Dear Stellaris Fans,

The team has produced a bugfix and balance patch following our 3.13 + Cosmic Storms release September 10th.

3.13.1 is now available for download. Please find the patch notes below, identical to what was posted earlier by Eladrin.



Balance

• Added free pop to first blocker for planetscapers
  
• Decreased Storm Creation costs and buffed Astrometeorology job
  
• Stormriders and Subterranean get less devastation from storms
  
• Scientist governors now also reduce devastation from storms
  
• The Nexus Storm of 2211 will no longer happen. (Nexus Storms have been removed from the Early Game storm pool.)

Bugfix

• A Fallen Empire cannot ask for a scientist that is exploring an Astral Rift
  
• Added traits to hired marauder leaders
  
• Added victory score to the two new precursor relics
  
• All starting council positions are also filled without Galactic Paragons
  
• Fixed a spelling error in the event Stormbound Sighted
  
• Fixed empire designs with different randomized names sometimes preventing each other from spawning in galaxy generation.
  
• Fixed machine name lists using ruler names for all non-envoy leaders.
  
• Fixed randomly generated rulers not using regnal names when they should.
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Storm Riders in the Storm Chasers origin tooltip
  
• Fixed the handling of scientist heirs in the Stormfall event Cosmic Shapes
  
• Fixes to Unique planets from Cosmic Storms:
  
  • Unique planets from Cosmic Storms can no longer spawn in the starting cluster of an empire
    
  • Reduced the size of the unique planets from Cosmic Storms
• Fixing Rick the Cube tooltip in the additional content being misleading
  
• Payload Padding technology now properly apply its effects
  
• Removed Double Jobs for Gestalts on Ecumenopolis
  
• Solar storm orbital resource modifiers now applying correctly
  
• The Crimson Crawlers: Cooked Consumption planet modifier now has a yellow border
  
• The Storm Touched trait is made available for individual machines
  
• The Strip Mine Planet decision is only allowed once per planet
  
• adAkkaria chain actually ends now when its over
  
• Added a job weight to Storm Dancers so that pops actually want to work the job
  
• Allow proper switching between corporate and non corporate planetscapers civic
  
• Fixed descriptions for the special projects Stabilize the Collision and Harmonize the Collision
  
• Fixed the secrets of the new precursors
  
• Fixing resetlement cost modifiers not being capped by minimum economic modifier mult define
  
• Made militarist empires with imperialist factions less likely to become vassals
  
• Made the Irradiated Wasteland planet modifier produce +10% physics research
  
• Planetscapers on Ocean Paradise will now get their blockers as promised
  
• Removed the mention of sector automation from the planet designation tooltip
  
• Saturated Filters can now be removed by the one who conquered the planet
  
• Tempest Invocator storm placement will now be canceled if you lose the selected Scientist.
  
• The Tempest Invocator's range is now centered on the selected Scientist's location.
  
• Voidforged may not access Geo-Engineering Inc anymore
  
• Fix to Initiate Storm replacing Sustain Storm if you have the Galactic Weather Control Ascension Perk
  
• Several Tempest Invocator fixes

Stability

• Changed cosmic storm spawn cooldown scale to prevent CTD
  
• Fixed CTD in fleet manager when reinforcing fleets with ships without fleet size
  
• Fixed CTD when in-game music player has no permission to write to playlist file

Modding

• Added regnal_second_names_female and regnal_second_names_male to namelists.
  
• Added use_regnal_name to effects that create leaders.
  
• Fixed randomly generated empires in static galaxies having missing data if the player empire is randomly generated.
  
• Removed ruler_names from namelists and added regnal_full_names. When generating regnal names, non-regnal full names will no longer be used if a regnal name is available, but if no regnal name is available, normal names will be used.

There is always a next patch in the works, so please keep the bug reports and feedback coming.

Until then!

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

Today’s dev diary is going to be a relatively short one. The 3.13.1 ‘Vela’ patch is planned for next Tuesday, September 24th, and we have a set of preliminary release notes for you to look over.

The biggest change is probably the removal of Nexus storms from the early game pool.

The Vela cycle will be a very short one, since the 3.14 ‘Circinus’ update and Grand Archive is already bearing down on us.

On to the release notes!


Balance

• Added free pop to first blocker for planetscapers
  
• Decreased Storm Creation costs and buffed Astrometeorology job
  
• Stormriders and Subterranean get less devastation from storms
  
• Scientist governors now also reduce devastation from storms
  
• The Nexus Storm of 2211 will no longer happen. (Nexus Storms have been removed from the Early Game storm pool.)

Bugfix

• A Fallen Empire cannot ask for a scientist that is exploring an Astral Rift
  
• Added traits to hired marauder leaders
  
• Added victory score to the two new precursor relics
  
• All starting council positions are also filled without Galactic Paragons
  
• Fixed a spelling error in the event Stormbound Sighted
  
• Fixed empire designs with different randomized names sometimes preventing each other from spawning in galaxy generation.
  
• Fixed machine name lists using ruler names for all non-envoy leaders.
  
• Fixed randomly generated rulers not using regnal names when they should.
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Storm Riders in the Storm Chasers origin tooltip
  
• Fixed the handling of scientist heirs in the Stormfall event Cosmic Shapes
  
• Fixes to Unique planets from Cosmic Storms:
  
  • Unique planets from Cosmic Storms can no longer spawn in the starting cluster of an empire
    
  • Reduced the size of the unique planets from Cosmic Storms
• Fixing Rick the Cube tooltip in the additional content being misleading
  
• Payload Padding technology now properly apply its effects
  
• Removed Double Jobs for Gestalts on Ecumenopolis
  
• Solar storm orbital resource modifiers now applying correctly
  
• The Crimson Crawlers: Cooked Consumption planet modifier now has a yellow border
  
• The Storm Touched trait is made available for individual machines
  
• The Strip Mine Planet decision is only allowed once per planet
  
• adAkkaria chain actually ends now when its over
  
• Added a job weight to Storm Dancers so that pops actually want to work the job
  
• Allow proper switching between corporate and non corporate planetscapers civic
  
• Fixed descriptions for the special projects Stabilize the Collision and Harmonize the Collision
  
• Fixed the secrets of the new precursors
  
• Fixing resetlement cost modifiers not being capped by minimum economic modifier mult define
  
• Made militarist empires with imperialist factions less likely to become vassals
  
• Made the Irradiated Wasteland planet modifier produce +10% physics research
  
• Planetscapers on Ocean Paradise will now get their blockers as promised
  
• Removed the mention of sector automation from the planet designation tooltip
  
• Saturated Filters can now be removed by the one who conquered the planet
  
• Tempest Invocator storm placement will now be canceled if you lose the selected Scientist.
  
• The Tempest Invocator's range is now centered on the selected Scientist's location.
  
• Voidforged may not access Geo-Engineering Inc anymore

Stability

• Changed cosmic storm spawn cooldown scale to prevent CTD
  
• Fixed CTD in fleet manager when reinforcing fleets with ships without fleet size
  
• Fixed CTD when in-game music player has no permission to write to playlist file

Modding

• Added regnal_second_names_female and regnal_second_names_male to namelists.
  
• Added use_regnal_name to effects that create leaders.
  
• Fixed randomly generated empires in static galaxies having missing data if the player empire is randomly generated.
  
• Removed ruler_names from namelists and added regnal_full_names. When generating regnal names, non-regnal full names will no longer be used if a regnal name is available, but if no regnal name is available, normal names will be used.

Next week’s dev diary will be at 18:00 instead of 13:00, and will have more new stuff than this one. :D

See you then!

Hi everyone,

Gruntsatwork here, putting on my writing hat for today only, while Eladrin is on sick leave. While Dev Diaries are the domain of the Game Directors, we wanted to keep in close contact shortly after a release.

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion released 2 days ago and we have been collecting your feedback on our forums and every other form of social media we could find.

We will continue to do so over the next few days, working on fixes and improvements to Cosmic Storms, for example:
Individualist Machines will get access to the Storm Touched trait so that they can use the Storm Devotion civic.
Planetscapers will get a deposit on game start to clear for +1 Pop.

There are also a few balance considerations we are making that we figured would be nice to mention.
We teased them before as being incredibly destructive and as it turns out, they are! What we didn’t intend was for them to appear as often and as early as they do. Their chance to appear is significantly smaller than most other storms.

Unfortunately, with the number of players we have, even a small chance means a sizable number of you are getting messed up and with no chance of defending yourself to boot.

We are planning to adjust Nexus Storms in the following way:

• No Nexus Storms in the early game (Mid-game and forward only).
  
• We will increase their speed of traversal, exact number pending, to make sure they remain destructive but that you can take action once they have passed. They will still bring you close to 100% devastation on any given planet but they won’t then sit on the planet and keep it at 100% forever.

While we are quite happy with the effect of all the other storms, we are seeing your reports about some storms staying in the same space for most of their duration or in fact, long over their duration, stuck at 0 for years on end. Simply put, a storm shouldn’t stay in the same place for years. They are supposed to move on unless a player intervenes.

We are investigating this issue and hope to have a solution for you as soon as possible.
Some of you have called out the loss of impact storms experience once everyone has the storm protection techs in place. The original purpose of keeping those protections strong was relatively simple - to ensure that by the time you reach the end-game, you can continue with your strategies and plans.

It is one thing to lose a 15 minute campaign, it is another to lose a 30 hour campaign because your build just got invalidated.

We are looking into adjusting at the very least the ship protections, as we think there is some potential for smart plays if those protections weren’t quite as potent as they currently are.
Next week, Eladrin will be back, fingers crossed, to regale you with new information that mere Game Designers are not privy to.

See you then!

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is now available as the second installment of Stellaris: Season 08!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863060/Stellaris_Cosmic_Storms/

In Cosmic Storms, the skies teem with eight new storm types filled with peril and promise. From Electric Storms harnessing the power of lightning to the formidable Nexus Storm, a galactic tempest of unparalleled magnitude, these natural phenomena challenge you to make skillful choices to steer your empire safely and profitably through the chaos.

Experience the majesty and menace of these cosmic forces through beautifully rendered art and immersive audio. Navigate the tempest, harness its power, and shape your empire’s destiny. The storms are coming. Are you prepared?

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion contains:

• 8 New Space Storms
  
• Storm Chasers Origin
  
• 3 New Civics
  
  • Planetscapers
    
  • Astrometeorology​
    
  • Storm Devotion​
• Galactic Weather Control Ascension Perk
  
• Weather Forecasting Map Mode
  
• Two new Precursor narratives, with two new Relics​
  
• Events, Anomalies, and Archaeology Sites​
  
• Storm-related technologies, Edicts, and Galactic community resolutions

Storms will begin to spawn randomly a few years after the game starts. Spawning storms has a cooldown, and there is a limit to how many storms can spawn in a galaxy in the early, mid, and late game. These limits can be configured during galaxy setup. Storms spawned by players, events, and other mechanics will spawn regardless of galaxy settings.

When storms spawn, they will choose a target destination and dissipate after the time it would take to reach the destination has passed.


Storm Chasers empires have always sought out the extremes. Born in a world ravaged by relentless storms, they are daredevils and thrill seekers who push themselves to the limit and beyond.

They start with access to the Storm Manipulation Technology and within a unique system with the correct conditions to unleash a space storm. Storm Chasers also get bonuses when a storm is active in their space and increased chances for storms to spawn and for cosmic storm technologies. Additionally, their leaders get the unique Storm Rider trait, whose effects increase when the leader is in an active space storm.




This society carefully crafted a perfect balance on their homeworld and is ready to tend even the most inhospitable environments. They gain maluses to resources, pop growth, and pop upkeep for each natural blocker on their worlds, but they gain significant bonuses to those things once the blockers on the planet are cleared.

Planetscapers also gain access to the Cultivated Worldscaping planetary decision, which increases a planet’s maximum districts, gives +75% resource districts, and adds cosmic storm protection, but decreases the habitability.


Astrometeorologists focus on the science behind the cosmic storms. Starting with an Astrometeorology Observatory on their homeworld, this planet-unique structure slightly emphasizes physics research. It receives significant bonuses to its job output if there’s a storm or other environmental effect active in the system, with additional science bonuses added from the Prime Forecaster council position.




Using a unique combination of ritual and technology, empires with the Storm Devotion civic start with the ability to build the Storm Summoning Center, whose Storm Dancers increase the system's attractiveness to space storms while also producing unity and amenities.

Their pops also gain the Storm Touched trait, which increases job output and decreases amenities usage while a space storm is active in the system.


The Galactic Weather Control Ascension Perk requires the Advanced Storm Manipulation technology and one other ascension perk to be chosen. This ascension perk gives your science ships the ability to - with an investment in resources - spawn a storm in the system it’s in.




The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence and The Inetian Traders are two new precursors coming in Cosmic Storms. Both are steeped in Storm Lore, with several archaeology sites and special projects to progress through as you uncover their secrets, giving you the opportunity to dig deeper into what sorts of empires would meddle with storms so devastating they are notable on the cosmic scale.

Get Cosmic Storms today, or as part of Stellaris: Season 08!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863060/Stellaris_Cosmic_Storms/




Alongside the customary bug fixes and improvements, the Custodian team has improved a few of the older features in the game. The Custodian team is a team of developers who are focused on improving older content in the game, as well as adding quality-of-life features and other improvements.


As part of our Custodian Update for the 3.13 “Vela” patch, we’ve made some changes to how planetary deposits for rare resources are handled.

The deposits that previously gave access to Crystal Mines, Gas Extraction Wells, and Mote Harvesting Traps buildings now instead increase the number of mining districts available on the planet and, after researching the technology to extract the relevant resource, add a small amount of resource production to miners on that planet.

Additionally, we’ve buffed the Betharian Power Plant to increase the energy produced by Technician Jobs.


Much like how Resort Worlds were updated earlier this year, we have taken the time to revisit both Penal Colonies and Thrall Worlds.

Penal Colonies now reduce crime across your empire while giving access to unique Prison Industrial Districts. These allow you to employ worker strata pops to produce alloys and consumer goods.

Thrall Worlds, on the other hand, have taken inspiration from the countless examples across science fiction of elite battle thrall armies and give access to the Battle Thrall District. Armies trained on a Thrall World will start with additional XP, and Battle Thrall jobs will increase the damage your armies do.

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion and the free 3.13 “Vela” update are available now!

by Eladrin

Hello everyone!

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is nearly here, so today we’ve got preliminary release notes and some of the Custodian changes.

Cosmic Storms is going to be released next Tuesday, on September 10th.
As part of the Custodian changes in 3.13 ‘Vela’, we’ve made some changes to how some planetary deposits for rare resources are handled.

The deposits that previously gave access to Crystal Mines, Gas Extraction Wells and Mote Harvesting Traps buildings, now instead increase the number of mining districts available on the planet and, after researching the technology to extract the relevant resource, add a small amount of resource production to miners on that planet.



Additionally, we’ve buffed the Betharian Power Plant to increase the energy produced by Technician Jobs.



Much like how Resort Worlds were updated earlier this year, we have taken the time to revisit both Penal Colonies and Thrall worlds.

Penal Colonies now both reduce crime across your empire while giving access to unique Prison Industrial Districts. These allow you to employ worker strata pops to produce alloys and consumer goods.



Thrall Worlds on the other hand have taken inspiration from the countless examples across science fiction of elite battle thrall armies and give access to the Battle Thrall District. Armies trained on a Thrall World will start with additional XP and Battle Thrall jobs will increase the damage your armies do.



And now, on to the release notes.

• Eight dynamic new storm types:
  
  • Electric, Particle, Gravity, Magnetic, Radiant, Stardust, Shroud, and Nexus storms
• New Origin: Storm Chasers
  
• Three new Civics
  
  • Astrometeorology
    
  • Planetscapers
    
  • Storm Devotion
• New Ascension Perk: Galactic Weather Control
  
• Weather Forecast Map Mode
  
• Two new Precursors
  
  • The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence
    
  • The Inetian Traders
• New Technologies and Buildings
  
• New Planetary Deposits, Modifiers and Anomalies following Storm Aftermaths
  
• New GalCom Resolutions and Edicts
  
• New Events and Anomalies

Improvements

• Update to Thrall Worlds, adding two new slave-focused districts, Battle Thrall Jobs, and improvements to tooltips and theme
  
• Update to Prison Worlds - adding two new penal-focused districts, five new jobs, and improvements to tooltips and theme
  
• Xenophobe ethics now swaps to providing pop assembly when appropriate
  
• The location of empire-scope special projects will move to the new capital if the empire’s capital changes
  
• Gestalt Empires are now allowed to decide on their land appropriation policy, and are no longer forced to populate every planet
  
• Corvee System now gives -15% resettlement cost for Individualist Machines
  
• Standardized volume of all advisor VO lines
  
• War allies will be able to use wormholes, hyper relays, and gateways in each other's territory even if their borders are closed
  
• Removed the galaxy-wide Space Storm introduced in 2.7 “Wells”

UI

• Updated the megastructure selection UI
  
  • Improved tooltips in the megastructure selection UI
    
  • When selecting a location for Arc Furnace stage 1, the tooltip shows the number of deposit sites in the system
    
  • When selecting a location for a Habitat Central Complex, the tooltip shows orbital capacities in the system
    
  • Fixed tooltip not showing when selecting a location to build a megastructure
• Map icons in galaxy and system view no longer truncate the resource amount when between 0 and 1
  
• The tooltip that mentions if a civic is locked is now red instead of orange
  
• Enabled mouse scrolling in the research completed window
  
• Extended the minimum width of the "Veteran Level Reached!" window in case too few options are available to choose from
  
• Fixed some overlapping UI in the Empire Creation screens
  
• Fixed position of "Cross-platform play" checkbox on MS Store
  
• Updated the Map Modes UI
  
  • The Players map mode is no longer available when observing in singleplayer
    
  • The Players and Trade Routes map mode buttons are now disabled instead of hidden when they're unavailable
    
  • Fixed Players mapmode not graying out AI empires in some cases
    
  • The Unions map mode is now a regular map mode instead of a toggle

Bugfix

• Fixed the placeholder icon for the diplomatic message to request to join the galactic imperium
  
• Made AI capable of building planetary shields
  
• The Chthonian Planet, Extensive Moon System and Carbon World modifiers will now only add their mineral deposits to the planet the first time they are surveyed instead of every time they are surveyed
  
• Corrected tooltip and loyalty effects for the Ministry of Acquisition
  
• Individualistic Machine empires should no longer get an event intended for Organics
  
• Fixed the Nanite Intercessor being present in ship previews in the empire creator
  
• Fixed cyberpunk advisor lines for council agenda ready and council agenda available notifications
  
• Fixed fleets' cloaking strength sometimes not updating when ships' cloaking strength changes due to modifiers
  
• Fixed juggernauts not showing the fleet bombardment button
  
• Election auto pausing and unpausing now functions like other event pop ups
  
• Removed the double modifiers for Defense platforms from Ancient Shield Overcharger
  
• Removed serviles from the can_think trigger due to unintended knock on effects
  
• If an arc furnace is built around a potential Contingency Hub, when the planet becomes their hub, the arc furnace is correctly destroyed
  
• Fixed uncovered deposits not being removed when an arc furnace is destroyed
  
• Colossus special project will reward the original country that started the project instead of the current planet owner
  
• Leaders who are researching an anomaly or project or on cooldown can be assigned to the council
  
• Roccan Resistance and Free Peoples of the Fall genders changed from indeterminate to default
  
• The species of planetary defense armies will get updated after species modification
  
• AI empires will select ethics required by their origin
  
• All starbase types now explode when destroyed instead of blinking out of existence
  
• Fixed numerous instances, such as when establishing an embassy, where the game would load the countries home planet instead of their capital
  
• Game should no longer crash when an empire you had a trade deal with is destroyed during a war
  
• Various Out Of Sync fixes
  
• War allies will be able to use each wormholes in each other's territory even if their borders are closed

Modding

• Implemented "on_storm_encountered" on_action when a country is affected for the first time by a new storm
  
• Added on_storm_entered_system on-action
  
• Added on_storm_left_system on-action, for when a cosmic storm has left a solar system
  
• Added support for generate_random_name = yes to the spawn_planet effect
  
• Refactored Arcology industrial districts into Inline Scripts
  
• Replaced all "has_authority" checks with scripted triggers making it easier to add new authorities
  
• Added the awakening_not_allowed country flag that blocks fallen empires from awakening
  
• Added the keep_deposit_on_terraform deposit flag to make sure deposits don't go missing when you terraform
  
• Added "visible" trigger to map modes
  
• Added "tutorial" member to map modes
  
• Added is_infertile trigger
  
• Added support for displaying comma and period as hotkeys in button tooltips
  
• Added planet_crime_floor_add modifier that sets a minimum level of crime on a planet
  
• Added fail trigger for special projects + documentation
  
• Added 'mod_name_affix' to create_species effect
  
• Added num_asteroid_belts trigger to check the number of asteroids in a system
  
• Added game rules for founder_species_uses_growth_speed, founder_species_uses_organic_assembly and founder_species_uses_assembly
  
• Added game rule to force visibility on fleets for a specific system

With the release planned for next Tuesday, our next expected dev diary will be on September 19th.

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

by Eladrin

Hi everyone,

Today, we’ll review the Origin and Civics of the Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion and provide some information about the new Precursors (without spoiling everything!)

Cosmic Storms is going to be released on September 10th.

Passing it over to @PDX_Ferry and @Gruntsatwork to take over from here.

Don’t make unnecessary journeys, don’t take risks on treacherous roads, and don’t swim in the sea! This is PDX_Ferry, braving the winds to deliver you a report on the new "Storm Chasers" Origin. For those who thrive on danger and yearn for the thrill of the unknown, this Origin was designed with you in mind.

Start your game as a civilization that has always sought out the extremes. Born on a world ravaged by relentless storms, the Storm Chasers are daredevils and thrill seekers who push themselves to the limits and beyond. They’ve grown strong and daring, turning their chaotic environment into a crucible of innovation and tenacity. But when every storm has been weathered, and every mountain has been climbed, where does an enterprising thrill-seeker turn next? The answer, of course, is the stars.



The screenshot above was taken from the new pre-scripted empire Yatunan Radicals, which starts with the Origin and a couple of storm-related Civics. While not driven to outmatch others in acts of bravery, hive minds, and machine intelligences may also want to test themselves with this Origin.

From the very beginning, your empire will be propelled into the thick of the DLC’s content, facing down cosmic phenomena that would make even the most seasoned explorers hesitate. Yet, with great risk comes the potential for great reward.





This Origin is designed to quickly get you into the think of the DLC's action. At game start, your Empire is thrown into the Stormfall situation:



With early access to storm manipulation technology and by starting in a system with unique conditions to kickstart a storm, the Storm Chasers have the first opportunity to unleash a storm. From there, the Origin's storyline includes a gauntlet of Challenges, and the chance to summon "the Big One." What's left of your civilization in the aftermath rests entirely in your hands (or tentacles!)

So be warned – this is not a path for the faint-hearted. The thrills your people have chased for centuries pale in comparison to the cosmic tempests that await you in the void. Will you harness these forces and lead your empire to greatness, or will you burn out in a blaze of glory? The choice, as always, is yours.
Do You Know What Happens to a Blorg When It’s Hit by Lightning?​
Hello there xeno-freshmen, could we interest you in Astrometeorology 101?

As the first of the three new civics coming in Cosmic Storms, Astrometeorology focuses on the science behind the storms. It grants you a new building, the Astrometeorology Observatory, which in turn gives you Astrometeorologist jobs.





You can build one of those fine institutes per planet and their jobs are similar enough to normal researchers with a slight focus on physics. However, their true potential shows itself only when the Observatory can behold a storm from up close.

In addition, the council position further boosts the job output by up to 20%.

What, you prefer something more societal? Maybe have a look at our second new civic then.



The spiritualistic mirror to Astrometeorology, Storm Devotion gives you access to the Storm Summoning Theater, with its Storm Dancer jobs.



In addition, those devoted to Storms also bear this mark as a new species trait called “Storm Touched”, which further boost all pops while inside of a storm. As if that weren’t enough, the Council Position for Storm Devotion reduces the upkeep of all Storm Buildings.



Storms this, Storms that, is there anything for people who’d rather not see the word Storm plastered over all of their buildings?

Absolutely, let’s talk about Planetscapers.

Planetscapers are the complete opposite of Environmentalists. They want every planetary blocker gone, natural accidents have no place in their carefully planned garden utopias.



You yearn to make all these rugged, overgrown planets into something beautiful and pristine. For some, Mastery of Nature is enough, but your need requires something more drastic, something more impressive.



As you expand, every world with natural blockers that you colonize will allow you to quickly unlock more ways to remove those eyesores.
You get a Precursor and you get a precursor, everyone gets a precursor!

We have two new Precursors for you all to experience.

The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence and The Inetian Traders, both steeped in Storm Lore, with several archaeology sites and special projects to progress through as you uncover their secrets, diggin’ deeper into what sorts of empires would meddle with storms so devastating they are notable on the cosmic scale.

So without giving out too many spoilers, from their names at least you know they were benevolent people and peaceful traders with little chance for tragedy.





Next week we’ll have the preliminary release notes for the 3.13 ‘Vela’ update and Cosmic Storms! It’s almost here!

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

Hi everyone,

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is going to make planetfall on September 10th. That’s not that far away, so today we’ll be going over the Storm mechanics and their aftermath effects.

Passing it over to Gruntsatwork to take over from here.
Hello everyone, without much preamble, lets dive right into the new storm mechanics.

• Storms will randomly start to spawn a few years after gamestart.
  
• Each Storm triggers a cooldown until the next natural storm can spawn (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• There is a limit to how many storms can spawn naturally in the early, mid and late-game (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• Those limits only apply to randomly spawned storms. Storms created by players, by event or mechanic, will always spawn regardless of any other settings
  
• Upon being spawned, they will have a target system towards which they will move, dissipating upon reaching that goal or timing out

While the storms through the galaxy, they will have an effect on all systems within their influence.
All Storms share 2 general effects:

• Reduced chance for Emergency FTL jumps
  
• +0.2 monthly devastation

In Addition, each of the 8 Storms has their own unique effects, here are the first 6:













While the first 6 storms are rather orthodox in their effects, the Shroud and Nexus storms are a bit special.

Shroud storms have a chance to change the systems within their influence immediately upon coming into contact, this can range from colonies, habitable and inhabitable planets, up to stars.

Nexus storms are special. They are rarer than any other storm and for a good reason, they are bad news. A Nexus storm is an opportunity… for everyone else. They wreak havoc across all worlds in their influence with a far greater intensity than the other, lesser, storms.
After a storm leaves a system, its ongoing effects are removed. However, given their cataclysmic impact, there are a few aftermaths to deal with.

Each Storm leaves behind their own unique Aftermath modifier, lasting for 3 years. Those aftermaths have an intensity between 1-3, with 3 being the strongest modifiers. (The effects themselves are the same, only intensity increases.)













In addition, when a storm leaves a system, there is also a chance it will leave behind new unique Planetary Features, Planetary Modifiers and Anomalies.

Some New Planetary Features:







Example of a New Modifier:



Examples of some New Anomalies:





Some of those storms can get quite nasty and devastation is always worrisome, so how do you stop the storms from ravaging your planets?



We have introduced several new buildings and technologies to protect yourself or maybe squeeze a bit more use out of a storm.

Storm Attraction and Storm Repulsion are the two ways in which you can manipulate the paths in which storms move. Storm Attraction buildings and their repelling counterparts can be build on planets and starbases. Each has 1 upgrade level and grants you researcher jobs.

In Addition you can build the Storm Relief Center, to reduce some of the effects of the storms, while also buffing your base resource output while a storm is affecting your planet. Should you be able to convince the Galactic Community to pass a few storm related resolutions, those bonuses will become even more powerful.



With the Storm Relief Center you also have the option of “Hunkering Down”, a new planetary decision to reduce your devastation gain and reduce some of the storm's impact.



As you encounter cosmic storms, you will also get access to new technologies meant to reduce some of their negative effects on your economy and ships.



As your last line of defense, you can use your Planetary Shield Generators to reduce the devastation you gain from storms by -50%

All in all, a prepared player will have many options of avoiding the worst of the storms effects, while benefiting from the opportunities they offer, using them to tip the scales between themselves and their enemies.
Once you have researched the necessary technologies, you will be able to use the new Weather mapmode to get a good overview of both Storm Attraction/Repulsion as well as the paths already existing storms will take.



I’m sure knowing where a storm that grants cloaking to all ships within will move is something none of you will abuse.
Next week we’ll be going over the Storm Chaser Origin, the new Civics, and the new Precursors.

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

I’m excited to announce that Episode 2 of Stellaris: Season 08, the Cosmic Storms mechanical expansion, will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.13 ‘Vela’ update on September 10th, 2024.


Note: Tooltips shown in the video were from a development branch that has already been updated, more info next week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863060/Stellaris_Cosmic_Storms/



For some time we have been unsatisfied with the Space Storm that currently exists in Stellaris. Cosmic Storms gave us the opportunity to revamp the system entirely, providing a deeper experience with strategically meaningful gameplay and beautiful upgraded visuals.

With this expansion, eight new storms with varying positive and negative effects are set to spiral across the galaxy.

We’ve also added a new weather map mode for forecasting these storms and predicting their motion, with technologies and buildings to attract, repel, or with an Ascension Perk, even create storms.




Storms may pass through your planets with intriguing effects, leaving behind a changed landscape or unearthing long buried treasures.




What's life without the rush?

Other empires may obsess about heinous things like economy and population. The Storm Chasers have long since mastered the challenges of their homeworld. The time has come to blast off screaming into the void.

At last, a whole new opportunity to shred the limits of experience!




Prepare your empires to weather the cosmic tempests with three new Civics, each offering unique strategies to harness the power of the elements.


The Corporate, Hive Mind, or Machine Intelligence versions of these Civics require access to their Authorities - MegaCorp, Utopia, and either Synthetic Dawn or The Machine Age, respectively.




Embark on a journey through the annals of time with two new Precursor Event Chains, each offering a glimpse into the ancient history of the Stellaris universe. These chains weave tales of civilizations long lost to the cosmic winds, with untold secrets buried beneath the stars.



Stellaris: Cosmic Storms includes:

• Cosmic Storms that ravage the galaxy
  
• Storm Chaser Origin
  
• Civics
  
  • Planetscapers
    
  • Astrometeorology
    
  • Storm Devotion
• Two new Precursor narratives, with two new Relics
  
• Events, Anomalies, and Archaeology Sites
  
• Storm-related technologies, Edicts, Galactic community resolutions, and an Ascension Perk

• Aug 15 - Announcing Cosmic Storms
  
• Aug 22 - The Storms and their Aftermaths
  
• Aug 29 - Storm Chaser Origin, Civics, and Precursors
  
• Sept 5 - 3.13 "Vela" and Cosmic Storms Release Notes

Cosmic Storms can be purchased as part of the Stellaris: Season 08 Expansion Pass, or as a standalone purchase for $12.99 (regional pricing may vary). It is also included as part of the Stellaris Expansion Subscription


Pre-Purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone, or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mod highlight! This will be the final mod highlight of the summer, and we will be returning to our regularly scheduled dev diaries on Thursday!

This mod highlight is all about new technologies, and all of the mods add new techs to expand on vanilla mechanics.


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By NHunter


Written by NHunter​

Extra Ship Components aims to provide an extended and expanded technology tree that features upgraded versions of all vanilla weapon and utility components, as well new technology branches such as extra-large autocannons and missiles, and new kinetic and energy weapons. In addition to that, entirely-new types of weapons are introduced:

• Psionic weapons that allows one to unleash the full might of their empire's most powers psionics,
  
• Biological and Crystalline weapons based on spacebourne creatures, showcasing the empire's mastery over genetic engineering,
  
• Gravitic and Chrono-spatial weapons that utilize fundamental forces of nature to great and devastating effects,
  
• Nanite weapons with the power of very hungry synthetic life
  
• Special components obtainable only by defeating great leviathans to serve as a proof of an empire's might.

And with optional add ons, one can also change and improve the loadouts of FE fleets, giving them more power and thematic weapon sets, as well as unique components, some of which can be reverse engineered. Leviathans, Endgame Crises, Gray Goo and Curator Enclaves also receive a glow-up with improved ship designs to serve as a better challenge to the player.

By Sparble


Written by Sparble​

Hyperconstructs expands Stellaris' Megastructure features by adding 27 different new Megastructures to the game along with plenty of other content surrounding these. These structures currently reach from the relatively small Tier A ones, such as Shellworlds, to Tier G ones, which only the most advanced civilizations would be able to build.

At last, Hyperconstructs has integrated fully dedicated support for mods like Planetary Diversity and Gigastructural Engineering & More in the form of compatibility overrides, additional Gigastructure stages, and other effects.

More content is planned in the future, with an ever-growing list of megastructure ideas, event chains, and more, so stay tuned!

Features:

• Plenty New Megastructures
  
• New Planet & Star Classes
  
• New Become-The-Crisis Route
  
• New Endgame Crisis
  
• New Strategic Resources
  
• New Origins
  
• New Events
  
• New Technologies, Ship Components, Traits & Bombardment Stances
  
• New Jobs along with Districts & Buildings
  
• Dedicated Gigastructures + Planetary Diversity Support

Inspiration:
A huge inspiration for some of the megastructures have been Isaac Arthur's videos on Youtube. He has a great series of megastructure concepts and other space related stuff, and the initial idea for adding Shellworlds and the Stellar Hoop came from his videos.

Another initial inspiration for Hyperconstructs was that when Nemesis was released I liked the (back then) newly added player crisis mechanic, but wanted to stay ingame after ascension. This is how I came up with the idea of the Dimensional Tearer, allowing players to ascend into a higher plane of existence, but still being able to stay ingame after their ascension to mess with reality as they like.

Huge thanks to the Stellaris Community as they really helped me over time with my modding questions; I most likely wouldn't have advanced that much into modding without their help!

By Sunconure11


Written by Sunconure11​

Exploring hypothetical technologies in scales from the Micro to the Atto and everything between, the mod offers a plethora of new options for empires, many of which are derived from the sci-fi encyclopedia at Orion's Arm. All heavily integrate Nanites and make them an essential component of cutting edge empires. Three variations of the ascension perk to start your nanotechnology journey have been included; one for Organic Empires, one for Synths, and one for Machine empires.

Features:

• 40+ new technologies
  
• 5 new ship components
  
• two new buildings
  
• two new megastructures
  
• one of which is a giant AI entity who’s “personality” you get to influence
  
• a series of upgradable planet modifiers
  
• a new planet bombardment stance
  
• three new armies with a unique icon
  
• a set of traits for Synths and Machines equivalent to the Brain Slug for Organics
  
• And more!

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By Daniellm


Written by Daniellm​

Dawn Of Ascension is a Vanilla+ mod that expands on the mid to end game content of Stellaris. It adds multiple event chains to learn the secrets of dark matter power, including infiltrating a Fallen Empire's Master Archive, digging up old abandoned Precursor shipyards or even putting your best scientists at the major task of inventing it yourself!

The major feature of the mod is "the ascension project" , a long situation where you invent a bunch of dark matter related technologies, and even go beyond what the fallen empires did before you, however... the ancient guardians will not sit idle and watch the primitive empires do the ascension project.

Are you ready for the next step in your technological evolution?

Features:

• 3 new event chains to gain Dark Matter Power
  
• new civics allowing everything from putting dark matter cores into your machine worlds, to having scion wargoals so everyone fights to unite the galaxy under your banner
  
• The ascension project, a long project allowing you to go beyond those that came before you.
  
• New ascendant shipset
  
• 3 tiers of FE+ automated industries
  
• New ships allowing you to match the power level of FE ships and beyond
  
• 2 New tech tiers for components
  
• Custom weapon effects for all weapons
  
• Doa is made with mod compatibility in mind and should be compatible with everything!
  
• 2 different ascension mechanics depending on what mods you have installed

That’s it for this Mod Highlight! Hope you’ve found some new mods to discover, and new things to learn out in the galaxy.

Thanks for reading!

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.



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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.

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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.. :)

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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.

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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!