Hi all, Jamor here. I'm filling in for Wiz this week, as I want my Game Director to focus on post-launch support for Cherryh, our biggest update yet.

Today's dev diary is about 2.0.2_beta: the new build available as an optional beta for Steam users right now (note for Paradoxplaza Launcher users: we're using Steam as our beta testing platform at this time, if you want to try it out please use the Steam key that came with your Plaza purchase).

When we made 2.0, we knew that the scale of changes would be huge, and therefore I budgeted a larger than normal amount of dev time for post-launch support. The objective is to absorb and process player feedback, and perform bug fixes as well as balance tweaks and general improvements. There are almost as many unique play styles as there are Stellaris players out there, and our objective is to hit a good balance point for the maximum number, which you can then further tweak to your own preferences with the new game customization options.

2.0.2 is planned to be a "rolling beta", meaning we will continue to update it at intervals when we have new tweaks/fixes that we want to push to you. Your feedback on it will be crucial for determining the content of the final, official version, so please continue to play and tell us how it goes.

We especially want to make sure we get War Exhaustion/Status Quo Peace right, so that it produces believable and satisfying war results for the greatest number of people. As such, the initial changes in this patch are experimental and we'll continue to iterate on them throughout the test period. Please don't hesitate to give us your constructive feedback.

Spoiler: Click to view patchnotes

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.0.2 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Feature
###################
* You are no longer forced to make peace at 100% war exhaustion, instead your Influence and Unity monthly gains are reduced to 0 and a happiness penalty is applied to all Pops until you make peace
* Occupation no longer contributes to War Exhaustion, but instead is displayed as a separate factor in war overview, to make it clearer what you need to do in order to enforce demands
* War Overview no longer attempts to calculate a winner in battles, but simply displays war exhaustion gained by each side
* Marauder raiding fleets are now neutral to everyone except their intended target so they won't wreck everything in their path when they go a-viking
* Fixed Gestalt Consciousness empires using Trading Hub starbase module and Offworld Trading Company starbase building, they now use Resource Reprocessor and External Acquisitions Area (name/flavor difference only)
* It is now possible to test-fire a World Cracker on habitable (but uninhabited) planets in your space
* Added tier 5 Dark Matter thrusters that can only be gained by scavenging Fallen Empire ships
* Transcendent Learning ascension perk has been added to the game, and it increases leader level cap and empire leader cap
* Megastructure resources are now affected by country modifiers
* Ship sizes now have a default combat behavior and will prefer computers of that type if auto-generated (Picket for Destroyers, etc)
* Added some more logic for making sure ship auto-complete doesn't switch your desired combat role
* Space stations now use the country_mult modifier instead of the tile_mult modifier and no longer get the tile_add modifier
* When a new ruler is elected, the previous ruler that was voted out of office (if alive) will now attempt to take over the job that was opened up by the newly elected ruler, assuming the leader class matches. Back to the mines, Mr. Ex-President.

###################
# Balance
###################
* Reduced War Exhaustion per ship and army killed
* Militarist ethics now gain -10%/-20% war exhaustion gain instead of army damage bonus
* Technologies that reduce claim cost now also decrease war exhaustion gain
* You now get war exhaustion a bit slower while fighting a Liberation War
* Increased energy upkeep of all Starbase sizes by +1. Outposts now cost 1 energy maintenance
* Base unity income increased from 1 to 2
* Base tradition cost increased from 56 to 100 (does not affect the cost increase from number of traditions)
* Tradition unity cost per system reduced from 2% to 1%
* Corvette/Destroyer/Cruiser/Battleship build speed techs now also reduce build cost of that ship type by 5%
* Habitats now have their own fortress building (Security Zone) that is effective at unrest reduction but provides only a few defense armies and no FTL inhibitor or bombardment protection
* It is now possible to mod away serviles & pre-sapient traits if you have completed biological ascension
* Egalitarian ethics effect on faction influence increased from +15%/30% to +25%/50%
* Corvette Focus trait now requires Destroyers tech (as it's hardly a 'focus' if it's the only ship type possible)
* Scout admiral trait reduced from 20% to 10% speed (so Gale-Speed is faster)
* Admiral now always dies when last ship in fleet is destroyed and there are no disengaged ships to move to
* Drone Mining Lasers are now a bit worse against hull and a bit better against shields
* Broken and shattered planets spawned on galaxy generation can now have deposits
* Thrusters now cost different amounts of minerals and give different amounts of evasion based on which ship size they are for (corvette thrusters are cheaper and add more evasion, etc)
* Reduced cost of hiring Marauder leaders to 2000 energy
* Having an enclave in your border now gives +1 opinion per year instead of +1 opinion per month, as the latter made all other opinion boosts rather meaningless
* Increased opinion bonuses for ally of ally and mutual rivals
* Increased opinion penalties of allying rivals
* Tributary wargoal is now a bit easier to enforce
* Combat computers now give evasion_mult instead of evasion_add
* Asteroid Sighted can no longer pop after the first 50 years, to avoid it happening in large sprawling empires with limited time to respond
* First pirate event now tells you the system where they are based
* Increased time limits of all Special Projects requiring a ship in orbit (new minimum is 3 years)
* Federation fleet is now limited to an absolute max naval capacity of 500
* It is now possible to get the gateway activation tech if you know any other empire that has the technology
* When a Federation enforces ideology on an empire, that empire now gets opinion boosts with the entire federation

# Civics
* Citizen Service civic now also increases unity output from fortress and strongholds by 1
* Aristocratic Elite civic now gives +2 leader cap and +2 governor max level instead of +4 leader cap and -50% leader recruitment cost
* Distinguished Admiralty civic increases leader cap by +2
* Driven Assimilators now have the 'Assimilate' total war CB
* Purifier and anti-Purifier CBs no longer require neighboring status (was confusing and unintuitive to players)
* Nationalistic Zeal civic now gives -10% war exhaustion gain instead of +1 rivalries
* Free Haven now gives xeno migration attraction instead of migration attraction

# Traditions
* Expansion adoption effect now gives +50% colony development speed (down from +100%)
* Galactic Ambition expansion tradition now gives -20% starbase upkeep instead of +2 starbase capacity

# Ascension Perks
* Shared Destiny effect on integration cost reduction changed from -50% to -75%
* Nihilistic Acquisition can now be taken by purifier-style empires

# Edicts
* Drone Campaign food cost increased from 100 to 500
* Learning Campaign food cost increased from 50 to 500
* War Drone Campaign food cost increased from 50 to 500
* Patrol Drones planetary edict is now available to all Gestalt Consciousness-empires

###################
# UI
###################
* Added building descriptions to traditions that unlock buildings
* Starbase upgrade cost and Module/Building building cost now properly show modifiers affecting them
* Renamed Growth Speed to Pop Growth Speed to be clearer
* Added the correct icons for megastructures and starbases in the control-groups UI
* Contacts view has been improved
* Government view now displays ruler & heir skill stars
* Heir tooltip no longer displays skill effects (as heir has no skill effects until they become ruler)
* Clicking your ruler or heir name in Government View will now allow you to change their name and/or title
* Galaxy resources now show the amount actually collected, and the tooltips give you the list of applied modifiers
* Resource modifier no longer show decimal values
* Removed pointless decimals for starbase caps, planet caps, naval command cap, and naval capacity
* Added the country resources add and multipliers modifiers to the budget tab
* Improved how the speed modifiers are shown in the starbase upgrade time tooltip
* Added a more clear warning that deleting templates will also disband ships
* Fixed several instances of a Status Quo peace being called a White Peace in peace messages
* Alert for High War Exhaustion is now more helpful
* Traits that are already present in species can now always be re-added while in process of modifying template
* Aura tooltip now differentiates between system-wide friendly auras and fleet-only friendly auras
* Changed the current value of template designs in fleet manager to show the current amount of ships including ones that only are scheduled for retrofit

###################
# AI
###################
* AI now activates some of its anti-crisis logic when under threat from a mid-game crisis like the Great Khan
* AI no longer picks shared destiny unless it has at least one vassal
* Added separate definitions for mid-game and end-game crisis factions, with slightly different AI logic to respond to them
* Fixed another cause of AI endlessly inviting player to the same war

###################
# Modding
###################
* Added a country modifier for war exhaustion gain (when multiple countries are involved on the same side in a war, the averaged modifier of all of them is used)
* add_threat effect now once again takes country scope (generates threat scaled towards whole target empire)

###################
# Bugfix
###################
* Fixed system/colony tradition costs being multiplied on each other instead of additive
* Fixed additional potential out of sync issues in multiplayer
* Afterburners can no longer be installed on defense platforms, as lovely as it was to uselessly vent fuel in to space as a gesture of contempt to environmentalists
* Deep Space Black Site now requires you to own a planet in the system, instead of erroneously using the same trigger as trading hub
* All Satrapies are now properly liberated when the Horde fractures into the Diadochi
* Fixed bug where the planet class transition effect started too late
* Fixed adopting the Domination tradition tree not unlocking certain diplomatic actions for eligible Machine Empires
* Fixed auto-exploring science ships doubling up (exploring the same system simultaneously)
* Fixed a CTD. Could sometimes try to merge invalid fleets.
* No longer possible to hold Casus Belli on non-empire factions such as Crises and Marauders
* Galactic core visibility is now lifted when you explore all systems adjacent to it, instead of just one
* Fixed empires not being able to see primitives in other empires' space due to lack of comms spread
* Ships merging in to fleets directly from stations now behave properly
* Fixed scientists not dying when their science ship was destroyed in battle
* Fixed raiding stance not having bombardment graphics on planet being raided
* Fixed tooltips for status column in contacts view to reflect accurately what they represent
* Fixed raiding not always abducting pops when it should, due to bad habitability calculation
* Fixed raiding stance not having the correct pop limit (would abduct at >6 instead of >4 pops)
* Fix a freeze when trying to upgrade technologies more than their max levels
* Fixed Determined Exterminators starting with a farm building
* Construction is now paused for starbases in combat
* Fixed force ethics not correctly calculating a government for the defeated empire's new ethics
* Enigmatic fortress now properly disables even after saving and loading the game (status was not properly saved)
* Iron Fist governor trait is no longer available for Hive Minds, making it disabled for all types of Gestalt Consciousness-empires
* Fixed being unable to land armies on a colony seized by Mutants
* Fix bug where queued items wasn't moved to the new fleet design when a design upgrade becomes available
* Fixed Slaving Despots being far too common an AI personality because of wrongly scripted weights
* Disables the bypass cache when calculating the distance to capital modifier, hopefully solving an OOS issue
* Fixed a crash when quitting to the main menu in the middle of a war
* It should no longer be possible to try to spawn a star system with an invalid star class
* Fix crash when comparing the relative power of a country that has no power
* Prevented fake country from trying to initialize a technology module it does not have for some reason
* UNE now uses correct name list when spawned in Commonwealth games
* Fixed revolting slaves greedily snatching the capital planet when they're not supposed to
* No longer possible to force ideology on Fallen Empires
* Fixed Omega Theory tech sometimes not appearing at the end of the Horizon Signal chain
* Fixed an event-spawned science ship not getting a hyperdrive
* Fixed planet unrest modifiers not being properly recalculated
* Fixed Ascension Theory tech not being available to players who do not own Apocalypse

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN OPT-IN PATCH. YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE TO JOIN IN ORDER TO TEST THE NEW VERSION.

Here's how to opt in:

Right click on Stellaris in your Steam library -> select Properties -> go to the Betas tab -> select "2.0.2_beta"

I'll of course ping this thread and let you know when an updated version of the beta goes out. Thank you all for your support, we think it's really great that we get to work with our fan community to constantly improve the game together.

Make sure to check out next week's Dev Diary for a first look at our development priorities going forward in the...wait for it...POST-APOCALYPSE.

(I've been waiting so long to say that)

Have fun everyone!

 

[Hyomoto]

We definitely have different experiences about being abrasive and boorish, but I'm all for objective discussions, even if my wording seems rude at points.

Assuming that for an effective research setup you would only have scientists with certian field-specializations, since exploration-related skills (anomaly research risk and speed, survey speed, Archeologist) are currently negligible and meaningless. So depending on what you resarch you rotate specialists among 3 dedicated assignments: explorer, Assist Reserach, and leading research projects but I don't usually rely on it unless I'm "forced" to, in which case it seems ridiculous to not make use of what you have. So I'm speaking from a not-casual-but-not-hardcore.

Now since the only way to enter an unexplored system is with a scientist in a naked science vessel, you risk 10% or more research speed and the available techs you're offered after finishing a project.
This is just unintuitive and unrealistic and overall a bad mechanic in my opinion.

Now a possible workaround/exploit is to put new, useless recruits into the science vessels temporarily and then switch them back to level up the important ones. This means that the only change that "fix" did was make you spend 'x' times 200 energy credits depending on how many you lose and add a lot of unnecessary micro.

So if the intention was to add more risk to exploration then there are other, much better ways (increase cost of science vessel); if the intention was to make you risk your important scientists, then the fix is not achieving its goal.

I'm suggesting to simply go back to a previous state.

What you're suggesting with military escort would require military ships to enter new systems at the same time as science vessels, but you also can't allow military to enter by themselves, which is a new, more complex mechanic (although probably not by much).
I have arguments against and for that change, but I think that's a separate discussion than just rolling back a fix that in fact didn't fix anything.

I see what you are saying now, and our data is different. I know the "revolving door" of research, but I generally have a few dedicated surveyors because the + to finding anomalies and - to failing allows me to find more. I also like the +25% survey speed in the early game, and once there is nothing to survey, or a lull, I put them on planetary assistance. There is a benefit to dropping those bonuses and using a revolving door of 10% research bonus.

I am not a min-max player in a lot of ways, though I do exploit stacking where convenient, so when it comes to science I try to exploit the bonuses but don't usually keep too many scientists "in the tank" for this purpose and prefer the dedicated surveyors. I can see why you have that opinion. I think of that more as self inflicted though, since Stellaris at average difficulty doesn't demand it. That micro becomes more important at higher difficulties but while I accept reverting the change is easiest it also seems to be the weakest solution.

There are a handful of insta-death events, and they are either important or they aren't. Invincible scientists say they aren't, so why have them at all? Making them vulnerable suggests the opposite, so the next best thing is giving the player a bit of control. With anomalies it would be better indicating which anomaly you are researching, and exploration threats being able to, if you choose, assign an escort.

Embracing the bug suggests, to me at least, that we should accept a convenient solution over a proper one. Invincible scientists feels like a cheat, but they are literally the only non-combat leader that can die of something other than old age. So, I think the question then becomes if the insta-death events are proper, rather than if they should be invincible.

 

[mc40]

The tooltip for building outposts does not correctly show upkeep

 

[Sakkura]

The tooltip for building outposts does not correctly show upkeep

Do you have the -20% upkeep tradition? Maybe it's rounding 0.8 down to 0.

Which is still not good, of course.

 

[Matt516]

The plan is to update the beta as we go along with new fixes and tweaks, until we have an official version. Won't update it every single day and spam people with downloads, but will do so at reasonable intervals when we have a useful package of changes for you.

Any word on next update? The Unity bug was preventing me from playing to avoid messing up the whole save's progression, and now that it's bugged in the other direction (and I've played enough to get a few traditions to make up for the precious bug) I'm in the same boat.

 

[Joni Festus]

Really enjoying most of the changes as I get used to them.

One thing that is a pain though, is in war when it looks like you are occupying every enemy system but it isn’t easy to see if you have occupied all of their planets without going and checking every individual system. In my last vassalisation war against a federation, I still had 3 unoccupied claims which I couldn’t find and ran out of time which meant I had to go status quo and couldn’t vassalise. This was despite checking my claims list and searching to confirm I had occupied each one.

Would be easier if there was a way of showing that an outpost is occupied but the planet isn’t.

 

[mc40]

Do you have the -20% upkeep tradition? Maybe it's rounding 0.8 down to 0.

Which is still not good, of course.

I just double checked the budget screen clearly shows that my starbase cost went from 4.00 to 5.00 when i added first outpost. Also only have one tradition the discovery one.

 

[Perfectdark]

Can anyone confirm that achievements for 2.0.2 rolling beta patch? Thanks

 

[ius]

Can any one tell me how I can activate 2.0.2 patch without steam? I play with Paradox Client.

Second paragraph of the first post: "Today's dev diary is about 2.0.2_beta: the new build available as an optional beta for Steam users right now (note for Paradoxplaza Launcher users: we're using Steam as our beta testing platform at this time, if you want to try it out please use the Steam key that came with your Plaza purchase)."

 

[Matt516]

Would be easier if there was a way of showing that an outpost is occupied but the planet isn’t.

There is - if you see your empire's logo in the system, you control the outpost. If you see 4 little spikey things coming out of the logo, you control the whole system.

 

[shadyn]

Beta patch (but I think this has been there for a while):
- dialogue box for "The Messenger: Possibilities", tooltip for "Release the funding" reads: "Issues Special Project: Study the the Messenger connection" (one too many instances of "the")

Also I notice the Diplomacy screen doesn't have the icons for Vassals/Protectorates showing.

 

[Northernwwater]

This is sad
I already struggle with Naval cap so those +2 extra starbases i now won't get is a... 72(?) Naval cap less...

Also, please, for teh love of Kreel, remove the FDCB from Crises, it's breaking them even more thatn it does with an (A)FE

It's a strategy game. You are supposed to struggle. That's the idea.

 

[Brent15]

I just want to say I'm really happy with this expansion. I just fought my first big battles against the mid-game crisis. It's awesome watching your ships disengage and warp out. The weapon balance is fun to play with - I didn't enjoy this aspect before the expansion. I feel as though a smaller force does have a fair chance and the goal of making sure a war isn't decided in one engagement was met. I was skeptical about the 'hyperlane-only' change but I think you've done well here too. So many other things I'm liking - I should probably make a list.

Just wanted to say thanks and that I like the direction this game is going.

 

[Saryn]

What I mean, is quite simple. When building outposts, you will never pay more than the bordering influence cost, as you build one, then the next one, then the next one, your border moving each time.

With claims, wars don't work like that. You need to take larger chunks to make the war worthwhile, and so you end up claiming systems multiple jumps away, by virtue of the fact you have already claimed everything on your border (which is a pretty thin strip of nothing to go through a whole war over).

With claim costs as they stand, it is near impossible to conquer even a small empire without CHEESING (just pointing out there is a way around this, and one I doubt the devs want to encourage) by claiming only planets, and then outposting everything else once the rest of the empire vanishes upon victory.

I don't know how balanced it would be. But the obvious fix to this problem is to just calculate the cost based on neighboring claims. i.e. if you border System X, and System Y is beyond X, then claiming system Y is cheaper if you already have an established claim on System X.

 

[Wenli Lohengramm]

Occupation no longer contributes to War Exhaustion, but instead is displayed as a separate factor in war overview, to make it clearer what you need to do in order to enforce demands

So, how much explicity occupation contribues to war exaustion? I fight a war that we occupied every single stars from a empire in a 2 empire side battle and the war exaustion grow so slowly...

 

[Saryn]

So, how much explicity occupation contribues to war exaustion? I fight a war that we occupied every single stars from a empire in a 2 empire side battle and the war exaustion grow so slowly...

I don't think it factors in at all. Rather, it is used as part of the calculation allowing the enforcing of your war demands. At least, that's how I read the text.

 

[IthiliesShnipes]

I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, but if my war philosophy is set to unrestricted wars, I cannot use the change ideology war goal; I can only use it when my philosophy is set to liberation wars. Shouldn't unrestricted war allow all types of war goals? It's called unrestricted after all, and limiting my war goal options seems kind of... restrictive.

 

[Wenli Lohengramm]

I don't think it factors in at all. Rather, it is used as part of the calculation allowing the enforcing of your war demands. At least, that's how I read the text.

I did see a faster rate of war exhaustion grow when I became occupying their systems I guess, I think it's fair to do that since you will strange things like a totally dominated empire don't surrender...

 

[FailFailWin]

I've been sat on every system a small empire owns and it still wont achieve the vassalise wargoal, purely because their war exhaustion hasnt ticked up. Occupation, particularly full occupation, should count for a LOT more. How are they not surrendering exactly, when I have a gun to their heads?

Also, claim costs are insanely too much. Repeated because it's a serious issue, conquest is practically impossible right now. Hell even the old warscore system at least allowed to to conquer a reasonable number of systems at a time, the current claims make it a joke, they need to be cut in half, if not more to match what we used to be able to take.

Surely I'm not the only one who's noticed this?

I love the update and it's aims, I really do, but the claims and wargoals systems need a lot of balancing work...

We also need a way to see the claims of other empires, not just our own, in the claims screen. Even if it means switching between views of various empires. One notification, once, is not enough to see what's going on...

 

[Matt516]

We also need a way to see the claims of other empires, not just our own, in the claims screen. Even if it means switching between views of various empires. One notification, once, is not enough to see what's going on...

Yeah this is a sorely needed UI element. Even if it's just individual to each opposing empire (aka you can view their claims screen as yours appears) that would be better than what we've got now.

As is, when I see that the opponent I'm fighting is trying to get "system X, system Y, and 30 others" I have zero way of knowing exactly what he's going for or how bad it would be for me to surrender.

 

[Infinitea&Biscuits]

I have encountered a game breaking bug unfortunately in 2.0.2, not sure if it has been reported before but i am getting constant alerts (as in every second) that an empire has the Stop Colossus Casus Belli against me. Not only are they constant but I also have not even researched destroyers yet, let alone Colossi! Checking their empire they do have the Casus Belli listed against me, but only once.

This seemed to start whilst at war with them, which they declared, after i captured their capital. Their war goals were conquest of four of my systems, mine in response was Absorption (hunger) as my only option.

I am a Devouring Swarm so I am not sure if this may have something to do with it, it is only 2259, the only ascension perk i have is mastery of nature, so i don't meet any of the three requirements for the Colossus Project Ascension and I have not yet researched any ship size (not even destroyers) so i couldn't really be further from getting a Colossus.

The only other bug i noticed in the play through is missing text for the middle top row supremacy tradition - tr_supremacy_natural_order and tr_supremacy_natural_order_desc (I did pick this perk if it is relevant to possibly causing the issue, although i assume it is just a missing text reference.