Stellaris 3.99.2 'Phoenix' Open Beta Release Notes

[Eladrin]

We have another update to the Open Beta today, and are planning for another later on this week.

Spoiler: Stellaris 3.99.2 'Phoenix' Open Beta Release Notes

Fixes and Improvements

• Added an Industrial Zone for mixed alloys and consumer goods
• The focus task "Embrace a Faction" is changed to "Promote a Faction"
• Added two focus tasks for MegaCorps to establish branch offices
• Updated costs of special projects that have costs that scale with the number of pops
• Changed every_owned_pop to every_owned_pop_group, so now looping through groups
• Made ethic changes work on pop groups instead of pops
• Updated robot pop checks to pop groups
• Zones now have icons associated with their type.
• Zones now have a larger active area to click on that is clearly visible.
• Planet UI now has basic Zone tooltips
• Replaced a bunch of placeholder icons with less placeholder ones.
• Revamped Rise of the manifesti event chain
• Created new message type for new terraforming candidate events and turned them into a notification
• Lithoid resource traits no longer block cybernetic leviathan traits
• Improved the Modifiers section of the colonization UI.
• Replaced jobs with strata in resettlement view
• Workforce modifier icons added

Modding

• Moved resource upkeep and production for pops from species archetype and traits to the resource tables for archetypes and traits, instead of them being part of the pop categories

How Do I Opt Into the Beta?​

1. Turn off your mods. They will almost certainly cause you to crash.
2. Go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas -> select "stellaris_test - 3.99.2 Open Beta" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown.

The 3.99.0 and 3.99.1 Open Beta branches will also remain available. If you are having issues accessing the latest version of the 3.99.* Open Beta, please see this forum post for troubleshooting.

For more information on the Open Beta, as well as the intentions and goals of releasing such an early, unpolished version, please see this dev diary.

We also have a new feedback survey this week, which looks at first impressions of the planet UI and rework. We know it's not in a finished or releasable state, but want your feedback regardless.

This week's Open Beta feedback survey is available here!​

 

[Faron235]

It's nice that you're working on the update, but I'd like at least a little bit of news about the new dlc

 

[Archael90]

Made ethic changes work on pop groups instead of pops

Please correct me if I'm wrong.
But shouldn't pops be punt into group based on their ethic, and changes groups if changes ethics?

 

[Calvax]

Added an Industrial Zone for mixed alloys and consumer goods

Nice. I know you said on stream you had no plans to but I think this will be a good step to making the zones feel less restrictive.

Changed every_owned_pop to every_owned_pop_group, so now looping through groups

Now looping through groups or no looping through groups? I'm not 100% sure what this change is but assume it's performance based rather than related to pops looping through jobs.

 

[Anonim97]

Planet UI now has basic Zone tooltips

So does that mean we now know what each zones does rather than going by the name?

 

[Lord Milutin]

It's nice that you're working on the update, but I'd like at least a little bit of news about the new dlc

SOON.

 

[Huskermax5]

I broadly understand the building and trade rework but

A: trade builds are in a wonky state. Please consider adding a policy that is unlocked by Mercantile that enables you to change the ratio of trade value that is collected vs saved up to use in market. Or at least someway to convert without market fee leaching/plummeting or rising price

A2: If trade value collected is stored maybe have it earn interest but like a COD you won’t be able to use it for any other purpose for x amount of time.

B: Buildings that went from being uncapped per planet to 1 per planet (ie research etc) feels off (very well could just be newphobia) but if I want to have a pure research world without building anything else I kinda want that option. Bit blind dart with how it works

C: Hope the balance of the early game gets examined a bit more

Thank you eladrin and the entire team for doing a beta to help set expectations!

Ps: would love a blooper real of bugs that got squashed following 4.0 launch

 

[MrGuyPerson]

While I think that many players will appreciate the addition of the Industrial Zone, my bigger problem still lies with the Early Industry Zone. It doesn't feel satisfying from a game play perspective to start with something you just want to delete as fast as possible. That's kind of the point of the blockers on your homeworld. I think it would be much better to have a "do-it-all" zone that is capital-unique and upgradeable. That would help with both the game experience and roleplaying by making the capital unique. Most players will likely delete the starting building and then replace the starting zone with an Industrial Zone anyway. This is janky and could be improved. Adding the Industrial Zone feels like a bandage to the problem and will likely be unused outside of the early game.

 

[Olterin]

I tried the 3.99.1 beta for a bit and dropped it when I realized that automatic pop resettlement seemed to not be keeping pace (or outpacing) the pop growth on Earth (the premade UNE homeworld). I'm wondering if that was just my impression and I should've kept looking closer or if that's a broader experience - and seeing how it's not a point addressed in the new beta version...

(Maybe it was just the 100 no-category pops spawned by clearing the blocker that threw me off)

 

[Imp0815]

The new Districts → Zones → Buildings system is heavily flawed and does not work.

With this system, every job is at risk of becoming a "Clerk"—meaning it is unwanted most of the time and must be manually disabled ASAP before your workers migrate.

I have too little control over my planet’s growth, and job management is a nightmare.

Since the game does not know what the player wants when building another district that adds 1,200 different job slots, we can't even automate job management effectively.

We should move back to a more nuanced system, where districts provide building slots, and buildings provide most of the jobs. This way, we won't reduce planet management to simply building districts at a certain point.

EDIT: For how controversial this seems, I don’t read many pros for the new system here!

 

[Melwarden]

Edit: please disregard my comment, a kind fellow has informed that there is a hidden menu where you can remove zones.

Something I would really like to see is the ability to change a zone, because it feels really bad to get locked in to one if you later realize that the planet would have been better with a different set zones.

Before this beta, you could always change what buildings and focus you wanted on a planet, so it would be odd to change this aspect of Stellaris.

 

[Imp0815]

While I think that many players will appreciate the addition of the Industrial Zone, my bigger problem still lies with the Early Industry Zone. It doesn't feel satisfying from a game play perspective to start with something you just want to delete as fast as possible. That's kind of the point of the blockers on your homeworld. I think it would be much better to have a "do-it-all" zone that is capital-unique and upgradeable. That would help with both the game experience and roleplaying by making the capital unique. Most players will likely delete the starting building and then replace the starting zone with an Industrial Zone anyway. This is janky and could be improved. Adding the Industrial Zone feels like a bandage to the problem will likely be unused outside of the early game.

DO NOT DELETE the Early Industry Zone EVER!

This zone is the thin veil between life and death in the beta. It provides all the jobs you need to maintain a stable income and research. If you delete it, you will face constant unity shortages, have no research, and end up with millions of unemployed pops.

I repeat, DO NOT DELETE THAT ZONE! It’s the best zone you could wish for!

 

[Matthias.]

I always liked how districts worked in 2.0, where there were also no Industrial Districts. So Industrial processing was only achieved through buildings, which were unlocked by population size. This meant, that there was a kind of gradual development of newly colonized world. Which started out as more rural worlds, which mostly consisted of resource districts and could industrialize with further development and population progress. It would be nice if, you could go in that direction again.

 

[Calvax]

Something I would really like to see is the ability to change a zone, because it feels really bad to get locked in to one if you later realize that the planet would have been better with a different set zones.

Before this beta, you could always change what buildings and focus you wanted on a planet, so it would be odd to change this aspect of Stellaris.

You can do this but the UI is WIP so it's quite hidden. Click on the city district and it will pop up a menu of zones with a "replace" button

 

[GnoSIS]

There was no pop demotion fix. that is a biggie - if not the biggest broken item right now.

 

[GnoSIS]

Something I would really like to see is the ability to change a zone, because it feels really bad to get locked in to one if you later realize that the planet would have been better with a different set zones.

Before this beta, you could always change what buildings and focus you wanted on a planet, so it would be odd to change this aspect of Stellaris.

The UI is so bad that you missed out on how to change zones...

 

[Aurelio123]

I hope the Build Queue icon is placeholder because it's the same button as planet automation button

 

[ruhrbaron]

can anyone tell me please why i cant upgrade the mineral purification plant to the hub and build both at the same time? also, what does the automation buildings do besides seemingly giving planetary build speed and why cant i upgrade or remove the early industrial zone? is that a beta thing or am i doing something wrong.
and where can i build the anti crime building? all my city distric slots are being taken up by the govt office, the unity building and the robot assembly plant

 

[Nectum]

Industrial Zone? Thanks, god!

 

[GnoSIS]

can anyone tell me please why i cant upgrade the mineral purification plant to the hub and build both at the same time? also, what does the automation buildings do besides seemingly giving planetary build speed and why cant i upgrade or remove the early industrial zone? is that a beta thing or am i doing something wrong.
and where can i build the anti crime building? all my city distric slots are being taken up by the govt office, the unity building and the robot assembly plant

1. This is the new design: those buildings take up multiple slots on the new zones.

2. You can convert one of your 3 city zones into a goverment zone to build more buildings. It sucks.