[Dev Team] BioGenesis + 4.0 'Phoenix' released (checksum 1ae3)

[Foxosaur]

Going to try and give some due praise... I think the two new pre generated empires are great, not just individually but both contrast against each other gleefully. One might be peaceful pure expansion with a strong identity whilst the other will devour and consume. I think the choices both narratively and civic wise are just great and immersive. But I can say that about many of the new civics/traits I've so far seen. It feels like we're branching out diverse ways of how you can play mechanically rather than just by playstyle and empire design. From my perspective, it feels like a big milestone and probably a sign that you've come some way to undoing the mess we knew that existed, somewhere, that was unspeakable and unknowable to most of us.


Like in the beta, I like the colony launch screen - that set and forget feeling, is great, it could go a step further, if it recommended something based on the destination without being too optimal but its great now.

The splash menu screen is just immense as is the long opening in the track its been paired with. Unlike the TMA, this feels understated in a good way, making you focus on the screen this time, looking at something to focus on. As a big fan of the game (and movie) music, I'm always pleased with how this gets churned out in Stellaris and I think it's important in any game to get everything on the same theme, not just "game design" but visual and audio story telling. Anyway, great work there. It made me think about how Doom Eternal has this rip-tearing set of tracks that feel on another level to the game itself but also set scenes perfectly. Little did I know until recently that the person responsible use to do his audio design until after a lot of other things were finished so he knew what he had to make fit and work, that man was smart and intuitive. Apparently he wasn't treated too well in the end but lets not go into that. I just think its a privilege to now be invested in a game where the music is so well maintained, and is clearly important to at least someone in the team. It seems safe to assume that will continue as it always has been. I hope other Paradox games put this much attention into their games and if not, they should.

Anyway, the UI is definitely improved since the beta and I'm glad that at a glance that initial planet tab is readable and useful - and planet size / districts are there as are the district graphics updated. I'm not sold on the Management tab but you know what, rather than suggesting/telling you what I think you should do, I think you should all bathe a bit in what appears to be a great release full of content that all of us are enjoying or will enjoy.

It's a great effort and can only hope you get as much enjoyment as we us players will.

So heres to many more hours of fun, chaos or whatever it may be we all get up to in this rich game, thanks Eladrin and team.

 

[Sighfer]

Who keeps giving the dev team these laughable deadlines?

 

[Ilab]

I cannot state how dissapointed and outraged I am about all this. Lots of bugs, the leader changes are (who would have guessed) horrible, the Template UI is so bad that if I had done this on my Software Engineering at the university I would have got a 0, the planet tabs are awful, lots of pop groups on the management tab that serve no purpose, no way for you to know the actual pop growth (only how much grew last month, but voila! it also includes migration, so worthless), clearing blockers is a Scrollaris too, good luck finding your features without surfing to the management tab everytime and (you guessed it!) scrolling. Etc etc etc.

You know what is the most disappointing thing? To wait for about one year for the 'hyped' rework to the weakest ascension path, the one that was going to have it on part to machines etc. Only to find that, unlike with the machine age, they took what the old ascension had and split it. Yeah, that is right. Advanced traits we had before? Now on purity. Phenotype traits and leviathan traits now only for mutation boyah (yeah they added more phenotype traits, which is great! But the fact that only ONE path allows for it sucks), at least they didn't go through with the only cloning has access to cloning vats though.

So yeah, LOTS OF GREAT STUFF on the update, but lots of crack too. With the introduction of space fauna and how versatile and customizable they where (not saying strong here mind you) i expected the actual bio ships to be even more customizable, after all we are supposedly their makers, growing them to our liking etc. But no, they are as customizable as a metal potato. Almost the entire system is carried by the weaver (which is amazing btw, I really mean it, this needs to be brought to other places too, artificial ships deserve something like it) but the rest of the ships are extremely boring, with little room for experimentation or design. Harbinger has an insane amount of strike craft, and even insaner amounts of point defense, THAT IS IT, similar things happen to other ships. The only one worth playing around is the weaver (which again, is amazing) sadly, the rest are just hard solutions to a problem, they are not well designed, they just have lots of stats and weapons/hangars. Still, this is not even close to being the worst of this DLC.

Again, what use does this have:

Only one species I have, and this screen is full of things that I need to scroll a lot to see, to see what even? Changes on the last month for that group? This is useless, entirely useless.

Also, love (not) the buff for the Zroni Storm Caster, it really needed it (it didn't, the thing was crazy good at what it did already). After all, completely nullifying armor, pftt, that is nothing right? ........

So so many things I dislike in this update. Anyways, here is a list of things we lost with this update that YOU MIGHT NOT BE AWARE:
1. Trade routes (ok with this honestly, i liked it, but no big deal, this is also the only element in this list that was said to be removed btw)
2. Selective slave purging. (You didnt knew you could, on a specific planet, purge any enslaved pop? Well, since now it is gone, you didn't lose on much it seems, yay!)
3. Template stealing with organic pop assembly (since pop assembly is now just added growth, forget about this cool thing that a lot of people loved)
4. Per planet growth restrictions. (now that all pops grow, no longer can you forbid a pop from growing a SPECIFIC planet, but not selecting it for growth, now if the pop exists, it will grow in that planet, so get ready to have some unwanted pops out of control baby)

Man I can continue with this Unbridled Rage, but it is not healthy for anyone honestly. This is the first time since I have been playing this game that I am so upset at an update. Why? Mostly because of the entire process. The beta was released when it was crap, instead of closer to release. Sure, we found some VERY OBVIOUS BUGS, bugs that would have been found anyways though. But the real things that needed testing could not be tested because no more beta for all after a while. So, in the end a lot of the things many people found where things we could not know if they where an error, bug, by design etc. And even then, lots of things (including some bugs) that are now live, where reported on the beta.

That is why I am so disappointed. One year waiting for the genetics rework only to see that most of its stuff (not all ofc) is just things we had that are now spread over the three paths. The modular tradition tree was an amazing idea, I hope it gets used more in the future, but the fact that it took what we already had (which was what made genetics cool, not the stats, we have machines for that, but the cool tricks) and gate keeped them. Welp, whatever.

All in all, lots of great stuff, dont get me wrong. This is not an the entire things sucks post. I was very clear with what I disliked, there are lots of cool stuff. But I was expecting more and better, specially after the machine age. But well, sucks to hope for some love to genetics I suppose. I bet psi will get bonkers in a few months as usual though.

Now, proceed to downvote at your pleasure, I am in a state that I really don't care. This is the first time I had not played a release more than to try it out at max speed and with console commands to check more stuff out. I checked all I wanted to check and closed the game. For the first time on years I have decided that I do not want to play the game. (Not because it is suddenly thrash obviously, but because of how bad I feel about this update).

For the love of god, over the few weeks do some proper balance and fixing (not like archives, storms etc, that we are still waiting for their respective promised polishing) and at least make 'meat ships' more customizable and do some polishing with the new UIs. I would ask for reverting the leader changes too, but after asking for it since the day it was announced and being ignored I have lost all hope on it happening, so instead I will need to adapt to the way in which you want me to play, not the one I wanted to. Also, do something about management tab and pop growth, as it stands all those little portraits just are a spam of images for no reason.

Am out, or I won't ever finish.

 

[Zappor]

It's embarrasing to release with such a huge list of known issues in the first hours of release!! It means that the game wasn't ready and should have been delayed.

 

[Adaman5280]

I cannot state how dissapointed and outraged I am about all this. Lots of bugs, the leader changes are (who would have guessed) horrible, the Template UI is so bad that if I had done this on my Software Engineering at the university I would have got a 0, the planet tabs are awful, lots of pop groups on the management tab that serve no purpose, no way for you to know the actual pop growth (only how much grew last month, but voila! it also includes migration, so worthless), clearing blockers is a Scrollaris too, good luck finding your features without surfing to the management tab everytime and (you guessed it!) scrolling. Etc etc etc.

You know what is the most disappointing thing? To wait for about one year for the 'hyped' rework to the weakest ascension path, the one that was going to have it on part to machines etc. Only to find that, unlike with the machine age, they took what the old ascension had and split it. Yeah, that is right. Advanced traits we had before? Now on purity. Phenotype traits and leviathan traits now only for mutation boyah (yeah they added more phenotype traits, which is great! But the fact that only ONE path allows for it sucks), at least they didn't go through with the only cloning has access to cloning vats though.

So yeah, LOTS OF GREAT STUFF on the update, but lots of crack too. With the introduction of space fauna and how versatile and customizable they where (not saying strong here mind you) i expected the actual bio ships to be even more customizable, after all we are supposedly their makers, growing them to our liking etc. But no, they are as customizable as a metal potato. Almost the entire system is carried by the weaver (which is amazing btw, I really mean it, this needs to be brought to other places too, artificial ships deserve something like it) but the rest of the ships are extremely boring, with little room for experimentation or design. Harbinger has an insane amount of strike craft, and even insaner amounts of point defense, THAT IS IT, similar things happen to other ships. The only one worth playing around is the weaver (which again, is amazing) sadly, the rest are just hard solutions to a problem, they are not well designed, they just have lots of stats and weapons/hangars. Still, this is not even close to being the worst of this DLC.

Again, what use does this have:
View attachment 1289966
Only one species I have, and this screen is full of things that I need to scroll a lot to see, to see what even? Changes on the last month for that group? This is useless, entirely useless.

Also, love (not) the buff for the Zroni Storm Caster, it really needed it (it didn't, the thing was crazy good at what it did already). After all, completely nullifying armor, pftt, that is nothing right? ........

So so many things I dislike in this update. Anyways, here is a list of things we lost with this update that YOU MIGHT NOT BE AWARE:
1. Trade routes (ok with this honestly, i liked it, but no big deal, this is also the only element in this list that was said to be removed btw)
2. Selective slave purging. (You didnt knew you could, on a specific planet, purge any enslaved pop? Well, since now it is gone, you didn't lose on much it seems, yay!)
3. Template stealing with organic pop assembly (since pop assembly is now just added growth, forget about this cool thing that a lot of people loved)
4. Per planet growth restrictions. (now that all pops grow, no longer can you forbid a pop from growing a SPECIFIC planet, but not selecting it for growth, now if the pop exists, it will grow in that planet, so get ready to have some unwanted pops out of control baby)

Man I can continue with this Unbridled Rage, but it is not healthy for anyone honestly. This is the first time since I have been playing this game that I am so upset at an update. Why? Mostly because of the entire process. The beta was released when it was crap, instead of closer to release. Sure, we found some VERY OBVIOUS BUGS, bugs that would have been found anyways though. But the real things that needed testing could not be tested because no more beta for all after a while. So, in the end a lot of the things many people found where things we could not know if they where an error, bug, by design etc. And even then, lots of things (including some bugs) that are now live, where reported on the beta.

That is why I am so disappointed. One year waiting for the genetics rework only to see that most of its stuff (not all ofc) is just things we had that are now spread over the three paths. The modular tradition tree was an amazing idea, I hope it gets used more in the future, but the fact that it took what we already had (which was what made genetics cool, not the stats, we have machines for that, but the cool tricks) and gate keeped them. Welp, whatever.

All in all, lots of great stuff, dont get me wrong. This is not an the entire things sucks post. I was very clear with what I disliked, there are lots of cool stuff. But I was expecting more and better, specially after the machine age. But well, sucks to hope for some love to genetics I suppose. I bet psi will get bonkers in a few months as usual though.

Now, proceed to downvote at your pleasure, I am in a state that I really don't care. This is the first time I had not played a release more than to try it out at max speed and with console commands to check more stuff out. I checked all I wanted to check and closed the game. For the first time on years I have decided that I do not want to play the game. (Not because it is suddenly thrash obviously, but because of how bad I feel about this update).

For the love of god, over the few weeks do some proper balance and fixing (not like archives, storms etc, that we are still waiting for their respective promised polishing) and at least make 'meat ships' more customizable and do some polishing with the new UIs. I would ask for reverting the leader changes too, but after asking for it since the day it was announced and being ignored I have lost all hope on it happening, so instead I will need to adapt to the way in which you want me to play, not the one I wanted to. Also, do something about management tab and pop growth, as it stands all those little portraits just are a spam of images for no reason.

Am out, or I won't ever finish.

Yeah point 4 is honestly such an L for empires that want organized planets especially with slaves, I don't need slaves growing on my industrial worlds.

 

[Dzan]

I hate this update guys
A lot bugs
A LOT

 

[Sian]

Pop Growth allocation for Nercophages and their Prepatents need to be revisited, as the Prepatents feels like they get to small a 'bite' of the cake growth-wise as a lot of the pop-growth is 'wasted' on the Nercophages (specially if they're also Lithoid), meaning that they're falling behind

 

[Thiend]

I cannot state how dissapointed and outraged I am about all this. Lots of bugs, the leader changes are (who would have guessed) horrible, the Template UI is so bad that if I had done this on my Software Engineering at the university I would have got a 0, the planet tabs are awful, lots of pop groups on the management tab that serve no purpose, no way for you to know the actual pop growth (only how much grew last month, but voila! it also includes migration, so worthless), clearing blockers is a Scrollaris too, good luck finding your features without surfing to the management tab everytime and (you guessed it!) scrolling. Etc etc etc.

You know what is the most disappointing thing? To wait for about one year for the 'hyped' rework to the weakest ascension path, the one that was going to have it on part to machines etc. Only to find that, unlike with the machine age, they took what the old ascension had and split it. Yeah, that is right. Advanced traits we had before? Now on purity. Phenotype traits and leviathan traits now only for mutation boyah (yeah they added more phenotype traits, which is great! But the fact that only ONE path allows for it sucks), at least they didn't go through with the only cloning has access to cloning vats though.

So yeah, LOTS OF GREAT STUFF on the update, but lots of crack too. With the introduction of space fauna and how versatile and customizable they where (not saying strong here mind you) i expected the actual bio ships to be even more customizable, after all we are supposedly their makers, growing them to our liking etc. But no, they are as customizable as a metal potato. Almost the entire system is carried by the weaver (which is amazing btw, I really mean it, this needs to be brought to other places too, artificial ships deserve something like it) but the rest of the ships are extremely boring, with little room for experimentation or design. Harbinger has an insane amount of strike craft, and even insaner amounts of point defense, THAT IS IT, similar things happen to other ships. The only one worth playing around is the weaver (which again, is amazing) sadly, the rest are just hard solutions to a problem, they are not well designed, they just have lots of stats and weapons/hangars. Still, this is not even close to being the worst of this DLC.

Again, what use does this have:
View attachment 1289966
Only one species I have, and this screen is full of things that I need to scroll a lot to see, to see what even? Changes on the last month for that group? This is useless, entirely useless.

Also, love (not) the buff for the Zroni Storm Caster, it really needed it (it didn't, the thing was crazy good at what it did already). After all, completely nullifying armor, pftt, that is nothing right? ........

So so many things I dislike in this update. Anyways, here is a list of things we lost with this update that YOU MIGHT NOT BE AWARE:
1. Trade routes (ok with this honestly, i liked it, but no big deal, this is also the only element in this list that was said to be removed btw)
2. Selective slave purging. (You didnt knew you could, on a specific planet, purge any enslaved pop? Well, since now it is gone, you didn't lose on much it seems, yay!)
3. Template stealing with organic pop assembly (since pop assembly is now just added growth, forget about this cool thing that a lot of people loved)
4. Per planet growth restrictions. (now that all pops grow, no longer can you forbid a pop from growing a SPECIFIC planet, but not selecting it for growth, now if the pop exists, it will grow in that planet, so get ready to have some unwanted pops out of control baby)

Man I can continue with this Unbridled Rage, but it is not healthy for anyone honestly. This is the first time since I have been playing this game that I am so upset at an update. Why? Mostly because of the entire process. The beta was released when it was crap, instead of closer to release. Sure, we found some VERY OBVIOUS BUGS, bugs that would have been found anyways though. But the real things that needed testing could not be tested because no more beta for all after a while. So, in the end a lot of the things many people found where things we could not know if they where an error, bug, by design etc. And even then, lots of things (including some bugs) that are now live, where reported on the beta.

That is why I am so disappointed. One year waiting for the genetics rework only to see that most of its stuff (not all ofc) is just things we had that are now spread over the three paths. The modular tradition tree was an amazing idea, I hope it gets used more in the future, but the fact that it took what we already had (which was what made genetics cool, not the stats, we have machines for that, but the cool tricks) and gate keeped them. Welp, whatever.

All in all, lots of great stuff, dont get me wrong. This is not an the entire things sucks post. I was very clear with what I disliked, there are lots of cool stuff. But I was expecting more and better, specially after the machine age. But well, sucks to hope for some love to genetics I suppose. I bet psi will get bonkers in a few months as usual though.

Now, proceed to downvote at your pleasure, I am in a state that I really don't care. This is the first time I had not played a release more than to try it out at max speed and with console commands to check more stuff out. I checked all I wanted to check and closed the game. For the first time on years I have decided that I do not want to play the game. (Not because it is suddenly thrash obviously, but because of how bad I feel about this update).

For the love of god, over the few weeks do some proper balance and fixing (not like archives, storms etc, that we are still waiting for their respective promised polishing) and at least make 'meat ships' more customizable and do some polishing with the new UIs. I would ask for reverting the leader changes too, but after asking for it since the day it was announced and being ignored I have lost all hope on it happening, so instead I will need to adapt to the way in which you want me to play, not the one I wanted to. Also, do something about management tab and pop growth, as it stands all those little portraits just are a spam of images for no reason.

Am out, or I won't ever finish.

I agree, but with a slight qualifier.

I'm not sure YET that the ascension update is disappointing. It's not a thrilling choice to split up the existing themes instead of making new ones like Synthetic got, but it IS possible that it's still quite good with each having one broad category expanded upon.

I would say even with that split it's higher quality overall than Cybernetic is, which doesn't have branches at all beyond the authorities. And between the three Genetic trees, it has more of those too.

Besides that, I agree with basically everything you said. I haven't tried the bioships, they LOOK like solid gameplay changes but perhaps that doesn't bear out.

 

[Masked Ermine]

Huh, guess I'm rolling back, or stopping the upgrade....man, someone should answer that phone because I called it....

 

[Critical Ethics]

Leaders were supposed to be changed to fewer, stronger traits with less RNG due to more options when picking them. They have fewer traits with less RNG, but the traits didn't actually get stronger, so leaders got massively nerfed for no obvious reason, seemingly not even a deliberate change that I disagree with but just the devs forgetting to do half of what they said they would.

This is just factually inaccurate. Do a revert and compare the traits, they've been significantly increased or reworked. There's a couple of the reworked ones I'm a bit at but they did buff the ones that they otherwise left alone.

A line saying this isn't in the patch notes but I suspect it was what was supposed to be there instead of the duped line.

I know for sure it isn't entirely fixed, because we're still stuck with blended job outputs and no control over it.

This part's working fine for me! The urban district specialisations are blending correctly and giving me a lot of control. We've still got those spammable buildings unfortunately but otherwise I'm really enjoying the new interplay.

 

[RandomGuardian]

I would love to put this as nicely, but as plainly, as possible. Thanks for the pic, Ilab.

At no point do I, nor anyone ever really, want a population breakdown explained in this manner by Workers, Civilians, Elites, Specialists.

This screen tells me nothing at any sort of glance, it does nothing to have to scroll through 15+ strata depending on ethics. I do not care 99% of the time what ethics my pops have because there's nothing worth considering about on a macro scale where population ethics are concerned. Give me the species, and only the species.

If you really have to, strata. But nobody - an exaggeration, I know - cares about what amount of pops went up or down by what ethic.

 

[Thiend]

This is just factually inaccurate. Do a revert and compare the traits, they've been significantly increased or reworked. There's a couple of the reworked ones I'm a bit at but they did buff the ones that they otherwise left alone.

A line saying this isn't in the patch notes but I suspect it was what was supposed to be there instead of the duped line.

If they did, that's truly good but doesn't seem to be working for me, at least as of this morning. They were the 3.14 traits.

Do you have the DLC? Perhaps it was inadvertently put behind that instead of the free patch, as I don't and it sounds like others don't either.

This part's working fine for me! The urban district specialisations are blending correctly and giving me a lot of control. We've still got those spammable buildings unfortunately but otherwise I'm really enjoying the new interplay.

Please stop pretending your personal preference for no control constitutes the lack of control "working fine." Your opinion of a lost feature being a good thing doesn't override people who hate that, and the devs have not in any way communicated that it is a deliberate change (actually the opposite).

 

[Ilab]

I agree, but with a slight qualifier.

I'm not sure YET that the ascension update is disappointing. It's not a thrilling choice to split up the existing themes instead of making new ones like Synthetic got, but it IS possible that it's still quite good with each having one broad category expanded upon.

I would say even with that split it's higher quality overall than Cybernetic is, which doesn't have branches at all beyond the authorities. And between the three Genetic trees, it has more of those too.

Besides that, I agree with basically everything you said. I haven't tried the bioships, they LOOK like solid gameplay changes but perhaps that doesn't bear out.

I agree with you, it is better than Cyb for sure, and thematically it is not bad. Also, ofc, the dissapointment part is subjective, perhaps it is not a big deal for you, which is fine, but to me it is. I actually prefer (and I am being honest) to play the previous version of genetics than the current one mechanics wise. This doesn't mean that the old one is better, but if you carefully think about it, the old one is better in everything except stats. If I could (like before) use phenotype genes and leviathan genes with the ascencion in itself I would be ok.

In the end, the thing is that the genetics rework is, in all possible ways, inferior to the ones that machines got. The ones from machines didn't split existing things into 3 and locked you of most of it, they added entirely new system for each path. For genetics it feels very lazy to just add some phenotype traits, buff old ones a bit and spread the rest of the things already existed, just got shuffled around.

And it is not me wanting to be powerful as heck, is that now I lost, REALLY lost, things I could previously do. No more erudites with leviathan traits for example etc. In the end, they said that they wanted us to do the same as before but with more, and it doesn't feel that way really.

 

[FiddleSticks96]

Is anyone else seeing AI planets without any armies? I haven't even seen a defense army.

If they did, that's truly good but doesn't seem to be working for me, at least as of this morning. They were the 3.14 traits.

Do you have the DLC? Perhaps it was inadvertently put behind that instead of the free patch, as I don't and it sounds like others don't either.

After a closer look, I think, probably, maybe a few of the traits were made slightly better (I don't remember the T1 version of Information Cluster giving +1 to both Encryption AND Decryption). Even so, a handful of marginally better traits does not at all make up for a 50% reduction in total traits.

 

[Masked Ermine]

I agree with you, it is better than Cyb for sure, and thematically it is not bad. Also, ofc, the dissapointment part is subjective, perhaps it is not a big deal for you, which is fine, but to me it is. I actually prefer (and I am being honest) to play the previous version of genetics than the current one mechanics wise. This doesn't mean that the old one is better, but if you carefully think about it, the old one is better in everything except stats. If I could (like before) use phenotype genes and leviathan genes with the ascencion in itself I would be ok.

In the end, the thing is that the genetics rework is, in all possible ways, inferior to the ones that machines got. The ones from machines didn't split existing things into 3 and locked you of most of it, they added entirely new system for each path. For genetics it feels very lazy to just add some phenotype traits, buff old ones a bit and spread the rest of the things already existed, just got shuffled around.

And it is not me wanting to be powerful as heck, is that now I lost, REALLY lost, things I could previously do. No more erudites with leviathan traits for example etc. In the end, they said that they wanted us to do the same as before but with more, and it doesn't feel that way really.

I do feel like 4.0 (let's be honest mostly just 4.0) and BioGenesis feel like we were sold a bill of goods.... Better performance (it's apparently worse), awesome genetic ascension (appears to be less than before), MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS! They gave us that...but...I see some complaining that they are boring to play with because they lack customizability.

 

[Ilab]

If they did, that's truly good but doesn't seem to be working for me, at least as of this morning. They were the 3.14 traits.

Do you have the DLC? Perhaps it was inadvertently put behind that instead of the free patch, as I don't and it sounds like others don't either.

Please stop pretending your personal preference for no control constitutes the lack of control "working fine." Your opinion of a lost feature being a good thing doesn't override people who hate that, and the devs have not in any way communicated that it is a deliberate change (actually the opposite).

Man, I can't believe you are going to 'talk' with critical again xDDDD I think you have bad memory lol

On a more serious note, the traits did get merged. But, that doesnt change the fact that is still a nerf, I have explained it several times and it pains me to do it once more, so this is an hyper summarized version of why it sucks:
-only picking traits in some levels sucks, removes coolnes from leaders
-the only time when the new system is stronger than the old one is at level 3. Because in 4.0a t level 3 you got to pick 2 lvl2 traits (for a total level of 4, if you get what I mean), while in the old system the most you could get up to 3. But int he levels that matter (those after level 4, when you unlock your veteran class) the new system si much worse. As an example, int he old system you could get an advanced trait, lets say Refinery Focused, at level 5. With the new system you need to wait a looooong time, until level 6, to access it. Someone will come and say, but it will be a level 2 trait dude, yeah, and I can upgrade to level 2 at 6, so your point?
-leaders take progresively more time as they level up, which means that higher levels matter more, to add on the previous point, imagine waiting to level 8 to pick a trait after reaching level 6, for lets say upgrade the refinery focused trait. Well, your leader might die at 7 for example, with the old system I got to enjoy some time with my lvl 7 trait, while you died on an 'empty level'.

Ah, and don't forget that most lvl 2 traits where not the double of lvl1, but usually is just a 50% increase. I am going to get a link to the last time I talked about this where I even provided some screenshots and some other details:

Stellaris Dev Diary #381 - Time to Get Wild

Hello there everyone, PDS_Iggy here! We’ve had a busy week, now let's see what Eladrin wanted me to talk about… The Hive Fallen Empire and the Wilderness origin? In the same diary? Okay… Buckle up for a Wild ride! Hive Fallen Empire For the...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

There you have it, all the 'proof' you need of how hard the changes suck.
EDIT: also, notice which traits are indeed double the 'power' of level 1, yeah, the bad ones....

And these are just some of the points there are more, but like I said, I am tired of talking about it all, all for what? Saving me 4 clicks? Because that is the difference in pick between the current and old system. So they are much worse for 4 clicks, yay!

 

[yarpus]

Organic Syndicates (Purity Megacorp) are broken as hell. Someone made a mistake with the numbers. Just by picking it I suddenly started to generate 2K Trade Value monthly.
It grants +0.5 Trade Value per Pop per Positive Trait and -0.5 Trade Value per Negative Trait. I just picked every Advanced Positive Trait (Fertile + Genious + Robust + Natural Machinist) and game’s economy suddenly broke.
In comparison, Clones get +0.1 Trade Value per 100 Pops with Spare Organs trait.
Oh, I have checked all Purity Governments and let me be honest - these effects and these numbers are just pure madness. We don’t talk overloaded Machine Age governments, we talk gamebreakers left & right.

 

[KNakamura]

Man, I can't believe you are going to 'talk' with critical again xDDDD I think you have bad memory lol

On a more serious note, the traits did get merged. But, that doesnt change the fact that is still a nerf, I have explained it several times and it pains me to do it once more, so this is an hyper summarized version of why it sucks:
-only picking traits in some levels sucks, removes coolnes from leaders
-the only time when the new system is stronger than the old one is at level 3. Because in 4.0a t level 3 you got to pick 2 lvl2 traits (for a total level of 4, if you get what I mean), while in the old system the most you could get up to 3. But int he levels that matter (those after level 4, when you unlock your veteran class) the new system si much worse. As an example, int he old system you could get an advanced trait, lets say Refinery Focused, at level 5. With the new system you need to wait a looooong time, until level 6, to access it. Someone will come and say, but it will be a level 2 trait dude, yeah, and I can upgrade to level 2 at 6, so your point?
-leaders take progresively more time as they level up, which means that higher levels matter more, to add on the previous point, imagine waiting to level 8 to pick a trait after reaching level 6, for lets say upgrade the refinery focused trait. Well, your leader might die at 7 for example, with the old system I got to enjoy some time with my lvl 7 trait, while you died on an 'empty level'.

Ah, and don't forget that most lvl 2 traits where not the double of lvl1, but usually is just a 50% increase. I am going to get a link to the last time I talked about this where I even provided some screenshots and some other details:

Stellaris Dev Diary #381 - Time to Get Wild

Hello there everyone, PDS_Iggy here! We’ve had a busy week, now let's see what Eladrin wanted me to talk about… The Hive Fallen Empire and the Wilderness origin? In the same diary? Okay… Buckle up for a Wild ride! Hive Fallen Empire For the...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

There you have it, all the 'proof' you need of how hard the changes suck.
EDIT: also, notice which traits are indeed double the 'power' of level 1, yeah, the bad ones....

And these are just some of the points there are more, but like I said, I am tired of talking about it all, all for what? Saving me 4 clicks? Because that is the difference in pick between the current and old system. So they are much worse for 4 clicks, yay!

'proof' in quotation marks, indeed. Not liking something != proof

 

[Critical Ethics]

If they did, that's truly good but doesn't seem to be working for me, at least as of this morning. They were the 3.14 traits.

Do you have the DLC? Perhaps it was inadvertently put behind that instead of the free patch, as I don't and it sounds like others don't either.

I do have the DLC. That's interesting. Post what your tool tips are saying for some of your traits?

Please stop pretending your personal preference for no control constitutes the lack of control "working fine." Your opinion of a lost feature being a good thing doesn't override people who hate that, and the devs have not in any way communicated that it is a deliberate change (actually the opposite).

Your dislike of it doesn't make you objectively correct either. If you're allowed post as fact that merged urban districts don't work and can't work and the game will remain utterly broken unless they're removed then I'm allowed post as fact that merged urban districts are working fine and there's no problems managing the economy (outside of some obviously bugged buildings and origins and such) and that it makes decisions more complex and interesting.

That's how it works when people have different experiences of something. Maybe you should try phrasing your opinions as opinions instead of objective facts about reality.

Unless you're accusing me of lying?

 

[Ilab]

I do feel like 4.0 (let's be honest mostly just 4.0) and BioGenesis feel like we were sold a bill of goods.... Better performance (it's apparently worse), awesome genetic ascension (appears to be less than before), MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS! They gave us that...but...I see some complaining that they are boring to play with because they lack customizability.

The worst parta bout it all is that someone decided to intertwine both things, imagine if the community had hated 4.0, we still would have had to eat it, because Biogenesis was made with it in mind.. Apparently a great idea for someone... Not to mention that lotfs of the current issues where already mentioned before release, the devs just decided to ignore the community.

And yeah, I am very displease about this entire fiasco. I do think they will get some things 'improved' soon, considering the awful feedback so far.