Apr 4, 2024

Stellaris Dev Diary #339 - Civics & Structures of The Machine Age & Auto-Modding

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello Stellaris Cube-munity!

Today’s dev diary looks at the civics and “kilostructures” in The Machine Age, as well as looking at a 3.12 “Andromeda” feature - Auto-Modding.

As with all of our previews, some of this is still in development, so there are still some placeholder icons and some details may still change before release. (Which is good, since it lets us incorporate some of your feedback.)

The Civics of The Machine Age

Let’s go through each of the new civics that are coming in The Machine Age in detail.

Guided Sapience civics
The Guided Sapience civics focus on coexistence with natural or created pre-sapient species and the environment around them. Their homeworld and Genesis Ark colony ships uplift some of the most promising local wildlife to pre-sapient status, creating a Genesis Preserve that increases Society Research and Unity.

The bonuses from the Genesis Preserve are doubled on Gaia worlds.

Not listed in these screenshots, but other “hostile” civics like Devouring Swarm and origins like Necrophage are also excluded from these.

Natural Design civics
While other empires seek to improve themselves through genetic modification or through ascension, others are quite certain that they are already at the apex of evolution.

02_INSULT_CLOTHES:0 "Behold the [From.GetSpeciesAdj] form, glorious and bared for all to admire. Contrast with the paltry [Root.GetSpeciesNamePlural], cowering under their layers of cloth, knowing that the world does not want to see their sad frames."

Obsessional Directive
In 2003, human philosopher and professor Nick Bostrom created a thought experiment about the potential existential threat an artificial general intelligence could pose even if given seemingly harmless directives.

Nick Bostrom said:
Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans.

Available to gestalt machine intelligences, Obsessional Directive lets you enjoy faulty programming that drives you to produce ever increasing numbers of useless Consumer Goods... At any cost.

Object permanence is not necessarily one of your strengths.
The directive was to acquire the consumer goods, now that you’re done, there’s nothing preventing you from digging them back up again.

If you meet or exceed your quota, you will have options regarding what to do with your stash of office supplies, toasters, handheld electronics, or whatever other form you imagine your Consumer Goods take. Until you make friendly contact with other empires you will only have the option to create a Spire of Commodities, but later on you could trade them away for various resources. Most of your consumer goods will be removed, but the reward will scale with the amount that you produced.

Failing to meet your quota will result in a bit of a breakdown until your new, lower quota is met. On the other hand, the experience of failure does unlock a new “direct to Consumer Goods” purge type to make it easier to achieve your next goal. (Determined Exterminators start with this purge type unlocked.)

Diplomatic Protocols
In The Machine Age, gestalt Machine Intelligences will also be getting their own variant of the diplomatic civics.

The other diplomatic civics have also been buffed to match the Diplomatic Protocols.

Tactical Algorithms
Some machines were designed to study war in all its forms.

How about a nice game of chess?

These gestalt Machine Intelligences can create Mercenary Enclaves (if the game host has Overlord), have immortal Commanders, and gain military benefits from getting the opportunity to study the strategy and tactics of other empires.

Augmentation Bazaars
At the Augmentation Bazaars, you can build a better you, and all it will cost is an arm and a leg.

Now I’ll let Gruntsatwork talk about some new space structures.

Dyson Swarms

The path to a Dyson Sphere of your own is long and arduous, filled with empty building platforms and non-functional intermediate stages, or at least, it used to be.

Fresh with the Machine Age, we are introducing the Dyson Swarm, a predecessor and proof of concept for your Dyson Sphere plans. By putting many small satellites into orbit around a star, you can collect some of its output and enhance your research capabilities. But Paradox you say, we don’t get research from Dyson Spheres. Correct, but you do get it from Dyson Swarms, IF you place them correctly.

Dyson Swarms function slightly differently than Spheres. Instead of producing energy all on their own, they amplify whatever resources their star produces, up to 30 times. Yes, that delicate little 3 energy star will now produce 90 energy and if you were to put it on a 3 physics star, that would be a decent 90 physics research from 1 star.

And if you get really lucky and have an event spawn an even rarer resource on a star? Go right ahead, collect it all.

So swarmy.

But with all that said, there are certain restrictions on building Dyson Swarms. Those restrictions exist for a simple reason. You can upgrade one of your Swarms directly into a Stage 2 Dyson Sphere, for those juicy 1000 energy per month.

That is why you may not build Swarms around Black Holes, Neutron Stars nor upgrade them past Swarm state in systems with thriving colonies.

The Arc Furnace

For our second new Kilostructure, allow me to introduce the Arc Furnace to you. A splendid planet-based megastructure, meant to help you alleviate your industrial needs.

Just like the Dyson Swarm, to get the most out of your shiny new Arc Furnace requires a bit more effort than merely finding a molten world and putting it down. Instead of producing resources itself, it allows you access to more of the systems resources.

In less flowery language, that means at each stage, the Arc Furnace will create deposits on every planet or asteroid in the system. First 1 Mineral deposit, then another 1 Mineral deposit. Third 1 Mineral and 1 Alloy and for the final and fourth stage, 1 more Alloy deposit.

This gives you a total of 3 Minerals and 2 Alloys on every planet or asteroid in the system, however, in addition to the deposits, the Ard Furnace also makes mining in general more effective in the system, which manifests as a small bonus to your mining station output, at the final stage a measly 100%.

So to get the most out of your Arc Furnace, you want to find molten worlds in large systems, with plenty of planets and asteroids.

Hot.

Both of those Kilostructures will become available in the early midgame, hopefully around the time you start to feel the constraints on your expansion as borders solidify and you begin to get cut off from the resources you desperately need.

Now in contrast to most Megastructures you are not limited to merely 1 of each, however, unlike Relays and Gates they have some limits. You will unlock the capacity to build 5 of these in total, spread out through the relevant technologies (6 for Arc Welders).

Species Auto-Modification (“Auto-Modding”)

I’m back now to talk about Auto-Modding. No, we’re not automatically updating your outliner mod for you when an update releases. (Sorry modders!)

Biological and Cybernetic Ascensions were particularly vulnerable to being very micromanagement heavy playstyles. You had a lot of power available to you if you adjusted, tweaked, and applied various species templates to your pops. This was effective, but very time consuming and often tedious.

With the 3.12 “Andromeda” update, we have introduced a new class of traits that will, over time, replace themselves with temporary versions of other traits based on the job the pop is currently filling. For example, a Machine pop filling a Farmer job will eventually have their Adaptive Frames change to replicate the Harvesters trait, and if they move to a Mining job they’ll eventually switch to mimicking Power Drills.

AutoMod traits have a defined list of available traits to choose from for each trait, and one pop per month will adapt to their jobs, modified by buildings like the Robot Assembly Plants or Gene Clinics.

AutoMod traits exist for Mechanical (Adaptive Frames), Biological (Vocational Genomics), Cybernetics (Universal Augmentations), and Overtuned Traits (Fleeting Excellence).

Vocational Genomics becomes available with the Targeted Gene Expression technology, and the others are immediately available once you have access to the appropriate category of traits.

We recognize that these traits are extremely strong, but the quality of life benefits of having your pops modify themselves to fit their jobs is very high. As such, Auto-Modding and the associated traits are part of the free 3.12 “Andromeda” release.

MODDING INFORMATION
Traits can now be categorized into normal/cyborg/robotic/psionic/advanced_genetic/overtuned.

Here’s the script for the biological auto_mod trait:
TRAIT_AUTO_MOD_BIOLOGICAL

trait_auto_mod_biological = { cost = 3 auto_mod = yes category = normal allowed_archetypes = { BIOLOGICAL LITHOID } initial = no randomized = no species_potential_add = { hidden_trigger = { exists = from } from = { has_technology = tech_gene_expressions } } species_possible_remove = { always = yes } species_possible_merge_remove = { always = yes } potential_crossbreeding_chance = 1.0 slave_cost = { energy = 1000 } assembly_score = { base = 2 } custom_tooltip_with_modifiers = automodding_trait_biological_tooltip }

Traits themselves should also include a category if you want them to be included as auto_mod possibilities:
TRAIT_AGRARIAN

trait_agrarian = { cost = 2 category = normal species_possible_remove = { can_remove_beneficial_genetic_traits = yes } species_possible_merge_remove = { always = yes } potential_crossbreeding_chance = 1.0 # 1.0 = 100% chance of being considered for new traits when forming half-species. does not guarantee the trait will be added if it costs points. allowed_archetypes = { BIOLOGICAL } modifier = { planet_jobs_food_produces_mult = 0.15 } slave_cost = { energy = 500 } assembly_score = { modifier = { add = 1.5 from = { has_farming_designation = yes } } modifier = { add = 0.5 from = { has_rural_designation = yes } } } }

Jobs themselves need to have a list of traits associated with them. We’ve created a number of inline scripts to handle these.

So our farmer job has the following inline script at the end of the script block:

inline_script = "jobs/automodding_priority_food"

Which expands into:
AUTO_TRAIT_PRIO

auto_trait_prio = { #Farmers trait_agrarian trait_farm_hands trait_robot_harvesters trait_cyborg_harvesters }

Next Week

Next week we’ll explore the new End-Game Crisis that’s coming in The Machine Age.

See you then!

Mar 28, 2024

Stellaris Dev Diary #337 - Individualistic Machines and Machine Gameplay Updates

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello again!

Today we’re looking at some general gameplay changes being made to Machine Empires, Individualistic Machines, and the new Machine Ascension Paths. Some of these still include placeholder assets, and values will continue being adjusted until release.

Take it away, @Gruntsatwork.

Machine and Synthetic Gameplay Changes

History Traits
One of the first things you’ll find in The Machine Age when creating a Machine empire are the history traits we’ve added for Machine species. These 0 point traits let you choose a little more of your backstory - these define your original purpose.

Were you originally created as Research Assistants, Conversational AI chatbots, Workerbots, or perhaps a domestic servant Nannybot meant to make life easier and pass the butter? Six backgrounds with relatively minor bonuses are available for you to choose from. These are available to both gestalt and individualistic machines.

You’ll find a handful of other new traits or variants of existing biological traits for Machine species as well, including having a dedicated Engineering or Sociology Core or Integrated Weaponry to a Delicate Chassis or Scarcity Subroutines.

Please put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply.

Machines, Aging, and Unplanned Obsolescence

Immortality is a funny thing in Stellaris - under some circumstances (especially as the game goes on), due to the accident and death events that could target machines, you can end up in a state where a theoretically “immortal” machine leader is actually far more vulnerable to death as the years went on than a normal biological leader.

Machine leaders will now instead use lifespan rules, but enjoy some extra benefits:

As real go-getters, their starting age lies between 5-10 years, so at the age of 30 they can run your science department with 20 years of experience.
All machines also have an additional +20 years to their default lifespan of 80, resulting in a base lifespan of 100 years.
They are now affected by lifespan-increasing technologies and modifiers, for example, those from Ascension Paths, which we will cover later in this dev diary.

In summary, your machine leaders no longer need to fear random death and will live to the ripe old age of 100 years without any additional improvements.

Some forms of immortality, however, have been retained, like the Gestalt Councils and some special ascension traits. All Virtual machine leaders are immortal while Modularity has access to advanced lifespan-increasing traits that can be applied to your machines.

Similar rules will apply to robots, though they have a starting age of 1-5 years, and do not get the +20 lifespan bonus that machines have.

Both biological empires going Synthetic and Machine empires will also reset their age upon completing Ascension to reflect receiving their new bodies. Somewhat paradoxically, all together, these changes should actually result in your Machine leaders being able to better withstand the test of time than they could were when they were theoretically “immortal”.

100 years is a lot better than how long my last smartphone survived.

Habitability
Habitability is also undergoing some changes. Having +200% Habitability as a base for all machines limited what we could do with them - it was what previously prevented us from allowing them to be Void Dwellers or using several other Origins, for instance. We still wanted to retain the flavor of Machines having an easier time dealing with alternate climates though, so Machines now use habitability systems similar to organics, with some significant changes:

As a base, all machines have a 50% Habitability floor, so they will never have below 50% habitability on any world. We felt that this was important because we wanted to retain the feel that machine empires could colonize anywhere reasonably well.
Machine habitability traits cover entire planet categories rather than a specific biome.
- They start with Dry, Wet, or Frozen Habitability, which provide a base 75% habitability on all three biomes associated with the trait and 50% for all other natural biomes.
- As usual, these habitability traits can be changed through robo-modding.
  - Most machine empires will have access to robo-modding from game start.
  - Origins like Life-Seeded or Subaquatic Machines will start with Gaia World or Ocean World Habitability and will have to research the technology to change their habitability trait, but retain the 50% Habitability floor for being a machine.
Just like for Lifespan, they will now also gain bonuses from technologies, extra habitability from ascensions and new traits. They now also have access to the standard array of habitability technologies.

We believe this will still give them a simplified but more nuanced gameplay experience, with niches and combinations that will come close to the old playstyle while also allowing new fantasies. (Subterranean Machines, for instance, have a 100% Habitability floor and thus are guaranteed perfect habitability everywhere.)

Using partial habitability mechanics opened up the ability to use origins such as Ocean Paradise.

Assimilation
An important quality of life improvement for Machine empires - we have extended the capacity to assimilate other machines or robots into your main species to all machine empires.

They may have shared our name, but they did not share our form. These false Zenak will soon become actual Zenak, including adhering to our charging standards.
(This is what I get for not being careful with my force-spawned empires.)

The Aging, Habitability, and Assimilation changes (and Origin improvements listed later) are all part of the free 3.12 “Andromeda” update.

Individualistic Machines
Gestalt Machine Intelligences were originally introduced in the Synthetic Dawn story pack, but the authority and most of the civics (other than Determined Exterminator, Driven Assimilator, and Rogue Servitor) will also be unlocked by The Machine Age.

The Machine Age will also allow you to create non-Gestalt Machine Empires, using regular authority, ethic, and civic choices. These individualistic machines are not guided by an overall gestalt intelligence, and thus have their own motivations, desires, and disappointments. Individual machines possess happiness like fully recognized synthetics, can and will form factions, and consume consumer goods.

As non-Gestalts, their leaders will draw from the standard array of leader traits. This of course includes fan-favorites like Substance Abuser.

With all ethics available to you, your empire can be spiritualist machines, fully capable of rationalizing their own spiritual superiority compared to lesser machines and organics. Your factions have been adjusted to fit your mechanical existence, since it makes no sense for spiritualist robots to despise all robots. (It’s okay to hate some.)

You will receive roboticists from your capital building with the additional option of building an assembly plant to boost your production even more. This all comes at the cost of alloys, so carefully decide between expansion, war, and pop assembly.

As individual machines are very much capable and willing of entertaining unique needs, they have no restriction on allowing organics in their empires and can even start the game with Syncretic Evolution as their Origin of choice. As such, they have access to technologies for food production, genetic modification, and other organic focused technologies, with a sharply reduced, but not zero, chance at drawing those technologies if you have no organics in your empire. You are at the very least capable of theorizing about meat and its needs compared to gestalt machines.

Depending on your ethics and authorities, you can enfranchise, disenfranchise, enslave, or empower organics or even other machines in your empire as you wish. The only limits to your ability to tread upon those fragile organics and your fellow machines are the limits of your imagination.

Individual Machines have access to most civics organic empires have access to, as well as a few machine civics, like Warbots and Static Research Analysis, which have been adjusted for them.

Decadent, Deviant, Hedonistic Crime-Bots? Sure, why not.

More Origins now available to Machines

As part of the 3.12 “Andromeda” release, we’ve done a pass on Origins to see if there were any that could have their restrictions on Machines relaxed.

The full list of Origins that Machine Empires have access to as of the 3.12 “Andromeda” release is:

Syncretic Evolution (Individualist Machines only)
Life-Seeded
Post-Apocalyptic (Radioactive Rovers)
Void Dwellers (Voidforged)
Hegemon
Ocean Paradise (Subaquatic Machines)
Subterranean (Subterranean Machines)
Arc Welders
Prosperous Unification
Remnants
Shattered Ring
Galactic Doorstep
Resource Consolidation (Gestalt Machine Intelligence only)
Common Ground
Doomsday
Lost Colony
Here Be Dragons
Slingshot to the Stars
Imperial Fiefdom
Riftworld

Transformation Situation and Ascension Paths

With The Machine Age, Individualistic Machines and Gestalt Machines have access to 3 new Ascension Paths (which replace the current Synthetics tree). By taking the Synthetic Age Ascension Perk, you will begin a new Situation to guide them through this momentous transformation.

Virtuality
Embrace a virtual existence for the majority of your pops. From the cloud, your pops are created and to the cloud they return when their job is done.

Spreading your servers across the stars is an expensive endeavor but your concentrated efforts are unmatched.

Your pops gain a unique Virtual Trait that becomes stronger as you progress through the tree
- You gain a massive bonus to production that is reduced by the number of colonies you have
- Your housing usage is reduced by 90%
- Your habitability floor is increased
- The more colonies you gain, the weaker your Virtual Trait and the bigger its upkeep will become
- Your leaders become immortal
You gain a new Policy to focus your intangible virtual economy
- You may choose to focus intensely on Research, Unity or Governance, at the sufferance of the 2 categories you did not choose
You gain a bonus to encryption and decryption
You gain additional districts and jobs from districts

Once you finish the tree, you will transition from a pop-limited playstyle into a planet-limited playstyle, as open jobs will be instantly filled with virtual pops as needed, while unemployed virtual pops will be turned off.

Nanotech
Big Things are made of Small Things.

By becoming a flood of nanites, your empire changes not just its makeup, but also its economy and growth strategy. Grow. Exploit. Replicate.

While Virtual Machines may seek a “Tall” playstyle, Nanotech Machines flood across the galaxy like an off-white or silvery tempest, specializing in the physical.

Ways to transform basic resources into nanites and nanites into advanced resources
A new decision, similar to Terravore world consumption, to turn colonies into nanite worlds
A new starbase building to harvest nanites from uninhabitable worlds
New Edicts to vastly increase your productions or combat capability at the cost of nanites
Nanite probe ships, to bolster your fleets

Modularity
The most advanced traits require the most advanced minds. By embracing Modularity, your empire will have access to traits other machines can only theorize at. The rarest of resources will fuel your enhanced shells.

Your Metallurgists will produce Living Metal
Your roboticists will be boosted by utilizing living metal as an upkeep
Your workers/simple drones will be boosted by your priest equivalent
Your soldiers and enforcers will grant more stability and be stronger
You unlock 9 advanced machine traits, several trait picks, points, and reduced modification cost
All your leaders will gain the Synth leader trait

If you have Synthetic Dawn but do not have The Machine Age, you will retain access to the Synthetics Tree, but with reworked Traditions. These will include bonuses to lifespan, habitability and pop assembly.

Resistance is the Ratio of Voltage to Current Futile

For owners of Synthetic Dawn, Driven Assimilators will gain two advanced authority possibilities in The Machine Age, the Memory Aggregators and the Neural Chorus. Upon completing the Cybernetic tradition tree, the Assimilator will receive the option to determine their stance on the variance of thought permitted within the gestalt consciousness.

This is the Neural Chorus:

The Machine Ship Set

In last week’s dev diary we snuck the Machine Corvette into the Arc Welders screenshot.

Here’s a “glamor shot” of the Machine ships that was arranged by our artists:

We finally have a Machine shipset.

Next Week

Next week we’ll look at the Civics and Structures of The Machine Age, as well as Auto-Modding.

See you then!

Mar 21, 2024

Stellaris Dev Diary #336 - The Origins and Situations of The Machine Age

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hello everybody!

Today, we’ll go through the three Origins, Ascension Situations, and advanced government Authorities in The Machine Age expansion.

The Cybernetic Creed

Rejoice, for the The Machine Age beckons!

It's your digital prophet, Gatekeeper, dialing in to decode the mysteries of The Machine Age's upcoming Origins.

Embarking first on our divine odyssey of silicon and the soul, I will introduce you to Cybernetic Creed, a spiritualist fast track to Cybernetics. Your spiritualist pops and leaders will start with the Ritualist Cybernetics Trait, representing your people's long dedication to attempting the perfect fusion of flesh and steel.

Eschew the mundane traditionalist factions of more standard empires for a quartet of Creeds, each a pillar of your economy and spiritual ethos.

Though united in their quest for divine fusion, harmony is a rare commodity among the Creeds. Dissonance and debate fuel their fiery passion for transcendence, and often, you will be asked to make choices that will make one Creed joyous at the expense of the others.

The Conclave of Fusion Situation will unfold after you embrace your sacred mission and interface with the Cybernetics Tradition Tree.

Here, you must guide your faith, defining its doctrine and the final form of your physical vessel.

Will you elevate a single Creed to celestial prominence or attempt to weave a tapestry of unity among them?
The fuse is divine. Augmentation is worship.

Synthetic Fertility

Next, we delve into the bittersweet digital saga of Synthetic Fertility, our fast track to the Synthetics Tradition Tree.

Boosted by a deep understanding of artificial intelligence and advanced virtual reality, your empire starts the game with 37 Pops. But despite your success, your people are on the brink of extinction. An incurable genetic affliction ravages your species, stopping them from being able to produce offspring.

In a daring leap of innovation, your civilization constructs the Identity Repository. It's a race against time as minds are uploaded, seeking refuge in the digital expanse before death takes them.

Parallel to this digital exodus, you're thrust into the urgent quest for the pinnacle of synthetic salvation - constructing robotic brains and bodies sophisticated enough to host your digital essences.

The final version of this will not have that beautiful magenta image.

Will you seek aid? Will you engineer Synthetic Frames in time to reclaim your place among the stars? Or is this the dawn of an eternal digital slumber for your people?

Arc Welders

It wouldn’t feel right not to have a Machine origin in The Machine Age. Arc Welders is available to any Machine empire - whether a Gestalt Consciousness or Individualistic Machines. In some ways, it is the opposite of Resource Consolidation. Rather than having an exceptional homeworld where all of the resources of your home system are gathered, these celestial architects hail from a small, resource-poor planet and set their eyes on the skies.

The Arc Welders began constructing an Arc Furnace on a molten world in their home system before achieving Faster-Than-Light travel. This “kilostructure” lets them exploit the rest of their system for minerals and, once complete, for alloy production. Expert engineers, it will only take a little more practice before they figure out the basics of Mega-Engineering. However, it may take a while before they can finish researching that technology.

More details on the molten world Arc Furnace will be revealed in the April 4th dev diary.

Mechanists Update

With all of the focus The Machine Age is giving to mechanical empires of all forms, it is appropriate to improve the Mechanist origin as well… Mechanist now grants +2 machine trait points as well as an extra trait pick, and fills that by starting your robots off with the Adaptive Frames trait, taking advantage of the new auto-modding system we’re introducing in 3.12 “Andromeda”. You’ll have to wait until April 4th for complete details on how that works.

Cyberization and Synthesization Situations

I am Ferry, one of the Content Designers on The Machine Age, here to talk about the new narrative Ascension Situations. Utopia introduced the special projects to transform the population into cyborgs or synths. The Machine Age provides you with choices to shape the cyberization and synthesization process, as well as their ultimate effects.

When the Cybernetics tradition tree is adopted, the Cyberization Situation (the Cybernetic Creed Origin has its own version) kicks off with the question who will control the implants in society: the government, private corporations, or will the public be allowed to hack their own implants?

The Augmentation Center building, which is the focus for research and development during the Situation, stays after the situation to boost the cybernetics on the planet it’s on.

However, not everyone is excited about augmentation. Any Spiritualists will either have to be forced to become full cyborgs or be allowed to install the minimum amount of implants necessary to function in this new world according to the Cyberization Standards policy.

For Synthetics, in the Synthesization situation (the Synthetic Fertility origin has its own version), it’s not only Spiritualists who are wary of the planned changes. For some reason, even more people are concerned about scanning their mind to put into a mechanical body. Does your society allow those reluctant to stay around in quaint Old Towns or do they have to go into Biological Enclaves to escape becoming a part of the new machine species?

The Identity Complex building provides Identity Designer jobs across the empire, who boost mechanical assembly speed.

Empires that start as machines, Machine Intelligence or Individualist Machines, get their own ascension situation called Transformation. What this means will be explained in next week’s dev diary.

Advanced Government Authorities

After the Situation has concluded and the Tradition Tree has been filled, an event chain kicks off to shape society into a new Advanced Authority. Does the cybernetic society allow the individual to flourish, or are implants used to bring the population tighter together? Each of the four base Authorities and MegaCorp, as well as Gestalt Hives, can transform into a cybernetic version of the original Authority, or opt to stay the same.

Let’s have a look at the Imperial Authority. One path through the cybernetic societal shift ends with the Imperial Chipset Authority, where implants are inherited within families to carry strength and knowledge forward through the generations.

The empire Ruler gets access to a new relic called the RulerChip, which contains the memories and experiences of previous rulers. As each ruler dies, their class of Official, Commander, or Scientist will grant different bonuses for the heir as they ascend the throne.

The Cybernetic Creed Origin has its own set of advanced cyber governments, one for each Authority.

For Synthetics, the main question of the societal effects event chain is if the new machine society will put a focus on the physical or the virtual world. One example for the Democratic Authority is Democratic Surrogacy, which replaces soldiers and pilots with remote-controlled bodies.

Next Week

Next week we’ll look at Individualistic Machine Empires, gameplay changes we’re making to Machine empires, and go through the new Machine Ascension Paths and Transformation situation.

See you then!

Mar 7, 2024

Stellaris Dev Diary #334 - "Eridanus" Next Steps

Stellaris - PDX_ladydzra

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

Today we’ll be taking a look at the state of the game, the upcoming 3.11.2 patch, talk about the Subscription FAQ, look at the Q&A transcript, and give a taste of what’s next.

Let’s get to it.

State of the Game

The Stellaris 3.11.1 “Eridanus” update was released last week, and I’m happy to say that the build appears quite stable crash-wise.

The number of crash reports is very low for a release, with approximately 90% of the ones we are getting being due to mods that haven’t been updated. Of these, more than half are specifically related to mods that affect the Galaxy Settings screen. Metrics so far show that Multiplayer seems to be significantly more stable than 3.10.4 as well, though an issue has been raised regarding observer mode causing major performance issues in multiplayer that we're currently looking into.

The Custodian Team is currently working on a 3.11.2 update including some of the things that you’ve all reported, preliminarily scheduled for release next Tuesday, March 12th.

SOME THINGS PLANNED FOR 3.11.2

Balance

The Opener for Domination now gives +5% Worker Output and +5% Slave Output instead of +10% Slave Output so Egalitarians and Xenophiles aren’t sad.
Versatility Operational Proxies now gives +1 Unity production to Maintenance Drones so that Rogue Servitors aren't left out.
Decreased the cost to study (-25%) and pacify (-40%) space fauna.

Bugfixes

Fixed Federation Emissaries and GalCom Delegates not assigning correctly.
Acquiring the Colonization Drones from the Chemical Wasteland Astral Rift will no longer lead to discovering Noxious Swamps (or other natural blockers) on Habitats (or other planets that shouldn't support these blockers)
Corrected Adaptability Enhanced Recycling tooltip listing a 10% reduction instead of the 15% reduction.
Corrected the finisher effect for Domination giving -15% Empire Size from Pops in some cases
The finisher for Diplomacy now correctly says it gives +10% Diplomatic Weight instead of +10 Diplomatic Weight
Fixed an issue where the "On the Origins of Nanites" special project didn't spawn.
The Chosen will now declare a war of Cleansing on whoever breaches their wormhole
Fixed habitat capital buildings given the wrong number of defensive armies
Mining districts on machine worlds should no longer claim to give scrap miner drone jobs
Fixed anomaly.7200 having repeated flags in their switch.
Cartographer II and Cartographer III are now correctly recognised as councilor traits
Fixed modifiers to mining and research station upkeep incorrectly attempting to reduce the upkeep of the planet they were orbiting
Science ship auto explore feature with astral rifts sometimes skipped unexplored ones
Fixed the icon for the Great Researcher trait
Fixed Holy Covenants not giving High Priest jobs in some cases
The Shallash system will now spawn properly again.
You will no longer be able to engage in pre-FTL diplomacy with pre-FTLs not within your borders
Homicidal empires will now properly annex pre-FTLs that are foolish enough to become space faring.
Bio-trophies are no longer affected by Noxious Twice.
Fix lack of evasion on sapient torpedo comp.

Fixes the background selector for rulers being set incorrectly in the leader category of the background selectors

Stability

Fixed crash upon startup that could be caused by write-protected user directory.
Fixed CTD that sometimes happens when finishing species modification.
Fixed CTD when using console command dump_event_data and the output file is not writable
Fixed CTD in leader names after loading a savegame
Fixed CTD that may occur when updating diplomacy for countries without diplomacy

More on the Stellaris Expansion Subscription

We’ve created an FAQ about the Stellaris Expansion Subscription option, I've included it here:

We've gathered up some of the most frequently asked questions from the launch of the Stellaris Expansion Subscription.

Will I lose access to my existing content purchases?
No. All existing purchases will remain, and you will not have to sign up to the subscription service to maintain your access to your previously purchased content.
Will future content be subscription-only?
No! Our main model will remain focused around expansions and other content, as we have done so far. We have introduced a subscription service to lower the barrier to entry for new players.
Who asked for this?
We are experimenting with this additional option to provide players access to the full Stellaris experience. We are simply offering another choice, as we understand that many players would be interested in trying Stellaris with all the content without having to commit to purchasing all the existing content.
Why did you not just create content bundles?
We already have bundles available that we have designed with the help of our community. We are happy with the currently available offerings, but may look into this again in the future.
If I play multiplayer with the subscription, does everyone else in my lobby still get to use my content for that game?
Yes! Subscription ownership of the content comes with all the features that a regular purchase does. You can share the content from the subscription in multiplayer with your friends that only have the base-game.
Are there any plans to expand the subscription service to other stores/platforms?
No current plans at this time, but something on our radar long-term.
Does the subscription model signal the end of development on Stellaris?
We currently have several years of Stellaris development planned.
Will individual content still be available for sale?
Yes! Stellaris content will continue to be available to purchased individually, as it always has been.
Why isn’t there a discounted price for the subscription for players who already own some/all of the content?
The Stellaris subscription is geared towards allowing new players more avenues into the full Stellaris experience. As such, we attempted to keep the initial public offering as simple as possible. We may look at expanding our offerings in the future, however.
Why can't I buy Stellaris content while my subscription is active?
When you have an ongoing subscription, you are technically considered to have the content in your library. As such, stores will stop you from purchasing a DLC for the same account twice (since the DLC is already in your library). Once the subscription expires, you can again go back to purchasing content normally.

We hope this provides more clarity into our process and alleviates some of the concerns of the Community with regards to the Expansion Subscription. If you have further questions, feel free to ask them in the thread below and we will do our best to provide answers!

For several years, the Expansion Subscriptions on some of our other games have proven very popular with new players, which was the major reason we wanted to bring the concept over to Stellaris. As Crusader Kings III's Chapters have likewise been extremely popular with their more experienced players, we're also looking into bundling future content together in a similar manner to make it easier for our veterans to get the new content at a discount.

Discord Q&A Transcript

On February 22nd, we held a Q&A on Discord. The team answered 247 questions and only got a little trolly.

For a transcript of the questions that were answered, please visit the Paradox forums.

What Else?

I promised to give a teaser about what the internal team has been working on. Here you go.

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Next week's dev diary will be later than usual as well.

Feb 27, 2024

Stellaris Dev Diary #333 - 3.11.1 “Eridanus” Notes, Introducing Subscriptions

Stellaris - MrFreake_PDX

written by Eladrin

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2729490

Hello!

The 3.11.1 “Eridanus” update has been released!

While the release notes should look relatively familiar to people who read last week's preliminary changelog, here are the release notes for today's update:

3.11.1 “ERIDANUS” CUSTODIAN UPDATE RELEASE NOTES
[expand type=details]

Feature

Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs slider added to galaxy generation. This slider adjusts technology costs based on tier and game difficulty.

Improvements

Added notification message when new pop settles in zeya (Gaia planet in azilash)
Added the Seddom system.
Allowed conversion between Sovereign Guardianship and Corporate Protectorate civics
Dimensional Locks now forbid access to countries without communications
Every participant in a war now gets a truce with the others after it ends, even if they were on the same side
If you have a colony in a system when pre-FTLs become space faring you can apologize and annex them
Progenitor Hive speed malus and bonuses now only affect military ships, removing the need of science ship escorts
Technology and Tradition costs are now distinct sliders in galaxy setup
The Anglers civic now swaps to Trawling Operations if you reform your government into a megacorp and vice versa
The Eager Explorers civic now swaps to Privatized Exploration if you reform your government into a megacorp and vice versa
The Eager Explorers, Privatized Exploration and Exploration Protocols civics can be removed and readded after researching Jump Drives. The Stargazers civic cannot be removed as it is linked to the species trait of the same name
The Foreign Consciousness trait is now a destiny trait
When the Khan awakens the event will now properly have a go to button
Added the old AI crisis diplomatic room to the list of selectable diplomatic rooms
Rearranged the room selector priorities so that AI empires shouldn't lose special diplomatic rooms
Set the old AI crisis diplomatic room to be used by Determined Exterminators
Set the "scrappy room" to be used by the Ketlings
Set the "gilded room" to be used the AI overlord for the Imperial Fiefdom origin
Set the "organic room" to be used by Devouring Swarms
¤ Gangsters should no longer assassinate Chosen Ones or Legendary leaders
¤ If a Zombie or Nerve Stapled pop manages to lie on their resume and become a specialist or ruler they should be demoted much faster
¤ Xenophobic leaders are now half as likely to accept brainslugs while Xenophilic ones are twice as likely to accept them
¤ Improved spawning logic for anomalies that clear deposits to not spawn on planets with strategic resources

Balance

All pop types will now be happy while living on a gaia world.
Added a tier 2 Advanced Bio-Reactor technology and building. Advanced Bio-Reactors further reduce the food output of farmers in exchange for a small amount of exotic gas output
Added Gateway Cost and Megastructure Build Speed modifiers to the Galactic Doorstep origin
Ascension Theory is now a Tier 4 technology that requires at least 6 traditions trees to have been completed to be drawn
Balance adjustments to the Knights of the Toxic God to make some of their behavior behave the same way as other economic bonuses in the game, and make more of the choices in the chain potentially relevant.
Event options in the Knights' quest that improve their capital have been significantly buffed to be better balanced compared to the options that improve knight jobs:
Toxic God Deposits
Knight output modifiers now only apply to resources, like other job output modifiers
Knights now correctly inherit production modifiers from researchers and administrators
Refactored how the output scaling for Knights from Squires functions, these now behave as normal additive modifiers instead of multiplicative modifiers
Squires now increase the resource output of Knights by 2.5% per Squire 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
Luminous Blades
The Order’s X-Calibrator planetary feature on their starting habitat now also provides -10% Pop Upkeep
Knights X-Calibrator
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
Bio-Reactors are now a tier 1 rare technology instead of a tier 0 Technology. Bio-Reactors now reduce the food output of farmer jobs and give them a small amount of energy output
Bio-Trophy buildings no longer provide Artisan Drone and Maintenance Drone jobs
Decreased the amount of research produced by unemployed pops with Utopian Abundance
Delegate GalCom focus traits now have a small chance to give favors
Ecclesiastical Arcologies no longer provide Manager jobs for Corporate Death Cults
Ecclesiastical Arcologies now provide Prosperity Preachers for MegaCorps instead of a split between Priests and Managers for regular Spiritualist MegaCorps
First League Offices now provide Prosperity Preacher jobs for Spiritualist MegaCorps
Galactic Doorstep event chain now directly rewards the Gateway Activation technology and gives far more progress on the Gateway Construction technology
Gospel of the Masses now provides +1 Trade Value to Prosperity Preachers (both inside their empire and those on planet on which they have branch offices)
Increased technology costs, especially those of higher tier technologies
Increased the cost of the Rock Potential special project to 1000 energy to account for Stellaris Inflation
Increased the effects of Empire Size on Technology to match its effect on Traditions
Lost Colony Parents now spawn with more developed colonies to avoid overcrowding on their capital.
Machine Intelligences with a biological secondary species now have a base food income of 10 food/month, and without a secondary species or with a Lithoid secondary species, they now have a base mineral income of 10 minerals/month.
Moved habitat upkeep modifiers from the domination opener to the expansion opener. Available for all, not just void dwellers
Curator leader trait now provides +10% Research Speed (was +15%) with an associated +10% Researcher Upkeep. The Survey Speed bonus remains unchanged
Penal Colonies now provide 10 housing.
Prosperity Preachers are now a specialist strata job
Rebalanced leader traits gained from Ascension Paths (Psionic, Chosen One, Synthetic, Cyborg, Erudite)
Reduced output of researcher jobs
Reduced the amount of Naval Cap granted by technologies
Removed most sources of Ship Cost and Upkeep reductions from the game
Bulwark ship upkeep reductions reduced by 50%
Corporate Crusader Spirit now reduces ship upkeep by 5% instead of 10%
Crusader Spirit civic now improves ship build speed
Fleet Supremacy edict no longer reduces ship upkeep
Grand Fleet ambition now increases power projection instead of reducing ship upkeep
Logistic Understanding, Armada Logistician, and Gunboat Diplomat traits now reduces ship upkeep while docked
Mark of the Instrument ship component no longer reduces ship upkeep
Master Shipwrights tradition in the Supremacy tree no longer reduces ship build costs
Match tradition in the Enmity tree bonus to ship build costs reduced to 5% instead of 10%
Military Buildup Agenda now improves ship build speed and reduces claim costs. (It still reduces War Exhaustion on completion.)
Military Pioneer trait now reduces starbase upgrade costs instead of ship build costs
Naval Procurement Officer councilor now improves ship build speed
Progress Oriented modifier no longer reduces ship build costs
Psionic Supremacy (Eater of Worlds) finisher 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%
Shipwright trait no longer reduces ship build costs
Vyctor's Improved Fleet Logistics trait now reduces ship build costs by 10% instead of 20%
Rulers now gain 12 XP per month
Temples now provide Prosperity Preachers for Spiritualist MegaCorps instead of a split between Priests and Managers
The Entangled Dark Matter astral rift now completely overwrites the personality of the selected scientist if they are not psionic
The Traumatized trait now negatively impacts Astral Rift Exploration Speed
Tier 2 and Tier 3 Sacrificial Temples no longer provide Manager jobs for Corporate Death Cults
Tweaked the tiers of technologies that increase naval cap and fleet command limit
Warpling armies now have an upkeep of 1 energy and 0.1 astral threads per month
Psychological Infertility and Existential Iteroparity can no longer be taken with the Clone Soldier or Ascended Clone Soldier trait.
Two of the three habitable planets in the Trappist system are now terraforming candidates
The "Tragula's Cross", "Trin's Promise" and "Loh" systems are now mutually exclusive on galaxy generation
The “Science Ship as a Concept” now uses psionic components instead of whichever components your empire has researched
Improvements to Resort Worlds:
Resort Colonies now have Resort Workers and Resort Districts.
Resort Workers provide empire wide bonuses to amenities and trade value from living standards.
Resort World Technology appears sooner and is cheaper.
Added Unity Bonus to resort world designation, lowered housing bonus
¤ Empires that value other species, such as Rogue Servitors, will now get extra annoyed if you engage in genocide or necrophaging
¤ Gestalt empires can now sell their minor artifacts provided that they have access to the galactic market
¤ Marauder ships should now have a decently larger amount of armor for most shipsizes
¤ Refugees should now also be willing to flee to Rogue Servitors if they are welcomed as Bio-trophies

Bugfixes

Added missing class name and icon in the leader upkeep tooltip
Added missing required components to the Marauder Galleon
Added new localization and triggers for Machine Empires exploring the Rift World origin.
Armies now disband instantly instead of waiting for next tick
Cordyceptic Empires that only had Subspace Drives on their ships are now also capable of reanimating space fauna
Corrected draw weight for Shipbreaker trait
Corrected modifiers on Agrarian Upbringing
Corrected some trait names
Corrected the Scout Wing using the wrong 3d entities
Correctly locked a number of Delegate GalCom focus traits to require the DLC that unlocks their resolution category
Diplo action tooltip now shows why we can't claim any systems
distar.1081 will no longer spawn pops on colonies in progress
Driven Assimilators with the Protected Pre-Sapients policy will no longer purge pre-sapients
Empires with the Mechromancy AP can no longer purge cyborg zombies
Event windows now correctly have no effect after the player has been defeated
Extra trait points for script-generated species are now added correctly
Fix countries created by `create_country` script command not having any leaders in their recruitment pool
Fix duplicate ship role buttons when switching ship templates in ship designer
Fix not being able to exit the game or return to menu when certain other UI windows were open
Fix some leaders (e.g. paragons) getting a trait pick when you hire them even though they should not, how greedy!
Fixed a number of opposite trait pairs not taking into account their leveled versions
Fixed a string being undefined in the ruler designer menu
Fixed an Astral Rift calling the Baol for Boal or was it the other way around?
Fixed an error that prevented some Fallen Empire task events from firing
Fixed cyborg zombies having a 100% chance of spawning instead of 33%
Fixed default weights for pre-sapient policies
Fixed Discoveries tab not being displayed when tabs order has been customized
Fixed gestalt scientists getting research expertise traits when those traits had no effect for them
Fixed heirs being able to have the Planar Theorist trait despite not being capable of exploring astral rifts
Fixed incorrect weapon effect being used for the World Cracker
Fixed invalid scope allowing pre-sapient pops to be turned into cyborg zombies
Fixed issues with leaders assigned to armies or fleet that contain armies
Fixed leaders sometimes getting invalid trait choices on level up
Fixed missing 0 on Collaborator II
Fixed missing message title for Restoring the Balance
Fixed newest achievements not working on MS Store
Fixed Orbital Bombardment planet modifier not having a tooltip if there are no other planet modifiers there
Fixed possibility of leader trait picks including opposites of existing traits
Fixed Revolutionary Medi-Gel not affecting Pharma State civic production for Medical Workers
Fixed systems at the bottom of the map spawning at wrong coordinates
Fixed the Shared Burdens tooltip being outdated and mentioning additional unity from the Egalitarian faction
Fixed Unity Ambitions referencing their pre-Unity rework state.
Fixed Urbanist being both a Destiny trait and a Veteran trait (which prevented it from being available as a trait pick)
Fleets of countries without ship_disengagement = yes (e.g. Horde) now correctly cannot use emergency retreat
Former Satrapies of the Khan should no longer be informed twice when the new Horde forms.
Hiring Renowned and Legendary Leaders no longer hires a mysterious clone of them instead
If the Knights Keep is hit with a Pacifier Colossus there will now be unique event text
It now costs 200 influence to abandon planets even if they have pre-sapients living there.
Livestock slaves now inherit farmer and miner modifiers as appropriate.
Making sure the negative situation outliner notifications only happens for negative situations
Modifiers to empire-wide resource production now apply to resources generated through trade policies
Removed reference to a loc key inside of an Under One Rule event.
Renowned and Legendary Leaders no longer lose Council traits when hired by gestalt empires.
Repairing The Black Crown should no longer fire generic gateway repaired events
Replaced all sources of "is_leading_research = x" with "is_head_of_research" fixing numerous broken events and scopes
Replaced one of the descriptions being reused for the Old Gods event chain
Show turrets correctly on the Maven Cruiser and Caravaneer ships
Sobek will no longer be confused and think that they came from your capital
Species habitability for randomized empires is now correctly set for origins like shattered ring
Stellar Culture Shock will now be applied to hive pre-FTLs if you are a hive empire.
Terraforming a Barren World into a Machine or a Hive World will no longer fill that world with blockers
Terraforming straight into a Hive or a Machine World now correctly removes "Terraforming Candidate"
The astral rifts now correctly checks for Chosen One traits in addition to the Psionic trait
The Azizians event can no longer target planets that are under colonization
The chance to gain negative leader traits depending on leader age now takes into account leader lifespan
The Ranger Lodge will now properly produce +2 and +3 additional unity as the higher tier of Environmentalist Galactic Community Resolutions are passed.
The Speed Demon anomaly will no longer show up for Synthetic empires.
Updated the hire_event_leader_effect scripted effect to take account of the the Eternal Throne relic
Updated the tooltip for Universal Prosperity Mandate to mention the Employee Ownership living standard
When the "Prohibit Separate Treaties" federation law is enable it should now correctly remove treaties from both parties and not only the outside one
When transferring ships from one fleet to another, the fleet's leader will now always stay on the old fleet
AI UNE should no longer spawn if there is already an empire using the Sol initializer.
Fixed a rare instance of a possible divide by 0 during rebellions
Fixed orders for jump-drive-only ships being queued in the wrong order.
Fixed Skrand Sharpbeak being unassigned from his ship after you hire him
Fixed Skrand Sharpbeak having an excess of traits
Fixed some issues with the triggers to encounter Skrand Sharpbeak - sorry he's been a bit shy recently
Fixes to leader generation conditions for the leader pool if there are no valid species (such as if you nerve staple your entire population)
If the Prikkiti will now build the most advanced starbase that they can instead of always trying to build a citadel even if they don't have the technology for it.
If you shield the final world of the Contingency you should now receive your relic.
Kaleidoscope event chain: pre-FTL countries won't be able to receive the Kaleidoscope anymore
Newly released vassals now get a leader pool correctly
Research stations will no longer try to go MIA when a revolt occurs.
The Manifesti should no longer show up before you have encountered other alien empires.
¤ The Expel Corporation war goal now also removes Branch Offices belonging to the defender from your allies' planets
¤ A supremely unlucky pre-FTL nation should no longer be able to have multiple machine uprisings if they fight off the first one
¤ The Atomic Clock event will now properly trigger after 42 years and 3 days following the superior Stellaris Standard Calendar, which has 360 day years
¤ Authoritarianism should no longer become more popular because you have egalitarian councilors
¤ Become the Crisis AI empires will now always decline becoming vassals to awakened empires
¤ Fixed a rare case where the Shard would not turn hostile against the player
¤ Fixed a rare error that would occur if your scientist who finished a dig site died before you clicked the final dig site event
¤ Fixed the checks for the Debris Field anomaly making it rarer than it should be
¤ Fixed the Lush Planet Anomaly requiring Sol to have spawned, also updated the event rewards to work in a tileless Stellaris
¤ Hyperlanes should no longer get attached to sealed systems
¤ Imperial Fiefdom AI will no longer consider subjects to be viable overlords when they are looking for one
¤ The Fleet Maneuvers event can no longer happen in capital systems
¤ The Horizon Signal Event Chain will now correctly prioritize your head of research for narrative events
¤ The Manifesti event chain will now properly end if you apprehend them early enough
¤ The puddle technician drone job is now properly a drone job
¤ The Sentinel Order should no longer spawn in systems not connected to the rest of the galaxy, leaving everyone else to deal with the Prethoryn
¤ Upscaling the Messenger will now properly remove the negative modifiers from the ships
¤ Vultaumar III will now properly have both alloys and mineral deposits
¤ Irass III will now properly have both alloys and mineral deposits, while Irass VIII has gained its missing exotic gases

Performance

Improved speed of AI checking whether it should send subjugation offers
Various performance improvements

Stability

Fixed crash when completing an Astral Rift if the exploring ship no longer exists
Possibly fixed rare crash in galaxy map special project icon tooltip.
Several Out of Sync fixes.
Fixing OOS issue with planets, wormholes etc sometimes being slightly differently positioned between windows and linux.

Add assigned Leader's name and council title to archaeology view and rift view
Additional Content tab text is centered correctly
Clicking on a resource in the top bar now switches to that resource in the market view instead of closing it if it was already open
Clicking on the "capped resource" notification will now take you to the correct tab depending on which resource is capped (correct market tab, relics view for minor artifacts, claims view for influence)
Fix claim buttons being misaligned on partially or fully occupied systems
Fix Outliner tab buttons appearing over the fleet manager sidebar on smaller resolutions
Fixed incorrect speed value in ship designer
Fixed Outliner tab buttons appearing in front of the archaeology window.
Inactive leader trait triggered modifiers are shown in the tooltip along with their trigger conditions
Remove double error message for starbase building tooltips
Trade protection tooltip lists empire-wide modifiers
Use up to 2 decimal places for displaying stability modifiers
Use up to 2 decimal places for production/upkeep in building/district tooltips
If an orbital station build order is selected, its fail text in planet tooltips no longer reveals hidden information.
Tooltips for Galcom sanction resolutions now show the modifiers even if they're inactive.
Tooltips for Galcom resolutions that have both triggered and non-triggered modifiers no longer show the "Modifiers" header twice.

Added better script to evaluate planet and fleet for leaders, and added description of the AI algorithms for leader assignation in the leader_classes/00_base_classes.txt
Awakened Empires can now upgrade their starbases.
Changed leader assignation into a single loop for all location types, sorting locations by priority and leaders by skill, then trying to assign the highest priority leader to locations in order
Fixed AI being able to improve and harm relations at the same time
Fixed another case of the AI assigning Leaders to invalid (empty) fleets
Fixed the AI trying to assign military leaders to science fleets.
Improved AI weights for Ascension Paths
The AI now hires leaders the same way it assigns them. Expect an increased number of generals.
The AI will evaluate a leader for a location based on the `ai_location_weight` scripted value in the leader class
The Fear of the Dark AI empires will be less predictable with what extreme paths they might take.
The weight value for location priority when assigning leaders is now a define. When assigning leaders, there are 2 steps, first steps leader and locations are assigned a priority value, and then each leader calculates a final weight for each location. The leader/location pair with the highest weight is then assigned. This change affects the first step (the priority in the queue), as the second step is already fully scriptable.
Improved AI leader assignment weights
The AI now decides whether to strengthen or undermine the galactic empire based on two new game rules
The AI will no longer build additional Quantum Catapults if they already have one within 25 jumps.
¤ Improved AI decision-making for the "Find Military Applications" Artifact Action
¤ Improved AI logic when it comes to when to use the Strip Mining decision
¤ Reduced the AI willingness to accept trade deals for food or consumer goods if they don't use those resources
¤ AI Hive-Mind empires now have an increased chance to research terraforming technologies since they are unlikely to get more pop types from migration pacts.

Modding

Add `last_resolution_category_changed` trigger
Added a check for the block_homeworld_traits leader flag in all traits that provide additional jobs to the leader's background planet. This flag is not currently used in the vanilla game
Added checked for the following leader flags to leader trait weights and potentials: block_army_traits, block_council_traits, block_federation_traits, block_galcom_traits, block_governor_traits, block_pilot_traits these flags set the selection weight for leader traits in their category to 0 but are ignored if the leader has a subclass specializing in the category. These flags are currently unused in the vanilla game
Added game rule 'can_ai_assign_governor' to let the AI decide if a planet can have a governor or not
Added NON_PARAGON_TRAIT_OPTIONS_ON_LEVEL_UP define
Added not_potential_override_text_key parameter to triggered modifier (currently used in leader trait tooltips and galcom resolutions)
Added on_army_disbanded on_action
Added show_if_not_potential parameter to triggered modifier (currently used in leader trait tooltips and galcom resolutions)
Added text_offset variable to buttonType (only used for buttons that have both a sprite and text)
Added the "is_urban_planet" scripted trigger for pc_relic and pc_city planets
leader_class trigger can now appear in tooltips
Renamed LEADER_RULER_MONARCH_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_RULER_EXPERIENCE and LEADER_RULER_HEIR_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_HEIR_EXPERIENCE
Replaced "negative", "subclass_trait", "destiny_trait" and "veteran_class_locked_trait" leader trait variables with "leader_trait_type"
Updated documentation for create_species effect
Updated LEADER_GOVERNOR_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_ASSIGNED_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE
Fixed "remove_deposit" effect not working in a deposit scope, fixing orbitals not removing their bonus to habitats when destroyed
Replaced the loc string used to select a background for Paragon portraits with an asset selector.
can_generate_military_leader_from_pop now includes the requirements of can_generate_leader_from_pop, which are now in the can_be_leader scripted trigger.

[/expand]
Release notes marked with the ¤ symbol were made with the assistance of our modding community. Special thanks to Ariphaos, Fireprince, Risa, alexrider903, ECHO, Roverstorm, jasonpepe, SirBlackAxe, Glavius, Savlor, OldEnt, Harain, and The24thDS for making Stellaris a better game.

Please be aware that as normal with major releases, mods that have not yet been updated are likely to cause unexpected issues. If you wish to continue existing saves, see this thread for how to roll back to earlier versions of Stellaris.

Stellaris Expansion Subscription

Over the years, as more content has been added to Stellaris, we have been hearing an ever-increasing number of requests for a subscription option as an alternative to purchasing them individually.

We’re happy to announce that we are adding a subscription option to Stellaris, allowing players to access all released DLCs for Stellaris at a fixed monthly fee. Future DLC releases will be available to subscribers on day 1.

The Stellaris Expansion Subscription grants access to all of the content for Stellaris, with significant discounts for longer subscription plans:

1 Month: 9.99 USD
3 Months: 19.99 USD
6 Months: 29.99 USD

Subscriptions can be started either directly from Steam or through the Additional Content browser, and may have different prices based on your regional currencies. The Stellaris Expansion Subscription is currently only available on Steam.

Next Week

Next week’s dev diary will be on Thursday March 7th, and will likely be about post-release support for the 3.11 “Eridanus” update.

We’ll also include the dev Q&A transcript and a little hint about what else we’re working on.

Thank you for playing Stellaris!