Today we’ll start with preliminary release notes for 3.14.1592, then look back at the past at all of the changes Stellaris has gone through and summarize the feedback you all gave in the dev diary two weeks ago - The Vision. We’re still reading the responses to that one and will continue doing so, so if you haven’t had a chance to add your thoughts, please add them!
Preliminary Release Notes for 3.14.1592
If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing the 3.14.1592 patch sometime next week.
These are our preliminary release notes:
Balance
Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
Remove minor artifacts production from Decentralized Research edict
Rework Mutated Voidworms fleets content and scaling, aligning them similar to Prethoryn Brood Queen fleets
Bugfix
Accelerate juveniles animation speed
Added Insider Trading and Trade Focus traits to each other's opposites block to stop them appearing together since they almost cancel each other out.
Added Orbital Ring variants for Beastport/Hatchery/Vivarium descriptions in all supported languages
Civics added in Grand Archive can now be swapped from the regular to corporate version and vice versa
Clarified the texts of the Cultivated Worldscaping decision and planet modifier
Deleting a design now keeps you in current designer type
Enclaves and Marauders satisfy Xenoist Contact Demand
Extreme Contortionist DNA now gives rare crystals instead of motes to be more consistent with the event that gives it
Fix an issue where Cognitive Node should be selected by the Leader Infected event
Fix blocked Tiyanki Graveyard event chain when capturing them
Fix Boarding Cables capturing literally anything - thanks for the fun screenshots
Fix Breeding Status displayed in view that was not always correct
Fix Fossilized Endoskeleton specimen localization
Fix Mercenary Enclave Stations unable to build ships
Fix Cloaked Patternwalker missing string
Fix scoped localizations for Memorial For Bubbles specimen
Fixed an unlocalized string showing up when you tried to return starbases at times. Also added linebreaks to the same tooltip.
Fixed recommended DLC tooltips in multiplayer
Fixes a bug with too wide portrait on Empire Design Selection View
FX for ship auras are now displayed
Improve Cordyceptic Drones fauna damage modifier text in tooltip to make it clearer what it exactly affects
Life Tree Protectors now don't move away from their system
Lost colony parents using Sol as their system will no longer spawn two Siriuses if the guaranteed habitable worlds slider is set to 1.
Mutated Voidworms fleets now don't use naval capacity
Mutated Voidworms now don't show they can upgrade anymore
Orbital Assembly Complex holding now correctly boost Beastport and Hatchery on Orbital Ring
Preccursors can no longer be discovered on Astral Scars
Prevent duplicate specimens from being found in the same empire
Removed the unused h_dna string
Stop showing upkeep part of message when leader upkeep is zero in hire leader confirmation dialog
The Diplomacy Tradition Finisher now properly refers to Officials and not Envoys.
Voidworms now stop bombarding if the Immunity technology is researched (before crisis)
Worm-Riddled Gate is now correctly accessible if Voidworms are captured instead of killed
AI
AI won't build infinite science ships when trying to build frigates anymore
Fix AI that was not willing to build Shipyards
Stability
Fix a crash when a tooltip references the concept of a tradition that doesn't exist
Fix crash when Voidworms try to act on empty fleets
Fix OOS when riftworld station is built
Fix saves affected by the crash when an AI without a Grand Archive tries to capture a Space Fauna
Fix Voidworms CTD
Fixed issue with resolving the user home dir on linux that leads to CTD
Okay, now on to the main dev diary.
Where We’ve Been
A long time ago in a galaxy generated far, far away, on May 9th, 2016, Stellaris was released.
We all took our first steps out into the stars, filled with a universe of possibilities and wonders. I was there picking my FTL type and favored weapons and experiencing those early days the same way many of you did.
Each of the Expansions changed Stellaris in their own way.
The first really major changes came to Stellaris in 1.5 in the Utopia expansion, when Ascension Perks were added. These shook the game up so drastically that when Apocalypse changed the face of war in 2.0, they ended up moving into the base game.
Apocalypse and 2.0 included a huge number of other changes as well, changing how system control works and removing the different FTL types. I mark this moment as the point where Stellaris began moving from a pure 4X game to more of a hybrid of 4X and GSG. That transition continued in the next major shakeup with MegaCorp and 2.2, which replaced the economic model, changing from tiles to the pop and job system we still use today.
Federations and the 2.6 update added the Galactic Community, revamped Federations, and changed the way we think about empire creation by adding Origins to the game. Most of the Origins started off relatively simple, but as we added more they steadily grew in complexity. (Knights of the Toxic God, I’m looking at you.)
The intel and exploration changes of Nemesis brought us to the 3.0 update, as they fundamentally changed the early stages of the game. Nemesis also brought us our first player Crisis path, Galactic Nemesis, which was originally simply called “Become the Crisis”.
3.1, the Lem update, wasn’t an expansion release, but it changed how the Stellaris team operated, for the better. This was when we began the Custodian Initiative. The Custodians have done an excellent job polishing old content up to our modern expectations, fixing bugs, adding new quality of life features, and generally improving the game.
Overlord and 3.4 added improved subjugation mechanics and added the Situations system which has become an incredible tool for the content designers. We also expanded automation at this time, revamping planetary automation and letting unemployed pops find their way using the automatic resettlement system.
The leader system underwent massive changes in 3.8 when Galactic Paragons added leader traits and attempted to make them a more interesting system to play with. This system remained in flux until 3.10, when they finally reached a state where we were happy with the results. Sometimes change needs a little iteration. 3.8 also added Cooperative gameplay, making it much easier to teach your friends how to play Stellaris.
This year brought the Expansion Subscription option to make it easier to get into Stellaris, and The Machine Age and 3.12 began the process of elevating the Ascension Paths to new heights. The positive reaction to The Machine Age and the success of the Season 08 Expansion Pass strongly affected our plans for 2025, and made us also reflect upon questions like “what is a Crisis anyway", “what is ‘winning’”, and “can we remaster two very different Ascension Paths in a single year”.
The Story Packs, Species Packs, and other content added to Stellaris in their own ways as well, adding to the deep lore of Stellaris and expanding the possibilities.
So Much Glorious Feedback
I want to thank everyone for the enormous outpouring of feedback that we’ve received over the last couple of weeks. As I noted last week, I’ve been reading every response to Dev Diary 361, and I’ve been keeping tabs on responses on several different platforms. If you haven’t had a chance to give your feedback, don’t worry, you’re not too late. I’ll be keeping The Vision pinned in our forums until the end of November.
This section will be my musings on the feedback and some of the things it made me think of. Not everything I talk about here is viable or going to happen, but if you’re being this open with me I owe it to you to return the favor.
Based on the feedback you’ve all given, the consensus is that you’re very amenable to change to address engine or system limitations, and that we should not feel constrained by what is already there if we feel we can find a way to make things better. Many of you did note that the initial implementations of changes aren’t typically perfect, and that they take iteration to achieve their goals. (So we should be careful with what we decide to take on at once!)
Some of the questions that I offered as proposals were a bit leading - I did want to know what you all thought about the existing pop mechanics, for example, because I’m very interested in improving their performance and addressing several other quality of life and mechanical issues with the current systems. Your responses have strengthened my belief that tackling planets is a correct course of action, and you should expect some experimentation in next year’s Open Beta.
I’d like to move us over to a system more similar to the pop groups used in Victoria 3 - though with a Stellaris spin on things. We’re not likely to go as deep in the simulation as Victoria does, but I think that we can likely split pop groups based on species, ethics, and factions. Some of the granularity we have right now might slip though, so I’m eager to get to doing some prototyping and seeing what the pros and cons are of such a change, as well as what the performance implications would be. The economic implications are huge.
Fleets are unlikely to get major changes this year, but a number of you identified them as a place where we can do a lot of major improvements, along with many aspects of war. We’ll talk a bit more about these next week.
Trade is almost certainly going to change. Very few of you seemed terribly fond of the current system, and it’s both terribly bad for performance and mechanically difficult to understand for new players. While I like the general idea behind the trade routes, I don’t think they add enough benefit for their costs. We’re likely to revamp it into a proper resource, though I’m also considering ways of also using it to simulate supply lines and local planetary deficits. If we end up pursuing the latter, gestalt empires would need access to trade or at least, something similar. That could potentially open up more opportunities for MegaCorps and diplomatic pacts, and we’ll have to find new ways of using pirates.
Next Week
Next week I want to look at some of the things I think we’re still missing. Player fantasies that we either do not support or do not support well enough in Stellaris at this time. Like The Vision dev diary, I’ll be asking for your feedback there too, so think up on this over the next week if you want to help influence where we go next.
Today we’re going over the release notes from Tuesday, talking about the further plans for the Circinus cycle, and exploring the reaction to last week’s dev diary, The Vision.
3.14.159 Release Notes [expand type=details expanded=false] We released the 3.14.159 patch on Tuesday, and these were the release notes: Improvements
By popular request, greatly expanded the basement storage of the Grand Archive. You now have 18 slots of overflow instead of 4.
Replaced the Mysterious Labyrinth event image
The Metalheads AI personality can be gained by Individualist Machines or Organic empires that are Very Strong (instead of just Strong)
Balance
The Treasure Hunter Origin now starts leaders with level 3 of Adventurous Spirit, meaning it should no longer constantly be offered as an upgrade.
Bugfixes
Add Beastport, Hatchery and Vivarium Tank to orbital rings, and add Shipyard exclusion rules
Added a hyphen to the X-Ray Eye Beam mutation
Added the missing loc to Sapient Specimen species rights
Added the missing space in the credits' title
Added the missing word "Food" to the Arboreal World planet modifier
Adjusted perfected genes concept tooltip to align with reality
Cyber Democracies no longer get leaders without upkeep
Fallback to Weapon ranges if strike craft is used but there's no strike craft component range
Fix a bug where, under certain circumstances, a Grand Archive was still considered destroyed after being rebuilt
Fix a crash where an AI could capture fauna even if they shouldn't be able to.
Fix Captain Ness not being legendary
Fix Large Shard Accelerator tags
Fix livestock modifier for Wrangler jobs
Fix Mutations' Strike Crafts behaviour
Fix Mysterious Chart event chain that could get blocked
Fix Primal Leaders not being renowned
Fix scores for Grand Archive Relics
Fix Space Amoebas being hostile to Beastmasters bespite Amoeboid Pacification
Fixed some Black Needle ships not displaying their bow section
Fixed 2 cosmic storms projects not requiring scientists
Gravity Snares can now only re-target to fleets they can capture
Gravity Storms no longer cause Obsessed Gestalts to crave consumer goods for their drones
Habitat Orbitals should no longer attempt to evade enemy fleets
Habitat System Control now provide a Roboticist job for Individual Machines.
It is now possible to use Space Fauna as the federation's fleets
Reanimated space fauna uses half ship size of their living counterpart
Removed tooltip for GOG and MS store achievements to require login to paradox account since this is not the case.
Rogue Servitors are now also on energy duty during Gravity Storms
Ships modifiers are correctly updated with their new fleet's modifiers before fleet's values calculation
Space Fauna uses every components to calculate range
Specimens acquired from trades now don't trigger Galactic Curators' unity bonus
The Alien Box Event no longer has a nonsensical tooltip for gestalt empires.
The Tachyon Beam mutations have found their way to the Tachyon Lance technology.
Told the Artillery combat computers to stay at max range
Voidworms shouldn't attack empires with Voidworm Immunity before crisis
Stability
Defensive check for nullobj when dealing with auto exploration orders
Fix crash when Voidworms try to act on empty fleets
Fixed issue with diplomatic distances differences after hotjoin/resync leading to OOS
Fixing potential crash when trying to create a ship from a scripted design that contains unusable components for the creator
Fixed potential CTD when using FromFromFrom scope in "on_planets_zero_pops" on action
Fixes CTD on espionage operation phase tooltip
Fixes CTD when ship is killed by missile
[/expand] Please keep posting any bugs and Out of Syncs you encounter in the bug report forum. Saves able to reproduce the bugs make the fixing go much more smoothly.
If all goes according to plan, we currently expect to have another patch, 3.14.1592, a couple of weeks from now.
The Vision, Continued
Last week we posted a dev diary on The Vision of Stellaris, and the response has been absolutely overwhelming. As of writing this dev diary, we’re up to around a thousand detailed responses split across various platforms, and we’re reading all of them. I’ve been reading and taking notes since the dev diary was posted, and it’ll take us a little while to get through all of it.
I’m absolutely thrilled with the amount of feedback and the high quality, constructive nature of pretty much every single post. Thank you, everyone.
As a quick initial summary, there seems to be a general consensus with the vision statements, and a high level of support for future changes that improve the game, even if they change existing systems. There seemed to be a pretty strong agreement for exploring alternative systems - especially when it comes to warfare resolution and fleets. There were more diverse feelings around the current pops and job systems, but a large number of you want a more performant system as long as it still captures the general fantasies of the current one. Many of you appear to strongly dislike the current trade system or are at best ambivalent towards it.
The Stellaris community also appears to be much more willing to embrace change than many others - not too surprising considering the number of major changes we’ve made since launch.
Next Week
Next week we’ll review the changes that Stellaris has undergone over the years, go into more detail about more of the conclusions I’ve reached based on the feedback you’ve given, and might have some preliminary release notes for 3.14.1592.
Now that the Grand Archive Story Pack is out, I want to do something a little different. With 360 Stellaris Dev Diaries complete, I thought it was time to circle right back around to the beginning: what was, will be.
Stellaris Dev Diary #1 was “The Vision”, and so is #361.
What is Stellaris?
The vision serves as a guiding tool to keep the entire development team aligned. As the game evolves, we work hard to update it regularly to remain accurate and consistent with our core vision.
Here’s how I currently answer “What is Stellaris?”:
The Galaxy is Vast and Full of Wonders
For over eight years, Stellaris has remained the ultimate exploration-focused space-fantasy strategy sandbox, allowing players to discover the wonders of the galaxy.
From their first steps into the stars to uniting the galaxy under their rule, the players are free to discover and tell their own unique stories.
Every story, trope, or player fantasy in science fiction is within our domain.
Stellaris is a Living Game
Over time, Stellaris has evolved and grown to meet the desires of the player base.
At launch, Stellaris leaned deep into its 4X roots.
It evolved from that base toward Grand Strategy.
As it continues to mature, we have added deeper Roleplaying aspects.
All of these remain part of our DNA.
Stellaris is a 4X Grand Strategy game with Roleplaying elements that continues to evolve and redefine itself.
Every Game is Different
We desire for players to experience a sense of novelty every time they start a game of Stellaris.
They should be able to play the same empire ten times in a row and experience ten different stories. A player’s experience will differ wildly if their first contact is a friendly MegaCorp looking to prosper together or if they’re pinned between a Fallen Empire and a Devouring Swarm.
Stellaris relies on a combination of prescripted stories (often tied to empire Origins) and randomized mechanical and narrative building blocks that come together to create unplanned, emergent narratives.
A sense of uncertainty and wonder about what could happen next is core to the Stellaris experience.
What is this About?
Fundamentally, as the players, Stellaris is your game.
Your comments and feedback on The Machine Age heavily influenced our plans for 2025. We work on very long timelines, so we’ve already been working on next year’s releases for some time now. Most of what I’m asking will affect which tasks the team prioritizes and will help direct our direction in 2026 and beyond.
We’re making some changes to how we go about things. Many people have commented that the quarterly release cadence we’ve had since the 3.1 ‘Lem’ update makes it feel like things are changing too quickly and too often, and of course, it disrupts your active games and mods. The short patch cycle between Vela and Circinus was necessary for logistical reasons but really didn’t feel great.
We’re going to slow things down a little bit to let things stabilize. I’ve hinted a couple of times (and said outright last week) that we have the Custodian team working on some big things - the new Game Setup screen was part of this initiative but was completed early enough that we could sneak it into 3.14.1. My current plan is to have an Open Beta with some of the team's larger changes during Q1 of next year, replacing what would have been the slot for a 3.15 release. This will make 2025Q2, around our anniversary in May, a bigger than normal release, giving us the opportunity to catch up on technical debt, polish, and major features.
What is Stellaris to you?
How does this match what you think Stellaris is, and where it should go? Would you change any of these vision statements?
What systems and content are “sacred” to you, which would make Stellaris not Stellaris anymore if we changed them?
Some examples to comment on could include:
How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
To the Future, Together!
I want to spend most of this year’s remaining dev diaries (at least, the ones that aren’t focused on the Circinus patch cycle) on this topic, talking with you about where our shared galactic journey is heading.
Next week we’ll be talking about the 3.14.159 patch.
But First, a Shoutout to the Chinese Stellaris Community
Before I sign off, I want to commend the Chinese Stellaris Community for finding the funniest bug of the cycle. I’ve been told that they found that you can capture inappropriate things with Boarding Cables from the Treasure Hunters origin, and have been challenging each other to find the most ridiculous things to capture.
You know, little things like Cetana’s flagship. The Infinity Machine. An entire Enclave.
I’m not going to have the team fix this for 3.14.159, but will likely have them do so for 3.14.1592. I want to give you a chance to complete your collection and catch them all. After all, someone needs to catch The End of the Cycle and an Incoming Asteroid. Post screenshots if you catch anything especially entertaining!
The Grand Archive Story Pack and the Stellaris 3.14.1 ‘Circinus’ update released on Tuesday. Go forth and collect things and capture space creatures!
The Release Thus Far
The update appears to be a very stable and clean release so far, with few critical issues reported.
A 3.14.15 hotfix is being prepared for today, which includes fixes for two crashes that have occurred a handful of times, and a bug that let you power your economy exclusively through chain-firing Gravity Snares:
3.14.15 ‘Circinus’ Hotfix Release Notes
Bugfixes
Gravity Snare costs can no longer go negative.
Fixed a case where lured space fauna were uncapturable.
Stability
Fixing potential crash when trying to create a ship from a scripted design that contains unusable components for the creator
Fixed potential crash when using FromFromFrom scope in "on_planets_zero_pops" on action
Fix a crash where an AI could capture fauna even if they shouldn't be able to.
The vast majority of the other crashes are related to incompatible UI mods, so please remember to disable your mods that haven’t updated to the latest version before playing. Several players have reported their mods not fully uninstalling, so you may need to manually clear your mods folder if you continue having issues.
Please keep reporting issues you encounter in our Bug Reports forum.
The Plan
If everything goes according to plan, I expect that our next patch, 3.14.159, will be released on Tuesday, November 12th. This will let us include some fixes to issues that are reported this weekend and early next week.
Dev Q&A Transcript
We held a developer Q&A last week, and have exported a transcript for you here:
Next week is going to be a little bit different.
We’ll be looking at the internal vision statement of Stellaris and compare it to how the game has developed over the years, and I’d like to begin a conversation about how we’ll continue to evolve over the next few years.
The Custodian team has been up to something, and I want you to help guide them.
The Grand Archive preserves and exhibits the most valuable artifacts we have collected throughout the galaxy. Reserved within is also a dedicated Vivarium for live Space Fauna containment and observation.
Constructing the Grand Archive allows for the exhibition of specimens you have found, as well as the containment, breeding and ultimately cloning of captured space fauna in the Vivarium.
New Discoveries - Specimens
Specimens are rare and valuable objects that you collect while exploring the galaxy. Each Specimen has a Display Effect, providing small modifiers to boost your production across a wide variety of metrics, with their effects scaling based on the rarity of the specimen in question.
Specimens also provide additional information about the discoveries you have made, adding new details and information about events in the galaxy.
New Spaceborn Life
Cutholoids
Cutholoids are massive organisms that inhabit asteroids in order to provide suitable protection for their otherwise soft bodies. This creature swallows its prey whole, using radioactive digestive fluid to slowly consume its prey.
Cutholoids are ambush predators that disguise themselves as asteroids. They will ambush and devour lone ships - these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle. When cloned from Hatcheries by the player, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.
Voidworms
Voidworms are parasitic organisms that must deposit spores on inhabited worlds with suitable biomass in order to reproduce. Mature individuals form mating trios, known as "Troikas", and will construct nests near black holes to shelter and raise their young.
Voidworms are aggressive parasites and will often bombard colonies in order to increase their numbers back in their nests. If their population is left unchecked, they will attempt to take over the galaxy in the new Voidworm Plague mid-game crisis.
Mid-Game Crisis - The Voidworm Plague
The Voidworm population has reached a critical mass. The parasites no longer spare the planets they feed from. A breeding frenzy on the galactic scale is upon us.
This Mid-Game Crisis can be triggered if Voidworm populations reach a critical mass in the galaxy. Swarms of Voidworms will invade colonies and bombard them with abandon, adding to their numbers.
Origins
Primal Calling
Masters of animal handling and ranching, their relationship with fauna has grown according to their ethics. How will this bond evolve on a galactic scale?
This mechanically-driven origin introduces a new Wrangler job, which changes based on the player's ethics and choices. Primal Calling empires also start with the ability to build Voidlures, and is ideally suited to support a creature-focused playstyle.
Treasure Hunters
Armed only with a mysterious map, race across the stars to secure a legendary pirate treasure.
This narrative-focused origin follows the trail of a forgotten pirate legend in search of her hoard. The Black Needle stands in your way, a long-standing pirate organization that will do anything to secure this treasure. On your journey, you will face deadly threats, memorable characters and maybe even the Pirate Queen herself.
Civics
Galactic Curators
The meticulous collection and preservation of historical artifacts has always fascinated this civilization. But now, with the mysteries of the galaxy at their doorstep, there is everything left to learn.
Galactic Curators empires start with a set of three specimens and get a head start on building their Grand Archive thanks to insight into Galactic Archivism technology and a reduced cost and build time. Additionally, Galactic Curators gain bonus unity when completing an Archaeological Site or finding a Specimen.
As fellow Curators, they have increased starting opinion with the Curator Order and receive a discount on their services.
Beastmasters
Coming to full technological maturity in a system that serves as a feeding ground for Space Amoebas, this society has acquired a deep knowledge of their life cycle. They now work to nurture, raise, and ultimately clone these creatures for mutual benefit.
Start with the ability to capture Space Fauna and a fleet of Cloned Space Amoeba instead of Corvettes. Standard military ships use 3x naval capacity, so you must learn to harness the power of Cloned Space Fauna in order to succeed.
The Grand Archive Story Pack and the Stellaris 3.14.1 ‘Circinus’ update will be releasing next Tuesday, October 29th.
Today we have some Preliminary Release Notes for the 3.14.1 release!
Preliminary Release Notes
Grand Archive Story Pack Features
Space Fauna capture, breeding, and modification systems
151 Specimens to collect and display across events from Grand Archive and the base game
Over 240 Specimens total including those distributed across other Stellaris content
15 new Relics
Two new Tradition trees
Archivism
Domestication
Two new Origins
Primal Calling
Treasure Hunters
Two new Civics
Beastmasters
Galactic Curators
Two new forms of spaceborne life
Cutholoids
Voidworms
A new possible mid-game crisis - the Voidworm Plague
Three new music tracks
Events, Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Technologies, Galactic community resolutions, and more!
Improvements
Renamed Shattered Ring "Irreparable Damage" to "Reparable Damage" as once you have researched Mega Engineering. You can now restore it via decision.
Setting AI Empires to 1 and enabling Randomize will now generate 0-1 empires instead of always generating 1.
Special Project research order selector from system view now checks all possible projects for the location
Balance
Made the Nexus storm chonkier
Significantly reduced storm effect on fleet pathfinding
Doubled Ranger science to 4
Subjects that are released from a country now copy the ascension perks of that country
Bugfixes
Fixed strange boxes around technology icons
AI should now utilize leader assigned science ships
Corrected Technology Frames
Archaeological site Green Skies now requires Cosmic Storms DLC - you should no longer get Storms without the DLC enabled.
Fixed the Machine Worlds AP accidentally doubling the jobs and housing giving by Generator districts on Shattered Ringworlds
Reuniting the Pod project now resets tiyankis hostility before and after the project
Fix tiyankis potentially fleeing the system in Reuniting the Pod
Cybernetic leader portraits immediately change when the trait is gained
Fixed Regnal Names for the Fungoid 4 name list. All hail Emperor Globbelius!
Democratic and oligarchic Storm Chaser empire names can be randomized
Fixed some event leaders found in anomalies claiming that they were previously employed on your capital on their resumes
The Operation Exposed event (operation.5037) text no longer uses your country's name instead of the operation's name.
Added the correct icon to the job_researcher_upkeep_mult modifier
The Nu-Baol once again spawn with the Hive Mind trait and with the Phototropic Trait if the proper conditions are met.
Caravaneers cannot ask for a science ship that is exploring an Astral Rift
Saved StormVisuals as a .txt file
Synth ascended and Individualist Machine empire can now set the migration rights for mechanical and machine species
Virtual pops in synth ascended empires are now allowed to auto-migrate
The Event Eat or be Eaten will no longer select machine pops to be the most delicious in the galaxy.
Renamed the Government View to Empire View so it is no longer easily confused with the Government UI introduced in Galactic Paragons.
Fixed the Khan's starbases not showing a correct construction entity
The Unity tooltip now says Unity can be used to ascend Planets.
Guided Sapience and Natural Design are now mutually exclusive
Hid an unlocalized flag inside of the "Rorganize Leviathan Parade" button
Marauder Fleets now count as mercenaries for the purpose of being in breach of the Neutral Defenders Resolutions
The Imitator will no longer generate with the Hoarder trait causing immediate consumer goods deficit for gestalt empires.
Fixed a number of Cybernetic traditions not giving the correct effects if The Machine Age is not active
Empire generation now will be able to generate random Machine Intelligence empires.
The relic Crystal of Odryskia uses the correct trait name in the tooltip
Added the Researchers Upkeep modifier icon
Fixed empire designs with different randomized names sometimes preventing each other from spawning in galaxy generation.
add_random_technology_option effect now correctly checks techs weight
Fixed ships not entering the correct animation state after a combat if there was any incoming projectile animation
Auto-mod swapped traits won't disappear when loading a save
Made Genesis Guides and Natural Design mutually exclusive
Fixed assorted typos in script
Fixed assorted syntax error in script
AI
The AI now has a set limit on the maximum number of habitats it should have, determined by galaxy size and difficulty setting. This limit is doubled for the Void Dweller and Void-Forged origins.
AI empires and Auto-Best feature now consider adding additional power sources to ship designs if there is no better component
When in combat, ships stay with their targets a bit longer, reducing the amount of ships flip-flopping on targets and ending not attacking anything.
Performance
Updated the way ship modifiers are checked for tooltip display using a static cache
UI
Polish for Game Setup UI
Changed icon for Exploration Vessels.
Fixed some ship types using the wrong icon in the fleet and combat UIs.
Game settings for DLC-specific features are now hidden if you don't have the DLC.
Reworked game setup UI.
Fixed triggered icons tooltip hitbox in event options
Modding
planet_damage for bombardment stances is now a scripted value
Added on_ship_engulfed on_action
Added on_specimen_acquired on_action
Added is_last_acquired_specimen trigger
Added give_specimen effect
Allow to override technology name, description, icon and effects based on trigger conditions
Added centerPosition member to buttonType.
Smooth listbox's borderSize now affects the list's scrollable length.
Fixed listboxes' borderSize using X value for both X and Y.
Starbase building & module icons now use triggered description to allow it to be dynamic
spawn_planet_effect orbit_distance_offset parameter can now read variables and values
Concept tooltips can now be auto-generated for static modifiers using the modifier: prefix
Starbase buildings can now use scripted_effect_cooldown and scripted_effect_cooldown_flag fields to display cooldowns for a scripted action
export_modifier_to_variable can now be used with dynamic modifiers
Added on_fauna_capture_ended on_action, fired whenever a capture attempt ends no matter the outcome
Bombardment stances can now use scripted localization with a base scope of fleet
We have seven new achievements coming in with the Grand Archive Story Pack:
It Belongs in a... oh right Fill any Collection category with active Exhibits.
Void Charmer Build each type of Voidlure in one game, and attract each type of eligible Space Fauna.
Animal Farm Reach 50 Vivarium capacity.
Wormageddon Destroy a Voidworm nest.
That's No Asteroid Capture a Cutholoid with a Gravity Snare.
X Marks the Spot Discover Captain Ness's Treasure Hoard.
Beastmaster Defeat the endgame crisis without building a single artificial military ship.
Developer Q&A Today
We’ll be holding a developer Q&A on the Official Stellaris Discord a little later today, stop on by and ask us questions!
Next Week
We should have a little bit of early post-release commentary next week, after you have the Grand Archive Story Pack in your [species.GetHandNamePlural].
The Grand Archive Story Pack is lurking in an asteroid field nearby, and will ambush nearby Science Vessels on October 29th.
Today’s dev diary will look at the two new space fauna being added to Stellaris, as well as a peek at the Origins.
Cutholoids
Cutholoids are cunning ambush predators, lurking within the shadowed hollows of desolate asteroids. There, they bide their time, waiting to ensnare unwary vessels that drift too close.
A typical first encounter with them may look something like this:
If my science ship was cloaked or had encountered them before, things might have turned out differently.
Thankfully, Cutholoids have a very slow digestive process so these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle.
I don’t have Gravity Snares yet, so arm the Nuclear Missiles – there’s “research” to be done.
When cloning your own Cutholoids from Hatcheries, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.
Om nom nom. I wouldn’t call it exactly “a new car smell”.
As one would expect, Cutholoids prefer systems with asteroid belts as their preferred habitat.
Voidworms
Voidworms are parasitic creatures that depend on planet-based hosts to reproduce. They deposit spores on inhabited worlds with sufficient biomass, raising their offspring in nests perilously close to Black Holes.
Their full lifecycle is present in-game. Nymphs will grow through the Juvenile stage to maturity in Adulthood.
Voidworms mate in groups of three, a formation known as a "Troika." These creatures become bound for life in a never-ending mating ritual. However, they require an external biological host to produce offspring. Upon reaching maturity, each Voidworm develops a clutch of cysts within their reproductive systems. These protective cysts contain highly caustic gametes that, when combined with others in a Troika, can be sent to planets with suitable biomass in order to give birth to more of their nymphs.
Their hosts do not survive this process.
Who’s the cutest little Voidworm Nymph? Why, you are! Yes, you are!
A Juvenile Scout
A fleet of Adult Voidworms that have not yet merged
The Adults that have formed a Troika
A Voidworm Nest
Nymphs will travel to and remain in the safety of their nest systems, while Juveniles explore the galaxy looking for suitable worlds for the next generation. Once they find a suitable target, the Adults will form Troikas and go forth to continue the cycle of life.
There is evidence that the Voidworms coordinate their bombardments so as to maintain a sustainable amount of viable hosts throughout the galaxy, so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.
The Voidworm Plague
OH COME ON, I LITERALLY JUST SAID THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!
Oh. Okay, maybe that was a bit premature.
If Voidworm populations reach a critical mass in the galaxy, there is a chance that the Voidworm Plague will begin. In this possible mid-game crisis, a mutation causes swarms of Voidworms to enter a reproductive frenzy and begin to bombard planets with abandon.
A situation will begin to deal with the crisis, with several possible approaches.
Good old “Do Nothing”. Let someone else deal with it.
Destroying the Voidworm nests will end the plague, or you can find a cure, rendering your population useless to the voidworm life cycle. Completing the situation will remove your planets from their target list.
The Galactic Community
The Galactic Community, naturally, has a few ideas related to these new lifeforms.
Grand Archive Advanced Settings
Since both of these new additions are rather aggressive, the Grand Archive Story Pack adds two new sliders into Advanced Settings to control the prevalence of Voidworms and Cutholoids.
My Science Ship might be safe, but we’re pretty much guaranteeing that the Voidworms will be a mid-game crisis.
Treasure Hunters
Treasure Hunters is the narrative-focused Origin in this Story Pack. You can expect a lengthy event chain with a mysterious treasure map at the core of it all.
Into pirates, swashbuckling (of sorts), and endless riches? Treasure Hunters may be an Origin you’re interested in. As it’s a narrative-focused Origin, I’m not going to spoil too much of it ahead of time.
Follow the trail and find riches beyond imagination.
The Oviron Lodge are a prescripted empire we’ve created that uses the Treasure Hunters Origin with the Galactic Curators and Mining Guilds civics.
Primal Calling
The Primal Calling Origin is heavily invested into various fauna related playstyles, from those who want to preserve and protect wildlife to those who prefer them stuffed and mounted as trophies of the hunt.
Primal Calling is one of our most versatile Origins, able to adapt to many different playstyles. After you complete First Contact with a new breed of Space Fauna, you’ll get to pick a stance for your civilization. Which stances you can pick are influenced by your ethics - for example, the Animal Handler stance requires some element of Pacifism or Xenophilia.
This stance choice has additional effects on your empire - replacing the Wrangler jobs with Ranchers, Animal Handlers, or Trophy Hunters, changing the Wildlife Ranch into Hunting Grounds, or granting various new perks or modifiers.
You will also get new events during first contact with space fauna, but caution is advised, as interacting with wildlife is unpredictable and sometimes dangerous.
The Graparx Primal Stalkers are our Primal Calling prescripted empire, with the Beastmasters and Citizen Service civics.
Next Week
Next on the list is our preliminary 3.14.1 “Circinus” release notes. The Archive is almost open!
The Vivarium of the Grand Archive will be accepting genetic material donations as of October 29th.
Today we’re looking at the capture and domestication of spaceborne fauna, Domestication traditions, and the Beastmaster civics. Let’s get to it, this is a long one!
Vivariums and Hatcheries
The Vivarium is essentially a space fauna breeding and observation tank. You can access it under Discoveries as soon as your Vivarium capacity is above zero or the Gravity Snares technology has been researched.
The Hatchery module is the space fauna equivalent of Shipyards, and can only be built on a station that has no normal Shipyards. It’s unlocked by the Artificial Breeding technology.
You can also increase your capacity by building Vivarium Tanks. These increase the growth rate of your docked fauna and are unlocked by the Gravity Snares technology. Building a Grand Archive will give you the biggest boost to Vivarium capacity.
This particular Vivarium isn’t terribly interesting yet though. We need to find some friends!
I also won’t be able to fit much in this Vivarium. I should build a Grand Archive and some supplemental Tanks.
Capturing Space Fauna
The Gravity Snares technology lets your science ships attempt to capture wild Space Fauna.
Oh yeah, culling and dissecting also happens at the Vivarium.
You can launch a Gravity Snare from an adjacent system to attempt to capture wild space fauna that are peacefully… Actually, to be honest, those are Crystalline Entities and there’s nothing peaceful about them. While I bet they’d make a good addition to our fleet, I said we should find some friends so let’s go get some Tiyanki instead.
You need to know the basics about the creature before being able to tune the Gravity Snares appropriately, so you’ll have to finish the first contact process before you can capture them. There’s a cost and a cooldown to capture attempts, and as you unlock various technologies, the capture chance and the number that you can capture at once will increase. Other technologies like Cloaking and Jump Drives will also improve your Gravity Snares - the first increases their capture rate, the second lets them instantly send your new friend to your vivarium instead of taking a little while to transfer them.
We’ve added Capture Space Fauna to Science Ship Automation Settings too.
The Gravity Snare will fly to the adjacent system and attempt to capture their target. It will generally attempt to capture random breeding age adults if there are any in the target group.
Success! We done caught ourselves a common Tiyanki cow! Since she’s cruiser sized, she takes up 4 of our Vivarium capacity, and is very, very lonely.
Space fauna inside the Vivarium grow at an accelerated rate. Life is easy when you’re being fed by advanced alien ranchers, and the only worry you have is that “Cull” button.
By the way, “Auto-Culling” is the most “Stellaris” button ever created.
We could use a few more. Space fauna have growth stages and breeding requirements that vary by species. For example, Tiyanki require a mating partner, Crystals and Amoebas reproduce asexually, and Voidworms… They’re special. I’ll talk more about them next week.
Ti’yan’ek needs another Tiyanki to breed. We could fly around trying to find them, or we can bring them to us with a Voidlure. Voidlures are a Starbase building (unlocked by completing the Domestication traditions) that attract a specific species of space fauna, and must be built in their favored habitat. (Space Amoebas like Nebulas, Crystalline Entities like Pulsars, and so on.)
Every month there’s a chance that any captive fauna that can breed will automatically do so, which will put them on a cooldown before they can reproduce again. This will be visible under “Reproductive Status”.
My collection of Crystals
Culling fauna will provide resources (which varies depending on the species) as well as their genetic material. Having a creature’s genetic material allows you to grow clones of them at your Hatchery. Exceptional creatures (marked by their rarity) have increased combat stats and culling rewards. Cloned fauna will always use the highest rarity available, and you can upgrade existing fleets if you acquire
Sorry buddy, I need you for parts.
Generally you’ll clone fauna at the smallest size and they’ll grow up over time, but technologies exist that will let you force-grow them to start at a larger growth stage.
Ship tooltips will let you know how long it is until they’ll reach their next growth stage.
Since larger space fauna take up more Naval Capacity, there are times that you may want to prevent their growth - you can prevent them from exceeding the command limit of a fleet by changing their Growth Stance. You can also block them from exceeding your overall Naval Capacity in policies.
Unnatural Selection
The Controlled Mutations technology lets you make some changes to the fauna you have captured when you’re creating clones. This lets you use a variant of the Ship Designer to “redesign” them and make use of special mutation component slots.
Space fauna Mutations are tied to other technologies, but won’t clutter the tooltips unless you have Controlled Mutations.
I’m pretty sure that Space Amoeba needs LASER EYES.
Mutations can be broadly classified as Offensive, Defensive, or Special, but you can freely use those slots however you want to customize your Fauna. (Barring restrictions on the components themselves, like how you can still only have one Cloaking mutation.) You can alter their behavior (in a way similar to combat computers) by installing neurochips.
The different space fauna have different resource costs and upkeeps, and those upkeep costs are reduced if they’re in their preferred habitat.
You can (and probably should) also create designs for what your Fauna will grow into if you allow them to. You can change the current growth stage by clicking on the “Pick Creature Size” button.
Domestication Traditions and Beastmasters
The Domestication Traditions can be taken once you have the Artificial Breeding technology. It’s focused, as one might expect, on improving your space fauna.
The Metabolic Regulation policy allows you to increase fauna growth rate and upkeep, or freeze their growth but reduce upkeep.
As with the Galactic Curator civics, if you want to go all-in on space beasties, you can take one of the Beastmaster civics. These civics dramatically increase the upkeep of artificial ships, but give you everything you’ll need to fully embrace the rancher life.
Beastmasters replace their Hatcheries and Shipyards with dual-use Beastports. These can clone space fauna like a Hatchery but also have rudimentary shipbuilding capabilities and are able to build civilian vessels, so you won’t need to keep a shipyard around just for your colony, construction, and science ships.
A Note on Space Fauna and “Bio-Ships”
While this space fauna breeding system scratches a lot of the “bio-ship” itch, we don’t consider them exactly the same systems. These are more like vicious mutated pets than meat-ships you fly around in. Expect that one day in the future we’ll explore that idea.
Next Week
Next week we’ll be examining the new lifeforms in the galaxy and the two new origins.
Today we take a look at the Grand Archive structure itself, specimen collection and display mechanics, and then examine the new Archivism tradition tree.
What is a Grand Archive?
The Grand Archive is the cultural center for your empire, a place to house and display the story of your people through the greatest specimens of interest that you have collected over the years.
This one-stage structure can be built over any colony with 25 or more pops, and will not block other improvements such as Orbital Rings. We expect that most empires will want to build them over their capital world, to keep their treasures close.
The Galactic Archivism technology required for building a Grand Archive can appear as a tier 2 society tech, and as such building a Grand Archive does not require high tier technologies such as Mega-Engineering.
Shortly after you have discovered your first Specimen worthy of display, you have the chance to invest in the concept of a Grand Archive - if you pass on this opportunity, it can show up later as normal in your Society research options.
A collection that embraces the whole galaxy allows you to consider the whole galaxy. That is what an institution such as the Grand Archive is for.
Grand Archives can be built by any empire, including genocidal empires like Fanatic Purifiers, even if they have a more proactive stand on turning their neighbors into “historical interests” earlier than one would otherwise expect.
A closer look at the Grand Archive. The color scheme matches your empire flag and chosen shipset.
Specimen Collection and Display
An Archive with nothing to display within it is simply a building. (And an expensive one at that.) Luckily, fascinating moments worth remembering occur all the time in Stellaris, so the Grand Archive Story Pack has added 151 unique Specimens to events, archaeology sites, and other content from across the base game and the new content added in the Story Pack. The team has gone through all of the other Stellaris content as well, giving us a final total of over 240 Specimens to collect, study, and appreciate. (Ancient Relics, Distant Stars, and Astral Planes, as our most exploration-focused releases, benefited the most from this pass.) The Specimen Collection system requires the Grand Archive Story Pack.
A symbol is shown when you have acquired a Specimen of interest - occasionally these are tied to a specific choice in an event, while other times they may be linked to your Origin or actions that you have taken.
Newly acquired Specimens appear in a toast to give you a quick look at what you’ve found.
Give me an archive, and I will fill it.
Sometimes Specimens will instead find you.
The Discoveries tab now allows you to explore your collection and choose which Specimens to have on display. Displaying Specimens has an initial cost (which increases with the number of Specimens of that category that you have on display) as well as ongoing upkeep (which is affected by Empire Size). Each Specimen has its own effects while on display - some produce a small amount of resources, while others might grant anything from Energy from Jobs to Cloned Fauna Growth Speed.
Each Specimen also has expanded lore, and keeps track of where and when you acquired it in the first place.
A toggle in the top right of the Specimen window lets you set whether or not you want to automatically put any new Specimens you acquire directly on display. You can also set up how you want to handle your overflow if not everything can be on display at once. You can have up to nine Specimens on display in each category - Aesthetic Wonders, Galactic History, and Xeno Geology.
How Else Can I Get Specimens?
Earlier I recommended building your Grand Archive close to the protected heart of your Empire. It’d be a terrible shame if something were to happen to it, after all.
The Grand Archive is great for seeing how excellent we were at stealing things
The vile Yarrowreacheran Consensus stole three of my precious Specimens! Thankfully the rest of them are still safe, waiting for me to rebuild the Grand Archive and put them back on display.
Hey, that was mine! I even wrote my name on it!
On the bright side, after spending some time working on our relations, they’re happy to trade it back to me.
You can also dig through your pile of Minor Artifacts to see if there’s anything worthwhile in there that got missed when you first acquired them.
Artifact Analysis can be performed up to five times, and has an increasing cost every time you use it.
Archivism Traditions and the Galactic Curator Civics
Once you’ve researched Galactic Archivism, the Archivism traditions become available. Empty shelves do not make for a wondrous attraction, but focusing on Archivism can help fill them up nicely.
Frontier Archaeology is my favorite.
Exhibition Specialization lets you focus your Archive’s output to one of the three Specimen categories, reducing the other two, and the Agenda associated with Archivism increases the chance of finding Archaeology Sites and increases Specimen Output.
Genocidal empires, having less use for Diplomatic Weight than many other Empires, replace Expert Negotiation with Galactic Reaping.
Let’s make (you) history.
If you’re really interested in having the best Grand Archive possible, there are the Galactic Curator civics. These civilizations all begin with Galactic Archivism as a guaranteed research option, one common Specimen of each category, and get a discount when dealing with the Curator Order. They also gain a 25% discount when actually building a Grand Archive, and have an increased chance to discover anomalies, but also tend to overwork their bureaucrats, reducing their effectiveness by a small amount. Nothing delights them more than a new find, though - Specimen discoveries and completion of Archaeology Sites grant them a Unity bonus.
The Curator Order
The Curator Order is dedicated to the protection of knowledge, and you can impress them with your collection should you share similar interests.
If your collection is substantial enough to attract their attention, you could ask them for various things - whether it be specialized museum plans, or help setting up cultural enrichment programs. Naturally, they’ll want to be compensated for their help.
Impress them enough, and they’ll even be willing to allow you to give them a generous donation in exchange for the honor of selecting a relic to care for from their collection.
There are fifteen relics being added to the Curators in the Grand Archive Story Pack, five associated with each of the three Specimen categories.
Meanwhile… A Little Something From the Custodians
The game setup screen has gotten a bit cumbersome over the years, with a huge number of options. We’re revisiting this screen in 3.14 “Circinus” to make things a little bit more understandable.
Pictures speak louder than words, so:
No more asking “which shape was Starburst again?”
Next Week
Next week we’ll be going over the care and feeding of Tiyanki, the proper use of Gravity Snares and a Vivarium, and take a look at the Domestication traditions and Beastmasters civics.