Stellaris News

written by Eladrin

Доступно на русском в ВК/Read in Russian on VK

Hi everyone!

The Stellaris 3.3.1 “Libra” Custodian Update has been released, and once again it’s time to look back on the past and forward to the future.

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The 3.3 update went through an Open Beta which we feel was a stunning success. With the aid of the community, the systems were significantly improved and a large number of bugs were found and squashed. Thank you again for your help!

[h3]The 3.3 Cycle[/h3]

A 3.3.2 release went up today to fix a few things that got found at the last minute, including localization issues in French, Portuguese, and Russian, as well as a potential crash some people have encountered.

"3.3.2 Changelog"
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• Fixed localization issues affecting articles in French, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese
  
• Fixes a crash that would occur when attempting to apply a species template to a species with a different amount of traits than what is in the template.
  
• Fixed species template application trait add/remove checks being inverted.
  

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A 3.3.3 update is expected to follow in a few weeks to address additional issues.

[h3]New Players and the Tutorial[/h3]

Stellaris isn’t always the easiest game to get into. Don’t be alarmed if there are changes to the tutorial and early game experience. We’re going to be gathering data about different elements of the new player experience, trying out various things and seeing what works.

[h3]Onwards to 3.4[/h3]

Meanwhile, 3.4 is just around the corner. Currently planned for May, the Custodian side of the 3.4 update will continue to refine the balance around Unity and address some more of the feedback from the Open Beta and 3.3 release, as well as being the target for the planned release of the Situations system first described in Dev Diary 234. We’ll give Situations and our planned uses for them a complete Dev Diary in the near future.

[h3]Influence and Espionage[/h3]

With 3.3, Influence is the primary resource for external diplomacy, fast travel, and expanding living space.

One of the changes we’re planning for the May update is inspired by some of the feedback we received during the Unity Open Beta. We’re switching the initial costs for Espionage Operations to Influence rather than a massive pile of Energy Credits. Operation Upkeep will remain in Energy Credits. Exact values are subject to change.

Influence is purple. Espionage is purple. How can we argue with that?

While making that change we also added a few improvements to the Subterfuge Tradition Tree.

A focus on Espionage can put some strain on your Envoy supply, so the Double Agents tradition will now provide one, in addition to increasing your Maximum Infiltration Level by 10.

The known and the nameless, familiar and faceless.

Meanwhile, earlier in the tree we’ve decided to add some combat benefits to the tree to represent their enhanced ECM and ECCM capabilities. Empires focusing in Subterfuge now have an easier time locking on to enemy ships, as well as foiling the attempts of others to do the same to them.

Computer's locked. Getting a signal.

Go dead. Shut everything down and make like a hole in the void.

As with the earlier changes, these numbers are also still subject to change and a deeper review of Espionage Operations is still planned in the future.

[h3]Idyllic Bloom Improvements[/h3]

A quality of life change being made to the Idyllic Bloom civic is also planned for 3.4 (coming in May).

Currently, Gaia Seeders can only be built on planets that match your planetary preference, which led to a play cycle where they had to terraform a planet before being able to utilize their special buildings.

Instead, we’re going to expand the valid planets of the Gaia Seeders as you gain terraforming technologies.

Much easier.

Okay, it’ll be much easier once we actually know how to do it.

Gaia Seeders can be freely built on planets that match your homeworld type as before, but can also be built on other planets of the same general climate type (Dry, Wet, or Cold) once you have Terrestrial Sculpting.

Since the Maweer Caretakers come from a Tropical World (Wet), they need the Ecological Adaptation technology to upgrade the Gaia Seeders on this Alpine World (Cold).

Tomb Worlds can also be seeded once the Climate Restoration technology has been acquired.

The upkeep of the Gaia Seeders building is increased using the same tiers of terraforming difficulty as the building placement.

[h3]What Else is Coming?[/h3]

Regarding what the Crisis Expansion Team has been working on, they’re not quite ready to share that information quite yet. Soon™.

One of our agents did manage to sneak some of the wonderful work of the Concept Art Team out though...

It’s a thing, with greebles! And it’s game-changing.

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The Stellaris Team is proud to announce our second free Custodian update, the 3.3 “Libra” Update is Now Available!

The free 3.3 “Libra” update brings with it a plethora of new bug fixes, AI and performance improvements, more uses for the Unity resource, and a new civic for owners of both MegaCorp and the Necroids Species Pack.

[h3]AI Improvements[/h3]

3.3 “Libra” AI is better at managing jobs, dealing with bio-trophies, choosing techs, as well as the ability to specialize planets over time. These changes, along with improved economic plans for the AI, mean that the AI is much better at scaling its economy into the late game, including alloy and consumer good production.

As well, the AI allies will now respect the “Take Point” command, and will always prefer to follow Player fleets while this command is active - even if their empire is actively being attacked.

Our internal testing shows that the 3.3 AI performs much better past year 100 than the 3.2 AI. How does it work for you? Let us know in the comments or on the forums!

[h3]Performance Improvements[/h3]

The 3.3 “Libra” update also includes many optimizations to the game in terms of overall game speed increases. We have seen up to a 50% decrease in the time it takes per year at the start of the game.

These performance improvements were gained by further optimizing pop job weight calculations, as well as changing some settings in the engine which allows more powerful computers to do extra “ticks” per render frame. Additional performance improvements were gained by optimizing the algorithm used when calculating the cost to upgrade fleets.

Like the increased Performance in 3.3 “Libra”? We want to hear from you!

[h3]Now Hiring for Permanent Employment[/h3]

Owners of the MegaCorp and Necroids Species Pack DLCs will get a new civic introduced in the 3.3 “Libra” update: Permanent Employment.

“This Megacorporation has ensured that its employees will never be out of a job. Ever. After the employee’s time is up, they will be repurposed for simpler tasks so they can still provide for their families and pay off their debts.”
-Permanent Employment flavor text

A variation of the Reanimators Civic for the Corporate Authority, Permanent Employment allows the construction of Posthumous Employment Centers, as well as the ability to reanimate Leviathans.

At the Posthumous Employment Center, pops working Reassigner jobs generate organic pop assembly from the carcasses of indebted citizens. The resulting assembled pops have the Zombie trait.

The Zombie trait gives -25% resources from jobs, but reduces Pop Upkeep by 100%. Zombies also cannot produce leaders, have no happiness, are infertile and can only work Worker Strata jobs.

They also forgo their annual review and salary increases. Have a screenshot of Zombie pops in action? Share it with us on Twitter or Facebook!

[h3]Unity Rework[/h3]

All means of increasing Administrative Capacity have been removed, and Empire Sprawl has been renamed to Empire Size. While there are ways to reduce the Empire Size generated by various sources, this will be used to help differentiate gameplay between different empire types. Empires will no longer be able to completely mitigate Empire Size penalties. Penalties and Empire Size generation values have been significantly reduced. As a result of feedback on this system from the Open Beta, Empire Size values under 100 are ignored.

Bureaucrats, Priests, Managers, Synapse Drones, and Coordinators will be the primary sources of Unity for various empire types, and jobs are produced from the empire equivalent of Administration Offices.

Autochthon Memorials (and similar buildings) now increase planetary Unity production and themselves produce Unity based on the number of Ascension Perks the Empire has taken. Being monuments, they no longer require workers.

The Edicts Cap system has been removed. Toggled Edicts will have monthly Unity Upkeep which is modified by Empire Size. Each empire has an Edicts Fund which subsidizes Edict Upkeep, reducing the amount you have to pay each month to maintain them. Things that previously increased Edict Capacity now generally increase the Edicts Fund, but some civics, techs, and ascension perks have received other thematic modifications.

Leaders now cost Unity to hire rather than Energy. They also have a small amount of Unity Upkeep. We understand that this increases the relative costs of choosing to hire several scientists at the start of the game for exploration purposes. The Leader pool for recruitment now refreshes every year, to reduce the need for “leader cycling” when searching for specific leader traits.

[h3]Influence Changes[/h3]

Several systems that used to cost Influence are now paid in Unity.

• Planetary Decisions that were formerly paid in Influence. Prices have been adjusted.
  
• Resettlement of pops. Abandoning colonies still costs Influence.
  
• Manipulation of internal Factions. Factions themselves will now produce Unity instead of Influence.

Since Factions are no longer producing Influence, a small amount of Influence is now generated by your fleet, based on Power Projection - a comparison of your fleet size and Empire Size.

Most Megastructures now cost Unity rather than Influence, with the exception of any related to travel (such as Gateways) or that provide living space (such as Habitats and Ring Worlds).

[h3]Planetary Ascensions[/h3]

Tied to unlocking Ascension Perks, Planetary Ascension Tiers are a way of improving your core worlds by expending Unity. In normal empires, they represent the active will of the people supporting your government and giving a little extra to do things the way they’ve always been done. In machine and hive empires, it’s more the well-oiled machinery of the world gaining efficiency or drone instincts becoming better honed with endless practice.

In either case, an Ascended planet does whatever it focuses on better.

Once you’ve unlocked three Ascension Perks (you do not need to actually spend them for this feature), you can Ascend each of your planets to Ascension Tier 1. This increases all of the effects of the planet’s Designation by 25% - whether it be Technician Output from a Generator World or Trade Value on a Commercial Ring World.

Each additional Ascension Perk you unlock increases the maximum Ascension Tier by 1, with an extra 4 tiers unlocked once you unlock all of the Perk slots. This lets you Ascend planets up to ten times, for a maximum bonus of 250% of the base Planetary Designation effects.

Ascending a Planet costs Unity, and this cost is heavily affected by both Empire Size and the total number of Ascension Tiers you have across your entire Empire.

How do you feel about the Unity rework? Let us know in the comments or on the forums!

Thanks for playing Stellaris, and remember the galaxy is vast and full of wonders..

Hello Stellaris Community!

For those of you who may have missed it, we’re currently smack dab in the middle of Dev Clash 2022! We have 10 teams of developers, using wit, deception, and skill for domination of a Stellaris galaxy.

Episode 1, has our developer empires making first contact with one another, and the first Federation is formed.

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In Episode 2, the galaxy fractures into several alliances, border skirmishes, and surprise attacks run rampant, and one empire makes a foreboding decision.

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In Episode 3, a deal is made to seat a Galactic Custodian, and the first galaxy-wide war is declared, followed by the elimination of our first Developer team. The Galactic Custodian's first action is the big brain move of the session, and another Federation leaves the Galactic Community.

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If you want to play with the Dev Clash empires as prescripted empires in your galaxy, you can get the Dev Clash 2022 Empires mod on the Steam workshop.

Be sure to join us on Monday, at 1500 CET for Episode 4 of Dev Clash 2022 on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive!