Stellaris 3.99.6 'Phoenix' Open Beta Release Notes

[Eladrin]

Today's update includes some major changes to the planet view, and some very, very basic gestalt functionality.

Planets now start with six building slots in their Urban District, with two Zones available to customize its output. Your homeworld will generally begin with an Industrial (Alloys + Consumer Goods) and an Archives (Unity + Research) Zone at game start. These changes have not been replicated to gestalts or special planets or starts yet.

We are planning one more Open Beta update (3.99.7) this Friday.

Spoiler: Stellaris 3.99.6 'Phoenix' Open Beta Release Notes

Stellaris 3.99.6 ‘Phoenix’ Open Beta update​

Beta Features​

• Planets now have six building slots by default and two zones that can be used to specialize their urban districts.
  • Most empires no longer start with the early space age industry buildings or jobs
  • Known Issue: This has not been replicated to gestalts or special planets yet.
• Planet UI now shows last month's growth for each pop group.
• Added a mixed Research and Unity “Archives” Zone.

Fixes and Improvements​

• Adjusted rural job numbers
• Added urban zones to mining districts for Subterranean empires
• Clicking on a built Zone will now bring up the District Details panel
• By player request, the Build Queue side panel now automatically starts open when looking at your planets
• Prevent AI from cheating for zone building
• Industrial Zones now use the correct icon.
• Strata now show their population when collapsed.
• Timeline origin images are now properly masked
• Planetary Ascension area in the Management Tab now functions.
  • Add icon and style label for ascension tier in management tab
  • Add text with breakdown of the modifiers provided by planetary ascension
• Some Hive and Machine setup has been completed, they should be slightly functional now
  • Known Issue: Hives do not get Mining Drones from Mining Districts, so, uh… maybe go Void Hive?
  • Hive and Machine Worlds have had an initial pass
  • Machine Starting Conditions have had an initial pass

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 - 3.99.6 Open Beta" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown.

All previous 3.99.* 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.

This week's feedback survey looks at Trade, Logistics, and Notifications and Messaging.

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

 

[TranscendentalDragon]

Glad to see you're doing 3.99.7 after all

 

[Imp0815]

• Added urban zones to mining districts for Subterranean empires

Ok, now this sounds interesting!

I just saw that we have the UI and interactions to replace districts.
Can we have that feature, please?
I want to try replacing all my rural districts with urban zones and see what happens.

EDIT:
If we extend the new system by allowing districts and zones to be replaced, this would be really interesting and would open up far more planetary customization — especially in combination with a handful of new districts.
In addition, we could get more empire-specific districts with empire-specific zones and buildings.
The transparency and communication would be nightmarish, but the concept overall sounds interesting.

 

[Weyird]

I liked the "Early Space Age" zone for theming. Made a connection with promitive empires that i liked. But if for gameplay reasons it doesnt make sense then that's better i guess.

 

[couriervictor]

Empire timeline is still extremely broken:

Going to be checking out the zone and starting changes next!

 

[Nudeldifudel]

I liked the "Early Space Age" zone for theming. Made a connection with promitive empires that i liked. But if for gameplay reasons it doesnt make sense then that's better i guess.

Yeah I like it too, I don't know why we can't have it, and then maybe have a event pop up that upgrades it or just let us upgrade it or something.

 

[Joie]

I like the Archive Zone but with one Zone les per Planet you rob 1000 jobs from them because most jobs comes from city district x the 3 zones and Jobs are already a problem. Zones and Buildungs give to few jobs and Pops grow to fast on established planets

 

[Nudeldifudel]

• Added urban zones to mining districts for Subterranean empires

Ok, now this sounds interesting!

I just saw that we have the UI and interactions to replace districts.
Can we have that feature, please?
I want to try replacing all my rural districts with urban zones and see what happens.

EDIT:
If we extend the new system by allowing districts and zones to be replaced, this would be really interesting and would open up far more planetary customization — especially in combination with a handful of new districts.
In addition, we could get more empire-specific districts with empire-specific zones and buildings.
The transparency and communication would be nightmarish, but the concept overall sounds interesting.

Yeah it's thinks like urban zones to mining districts for Subterranean empires that really makes me excited. It's that sort of stuff I like to see. Planets being more unique is definitely my most positive effect of this new system.

 

[ruhrbaron]

when are the big changes to the planet calculations making it into the beta or are they already live and i just have missed that?

 

[Lorenerd11]

It would be neat if there was a number next to each job to indicate how many of each job there are.

For some reason hovering over a job doesn't tell us the job's output and upkeep either, only the pop's.

Also, are Physicist/Biologist/Engineer jobs and Physics/Biology/Engineering labs going to get distinct icons?

 

[MrGuyPerson]

It's nice than a pop growth indicator is finally shown on the management tab.

FYI, it's still possible to build the Physics, Biology, and Engineering building on the same planet by queuing them up.

Although the little build queue icon is nice, I think it's also easy to miss. I think there needs to be a clearer indication of where to find the build queue.

 

[WoodenP]

"Archive" is such a great name for the Research/Unity district. 10/10!

 

[GnoSIS]

I like the Archive Zone but with one Zone les per Planet you rob 1000 jobs from them because most jobs comes from city district x the 3 zones and Jobs are already a problem. Zones and Buildungs give to few jobs and Pops grow to fast on established planets

Jobs per zone will be a huge pain and a target for balancing for ages to come....

 

[tappi]

Nooo, I'm busy until later this week and hardly get to test this version
;_;

 

[jetharius]

Oh my god I can actually playtest the game finally as a degenerate gestalt only player. Hail the oceans, Hail the bioships!

 

[Eladrin]

Jobs per zone will be a huge pain and a target for balancing for ages to come....

Dropping down to two customizations for the Urban district helps a lot with this.

In the new setup, your homeworld begins with their City Districts being split across all jobs, with each one giving:

• 20 Physicists [Archive]
• 20 Biologists [Archive]
• 20 Engineers [Archive]
• 40 Bureaucrats [Archive]
• 50 Metallurgists [Industrial]
• 50 Artisans [Industrial]

But if you replace the Archives with a second Industrial Zone, then you end up at 100 Metallurgists and 100 Artisans per district - it matches the old Industrial District exactly.

 

[jetharius]

I'd really love the ability to pick my starting leaders. Getting dozens of scientists with nothing but trash traits feels bad.

 

[cerberus189]

Dropping down to two customizations for the Urban district helps a lot with this.

In the new setup, your homeworld begins with their City Districts being split across all jobs, with each one giving:

• 20 Physicists [Archive]
• 20 Biologists [Archive]
• 20 Engineers [Archive]
• 40 Bureaucrats [Archive]
• 50 Metallurgists [Industrial]
• 50 Artisans [Industrial]

But if you replace the Archives with a second Industrial Zone, then you end up at 100 Metallurgists and 100 Artisans per district - it matches the old Industrial District exactly.

I still think the original point they were talking about stands: by reducing the zones to 2 from 3, you have removed an extra 3000 jobs from a size 30 world before efficiency modifiers. this is a massive loss with nothing to make up for the loss.

example the capital building gives +30% more efficiency late game so thats 900 more jobs missing add on another 40% efficiency from techs and buildings and thats 5000 jobs just gone because 1 zones disapeared

 

[DevWolf]

My biggest complaint is how buildings are handled. I'm thankful to get some more building slots for the government zone. But I still think a lot of buildings and their upgrades should be put back together. A lot of their effects should be put back to how they were as well.

 

[jetharius]

Do i really need a unity zone just to build a monument?