Feedback on the New Beta Update – UI, Zones, Population, and Design Systems
After extensive playtime with the latest Stellaris beta update, I’d like to provide in-depth feedback on several key systems—particularly the new Planetary UI, zone/job structure, population handling, and economic balance. While I appreciate the ambition behind these changes, there are several areas where execution falls short or introduces new issues that negatively impact gameplay clarity and strategic depth.
1. Planetary UI Redesign
Frankly, the new Planetary UI is one of the least intuitive and most frustrating interfaces I’ve encountered in a strategy game. Several aspects hinder efficient planetary management and add unnecessary confusion:
- Building Queue Visibility:
The building queue should default to being open. As it stands, players must manually expand it every time they want to build or check progress. This creates friction—especially for new players—and undermines what should be a streamlined process.
- Zone Layout & Clarity:
The interface does a poor job of visually connecting the Government Zone with the three adjacent Zone slots, even though they are functionally tied together.
Suggested Layout Improvement: Display all districts in a left-hand vertical column, and use the right-hand pane for detailed information on Zone configuration, buildings, and modifiers. This would significantly improve readability and make the flow of planetary planning more intuitive.
2. Zone System – Redundancy and Design Limitations
- Redundant Zone Types:
The current split between Industrial, Foundry, and Factory Zones is unnecessary. Industrial Zones already provide a mixed output of Alloys and Consumer Goods, while the others specialize. This kind of redundancy adds complexity without meaningful gameplay differentiation.
Suggested Solution: Merge all three into a single Industrial Zone, and allow specialization through Planetary Designations or Zone-specific buildings. This preserves strategic depth without bloating the interface or options.
- Missing Replace Indicator:
There is no clear UI indication that Zones can be replaced. A small "replace" icon or button would solve this and improve user guidance.
3. Job Scaling & Tall Build Limitations
One of the missed opportunities in the current implementation is that
Zones and Buildings provide only flat numbers of jobs—e.g., 100, 200—regardless of planetary population. This is rigid and fails to reward tall empires that focus on densely populated core worlds.
- Suggested Improvement – Scalable Jobs Based on Population:
In pre-beta Stellaris, modders could use modifiers such as:
add_jobs_clerk_per_pop = 0.04 # 1 job per 25 pops
This approach allowed for population-responsive job scaling, meaning job availability would naturally grow with your population. The new system could incorporate this logic, using scalable job creation that responds dynamically to population thresholds (e.g., 1 Clerk per 100 pops). This would allow for smoother growth, better tall build support, and a more organic economic development system.
- Tall Playstyles Are Under-Supported:
The current mechanics feel overtly tuned for wide empires—those that expand quickly across many worlds. Tall empires, which invest in developing fewer but more advanced worlds, gain comparatively little benefit. A more dynamic job system (as suggested above), combined with scalable productivity and building slot expansion, would help rebalance this.
4. Population Growth & Readability Issues
- Missing Pop Growth Information:
The removal of any population growth rate display from the UI is a major regression. Players have no way of knowing whether a planet is growing, what the rate is, or what modifiers are affecting it. This data is essential for planning construction, districting, and resource production.
- Poor Readability of Pop Values:
Under the new system, individual pops are replaced with abstract population values—e.g., 100, 200, 300+. While this might be a design shift toward abstraction, it makes population management harder to read and mentally parse.
Suggested Change: Instead of the current scale (1 pop = 100), display population in groups of 10 (e.g., 1 unit = 10 pops). This would improve readability and allow players to conceptualize population size more clearly without needing to interpret inflated numbers.
5. District Design – Prebuilt Limitation
Another concern is that
districts now appear to be prebuilt, rather than allowing the player to construct what they need. At the start of the game, all district types—mining, energy, agriculture—are often already present.
- Suggested Change: Players should begin with only the City District, and then unlock or build resource-specific districts based on their needs and strategic goals. This would return a sense of player agency and progression, while also giving meaning to economic planning.
6. Building Slot Modifiers Not Working
Modifiers that claim to add
+1 Building Slots currently appear to have
no effect in the beta. Whether these are bugged or simply deprecated in the new system, they should either:
- Be properly re-integrated to dynamically increase buildable space based on development.
- Or be removed entirely to avoid confusion.
If tall empires are to be viable, expanding the building slot capacity—based on population or planetary infrastructure—should be an active mechanic.
7. Early Game Resource Deficits
Across multiple playthroughs, regardless of origin or civics, I consistently ran into
early resource deficits—be it food, unity, consumer goods, or basic research. As a veteran player (since 2016), I can manage this. However, newer players, especially those the UI revamp is supposed to help, will likely find this punishing and confusing.
If the goal is to improve accessibility, players should
start with a more stable economic base, with deficits emerging as a consequence of over-expansion—not a default starting state.
Final Thoughts
While I recognize the ambition and scope of this beta update, the
current execution undermines usability, breaks established gameplay patterns, and presents new players with more barriers rather than fewer.
- The UI lacks clarity and hides critical information.
- The Zone system is redundant and rigid.
- Job distribution fails to scale with population, limiting tall empire viability.
- Key mechanics like pop growth and building slots are either invisible or non-functional.
There is real potential here, and I appreciate the design team's efforts—but the system needs refinement. By focusing on dynamic scaling, UI clarity, and restoring meaningful player control, this update could move from a controversial overhaul to a truly impactful improvement.
