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!

 

[Zergor]

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

I don't think it's as bad as most people think.
Snowballing unity seem nice on paper but I don't think it's as good as snowballing tech or economy.

 

[myrsl0ken]

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.

I'm not concerned for the balance as I assume you know more about that than we do. I'm more concerned for fun. Why lock an interesting mechanic, which feels like core gameplay that could easily be expanded upon, behind a tradition? I want defensive doctrines to give diplomatic bonuses (perhaps they reduce border tension?) and I want powerful doctrines which are unlocked by traditions or ethics. But I don't see why the entire system should be locked behind a tradition.

 

[Sarno]

I'm not concerned for the balance as I assume you know more about that than we do. I'm more concerned for fun. Why lock an interesting mechanic, which feels like core gameplay that could easily be expanded upon, behind a tradition?.............

What about federation then? Interesting mechanic, locked behind tradition.

 

[LughC]

What about federation then? Interesting mechanic, locked behind tradition.

... its locked behind a tradition not an entire tree and you don't even need to get it to be in a federation you only need to get it to form a federation

 

[MrGuyPerson]

A spiritual, inwards perfection empire is going to be a lot of fun in this update.

 

[korodikrisz]

Can I use the hallow world on a fallen empire holy world? Does it alter the relationship (plus-minus) with them somehow?

(I guess multiple spiritualists can't hallow the same world, at least won't be within their borders at the same time.)

 

[LughC]

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.

this tree is a benefit to EVERY empire build expansion only a few and diplomacy even less. not to mention the biggest bonuses in expansion and diplomacy are gained with 1-3 picks you don't need the entire tree

 

[Milten]

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

Little clarification. Does it declare someone in particular?

 

[Quinzal]

A spiritual, inwards perfection empire is going to be a lot of fun in this update.

All these changes and I forgot for a second that we get titans and big planet killers as well.

Materialist for life!

 

[Sarno]

this tree is a benefit to EVERY empire build expansion only a few and diplomacy even less. not to mention the biggest bonuses in expansion and diplomacy are gained with 1-3 picks you don't need the entire tree

Life-seeded spiritualist(Gaia only start) who rushes harmony for faction influence and expansion for outposts, certainly does not need that so much...You actually benefit more from quick population growth for more fleet cap than +33% fire rate from a war policy

 

[Starcomet]

I am loving this new info! Declaring hallow worlds, declaring Saints, unity focused spiritualist, war doctrines, and a spiritual awakening living standard are all awesome! If this allowed species to merge with yours (Say your species ascended while some of your species were left behind because they were on a colony ship or whatever), then this would fix that annoying bug. I hated having a small handful of my species that did not become psionic when my picked the mind over matter perk and even when they did, they never merged back in with my main species.

 

[Artificer Chi]

Greetings, I just have signed in to ask a question: I think as a flavor, an Authoritarianism Empire can also force their ships to never retreat. Or maybe there was sth in the playable level that makes you got another idea (like the one showed)?

 

[LughC]

Life-seeded spiritualist(Gaia only start) who rushes harmony for faction influence and expansion for outposts, certainly does not need that so much...You actually benefit more from quick population growth for more fleet cap than +33% fire rate from a war policy

have you forgotten that fleet cap was shifted away from population and is now more dependent on starbases? you know the thing supremacy gives you more of and cheaper?

 

[Starcomet]

Story-wise, probably because it is not a painless process.
Gameplay-wise, so that there is a drawback to a process that is all about making a species more useful and powerful.

I do not think it is painful, but more of a stressful and tedious process. This species is essentially being pressured everyday to meditate, do rituals, perform telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, and until they do they are seen as being lesser than the psychic species training them.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I do not think it is painful, but more of a stressful and tedious process. This species is essentially being pressured everyday to meditate, do rituals, perform telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, and until they do they are seen as being lesser than the psychic species training them.

My assumption was that being forcibly awakened into the Shroud causes species-wide night-terrors.

 

[Tale]

It comes with an increased consumer goods cost. Clearly, the assimilation process is buying them a big screen TV and bunch of video games, all featuring awesome heroes with psychic powers, until they decide they want them for themselves.

They're unhappy because now they don't have a girlfriend.

 

[luanmameili[LM]]

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.

Could a species become both Psionic and Cyborg? Through Psionic Awakening and (or) Assimilation (by a Machine empire)?

By the way, could a Hive-Minded Empire assimilate Psionic or Cyborg species?

 

[sdeezie]

@Wiz speaking of small changes, now that planets can build civilian ships, can habitats build them as well?

 

[Wizzington]

@Wiz speaking of small changes, now that planets can build civilian ships, can habitats build them as well?

Yes.

 

[Starcomet]

It comes with an increased consumer goods cost. Clearly, the assimilation process is buying them a big screen TV and bunch of video games, all featuring awesome heroes with psychic powers, until they decide they want them for themselves.

They're unhappy because now they don't have a girlfriend.

Hehe I assume the increased consumer goods cost is essentially the empire giving them resources they believe will enhance their psionic training like food, equipment, and maybe even zro if the nation mines it.