Stellaris News

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

Today the art team will show you some of the amazing stuff coming in The Machine Age on May 7th. It's available for pre-purchase now, on its own or as part of Stellaris: Season 08.

I'll turn it straight over to them!

[h3]The Art of the Machine Age (Part I)​[/h3]
Hello!

My name is Felix and I’m one of the concept artists working on The Machine Age ascension pack for Stellaris. In this dev-diary, we’re very excited to present some art from the new playable species and shipsets that are coming with the DLC. A ton of work has been put in by everyone on the art team, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to show you some!
[h3]Portraits​[/h3]
Reactive portraits​
For the Machine Age, we decided the current system needed improvement to achieve the experience we wanted for ourselves and the players. This resulted in, among other things, an improvement to our portrait system that now allows you to see your species' cyberization progress through several stages. We have also made an entire set of ascended synthetic portraits that share close ties to their biological predecessors, to address players not feeling as connected with their new metal bodies.

A look at one of our final species for Cybernetics (three ascending stages).

Here is a look at one of our synthetic species, going from organic to fully robotic.

Inspiration​
We saw a lot of potential in making the cybernetic species relatable and letting their augments shine by adding to the current familiar lineup of species that are already in the game. Some designs started with their characters, while others evolved around a specific idea for a cool cybernetic augment. It was important for us to have as many different components as possible and create a unique and diverse array of species.

A snippet of different ideas for the cybernetic species development, a few from very early and some close to final.

Early character concepts and development​
When brainstorming portraits ideas for this pack, we took a lot of cues from earlier species and tried to add a few in each category. Since the main show is the cybernetics and robotic parts, we felt like it was best to go with already familiar traits when working out the designs, putting the focus on the cyberization and synthesization of the different species. Here are some early sketches that we went through on our way to the final portraits.

Concept art for some early species development.

More concept art for some early species development. Can’t believe this is the first moose inspired species, as a Swedish developer!

More early species development.

After we nailed down the look and development of the base characters we worked on the variations and uniforms for each of them, some species have the same uniform and some have unique setups that change after synthetic ascension. This DLC also features some freshly made humans, and yes, they have new hairstyles!

New human portraits, ready for a journey down the cyber path.

Challenges​
Getting to this point proved quite a challenge, with plenty of limitations to overcome. Making conditional assets work within the game engine and the randomly generated nature of stellaris species required input from programmers, animators and multiple artists.

Eventually we landed on a system that would mostly keep our current workflow intact, although with a much larger asset library to manage. In general, we were able to freely place assets where we wanted with only a few limitations holding us back. Below is an example of the process we call paperdolling, where species are cut up and exported to be reassembled with animation. This must be done for every color change, hairstyle, cybernetic piece and outfit per species, all of which needs to work together.

Example of the portrait paper doll workflow, with the implementation of masking out parts of the base character when the cybernetic augments are present. An assembled version of the same species can be seen below.



What we are left with after The Machine Age is an exciting update to the portrait system that we are eager to use going forward. We hope you enjoy the work we put into these, either as you slowly upgrade your way to a cybernetic society, or ascend into tailor made synthetic forms.

Next up- Lloyd will take you through the journey of designing the cybernetic and machine shipsets found in The Machine Age!

[h3]Shipsets[/h3]​
Hi, I’m Lloyd and I'm a concept artist working on Stellaris: The Machine age. I'll be taking you through some of the development process for the two player shipsets in this ascension pack.
[h3]Machine Shipset​[/h3]
Finally robots are getting their own dedicated shipset! Because The Machine Age would be incomplete without ships for machines. These ships are designed to appear like they are operated and inhabited by synthetics. On most of the designs you can see an AI core in place of a traditional bridge. They also have far fewer windows than most other ships, implying a high level of automation. With all that machinery things are likely to get hot, so a key design element for this shipset is large glowing radiators to dump excess heat into space.

The machine shipset.

Let's take a deeper look into the design process behind one of these ships, the machine science ship. The first thing we do when starting work on a shipset is establish the general shape language of the pack. Here you can see some early development sketches for the ships.

Early sketches for the machine shipset.​

Once the visual language has been hashed out we move on to individual ship designs. The science ship is always a fun one to design as it does not have turrets or sections, so there are fewer limitations on the shapes we can use. Here are several stages of the design of the machine science ship.

Development sketches for the machine science ship.​

Approved sketches are then rendered out into final concepts, showing all the angles that we need.





Final concepts of the machine science ship.​

With the concept completed we move to 3D. The team turns the design into optimized assets that work with all of the game’s technical requirements. The science ship was worked on by 3D artist Tim Wiberg. Tim and the rest of the 3D team also create the textures for the whole shipset, making sure that we get a consistent look across all ships. For the machine ship textures we wanted to go for a clean, refined, machine-precision look. The hull patterns that change color depending on your empire colours are designed to give the impression of circuitry.

3D work on the machine science ship.​

After the 3D model is complete there are still a couple steps left. The science ship is one of the few ships in stellaris that has animations, meaning we can add some interesting motion to show the ship doing science. We also need to hook up VFX to have the ship's engines glow correctly.

The machine science ship in-game.​

[h3]Cybernetic Shipset​[/h3]
Let's have a look at the other shipset in The Machine Age, the cybernetic shipset! Perfect if you're a species looking to mash up your boring biology with some sweet, sweet chrome. For this shipset we were heavily inspired for the shape language of classic cars and retro tech.

The cybernetic shipset.​

Here are some early sketches from when we were still looking for the style of the ships.



Early sketches for the cybernetic shipset.​

The following sketches show the development of the cybernetic battleship. You can see at this point the shape language of the pack has been established. Lots of blocky shapes with rounded corners were used to give these ships a sense of strength and toughness.

Development sketches of the cybernetic battleship.​

Here’s the final concept for the Cybernetic battleship - affectionately known to the art team as the flattleship. You can see that as Stellaris warships are modular, we have to design a bunch of different sections that all have to fit together. It's quite fun but it adds a lot of time and problem solving to the process. One of my favorite features of the cybernetic battleship is the hangar mid-section which has an aircraft-carrier-like ramp for the strike craft to launch from.

Final concept of the cybernetic battleship.​

Warships are also more complicated on the 3D side, where the multiple sections have to be modeled to all be compatible with each other. We also have to take into account turrets, which need to fit with enough clearance, and accommodate both projectile and missile launchers. For the textures on the cybernetic ships, we wanted an emphasis on shiny metallics, and a bit more grungy-ness than the synthetic ships. The cybernetic battleship was also modeled and textured by Tim Wiberg.

3D development of the cybernetic battleship.​

All the cybernetic ships include animated lighting strips that show a pulse of light that propagates down the length of the ship, often forming a character line that resonates with the rest of the design. For the battleship the light strips are either side of the ship’s central trench.



Thanks for stopping by for this brief look into the portraits and shipsets of The Machine age! We have put so much work into this expansion and we can't wait to see what you think of it. We hope that this little taste of the art has you excited to ascend towards mechanized mastery and conquer the galaxy as a synthetic or cybernetic civilisation in Stellaris!

[h3]StellARTis​[/h3]
Hello everyone, Community Manager Aurora here!

We’re happy to announce that we are holding our second-annual StellARTis competition!



This year’s theme is “Everyday life in The Machine Age”. We will be accepting submissions on X (Twitter), the forums, and Discord from now until May 6th at 1300 CEST.

You can find out more in the forum thread. We look forward to seeing what our community comes up with!

[h3]What's Next​[/h3]
There's so much to show that we'll have another Art of the Machine Age dev diary post-release.

Next week's dev diary is The Machine Age and 3.12 "Andromeda" Preliminary Release Notes, and next Thursday at 1430 CEST we will be on /r/Stellaris for a Reddit AMA!

See you then!

by Eladrin

Hello again!

The Machine Age will be arriving on Tuesday, May 7th, and is available for pre-purchase on its own or as part of Stellaris: Season 08.

Stellaris: Season 08 includes all of this year’s major Stellaris releases at a 20% discount, plus includes the Rick the Cube machine portrait as an immediate unlock. I do a quick rundown of the things that are in it in this video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Today we’re going to look at the new Become the Crisis path, Cosmogenesis.

[h3]Becoming the Crisis​[/h3]
Back in Nemesis, we introduced the Become the Crisis Ascension Perk, which let an empire choose to embrace their darkest impulses, manipulating and concentrating fluctuations in the Shroud created by horrific acts in a bid to ascend to a higher existence.

That Crisis, now renamed Galactic Nemesis, accumulated a resource called Menace by committing evil deeds in order to advance through its crisis path.

Cosmogenesis has a bit of a different philosophy. Where the Galactic Nemesis operates through explicit malice, intentionally attempting to maximize the amount of suffering they can cause, an empire following the path of Cosmogenesis is more of a crisis to the galaxy due to callous indifference while pursuing what is theoretically a more noble cause.



Cosmogenesis can be selected as your fourth Ascension Perk. (In 3.12, Galactic Nemesis will also be moved to become available as a fourth perk.) Like Galactic Nemesis, you cannot take it if you are Custodian or Emperor, or are not independent. Unlike the previous crisis path, however, this one is not ethics locked. Even a Xenophile Pacifist can delude themselves into thinking that a small amount of possible, unintentional suffering now may be a worthwhile sacrifice for a better future.

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.​

Galactic Nemesis dealt with quantity over quality. Cosmogenesis empires are the opposite. They seek the secrets of the Fallen Empires, desiring to reach the power they had in their prime.



Some of the Crisis Perks.

One of the shortcuts you can use to get there is the Synaptic Lathe. A powerful research facility, it harnesses the power of minds to compute and store data, with the slight downside of burning them out over time. It can be upgraded twice, and uses a simplified variant of the planet interface.

Yes, you can (and should) Ascend the Lathe​

The districts unlock building slots, and either increase Research or Advanced Logic generated by the Neural Chips. The buildings can significantly modify many aspects of the Synaptic Lathe, whether it be Synaptic Preservers that reduce the burnout rate of Neural Chips, Neural Stabilizers that keep the Chips content and less rebellious, or even Synaptic Overclockers which will increase the effectiveness of the Neural Chips but burn them out much more quickly.

The more Neural Chips you have contained within the Lathe, the more effective it becomes, as every chip improves the output of every other chip, resulting in a nonlinear productivity growth curve but make sure that there is always pops for the lathe to process, or risk seeing it break down for lack of suitable components.

A brief overview of the Synaptic Lathe

To streamline the process of recruiting “volunteers” for the Synaptic Lathe, you can set species to use the Synaptic Service purge type, which will automatically resettle pops to the Lathe over time.

Service Guarantees Citizensh... Actually, Never Mind.

At Rank 4, you’ll gain the ability to experiment upon reality through your Applied Infinity Theses. These allow you to attempt to make improvements on a stubborn reality, which can have galactic or localized effects. Sometimes these go well…

For our next experiment, let’s round pi to 3. It’ll make calculations so much easier.

But other times things don’t go quite as planned, and the simple folk from other empires that just don’t understand may get upset.


At least we still learned something!

Frustratingly, reality is resilient, and does not take kindly to “adjustment”. But the Infinity Sphere has been nice enough to provide a potential solution. A new universe would be much more malleable than this ancient one that is stuck in its ways.



Once the Horizon Needle is completed, the Exodus begins. It’s time to embark the people from your colonies onto the ship, and go into a bold new world.



Should you succeed, a perfect new universe will be created to your specifications, and your people will have endless and true understanding. Based on some of the choices you make during the Exodus, there are several endings to your journey.



Oh, what happens to this universe? That’s not really your problem anymore at that point, is it?

It doesn’t all explode, if that’s what you’re asking. That would be a terrible, senseless waste. (Okay, parts do, but that’s really just collateral damage.)

[h3]Every end is a new beginning.[/h3]​

The aftereffects of your final experiment will ripple across the galaxy, causing significant problems for those that were left behind. A control group that elects to stay behind and observe from your former empire will protect itself well. The rest of the galaxy isn’t quite as prepared.

Their grammar was also damaged in the time stop.

With the ability to select a new empire to continue the game after losing the game (or winning, in this case), we’ve chosen to let you continue to explore the fate of the universe after the Cosmogenesis empire completes its mad goal. Your old empire will remain in the game as a true Fallen Empire.



[h3]Multiplayer Resync​[/h3]
Another feature we’re adding in the 3.12 “Andromeda” release is a Multiplayer Resync button.

This button, as the name suggests, resyncs a game to hopefully allow you to continue if an Out of Sync error occurs. It won’t always solve the issues, but when it does, it’ll save you some time as you’ll no longer have to quit and rehost the game.

Normally a reason for the Out of Sync is listed, but I forced the desync so nothing is actually wrong.

Transferring data!

[h3]Next Week​[/h3]
The Machine Age is getting close!

Next week will be the first Art of The Machine Age dev diary. The artists have so much to show that they’ll have another one post-release.

See you then!

Hi everyone!

I wanted you to be the first to be introduced to the new End-Game Crisis coming in The Machine Age, but it seems that a Fallen Empire’s fleet beat us to it, let’s see how they’re doing…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]The Machine Age is Nearly Here - Announcing Stellaris: Season 08​[/h2]

As mentioned at the end of the video, The Machine Age will be arriving on Tuesday, May 7th.

It is now available for pre-purchase for $24.99 or regional equivalents.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840100

But there’s more - based on the popularity of Crusader Kings’ Chapter III, we’ve decided to celebrate our eighth anniversary by offering a similar expansion pass including all of the major Stellaris releases of the year for $39.99, which comes out to over a 20% discount.

There’s a chance that we might experiment with some other ideas that might or might not come out later this year, but Stellaris: Season 08 will include all of the major releases of 2024.

Players that have a Stellaris: Expansion Subscription will have access to Rick the Cube and the rest of Stellaris: Season 08 (as they release), while their subscription is running. (As with all DLC purchases, remember that while your subscription is running you count as owning everything so storefronts will block your purchase. If you are a subscriber that wants to buy Season 08, you will need to let your subscription lapse to make the purchase, after which you can re-subscribe.)

Rick the Cube is a Machine portrait. Creating an empire using this portrait will require the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack (or The Machine Age, when it releases). Synthetically ascending (requires Utopia) will allow you to choose the Rick the Cube portrait without Synthetic Dawn, or without any DLC it can be used by researching and building robots and robomodding.



[h2]Stellaris: Season 08 includes the following content:​[/h2]

[h2]Day 1 Unlock: Rick The Cube Species Portrait[/h2]
Initially announced in Stellaris Dev Diary ∛338, Rick the Cube is no joke.

Unlocked immediately with the purchase of Stellaris: Season 08, this Machine species portrait is a cube and definitely not a human. Behold those lines, those flat sides, those runes, and tremble before their ineffable polygonal nature.

[h2]Stellaris: The Machine Age (Major Expansion - coming May 7 2024 - $24.99)[/h2]

You’ve all been reading these dev diaries and thus should have a good understanding of what The Machine Age includes, but they’re making me write it again.

The Machine Age is the heart of the Stellaris: Season 08. This major expansion allows you to explore cyberpunk fantasies of technological augmentation and digitalization of consciousness, expanding the possibilities offered in game by the Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension Paths. You can address the moral and social challenges that communing with the machine brings to your space-faring empire, and face a new threat looming over the galaxy… or become a new threat yourself, as you tear through time and space to shape reality to your image.

The Machine Age expansion includes:​

• Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires​
  
• Gestalt Machine Intelligence Empires (also unlocked by the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack)​
  
• Three new Origins​
  • Cybernetic Creed​
    
  • Synthetic Fertility​
    
  • Arc Welders​
    
• Civics​
  
  • Guided Sapience​
    
  • Natural Design​
    
  • Obsessional Directive​
    
  • Protocol Droids​
    
  • Tactical Cogitators​
    
  • Augmentation Bazaars (Requires Megacorp)​
    
• Two Mid-Game Structures​
  
  • Arc Furnace​
    
  • Dyson Swarms​
    
• Three New Machine Ascension Paths
  
  • Modularity
    
  • Nanotech
    
  • Virtuality
    
• Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension (also unlocked by Utopia)​
  
• Exploration of the effects of the cyberization or synthesization of society, with Advanced Government Forms for those who complete it.​
  
• New Species Traits for Cyborgs, Machines and Robots​
  
• Cybernetic portraits that change based on advancement through cyberization​
  
• Synthetic portraits with both organic and synthetic variants that changed based on synthesization, usable by either organics or machines​
  
• Two new Shipsets, Diplomatic Rooms, and City Sets​
  
• 7 new synthetic and cybernetic inspired music tracks​
  
• A new Become the Crisis Path​
  
• …And a new End-Game Crisis.
  

[h2]Stellaris: Cosmic Storms (Mechanical Expansion - coming Q3 2024 - $12.99)[/h2]
A strange galactic phenomenon has been observed in the galaxy, Cosmic Storms have begun sweeping through the systems of the galaxy. Check the forecast, prepare your Empire to weather this new threat, and leverage the possibilities these storms give you as they weaken your enemies.

Discover multiple types of Cosmic Storms that travel from system to system in the galaxy, wrecking havoc (or bringing powerful bonuses) on empires throughout the galaxy. Discover new technologies allowing you to forecast, and influence the direction of these storms, and play with new civics and a new origin featured around taking advantage of this mysterious galactic phenomenon.

Includes:

• 8 Galactic Storms with unique visual effects
  
• 1 Origin
  
• 2 new Relics
  
• 2 new precursor story arcs

[h2]Stellaris: The Grand Archive (Story Pack - coming Q4 2024 - $14.99)[/h2]
The Grand Archive is vast and full of wonders, and it's up to you to fill its halls with the records of the unique lifeforms and marvels you meet in the galaxy. Construct a new megastructure, and collect exotic specimens from your space-faring adventures, what military applications might await you, and what unique life forms might you construct from the specimens you find is up to you.

In the Grand Archive Story Pack you will collect specimens from throughout the galaxy, and discover technologies allowing you to genetically modify the galaxy’s indigenous space fauna, and then breed these creatures to further your own agenda.

Includes:

• A new Megastructure: “The Grand Archive”
  
• 200 specimens to collect
  
• A vivarium with space fauna capturing mechanics
  
• Hatchery starbase and cloning facilities to alter space fauna and use them as fleets
  
• 2 new types of spaceborne fauna - Voidworms and Cutholoids
  
• A new Mid-Game Crisis - the Voidworm Plague
  
• 2 Origins
  
• 2 Tradition trees

Stellaris: Season 08 and The Machine Age are both available for pre-purchase now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840100

[h2]Inspiration Behind the Crisis[/h2]
​
Not every existential threat is overtly hostile, or even desires you harm.

In house, we’ve always loved our Rogue Servitors - the idea of a powerful AI that somehow turns on its creators, not in a violent or destructive way, but out of a misguided sense of purpose. We wanted to do something that felt both apocalyptic but not inherently militant, a crisis that wasn’t exclusively about shooting something on first contact. The first phases of this Crisis are decidedly non-combat.

How might an all-powerful being react to the directive to 'eliminate suffering?' Obviously, because this is Stellaris, our antagonist is going to take her answer way, way too far. What happens next is up to the player. Will you try to oppose her directly, or play the part of a loyal pupil?

This all came together as a terrifying, driven entity. There are some very obvious spiritual and historical influences in her design, and philosophical ideas regarding the nature of suffering and awareness are woven through her narrative.

Expanding upon some of the interactions originally created in Galactic Paragon, all of your conversations with the Synthetic Queen will have full, generated audio voice-overs.

Our Audio Director, Ernesto López, has a bit to say about how we went about it:

Designing the voice for the Synth Queen was an entertaining adventure. While we had access before to use Advanced Text to Speech to do prototypes and characters, this time, we tried to use the tool like a music synthesizer. We created multiple takes, arranged them, and compiled them, creating a good result. We were excited to create an AI character with an AI voice since this would allow some creative leeway. If the result felt odd or non-human, that could fit the character perfectly, but also when the results had specific emotion, that helped us to create what we believe is a fantastic character and an enjoyable and exciting narrative arc for players that have been waiting for a new and exotic crisis.

We’re extremely happy with how this all came out, it takes encounters with her to another level.

The Synthetic Queen gave us an opportunity to build upon existing stories of the Fallen Empires, answering some more questions about the ancient past.

We don’t want to spoil too much about the story, but we’re really looking forward to seeing you meet her.

The Synthetic Queen’s ships​

[h2]Next Week[/h2]​
In next week’s dev diary we’ll be looking at the Become the Crisis path in The Machine Age, Cosmogenesis.

See you then!

by PDX-Loke

Hello!

Our latest and greatest patch, 3.11.3, is now live and ready for download.

You will recognize this changelog from that of the open beta we made available a few weeks back, just one more crash fix has been included.

Please find the patch notes below.

[h3]STELLARIS 3.11.3 "ERIDANUS" PATCH NOTES[/h3]
Improvement

• The Plasmic trait can now be removed from species if you want to clean up your species tab.
  

Bugfixes

• Fixed global ship designs country type restriction so awakened empires are not allowed to use ai transports
  
• Fixed refugees happening every day instead of every 90-180 days
  
• Fixed secondary species in random empires not having a habitability trait.
  
• Fixed the Abandoned Gateway event not taking into account ruined gateways from the Galatic Doorstep and Imperial Fiefdom origins
  
• Fixed the accidental nerf to Civilian difficulty
  
• Fixed the Luminary Bloodline not being inherited
  
• Fixing council positions not being kept for Gestalt Consciousness empires after adding civics.
  
• Made removal of expired leader from leader pool only happen on refresh
  
• S875.1 Warform no longer disappears from leading their ship
  
• The Grave Guardians will no longer trap you in an infinite first contact loop.
  
• The Kaleidoscope no longer double dips in your income from trade
  
• The Parvus event chain will no longer end too early removing all in progresses special projects.
  
• Updated some text on the Galactic Community UI that was still referring to envoys instead of Delegates
  
• Various anomalies and dig site events no longer try and give leaders the Hyper Focus trait if they already have it, instead they level the trait up.
  
• Fixed a crash from Situation progress.
  

Please note save compatibility is not guaranteed between versions. Should you experience bugs or other issues, please first create a new, unmodded save and see if the issues persist. If the issues persist on a new unmodded save, please make a bug report!