Stellaris Dev Diary #334 - "Eridanus" Next Steps

Hi everyone!

Today we’ll be taking a look at the state of the game, the upcoming 3.11.2 patch, talk about the Subscription FAQ, look at the Q&A transcript, and give a taste of what’s next.

Let’s get to it.

State of the Game

The Stellaris 3.11.1 “Eridanus” update was released last week, and I’m happy to say that the build appears quite stable crash-wise.

The number of crash reports is very low for a release, with approximately 90% of the ones we are getting being due to mods that haven’t been updated. Of these, more than half are specifically related to mods that affect the Galaxy Settings screen. Metrics so far show that Multiplayer seems to be significantly more stable than 3.10.4 as well, though an issue has been raised regarding observer mode causing major performance issues in multiplayer that we're currently looking into.

The Custodian Team is currently working on a 3.11.2 update including some of the things that you’ve all reported, preliminarily scheduled for release next Tuesday, March 12th.

Balance

The Opener for Domination now gives +5% Worker Output and +5% Slave Output instead of +10% Slave Output so Egalitarians and Xenophiles aren’t sad.
Versatility Operational Proxies now gives +1 Unity production to Maintenance Drones so that Rogue Servitors aren't left out.
Decreased the cost to study (-25%) and pacify (-40%) space fauna.

Bugfixes

Fixed Federation Emissaries and GalCom Delegates not assigning correctly.
Acquiring the Colonization Drones from the Chemical Wasteland Astral Rift will no longer lead to discovering Noxious Swamps (or other natural blockers) on Habitats (or other planets that shouldn't support these blockers)
Corrected Adaptability Enhanced Recycling tooltip listing a 10% reduction instead of the 15% reduction.
Corrected the finisher effect for Domination giving -15% Empire Size from Pops in some cases
The finisher for Diplomacy now correctly says it gives +10% Diplomatic Weight instead of +10 Diplomatic Weight
Fixed an issue where the "On the Origins of Nanites" special project didn't spawn.
The Chosen will now declare a war of Cleansing on whoever breaches their wormhole
Fixed habitat capital buildings given the wrong number of defensive armies
Mining districts on machine worlds should no longer claim to give scrap miner drone jobs
Fixed anomaly.7200 having repeated flags in their switch.
Cartographer II and Cartographer III are now correctly recognised as councilor traits
Fixed modifiers to mining and research station upkeep incorrectly attempting to reduce the upkeep of the planet they were orbiting
Science ship auto explore feature with astral rifts sometimes skipped unexplored ones
Fixed the icon for the Great Researcher trait
Fixed Holy Covenants not giving High Priest jobs in some cases
The Shallash system will now spawn properly again.
You will no longer be able to engage in pre-FTL diplomacy with pre-FTLs not within your borders
Homicidal empires will now properly annex pre-FTLs that are foolish enough to become space faring.
Bio-trophies are no longer affected by Noxious Twice.
Fix lack of evasion on sapient torpedo comp.

Fixes the background selector for rulers being set incorrectly in the leader category of the background selectors

Stability

Fixed crash upon startup that could be caused by write-protected user directory.
Fixed CTD that sometimes happens when finishing species modification.
Fixed CTD when using console command dump_event_data and the output file is not writable
Fixed CTD in leader names after loading a savegame
Fixed CTD that may occur when updating diplomacy for countries without diplomacy

More on the Stellaris Expansion Subscription

We’ve created an FAQ about the Stellaris Expansion Subscription option, I’ve included it here:

We've gathered up some of the most frequently asked questions from the launch of the Stellaris Expansion Subscription.

Will I lose access to my existing content purchases?
No. All existing purchases will remain, and you will not have to sign up to the subscription service to maintain your access to your previously purchased content.
Will future content be subscription-only?
No! Our main model will remain focused around expansions and other content, as we have done so far. We have introduced a subscription service to lower the barrier to entry for new players.
Who asked for this?
We are experimenting with this additional option to provide players access to the full Stellaris experience. We are simply offering another choice, as we understand that many players would be interested in trying Stellaris with all the content without having to commit to purchasing all the existing content.
Why did you not just create content bundles?
We already have bundles available that we have designed with the help of our community. We are happy with the currently available offerings, but may look into this again in the future.
If I play multiplayer with the subscription, does everyone else in my lobby still get to use my content for that game?
Yes! Subscription ownership of the content comes with all the features that a regular purchase does. You can share the content from the subscription in multiplayer with your friends that only have the base-game.
Are there any plans to expand the subscription service to other stores/platforms?
No current plans at this time, but something on our radar long-term.
Does the subscription model signal the end of development on Stellaris?
We currently have several years of Stellaris development planned.
Will individual content still be available for sale?
Yes! Stellaris content will continue to be available to purchased individually, as it always has been.
Why isn’t there a discounted price for the subscription for players who already own some/all of the content?
The Stellaris subscription is geared towards allowing new players more avenues into the full Stellaris experience. As such, we attempted to keep the initial public offering as simple as possible. We may look at expanding our offerings in the future, however.
Why can't I buy Stellaris content while my subscription is active?
When you have an ongoing subscription, you are technically considered to have the content in your library. As such, stores will stop you from purchasing a DLC for the same account twice (since the DLC is already in your library). Once the subscription expires, you can again go back to purchasing content normally.

We hope this provides more clarity into our process and alleviates some of the concerns of the Community with regards to the Expansion Subscription. If you have further questions, feel free to ask them in the thread below and we will do our best to provide answers!

For several years, the Expansion Subscriptions on some of our other games have proven very popular with new players, which was the major reason we wanted to bring the concept over to Stellaris. As Crusader Kings III's Chapters have likewise been extremely popular with their more experienced players, we're also looking into bundling future content together in a similar manner to make it easier for our veterans to get the new content at a discount.

Discord Q&A Transcript

On February 22nd, we held a Q&A on Discord. The team answered 247 questions and only got a little trolly.

Here’s a transcript of the questions that were answered.

Question by tabat_dectocoder
can you buy a ticket for me to live at Voor Techocracy or at least Scyldari Confederacy?
Answer: Best we can do is Minamar Specialized Industries.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by daniellm
in 1.0 you had to select weapon at the start of the game which made early wars sorta interesting. has this idea ever been thought about doing combat reworks, where you could maybe only progress past tier 3 on 1 type, with the 2 other types being held at tier 3? this could perhaps spice of the uniqueness of empires, but could.. maybe be somewhat difficult to balance correctly
Answer: We talked about that sort of thing during Orion, and again briefly during the tech rebalancing. We want to avoid a situation where there's an objectively correct choice though, which complicates the issue. (And we also want to make sure that it isn't breaking immersion too much - why can't I research kinetic artillery?)
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by sjihttam
Any plans to add laws speeding the progress of the galactic community, or anything like that?
Answer: There are ways of speeding up the community, so we are unlikely to add more that would go against the ideas it represents
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by not_a_kenku
If there is one thing you could add to the game or change without it causing any kinds of bugs, glitches or other incompatabilities, what would it be?
Answer: Giant, Interstellar Space Crabs that pinch a planet in half with their big mighty claws and they're SO strong and SO cool.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by helicopter200
if you would add gas beings and electric beings on what planets they could settle and what kind of mechanic they would have?
Answer: That is the issue. They would settle gas giants or stars. And that would break a lot of things

Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by contingency100x
ever considered giving gestalts an equivalent to destiny traits (even if it is just a worse version of them)? I mean with us being basically completely banned from using paragons (with a few rare exceptions) and having no destiny traits (which are kinda powerful for organics) it kinda just makes our leaders kinda meh compared to organic equivalents especially later game when you have multiple leaders with said traits. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this but I just never really invest that much into leaders because i feel like half the traits I see aren’t really worth it. Also when are Ancient caretakers gonna get a brain? I mean they’ve been…what’s the word..uh i forgor but they’ve been bullied by the player for too long. Free my poor boi, he done nothing wrong. On a side note: Please self-terminate in an efficient/orderly/systematic manner so that the galaxy may yet be saved. Fingers hurt yet?<:cactustroll:1174948103615422524>
Answer: We do not have plans to add destiny traits to gestalt leaders. They are intentionally different from individualistic leaders with some benefits and some drawbacks that make them distinct. Now that they've got the ability to reformat and remove negative traits from their Council, we feel that they're in a pretty good state where they're well balanced with regular empires.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
Good luck, and one last question, what is the most annoying thing about developing Stellaris?
Answer: Decisions we made like 5 years ago.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by skyfire2275
Tomb worlds and relic worlds look the same in the outliner. Is this intentional? Can they be differentiated in the future?
Answer: I will add this to a sticky note and bring it up with someone. Good observation!
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by slayer4052
Is there any reason I cannot create Vassals out of my own sectors as a Fanatical Purifier?
Answer: Seems a bit odd I could look into it
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by ey3_yeet
will we be getting more galactic community resolutions?
Answer: yes
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thatonefoxy
Are there plans for more anniversary type DLCs or would it seem fun to do to release a sort of free dlc?
Answer: The more anniversaries we have and the longer the custodian team works the higher the chance for both of these. So stay tuned!
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by armoredhero11
Will there be more events added to the Beholder legendary paragon?
Answer: None planned, but the custodians do exist
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by helicopter200
More advanced tech to have not like dark matter engines but very advanced buildings that produce tons of resources and for exampleSky domes, Nourishment Center, Class-4 Singularity etc
Answer: Thats not the type of building a normal empire should have access to
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by helicopter200
Mechanic to record history of your empire and galaxy can we have that?
Answer: I requested a similar feature back in the day but after investigating it we realized that it would require an incredible amount of work to go through every event and mark which would be important enought to add to the history etc.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by tr33_m4n
Do you have a bingo regarding the q&a, count questions regarding ground combat/crisis etc. or just accept the migraine from answering the same questions multiple times?
Answer: MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS oh wait, sorry. Uh, there are a few questions that come up a lot.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by helicopter200
we will ever have more habitable planets types like special planets that a certain species would settle there
Answer: I answered something similar, its possible but if it happens, it will be rare and it will a huge task because of population issues from adding more habitable worlds
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by concordcobra
what would happened if u fired the colossus through the unbidden portal, would it just look pretty or would it do damage?
Answer: You would probably want to combine it with some astral rift devling technology else it would get lost in the multiverse
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by gorehuchi
What do you think of adding new galaxy wide game conditions? Like nebula coverage or constantly spawning monsters? Things to keep new playthroughs fresh
Answer: Galaxy Settings are really painful to work with, but I'd like to revamp that panel and if possible add more things like that to it at the same time.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by sjihttam
Any plans to look at weapons balancing, especially cloud lightings lack of range, and the lack of a viable L slot energy weapon?
Answer: There will be more balancing but no promises on when I'm afraid, that depends on availability and priorities
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by sanyay
I've been snooping around the game files for many an update and sometimes you leave unimplemented stuff(btw pls leave more. It's very interesting). What's the story behind lawsuits? Was there more to the galactic community initially?
Answer: Lawsuits were something we were initially playing around with during Federations as a way to antagonize other empires with frivolous and annoying claims. It would apply a negative effect to both you and the person you were targeting with it, but you could put a bunch of envoys into the Lawsuit in order to shift the balance of power, moving more of the debuff to the other side, or you could settle and pay the other side some energy credits to make it go away. It was very cynical and annoying and eventually turned into Sanctions, which are also cynical and annoying, just as intended.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by helicopter200
more origins for primitives pls? and primitive machines and hive mind please?
Answer: requires someone to have new ideas and make them. Maybe if someone gets a bee in their bonnet about it.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by concordcobra
can you kill the contingency with a marshmallow, or any of the other crisis for that matter?
Answer: In theory with enough of anything you could probably do it. I think the better question is what percentage of total universal mass converted into marshmallow would be required? (This is an open invitation to try to conquer the galaxy via snacks).
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by imperialred22
will you add a simple change that allows, player made robots to assimilate AI-made ones, this is just it' easier to manage and we don't have to look at thousands of different other robotic species
Answer: Thats doable, no promises on when but we can take a look at that
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Of all the Fallen Empires, which one hosts the best beach parties, and which one hosts the worst?
Answer: Trick question. It's the Machine one both time. It just depends on if they host it on a holy world or not.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by kezza0782
Where are you looking to take Stellaris in the future with further DLC?
Answer: We're thinking space.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by tylerthefloridaman
Are there any plans for a rework to edit to warfare and specifically the peace system I think it needs it
Answer: Warfare is very under tuned. We have just as many wars that drag on far too long as you guys do. It's on the radar.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by tr33_m4n
The Rimworld steam workshop uses game versions as tags to sort mods and their compatible game version. Are there any plans to add something similar to the Steallaris workshop?
Answer: uuuh I thought we did that I've added it to my list
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by varstar
do you guys have any office pets?
Answer: Nah. Allergies and the shared ventilation system does not do too well.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by trueamalgamatedbeast
Was Machine Cult thing ever considered?
Answer: It was considered at one point
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by daniellm
does the stellaris team ever buy banana/curry pizza's now that you're located in sweden?
Answer: It's a well known delicacy, in my personal opinion Kebab Pizza is the true king.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by sciira
I think this was talked about last time you guys did a Q&A but I'll raise it again just in case: There are waaaaayy too many ships in a given game that they become meaningless after like the 30-year mark. Would a ship squish not be beneficial to reduce the number of ships in each game to make them all feel more important individually and/or help improve performance?
Answer: We talk about a Naval Squish a bit earlier in another question. (A Naval Squish like you describe would be generally beneficial for mental load, performance, and general gameplay. It would require some fine tuning to still feel good though - ships would have to last a lot longer than they currently do, for example. Maybe if we do another Orion style update.)
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by varstar
have you ever thought of doing an inverse q&a, where the devs ask the community questions?
Answer: Every time I see one of your modlists, yes. but I don't think Why do you need 200+ mods is much of a basis of discussion
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
Any ideas for like a new game+ mode where you play as Fallen Empire or something like that?
Answer: That sounds pretty boring as Fallen Empires are by design quite lathargic
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by sundeaththefirst
what is the best species set in stellaris according to your dev team?
Answer: I Will answer the unililaterally for the entire devteam and everyone on that the best species set is Arthropoid and anything else is- [Bundled off stage]
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by azaken_mobito
When Devs are left alone in their offices over the summer, someone does remember to feed them and make sure they have plenty of water right? Maybe even an occasional hug to make sure they know they were not forgotten about, just abandoned and locked inside their offices, but not forgotten?
Answer: I will be in trouble this summer after seeing that new elden ring DLC
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by elpresidente5337
A question from a friend: Will we get meat ships or a machine shipset?
Answer: MEAT SHIPS
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by shaw26
Any plan to bring more updates in economy? Like stock, banking, sanctions between empires
Answer: No current plans I'm afraid.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by concordcobra
if all the crisis were to fight eachother, who would win? (count the extradimensionals as separate if u want)
Answer: My money's on the Extradimensionals. For the other two crises, it's an existential battle. For the Extradimensionals, this is just a fun hunting trip.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by boredpeasant
Criminal megacorp rework when?
Answer: Whenever we get around to rework crime
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by happythumbs
Could we get more customization options when releasing a sector as a vassal, such as the name or authority type? I would love to be able to release a megacorp vassal.
Answer: No current plans, but thats a solid idea
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by daniellm
we already know that the devs and especially eladrin wish that pops never existed in the game. however, is there any chance at all of a full rework of this sytem, removing them entirely, or is that scope simply way too big to allow in stellaris 1?
Answer: We are unlikely to do a full rework of pops due to the scope, as you say. Might do some civics or origins with alternate playstyles or other tweaks, but I'm not up for a 2.2-style economic change at this point.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by contingency100x
I’m obviously the best crisis, right? Right?
Answer: How many extra-galactic tentacle monsters do you bring to the table?
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by admiraltails
Will the AI ever stop building armies in systems with hostile space stations in them just to annoy me with notifications?
Answer: The AI considers this an additional domain of psychological warfare.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by daginger.
Will update 3.14 contain more colours to the species pie chart on a planet?
Answer: more colour technology is beyond us at this juncture
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
This guy, from Federation DLC trailers, he looks like the perfect candidate for Galactic Emperor, what do you think? And yes... Long Live the Galactic Emperor! Long Live the Galactic Imperium!
Answer: I'm voting for OverlordGuy or maybe the Swolephin, they're dreamy.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by tr33_m4n
What new additions made you think: The players will be so triggered by that. Let's add it.(because the game will benefit from it, of course)?
Answer: The tech rework
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by mr.gofru
How long do you work on a new dlc or update, like work hours per day?
Answer: Boring time. We do 8 hours a day. No overtime (though that doesn't stop some people chipping away at things when they shouldn't )

Sometimes a day can be split between a custodian task or a DLC task. But that's entirely up to everyones individual work tasks.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by venixfiriurx
currently there is a bug in vanilla co-op when when interacting with the shroud, it becomes unavailable the 2nd time, because it states that it is already in use by the player that first interacted with it. UIs this bug already known on the forums and will it be addressed?
Answer: Please make a bug report and include a save file on the forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-bug-reports.941/

Thanks!
Answered by: <@212318544929488896>

Question by concordcobra
which crisis could open a pickle jar the easiest?
Answer: Extradimensional Invaders would supply appear inside the pickle jar, entirely removing the need to open it in the first place.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by petriglass_ziggurat
Can terravores have some positive modifiers on planets that they eat to prevent low stability warning spam cause planets are tasty enough to calm the drones down
Answer: Terravores get hangry and nothing can satisfy their need to feed. Generally the planet doesn't last long enough for the low stability to matter that much, but yeah, the spam is a little annoying.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by gixucv
Fingers hurt?
Answer: The greatest of finger pain is nothing compared to the joy of answering our valued community members.
But also yes.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by daginger.
We have Vluur, We got Bubbles, any idea for a new cute named space fauna to meet?
Answer: The neat thing about the future is that there's so much time to add more!
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by azaken_mobito
You know what we could use? More puns! Lets pun it up big time! Also, id love the ability for more love for habitats, they have gotten some good stuff but I always feel like there is more potential to be had with them. Like I feel like having some starbase buildings for them as well would make sense, at least certain ones.
Answer: Having habitats supporting starbase buildings was one of the many experiments I tried out last summer when they left me in the office all alone. I regret to say it didn't work half as well as I'd hoped
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by contingency100x
can people stop bombing my hubs? It’s makes a lot of noise.
Answer: Did you do something to deserve it? Are you being a crisis? <:walter:778692239525543936>
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Ever thought of making a trait or an option or a setup where rather then relying on large fleets an empire just makes a handful of ships but they are insanely powerful and upgraded over time? And in a way every single one is named and considered precious as a result? So that way, you remember the names of your big ships by heart and they are considered beacons and such? Like Hurray! The Dauntless is here! or Huzzah, the Valiant is here to save us!
Answer: We've certainly thought about it. Practically however it has issues that make it less straightforward a task than one would think. Mostly the fact that there are certain limitations on ships that mean more hulls will outpace bigger hulls once a certain mass is reached. Can those be circumvented, certainly, but doing it while not being a hackjob held together by spit, dreams and invisibile turrets takes a lot more effort I'm afraid.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by concordcobra
why does the AI love corvettes and frigates so much?
Answer: they are cheap
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by skyfire2275
Is the resort world change shown in a recent dev diary not in 3.11?
Answer: The patch note scraper tool missed it, it's in
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by mrfreake
Asked by momotech764: Have psionic/psionic-themed options for hive minds been considered?
Answer: Yep. I want to do it!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by varstar
are you guys secretly aliens who are using stellaris as an experiment to find the easiest way to take over the galaxy?
Answer: Some of us are secretly robots
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
This is more of a lore question, but do Pre-FTL civilizations have the option to say 'no' to Minamar Specialized Industries after MSI has made their offer, but the primitives haven't accepted it yet?
Answer: That is when minimar starts infiltrating your goverment and you see people start being replaced
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by sciira
MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS
Answer: MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by mrfreake
Have you plans to bring back shared system ownership one way or another? It would probably fix the primitives stealing systems issue in a quite more pleasant manner imo.
Answer: Shared system ownership was apparently so cursed that the programmers still shudder any time we bring it up. If I remember correctly, they removed it largely for stability reasons when implementing the system ownership system.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by happythumbs
Could habitats get a buff to their tier 2 resource buff buildings so they can keep up with planets with orbital rings (like ringworlds)?
Answer: Uh, not really. They're supposed to be further down the power curve than ringworlds and orbital rings
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by ey3_yeet
have you considered adding any form of exiled governments for defeated empires?
Answer: When I first started here I made quite a bit of content about you losing your homeworld and such. But I quite quickly realized that players never get to see that because by the time they are losing a war they have already save scummed. So making that kinda content is a neat idea, but it's not valuable for the players. How many do you think have stuck around long enough to revolt against the AI Galactic Emperor?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
You know what would be cool for Ground Armies? Giant pilotable mechs, and maybe just giving them special weapons and gear and such. Or some medic squads. But mainly giant pilotable mechs. Lets do this Gundam style! Perhaps even make it so those mechs can also fight in space as well somehow, Gundam style! But yeah, can never go wrong with mechs! Mechs!
Answer: Stealing this before Iggy can. Sadly by asking for the ground combat rework, you have set it back by another 6 months. We do love mechs here though...
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by snosky72
We know that gaz base life exists in the game. It would be be incredible to be able to play them! Colonize gaz giant, make flying cities, evaporate others life form to make more pop etc.. No?
Answer: So this touches on an area similar to another question about more planet types. It's tricky. By allowing colonization of a new planet type we are basically incresing the amount of habitable worlds, so we increase the number of pops in the galaxy. That would have to be accompanied by a hefty increase in performance to be ok and even then, people would rightfully ask why we are spending performance as soon as we gain some. We would have to adjust the habitable worlds for the entire galaxy, which is doable but it increases the scope of the task quite a bit.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by tylerthefloridaman
Can the AI get better at making planets they really suck
Answer: Probably. But go back 2 years and see what the AI did to planets. Things have gotten better.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by daniellm
will you ever remove fixed costs on crisis ships, so that crisis nano missile corvettes aren't better than literally any other ship in the game?
Answer: interesting point, I'll take a look
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by sundeaththefirst
have you tried turning the ultima vigillis off and on again?
Answer: all the stars are dark. we are hunted
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by gorehuchi
About how far down the line would you say a Custodian review of the espionage system is?
Answer: How long is piece of ~~Astral Thread~~ string?
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
How many days does an internal politics rework get pushed back when someone asks for it?
Answer: All
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by sundeaththefirst
will there be community votes for new dlcs? where you give us like 2 origins in a dlc and for one of them we get to choose from a list you made in a poll
Answer: If you want a democracy go to the medival game!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by venixfiriurx
will we get a QOL update or full revamp of Astral Threads DLC? Currently its just archaeology 1.5 with new fancy paint on it.
Answer: Rifts are way more complicated and less linear than Arch sites. We do realize that in retrospect, from a player's point of view you will only see one path through the Rift, so the fact that there's anywhere from two to five times as much content per individual Rift as an average Arch site is not visible. If there are any changes to Astral Planes, it should be to make those branches and depth of content more apparent.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by azaken_mobito
As a feature, what do you think about creating Specialties for your empire? Like, perhaps you can select between having a specialty in shield technology, making it so superior shields are more useful then flimsy armor for your ships, or laser weapons more useful rather then silly inferior ballstics, or other empire modifiers where you have to choose between one bonus or another for your empire? Or perhaps using more unique components instead of the standard weapons and armaments would be better? Or more planet designations like resort world and ecus that provide their own bonus. Just some thoughts. Plus I think the concept of tourism in general could use more love. In that regard we really only have resort world that does that, but there are other kinds. Maybe make an Ecu that is nothing but theme parks and such! lol Theme Park World!
Answer: So technically we already had that back in the day with the hold strategic resource system, sadly it clashed a bit too hard with people's desire for self-determination. Having it empire-based could solve that but we have moved very far from that since then. But who knows, it might come back in parts at some point in the future.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by varstar
are you planning on balancing the cordyceptic + here be dragons combo?
Answer: Yeah we really should stop that silly attack it when it goes right over your starbase issue. Perhaps the dragon just instantly kills all your defense platforms?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by helicopter200
ground combat rework when?
Answer: as soon as they approve my request to remove it
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by concordcobra
do you think the screaming marauders have ever broken their own sound system by screaming so loud?
Answer: In space no-one can hear you scream
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by xenmorempire
will we be able to choose our own star types in empire creator?
Answer: I will add it to my list of gripes with the empire creator
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thelostchevalier
Is the ground combat rework happening ever down the line? Like making planetary bombardment a situation like revolts and the like (this is my personal meme and as far as I know an impossible dream but hey, if you answer I would be delighted even if you say me no [I have had a no before from a game director of this game only for the thing to be added down the line, hehehe, AP for everyone in the base game! Haha!])
Answer: We currently have no plans to do major changes to ground combat. The changes to the Aggressive fleet stance and surrender through bombardment put it in an okay state overall, and I'd rather spend Custodian resources on other tasks.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by azaken_mobito
Can we get a Mind Flayer Crisis riding in on giant space faring nautiloids coming to consume all brains and take control of everyone in the universe, slowly dominating and taking control of all planets and turning them and all your pops into more Mind Flayers which are then used to invade more people? ~~yes iv been playing a lot of BG3 lately~~ Just saying, would be cool. Also perhaps a Reaper-like Crisis as well. Some fun crisis ideas as well. Silly maybe, but still fun!
Answer: Go out and secure us the license
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by dot2831
Might it be possible to cap negative armour nullification and speed reduction similarly to how negative shield reduction modifiers are capped, depending on how difficult this is to implement?
Answer: Then things like pulsars would stop working and you would still have 10% shield. Which is less spooky I feel.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
Can be mod packs considered as alternative universes in Stellaris multiverse?
Answer: That seems reasonable. Every game is its own alternate universe.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by helicopter200
unique traits for non DLC races?
Answer: wings when?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by tr33_m4n
Many here ask about a new crisis. Why not add more pop growth? So the best crisis in the late-game unemployment can reclaim it's rightful throne.
Answer: You will lose to lag before unemployment
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by elysiven
Would there ever be plans to add mutually exclusive tech trees? Is the priority more towards uniformity across player Empires, or potential uniqueness?
Answer: Do you mean like something besides Physics/Society/Engineering? If so. Not a chance. Too much of our game is built on that. A unique category? That is more likely.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by morebits
Question for Moah, what was your first programing language, and have you seen latest features in C++23?
Answer: Moah had to run, but I started with C64 Basic and Pascal.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by beautifulduwang
Will we ever get more Paragons tied to older DLCs? If so, will they still be ethic-tied or will they be tied to events lime legendary paragons? ~~please add a trade related paragon i need to fuel my tv addiction~~
Answer: I think these are harder to go back and update as they require art and background work etc etc to create a whole character. But I think this is a cool idea

I can't draw worth a damn but we have a day to work on personal projects tomorrow. Maybe I'll take a crack at making a new Paragon! so thanks for that idea.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by homenakki
Can you please add new flavor text for the event where you have abducted all pops from a primitive world for rogue servitors?
Answer: `01_PAMPERING_PROPOSE`
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by varstar
do you plan to add more features/flavor to the less mechanic heavy civics, like functional architechture? moslty just any
Answer: you can count on us to always go back and try to bring old content up to par
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Can we get the ability to declare anyone/any nation who harms/kills Bubbles as a threat to the galaxy and have the entire galactic community wage war against them for their heretical action? Such heresy cannot be tolerated after all. Also can we have an option to Crown Bubbles as Galactic Emperor?
Answer: You mean boomer?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by sundeaththefirst
will there ever be special species traits for aquatics? like hardened scales for extra army health or so. also i am not biased
Answer: I think we can do better than more army modifiers!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by piecat56
Special plans for Dev Diary #333?
Answer: It's a good number, I should use it for something interesting.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by concordcobra
so if the regular drake is red, shard is blue, and the L-drakes are pink, is there a drake for every single colour?
Answer: We can only hope that by exploring the galaxy to its furthest extent we can find the answer to this one! (I personally hope yes).
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by des.c
What do you think about the state of crimecorps? I love the pirate haven, refurbishment division, salvager scientist playstyle, but also find is
Answer: Criminial Corporations and Crime itself are...in a non-optimal state. We want to improve them, there is both the will and the designs for it, we just need to find the correct time.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by armoredhero11
Are there plans to add more crises to the game?
Answer: We added a new midgame one in 3.9 so don't think we are stopping
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by gabbl
Would you ever consider adding minor empires like city states in the Civilization games that you could interact with in the early game without getting dragged into a major conflict?
Answer: My friend that just sounds like enclaves with extra steps
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by shaw26
What will be the next DLC about? Give us some info pls
Answer: The next Stellaris Console DLC will be First Contact
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by masterbeak
will the necroid mod be ever updated? ty for the answer
Answer: Yeah, the survival mod will be updated Some Day

, once I figure out what the devs changed that causes it to crash immediately on loading
Answered by: <@212318544929488896>

Question by tabat_dectocoder
How do The Unbidden, and the other two crises react when the player becomes Nemesis and is close to completing the engine, the game doesn't have so much dialogue on this, so I'm curious about it.
Answer: I don't think there's a fun canon answer here. To be frank all the crisis just see you as an obstacle regardless.
Maybe a slightly more dangerous one..
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by captaincape
Are there any lore headcanons you have that didn't make it into the game?
Answer: It's not in the game yet. But. All hiveminds are latantly psionic and connect all their drones through the shroud. That is why they can function and react at FTL speeds.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by galactic.emperor
Did you ever consider to implement diplomatic demands, as in threatening another country with war or breaking pacts with them over their systems or policies, giving them an option to just submit to the demands peacefully?
Answer: To be honest, not really. At least not in any meaningful way beyond someone saying wouldn't it be cool. It's interesting but at this point I'm afraid its not really on the table anytime soon.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by varstar
are you gonna add more ways to win than just the 3 we have?
Answer: I could see us adding more, especially if we implemented more Become the Crisis paths.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by gixucv
Is there possibility to add more space objects? Like Quasars, hypothetical white holes, more star classes (like white dwarfs, brown dwarfs). Maybe even star clusters like pleiades?
Answer: We're always looking at new features we can smartly fit into the existing game, and a lot of us are space nerds so. There's a strong possibility!
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by thatonefoxy
When the game crashes, usually a crash reporter pops up, but in the case of a silent crash, the game doesn't freeze at all but instead just immediately closes and puts you on your desktop, or whatever window is behind stellaris and doesn't give a crash reporter. Why does a crash like that not make the crash reporter pop up?

Also what does OOS in the logs stand for? Out of sync?
That folder also has a tendency to become really big in disk size pretty fast.
Answer: Because it crashes before the game can complete it's logging.

OOS is out of synch and that folder contains the records it generates every time it OOS's.
So, if you OOS a lot it will get pretty big. Easy to just clear out though.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by youslowpoke
In the Stellaris Dev Diary #322 in the comments it was mentioned by the devs that they were looking into the request to add moddable planet automation behaviour in either 3.11 or 3.12. I didn't see it being mentioned in all recent dev diary's, is this still being planned for the upcoming patch?
Answer: It's still planned, but not prioritized as we have many more features that we want to add
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by grygrflzr
Do you ever personally search for guides/recommendations when playing/testing the game, and if so, what resources do you go to first? Or do you end up memorizing every detail from sheer overexposure?
Answer: I tend to have whichever in-development build of the game I've been playing memorised and then need to check the wiki to check what the public version of the game is like.
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by concordcobra
is the elder one just the other side of the regular dimensional horror, it just got stuck half way, then tried to go back and the other half got stuck, just so happens it can talk this time, except the thing talking a scythe appendage centipede
Answer: That is at best 1/1000th of a horror, but I like the idea that only very few of them have mouths.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by daniellm
if i ever traveled to swden, could i get a stellaris keychain?
Answer: We don't really have merch on hand or office visits or the like. Your best shot for stuff is any official events we host I'm afraid.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by imperialred22
I remember in the dev diaries, that you have implemented bug fixes and etc from mods, will you be adding or using more fixes from mods in the future?
Answer: We're likely to continue to work with our modding community to integrate some of their changes in the future. For this release, it was Iggy that led the initiative.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by sundeaththefirst
will crisis like the scourge get a rework in mechanics some day?
Answer: that would be nice
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thelostchevalier
Is the next point in the agenda a reimagining/remake of how the faction and pop/empire wide ethic systems work? A new way to interact with the different voices of your empire and how the factions influence your empire as political parties (holding charities, making works of art/culture to influence the opinion of the public, etc) as a whole would be amazing! Are fanatic pops making a come back for regular empires, maybe even creating a difference between fanatic factions and moderate factions of the ethics to better represent a fanatical empire from a non-fanatical? (I will be satisfied with a maybe haha!)
Answer: To be perfectly clear, its most definitely NOT the next step on the agenda. But we have talked about it, proposals, designs and brainstorming is happening on it. Would I personally like to do it? Yes! Is this confirmation that its happening and happening soon? No! There is a lot of potential down that road and our design gremlins are itching at the chance to make empire internals more interesting, but its far off, a gleam in some designers eyes for now.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by tr33_m4n
Imo Crusader Kings has a pretty good diplomatic system where you can romance the family of another empire's ruler. Would you consider adding a similar dating sim to Stellaris?
Answer: I need about 300,000 more of you to be asking this daily on every social media platform so I can finally convince my superiors. So the answer your question I personally think it's a great idea.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by hotcoffee_
Which would be the ideal race to get hugs from and why is it the Blorg?
Answer: You'll get my blorg body pillow over dead body!
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by helicopter200
Any plans for new megastructures?
Answer: I've had this idea for a Bug Database project where you build a massive archive of both Bug reports for all software and to collect information all insects. I even made a prototype but for some reason it never seems to make it in. (Real answer: Nothing we can talk about, but we like making them!)
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by tabat_dectocoder
Is player empire (Nemesis) true ascend after completing the Aetherophasic Engine?
Answer: I give them 30/70 chances on succeeding and just spreading their souls across all space and time screaming in anguish forever
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Here is a fun new idea for a Crisis. Technically two ideas, but its basically the same. Either your own Empire (or any player Empire, but ESPECIALLY if they are the Galactic Emperor) from the future, or perhaps an alternate dimension. After taking over their own galaxy, they are now here to take over yours. Just seems like a fun idea.
Answer: We like fun.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by politicalnerd
I have sooooo many questions and I am sorry if this is a lot. Also thank you for doing this. It is great to see how engaged the devs are with the community.

Is there any serious talk about rebalancing naval capacity and federation fleets? As in a squish of naval capcity like we are about to have with tech? Or of a way of rebalancing federation fleets so at late game they don't end up costing you more naval cap than they are worth?

Is there serious talk of a dlc for fallen empires and the crisis or a large rebalance of them?

Looking through all my other questions have been answered.
Answer: A Naval Squish like you describe would be generally beneficial for mental load, performance, and general gameplay. It would require some fine tuning to still feel good though - ships would have to last a lot longer than they currently do, for example. Maybe if we do another Orion style update.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by tylerthefloridaman
Is it possible to get the AI to build armies more often they. They typically only build small ones and thus get stuck on planets
Answer: If you have a repro case, please make a bug report. I haven't noticed the AI not having the armies it needs lately.
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by thatonefoxy
Instead of having pop-ups just be generic pop-ups at the top of your screen, has anyone thought of making the leaders report to your directly to be a little bit more fluid, like you're actually the ruler of an empire with the leaders reporting to you.
Answer: As it currently stands, we are more likely to err on the side of fewer pop ups and less intrusive ones I'm afraid. We have reached a point where oversaturation is an issue and we have to keep a tight leash on it if we don't want to overwhelm players that aren't already super experienced with the systems.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by navar
Is there a design reason behind why some flag colors turn black on the galactic view?
Answer: Back in the olden days our predecessors decided which colors could be shown in the galaxy view. When we added new flag colors these had to be mapped to the galaxy colors. And some of those were chosen to be black.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thebiggestboyboris
considering stellaris has 2 dozen dlc which is more than hoi4 I think, will it ever get a dlc sub like hoi4 cause that first came out like two years ago and stellaris is still just sitting here without one.
Answer: say please
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by sundeaththefirst
when is the overlord dlc coming out? freake told me i would get a youtube notification but never got it
Answer: My apologies, I am currently composing an angry email to YouTube on your behalf.
Answered by: <@212318544929488896>

Question by elysiven
With 3.10 and the addition of Astral Planes DLC, Some of the rifts had an issue where clicking events in a MP environment would cause the game to crash, I have no clue what actually caused the problem all I know is that the crashes with the astral rifts did not occur when they were taken out of the game by a mod someone made. So we can definitely say its astral rifts but I'm not quite sure specifically what it is, but its probably event picking.
Answer: that is not a question but if its still happening link me the bug report in
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by hotcoffee_
Favourite bit of sci-fi literature/creative work?
Answer: I think currently my favourite Sci Fi book is A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by slayer4052
Which change that you've done was received with the most hate by the playerbase?
Answer: Easy victory for the unity rework. That was a lot of change in a short amount of time that got stuck in a lot of peoples throats. Over time and with adjustments the majority has come to regard it if not positively, at least in a neutral way and as healthy for the game.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by mrbarbe
can starbase defenses be added in ship design panel to make us customize starbases std-defenses and not just the defence platform?
Answer: The last time we experimented with this it did Very Bad Things, so it's not likely to happen in the near future.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by night.8750
I asked about ai personalities earlier and feel i was misunderstood so a clarification: Will ai personalities be worked on in regards to the Roleplaying side? as in having them make decisions more accurately reflecting their civics and ethics?
Answer: We have some plans and prototypes but no solid annoucments. It might not lead anywhere

Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by varstar
do you guys plan to ever fill up the empty space in the top bar in the future?
Answer: So the issue there is that we support the game for 4:3 monitors. If you were to boot up Stellaris in one of those resolutions now you would see that we really don't have any space.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by ironsasquash
Are there any plans to add more out-of-galaxy system clusters like The Chosen and the L-Gate systems?
Answer: please no they keep breaking map borders
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by tr33_m4n
There was the save that Eladrin (Game Director) sent me this morning which was interesting. I am all ears, if you would kindly elaborate on his strategy.
Answer: It was a very defective Rogue Servitor, with the ||REDACTED|| and ||REDACTED|| civics, that integrated a hive mind and ||REDACTED|| them in the ||REDACTED||. It was running on a 3.12 build.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by azaken_mobito
How about a DLC that adds some truly out of there stuff to what we have? Has that ever been seriously considered? Like having the Emperor of the Galactic Imperium designate an entire nation as his court jester, or declaring a dancing themed holiday for your empire, or using pop goods as building materials for ships andj ust have...an entire ship made of TVs? Or perhaps an option to communicate with another empire, only to crack jokes at them the whole time and depending on which are done and their ethics could either please or antagonize them? Or perhaps having a trait called Pet Lovers where basically every household in your nation has a pet?
Answer: This is why we love our modding community so much. I'm confident just about all of these already exist somewhere on the workshop.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by piecat56
How many Stellaris devs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Answer: TBH that bulb was screwed the minute it set foot in the stellaris dev studio
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by tylerthefloridaman
Will shrouded worlds get any content they are just there and don't do anything and are missed opportunities for expanded spiritualist game play
Answer: Never say never, or we could be lazy. One of the two.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by explodonater
Is there any plans to have multiple Q&A sessions or to extend the time we can ask questions (even if the answering period isn't extended) so that people of all timezones can be included? Because I'm forced to send this in in the middle of my work shift.
Answer: Coincidently I am also doing this during my work shift. Jokes aside, leave that as feedback to QnA's and if enough people ask for it, it mightmake it more likely
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by ladydzra
From Reddit: Can we have our favorite C6 species into the game without mods pretty please ?
Answer: We tried but C6 has become really comfortable on the workshop, and we don't want to upset their natural ecosystem (for now).
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by gixucv
Is there a chance to add The Hunters as another crisis or maybe helping empire to defeat prethoryn scourge, something like cybrex against contingency?
Answer: For the third time today. You will never meet the hunters.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Ever think about making the Strategic Coordination Center able to defend itself? I feel like as the hub of military operations, it really should be able to. Also perhaps being able to enhance Starbase defense further, to help with the defense game and give them the chance to be serious deterrants and protective forces. After all, given what empires are capable of, never hurts to have more defense! Id love to turn the Home System into a Superfortress, evne if just for aestetics and flavor alone. lol
Answer: I like this idea. To my backlog you go!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by navar
will future dlcs bring in new renowned paragons, like how Oracle hides away in Ancient Relics, or Caretaker AX7-b hides in Distant Stars? They're fun to stumble across!
Answer: zadigal was added in Astral Planes. We like renowned and legendary leaders and where/when it's appropriate to add them we'll use them again
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by mrbarbe
any hint to a date/year for that (in)famous espionage rework?
Answer: That's a state secret.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by helicopter200
Can we have very advanced tech beyond that we currently have like going intergalactical it would be dope
Answer: If you thought 1 galaxy lagged your PC just you wait until you see two!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
In terms of Crisis Events and such, have you ever considered one where suddenly its caused from within all the various space nations, where its discovered that alien parasites have been secretly infiltrating your empire and taking over your people, leading to a huge conflict/civil war against the infected? Sort of like the Ga'uld from Stargate only they are just trying to establish themselves now and such.
Answer: I kinda find that the Contingency is similar enough to that narrative with them replacing your leaders with synths and all that. I would rather be more original.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by trueamalgamatedbeast
What DLC/Update had the most worst release so far? (in design, balance and technical)
Answer: After a team survey, we have to say it's Megacorps
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by varstar
is there gonna be more content for new players, like an expanded tutorial or such? also whats your favorite food
Answer: We have played around with some new prototypes. The stuff that was done in Star Trek infinite was very impressive. We agree that new players have it rough and we do want to help them.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by night.8750
Will we be seeing a rework to ai personalities anytime in the near future? a lot of the fun in building empires is seeing them all behave differently in game based onhow they are built. The old personality system appears to be a little weak in this regard at the moment.
Answer: the problem with that one is that there are two types of players, players who want the AI to step on them as hard as possible, and players who want the AI to have a personality beyond just being (very strong) opponents. And generally making one type of player happy makes the other type sad.
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by imperialred22
would a energy species or energy ascension, or any sort of new species ascension, come to the game in the future?
Answer: Not as a species pack at least. I would find it really silly if an energy being had to hang out in an atmosphere on a continental world. And sadly with how our planet system works letting them live on stars or gas giants would open up a massive can of worms when it comes to how to handle planets being conqured and things like that.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by ichkeriafanboy
there are a infinite number of universes in the space atoms in Stellaris?
Answer: I don't fully understand the question but, probably
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by tr33_m4n
What was the most morally questionable build you've seen last year (asking so I can try it)?
Answer: There was the save that Eladrin (Game Director) sent me this morning which was interesting
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by armoredhero11
Are there any plans to improve diplomacy such as acting as mediator between other empires especially with your allies who might not like each other?
Answer: I do agree that it would be nice to have more diplomatic tools to do this sort of thing, but it often ends up incredibly complex. We'll have to strictly control the scope of anything we do there in order to get it done.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by armoredhero11
Will there be more events pertaining to psionics added into the game in order to enhance psionic ascension?
Answer: Personally I find psionic ascension the most narratively interesting one already. The other 3 deserve to be looked at first in my opinion.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by sundeaththefirst
are you planning on adding more ethics or reworking the ethics system one day?
Answer: We have currently no plans to add more ethics to the game. If some amazing design comes our way that can of course change, but the chance is very low.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by thatonefoxy
Currently, the Torpedo AI is not in the ```Has_sapient_combat_computer``` or ```has_autonomous_combat_computer``` which means that if you use Sapient/autonomous Torpedo combat computers They aren't effected by the contingency debuff. Atleast from the testing I did they did not get a debuff
I reported this a while back in the bug report I made: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-certain-ship-ais-v3-9-3-caelum-dcaf.1603085/
Answer: I'll add that to my backlog
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
Any plans to add more robot archetypes? The current 3 get a bit stale after the first 500 hours or so
Answer: what is left for robot types? Transending our physical form and becoming pure data?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by kiwibaum
any chance there will be some better way of managing custom empires in a somewhat near future? Managing easily over 100 empires at this point can be a bit difficult when you want to switch which of those are supposed to spawn. (I like to set a lot of empires to always spawn so I basically have random, but premade empires).
Answer: I would really like to see an overhaul of the empire creation screen entirely. So it's being talked about at least! We'll see.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by navar
Now that government authorities have varied empire and ruler effects, will we see any others added to the game?
Answer: I miss the old Advanced Governments we had before civics were introduced, I'd love to be able to make something similar again.
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by helicopter200
Can we have megastructures that produces food, consumer goods and alloys?
Answer: Are you filling the food one with livestocks?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by daniellm
any plans of letting us meet the watcher of ultima vigilis?
Answer: Okay so I have to be quick because they are always watching. To find the puppetmasters who pulls our string you just need to -
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by Mir
Any plans for a set of higher-level tools for lategame empire management? i.e. fronts as collection of fleets and armies on a common war theater, planet / sector templates or equivalent functionality aimed at automating empire-wide goals (alloys science etc), starbase templating and auto-upgrading, etc?
Answer: No tools planned, one could wonder if people are getting to that level maybe there should be less planets/ships/pops at the end game so such tools aren't needed? I feel theres a strong argument for cutting down the baseline number of planets in half, ships in half etc so the end game is just quantitively easier to manage.

Just an opinion though!

UX improvements are high on the agenda overall. There are plenty of screens that haven't been touched since launch.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by space_chicken02
are ever going to see gas or electricity based life ( as a species pack)?
Answer: Hair styles and outfits aren't as fun to make when they're made of hydrogen and nitrogen, but hey who knows what the future holds.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by piecat56
Any plans for more custom ui modability?
Answer: We don't have current plans, but if there are specific needs you can post them in the suggestion forum, and we never know what we'll work on in the future
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by feztis
Any plans on adding more sources of pacifist ethics attraction (one of the ethics with least ways to switch into), like from <:trade_value:801488066207285268> generated or via trade jobs like Traders or Merchants? Would make trade less of just a boost numbers-job and something one would have to deal with on a planet or empire-level?
Answer: We weren't planning for it but tbh, we could look over ethics attraction of actions in general to make sure they still fit the current state of the game
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by helicopter200
Will ever have tech like fallen empires and become very adavanced?
Answer: Are the dark matter weapons not enough? No? Ugh I will go and poke some people and see if we can't add more ways then...
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
We always ask this, but if you could add one thing to change/add to the game without the hassle of coding/art etc, what would it be?
Answer: Empire wide pop growth.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by happythumbs
Will there be any work on habitats to make constructing major and minor orbitals less tedious? Could it be automated?
Answer: Improving the habitat UX and construction flow is currently one of the many tasks on the Custodian Backlog
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by sundeaththefirst
who are the hunters?
Answer: idk
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by mrfreake
Can you delay the upcoming ground combat rework? I think the community is not ready for it.
Answer: We...we lost Space Wizard riding alien monsters into battle while having military commissars attached...and we haven't been the same since then. Weep for what we lost my friends, weep
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by piecat56
Thoughts on some love for older dlc features? Hives and Machines come to mind first, but I'd like to know if you guys have some wishes for perhaps slept on mechanics.
Answer: I can confirm that that there will be changes to old contet. See: The Custodian Team.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thatonefoxy
Regarding pop ascending, Genetics, Synths, Psionics and Cybernetics. Will there be a second layer after it or will it atleast be more dynamic instead of just having one tradition tree you have to finish. Genetically modifying pops in anyway would have serious impact on a population so I thought that there would be more things than just a tradition tree. I also wonder if there will be more after the original 4 ascensions like genetics getting perfection because Scientists always find a way to improve.
Answer: Exploring how your society adapts to taking an ascension path would be an interesting avenue if we ever revisit the ascension paths
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by daniellm
there was a few good systems in the startrek game, like fleet personal, war intervention. is there any plans of getting these into stellaris? war intervention would be a BIG improvement imo
Answer: There are some really nice things in ST: Infinite. Their Tutorials, War Intervention, and Neutral Zones are all things that I like, but we can't just port things over trivially.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by hashbrown1512
Are we going to get Juggernaut Bombardment Stance Button this update? I will be forever indebted to the dev who added it.
Answer: see other answer but in short not planned but not impossible. I have made a note
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by varstar
will more astral rifts be added eventually, or will it stay as just the ones that are currently in?
Answer: Well we didn't stop adding digsites, and the custodians are still around. So I don't see why we shouldn't expect more rift based narratives.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by tsunderesaph
```I have noticed that the AI will no longer keep suiciding fleets into your bastions and will try to find a way around the bastion after failing to attack it a few times, and this is very good. But there is one exception : Terminal Egress. The AI will keep suiciding ships one by one into Terminal Egress, no matter what defenses you have there. do you think you can make the AI recognize when Terminal Egress is defended and stop trying to path through it? This happens when they try to use the l-gate in Terminal Egress to go elsewhere.```
Answer: So, this could either require a bespoke AI fix (tell them specifically not to do this) or an AI overhaul. Both have downsides. But I've made a note of this and will review.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by kusluk
Ha, thanks Iggy, can you share this rough estimate of when the next DLC drops with us please?
Answer: I would not be capable of making more content for you if I did.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by kusluk
Can we have a starbase design please? Repopulating starbases with the same 9 buildings 20 times a game is very tedious. I’d like to design it, and have it auto upgrade into my design please.
Answer: I would love nothing more than letting you do that but its sadly way more complicated than one would think. A lot of very basic assumptions the game makes are based on starbases not being designable and it gets very messy very quickly. But we're looking into it.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by captaincape
I'm not really expecting an answer here but at this point, not asking feels like betrayal. Where second pair of Necroids 9 (pod worm) eyes? On a more serious note, without too many spoilers, what was the most fun rift to work on?
Answer: I am keeping those eyes in my pocket. They are mine! As for rifts, I love what was done with the precursor ones!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
For @Tsundere Saph: Strikecraft currently have survivability issues when facing enemies with repeatables, as repeatables buff point defences, but do not buff strikecraft survivability. Do you think you could add modifiers to affect things like Strikecraft hull, armor and shields, or at least allow the armor and shields repeatables to affect Strikecraft? E.G. An Awakened Empire with tier 10 point defences can easily negate Prethoryn Scourge missiles and strikecraft even on very high crisis settings.
Answer: We could do that, but this would just be a bandaid solution which is something we are trying now to avoid. Think the more overarching changes of the combat rework and tech rebalance.

When we are looking at making any changes to ships/adding new ships etc that would be a prime moment to review ship components in general.

So in short, no current plans, but something we aren't ignorant of.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by morebits
Is there a possibility of getting a Fallen Empire Difficulty slider QoL soon?
Answer: There are always chances. Go and make a suggestion on the suggestion forum and see if you can't rally people behind you! (Reddit is another popular place to prove your point is popular)
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by ancientiroh
the at this point semi-new concept system which was introduced in 3.7.4 is very awesome and hot, are there any other big modding changes/improvements planned? ~~Also please make vanilla referencable without making new separate loc entries for each new trait~~
Answer: We've been investigating being able to have concepts auto-generated from some game objects to make formatting the tooltips of civics and origins more consistent
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by varstar
is there ever gonna be an culture expansion?
Answer: Do you want the blorg to wear your blue jeans?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by luzekiel
Are you guys looking forward or excited for the next dlcs coming this year more than the previous year
Answer: I am kept in a climate controlled tube that keeps me at a consistent and precise level of sheer excitement for all new content, always.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by imperialred22
will there be upcoming dlcs or improvements for the gestalt empires? Since the dlcs and updates has been more focused on the regular empires and I feel that gestalt should get some more love.
Answer: Gestalts, especially Machine Intelligences, could certainly use some gameplay refinement and improvements. Iggy's been making broken Hive content so they're in a bit better shape.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by slayer4052
Will we ever see the addition of more weapon types for T-slots? Energy beams get quite stale after some time, I wouldn't mind a T-sized missile.
Answer: Only if they similarly blind you when they are fired. I demand that graphics card melt when you shoot T weapons!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by kiwibaum
I have the feeling that there's more and more things added over time you have to deal with, like leader levels and council agendas for example. Aswell as more systems like astral rifts. Both putting a strain on the player either learning wise or attention wise.

How close do you think we are at the maximum of those two things the player can handle and does that play into decisions much of if a new dlc will add systems or add flesh to existing ones?
Answer: We are certainly close to the point of stressing out even experienced players and we are aware of it. We are working on ways to make some systems less complicated (though still complex) or at least less time-demanding. There are discussions and designs on the topic as well, considerations about opt-in systems, opt-out systems, automation etc. To summarize, yes, its becoming an issue, we are aware of it and its influencing our designs and plans.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by tr33_m4n
What seen/read sci-fi media concept made you think: Maybe i can add this to the game??
Answer: Everyone here has an entire ocean of material they are personally inspired by, we have no shortage of 'Things we think are cool and also want in our cool game'. The real challenge is using inspiration and relevant and creative ways.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by 59th_lefty
Are you planning on touching Subterfuge Tradition to be more powerful? Espionage is currently pointless even against easy AI, maybe it only needs some speed up?
Answer: a problem that goes far beyond the tradition, give us enough time and Espionage will hopefully see a touchup
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by mrbarbe
what about new ways to convert trade value like new trade policy to convert it into tech?
Answer: The last time I suggested a trade policy to convert trade into research, Eladrin threatened to remove my ability to make changes to the game
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by daniellm
when are you removing the rest of the mtth events <rikki_intensifies:1086143267986477136>
Answer: I removed a few more this coming patch!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by kusluk
do you have a rough idea on when the next DLC is expected to drop? I.e. quarter or season? And... can we expect more than one DLC this year?
Answer: Stellaris has a real solid team working on it and we haven't had to push back when a DLC launches in a long time. So yes, by the time we start developing a DLC we roughly know when they are coming out.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
What is your current main game (outside of stellaris ofc)?
Answer: Currently I have a few hours in WH40K: Rogue Traders
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by crabbogaming
is the canon name of every galaxy in stellaris called Stellaris
Answer: Whatever you call it is canon, sandbox and all that.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by thatonefoxy
If any of the developers has even looked at Stellaris Evolved, have there been moments where you guys thought: Oh maybe we should add this to the main game
It can be anything from the extra pop ascensions like genetics getting genetic perfection after doing the first one.
Or even the extra starbase buildings.
Answer: I am fascinated and amazed by what the members of our modding community manage to achieve, especially given the limitations modding brings (not being able added new effects or triggers in code certainly imposes some strategic thinking), but I barely have enough time to play the vanilla game, let alone mods
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by galactic.emperor
Hi! Do you have any plans regarding expansion on internal politics of the countries, such as faction or mb parliament voting based on faction popularity and leaders in the coincil for democracies?
Answer: We have frequent discussions about internal politics in the design team. It'll end up being a really big thing to do it right though. We know you all want it though.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by trueamalgamatedbeast
Will ethics ever see kind of overhaul? (like adding more ethics axis or ethic related events)
Answer: No real chance for that. Soooo many of our events and weights and content are based on the current ethics.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Are we going to see any content related to galactic news and media in the future as potential mechanics/aestetics for mechanics? It seems to me that seems like a really interesting path one could go down for more content and mechanics, and could be another way to increase your own empire's (or decrease other empire's) happiness and other diplomatic prospects. Like maybe a radio station neutral enclave station for galactic news, and then finding ways to either enhance, support, or perhaps control the media in your own empire, allowing for trust building and honesty....or perhaps, subterfuge and manipulation. Hey, if no one has the evidence to contradict you, it is The Truth right? And perhaps you could even use that news station to learn about specific things about an empire as well, or recent battles and such. Seems like an interesting idea, so wondered if you were considering something like this for the future?
Answer: Fortunately a media and news focus has been brought up within the team before, several times. Unfortunately though, not at the level where we have any current plans for it. For now it remains a cool idea, which people are refining their pitches and ideas for until we get something that everyone agrees would be an improvement to the game.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by helicopter200
Will ever hiveminds get organic ships and cities (origin to start with hive world too) and machines get robotic ships and cities?
Answer: Probably. They're nice sci-fi tropes that aren't reflected sufficiently yet.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by azaken_mobito
Just a thought, but what do you think about planetary defense cannons being able to be built on planets? It would provide protection and even defense against fleets, making it so that if you have a planet on the fringe, it might be able to fight off weaker fleets at least so it cant be as easily captured by like three ships standing above it forever while the bigger fleets wreck havoc. Of course it would take precious building slots, but it still seems like an interesting idea to explore. Plus you know, pew pew and all that.
Answer: I have seen this suggestion multiple times before, I don't personally agree. When you are bombarding a planet you are likley to be going off somewhere else and microing your fleets. In this time you might lose ships without really realizing why.

Also from a meta design perspective, the player bombards planets more often than they get bombarded. So it should be more fun to attack than defend.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by hotcoffee_
Regarding JoJo's crisis, can I suggest pizza as a solution?
Answer: I do have a Frozen pizza..this would optimise my time in Helldivers.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by pruddy
Is there any plans for a spiritualist rework? The ethic as it stands is very much underpowered compared to its Materialist counterpart which has so much research buffs, robotic, etc
Answer: We're gonna have to disagree here, we think that Spiritualist has a decent power level, so we don't have a plan for any major rework or buffing as of right now.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by imperialred22
will you be providing further performance improvements to resolve the endgame lag issues?
Answer: We're always working on performance, but the more we add the harder it becomes.
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by .archaeon
Are playable nomadic empires on the roadmap? Nomads are a pretty large scifi trope that seems underutilized thus far that Stellaris highly lacks
Answer: We investigated this for a bit. It's probably doable but would need to be the headlining feature of a DLC and there is currently no space in our vast plans!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by tr33_m4n
Are you happy with the current balance of the early-, mid- and endgame stage of the games? Or do you consider expanding/improving one significantly (e.g new techs)? If yes, which one and why?
Answer: The tech/research changes in 3.11 should make the pace of the game more reasonable, but I still feel that the early game and exploration phase can be over too quickly, especially if you're one of those players who spams science ships
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by homenakki
Do you ever get overwhelmed with the amount of content in the game to manage, and the fact that so many pieces of old content need improvement.
Answer: It's not easy. Luckily quite a few of us who work here have several thousands of hours of experience before we even got the job. So someone usually remembers clashing content/systems before they get implemented.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by elysiven
Are there plans for more Galaxy customisation, like turning off archaeology sites or astral rifts ?
Answer: I have grand plans for Galaxy Settings, which is unfortunately one of the most cursed piece of Stellaris to work with. We'll see what we can do, but I'd like to give players more control over the pacing and systems of the game.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by hashbrown1512
I ask again, are we going to get a juggernaut bombardment stance button any time soon?
Answer: On a long enough time line, but not planned currently.
Again seems simple but requires UX tweaks and maybe should be bundled with other work.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by kusluk
Will we ever get an answer to “what/who are the hunters <a:blobsweat:857249819458273320> ? [it's fantastic content]”
Answer: As long as I am here. No. We can never make anything as terrifying and unknowable as your own mind!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thatonefoxy
What are the dev's thoughts on the espionage system and how would you improve it if you could redo the entire system? I personally think the system can be refined and expanded on.
Answer: It most definitely can be improved upon and there is the will and designs within the team to see that happen, it simply requires time and extensive testing to ensure that we don't change it from something that is, while plain, mostly non-painful. What we absolutely do not want is to turn it into something that is interesting but annoying to players.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by zunwar
is there crisis being develop. Love to have a crisis related to astral plains.
Answer: There is a crisis developing currently but it's What do I have for dinner, any suggestions are appreciated.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by hotcoffee_
What's your favourite thing you've added/helped add to stellaris?
Answer: It has yet to be announced/shown
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by thatonefoxy
In stellaris evolved, by rodah there is an option to turn normal planets into ecoworlds, the nature equivalent of an ecumunopolis,
Are there any plans to make a nature route for planet ascendency or will it stay only ecumunopoli?
Answer: Not necessarily a biological ecu, but I personally don't like how far behind Machine and Hive Worlds are in comparison to Ecus. They should recive the same unique district treatment for sure!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by crabbogaming
Any plans for future species packs or plans for rehauls of previous ones? I'd love to see more portraits or some new traits.
Answer: Did you not see what we did back in Caelum? https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Patch_3.9 Nothing is sacred!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by varstar
is there gonna ever be a way to start in midgame/endgame?
Answer: Looking at the other Paradox games, we know most folks pretty much always stick to the earlier start date. Adding Mid/Late game starts adds a lot of overhead for a feature that most people would ignore. So while not a horrible idea it would be a lot of work to add new features to Galaxy Generation that might be time better spent elsewhere.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by miltonova
Thoughts on a time manipulation DLC, like for example, late game tech to to interact with the precursor era, and maybe a crisis like a TVA like empire
Answer: We did actually make this DLC but a QA tested went back in time and removed it to verify that our models worked

Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by feztis
Question: Have the devs ever considered fixing issues related to the mechanics around fighting wars? E.g.

1) the issue of never-ending wars if an AI empire is occupied by powers in two separate wars,

2) the issue of creating claims contributing to longer wars when all claims may not be able to occupied due to the large and stacking -100 surrender acceptance per colonized system-modifier (related to point 1)),

3) the issue of every federation type being very similar in terms of how they wage war, i.e. the AI's logic of joining wars being indistinguishable between e.g. a logically offensive Martial Alliance versus a more prosperity-minded and defensive Trade League, contributing to every federation being a huge block that can rarely be fought without having to fight every member at the same time (Idea is they could fundamentally be geared differently toward members joining defensive/offensive or certain kinds of wars depending on fed type)

Some basic lessons could certainly be learned from the mechanics of war in e.g. EU4, in my opinion
Answer: War Improvements are always in consideration, we are well aware of its clunky interactions and we are not happy witht hem, BUT, and I can not overstate this, its also a quite complicated area of the game. Changing who can join a war, means dealing with vassals, federations, the galactic imperium, crisis wars, total wars etc. It escalates into a massive effort. It can be done and we want to do it, but it takes time and some really good solutions of which we only have parts and pieces as of now. Once we have something we are confident in, we will bring it to our fanbase.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by azaken_mobito
Its occured to me we dont have species traits regarding size yet. Do you think those would be options and possibilities for the future? Not like they have to be tiny (although that would be interesting too), even just as small as a hyuma...er,, I mean human, which I am, anyways a human child would be good. Or perhaps having a large and hulking race that is as big as a car! It feels like something that would be really great both for species customization, but also just lorewise as well. Im just saying, two words. Space Hobbits. Nuff said right?
Answer: Since my first day here I have suggested and fought for the tiny and large species pack. The large protraits will just be a single dinosaur foot and you only get a few pixels for the tiny portait. One day!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by daginger.
As the galaxy gets more and more diverse with each new dlc, one thing I find I notice is how there (bar leviathans) haven't been many new space fauna added, something like the space amoeba, mining drones, tiyanki etc. Are there any thoughts about possibly including a new type, maybe it could give new techs like the others do, unique to defeating or befriending them.
Answer: I really wanted to add a new space fauna to First Contact but we didn't end up having the bandwidth for it. I think there's a lot of room in Stellaris for more, they can really make the galaxy feel alive.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by duckofunlimitedpower
is an internal politics and espionage rework on the horizon/on the drawing board?
Answer: I have often said that to fix espionage we have to outdesign every other 4X game to ever exist. There are improvements being discussed to espionage all the time but nothing is immiment.

As for internal politics, as soon as the entire community can define what that would actually mean we can consider it! (This is a half joke. I Don't think we could do what most people imagine it should be in a single expansion)
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by hotcoffee_
Best name for the space amoeba (wrong answers only)
Answer: Lunch
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by someonesomeone8779
Are flat bonuses like Genius's Armorer's flat extra shield hp and armor hp going to be rebalanced so that they provide more comparable benefits to bigger ships? Right now building 8 corvettes with a genius armorer councilier gives you 8 times the HP bonus compared to a battleships
Answer: Make me a bug report please
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by slayer4052
I know this might be a strange thing to ask, but since the Custodians are touching up on old DLCs is there a possibility that older soundtracks would be revisited and given a new version as well?
Answer: I feel like this might be heretical as I adore those old tracks but I can poke our audio director!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by nudeldifudel
Is making the different government types, aka imperial, democratic, dictatorial etc more unique and fleshed out, something the team would be interested in tackling one day?
Answer: Making different government types play out differently has long been a goal of mine, there's some slight differences now (for example Democracies ignoring policy and government reform cooldowns upon election of a new ruler), but the team as always has more ideas than we could ever implement
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by crabbogaming
Are there any plans for a cybernetic origin? Similar to teachers of the shroud and overtuned
Answer: Do you feel your flesh getting weak?
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by luzekiel
Do you guys plan to make more dlcs with other third parties like Abrakam or is it just a one time thing?
Answer: Yes, we will continue to experiment with this.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by kusluk
Please give us the ability to adjust the mid game/end game dates to whatever we want i.e. text box not slider. Similar with crisis strength, can I not just type in a number please?
Answer: not a bad idea, let's try and convince Eladrin it's worth adding
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by jadedspore25849
will star bases be able to be designable for player customization in the future?
Answer: This isn't quite as simple as it sounds and would most likely require more work than the end result would potentially justify. But never say never.
Answered by: Jojo (QA Lead)

Question by concordcobra
is there any thought about new leviathans, maybe ones like the wraith who can move around from system to system
Answer: When I requested a turtle leviathan that was also a planet that you could colonize and that could move between systems the programmers came after me with pitchforks. I won't let them stop me from trying tho!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by helicopter200
Next DLC what will be about?
Answer: Ahh, an Age old question... Space?
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by elysiven
What can players do to make sure that multiplayer stability issues are addressed?
Answer: As I said previously, we're always working on MP Stability, hopefully it'll get better
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by azaken_mobito
Will we see more additions to Crisis in the future as well as lore for them as well? Same with Fallen Empires and such as well as some of the other endgame/precursor stuff? Id love to see more expansions for them. Or even have lore that links them together perhaps, like maybe they faced an endgame thing in the past as well.
Answer: As you might have seen in Astral Planes we explored the backstory of the Unbidden as well as many precursors. This is not the last time we will build on our existing universe and what our predecsors built for us.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by happythumbs
Are you concerned that with the reductions to researcher outputs, players (especially casual players) will not be able to research and bring megastructures online before the game is effectively over, greatly reducing the value of megastructures and the DLCs that add them?
Answer: We believe that the pacing of the game is improved by the reduction to researcher outputs, and based on our testing even casual players should not have difficulty reaching megastructures during a normal game. (Especially since the width of tech tiers is tied partially to game difficulty.)
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by Mir
Any plans for a longer-term planning experience on the UI? I.e. marking non-owned stars / sectors with tags / icons, fleet movement plans between systems-to-be-occupied, planet development build sequencing for building slot unlocks, etc?
Answer: We are always looking into ways to make the UI better within our production cycles, we love hearing constructive feedback and ideas on how we can make it better. No comment for now, but whatever new features and improvements we are working on we will be sure to share them as soon as we can.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by homenakki
What kind of empire build do you think will be strongest in the next patch?
Answer: Probably some Clone Army or Progentior hive funkyniess
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by rexfarr
will council agenda alerts ever match advisor voice?
Answer: Perhaps, but the only way I could see that is if our audio department went in with AI voices and those kinds of decisions are above my paygrade.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by thatonefoxy
Regarding Multiplayer and Out-of-sync issues, Currently Stellaris (1) seems mostly single player focussed, are there plans to make the game more stable in multiplayer or will this mostly be adressed in Stellaris (2) whenever that may come out.
Answer: We're always working on MP stability and we have plans specifically for it in the future
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by hanns_007
Will the room selector in the empire creation finally get a scrollable option. Because right now, one needs to click through every single room and that takes hours if people use Room Mods. A scrollable option, just like for City Sets or Origins would be sooo helpful.
Answer: The empire creation screen is a personal nemesis of mine. I will not be defeated!
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by .cairos
will galaxy generation ever take custom races into account, to prevent the re-use of racial portraits and creation of immersion breaking duplicates?
Answer: THis is already supposed to be the case, but if you have a repro case, please report it in the bug forums https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-bug-reports.941/
Answered by: Moah (Programmer)

Question by daginger.
Lots of civics contain regular empire variants and megacorp variants, and the next update is going to be making more of them switch between the two. Idyllic bloom for example doesn't have a megacorp version, are there any plans to have a look at the civics which don't have a variant for both and see if they could be given a megacorp variant?
Answer: The Custodians have been quite good at improving civics, be it by lessening restrictions and or adding alternatives. So It is likely to happen as times goes on but there is no dedicated plan detailing which civic and when.
Answered by: Gruntsplayground (Game Design)

Question by helicopter200
what will be the theme for next DLC? a species pack? A big expansion? or A story pack?
Answer: We are strongly considering a Stellaris theme.
Answered by: Beals (Concept Art)

Question by justnils78
do you plan to expand the lore of the game?
At the moment e.g. the Great Wound system suggests that something happend there but no clue what
Also will we see more astral rifts tie into the precursors, so far we have the Zroni and the Grunur, would love to see more of it
Answer: Yes there is more to learn.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by homenakki
Can you share any information about a possible sequel for the game?
Answer: If there's ever any information to share, you'll know. You won't have to ask for it in a Q&A.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by kusluk
The precursors are one of the most interesting aspects of the game from a lore perspective, are there plans to add more in the future?
Answer: We'd love to continue building upon the lore of Stellaris and add more precursor storylines in the future
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by daniellm
do you have any plans of updating fallen empires at some point? more events, more types, more anything really. they haven't been changed for years
Answer: I want to
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by psychobelka
Will patch 3.14 be the last for version 3? Can we expect version 4 in the future?
Answer: I know at least 6 updates in advance and none of them would be a 4.0
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by bertinox
Is the idea of a gestalt-focused update farfetched or viable, and has it ever been considered? I understand normal empires have a much higher importance and presence in the game, but I'm still curious to see if we may see an update adding new content for gestalt empires in the future. Thanks!
Answer: Well I still have a job so probably.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by crashingcaptain
The Knights of The Toxic god changes are... Some are good, making the weak options more choosable is good, but in what world is 25% army damage worth it, given the costs?
Answer: The Army Damage modifier is an additional rider effect, the main bonus the event option provides is negating the upkeep from knight jobs
Answered by: Alfray Stryke (Game Design)

Question by happythumbs
Clerks are considered to be very weak worker jobs to the point that most experienced players including myself disable them entirely. Is the weakness of the clerk job a deliberate design choice, or are there plans to make it stronger?
Answer: Clerks are intentionally a fairly weak job, but we like the idea of them being situationally valuable for certain builds, so we're fond of effects that modify their production. They shouldn't be a pure trap option though.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

Question by kusluk
The Fallen Empires feel like the oldest untouched part of the game, are there any plans to refresh them via a DLC or custodian update?
Answer: We are aware and agree. All I can say is not this quarter.
Answered by: Iggy (Content Design)

Question by regler
Are there plans to introduce a new crisis?
Answer: I think it'd be nice to see another end game crisis.
Answered by: Eladrin (Game Director)

What Else?

I promised to give a teaser about what the internal team has been working on. Here you go.

01010011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111
01110101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110100
00100000 01110111 01100101 01100101 01101011 00100001

Next week's dev diary will be later than usual as well.

Stellaris Dev Diary #334 - "Eridanus" Next Steps

State of the Game​

More on the Stellaris Expansion Subscription​

Discord Q&A Transcript​

What Else?​

Colonel

General

Captain

Better to have a keg than a six-pack

Banned

General

Colonel

Field Marshal

Second Lieutenant

Captain

Recruit

Recruit

Corporal

Captain

Major

Captain

First Lieutenant

Sergeant

Corporal

State of the Game

More on the Stellaris Expansion Subscription

Discord Q&A Transcript

What Else?