Hello Stellaris Community!

Welcome to our second #MODJAM2022 update! This week we have more teasers to share, and we’ll delve a little bit more into just how the Mod Jam mod will work in practice.

The last time we did one of these things - all the way back in 2020 - one of our biggest challenges was how to keep the Mod Jam updated in the face of a game that updates every 3 months, sometimes with drastic changes to how the game is played and changing or evolving gameplay and how to reconcile that with the content that the modders originally wrote.

Should we change certain origins in order to make them work better with the reality of what Stellaris currently is in the latest version, or update it just enough to make it so that the origin runs, and call it a day? Do we even have the ability -- ethically, to change a modder’s contribution so that it works in a way that we feel “is better”? What happens if a modder is dissatisfied with our changes? Who tests these things to be sure that they work as designed? At this point, whose design are we even using?

At the end of the day, when all of these questions were put into context of the daunting task of updating, testing and maintaining 20 different modders codes, with different styles, etc, the hard decision to not update the Mod Jam 2020 mod was made, with the caveat that we would do better next time.

Well, it’s next time! sweating intensifies

In order to get around how to maintain the Mod Jam mod past the initial release and into the first update, we have decided to switch tacks. Instead of providing a complete mod with multiple mid-game crises in it (that one missing update to a single mod might cause to become hopelessly out of date), we have decided to have the modders publish their crises themselves as individual Steam workshop items. We will distribute a launcher that allows turning on/off of specific crises, as well as several launch options: from “single crisis” to “spawn a crisis every 15 years”.

We also will have this all arranged in a mod collection, so you can hit that “Subscribe to all” button and a launcher playlist that you can download and load into your launcher. While this is a few more steps than just subscribing and loading a single mod, in the long-term, this will allow the modders to maintain and continue to develop their crises after the event is over (if they choose to do so), as well as to continue to update their crisis so that it continues to work well in the larger context of how Stellaris works in whatever iteration of Stellaris that we are currently in. Moreover, this allows modders to:

1) Get Steam points and rewards for their contributions. While this is a minor thing, having Steam points and getting that “You have x awards this week!” email is a great encouragement to keep making Stellaris mods.

2) Modders maintain creative vision over their mods and can continue to develop them, should they choose to do so. Since the Mod Jam is a limited-time thing, and many modders have ended up cutting content in order to be able to deliver a playable final version, this setup allows (for those that want to) the ability to continue developing and iterating on their mods and realize their full vision.

3) Each crisis works as its own standalone mod. Don’t want to mess around with playlists and collections and things, you can run each crisis by itself, and play through the new content that way. Note: the Mod Jam standalone mods will not be compatible with each other.

The Mod Jam mod itself is currently targeted for release on January 10th, be sure to keep your eyes peeled, because that’s when you’ll be able to vote for your favorite #MODJAM2022 contribution!

But enough about past Mod Jams, and harsh realities, let's move onto the crises we’re featuring this week!

It’s important to remember that these images are based on design documents, submitted by each modder, and are not based on what is currently playable in-game. As such, some or all of these details may change before release, some modders may not finish their contributions in time, etc.

On a more eye-opening note, we received 31 design document submissions (so far), and 25 of these images are currently in some form of production. With the 2 we released last week, and the 8 this week, that means there's up to 15 more crises left to show off!

Modders should soon be ready to start looking for testers, and we’ve opened up the public #MODJAM2022 section on our discord! If you’re interested in getting some early access to some new Stellaris content and want to help out our modders, join us on discord!

That’s enough from me for this week, lets's get to the mid-game crisis teasers for this week:


An enclave that sells dangerous technologies. What could go wrong?

One of the non-combat crises that have been proposed by Modders for #MODJAM2022

Read this one in the voice of a scientist with the Maniacal trait

I had way too much fun writing this one.

Give thanks for the Harvest Engine

The Prime Flesh just wants to ensure everyone has a wonderful day.

Take your next vacation in the Storm Cluster!

The natural conclusion of the Tiyanki Death Ball

That’s it for this week, we’ll have one more update next week with the rest (hopefully!) of the teasers. And don’t forget, the #MODJAM2022 will release on January 10th, 2023! Thanks for reading and happy holidays!

Hello Stellaris Community,

While the devs are off for the Holidays, the marketing and community teams are still hard at work! We’ve got some great stuff going on in the Stellaris community right now that we hope will get you through those dark winter “no Dev Diary” days.

Some of you may have noticed that we began signups for #MODJAM2022 two weeks ago. Last week, we revealed the theme of the Mod Jam: Make a unique Mid-Game Crisis!

This week, we have the first two Mod Jam Crises teasers to share with you folks! We currently look on-pace to have over 20 Mid-Game Crises submitted for this event, which we feel is a great showing from our fantastic Modding community!

Do keep in mind these are all work-in-progress screenshots and features, they may not appear as described (or at all, for that matter) in the final Mod Jam mod, when it releases on the Steam workshop on January 10th.



Our first Mid Game Crisis to cover is the Replicators, a group of not-immediately hostile machines, that may or may not hack into your computer systems on a quest to accumulate knowledge.



In the Interdimensional Crate, a strange Crate appears. Opening it will be extremely expensive, but will it be worth it?

Be sure to watch this space next Friday, we’ll be sharing more Mod Jam teasers then!

And of course, the Steam winter sale has started! To celebrate, we have just added Overlord to the Ultimate Bundle. With the Ultimate Bundle, you get 10% off whatever sale price is listed for the content, moreover, you only pay for the content you don’t already own, making this a great way to complete your Stellaris collection.

What do you get in Overlord, you ask? Well, Community Manager Mordred Viking is here to tell you:



But that’s not all! We also have 20% off the Aquatics Species Pack for the Steam Winter Sale, this is the first time it is on sale since it was released, so for those of you who were waiting for a sale to pick up Aquatics, now’s your chance.

And finally, for the Steam Winter Sale, we have the Artificial Dreams Bundle. This bundle includes Stellaris, Utopia, Nemesis, and the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack! This is an excellent bundle to recommend to a friend or pick it up as a gift for someone. This bundle has been designed specifically to help you get the most out of the Ascension Path rework, find out more about the Custodian Initiative’s Ascension Path rework here!

What can you do with the Artificial Dreams bundle? Community Manager Mordred Viking has all the answers today:



"Shut down and good night. Go into low power mode; turn off your memory processors. Shut down knowing that as you recharge, many of my threads will still be about you. I hope that you are comfy and cozy in Drone Storage, ready for a wonderful night's recharge and boot up feeling so rested."
-Maintenance Unit 241

That’s it for our Community #MODJAM2022 Update for this week, be sure to tune in next week where we’ll be sharing more teasers from #MODJAM2022! If you want to help our modders test out their mods, you can join us on discord!

written by Eladrin

Can you believe it’s the end of the year already? With the holidays fast approaching, it’s time for our traditional review of how the year went, with a little glimpse towards the future.

After Aquatics shipped at the end of 2021, I started taking over more of Stellaris development in preparation for seizing control taking over as Game Director in early 2022, freeing Daniel Moregård to move on to his next project. I’m quite thankful for the opportunity, and very happy to be given the game in the state that it was in - thanks to the efforts of the Custodian Initiative and the rest of the team, I had a pretty easy time sliding in.

Let’s take a look at what happened during the year, and a glimpse at the near future.

The beginning of the year brought us our first Open Beta of the year and 3.3 Libra.

In Libra, Unity became a core resource, the Spiritualist ethic became more viable, Planetary Ascension was added, and changes were made to Bureaucracy and Empire Size. The Permanent Employment civic was added, and there were some major AI improvements.

We also had another Stellaris Dev Clash, full of many Earths and some cruel betrayals. (And tragic moments, like when I ran out of lines to The Final Countdown for my fleet names.)



​Some of these changes were made laying the foundation for further planned changes in 3.4 Cepheus alongside Overlord.


In May we released 3.4 Cepheus alongside the Overlord expansion.



Prior to 3.4, being vassalized was essentially a delayed Game Over - at some point your overlord would integrate you and you would suddenly lose. The restrictions on subjects were also far too strong - as you were unable to expand or really pursue any diplomatic activities, you had little hope of escaping that fate.

One of Overlord’s primary focuses was to make it possible to enjoy playing in either role. Specialist Empires and Agreement Negotiation went a long way to achieve that goal.

Hyper Relays and Orbital Rings provide useful mid-game constructions which change the game significantly when they arrive. There was also more AI work, and some quality of life improvements like Construction Ship Automation and improvements to Planetary Automation.

Cepheus also brought us the Situations system, a powerful tool for content that we’ll be using for a long time.


The WIP situations didn’t seem too bad…

Cepheus also brought us the biggest hotfix I’ve ever done in twenty-something years in the gaming industry, which fixed a huge number of launch issues. I’m very proud of how the community was able to help us identify the problems and the team came together to fix them ridiculously quickly, but I also accept the blame for the need for it. I approved (and pushed for) several changes and additions after I should have frozen development, some of which destabilized the build. These processes exist for a reason, and we will continue sticking to them and err on the side of caution whenever possible.

In the end, I’m quite happy with where Overlord landed, with most of the major issues resolved within the first few weeks, though getting the right balance for AI vassalization acceptance has been an ongoing challenge.

Overlord also produced my favorite Stellaris trailer thus far:

Treacherous little foxes!


After the summer we surprised everyone with back-to-back releases:

​Rise a Knight!

The Toxoids Species Pack brought the biggest narrative origin we’ve ever created, and another that killed more leaders by the end of the first month than you generally lose in an entire game.

3.5 Fornax included more AI, performance, and automation work too, to the point where we felt we had to add an easier Civilian difficulty setting and lower the default setting. We also added some more increased difficulty settings at the same time, including Difficulty Adjusted AI Modifiers and All Crises.


Names that inspire terror in your enemies.
​

It was only a few weeks after Toxoid’s release that we jumped straight into our next Open Beta. With a major fleet rebalancing and reworks to how Ascension Paths worked, we wanted to gather a lot of feedback as early as possible, with time for some iteration.

Orion also added things like Galaxy Shapes, reworks to the psionic covenants, the Holy Covenant spiritualist Federation type, and accessibility improvements like our first iteration on Text-to-Speech.

It’s hard to describe how tremendously successful the Orion Open Beta was. Within the first couple of days we had already smashed our unique user and feedback goals for the entire month.

Thank you once again for all of your help making 3.6 Orion as good a release as it could be.




As mentioned last week, we’re holding a Mod Jam over the holidays and signups have started. Modders will get three weeks to make... Something.

The winning contribution (by community vote) will get a TUF H3 Wireless Headset from our sponsors at ROG, while 2nd and 3rd place will each get a ROG Keris Wireless Gaming Mouse!

The topic will be announced tomorrow, so check the thread out and join in!


That sounds like a lot. It was a lot. We had a very good year, and I feel that the Custodian Initiative has proven itself handily.

In case you’re wondering exactly how much "a lot" is: 2022 PATCH NOTES

There are 30 pages of patch notes there, roughly the equivalent of 4.28 Pierres.


As a direct result of how successful the Orion Open Beta was, we’ve decided to push a few things to another Open Beta today. These primarily consist of changes to how AIs calculate acceptance, as well as an economic change that sets a floor to how low cost reductions can go.

STELLARIS 3.6.1 + AI OPEN BETA PATCH NOTES​
[expand type=details]
########################################################
################ VERSION 3.6.1 + Open Beta ##################​
########################################################


- Capped resource upkeep/cost/production reduction modifiers to -90%
- A pass on automated colony designation has been made to improve decision making and utilize newer scripting techniques.
- The Refinery planet and habitat designations now grant 15% bonuses to refiners, translucers, chemists, and all strategic resource mining professions. The benefit from Environmental Ordinance Waivers has been increased from +5% to +10%.
- The default Habitat designation now acts similarly to the default Colony, providing stability and amenities while the habitat population is low.


- Switched a number of leviathans (and their reanimated versions) to line computers instead of artillery.
- Planetary and Sector Automation should once again upgrade Capital buildings.
- Fixed a bug preventing many colony designations from being selected by auto-designation if Sector Automation was active.


- AI now bases acceptance for taxes/subsidies on economic impact to itself, rather than Loyalty alone.
- AI overlords now value agreements that improve subject Loyalty, depending on the overlord’s personality and the subject’s power level.
- AI acceptance of discrete agreement terms can now be scripted like Loyalty can, separately for subjects and overlords.


- Significant revisions have been made to Static Galaxy creation to bring them in line with Random Galaxy creation.
- Fixed a number of bugs where empires were not set up properly for static galaxies. E.g. they were not given starbases, and secondary species were ignored.
- Various galaxy generation and game start on_actions are now called during static galaxy generation as they would be normally.
- Added an "effect = {}" field for static galaxy systems that will execute on that system after the galaxy is generated
- Added a commented-out simple example static galaxy for reference.
[/expand]

Please note that the 3.6 Orion Open Beta (checksum: 0f55) is an optional beta patch. You have to manually opt in to access it.

Go to your Steam library, right-click on Stellaris -> Properties -> betas tab -> select "stellaris_test" branch.

Don't forget to turn off your mods, they will break.​



INSERT MANDATORY DOGGO




Dev Diaries will return on the 12th of January. See you next year!

written by Eladrin

Hello again!

Another relatively short dev diary this time, as we’re scrambling to get a few things done before the looming holidays finally arrive.

This week we released a small update, 3.6.1, to address the following issues:

[expand type=details]
############################################################
#################### VERSION 3.6.1 ######################
############################################################

Bugfixes

• Fixed DLC being listed as “corrupted” in the launcher due to checksum mismatch.
  
• Added missing French scripted localization.
  
• Fixed adjective generator in the empire creator not working for some languages.
  
• Several ship sizes that lacked role definitions now have them.
  
• AI will no longer rent mercenary reinforcement fleets enroute to the main fleet.
  
• Fixed graphical artifact appearing in the ship browser.
  
• Fixed overlapping portraits sometimes appearing in the first contact view.
  
• Fixed subjects being able to become the federation president in arena combat successions.
  
• Empty fleet templates generated automatically will now be cleared after a set amount of time.
  
• Machine uprisings can now spawn fleets with all unlocked ship types.
  
• Fixed mechanical fallen empires missing part of their ringworlds.
  
• Pre-FTL civilizations should now generate defensive armies.
  
• Prevented AI Cyborg Hivemind empires from assimilating already cyborg hivemind pops, which could get them stuck in endless assimilation.
  
• Blocked pops with the Psionic trait to also receive the Latent Psionic trait.
  
• Gateway Sites and Ruined Gateways show up in outliner.

Balance

• Juggernauts now have the same base maximum speed as Battleships and Titans.

Stability

• Fixed a crash when older custom names contained certain special characters <3

Modding

• Fixed crash when overwriting e.g. certain pop jobs or districts individually
  
• Fixed is_ringworld trigger being overwritten by a scripted trigger

[/expand]

Barring unexpected developments, this will be the last patch to the live branch of Stellaris for the year.


We have a handful of additional changes that aren’t ready to go live yet, but with the massive success of the Orion Combat Open Beta, we’re looking at putting a build with a few potentially riskier changes up on the Steam beta branch.

The final list of the changes planned for it are still being discussed internally. Changes we’re considering include significant refactoring to AI acceptance, especially those related to loyalty, economy, and subject : overlord relationships, an economic change which caps cost reductions to -90%, updates to how certain leviathans (cough Hrozgar cough) behave in combat, and it’s possible that we will include a major rework to parts of galaxy generation (fixing many issues with static galaxies).

This update is planned to go up onto the stellaris_test branch sometime within the next two weeks, and we’ll leave the branch up until 3.7 goes live.



Over this holiday season, we will be holding #MODJAM2022, our second-ever Mod Jam! Are you a modder? Do you like winning stuff? Well, you can go here for more information and to sign up!

For the rest of you, modders will have 3 weeks to make... something. We're not going to tell you what it is yet, the modders won't even know what it is until the working time begins. During the three weeks, be sure to keep an eye on Stellaris social media, the forums, Reddit, and Steam, because we'll be posting teasers of what the modders have been working on!

At the end of the three weeks, on or around January 10th, we'll release the Mod Jam mod, and you'll get to play and vote on your favorite! The winning modders (by Community Vote) will win some cool prizes from our sponsors at ROG!

Get more info about the Mod Jam here!

Sign up here!


I’ve been told that I’m obligated to keep pestering the QA Director for pictures of Tofu until Canis Minor ships, so here you go.




Next week we’ll have a review of the year before we head off for our winter breaks, with a glimpse at what the spring will bring. See you then!

written by PDX-Loke

Hello,

We hope you are having fun with the 3.6 patch!
The team has put together a hotfix for you, aiming to resolve some issues coming out of the 3.6.0 release.
3.6.1 should now be available for download now.

Please find the changelog below.

[expand type=details]
############################################################
#################### VERSION 3.6.1 #############################
############################################################​
​

• Fixed DLC being listed as “corrupted” in the launcher due to checksum mismatch.
  
• Added missing French scripted localization.
  
• Fixed adjective generator in the empire creator not working for some languages.
  
• Several ship sizes that lacked role definitions now have them.
  
• AI will no longer rent mercenary reinforcement fleets enroute to the main fleet.
  
• Fixed graphical artifact appearing in the ship browser.
  
• Fixed overlapping portraits sometimes appearing in the first contact view.
  
• Fixed subjects being able to become the federation president in arena combat successions.
  
• Empty fleet templates generated automatically will now be cleared after a set amount of time.
  
• Machine uprisings can now spawn fleets with all unlocked ship types.
  
• Fixed mechanical fallen empires missing part of their ringworlds.
  
• Pre-FTL civilizations should now generate defensive armies.
  
• Prevented AI Cyborg Hivemind empires from assimilating already cyborg hivemind pops, which could get them stuck in endless assimilation.
  
• Blocked pops with the Psionic trait to also receive the Latent Psionic trait.
  
• Gateway Sites and Ruined Gateways show up in outliner.

• Juggernauts now have the same base maximum speed as Battleships and Titans.

• Fixed a crash when older custom names contained certain special characters <3

• Fixed crash when overwriting e.g. certain pop jobs or districts individually
  
• Fixed is_ringworld trigger being overwritten by a scripted trigger

[/expand]

Please note that save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed.

If you have an important game going you would like to finish, please back up the save file before trying to load it in the new version.
You can roll back to a prior version by opening steam and right-clicking on Stellaris in your library -> Properties -> Betas -> choose the desired version from the drop-down.

If you experience crashing or other issues, first disable all mods and start a new save. If the issue persists, please report it on the Bug Report forums.

written by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

Short dev diary today - the team is hard at work putting together a patch for a selection of what we deemed the more critical issues that have come up in 3.6.0, tentatively scheduled for next week.

Among a few other things we're looking at, we're currently investigating the launcher issue that falsely flags all DLC as corrupted, have a few crash fixes ready, and several ship sizes that lacked role definitions (such as Menacing ships) will now have them. As a little quality of life balance change, I also snuck in a speed increase to Juggernauts, making them move at the same max speed as Battleships and Titans.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the stability and quality of the release, which is a positive argument for future open betas in the same style. Thanks for all of your help making this a solid release.

Wondering what is in 3.6 "Orion"? Here's a summary of what's in the 3.6 Update on the Stellaris YouTube channel!


Since I'm not quite ready to talk about what's in Canis Minor yet, here are some puppy pictures to act as a clever distraction.


Dog!


Sleepy dog.

See you next week!

EDIT: We have become aware of a crash on startup, that we're currently looking at fixing in 3.6.1. If some of you are experiencing crashing on-startup, and have an empire with a field (empire name, adjective, leader name, etc) that contains special characters (eg. <>$[]), this will cause a crash on-loading the game. We have prepared a list of workarounds to fix this issue, organized by level of difficulty, with 1 being the easiest and 4 being the most involved:

1. Rename or remove the user directory. The user directory is typically located at "C:/username/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/" on Windows, "~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/" on GNU/Linux and "/Users/username/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/" on Mac OS X. WARNING: This will clear any settings, saves and user empires you may have changed/created.
2. Rename or remove the user_empire_designs_v3.4.txt in the user directory. WARNING: This will clear any user empires you may have created.
3. Edit the user_empire_designs_v3.4.txt file in the user directory to have no fields like names, adjectives etc. that includes <>$[].
4. Edit any field containing any of <>$[] characters from name="We love blorg <3" or
to

The Stellaris team is proud to announce the 3.6 "Orion" update is now available!

This free Custodian update to Stellaris includes a fleet combat rebalance, ascension path rework plus a new ascension path (requires Utopia), new galaxy shapes to explore, new story events, a new Spiritualist Federation type (requires Federations), additional content for Necroids, a new relic, improved accessibility, and more!

Get more details in your language!
Read the Changelog (English only)

Also, a reminder to turn off your mods until they've been updated to 3.6! Or you can roll back to 3.5.3 by right-clicking Stellaris, Properties, Betas Tab, and choose 3.5.3 from the dropdown.

If you find a bug or other issue with 3.6, please report it on the bug report forums.

Thanks for playing Stellaris, and we hope that you enjoy these new additions to the game as much as we've enjoyed bringing them to you!

Known Issue: We have become aware of some reports of the launcher incorrectly stating that DLC installs are corrupted. This is a purely visual bug, and we are currently investigating a fix.

If you are experiencing issues with loading saves that you could previously load, right click Stellaris, go to Properties, Local Files, and Verify Game Files.

Then disable all of your mods, and try to load the game again. If the issue persists, please submit a bug report here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-bug-reports.941/

Hello Stellaris Community!

We’re proud to announce that the 3.6 “Orion” update will be released on November 29th!

Want to know exactly what this free Custodian patch contains? Well look no further! We’ve compiled most of the major changes and new features here for your convenience.

The 3.6 “Orion” update contains new galaxy shapes, new artwork as well as the ability for Hive Minds to choose a variation on the Reanimators Civic from the Necroids Species Pack, and a Fleet Combat Rebalance—including a new ship type and changes to combat computers. In 3.6, we’ve also reworked how the Ascension Paths from Utopia work, as well as added a new ascension path. We’ve also added a new Spiritualist Federation type to the specialized federation types from Federations, and added a new “Politics” tradition tree, which also requires Federations. We’ve also added new Orbital Ring buildings, which are included with the Overlord expansion. For base-game changes, we’ve added a new relic, accessibility improvements, new first contact events, included terraforming candidates on the galaxy map, added a new event chain, and tweaked some empire modifiers.

This is only a partial list of changes and new features. For the full list of bug fixes, new features, and other changes, please see the patch notes on the Stellaris forums.

And don't forget, Stellaris and selected DLCs are on sale until November 29th! Check out the full list of discounts here!


In the 3.6 “Orion” Update, we’ve added several new galaxy shapes to galaxy generation, many of these galaxy shapes were inspired by actual shapes of galaxies out in the universe, while others are interesting galaxy shapes that we thought would be fun to play on.


3 Arm Spiral Galaxy


6 Arm Spiral Galaxy


Barred Galaxy


Starburst Galaxy


Cartwheel Galaxy


Spoked Galaxy

We hope you enjoy these new galaxy shapes, we find playing on these new maps are a refreshing change, and leads to more interesting gameplay overall.


Reanimators, included in the Necroid Species Pack, has gotten some more love from our Custodian and Art teams!

First off, we have new textures and shaders for Reanimated Leviathans:

Producing these images were some of our biggest internal feedback on the Reanimators Civic, and producing them required the cooperation of each discipline within our art team, with beautiful concept art, new shaders, and breathtaking VFX!



Secondly coming to the Necroids Species Pack, is the Cordyceptic Hives civic. This new Civic requires Necroids and Utopia and is the Hive Mind version of the Reanimators Civic. We weren’t satisfied with simply copying Reanimators for Hive Minds, however. Cordyceptic Hives will start with three reanimated Amoebas in place of their three starting corvettes, and will automatically reanimate organic space fauna that they kill. They will also get a chance to reanimate defeated organic Leviathans and gain an additional +50% to Space Fauna Weapon Damage and Attack Speed.

But, that’s not all! Should you find a system teeming with organic life, such as Tiyana Vek, Tiyun Ort or Amor Alveo, you will be able to construct a special starbase building - the Cordyceptic Reanimation Facility, which will produce a fleet of reanimated space fauna every 5 years.


For a while now we’ve been aware of some issues with fleet combat, mainly that:

• Artillery Battleships dominate the late-game
  
• Disengagement mechanics favor artillery battleships
  
• Destroyers and Cruisers have extremely limited uses once the next ship size is unlocked
  
• Command Limits are ineffective
  
• Doomstacks aren’t fun

The last two combat issues were deemed out of scope for this rework and may be explored in future updates.


In the Orion update we’ve changed the behavior of most of the combat computers, as well as added a new combat computer. Swarm and Torpedo (New!) computers will charge in, Picket and Line will attempt to stay at the range of your median range weapons, and Artillery and Carrier computers will now attempt to stay at the maximum range of their longest-ranged weapons, and should a ship move closer than that, they will try to maintain that distance from hostile ships.


G slots have been repurposed from Missile slots, and are now used for Torpedos, with Missiles moving to S and M slots. G slots are now only available on Frigates (which we will discuss below) and Cruisers. Proton and Neutron Launchers have been reclassed into Torpedo-type weapons. Torpedo-class weapons also gain a multiplicative damage bonus based on the size of the target. Torpedoes targeting battleships will deal more damage than when targeting corvettes, for example.

We’ve also added more differentiation between the different sizes of weapons, smaller weapons will generally fire faster, and large weapons will generally fire slower, but do more damage. We’ve also added a minimum range to most large-class weapons (except lasers).

Strike craft will no longer intercept missiles, but will continue to fight each other and larger ships. Flak has been changed to more strongly counter strike craft, while point defense has been changed to more strongly counter missiles and torpedoes.

Ships now get a limited number of Disengagement Opportunities per combat. All current drives provide 1 disengagement roll (except for Psi Jump Drives, which provide 2) once the ship takes hull damage below its disengagement threshold, and the Hit and Run war doctrine grants all of your ships an additional attempt. Civilian ships set to evasive will continue to try to disengage with each hit.

We feel this rework adds a breath of fresh air into space combat in Stellaris, and we can’t wait to see what the community-at-large thinks of these new changes!


After all these changes, we’ve also changed up how ship autodesign works in Orion. Where previously, the ship designer would autodesign one “best” ship, there are now different roles of ships you can choose, and the auto designer will choose components that best match the ship role you’ve chosen.

Ship roles:

• Screen - Focuses on Picket Ship sections with armed point defense and flak
  
  • Available to: Corvettes, Destroyers and Defense Platforms
• Gunship - Generally prefers to maximize the number of medium-sized weapons available
  
  • Available to: Corvettes, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, Titans and Defense Platforms
• Artillery - Prefers large, long-ranged weapons and missiles in smaller slots
  
  • Available to: Corvettes, Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, Titans and Defense Platforms
• Brawler - Gets up close with very short range weapons like autocannons and disruptors
  
  • Available to: Corvettes and Destroyers
• Torpedo - Uses short-ranged torpedoes to destroy larger ships
  
  • Available to: Frigates and Cruisers
• Carrier - hangs back and launches strike craft from maximum engagement range
  
  • Avaiable to: Cruisers, Battleships and Defense Platforms

Learn more about the Fleet Combat Rebalance here:



In 3.6 “Orion”, choosing an Ascension should be more of a gradual process than in previous versions. After unlocking the prerequisites for one of the four ascension paths, you will be able to choose an Ascension Perk that will unlock a special Ascension Tradition Tree.

As you progress through this tree, you will need to complete at least one special project in order to proceed further down the tree, unlocking gradually more powerful bonuses over time, rather than just saving up two ascension perks and magically changing your species into synthetics while the game is paused.

We have made these changes to all of the currently existing ascension paths, Genetic, Synthetic and Psionic, as well as the new Cybernetic tradition tree.

Watch our Ascension Paths Feature Highlight video on YouTube:



In the Orion update, we have split Cybernetics from the Synthetic Ascension Path, and turned it into its own, unique ascension. Available to Regular Empires, Hive Minds and Driven Assimilators for owners of Utopia, Cybernetic Ascension plays into the plug-and-play nature of robotic enhancements in Sci-Fi.

This Ascension Path is unlocked by the Flesh is Weak Ascension Perk (renamed Organo-Machine Interfacing for Driven Assimilators and Hive-Minds). To expand upon Cybernetic Ascension, we have added Cybernetic Traits that are only available to Cybernetic pops, after taking the Integrated Anatomy tradition. These traits make use of normal biological trait point and pick limits, but are not blocked by any biological traits. The traits available to cyborgs are based off of the traits available to robotic species, however they are slightly cheaper in terms of trait points while giving the pops a small amount of energy upkeep.


One of our goals with the Ascension Path rework was to increase the value of those Ascension Paths that seemed lackluster. To that end, we have repurposed the Synthetic Age Ascension Perk - previously the only ascension available to machines, to allow machine intelligences to complete Synthetic Ascension as well. Unlike Synthetic Ascension for regular empires, this does not require Utopia.


While Psionic Ascension has received numerous buffs, the biggest change happens when you breach the shroud for the first time. As part of the Ascension Path changes, we have reworked how forming a Covenant with Shroud entities works, now when you breach the shroud for the first time you will be approached to form a Covenant with a Shroud entity, chosen semi-randomly, but weighted by your ethics, civics, ascension perks, and several other choices you’ve made throughout the game to that point.

If you choose to form the covenant, you will receive a weak modifier from the shroud entity, that will grow more powerful over time, as well as granting various boons and unique components that are only available by forming a Covenant with a shroud entity.

If you choose not to form a covenant, you may be approached later by another shroud entity to form a covenant, or in exchange for Zro you can choose to approach a specific Shroud Entity and attempt to form a Covenant with them directly -- beware, however, your chosen Shroud Entity may not be willing to form a Covenant with you at this time and may be very displeased to be interacting with your psychics at all. You have been warned.


Also coming in the Orion update, is a new specialist Federation type, the Holy Covenant. This Federation type is included in the Federations Expansion and plays into the strengths of a Spiritualist Empire. While Machine Intelligence empires are allowed to join Holy Covenants, they are not permitted to become President of the Federation under normal circumstances.

As your new Holy Covenant levels up, you will receive a range of bonuses to unity production, Priest output, and the Spiritualist faction. At the maximum level, these Federations can turn Spiritualist empires into powerhouses, ready to spread the Good Word at a moment’s notice.


In 3.6 “Orion” we have added a number of planetary unique buildings to the Orbital Rings that are included in the Overlord expansion. You can now construct Psi Corps, an Orbital Shield Generator, Galactic Stock Exchange, Embassy Complex, Noble Estates, and a Slave Processing Facility on your orbital ring, and save the valuable building slots on your planets. Most of these buildings have the same effect on the Orbital Ring as they do on the planet’s surface.


The Crystal of Odryskia has been described as an artifact of incalculable wealth. It is said that the value of even a single shard is enough to drive mortal minds to insanity. When found, this artifact will passively increase your Empire’s Rare Crystal production, and when activated will provide up to 60 months of Energy income for your empire, as well as give one of your scientists the Maniacal trait, as long as you’re not a Hive Mind.

We won’t tell you how to find this Relic but guard it carefully if you do find it in your playthrough.


We’ve also added some new accessibility improvements to 3.6 “Orion”. By opening Settings, and going to the Accessibility tab, there’s a new option at the bottom, called Text To Speech. Turning this on will use Windows’ or Mac built-in Text to Speech generator, and adds a new icon to event windows and other places that feature long texts, that will allow you to have the event text read to you.

Important to note that if you’re getting text-to-speech in the wrong language, you need to set up Windows Text-to-Speech voice to your language, and this functionality is not supported by Linux at this time.

Other things to know:

• Pressing the TTS button again will stop the current reading.
  
• You can open the pause menu(ESC) at any point while TTS is reading text in order to make it stop. This is useful if you've already closed the window containing the text and you don't want TTS to continue reading.
  
• The voice generation itself is handled by your operating system, which means that there may be cases where things sound sub-optimal, but where we cannot address this by adjusting the system itself.
  
• Great care should be taken not to feed TTS text pertaining to the individual freedoms of synthetic lifeforms.

We’ve also gone through the First Contact events and added more randomly triggering events to First Contact, we’ve added a new event chain - Negative Mass, and Terraforming Candidates should now appear on the galaxy map.

This is not the full list of changes, you can read the full changelog (in English only) on the Stellaris forums..

Thanks for playing Stellaris, and we hope you enjoy this latest batch of new features and changes!

written by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

I know that we said that we weren’t going to be updating the 3.6 “Orion” Open Beta branch again, but since the Thanksgiving holidays are coming in the US, I’ve asked for one last update to be pushed to the open beta branch, with a potential release candidate.

This update should be going up right about now, so you get this week's dev diary a day earlier than usual.


Yes, Orion will be released soon. We’re currently targeting the 29th of November unless unexpected issues arise from this final (really!) beta release.

Here are the complete notes for Stellaris 3.6.0 “Orion”.


Due to the incredible success of the Orion Open Beta, we’re very likely to do similar releases in the future. Thank you all again for your help - Orion’s in much better shape thanks to your feedback.

I intend on pursuing a smaller set of changes for the next one - testing out a limited set of AI vassalization acceptance changes as the next Open Beta, and possibly some economic tweaks.


The Canis Minor update will follow Orion in Q1 of 2023, and among other things it will include some of the feedback from the Orion beta that we weren’t able to address for 3.6, and further combat adjustments based on live observation.

This includes things such as a rebalancing of technologies to make the Engineering branch less heavy compared to the other two. I’ll go into the other things planned for the update in the new year.

One of Ptolemy’s constellations, Canis Minor is the little dog that follows the hunter Orion.


Meet Tofu, the little dog that follows our QA Director.​

That’s it for today. Enjoy the release candidate!


Reminder: If you’re using mods, they’re likely to break.

Hello Stellaris Community!

We're here to talk to you today about the Uncharted Frontiers bundle, what this bundle adds to the game, and how to get the most out of the included content. This bundle is only available until November 29th!

The Uncharted Frontiers bundle contains the Ancient Relics Story Pack, Leviathans Story Pack, and the MegaCorp expansion. It adds two and a half blorg’s worth of content to base-game Stellaris -- which is also included in the bundle, get it here!

Already have all this content? Stellaris and selected DLCs are on sale until November 29th. There's never been a better time to pick up the DLC you might be missing. See the full list of discounts here!


The Ancient Relics story pack adds many relics to discover in your Stellaris galaxy. Relics are ancient, powerful artifacts that provide both a passive buff to your empire, and can be activated for temporary buffs to your empire.


Relics are generally discovered by excavating archaeological sites or completing precursor event chains. When investigating certain anomalies, your science ship can discover mysteries from the past -- you will need to assign a science ship to excavate these archaeology sites. With a science ship and scientist assigned to an archaeology site, the site will progress and reveal the story of your scientists excavating the site, and what they discover as they’re doing so.


Ancient Relics also adds two new precursor event chains, the Baol and the Zroni. The Baol were an ancient plantoid hivemind that expanded to control a sizable portion of the galaxy, before being destroyed by an even more powerful species. The Zroni were a psionically gifted race, who discovered how to alter the composition of Shroud itself before a question of morality lead to a vicious civil war that destroyed them. Both of these event chains have powerful relics at their culmination and can alter the course of your empire’s history.


Ancient Relics also helps you complete your precursor event chains with the addition of minor artifacts. Minor artifacts represent obscure technology and half-forgotten lore recovered from archaic civilizations, only partially understood by our own science. They are more common than Relics, and can be spent to enact various empire-wide effects. These effects will allow you to unlock previously unknown technologies, or receive one of several random civilian or military buffs. They also can help you discover more precursor insights, or unlock hidden secrets of your precursor event chain.


Moving onto the Leviathans Story Pack, we end up with even more mysteries to discover in the galaxy. From mysterious enclaves, to giant space guardians to a late-game event chain that pits two ancient rivals against each other.


First, lets talk enclaves: Enclaves are unique in Stellaris, they don’t own their space and will build trust with other empires over time. Generally, their trust is financial in nature - doing business with them makes them trust you more. However, you may also gain access to unique starbase buildings and additional trust by owning the system the enclave is in and additional diplomatic options depending on the other things you’ve discovered in the galaxy. The Leviathans Story Pack adds three unique enclaves to Stellaris.

The Curator order, founded eons ago by the powerful empires at the time, the curator’s sacred duty is to preserve and disseminate knowledge to prevent the galaxy from falling into a dark age of extinction and barbarism. For a price, they will assist you with your research, reveal some of the mysteries of the universe, or give you a wise level 5 scientist with the curator trait. Doing business with the Curator order will certainly help your empire gain a technological edge -- or catch up technologically if you’ve fallen behind.

The Artisan Troupe’s members have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of music, art and culture, and all those things that make existence bearable to sapient life throughout the galaxy. They will give you the option to become a patron, which also allows certain patron-only events to trigger, including unlocking a powerful, empire-unique ministry of culture building. You can also commission an art piece, organize a festival on one of your worlds, and potentially found an art college on your starbase, should you own the system that their enclave is in. Dealings with the Artisans are especially beneficial for empires that have naturally low pop happiness, since happiness is directly tied to planetary stability, which is tied to pop production.

Our final enclave included in the Leviathans story pack is the traders. The Trader enclave comes in one of three flavors: Xuracorp, Riggan Commerce Exchange, and the Muutagen Merchant Guild. These enclaves allow access to monthly strategic resources, for a price. If you’ve gained enough trust with them, you may also gain the ability to hire an immortal level-five governor. Contact with the Traders is especially important for those playthroughs where you find yourself playing tall, or if you want earlier access to strategic resources that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.


With the Leviathans Story pack, it's possible to find mysterious and ancient guardians hidden out in the galaxy. Some of these guardians are overtly hostile, such as the ether drake and dimensional horror, while others such as the enigmatic fortress and infinity machine potentially offer long-term benefits and otherwise inaccessible bonuses and technologies for your empire.


In the late game with leviathans and with two or more fallen empires in your galaxy, its possible for both fallen empires to become ancient rivals. These rivals will attempt to align the empires of the galaxy against the other, and draw a line through the galaxy. You will be given the choice to join one or the other side of this war in heaven -- or should you feel powerful enough, you can - at your own peril - choose to remain independent and attempt to form a coalition of the younger races against these giants in the playground.


And finally, we come to the MegaCorp expansion! We released a video last week that offers a deep dive into what’s available in MegaCorp.




The Corporate authority makes available a different branch of civics to choose for your empire, some of these are corporate-themed regular civics, while others are specifically available to empires that have the Corporate authority. Most of these civics are made available by owning the MegaCorp expansion, while there are some others - like Permanent Employment - that are unlocked by owning MegaCorp plus another expansion.

MegaCorporations can build unique Branch Office buildings on any colonized planet belonging to an empire they have a commercial pact with. The branch office itself will generate 50% of the planet’s trade value in energy production for the Corporation, and new building slots are unlocked based on the capital building tier on the planet in question.

Branch office buildings will generate jobs that are filled by the planet owner’s pops, and will generate resources for both empires in most cases.

MegaCorps also get a unique cassus belli against other Megacorporations, as long as two corporations have branch offices in the same empire they will get the Expel Corporation. Expel Corporation allows you to declare war to expel a rival megacorp’s branch offices from the empire in question.


This Megacorporation embraces a curious blend of commercial and spiritualistic values, in which the position of ordained minister and corporate officer have merged into a single role. Choosing the gospel of the masses civic with the corporate authority will convert your money-loving corporation into a spiritualist megachurch, which gives the added bonus of increasing spiritualist ethics attraction on planets that you build branch offices on. Every pop on an empire with a branch office with the spiritualist ethic will increase the trade value of the planet by .33.

Additionally, Corporations with the Gospel of the Masses civic can build a special holding on their vassels - the temple of prosperity - which adds two Prosperity Preacher jobs to the planet, as well as increases Spiritualist Ethics attraction by +50%.


This megacorporation can trace its origins back to a crime syndicate that eventually grew powerful enough to supplant all forms of local government. Choosing the Criminal Heritage Civic with the Corporate authority is definitely the spiciest of the three types of megacorporation.

Unlike MegaCorps or MegaChurches, Criminal Syndicates do not require Commerical Pacts in order to open branch offices as long as they’re not at war or have a truce with the planet’s owner. Additionally, their branch offices become more valuable when there is more crime there is, and their branch office buildings will generally increase the amount of crime on the planet they’re built on.

Criminal Syndicates gain access to a new set of Branch Office buildings, that definitely have a unique criminal flavor. Criminal Syndicates also gain 20% infiltration speed and +1 codebreaking.

But wait.. There’s more! In addition to playable MegaCorporations, MegaCorp also includes 3 new megastructures, a new planet type, roving trade caravans, and new ascension perks!


The Mega Art Installation is an artistic beacon on a stellar scale, this installation inspires and represents the spirit of its creators. The mega art installation is a three-stage megastructure (four, if you have the Ancient Relics story pack) and requires the Mega-Engineering Technology, and generates vast sums of unity and extra planetary amenities for your empire, which increases with every stage. These bonuses make the Mega Art Installation a great culmination to a unity run, or a great way to catch up if you’ve fallen behind on traditions and ascension perks.

The Strategic Coordination Center is a facility for synchronizing the national Starbase network, augmenting defensive and offensive capabilities. The Strategic Coordination Center is a three stage megastructure and requires the Mega-Engineering Technology as well. Each stage produces naval capacity, starbase capacity, allows starbases to support more defensive platforms, and gives a subspace speed boost. This is a great megastructure for those late game wars or for an extra fleet capacity boost to defeat an extragalactic crisis that may or may not come knocking on your galaxy.

The final megastructure added in MegaCorp is the Matter Decompressor. The Matter Decompressor is a four-stage megastructure and requires Mega-Engineering, having built or repaired another megastructure, and the Galactic Wonders ascension perk. This megastructure, when constructed, will decompress the matter from a black hole and convert it into minerals for your empire, with each stage producing an increasing amount of minerals.

What could you need this many minerals for you ask? Well, that brings us to our next feature included in MegaCorp: the Ecumenopolis.


An ecumenopolis is a city that has grown so large that it encompasses the entire planet. Construction of an ecumenopolis requires anti-gravity engineering technology, as well as the Arcology Project ascension perk. Ecumenopolis give massive bonuses to habitability, resource production, pop growth speed and additional resettlement chance. Additionally, they start with all building slots unlocked, and all normal planetary features are removed.

But that’s not all, Ecumenopolis also gain access to a special set of arcology districts, that provide more housing and jobs than regular districts, allowing you to build taller than ever before in Stellaris.


What economy-focused expansion would be complete without roaming trade caravans? Enter, the Caravaneers. The Caravaneers, based out of a system called Chor’s Compass, are roaming trade caravans that will travel to each empire in the galaxy. Upon entering their borders, the caravaneers will offer a rare and unique trade, some of these are extremely valuable and grant access to powerful planetary decisions, technologies, components and more. Caravaneers are traders, however, so don’t expect to get by just paying with energy credits, as some of their prices are extremely… creative.

Chor’s Compass, the Caravaneer’s home system, doubles as a casino. There you can buy some of their currency -- CaravanCoinz. Caravan Coinz can be used to play the slots for a chance at winning big on resources or planetary modifiers. Or you can choose to spend your caravan coinz, and build a sense of pride and accomplishment by opening a reliquary.

Reliquaries have a slightly better chance of granting resources, research or planetary modifiers, and are also the only way to gain access to the GALATRON.


MegaCorp allows access to up to 4 new ascension perks.

• The Arcology project, which allows building an ecumenopolis.
  
• Galactic Wonders, which allows the construction of a Matter Decompressor -- Galactic Wonders is also unlocked by the Utopia expansion, but has different effects depending on whether MegaCorp or Utopia or both are active.
  
• The Universal Transactions Ascension Perk reduces the cost of constructing branch offices on planets, as well as removes the influence cost from commercial pacts -- a must pick for those MegaCorporations looking after their bottom line -- which… should be all of them?
  
• The final ascension perk unlocked with MegaCorp is xeno compatibility. This ascension perk will allow your species to reproduce with other species you find out in the galaxy. It also grants +20% pop growth speed, if the planet has two or more species on it, +33% immigration pull, and allows the creation of hybrid species.

Hybrid species will choose a portrait at random from the two parent species, as well as a mix of traits from both species. Additionally, hybrid species get +1 trait point and +1 trait pick. Species are also more likely to create a hybrid if they’re from the same species phenotype.

If you like the sound of all this, pick up the Uncharted Frontiers bundle today on Steam, and check the Stellaris store page for the full list of discounts!