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Stellaris Dev Diary #274 - 3.6.0.beta.final.final(1)v2 Copy

We're happy to announce that we've updated the 3.6 Open Beta again today. As mentioned in the original announcement, the Open Beta was originally supposed to run until the end of October, however due to the unexpectedly high number of players who have participated, we’re going to leave the Open Beta branch available until the official release of 3.6 ‘Orion’. We will continue to monitor the feedback you provide, but due to how close this is to the release, changes made from feedback this late will not be in the release of 3.6 ‘Orion’.

We’d like to thank all of those that have taken the time to try out the changes and given their feedback.

Thus, below are the patch notes for this week’s update to the Open Beta.

Balance
  • Explicitly prevented various scripted solar systems from spawning inside Marauder territory. These include Amor Alveo, Wenkwort, the Caravaneer capital, and Lost Colony origin systems.
  • Integrated Preservation for Machine Intelligences now affects Evaluators (and Chronicle Drones) not Coordinators.
  • Martial Law, Hunter Killer Drones and Compliance Drones planet modifiers now provide penalties to both mechanical and organic pop assembly.
  • Moved the repeatable technologies for strike craft into Society - Military Theory.
  • Rebalanced synchronicity traditions to match with the changes to harmony traditions.
  • Larger Unbidden ships and structures now have a point defense solution. Bzzt.

Beta Updates
  • Pacifist Xenophobe empires are no longer ambivalent about attacks on the Caravaneers
  • Fix for terraforming candidates that shown when tech is missing.
  • The Energy Siphon is now a space fauna weapon
  • Fixed a number of tooltips not showing for hive-mind cybernetic ascension
  • Fixed the tooltip for Adaptability for Void Dwellers.
  • Modular Cybernetics adds Augmentation Drones to Spawning Pools for hive-minds. Augmentation Drones turn alloys into pop assembly for cybernetic hive-mind pops.
  • Modular Cybernetics no longer gives hive-minds +10% pop assembly.
  • Ringworld colony designations and ecumenopolis planet class now provide both mechanical and organic pop assembly.
  • Updated a number of stern sections to have the correct number of aux slots for offspring ships.
  • Added the Parasitic Overmind Goverment type
  • Added checks for corporate civics for shroud patrons
  • Added missing pop growth and assembly modifiers to unity designations for ringworlds.
  • Added missing tiyanki pop assembly for hive minds.
  • Fixed most of the machine intelligence authority text having highlights.
  • Updated Integrated Anatomy tooltip.
  • Balanced numbers for the instrument of Desire.
  • Fixed that the Cordyceptic Reanimation Facility wasn't buildable inside Amor Alveo.
  • Changed ethics attraction for the Composer and the Whisperer.
  • Knight jobs now give amenities instead of stability as reward from a quest. The Order's Keep now give 15 stability as a reward from that quest
  • Players now have a wider choice of leaders to become chosen through their covenant.
  • Players should no longer be able to form covenants with all the entities if they refuse the first covenant.
  • Shroud cooldown modifiers should now appear as percentage without need for unique loc.
  • The Whisperers stability penalty has been reduced. It now comes with a reduction in Unity.
  • The Whisperers will no longer kill up to 8 (!) pops on a planet.

Bugfixes
  • It is no longer possible to engage the Marauders or Horde in multiple dialogs
  • Lead ships should no longer run into the enemy disregarding their combat computer
  • Tooltip for opinion decay rate now shows two decimal places
  • Reunited the 'Code Changes' and 'Incompatible Code' modifiers with their icons
  • Fix for when becoming a vassal resets all Policies and Species rights to Default.
  • Reimplemented the localisation for the Trader Proxy Office.
  • Marauder clans may no longer spawn in systems which are adjacent to player empires.
  • Fixed AI's difficulty-adjusted economic modifiers, plus certain misevaluations of modifier benefits in its economic strategy
  • Pop Assembly modifiers now have decimal places.
  • Shroud Chosen Leaders will no longer lose their chosen trait on becoming rulers

Improvements
  • The Epi-Genetic Triggers technology and Genetic Resequencing tradition now both allow the removal of pre-sapient traits from species via species modification. The Servile trait from the Syncretic Evolution origin and traits bestowed by the Enigmatic Cache count as pre-sapient traits for this.
  • Renamed 'Planetary Government' and 'Planetary Unification' for gestalts

Modding
  • Fixed show_in_outliner in megastructures not actually working
  • Moved most pop upkeep and resource production to inline script.
  • Removed pop_assembly_speed modifier. You should use planet_pop_assembly_(organic_)mult instead. The sole difference previously was the former only worked in species traits (the untriggered sections) and the latter worked everywhere else (but not species triats). The error log didn't warn you of this, either. So now the latter works everywhere and the former no longer exists.

Once again, by the time this dev diary goes live, the Open Beta should be updated with the above changes. This is likely going to be final update to the beta branch.

Due to the Open Beta update, this dev diary replaces our normally scheduled dev diary that would have gone out on Thursday. We'll have more news next week.

Please note that the 3.6 "Orion" Open Beta is an optional beta patch. You have to manually opt in to access it.
Go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> betas tab -> select "stellaris_test" branch.

Don't forget to turn off your mods, they will break.
 
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2300 is not "very late". i know for lots of people the game is over by then, but personally that's where the game gets interesting for me, and I think it should be possible to restore one section at least by 2300. testing it now, not there yet.

When I can get Mega-Engineering before 2300, then I have no need for extra growth on my shattered ring capital -- I've already found a way to expand and probably have an Ecu or two, and certainly have more than a few breeder colonies.

The only times I've wished for extra growth on my Ring Segment was when I got blocked out of expansion by the map putting me behind an FE and a DE.
 
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Ringworld colony designations and ecumenopolis planet class now provide both mechanical and organic pop assembly.
Well, mechanical and organic pop assembly are still mutually exclusive? What if servitors and assimilators have secondary species with budding trait?
 
The third government type available to Hive Minds! (Previously just the standard Collective Consciousness and Ravenous Hive for Devouring Swarms.)


In regular empires your government type impacts which types of leaders are allowed to be election candidates, but in gestalt empires it doesn't do much of anything except change your ruler title - in this case from "Hive Mind" to "Parasitic Mind" - and your empire's subtitle in the diplomacy view. There are no inherent mechanical effects, but government type can be used as a trigger.

You can trigger this government by using the Necrophage origin with the Cordyceptic Drones civic.
It can be used to inform AI behavior. For example, a parasitic overmind might be more likely to take a vassal than to claim and conquer. Parasites might be more likely to try to use espionage and subversion.
 
Has the issue of AI repeatedly colonizing Holy Worlds and getting into hopeless wars with Fallen Spiritualists been addressed? Or general issues with Fallen Empires chastising subjects but trying to apply the penalty to overlord?
 
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Now that I have been able to look at the code, I would like to clarify some things for myself and others about the psi related changes in the patch notes:
Balanced numbers for the instrument of Desire.
The per pop alloy or unity upkeep from the random event has been reduced by 90%, from 0.75 down to 0.075. I looked through all the modifiers and unless I missed something, this is it.

The Whisperers stability penalty has been reduced. It now comes with a reduction in Unity.
The penalty goes as follows:
Rank -1: stability -7 >> -3; unity ±0% >> -7%​
Rank 2: stability -15 >> -7; unity ±0% >> -15%​
I'm not sure how to feel about this.

The Whisperers will no longer kill up to 8 (!) pops on a planet.
Unfortunately, the event that did this can still kill one pop. Which means both of the planetary debuff events now come with the loss of one pop. Still much better than losing eight.

Changed ethics attraction for the Composer and the Whisperer.
The Composer favours xenophiles over xenophobes, the Whisperers favour materialist over spiritualists, so back to how it is in 3.5.

Players now have a wider choice of leaders to become chosen through their covenant.
Specifically you get four options:
  1. Always a ruler
  2. Random non-ruler leader
  3. Random non-ruler leader or Chosen One (the Eater can also have another ruler in this slot)
  4. Always a leader of a specific class based on your patron
    1. A scientist for the Composer and Whisperers
    2. An admiral for the Eater
    3. A governor for the Instrument
You will always be able to choose your ruler or one leader of a class associated with your patron, plus two random rolls, which is great. Although I think imperial heirs count as rulers in terms of leader class, I wonder if they still apply their effect while being heir. If I read this correctly, then your third choice will always be the regular Chosen One, if you have one, as it overrides the random selection.
 
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When I can get Mega-Engineering before 2300, then I have no need for extra growth on my shattered ring capital -- I've already found a way to expand and probably have an Ecu or two, and certainly have more than a few breeder colonies.

The only times I've wished for extra growth on my Ring Segment was when I got blocked out of expansion by the map putting me behind an FE and a DE.
look i'm only saying just because you don't need popgrowth on your ringworlds doesn't mean the rest of us aren't gonna be happy with the bonus :p just turn off the clone vat if you find it's too much for you at that point. anyways, assembly takes so long at the point you feel you have "enough" pops, that this change isn't exactly going to create overcrowding for you or anything like that.
 
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The most substantial change here in my opinion is moving fighter craft tech to sociology. Now you can research them in parallel with either shields and kinetics or missiles, or with energy weapons and armor. In the past I had pretty much forgotten about sociology in the late game, just researching more monthly unity and leader lifespans even though neither are very important at that point in the game. This change is making me reevaluate my navy composition.
 
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So Whisperers now give +10% research speed, +15% monthly influence, +2 code breaking, -7 stability, -15% unity?
I hope +10% research speed was +15%, like the bonus Whisperers is giving in 3.5.3 version...
Although it's much better than before(-15 stability), Whisperers still seems weaker than others.
 
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look i'm only saying just because you don't need popgrowth on your ringworlds doesn't mean the rest of us aren't gonna be happy with the bonus :p just turn off the clone vat if you find it's too much for you at that point. anyways, assembly takes so long at the point you feel you have "enough" pops, that this change isn't exactly going to create overcrowding for you or anything like that.

For me, the point at which I'm building Ringworlds is after I've "won" the population growth mini-game.

I don't really see how you can get Mega-Engineering early without expanding -- and expanding a lot -- beyond your Shattered Ring homeworld.
 
look i'm only saying just because you don't need popgrowth on your ringworlds doesn't mean the rest of us aren't gonna be happy with the bonus :p just turn off the clone vat if you find it's too much for you at that point. anyways, assembly takes so long at the point you feel you have "enough" pops, that this change isn't exactly going to create overcrowding for you or anything like that.
I don't think I'll ever understand the "I have too many pops" crowd.
 
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For me, the point at which I'm building Ringworlds is after I've "won" the population growth mini-game.

I don't really see how you can get Mega-Engineering early without expanding -- and expanding a lot -- beyond your Shattered Ring homeworld.
I didn't have an issue getting mega engineering by 2260 or so in any of my super-tall runs, and this is before they opened up the extra shattered ring segments as garunteed habitables. Being able to forgo entirely any military expenditure is key. You're putting everything into research, and acquiring the gas and consumer goods you need to run it hard. You defense is diplomacy and yes, you need a start that works for it.
 
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So Whisperers now give +10% research speed, +15% monthly influence, +2 code breaking, -7 stability, -15% unity?
I hope +10% research speed was +15%, like the bonus Whisperers is giving in 3.5.3 version...
Although it's much better than before(-15 stability), Whisperers still seems weaker than others.
To be honest I don't know who is choosing Whisperers downsides, but they need to rethink it. Entirely aside from the fact that psionics doesn't have bonuses on par with the other ascensions in the first place still, codebreaking and 15% influence are not valuable. Espionage is nearly irrelevant and if you're having influence trouble by the time you could possibly have a covenant, your fleet is too small. +10% research and -15% unity is already worse than nothing, the stability on top just makes it an even harder sell. If Whisperers is the materialist-like covenant it needs to at least exceed the actual materialist governing ethic in research speed bonuses before downsides can be considered.
 
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Psionics are now really strong, but, unfortunately, only for members of a Spiritualist federation. The decrease in shroud cooldown and extra 15% resources (for a total of 35%) from jobs are make them crazy good, but only if you pick the "right" federation.

No other federation is tied so directly to an ascension, nor is any other ascension dependent on a federation to be competitive.

And whispers seems to treat monthly unity as if it were cheap. It's certainly less painful than the stability hit it gave before, but unless you're a spiritualist in a spiritualist federation (already drowning in unity bonuses), that monthly unity penalty is still quite painful.

I'm not sure if I like the way they're so tightly coupled and designed around each other.
 
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I didn't have an issue getting mega engineering by 2260 or so in any of my super-tall runs, and this is before they opened up the extra shattered ring segments as garunteed habitables. Being able to forgo entirely any military expenditure is key. You're putting everything into research, and acquiring the gas and consumer goods you need to run it hard. You defense is diplomacy and yes, you need a start that works for it.

You are probably a bit better at this game than I am. :)

I'm hardly ever able to tech-rush without a navy.
 
Psionics are now really strong, but, unfortunately, only for members of a Spiritualist federation. The decrease in shroud cooldown and extra 15% resources (for a total of 35%) from jobs are make them crazy good, but only if you pick the "right" federation.

No other federation is tied so directly to an ascension, nor is any other ascension dependent on a federation to be competitive.

And whispers seems to treat monthly unity as if it were cheap. It's certainly less painful than the stability hit it gave before, but unless you're a spiritualist in a spiritualist federation (already drowning in unity bonuses), that monthly unity penalty is stillquite painful.

I'm not sure if I like the way they're so tightly coupled and designed around each other.
They need to either double down on psionic=holy covenant or move the shroud CD, Zro edict, and maybe planetary ascension buffs to the actual psionics tree. I put it in the ascension feedback too, but without a Holy Covenant psionics is painfully weak. Which means psionics needs to itself allow you to form one without having both Harmony and Diplomacy.

The two lingering problems there, of course, are that you're dependent on a federation (which in single player means you're at the mercy entirely of the AI, and in multiplayer of at least one other player, to just destroy half of your ascension), and that ironically having done some play testing 1. Materialist empires are capable of forming a Holy Covenant and 2. Because of this, they can also get the Zro edict.

So basically if it's part of the balance for psionic empires it's too hard for them to access currently and also non-psionic empires should at minimum not be able to form them, or even shouldn't get the edict if they join one. A psionic empire with those bonuses feels about right, and I especially like planetary ascension, but they're hard to get and not exclusive so that's actually not part of psionics, and does not apply to psionics balance compared to other ascensions.
 
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Here's my bug: Playing as a Toxic Hive Mind. I have Hive World and Detox perks.
"Hive World" is not on my list of possible terraforming targets when I go to terraform a toxic world.
 
Ahhhh they fixed KoTG's infinite science exploit Sadge
No, it still works just fine. 10 amenities per knight is plenty to keep your planet happy, even with the stealth nerf to make amenities only affect citizen pop happiness. (Edit: it's always been this way, apparently, and I just never noticed because almost all my pops are usually citizens).

Livestock with a slave processing center have only ~22.5% political power, while a specialist should have 200%. That means 1 citizen knight at 100% happiness for every 9 livestock at 0% will give 200/405=~50% approval. If you have Academic Privilege, it will be 70% approval. If the livestock are nerve-stapled or you managed to stack enough happiness bonuses to get above 0%, you should be well above 80% approval. And egalitarians that stacked Utopian Abundance pops will be even better off (slightly), since their pops will be happier and not make crime.

1667345922948.png


Ex. this is Utopian Abundance zombies, so they're unaffected by happiness. All the pops affected by happiness are now at 100% after this change, but the enormous number of zombies brings this down to 53% approval. But it's still sitting at 85% stability. If I had all happiness affected citizen pops, this would be 100% stability.

The fact that overcrowding is capped at -20 and decline from overcrowding is broken means that that this infinite science thing still works just fine. Keep in mind that the bonuses for researchers are so enormous that you really only care about keeping stability over 25. +55% resources (going from 25 to 100 stability) is pretty good, but won't make or break it.

Edit: slaves are -75%, not -50% political power. It's even less of an issue than I thought (50, 70, and 80 approval, rather than 30, 50, and 70).
 
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Why does Necrophage conflict with Budding? I'd think Budding would be a decent asset to Necrophage Hives, whose Spawning Drones can only assembly Hive pops anyway, to counterbalance the natural pop growth being used for livestock.
 
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