trigger for Governors assigned as Head of Science.
  
• Updated some trigger loc from "No of ..." to "Number of ..." to be more consistent with the rest of the game.
  
• Fixed Tooltip for Paranoid Leader Trait
  
• Fixed title case for anomaly.3141 "The Depths of Alien Life"
  
• The event that allows you to pick a Chosen One no longer says "three individuals" are capable of absorbing such power and proceeds to list four names.
  
• Events that give the Chosen traits now check that the leader in question is psionic.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could reinforce a fleet when the template was not filled with the correct ships even though the fleet was filled on command limit
  
• Fixed the spawn chance modifier of the anomaly The Orb, as it could not spawn before.
  
• Beholder planetfall error message now states that an empty building slot is required.
  
• Fixed icon for brainslug species trait again.
  
• You can no longer psi-inoculate hive-minded pops or those being purged.
  
• Fallen empire capital planets should now have the correct planetary designation.
  
• You can no longer create subjects from sectors if the primary species would be an infertile clone army species.
  
• Marauder admirals can no longer serve on the council or be manually fired.
  
• Fixed some edges where a ruler could be chosen by a shroud entity but not awarded the trait.
  
• Added scripted loc for GetDefenseForceOrArmada and GetGDFOrArmada
  
• Updated Cybernetic Advantage agenda so it doesn't display placeholder art.
  
• Regular empires no longer have machine or hive-mind leaders in their external leader pools and vice versa.
  
• Cloned Organs/Self-Preservation Protocols now correctly has the same effects as Mind and Body.
  
• Fixed incorrect modifiers on the adoption effect of Synthetic traditions.
  
• Fixed MP lobby chat messages and scroll bar spilling outside the chat box.
  
• Fixed most tooltips in the game browser not working.
  
• Fixed Plantoids Species Pack DLC not showing up in MP lobby DLC list
  
• Fixed misalignment of the DLC icons in the multiplayer lobby
  
• Fixed icon lists sometimes becoming vertical when they should be horizontal
  
• Fixed coop presence icons not always showing their tooltip.
  
• The Interstellar Recruitment Office tooltip now specifies why you can't build it if you already have one in your empire.
  
• The sentinels archaeology site will now put Azaryn back on her own ship when she returns.
  
• Fixed a bug where some mercenary fleets would not have an admiral assigned to them
  
• Mercenary Admirals now get Mercenary Warrior Trait and 2 admiral traits to represent their level
  
• Mercenary Enclaves should no longer steal their admirals which they just rented out

AI

• AI will now wait until it has at least 5 planets and 25 years before choosing a specialization designation for its homeworld
  
• Fixed an issue where AI would be unable to build any buildings if they desired to build the Ancient Refinery but did not have access to any minor artifacts

Stability and Performance

• Fixed a number of Out of Sync errors.
  
• Increased performance in the leader view
  
• Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur when a scientist was elected ruler while performing science ship orders
  
• Fixed a rare, but persistent crash when an empire was destroyed
  
• Fixed a crash that could sometimes happen if there were issues opening or writing log files
  
• Fixed crash in MP lobby when you confirm disbanding a coop group if the player list changed while the confirmation popup was open.
  
• Disabled tooltips in the loading screen to avoid crashes related to focus loss.

UI

• Re-enabled tooltips while the game has no focus as hiding them caused issues for screen readers.
  
• Added tooltips for the join/leave coop empire button in the MP lobby when you can't click it.
  
• Added a tooltip for the coop checkbox in the MP lobby when you can't change it due to being ready.
  
• Use different titles for the multiplayer and coop game browsers.
  
• The multiplayer game browser now has a column that shows whether a game allows coop.
  
• Fixed an issue where the active agendas list would sometimes duplicate elements
  
• Added a new version of the main coop presence view to the topbar for resolutions with width >= 1600
  
• Auto-confirm disbanding a coop group in the MP lobby if all other players leave the group.
  
• Modifiers that affect leader experience gain will now be indented under a "Experience Gain Rate:" header
  
• Added confirmation prompt when selecting a country during hotjoining
  
• Lysator Syng's hire tooltip now shows that hiring him will give you 3 pirate ships as well.
  
• Show decimals for power projection breakdown in naval cap tooltip

Modding

• Added set_random_$CLASS$_background_effect script effects, to assign a random background class to a leader. $CLASS$ can be replaced with admiral, general, governor, or scientist.
  
• Added support for custom_tooltip_with_modifiers for council positions.
  
• Updated documentation for council positions to include new script support. See 01_test_councilor.txt for an example of a council position not linked to civics.
  
• Added script effect "unlock_council_selection = yes" to force validation of council positions and allow the player to reselect their council positions.
  
• Fixed the ethics OverLappingElementsBox not reloading properly
  
• Fixed the spacing parameter not working for vertical OverlappingElementBoxTypes
  
• Added new "empire_size_add" modifier, which flatly increases or decreases the Empire size.
  
• Council position unlock screen will now show council positions which are available by scope check but don't require any civics
  
• Added console command "debug_trait_weights", which enables logging of some of the trait random roll weights.
  
• Added military_power_multiplier to weapon components, which allows manual adjustment of combat power assessment for intangibles that are otherwise difficult to automate.
  
• Use 2 decimals for army upkeep in army view

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Leaders, Level Caps, and Balance​ There’s been a lot of discussion about the Leader Caps that were reintroduced with the 3.8 update. We feel that they are a necessary piece of the balance puzzle, as leaders are generally far more powerful than they were before, and we explicitly wanted empires to have fewer, more important leaders.

The leaders you recruit are intended to be seen as exceptional individuals within your empire, and the planets and fleets that do not possess an Admiral or Governor were not intended to be “unled” - but the rank and file administrators that led them were not as important as the ones represented by visible, portraited characters.

I agree with the comments that it’s unsatisfying to have empty space where there should be some representation of non-exceptional leaders. We’re still exploring solutions to this, whether it be envoy-style “level 0 leaders”, class-specific leader limits, authority based institutions being present in areas without exceptional leaders, a different system altogether, or a combination of some or all of the above. (Not so secretly, I’m also interested in exploring the idea of upgrading Envoys into full leaders at some point in the future, so adjustments will have to be made to the system regardless. Currently I lean towards a combination of some of the above, but some of the changes I want to make are bigger than fit into post-release support.)


You’ll also be able to rename Council positions.

We also concur that the caps are a bit on the tight side. As noted in the patch notes, we’re making some changes to loosen them a bit, but we feel that we have to tread carefully for balance reasons. We’ve reduced the rate at which leaders reach -100% XP for being over cap, and added an XP scalar in Defines for easy modder access.

We’re also merging the “Leader of Opportunity” mechanic we discussed last week into the Eager leader trait - leaders with this trait will not count against the Leader Cap for their first few levels. We originally intended for Leader of Opportunity to be used exclusively with event leaders, but the discussions that followed showed that people were looking forward to seeing leaders with the effect in the Leader Pool, and we agreed that it would be interesting to see.


Traits are also now nouns to ease localization into gendered languages.

Regarding early game exploration - while we are happy with the exploration phase of the game being longer than before, it’s a bit slower than we’d like. We’re going to let military fleets with an assigned Admiral explore hyperlanes, which also has the benefit of resolving an edge case when you’re at war and have an enemy system hidden away in a nebula. They won’t be able to survey planets or explore wormholes like a crewed Science ship, but this should provide more freedom to find hyperlane choke points during your initial steps to the stars. The change which gave Admirals increased command limit as they gained levels has also been removed - as many of you have pointed out, it didn’t feel great to have your fleets split on leader death.



In the longer term, we’re considering giving Generals more “things to do” - as some of you have pointed out, it could be interesting to let a General step in when newly conquered planets need to be pacified, perhaps acting as an interim martial law governor for freshly “liberated” sectors. #nopromises

We’re generally happy with how Gestalt Nodes have worked out - they have several major advantages over regular Empires due to these immortal specialist nodes, but also some differences that become more pronounced as the game goes on. In a future release (likely 3.9), we’re considering allowing them to “cull” a node and grow a new one as an agenda, as some Council traits are valuable in the first parts of the game but far less useful later on.

A great many leader traits have had a balance pass, described in the patch notes above. As the systems evolve, expect more motion there. We expect that we’ll be making further adjustments and improvements to all of these systems in upcoming Custodian updates.

Prioritization of Bugs and Balance​ Naturally, there must be some prioritization done when it comes to bugs and balance. At the top of the pile are things that prevent you from playing - crashes, out of syncs, and the like.

Issues that involved displayed text are often high priority as well - as Stellaris is available in ten different languages and translators need time to do their jobs, we have limited windows in which to make any changes that require localization. 3.8.1 and 3.8.3, for instance, are localized releases, while 3.8.2 and the future 3.8.4 are not. Sometimes we’ll plan ahead and slip some “emergency loc” into a localized release even if we haven’t had a chance to actually address the bug itself, but that’s relatively rare.

Bugs deemed Exploits are usually rated very low in our general triage - if an AI is unlikely to abuse a bug against you, but you can choose to use it or not, it tends to be lower priority than things that are more disruptive to general gameplay.

Script Improvements for Councilors​ Some improvements to the scriptability of council positions we were working have also been added into 3.8.3.

Firstly, we've added the Reorganize Council agenda which will allow empires to reselect their council positions without needing to reform the government.

Of more interest for modders, support for council positions made possible by non-civic sources, such as country flags, ascension perks and other such triggers have been improved.

We've attached the documentation below.

COUNCILOR SCRIPT DOCUMENTATION
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# Councilor Documentation
#
# councilor_name_key = {
# possible = { } Country scope triggers to evaluate if the council position is allowed.
# leader_class = { } Which leader classes can have this council position. Currently only used for the Recruit new Leader buttons. Default = none.
# is_leader_possible = { } Leader scope triggers to evaluate if a leader can be assigned to this position.
# conditional_tooltip = "LOC_KEY" Custom tooltip text shown for the requirements of the council position.
# civic = civic_imperial_cult Civic that is required for this council position. Also used by UI. Default = none.
# custom_unlock_title = "LOC_KEY" Custom text shown instead of "UNLOCK_COUNCIL_POSITION_TOOLTIP for council positions without a civic"
# modifier = { } Country Modifier, that is multiplied by assigned Leader's level.
# custom_tooltip = "LOC_KEY" Custom tooltip text shown instead of the auto-generated modifier tooltip text of the council position.
# custom_tooltip_with_modifiers = "LOC_KEY" Custom tooltip text shown in addition to the auto-generated modifier tooltip text of the council position.
# icon = "GFX_icon_name" Icon used for the council position, if a civic is not specified.
# required = yes/no Is this position forced to be on the council. Default = no
# }
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EXAMPLE COUNCIL POSITION
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Script:
# councilor_expert_programmer = {
# leader_class = { scientist }
# possible = {
# has_country_flag = expert_programmer
# }
# is_leader_possible = {
# leader_class = scientist
# }
# modifier = {
# planet_researchers_physics_research_produces_add = 1
# }
# custom_tooltip_with_modifiers = "councilor_expert_programmer_modifiers"
# icon = "GFX_icon_councilor_research"
# custom_unlock_title = "councilor_expert_programmer_unlock_title"
# conditional_tooltip = "councilor_expert_programmer_conditional"
# }

Loc:
# councilor_expert_programmer: "Expert Programmer"
# councilor_expert_programmer_female: "$councilor_expert_programmer$"
# councilor_expert_programmer_desc: "An $TITLE$ is to thank for the new script support for Council Positions."
# councilor_expert_programmer_modifiers: "This is an example of a custom tooltip with modifiers for a Council Position."
# councilor_expert_programmer_conditional: "This is an example of a conditional tooltip for a Council Positon."
# councilor_expert_programmer_unlock_title: "§HCouncil Position from Console Commands§!"
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Out of Syncs​ I mentioned this last week, but since we’re very interested in improving multiplayer stability… If you're running into frequent out of sync issues, you can help us out a lot by having the host add these startup parameters to their game:
-randomlog -randomlog_stack=5 -randomlog_frames=3​
Then, if you run into an Out of Sync, please post in the Bug Report forum[forum.paradoxplaza.com] and give us the Host's OOS logs as well as at least one of the clients that the popup mentioned. (OOS logs can be found in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\oos near your save games.) Any details you can provide about what you were doing at the time is also helpful.

This setting has some performance implications (which is why it's not on by default), but if you're running into OOSes reliably, it can really help us track them down.

Ideally I’d like the 3.8.4 update to be in a state where we can remove the beta tag from the Cooperative game mode.

That's it for this week folks, see you next week!