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Stellaris Dev Diary #214: Announcing “The Custodians” initiative and the free Lem Update

Greetings!

Today I am here to announce some very good news! Stellaris is not slowing down, but rather picking up the pace! We at PDS Green are very happy to announce our new “Custodians” initiative as well as the next free update, coming sometime after summer.

The Custodian Team
Stellaris as a game has been very exploratory, and the game has seen a lot of big changes over the years. I want to start by giving some insight into why we’ve chosen to focus on this initiative.

As we’ve released more expansions we’ve had to take longer and longer between each release, as we’ve needed to spend more time on focusing on quality, making sure each release is as stable as possible. Paradox Development Studio also looks very different today vs. how it looked just a few years ago. Things take longer, there are more processes in place, and there are a lot more people involved. Because each release is now further apart, it makes it harder for us to address some of the outstanding issues that might be affecting the community between DLC releases.

As we’ve added more content it's also been harder to polish and maintain all of the amazing existing content that we’ve added over the years. We want to keep creating new cool experiences for Stellaris, but we also want to be able to maintain a high quality for the base game itself, and for older content.

What we have done now is that we’ve staffed up, and split the Stellaris team into two teams that focus on different aspects of the game. One team, that we call “the Custodians” team, will focus on free updates that we aim to release every 3 months, while the “expansion team” will focus on creating new content for the game.

Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:
  • Tweaking game balance
  • Adding new content to old DLC
  • Polishing existing content
  • Bug fixes
  • Performance improvements
  • AI improvements
  • Multiplayer stability
  • UI and quality-of-life improvements

This does not mean that the game will suddenly “be fixed” or done (whatever that means). Together with you, the community, we now have a better opportunity than ever to keep improving the game. In fact, I think working with the community is going to be crucial to really make this work well. We are going to need to improve how we communicate with each other, so that we can better understand each other.

What “The Custodians” initiative is not
It is very important that you understand that “The Custodians” initiative is no magic bullet or quick fix. We’re in this for the long run, and we hope you are too.

We will need to manage our expectations and small, incremental improvements with more regular updates should be our approach.

Honoring Stanislaw Lem
The first free Update, the Lem Update, will be named in honor of the Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Stanislaw Lem is famous for works such as Solaris, which has already inspired the Stellaris you know today. The Lem Update is currently scheduled for release sometime after summer.

To set expectations more clearly, the Lem Update will be a bit more ambitious and larger in scope compared to what you can come to expect from “Custodian” updates in the future. The reason is that we’ve had a longer time to work on it than what is planned for future updates. It’s also important to note that as of now, the Lem update is scheduled to be a standalone free update, and will not be associated with a paid DLC.

The Lem Update planned features:
  • Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
  • Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
  • Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
  • And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

We will go into more detail about these features in future dev diaries, but for now I will leave it at that. We’ll be back next week to talk a bit about some thoughts regarding game balance.

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No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.
 
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Greetings!

Today I am here to announce some very good news! Stellaris is not slowing down, but rather picking up the pace! We at PDS Green are very happy to announce our new “Custodians” initiative as well as the next free update, coming sometime after summer.

The Custodian Team
Stellaris as a game has been very exploratory, and the game has seen a lot of big changes over the years. I want to start by giving some insight into why we’ve chosen to focus on this initiative.

As we’ve released more expansions we’ve had to take longer and longer between each release, as we’ve needed to spend more time on focusing on quality, making sure each release is as stable as possible. Paradox Development Studio also looks very different today vs. how it looked just a few years ago. Things take longer, there are more processes in place, and there are a lot more people involved. Because each release is now further apart, it makes it harder for us to address some of the outstanding issues that might be affecting the community between DLC releases.

As we’ve added more content it's also been harder to polish and maintain all of the amazing existing content that we’ve added over the years. We want to keep creating new cool experiences for Stellaris, but we also want to be able to maintain a high quality for the base game itself, and for older content.

What we have done now is that we’ve staffed up, and split the Stellaris team into two teams that focus on different aspects of the game. One team, that we call “the Custodians” team, will focus on free updates that we aim to release every 3 months, while the “expansion team” will focus on creating new content for the game.

Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:
  • Tweaking game balance
  • Adding new content to old DLC
  • Polishing existing content
  • Bug fixes
  • Performance improvements
  • AI improvements
  • Multiplayer stability
  • UI and quality-of-life improvements

This does not mean that the game will suddenly “be fixed” or done (whatever that means). Together with you, the community, we now have a better opportunity than ever to keep improving the game. In fact, I think working with the community is going to be crucial to really make this work well. We are going to need to improve how we communicate with each other, so that we can better understand each other.

What “The Custodians” initiative is not
It is very important that you understand that “The Custodians” initiative is no magic bullet or quick fix. We’re in this for the long run, and we hope you are too.

We will need to manage our expectations and small, incremental improvements with more regular updates should be our approach.

Honoring Stanislaw Lem
The first free Update, the Lem Update, will be named in honor of the Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Stanislaw Lem is famous for works such as Solaris, which has already inspired the Stellaris you know today. The Lem Update is currently scheduled for release sometime after summer.

To set expectations more clearly, the Lem Update will be a bit more ambitious and larger in scope compared to what you can come to expect from “Custodian” updates in the future. The reason is that we’ve had a longer time to work on it than what is planned for future updates. It’s also important to note that as of now, the Lem update is scheduled to be a standalone free update, and will not be associated with a paid DLC.

The Lem Update planned features:
  • Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
  • Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
  • Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
  • And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

We will go into more detail about these features in future dev diaries, but for now I will leave it at that. We’ll be back next week to talk a bit about some thoughts regarding game balance.

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No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.
Very excited to hear that, a lot of dlc content is still fun but needs some love and attention to bring them up to par. Honestly curious to see how the new tradition trees thing is going to work out eager to see the new ones. I do hope the three ascension paths and the colossus get some attention in the future.
 
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As a modder who makes lots of small fixes:

I'd rather be able to push out small fixes that got overlooked. No software is perfect - but I can help it get better. And maybe my mods will help provide the initiative to get the same or similar fix moved into the core game.

As players we (collectively) see and experience so much more of the game and its quirks than any amount of professionals can. There are so many more of us it's natural that we see things or brush up against issues that were considered "rare."
I agree, and the devs did an excellent job with 3.0-3.0.3 in finally fixing a lot of bugs that the Unoffical Patch addressed and were around for a long time.
I just hope, that the new Custodian team will fix more, than the other team breaks.

My maintenance comment was more directed to the issues of AI, Automation and Crisis AI. (Should have been more clear on that, my bad.)
I mean those three points have been a constant issue for 2,5 years now. And honestly I don't have much hope that the devs will ever catch up to the mod community on those three fronts. I mean, look at the state of the current Vanilla AI and compare that to any AI mod on the workshop.
"It's like night and day" is an understatement, for sure.

Makes me sad.
 
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The problem with bureaucrats isn't that they make sprawl obsolete, per se, it's that it makes the sprawl penalty functionally a linear one, a tax on your pop count, building slots, and the items required to support the job. Those are all real costs and it's noticeable how much more efficient an empire can be when, as you get admincap from other sources, those jobs are swapped out to researchers.

But they're functionally a flat tax on your empire and so if you go wide you just have more resources with which to pay for it, because sprawl increases linearly and admincap is produced linearly. To change that, and change it in such a way as to favour tall over wide, you'd need to fiddle with the way sprawl is generated. Maybe make the sprawl cost of systems and colonies scale with distance-from-capital?

This is true. But whilst it maybe an impossible dream, I would like a system where tall and wide isn't a meta where one is better than the others, but a genuine choice.

Folding the choice into a focus tree I think would be good way of tackling the split. Imagine one tree improves the bureaucracy so that you can run that huge Empire pretty much as is, but that another tree allows you to fully exploit your worlds and encourages focusing on a handful of planets compared to a wide player's dozens.

I'm not a game designer so I can't give a concrete example as to how they would accomplish, but you'd want to set it up in such a way that taking one tree would discourage you taking the other, or else you'd end up with dozens of highly developed worlds.
 
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Great news, I'm really glad to hear that you won't abandon the game in the near future. If you now tell me that the next expansion will rework the ground combat, political factions and the leaders (especially adding more traits) I will be over the Moon.
 
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UI and quality-of-life improvements

Resettlement and Colony Ship screens are pretty good even for multispecies empire nowadays but any chances of improving Troop Recruitment UI for a multispecies empire? It can get ridiculously long even without Xeno-Compatibility when there are multiple species and troops available. Some sort of option to automatically recruit troop using the highest damage species available would be great.

Thankfully troops are currently very minor part of Stellaris so it is just fairly minor annoyance.
 
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So good to see you giving a little back for once.
Now tell that to the Hoi4 team, who are grubbing £8 for some useless models and a bit of music.
 
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Honestly, this is the best news I've heard from you guys to date. My biggest problem with this game is that old content (especially DLC content) tends to fall into disrepair. This is a very promising new initiative indeed.

I only ask that you look into Megacorps.
 
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Great news , some content does need to do their share of love...

I feel that barley the older DLC are worth, Leviathans, MegaCorp and Apocalypse for example.

Will The Custiodians reduce the complexity of the game? I think this would be nice for new players to get the game, just don't make it so complex like CK II, wich is awfully complex.
Also, simplicity, might be better for the Devs on the long run to fix and upgrate stuff.
 
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I love everything you said there. Everything. I am SO excited for this!
And I view the custodians almost like investing your money, the longer it goes on, the better it is for the game.
 
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In the meantime, would it be helpful to have a community megathread to try to make a start and gathering some of this information in the various categories?

Or would it be more sensible for us to just wait for a while until the team has a more fully formed idea of what form that feedback should take?

This is all very exciting and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is very keen to help.

I do find that sometimes when the community does these things, people comment on assuming we're watching when we're not, and could potentially hamper people offering their opinions when we're asking for them and actively collecting them, because they've voiced their opinion on the matter once already in a thread we weren't actively watching.

But that's just my 2 cents. :D
 
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I do find that sometimes when the community does these things, people comment on assuming we're watching when we're not, and could potentially hamper people offering their opinions when we're asking for them and actively collecting them, because they've voiced their opinion on the matter once already in a thread we weren't actively watching.

But that's just my 2 cents. :D
Where should we turn?