Stellaris News

PDXCON2022 returns to Stockholm this September! Join us on the road to PDXCON2022 with another Grand Campaign!

Watch our developers as they play through a customized game of Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, and Stellaris and follow laws passed by our Community-led Senate. Following the great tradition laid down last year for PDXCON, there may be familiar faces, returning arch-rivals, and maybe some new friends!



[h3]What is a Grand Campaign?[/h3]

The story of a Grand Campaign is written in the senate, where Community-formed and led parties propose and vote on laws, that our developers have to follow on stream. This Grand Campaign spans the timeframe of four of our games, spanning several thousand years of alt-human history. Starting in the Crusader Kings era, all the way to Stellaris. In between games, we will transfer elements of one era to the next, so that the entire game is played in the same universe. This year, we've teamed up with some of your favorite modders, to make it that much more entertaining!

[h3]How can I get involved?[/h3]

Join the Senate on discord! Parties on discord are still accepting newcomers, and while the bills have been passed for Crusader Kings, there are still around a thousand years of history, and ~40 hours of streams that your laws can directly affect! There will also be quick votes held on discord for in-game events deemed appropriate to pass to the senate by our Game Masters.

[h3]Where can I watch?[/h3]

Join us on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive, starting at 1000 AM CEST (0800 UTC)!

[h3]What is PDXCON?[/h3]

PDXCON2022 is an opportunity to meet some of your favorite developers, live in person at our annual Paradox Convention! Join a massive board game session, attend Paradox games’ orchestra & play our games (potentially including some cool new unreleased content)! Get the tickets while supplies last!




See you there!

written by Alfray_Stryke

Hey folks, and I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer/winter break (depending on your hemisphere). I’ve found some time between my other summer experiments and the work we’re doing for 3.5 “Fornax” to dive into the feedback/suggestions lists. Since Eladrin is still away, you’re getting another sneak preview of what I’ve been working on.

One of the frequent requests from the Unity rework that was part of the 3.3 “Libra” patch earlier this year was for us to return Culture Workers to the game. Currently, they exist only as jobs provided by some event buildings, but many in the Community felt we removed some flavor/roleplay aspect when we removed them.

Over summer, I’ve been experimenting with potentially adding them back in. For context, in the current version of the game Culture Workers are a Specialist job that belongs to their own economic category, produce 3 Unity and 3 Society Research with an upkeep of 2 Consumer Goods.

Let’s have a look at an Autochthon Monument constructed by the UNE shortly after the start of the game.

Showing the Culture Workers with some unusual modifiers

To start with, the monument is retaining the Unity from Jobs modifier and the passive Unity production per Ascension Perk, but additionally provides 2/4/6 Culture Worker jobs per tier of the monument. The same applies to the Corporate version of the monument.

The sharp-eyed might notice that there’s some odd modifiers being given: Worker Happiness? Pop Upkeep Reduction? What, might you ask, has happened?

In this experiment, we’re looking at Culture Workers having an output that depends on the Ethics of your empire. After all, what influences your culture the most if not your ethics?

These are the ethics-based modifiers we’re currently testing and whether their effects are Empire-wide or only affecting the planet that the building has been constructed on:

• Materialist: +2 Amenities (Planet)
  
• Spiritualist: -2.5% Amenity Usage (Planet)
  
• Militarist: +1 Naval Capacity (Empire)
  
• Pacifist: -2.5% Crime (Planet)
  
• Egalitarian: +2.5% Worker Happiness (Planet)
  
• Authoritarian: +5 Ruler Political Power (Planet)
  
• Xenophobe: +3 Edict Fund (Empire)
  
• Xenophile: -2.5% Pop Upkeep (Planet)

These modifiers are provided by both Culture Workers and Death Chroniclers (as their job-swap with the Memorialist civic) and are doubled in the case of Fanatic ethics. They are intended to be a small buff/addition to the job, with the Unity production from both the jobs and the building being the primary draw.

Additionally, Culture Workers/Death Chroniclers now belong in the Administrator category, in the Culture Worker sub-category meaning they’ll benefit from multiplicative bonuses to Administrator output (such as those provided by the Unification or Ecclesiastical planetary designations). They produce a base of 4 Unity and +10% Government Ethics Attraction (+2.5% Stability for Death Chroniclers) with 3 Consumer Goods upkeep.

There’s also been some discussion around having Resort Worlds add Culture Workers, and if I find time I’ll be looking into that as well.

To ensure that hive-minds and machine intelligences don’t feel left out, Sensorium/Simulation Sites now provide 2/4/6 Evaluator jobs per tier of the building. These now provide 4 Unity and 3 Amenities in exchange for an upkeep of 2 Energy.

A hive-mind sensorium site providing 2 evaluator jobs.

Chronicle Drones provide the same Unity and Amenities output but give an additional +2.5% Stability in exchange for slightly higher upkeep (and that upkeep being based off of the upkeep cost of the pop working the job). Like their individualist equivalents, these jobs both now belong to the Evaluator sub-category of the Administrators jobs.

I’m not sure if we’ll have another surprise dev diary over summer, but our normal schedule should resume once Eladrin’s back and we’ll start delving into 3.5. Regardless I’ll be keeping a close eye on this thread for your thoughts, suggestions and any feedback.

Stellaris was a beefy space 4X back in 2016, but since then it's only kept growing, like a giant cosmic monster that wants to consume every sci-fi trope imaginable. After years of DLC offerings—split into full-blown expansions, story packs and species packs—there's now a big mess of new mechanics, events and aliens to untangle. The good news is that pretty much all of it is worth getting (but bad news for your bank account). Not all DLC is created equal, however, and what you're going to get the most out of will also depend on your playstyle—what kind of space empire do you want to build?..
Read more.

Hello Stellaris Community!

We've got a special treat for you today! MaxTheCatfish is here with our Top 10 Beginner and Intermediate Tips and Tricks for galactic domination! Whether its your first game, or if you've played hundreds of hours, you never know what you might learn!

Top 10 Beginner Tips:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Top 10 Intermediate Tips:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

What would you consider your #1 "Expert" Tip? Let us know in the comments!

written by Iggy

Hello everyone, Iggy here with a surprise dev diary! I am a Content Designer who has worked as a Custodian for the past year or so, bringing you content like Permanent Employment and the Leviathan Parades.

I know Eladrin said no more diaries until after summer… But he is not around to stop me!

I couldn’t wait to present the initial relic balance changes and to give all of you lovely folks a chance to voice your feedback. Summer is historically a time of experimentation when it comes to Paradox, and why not experiment with how we gather feedback?

So let’s get started with some of my biggest bugbears regarding how the relics currently work, what I have done to address the issues, and why.

[h2]Crisis Relics[/h2]

The relics you get from defeating the various crises in the game are pretty tame - compared to all other relics, they are actually quite balanced. That is not good enough. These are your final reward for defeating the most powerful foe in the galaxy! Let’s give you a bit of a victory lap and have some fun with this.

As you can see, you no longer will gain a measly 30 Society Research. Instead, a massive 50% modifier to all society techs is in your future.

[h2]Precursor Relics[/h2]

Another issue that has plagued Stellaris for quite some time is the viability of your starting precursor. While we are not giving you the ability to choose which precursor you spawn with, I wanted to make each relic at least somewhat useful for most empires. Here, I also felt the need for some slight adjustments to the Cybrex and the Baol, as both are a bit too powerful in the early game, without removing their usefulness in the late game.

The Baol Decision now has an activation time, but you also gain hive Nu-Baol pops if you are a hivemind. If the 10% resource output wasn’t enough there is also a reason to keep using the relic on existing Gaia worlds to get a special form of Gaia Habitability on your organic pops.

The Cybrex War Forge might start out slower, but as the game progresses you’lll notice that it becomes more powerful than ever before, capable of processing additional minerals after each use.

What this rebalance also allows us to do is to make some relics slightly less annoying to use. At the top of my list, we have the Javorian Pox Sample — memed about being the worst relic in the game. Having to activate a relic and then go in and micro every fleet only for the bombardment stance to fall off a few years later made it a real frustrating relic to use as well.

Now we will always be ready to spread some plague.

[h2]Event Relics[/h2]

Finally, we got some event relics that vary from powerful to forgettable. Here the main goal was to spice up the use of relics that might not have benefits for every playstyles. Blade of the Huntress is gaining diplomatic weight as your envoy swings it around the galactic community floor; the Omnicodex can now produce hivemind pops if you are one yourself.

You can find all currently planned changes below, these are of course subject to change:

[h2]Precursor Relics:[/h2]

Javorian Pox:
Current:

• Passive: +20 Leader Lifespan
  
• Active: Javorian Pox Orbital Bombardment stance
  

Changed:

• Passive: Bombardment Stance and +20 Leader Lifespan
  
• Active: 50% increased biology research
  

The Last Baol:
Current:

• Active instantly creates a Gaia world
  

Changed:

• The active decision takes 5 years to create a Gaia world
  
• If the decision is activated on a Gaia World, all organic pops on the world get an empowered Gaia World Habitability preference granting them +5% resource output on Gaia Worlds.
  
• The Nu-Baol will be hivemind if you are a hivemind
  

Yuht Cryo Core:
Current:

• Passive: +1 pop on every new colony
  

Changed:

• Passive: +1 pop on every new colony, +20% energy weapon fire rate
  

Psionic Archive:
Current:

• Passive:
  
• -50% Shroud Cooldown
  
• Better Shroud odds
  
• Active:
  
• Event granting numerous boons, including a 500 experience boost which becomes quite lacking in the late game.
  

Changed:

• Passive:
  
• -50% Shroud Cooldown
  
• Better Shroud odds
  
• Unlocks an edict granting leader XP, longevity, and accident prevention for a zro upkeep.
  
• +5 Ruler Max Level
  
• Active: The knowledge option now always levels your ruler up a level instead of granting a flat xp bonus.
  

Cybrex Warforge:
Current:

• Passive: 5% More alloys, and allowing the building of the most powerful buildable army in the game.
  
• Active: Spend 10000 minerals and gain 5000 alloys.
  

Changed:

• Passive: Allows the building of the most powerful buildable army in the game.
  
• Active: Spend 2000 minerals and gain 1000 alloys. Effect Increases by 2000 minerals and 1000 alloys each time it’s activated up to a cap of 20,000 alloys.
  

Vultaum Reality Perforator:
Current:

• Active: Grants one of 4 random buffs lasting for 1 year.
  

Changed:

• Active: Grants one of 4 random buffs lasting for 1 - 5 years.
  

[h2]Event Relics:[/h2]

Blade of the Huntress:
Current:

• Passive: +25% Army Morale +2 Planet Sensor Range
  
• Active: +25% Sublight Speed for 10 years
  

Changed:

• Passive: +25% Army Morale 20% more diplo weight
  
• Active: +25% Sublight Speed for 10 years
  

Omnicodex:
Current:

• Active: Adds 3 pops of a random species
  

Changed:

• Active: Adds 3 pops of a random species, if you are a hivemind they are also hive-minded.
  

Ether Drake Trophy:
Current:

• Active: 10% more happiness
  

Changed:

• Active: 10% more happiness and 10 stability to every planet.
  

The Surveyor:
Current:

• Active: Can grant 3-5 rare resources among other deposits.
  

Changed:

• Active: Can grant 1-3 rare resource deposits. Nothing else changed.
  

Note: The Surveyor has half the cooldown and only costs energy to activate. It’s still an excellent peacetime relic.

[h2]Crisis Relics:[/h2]

Extradimensional Warlock:
Current:

• Passive: +15% Sublight Speed
  
• Active: +100% more jumpdrive range
  

Changed:

• Passive: +30% Sublight speed, +20% weapon range
  
• Active:
  
• +100% more jumpdrive range
  
• -50% jump cooldown reduction
  
• +75% more accuracy and range on your Quantum Catapult
  

Prethoryn Brood-Queen:
Current:

• Passive: +30 society research
  
• Active: Spawns a small fleet
  

Changed:

• Passive: +50% society research
  
• Active: Spawns a sizeable fleet
  

Isolated Contingency Core:
Current:

• Passive: +100% Pop Assembly Speed
  

Changed:

• Passive:
  
• +100% Pop Assembly Speed
  
• Allows the construction of 2 of each megastructure instead of 1.
  

[h2]Unchanged:[/h2]

Khan's Throne

• Felt like it had a solid theme already with a solid bonus.
  

Head of Zarqlan

• Has both an early game and a late-game bonus as well as superb flavor.
  

Miniature Galaxy

• Research is always top tier and random should stay random.
  

The Defragmentor

• Allows you to convert unity into energy. The passive not having any benefit to a spiritualist empire does feel kinda bad. Might look into it.
  

Scales of the Worm

• There is no way we can ever make this relic comparable to the bonus you get for embracing the Worm. It would have to be the strongest relic on this list.
  

The Rubricator

• One of two ways to get a repeatable source of Minor Artifacts, very powerful.
  

The Galatron

• Is the Galatron
  

Now I want to hear from you! Are you terrified of what I did to the Yuht Cryo Core? Annoyed that I skipped the Miniature galaxy? Still not feeling like activating the Pox Sample? Please feel free to analyze and make tier lists. Hopefully, after this next patch, every relic will be a bit more attractive!