Dec 14, 2023

Stellaris Dev Diary #326 - 3.10.4 "Pyxis" Released + Upcoming Holiday Tech Beta

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

The 3.10.4 "Pyxis" update has been released today. Of particular interest in this week’s update are a fix that lets AI be more willing to recruit Scientists for exploration, a fix to certain modifiers doubling up, and some adjustments to negative leader traits.

3.10.4 "PYXIS" PATCH NOTES

Balance

Significantly reduced the yearly chance for leaders to gain negative traits.
Due to player feedback, the Micromanager negative trait for Commanders now increases fleet upkeep instead of reducing command limit.
The Lethargic negative trait for Commanders now also reduces fleet upkeep.
The Nervous negative trait for Commanders now also increases disengagement chance.
Having the Antagonistic Diplomatic Stance will now appease your factions asking for you to have a Strong Diplomatic Stance.

Bugfixes

Added some failsafes to generate council positions and gestalt nodes in various edge cases where they weren't created or disappeared
Clarified reformed tooltip for Dark Consortium civics
Declining to Hunt for the Hyacinth should now correctly remove the event chain.
Fix Astral Harvesting not available for heavily conquering empires
Fixed a typo in the pre-FTL Provide Technology Tooltip.
Fixed Civics not swapping to their alternative when switching Governments
Fixed missing loc for the Fear of the Dark Admiral trait
Fixed the Accelerated Time Astral Planes Modifier having a description for a title.
Removed a redundant tooltip from the Synthetic Evolution event
Ruler clothing selection in the empire designer is now respected
Some planet modifiers that were getting incorrectly applied twice should now only be applied once.
Updated the All Crisis Strength tooltip to accurately state that it doubles the strength of each subsequent crisis.
Your ice miners will no longer make your Mercenaries homeless if they happened to have built their base above an ice asteroid.

AI Empires will now be more willing to hire leaders for their science ships as long as they believe they can afford the Unity upkeep.

Fixed XP not being shown in XP bar tooltip for gestalt rulers and councilors.

Modding

collapsable_leader_container should now calculate the correct height no matter the amount of horizontal slots.
Fixed lock_country scope change incorrectly stating that the output scope was a bypass, when it is actually a country

Barring unexpected developments, we consider the 3.10 “Pyxis” release stable at this point, and the 3.11 “Eridanus” update is the next expected release - currently planned for 2024Q1. As mentioned in an earlier dev diary, 3.11 “Eridanus” will be focused primarily on general bugfixing and stability.

Technology Open Beta

We’ll be putting a Technology Open Beta up tomorrow to gather feedback and data on some possible changes to research. While some changes planned for 3.11 “Eridanus” have snuck into this release (like some improvements to Galactic Doorstep), the overall technology rebalance is considered experimental and may or may not end up being released. It is likely to undergo some changes if it does go live.

The Technology Open Beta will run from December 15th through January 15th. We’ll post a feedback form tomorrow to help gather your impressions and thoughts.

TECHNOLOGY OPEN BETA RELEASE NOTES

Features

Replaced basic research technologies such as Quantum Theory with Breakthrough Technologies. Breakthrough Technologies will only appear once you have researched enough techs of your current tier and are required to research to reach the next tier.
Breakthrough Technologies become easier to research based on the number of other empires you have low Tech intel on that have already researched them.
Enigmatic Engineering blocks your Breakthrough Technologies from spreading.
Events that give progress towards random technologies can grant progress towards Breakthrough Technologies, but will not give as much as they would a regular technology.

Improvements

Technology and Tradition costs are now distinct sliders in galaxy setup.
Added notification message when new pop settles in zeya (Gaia planet in azilash)

Balance

Adjustments made to the Galactic Doorstep origin:
Added Gateway Cost and Megastructure Build Speed modifiers to the Galactic Doorstep origin.
Galactic Doorstep event chain now directly rewards the Gateway Activation technology and gives far more progress on the Gateway Construction technology
Increased the effects of Empire Size on Technology to match its effect on Traditions.
Rebalanced research speed modifiers. Most sources of Research Speed now have a corresponding increase in Researcher job upkeep
Removed or adjusted many 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.
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.
Increased technology costs, especially those of higher tier technologies.
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.
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.
Knights of the Toxic God balancing:
- Slightly reduced the research output for Knight and Lord Commander jobs
- Refactored how the output scaling for Knights from Squires functions, these now behave as normal additive modifiers instead of multiplicative modifiers
- Knights now correctly inherit production modifiers from researchers and administrators
- Slightly reduced the unity and research output for Knight and Lord Commander jobs
- Knight output modifiers now only apply to resources, like other job output modifiers
- The Fortress Habitat Designation for Knights no longer provides +1 Defensive Army per pop on the habitat, instead each Squire job provides +1 Defensive Army
- Squires now increase the resource output of Knights by 2.5% not 2% per Squire.
- The Luminous Blades modifier from the Knight's Quest now removes the alloy upkeep of knights and gives +25% Army damage instead of an empire-wide +1.5% alloy production modifier per knight
Delegate GalCom focus traits now have a small chance to give favors.
Reworked and rebalanced the Erudite, Cyborg, Synthetic, Psionic, Chosen One, and Chosen of X traits to include new leader assignments.

Bugfix

Repairing The Black Crown should no longer fire generic gateway repaired events.

Modding

Added `last_resolution_category_changed` trigger

Meet the Devs Video

Game Systems Designer @Gruntsatwork did a video interview about what it’s like to work on the Custodian and Crisis teams.

No, you can’t implement trash. - E

Next Week

The nights are getting cold and long, so for the last dev diary of the year it’s time for a look at the year in review.

See you then!

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.