[Dev Team] Wilderness Open Beta Available [updated 2025-07-03]

[Eladrin]

The Wilderness Open Beta we wrote about in Dev Diary #386 is now available on Steam.

This Open Beta experiments with a different, more robust model for handling Wilderness' mechanics. We believe that it also better captures the spirit of being the planet itself, and provides more control over your economic production. Please see the linked Dev Diary for more details.

Spoiler: 4.0.22-Wilderness Open Beta 2025-07-03 Update

4.0.22-Wilderness Open Beta 2025-07-03 Update​

Improvement​

• Grown pops now immediately join an available job (like “Civilian”) instead of being processed for a month

Balance​

• Various guardian space critter factions will now ignore ftl inhibitors.
• The diplomacy tradition "The Federation" now gives 25% progress in the Federation Code technology
• The Holo-Museums acquired from the Curator enclave now swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones). These jobs produce Unity and Amenities, with each Holo-Museum adding additional job upkeep and output. Holo-Museums can now be constructed in research and resort specializations. Finally, these buildings are improved by the Archaeo-Engineers AP.
• Galactic Curator civics also swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones)

Bugfix​

• Fix to building limit logic that was destroying things like the Archaeostudies building.
• Land Appropriation once again kicks pops off their planets and makes them into refugees.
• Strategic resource maximum for invalid countries is now calculated as zero
• Fixed edge cases where shipyards could have ships from the old owner in the construction queue after being taken over
• If you change your civics but not your authority the Ruler Chips modifiers should no longer reset.
• Synapse drones job modifier will use the correct icon in the building effect summary.
• Jobs production modifier fix in nested tooltip for Serviles trait
• Maze Harbingers now use the correct amount of naval capacity
• The hive Sensorium building no longer mentions Evaluators
• The effects of the Galactic Curator civic councilors (both regular and corporate) now apply to Entertainers
• Fixed Integrated Preservation still giving modifiers to Evaluator jobs
• Job swaps that require buildings on a planet now require the building to not be disabled.
• Improved consistency with the tooltips for the Galactic Curator civics
• Virtuality Machine Empires on Ringworlds should no longer get regular engineering or physicists jobs, only gestalt ones.
• Behemoth empires that have become Ever Hungry will no longer get "Nice Guy" event options, such as not being allowed to space Reth Unddol.
• Unrest.4200 will no longer generate descriptions that don't describe the planets.
• Improved dead object database
• Science ships can no longer continue progressing archaeological sites without a leader
• Biomass and Neural Chip Processing and Unprocessing jobs now have unique names so it's easier to tell what's going on.

AI​

• Fixed a bug where the AI would order fleets to follow one another, resulting in no fleet movement at all

Stability​

• Fixed an OOS at reconnect

Performance​

• Refactored parts of the Planet UI to improve performance, this likely has the greatest benefit for lower end machines
  • Open Beta Note: This one is a little risky, so if you see weird stuff going on in the Planet UI, please let us know.
• Improved Nascent Stage Logic by roughly 75%. Let your favorite gladiatorial beasts flourish!
• The AI will no longer constantly be starting and canceling Arc Furnaces and Dyson Swarms
• Minor improvement to refugee_effect
• Minor improvement to handling modifiers
• Memory leak fix from faulty pattern.

UI​

• Centered the army icons to be in the middle on background
• Habitability and Dig site no longer overlap each other in the Planet UI.
• Pop amount in the Current Population does not overlap other elements when it has more than 2 digits anymore in Planet UI.
• Pop Count of Pop Group in the Ressettlement Window does not overlap when it has more than 4 digits.
• New icon for strange wormhole
• Introduced min/max pitch settings for Ship model preview: It will no longer do sharp and unpredictable turns when turning the ship model around.

Modding​

• Console commands now use country index instead of country ID, making them easier to use
• Add displace_pop_amount effect that simply raises on_pop_displaced
• Add research speed and draw chance modifiers for tech types (rare, dangerous, insight, custom)
• Added a new ignore_ftl_inhibitors flag for the country type. Setting this to true, would enable that country type to ignore FTL Inhibitors.
• It is now possible to override the Icon for the dynamically generated modifiers by adding a [modifierName]_icon entry in the localization.
• Added on_queued, on_unqueued, on_built effects for district specializations
• Added a capital_tier parameter for capital building and an associated planet scope trigger.
• Refactored the has_x_capital scripted triggers to account for capital building tiers

Spoiler: Wilderness Open Beta Release Notes

Feature​

• Experimental changes to Wilderness:
  • To prevent issues with biomass not being available on planets due to construction, all Wilderness jobs are now automatically worked without requiring biomass. These jobs are worked by your primary species.
  • Jobs for Wilderness are now also properly represented instead of being worked by a single pop with massive workforce bonuses, you now see exactly how the job is worked, and the sliders are also now usable to customize how much of each job will be worked.
  • These changes are intended to prevent situations where some jobs would go unworked, make Wilderness less bug-prone, and are intended to give you more control over your economy in deficit situations. Please provide feedback!
• The experimental fast save transfer for multiplayer is included in this build.

Bugfix​

• Fixed ringworlds colonized by gestalt empires having a mysterious city district that shouldn't exist.

To opt into the Wilderness Open Beta, go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas -> select "wilderness- Wilderness Open Beta" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown. You may need to restart Steam to get it to appear.

Our intention is to run this Wilderness Open Beta for the rest of the summer so we can gather feedback on these changes.

 

[Psykhes]

Our intention is to run this Wilderness Open Beta for the rest of the summer so we can gather feedback on these changes.

Since there might be another patch or 3(00) in the next few months for the release version, will those be added to the beta too?

 

[Eladrin]

Since there might be another patch or 3(00) in the next few months for the release version, will those be added to the beta too?

Yes, we'll be keeping it updated.

 

[RingworldUtopia]

if i switch to the beta mid-save, will it fix sanctuary ring's districts for me, or break them even worse? lol

Stellaris - [4.0.19] (51ef) Ringworlds are way better now, but still buggy, integrating Sanctuary shows how

Edit: seems like the ringworld gestalt bug may have been fixed in the beta, but i'm not playing on it so i can't be sure. also unsure if the specific interaction with the sanctuary pre-ftl societies will have been fixed by this or will need its...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[Reckall]

Yes, we'll be keeping it updated.

Are the 4.0.21 and Wilderness betas two different branches, or does Wilderness include 4.0.21 changes?

 

[Mao56]

To prevent issues with biomass not being available on planets due to construction, all Wilderness jobs are now automatically worked without requiring biomass. These jobs are worked by your primary species.

Species traits that provide job efficiency (like Agrarian/Industrious/Ingenius) seem to only apply after several months have passed at the start of the game, which may alarm people.
It also does not list out the current sources of efficiency in the mouseover tooltip.

 

[Alth3043]

Some bug feedback for Wilderness:
1. In the situation of multiple species, Wilderness completely fails to select employed species, which is especially obvious in the open beta.
2. In the situation of rare crystal, natural gas and explosive particles, when choosing to recycle resources, downgrade buildings, etc., it can infinitely generate biomass (also exists in non - open beta versions).
3. Repeatedly landing on the same planet in Wilderness can infinitely generate biomass (also exists in non - open beta versions).
4. Since there are no longer any pops on the mind - transfer jobs, Wilderness completely fails to transfer pops.
5. The trait_auto_mod_biological do not take effect.
6. Wilderness cannot view job efficiency, etc.

 

[September_90]

The Wilderness Open Beta we wrote about in Dev Diary #386 is now available on Steam.

This Open Beta experiments with a different, more robust model for handling Wilderness' mechanics. We believe that it also better captures the spirit of being the planet itself, and provides more control over your economic production. Please see the linked Dev Diary for more details.

Spoiler: Wilderness Open Beta Release Notes

Feature​

• Experimental changes to Wilderness:
  • To prevent issues with biomass not being available on planets due to construction, all Wilderness jobs are now automatically worked without requiring biomass. These jobs are worked by your primary species.
  • Jobs for Wilderness are now also properly represented instead of being worked by a single pop with massive workforce bonuses, you now see exactly how the job is worked, and the sliders are also now usable to customize how much of each job will be worked.
  • These changes are intended to prevent situations where some jobs would go unworked, make Wilderness less bug-prone, and are intended to give you more control over your economy in deficit situations. Please provide feedback!
• The experimental fast save transfer for multiplayer is included in this build.

Bugfix​

• Fixed ringworlds colonized by gestalt empires having a mysterious city district that shouldn't exist.

To opt into the Wilderness Open Beta, go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas -> select "wilderness- Wilderness Open Beta" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown. You may need to restart Steam to get it to appear.

Our intention is to run this Wilderness Open Beta for the rest of the summer so we can gather feedback on these changes.

ill opt in if you let Plant Portrait/Plant ship designs have access to the origin

 

[Calvax]

ill opt in if you let Plant Portrait/Plant ship designs have access to the origin

Really weird that they can’t. It’s the most fitting, and the bark-skinned humanoids are among my favourite

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Really weird that they can’t. It’s the most fitting, and the bark-skinned humanoids are among my favourite

There are no portrait limitations for Wilderness to my knowledge.

 

[Mcgan]

There are no portrait limitations for Wilderness to my knowledge.

True, the plant portraits are fine. It seems to really be about the shipset only.
The Plantoid shipset is not available because it counts as a mechanical shipset, while Wilderness requires a biological shipset.
And Wilderness's theme is more around flora than fauna, so plant ships seem more logical than meat ships.

 

[September_90]

There are no portrait limitations for Wilderness to my knowledge.

Thats correct only the ship design one which is the most important!

 

[September_90]

True, the plant portraits are fine. It seems to really be about the shipset only.
The Plantoid shipset is not available because it counts as a mechanical shipset, while Wilderness requires a biological shipset.
And Wilderness's theme is more around flora than fauna, so plant ships seem more logical than meat ships.

They should remake or reclassify them, or at least let people have the option for plantoids

 

[Calvax]

There are no portrait limitations for Wilderness to my knowledge.

Ah good to know. I misunderstood the other poster’s comment then. I’m looking forward to doing a plant-humanoid wilderness run and aiming for galactic imperium (because the RP of that feels weird and cool), but I’ve been holding off until it’s more stable.

Will give the beta a go.

 

[passeris]

True, the plant portraits are fine. It seems to really be about the shipset only.
The Plantoid shipset is not available because it counts as a mechanical shipset, while Wilderness requires a biological shipset.
And Wilderness's theme is more around flora than fauna, so plant ships seem more logical than meat ships.

Hey dude, biomass is biomass, don't judge.

 

[Reckall]

And Wilderness's theme is more around flora than fauna, so plant ships seem more logical than meat ships.

This is a bit racist

 

[TSBasilisk]

True, the plant portraits are fine. It seems to really be about the shipset only.
The Plantoid shipset is not available because it counts as a mechanical shipset, while Wilderness requires a biological shipset.
And Wilderness's theme is more around flora than fauna, so plant ships seem more logical than meat ships.

There's also the possibility of lithoid bioships so my Terravores can fly around in their big brothers.

 

[Strangedane]

There's also the possibility of lithoid bioships so my Terravores can fly around in their big brothers.

This was my biggest letdown.

No rockships.

 

[Archael90]

Biomass don't use housing nor amenities, so unless something is done to it (I don't mind it's being useless), is there a point to even generate/show those resources? (Just to remind - wilderness can not, in any way, see CG, even if producing them from any source).

Biomass is not present on planets and thus don't produce maintenance drones jobs, which further - don't produce additional TV (I don't mind it since it's unique feature for wilderness alongside not using housing, feels great to me). But certain things still refer to maintenance drones, like logistic tradition.

And a question (and maybe food for thought).
Can wilderness allow other species to live on its surface? Feels very promising to create empire of living, thinking planets that creates paradices on its own to let other species thrives (both hiveminded and single-minded species).

Wilderness colonization should also preserve presapiets IMO.

 

[Tr33]

Some feedback after playing around with beta and non-beta wilderness:

- they start with an avatar of cradle building (housing & amenities), both modifiers are useless, same logic for the capital building and FE sky dome (beta)
- storm relief center gives 8 whole amenities
- Amenities give you 20 stability for free because your pops don't use them
- for the first month, they start with -10% efficiency (probably due to the 20% habitability homeworld modifier not being calculated at game start for automated jobs), fixed after monthly tick (beta)
- pop groups are not called biomass (beta)
- "expand planet size" decision is tedious to reapply until max size, I would like a policy for late game like Eternal Vigilance got with defense platforms ( not for free, of course)
- ("expand the planet" could be called "grow the ecosphere")
- Gaia worlds feel weak compared to ecus, ring worlds etc. and that's the only advanced planet class for wilderness.
- (edit) Gaias under wilderness could get special zones (suggestion)
- cradle of life should get upgrades and a planet limit of maybe 3 (suggestion)
- cradle of life has no pop assembly tag for sorting buildings ( kinda confusing)
- brood symbionts give amenities, which you don't need
- Biogenesis situation gives buffs for genomic researcher, which you don't have. I would like to see a similar building + job for wilderness (suggestion)
- Logistics tradition gives you buffs for maintenance drones, which you don't have
- Synchronicity tradition gives Amenities from trader drone, which you don't need