Stellaris News

written by Eladrin and Gruntsatwork

‘Sup, trash bangers?

Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the features coming in the Toxoids Species Pack. As we’re on an accelerated dev diary schedule, there’s no time to lose! Let’s jump straight into this and turn it over to Gruntsatwork.

[h2]Overtuned[/h2]

One of our two new Origins for Toxoids, Overtuned is the grim but exalting reminder that a brief life burns the brightest. Through invasive surgery and by modifying biochemical pathways you can impart your pops with 13 new overtuned traits. Each of these traits is a mirror to an already existing, far more survivable trait.



As you can see, the overtuned traits can even be picked with their “natural” opposing traits, or stacked with their mirrors for all your double-dipping needs. There are next to no restrictions on mixing them with other traits, so feel free to create whatever biological monstrosities you can imagine.

In practice, the overtuned traits are all about as strong or slightly weaker than their mirror traits, usually cheaper in trait point cost and reduce your leader lifespan depending on their point cost.

In addition to their normal effects, the origin will also grant you access to a new edict called “Damn the Consequences”.

This edict doubles the positive effect of all overtuned traits, but also doubles the upkeep of those pops. Its unity cost is a percentage of your own unity income, so you will always be able to damn the consequences. Furthermore, the edict has a lock-in period of 5 years, which means you will not be able to cancel the edict until it has been active for those 5 years.

[h2]New Traits[/h2]

With Toxoids, we are adding 4 new traits to the game, available to all portraits and 3 of these traits will be available at gamestart.

[h3]Incubators[/h3]



Incubator pops will enjoy only a modest bonus on their capital worlds given their starting number of pops but fresh colonies will quickly reveal its full power.

[h3]Inorganic Breath[/h3]



A small but flavorful addition to our trait roster, to better support your exotic needs.

[h3]Noxious[/h3]



Noxious pops will decrease the happiness of all non-noxious pops on the same planet, while in turn receiving a happiness bonus for every non-noxious and therefore unhappy pop. Talk about toxic neighbors.

[h3]Exotic Metabolism[/h3]

Exotic Metabolism however, is an advanced Trait and will thus require fully finished Genetic Ascension, as it requires a robust economy to support their exotic upkeep.



Its benefits are strong, its upkeep severe and it requires a deep investment into biological enhancements, we hope to see some interesting builds with this.

[h2]Civics[/h2]

Toxoids will also bring 3 new civics with it, to give you more of that slimy but satisfying feeling.

[h3]Mutagenic Spas[/h3]



Our first civic that does not start you out with its special building, Mutagenic Spas, and all of its alternate versions, give you the option of boosting your pop growth on highly industrialized worlds, as your pops enjoy the fruits of your pollution.

[h3]Relentless Industrialists[/h3]



Relentless Industrialists will have to deal with an ongoing situation about the environmental effects of their increased efficiency in alloy and consumer goods production. Of course, should you be cold-hearted and profit-oriented enough, it becomes a self-solving problem, if you can afford to work in such a hostile environment.

[h3]Scavengers[/h3]



Arriving hand in hand with one of our changes for the free patch, namely the ability to choose what you wish to gain from debris, alloys or research, the new Scavenger civic will allow an empire to gain both benefits as well as salvage some actual ships from the debris.

Megacorps have access to all three civics.

[h2]Detox Ascension Perk[/h2]


Even the toughest species can’t quite survive in a world that is entirely poisonous.

50% poisonous however is another beast altogether.

With the Detox ascension perk, empires will be able to turn those giant balls of death into giant balls of not-quite-death.

Given how perilous toxic worlds are, this act of terraforming will be a bit more involved than normal, since even after the initial phase makes them colonizable, there will be remnants of their toxic pasts interfering with their prosperity.



[h2]Next Dev Diary[/h2]

This Thursday we’ll have a dev diary from the Artists, including some interesting things about the character’s outfits and what we’ve done differently there.

See you then! Don't forget you can Pre-Order Toxoids Now!

Paradox has announced a new species DLC coming to Stellaris on September 20: the Toxoids. The teaser trailer for the new add-on ends with the tagline "The End Justifies the Ruins," and playing as them looks to give bonuses for high-risk, aggressive play that destroys planetary environments for the sake of industry. Basically, you're playing as the bad guys from every sci-fi story. Environmentalist parables? Who needs 'em, we have heavy industry and Toxic Baths...
Read more.

Hello everyone!

Today we’re announcing our next Species Pack that will be released alongside the 3.5 “Fornax” update, the Toxoids!

Whether you burn the future for the benefit of today or scavenge the past, Toxoids are survivors. Toxoids gives you the chance to gamble the future of your planets for immediate gains, and make the tough sacrifices necessary to survive a hostile galaxy.

Pre-Order the Toxoids Species Pack today!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Toxoids Species Pack will be bubbling over with things such as:

[h2]New Origins:[/h2]
[h3]Knights of the Toxic God:[/h3] In the depths of your homeworld, rumors rumble of a true power buried under the toxic sludge. Do you dare to dredge up the secrets of your past - and potentially unleash them upon the galaxy?

[h3]Overtuned: [/h3]The candle that burns the brightest, burns itself into the galaxy’s memory! Play as a species that can gain more and more traits at the cost of its own lifespan, and live for today without worrying about sticking around for tomorrow!

[h2]New Civics:[/h2]
[h3]Toxic Baths:[/h3] Grow your population fast with a fresh infusion of mutagenic sludge - so long as you’re willing to tolerate the costs to your planet and your people!

[h3]Scavengers: [/h3]One empire’s trash is your empire’s treasure! Don’t be too proud to harvest debris and destruction for quick construction projects of your own.

[h3]Relentless Industrialists: [/h3]If you’re going to keep up with demand, you’re going to have to learn to ignore all of those petty regulations and negative opinions. The surviving population will thank you for all of the resources you gain!

[h2]New Traits:[/h2]
[h3]Incubator: [/h3]Repopulate quickly when your planet is empty, but those growth facilities can fill up fast!

[h3]Inorganic Breath: [/h3]Your own people are a source of valuable exotic gasses! It’s a shame the respirators are so expensive.

[h3]Noxious: [/h3]Other species can’t stand being around you, and it seems like your mere existence is making your planets awful places to live. On the other hand, other empires have a very difficult time wanting to fight or subjugate you, and it’s hilarious to see the look on their faces when you’re in the room!

[h3]Exotic Metabolism:[/h3] You’ve adapted to ask “are you going to eat that?” where other species would be calling the hazmat team. Eat faster, live longer, and enjoy a terrifying rainbow of flavors!

[h2]New Cosmetics: [/h2]Species portraits, ship models, and cityscapes that only a mother could love.

[h2]New Advisor:[/h2] Grow your empire alongside a relentless source of noxious sarcasm!

The Toxoids Species Pack and the Stellaris 3.5 “Fornax” update will be released on September 20, 2022, and will be playable at PDXCon this Friday and Saturday at Münchenbryggeriet here in Stockholm.

We’ll be moving to a rapid dev diary release schedule for the next few weeks as we attempt to cover everything that’s in the Toxoids Species Pack. We’ll see you next Tuesday with the next Stellaris Dev Diary.



Pre-Order the Toxoids Species Pack today!

written by Eladrin

Hello again!

This week we’re going to look at some more things that are going into the upcoming Stellaris 3.5 “Fornax” release.

[h2]Megastructures in the Outliner[/h2]

One of the things going into Fornax is something we’ve wanted for a very long time on PC - a Megastructure section in the Outliner.



As shown here, the Megastructures section will list all megastructures within your territory, including ruined ones as well as Gateway Sites (but not completed gateways, as that would be too much clutter).

Never again will you lose track of where you left that Gateway Site or Ruined Sentry Array!

[h2]Accessibility Improvements[/h2]

We talked about some accessibility improvement goals before the summer, and some of them are going into Fornax.



When enabled, Mouse Side Button Mode allows Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 to toggle pause state and galactic/system views.

Page Up and Page Down will also now adjust the camera zoom level.

Other accessibility improvement projects are ongoing for future updates. I hope to have text to speech available in an Open Beta later on in the year for the 3.6 “Orion” update.

[h2]Golden Tiyanki Status[/h2]

The Caravansary Caravan Coalition will now reward their most loyal patrons with Golden Tiyanki status. Those who have purchased a sufficient number of Reliquaries will now be granted the honor of being able to purchase as many as they like, directly for credits, with no more cooldowns for their best customers.



Good luck, the Galatron is waiting!

(This should make a couple of related achievements significantly less painful to acquire. They do eventually get pretty expensive, however.)

[h2]More Achievements[/h2]

Continuing from last week, here are the rest of the new Species Pack achievements we're planning for Fornax.

Aquatics:


Holy Water - Drench a Fallen Empire’s holy world.


There Be Dragons - Have at least 13 dragons you own in your capital system.

Necroids:


With Great Power - As a Necrophage, do not invade any pre-ftl civilisations until you defeat the crisis OR have at least 10 observation stations around pre-ftl worlds.


Recent History - As a Memorialist empire, have Galactic Memorials on five tomb worlds that did not start the game as tomb worlds.

Lithoids:


Room for Desert - Consume another empire’s desert homeworld.


Can You Smell What the Lithoids are Cooking? - As a Lithoid empire, keep another Lithoid pop as Livestock or Process them.

Plantoids:


Growing Like Weeds - As a budding species that does not have the Clone Army origin, achieve a base organic pop assembly of at least 10/month on your capital.


Tend the Garden - Become the custodian of Wenkwort Artem, designating it a resort world with a Ranger Lodge and all original blockers present.

Humanoids:


Directive 67 - As a Clone Soldier empire, denounce a Spiritualist fallen empire as a crisis in the Galactic Community then destroy them, without blowing up their final planet.
(We're so mean to the Spiritualist Fallen Empire!)


Destroy the People of Earth! - As the Commonwealth of Man, destroy the United Nations of Earth with your ruler being a human with a symbiotic brainslug, without blowing up their final planet.

We also have one more being added to Synthetic Dawn:


Machine Supremacy - Win the game as a machine uprising.

Now I’ll turn it over to Iggy for an update on Relics.

[h2]Relic Updates[/h2]

Hello everyone! I am Iggy and I am back to show you the fruit of our collaboration from back earlier in the summer. Firstly we reviewed some of the feedback about the untouched relics so please enjoy even more relics with enhanced flavor and fewer pain points.



The Khan’s Throne now grants you access to the Satrapy Subject Preset letting you extort fleet capacity from your subject.

Also the Defragmentor will now have a usage for non-robot empires granting 10% energy upkeep reduction to all jobs buildings and districts.



And finally the Head of Zarqlan now has the spiritualist ethics attraction locked to the active, and the size of the fleet increases with activation, up to a max after 5 uses. Also due to popular demand the head will now spawn for the AI instead of the player 25% of the time and the AI will colonize holy worlds when they possess the relic.

Further Changes to Already Balanced Relics:

• The Psionic Archive now allows Gestalt Empires to find Psionic Theory which in turn will grant them access to Zro Mining.
  
• The Brood Queen will now grant a stacking empire modifier to swarm type weapons (Missiles and Strike Craft) for each use and will also spawn the Carrier variant on use.
  
• The Pox Sample will increase the likelihood that you find Biological Technologies
  
• The Omnicodex now gives +25 relation with non robot empires if you are a robot one.
  
• The Reality Perforator active modifiers now last 2-5 years instead of 1-5 years

For the rest of the changes please see Dev Diary #259.

[h2]Next Week and PDXCon[/h2]

Next week is PDXCon at Münchenbryggeriet here in Stockholm, but we’ll still have a dev diary taking a peek at some of the content coming out with Fornax. If you come visit us at the convention, we’ll have Fornax up and running, a Stellaris Q&A Panel where we'll be taking questions from the audience, and I’m planning on holding a small workshop where we’ll reveal how our summer experiments have gone.

There are still a few tickets left if you're in the area.

See you next week!