Dec 7, 2023

Stellaris Dev Diary #325 - 3.10.3 "Pyxis" Released [d2aa] + Further Beta Plans

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hi everyone,

The 3.10.3 "Pyxis" update has been released. This release focused primarily on stability, and the contents are identical to the Open Beta that was released on Tuesday.

3.10.3 "Pyxis" Patch Notes

Improvements

Now ‘New Entries’ notification on the outliner tabs is cleared, even when switching between tabs using keyboard shortcuts.
Ulastar is now an advisor
Vas the Gilded is now an ambassador

Balance

Pre-FTLs in Federation's End now have their technological progress frozen

Bugfixes

Fixed a number of event or paragon leaders not being generated with the correct traits
Fixed envoys passively gaining XP
Fixed missing subtitle for Scout trait
Pre-FTL Empires will now have a fully functional council when they ascend to the stars.
Released Vassals will now have a fully functional council when released.

Stability

Fix crash on startup for Linux (including Steam Deck).
Fix crash related to modifiers of recently destroyed empires updating
Fixed crash when surveying a planet that was just removed from the map

Removed some empty space in the topbar

Modding

Added moddable_conditions_custom_tooltip parameter to civics modification statement to allow displaying a custom requirement key when no condition has been specified
Fixed civics modifications statements not always (not) allowing the correct civic changes
Improved error logging to know which federation perk is invalid

We currently have plans for another update this cycle with some more fixes, including an AI fix to encourage them to recruit an appropriate number of scientists. As with the last few, we plan on putting it on the stellaris_test branch on Tuesday, for release later on in the week.

What’s After 3.10.4?

Tentatively scheduled for next Friday, we plan on putting up a longer open beta over the holidays that seeks to collect feedback regarding some potential balance changes to ship production, upkeep, and research in general.

Stellaris has undergone a significant amount of power creep over the years, and the speed at which we're able to burn through the entire technology tree is much higher than is healthy for the game. Due to the large number of stacking research speed modifiers, repeatable technologies are reached far too early in the game. Another power creep issue mentioned by many players, it's also become trivial to stack large numbers of ship build cost and ship upkeep reduction modifiers.

The Holiday Open Beta will be a feature branch that contains the following changes, which may or may not go into 3.11 (or 3.12, or any release at all for that matter). Similar to how we handled Industrial Districts several years ago, we're intentionally keeping these separated from core 3.11 development, isolating this in a parallel track.

We’ll have a feedback form set up to collect your thoughts, and the Open Beta will run until the middle of January.

Holiday Open Beta Preliminary Notes

Research Speed Bonuses now usually come with increased Researcher Upkeep.
- By changing these to throughput bonuses (cost + production), a technology focused empire will require more Consumer Goods or other resources depending on who they use to research. This puts a partial economic break on runaway technology.
Reduction in most Research Speed bonus modifiers.
The +20% research field technologies have been turned into "Breakthrough" technologies that gate progress to the next tier of research.
- Whether it be the transistor, the theory of relativity, or faster-than-light travel, occasionally there are technologies that redefine a field of science.
  - The intent of these breakthrough technologies is to slow down the front-runners a little bit, while still letting the slower empires get pulled along.
- Once a theory has been proven, it's easier for others to replicate those learnings.
- Breakthrough technologies start off more difficult than regular technologies but have a variant of tech spread - the more nations you have at least low Technological intel on who have already discovered them, the cheaper they are to research (even down to instant research once the theory is commonplace). This tech spread varies based on galaxy size.
  - Enigmatic Engineering prevents this tech spread.
- Breakthrough technologies have animated borders to stand out.
Reduced Output of Researcher Jobs:
- Researchers and their gestalt equivalents now produce 3 of each research instead of 4
- Head Researchers now produce 4 of each research instead of 6
- The effectiveness of Ministry of Science has been halved
- Astral Researchers now produce 5 physics and 1 of each other research instead of 5 physics and 2 of the other researches.
- All other researchers, such as Necromancers, have been left alone for now
The Technology curve has been changed from 1000 × 2^n to 500 × (2^n + 3^n), making the difference between an early and late-game tech more distinct.
Replaced or removed most sources of Ship Cost and Upkeep reductions from the game.
- Military Buildup Agenda now improves ship build speed and reduces claim costs. (It still reduces War Exhaustion on completion.)
- Naval Procurement Officer councilor now improves ship build speed.
- Crusader Spirit civic now improves ship build speed.
- Psionic Supremacy (Eater of Worlds) finisher no longer reduces ship build costs.
- Vyctor's Improved Fleet Logistics trait now reduces ship build costs by 10% instead of 20%.
- Progress Oriented modifier no longer reduces ship build costs.
- Match tradition in the Enmity tree bonus to ship build costs reduced to 5% instead of 10%.
- Master Shipwrights tradition in the Supremacy tree no longer reduces ship build costs.
- Chosen of the Eater of Worlds ship build cost reduction reduced to 5% from 15%, and no longer modifies ship upkeep.
- Military Pioneer trait now reduces starbase upgrade costs instead of ship build costs.
- Shipwright trait no longer reduces ship build costs.
- Reduced penalty the Irenic trait applies to ship build costs.
- Sanctum of the Eater ship upkeep reduction reduced from 10% to 5%.
- Mark of the Instrument ship component no longer reduces ship upkeep.
- Grand Fleet ambition now increases power projection instead of reducing ship upkeep.
- Fleet Supremacy edict no longer reduces ship upkeep.
- Corporate Crusader Spirit now reduces ship upkeep by 5% instead of 10%.
- Bulwark ship upkeep reductions reduced by 50%.
- Logistic Understanding, Armada Logistician, and Gunboat Diplomat traits now reduces ship upkeep while docked

#MODJAM2024 Signups are open!

Over the holiday period, we will be running another Mod Jam. This year’s theme will be revealed on December 12th, and sign ups will close on December 14th. The Community team will be posting weekly Mod Jam updates in place of our weekly Dev Diaries, so you can still get your weekly Stellaris fix.

We’ve currently scheduled the Mod Jam mod to release on January 11th! If you’re interested in participating, you can get more details and sign up here. You can also subscribe to the Mod Jam mod here, and get it as soon as it releases.

Nov 29, 2023

Stellaris Dev Diary #324 - 3.10.2 "Pyxis" Released and December Plans

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hi all!

With another busy week of bugfixing, the 3.10.2 "Pyxis" patch is now live on all platforms. So far, 689,121 Astral Rifts have been explored by you.

This release contains a fix to a common MacOS crash, fixes to ship build costs being applied, and adds full customization to the outliner tabs.

To those of you that read Monday's post about the Beta, some of this isn't news to you so you can skip to the end where I'll talk about the planned 3.10.3 and 3.10.4. The released patch is identical to the 3.10.2 Open Beta.

3.10.2 “PYXIS” PATCH NOTES

Features

Added custom tab functionality to the outliner

Balance

Paragon leader Nasuz Demetor is now reclassed as Scholar and only has one Destiny trait (Vibrant Storyteller)
Payback Origin: the "Declining Healthcare" modifier acquired during the "Out Of Warranty" event chain is now automatically removed after 5 years
The Agrarian Upbringing trait can now be gained by all leader classes
The Agrarian Upbringing trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Architectural Interest trait can now be gained by both officials and scientists
The Army Veteran trait can now be gained by both scientists and officials
The Army Veteran trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Enlister trait has been moved from officials to commanders and now gives soldiers to the governed planet (tier 1) and sector (tier 2)
The Entangled Dark Matter astral rift now completely overwrites the personalty of the selected scientist if they are not psionic
The Environmental Engineering trait can now be gained by all leader classes
The Environmental Engineering trait is less likely to be rolled if the leader's empire has the Environmentalist civic
The Environmental Engineering trait now requires a blocker removal tech to be researched
The Foreign Consciousness trait is now a destiny trait
The Kaleidoscope now has a chance of appearing anytime after midgame starts, instead of always appearing at the start of midgame
The Mining, Farming and Generator focus traits have moved from officials to commanders
The Planetary Analyst destiny trait can now be gained by both commanders and scientists
The Retired Fleet Officer trait can now be gained by both scientists and officials
The Retired Fleet Officer trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Righteous trait can now be gained by both commanders and officials
The Traumatized trait now negatively impacts Astral Rift Exploration Speed
The Unifier trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Xeno-Mediator destiny trait can now be gained by all classes

Bugfixes

Astral Rifts now appear as not leading to anywhere when the player's astral rift pool is empty
Blocked commanders for end-game crisis factions having non-admiral traits
Corrected draw weight for Shipbreaker trait
Corrected modifiers on Agrarian Upbringing
Corrected some trait names
Correctly locked a number of Delegate GalCom focus traits to require the DLC that unlocks their resolution category
Dimensional Locks now forbid access to countries without communications
Fixed a number of opposite trait pairs not taking into account their levelled versions
Fixed a visible trigger check in the first contact description for Amoebas and Crystalline Entities
Fixed all leaders in imperial empires using the regnal namelists instead of only the ruler and heir
Fixed an error in the "Out of Warranty" event chain that occasionally left you stuck with a permanent "Declining Healthcare" modifier
Fixed Ancient Rampart not applying its modifiers correctly
Fixed astral rifts exploration UI getting locked when all narratives had been explored
Fixed dimensional dump astral rift sometimes creating a leader with no name
Fixed Dimensional Shrine not being buildable in Terminal Egress system
Fixed discoveries tab not being displayed when tabs order has been customized
Fixed heirs being able to have planar theorist trait despite not being capable of exploring astral rifts
Fixed leader age staying frozen after leaving an Astral Rift
Fixed missing 0 on Collaborator II's sector modifier
Fixed outliner sometimes opening the astral rift view on the wrong rift when clicking on a ship exploring an astral rift
Fixed reformating regulatory node agenda for machine empires
Fixed Revolutionary Medi-Gel not affecting Pharma State civic production for Medical Workers
Fixed ship build cost modifiers not being applied
Fixed starting gestalt nodes not benefiting from initial leader level modifiers
Fixed the Numistic Administration species trait
Fixed the right-click menu not appearing for archaeology sites
Fixed some modifiers with a multiplier not being applied
Fixed the Surveyor relic trying to fire an effect on a habitat orbital when none exists
The Ancient Ramparts Starbase Module now mentions what modifiers it has to Defense Platforms
The astral rifts now correctly check for Chosen One traits in addition to the Psionic trait
The empire created by the Animator of Clay now correctly spawns their council
The Factory Focus trait is no longer blocked for gestalts, but instead checks that they have a use for consumer goods instead (ie it is valid for Rogue Servitors)
The Sensor Array Power Surge event can no longer target Astral Scars, planets with deposits or planets that have a habitat orbital
Updated science nexus events to check for renowned and legendary paragon scientists

Stability

Mac crash fix (one of threads run out of the stack mem by alloca in a loop)
Workaround for rare crash when rendering empire borders

Performance

Fixed performance issues caused by outliner notification.

When adding council positions, AI will prioritize Head of Research, Minister of Defense and Minister of State if it doesn't have them

Modding

Added @anti_synergy_weight_mult scripted variable for leader trait weights
Added ai_priority to councilor type
Added background_planet scope for leaders
Added has_blocker_removal_tech scripted trigger
Added Ship Class modifiers for armor and shield hardening, `shipclass_<class>_armor_hardening_add` and `shipclass_<class>_shield_hardening_add`
Updated LEADER_GOVERNOR_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_ASSIGNED_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE

This release does not yet have fixes for two Linux issues, but we have workarounds for two of them:

If you are crashing on startup, players have reported that starting Steam, disabling the internet, then loading the game bypasses the issue. Internet can be reenabled afterwards.
If you are crashing while hosting a multiplayer game on Ubuntu 20.04, switching to Cross Platform multiplayer appears to resolve the issue. It is also not present on Ubuntu 22.04.

Players have also reported issues with certain event leaders missing traits and envoys convincing themselves they're real people, these will be fixed in 3.10.3.

Outliner Customization

In 3.10.2, we've added the ability to fully customize your Outliner tabs. In your Outliner Options, there is now a toggle for Custom Outliner Tab, which will let you select any elements you wish to show on that particular tab. This should allow you to set up your tabs however you desire, including putting everything on a single tab or duplicating the same information across different tabs if you wish. (For example, if you want a "Peace" and "War" tab, with different information or sorting.)

So What's Next?

We're continuing to focus on stability and bugfixing for the next few weeks.

3.10.3 is planned for next week, and we plan on continuing the pattern of releasing the build early as an Open Beta while it's undergoing certification.

3.10.4 is expected the week after that, and will include translated localization for the various changes made in the first three patches. (As well as further bugfixing as needed.)

And After That?

The 3.11 "Eridanus" update in 2024Q1 will focus on stability, AI, and balance.

We're planning on running a balance related Open Beta over the holidays to collect feedback regarding some experiments around Research.

Nov 27, 2023

3.10.2 "Pyxis" Steam Open Beta

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello!

We've just released an update to the Stellaris Test branch on Steam, containing the 3.10.2 patch that is currently in certification for release later this week. Of particular note, this release includes a fix to a common MacOS crash (that also turned out to be affecting other operating systems, just not quite as consistently) and full Outliner customization.

3.10.2 “PYXIS” BETA PATCH NOTES

Features

Added custom tab functionality to the outliner

Balance

Paragon leader Nasuz Demetor is now reclassed as Scholar and only has one Destiny trait (Vibrant Storyteller)
Payback Origin: the "Declining Healthcare" modifier acquired during the "Out Of Warranty" event chain is now automatically removed after 5 years
The Agrarian Upbringing trait can now be gained by all leader classes
The Agrarian Upbringing trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Architectural Interest trait can now be gained by both officials and scientists
The Army Veteran trait can now be gained by both scientists and officials
The Army Veteran trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Enlister trait has been moved from officials to commanders and now gives soldiers to the governed planet (tier 1) and sector (tier 2)
The Entangled Dark Matter astral rift now completely overwrites the personalty of the selected scientist if they are not psionic
The Environmental Engineering trait can now be gained by all leader classes
The Environmental Engineering trait is less likely to be rolled if the leader's empire has the Environmentalist civic
The Environmental Engineering trait now requires a blocker removal tech to be researched
The Foreign Consciousness trait is now a destiny trait
The Kaleidoscope now has a chance of appearing anytime after midgame starts, instead of always appearing at the start of midgame
The Mining, Farming and Generator focus traits have moved from officials to commanders
The Planetary Analyst destiny trait can now be gained by both commanders and scientists
The Retired Fleet Officer trait can now be gained by both scientists and officials
The Retired Fleet Officer trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Righteous trait can now be gained by both commanders and officials
The Traumatized trait now negatively impacts Astral Rift Exploration Speed
The Unifier trait is less likely to be rolled if another leader has the trait
The Xeno-Mediator destiny trait can now be gained by all classes

Bugfixes

Astral Rifts now appear as not leading to anywhere when the player's astral rift pool is empty
Blocked commanders for end-game crisis factions having non-admiral traits
Corrected draw weight for Shipbreaker trait
Corrected modifiers on Agrarian Upbringing
Corrected some trait names
Correctly locked a number of Delegate GalCom focus traits to require the DLC that unlocks their resolution category
Dimensional Locks now forbid access to countries without communications
Fixed a number of opposite trait pairs not taking into account their levelled versions
Fixed a visible trigger check in the first contact description for Amoebas and Crystalline Entities
Fixed all leaders in imperial empires using the regnal namelists instead of only the ruler and heir
Fixed an error in the "Out of Warranty" event chain that occasionally left you stuck with a permanent "Declining Healthcare" modifier
Fixed Ancient Rampart not applying its modifiers correctly
Fixed astral rifts exploration UI getting locked when all narratives had been explored
Fixed dimensional dump astral rift sometimes creating a leader with no name
Fixed Dimensional Shrine not being buildable in Terminal Egress system
Fixed discoveries tab not being displayed when tabs order has been customized
Fixed heirs being able to have planar theorist trait despite not being capable of exploring astral rifts
Fixed leader age staying frozen after leaving an Astral Rift
Fixed missing 0 on Collaborator II's sector modifier
Fixed outliner sometimes opening the astral rift view on the wrong rift when clicking on a ship exploring an astral rift
Fixed reformating regulatory node agenda for machine empires
Fixed Revolutionary Medi-Gel not affecting Pharma State civic production for Medical Workers
Fixed ship build cost modifiers not being applied
Fixed starting gestalt nodes not benefiting from initial leader level modifiers
Fixed the Numistic Administration species trait
Fixed the right-click menu not appearing for archaeology sites
Fixed some modifiers with a multiplier not being applied
Fixed the Surveyor relic trying to fire an effect on a habitat orbital when none exists
The Ancient Ramparts Starbase Module now mentions what modifiers it has to Defense Platforms
The astral rifts now correctly check for Chosen One traits in addition to the Psionic trait
The empire created by the Animator of Clay now correctly spawns their council
The Factory Focus trait is no longer blocked for gestalts, but instead checks that they have a use for consumer goods instead (ie it is valid for Rogue Servitors)
The Sensor Array Power Surge event can no longer target Astral Scars, planets with deposits or planets that have a habitat orbital
Updated science nexus events to check for renowned and legendary paragon scientists

Stability

Mac crash fix (one of threads run out of the stack mem by alloca in a loop)
Workaround for rare crash when rendering empire borders

Performance

Fixed performance issues caused by outliner notification.

When adding council positions, AI will prioritize Head of Research, Minister of Defense and Minister of State if it doesn't have them

Modding

Added @anti_synergy_weight_mult scripted variable for leader trait weights
Added ai_priority to councilor type
Added background_planet scope for leaders
Added has_blocker_removal_tech scripted trigger
Added Ship Class modifiers for armor and shield hardening, `shipclass_<class>_armor_hardening_add` and `shipclass_<class>_shield_hardening_add`
Updated LEADER_GOVERNOR_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_ASSIGNED_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE

Please note that the 3.10.2 "Pyxis" Open Beta 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 - 3.10.2 Open Beta" branch.

This release does not yet have fixes for two Linux issues, but we have workarounds for two of them:

If you are crashing on startup, players have reported that starting Steam, disabling the internet, then loading the game bypasses the issue. Internet can be reenabled afterwards.
If you are crashing while hosting a multiplayer game on Ubuntu 20.04, switching to Cross Platform multiplayer appears to resolve the issue. It is also not present on Ubuntu 22.04.

Outliner Customization

Nov 23, 2023

3.10.1 "Pyxis" Update Released

Stellaris - MrFreake_PDX

Hi everyone!

We have just released the 3.10.1 "Pyxis" update! This update is identical to the Steam Open Beta that we put up earlier this week, and includes a number of fixes as well as hotkeys for the Tabbed Outliner.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Stellaris Community for their patience and bug reports. Without your help we would not have been able to address so many issues so quickly. Please keep on providing your bug reports and feedback.

We are currently still investigating and fixing a number of other issues, and this will not be the last update to 3.10, including issues on MacOS, more bugfixes, and adding full customization to the Outliner.

Please find the patch notes below:

3.10.1 “Pyxis” Patch Notes

[expand type=details]
Improvements

Added Ctrl+A/D shortcuts to cycle through outliner tabs. Also added Ctrl+Q/W/E/R to switch to specific tabs. Added tooltips for them. These tooltips are currently in English regardless of language setting
Clarified tooltip headers for governor traits.

Balance

AI empires generated as part of the Common Ground and Hegemony origins now start with an additional Official to be assigned to the Federation
Blocked empire rulers and imperial heirs from getting the Planar Theorist trait
Commissioner subclass now increases stability from soldiers instead of providing additional soldier jobs
Decreased the chance for leaders to get common governor traits if they do not have a governor subclass or are not governing
Decreased the chance of leaders gaining job providing traits
Detail-Oriented has been updated to be a Destiny trait for Scholars, instead of a Veteran trait
Explorer subclass now has +1 Sensor Range
Halved the effects of the Politician trait
Having a Commander govern a planet or sector now provides soldier jobs
Increased the chances of the Prospector trait to fire.
Oppressive Autocracy now has the colony shelter building replace a colonist job with an enforcer job
Policies that increase leader starting level now greatly increase leader hiring cost and upkeep cost.
Rebalanced traits that affect research output from jobs while governing
Reduced the magnitude of most governor modifiers.
Removed the "can only get Council traits" restriction on rulers in Democracies, Oligarchies and MegaCorps. (For modders, this is using the is_autocracy scripted trigger)
Replaced Champions of the Empire +1 Initial Leader Level with +1 Additional Trait
Resources from Psionic Pops modifier now applies to latent psionic species.
Reworked Driven Educator to instead provide +25% Leader XP gain
Slightly decreased the bonuses from Custom AI Assistant and Sapient AI Assistant traits
Slightly decreased the penalties from the Neurosis trait
Soldier jobs now produce a small amount of base stability.
Traits that give homeworld jobs now require leaders to be at least level 2
You can no longer sell exceptional materials (astral threads and minor artifacts) to the AI.

Bugfixes

"The Seal" situation is aborted if you attack [ISPOILER]the formless[/ispoiler]
Added missing descriptions for multiple ship component categories (reactor, auras, combat computers)
Added missing node xp modifiers to the Astral Planes civics for gestalt empires.
AI empires with the Fruitful Partnership origin will stop opening seed pods on Holy Words only to get obliterated by angry fallen empires
All types of priest jobs (e.g. high priests, numistic priests) now benefit from the additional trade value from the Dimensional Enterprise council position.
Blocked Entrepreneur (Ambassador) trait for gestalt empires, fanatic purifiers, inward perfectionists and criminal syndicates
Blocked the Charmer and Research Exchange traits for genocidal empires and inwards perfectionists
Clarified that the First Contact civics give an increased chance to draw FTL travel technologies (English only)
Corrected all versions of Sovereign Guardianship to have 150% Empire Size from systems
Corrected draw weights for a number of leader traits
Empires can no longer spawn with multiple ministers of defense under some cases, such as being The Chosen.
Empires created via status quo peace deals will now correctly generate their council.
Explicitly blocked trading of gestalt nodes (instead of them being implicitly blocked)
Fixed 2 zroni digsites pointing to a deprecated title.
Fixed a bug that allowed you to enact the "Dayside Farm" decision multiple times on a single planet.
Fixed a case where the "Abandoned Star Platform" anomaly would leave the system's primary star without a deposit
Fixed a case where the "Ion Trail" event would occasionally pick the same system it spawned in for the follow-up event
Fixed a large number of planetary features that were providing incorrect bonuses due to changes with Mastery of Nature
Fixed a typo in the event text for the "Blinding Grief" event
Fixed calculations for determining trade values gained from slaves
Fixed commanders wearing the wrong uniform on planetary assignments.
Fixed crystal rift situations checking for the wrong amount of resources to validate approaches
Fixed Crystal Sphere stolen events not using the correct texts and picture
Fixed Crystal Sphere stolen events triggering when the crystal sphere situations are no longer active
Fixed Dark Consortium displaying flag information in tooltip instead of the standard loc key for this situation
Fixed Dark Consortium not locking the civic when being played from start
Fixed Dark Matter Breakthrough agenda always stating it will locks the civic, even if it already is
Fixed descriptions for Artisan Drones showing in district tooltips when none were present
Fixed Eager Explorers giving two +50% chances to draw Improved Structural Integrity
Fixed Efficient Staffing III applying the incorrect modifiers, leading to no sector modifiers.
Fixed habitat and archaeology lab technologies missing increased chance to be drawn from being rare technologies
Fixed hostile fleets being capable of crossing dimensional locks
Fixed Imperial Heirs sometimes spawning with the incorrect initial level for their class.
Fixed issue with concepts being offset for all languages using TTF (fonts)
Fixed missing AI weights for some council positions
Fixed missing localisation for Clone Army Commander traits
Fixed outdated tooltips in diplomacy with Trader Enclaves
Fixed some empires, such as Common Ground federation members or MSI, starting with duplicated council positions.
Fixed some triggered modifiers from leader traits not being applied.
Fixed starbases not inheriting modifiers from their country
Fixed strange wormhole breaking existing wormhole in the same system if any when spawning
Fixed that culled/reformatted nodes would not have a level 1 trait.
Fixed that culling/reformatting the Regulatory Node would not create a new one.
Fixed the "Dissolved" astral rift event leaving a ship stuck in an endless MIA loop
Fixed the Archivist trait giving scientists additional levels
Fixed the sector modifier for Ruthless Developer
Fixed Tree of Life and Lithoid Crater deposits not providing all of their bonuses
Fixed Urbanist trait displaying it was tier 1 and for any class when it is not a tiered trait and only for the Official
For players without Galactic Paragons, Officials should no longer roll GalCom traits if you are not a member of the GalCom or Federation traits if you are not a member of a Federation
Galactic Community Delegates now correctly multiply their diplomatic weight bonus by their level, instead of their level squared.
If your capital is in the Formless home system, The Vacuum Flower relic now correctly grants you Astral Threads
Made the first option in Black Hole Instability requiring Astral Threads instead of rewarding them
Only leaders eligible for a specific council position should show up as potential recruits.
Pre-Sapient pops no longer help you upgrade your capital buildings earlier.
Prospector trait should no longer fire twice for Volatile Motes
Removed Artisan Drone jobs from ringworld industrial segment if it is not set to factory designation.
Removed reference to Imperial Heirs not having unity upkeep.
Repaired Shattered Ringworlds now use the correct graphics
Scrapping the warship in the "Adrift" event now correctly awards you Alloys instead of Minerals
Scrapping the warship in the "Warship Destroyed" event now correctly awards you Alloys instead of Minerals
Stopped certain events from accidentally adding anomalies or terraforming Astral Scars
The Excavator trait no longer erroneously requires the Rift Sphere technology
The formless don't talk to you lightly anymore if you become hostile
The Geology Expert, Manufacturer, and Observer traits no longer state that they are Scientist traits
The leader trait "Trader II" now correctly applies its effect to the whole sector
The Manifesti's Head in the Clouds demand now checks for scientists on the council correctly
The Mass Extinction Event Chain should work properly again.
The plasmic species trait now has a slave cost of 2500 energy credits.
The Scout trait no longer states it applies to military fleets for scientists
The Tyznn Tithe trait is no longer possible to acquire by levelling up.
The UNE will no longer spawn a third human empire to hang out with them for no reason.
The Void Dweller initializing effects will no longer generate habitable worlds with no deposits.
Updated the upgraded version of the Assembler trait to use the correct modifiers
Vassalizing [ISPOILER]the formless[/ispoiler] will now transfer their system to them if you happen to own it.
Vibrant Storyteller is correctly marked as a Destiny trait for Scholars, not Explorers
When loading a save, update some modifiers that previously weren't updated.
You can now use the Astral Jump Astral Action if you have Psionic Jump Drives or Subspace Drives.
[ISPOILER]zadigal[/ispoiler] is now correctly fired if you declare war with [ISPOILER]the Formless[/ispoiler] on their recruitment day

Fixed AI assigning leaders to Galcom when it shouldn't be possible.

Stability

Fix for crash when running unlock_council_slots effect.

Added text to system debug tooltip to separate the different lists of modifiers.
Anomaly view "Research Time" label is hidden when the research time is hidden.
Changed Change Scientist hotkey in Situation Log anomaly view to G.
DLC list is now shown in the Cooperative game setup.
Fixed empire creation UI remaining visible while ACB is open.
Fixed layout of "no scientists" text in anomaly view.
Fixed portrait frame appearing to the left of the anomaly UI if you have no science ships with scientists.
Fixed portrait tooltip in anomaly view incorrectly saying that you can right-click to remove the leader.
In the anomaly window, if you get a valid scientist while no scientist is selected, that scientist is automatically selected.
In the anomaly window, the Change Scientist button is disabled if there is no valid scientist available.
Updated the leader ethics tooltip to mention planetary and sector governor ethics attraction
Fixed leader XP bar showing the wrong tooltip

Modding

Added a init_effect field to spawn_natural_wormhole effect
Added additional documentation to 00_base_classes.txt
Moved events action.504 and .505 to event leader.200 and .201
Removed initial_effect_custom_loc from agendas. The initial effect's tooltip is now directly built from the initial effect
The link_wormholes effect can now be used on the bypass scope

[/expand]

We want to thank you again for your patience, and thank you for playing Stellaris!

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.

Nov 21, 2023

Stellaris Dev Diary #323 - 3.10.1 "Pyxis" Beta and Next Steps

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Greetings!

Stellaris 3.10.0 “Pyxis” and the Astral Planes Narrative Expansion released last Thursday, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride, so I moved this week’s dev diary a bit earlier than usual.

Due to an error we made in metadata, many players were unable to verify ownership of the DLC at launch. We pushed a quick hotfix, which resolved these issues for some players, while also introducing a different ownership issue through a checksum error, which prevented other people from being able to properly explore the expansion. We finally managed to fix all of these problems midday on Friday. I want to thank everyone who provided bug reports and helped us diagnose the dlc ownership issues, we wouldn’t have been able to resolve them so quickly without your help.

I’m terribly sorry for the poor launch.

We’ve just put a beta branch up on Steam containing the 3.10.1 release, which is currently planned to be deployed to live on Thursday. This release includes a number of bugfixes, as well as hotkeys for the Tabbed Outliner. Let us know what you think.

The hotkeys are CTRL+A/D for switching to the previous/next tab and CTRL+Q/W/E/R for switching to a tab directly (much like Z/X/C/V switches between tabs in other UIs, such as the planetary view).

3.10.1 “PYXIS” BETA PATCH NOTES

Improvements

Added Ctrl+A/D shortcuts to cycle through outliner tabs. Also added Ctrl+Q/W/E/R to switch to specific tabs. Added tooltips for them. These tooltips are currently in English regardless of language setting
Clarified tooltip headers for governor traits.

Balance

AI empires generated as part of the Common Ground and Hegemony origins now start with an additional Official to be assigned to the Federation
Blocked empire rulers and imperial heirs from getting the Planar Theorist trait
Commissioner subclass now increases stability from soldiers instead of providing additional soldier jobs
Decreased the chance for leaders to get common governor traits if they do not have a governor subclass or are not governing
Decreased the chance of leaders gaining job providing traits
Detail-Oriented has been updated to be a Destiny trait for Scholars, instead of a Veteran trait
Explorer subclass now has +1 Sensor Range
Halved the effects of the Politician trait
Having a Commander govern a planet or sector now provides soldier jobs
Increased the chances of the Prospector trait to fire.
Oppressive Autocracy now has the colony shelter building replace a colonist job with an enforcer job
Policies that increase leader starting level now greatly increase leader hiring cost and upkeep cost.
Rebalanced traits that affect research output from jobs while governing
Reduced the magnitude of most governor modifiers.
Removed the "can only get Council traits" restriction on rulers in Democracies, Oligarchies and MegaCorps. (For modders, this is using the is_autocracy scripted trigger)
Replaced Champions of the Empire +1 Initial Leader Level with +1 Additional Trait
Resources from Psionic Pops modifier now applies to latent psionic species.
Reworked Driven Educator to instead provide +25% Leader XP gain
Slightly decreased the bonuses from Custom AI Assistant and Sapient AI Assistant traits
Slightly decreased the penalties from the Neurosis trait
Soldier jobs now produce a small amount of base stability.
Traits that give homeworld jobs now require leaders to be at least level 2
You can no longer sell exceptional materials (astral threads and minor artifacts) to the AI.

Bugfixes

"The Seal" situation is aborted if you attack the formless
Added missing descriptions for multiple ship component categories (reactor, auras, combat computers)
Added missing node xp modifiers to the Astral Planes civics for gestalt empires.
AI empires with the Fruitful Partnership origin will stop opening seed pods on Holy Words only to get obliterated by angry fallen empires
All types of priest jobs (e.g. high priests, numistic priests) now benefit from the additional trade value from the Dimensional Enterprise council position.
Blocked Entrepreneur (Ambassador) trait for gestalt empires, fanatic purifiers, inward perfectionists and criminal syndicates
Blocked the Charmer and Research Exchange traits for genocidal empires and inwards perfectionists
Clarified that the First Contact civics give an increased chance to draw FTL travel technologies (English only)
Corrected all versions of Sovereign Guardianship to have 150% Empire Size from systems
Corrected draw weights for a number of leader traits
Empires can no longer spawn with multiple ministers of defense under some cases, such as being The Chosen.
Empires created via status quo peace deals will now correctly generate their council.
Explicitly blocked trading of gestalt nodes (instead of them being implicitly blocked)
Fixed 2 zroni digsites pointing to a deprecated title.
Fixed a bug that allowed you to enact the "Dayside Farm" decision multiple times on a single planet.
Fixed a case where the "Abandoned Star Platform" anomaly would leave the system's primary star without a deposit
Fixed a case where the "Ion Trail" event would occasionally pick the same system it spawned in for the follow-up event
Fixed a large number of planetary features that were providing incorrect bonuses due to changes with Mastery of Nature
Fixed a typo in the event text for the "Blinding Grief" event
Fixed calculations for determining trade values gained from slaves
Fixed commanders wearing the wrong uniform on planetary assignments.
Fixed crystal rift situations checking for the wrong amount of resources to validate approaches
Fixed Crystal Sphere stolen events not using the correct texts and picture
Fixed Crystal Sphere stolen events triggering when the crystal sphere situations are no longer active
Fixed Dark Consortium displaying flag information in tooltip instead of the standard loc key for this situation
Fixed Dark Consortium not locking the civic when being played from start
Fixed Dark Matter Breakthrough agenda always stating it will locks the civic, even if it already is
Fixed descriptions for Artisan Drones showing in district tooltips when none were present
Fixed Eager Explorers giving two +50% chances to draw Improved Structural Integrity
Fixed Efficient Staffing III applying the incorrect modifiers, leading to no sector modifiers.
Fixed habitat and archaeology lab technologies missing increased chance to be drawn from being rare technologies
Fixed hostile fleets being capable of crossing dimensional locks
Fixed Imperial Heirs sometimes spawning with the incorrect initial level for their class.
Fixed issue with concepts being offset for all languages using TTF (fonts)
Fixed missing AI weights for some council positions
Fixed missing localisation for Clone Army Commander traits
Fixed outdated tooltips in diplomacy with Trader Enclaves
Fixed some empires, such as Common Ground federation members or MSI, starting with duplicated council positions.
Fixed some triggered modifiers from leader traits not being applied.
Fixed starbases not inheriting modifiers from their country
Fixed strange wormhole breaking existing wormhole in the same system if any when spawning
Fixed that culled/reformatted nodes would not have a level 1 trait.
Fixed that culling/reformatting the Regulatory Node would not create a new one.
Fixed the "Dissolved" astral rift event leaving a ship stuck in an endless MIA loop
Fixed the Archivist trait giving scientists additional levels
Fixed the sector modifier for Ruthless Developer
Fixed Tree of Life and Lithoid Crater deposits not providing all of their bonuses
Fixed Urbanist trait displaying it was tier 1 and for any class when it is not a tiered trait and only for the Official
For players without Galactic Paragons, Officials should no longer roll GalCom traits if you are not a member of the GalCom or Federation traits if you are not a member of a Federation
Galactic Community Delegates now correctly multiply their diplomatic weight bonus by their level, instead of their level squared.
If your capital is in the Formless home system, The Vacuum Flower relic now correctly grants you Astral Threads
Made the first option in Black Hole Instability requiring Astral Threads instead of rewarding them
Only leaders eligible for a specific council position should show up as potential recruits.
Pre-Sapient pops no longer help you upgrade your capital buildings earlier.
Prospector trait should no longer fire twice for Volatile Motes
Removed Artisan Drone jobs from ringworld industrial segment if it is not set to factory designation.
Removed reference to Imperial Heirs not having unity upkeep.
Repaired Shattered Ringworlds now use the correct graphics
Scrapping the warship in the "Adrift" event now correctly awards you Alloys instead of Minerals
Scrapping the warship in the "Warship Destroyed" event now correctly awards you Alloys instead of Minerals
Stopped certain events from accidentally adding anomalies or terraforming Astral Scars
The Excavator trait no longer erroneously requires the Rift Sphere technology
The formless don't talk to you lightly anymore if you become hostile
The Geology Expert, Manufacturer, and Observer traits no longer state that they are Scientist traits
The leader trait "Trader II" now correctly applies its effect to the whole sector
The Manifesti's Head in the Clouds demand now checks for scientists on the council correctly
The Mass Extinction Event Chain should work properly again.
The plasmic species trait now has a slave cost of 2500 energy credits.
The Scout trait no longer states it applies to military fleets for scientists
The Tyznn Tithe trait is no longer possible to acquire by levelling up.
The UNE will no longer spawn a third human empire to hang out with them for no reason.
The Void Dweller initializing effects will no longer generate habitable worlds with no deposits.
Updated the upgraded version of the Assembler trait to use the correct modifiers
Vassalizing the formless will now transfer their system to them if you happen to own it.
Vibrant Storyteller is correctly marked as a Destiny trait for Scholars, not Explorers
When loading a save, update some modifiers that previously weren't updated.
You can now use the Astral Jump Astral Action if you have Psionic Jump Drives or Subspace Drives.
zadigal is now correctly fired if you declare war with the formless on their recruitment day

Fixed AI assigning leaders to Galcom when it shouldn't be possible.

Stability

Fix for crash when running unlock_council_slots effect.

Added text to system debug tooltip to separate the different lists of modifiers.
Anomaly view "Research Time" label is hidden when the research time is hidden.
Changed Change Scientist hotkey in Situation Log anomaly view to G.
DLC list is now shown in the Cooperative game setup.
Fixed empire creation UI remaining visible while ACB is open.
Fixed layout of "no scientists" text in anomaly view.
Fixed portrait frame appearing to the left of the anomaly UI if you have no science ships with scientists.
Fixed portrait tooltip in anomaly view incorrectly saying that you can right-click to remove the leader.
In the anomaly window, if you get a valid scientist while no scientist is selected, that scientist is automatically selected.
In the anomaly window, the Change Scientist button is disabled if there is no valid scientist available.
Updated the leader ethics tooltip to mention planetary and sector governor ethics attraction
Fixed leader XP bar showing the wrong tooltip

Modding

Added a init_effect field to spawn_natural_wormhole effect
Added additional documentation to 00_base_classes.txt
Moved events action.504 and .505 to event leader.200 and .201
Removed initial_effect_custom_loc from agendas. The initial effect's tooltip is now directly built from the initial effect
The link_wormholes effect can now be used on the bypass scope

Please note that the 3.10.1 "Pyxis" Open Beta 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 - 3.10.1 Open Beta" branch.

Some notes for Linux users that are encountering crashes - we have potential workarounds for two of them:

If you are crashing on startup, players have reported that starting Steam, disabling the internet, then loading the game bypasses the issue. Internet can be reenabled afterwards.
If you are crashing while hosting a multiplayer game on Ubuntu 20.04, switching to Cross Platform multiplayer appears to resolve the issue. It is also not present on Ubuntu 22.04.

At this time we are still tracking down Mac stability issues.

3.10.2 is already in progress, in which we are continuing to hunt down stability problems (especially for Linux and Mac users), fixing more bugs, and adding more customization to the Tabbed Outliner.

Outliner Customization

WIP Mockup of what we’re planning. Might not exactly end up looking like this.

Event Chain Subtitles

In the last Dev Diary, we said we’d provide a form so you can submit events that you think should have subtitles added to them.

{LINK REMOVED}

Thanks for your assistance!

What’s Next

We’re going to continue watching your bug reports and feedback, fixing things, and working on 3.10.2, so you can enjoy the new content the way it was meant to be.

Thanks for playing Stellaris!

Astral Planes is discounted 10% until November 27th.

Nov 16, 2023

Astral Planes is available now!

Stellaris - MrFreake_PDX

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2534090/Stellaris_Astral_Planes/

Astral Planes is available now!

Take a step into the unknown with Astral Planes, navigating an array of wonders and dangers alike. Travel through Rifts in space and time for a glimpse of strange, new realities. What will you discover, in a universe beyond limits?

Astral Planes includes:

Core Mechanics
- Astral Scars
- New Site Type: Astral Rift
- New Resource: Astral Thread
- Astral Harvesting - Technology to harvest Astral Threads
- Rift Sphere - Technology to explore Astral Rifts Rifts
- "Rift in Space" Situation - Unlocks Rift Sphere tech.
- Random Stage 2 Rift Situation Events
30+ Rift Sites - each site contains branching narratives, featuring multiple potential endings and a chance at powerful new rewards
8 New Relics
Astral Actions
- 10 New Astral Actions
- 4 Additional Astral Actions that will swap depending on research (requires Overlord)
The Formless
1 Origin - Riftworld Origin
4 Civics
- Hyperspace Speciality
- Dimensional Worship
- Dark Consortium
- Sovereign Guardianship
New Sounds, Music and Visual Effects
- 3 New Music Tracks from Andreas Waldetoft
- 70+ New Event Pictures
- 80+ New Sound Effects

* Some content may require DLC sold separately

3.10 "Pyxis" Free Custodian Update

Before you jump into the game, check out the latest from our Custodian Development team: the 3.10 “Pyxis” Custodian Update! Here is a link to the full patch notes.

If you experience bugs or other issues on 3.10 “Pyxis”, on a new save, without mods, please take the time to fill out a report on the bug report forums!

3.10 “Pyxis” brings with it a consolidation of Leader Classes, vastly improving leader’s usefulness, and addressing some community concerns with regards to the Leader Cap introduced with 3.8 “Gemini”, as well as introducing a new Council Legitimacy Mechanic, further updates on the Additional Content Browser, and improving the Outliner by introducing tabs to help you manage your late-game Empires.

As we mentioned at the 3.9 “Caelum” release, we softened up the leader cap, as many in the Community were finding it too restrictive to gameplay. At the time, we mentioned this was a temporary solution while we worked on a more comprehensive leader rework.

Enter, the Leader Consolidation

With leaders becoming more important to your empire following the 3.8 ‘Gemini’ release alongside Galactic Paragons, there were some rough edges leftover and experiences that could be better.

Taking into account our internal vision of how leaders should work, and combining it with feedback we’ve gathered from the Community during the time since the 3.8 “Gemini” released, we have put together a system of leaders that we feel will address many concerns, and eliminate or lessen the rough edges and bad experiences.

The Leader Consolidation reduces the number of Leader Classes from four to three:
Commanders - are the military-focused leaders in your empire. These leaders can lead fleets, armies, be governors or sit on your Empire Council.
Officials - are the Administrative class of leaders, and focus on governing your empire’s planets, maintaining relationships with Federations and the Galactic Community, or can further focus your Empire Council to either diplomacy or internal production
Scientists - focus on developing your empire’s knowledge of the universe, exploration, and discovery, or can govern planets in your Empire (replacing the Assist Research functionality)

Each leader can now gain one of four Veterancy Subclasses, allowing you to specialize your leaders even further:

Commanders

Admiral - Focuses on Fleets and general naval combat
General - Focuses on taking planets and assaulting static defenses - Armies, Planetary Bombardment, Ground Combat, and attacking defensive structures such as Starbases are the General’s forte
Commissioner - Focuses on Planetary Governance (Martial Law)
Strategist - Focuses on the Council, especially the Minister of Defense position

Official

Delegate - Focuses on Federations and the Galactic Community
Industrialist - Focuses on Planetary Governance (Industry and Development)
Ambassador - Council Focus (Diplomacy, Espionage, and First Contact), especially suited for the new Minister of State position
Advisor - Council Focus (Economy)

Scientist

Explorer - Focuses on Surveying and Exploration
Academic - Focuses on Archaeology and Anomalies
Analyst - Focuses on Planetary Governance (Assist Research)
Statistician - Focuses on the Council, especially the Minister of Science position

To make leveling up feel more rewarding for those of you who do not own Galactic Paragons, traits chosen upon leveling up will now be weighted towards the job your leaders are currently performing.

Changes to the Leader Capacity

In 3.10 “Pyxis”, each Leader class has its own leader capacity, and exceeding that capacity for one Leader type will only affect that leader class.

The effects of being over capacity have been changed as well: being double your Leader Capacity will now result in unity upkeep for that leader class increasing by 100%, and XP gain for that leader class dropping by around 47%.

Planetary and Sector Governance

As some of you may have noticed from above, all three Leader Classes can now govern your Empire’s worlds. Each Leader class has certain inherent bonuses to governing planets that scale with their Leader level, in addition to the bonuses provided by choosing the planetary governor-styled Veterancy Subclass:

Governing Effects (effects increase with Leader Level):
Commanders:

Ruler and Specialist Pop output: -5%
Worker and Slave Pop output: +5%
Crime: -2
Empire Size from Pops: -2%
Stability from Soldiers: +2

Officials:

Basic, Advanced and Strategic Resources from Jobs: +5%
Empire Size from Pops: -2%

Scientists:

Physics, Society and Engineering Research from Jobs: +5%
Empire Size from Pops: -2%

These effects apply to the planet the leader is ruling, and if that planet is the sector capital, will apply half their effects to the planets in the sector. Throughout the game, we’ve gone and ensured that the majority of governor-related traits and leader effects apply at full strength to the planet they are governing and at half strength to all other planets in the same sector, if they are governing the sector capital.

Planetary governors will always supersede the sector governor, if one exists. Thus you might have an Industrialist overseeing your core sector and assign a Commissioner to a planet where that pesky Criminal Syndicate has set up shop in order to drive down crime.

As mentioned earlier, each leader class also has a veteran subclass dedicated to governance, which is required to gain governor veteran traits. Many of the traits from the Industrialist (Governor), Pioneer (Governor), Protector (General), and Analyst (Scientist) have been distributed throughout the various governing subclasses during the rework.

Minister of State

The Minister of State, a new Empire Council Position available to the base-game, increases the effectiveness of your Empire’s Envoys. Owners of Galactic Paragons will now be able to use the Reorganize Council Agenda to reassign all Council positions (with the exception of the Ruler), but replacing the starting Council Positions will come with a cost.

Minister of Defense: -25% Naval Capacity
Minister of State: -25% Diplomatic Weight
Head of Research: -25% Research Speed

Certain Civics (currently Inwards Perfection and Fanatic Purifiers) block access to the Minister of State position and will instead start with their Civic Council Position unlocked.

Council Legitimacy

Back in 3.8 we added Council Legitimacy. Although it had no mechanical effects, it was a good step to represent the degree to which factions in your empire approve of how the empire is run, the council, empire policies and so on. In 3.10, having high Council Legitimacy will give a bonus to Council Agenda Speed (capping at +25% at 100% Legitimacy) and having low Council Legitimacy will give a penalty to Council Agenda Speed (capping at -50% at 0% Legitimacy). For modders, these values are determined by defines.

Since Council Legitimacy is a weighted sum of the approval of each faction multiplied by their support in the empire, this means that empires with relatively few factions (each of which have high approval) should manage to pass Agendas more quickly.

Galactic Diplomacy

Officials can now be assigned as Federation Representatives and Galactic Community Emissaries instead of Envoys. An Official assigned to one of these positions gives the same effects as a number of Envoys equal to their level did back before 3.10. Thus, your envoys are now freed to improve or harm relations with other empires or build spy networks in them.

For Officials that are assigned to either the GalCom or your Federation, there is now a veteran subclass (Delegate) and a variety of veteran traits that can be used in these assignments.

Is that all?

Over the course of the Leader Consolidation, we’ve rebalanced the majority of civics that were leader related or themed. As part of this, we've also changed effects that previously made it too easy to support a near-infinite number of vassals. While reworking leader classes and traits, we’ve also gone through and rebalanced leader adjacent tradition trees and ascension perks. There are some great changes in there, and we hope you have fun discovering the new things you can do!

Outliner Improvements

Another bit of feedback we’ve gotten a lot is that the outliner has gotten cumbersome over the years. While we’ve added some ability to customize it in past releases, in 3.10.0 we’re adding Outliner Tabs.

In this first version of the tabbed outliner, we have four tabs: Government, Ships, Politics, and Structures. These tabs will appear in the outliner once they’re relevant.

Notification bubbles can be activated on the tabs to let you know if there’s something of interest on them. Green ones are for non-urgent things like “a planet got colonized and has been added to the Government tab”, while red ones are a call to action, like “your science ship has no scientist”.

We look forward to seeing your feedback on this first version of the outliner rework!

Thanks for reading! You can pick up Astral Planes on Steam Now! And if you experience bugs or other issues with 3.10 “Pyxis”, you can report on them on the Stellaris Bug Report forums!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2534090/Stellaris_Astral_Planes/

Nov 14, 2023

Astral Planes and Stellaris 3.10.0 "Pyxis" Preliminary Release Notes

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

Astral Planes and the Stellaris 3.10.0 "Pyxis" update are releasing this Thursday, November 16th. Today we've got the preliminary changelogs for your enjoyment.

The Astral Planes Narrative Expansion is available for pre-purchase now, with a 10% discount until November 27th.

Astral Planes Narrative Expansion Features

Our largest story based release yet, Astral Planes focuses on mid to late game exploration content with over 30 Astral Rifts with widely branching storylines. Unlike the relative safety of Archaeology sites, the Rifts you explore will lead to completely different realms of existence, where fundamentals that were certain at home may not always be true.

Added Astral Scars and Rifts
- Added 30+ Rift Sites
  - Each site contains branching narratives, featuring multiple potential endings and a chance at powerful new rewards
- Added Astral Thread Resource
- Added Astral Harvesting and Rift Sphere Technologies
- Added “Rift in Space” Situation and random Rift Situations.
Added 8 New Relics
Added 10 Astral Actions, plus 4 additional Astral Actions if you have the Overlord expansion
Added Riftworld Origin
Added 4 New Civics
- Hyperspace Specialty
- Dimensional Worship
- Dark Consortium
- Sovereign Guardianship
Added 3 New Music Tracks from Andreas Waldetoft
70+ New Event Pictures
80+ New Sound Effects
the formless...

3.10.0 “Pyxis” Update

Features

Leader Consolidation - see Dev Diary 322 for more details.
- Admirals and Generals have been merged into the Commander, the Military leader class.
- Governors and some Envoy functions have been merged into Officials, the Administrative leader class.
  - Officials are now assigned to represent your empire in each of the Galactic Community (or Imperium) and your Federation rather than assigning multiple Envoys.
  - Envoys still represent your Empire's overall diplomatic bandwidth, and handle First Contact, Improving and Harming Relations, and Espionage.
- Scientists remain the third, Scientific leader class.
- All leader classes can now govern planets and sectors.
  - Military governors apply Martial Law to a planet or sector, which increases worker and slave output at the cost of specialist and ruler output, adds soldiers to the planet or sector, and causes soldiers to increase stability.
  - Administrative governors increase general material resource extraction and industrial productivity.
  - Scientific governors increase research output on the planet or sector. This replaces the old Assist Research Scientist action, which has been removed.
  - Most governor traits now include apply to a lesser extent to the rest of the sector, unless a local planetary governor is overriding them.
- Added the Minister of State for most non-gestalt empires. (Some civics, such as Fanatic Purifiers or Inwards Perfection, remove this position.)
- The Minister of Defense, Research, and State council positions are no longer locked for players with Galactic Paragons, and can be replaced with other council positions when you reorganize your council, though at a cost.
  - No Minister of Defense: -25% Naval Capacity
  - No Minister of State: -25% Diplomatic Weight
  - No Head of Research: -25% Research Speed
- A balance pass has been made on all leader traits and subclasses. Many have changed significantly, and the overall power level has generally been decreased.
  - Traits chosen when levelling up will now be biased towards the leader's current position, whether or not you have Galactic Paragons. (i.e., A Scientist that is governing a planet will be more likely to receive leader traits related to planet governance.)
- The classes of all event leaders and paragons, as well as leader themed civics, technologies, and traditions, have been reviewed and adjusted.
Council Legitimacy now gives bonuses or penalties to council agenda speed.
Replaced the Recommended Content window with a more full-featured Additional Content Browser.
- The Additional Content Browser increases the clarity and transparency of what various DLCs contain, by letting you preview things like Origins, Civics with full tooltips that include nested concepts, animated Portraits, and Shipsets. It is our hope that this will help you make more informed decisions about DLC purchases. (The Additional Content Browser will only be available on some storefronts, and will not update information without an active internet connection.)
Added Tabbed Outliner.
- Information is now split across Government, Ships, Politics, and Structures tabs, which will appear as they become relevant to your empire.

Improvements

Many event chains now include event chain titles in the event window.
Added three new planet modifiers: Abundant Geothermal Activity, Subterranean Wildlife, Rich Microflora
Added four planetary decisions to be able to remove some negative modifiers without having to terraform the planet: Remove Bleak Planet, Add Dayside Farm, Remove Hazardous Weather, Remove Dangerous Wildlife
A toast message will now appear when a truce expires.
Clarified tooltips of modifiers that increased leader cap
Expanded on the Zroni dig site descriptions.
A notification will now be sent when yoour fleets are unexpectedly forced to decloak
You can now change the destination of a Leviathan Parade Situation at the cost of some unity.

Balance

Administrative Leaders can no longer serve as the Head of Research.
Archaeo-Engineers AP now gives +1 Scientist Capacity
Aristocratic Elite no longer has +20% Governor XP gain, but instead gives a 20% chance for leaders to have a bonus positive and a bonus negative trait.
Autonomous Drones and Sovereign Circuits now provide +1 Leader Trait Options
Belligerent Diplomatic Stance now grants -1 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Blocked Inwards Perfectionists and Fanatic Purifiers from having a Minister of State.
Centralised Command society tech increased to Tier 3
Changed leader recruitment cost to be a quadratic equation instead of exponential
Cooperative Diplomatic Stance now grants +1 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Corporate Authority and Corporate Dominion Civic now grant +1 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Council Legitimacy now directly modifies base council agenda speed, at 0% Legitimacy base agenda speed is 50%, at 50% Legitimacy it is 100%, at 100% Legitimacy it is 125%. Empires without Council Legitimacy are treated as if they have 50% Legitimacy for this.
Decreased the leader XP gain from the Luminary Bloodline trait.
Democratic Authority now grants +1 Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Dictatorial Authority now grants +25% Ruler XP and -1 Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Empires can now support three leaders of each class without using leader capacity. Generic leader capacity has been removed.
Eternal Vigilance now gives +1 Commander Capacity
Factions are now more upset if their ethic is not represented on the council or by the empire ruler.
Galactic Force Projection now gives +1 Commander Capacity, +2 Max Influence from Power Projection, increases Naval Capacity by 100 and Fleet Command Limit by 50
Gestalt rulers no longer count towards leader capacity
Heroic Past, Precision Cogs, Pooled Knowledge and Factory Overclocking all now provide +1 Commander, +1 Official and +1 Scientist Capacity.
Imperial Authority now grants -1 Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Imperial Cult now grants additional priest jobs to the ruler's homeworld scaling with their level.
Imperial Prerogative now gives +2 Official Capacity
Improvements to Mastery of Nature, planet modifier now gives +50% resource districts
Increased Leadership Conditioning reward to 3,000 XP
Isolationist Diplomatic Stance now grants -2 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Leader Enhancement policies now increase the starting level of leaders instead of increasing Leader XP gain.
Leader starting age has once again been increased
Leaders now have a slightly higher chance to start at a higher level.
Learning campaign edicts leader xp gain have been reduced
Mercantile Diplomatic Stance now grants +1 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Naval Tradition federation perk now gives +1 Initial Admiral Level instead of +10% Admiral XP gain.
Nerve Stapled now gives -100% leader XP gain, if you somehow generate leaders from species with this trait.
Not having a Head of Research (or gestalt equivalent) will impose a -25% penalty to research speed
Not having a Minister of Defense imposes a -25% penalty to Naval Capacity.
Not having a Minister of State (or gestalt equivalent) will impose a -25% penalty to diplomatic weight.
Opener effect for Synthetics now reduces robot upkeep and robot assembly cost
Philospher King now only provides +5 Effective Ruler Level
Players can now build multiple Quantum Catapults.
Pompous Purists Civic now grants -1 External Leader Pool Size in addition to existing effects
Pops now have ethics attraction towards the ethics of the local planetary governor
Rebalanced a number of species traits that affected leader XP gain.
Rebalanced Aptitude Traditions and Leadership Conditioning
Rebalanced Feudal Society and Franchising Civics and Shared Destiny AP
Rebalanced Statecraft traditions
Rebalanced the Auto-Curating Vault, Vault of Acquisitions, Alpha Hub and Citadel of Faith
Reduced XP gain from Transcendent Learning
Removed leader pool increase from Transcendent Learning
Removed Leader Pool size modifiers from ethics
Removed leader upkeep modifiers from Embodied Dynamism and Collective Self techs
Removed the -10% leader hire and upkeep cost from traditions that only applied to a single leader class.
Replaced the +1 Leader Capacity from Oppressive Autocracy with +1 Commander Capacity
Reworked the Research Institute, Planetary Supercomputer and Military Academy buildings
Slightly increased time needed to survey a system.
Specialist subjects now get +1 capacity of the relevant leader type instead of +20% XP gain for that subject type.
Species traits that give bonuses or maluses to leader xp gain are now multiples of 10% not 25%.
Technocracy now gives Expertise traits additional effects for scientists when governing planets/sectors.
The effects of the Ruthless Competition council position now matches Memory Vaults
The Khanate Successor origin now boosts military leaders
The Lord High Admiral council position now gives increased naval capacity instead of increased commander xp gain
The Minister of Defense and Head of Research are no longer mandatory council positions.
The Minister of State can be removed by Reorganise Council Agenda.
The Opinion lost with the Trader Enclaves for canceling a trade deal now scales with size of the deal.
The traditions that previously gave -10% leader hire and upkeep costs for a given class (e.g. Science Division) now also increases the leader capacity for leaders of that class
Aptitude Tradition adoption now gives Initial Leader Skill: +1 instead of +1 starting trait to leaders.
Discovery, Domination, and Supremacy Traditions now increase initial skill level for leaders instead of decreasing upkeep and hire cost.
Transcendent Learning leader XP gain modifier reduced to +25%
Transcendent Learning now gives +2 Scientist Capacity
Universal Transactions now gives +1 Official Capacity and +20% Commercial Pact Efficiency
Updated five existing planet modifiers: Weak Magnetic Field, Strong Magnetic Field, Asteroid Belt, Natural Beauty, Bleak Planet
You can only find one promising officer every two years.

Bugfixes

Blocked special event leaders from having backgrounds and homeworlds. Warform was not hanging around with the Romans.
Fix a case where the leader UI would remain on screen when exiting to main menu
Fix councilor position triggers related to authority not being evaluated correctly in galaxy creation
Fix diplo weight tooltip when affected by a resolution category weight modifier
Fix gestalt leader backgrounds not clearing other leaders' BGs
Fix scripted fleet order buttons having incomplete tooltips (e.g. Azaryn's terraforming special action)
Fixed Alien Box event changing getsalt councilor nodes portrait
Fixed bypasses mapicons always being placed in second position if there is an upgraded starbase in the system, hiding the icon below
Fixed crash when checking if an invalid system is in sensor range
Fixed Cultist event chain not having any target to pick planet from if the fleet that attacked was destroyed in the meantime
Fixed gestalt nodes not having a starting trait
Fixed leaders with a preset design using the wrong portrait when their species changes without its portrait changing.
Fixed misaligned buttons and inconsistent tooltips in the Planet View
Fixed num_owned_relics trigger not displaying its dynamic values in tooltip
Fixed num_researched_techs_of_tier tooltip not displaying the technology tier
Fixed random rulers never being generated with origin-locked traits.
Fixed situation target tooltip not being completely localized
Fixed Starbases receiving ship modifiers twice
Fixed the "pick trait" button for recruitable leaders
Fixed the Inevitable Assimilation tradition for DAs saying you need to adopt Cybernetic traditions twice.
Fixed UOR ruler not benefiting from other initial skill modifiers.
Fixed UOR setting ruler level to 4 instead of giving +3 initial levels.
Leaders excluded from the upkeep cost now correctly produce resources
Set the base value for percent_of_leader_lifespan to match the leader lifespan define value.
Subjects now support their Overlords resolutions in the Galactic Community correctly
The Escape key no longer closes any event windows.
The first event option for the event Dysfunctional Council now informs you that the leader will be dismissed.
The Xenophobic Fallen Empire will once again be able to get real mad at you if you border them.
Worker Coops can no longer be Xenophobic
You will no longer be able to avoid being synthetically ascended by being an assault army in space.

The AI will no longer build habitats if they have an uncolonised habitat.
The AI will prefer building habitats in systems with upgraded starbases unless they have the Void Dweller origin or the Voidborn AP.

Performance

Added game rule for possible_precalc = can_fill_precursor_job
Added define TRIGGERED_MODIFIER_UPDATE_DELAY, which lets us spread out calculations of triggered modifiers
Fixed a case where country modifiers would continually recalculate every day

UI/UX

Added new backgrounds for assembly and organic assembly.
Added the ability to add an element to the event window specifying the event chain this event is part of
Archaeological Sites and Astral Rifts mapicons are now colored depending on their exploration state
Changed the leader cap indicator in the top bar to only display envoys.
Fixed fleet command limit multipliers not appearing in tooltip if they add up to +100%.
Improve and Harm Relations monthly values are now shown to two decimal places.
Improved the tooltips for Agenda Progress.
removed the notification for leader pool renova
The leader list now shows the cap for each class
The tooltip for Agenda Progress now shows modifiers to monthly agenda progress.
Update the Main Flag button to show the name of the empire (and debug info if you're using Debug view)
Added a subtitle to all longer event chains.
Added Event Chain Subtitles for the five original precursors.

Modding

`num_leader_traits` now has a new filter `is_subclass = yes/no/any`
Add `federation_modifier` and `triggered_federation_modifier` leader trait modifiers
Add `galcom_modifier` and `triggered_galcom_modifier` leader trait modifiers
Add `starbase_type` field for starbase components to show the correct text when a tech unlocks it and it's for orbital buildings
Add alternate_civic_version to swap locked civics w/ authorities
Add army_modifier and triggered_army_modifier to leader traits
Add background_planet_modifier and triggered_background_planet_modifier to leader traits
Add country_<type>_cap_add modifiers for specific leader class capacities
Add fleet_modifier and triggered_fleet_modifier to leader traits
Add new on_astral_rift_entered action
Add piracy_protection_mult modifier
Add set_completed_rifts command
Add skill_<classname>_<task> static modifiers for each class and the "navy", "army", "planet_governor", "sector_governor" and "background_planet_governor" cases
Add specialist_subject_conversion_time_mult modifier
Added a debug ImGui view to the console - So long, and thanks for all the fish <3 (Editor's Note: @MonzUn thank you for all your hard work and best of luck with your new endeavours!)
Added army_damage_empire_sprawl_penalty_mult modifier
Added army_damage_taken_mult and army_morale_damage_taken_mult modifiers
Added astral_rift_difficulty_add modifier
Added can_spawn_astral_rift trigger
Added council_legitimacy >= <value> country scope trigger to check an empire's council legitimacy.
Added council_legitimacy trigger to check council legitimacy in script
Added councilor_modifier, triggered_councilor_modifier and force_councilor_trait to leader traits and removed councilor_trait and is_councilor_trait_for_ruler.
Added create_astral_rift effect
Added distance_to_capital trigger
Added dump_astralrifts command
Added dynamic_capacity parameter to strategic resources
Added export_modifier_duration_to_variable effect
Added freeze_leader_age effect to allow leaders to stop aging
Added in_place_of parameter to spawn_astral_rift
Added in_place_of parameter to spawn_wormhole effect to use the coordinates of an existing spatial object
Added inline scripts support for triggers
Added is_assigned_to_galcom script trigger.
Added is_bypass_type trigger
Added leader_lifespan_mult modifier
Added leader_starting_age_add, leader_starting_age_mult, ruler_starting_age_add, ruler_starting_age_mult, heir_starting_age_add, heir_starting_age_mult, and <leader class>_starting_age_add and <leader class>_starting_age_mult (for example commander_starting_age_mult)
Added mod_<leader class>_lifespan_add and mod_<leader class>_lifespan_mult (ex: mod_scientist_lifespan_add)
Added new modifiers for leader initial level
Added on_build_queued and on_build_unqueued effects for mega structures
Added on_truce_end on_action
Added planet_max_branch_office_buildings_self_add empire modifier
Added planet_non_artificial_max_buildings_add modifier
Added refill_astral_rift_pool command
Added research_sharing_mult modifier that increases the effectiveness of a country's research agreements.
Added ruler_skill_add modifier to increase or decrease the effective level of an empire's ruler for the purposes of their council position modifiers.
Added scripted triggers prefers_scientist_governors and prefers_commander_governors which determine the class of your homeworld governor on game start.
Added sector_modifier and triggered_sector_modifier to leader traits.
Added spawn_astral_scar effect
Added spawn_beyond_gravity_well parameter to spawn_planet effect
Added split_astral_scar and copy_survey_data scripted effects
Added the is_site_locked = yes/no trigger for archaeology sites.
Added the set_council_position_to_council script effect to place a council position in the council.
Added trigger leader_lifespan to calculate leader lifespan depending on LEADER_LIFESPAN_DEATH_CHANCE_AGE, MOD_LEADER_LIFESPAN_ADD and MOD_LEADER_LIFESPAN_MULT. Updated script values referencing this define to use the trigger instead.
Added triggered_system_modifier to leader traits.
Added X_tech_cost_mult modifiers
Armies can now have an army_modifier
can_build_STATION_TYPE_around can now also have astral_rift as from scope
country_leader_cap_add now increases the capacity for all leader classes
create_message effect now has a recipient parameter to allow to have another recipient than the automatically resolved one
create_mining_station and create_research_station now support deposit holder scopes
create_pop effect now has a count parameter to spawn multiple pops at the same time
created `can_be_assigned_to_federation` and `can_be_assigned_to_galactic_community` abilities for leader
Created destroy_astral_rift effect
Created is_astral_scar trigger
Created on_astral_rift_exploration_complete on_action to count the number of explored astral rift
Created set_next_astral_rift_event debug description to more easily keep track of events branching
Events using the leader event window can now hide not allowed options using hide_option_if_not_allowed
Fixed fleet scope command limit modifiers not being applied if the fleet doesn't have a leader.
Fixed leader trait planet and system modifiers functioning identically to the regular modifiers.
Fleet and megastructure modifiers from governor skill are only applied from unoccupied planets owned by the same country as the fleet/megastructure.
Hiring / assigning councilors is now done based on a scripted value instead of hardcoded in the ai
is_surveyed can now be used on astral rifts
Leader trait planet_modifier and triggered_planet_modifier now support all leader types. Removed assist_research_planet_modifier.
Leaders class no longer rely on a hard coded type, and are fully dynamic and based on leaders abilities and defined entirely in the class file
Megastructures on_build_start/cancel/complete now use the constructing fleet as root if it's being built by a construction ship
MetaScripts (Effects,Triggers,Values) can now substitute an argument by the value of another with $ARG1|ARG2$
num_buildings effect now support's building category.
on_destroying_station is now also called when an orbital station around an Astral Rift is destroyed
Removed is_ruler and is_heir checks from leader potential add on traits, instead using the can_leader_get_normal_trait game rule.
Removed some unused trait parameters.
Removed the DLC lock on unlock_council_selection = yes
Replace diplo_weight_envoys_mult and envoy_cohesion_effect_mult modifiers with diplo_weight_delegate_mult and delegate_cohesion_effect_mult
Replaced LEADER_AGE_DEATH_CHANCE_AGE with LEADER_LIFESPAN_DEATH_CHANCE_AGE
Replaced LEADER_AGE_DEATH_CHANCE_INC with LEADER_LIFESPAN_DEATH_CHANCE_INC
Replaced LEADER_AGE_HIGH_DEATH_CHANCE_AGE with LEADER_LIFESPAN_HIGH_DEATH_CHANCE_AGE
Replaced LEADER_AGE_HIGH_DEATH_CHANCE_INC with LEADER_LIFESPAN_HIGH_DEATH_CHANCE_INC
Replaced subclass_background_icon and destiny_background_icon with background_icon.
Replaced tenth_of_leader_lifespan script value with the more generic percent_of_leader_lifespan.
Replaced the modifier leader_age with leader_lifespan_add.
Replaced the required = yes/no parameter for council positions with the optional trigger in the country scope.
Reworked has_envoy_task to work with any leader class
Separate Scientist `can_research` into more granular capability definitions
set_surveyed can now be used on astral rifts
Situations can now have multiple title selected from triggers.
SpawnWormhole effect now has a parameter graphics_entity_name to change graphics
Updated leader trait documentation.

In addition, due to the changes being made to leaders in this update, I highly recommend that if you wish to continue a game in progress that you remain on the 3.9.3 branch until you finish.

See you Thursday!