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Hi all, Jamor here. I'm filling in for Wiz this week, as I want my Game Director to focus on post-launch support for Cherryh, our biggest update yet.

Today's dev diary is about 2.0.2_beta: the new build available as an optional beta for Steam users right now (note for Paradoxplaza Launcher users: we're using Steam as our beta testing platform at this time, if you want to try it out please use the Steam key that came with your Plaza purchase).

When we made 2.0, we knew that the scale of changes would be huge, and therefore I budgeted a larger than normal amount of dev time for post-launch support. The objective is to absorb and process player feedback, and perform bug fixes as well as balance tweaks and general improvements. There are almost as many unique play styles as there are Stellaris players out there, and our objective is to hit a good balance point for the maximum number, which you can then further tweak to your own preferences with the new game customization options.

2.0.2 is planned to be a "rolling beta", meaning we will continue to update it at intervals when we have new tweaks/fixes that we want to push to you. Your feedback on it will be crucial for determining the content of the final, official version, so please continue to play and tell us how it goes.

We especially want to make sure we get War Exhaustion/Status Quo Peace right, so that it produces believable and satisfying war results for the greatest number of people. As such, the initial changes in this patch are experimental and we'll continue to iterate on them throughout the test period. Please don't hesitate to give us your constructive feedback.

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.0.2 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Feature
###################
* You are no longer forced to make peace at 100% war exhaustion, instead your Influence and Unity monthly gains are reduced to 0 and a happiness penalty is applied to all Pops until you make peace
* Occupation no longer contributes to War Exhaustion, but instead is displayed as a separate factor in war overview, to make it clearer what you need to do in order to enforce demands
* War Overview no longer attempts to calculate a winner in battles, but simply displays war exhaustion gained by each side
* Marauder raiding fleets are now neutral to everyone except their intended target so they won't wreck everything in their path when they go a-viking
* Fixed Gestalt Consciousness empires using Trading Hub starbase module and Offworld Trading Company starbase building, they now use Resource Reprocessor and External Acquisitions Area (name/flavor difference only)
* It is now possible to test-fire a World Cracker on habitable (but uninhabited) planets in your space
* Added tier 5 Dark Matter thrusters that can only be gained by scavenging Fallen Empire ships
* Transcendent Learning ascension perk has been added to the game, and it increases leader level cap and empire leader cap
* Megastructure resources are now affected by country modifiers
* Ship sizes now have a default combat behavior and will prefer computers of that type if auto-generated (Picket for Destroyers, etc)
* Added some more logic for making sure ship auto-complete doesn't switch your desired combat role
* Space stations now use the country_mult modifier instead of the tile_mult modifier and no longer get the tile_add modifier
* When a new ruler is elected, the previous ruler that was voted out of office (if alive) will now attempt to take over the job that was opened up by the newly elected ruler, assuming the leader class matches. Back to the mines, Mr. Ex-President.

###################
# Balance
###################
* Reduced War Exhaustion per ship and army killed
* Militarist ethics now gain -10%/-20% war exhaustion gain instead of army damage bonus
* Technologies that reduce claim cost now also decrease war exhaustion gain
* You now get war exhaustion a bit slower while fighting a Liberation War
* Increased energy upkeep of all Starbase sizes by +1. Outposts now cost 1 energy maintenance
* Base unity income increased from 1 to 2
* Base tradition cost increased from 56 to 100 (does not affect the cost increase from number of traditions)
* Tradition unity cost per system reduced from 2% to 1%
* Corvette/Destroyer/Cruiser/Battleship build speed techs now also reduce build cost of that ship type by 5%
* Habitats now have their own fortress building (Security Zone) that is effective at unrest reduction but provides only a few defense armies and no FTL inhibitor or bombardment protection
* It is now possible to mod away serviles & pre-sapient traits if you have completed biological ascension
* Egalitarian ethics effect on faction influence increased from +15%/30% to +25%/50%
* Corvette Focus trait now requires Destroyers tech (as it's hardly a 'focus' if it's the only ship type possible)
* Scout admiral trait reduced from 20% to 10% speed (so Gale-Speed is faster)
* Admiral now always dies when last ship in fleet is destroyed and there are no disengaged ships to move to
* Drone Mining Lasers are now a bit worse against hull and a bit better against shields
* Broken and shattered planets spawned on galaxy generation can now have deposits
* Thrusters now cost different amounts of minerals and give different amounts of evasion based on which ship size they are for (corvette thrusters are cheaper and add more evasion, etc)
* Reduced cost of hiring Marauder leaders to 2000 energy
* Having an enclave in your border now gives +1 opinion per year instead of +1 opinion per month, as the latter made all other opinion boosts rather meaningless
* Increased opinion bonuses for ally of ally and mutual rivals
* Increased opinion penalties of allying rivals
* Tributary wargoal is now a bit easier to enforce
* Combat computers now give evasion_mult instead of evasion_add
* Asteroid Sighted can no longer pop after the first 50 years, to avoid it happening in large sprawling empires with limited time to respond
* First pirate event now tells you the system where they are based
* Increased time limits of all Special Projects requiring a ship in orbit (new minimum is 3 years)
* Federation fleet is now limited to an absolute max naval capacity of 500
* It is now possible to get the gateway activation tech if you know any other empire that has the technology
* When a Federation enforces ideology on an empire, that empire now gets opinion boosts with the entire federation

# Civics
* Citizen Service civic now also increases unity output from fortress and strongholds by 1
* Aristocratic Elite civic now gives +2 leader cap and +2 governor max level instead of +4 leader cap and -50% leader recruitment cost
* Distinguished Admiralty civic increases leader cap by +2
* Driven Assimilators now have the 'Assimilate' total war CB
* Purifier and anti-Purifier CBs no longer require neighboring status (was confusing and unintuitive to players)
* Nationalistic Zeal civic now gives -10% war exhaustion gain instead of +1 rivalries
* Free Haven now gives xeno migration attraction instead of migration attraction

# Traditions
* Expansion adoption effect now gives +50% colony development speed (down from +100%)
* Galactic Ambition expansion tradition now gives -20% starbase upkeep instead of +2 starbase capacity

# Ascension Perks
* Shared Destiny effect on integration cost reduction changed from -50% to -75%
* Nihilistic Acquisition can now be taken by purifier-style empires

# Edicts
* Drone Campaign food cost increased from 100 to 500
* Learning Campaign food cost increased from 50 to 500
* War Drone Campaign food cost increased from 50 to 500
* Patrol Drones planetary edict is now available to all Gestalt Consciousness-empires

###################
# UI
###################
* Added building descriptions to traditions that unlock buildings
* Starbase upgrade cost and Module/Building building cost now properly show modifiers affecting them
* Renamed Growth Speed to Pop Growth Speed to be clearer
* Added the correct icons for megastructures and starbases in the control-groups UI
* Contacts view has been improved
* Government view now displays ruler & heir skill stars
* Heir tooltip no longer displays skill effects (as heir has no skill effects until they become ruler)
* Clicking your ruler or heir name in Government View will now allow you to change their name and/or title
* Galaxy resources now show the amount actually collected, and the tooltips give you the list of applied modifiers
* Resource modifier no longer show decimal values
* Removed pointless decimals for starbase caps, planet caps, naval command cap, and naval capacity
* Added the country resources add and multipliers modifiers to the budget tab
* Improved how the speed modifiers are shown in the starbase upgrade time tooltip
* Added a more clear warning that deleting templates will also disband ships
* Fixed several instances of a Status Quo peace being called a White Peace in peace messages
* Alert for High War Exhaustion is now more helpful
* Traits that are already present in species can now always be re-added while in process of modifying template
* Aura tooltip now differentiates between system-wide friendly auras and fleet-only friendly auras
* Changed the current value of template designs in fleet manager to show the current amount of ships including ones that only are scheduled for retrofit

###################
# AI
###################
* AI now activates some of its anti-crisis logic when under threat from a mid-game crisis like the Great Khan
* AI no longer picks shared destiny unless it has at least one vassal
* Added separate definitions for mid-game and end-game crisis factions, with slightly different AI logic to respond to them
* Fixed another cause of AI endlessly inviting player to the same war

###################
# Modding
###################
* Added a country modifier for war exhaustion gain (when multiple countries are involved on the same side in a war, the averaged modifier of all of them is used)
* add_threat effect now once again takes country scope (generates threat scaled towards whole target empire)

###################
# Bugfix
###################
* Fixed system/colony tradition costs being multiplied on each other instead of additive
* Fixed additional potential out of sync issues in multiplayer
* Afterburners can no longer be installed on defense platforms, as lovely as it was to uselessly vent fuel in to space as a gesture of contempt to environmentalists
* Deep Space Black Site now requires you to own a planet in the system, instead of erroneously using the same trigger as trading hub
* All Satrapies are now properly liberated when the Horde fractures into the Diadochi
* Fixed bug where the planet class transition effect started too late
* Fixed adopting the Domination tradition tree not unlocking certain diplomatic actions for eligible Machine Empires
* Fixed auto-exploring science ships doubling up (exploring the same system simultaneously)
* Fixed a CTD. Could sometimes try to merge invalid fleets.
* No longer possible to hold Casus Belli on non-empire factions such as Crises and Marauders
* Galactic core visibility is now lifted when you explore all systems adjacent to it, instead of just one
* Fixed empires not being able to see primitives in other empires' space due to lack of comms spread
* Ships merging in to fleets directly from stations now behave properly
* Fixed scientists not dying when their science ship was destroyed in battle
* Fixed raiding stance not having bombardment graphics on planet being raided
* Fixed tooltips for status column in contacts view to reflect accurately what they represent
* Fixed raiding not always abducting pops when it should, due to bad habitability calculation
* Fixed raiding stance not having the correct pop limit (would abduct at >6 instead of >4 pops)
* Fix a freeze when trying to upgrade technologies more than their max levels
* Fixed Determined Exterminators starting with a farm building
* Construction is now paused for starbases in combat
* Fixed force ethics not correctly calculating a government for the defeated empire's new ethics
* Enigmatic fortress now properly disables even after saving and loading the game (status was not properly saved)
* Iron Fist governor trait is no longer available for Hive Minds, making it disabled for all types of Gestalt Consciousness-empires
* Fixed being unable to land armies on a colony seized by Mutants
* Fix bug where queued items wasn't moved to the new fleet design when a design upgrade becomes available
* Fixed Slaving Despots being far too common an AI personality because of wrongly scripted weights
* Disables the bypass cache when calculating the distance to capital modifier, hopefully solving an OOS issue
* Fixed a crash when quitting to the main menu in the middle of a war
* It should no longer be possible to try to spawn a star system with an invalid star class
* Fix crash when comparing the relative power of a country that has no power
* Prevented fake country from trying to initialize a technology module it does not have for some reason
* UNE now uses correct name list when spawned in Commonwealth games
* Fixed revolting slaves greedily snatching the capital planet when they're not supposed to
* No longer possible to force ideology on Fallen Empires
* Fixed Omega Theory tech sometimes not appearing at the end of the Horizon Signal chain
* Fixed an event-spawned science ship not getting a hyperdrive
* Fixed planet unrest modifiers not being properly recalculated
* Fixed Ascension Theory tech not being available to players who do not own Apocalypse

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN OPT-IN PATCH. YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE TO JOIN IN ORDER TO TEST THE NEW VERSION.

Here's how to opt in:


Right click on Stellaris in your Steam library -> select Properties -> go to the Betas tab -> select "2.0.2_beta"

I'll of course ping this thread and let you know when an updated version of the beta goes out. Thank you all for your support, we think it's really great that we get to work with our fan community to constantly improve the game together.

Make sure to check out next week's Dev Diary for a first look at our development priorities going forward in the...wait for it...POST-APOCALYPSE.

(I've been waiting so long to say that)

Have fun everyone!
 
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By the way, not sure if it has been mentioned but this patch is a huge buff to pacifists.

Fanatic pacifist now gets +10% yields from all mining and research bases from day 1. That's massive!
Does it? After all the back and forth regarding offworld deposits in the past, I don't even know what is going on or intended in that regard.

Also: It's even better than that - it's a multiplicative bonus, so it also applies to all your other yield modifiers. :)
That means late game it's easily worth 15-20% of extra yields.
 
In contrast to the growing faction speaking out against the energy upkeep for outpost stations. I would like to say that I really like this decision. It adds a sense of meaningful economy to the game. An empire that cannot support more outpost stations with its planets will need to find a way to adapt and improve the territory it already has in order to make that a possibility.
It creates a cycle of expand - improve - expand - improve that feels very realistic to me. In my games of 2.0 I was neglecting to even colonize planets in my territory because of how much easier it was to generate resources by just spamming outposts. And a single planet cannot realistically support that sort of galactic-scale network of stations.

Ways to improve include building habitats, researching terraforming, migrating other species into your empire (forcefully or peacefully), or adapting your species to new world types. Then you use those new planets to improve your station as a galactic power and open up the door to expanding further. I mean seriously - should an empire with 1 planet be able to hold the same amount of space (and defend it) as an empire with 20? That just goes against sci-fi. Playing "wide" should require at least some development of what you've claimed, else the whole game really does become an arena of snowballs.

In short, I think Stellaris players are the very ambitious sort.

Keep up the good work, dev team. And thank you for delivering this patch so soon. As a programmer myself I know how chaotic bug reports can be.
 
Been playing a few minor games to get the hang of Apocalypse.

One thing that slightly ruined my latest one was that I had the Enigmatic Fortress a few systems away from my homeworld - no big problem, except that it wiped my entire fleet when it auto-navigated home from across the map - right through the Fortress.

Some kind of pathfinding tweak might be in order so that fleets don't do something patently suicidal like auto-navigating through a Leviathan. The first I knew something was up was the 'combat' alert followed about half a second later by the 'fleet lost' alert. Either a pathfinding tweak so they don't blunder into a known Leviathan, or the ability to toggle certain systems as off-limits unless I give a very specific instruction to go there, might be in order.

Actually, come to think of it, the ability to plant a warning beacon or something on the edge of a system would be really cool, particularly if a player came across an alien or historical one in an otherwise suspiciously-deserted system.

When you go into the system view theres a button near the bottom left you can click which means all fleets ignore the system and won't travel through it no matter what. Even if you manually click on it.
 
Been playing a few minor games to get the hang of Apocalypse.

One thing that slightly ruined my latest one was that I had the Enigmatic Fortress a few systems away from my homeworld - no big problem, except that it wiped my entire fleet when it auto-navigated home from across the map - right through the Fortress.

Some kind of pathfinding tweak might be in order so that fleets don't do something patently suicidal like auto-navigating through a Leviathan. The first I knew something was up was the 'combat' alert followed about half a second later by the 'fleet lost' alert. Either a pathfinding tweak so they don't blunder into a known Leviathan, or the ability to toggle certain systems as off-limits unless I give a very specific instruction to go there, might be in order.

Actually, come to think of it, the ability to plant a warning beacon or something on the edge of a system would be really cool, particularly if a player came across an alien or historical one in an otherwise suspiciously-deserted system.

You have to manually restrict systems now, but there's a button to do it at the bottom in the system view.
 
I haven't tested this yet (going to finish up my running games before opting in). But I'm feeling like no W/E on occupation may be a bit busted (unless it's simply calculating or affecting the war in a different way). I can attest to the energy upkeep for Starbases is going to make a mess of early-game economy. It's already a facet that half my starbases have to be max-filled trading hubs/offworld trading company even WITH the Corporate Dominion ethic, and that's not counting taking out a fleet or two, when I always go negative, even with full prosperity tree. This may end up making a huge mess, and is the primary reason I'm not updating to it in my running games.

I feel like 0.5 might've been ok, but 1 is way too much, but we'll see.
 
They're likely focused on non-expansion content bug fixes first.

Indeed, but arguably some titan "features" could fall under the "bug" category. I am talking about its tendency to sometimes rush ahead into the melee and the fact that the titan lance is not considered to be under a weapon type (so it doesn't benefit from any strategic resources or repeatable tech, you also cannot see it in after-combat log accuracy charts). Considering they are one of the core features of the expansion, it would've been nice to hear something like "We are also looking into the current titan performance..." I am guessing it is a low priority for the team at the moment, and that is understandable though.
 
Some kind of pathfinding tweak might be in order so that fleets don't do something patently suicidal like auto-navigating through a Leviathan.

Actually, come to think of it, the ability to plant a warning beacon or something on the edge of a system would be really cool, particularly if a player came across an alien or historical one in an otherwise suspiciously-deserted system.

You can now click on a system and toggle a button to prevent your ships of moving through it.

I also would like a way to bookmark interesting systems. Just like the stars in CK2 and EU4.
 
I think corvettes are a little OP right now. I did some battle tests on naked corvettes and bad ass level 5 ones...matched them up with bigger ships and whenever they lost i tried to counter their counter and so on. I ended up using torpedo + stormfire corvettes with tons of targetting. The only ship so far i found to beat that was 1 configuration of destroyers (though i didnt do all possible combinations, there are potentially more). However under the assumption that big weapons are a no go against corvettes, the options are indeed very limited. It also seems like fighters no longer target rockets or torpedos...which makes carriers sitting ducks.

So here is why Corvettes are super super strong right now:
  • Fastest game in the ship
  • Lots of firepower for a small ship with high end rockets/torpedos an if you balance the weakness of the torpedo with another weapon quite omnipotent
  • Hits nearly every ship nearly always
  • Is so fast, its a good firefighter if something happens
  • Is built extremely fast
  • Doesnt even get close to die as fast as it can be replaced
  • Cheap and energy can actually stay at level 5 even if you have a higher level generator...still maxing out effectiveness
  • Considerable amount of bang per buck doesnt feel in line with other ship types

This makes the corvettte the current backbone as you get speed, nearly always on top in most configurations the only enemy is a small weapon/pd destroyer and potentially some other small weapon configs of the same type. You do lose a considerable amount still which can drive up warscore a bit faster but if the enemy does not manage to save his bigger ships, who cares...
 
Does it? After all the back and forth regarding offworld deposits in the past, I don't even know what is going on or intended in that regard.

Also: It's even better than that - it's a multiplicative bonus, so it also applies to all your other yield modifiers. :)
That means late game it's easily worth 15-20% of extra yields.

* Space stations now use the country_mult modifier instead of the tile_mult modifier and no longer get the tile_add modifier

I guess it's WAD, considering the pop resource production bonus might be a country modifier. Seems counterintuitive though.
 
I think corvettes are a little OP right now. I did some battle tests on naked corvettes and bad ass level 5 ones...matched them up with bigger ships and whenever they lost i tried to counter their counter and so on. I ended up using torpedo + stormfire corvettes with tons of targetting. The only ship so far i found to beat that was 1 configuration of destroyers (though i didnt do all possible combinations, there are potentially more). However under the assumption that big weapons are a no go against corvettes, the options are indeed very limited. It also seems like fighters no longer target rockets or torpedos...which makes carriers sitting ducks.

So here is why Corvettes are super super strong right now:
  • Fastest game in the ship
  • Lots of firepower for a small ship with high end rockets/torpedos an if you balance the weakness of the torpedo with another weapon quite omnipotent
  • Hits nearly every ship nearly always
  • Is so fast, its a good firefighter if something happens
  • Is built extremely fast
  • Doesnt even get close to die as fast as it can be replaced
  • Cheap and energy can actually stay at level 5 even if you have a higher level generator...still maxing out effectiveness
  • Considerable amount of bang per buck doesnt feel in line with other ship types

This makes the corvettte the current backbone as you get speed, nearly always on top in most configurations the only enemy is a small weapon/pd destroyer and potentially some other small weapon configs of the same type. You do lose a considerable amount still which can drive up warscore a bit faster but if the enemy does not manage to save his bigger ships, who cares...

Hm.. I have had quite high attrition when using corvettes - they usually win the battle, but a lot of them die. I haven't done extensive tests, but I tend to default to battleships with Giga cannon and then rest neutron launchers (maybe one or two slots kin. arty)

With t3 line computers and aux firing slots, they even hit corvettes pretty well. The alpha strike is devastating and if outnumbered, once the enemy closes after a couple of volleys, you can retreat and save most of your ships.
 
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Solid changes, looking forward to playing this, but...

* Transcendent Learning ascension perk has been added to the game, and it increases leader level cap and empire leader cap

* Aristocratic Elite civic now gives +2 leader cap and +2 governor max level instead of +4 leader cap and -50% leader recruitment cost
* Distinguished Admiralty civic increases leader cap by +2

HNNNG, where am I supposed to efficiently get my extra leader cap from now?
 
I think corvettes are a little OP right now. I did some battle tests on naked corvettes and bad ass level 5 ones...matched them up with bigger ships and whenever they lost i tried to counter their counter and so on. I ended up using torpedo + stormfire corvettes with tons of targetting. The only ship so far i found to beat that was 1 configuration of destroyers (though i didnt do all possible combinations, there are potentially more). However under the assumption that big weapons are a no go against corvettes, the options are indeed very limited. It also seems like fighters no longer target rockets or torpedos...which makes carriers sitting ducks.

So here is why Corvettes are super super strong right now:
  • Fastest game in the ship
  • Lots of firepower for a small ship with high end rockets/torpedos an if you balance the weakness of the torpedo with another weapon quite omnipotent
  • Hits nearly every ship nearly always
  • Is so fast, its a good firefighter if something happens
  • Is built extremely fast
  • Doesnt even get close to die as fast as it can be replaced
  • Cheap and energy can actually stay at level 5 even if you have a higher level generator...still maxing out effectiveness
  • Considerable amount of bang per buck doesnt feel in line with other ship types

This makes the corvettte the current backbone as you get speed, nearly always on top in most configurations the only enemy is a small weapon/pd destroyer and potentially some other small weapon configs of the same type. You do lose a considerable amount still which can drive up warscore a bit faster but if the enemy does not manage to save his bigger ships, who cares...
Agree completely, it's gotten to the point where i don't even bother building ships that aren;t corvettes. Torp/Disrupter vettes are just absolutely nasty.
 
TRADITION_COST_MULT_NUM_SYSTEMS = 0.01 # Each System adds +X% Tradition cost

That's in their defines.
Well, I'm looking at the numbers and that's not right.
Yeah, that's because it's now bugged to ignore the colony penalty entirely while doubling the defined system penalty. So we're currently playing with a 0% colony and 2% system penalty. There's a bug report here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...colonies-2-for-systems.1074367/#post-23887470
Ah, thanks for pointing that out.
 
Well, I'm looking at the numbers and that's not right.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out.
I actually went to the define and played around with it, the game is doubling whatever the define is. if you put 0.00 as the define, you get 0% unity penalty per system, if you put 0.005 you get 1%. if you put 0.03 you get 6%.

Currently on the 2.0.2 patch if you dont change the define and now that traditions are 100 base unity, this makes playing life seeded completely impossible.
 
If you don't have an empire that is too sprawling you can set up those hyperlane speed up modules as a highway system through your empire .
That's very ineffective for actually doing anything, its not made well for anything other then a friendly combat buff as far as I've seen (and I don't believe the AI weights those systems any better so it never cares either) and you waste starbase capacity when every system in between doesn't carry any advantage you use starbases for other then being an intermediate point of your empire, I want to be able to build highway hyperlanes or something of the like in the mid game at least because I can't have gateways and every starbase is still too essential to waste it on such an insignificant boost like that, might as well just stick to corvette spam, it be way more efficient.
 
So, I'm a little slow to the party. I just played 2.0 for the first time last night and holy heck what a change. I come to just give my 4 cents for what it's worth.

So basically, I love the change. I think Stellaris was the weaker of the main Paradox grand strategy games. I couldn't really put my finger on it, it just wasn't as fun as EU4 or CK2 or HoI4. I liked it, don't get me wrong but basically it's the only Paradox strategy game I don't have hundreds upon hundreds of hours put into. (72 to be exact).
I think these changes will change that. Making this more "province based" (for lack of better word I guess) like the other games I feel is fantastic. It feels so much better to play.
I guess, less like a RTS like say Age of Empires and more GRAND strategy like EU4 or the others which is what I love. I kinda have to say screw you Paradox because I didn't get to sleep until 4am last night. :p

So yea, kinda cheesy but just wanted to say thanks to Paradox for always and continuously updating their games and for this massive change that's really elevated this game IMO.
 
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