Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today is the second week of post-Synthetic Dawn 'filler' dev diaries, as mentioned in dev diary 87.
This dev diary is really just an update on the 1.8.1 beta that we put out last week to fix the major issues reported in 1.8. We have gotten a lot of good feedback from it both externally and internally, and we are now in the process of putting together a 1.8.2 update that contains all the fixes from the beta, as well as fixes for some issues introduced in 1.8.1 and some additional issues that were previously missed. 1.8.2 is currently in internal testing, and we hope to roll it out as soon as it clears QA. Once 1.8.2 is out, if no further critical issues are discovered, we will be wrapping up the 1.8 post-release support and fully move on to future development priorities.
Here is a list of the fixes and changes in 1.8.2 compared to 1.8. Note that bugs that were introduced in 1.8.1 but fixes in 1.8.2 is not included in this list!
That's all for today! As with last week, I leave you with another screenshot of the internal Stellaris development build, presented without context or explanation.
This dev diary is really just an update on the 1.8.1 beta that we put out last week to fix the major issues reported in 1.8. We have gotten a lot of good feedback from it both externally and internally, and we are now in the process of putting together a 1.8.2 update that contains all the fixes from the beta, as well as fixes for some issues introduced in 1.8.1 and some additional issues that were previously missed. 1.8.2 is currently in internal testing, and we hope to roll it out as soon as it clears QA. Once 1.8.2 is out, if no further critical issues are discovered, we will be wrapping up the 1.8 post-release support and fully move on to future development priorities.
Here is a list of the fixes and changes in 1.8.2 compared to 1.8. Note that bugs that were introduced in 1.8.1 but fixes in 1.8.2 is not included in this list!
###################
# Balance
###################
- Increased the distance at which empires are forced apart in random setups
- Changed the shape of ring galaxies to have a thicker ring, fixes many generation bugs (such as Fallen Empires not appearing) associated with them
- Contingency ships now use energy lances instead of Arc Emitters
- Reduced the rate of Contingency reinforcment fleets somewhat
- It is now possible to spawn 5 fallen empires in a Huge galaxy if you have Synthetic Dawn
- Buffed Processing Hub and Hive Node buildings to produce Unity
- Buffed Machine Worlds to 25% robot production output
- 200 years must pass in-game before a Crisis can occur, up from 150
- Cost of "Blocking the Ghost Signal" project now calculated based on number of owned Pops.
- Successfully assimilating a Pop as a Driven Assimilator now generates one month's worth of Unity and Society Research
- Driven Assimilators can now allow Cyborgs to procreate (they do not need food to grow)
- Buffed Devouring Swarm, Purifiers and Exterminators
- Assimilators can now research most Genetics techs
- Driven Assimilators can now derive Assault and Defense Armies from Cyborg Pops
- Pops are now assimilated much faster, on a per-planet basis rather than per-species basis
- Doubled the chance of getting the ""Hotfix"" Warning Signs event
- Reduced fleet power calc for very powerful ships, as exponential effects would cause it to get much larger than the ship's actual combat ability
- Fixed Flak being strictly better than regular Point-Defense rather than a tracking vs damage trade-off
- Planets now only start repairing at full speed 60 days after bombardment ends
- Added some armor penetration to Scourge weapons
- Reduced the effect of Admiral skill level on ship fire rate from 5% to 3% & changed general modifier to not overflow interface
- Reduced consumer goods cost of Chemical Bliss, Utopian Abundance and Social Welfare
- Increased the likelihood of High and Medium probability reward options in Shroud events
- Increased likelihood of several unique Shroud events granting special boons to fire
- Warning Signs (and Machine Uprisings) can no longer occur before 50 in-game years have passed
- Empires that have outlawed robotic workers before any Warning Signs events occur will no longer experience Warning Signs or Machine Uprisings
###################
# AI
###################
- Fixed some issues with sector AI not properly prioritizing tile resources when told to
- Fixed a bug where the AI would overprioritize food when food stockpile was not full
- Sectors now build robots by default
- Fixed unbidden AI sometimes freezing up when other ED factions spawned
- Fixed AI stopping colonization in some cases if it gained a high-habitability species without colonization rights
- AIs will no longer terraform while under crisis attack
- Fixed AI repeatedly asking player to join in a war they had already declined to join
- Fixed a bug where AI fleets would sometimes stop following their allies if fighting a defensive war against a powerful foe
- Fixed an issue where Guardians of the Galaxy would not fight the crisis because of the presence of another Awakened Empire
- Fixed an issue where the AI would not defend planets it had occupied from enemies from being taken back
- Fixed AI overprioritizing power plants even when it did not need energy due to only wanting to build energy-producing buildings on unpopulated tiles
- Fixed a case where AI would get stuck on enemy mining stations, unable to move their fleet away
- Fixed machine AI personalities having an excessive penalty to diplomacy, even with other machines
- Fixed a bug where the Scourge would build military stations in systems it didn't need to defend, instead of systems it does in fact need to defend
- Fixed AI Machine Empires ceasing to build armies under some circumstances
###################
# Interface
###################
- Made Artisan Troupe button tooltips consistently display what resources the player is lacking, rather than just a "We cannot afford this" message
###################
# Modding
###################
- Traits are now restricted by moddable species archetypes rather than species classes, so new species classes need only be assigned the correct archetype instead of having to be added to every trait. Archetypes can be set to inherit the traits of other archetypes for easy creation of new archetypes with unique traits
- Added support for species archetypes to inherit their trait points from another archetype
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
- Breaking a guarantee no longer creates a bilateral truce
- Disabled Selected Lineages techs for Assimilators
- Organic sanctuaries are now properly assigned to primitives when conquered
- Fixed some Fanatic Purifier dialogue referring to the wrong empire
- Planets in outliner are now properly sorted by distance to capital in all circumstances
- It is no longer possible to declare on the tributary of an empire that you have a truce, non-aggression or other war-blocking status with
- Fixed stacking -%unrest modifiers that added up to more than 100% reduction resulting in a negative modifier that applied massive unrest
- Hive Minds can no longer use the decadent trait
- Fixed Synthetic Ascension disabling the ability to set species rights and potentially locking in invalid species rights
- Neuro-Electric Amplifier building is now available in habitats
- Uplink Node building can now be upgraded in habitats
- Spare Parts Depot and Gene Clinic can now be upgraded on Habitats
- Fixed an OOS when some player(s) have Plantoids DLC while others don't
- Fixed Determined Exterminators and Devouring Swarms not getting the swapped Purity tradition tree name and description
- Fixed Determined Exterminators not getting the Autonomous AI tradition swap
- Fixed Synthetically Ascended empires being unable to assimilate cyborgs
- Ghost Signal no longer affects Synthetically Ascended empires
- Fixed Fallen Empires not making demands due to believing they had been defeated in a war
- Fixed the calculation for winner in democratic election not working correctly in some cases
- Fleets on passive stance can now be ordered to make manual attacks on mining & research stations
- Fixed Spare Parts Depot line of buildings not being researchable for Machine Empires
- Fixed Social Engineering Edict (it was strictly worse than the basic one non Authoritarians get)
- Fixed vassals not being able to colonize within their own borders
- Symbol of Purity is now properly restricted to one per planet
- Restored old keyboard shortcut for increasing speed
- Fixed rebel countries sometimes getting one Ethic too many
- Enigmatic Observer Fallen Empires now hate Fanatic Purifiers, Devouring Swarms, and Determined Exterminators slightly less, removing instant war declarations
- Fixed tributary war demand not working
- Fixed a bug where releasing vassals as a Hive Mind or Machine Authority would result in broken ethics/authority setups
- Fixed non-swapped modifier names being used for name-swapped traditions
- Added a cap on planet combat repair, as crisis planets were otherwise nearly impossible to destroy with light stance
- Fixed military power of robotic/synth armies being overvalued to the point where the AI would not invade planets defended by them
- Fixed Psionic Ascension not changing founder species, creating a variety of bugs
- Fixed cyborgs getting double leader age boost from species and leader trait
- Fixed the End of the Cycle not properly preying on colonized worlds
- Fixed some issues with fleet reinforcements for crises
- Fixed sector colonization setting not working properly
- Fixed Synthetic Ruler Trait not having an effect
- Fixed the Machine Uprising not taking control of Military Stations properly
- Fixed some Warning Signs events potentially reoccurring after a Machine Uprising
- Machine Empires can no longer research Positronic AI
- Fixed liberating planets as a Machine Intelligence giving rise to Despicable Neutrals
- Fixed issue where Machine Empire capitals did not produce additional Unity from Distributed Computer tradition.
- Fixed Prethoryn Scourge ceasing to spawn reinforcements once they had 100 armies built
- Fixed an exploit where you could have one more than one Dyson Sphere/Science Nexus at a time by releasing the system to a vassal while under construction
- Fixed issues with not being able to repair Megastructures
- Fixed Decent living standards being available to Assimilating pops
- Psionic expertise can no longer be given as a trait to Machine scientists
- Fixed erroneously getting the 'Hopeless War' notification when attacked by an Awakened Fallen Empire
- Removed duplicate percentage sign in Adaptive Ecology Tradition description
- Fixed minor color issue in Contingency diplomatic text
- Fixed a bug where the Contingency would get stuck trying to withdraw its fleets to the final machine world
- 'Country destroyed' notification disabled for when nationalist rebels defect to their former empire
- Species that are set to be assimilated will no longer be targeted by Land Appropriation
- Removed Atmospheric Filtering for non-Serv, non-Assim MIs since it is useless for them
- Fix food surplus not being calculated correctly with sectors (sector pops were twice as hungry as they should be)
- Fixed MI namelist to avoid use of the word ""Habitat"" to distinguish between AP Habitats"
- Fixed a missing ID that was resulting in an unlocalized string during colonization (BUILDING_CONSTRUCTION_COLONIZATION)
- Created a leader event called from on_actions that removes the Sapient/Custom AI Assistant traits from any leaders that have them when a player changes their policy to Outlaw AI.
- Fixed leaders with Arrested Development gaining negative experience rather than simply not leveling up
- Fixed CTD when attempting to randomize secondary species name without selecting a portrait first
- CTD fix when using a mod with duplicate species class
- CTD fix when using a country that doesn't have a tech module
- Fixed an overflow error causing purged pops to produce massive amounts of resources
- Defeating the Machine Uprising no longer results in biological pops saved from it having recently conquered malus
- Fixed refugees being able to flee to planets that are occupied, under bombardment or under colonization
- Fixed bio-trophies not being given an organic sanctuary on migration
- Fix CTD related to modded planet classes
# Balance
###################
- Increased the distance at which empires are forced apart in random setups
- Changed the shape of ring galaxies to have a thicker ring, fixes many generation bugs (such as Fallen Empires not appearing) associated with them
- Contingency ships now use energy lances instead of Arc Emitters
- Reduced the rate of Contingency reinforcment fleets somewhat
- It is now possible to spawn 5 fallen empires in a Huge galaxy if you have Synthetic Dawn
- Buffed Processing Hub and Hive Node buildings to produce Unity
- Buffed Machine Worlds to 25% robot production output
- 200 years must pass in-game before a Crisis can occur, up from 150
- Cost of "Blocking the Ghost Signal" project now calculated based on number of owned Pops.
- Successfully assimilating a Pop as a Driven Assimilator now generates one month's worth of Unity and Society Research
- Driven Assimilators can now allow Cyborgs to procreate (they do not need food to grow)
- Buffed Devouring Swarm, Purifiers and Exterminators
- Assimilators can now research most Genetics techs
- Driven Assimilators can now derive Assault and Defense Armies from Cyborg Pops
- Pops are now assimilated much faster, on a per-planet basis rather than per-species basis
- Doubled the chance of getting the ""Hotfix"" Warning Signs event
- Reduced fleet power calc for very powerful ships, as exponential effects would cause it to get much larger than the ship's actual combat ability
- Fixed Flak being strictly better than regular Point-Defense rather than a tracking vs damage trade-off
- Planets now only start repairing at full speed 60 days after bombardment ends
- Added some armor penetration to Scourge weapons
- Reduced the effect of Admiral skill level on ship fire rate from 5% to 3% & changed general modifier to not overflow interface
- Reduced consumer goods cost of Chemical Bliss, Utopian Abundance and Social Welfare
- Increased the likelihood of High and Medium probability reward options in Shroud events
- Increased likelihood of several unique Shroud events granting special boons to fire
- Warning Signs (and Machine Uprisings) can no longer occur before 50 in-game years have passed
- Empires that have outlawed robotic workers before any Warning Signs events occur will no longer experience Warning Signs or Machine Uprisings
###################
# AI
###################
- Fixed some issues with sector AI not properly prioritizing tile resources when told to
- Fixed a bug where the AI would overprioritize food when food stockpile was not full
- Sectors now build robots by default
- Fixed unbidden AI sometimes freezing up when other ED factions spawned
- Fixed AI stopping colonization in some cases if it gained a high-habitability species without colonization rights
- AIs will no longer terraform while under crisis attack
- Fixed AI repeatedly asking player to join in a war they had already declined to join
- Fixed a bug where AI fleets would sometimes stop following their allies if fighting a defensive war against a powerful foe
- Fixed an issue where Guardians of the Galaxy would not fight the crisis because of the presence of another Awakened Empire
- Fixed an issue where the AI would not defend planets it had occupied from enemies from being taken back
- Fixed AI overprioritizing power plants even when it did not need energy due to only wanting to build energy-producing buildings on unpopulated tiles
- Fixed a case where AI would get stuck on enemy mining stations, unable to move their fleet away
- Fixed machine AI personalities having an excessive penalty to diplomacy, even with other machines
- Fixed a bug where the Scourge would build military stations in systems it didn't need to defend, instead of systems it does in fact need to defend
- Fixed AI Machine Empires ceasing to build armies under some circumstances
###################
# Interface
###################
- Made Artisan Troupe button tooltips consistently display what resources the player is lacking, rather than just a "We cannot afford this" message
###################
# Modding
###################
- Traits are now restricted by moddable species archetypes rather than species classes, so new species classes need only be assigned the correct archetype instead of having to be added to every trait. Archetypes can be set to inherit the traits of other archetypes for easy creation of new archetypes with unique traits
- Added support for species archetypes to inherit their trait points from another archetype
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
- Breaking a guarantee no longer creates a bilateral truce
- Disabled Selected Lineages techs for Assimilators
- Organic sanctuaries are now properly assigned to primitives when conquered
- Fixed some Fanatic Purifier dialogue referring to the wrong empire
- Planets in outliner are now properly sorted by distance to capital in all circumstances
- It is no longer possible to declare on the tributary of an empire that you have a truce, non-aggression or other war-blocking status with
- Fixed stacking -%unrest modifiers that added up to more than 100% reduction resulting in a negative modifier that applied massive unrest
- Hive Minds can no longer use the decadent trait
- Fixed Synthetic Ascension disabling the ability to set species rights and potentially locking in invalid species rights
- Neuro-Electric Amplifier building is now available in habitats
- Uplink Node building can now be upgraded in habitats
- Spare Parts Depot and Gene Clinic can now be upgraded on Habitats
- Fixed an OOS when some player(s) have Plantoids DLC while others don't
- Fixed Determined Exterminators and Devouring Swarms not getting the swapped Purity tradition tree name and description
- Fixed Determined Exterminators not getting the Autonomous AI tradition swap
- Fixed Synthetically Ascended empires being unable to assimilate cyborgs
- Ghost Signal no longer affects Synthetically Ascended empires
- Fixed Fallen Empires not making demands due to believing they had been defeated in a war
- Fixed the calculation for winner in democratic election not working correctly in some cases
- Fleets on passive stance can now be ordered to make manual attacks on mining & research stations
- Fixed Spare Parts Depot line of buildings not being researchable for Machine Empires
- Fixed Social Engineering Edict (it was strictly worse than the basic one non Authoritarians get)
- Fixed vassals not being able to colonize within their own borders
- Symbol of Purity is now properly restricted to one per planet
- Restored old keyboard shortcut for increasing speed
- Fixed rebel countries sometimes getting one Ethic too many
- Enigmatic Observer Fallen Empires now hate Fanatic Purifiers, Devouring Swarms, and Determined Exterminators slightly less, removing instant war declarations
- Fixed tributary war demand not working
- Fixed a bug where releasing vassals as a Hive Mind or Machine Authority would result in broken ethics/authority setups
- Fixed non-swapped modifier names being used for name-swapped traditions
- Added a cap on planet combat repair, as crisis planets were otherwise nearly impossible to destroy with light stance
- Fixed military power of robotic/synth armies being overvalued to the point where the AI would not invade planets defended by them
- Fixed Psionic Ascension not changing founder species, creating a variety of bugs
- Fixed cyborgs getting double leader age boost from species and leader trait
- Fixed the End of the Cycle not properly preying on colonized worlds
- Fixed some issues with fleet reinforcements for crises
- Fixed sector colonization setting not working properly
- Fixed Synthetic Ruler Trait not having an effect
- Fixed the Machine Uprising not taking control of Military Stations properly
- Fixed some Warning Signs events potentially reoccurring after a Machine Uprising
- Machine Empires can no longer research Positronic AI
- Fixed liberating planets as a Machine Intelligence giving rise to Despicable Neutrals
- Fixed issue where Machine Empire capitals did not produce additional Unity from Distributed Computer tradition.
- Fixed Prethoryn Scourge ceasing to spawn reinforcements once they had 100 armies built
- Fixed an exploit where you could have one more than one Dyson Sphere/Science Nexus at a time by releasing the system to a vassal while under construction
- Fixed issues with not being able to repair Megastructures
- Fixed Decent living standards being available to Assimilating pops
- Psionic expertise can no longer be given as a trait to Machine scientists
- Fixed erroneously getting the 'Hopeless War' notification when attacked by an Awakened Fallen Empire
- Removed duplicate percentage sign in Adaptive Ecology Tradition description
- Fixed minor color issue in Contingency diplomatic text
- Fixed a bug where the Contingency would get stuck trying to withdraw its fleets to the final machine world
- 'Country destroyed' notification disabled for when nationalist rebels defect to their former empire
- Species that are set to be assimilated will no longer be targeted by Land Appropriation
- Removed Atmospheric Filtering for non-Serv, non-Assim MIs since it is useless for them
- Fix food surplus not being calculated correctly with sectors (sector pops were twice as hungry as they should be)
- Fixed MI namelist to avoid use of the word ""Habitat"" to distinguish between AP Habitats"
- Fixed a missing ID that was resulting in an unlocalized string during colonization (BUILDING_CONSTRUCTION_COLONIZATION)
- Created a leader event called from on_actions that removes the Sapient/Custom AI Assistant traits from any leaders that have them when a player changes their policy to Outlaw AI.
- Fixed leaders with Arrested Development gaining negative experience rather than simply not leveling up
- Fixed CTD when attempting to randomize secondary species name without selecting a portrait first
- CTD fix when using a mod with duplicate species class
- CTD fix when using a country that doesn't have a tech module
- Fixed an overflow error causing purged pops to produce massive amounts of resources
- Defeating the Machine Uprising no longer results in biological pops saved from it having recently conquered malus
- Fixed refugees being able to flee to planets that are occupied, under bombardment or under colonization
- Fixed bio-trophies not being given an organic sanctuary on migration
- Fix CTD related to modded planet classes
That's all for today! As with last week, I leave you with another screenshot of the internal Stellaris development build, presented without context or explanation.
Wiz himself said that one of his criteria for what to add next to the game is popular demand.
