Stellaris News

The Grand Archive Story Pack is available now!

The Grand Archive Story Pack is available now!

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Get it today, or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!

The Grand Archive Story Pack includes:

Space Fauna capture, breeding, and modification systems
151 Specimens to collect and display across events from Grand Archive and the base game
Over 240 Specimens total including those distributed across other Stellaris content
15 new Relics
New Megastructure - The Grand Archive
Two Tradition trees - Archivism and Domestication
Two Origins - Primal Calling and Treasure Hunters
Two Civics - Beastmasters and Galactic Curators
Two forms of spaceborne life - Cutholoids and Voidworms
Mid-game crisis - the Voidworm Plague
Three new music tracks
Events, Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Technologies, Galactic community resolutions, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863080/Stellaris_Grand_Archive/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08__Expansion_Pass/

[h3]New Megastructure - The Grand Archive[/h3]

The Grand Archive preserves and exhibits the most valuable artifacts we have collected throughout the galaxy. Reserved within is also a dedicated Vivarium for live Space Fauna containment and observation.

Constructing the Grand Archive allows for the exhibition of specimens you have found, as well as the containment, breeding and ultimately cloning of captured space fauna in the Vivarium.

[h3]New Discoveries - Specimens[/h3]

Specimens are rare and valuable objects that you collect while exploring the galaxy. Each Specimen has a Display Effect, providing small modifiers to boost your production across a wide variety of metrics, with their effects scaling based on the rarity of the specimen in question.

Specimens also provide additional information about the discoveries you have made, adding new details and information about events in the galaxy.

[h3]New Spaceborn Life[/h3]

Cutholoids

Cutholoids are massive organisms that inhabit asteroids in order to provide suitable protection for their otherwise soft bodies. This creature swallows its prey whole, using radioactive digestive fluid to slowly consume its prey.

Cutholoids are ambush predators that disguise themselves as asteroids. They will ambush and devour lone ships - these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle. When cloned from Hatcheries by the player, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.

Voidworms

Voidworms are parasitic organisms that must deposit spores on inhabited worlds with suitable biomass in order to reproduce. Mature individuals form mating trios, known as "Troikas", and will construct nests near black holes to shelter and raise their young.

Voidworms are aggressive parasites and will often bombard colonies in order to increase their numbers back in their nests. If their population is left unchecked, they will attempt to take over the galaxy in the new Voidworm Plague mid-game crisis.

[h3]Mid-Game Crisis - The Voidworm Plague[/h3]

The Voidworm population has reached a critical mass. The parasites no longer spare the planets they feed from. A breeding frenzy on the galactic scale is upon us.

This Mid-Game Crisis can be triggered if Voidworm populations reach a critical mass in the galaxy. Swarms of Voidworms will invade colonies and bombard them with abandon, adding to their numbers.

[h3]Origins[/h3]

Primal Calling

Masters of animal handling and ranching, their relationship with fauna has grown according to their ethics. How will this bond evolve on a galactic scale?

This mechanically-driven origin introduces a new Wrangler job, which changes based on the player's ethics and choices. Primal Calling empires also start with the ability to build Voidlures, and is ideally suited to support a creature-focused playstyle.

Treasure Hunters

Armed only with a mysterious map, race across the stars to secure a legendary pirate treasure.

This narrative-focused origin follows the trail of a forgotten pirate legend in search of her hoard. The Black Needle stands in your way, a long-standing pirate organization that will do anything to secure this treasure. On your journey, you will face deadly threats, memorable characters and maybe even the Pirate Queen herself.

[h3]Civics[/h3]

Galactic Curators

The meticulous collection and preservation of historical artifacts has always fascinated this civilization. But now, with the mysteries of the galaxy at their doorstep, there is everything left to learn.

Galactic Curators empires start with a set of three specimens and get a head start on building their Grand Archive thanks to insight into Galactic Archivism technology and a reduced cost and build time. Additionally, Galactic Curators gain bonus unity when completing an Archaeological Site or finding a Specimen.

As fellow Curators, they have increased starting opinion with the Curator Order and receive a discount on their services.

Beastmasters

Coming to full technological maturity in a system that serves as a feeding ground for Space Amoebas, this society has acquired a deep knowledge of their life cycle. They now work to nurture, raise, and ultimately clone these creatures for mutual benefit.

Start with the ability to capture Space Fauna and a fleet of Cloned Space Amoeba instead of Corvettes. Standard military ships use 3x naval capacity, so you must learn to harness the power of Cloned Space Fauna in order to succeed.

Find out more:
Watch the playlist on YouTube Read the Developer Diaries

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863080/Stellaris_Grand_Archive/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08__Expansion_Pass/

New Stellaris DLC turns the goal of the entire game on its head, and is out now

Stellaris is all about exploring space. Your fledgling civilization sets a course across the stars to colonize, expand, and interact with myriad interstellar peoples, and your job is to guide it. But what if your goal was different? What if, instead of settling on new stars, you were tasked with preservation? From Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis developer Paradox, that's the goal of the new Stellaris Grand Archive DLC. So put down your weapon and pick up your clipboard, because it's time to manage the best museum in the universe.

Read the rest of the story...

Stellaris: Grand Archive Story Pack Review

Stellaris: Grand Archive is the third and final content drop for the game’s eighth season of DLC. Compared to this year’s excellent The Machine Age update or the visually stunning but divisive Cosmic Storms expansion, Grand Archive is decidedly less ambitious. It’s also less focused, blending a pirate quest, treasure hunting, and monster ranching. While these additions sound promising, they feel too light on substance to feel fully realized.

But that’s not to say it’s bad; it’s just not for everyone. There are impressive changes to fleet dynamics and a customizable set of modifiers to fine-tune various aspects of the game. For Stellaris fans who are excited about the prospect of new ways to micromanage their empires, this DLC is definitely for them.

This new content update is a loose collection of ideas, all tied together through the titular Grand Archive. The Archive itself is a dual-function mega structure that houses two new classes of collectibles: Specimens and... Read more

Stellaris Dev Diary #359 - Stellaris 3.14.1 'Circinus' Preliminary Release Notes

Hi everyone!

The Grand Archive Story Pack and the Stellaris 3.14.1 ‘Circinus’ update will be releasing next Tuesday, October 29th.

Today we have some Preliminary Release Notes for the 3.14.1 release!
[h3]Preliminary Release Notes[/h3]

[h3]Grand Archive Story Pack Features[/h3]

Space Fauna capture, breeding, and modification systems
151 Specimens to collect and display across events from Grand Archive and the base game
- Over 240 Specimens total including those distributed across other Stellaris content
15 new Relics
Two new Tradition trees
- Archivism
- Domestication
Two new Origins
- Primal Calling
- Treasure Hunters
Two new Civics
- Beastmasters
- Galactic Curators
Two new forms of spaceborne life
- Cutholoids
- Voidworms
A new possible mid-game crisis - the Voidworm Plague
Three new music tracks
Events, Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Technologies, Galactic community resolutions, and more!

[h3]Improvements[/h3]

Renamed Shattered Ring "Irreparable Damage" to "Reparable Damage" as once you have researched Mega Engineering. You can now restore it via decision.
Setting AI Empires to 1 and enabling Randomize will now generate 0-1 empires instead of always generating 1.
Special Project research order selector from system view now checks all possible projects for the location

[h3]Balance[/h3]

Made the Nexus storm chonkier
Significantly reduced storm effect on fleet pathfinding
Doubled Ranger science to 4
Subjects that are released from a country now copy the ascension perks of that country

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

Fixed strange boxes around technology icons
AI should now utilize leader assigned science ships
Corrected Technology Frames
Archaeological site Green Skies now requires Cosmic Storms DLC - you should no longer get Storms without the DLC enabled.
Fixed the Machine Worlds AP accidentally doubling the jobs and housing giving by Generator districts on Shattered Ringworlds
Reuniting the Pod project now resets tiyankis hostility before and after the project
Fix tiyankis potentially fleeing the system in Reuniting the Pod
Cybernetic leader portraits immediately change when the trait is gained
Fixed Regnal Names for the Fungoid 4 name list. All hail Emperor Globbelius!
Democratic and oligarchic Storm Chaser empire names can be randomized
Fixed some event leaders found in anomalies claiming that they were previously employed on your capital on their resumes
The Operation Exposed event (operation.5037) text no longer uses your country's name instead of the operation's name.
Added the correct icon to the job_researcher_upkeep_mult modifier
The Nu-Baol once again spawn with the Hive Mind trait and with the Phototropic Trait if the proper conditions are met.
Caravaneers cannot ask for a science ship that is exploring an Astral Rift
Saved StormVisuals as a .txt file
Synth ascended and Individualist Machine empire can now set the migration rights for mechanical and machine species
Virtual pops in synth ascended empires are now allowed to auto-migrate
The Event Eat or be Eaten will no longer select machine pops to be the most delicious in the galaxy.
Renamed the Government View to Empire View so it is no longer easily confused with the Government UI introduced in Galactic Paragons.
Fixed the Khan's starbases not showing a correct construction entity
The Unity tooltip now says Unity can be used to ascend Planets.
Guided Sapience and Natural Design are now mutually exclusive
Hid an unlocalized flag inside of the "Rorganize Leviathan Parade" button
Marauder Fleets now count as mercenaries for the purpose of being in breach of the Neutral Defenders Resolutions
The Imitator will no longer generate with the Hoarder trait causing immediate consumer goods deficit for gestalt empires.
Fixed a number of Cybernetic traditions not giving the correct effects if The Machine Age is not active
Empire generation now will be able to generate random Machine Intelligence empires.
The relic Crystal of Odryskia uses the correct trait name in the tooltip
Added the Researchers Upkeep modifier icon
Fixed empire designs with different randomized names sometimes preventing each other from spawning in galaxy generation.
add_random_technology_option effect now correctly checks techs weight
Fixed ships not entering the correct animation state after a combat if there was any incoming projectile animation
Auto-mod swapped traits won't disappear when loading a save
Made Genesis Guides and Natural Design mutually exclusive
Fixed assorted typos in script
Fixed assorted syntax error in script

[h3]AI[/h3]

The AI now has a set limit on the maximum number of habitats it should have, determined by galaxy size and difficulty setting. This limit is doubled for the Void Dweller and Void-Forged origins.
AI empires and Auto-Best feature now consider adding additional power sources to ship designs if there is no better component
When in combat, ships stay with their targets a bit longer, reducing the amount of ships flip-flopping on targets and ending not attacking anything.

[h3]Performance[/h3]

Updated the way ship modifiers are checked for tooltip display using a static cache

[h3]UI[/h3]

Polish for Game Setup UI
Changed icon for Exploration Vessels.
Fixed some ship types using the wrong icon in the fleet and combat UIs.
Game settings for DLC-specific features are now hidden if you don't have the DLC.
Reworked game setup UI.
Fixed triggered icons tooltip hitbox in event options

[h3]Modding[/h3]

planet_damage for bombardment stances is now a scripted value
Added on_ship_engulfed on_action
Added on_specimen_acquired on_action
Added is_last_acquired_specimen trigger
Added give_specimen effect
Allow to override technology name, description, icon and effects based on trigger conditions
Added centerPosition member to buttonType.
Smooth listbox's borderSize now affects the list's scrollable length.
Fixed listboxes' borderSize using X value for both X and Y.
Starbase building & module icons now use triggered description to allow it to be dynamic
spawn_planet_effect orbit_distance_offset parameter can now read variables and values
Concept tooltips can now be auto-generated for static modifiers using the modifier: prefix
Starbase buildings can now use scripted_effect_cooldown and scripted_effect_cooldown_flag fields to display cooldowns for a scripted action
export_modifier_to_variable can now be used with dynamic modifiers
Added on_fauna_capture_ended on_action, fired whenever a capture attempt ends no matter the outcome
Bombardment stances can now use scripted localization with a base scope of fleet
create_ship effect now supports rarity argument
Added is_last_acquired_specimen_rarity trigger
Starbases now support timed modifiers
Added ship_size_cost_resource_percent trigger
Added create_smaller_size_creature_in_fleet effect
Added component_lifesteal_add modifier
Added has_dna trigger
Section templates can now use compatible_with_all_ship_sizes instead of ship_size
Added mutation_slot_add modifier
create_nebula effect now generates nebula graphics in the galaxy view without needing to reload the current game
remove_point_of_interest effect now localizes the point of interest's name key if possible
Added age parameter to create_ship effect
Added evaluate_scripted_value console command
Added planet scope to distance_to_capital trigger
Added is_ship_category trigger
Added support to inline_scripts in event files
set_mia = mia_emergency_ftl now does a complete emergency ftl instead of just going mia, displaying the associated vfx
Added handled_by_event_tooltip parameter to special projects requirements allowing special projects to not being possible to complete manually
Added country_specimen_selling_cost_mult modifier
Added num_exhibits trigger
Added on_exhibit_unlocked on_action
Added space_fauna_growth_rate_mult modifier
Added ship_damage_against_boss_mult modifier
Added months and years parameters to event firing effects like country_event
Added monthly_loyalty_from_synthetic_subjects and monthly_loyalty_from_organic_subjects modifiers
Add detailed description to add_relic effect
Add trigger field to message variables
Added "has_any_flag" trigger
Added graphical_culture_fallback to create_ship effect in case graphical_culture targets an invalid GFX culture
Added is_core_component_set to component_sets, forcing the use of the core component icon in the technology view
Added on_colony_destroyed_by_bombardment on_action
Added timed_flag_days_left trigger

[h3]Grand Archive Achievements[/h3]
We have seven new achievements coming in with the Grand Archive Story Pack:

It Belongs in a... oh right
Fill any Collection category with active Exhibits.

Void Charmer
Build each type of Voidlure in one game, and attract each type of eligible Space Fauna.

Animal Farm
Reach 50 Vivarium capacity.

Wormageddon
Destroy a Voidworm nest.

That's No Asteroid
Capture a Cutholoid with a Gravity Snare.

X Marks the Spot
Discover Captain Ness's Treasure Hoard.

Beastmaster
Defeat the endgame crisis without building a single artificial military ship.

[h3]Developer Q&A Today[/h3]
We’ll be holding a developer Q&A on the Official Stellaris Discord a little later today, stop on by and ask us questions!

[h3]Next Week[/h3]
We should have a little bit of early post-release commentary next week, after you have the Grand Archive Story Pack in your [species.GetHandNamePlural].

See you then!

Stellaris Dev Diary #358 - New Life in the Galaxy

Hi everyone!

The Grand Archive Story Pack is lurking in an asteroid field nearby, and will ambush nearby Science Vessels on October 29th.

Today’s dev diary will look at the two new space fauna being added to Stellaris, as well as a peek at the Origins.
[h3]Cutholoids[/h3]

Cutholoids are cunning ambush predators, lurking within the shadowed hollows of desolate asteroids. There, they bide their time, waiting to ensnare unwary vessels that drift too close.

A typical first encounter with them may look something like this:

If my science ship was cloaked or had encountered them before, things might have turned out differently.

Thankfully, Cutholoids have a very slow digestive process so these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle.

I don’t have Gravity Snares yet, so arm the Nuclear Missiles – there’s “research” to be done.

When cloning your own Cutholoids from Hatcheries, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.

Om nom nom. I wouldn’t call it exactly “a new car smell”.

As one would expect, Cutholoids prefer systems with asteroid belts as their preferred habitat.
[h3]Voidworms[/h3]

Voidworms are parasitic creatures that depend on planet-based hosts to reproduce. They deposit spores on inhabited worlds with sufficient biomass, raising their offspring in nests perilously close to Black Holes.

Their full lifecycle is present in-game. Nymphs will grow through the Juvenile stage to maturity in Adulthood.

Voidworms mate in groups of three, a formation known as a "Troika." These creatures become bound for life in a never-ending mating ritual. However, they require an external biological host to produce offspring. Upon reaching maturity, each Voidworm develops a clutch of cysts within their reproductive systems. These protective cysts contain highly caustic gametes that, when combined with others in a Troika, can be sent to planets with suitable biomass in order to give birth to more of their nymphs.

Their hosts do not survive this process.

Who’s the cutest little Voidworm Nymph? Why, you are! Yes, you are!

A Juvenile Scout

A fleet of Adult Voidworms that have not yet merged

The Adults that have formed a Troika

A Voidworm Nest

Nymphs will travel to and remain in the safety of their nest systems, while Juveniles explore the galaxy looking for suitable worlds for the next generation. Once they find a suitable target, the Adults will form Troikas and go forth to continue the cycle of life.

There is evidence that the Voidworms coordinate their bombardments so as to maintain a sustainable amount of viable hosts throughout the galaxy, so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.
[h3]The Voidworm Plague[/h3]

OH COME ON, I LITERALLY JUST SAID THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!

Oh. Okay, maybe that was a bit premature.

If Voidworm populations reach a critical mass in the galaxy, there is a chance that the Voidworm Plague will begin. In this possible mid-game crisis, a mutation causes swarms of Voidworms to enter a reproductive frenzy and begin to bombard planets with abandon.

A situation will begin to deal with the crisis, with several possible approaches.

Good old “Do Nothing”. Let someone else deal with it.

Destroying the Voidworm nests will end the plague, or you can find a cure, rendering your population useless to the voidworm life cycle. Completing the situation will remove your planets from their target list.

[h3]The Galactic Community[/h3]
The Galactic Community, naturally, has a few ideas related to these new lifeforms.

[h3]Grand Archive Advanced Settings[/h3]
Since both of these new additions are rather aggressive, the Grand Archive Story Pack adds two new sliders into Advanced Settings to control the prevalence of Voidworms and Cutholoids.

My Science Ship might be safe, but we’re pretty much guaranteeing that the Voidworms will be a mid-game crisis.
[h3]Treasure Hunters[/h3]
Treasure Hunters is the narrative-focused Origin in this Story Pack. You can expect a lengthy event chain with a mysterious treasure map at the core of it all.

Into pirates, swashbuckling (of sorts), and endless riches? Treasure Hunters may be an Origin you’re interested in. As it’s a narrative-focused Origin, I’m not going to spoil too much of it ahead of time.

Follow the trail and find riches beyond imagination.

The Oviron Lodge are a prescripted empire we’ve created that uses the Treasure Hunters Origin with the Galactic Curators and Mining Guilds civics.
[h3]Primal Calling[/h3]
The Primal Calling Origin is heavily invested into various fauna related playstyles, from those who want to preserve and protect wildlife to those who prefer them stuffed and mounted as trophies of the hunt.

Primal Calling is one of our most versatile Origins, able to adapt to many different playstyles. After you complete First Contact with a new breed of Space Fauna, you’ll get to pick a stance for your civilization. Which stances you can pick are influenced by your ethics - for example, the Animal Handler stance requires some element of Pacifism or Xenophilia.

This stance choice has additional effects on your empire - replacing the Wrangler jobs with Ranchers, Animal Handlers, or Trophy Hunters, changing the Wildlife Ranch into Hunting Grounds, or granting various new perks or modifiers.

You will also get new events during first contact with space fauna, but caution is advised, as interacting with wildlife is unpredictable and sometimes dangerous.

The Graparx Primal Stalkers are our Primal Calling prescripted empire, with the Beastmasters and Citizen Service civics.
[h3]Next Week[/h3]
Next on the list is our preliminary 3.14.1 “Circinus” release notes. The Archive is almost open!

See you next week!