[Seelensturm]

* Added a war demand to dismantle Frontier Outposts

Why not just destroy them in the war?

* Most event-generated ships can no longer be upgraded

I hope we can upgrade at least the FTL? Having one outdated ship slowing down the whole fleet is not fun.

* Doubled likelihood of triggering Horizon Signal event chain when a science ship enters a black hole system

This still keeps the gamey micro-management to increase trigger chance by constantly moving between a black hole and the neighbouring system. I wish it would have a trigger which is either completely random or reliable.

* The amount of non-defensive armies you can build from a species is now limited to the number of Pops of that species that are in your empire

I really like this, so you are actually want to grow a battle thrall population. If army damage would just be a meaningful modifier...

* Fleets that are violating border access rights now instantly go MIA instead of trying to find a path home
* Ships that are forced out of a system due to hostiles will now try to resume their remaining orders

Weird that these cases are handled differently.

Spiritualist
* Unrest is now reduced by -10

Fanatic Spiritualist
* Unrest is now reduced by -20

So the (reworked) Ethics Divergence modifer (10% / 30%) stays for Spiritualists?

* Frontier Clinic now reduces growth time by -5% instead of increasing habitability by +5%
* Frontier Hospital now reduces growth time by -10% instead of increasing habitability by +10%

I hope the AI's understanding of special buildings is now good enough that they build these on a new colony but eventually replace them once the planet is full?

* Ruler skill now reduces edict influence cost and increase unity output

So how does ruler skill work? Does the leader skill from elected leaders carry over? Do they level up over time?

* Countries that cannot normally conquer planets are now able to conquer Fallen Empires, Awakened Empires and Hive Minds

I guess this doesn't apply for Defensive War Philosophy of Fanatic Pacifists?

 

[Madzai]

the fact remain that they seems to want you to choise how you want your empire to be , and not to be evrything .

But the problem is that there is no choice - you either decide to stay small and focus on your core worlds or grow big (you can't have both - as having decent number of cores require certain ethos, government settings and traditions, that limit expansion options), And if you stay small you obligated to join a Federation - still no way to counter fleet cap of bigger Empires (unless playing on low difficulty). So, playing big allows you a broad array of choices with 1.5 provide some new exiting possibilities (like Democratic Crusaders types being very strong), while going for core worlds count really give almost no alternatives.

 

[Kliwarrior]

I wonder, what is the most cryptic line in the patch notes?

Ah , that's the "bajen" stuff !! It sounds.. vociferous ..

 

[Admiral Boysen]

What civic do I need to become a Direct Democracy (along with Democratic Autority, obviously)?

 

[Azhcristokos]

Since we cannot retrofit most event ships, does that include the automated dreadnought?

 

[NicoH]

Precursor chain becomes player only? Not a best solution IMO.

Why? Afaik the AI can't use it properly anyway.

Well, now that the not final numbers are actually final, what are they?

Final numbers are final numbers now.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

surplus food contributes to increased Pop growth across the empire

does that include robots and synths?
or is there a way to increase the buildspeed at all?

 

[Azhcristokos]

does that include robots and synths?
or is there a way to increase the buildspeed at all?

Synths don't use food and when you choose the final synthetic ascension perk, it replaces all farms with power plants I think. I have no clue if energy surpluses will speed up synthetic pop growth.

 

[Starisc]

* Scrollbar in create new fleet will no longer reset when you transfer ships
* Scrollbar in expansion planer no longer reset when list is updated
[/spoiler]

@Wiz THIS! My bugfix highlight. Expansion Planner could be even better if I could just directly select the species I want instead of playing memory, which planet was hiding my savanna research folks. - First expansion planner law: "The usefulness of the expansion planner shrinks proportionally with a growing number of planets and pops configurations"

Enough whining - details! This patch and expansion is amazing! Thank you!

Can't wait till launch and I'm very happy I can try out Utopia @ EGX Rezzed here in London (I ought to shop for jobs, might end up just haunting the Paradox booth )

 

[romothecus]

@Wiz

so what about all the problems with War in Heaven resulting in permawars?

Ie, War in Heaven starts, then the Nonaligned annexes one AFE, meaning the War in Heaven can never end because one or more side has no leaders?

Similarly what about rivals trying to join Nonaligned via event, which fizzles?

 

[AlphaAsh]

* Sentry Array added to the game. Requires Galactic Wonders ascension perk. Buildable in multiple stages around planets

Wassis? Did I miss this in a dev diary?

* Pioneering Terminal spaceport module removed from the game

Why?

* New Worlds Protocol is now a starting technology

TFFT

* Core Sector Systems base value reduced from 5 to 3. Added new earlymid game technologies and traditions to raise it

Nice troll. Hope the sector AI is really really good.

# Build Time changed into Build Speed

Excellent. Now reflect the other modifiers that break the game when the stack goes beyond +100/-100% please.

* Completely overhauled Sector AI budgeting so that it should now never unnecessarily accumulate resources when it has projects it could spend those resources on

Hope this works.

...all the modding stuff...

Thank you.

 

[Azhcristokos]

But the problem is that there is no choice - you either decide to stay small and focus on your core worlds or grow big (you can't have both - as having decent number of cores require certain ethos, government settings and traditions, that limit expansion options), And if you stay small you obligated to join a Federation - still no way to counter fleet cap of bigger Empires (unless playing on low difficulty). So, playing big allows you a broad array of choices with 1.5 provide some new exiting possibilities (like Democratic Crusaders types being very strong), while going for core worlds count really give almost no alternatives.

They added in new techs and I think traditions to increase the core system limit. The largest inherent bonus to the limit comes from being a fanatic pacifist, which helps them expand much more quickly but shuts them out of most wars, so they can't turn their size into as significant of an offensive advantage; the increase to their naval capacity is largely a defensive bonus. This is less true of normal pacifists but their derived benefit is less.

I think is a large buff to pacifists and whatever tradition tree contains the bonus, but saying that it gives no choice or alternatives is a bit dramatic.

 

[mackau]

But the problem is that there is no choice - you either decide to stay small and focus on your core worlds or grow big (you can't have both - as having decent number of cores require certain ethos, government settings and traditions, that limit expansion options), And if you stay small you obligated to join a Federation - still no way to counter fleet cap of bigger Empires (unless playing on low difficulty). So, playing big allows you a broad array of choices with 1.5 provide some new exiting possibilities (like Democratic Crusaders types being very strong), while going for core worlds count really give almost no alternatives.

They just discussed it on the stream.

It's basically a huge nerf to anyone who doesn't pick pacifist, to rubber band people who actually want to play the game and expand instead of turtling as a pacifistic.

 

[BrokenSky]

Having lots of core systems is something you're going to have to focus on now, yes, instead of everyone just getting the same amount. It's a strategy, with tradeoffs. That's kind of the whole point.

The downside to this of course it that once again core system is becoming a balance feature, which means that any claim along the lines of "oh well if you like micromanaging your empire you can just mod it to be 100 base or something ridiculous" is made even less valid, since removing one balance-relevant feature without replacing it (obviously) throws off balance, as well as making several bonuses worthless, making modding it out a far more complicated task than implied.

This of course means that addressing the concerns of those who don't like the core/sector system as is will become more important (though if the bonuses to core systems are sufficiently cheap it may be that these concerns are already addressed, though it does mean that if you care about having control over your planets at all you are, as mackau has said, somewhat railroaded. Either way, we'll see how 1.5 and 1.6 work regarding this - hopefully the increased customisability of governments will help).

But if it doesn't (or even if it does), an expansion with one focus on sectors and vassals would be pretty cool somewhere down the line IMO. (Maybe some kind of centralization mechanic, with low centralization giving sectors more autonomy and very low making them nearly vassals, with their own ethics and laws and with high centralization allowing things like building in sectors but having higher bureaucratic costs?).

 

[Emraldis]

Final numbers are final numbers now.

Yes, but which ones became final? and what were they?

(more specifically, how much do dyson spheres produce compared to cost?)

 

[Connll]

Do I need to be Xenophobic in order to use the Clean Planet Wargoal? Didn´t find that in the patch notes.

 

[Grotuk]

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! For me Paradox is the new Blizzard. Best Gamingcompany around the World with the Ear on the Fans. Youre so great. Thank you

 

[Azhcristokos]

The downside to this of course it that once again core system is becoming a balance feature, which means that any claim along the lines of "oh well if you like micromanaging your empire you can just mod it to be 100 base or something ridiculous" is made even less valid, since removing one balance-relevant feature without replacing it (obviously) throws of balance, as well as making several bonuses worthless, making modding it out a far more complicated task than implied.

This of course means that addressing the concerns of those who don't like the core/sector system as is will become more important (though if the bonuses to core systems are sufficiently cheap it may be that these concerns are already addressed, though it does mean that if you care about having control over your planets at all you are, as mackau has said, somewhat railroaded. Either way, we'll see how 1.5 and 1.6 work regarding this - hopefully the increased customisability of governments will help).

But if it doesn't (or even if it does), an expansion with one focus on sectors and vassals would be pretty cool somewhere down the line IMO. (Maybe some kind of centralization mechanic, with low centralization giving sectors more autonomy and very low making them nearly vassals, with their own ethics and laws and with high centralization allowing things like building in sectors but having higher bureaucratic costs?).

If the techs to increase the limit are plentiful and show up early enough, then I think this will not really be the world-shattering crisis that it looks like it will be.

 

[Bankipriel]

Gotta say, I haven't been this excited about Stellaris since before launch, and now my excitement is based on the concrete changes you've laid out in this update, and not just in hype.

It looks like you guys at PDX have really listened to the community's suggestions and complaints, and more than that, you've actually examined & re-worked some of the core mechanics of Stellaris in an effort to improve them. That is incredible. PDX is the only game designer I know of that will re-work and redesign core mechanics in a huge way to improve the game long after release.

Some of the little changes in those notes are going to make such a huge impact on the game. So thank you guys for all of your hard work. I've been really bummed out by the state of game-play in Stellaris for a long time, and this expansion and update looks like it's going to be a huge breath of fresh air for the game. I can't wait to try out this expansion.

Thanks for making space great again ... again.

 

[Risa]

Why? Afaik the AI can't use it properly anyway.

Of course they can, even if in bugged vanilla 1.4. In mod that fixes bugs away, they are even more capable to do the chain.