by MrFreake_PDX

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mod highlight, Michael_Stellaris has some great mods lined up for us this week, and this week’s theme is exploration! These mods will make the galaxy more interesting and diverse, and who doesn’t love new things to find out in the galaxy. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.



—

Dangerous Wildlife Expanded is a very unique mod, adds much more depth to dangerous wildlife, and should make planets feel much more unique, and can even alter the course of your playthrough.
By WoodenPotatoes


This section was written by WoodenPotatoes

Firstly, I really liked the idea of expanding on the sorts of non-intelligent fauna we might find around the galaxy, like T-Rexes and Mammoths and whatnot. Stellaris is utterly fantastic with intelligent aliens, primitive aliens, and even has pre-sapients. But what kind of wildlife is out there? What alien monsters and creepy crawlies lurk on foreign worlds?

Secondly, I really liked the concept of mounted alien cavalry.

So I made this!

Features:

• Diversify the flavour of the "Dangerous Wildlife" planetary feature
  
• Defend your colonies from these creatures as they attack you
  
• Eventually, recruit them for yourself

Inspiration:
I was really inspired by one of the launch army attachments "Xeno Cavalry", and have a lot of fond memories of mounting my psionic warriors on them.

I do have a funny bug story from development on this one: In one early prototype of the attack events I hadn't set a flag to tell the monsters to stop attacking if they had already won. This meant that if you, the player, lost to a horde of, let's say, dire wolves, then a couple of years later you might look at your planet see that even more dire wolves had now come out of hiding to attack the new top dogs in charge! This was happening everywhere, best of all on planets with multiple types of wildlife at once. You'd have swarms of giant cockroaches trying to eat T-rexes, Woolly Rhinos duking it out against alien Yeti, Bats vs Spiders, you get the picture. An entire galaxy of raging wildlife.

—

More Events Mod is one of the most popular event mods out there, it definitely deserves to be featured. It contains some really fun event chains, systems, and new things to find out in the galaxy.
By Malthus


This section was written by Malthus

Our mod started out shortly after Stellaris' release back in 2016. A lot of people have worked on and contributed to it over the years, among them great scripters, writers and 2d/3d artists who all shared the same goal of adding more to the the game experience in terms of short stories through anomalies and bigger story arcs with digsites, quests and even some mid game crises (Broken Clock, Vazuran Menace, Surveyor Probe). All of which is meant to add to the Stellaris lore while staying true to it without contradictions - a vanilla+ basically.

Over the time it grew quite a bit from just being a few anomalies and events at the start, to now having nearly two dozen digsites, three mid game crises and even custom species portraits which were made for their respective events but are also fully usable for ai empires. It may be bloat to some, but it is just a big package by now.

Features:

• dozens of anomalies
  
• early and mid game events, multiple archaeological sites and a few origins
  
• multiple mid game crises
  
• various species portraits

Inspiration:
The mod was originally created by vonMourn shortly after the initial Stellaris release. I joined a few weeks later, when he asked around for people interested in contributing to it. Back then I had no idea about scripting and just wanted to add my "Event Horizon" knockoff story about a possessed ship that took its crew into hell. So writing was all good and well, but getting into scripting afterwards was a lot of trial and error back when there weren't such cool helpers like CWTools around. It was a great help though that all the stuff in Stellaris is as easily accessible with a text editor as it is.


The Broken Clock system from More Events Mod

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Guilli's Planet Modifiers and Features adds a ton of new anomalies, relics, and modifiers to make planets, and outer space more interesting.
By Guilliman


For version 3.12+ of the game, section written by Guilliman

A big content expansion mod focusing on Planetary Modifiers. With hundreds of modifiers and lots of content that interacts with them.

Features:

• Over 400 new Planet Modifiers
  
• Many new planet features and blockers
  
• Terraforming improvements through planet modifiers
  
• New planetary decisions to interact with planet modifiers
  
• Tons of story events
  
• New Anomalies and exploration events
  
• New policy: survey expeditions
  
• New Precursor Dig Sites that interact with precursor planet modifiers
  
• Precursor Discoveries (technologies, components, bonuses,..)
  
• 29 new relics
  
• Relic War Goals (claim relics!)
  
• Espionage to steal relics
  
• Relic galaxy map overlay to see who has relics and how many (based on intel)
  
• New precursor planet: "Archaeopolis" (requires Ancient Relics DLC)
  
• Minor Artifacts uses, techs, armies (requires Ancient Relics DLC)
  
• Broken Mini-Megastructures that spawn across the galaxy
  
• Wondrous Planets
  
• Custom options menu at the start of the game

Inspiration:
I always found planets a little boring but I was mostly curious if I could mod a single planet modifier to see how hard it would be. It got a little bit out of hand from there.. :)

—

More Primitives adds more content for primitives. It adds new events, 11 new Primitive eras, pre-FTL colonization of other habitable planets, and more!

By Sparble


This section written by Sparble

More Primitives, as the name suggests, is a mod all about Pre-FTL civilizations, with its main focus being Pre-FTL Ages, Events, Situations and Special Projects.

The mod started with a handful of primitive events, such as particle accelerator construction with mysterious events related to that, Pre-FTL world war with multiple outcomes, primitives entering a fanatic philosophical age from which they could turn into primitive purifiers, begin to worship multiple benevolent or malicious shroud entities, or embrace deeply philosophical debates such as anti-natalism.

These events were expanded over time, and new event chains came along, such as primitives colonizing their solar system before reaching FTL, their reaction to megastructures in their system, or Pre-FTLs entering a robotic age and developing a technological singularity, which would eventually become self-aware an either trigger a global catastrophe or ultimately become the benevolent savior of the primitive species.

It's also worth mentioning that More Primitives does not require the First Contact DLC, but adds additional content on top of that if used along with it.

Features:

• Plenty of new Pre-FTL Events & Event Chains
  
• 11 New Pre-FTL Ages
  
• Pre-FTL Machine Intelligences
  
• New special projects & interactions related to Pre-FTL events
  
• Other flavor stuff related to primitives (Pre-FTL buildings, modifiers, planet class, traits)
  
• Dedicated Cross-Mod Support

You can never have enough primitive content!

More Primitives was my first ever Stellaris mod and, with the help of the great modding community, inspired me to expand my initially very limited knowledge about modding, which has resulted in much new and improved content and the release of various other mods over time, expanding and adding new features to expand the Stellaris Universe.

—

That’s it for this week, we have one more Mod Highlight scheduled for August 10th before Dev Diaries resume on August 15th!

See you then!

Hello everyone!

While the devs are off frolicing in the sun, we decided this is a great opportunity to highlight (mostly) community mods!



We wanted to change things up a bit this year, but we have such a hard time choosing between all the amazing mods on the workshop, so instead we made Michael~ do it. Michael has assembled several collections of mods each based on a theme, and then we tracked down the modders and asked if they had anything they wanted to share about their mods.

So without further ado, I present:
-----

The Friends We Made Along The Way

This mod collection is all based on the various storytelling aspects of Stellaris. From origins (letting the player create a unique backstory), to event mods (allowing you to create compelling narratives throughout the game). That's the reason why many people (including myself) got into the game, and that's the unique quality about Stellaris - the ability to create your own story, and fulfill your scifi fantasy.

By Exakan



Darkspace is a vanilla+ and roleplay mod, not an overhaul. DarkSpace does not change basic game mechanics and players have full control over the content, the game will only change if you choose an option. DarkSpace offers a whole host of new, unique playstyles that vanilla Stellaris doesn’t.

Features:

• +15 Origins with unique game mechanics & asymmetrical gameplay. Some of them even have their own category of multiple civics.
  
• Multiple new Civics for roleplay or game mechanics.
  
• Ascension Perks for all empire types.
  
• Unique playstyles (Eldritch, Plague, Nomads, Nanites, Crisis..)
  
• >25 Megastructures, dependent on perks, origins or crisis paths.
  
• Has the largest & most complex Nomad origin that exists right now.
  
• You can become a fallen empire, and create new civilizations by hand.
  
• Some portraits and shipsets (Unbidden, Organic, Fallen Empire) etc for roleplay.
  
• DS is made with great cross-mod compatibility in mind.
  
• Right now a story-interactive endgame crisis with multiple choices/paths is in the works

Inspiration:
DarkSpace is my personal playground. If I find an idea that I would like to play as in Stellaris, then I add it. With the "fun factor" secured for myself, I know Ill put the required passion into the project. I keep everything optional though, the player decides what the mod is doing with their game .

I never expected the mod to "explode" that much, I expected like 1k subs at start. The Stellaris community is very friendly and it makes a lot of fun to mod for them :)


By caligulacaesar

Disclaimer: When Michael~ was selecting this list of mods, he was not aware that Caligula works for Paradox Development Studios and was previously a developer on Stellaris. Caligula was recruited as a Stellaris developer after making this mod.



Stellaris empires have never really felt alive. Imagine if we (us Humans) suddenly weren’t the only species on our planet – how we get on with the others would soon be one of the big topics. Or if machines produced half our output suddenly, one could imagine it might be difficult to adjust. These societal factors are currently not represented well in Stellaris - there are the factions, but they don't have events surrounding them. Even now, 8 years past release, we still have not had the fabled Internal Politics DLC that could, possible, change this.

This mod was an attempt from 2018 to fill this void. It adds dozens of events - and some ridiculously extensive branching event chains - to give you further stories to experience and decisions to make about how you run your empire.

Features:

• Events to do with integrating alien species, including tensions between species and your attitude towards interspecies marriages.
  
• Events focusing on pops’ and factions’ specific demands (e.g. emancipation movements).
  
• Colonisation Stories – your new colonists on a planet might choose their own leader or how they wish to organise themselves.
  
• Establish a ruler cult to your emperor.
  
• Various scandals and conspiracies.
  
• Events affecting interstate relations.
  
• And more (over 55,000 words of text in total).

Inspiration:
The original inspiration for my mod was twofold: firstly, I loved playing Stellaris, but the version in those days (1.6 or so) has relatively little content beyond the initial exploration, and I wanted to add more storylines to experience later in the game. Secondly, I was working a job I found very boring, and it was very nice to have a creative outlet.

After doing that for a year, I ended up being hired by Paradox, and I'm still there over 5 years later, so I think that worked out for me!

And I still keep the mod up to date, even though I don't add new event chains, because for the most part it still holds up well.

By inny78




Embark on a cosmic odyssey with this mod, where a tapestry of interstellar narratives unfolds for your science team amidst the boundless realms of the galaxy. Delve into the forgotten tales of ancient precursor empires, their legacies lost in the starlit void long before your celestial journey began. Uncover hidden dig sites and engage with enigmatic anomalies that beckon with inscrutable secrets. Every discovery and encounter weaves into the fabric of your empire's destiny, steering its path through the stars.

Recommended DLC, but not required: Ancient Relics, Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, Nemesis and First Contact - these will provide additional rewards.

Features:

• New Precursor chains
  
• New Dig sites
  
• New events

Inspiration:
When XVCV announced that he would stop modding, I decided that his amazing mods (Precursor Story Pack and Archaeology Story Pack) should not be abandoned. I added later some old mods that I enjoyed, with the permission of their authors Marky612 (Strange Worlds, resurrected from the Stellaris 1.6 era) and QUENTOPOLIS' Fires of Ziaskehorn.

I wanted to preserve the stories told by abandonded event mods, and also create my own with more liberties than the constraints of Extra Events Continued. So I created the Stellaris Chronicles collection (Extra Events Continued and Forgotten Empires) and started creating Forgotten Empires with a curated selection of lore-friendly stories. These stories don't require any DLC but the events can make use of them if they are present. Now that I'm satisfied with the new precursors, my focus is now on creating shorter stories and unique systems.

By cybrxkhan



Basic Ordinary Origins adds in several new origins that are just that - basic and ordinary. They are simple origins meant to provide alternative "default" origins to Prosperous Unification, with starting bonuses that are similarly mundane and not drastic. They won’t change gameplay significantly, but will hopefully add flavor and variety to your games so not every nation starts with the “Prosperous Unification” origin. Though this isn’t meant to be perfectly balanced, keeping in line with the vanilla origins' lack of balance, none will ideally be overpowered.

Features:
20+ new "simple" origins; usable by both human players and AI empires:

• Antediluvian Knowledge
  
• Chosen Revolutionary
  
• Chosen Royal
  
• Clean Energy
  
• Former Scavengers
  
• Global Wars
  
• Great Khanate
  
• Legendary Friendship
  
• Lost Continent
  
• Mysterious Bonds
  
• One with Nature
  
• Post-Post-Apocalyptic
  
• Silk Road
  
• Slow Evolution
  
• Steampunk
  
• Survival of the Fittest
  
• The Gate
  
• Trekkers of the Stars
  
• War to End All Wars

Inspiration:
I started Basic Ordinary Origins (BOO) back in 2020 when the Origins feature was first added. A lot of vanilla's origins other than Prosperous Unification are complex and have deep storylines attached to them, so I felt there was a lack of simple origins to make things more interesting without needing the larger origins.

I've been modding Stellaris since it came out in 2016. My major mods which I started back then, and which I still maintain, are Cybrxkhan's Assortment of Namelists (CANS) and More AI Personalities (MAP). CANS adds more (mostly fictional) namelists that both players can use and AI empires can randomly spawn with, while MAP adds new AI personalities. They're both compatible with and complement BOO well.

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That’s all for this week! We’ll be back in two week’s time with another Mod Highlight!

If you've ever wanted to have a citizen of the Stellaris universe staring at you from across the room, now's your chance!

Stellaris and Makeship have teamed up to bring this war criminal adorable Starfish Plushie to life -- but only for a limited time.


If not friend, why friend-shaped?



*Suit of armor not included*

Make sure to assimilate this fanatic purifier into your empire while you can!

Specifications:
Eyes: 4
Arms: 6
Inches: 11.5
USD: $29.99
Galaxies Ruined: All of them!​

by Eladrin

Stellaris is having a free weekend! Tell your friends!


Play Stellaris for free this weekend!

We’ve asked the Dev team for some tips to help new players out during their first steps out into the wondrous unknown.

• Don't forget to unpause the game, but don't be afraid to pause it again if you need time to think. - Eladrin
  
• The different options in empire creation aren’t created equally, some empires will be more powerful than others, but regardless you’ll get more enjoyment out of the game by playing what you find fun (or what you find the idea of to be fun) without looking up the “perfect build”. - Alfray Stryke
  
• Buildings don't produce Resources, Jobs produce Resources! Just because you've built a shiny new Research Lab doesn't mean there's anyone working there. Click the Population tab to learn more! - OK_Television_391
  
• Stellaris has mid-game and end-game crises that you might not be able to defeat on your first try. Each defeat makes your eventual triumph more satisfying. - Eladrin
  
• Read the tooltips. - PDX_Ferry
  
• Not every Species eats food, some eat energy and others minerals. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Got a neighbor that closed the borders and rivaled you? It is a matter of time before they will declare war on you. Choose a choke point, build a star base, upgrade it with defense buildings. It might be just enough to defend the border, but for extra measure you can also build some defense platforms on the station or station your fleet there. This will enable you to mostly ignore that aggressive neighbor and focus on expanding/exploring the other direction.
  
• Losing a war isn't losing the game, enjoy your moments of vengeful plotting as much as your triumphs. - Beals
  
• Just because you've got slightly more fleet power than an enemy, it doesn't mean you're definitely going to win.
  
• If the notifications are too spammy (or not spammy enough), you can configure them in the settings. - pthooie
  
• A few Origins are more challenging than others. Doomsday, Broken Shackles, and Payback start you off with some major challenges to overcome, and may be better to save until you have a few games under your belt. - Eladrin
  
• Don't worry too much about what people say is best. Making an empire with a cool backstory will keep you entertained a lot longer than one with perfect numbers! - Iggy
  
• Make sure you expand you fleet early on, or you might be prey to the first neighbour you find. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Your pops will love the Holo-Theater building.- PDX_Ferry
  
• As expected in a sci-fi game, Research is king, however this means Unity is queen - don’t neglect the development of your empire’s Traditions in pursuit of new Technologies. - Alfray Stryke
  
• If you spawn next to a Criminal syndicate, keep an eye on your planets, or you might get overwhelmed by crime. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
  • Correction: If you spawn next to a criminal syndicate, blow it up - Beals
• Pops > Everything. Want to increase your power in the galaxy? Colonize, boost Pop Growth Speed, encourage Immigration... But whatever method you choose, remember ABP: "Always Be Poppin!" - OK_Television_391
  
• For single player, it's good to queue up your science ship exploration and pick your first three technologies to research before you un-pause.
  
• Set up a monthly trade in the Market to get missing resources.- PDX_Ferry
  
• Be brave and break things, choose a clearly wrong choice, make mistakes, crack open that ancient tomb, the galaxy is yours and full of wonders! - Beals
  
• But most of all, have fun, and thanks for playing Stellaris! - Eladrin

Do you have any tips for the new explorers? Share them!

Stellaris is partnering with Makeship to produce a limited edition Stellaris Starfish plushie!

They may have destroyed Europa VII, but we can still be friends, right?


Click to go to the campaign!

Summer vacations are here, so this will be the last dev diary until mid-August, when we will return with information about Cosmic Storms and the Stellaris 3.13 “Vela” update.

Have a great summer, and thank you for playing Stellaris!

Dear Stellaris Fans,

Our latest and greatest version of the game, the 3.12.5 patch, is now live and available for download.

This patch brings further fixes and tweaks and wraps up our 3.12 + The Machine Age release cycle.
Please find the patch notes below.


Improvement

• Obsessional Directive empires that control a black hole now get an option for safe and secure storage for their commodities.
  
• Reworked how Fallen Empires view empires trying to match their technological level. Unless you're a Scion, any FE level tech you acquire will accrue a stacking opinion penalty with them, that is doubled for the materialist Fallen Empire.
  
• Added new building icons for the Sensorium and Simulation Sites and their upgrades
  
• Species list will not longer show founder species from various contacts that do not even have any presence on any of the planets.
  
• Megastrutures that are supposed to be built outside the gravity well will not be displayed in the list whilte trying to build one on top of planets or stars.
  
• Nanite deposits with non-zero available quantity below 1 now appear in galaxy and solar system views
  
• Nanotech empires will no longer receive ships every 5 years, and will instead gain an equivalent amount of nanites with which to build ships. They now have access to the Interdictor ship, a battleship alternative with a fixed nanite cost that can use torpedoes and hangars.

UI

• The first Outliner tab now includes military fleets, civilian ships and armies by default.

Balance

• Constructing an Arc Furnace in a system will now remove all trade deposits to make way for the mining stations
  
• Increased the output of Haruspex and Technophants.
  
• Haruspex now produce 3 Unity and 2.5 Engineering Research (was 2 Unity and 2 Engineering Research).
  
• Technophants now produce 6 Unity and 5 Engineering Research (was 4 Unity and 4 Engineering Research).
  
• Spyware Directives now start with Basic Cloaking Fields as a research option
  
• Synaptic Subprocessing for Hive Minds now grants Augmentor Drones to Spawning Pools instead of Modular Cybernetics, however the effect on Empire Size from Districts was halved
  
• Modular Cybernetics now grants Hive Minds +3 Organic Species Trait Points as they cannot research robotic technologies
  
• The AI Emporium Branch Office Holding no longer provides +5% resources from jobs, instead it provides +1 Identity Designer job and +10% Branch Office Value from Roboticists and Identity Designers. This allows the empire in which it is constructed to assemble robots even if they do not have the required technology. However, only one can be constructed in each empire in which you have a branch office and it can only be constructed if the empire has not outlawed robots.
  
• The Customer Insights edict now reduces both the energy and influence cost for Branch Offices
  
• The Empire Size Effect for Integrated Hives has been reduced from -50% to -33%
  
• Empire Size from Pops for OTA Updates has been reduced from -20% to -15%
  
• Empire Size from Pops from Harmony and Synchronicity tradition trees have been reduced from -15% to -10%
  
• Cetana's relic now provides -50% planetary ascension cost, down from 75%.
  
• The job strata bonuses from Synthesization have been rebalanced, moved to the robot assembly buildings, and apply to both regular empires and Synthetic Fertility

Bugfix

• Planets which had an anomaly present while an Arc Furnace was constructed will now correctly inherit all the deposits when the anomaly is cleared, if the planet can support mining deposits
  
• Updated many anomalies to no longer remove deposits if applicable.
  
• Gone Native' event has default text in case none of the other options were appropriate
  
• AI Empires will check if they already have an assigned emissary for the galactic community before assigning a new one.
  
• AI will assign emissaries to the Galactic Community.
  
• AI will check if a federation already has an assigned representative before assigning a new one. Will prevent it from continually switching representatives.
  
• Cybernetic Creed start event duplication blocked
  
• Fallen Empires created by Cosmogenesis should now no longer sometimes be created tragically without a personality.
  
• Federation/Galcom fleet template size is now limited by the corresponding capacity, not by the command limit.
  
• Fixed Augmentation Bazaars sometimes not granting the full effects from some Cyberization choices
  
• Fixed Expand the Council agenda behavior for savefiles that predate Galactic Paragons DLC
  
• Fixed former federation fleets being treated as federation fleets when checking which ship designs can be added to the template.
  
• Fixed some logical errors for the Bot Lord, Truth Seeker and Shroud Preacher traits
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Machine Template System
  
• Fixed the nanite deposit scaling
  
• Fixed the void dweller origin sometimes trying to spawn a mining station around the habitat central complex
  
• Hide Dyson Sphere build option when Machine DLC is enabled
  
• Increased the animation speed of Imperial Colossus. Now it has enough time to trigger laser beam animation.
  
• New rulers will properly abandon their old council positions.
  
• Paradox titan graphics no longer uses the same mesh twice and looks broken.
  
• Pre-sapient pop will no longer display colony abandonment cost if only one sapient pop is left on the planet.
  
• Psionic species variants can be cyberized
  
• Refugees will no longer flee to places where they will be dismantled on arrival
  
• Replaced most checks for the Servile, Nerve Stapled, Zombie and Suppressed traits with the can_think trait.
  
• Science ships using automation should no longer excavate archeology sites that aren't available to the owning empire.
  
• Script error in resort worker job block
  
• The Psionic Theory no longer tries to check if your empire has the Psionic Expertise trait, instead it checks if a Councilor has the trait.
  
• The tooltip for Diplomatic Weight now states "Delegate" instead of "Envoys"
  
• The Victory Score breakdown will now correctly include Victory Score from effects in its Score calculation at the top of the screen.
  
• When a country leaves a federation, its federation fleet templates are now transferred to the president.
  
• When a federation is disbanded, the president takes control of all federation fleet templates, including ones without a fleet.
  
• When a non-president country builds a federation fleet from a template, the template is now transferred to the president along with the fleet.
  
• When the GDF changes ownership, GDF fleet templates without actual fleets are now transferred.
  
• The Eternal Throne relic still grants immortality after the Eternal Machine species trait has been modified away.
  
• Arc Furnace and Dyson Swarm limits no longer suffer an off-by-one error
  
• Outposts raids conducted by multiple fleets should no longer be cut short after one of the fleets is destroyed.
  
• Made sure that non player countries are properly destroyed upon activation of the Aetherophasic Engine.
  
• The Reformed Queen event should now properly display Cetana.
  
• Ministry of Acquisition checks for Overlord Consumer Goods Use
  
• Ship preview should no longer black out when viewing certain ships

AI

• AI empires can no longer adopt Virtuality.

Stability

• Fixed crash in federation fleet ui entry after resync
  
• Fixed crash in federation member UI item when resyncing
  
• Fixed crash upon loading a save with faulty owners of megastructures
  
• Fixed CTD when technology without tech area is processed by the database
  
• Fixes oos related to mining planet megastructure
  
• Fixed CTD at startup on older macOS (before 13.x) due to missing library

Modding

• Added on_auto_colony_type_changed on_action.
  
• Added the Servile trait to the can_think scripted trigger

The team will now shift focus to our next major release, as well as take some vacation in between.

See you again after summer!

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

This week the 3.12.4 hotfix (which fixed a crash related to non-latin letters in usernames) has been deployed to non-Steam platforms.

Today I’ve got a preliminary list of changes for the 3.12.5 patch, which we currently have planned for Tuesday, June 18th.


Improvement​

• Democratic Crusaders no longer hate Worker Coops for being Oligarchies
  
• Obsessional Directive empires that control a black hole now get an option for safe and secure storage for their commodities.
  
• Reworked how Fallen Empires view empires trying to match their technological level. Unless you're a Scion, any FE level tech you acquire will accrue a stacking opinion penalty with them, that is doubled for the materialist Fallen Empire.
  
• Added new building icons for the Sensorium and Simulation Sites and their upgrades
  
• Species list will not longer show founder species from various contacts that do not even have any presence on any of the planets.

Balance​

• Constructing an Arc Furnace in a system will now remove all trade deposits to make way for the mining stations
  
• Increased the output of Haruspex and Technophants.
  
  • Haruspex now produce 3 Unity and 2.5 Engineering Research (was 2 Unity and 2 Engineering Research).
    
  • Technophants now produce 6 Unity and 5 Engineering Research (was 4 Unity and 4 Engineering Research).
• Spyware Directives now start with Basic Cloaking Fields as a research option
  
• Synaptic Subprocessing for Hive Minds now grants Augmentor Drones to Spawning Pools instead of Modular Cybernetics, however the effect on Empire Size from Districts was halved
  
• Modular Cybernetics now grants Hive Minds +3 Organic Species Trait Points as they cannot research robotic technologies
  
• The AI Emporium Branch Office Holding no longer provides +5% resources from jobs, instead it provides +1 Identity Designer job and +10% Branch Office Value from Roboticists and Identity Designers. This allows the empire in which it is constructed to assemble robots even if they do not have the required technology. However, only one can be constructed in each empire in which you have a branch office and it can only be constructed if the empire has not outlawed robots.
  
• The Customer Insights edict now reduces both the energy and influence cost for Branch Offices
  
• The Empire Size Effect for Integrated Hives has been reduced from -50% to -33%
  
• Empire Size from Pops for OTA Updates has been reduced from -20% to -15%
  
• Empire Size from Pops from Harmony and Synchronicity tradition trees have been reduced from -15% to -10%
  
• Cetana's relic now provides -50% planetary ascension cost, down from 75%.
  
• The job strata bonuses from Synthesization have been rebalanced, moved to the robot assembly buildings, and apply to both regular empires and Synthetic Fertility

Bugfix​

• Planets which had an anomaly present while an Arc Furnace was constructed will now correctly inherit all the deposits when the anomaly is cleared, if the planet can support mining deposits
  
• Updated many anomalies to no longer remove deposits if applicable.
  
• Gone Native' event has default text in case none of the other options were appropriate
  
• AI Empires will check if they already have an assigned emissary for the galactic community before assigning a new one.
  
• AI will assign emissaries to the Galactic Community.
  
• AI will check if a federation already has an assigned representative before assigning a new one. Will prevent it from continually switching representatives.
  
• Cybernetic Creed start event duplication blocked
  
• Fallen Empires created by Cosmogenesis should now no longer sometimes be created tragically without a personality.
  
• Federation/Galcom fleet template size is now limited by the corresponding capacity, not by the command limit.
  
• Fixed Augmentation Bazaars sometimes not granting the full effects from some Cyberization choices
  
• Fixed Expand the Council agenda behavior for savefiles that predate Galactic Paragons DLC
  
• Fixed former federation fleets being treated as federation fleets when checking which ship designs can be added to the template.
  
• Fixed some logical errors for the Bot Lord, Truth Seeker and Shroud Preacher traits
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Machine Template System
  
• Fixed the nanite deposit scaling
  
• Fixed the void dweller origin sometimes trying to spawn a mining station around the habitat central complex
  
• Hide Dyson Sphere build option when Machine DLC is enabled
  
• Increased the animation speed of Imperial Colossus. Now it has enough time to trigger laser beam animation.
  
• New rulers will properly abandon their old council positions.
  
• Paradox titan graphics no longer uses the same mesh twice and looks broken.
  
• Pre-sapient pop will no longer display colony abandonment cost if only one sapient pop is left on the planet.
  
• Psionic species variants can be cyberized
  
• Refugees will no longer flee to places where they will be dismantled on arrival
  
• Replaced most checks for the Servile, Nerve Stapled, Zombie and Suppressed traits with the can_think trait.
  
• Science ships using automation should no longer excavate archeology sites that aren't available to the owning empire.
  
• Script error in resort worker job block
  
• The Psionic Theory no longer tries to check if your empire has the Psionic Expertise trait, instead it checks if a Councilor has the trait.
  
• The tooltip for Diplomatic Weight now states "Delegate" instead of "Envoys"
  
• The Victory Score breakdown will now correctly include Victory Score from effects in its Score calculation at the top of the screen.
  
• When a country leaves a federation, its federation fleet templates are now transferred to the president.
  
• When a federation is disbanded, the president takes control of all federation fleet templates, including ones without a fleet.
  
• When a non-president country builds a federation fleet from a template, the template is now transferred to the president along with the fleet.
  
• When the GDF changes ownership, GDF fleet templates without actual fleets are now transferred.

Stability​

• Fixed crash in federation fleet ui entry after resync
  
• Fixed crash in federation member UI item when resyncing
  
• Fixed crash upon loading a save with faulty owners of megastructures
  
• Fixed CTD when technology without tech area is processed by the database
  
• Fixes oos related to mining planet megastructure

Modding​

• Added on_auto_colony_type_changed on_action.
  
• Added the Servile trait to the can_think scripted trigger

Barring the unexpected, this is expected to be the final release of the "Andromeda" patch cycle, so your mods are safe until the storms blow them away with the 3.13 "Vela" release coming in Q3 2024.


Next Tuesday we’ll find out what this is about:



We’re also going to have a Stellaris Free Weekend starting on June 20th, running through the weekend.



To help our new players out, next Thursday’s dev diary will be "Tips from the Developers".

See you then!

Hello,

A hotfix patch is now available via Steam, addressing a crash affecting some players trying to start a new game in 3.12.3.

• Fixed a crash where the user directory could not be accessed by the game if the file path included certain characters

Thanks for playing Stellaris, and apologies for the inconvenience!

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

The 3.12.3 “Andromeda” patch was released this week, with the following changes:
Feature​

• Added tradition agendas for Modularity, Nanotech and Virtuality
  
• Some megastructures (mostly kilostructures) can now be dismantled if you have the technology to build them and are not at war.
  
• Solar system tooltips now show the arc furnace and habitat potential of a system, if you meet the construction requirements for the megastructures

Improvement​

• Added heir titles to Mortal Empire and Bandit Kingdom governments
  
• Added missing heir titles for Imperial governments
  
• Added more character names to the Cyberpunk list
  
• Added tooltips to the Transformation situation to summarize the different ascension paths in the event that you make a choice of which path to select.
  
• Awakened fallen empires now can use the daedalus seal relic.
  
• Completing the Synthetic Fertility event chain will now grant additional robot modification trait points and picks and award a unique trait for your synths
  
• Cybernetic Creed pops can now be modified
  
• Democratic Crusaders no longer hate Worker Coops for being Oligarchies
  
• Non-Spiritualist pops in a Cybernetic Creed empire now only have the Cybernetic Creed traits removed instead of all Cyborg traits
  
• Redesigned top-menu resource tooltips for clarity
  
• Robots Pops are now called Machine or Mechanical Pops in most places
  
• Scavenger civics now have 10% of the base cost of buildings, districts and megastructures refunded upon dismantling them
  
• Selecting a Cybernetic Creed as your sole Spiritualist faction no longer forces a template onto your species
  
• The Commodities Consolidation situation will now show if you are on track to produce enough consumer goods or if you do not have enough storage space to the quota. Thanks to SirBlackAxe for the improvement suggestions!
  
• Your choice in the Virtual Salvation event now influences the Synthetic Society Shift in the Digital Refactoring event chain

Balance​

• Added Election Term Variance (Years): +5 to the Shadow Council civic. This means that each election will have a term length equal to that of the authority +/- a random number of years between -5 and +5.
  
• Added Election Term Length (Years): -50% to the Worker Cooperative civic, giving empires with this civic the same term length as the democratic authority.
  
• All Virtual empires (either Machines that take Virtuality traditions or Organic empires that adopt a Virtual government after completing Synthetic Ascension) now get access to the Virtual Economic Policy
  
• Buffed the Mutual Aid trade policy to also provide unity
  
• Cosmogenesis Battlecruiser and Titans now use reactors one class above theirs, and should now provide ample power for modules.
  
• Dark Matter Engine effects reduced from +60% to +40%
  
• Increased the effects of the modifier nerfing FE against Cetana.
  
• Machine World planet designation now increases the output of all jobs by 5% instead of only simple drones and increases the build speed of all resource districts by 25%
  
• Made Rogue Servitors slightly more likely to build organic sanctuaries and their upgrades
  
• Reduced the time needed to complete the special projects "The Queen's Databank" and "Cetana: Race The Tempest"
  
• Selecting a Cybernetic Creed as your sole Spiritualist faction now awards a country modifier for that Creed - these modifiers are:
  
  • The Fellowship of the Hammer, Elevated Fellowship, +1 Biological Trait Points, +1 Biological Trait Picks, -10% Building and District Upkeep, -10% Megastructure Upkeep
    
  • The Templars of Steel, Elevated Templars, +1 Biological Trait Points, +1 Biological Trait Picks, +5% Naval Capacity
    
  • The Choir of the Mind, Elevated Choir, +1 Biological Trait Points, +1 Biological Trait Picks, +5% Research Speed, +5% Researcher Upkeep
    
  • The Commune of Toil, Elevated Commune, +1 Biological Trait Points, +1 Biological Trait Picks, +10% Cyborg Happiness
    
  • The United Creeds has their modifier changed to +2 Biological Trait Points, +1 Biological Trait Picks
• Selecting a Cybernetic Creed as your sole Spiritualist faction now gives +10% Faction Approval for the Creed
  
• Selecting the physical path for Synthetic Ascension now unlocks the advanced traits from Modularity
  
• Shielded Components points cost reduced from 4 to 3
  
• Synthetic Imperial authorities no longer have -10% pop assembly speed
  
• Synthetic Oligarchic authorities now have Enforcer provide +10% Resources from Ruler Jobs instead of +5%
  
• Synthetic Physical Corporate government now gives +5% Trade Value
  
• Synthetic Physical Imperial government now gives +2 leader starting level and +10% leader XP gain
  
• Synthetic Virtual Corporate government now gives +1 Codebreaking
  
• The additional trait picks and points awarded by Cybernetic Creed now only apply to biological species
  
• The Augmentations of the Commune now gives +20% Worker Output, but no longer gives +20% Worker Happiness
  
• The Bot Lord destiny trait is now available for all leader classes and now instead increases the production and decreases the upkeep of both robots and cyborgs. It is twice as likely to show up if you are an individual machine or have synthetic or cybernetic ascension.
  
• The Computation Core Focus policy for Synthetic MegaCorps no longer removes the +1% Trade Value modifier from Clerks and the Production Streamlining option now also increases Consumer Goods production in addition to alloys.
  
• The Nanotech World designation now also affects agri-drones if you build hydroponic farms on the planet
  
• The Shroud Preacher and Truth Seeker destiny traits are now blocked if you have undertaken another a non-psionic path. They are twice as likely to show up if you have psionic ascension. The traits no longer require spiritualist ethics
  
• Virtuality Adoptions grants a -15% metallurgist and artisan production
  
• Virtuality Policy now grants +80%/-50%, down from +100%/-40%

Bugfix​

• Added a homeworld or planet preference to multiple event species, mainly machines
  
• Added a plural version of the loc for synaptic lathe districts
  
• Added a warning to Synthetic Age that it will not grant a new tradition if you have no tradition slots left
  
• Added military academy to shattered ring and habitat
  
• Added more checks to prevent Worker Coops from using banned trade policies
  
• Assembly tooltip will now combine empire wide add modifiers into the same category.
  
• Becoming a machine removes the brain slug trait from leaders
  
• Blocked parades and deficits from targeting the synaptic lathe
  
• Cetana's fleets now begin at 1st
  
• Changed resilience bonus for immortal leaders
  
• Changed Synthetic Dawn machine empire gender to indeterminable.
  
• Changed the cost of the Integrated Mega Construction edict so it wouldn't break the UI
  
• Clarified the loc of the AI policy and machine Citizenships
  
• Colony ships for Synthetic Fertility now use energy instead of food or minerals
  
• Completely new fleet will be able to accept more than the default 20 ships by forcing an early modifier update.
  
• Corrected icons for Zero Waste Protocols and Diplomatic Protocols
  
• Corrected the highlighting on the Free at Last concept tooltip
  
• Corrected the names of some gestalt agendas
  
• create_species effect can no longer create species without habitability traits
  
• Cyberization can handle multiple species templates
  
• Defenders of the galaxy can not become a crisis anymore
  
• Destroyed orbital rings are no longer duplicated
  
• Dyson Swarm's stage name 1 is now properly displayed in Russian
  
• election_term_variance values for government authorities now behave as expected and go negative.
  
• First contract breakthrough chance is now affected by encryption.
  
• Fixed a bug where players would occasionally not receive the "Mysterious Tempest" special project needed to declare war to Cetana
  
• Fixed a bunch of typos reported on the forums
  
• Fixed a couple of issues with coordinator districts and virtuality traditions
  
• Fixed a crash when switching between countries while in observer mode with the Leader View open.
  
• Fixed a number of capital buildings checking for the wrong synthetics tradition to add roboticist jobs
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to keep playing after Cetana won
  
• Fixed an issue with the Mother Knows Best achievement being incorrectly configured for some storefronts
  
• Fixed Archaeology and Astral Rift exploration failure probability sometimes showing nonsense values
  
• Fixed building type AI weight calculations again
  
• Fixed cloaking effect for Enigma Battlecruiser and Paradox Titan
  
• Fixed Clone Army and Natural Design not being mutually exclusive
  
• Fixed Cybernetic Creed pops sometimes not growing if there were robots present on the planet
  
• Fixed job weights for Resort Workers
  
• Fixed leaders undergoing synthetic ascension not changing age correctly
  
• Fixed Natural Design civics sometimes starting with more buildings than the capital could support
  
• Fixed some errors in the calculations for merc enclave dividend payout frequency
  
• Fixed some minor typos with traditions
  
• Fixed the "Mass Graves" blocker not having a description.
  
• Fixed the additional priest jobs from Virtuality traditions not actually checking for the tradition
  
• Fixed the extra clerk jobs from Virtuality traditions granting the wrong number of jobs
  
• Fixed the habitability for secondary species for Driven Assimilators and Rogue Servitors with some origins
  
• Fixed the Rulerchip being reset whenever you gain a new relic
  
• Fixed unlocalized string for the machine ring world habitability trait
  
• Fixes issues with modification of uplifted species
  
• Fruitful Partnership Origin: stopped critters from leaving seeds on artificial worlds and habitats
  
• Full citizenship for robots requires tech Artificial Administration
  
• Gave the machine fallen empire ring world preference
  
• High-Level Enhancements now provides +1 Unity from Bio-Trophies for Rogue Servitors
  
• Hiveminds can now purge hiveminds again
  
• Keep the Transformation deposits when terraforming into a Machine World
  
• Landing armies on the synaptic lathe is forbidden
  
• Leaders in empires with Feudal Society now correctly require upkeep
  
• Limited the first contact breakthrough and insight gain percentages to values between 0 and 100 percent.
  
• Loading a save should now unassign scientists from the pre-3.8 research areas.
  
• Machines with the Shattered Ring origin now require robomodding techs in order to modify their machine species
  
• Made AI realize it can not take FEs with 10k fleetpower
  
• Made explosion after cracking lathe/habitat/ringworld stick until it has played thru.
  
• Made the language used for trait points and trait picks modifiers consistent
  
• Make sure planet jobs are properly refreshed upon building/district build queue actions finishes.
  
• Ministry of Acquisition now correctly produces Consumer Goods if the overlord uses them
  
• Moved warning text for virtuality into tradition adoption effect instead of widely available trait
  
• Moving the capital destroys the old Cyberdome building
  
• Opinion modifiers of Interstellar Assemblies now stacks for each owned Assembly
  
• Other Crises should no longer be allowed to spawn while the Synth Queen is ongoing
  
• Pops on the lathe can not be assimilated
  
• Pops that are turned Virtual while on the Lathe, will have their Virtuality trait quietly removed
  
• Progenitor hives now receive the correct jobs from the Fallen Empire clinic buildings.
  
• Reduced the likelihood of designation switching for foundry and factory worlds
  
• Refugees won't willingly resettle to the Synaptic Lathe anymore
  
• Removed mentions of stockpiles from the Delete Sector tooltip
  
• Removed the formless from the end-game crisis list, which might have caused some issues regarding crisis spawning
  
• Removed the reference to the Server Load Reduction decision, since it is no longer available
  
• Removed useless "go to" camera button in the "No Response" event
  
• Show disabled crisis button on Synaptic Lathe view in case another empire takes it over.
  
• Show large weapon slot and hangars as separate entries for sections in ship designer
  
• Special project names in tooltips are now highlighted in yellow
  
• Special projects to raid outposts should now get properly cleared after failing a raid and new projects should display the proper location instead of the empire name.
  
• Subsuming a planet into a nanite world now correctly removes planetary modifiers and features
  
• Synthetic Fertility gets access to edicts Subsidized Identity Backups and Optimized Identity Creation
  
• Synthetic Fertility should now always have access to the AI right policy
  
• Synthetic Fertility: Keep the organic species portrait in the Identity Repository and Robot Surrogates are now non-holographic
  
• Terraforming planets related to Keides event chain now removes their unique features
  
• The Artifact Exhibition planetary decision is now available for Haruspex jobs
  
• The brainmines now require a minimum sapience
  
• The Determined Exterminator civic no longer mentions that you start on a tomb world
  
• The FE robot assembly building should no longer be automatically destroyed after being built.
  
• The Grand Battlements of Steel and Aegis Complex now provide FTL inhibitors
  
• The limit on the number of built Dyson Swarm and Arc Furnaces now correctly includes structures under construction
  
• The modifiers from the Rulerchip are now listed in the same order as leader classes in the leader UI
  
• The Nanotech World designation now requires the Unbridled Consumption tradition
  
• The United Creeds now have their unique faction icon
  
• Unique planetary features added through the Transformation situation and Genesis Guides civics are now kept when restoring a shattered ringworld or turning a planet into an ecumenopolis
  
• Updated Archaeological Site Excavation failure probability to show accurate number on the tooltip.
  
• Updated Astral Rift Exploration failure probability to show accurate number on the tooltip.
  
• Virtual Pops are now properly blocked from resettling on the lathe
  
• Wrecked Fleet event only fires once afterwards, notifications are given
  
• You can now only trade one leader at a time
  
• Initial election for countries now takes into account modifiers to election term length

Stability​

• Adding check to start_astral_action_cooldown effect for validating that the country type can use astral actions (currently either playable or has the ai interior_minister_module) instead of potentially crashing.
  
• Fixed CTD when a non playable empire decides to lock wormholes etc
  
• Fixed OOS in hotjoin/resync due to clients cleaning up invalid ship components

UI/UX​

• Added "Build Megastructure" option to fleet order context menu in galaxy view.
  
• Fixed planet "Build Megastructure" command not correctly hiding unbuildable megastructures from the list.
  
• Fixed some incorrect leader assignment text.
  
• Fixed subscription's title not being localized in the popup when buying it through the additional content browser.
  
• Fixed zoom animation not playing if you go to system view for the last system that you visited in system view.
  
• Implemented unique icons for galactic focuses concerning mid-game and end-game crises
  
• System megastructure selection view tooltips show detailed fail text for non-planet-specific checks.
  
• The Science Nexus build tooltip no longer shows "Exists" fail text in systems without a starbase.
  
• The government panel now shows your election frequency

Modding​

• Added election_term_variance_add and election_term_variance_mult modifiers
  
• Adding the ability to dismantle megastructures, see megastructure documentation
  
• Readding support for appending portrait sets and implementing it for portrait categories
  
• Removed obsolete is_researching_area and research_leader triggers.
  
• Renamed government_election_years_add and government_election_years_mult to election_term_years_add and election_term_years_mult

We’re currently working on 3.12.4 which will likely be the last patch in the 3.12 “Andromeda” cycle. Summer approaches, and with it, team vacations.

Winds in the fall will bring us the 3.13 “Vela” update, and with it, Cosmic Storms.

Vela is the constellation representing the sails of the Argo Navis, the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to get the Golden Fleece. We thought it a fitting name for an expansion relating to galactic weather.

As a bit of a sneak peek, I’ll show you some screenshots from the game I’m currently playing.

Note: I cranked up the frequency and intensity of storms up to the absolute max for this run, so a normal galaxy should be a bit more chill.


The storm map mode will make it easier to see what systems are under the effects of storms.


In system view, you’ll see the glowies.


Prediction technologies can help you figure out where the storms may be going.


That’s probably the path it will take, if nothing interferes with it. I wonder if Teersonia will be hit?​

Next week is Sweden’s National Day, so our next dev diary will be June 13th, which I’m currently penciling in as a possible 3.12.4 release date.

See you in two weeks!

by Ealdrin

Hello everybody!

Last week we released 3.12.2 to the public, and since then we’ve been working on further post release support. Today we’ll be going into some of the things we’re planning for a 3.12.3 release. Currently we’re looking at next Thursday as the tentative release date, but we’ll keep you posted.
Following the deluge of feedback from the release of The Machine Age, 3.12.3 will include the following changes:

• Selecting the “physical” path for Synthetic Ascension will unlock the advanced machine traits from the Modularity path for Machines.
  
• Selecting the “virtual” path for Synthetic Ascension will unlock the Virtual Economic Policy from the Virtuality path for Machines. (Though the policy has been rebalanced.)
  
• The unique planetary features added from the Transformation situation are now kept when turning a planet into an ecumenopolis or restoring a shattered ringworld.
  
• Synthetic authorities have been rebalanced.
  
• The Commodities Consolidation situation will now show if you are on track to produce enough consumer goods or if you do not have enough storage space to the quota.
  
• The Virtuality, Modularity and Nanotech tradition trees now have agendas.
  
• Cybernetic Creed:
  
  • Embracing a Cybernetic Creed no longer forces a template onto your species.
    
  • Embracing a Cybernetic Creed now gives +10% Faction Approval when they become your sole Spiritualist faction (This does not apply if you unite the Creeds).
    
  • Embracing a Cybernetic Creed now awards a unique country modifier for that Creed.
    
  • Non-Spiritualist pops in a Cybernetic Creed empire now only have the Cybernetic Creed traits removed instead of all Cyborg traits.
• Synthetic Fertility:
  
  • Your choice in the Virtual Salvation event now influences the Synthetic Society Shift in the Digital Refactoring event chain.
    
  • Finishing the situation now grants access to the Subsidized Identity Backups and Optimized Identity Creation edicts.
    
  • Completing the Synthetic Fertility event chain will now grant additional robot modification trait points and picks and award a unique free trait for your synthetically ascended population.
• Refugees won't willingly resettle to the Synaptic Lathe anymore.
  
• Dark Matter Engines have been reduced from +60% Resource Production to +40%
  
• Virtuality Adoptions grants a -15% metallurgist and artisan production

​
As a small QOL UX improvement, if you can construct Arc Furnaces or Habitats, the tooltips for solar systems will now include a summary of the system potential for both megastructures.



Long have the conquered Hyper Relays of your fallen enemies been the bane of your economy, however in 3.12.3, this will be changing with the addition of the ability to dismantle select kilostructures.

Kilostructures that will be allowed to be dismantled (for a moderate energy and time investment) will be limited to:

• Gateways
  
• Hyper Relays
  
• Dyson Swarms
  
• Arc Furnaces

As always, modders will have the ability to extend this to their megastructures (and make us weep in horror).


The pesky UNE will soon have their railway network dismantled!

Even better if you have a Scavenger civic, dismantling buildings, districts and kilostructures will give you a slight refund on any physical resources used to construct them.



We’ve added the ability for Civics (and other sources of country modifiers) to easily modify the length and variance of election terms along with the government screen now showing the length of election terms in your empire. Two civics have made use of these changes

Worker Cooperative now has a -50% to Election Term Length making it have the same as a regular Democracy.



Meanwhile, Shadow Council now grants +5 to Election Term Variance, as the powers-that-be in the shadows ensure elections never occur on a regular basis.



If all goes according to plan, next week’s dev diary will be the 3.12.3 release notes. I expect that we'll have one more release after that before we head off for the summer, so keep on submitting bug reports and suggestions, they’re very helpful for allocating post-release support resources.

See you next week!

Strap in to your acceleration couches, this one's a going to be a big one. - E

Hello there!

I’m Anton, the Art Manager & Producer on Stellaris, and I would like to welcome you all to this absolute monster of a Dev Diary we have prepared for you!

I just want to use this opportunity to mention how amazing it is to work with these fantastic artists on a day to day basis and how extremely proud I am of the team.
We managed to do a lot for this DLC, more than we’ve done for an expansion or DLC ever before.

In fact the total logged art work time (I just looked at our stats in JIRA) for The Machine Age is over 2 years and 41 weeks.

Truly spectacular. Great job Team!

In the last The Art of The Machine Age dev diary, we showed you (and talked about the process of) a lot of what we had been doing - but far from it all.

So get comfortable, take out your favorite snack and get ready to look at a lot of art. Almost everything we did for The Machine Age will be showcased - but first, some words from our Art Director.

Alright! Here we go! We hope you enjoy this!


As you have heard countless times already, our latest project, The Machine Age, is the largest pack we’ve ever put out for Stellaris. The reason that you’ve heard it countless times is because we think it’s worth repeating. We have well over double the amount of ships and FX, triple the amount of characters and animation, and probably quadruple the amount of 2D/Icon work. As daunting as that might seem, we pulled it off. And not just pulled it off, but did it without losing any quality and with an unbelievably tight schedule. Sure things were busy, but we can proudly say that we didn’t have to burn the midnight oil or resort to overtime or crunch.

While I would love, as the AD, to just take credit for all of that hard work and bask in the amazing light of glorious praise, the real credit goes to our “Little Art Team That Could”.
In the boundless expanses and the incomprehensibly infinite universe of game design, our small art team shines like a supernova of talent and efficiency. Though few in number, our art team possesses a galaxy's worth of skill and dedication, crafting the most awe-inspiring sci-fi visuals that breathe life into every pixel, every polygon and every frame of Stellaris.
Each artist possesses a bewildering array of talents, with skills so sharp they could slice through space-time, creating shortcuts to other dimensions where deadlines don't exist and cups of caffeinated beverages never run dry. They churn out masterpieces with such alarming speed and regularity that one begins to suspect they've cloned themselves and are operating in shifts spanning multiple parallel universes (Please, do not let HR in on this…).

I am ever thankful for the chance to voyage through the cosmos of Stellaris with such brilliantly unhinged minds. Their talent and relentless dedication are the warp drive to our projects, and their visionary artistry is the very soul of our games. I am ever grateful for their dedication and downright chuffed to navigate the nebulous realms of creativity alongside such splendidly imaginative life forms.

Together, we continue to chart courses that boldly go where no game has gone before. And, as always, to the players, I say: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

-Scott Austin-
Art Director, Paradox Interactive

[Note from your friendly Stellaris Community Ambassador: Steam will not allow us to include all 150+ images the Art Team has shared in this Dev Diary, so please visit the Paradox forums if you want to see it all!]


Cybernetic Portraits







Synthetic Portraits







The Synthetic Queen










Illustrations







Super Structures & The Synthetic Queen Ships Concepts







The Machine Age Ship Concepts








Cybernetic Portraits







Cybernetic Portraits - Part II







Synthetic Portraits







Illustrations







Concept Art - Ships








Cybernetics Ship Set







Machines Ship Set








Cybernetics Ship Set







Machines ship set







The Synthetic Queen Ships








Cybernetics Ship Set








[Stellaris CA note: the GIFs that go here are too pretty to compress to fit Steam image limits; go look at them on the forums or click through to Erik's ArtStation page.]


Stellaris - The Machine Age - Animations




Achievements, Technologies, Buildings, Authorities, Traits & Civics







The Ruler Chip Relic



Synthetic Fertility Event Image






The Machine Age UI Art - The Synaptic Lathe





The Machine Age UI Art - Cosmogenesis Crisis





The Machine Age UI Art - Tradition Trees, Achievements and Misc






Building Icons - Part I



Building Icons - Part II



Eladrin here. There has been an ongoing discussion about the responsible use of AI tools in game development.

As mentioned in our Steam AI generated content disclosure, during the development of The Machine Age the Stellaris team used text and image generative AI tools for ideation purposes to inspire creativity in a developer, or to aid in explaining a designer’s intent to other members of the development team. We subscribe to the legal opinion that there is no copyright or ownership attached to the output of generative AI, and our team is disallowed from putting any such generated text or image directly into the game.


We have used an advanced text-to-speech AI tool to create a voice for Cetana and the Cyberpunk advisor. The scripts and lines for these voices were created by our Content Design team, and the voice actors that created any voice models that are used by this tool receive payment for each line generated, and will continue to receive payments if more lines are generated using their voice models in the future. The use of this tool allowed our Audio team (with quite a bit of effort as described in Dev Diary #340) to fully voice Cetana, and will allow us to keep the advisor voice up-to-date should new mechanics be added to Stellaris over the upcoming years. This will prevent the voice from needing to fall back to the default VIR voice, as many of our other advisors did when Galactic Paragon added Council Agendas.

These technologies are evolving quickly, and personally I have great hopes for further improvements and potential uses of this text-to-speech technology in particular. In the 3.6 “Orion” update we added support for text-to-speech in events as a major accessibility improvement, but currently it is limited to the use of operating system based voice packs. While these audio tools are not yet at a point where we can use this technology to improve that experience, I look forward to a day some years from now where AI-based advanced text-to-speech could replace these relatively crude voices with more thematically appropriate ones, and be able to better handle languages other than English.
​
Next week we’ll be looking at post-release support, and may have a preliminary list of release notes for the next planned patch.

See you then!