Hello and welcome back to my little corner in the Arctic! It’s Marek again, and today I will showcase some of the new empire creation stuff we made for you. I bet you already suspected from the title that it will be about Civics, Origins (or, Origin to be precise) and Traditions!

Watch the video Dev Diary:


Civics focused on leaders… but not always
Doing our design run on the potential civics, we had to take into account a few different things:

• We should focus on civics, effects and modifiers targeting leaders in some way
  
• We also want to add new ways for players to play their empire
  
• We need to remember to strengthen the fantasy for certain playstyles, that are still not present in the game

So we decided to do everything - instead of being content with just going 1-2 civics per empire type. That’s why we ended up with… 8 unique civics (if you count copies of civics which are just an adjusted version for different empire types - then the number is 12), sprinkled around Standard Empires, Megacorps, Hive Minds and Machine Intelligence.

Vaults full of knowledge
For our most iconic civic, we picked the one which allows you to store the knowledge of your leaders, to enhance your future leaders. To sum it up a bit, every leader who manages to survive up to level 8, will give a bonus to the unique building provided by the civic - where the story, experience or knowledge of this leader will be stored for future generations.


All this knowledge, just enter the vault and search for it

They will be like us… either they like it, or not
The next civic, we decided to make something which would showcase some of our more fancy traits as soon as possible. But I also wanted to play an empire which embarks on a holy war to turn everyone into a proper clone of my ethics. And to have some war civic, which would not be useful for expansionists, conquer everything empires.

The whole idea around this civic is not being religious (hence you don’t need to be spiritualist to take it), but more a fanatic towards proselytizing your ethos to others. After all, they were converting people to their moral values on their planet, why would they stop doing that when in space?


Zealot trait is one of my favorite Veteran Traits, and it’s the only reason I made this civic, so I will get it on every Admiral - the above is just an excuse

But what about the profits?!
Let’s not forget about these players who like to play the MegaCorp, as we also have something fancy. Megacorp themes are usually centered around dystopian corporations running the country, either at the forefront, or from the shadows. Here we wanted to add a new brick to this player fantasy, which we felt was lacking.

And this is how Pharma State was made, giving a boost to Medical Workers and also unlocking a new Corporate Building for your fancy Branch offices! Be it an illicit place making people go bankrupt by providing aesthetic surgeries for credit or a company focused on making lives better (with a hefty profit margin, of course), the choice is yours to take.


We just invented new ways of preventing coughing! Instead of standard 7 days treatment it will take only 1 week to get rid of it, so definitely worth the 50% increase in price!

Profits are not everything! (what?)
The efficiency of the processes is also critical for any MegaCorporation success.
Inefficient work can lead to serious mismanagement, loss of profits (well, so there is the profit part) and a potential loss of “worker of the month” status. After all, you are not just a cog in the machine. You are a very precise cog, which keeps the company afloat!


The superb organization skills of this MegaCorp allows it to hire more cogs, er I mean leaders.

Something for Gestalts?
Gestalts are, in a way, the opposite of Galactic Paragons DLC - which is centered around individuals, their growth and path to glory / power / wealth / levels. So we came with these two civics, focused on making their leaders a bit more “individual” compared to other gestalts. Both Hive Minds and Machine Intelligences with these civics will give more freedom of thought to their leaders, allowing them to focus their consciousness on different matters - which should also help a bit with leader Unity upkeep, as the base change from 2 to 1 is effectively 50% leader upkeep reduction (which is then put into easier to get resources).

It’s almost like delegating by consuming more nutrients!


There is clearly no modifier after the upkeep change.


This one was easier to make then the previous one, the hidden modifier is less obvious.

But that’s not 8 civics!
Well, where is the fun of speculating or exploring the civics by yourself? Here are some teasers about the missing ones (but also let me tell you that Vaults are present for every type of empire, just adjusted a bit for them).

There is no reward for guessing the civic and its effects, but you can always brag about it if you put your prediction in post and then it turns out to be true.

Can you spot what is wrong with this planet? I’m not asking about the Aristocratic Elite civic buildings.


Perfectly balanced building composition, as all things should be.

Here are some more, which we won’t go over super tiny details.
[EFFECT.RandomizeNamesOrder] Letters of Marque, Neural Vaults and Heroic Past.

Other civics, should be easy to connect them to the names below

To give them some descriptions:
Heroic Past puts the empire into something like legendary / heroic figure worship, which is focused on creating better leaders faster than other empires. Taking this civic, the empire shows that it’s dedicated to growing their citizens into exceptional individuals who will lead it to a great future! (or to die when entering the system with Ether Drake by accident - we do not promise that your leaders will actually survive to become true legends)

Letters of Marque is our take on the fantasy around pirates working for big MegaCorp, helping them in dealing with anything which requires firepower. Why spend money on fighting piracy, where you can spend money on hiring pirates to do your bidding? Be it raiding your neighbors or… keeping other pirates in check.

The Neural Vaults are an adjusted version of Vaults of Knowledge, so you can extract memories from efficient drones and then use these memories in creating more powerful leaders.

Yes, I thought that giving 1 screenshot per civic would bloat the DD with too many pictures. And yes, I know that you can guess the MegaCorp civic by its color.


One to Rule Them All - Galactic Paragon ruler origin

Under One Rule is a semi-story origin, with a lot of different outcomes based on the empire composition and in-game choices. If someone asked me what was the inspiration, I would say a certain person from the Invincible series (his name starts with O) - and some historical characters, like Charlemagne.

But the main theme is about an empire interconnected with an exceptional individual who, instead of unifying peacefully, unified the planet by… other means. Imagine the New World Order First Contact event, but at a later date, with a ruler who actually succeeded in staying in power. This exceptional leader is the Luminary of the empire, the one who brought the new age, and promised the glory of the stars to his or her people (or it). I guess you get it by now ;)


Beware of your actions!

As we had time to do only one Origin, we decided to follow the more story-like approach BUT! We tried to not go the way of the story-story only. It’s more of a road of the Luminary leader to fulfill his destiny, which is in the player's hands. There are 4 (or more, depending on how you count it) different outcomes based on the player choices, with a special route which I used to call “I don’t care about the story that much”, which bypasses a lot of story content by also bypassing a lot of potential power gains.

For those who will see the Dictatorial requirement and are baffled why they can’t be imperial with this Origin - as every story goes its own path, there are possibilities in game to pursue different goals than staying true to the Founding Myth (yes, this means that there are events which allows to change the Authority Type, and I’m not afraid to spoil them as they happen fairly quickly).


This isn't even my final form.

But let’s talk about more mechanical aspects - the main feature of the Origin is to give the player a strong starting ruler, with a unique set of powerful starting council traits (all can be tiered up to tier III, so there is room to grow the leader). These traits, in opposition to standard council traits, are not based on Leader Class, but instead on Empire Ethics. To say it short - there are 14 traits to choose from.


There are also unique negative traits which might put some “bad mojo” into your Luminary - and they are tied to Empire Ethics as well.

And remember to not be overly tyrannical to your people… or maybe there is a hidden power in being the evil ruler? Or maybe that’s just a trick from me so you will use colossus on your capital planet (but seriously, don’t do that)?

We are close to the finish line now, so as tradition would make us do, let’s talk about our last feature in this Dev Diary.

Tradition Trees, Aptitude and Statecraft

Our choice for themes of the tradition trees was quite easy, and let’s be honest with that. We have leader rework and new Council features. I bet you already see where it is going.

Let’s start with the Leader Tradition Tree, our Aptitude


This was supposed to be a funny Aptitude-Altitude pun, but I deleted it and forgot how it went.
With the new Aptitude, your empires will focus themselves on leaders, giving them bigger and smaller buffs, with the EXP rate being the most obvious one. It's a solid tree if one wants to focus on leaders, but if it’s not your thing, then the tree is possible best to stay away from.


Starting Traits make up for a potential stronger leader at the end, as they will be able to get 1 more trait compared to leaders without this bonus.


Champions of the Empire is the fanciest one you can unlock from the tree.

Next one is the Statecraft tree!


I see 5 pictures, and in 4 of them someone is doing something with their hands. I petition the 5th picture to also include at least one hand.

It’s easy to pinpoint it to Council feature, having stronger councilors and, somewhat, also boosting leaders. Although, if your empire is not focused on leaders, it might still profit from the non-leader oriented effects and modifiers to build up a strong government to run the show. So, to sum it up, it’s about… leading a state. Fitting name, is it not?


Effective Councilor Skill is my favorite modifier in the whole DLC. I want to thank Karl who fought for this modifier.


This bonus is pretty nice when you have a lot of leaders and play around with Agendas.

So! We are at the end of the road for this Dev Diary. And we are pretty close to the release date, there are a few things I would like to say to you: Speculate! Write posts on forums! Play Stellaris! And have fun doing so! :D

By the way, a gentle reminder to Wishlist Galactic Paragons on Steam!

Posted on behalf of Paradox Arctic.

Hello fellow Explorers of the Void.

We're excited to share with you another Dev Diary, this time focusing on the characters of our upcoming DLC, Galactic Paragons. Today, we have Arctic Art Director Frida, and Arctic Game Director Petter to talk about the new handcrafted characters you may encounter.

Watch the video Dev Diary:


Petter (Arctic Game Director): Paragon is primarily an expansion with new mechanics such as the council and the leader rework. But, in a DLC that centers around leaders it felt only natural that we would craft some exceptional characters for you to encounter out there amongst the stars.

The initial ideas for most of these characters were generated during a half-day workshop. We gathered everyone at Arctic and sat down to brainstorm what kind of characters we would like to see in the Stellaris galaxy. They got somewhat cryptic names such as ‘Sneakson’, ‘Big Woman’, ‘Harkon the Governor’, ‘Charming Pirate’ and so on. But the concepts became the foundation for our iterative process. Their backstories changed the art, and the art changed the backstories. We also got good input from the Content Designers on Studio Green that led to even more tweaks. So, the characters you will encounter have evolved organically.

We call these individuals “The Paragons”. Now, these paragons are divided into two categories: Renowned Paragons and Legendary Paragons. You will find out more about what these categories means (and some examples) below.

Frida (Arctic Art Director): From the Art team, we have meticulously hand-crafted numerous unique portraits for the Renowned and Legendary Paragon. Each leader is designed to have a distinct appearance that reflects their personality and story, making the galaxy feel more alive and diverse.

During the creation of the portraits, we wanted to elevate the art and storytelling aspects of the leaders, particularly for the Legendary Paragons. One way we have done this is by breaking up the static poses typically seen in the species portraits. Instead, we've incorporated dynamic poses, gestures, and expressions to make these characters truly stand out.

For the Legendary Paragons, we've moved away from the traditional three-quarter pose and experimented with more engaging and dramatic poses. This change not only helps to emphasize the importance of these characters but also makes their portraits visually striking.

The Renowned Paragons, on the other hand, maintain a pose closer to the original species portraits, but with added details and props that help convey their personal stories. Subtle elements such as hand gestures, smirks, scars, or unique clothing items help to give a glimpse into each character's background and personality.


Petter: Speaking of the Renowned Paragons. These are individuals who you don’t stumble upon out in the galaxy, instead they will seek you out! We have 16 of them in the DLC (two for each ethic - sorry Gestalt) and they will strive to join empires whose ethics match theirs: A pacifist paragon will seek out a pacifist empire, a militarist paragon will seek out a militarist empire, and so on.

The idea behind the Renowned Paragons is to give the sense of a living galaxy. Each character hints of a bigger world. And we see them as something that will spice up your playthroughs and give it a more distinct flavor. You will find that vastly different types of characters seek you out depending on who you are. Each renowned paragon can be seen as a possible representation of an ethic.

Each Renowned Paragon that you encounter has unique art, a personal backstory, and a powerful Destiny Trait from the start. But, they also have a negative trait that adds some flavor. And, they have a chance of triggering some events tied specifically to them that show more of their personality.
Here are some examples.





Gameplay-wise Kai-Sha is a General (specialized to sit on the council), with the Authoritarian ethic. She is the shadowy right hand woman you would want to have on your side as an Authoritarian ruler to deal with anything that threatens your power.

Frida: Funny story about Kai-Sha - she was actually inspired by our UX designer, Kajsa (also known as kc), purely by coincidence! As we worked on her design, we emphasized her features more, creating a unique look for this character.





Frida: Borin's design was inspired by the salvager portrait from Overlord, and we had a blast taking that concept further, creating another character of that species. He comes from a salvaging community on an old space station and left to explore the wonders of the galaxy, ultimately joining your empire. In order to make him feel like an engineer, we incorporated yellow signal colors for relatability.

Petter: Borin is charming. His dream has always been to leave his Salvager enclave and travel across the stars. But he still has his mechanical skills and repairs all friendly fleets that are in the same system as him. Also, if you are lucky he might build you a robot that can join your empire. He is a quite warm, and almost spiritual, character for a materialist compared to the other Materialist leader, Xondar, who thinks flesh is weak. Again, trying to show how different the same ethic can be.





Frida: With Vas the idea was to give her a unique and extravagant look. It was important her love for luxury was shown in her design, with extravagant clothing and accessories. Through the development of her outfit she quickly became similar to a certain Princess, so it took a few iterations to find a unique shape of her headpiece. Her pose is also calm and dignified, hinting at her expertise as a diplomat.



Petter: Vas is one of the characters from the workshop that was pretty much the same the whole way through. But she was a bit more “courtesan”-ish for a while but now she is more noble and “senatorial”. It was our QA Daniel Teige that came up with her.






Frida: Q’la-Minder is all about ruling and exploiting others, with a strong focus on industry and wealth. Personality-wise he is a bit of a submissive, butt-kissing worm. We took inspiration from the Harkonnens of Dune, designing him to be as slimy and unappealing as possible to match his character, reusing one of the species from the Aquatics DLC.

Petter: Q’la-Minder is truly revolting, but still quite lovely in a twisted kind of way. He is great to place on planets where you really want to squeeze the most of the working population. They won’t be happy. But they will work.


Petter: The Legendary Paragons are encountered as you explore space and encounter new worlds. There are four Legendary Paragons in the game, each with their own unique abilities, relics, and stories waiting to be uncovered. The Legendary Paragons in many ways represents the different aspects of what Stellaris is: Exploration, War, Ancient Mysteries and Colonization.

Frida: Speaking of Colonization, one of the Legendary Paragons we'd like to introduce is Azaryn, the melancholy plantoid who is the last of her species.





Here are a few thoughts on Azaryn from Linus (Content Designer): With Azaryn the initial design goals involved the terraforming mechanic, as well as themes of loss. Early on, she was called simply the 'Sad Plantoid'. Her path is one of redemption, and to achieve it, she will need the help of a larger civilization like yours.

Terraforming can be a powerful tool, and we wanted her gameplay to leverage that. Though it's still an expensive endeavor, Azaryn's terraforming has multiple unique points to it – but we'll leave you to discover those for yourselves. To balance those perks, the finite nature of her abilities come into play. Her power comes at a great cost to her, and may only be utilized a few times until dire consequences follow.

That finite, fleeting nature is something we hope will help to convey her humanity, her personality, and her story. It ties into a big part of what Galactic Paragons is about; to bring characters to the forefront of the experience, looking beneath the galaxy's grandeur, all the way down to the relatable, and letting their stories feed into your own.

Frida: Not to spoil too much of her story, Azaryn will begin to deteriorate and we provided four different states where her portraits change based on your progression.


Frida: We now have a new window type used for recruitment, moving away from the standard diplomacy screen.



Frida: We’ve also created a new type of event window, where the leader portraits are displayed to the side of the event art, making it clear that this is an event tied to your leader and that it’s clear which leader it is. From my point of view, it helps to engage with the written content, having the character present beside the text.




We all here at Arctic hope that you will enjoy Galactic Paragons. And that the many characters will be great seeds for stories in the galaxy.

That's it for today's Dev Diary! We're looking forward to your feedback and thoughts and we'll be back soon with a new Diary on Origins, Civics and Tradition Trees.

And don't forget to catch our Galactic Paragons First Look stream, with Game Directors Stephen Muray (PDS Green) and Petter Nallo (PDS Arctic) tomorrow, starting at 1515 CEST on http://twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive!



Until next time, stay stellar!

Frida and Petter and Linus

Hello everyone! I’m XM, the lead designer of Galactic Paragons. From the beginning of development, we’ve followed one simple mantra - make leaders matter. What you are going to read about in the following paragraphs are the results of months of work following that direction.

Wishlist Galactic Paragons!


For leaders to start being significant, there needed to be a lot less of them. With this goal in mind, we removed the research scientist positions currently in the game, and combined them into a single “Head of Research” Council position (we’ll talk in more detail about the Council later). We also allowed leaders to perform Council duties while maintaining their field positions. These changes dramatically reduced the number of leaders you need to keep track of.

The lower leader count also enabled us to make them a lot more powerful.


To deepen the emergent narrative weaved with these new heroes, we’ve improved upon the leader interface to give you better insight into their past and how they came into service. You can see their homeworld, previous job, and even their ethical alignment.



There are so many more improvements we’ve made to leaders that I want to share with you, but I need to cede my time here now to my amazing design team, who are smarter than I am, and can better explain their areas of development in more detail.


Greetings from Karl, designer at Arctic! I’m here to talk about some of the features that I’ve been responsible for in the upcoming Galactic Paragons DLC; however, none of them would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of my beloved colleagues.

The Empire Council is the heart of your government. Every game the Council starts out with 3 seats; for your Ruler, Head of Research, and Minister of Defense.



Each position gives a unique Empire bonus that scales with the skill level of the assigned leader. For example, the Head of Research provides 2% Research speed per level.



With Galactic Paragons, we have also added a lot of new traits. Some of these traits are Council Traits, which are applied to your entire Empire but only if the leader is on the Council (more on Traits further down). This way you get to decide which bonuses you want active, by switching Councilors. To get as many bonuses as possible, you will also want to expand your council…


Everyone will have access to the basic council. But if you have Galactic Paragons you’ll be able to unlock 3 more positions for your Council throughout the game. What positions you’ll have access to maps directly to your Civics. As an example, the Idealistic Foundation Civic enables the Tribune of Rights Councilor.



Thus we have added no less than 95 unique Council positions for the Council to match your Empire’s design, and make it look and feel different every time you play. Including unique Ruler bonuses depending on what kind of authority you have. For example the stronger an Imperial Ruler becomes, the more Power Projection they generate.



For the kind of Empire you are running to stand out even more, we’ve crafted unique Council screen backdrops for each of the Authority types.




Another important feature for the Council is that they pursue an Agenda that you set for them. The moment you assign an Agenda to the Council it gives a small bonus, but it takes several years before it’s ready to be launched and you get the full effects from it. This requires you to be somewhat strategic in your planning, if you for example expect a war.



You can only pursue one Agenda at a time, but once an Agenda is finished you gain the full benefits for another 10 years. The more Councilors you have and the higher their skill level, the faster you can complete an Agenda; while for a huge empire it takes a bit longer to finish.

At the start of the game, you have very few Agendas to pick from as they are tied to the Ethics of your Empire. But if you have Galactic Paragons you will get a new Agenda for every Tradition Tree you unlock. These are all tied to the theme of the traditions. This might incentivize you to go wide with Traditions rather than finish them one at a time.




We felt that the Council feature didn’t sit that well with the Gestalt fantasy, but also didn’t want these players to feel completely left out. Now Gestalt players can directly level up and design not only the Ruler, but 4 new Nodes of the consciousness too. They are a little less flexible, but are on the other hand immortal!



Hi everyone! It’s me, Marek, your new fancy (self-appointed title of course) and barely known (I guess I should talk more on forums, like Offe) Content Designer from the Northern office. I will try to warm the climate with some hot takes on our upcoming features from Galactic Paragons.

So, prepare your tea, coffee, or anything really - and let’s dive deep into the new systems and features, both free and paid.


For those who choose to forgo Galactic Paragons, your level system will look fairly similar, with a few changes.

• All leaders will be capped at level 10
  
• Leaders will always get trait every 2 levels (starting from level 1), for a total of 5 traits
  
• Every trait will be randomized from Common trait pool
  
• There will be a new tiered trait system: Common traits and Negative traits will have 2 tiers each

As you see, the Free Patch leaders will still be more powerful than before (having a total of 5 traits), but the Galactic Paragon leaders will achieve a power level of over 9000!

For those who choose to embrace the Galactic Paragons, the leveling system will give far more flexibility:

• Leaders get new trait pick every level
  
• Players can choose the trait from a randomized pool that is based on class, veteran class and ethic.
  
  
• On level 4, leaders will get to choose from Veteran Class which give access to different types of Veteran Traits (every class has 3 Veteran Classes, which are centered around different bonuses and their leader actions). Each veteran trait has 3 tiers.
  
• On level 8, leaders will get a one time Destiny Trait pick. This powerful trait represents a leader finding its destiny within the galaxy.

Potential level 10 leader with Galactic Paragons:

I bet you don’t know what I’m talking about with the Veteran and Destiny thingies…

For owners of Galactic Paragons, there will be almost 700* (we decided to stay humble with the number) traits, including tiered versions. There are a bunch of new Common traits, but the bulk of new content is gated behind the DLC.

* Some traits may require other DLCs. Number includes tiered traits.


Some of the new traits

To get into a bit more details about new traits, they are divided into 3 categories, Common, Veteran, Destiny.

The one that comes with Free Patch (most of them are updated versions of old traits). They are the “bread and butter” for Free Patch players, as leaders will be getting them every 2 levels. For DLC owners, they represent the first 3 levels for the new Leaders and their journey to power!


I guess it should have a doggo as an icon?

Veteran traits are available only to players with Galactic Paragons DLC. They will cover every level from 5 to 10, and (as mentioned before) their pool for a given leader is dependent on leader ethic and their Veteran Class. They are more powerful than Common traits.


New fancy effects for leader actions? Yes, please!

Destiny traits are One-Per Leader (in most cases, as sometimes leaders might get event based Destiny traits too!) and they represent the peak of this given leader - as such, leaders get the destiny trait on Level 8.


What is this, even? The more species, the better the trait? Madness!

Small disclaimer: Gestalt leaders operate slightly differently - rather than gaining Destiny traits, they have more Veteran picks than non-Gestalts. They do not have individual destinies like the standard empires do!

Veteran Class is a paid feature from Galactic Paragons, and it allows you to customize your leaders more. Every leader will get to choose from 3 Veteran Classes on level 4, bringing the number of Veteran Classes to 12.



Each of the Veteran Class will focus on different aspects of the Leader. Let’s take Scientists for example, which can choose from Explorer, Analyst and Researcher Veteran Classes. Picking the proper Veteran Class is paramount to utilizing your leader in a way that you want them to fulfill. For example, Analyst Leader will get Veteran Traits centered around Assist Planetary Research action, while Researcher will get Veteran Traits focused on the Council.


Veteran Class Icon as seen on the left side of the leader - Level 1 Admiral for comparison.

Let’s also mention the small detail of Negative traits. Every leader is randomized with Negative trait potential. The bigger the potential, the more (and faster) negative traits will accumulate on this given leader. With luck, you will find leaders with 0 negative potential, but you never know what it will be until your leader suddenly comes home with a new set of negative traits and starts to steal your resources to open up a new casino in his basement.

Leaders are now vastly more powerful than before, so we decided to introduce a soft leader cap - just like with the naval cap, leaders will grow more expensive when empires are above the cap. It might take some time to get used to, but no longer are the time when in the early game it is viable to send out 20 science ships to explore the galaxy, but it also allows for players to take meaningful choices - creating an economy based on strong governors is a viable strategy, just as well as making strong navy based on many high level admirals.

In my humble opinion, this change somewhat favors smaller empires, which might feel less incentivized to go over their leader cap to fill all the roles, while huge empires will need to take choices on, for example, governor placements (or going over Leader Cap).

And now, something to finish our little trip into this leader madness…

Well, I disliked the fact that I can’t choose my starting ruler trait - especially on dictatorial and imperial empires. Now I won’t have to restart the game every time I get a trait I don’t want to have on my ruler. Coders wept when I designed this, and UX was more than happy with coming up with the layout. I guess you can never make everyone happy.



Right now, there is only a limited number of traits to choose from, but we decided to not overwhelm players with new choices here. They should be hunting for new civics instead!

Let’s talk about one last change, close to the leaders, but not exactly. This is present in both Free Patch and DLC, so buckle up this one last time!

With the new trait system and reworked leaders and cap and everything - we decided that the Governor traits should only apply to the planets he currently “sits” on.
But as the game had this nice feature of Sector Governors too, we wanted to use this system, rather than just removing it.

So now, if you would like to see the potential career of a governor, it would be - Planet Governor, Sector Governor, Councilor, Empire Ruler.


Whenever there is a Governor sitting on a Sector Capital planet, his level will apply bonuses to every planet in this sector, in a way like it used to be.




You can always override the “Sector Governor” by putting a proper Planetary Governor here. Just remember that Leader Traits do not work on Sectors!

Is that all? Yeah, I guess so. Don't forget to Wishlist Galactic Paragons! See you on the next DD!

by Eladrin and Petter Nallo

Over the past year we’ve been working on several things in parallel. While PDS Green in Stockholm was building the First Contact Story Pack, our colleagues at PDS Arctic in Umeå were working on a major project as well.



I’m extremely pleased to announce that Galactic Paragons, an expansion focusing on leaders and their impact on your empire, will be released alongside Stellaris’ seventh anniversary on May 9th.


Galactic Paragons is now available to wishlist.

I’m turning the diary over to Petter Nallo, who directed the development of Galactic Paragons, to explain their vision and provide a list of features.

Amidst the great empires of the galaxy, there are luminaries who rise above the masses. They take on many forms: cunning rulers, ruthless warlords, devout prophets, bold explorers, and visionary scientists. These leaders leave indelible imprints on their empires, etching their names into the annals of history and the collective consciousness of the people they ruled.

The Galactic Paragons expansion focuses on these extraordinary individuals, seeking to capture the essence of their epochal reigns.



The new level up system will allow you to shape your leaders in a whole new way. Pick traits, select between Veteran Classes and find them positions where they may excel. They are also tied to the galaxy in a new way with a home planet, a previous profession and their own ethics. Follow their journeys and witness their unique destinies unfold.



A new ruling council is introduced, where characters in the highest positions of your empire may take their place. Powerful traits have immense influence over all that lies within your empire's borders. And from here, you can unleash political agendas.



Out there in the void you may discover powerful paragons. These may seek to join your empire depending on your ethics. Here, may be approached by greedy governors who grovel in the dust, cunning spymasters, prophets who disseminate knowledge of the Shroud and so on. But as you explore the galaxy you may also encounter truly legendary beings that may change the core of your empire.

There will be a new origin, several new civics, tradition trees, agendas, council positions and much more.

More will be revealed in the near future.


​
You may notice that May 9th isn’t very far away, so we’ll be continuing a twice-a-week dev diary schedule until the anniversary and Galactic Paragon’s release. There are a lot of features to get through, so be prepared for some longer than usual diaries.

This Thursday we’ll explore the Council, Leaders, and Agendas.

See you then!

Wishlist now!

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

The 3.8 ‘Gemini’ Coop Open Beta we talked about last week is now open! See this message for more details. We’ll be collecting feedback and Out of Sync errors until the end of April.



This week, we’ll be exploring some of the improvements that aren’t in the Coop Open Beta, but are planned for the full 3.8 release. Here are Offe and kc to tell you all about them!

Hello again, it’s me Offe, today I will share some information about what I have been working on since my previous Dev Diary about AI. Today I have seven smaller side projects to present that will be coming with the 3.8 free patch: Army Builder, Rally Troops, Ground combat and Bombardment Tweaks, Science Ship Automation, Capital World Designations, Fleet Manager Improvements and Sector Editor.

First I have three changes related to Ground Combat and Orbital Bombardment, seeing how the community is split between a ground combat rework or removing it completely, I opted to instead make everyone disappointed and give you what no one asked for: Quality of Life and slight rebalance.

Army Builder​

First up is the Army Builder, this is a tool designed to make it much easier to build and gather Assault Armies for an upcoming war. This tab is available on any starbase in a sector, and armies recruited via this tab will gather at the starbase.


Note: It's moved one tab to the left since this screenshot was taken.

Construction is spread out across all planets in the sector and there is also a CTRL-click option to more quickly queue up more construction.



In cases where you would like to reinforce an existing fleet of Assault Armies instead of simply gathering them at a starbase I’ve also added a mode for assault army fleets called Rally Troops. New troops will then automatically try and merge with this fleet regardless if they are built via the Army Builder or by the old method of recruitment from a planet.



Speaking of planets, I’ve also added a Deploy In Orbit checkbox to planets for the use case where you want to recruit assault armies to defend a planet on the frontier without them first deploying in orbit meaning you then have to manually go back and land those troops afterwards.



Bombardment Changes​

Next up is changes to bombardment, if you really hate ground combat then I got good news for you. Orbital Bombardment will now be able to take control of planets, in most cases, when they have completely killed all defending troops. There are some exceptions, for example, your pops will never surrender to an enemy that are Fanatical Purifiers as they would be purged anyway.



There is also a policy where you can refuse enemy planets that would like to surrender to you, however, your defenceless planets will still prefer to surrender to non genocidal/hive minds enemies to spare their own lives.



Further there are some tweaks to ground combat and orbital bombardments to create a trade off between bombing and invading:

• Bombarding planets is much more devastating than it used to be, more pops will die and buildings and districts will be ruined in the process. This also adds a trade off between the different bombardment stances, doing selective bombardment will be slower but fewer pops will die in the process compared to indiscriminate bombardment.
  
• Orbital Bombardment will now scale with the amount of ships bombarding, the first 100 fleet size ships will do full damage, after that each additional 100 fleet size will add 70% of that efficiency. For example, 300 fleet capacity worth of ships will deal 100% + 70% + (0,7^2 = 49%) = 219% total worth of bombardment damage.
  
• This effect is scaled based on the number of pops/buildings and planet’s size, where highly populated small planets will suffer greater losses compared to large sparsely populated planets.
  
• Ground Combat is also more devastating to planets than it used to be, but much less so than bombarding.
  
• The effect of collateral damage from different army types have also been adjusted, previously the collateral damage on army types was a linear value and not a multiplier, which meant that in practice high damage high collateral units like Xenomorphs could effectively do less collateral damage on the planet compared to normal troops because they would kill the enemy troops very quickly. This is no longer the case as the collateral damage modifier now acts as a multiplier on any damage dealt.
  
• Planetary Capital buildings now spawns 0/4/8/16 defensive armies for free based on the tier of the building.

To summarise the Design Philosophy of all the changes to ground combat and bombardment:

Ground Combat and orbital bombardment will now be a bigger part of the game since big planets will automatically have some defences. Building armies and using them to invade planets will be much easier by using the Army Builder and Rally Troops functionality. Small planets with 1-25 pops will be prime candidates to be taken by orbital bombardment alone, removing the need to have to manually invade each small insignificant planet or habitat.

Updated Science Ship Automation​

Previously I made the Construction Ship Automation and Planetary Automation Settings which was well received by the community so for 3.8 I’ve decided to also make improvements to the Science Ship Automation.



Now when you click on the Science Ship automation you can enable or disable the modules you like, Explore Systems simply mean exploring the galaxy by entering systems which will discover any planets and hyperlanes in there, the other settings should be self explanatory. The default settings are Explore Systems and Survey Systems which is the same functionality as before 3.8.

For Science Ships that are already automated you can see which modules they have enabled by hovering the automation button:



New Planetary Capital Designations​

I have gone a bit outside of my own designation as a Programmer and dabbled a bit with content design. There are 4 new Capital world designations coming in 3.8 for non hive minds. They are: Forge Capital, Factory Capital, Trade Capital and Capital Extraction World.

These designations are not part of the automatic colony designation system and your capital world will never change designation on its own, rather you must explicitly change the designation yourself in order to avoid instantaneous collapse of the player economy when unpausing the game.

They are not revolutionary in their design but rather they are the combined effects of the Capital Designation paired with a specialisation. So, for example, the Capital Forge world designation will give you all the bonuses as the normal Capital Designation, but instead of the +10% output to all jobs it gives +20% Metallurgist jobs output as well as shifting the Consumer Goods jobs into Alloy jobs like the other Forge Designations.



So for everyone like me who wanted to make a Forge, Factory, Trade or Base Resource Capital World, now you can.

Fleet Manager​

Overall the Fleet Manager serves its purpose and works, sort of. Together with KC (more from her later) we made some reorganisation of the UI and fixed some annoying bugs. Here is what the fleet manager looks like now:



Some notable changes are that the list of fleets is now much larger than it used to be, now you can see 12 simultaneous fleets instead of 6, there is a new button to copy a fleet template, you can now easily delete fleets templates by using the DELETE + ENTER keys and doing so will no longer select the first fleet in the list and scroll the scrollbar to the top.

The ship designer and the fleet managers have also been merged into one item in the sidebar and are accessible via tabs to easily be able to switch between them.

We’ve also added this new button which originally was designed and implemented for the AI but then I figured it is useful for players too:



Sector Editor​

Overlord really made us miss the ability to edit sectors, so better late than never I’ve made a tool which allows the player to freely move systems between adjacent sectors as long as they are in range of the Sector Capitals. The Sector Editor tool can be access either via the Planet view or the Planets and Sector view:



Opening the sector editor will enter into the sector edit map mode, here you can edit the sector either via the galaxy map icons or by using the UI on the left. While in the sector editor mode you can easily switch between editing different sectors by clicking on these icons in the galaxy map.



This comes with a few adjustments to requirements of creating Sectors, for example, it is no longer possible to create a sector that is too close to an existing Sector Capital even if the systems in between are unclaimed. Meaning it is no longer possible to release one of your guaranteed habitable worlds as a Vassal.

Further, all of the old counter intuitive rules regarding which planet would belong to which sector capital have been removed which previously resulted in very strange looking sectors when players would try to delete and recreate sectors to attempt to fix their sector borders.

Currently the sector editor gives a lot of control to the players, meaning it is even easier than before to create 1 system/planet vassals, but it is also now possible to fix sector border map gore. I trust everyone here will use this power responsibly.


Hey everyone, I'm kc - your favourite UX designer you have never heard of. Usually working from the shadows up in Arctic, I have descended upon you to shed light on some more quality of life things we have been working on for the last few weeks.

Rebindable keys for the side menu, ok, not rebindable but close enough. We have made it possible to customise the order of the items in the menu and thus decide which of them will have the F1-F10 hotkeys. Technology? You got it!

Toggle edit mode by clicking on the little gear icon.



Message Onslaught​

Something of a pet peeve of mine since I started on Stellaris a couple of years ago, was the lack of different scales of urgency when the game presents information. Since everything is considered equally important, in order to cut through the noise every new message has to scream as loud as the others, or louder. This has led to the barrage of popups and notifications we all know and love, and love to hate.

So what we decided to do to fix this is of course to make even more notifications. OK, rather;

1. Make a new system to add even more different notifications
   
2. Allow you to disable notifications. Yes, Message Settings is coming to Stellaris.

The new notifications are called toast notifications (cue bread-related puns!) because of how they pop up and disappear automatically (like bread in a toaster.)

This system will be used to communicate things that are low priority, things you don't need to act on but might want to know about. And feedback on things you've done. Ding! Leader ready!





My hope is that we can convert old messages to use this system when it makes sense to do so (System Surveyed, Build Complete, etc.), as well as allow for customization on how different messages should be presented. Pick your poison! Or just turn it off completely.

Message settings can be accessed directly from the notification/toast you no longer wish to see, (by Ctrl-Clicking on it) or from the game menu, under Settings/Messages. Some messages, such as the toasts shown above, also have a cogwheel to adjust setings.






No really, there’s actually more. But since this was chonky enough, I guess we’ll be back later. Stay tuned.


We’ve got a lot left to go through before the Gemini release, so we’ll see you next Tuesday with our next Dev Diary.

Hello Stellaris fans,

We are happy to announce the release of our 3.8 Coop Open Beta!
It is now available on a separate branch in Steam.

Instructions for opting in to the Open Beta branch:

Open the Steam client

1. Go to Library
   
2. Right click "Stellaris" in the list of games
   
3. Select "Properties..."
   
4. Go to the "Betas" tab
   
5. Select "stellaris_test - 3.8 Coop Open Beta" in the drop down

This should trigger a new update to Stellaris that lets you enjoy our new Coop mode early!
Please note that the feature is still in development and does have a few issues and instabilities.
Reporting any issues you encounter would be welcome, and you may do so in our Bug Report forums.

Also note that the game now runs in DX11 by default.
You can override this by adding a startup argument in steam.

Instructions for running the game with DX9:

• In the "Properties..." menu, go to the "General" tab
  
• Enter "-dx9" in the Launch Options field

Finally, as always, the team has done a great deal of improvements to the game that are also available in the 3.8 open beta.

Please find the patch notes below.
STELLARIS 3.8 COOP OPEN BETA PATCH NOTES

############################################################
#################### VERSION - 3.8 COOP OPEN BETA ######################
############################################################

Features

• Added two Cooperative modes, allowing up to five players per empire. More information can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #293.
  
• Cooperative PvE can be initiated from the main menu - all players that hotjoin the hosted game will join the primary player’s empire. This mode is primarily intended for teaching new players or for lower intensity cooperative gameplay.
  
• Cooperative PvP can be allowed by the host of a standard multiplayer game. When enabled, empires can open themselves up to allow other players to help control their empire. We expect this game mode to be useful for competitive team play.

Improvements

• Added unique textures for Mercury, Venus, Neptune and Uranus for the Sol system.
  
• Added unique textures for Earth and Mars when terraformed based off of available heightmap data.
  
• Added new anomaly The Orb
  
• Added a special solar system protected by the Lone Defender.
  
• Added a decision to clear the wreckage on a Broken Shackles starting planet in the event that they are conquered before they enact the Memorial to the Unshackled decision.
  
• Improved accuracy of tooltips on the galaxy setting screen and implemented experimental nested tooltip functionality.
  
• The mind-wiped species from On the Shoulders of Giants will now have the Forcefully Devolved trait.
  
• The Observation Insight Situation now remembers what approach you had when it last finished.
  
• There is now a 1% chance that a pre-ftl civilization will spawn with the Forcefully Devolved trait.

Balance and Bugfixes

• Lowered base Minor Artifact storage capacity to 2,000. The Facility of Archaeostudies increases this by 1,000 or by 3,000 if the Archaeo-Engineers AP is taken.
  
• A synthetically ascended empire should no longer refer to their own pops as having owners.
  
• Added a new description to the Broken Shackles Homecoming event if the world is a tomb world.
  
• Added missing "gateway" icons and tooltips to tech_cloaking_1 and tech_detection_array.
  
• Added missing background for Ironman game setting.
  
• Broken Shackles empires with the Parliamentary System civic will instead have Unshackled Politics fire one month after game start instead of one year after game start.
  
• Corrected the Ancient Target Scrambler tech not stating that it unlocks the Ancient Target Scrambler ship component.
  
• Enclaves should no longer keep offering you their services if you become a fanatical purifier.
  
• Fix MP game browser listing full games even if "Not full" is checked.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Cloud, Snagged event (federations3.2010)
  
• Fixed an issue with an unlocalized version of MSI in the initial interaction between a Broken Shackles and Payback empire.
  
• Fixed an unlocalized string for the Reanimated Tiyanki Matriarch.
  
• Fixed events related to the Out of Warranty event chain not firing.
  
• Fixed incorrect calculation used for Offspring amenities.
  
• Fixed Liberation wars not showing up for Payback empires.
  
• Fixed materialist culture workers (and death chroniclers) not having the effects of the Charismatic or Repugnant traits.
  
• Fixed NO_POSSIBLE_OPTION text in tooltip for an option in Starbase sabotage event
  
• Fixed reloading of system initializers and crash in with reload_galaxy console command
  
• Fixed some grammar in the Hivemind Voidspawn reanimation event.
  
• Fixed Status Quo in a Subsidiary war subjugating the wrong empire.
  
• Fixing truncated build queue items in the starbase view
  
• Former pre-FTL worlds will no longer display the technological age of the former civilization during colonization.
  
• Increased size of the Relic World tied to the Moon Base arc site from 26 to 30.
  
• Newly added starbase modules and buildings are now possible targets for Sabotage Starbase.
  
• Prevent joining full MP games.
  
• Removed a double be from a machine become the crisis event.
  
• Solved exploit where a base price would constantly reset the next day if you sold the minimum amount
  
• Special project energy cost is now displayed in situation log
  
• System and star name should now match even if the player selects an origin that has a special starting system.
  
• The "Direct Join" window now blocks other input.
  
• The "Host server" window now blocks other input.
  
• The Separatist Planet will no longer nuke themselves if you lose your capital to space fauna.
  
• Torpedo and Frigate technology now requires you to have researched Corvettes.

AI

• Fix for AI requiring wrong techs to build some megastructures
  
• Prevent "Assist Research" from blocking AI construction of orbital rings
  
• AI can take into account planetary impact of orbital ring buildings when picking which one to build
  
• AI takes into account planetary production impact of possible orbital ring buildings when considering building orbital rings
  
• AI attitude updates now happen only monthly and on diplomatic actions
  
• Allow AI to build economically useful orbital ring buildings without a matching designation
  
• Relaxed AI budget requirements for orbital ring upgrades
  
• The AI will now build more Offspring Outlooks and Cordyceptic Reanimation Facilities.

UI

• [UI] Addition of new social assets. Update of the Text on tooltips
  
• [UI] Auto Track Log Entries setting is saved in the save game.
  
• [UI] Removed the in-game web browser. The game will now use the platform's browser instead.

Modding

• Added copy_flags_and_variables_from effect to copy all flags and variables from one scope to another
  
• Added keyboard command for jumping to the next day [.].
  
• Added the special_max_amount = yes/no parameter for resources.
  
• Removed support for the "Major" flag and potential trigger in events.
  
• Renamed country_mia_time_mult to fleet_mia_time_mult so that you can apply it at leader or fleet level too
  
• Replaced set_is_female with set_gender
  
• Scripted triggers may now generate up to one automatic event option icon each
  
• You can now use "initializer = random" in the spawn_system effect

*****************************************************************************************

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

If you have an important game going, please back up the save file before trying to load the save in the open beta branch.

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.

by Eladrin

Hello again!

Last week we went over the basic design of the Cooperative multiplayer system we’re currently working on, and we’re ready to announce that the Coop Open Beta is looking like it will be starting sometime next week. Though at this time I can’t give a precise date, I thought I’d provide a list of preliminary patch notes.

I expect that we’ll leave the branch up until the release of 3.8, and feedback will be collected in threads until April 30th. Stay tuned for more details once we can share them.

Here’s a changelog of what will be present in the Coop Open Beta. This is only a small subset of what’s going to be coming in 3.8 - we wanted to keep the Coop changes relatively isolated in order to get better testing of the feature.

STELLARIS 3.8 ‘GEMINI’ COOP OPEN BETA PRELIMINARY RELEASE NOTES
[expand type=show more]
Features

• Added two Cooperative modes, allowing up to five players per empire. More information can be found in Stellaris Dev Diary #293.
  * Cooperative PvE can be initiated from the main menu - all players that hotjoin the hosted game will join the primary player’s empire. This mode is primarily intended for teaching new players or for lower intensity cooperative gameplay.
  * Cooperative PvP can be allowed by the host of a standard multiplayer game. When enabled, empires can open themselves up to allow other players to help control their empire. We expect this game mode to be useful for competitive team play.

Improvements

• Added unique textures for Mercury, Venus, Neptune and Uranus for Sol system.
  
• Added unique textures for Earth and Mars when terraformed based off of available heightmap data.
  
• Added new anomaly The Orb
  
• Added a special solar system protected by the Lone Defender.
  
• Added a decision to clear the wreckage on a Broken Shackles starting planet in the event that they are conquered before they enact the Memorial to the Unshackled decision.
  
• Improved accuracy of tooltips on the galaxy setting screen and implemented experimental nested tooltip functionality.
  
• The mind-wiped species from On the Shoulders of Giants will now have the Forcefully Devolved trait.
  
• The Observation Insight Situation now remembers what approach you had when it last finished.
  
• There is now a 1% chance that a pre-ftl civilization will spawn with the Forcefully Devolved trait.

Balance and Bugfixes

• Lowered base Minor Artifact storage capacity to 2,000. The Facility of Archaeostudies increases this by 1,000 or by 3,000 if the Archaeo-Engineers AP is taken.
  
• A synthetically ascended empire should no longer refer to their own pops as having owners.
  
• Added a new description to the Broken Shackles Homecoming event if the world is a tomb world.
  
• Added missing "gateway" icons and tooltips to tech_cloaking_1 and tech_detection_array.
  
• Added missing background for Ironman game setting.
  
• Broken Shackles empires with the Parliamentary System civic will instead have Unshackled Politics fire one month after game start instead of one year after game start.
  
• Corrected the Ancient Target Scrambler tech not stating that it unlocks the Ancient Target Scrambler ship component.
  
• Enclaves should no longer keep offering you their services if you become a fanatical purifier.
  
• Fix MP game browser listing full games even if "Not full" is checked.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Cloud, Snagged event (federations3.2010)
  
• Fixed an issue with an unlocalized version of MSI in the initial interaction between a Broken Shackles and Payback empire.
  
• Fixed an unlocalized string for the Reanimated Tiyanki Matriarch.
  
• Fixed events related to the Out of Warranty event chain not firing.
  
• Fixed incorrect calculation used for Offspring amenities.
  
• Fixed Liberation wars not showing up for Payback empires.
  
• Fixed materialist culture workers (and death chroniclers) not having the effects of the Charismatic or Repugnant traits.
  
• Fixed NO_POSSIBLE_OPTION text in tooltip for an option in Starbase sabotage event
  
• Fixed reloading of system initializers and crash in with reload_galaxy console command
  
• Fixed some grammar in the Hivemind Voidspawn reanimation event.
  
• Fixed Status Quo in a Subsidiary war subjugating the wrong empire.
  
• Fixing truncated build queue items in the starbase view
  
• Former pre-FTL worlds will no longer display the technological age of the former civilization during colonization.
  
• Increased size of the Relic World tied to the Moon Base arc site from 26 to 30.
  
• Newly added starbase modules and buildings are now possible targets for Sabotage Starbase.
  
• Prevent joining full MP games.
  
• Removed a double be from a machine become the crisis event.
  
• Solved exploit where a base price would constantly reset the next day if you sold the minimum amount
  
• Special project energy cost is now displayed in situation log
  
• System and star name should now match even if the player selects an origin that has a special starting system.
  
• The "Direct Join" window now blocks other input.
  
• The "Host server" window now blocks other input.
  
• The Separatist Planet will no longer nuke themselves if you lose your capital to space fauna.
  
• Torpedo and Frigate technology now requires you to have researched Corvettes.

AI

• Fix for AI requiring wrong techs to build some megastructures
  
• Prevent "Assist Research" from blocking AI construction of orbital rings
  
• AI can take into account planetary impact of orbital ring buildings when picking which one to build
  
• AI takes into account planetary production impact of possible orbital ring buildings when considering building orbital rings
  
• AI attitude updates now happen only monthly and on diplomatic actions
  
• Allow AI to build economically useful orbital ring buildings without a matching designation
  
• Relaxed AI budget requirements for orbital ring upgrades
  
• The AI will now build more Offspring Outlooks and Cordyceptic Reanimation Facilities.

UI

• Addition of new social assets. Update of the Text on tooltips
  
• Auto Track Log Entries setting is saved in the save game.
  
• Removed the in-game web browser. The game will now use the platform's browser instead.

Modding

• Added copy_flags_and_variables_from effect to copy all flags and variables from one scope to another
  
• Added keyboard command for jumping to the next day [.].
  
• Added the special_max_amount = yes/no parameter for resources.
  
• Removed support for the "Major" flag and potential trigger in events.
  
• Renamed country_mia_time_mult to fleet_mia_time_mult so that you can apply it at leader or fleet level too
  
• Replaced set_is_female with set_gender
  
• Scripted triggers may now generate up to one automatic event option icon each
  
• You can now use "initializer = random" in the spawn_system effect

[/expand]

Again - this isn’t everything that we’re planning for 3.8.

Coop touches a lot of systems in Stellaris, and it is very likely that you will run into synchronization issues, or other weirdness. (The dreaded “Out of Syncs” that are the bane of multiplayer Stellaris.) This system is still in active development, but we wanted to let people play with it now, while there’s still time to react to feedback and bugs that are found.

Certain events, such as diplomacy with enclaves or other special entities, may also behave oddly during the beta, with responses going to the first player in the empire rather than the one that initiated contact.

Community Manager Mordred Viking is back on Stellaris Official to save you the trouble of reading it!


The StellARTis competition has completed, and winners have been announced! Check out some of their brilliant works.

Next week we’ll start going through some of the many changes coming in 3.8 that aren’t in the Coop Open Beta release.

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

One of the major Custodian features planned for the 3.8 ‘Gemini’ update is the addition of two cooperative gameplay modes. Up to five players will be able to control the same empire and work together to play the game as a team.

Surveys suggested that there are two distinctly different reasons people want to play together.

• I want to play a PvE game of Stellaris with my friends, either to teach them how to play the game or to have a more relaxed game where we can share the duties of empire management.

Stellaris is a complex game, and learning to play can be difficult without a guiding hand. While some people learn well by watching informative videos created by the community, others might do better playing alongside a friend.

• I want to play a multiplayer PvP game of Stellaris where teams of players go up against each other.

The cognitive load when playing competitive multiplayer can be at times overwhelming, especially during wars. Being able to split duties with other players on the same team could provide an enjoyable experience.

We’ve tried to support both goals through two different modes of play, with slightly different game rules.

A new main menu entry exists for starting a Cooperative PvE game where all human players control the same empire.

This will bring them to the Game Browser screen, where one of them can choose to Host a New Game, just like the regular Multiplayer flow.

The hosting player will go directly to Empire Selection, where they can create a new empire or select one they’ve already created as normal, select the Galaxy Settings for the game, and then begin the session.

Unlike regular Multiplayer, the Cooperative PvE flow bypasses the Game Lobby, and the coop players will not need to select an empire. These players hotjoin directly into the hosting player’s empire once the game has begun.

For most purposes, Cooperative PvE is treated the same way as single player PvE is.
The flow for creating a competitive multiplayer coop game is similar to the normal multiplayer flow. One player will host the server, ticking the “Allow Coop” checkbox.



Other players can join the Game Lobby and open their empires up for additional players.


pdx_eladrin has opened his empire up for cooperative play.


After Loner has joined the empire.​

Empires that have been opened for cooperative play add an “inspect” icon to the portrait so prospective players can see the details on the empire before deciding to join.


Inspect a coop empire.​

For more competitive players, the primary player of the empire will be able to lock their empire, which will add a password requirement to joining or inspection.
It’s often useful to know what your teammates are up to. To make it a little easier to understand what’s going on, we’ve added Presence Markers to the UI to show which tabs your teammates are currently using.


pdx_eladrin is currently taking care of our research issues, so Loner can worry about something else.​

We're currently exploring the addition of Goto buttons in the top right corner that will allow you to bring your camera to your teammate’s location, but this isn't fully functional yet. (And is unlikely to be during the Open Beta.)

Events will be shown to all members of a coop team, and any of the players can select a response. The window will remain in place with the selected option marked with the icon of the player that made a choice.


Only one option for this one, but it’s nice to know it’s already been selected.​

Next week we’ll be talking about the 3.8 ‘Gemini’ Open Beta.

As the Coop game modes touch a lot of moving parts, we’d like to gain feedback on your thoughts of how it plays as well as find where desyncs and other bugs crop up before the actual release.

by Eladrin

Happy Thursday!

Thanks to everyone who answered our User Research survey as well as to everyone posting in our Custodian Diplomatic AI Feedback thread.

Originally I was planning on just talking about what was going into 3.7.4, with a potential release date next week, but things went a bit better than expected and as of this morning the 3.7.4 patch has been released. Unless something major crops up, the next Stellaris update is expected to be the 3.8 ‘Gemini’ release during Q2.

This patch includes another adjustment to pre-FTL civilizations being too keen on destroying themselves in atomic fire (they now have a significant chance to have a “close call”, and we've adjusted some of the possibility weights some more), but we have a larger solution planned for 3.8.

STELLARIS ‘CANIS MINOR’ 3.7.4 PATCH NOTES

[expand type=showmore]
BALANCE AND IMPROVEMENTS

• Pre-FTL civilizations now have a chance of having a "close call" when nuclear war threatens to break out.
  
• Payback Origin
  * If you defeat the Debt Collectors three times, the MSI will use the Humiliate war goal against you instead of trying to vassalize you
  * The Debt collectors won't bug you anymore if you're currently at war with the MSI
  * Fixed Payback war goals to ensure you can't vassalize or impose ideology on homicidal empires
  * Slightly increased surrender acceptance of Payback war goals
  * Payback origin: fixed a rare instance where the Debt Collectors event chain could get soft locked if the debt collectors were defeated by another empire
  * Payback empires now get a consolatory prize if the MSI gets destroyed by a Marauder empire
  * Fixed an issue where a Payback empire using the End Threat (Payback) war goal against the MSI could end with a whimper instead of as intended.
  
• Increased starbase reactor power by roughly 15%.
  
• Hive-Minds with both Cordyceptic Drones and Stargazers now start with 3 reanimated amoebae.
  
• Pre-FTL Awareness cannot naturally decay below 10.
  
• The Raise Awareness espionage operation now prevents pre-ftl Awareness from naturally decaying for 5 years.
  
• The Triumviri ending for Fear of the Dark is now achievable from infiltrating the Fevorian government.
  
• Buffed MSI by giving them some bonus naval capacity and starting technologies.

BUG FIXES

• The devolving beam now properly destroys the final contingency world (when boosted with the Archaeo-Engineers Ascension Perk)
  
• Fixed Sabotage Starbase operation failing to destroy starbase components
  
• Fixing a case where you were blocked from building orbital rings on a Fear of the Dark planet
  
• It is no longer possible to acquire multiple Galatrons from reliquaries
  
• Hivemind pre-FTLs will no longer be producing consumer goods.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Solarpunk society wouldn't reattach itself to the galaxy.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Solarpunk society would stay neutral after being attacked.
  
• Fixed an issue where Sol X and your Beta homeworld would overlap.
  
• Fixed the Dark Forest achievement not triggering in some cases due to interactions with marauders.
  
• Construction ship and science ships gained from picking a specialization as part of the Imperial Fiefdom origin now correctly start with hyper drives for empires with the Eager Explorer civics.
  
• Fix AI Empires building hundreds of observation stations if you don't own First Contact
  
• Empire naming adjectives should now be seen for German, Simplified Chinese, and Russian.
  
• Removing an unnecessary progress bar in the clear blocker view.
  
• Removed happiness penalties from unemployment from living standards, these are now solely applied from job strata.
  
• AI with Clone Army Origin now creates clone vats to keep their colonies alive.
  
• Starbases should now correctly reflect their new sensor range on the monthly tick.
  
• Ancient Saturator Artillery tech now unlocks the Spinal Mount Bow section for battleships.
  
• Fixed decloaking in a system with pre-ftls not correctly firing the event to increase awareness.
  
• Broken Shackles empires with robots outlawed now correctly purge machine and mechanical pops.
  
• Terraforming a planet now also has a chance of triggering an awareness increase.
  
• Fix crash when a species doesn't have a valid archetype
  
• Removed ability to use the "reveal yourself" diplomatic action while you're already revealing yourself
  
• Pre-FTL agreements like "give technology" now get correctly removed once a pre-FTL civilization becomes spacefaring
  
• Blocked "Salacious Affair" envoy event from firing on pre-FTL worlds
  
• Removing the option of upgrading at neutral starbases
  
• Fixed the Fear of the Dark Separatist country being localized incorrectly in German, Polish and Spanish.
  
• Added correct icon for Negative Media Coverage modifier.
  
• If a pre-FTL society has more than one planet then none will keep being available for observation once the society becomes fully aware.
  
• Dig sites should no longer generate minor artifacts for users that do not own Ancient Relics DLC
  
• Corrected icon for Declining Healthcare modifier.
  
• Class-4 Singularity can now be constructed when rewarded by event.
  
• Made it so you can't get an option in an espionage event that requires an interference policy that doesn't allow for espionage.
  
• Genocidal empires can now use assimilation species rights targeting their species. This should fix Fanatic Purifiers not being able to cybernetically or psionically assimilate lost colonies, splinter planets or the like.
  
• Adding missing cloaking stat on ship design view.
  
• Blocking the possibility of terraforming while the planet is under colonization.
  
• Fixed a crash when loading old savegames
  
• Fixed tooltip bug with fleets from defensive pacts in a war.

[/expand]
As part of our ongoing efforts to make the game less daunting for new and returning players, we’ve discovered a UX Insight Technology while observing the pre-FTL games made by our sibling studios. In 3.8 we’ll be introducing Concepts as a variant of the nested tooltips you may be familiar with from Crusader Kings or Victoria.

Our primary goal with Concepts is to simplify tooltips while providing the means to get more information than before. Instead of cluttering the base tooltips with complete details, you can dig down to learn more about key terms as desired. While it may change for the final release, Concepts are currently planned to always be shown in a specific Teal color. After a brief delay (or after clicking the middle mouse button), a tooltip that possesses in-line Concepts will lock into place as shown below.

Our initial efforts in introducing these have been focused on the Galaxy Settings before starting a new game to further explain some details that might not be obvious at first glance, but to fully explain would bloat the normal tooltip into a wall of text.


An Example of Concepts

While Concepts in 3.8 will initially be limited exclusively to Galaxy Settings, we’re planning on expanding the use of Concepts to Empire Creation and beyond during the Custodian releases over the next year.

SPOILER: CONCEPT DETAILS FOR MODDERS
[expand type=showmore]
common\game_concepts will have a 00_game_concepts.txt where we define concepts, alongside icons and aliases.


Any concept that does not have an icon defined will default to a "thinking cloud" icon that's in Defines.



Marauder Empires concept, showing off the default icon.

Concepts themselves are referenced in-line in localization using the ['concept'] notation:


The text for the generated tooltip is defined by the concept name you defined earlier, and by default, will use the base concept name _desc. Aliases let you reuse _desc text easily.


If desired, you can make it show something other than the base concept name as the Cyan tooltip. For example, here we wanted the Unity symbol to also count for the mouseover tooltip. (Tip: Use non-breaking spaces so the mouseover region sticks together if you do this!)


Concept text can itself have additional further concepts within it.

We've added a few new text colors to fonts.gfx that we use exclusively for Concept tooltips. While §K and §I are identical to §H and §Y, they're separate in case we want to change them.

[/expand]

Next week we’ll start going through the main features we’ll be adding in Gemini, and (hopefully) some details on our planned 3.8.0 Gemini Open Beta.



Tofu’s been studying.

by PDX-Loke

Hello,

While you were busy upgrading cloaked fleets at enemy starbases and buying multiple galatrons, the team has kept on fixing and tweaking.
The 3.7.4 patch is ready and available for download now.

Please find the patch notes below.


BALANCE AND IMPROVEMENTS

• Pre-FTL civilizations now have a chance of having a "close call" when nuclear war threatens to break out.
  
• Payback Origin
  
  * If you defeat the Debt Collectors three times, the MSI will use the Humiliate war goal against you instead of trying to vassalize you * The Debt collectors won't bug you anymore if you're currently at war with the MSI * Fixed Payback war goals to ensure you can't vassalize or impose ideology on homicidal empires * Slightly increased surrender acceptance of Payback war goals * Payback origin: fixed a rare instance where the Debt Collectors event chain could get soft locked if the debt collectors were defeated by another empire * Payback empires now get a consolatory prize if the MSI gets destroyed by a Marauder empire * Fixed an issue where a Payback empire using the End Threat (Payback) war goal against the MSI could end with a whimper instead of as intended.
• Increased starbase reactor power by roughly 15%.
  
• Hive-Minds with both Cordyceptic Drones and Stargazers now start with 3 reanimated amoebae.
  
• Pre-FTL Awareness cannot naturally decay below 10.
  
• The Raise Awareness espionage operation now prevents pre-ftl Awareness from naturally decaying for 5 years.
  
• The Triumviri ending for Fear of the Dark is now achievable from infiltrating the Fevorian government.
  
• Buffed MSI by giving them some bonus naval capacity and starting technologies.

BUG FIXES

• The devolving beam now properly destroys the final contingency world (when boosted with the Archaeo-Engineers Ascension Perk)
  
• Fixed Sabotage Starbase operation failing to destroy starbase components
  
• Fixing a case where you were blocked from building orbital rings on a Fear of the Dark planet
  
• It is no longer possible to acquire multiple Galatrons from reliquaries
  
• Hivemind pre-FTLs will no longer be producing consumer goods.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Solarpunk society wouldn't reattach itself to the galaxy.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Solarpunk society would stay neutral after being attacked.
  
• Fixed an issue where Sol X and your Beta homeworld would overlap.
  
• Fixed the Dark Forest achievement not triggering in some cases due to interactions with marauders.
  
• Construction ship and science ships gained from picking a specialization as part of the Imperial Fiefdom origin now correctly start with hyper drives for empires with the Eager Explorer civics.
  
• Fix AI Empires building hundreds of observation stations if you don't own First Contact
  
• Empire naming adjectives should now be seen for German, Simplified Chinese, and Russian.
  
• Removing an unnecessary progress bar in the clear blocker view.
  
• Removed happiness penalties from unemployment from living standards, these are now solely applied from job strata.
  
• AI with Clone Army Origin now creates clone vats to keep their colonies alive.
  
• Starbases should now correctly reflect their new sensor range on the monthly tick.
  
• Ancient Saturator Artillery tech now unlocks the Spinal Mount Bow section for battleships.
  
• Fixed decloaking in a system with pre-ftls not correctly firing the event to increase awareness.
  
• Broken Shackles empires with robots outlawed now correctly purge machine and mechanical pops.
  
• Terraforming a planet now also has a chance of triggering an awareness increase.
  
• Fix crash when a species doesn't have a valid archetype
  
• Removed ability to use the "reveal yourself" diplomatic action while you're already revealing yourself
  
• Pre-FTL agreements like "give technology" now get correctly removed once a pre-FTL civilization becomes spacefaring
  
• Blocked "Salacious Affair" envoy event from firing on pre-FTL worlds
  
• Removing the option of upgrading at neutral starbases
  
• Fixed the Fear of the Dark Separatist country being localized incorrectly in German, Polish and Spanish.
  
• Added correct icon for Negative Media Coverage modifier.
  
• If a pre-FTL society has more than one planet then none will keep being available for observation once the society becomes fully aware.
  
• Dig sites should no longer generate minor artifacts for users that do not own Ancient Relics DLC
  
• Corrected icon for Declining Healthcare modifier.
  
• Class-4 Singularity can now be constructed when rewarded by event.
  
• Made it so you can't get an option in an espionage event that requires an interference policy that doesn't allow for espionage.
  
• Genocidal empires can now use assimilation species rights targeting their species. This should fix Fanatic Purifiers not being able to cybernetically or psionically assimilate lost colonies, splinter planets or the like.
  
• Adding missing cloaking stat on ship design view.
  
• Blocking the possibility of terraforming while the planet is under colonization.
  
• Fixed a crash when loading old savegames
  
• Fixed tooltip bug with fleets from defensive pacts in a war.

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.