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Stellaris Dev Diary #243 - 3.3 'Libra' is out, now what?

Hi everyone!

The Stellaris 3.3.1 “Libra” Custodian Update has been released, and once again it’s time to look back on the past and forward to the future.


The 3.3 update went through an Open Beta which we feel was a stunning success. With the aid of the community, the systems were significantly improved and a large number of bugs were found and squashed. Thank you again for your help!

The 3.3 Cycle​

A 3.3.2 release went up today to fix a few things that got found at the last minute, including localization issues in French, Portuguese, and Russian, as well as a potential crash some people have encountered.

  • Fixed localization issues affecting articles in French, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese
  • Fixes a crash that would occur when attempting to apply a species template to a species with a different amount of traits than what is in the template.
  • Fixed species template application trait add/remove checks being inverted.

A 3.3.3 update is expected to follow in a few weeks to address additional issues.

New Players and the Tutorial​

Stellaris isn’t always the easiest game to get into. Don’t be alarmed if there are changes to the tutorial and early game experience. We’re going to be gathering data about different elements of the new player experience, trying out various things and seeing what works.

Onwards to 3.4​

Meanwhile, 3.4 is just around the corner. Currently planned for May, the Custodian side of the 3.4 update will continue to refine the balance around Unity and address some more of the feedback from the Open Beta and 3.3 release, as well as being the target for the planned release of the Situations system first described in Dev Diary 234. We’ll give Situations and our planned uses for them a complete Dev Diary in the near future.

Influence and Espionage​

With 3.3, Influence is the primary resource for external diplomacy, fast travel, and expanding living space.

One of the changes we’re planning for the May update is inspired by some of the feedback we received during the Unity Open Beta. We’re switching the initial costs for Espionage Operations to Influence rather than a massive pile of Energy Credits. Operation Upkeep will remain in Energy Credits. Exact values are subject to change.

Acquire Asset tooltip. Now requires 45 Influence instead of 450 Energy Credits to initiate.

Influence is purple. Espionage is purple. How can we argue with that?​

While making that change we also added a few improvements to the Subterfuge Tradition Tree.

A focus on Espionage can put some strain on your Envoy supply, so the Double Agents tradition will now provide one, in addition to increasing your Maximum Infiltration Level by 10.

Double Agents tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also gives +1 Available Envoys and +10 Maximum Infiltration Level.

The known and the nameless, familiar and faceless.​

Meanwhile, earlier in the tree we’ve decided to add some combat benefits to the tree to represent their enhanced ECM and ECCM capabilities. Empires focusing in Subterfuge now have an easier time locking on to enemy ships, as well as foiling the attempts of others to do the same to them.

Operational Security tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also grants +10 Tracking.

Computer's locked. Getting a signal.

Information Security tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also grants +5% Evasion.

Go dead. Shut everything down and make like a hole in the void.​

As with the earlier changes, these numbers are also still subject to change and a deeper review of Espionage Operations is still planned in the future.

Idyllic Bloom Improvements​

A quality of life change being made to the Idyllic Bloom civic is also planned for 3.4 (coming in May).

Currently, Gaia Seeders can only be built on planets that match your planetary preference, which led to a play cycle where they had to terraform a planet before being able to utilize their special buildings.

Instead, we’re going to expand the valid planets of the Gaia Seeders as you gain terraforming technologies.
Idyllic Bloom tooltip. As you unlock improved Terraforming techologies, Gaia Seeders can be constructed on additional planet types.

Much easier.

Gaia Seeders - Phase 2 tooltip. Requires Ecological Adaptation to build on Dry or Cold Planets error shown.

Okay, it’ll be much easier once we actually know how to do it.​

Gaia Seeders can be freely built on planets that match your homeworld type as before, but can also be built on other planets of the same general climate type (Dry, Wet, or Cold) once you have Terrestrial Sculpting.

Since the Maweer Caretakers come from a Tropical World (Wet), they need the Ecological Adaptation technology to upgrade the Gaia Seeders on this Alpine World (Cold).

Tomb Worlds can also be seeded once the Climate Restoration technology has been acquired.

The upkeep of the Gaia Seeders building is increased using the same tiers of terraforming difficulty as the building placement.

What Else is Coming?​

Regarding what the Crisis Expansion Team has been working on, they’re not quite ready to share that information quite yet. Soon™.

One of our agents did manage to sneak some of the wonderful work of the Concept Art Team out though...

Concept art of a structure of some kind. It's a thing, with greebles.

It’s a thing, with greebles! And it’s game-changing.​
 
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imawizardurnot said:
having to wait for unity to hire scientists as garbage. Made an account to post that. Make leaders take credits again.
Click to expand...
One of the initial promises of this game was that Leaders were important, choosing them was something that needed real thought and they had real influence on how you'd progress through the game, and making their recruitment much more impactful is a great way to get back to that instead of the previous method of just spamming 5 scientists in the first year.
 
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I think if espionage operations are going to take influence to do they should probably be buffed to be a lot more impactful because currently it felt barely worth using outside of rp even with just the energy credits cost.
 
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Libertine Angel said:
One of the initial promises of this game was that Leaders were important, choosing them was something that needed real thought and they had real influence on how you'd progress through the game, and making their recruitment much more impactful is a great way to get back to that instead of the previous method of just spamming 5 scientists in the first year.
Click to expand...
I'm a burgeoning space empire what society wouldn't spam scientists in that situation?
 
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This is nice and all, but please, please look at nobles, duelists, chroniclers, death priests, highpriests/priests again. these jobs were hit hard in 3.3, and especially the first four are nigh-useless now. I'm certain I'm not the only one who thinks a death priest giving 2 unity, or a noble 2 stability instead of 5 is completely uncalled for.

Byzantine bureaucracy, minus this lack of a +1 to politicians like high priests, straight up outclasses the spiritualist "equivalent" of exalted priesthood.
 
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Eladrin said:

What Else is Coming?​

Regarding what the Crisis Expansion Team has been working on, they’re not quite ready to share that information quite yet. Soon™.

One of our agents did manage to sneak some of the wonderful work of the Concept Art Team out though...

blorg device.jpg

It’s a thing, with greebles! And it’s game-changing.​
Click to expand...

I for one welcome this new hygienic technology.

All of our citizens will feel safer and happier after we finish putting our Blorg residents in this chastity device.
 
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Enfield_PDX said:
Nah, Open Betas are a very specific tool that will always be an exception, not the norm.
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Awww, that’s sad. I thought the Open Beta was a great way to iron out bugs, test upcoming mechanics, spot possible issues with game balance and compatibility build, and allow modders to update their stuff before the final release. Does it add too much workload to you guys?
 
that's a foot, isn't it?

is it a foot?

i bet it's a foot.
 
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Hello,I am a player of stellaris from CN.I m sorry that I m not good at English,so maybe there're some translation mistakes.


I have a problem with the intensity balance of the game.

FIRSTLY，At present, in the official version 3.2, the strength imbalance is very obvious. In particular, equality in the opening election, sharing weal and woe, as the only strong ideological trend of equality, can not get any strong bonus. Authoritarianism and equality should have their own strengths. Now authoritarianism is to press equality on the ground.


SECONFLY，in beta 3.3,it's a bad choice to change the way to get scientists.You can imagine that at first without scientists,it's just like eat steak without knife.Idealism takes off directly, and everything else becomes garbage... I don't want this kind of thing in the official version.

Last but not least,I hope you can change your algorithm. These days, most computers are multi-core, so dont'waste this computing power.

I'd appreciate it if you can accept my advice
 
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Would need some new sources of influence if it is needed for espionage; but i really love the idea.
Also, QoL request, pleeeeeeeeease add a button to repeat an espionage mission when it completes. Clicking the empire's flag, going in the espionage menu amd clicking it from there is way too many steps for things you do repeatedly. Especially when you're running gather intel operations on 3 different neighbours at a time.
 
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Eladrin said:
As with the earlier changes, these numbers are also still subject to change and a deeper review of Espionage Operations is still planned in the future.
Click to expand...
I'm a bit late this time to read the DD. But you made my day! I got my hope back.
 
We are looking at Espionage now?

Wonderful!

Right now, I only use Espionage mid to late game because the Energy cost is usually trivial at that point. And I usually only get assets and use those assets to steal tech. Basically, it's only worthwhile when you have nothing else to do with your resources.

Tech ganking is pretty solid (30% of a random tech they got that you don't every 5 years). But the issue is that espionage on the whole (as literally everyone is saying) is brutally underpowered.

So I'm thinking..

Free Spies - Have a certain number of spies you can deploy for free before you have to use Envoys. Strengthening your Federation is better than Espionage, boosting your diplo weight is often better than espionage, and boosting / harming relations is often more impactful. Maybe give megacorps a civic to get a bunch of free spies? Only you can prevent corporate espionage, after all!

Also, better operations. Again, tech theft is the only good one right now. Stability hits, Crime boosts, hacking elections, reducing ship move speed, reducing ship build speed, reducing planetary build speed, reducing megastructure build speed, these could all be decisive advantages.

I think the Influence cost is a bad call. I build habitats. Frequently. So I am often hurting for Influence. The ops would have to be very strong to be as good as a habitat. A Habitat is give or take 2/3's as good as a planet. What kind of op would be as good as a planet?

Also... maybe perform ops on your own empire? I.e. boost faction approval?

Also, that looks like a megastructure of some sort. Definitely Reptilian style. Engines on both sides. I'm thinking it's something that's going to be built in orbit of a planet to perform an operation on said planet. Clasps of some sort. I think it's going to be built in orbit of nonhabitable worlds to harvest resources from them.
 
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MathyM said:
Awww, that’s sad. I thought the Open Beta was a great way to iron out bugs, test upcoming mechanics, spot possible issues with game balance and compatibility build, and allow modders to update their stuff before the final release. Does it add too much workload to you guys?
Click to expand...
We manage to catch most of the bugs still internally, running the Open Beta adds overhead that is generally only worth it for big overhauls that we think are risky.
Modders will be able to get early access through the usual program we run closer to the next release :)
 
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