Stellaris News

Wilderness Open Beta Available | 2025-07-03

[p][/p][p]Over the summer, our Dev Team will be updating the Wilderness Open Beta branch on Steam, with priorities of improving stability, performance, the AI, and bugfixes. Today's update is now available.[/p][p][/p][h3]4.0.22-Wilderness Open Beta 2025-07-03 Update[/h3][p]Improvement[/p]

[p]Grown pops now immediately join an available job (like “Civilian”) instead of being processed for a month[/p]

[p]Balance[/p]

[p]Various guardian space critter factions will now ignore ftl inhibitors.[/p]
[p]The diplomacy tradition "The Federation" now gives 25% progress in the Federation Code technology[/p]
[p]The Holo-Museums acquired from the Curator enclave now swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones). These jobs produce Unity and Amenities, with each Holo-Museum adding additional job upkeep and output. Holo-Museums can now be constructed in research and resort specializations. Finally, these buildings are improved by the Archaeo-Engineers AP.[/p]
[p]Galactic Curator civics also swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones)[/p]

[p]Bugfix[/p]

[p]Fix to building limit logic that was destroying things like the Archaeostudies building.[/p]
[p]Land Appropriation once again kicks pops off their planets and makes them into refugees.[/p]
[p]Strategic resource maximum for invalid countries is now calculated as zero[/p]
[p]Fixed edge cases where shipyards could have ships from the old owner in the construction queue after being taken over[/p]
[p]If you change your civics but not your authority the Ruler Chips modifiers should no longer reset.[/p]
[p]Synapse drones job modifier will use the correct icon in the building effect summary.[/p]
[p]Jobs production modifier fix in nested tooltip for Serviles trait[/p]
[p]Maze Harbingers now use the correct amount of naval capacity[/p]
[p]The hive Sensorium building no longer mentions Evaluators[/p]
[p]The effects of the Galactic Curator civic councilors (both regular and corporate) now apply to Entertainers[/p]
[p]Fixed Integrated Preservation still giving modifiers to Evaluator jobs[/p]
[p]Job swaps that require buildings on a planet now require the building to not be disabled.[/p]
[p]Improved consistency with the tooltips for the Galactic Curator civics[/p]
[p]Virtuality Machine Empires on Ringworlds should no longer get regular engineering or physicists jobs, only gestalt ones.[/p]
[p]Behemoth empires that have become Ever Hungry will no longer get "Nice Guy" event options, such as not being allowed to space Reth Unddol.[/p]
[p]Unrest.4200 will no longer generate descriptions that don't describe the planets.[/p]
[p]Improved dead object database[/p]
[p]Science ships can no longer continue progressing archaeological sites without a leader[/p]
[p]Biomass and Neural Chip Processing and Unprocessing jobs now have unique names so it's easier to tell what's going on.[/p]

[p]AI[/p]

[p]Fixed a bug where the AI would order fleets to follow one another, resulting in no fleet movement at all[/p]

[p]Stability[/p]

[p]Fixed an OOS at reconnect[/p]

[p]Performance[/p]

[p]Refactored parts of the Planet UI to improve performance, this likely has the greatest benefit for lower end machines[/p]
- [p]Open Beta Note: This one is a little risky, so if you see weird stuff going on in the Planet UI, please let us know.[/p]
[p]Improved Nascent Stage Logic by roughly 75%. Let your favorite gladiatorial beasts flourish![/p]
[p]The AI will no longer constantly be starting and canceling Arc Furnaces and Dyson Swarms[/p]
[p]Minor improvement to refugee_effect[/p]
[p]Minor improvement to handling modifiers[/p]
[p]Memory leak fix from faulty pattern.[/p]

[p]UI[/p]

[p]Centered the army icons to be in the middle on background[/p]
[p]Habitability and Dig site no longer overlap each other in the Planet UI.[/p]
[p]Pop amount in the Current Population does not overlap other elements when it has more than 2 digits anymore in Planet UI.[/p]
[p]Pop Count of Pop Group in the Ressettlement Window does not overlap when it has more than 4 digits.[/p]
[p]New icon for strange wormhole[/p]
[p]Introduced min/max pitch settings for Ship model preview: It will no longer do sharp and unpredictable turns when turning the ship model around.[/p]

[p]Modding[/p]

[p]Console commands now use country index instead of country ID, making them easier to use[/p]
[p]Add displace_pop_amount effect that simply raises on_pop_displaced[/p]
[p]Add research speed and draw chance modifiers for tech types (rare, dangerous, insight, custom)[/p]
[p]Added a new ignore_ftl_inhibitors flag for the country type. Setting this to true, would enable that country type to ignore FTL Inhibitors.[/p]
[p]It is now possible to override the Icon for the dynamically generated modifiers by adding a \[modifierName]_icon entry in the localization.[/p]
[p]Added on_queued, on_unqueued, on_built effects for district specializations[/p]
[p]Added a capital_tier parameter for capital building and an associated planet scope trigger.[/p]
[p]Refactored the has_x_capital scripted triggers to account for capital building tiers[/p]

[p]To opt into the Wilderness Open Beta, go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas -> select "wilderness- Wilderness Open Beta" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown. You may need to restart Steam to get it to appear.[/p][p]Our intention is to run this Wilderness Open Beta for the rest of the summer so we can gather feedback on these changes.[/p]

Stellaris updates are going to start coming more slowly, because new patches are causing new problems and QA testers can't keep up

Two days after releasing another update for Stellaris, Paradox says the pace of patches is going to slow down—not because Stellaris 4.0 is in tip-top shape (it's not), but because firing out updates so quickly is causing more headaches than its worth...
Read more.

Paradox slows down Stellaris updates to deliver more impactful changes

Paradox is changing its approach to Stellaris updates as it continues to tidy things up following the launch of the 4X game's recent major overhaul. Stellaris 4.0 and the accompanying Biogenesis DLC delivered dramatic, transformative changes to core systems such as population, but also resulted in a wave of crashes, bugs, and other issues that the developer has been working to fix. In a new Stellaris dev diary, game director Stephen 'Eladrin' Muray says the team is "committed to continuing to fix things until the 4.0 release is in the state it needs to be in," but that it's changing its approach.

Read the rest of the story...

Stellaris updates are slowing down to stop empires randomly destroying themselves, among other bugs

Space strategy game Stellaris has received another update jam-packed with the kind of systemic adjustments that, were you to shout them through your bedroom door at your mum, would cause her to smile shakily, then go downstairs and sob into a tea towel at the knowledge that her treasured child, her brightest and best, will never amount to anything useful, for they are too busy obsessing over ringworlds and genesis arks and xeno-compatibility.

Mum! MUM. I've just heard that "Storm Aftermath events will no longer happen in systems where you are constructing megastructures"! Even better, "Evolutionary Predator Empires can now once more gain and keep the Psionic Ephase trait"! Christmas has come early, mum! The eagle has landed! MOTHER, LOOK AT ME. I will not be denied.

Stellaris Dev Diary #387 - 4.0.21 is Out, What’s Next?

[p][/p][p]by Eladrin[/p][p]Hello, Stellaris community![/p][p]Last week I said the next dev diary would be on the 26th, but I didn’t want to wait that long to discuss our plans moving forward.[/p][p]This week we released 4.0.21, with the following changes:[/p][h3]Stellaris 4.0.21 Patch[/h3][p]Improvement[/p]

[p]Storm Aftermath events will no longer happen in systems where you are constructing megastructures. Meaning that it will no longer randomly spawn an anomaly under your Dyson swarm that was 99% done.[/p]
[p]Save game transfer speed is now increased in multiplayer by default. If you encounter difficulties in transferring saves, the host can change to using the former transfer mode through settings.[/p]

[p]Bugfix[/p]

[p]Memorialists now give their priests the ethics modifiers their civic tooltip promises[/p]
[p]Armies that have landed on planets show properly in the outliner[/p]
[p]Reforming the government to Genesis Guides allows building Genesis Arks[/p]
[p]Ringworld districts now correctly spawn on pre-ftl ringworlds[/p]
[p]Fixed ringworlds colonized by gestalt empires having a mysterious city district that shouldn't exist.[/p]
[p]Fixed the leader survived notification text[/p]
[p]Fixed Fear of the Dark random empires being able to get bioships[/p]
[p]The Purity Breach event can no longer destroy colonies[/p]
[p]Fixed an error preventing refugees from behaving properly[/p]
[p]The Fatal Mutations event should no longer destroy colonies[/p]
[p]The Necrophage Purge option will now only be displayed if you can take it, this is to avoid confusion when pops might be getting purged in your empire unintentionally, such as Hive Pops being disconnected from their hive.[/p]
[p]Evolutionary Predator Empires can now once more gain and keep the Psionic Ephase trait[/p]
[p]The Entrepreneur traits once again grant Commercial Pact Efficiency[/p]
[p]Serviles should no longer end up as Specialists or Elites[/p]
[p]Removed an errant plus from some of the mutagenic habitability tooltips[/p]
[p]Fixed the tooltips listing the effects for the Subsume World decision and Xeno-Compatibility AP[/p]
[p]Biologist jobs that aren't zookeepers now have the correct upkeep.[/p]
[p]Fixed an issue that could occur when machine empires colonised ringworlds.[/p]
[p]Fixed an issue where AI empires would respond with generic text when accepting a Status Quo peace deal, instead of dynamic responses.[/p]
[p]Corrected a localization issue where an AI empire accepting peace would incorrectly refer to the player as having "better things to do" instead of themselves.[/p]
[p]Secondary specializations for fortresses and civilian industries on special worlds correctly have doubled jobs.[/p]
[p]Transport ships for eager explorer civics now equip a subspace drive if you haven't researched hyperdrives. They will automatically swap once hyperdrives have been researched.[/p]
[p]Fix a tooltip in the Demographics tab of the Empire view[/p]
[p]Gestalt empires have access to fallen empire trade buildings[/p]

[p]Balance[/p]

[p]Necrophage fixes/buffs:[/p]
- [p]Pops with the Necrophage trait can now grow (slowly) even if there are pops being Necrophaged on their planet.[/p]
- [p]Reduced the Pop Growth Speed penalty on the Necrophage trait from -75% to -50%.[/p]
- [p]Necrophages begin with more of their prepatent species (and fewer of their Necrophage species).[/p]
- [p]Necrophages (and other empires that have multiple species present) should no longer sometimes start with unemployment.[/p]
[p]The Resettlement Prohibited policy now grants +100% Automatic Migration. (In other words, banning manual resettlement increases automatic resettlement.)[/p]
[p]Empires with biological ships can now access repeatable technologies for explosive weapon damage and fire rate[/p]
[p]Machine Worlds now always have their maximum number of jobs.[/p]
[p]Resource Consolidation now starts with fewer Generator and Mining Districts, due to these districts providing 600 jobs each.[/p]
[p]Resource Consolidation no longer has the Malfunctioning Replicator Bay blocker[/p]

[p]UI[/p]

[p]The Colonize planet button can now be accessed on the management tab as well as the surface tab[/p]

[p]Modding[/p]

[p]Add refresh_auto_generated_ship_designs effect[/p]

[p]
If you want to see the list of all of the things we fixed in the previous releases, here they are.[/p][p]We’re continuing to investigate the other issues that you have reported.[/p]

What’s Next?

[p]It’s time to review the last couple of months and look at what we’ve done and where we’re going from here.[/p][p]Back in Stellaris Dev Diary #383, I committed to continuing to fix things until the 4.0 release is in the state it needs to be in. [/p][p]We’ve released a tremendous number of patches since then at a rapid rate - but our patch cadence has become problematic (and even counterproductive) in some ways. Too often in game development, fixing one bug introduces another - and I haven’t been giving our internal QA testers enough time to fully vet and test the changes we’ve been making. Examples from recent patches include a few weeks ago when an unrelated fix to a pop issue caused Wilderness empires to seemingly randomly destroy themselves by killing all of their biomass, or when another fix just after that caused save games to corrupt and become unloadable. [/p][p]We remain committed to continuing to fix things until the 4.0 release is in the state it needs to be in.[/p][p]We need to change how we’re doing this though, taking a more measured and deliberate approach to allow internal testing to catch up while giving you a more stable environment to play the game in. This means that the patching frequency is going to slow down, but with more impactful releases. Our ongoing plan is to make greater use of Open Betas - the first instance of this is the Wilderness Open Beta that we put up last week (which may or may not ever go live based on your feedback).[/p][p]We will be more careful in vetting changes and merging them into that ongoing Open Beta, continuing to focus on stability, performance, AI, and bugfixing. My intent is for us to update the Open Beta on a weekly to fortnightly basis depending on internal progress throughout the summer. While the Stellaris team will be continuing development during this time, it will soon become difficult for us to arrange for live patches - barring a critical hotfix or a “eureka moment”, I expect the next 4.0.x live release will be sometime in August. (Which as mentioned earlier, may not include the Wilderness changes.) To the Modders that have been waiting for a moment of stability, now’s your time - and if you run into issues updating your mods, please don’t hesitate to let us know.[/p][h3]Things We're Actively Working On[/h3][p]For more transparency:[/p][p]I’m personally currently looking at ways to improve the AI’s behavior. Other things currently in active development are OOS investigations, a number of strata issues that affect slavery, purging, and other oddities among pop employment, and more of a design change rather than a bugfix - based on your feedback we’re looking at having newly grown pops go straight into the Civilian stratum or its appropriate equivalent instead of being unemployed members of their parent pop group. While we liked the verisimilitude of top-heavy planets having more stability issues than ones that were more evenly developed, we acknowledge that having a persistent trickle of unemployed pops feels wrong.[/p][p]We’re also continuously looking for performance improvements. We’ve found one so far where every empire was calculating their Biomass total far too often - even if they weren’t Wilderness, and while it was one of the heavier scripts in the early portion of the game, that’s not where our biggest problems are.[/p][p]Some of these will likely go to the Open Beta next week, after more rigorous testing.[/p][p]I will be putting the Stellaris Dev Diaries on hiatus until August, replacing them with the Open Beta updates on that weekly or fortnightly basis as they occur, and we’ll remain in constant communication with you as we continue to update and improve the game.[/p][p]Please continue bringing up the issues you find, balance issues you encounter, and providing save games and out of sync logs whenever you can. They help a tremendous amount.[/p][p]Thank you for playing Stellaris![/p]