Hello and welcome to another Stellaris development diary! Today we will take a look at some of the minor features and changes in the coming 2.0 'Cherryh' update.

Quality of Life
We have added small icons to the outliner that lets you see if planets have buildings that can be upgraded, or if there are Pops that do not have a building they are working. Similarly, you will be able to see when a starbase has an empty module or building slot.

This should make it a lot easier for you to manage your planets and starbases.

In the fleet view it is now also possible to see which designs can be upgraded.

Hallowed Planets
Spiritualist empires will be able to designate an uncolonized Gaia World within their borders as a 'Holy World'. The Holy World will increase your empire's unity production as long as it remains uncolonized and within your borders.

In addition to being able to make uncolonized Gaia Worlds useful, Hallowed Planets will also make spiritualist factions happy.

War Doctrines
In addition to other changes to traditions, finishing the Supremacy traditions now allows you to set a War Doctrine for your empire. War Doctrines give you additional customization and specialization regarding how you utilize your fleets.

There are four different war doctrines with different strengths and weaknesses:
Defense in Depth: Defensive empires will have a bonus to their ship fire rate within their own borders
Hit and Run: This doctrine will increase the likelyhood of your ships making an emergency FTL in combat, and also reduce damage caused by emergency FTL
Rapid Deployment: Empires that choose to rely on quickly being able to respond to threats may choose this doctrine which increases sublight speed and ship weapon range
No retreat: Militarists and Gestalt Consciousness empires can choose to employ a doctrine of no retreat, increasing ship fire rate but removing the ability for individual ships to emergency FTL out of combat instead of being destroyed.

Psionic Awakening (Utopia)
Should you be playing a Psionic empire, introduced with Utopia, it will now be possible to help lesser species awaken their psionic potential. This works similar to Assimilation, where you can give another species the benefits of your chosen ascension path.

That's all for this week! Next week you will be able to read the full patch notes for the 2.0 'Cherryh' update!

 

[LughC]

I mean, that's kind of harsh to do to my own people if it's in my system. Unless it's people I hate, but what if my own people were forced to colonize the world? Can't death-star those guys

they became nothing more than heretics the moment their feet touched the soil. Exterminatus is the only choice

 

[LughC]

The entire Supremacy tree is now actually useful for Pacifists, with more of a focus on armed deterrence.

if by more useful you mean required.... and if by pacifists you mean everyone

 

[Wizzington]

if by more useful you mean required.... and if by pacifists you mean everyone

This is stated dramatically pretty much every time we buff a tradition tree, and it's never turned out to be actually true. I doubt this time will be different.

 

[mysticdueler]

that wouldn't fix the underlying problem of the tree being a requirement. the bonuses are simply too good. the initial bonus alone outweighs many of the other trees completion bonuses

I certainly agree with you, I was merely speaking to OP’s angle on role play. One could argue that the fix for the too-good-to-skip/optimal pick problem is more options spread out over more trees. One can hope that it will be the eventual end-goal, once other major systems (like espionage and trade) are hammered out. Only time will tell

(or, modding it in is always an option, messy though it may be)

 

[LughC]

This is stated dramatically pretty much every time we buff a tradition tree, and it's never turned out to be actually true. I doubt this time will be different.

the bonuses to fleets are huge and you guys have already explained how important starbases are. an extra two in the early game is huge and i'm sure 20% reduced cost every time you upgrade is not negligible

 

[Heretic Saint]

I was just coming to post that suggestion! Though I was thinking Hit and Run might fit in Prosperity.

Oh, good point!

I may have been thinking in purely militaristic terms for that one, and considering it'd be alright if Supremacy got two Doctrines as part of its focus on warfare. However, I can definitely see and agree with Hit & Run fitting to Prosperity in a way that it'd represent conservation of resources!

 

[Coffee Fox]

A shame we can't declare colonized worlds to be holy worlds.

There goes my dream of making Holy Terra.

 

[serpentskirt]

How do planets rebel in 2.0? Just one system with planet, completely surrounded by your outposts?

 

[Wizzington]

the bonuses to fleets are huge and you guys have already explained how important starbases are. an extra two in the early game is huge and i'm sure 20% reduced cost every time you upgrade is not negligible

Negligible? No.

Required? Also no.

 

[mysticdueler]

The entire Supremacy tree is now actually useful for Pacifists, with more of a focus on armed deterrence.

Wiz, if that is the case, do you (or can you) dynamically change the name of certain traditions or even the entire tree if you have the pacifist ethos, as is the case for purity/adaptability?

 

[LughC]

How do planets rebel in 2.0? Just one system with planet, completely surrounded by your outposts?

good question since only one person can control a system would they get control of the star base?

 

[LughC]

Negligible? No.

Required? Also no.

well we haven't seen the changes to the rest of the trees and mods will change this easy but what scenarios would you not unlock this tree first and finish it 1st-2nd?

 

[marvin the martian]

@Wiz
Wiz, could you give us a hint on the "Declare Saint" edict?
I'm quite curious ... Thanks!

 

[mysticdueler]

well we haven't seen the changes to the rest of the trees and mods will change this easy but what scenarios would you not unlock this tree first and finish it 1st-2nd?

Maybe a heavily role-played game? That’s the only thing I could think of. Even a one-planet attempt can make use of more stations (actually might be even MORE dependent on this tree now, with the changes)

That’s all I got

 

[Wizzington]

Declare Saint increases Unity production, Spiritualist equivalent to the Materialist +research edict.

Spiritualism is very Unity-focused in Cherryh.

 

[Mr Thursday]

Great stuff!

Any chance the red text can be made brighter as it's almost impossible to see when there is a dark background?

 

[Quinzal]

Declare Saint increases Unity production, Spiritualist equivalent to the Materialist +research edict.

Spiritualism is very Unity-focused in Cherryh.

Good, now maybe Materialist tech boost won't be a requirement.

The only thing I'm worried about is all the potential to snowball Unity.

 

[LughC]

The only thing I'm worried about is all the potential to snowball Unity.

because that's not how unity works in 1.9? I always thought unity was supposed to snowball

 

[Heretic Saint]

Negligible? No.

Required? Also no.

Hmmh. Personally, I would think it isn't even just about the bonuses... But I'm sure just having this element of customization (which I'm a sucker for, and which is one of the main attractions of Stellaris in general) is a huge incentive for anyone. You advertise this very angle in the dev diary yourself, after all. Is it really okay that this entire feature is limited to Supremacists, even when it already consists of several parts that could be broken up and distributed to Tradition trees they fit better to?

It feels like a bit of a waste to have this interesting thing that's going to lead to the following two outcomes:

• more players will be pushed to begin with the Supremacy Traditions regardless of their empire, decreasing diversity
• players who still stick to Traditions that better reflect their empires' core philosophy will be able to make use of Doctrines only very late in their game, or never

 

[Sarno]

well we haven't seen the changes to the rest of the trees and mods will change this easy but what scenarios would you not unlock this tree first and finish it 1st-2nd?

Well, now everyone will be required to choose. Do you go for giant army but delay federation building/expansion? Do you sacrifice your military for defensive cooperation? For colonization?

You should not, have early at the same time massive fleet, ton of starbases, big economy AND federation blob. Choose one, sacrifice the rest.