written by Offe the Human and Eladrin





Hello everyone, it is me Offe, one of the Humans working on Stellaris. Today I will bring you an update from the Custodian AI initiative. Before we dive into today’s dev diary let’s do a quick recap of the AI work that went into the 3.3 patch.

If you have been following the AI dev diaries you probably know that our main objectives for the 3.3 Libra patch was to improve the economy management of the AI, especially with a mid and late game perspective in mind. The reason for this was to establish the AI empires as relevant actors beyond the early game and give their interactions with the player more impact.

Following some of the discussions here on our own forums and also on Reddit, my favorite topic has been seeing people react to AI empires suddenly being much stronger in the Galactic Community where they are passing resolutions against the players' will.

While the AI economy management still has areas which can be improved, we felt satisfied with the changes made in 3.3 to the point where we wanted to move our focus to other areas of the AI.


As the AI economy improved other areas of the AI started to become more obvious targets for improvement, namely the AI military fleet management and their diplomacy interactions with the player.


First I would like to say that the changes coming to military fleet behavior in 3.4 are mostly bug fixes rather than improvements on their decision making, so while there should be a very noticeable difference, the work made so far on the fleet behavior will not be as encompassing as the work made for the economy.

Let’s start with the Elephant in the room: AI splitting their fleets into tiny pieces.



While there were issues where AI would split their fleets too much, fundamentally this behavior of AI splitting fleets was by design. The AI would allocate just enough fleet power (with a +25% margin) to their objective in order to carry out as many objectives as possible. The main issue came from the amount of low fleet power targets such as unupgraded starbases which caused the AI to frequently split their fleets into 1000~ fleet power pieces.

In theory this approach is quite good, however, the main two main issues with this approach are that the player can easily just take one of their bigger fleets to go around and defeat the AI’s smaller fleets one by one which makes the AI somewhat incompetent, as well as that this playstyle from the AI can be quite frustrating to play against.

In 3.4 the AI will aim to have full fleets as their smallest unit to carry out military objectives, AI will actively try and merge all possible fleets during peacetime and the AI will during a war try and merge two nearby fleets when possible.


After having made the AI fill up their fleets, the next issue to tackle was AI fleet order cycling where the fleets get stuck alternating between two orders indefinitely. One common cause for this was when the AI assigned several fleets to carry out an objective together, the fleets would try and regroup with each other by moving to the system of the other fleets causing them to switch places over and over.




In 3.3 we made the AI obey the Take Point behavior again, but it didn’t work quite as well as we wanted. For example allied AI fleets would sometimes follow the players fleets when they shouldn’t. There were also issues where the AI would suddenly change their mind and stop following the player, and they would also not always follow the player with all their fleets.


During a war with several involved AI Empires on the same side, one of the AIs will be considered leading the war (may be different from diplomatic war leader) and the other AIs will put their fleets to follow the “AI warleader”. This suffered from a similar issue as previously mentioned where the AI fleets which were supposed to follow would change their mind too often and never reach their intended target.


In 3.4 we are adding an AI war state which becomes activated when the AI fights a mid or late game crisis, this state of war will continue until the crisis has been defeated. This means that AI will now enable their normal war behavior against targets like the Great Khan even though they do not have a diplomatic war if they or any of their allies get attacked.

This has many side effects, for example:

• AI empires should now obey the players Take Point if the player is fighting a crisis
  
• Allied AI empires should now help each other fight crises when one of them are attacked
  
• AI empires will now seek out and destroy systems controlled by crisis empires et cetera.

We also addressed the issue where an AI empire would fight a neutral target such as a leviathan during an ongoing war.


In 3.4 we are adding a state of war preparation for the AI which they will enter when they would have immediately declared war in 3.3. During this phase the AI will gather their available fleets and move them towards the border of their target.

If you have enough military intel you will be notified via an alert that hell is about to break loose and depending on how much intel you have you will get a more accurate estimation on when the AI will strike.




Now that we have covered military changes coming in 3.4 lets go over the diplomacy changes


One of the biggest complaints regarding being in a Federation with the AI has been the unrelenting bombardment of proposals of changing the same federation law over and over again. Often resulting in AI empires stacking the negative opinion modifier on themselves and eventually leaving the federation altogether.

In 3.4 we are introducing a 10 year AI vote cooldown for each law category. So let’s randomly select a federation law to use as an example: Free Migration. When an AI proposes to change the law of Free Migration then it will add a 10 year AI only cooldown which is shared between all AI federation members. This means that each time Free Migration gets voted down it will now take at least 10 years before it is proposed again.

Coincidentally this also fixes an exploit that the player could use against AI federations where the player would repeatedly ask to initiate a vote to invite the player into the AI federation. This allowed the player to repeatedly stack the negative opinion modifiers between the AI federation members causing their federation to break apart.


Another common complaint regarding AI federations is how the AI would often not put any envoys into the federation. This was a symptom of a bigger problem which was the overall AI envoy usage.

The AI empires would frequently reassign their envoys to the same task, knocking out the envoy who was already assigned to it and starting the reassign cooldown. As a result the AI would often have all but one of their envoys on cooldown and not assigned to any task.

In 3.4 the AIs should be able to handle their envoys in a much more appropriate manner, both in terms of Federation and Galactic Community assignment as well as other diplomatic actions and espionage operations.


While AI voting for seemingly completely irrelevant resolutions in the Galactic Community gave it a sense of uncomfortable realism there were a few issues that stood out to us:

AI would sometimes propose resolutions that were completely against their core beliefs, for example, a slaver empire would sometimes propose to ban organic slave trading. This was due to a missing willingness check when AI would propose resolutions, so they AI would propose the resolution they liked the most but wouldn’t check if they liked it enough to be worth proposing in the first place.

The AI was explicitly forbidden to withdraw their proposed resolution, while most of the time this does not make sense, there are situations where this may be the best course of action. For example, the AI may propose to reduce the council size but by the time the resolution is about to enter the floor their diplomatic weight has been reduced to the point where they would propose themselves out of the council.

Similarly the AI was also forbidden from opposing their own resolution, but the above situation could happen in a similar way where, for example, the player would enact the Emergency Measure to move the resolution to the floor before the AI has time to withdraw their resolution. In that situation it would make sense for the AI to oppose their own proposed resolution.

Additionally if you have enough intel on the AI you will now be able to see why they are voting the way they do in the Galactic Community. While this tooltip was already quite big, I knew I could make it even bigger.




While planet and sector automation isn’t necessarily AI, we have seen a lot of requests for previous AI improvements to also be available for the player. And even though the planet/sector automation uses a different system than the AI’s economy system we still felt that improving this would hopefully add a lot of quality of life value to our players.

The design philosophy for the new automation system is that “most players will be able to use some parts of it”. So the intention is not that all players will always use this and that it will be able to satisfy all players, rather that hopefully everyone will find something that they feel is worth using.



So how does it work? In 3.4 the planet automation will have an additional settings UI where players can toggle components on/off for each planet individually as well as setting default values for newly colonized planets.

The most impactful setting is this one, the Designation



This will cause the planet to build new jobs in accordance with the designation when there are no free jobs available. This setting is now much more restrictive in regards to what is considered to be in accordance with the designation, for example, enabling this for a mining designation will only construct the mining districts and the mineral purification plant and nothing else.

The other settings are:

• Amenities: Build new amenities buildings and also micromanage the priority of amenity producing jobs to minimize unnecessary amenity jobs by using the same system as the AI has been using since 3.3.
  
• Rare resources: Build new rare resource producing buildings to target a +3 monthly income of all rare resources. Additionally this will now take into consideration empire wide buildings in the building queue and only build one building at a time.
  
• Pop assembly: Build spawning pools, cloning vats, robot assembly et cetera.
  
• Housing: Construct additional housing, either districts or building when needed.
  
• Building slots: Automatically build a new housing district for the +1 building slot whenever there are no free building slots, especially useful to enable on automated planets like Science designation since they require many building slots.
  
• Crime: Build new crime prevention buildings when crime reaches dangerous levels.
  
• Clear blockers: Automatically clear blockers when it is preventing construction of new districts.
  
• Posthumous Employment: Builds the Posthumous Employment Center on planets with raw resource focus.
  
• Psi Corps: Build the Psi Corps building on all planets when possible.

The Designation automation setting is extra careful to not overbuild buildings whereas the other settings will build buildings even when there is no need for additional jobs.

All the automations except the Amenity automation (uses AI behavior in code) are fully scriptable for anyone interested in making their own automation mod, the files are found in:



Sector automation is now a system built on top of the planet automation. Setting the sector focus will now change which designations planets will select when they are using the “automatic designation selection” in order to make them respect the sector automation.



Additionally there is now a Unity focus available for sector automation since Unity is now more important after the 3.3 patch, together with new Unity automation for planets to go along with it.



The requirement to have an upgraded capital building in order to construct Research labs and rare resource producing buildings has now been removed in order to make the planet automations function properly for newly founded colonies with these designations.

We have also added several missing designations to different planet types in order to allow for more automation, for example, Ring World can now use factory/forge world designation and Hive Worlds can now use the fortress designation.

Lastly, I am sad to say that my designated time on the Custodian team has already been over for a while now, which means that this will be the last AI dev diary from me. But the AI initiative lives on and next time there is an AI update you may get the chance to meet a new Human. Again I want to say a special thank you to all the community members who have engaged in meaningful discussions regarding the AI improvements in the past months and tirelessly reporting the AI issues on the bug forum.

Thank you!


Hi! Eladrin tagging back in for a bit.



This week Nivarias revealed the Subterranean origin. Tunneling underground is a bit more expensive than building on the surface, but has its advantages, especially when a hostile force attempts to bombard your cities.


Lithoids are unaffected by the pop growth penalty

The primary species of a Subterranean empire gains the Cave Dweller trait, granting additional mineral production at the cost of pop growth and empire size from pops, as well as a new Minimum Habitability trait. Cave-Dwelling pops are well sheltered from the environment on the surface, and treat any habitable planets below 50% habitability as if they were 50%.


I am a dwarf and I’m digging a hole.

Living underground, Subterranean empires have a unique city set that replaces the normal view on planets.


Are you the king of the mountain?

One of the achievements revealed last week, named Underlord, has to do with answering the question “Is it possible to dig too deep?”


Well look at the time, we’re coming right up to the release of Overlord, aren’t we?

The Stellaris 3.4 “Cepheus” patch notes will be coming next week, alongside details of the Progenitor Hive origin. After the patch notes, join us on the Official Stellaris Discord for a Dev Q&A, starting Thursday at 1700 CEST!

See you there!

Today we're going to be taking a first look at the Subterranean Origin with Nivarias!

Whether you were avoiding predators or seeking easier access to resources, your species evolved to live under the surface of your homeworld, leading to a more environmentally versatile society.

Wishlist Overlord today!

Realize your Grand Design with Stellaris: Overlord on May 12th for USD 19.99/GBP 15.49/EUR 19.99!

In Overlord, the next full expansion for Stellaris, gain access to new features designed to unlock the next level of your Empire. Guide a galaxy full of potential subjects to victory - or subjugation. In Overlord you will gain access to new mechanics to specialize your Vassals’ role within your Empire, new Origins to explore, new Enclaves to meet, and new Megastructures to build for the glory of your Empire.

Wishlist Overlord Now!

Use new vassalization mechanics and specialize your subjects into economic powerhouses, defensive bulwarks, or technological masterminds. Negotiate the terms of your subjects’ Vassal Contracts, with the ability to subsidize their income, restrict their expansion, construct buildings on their worlds, and more.

Explore five unique Origins, opening up more roleplay possibilities than ever. Start as the subject of an advanced AI empire with Imperial Fiefdom, or release your mind with the Teachers of the Shroud origin, where you start as a Latent Psionic species and contact with a mysterious Shroudwalker Enclave. Discover the source of ancient lights in the night sky with Slingshot to the Stars. Subterranean allows you to start as a civilization that excels at mining and archaeology, and thrives underground, or unleash the power of the progenitor with the Progenitor Hive origin.

Meet three new Enclaves, who will offer unique abilities in your galaxies. The Shroudwalker Enclave allows you to pull back the veil of the Shroud. What will be your fate? Meet the Salvager Enclave, who can offer to scrap ships for resources or debris. Perhaps you might be interested in some combat-proven starships? Or choose one of your own fleets to lease out to other Empires as a Mercenary Enclave, and be rewarded with dividends on your investment as they fight alongside the highest bidder.

Construct three new game-changing Megastructures. Build taller than ever before by constructing an Orbital Ring around your habitable worlds. Use it as extra starbase capacity, or to further boost your planetary economy. The Quantum Catapult sends fleets on a one-way trip across the galaxy, ignoring closed borders and hostile empires that would stand in your way, to launch the ultimate surprise attack. Or build a Hyper Relay network, allowing you to rapidly transfer fleets and resources across your empire.

Whether you rule from the bridge of your flagship or from the lavish capital of your homeworld, Realize your Grand Design with Stellaris: Overlord!

Wishlist Overlord Now!

written by Eladrin

Hello again!

Last week’s dev diary examined the Orbital Ring, Quantum Catapult, and Scholarium. Today we’re going to look at another construction that has a massive impact on the game, the Hyper Relay. After that we’ll look at some other changes coming in Cepheus and Overlord, and finish off with another origin that was revealed yesterday by Nivarias.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.


Long ago, back in Dev Diary #243 we showed you some concept art of Hyper Relays, and told you they had greebles, and were game changing. Now it’s time to fully reveal them.

Hyper Relays are a rare Tier 2 technology that require the Hyperlane Breach Points technology and access to Rare Crystals to discover. Once you have observed a functional Hyper Relay in use by another empire, the technology will appear much more frequently, causing them to spread in a pleasing manner across the galaxy.



Hyper Relays can be built by your Construction Ships outside the gravity well of systems, just like Gateways. They’re useless on their own, but a chain of Hyper Relays built in adjacent systems dramatically speeds up travel, allowing you to jump from Relay to Relay after a short windup rather than having to travel across each system at sublight speed, as long as neither endpoint is controlled by a hostile empire.




Once two Relays in adjacent systems have been linked, the hyperlane between those systems will become bolder, and ships traveling along them will show the route plotted in blue as they are using the bypass.

Hyper Relays can be built in your own space, or that of your subjects. For convenience, Relays can also be built directly from the Galaxy Map.



If an Empire’s capital is attached to the Hyper Relay Network, additional effects can be projected through the network using several Network Edicts. These add strategic resource upkeep to your Hyper Relays and an effect on all of your colonies that are connected to your capital.




Gestalts have a reflavored variant of Networked Amenities.

Specialist subjects each have a Network Effect available at Tier 1, which becomes active in the overlord’s Relay Network if a continuous chain connects their capitals.






As one could imagine, an expansive Hyper Relay network makes travel much faster during the mid-game while you do not yet have a comprehensive Gateway system built, and since such travel is permitted in neutral empires that have open borders, navigating the galaxy and responding to distant threats is easier than ever before.

As a personal anecdote, after playing with these and the new subjugation mechanics internally, it was almost difficult to go back to 3.3 for the Dev Clash. Made me almost want to blow up the galaxy.


As with every update, there are a number of balance or quality of life changes and adjustments in Cepheus. Here’s a handful of interesting changes:

• Successful Force Ideology wars with a corporate aggressor now result in the target (or created) empire having the Oligarchic authority and Merchant Guilds civic. This is also true for Status Quo resolutions of Establish Hegemony, Subjugation, and the Scion’s Bring into the Fold wargoals.
  
• Corporate subjects can now open branch offices in subjects of their shared overlord, as long as their overlord is not also a MegaCorp.
  
• AI Subjects of Player Empires now receive AI bonuses as if the difficulty level of the game were one level lower, rather than losing their bonuses entirely.
  
• The Parliamentary System civic now allows factions to be generated much earlier in the game.
  
• You can now nominate other empires to Custodianship, provided they meet the requirements.
  
• The Unbidden can no longer spawn in pulsar systems (as the star will disable their Dimensional Portal's shields - Heavy Metal, Inc. sends its regards…)
  
• Low Military Intel is now gained at 30 Intel instead of 40 and Medium Military Intel is now gained at 60 Intel instead of 70. The effects of Medium and High Military Intel have been swapped. Medium now allows you to view ship loadout. High now grants visibility of location of military fleets.
  
• Gateways (and Hyper Relays) can now be built in vassal space.
  
• The Grasp the Void Ascension Perk now grants increased draw weight for FTL travel techs.

Some improvements have been made to automated migration:

• "Ideal" worlds such as ring worlds, gaia worlds, hive worlds and machine worlds now have a 50% higher score when pops are deciding where to automatically resettle to. So they are more likely to want to move to your newly-founded ring world, for instance. Capital world planet designations also have a +10% score, and freshly founded colonies have 25% from their designation.
  
• Pops will now pick which planet to auto-migrate to based on which planet has the most free jobs, rather than the least. They also now take free housing into account better.
  
• The Outliner will now differentiate between unemployed pops that are migrating and those that are not. A yellow briefcase will be shown for planets that have unemployed pops that are in the process of migrating to another planet. A red briefcase will be shown if your attention is required to resolve the unemployment. On the planet view, the tooltips will now show where the pops are most likely to move to, or explain why they are unable to move.

We have eleven new achievements in Overlord. Here are the icons, I’m curious what people think they are.


Cheevos!


Some eagle-eyed readers have noticed some flags that aren’t possible in 3.3. You’re correct! The art team has added some new colors to the flag palette…



…over seventy flag emblems…



…and forty-five new flag backgrounds.



These will all be part of the Cepheus update as part of the May anniversary celebrations.




Bordergore? Bordergore.

Those born under the Slingshot to the Stars find their desires to explore fulfilled by a nearby Quantum Catapult, which replaces one of their Guaranteed Habitable Worlds. Their eagerness to explore into the unknown reduces the distance penalty for building starbases in remote systems by 75%.


Next week the totally human programmer Narkerns will take over for an update on AI and automation improvements coming in Cepheus, and I’ll add a little bit about a fourth Origin at the end.

Video versions of these dev diaries are available at the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!

In the meantime, keep your eyes on our social media channels. There'll be an announcement later today.

Today we're going to be taking a first look at the Slingshot to the Stars Origin with Nivarias!

Strange lights in the night sky drove your species' curiosity to develop interstellar travel and explore the stars. Now you stand on the precipice of discovery, as you stand to answer a question that your species has asked for eons: What secrets will the Quantum Catapult reveal?

Wishlist Overlord!

As for this week's Dev Diary Tease, when we initially had the idea of doing a tease to get our Community excited for Thursday's Dev Diary, we had no idea that it would be taken quite this literally.

See the rest of this expertly cropped screenshot in Thursday's Dev Diary!

written by Eladrin

Greetings!

Last week’s dev diary went through the new Enclaves in Overlord, the Bulwark, some more Holdings, and the Imperial Fiefdom Origin. This week we’re going to look at two constructions, the Scholarium, Specialist Holdings and a summary of the origin revealed by Nivarias earlier this week.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.


Orbital Rings are a Tier 3 Voidcraft Engineering technology requiring Starholds, Galactic Administration, and Ceramo-Metal Infrastructure. Like Habitats, they do not require Mega-Engineering.

They are treated as a variant of Starbases, and while system control is still primarily determined by the actual Starbase of the system, the planets they surround cannot be invaded until the Orbital Ring has been disabled.





Initially your Orbital Ring will have two module slots and no building slots. As you gain additional Starbase technologies (Star Fortress and Citadel) and improve the planet’s capital building you can upgrade the Orbital Ring through two additional tiers, adding one module and building slot at each tier.



Most of the Orbital Ring modules are similar to Starbase modules. Defensive modules trade piracy protection for extra hull and armor, and the Habitation Module is a Ring specific module that adds a district slot to the planet below.








Systems with multiple habitable planets can become an exceptionally thorny obstacle if you build multiple defensive orbital rings supporting a bastion starbase at the center.

Having a large conveniently placed ring around your planet provides an opportunity to enhance the planet with some interesting buildings. These stack with similar planetside buildings.











Many standard starbase buildings can also be placed on an Orbital Ring - though some are now limited to one per system.

Orbital Rings fill the same “orbital slot” as habitats, so you’ll have to decide which of the two you want over your worlds, and they can only be built around colonized habitable planets.


There comes a time in every overlord’s reign when a faraway crisis suddenly requires your attention. Things are going on halfway across the galaxy, a rival in the way has closed borders to you, and the Galactic Community is debating something about Tiyanki. Again.

A true galactic overlord has to be able to project their power at will, and doesn’t let these little things stop them from enacting their plans.



Built around Neutron Stars or Pulsars, Quantum Catapults can hurl fleets across incredible distances of space, but these megastructures have accuracy issues over long distances.




The maximum range of a Quantum Catapult is significantly longer than jump drive range but there’s a risk the fleet may not land exactly where they intended. The further the launch, the wider the scatter radius.

Higher tiers of the Quantum Catapult are both more accurate and have longer maximum range, with a well-placed fully-constructed Catapult able to threaten virtually anywhere, even in a huge galaxy.

After selecting a desired target system, a short windup later your fleet will arrive somewhere in a nearby system, without any lingering jump debuffs... But there is a chance, especially on spiral maps, that this “nearby” system is quite a few jumps away from your intended destination when traveling the hyperlanes.


There’s no clear route to this system, but the Catapult doesn’t care.

Quantum Catapults also have a passive effect that reduces MIA time for your missing fleets, which comes in useful when moving reinforcements to the front line, using experimental subspace on your science ships, or if your launched fleet lands in a system with Closed Borders.


The Scholarium is the last of the Specialists coming in Overlord. Dedicated to the advancement of science, the Scholarium relies on their overlord to defend them from enemies.

The State of Saathuma are our Scholarium minions, bringing us the secrets of the universe in exchange for our benevolent protection.



As with the other specialist empires, the penalties and benefits both grow as they tier up.





Where the Prospectorium could discover valuable deposits in their space, the Scholarium instead finds opportunities to learn.






The advisor perk, as you likely expected, improves your overlord’s scientific research.



And like the others, they have a Hyper Relay Network effect at Tier 1.


Next week? Yeah, why not, let's show it next week.

At Tier 2, the Scholarium also gains a set of special traits for their leaders, and the ability to trade their Scientists to their overlord.




Finally, at Tier 3 the Scholarium gains an advanced variant of the Science Ship, the Arctrellis. Like the Prospectorium’s Battlewright, it provides an aura in combat, but this time the scientists aboard the ship can cripple opposing ships piloted by AI - whether they be machine intelligences, sapient combat computers, or the Contingency.



It should be noted that as a Scholarium, the military penalties make it difficult to free yourself from under your overlord’s control. You may need some powerful friends to help you out.


Each of the Specialist empires has a unique holding that their overlord can build on their worlds.

Prospectoria can host the Offworld Foundry, which converts subject minerals into alloys for the overlord.



Bulwarks can have the Vigil Command, which grants additional Defense Platforms to their overlord. As the Bulwark increases in tier, these values increase.



Scholarium worlds can build the Ministry of Science. Surrounding their planet with additional Science Ships increases the effect of the building.



One extra holding we’ll show this week is for the Tree of Life origin. It lets you share your blessings with your subjects, improving both the habitability and food production of your subject’s world, though a fair bit will be consumed by the sapling itself.





It seemed natural that with such a large focus on subjugation, the Galactic Community would want to regulate things in different ways. Two more minor resolution lines are coming, in the new Suzerains and Sovereignty category.



The Intergalactic Directives line of resolutions protects the rights of subjects and encourages the preservation and release of weaker societies.




You can’t take the sky from me.

Bureaucratic Surveillance, on the other hand, focuses more on the rights of the overlords, requiring a short leash on their subjects and encouraging the use of holdings. Resolutions in this line can only be proposed by empires that are overlords of another empire.





Borderless Authority and Personal Oversight force extra holdings into subject contracts, but since the total limit remains 4 the highest Holding Limit terms become redundant.




With the Teachers of the Shroud origin, your civilization was identified as a civilization of interest long ago by the Shroudwalkers, and they carefully guided you as their visions instructed. Your species begins with the Latent Psionics trait and in contact with the Shroudwalker coven.

Your civilization is treated as if it already has the Mind over Matter Ascension Perk, meaning Transcendence is not far away. (And you cannot pursue Synthetic or Biological Ascension.)


Next week we’ll take a ride on the Hyper Relay Network, finally see those three Specialist perks, look at some other balance changes and additions coming in Cepheus and Overlord, and reveal another Origin.

Video versions of these dev diaries are available at the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!

This week we explore the mysterious Teachers of the Shroud Origin with Nivarias!

Lift the veil that covers the Shroud, and entangle yourself in the strange processes of the Shroud Beacon. Interstellar exploration will now be quicker and infinitely more mysterious for those who choose to take a shortcut through the Shroud.

Wishlist Overlord Now!

As for this week's Dev Diary tease:

There's nothing that will make a Stellaris player jump to the wrong conclusion like a giant crosshair and 10 highlighted stars. ​😅



So.. What do you think this does? Find out in this Thursday's Dev Diary!

written by Eladrin


Watch on the Stellaris Official YouTube channel

Hi again!

Last week’s dev diary introduced the Specialist Empires with a detailed examination of the Prospectorium and showed off a few new holdings.

This week we’ll meet the three Enclaves coming in Overlord (examining one of them closely), take a deep dive into the Bulwark, and finish off with a few more Holdings and a summary of the origin Nivarias revealed earlier this week.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.


The Salvagers are a friendly and pacifistic bunch of scrappers and mechanics. Focused on engineering, these tinkerers love nothing more than scrapping old ships, refurbishing them, and sending them on to find new homes.



Though eager to help, they’ve been burned in the past and are thus cautious at first, offering only a few services - scrapping old fleets you no longer require, or offering you bargains on slightly used ships.



As you gain their trust, they’ll provide a wider array of options.



From providing their insights regarding Engineering Research to offering salvage services for debris fields following battles, the Salvagers do their best to please their valued clients.


The Shroudwalkers are a monastic enclave that delve into the deepest mysteries of the Shroud, seeking to understand the unknowable. Their true natures and desires are difficult to divine.




I won’t spoil too much about this very story focused enclave, but their prophecies and visions make use of the Situations system described in Dev Diary #245.

They’re willing to instruct others in the ways of the Shroud…



…and just as they are willing to look into possibilities of your future, they’re quite willing to gaze into the Shroud, to provide insights about other empires.



The bravest can also seek knowledge about travel through the Shroud itself, asking them to create a wormhole-like bypass from one of your systems to their own.


Everything will be fine.

One of the Origins, the Teachers of the Shroud, has a close link to this Enclave, but that too, is someone else’s tale to tell.




Unlike other enclaves, Mercenary Enclaves are not found randomly in the depths of space. Instead, they can be founded by regular empires that are not Fanatic Purifiers.



There’s a long list of requirements to release a fleet in this way - it must be at least size 50, have an admiral, be in a system under your control with no other enclave in the system, and have an appropriate place for them to build their station.




By default, Mercenary Enclave Capacity starts at zero. In addition to their normal effects, the Warrior Culture, Barbaric Despoilers, and Private Military Companies civics each add one potential Mercenary Enclave, while the Naval Contractors civic adds two.



The Lord of War Ascension Perk also allows one additional Mercenary Enclave, increases Diplomatic Weight from Fleet Power, and increases the rate at which you receive dividends from your Mercenary Enclaves.

The newly formed Mercenary Enclave has a few options for those interested in procuring security services. The empire that controls the primary starbase of the Mercenary Enclave’s system is considered their Patron, and has additional interactions with them. If business is going especially well, the Patron will even receive dividends from the Enclave.



Anyone that has communications with the Mercenary Enclave can rent their fleet for ten years if they can afford the cost. Prices may vary depending on what the Mercenaries think of you, and whether you are their Patron or not.



As time goes on, the Mercenaries will research technologies, reinforce, and build up their fleet, but their Patron can reach out and provide a helping appendage.



If they have an excellent relationship with the Mercenaries, a Patron can even ask them to break an active contract - but they’ll have to provide some recompense to their current client and won’t be very happy about it. Reputations are everything in this business.



Naturally, the Mercenary Enclaves have lobbied the Galactic Community to regulate their trade.

One of the new resolution categories in Overlord is Defense Privatization.



This line of resolutions focuses on encouraging the empires of the Galactic Community to leave the fighting to professionals. It allows empires to create more Mercenary Enclaves, increases the rate Mercenary Dividends are paid out, and places significant limits on non-Mercenary navies.





Like most other major resolution categories, Federations adds two extra tiers…




…and as usual, the final tier is perhaps a bit extreme.

That’s not all the GalCom is up to, but we’ll go into more detail on their other resolutions another time.


Standing firm against the overlord’s enemies is the Bulwark, the second of the Specialists coming in Overlord.

The Tebbran Citizen Regime serves our glorious republic as a Bulwark.



With strong benefits when it comes to defense, the Bulwark is a natural shield against the overlord’s enemies, but relies on overlord subsidies for basic resource acquisition.





We’ve made some adjustments to Defense Platforms - while everyone will benefit from their faster build speed and increased range, fire rate, tracking, and hull points, Bulwarks receive additional bonuses when using them.

Having a Bulwark advisor improves starbase costs and upgrade times.



The Bulwark Watch perk is another Hyper Relay Network effect so we’ll hold off on revealing all of that just yet.



Fighting in a Bulwark’s systems is extremely advantageous...



…and like the Prospectorium, they too gain access to some technologies - this time those most useful for defense.





Like the Prospectorium, at tier 2 the Bulwark also adds special traits to some of their leaders. Admirals, in their case.



And they can trade them with their overlord as well.



At tier 3, the Bulwark can create an improved variant of the Construction Ship, which repairs other friendly ships in the system and are a bit sturdier than regular Construction vessels.



And they also have managed to turn the Shield Magnifiers from Tier 1 against invaders. If they have completed the Unyielding tradition tree, this effect is increased.



Don’t worry - if you don’t have Apocalypse, the Unyielding traditions will also unlock with Overlord.


This week’s holdings include the Emporium, which forces the subject to buy Consumer Goods from the overlord, providing Amenities in exchange for Energy Credits.



More holdings also exist that tax subject production, such as the aptly named Ministry of Production and the Ministry of Energy.




The Materials Ministry revealed two weeks ago has been renamed the Ministry of Extraction, and now has Volatile Motes upkeep.

Constructive overlords can help build up a world using the Orbital Assembly Complex and a small fleet of Construction Ships.



And Reanimators can bring out the dead to defend a subject’s world…



…while Megacorps with Permanent Employment can ensure that nobody is just lying around when they could be working.



Lastly for today, Megacorps with the Franchising civic can choose to exert direct control and micromanage subject planets where they also have a Branch Office, much to the dismay of the workers there.



The Ethics Attraction on this holding will change to match any fanatic ethic the overlord may have. (Non-fanatical overlords aren’t quite as thorough with the indoctrination during the team-building exercises.)

As a reminder, these previews are still subject to change and balancing. (Prices and upkeep on several of the holdings have changed since I took the screenshots.)




In the Imperial Fiefdom origin, your first steps into space were brutally short. Immediately subjugated alongside several others, you can begin the game as a Specialist Empire of your choice, with a few additional gifts from your overlord.

Will you ever break free?

If multiple players select this origin, they will all start as minions of the same Advanced AI Empire.


Next week we’ll examine some of the new constructions you’ll be able to build, research the Scholarium, look at Specialist holdings, revisit the Galactic Community, and reveal another Origin.

We’re doing video versions of these dev diaries on the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!

Stellaris: Overlord introduces five new origins that add new flavor to your next game. In this video Nivarias is highlighting the Imperial Fiefdom origin - You may be just a Specialist Empire now, but someday, the galaxy may need a new ruler… shouldn’t it be you?



Also, here's a little teaser for this Thursday's Dev Diary:



"When we started this, one of our founders had a dream: to do for Galactic Security what MegaCorps have done for inequalities. Today, I am excited to say that this goal is within our reach."
-High Admiral Shirip

What do you think this means? Let us know in the replies!

And if you haven't, Wishlist Stellaris: Overlord!

written by Eladrin


watch on the Stellaris Official YouTube channel

Hello again!

In last week’s dev diary, we discussed the basics of negotiating subjugation contracts and showed you some holdings. This week we’ll present Specialist Vassals and do a deep dive into the Prospectorium, reveal more holdings, and share the names of the five Origins that are coming in Overlord.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.


We felt that it would be useful to have a centralized screen for keeping track of all of your subjects, and added a summary screen tab next off the Contacts panel.

The Agreements tab shows all of your vassals (or all of your overlord’s vassals if you’re a subject) and lets you examine the terms of the agreements. It also lets you know whether or not you’re taking full advantage of the number of holdings you could have, and lets you get more details on subsidies or tithes through tooltips of those terms.

It also provides you with a convenient way to go to the negotiations screen we showed you last week.

Work in progress - there’s still a bit of placeholder stuff.




Specialist Empires are an advanced form of subject contract that excel at certain tasks but are deficient in others.

We are introducing three Specialist Empire types in Overlord.

• The Bulwark: A bastion of defense that leaves basic resource acquisition to others.
  
• The Prospectorium: Excels at resource acquisition but has weaker research.
  
• The Scholarium: Specializes in research but relies on their allies for military support.

Similar to how Federations advance or degrade based on Cohesion, Specialist Empires improve based on loyalty, gaining additional perks and strengthening their bonuses and penalties as they level up through three tiers.

After negotiating a specialist agreement, it takes some time for the subject to convert into tier 1 of their specialty. This is based on their ethical compatibility with the specialist type and the empire size of the subject.

Several agreement terms are locked or have minimum values - a Bulwark contract, for example, must include basic resource subsidies from their overlord and a defensive pact from the subject, and the Prospectorium must provide a resource tithe to the overlord in exchange for research subsidies. These minimum terms ensure that at least some of their deficiencies are covered so they can thrive and fulfill their intended obligations to their overlord.


Let’s take a deeper look at the Norillga Citizen Compact. Our snailian friends are a tier 3 Prospectorium.



Prospectoria are all about resource acquisition, and this is reflected in their abilities and perks.





Even when they were just beginning, they had a large penalty to scientific research and a handful of production based bonuses. As they became more specialized, the magnitude of each increased.





Prospectoria have a chance of discovering caches of resources or even new deposits each year, and the variety of things they can discover increases as they tier up. These discoveries produce a special project that must be exploited by a Construction Ship.

As might be expected, over time it’s helpful for them to have control of a reasonable area of space if you want them to keep finding things.



The overlord also gains a bonus for having at least one “advisor” of each specialist type. Having a dozen Prospectoria will not increase the Prospectorium Advisory benefit.

The third tier 1 perk, Prospectorium Supply, is tied to the Hyper Relay Network, so we’ll get back to that one in a future dev diary when we talk about that.




At tiers 2 and 3, Prospectoria gain several permanent research options that are of potential interest to them.



Their leaders, including those already employed by them, also gain some additional special traits. These are in addition to any other traits they may have…



…and they can trade them to their overlord through diplomatic trade deals. Higher skill leaders are, of course, worth considerably more than new ones that just came out of the leader pool.



Their last Tier 3 perk lets them replace agricultural features with more mining districts, helping them feed the forges as they become industrial powerhouses.

Internally, we’ve found that Specialist Empires provide an interesting cooperative playstyle where multiple empires can work together to cover for each other's deficiencies.


A question that came up many times last week related to deprioritizing Overlord jobs from holdings. Any of these that provide benefits for the overlord behave like Criminal jobs and cannot be deprioritized. Specific numbers on them are also still subject to balancing and change.

This week we’ll start with a mostly beneficial holding.



With the Overlord Garrison, you can help your subjects if they’re having problems with crime. Having a strong military presence on your worlds forces loyalty, but the populace of the planet might not be quite as happy about the occupying presence.



The Satellite Campus holding produces research for both overlord and subject, paid for by the subject. If the planet owner is gestalt, these will consume energy or minerals as appropriate rather than consumer goods.

This week’s civic and origin based holding previews are all about spreading the defining traits of your civilization to your subjects.



Overlords with the Citizen Service civic can build Recruitment Offices to spread their message of patriotic service to their subjects.


Zero cost, zero upkeep, free science! No real downside!

The Experimental Crater is unlocked by the Calamitous Birth origin, and allows the lithoid overlord to “test” asteroid colony ship designs by hurling them at a convenient space on their subject’s planet. They usually don’t miss the test site.


Except for when they do.



And just as the lithoids can spread their love of explosions to their subjects, the subjects of Death Cults can enjoy the same right to become Mortal Initiates that their own citizens can. As is right, they get to partake in some of the benefits of the sacrifice.

Last week I promised one machine holding, but I’ll share two instead.



The first is a bit of a mean one, with four jobs that produce research for the overlord. Organic brains aren’t very efficient or orderly though, to be honest.


“Mind Thralls” sounds like a great job, right?



More benevolent machines (specifically Rogue Servitors) can instead give their subjects a taste of what awaits them should they allow full integration. Hive-minded pops don’t quite understand what’s going on, but find the experience quite novel.


We revealed the icons for the Origins in the Overlord Announcement diary, but now it’s time to attach names to them.



Each week one of these will be previewed in detail by one of our friends in the community, with summarized details included in that week’s dev diaries.


Next week we’ll be visiting the new Enclaves in Overlord, looking at the Bulwark, revealing even more holdings, and maybe even an Ascension Perk.

Don’t forget that we have video versions of these dev diaries on the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!