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Stellaris Dev Diary #335 - Announcing The Machine Age

It is time to leave our flawed biological vessels behind.​


It’s my pleasure to announce that The Machine Age major expansion will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.12 ‘Andromeda’ update.

Focusing on cybernetic, synthetic, and machine themes, The Machine Age will begin during the second quarter of 2024.

In pursuing the divine calling, we shall achieve the fusion of the exalted body and sacred cybernetics.​


The Technophants and Haruspex of the Cybernetic Creed will guide their flock to the perfect union of flesh and machine.

Cybernetic Creed

Cybernetic augmentation is not solely the province of the materialists.

Playgrounds stand empty. In time, we will cease to be.​

For now, our salvation lies in the digital realm…​


A doomed species races against extinction to reach the virtual world in Synthetic Fertility.

Synthetic Fertility

Blur the lines between the physical and virtual worlds.

Our planet is barren, but our home system is a bounty of riches.​

To exploit them, we must build bigger than ever before.​


Originally designed to build mighty constructions in space, the Arc Welders must utilize that advantage to the fullest to overcome the deficiencies of their homeworld.

Arc Welders

These masters of Mega-Engineering began exploiting their home system before discovering faster-than-light travel.

The things that make me different​

are the things that make me, me.​


The creators may be gone, but society endures. Your chassis may have begun identical to trillions of others in your empire, but you are no drone - you are an individual.

With The Machine Age, you can explore the game as non-Gestalt, Individualist Machine Empires!

Individualistic Machines

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

A transformative age is upon us,​

sparked by innovation and oiled by opportunity.​


The Machine Age explores how Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension affect society within your empire.
Advanced government forms are available to empires that navigate the process.

Advanced Authorities

The Cybernetic Creed Origin has an additional variant for each standard Authority.

Become better than you are.​


Six new civics provide additional choices for your empires.

Civics

Corporate and Hive Mind civics require MegaCorp or Utopia respectively.

Filling out Form 42-A on a Bureaucratic World


Build a better future.​


Two mid-game structures are introduced in The Machine Age - exploit systems with the molten world Arc Furnace, and start your work towards a Dyson Sphere early by building the Dyson Swarm.

Dyson Swarm

And so we came forth and once again beheld the stars.

Ignorance shackles us, putting the universe’s secrets out of reach.​

No matter the price, we must break free.​


Building upon the system introduced in Nemesis, The Machine Age introduces a second player crisis path, focused on technological ascendancy at any cost.

Something Greater

The time has come to be part of something greater.

My children, at last I am returned to you.​


For the first time since the Contingency was introduced in the Stellaris 1.8 “Čapek” release, a new end-game crisis has been unleashed.

An ancient threat, sealed away for countless millennia, has returned.


The Machine Age logo

The Machine Age expansion includes:​

  • Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires​
  • Gestalt Machine Intelligence Empires (also unlocked by the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack)
  • Three new Origins​
    • Cybernetic Creed​
    • Synthetic Fertility​
    • Arc Welders​
  • Civics​
    • Guided Sapience​
    • Natural Design​
    • Obsessional Directive​
    • Protocol Droids​
    • Tactical Cogitators​
    • Augmentation Bazaars (Requires Megacorp)
  • Two Mid-Game Structures​
    • Arc Furnace​
    • Dyson Swarms​
  • New Ascension Paths for Machine Empires​
  • Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension (also unlocked by Utopia)
  • Exploration of the effects of the cyberization or synthesization of society, with Advanced Government Forms for those who complete it.​
  • New Species Traits for Cyborgs, Machines and Robots​
  • Cybernetic portraits that change based on advancement through cyberization​
  • Synthetic portraits with both organic and synthetic variants that changed based on synthesization, usable by either organics or machines​
  • Two new Shipsets, Diplomatic Rooms, and City Sets​
  • 7 new music tracks synthetic and cybernetic inspired music tracks​
  • A new Player Crisis Path​
  • …And a new End-Game Crisis.

Dev Diary Schedule
Dev Diary Topic
March 14​
Announcing The Machine Age​
March 21​
The Origins and Situations of The Machine Age​
March 28​
Individualistic Machines and Machine Gameplay Updates​
April 4​
Civics and Structures of The Machine Age and Auto-Modding​
April 11​
The New End-Game Crisis​
April 18​
The New Player Crisis​
April 25​
The Art of The Machine Age - Ships and Reactive Portraits​

 
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I was more annoyed that the Aetherophasic Engine reuses the dyson sphere model.
Yeah, the entire playable crisis mode seemed to be pretty rushed and i hope it gets some love models-wise at some point, it was kinda underwhelming in that regard. The star eater looks pretty cool but everything else is really underwhelming appeareance-wise.
 
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They're kinda baking in a bit of a spiritualism thing into this as well with the digitization of species (if I'm understanding that right), so maybe this new Crisis will be a sort of amalgamation of the other 3? If so, I really hope we get an option to force them to be the last Crisis to spawn if you're using the All Crisis option. And what Relic will they drop, and how OP will it be?
The Prebiddency: half flesh, half machine, half etheric energy?
 
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Ok. If you do ONE thing with machine pops, please introduce a facility to merge them all into one style.

I’m sick of having 50 different machine pops from planets I’ve conquered, all with slightly different traits. It’s super-annoying.
 
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Very hyped for what's been listed. I'd be interested to see if there's any back-integration between the Synthetic Fertility origin who want to escape to the matrix, and the Vultaum precursor chain where you can find out you're in a simulation called Stellaris.
 
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Any modification to the core play of machine empires? Something for them to have a really unique gameplay? (That differ from Hive mind) Something like machines don't use traits but components that have bonuses, maluses and a cost. So the Machine empire stay competitive in end Game.
 
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Hopefully there's an origin/some such setup for a regular empire lead by an AI or supercomputer

It would make sense as the idea is already in Stellaris lore (the Oracle). The only issue I can see is how to make it distinct enough from Under One Rule. The AI is immortal from day 1 as opposed to needing some ascension tech to keep it alive, but apart from that, what would be the practical difference? Would the government take on "Rogue Servitor tendencies" without fully becoming a Rogue Servitor empire, and if so, what would that entail?

Will we be able to have religious/spiritual machines like the Cylons?

Cylons are a type of synth in Stellaris terms, so it would make sense as an option. (Another example are the Vodyani from Endless Space 2.) I hope at the very least, they fix things so that you don't automatically end up with the bulk of synths belonging to the Materialist faction.

I suspect that *by default* the Spiritualist faction will continue to hate cyborgs/synths, but that you'll be able to override this with the right origin or civic. A civic for a religious Machine Intelligence could also be fun, but I don't know what it would mean practically. Maybe there will be a "psionic" ascension for Machine Intelligences that lets them interface with the Shroud?
 
Will we be able to remove cybernetic traits again from pops through genetic modification as genetically-ascended empires?
 
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Don't get me wrong - trailer, as usual, is top-notch, and all these new features look cool, but it feels more like Synthetic Dawn after Custodian overhaul, than expansion with a theme new to Stellaris.

Most of the features, like Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires, would be great for Story Pack.
 
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The problem I have with this dlc: If you are not interessted in robots, most of the features are useless. This dlc is too niche (not like federations or overlord). I hope this will only be a smaller dlc (like first contact) so there will be more dlcs this year.
 
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The expansion content looks great. I'm particularly interested in the new Crisis content.

I just can't shake the feeling that I wished we got this DLC after an internal politics one.

At this point it just doesn't seem likely that we'll get an expansion dedicated to that before production wraps up on Stellaris.
I think there will no internal politics in stellaris soon.
When robots and synths are improved with this dlc, the next dlc will probably improve psionics and maybe genetic engineering.
 
I think there will no internal politics in stellaris soon.
When robots and synths are improved with this dlc, the next dlc will probably improve psionics and maybe genetic engineering.
I'm hoping it will be religion, interstellar sickness, and interstellar trade following interstellar pathways and getting nuanced. Something new rather than updates to the old. I want to see more ways to be evil (not that genetic engineering stuff for your neighbors isn't evil.) Just blowing up all your friends gets tiresome though.
 
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The problem I have with this dlc: If you are not interessted in robots, most of the features are useless. This dlc is too niche (not like federations or overlord). I hope this will only be a smaller dlc (like first contact) so there will be more dlcs this year.

Its absolutely ridiculous to ignore a significant portion of players that have been begging for a DLC in this domain and dircection after numerous DLCs that basically touched everything that existed outside of synths, if not whole new mechanics that excluded synths or gave half measure.

Nah, a niche DLC would be Pirate/Barbarian expansion and extension which less than a dozen of us are begging for despite it reasonably being one of the more creative playstyles but dashed on the rocks of power and experience by the systems for piracy and espionage being half baked at this moment. In the oven but clearly not done.

And I absolutely hate robots and synths and gestalts and all of that jazz, never play them, always bark profanity when I come across them in game, always sell or purge them if I have to deal with them. This is a dope ass DLC by the looks of it.

The alternative, if there even is one, is basically doing full on expansions instead of piecemeal DLCs, that's ready when it's ready in unsatisfying ways that cause players to drop when they've run out of experiences and ideas for the game, and then once released some portion of players would balk at the pricetag and/or their favorite thing not getting any love in the expansion, all to avoid 'niche'. Seems way worse.
 
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And I absolutely hate robots and synths and gestalts and all of that jazz, never play them, always bark profanity when I come across them in game, always sell or purge them if I have to deal with them. This is a dope ass DLC by the looks of it.
I can't imagine we won't get some sort of anti-robot stuff in this DLC considering we got Sovereign Guardianship (the turtle civic) in the DLC all about galactic exploration.
 
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Isn't "cogitator" a trademarked word? I tried to find out what it is and all I got were Warhammer 40k linki.
 
My guess is, building the Horizon Needle is going to be the goal of the new crisis path and they will need to harvest pops for it.