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Hello there!

We're just about a week away from releasing Nemesis, our next big Expansion for Stellaris. So big in fact, that we're naming it after one of the most renowned Science-Fiction authors, Philip K. Dick, and calling it 3.0! This has been one of the most fun expansions I've personally gotten to work on and I can't wait to see your reactions when you get to play it yourselves!

With this post we're of course bringing you the changelog today, but I also wanted to talk a bit about how we've been handling bigger releases lately and what's going on with Nemesis specifically. For those of you that have followed us for a while, you know that since Federations we internally start working on the first patch for a major release before its actual release date (If you're curious why we do this, you can read about it here).

For Nemesis it's no different, however the patch that we're working on is currently undergoing testing so we cannot yet reveal what's in it, nor when it might become available to you all. But we'll let you know more as soon as we are confident in the build that we have!

But in all honesty, considering how big the 3.0.0. change log is, it should take you all plenty of time to read through ;)

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 3.0.0 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Nemesis Expansion Features
###################

# Espionage Operations

* Take advantage of the Spy Networks your envoys build in other Empires and perform covert operations on them to steal their technologies, acquire assets, sabotage starbases, and much more.

# Become the Crisis

* Set your Empire down the path of destruction with a new ascension perk to Become the Crisis. Build up a fleet backed up by the most powerful ship the galaxy has ever seen and let no one stand in your way as you try to breach the veil of reality through any means possible.

# Galactic Custodian / Emperor

* Save the galaxy from the evilness that exists within it. You can now be elected the Custodian of the Galactic Community, with new powers to strengthen you against any crisis the galaxy faces. And once that crisis is taken care of, you can relinquish your powers. Or not.

# Other

* New majestic “Imperial Ship set”.
* 3 new musical tracks.

# Achievements

* Show off your sinister side with 10 new Steam achievements.

######################
# 3.0.0 "Dick" Free Features
######################

# Intel and First Contact Rework

* Intelligence and First contact has been completely redone in the ‘Dick’ patch. Empires will now have to send an Envoy as a diplomat to initiate first contact with another Empire, and from there build relations to increase the knowledge of that Empire.

# Espionage and Spy Networks
* Send Envoys to build Spy Networks in other Empires, gathering information and intelligence.

# Economic and Population Rework

* Building Slots:
* * Building Slots are now unlocked through expanding the infrastructure of a colony by constructing City, Hive, or Nexus Districts, by upgrading the capital building of the planet, or through civilian infrastructure technologies. (Note: Habitation Districts on habitats do not. Building slots can be acquired on habitats through the Voidborne Ascension Perk.) The Functional Architecture civic now also grants 1 building slot.
* * Ecumenopoleis, Ringworlds, Hive Worlds, and Machine Worlds start with all building slots available for development.
* * Branch Office Building Slots are now unlocked by upgrading the capital building on the planet as well as the target empire having the Insider Trading tradition.
* * Several Technologies have been flagged as “Infrastructure” gateway technologies.

* Industrial Districts:
* * Alloys and Consumer Goods are now produced by Industrial Districts instead of Factory and Forge buildings. Specialized districts remain on an ecumenopolis.
* * Factory and Forge buildings now add additional consumer good or alloy producing jobs to Industrial Districts and are both exclusive and planet unique. (Both may be built on an ecumenopolis.)
* * The Forge World and Foundry World designations (and habitat equivalents) will now also shift one job between Consumer Goods to Alloys (or vice-versa) for each Industrial District, if possible.

* Pop Growth and Assembly:
* * Biological population growth now follows a curve based on the number of pops on the planet and the theoretical carrying capacity of the planet. Pops will start at their normal baseline but increase in speed as the population grows, eventually leveling off and slowing down as they fill up planets. The overall carrying capacity of a planet is largely based on the total housing the planet has, plus a value for unbuilt and unblocked districts based on the planet class, and can be seen by examining the Planet Size tooltip.
* * The amount of pop growth or assembly required to create a new pop is now increased by the total number of pops in the empire. Base assembly values have also been adjusted. As a result of these changes, the expected number of pops in the late game are significantly lower than before.
* * New colonies no longer suffer an explicit pop growth penalty. The basic Colony planetary designations now grants stability, amenities, and (in regular empires) happiness.
* * Spawning Pools and Cloning Vats now produce organic pop assembly rather than modifying pop growth.
* * Overpopulated planets will stop generating pops at lower levels of overpopulation.

# Other

* Reworked manual resettlement UI.
* Added auto-research Quality-of-Life feature.
* Added new diplo messages for when an empire is destroyed upon the end of a war.
* Added notifications when a member joins/leaves the Galactic Community/Empire.
* Added game setup option to pick which End-Game Crisis you get.
* Added a filter to the colonisation menu so that you can just view your main species.
* Added Setting for turning off mouse Screen Edge Panning.
* New factions-themed colony event chain, “Manifesti Destiny”, available to non-gestalt empires.
* Added around 10 new envoy-based random events

###################
# Balance
###################

* Homeworlds now normally range from size 18-21 instead of 16-18.
* Empire starting resources and buildings have been adjusted.

* Changes have been made to resettlement:
* * Planets with sapient, unemployed, free pops now have a 10% chance per month for one to automatically migrate to other planets with appropriate jobs, housing, and decent habitability. Migration controls will prevent this auto-resettlement. Having multiple unemployed pops on a planet will increase the chance of one of them moving.
* * Greater Than Ourselves has been changed to significantly increase Automatic Resettlement Chance.
* * Transit Hub starbase building has been added, which increases the chance for auto-resettlement from all planets within its system.
* * Manual resettlement costs have been increased and now also for many pops also have an Influence cost. This Influence cost is waived by the Corvée System civic. The Subsumed Will and OTA Updates civics also waive influence costs for manual resettlement of drones. (Note: OTA Updates also does not waive the influence cost for moving Bio-Trophies, as they are not drones and they tend to resist the necessary OTA receiver upgrades.)
* * Manually resettling the last pop on a planet now has a significant Influence surcharge. (Which is not waived by the resettlement civics.)

* Unemployed Pop Updates:
* * Pop demotion time has been halved, and is now a base of 5 years for ruler strata pops and 2 1/2 years for specialists.
* * Unemployed pops now provide greater emigration push.
* * The Kinship tradition in the Harmony tree now reduces demotion time by 25% instead of 50%. Empires with Shared Burdens receive the 20% leader upkeep reduction effect from Synchronicity instead.

* Ringworld and Shattered Ring Balance Changes:
* * Ringworld segments provide half as many jobs as they used to, and the size of ringworlds has been increased to 10.
* * Commercial Ring World segments now have more Clerk jobs but no Artisan jobs.
* * The Shattered Ring origin now conveys Ringworld Habitability Preference, and begin with more blockers on their homeworld. Shattered Ring blockers now also provide -1 max districts.
* * The Shattered Ring origin is no longer guaranteed nearby habitable planets. They wouldn't want to live on them anyway.
* * Added a warning to the Shattered Ring origin that Lithoids will face mineral scarcity problems.

* Habitat and Void Dweller Balance Changes:
* * Habitat capital buildings now grant a maintenance drone job for machine empires.
* * Changed the adoption effect of Domination Traditions for Void Dwellers to reduce the upkeep cost of habitats from 5 alloys to 4 alloys.
* * Added a new tradition for Void Dwellers, Modular Superstructures which gives +1 building slot per habitat. replacing ‘Public Works Division’.
* * Added the effects of Imperious Architecture to habitat capital buildings.
* * Added the effects of Interstellar Franchising to habitat trade districts.
* * Replaced Planetary Prospecting for Void Dwellers with Adaptability Tradition with Orbital Surveying, which allows construction of one of Reactor Districts, Astro-Mining Bays, or Research Districts to habitats that have none of these.
* * Changed the finishing effect of Expansion Traditions for Void Dwellers to reduce the alloy and influence cost of habitats by 20%

* Simplified the rules regarding what jobs robots of different tiers can work.
* * Simple robots can work all worker tier jobs.
* * Droids can work all worker and specialist jobs. If AI is outlawed, certain complex specialist jobs (such as researchers, bureaucrats, and culture workers) are unavailable to them.
* * Synthetics follow the same rules as droids, but if AI have full rights, they can also work in ruler jobs.

* Updates have been made to some Authorities and Ethics:
* * The Democratic Authority now increases the Automatic Resettlement Chance by 50%. (To a base of 15%)
* * The Oligarchic Authority now increases Influence from factions by 15%.
* * The Dictatorial Authority now reduces Empire Sprawl penalties by 10%.
* * The Imperial Authority retains its current +1 Edict Cap bonus.
* * The Machine Intelligence Authority now grants +1 monthly Pop Assembly
* * The Gestalt Consciousness Ethic now also grants +2 Encryption, applying to both Machine Intelligences and Hive Minds.

* Envoys, Diplomacy, and Espionage
* * Base number of starting envoys is now 2.
* * Enigmatic Engineering now grants +2 Encryption and causes Steal Technology operations used against you to fail after the first stage is complete. It will still prevent reverse-engineering technologies from ship debris.
* * Transcendence now also grants +10 Base Intel on all Empires, +2 Encryption and +2 Codebreaking.
* * Shadow Council and Ruthless Competition now also increase the maximum infiltration level of your Spy Networks
* * Criminal Syndicates now also gain +20% Spy Network Growth Speed.
* * Judgment Corps and Public Trust Officers tradition now also grants the Enhanced Surveillance edict.
* * Delegated Functions machine intelligence civic now also grants +1 Envoy.
* * The Shared Destiny Ascension Perk now also grants 2 additional Envoys.
* * The Universal Compatibility tradition now also grants 1 additional Envoy.
* * The Influence cost for using Favors in the Galactic Community has been reduced from 25 to 10.
* * The Autonomous Agents and Embodied Dynamism technologies now also grants 1 additional Envoy.
* * Improve Relations now caps out at +100 and is changed at a rate of +0.25 per month. Harm Relations now caps out at -100 and is changed at a rate of -0.5 per month.
* * The Establish Embassy diplomatic action exists once again, and increases Intel between the two empires and triples the effectiveness of Improve Relations.
* * Colonial Bureaucracy and Galactic Bureaucracy now grant +10 Base Intel.
* * The Sentry Array Megastructure now also increases Base Intel.
* * Several Espionage related Edicts have been added.
* * Several Technologies have been flagged as “Espionage” gateway technologies.

* Additional Economic Balance:
* * Added 3 new Society techs that give upgraded capital buildings progressively larger bonuses to production (while also increasing job upkeep).
* * Rural, Farming, Mining, and Generator colony designation bonuses increased, as well as the bonuses from Five Year Plans. Urban Worlds now get a trade bonus.
* * Mining, Capacity, and Farming Subsidy Edicts now grant +50% production.
* * Prosperity Adoption tradition's Mining Station Output bonus increased to 20%.
* * Technologies that boost space based resource gathering and research now become significantly stronger as they advance in tier.
* * The energy output of technicians and tech drones have been significantly increased.
* * The Trade Value generated by pops with decent or better living standards has been increased by 25-33%.
* * Effect on trade from most jobs (including Criminals) has been increased.
* * The Food Processing Center, Mineral Purification Hub, and Energy Nexus buildings now also increase the number of jobs added by the districts they affect. Food Processing Centers also increase the jobs produced by Hydroponic Farms.
* * Reduced the special resource upkeep of Ecumenopolis Arcologies to 1 unit per month from 2.
* * Databank Uplinks from the Discovery tradition tree now grants a greater bonus to station based research.
* * Starbase Hydroponics now produces a base of 10 food.
* * Starbase Nebula Refineries now produce a base of 10 minerals, and 1 exotic gas if Exotic Gas Extraction has been researched.
* * Starbase Solar Power Networks now produce a base of 6 energy.
* * Starbase Black Hole Observatories now produce a base of 15 physics research, and 1 volatile mote if Mote Stabilization has been researched.
* * Database Uplinks also applies to research producing starbase buildings or modules.
* * Technologies that boost technician, farmer, or miner output now also apply to energy, food, or mineral producing starbase buildings and modules.
* * Insider Trading tradition now gives Megacorps +5% branch office value instead of +1 branch office building on their own planets (which was useless to them).

* It is now possible for the endgame crisis to happen in the first 50 years of the endgame in certain circumstances. These are:
* * No living fallen empires / awakened fallen empires;
* * War in Heaven not happening, concluded, or started 15 years ago;
* * A country has researched jump drives or psi jump drives (only the Unbidden can happen in the first 50 years in this case)
* Nuked old script to randomize which crisis shows up. Now it is simply purely a random choice that is random (with the chance of any crisis happening increasing the more years pass in the endgame).

* Buffed member perks for galactic union level 3 and 5
* * The Galactic Union Lvl 3 perk (Federal Attache) now gives +2 unity and +5% Trust Growth per envoy.
* * The Galactic Union Lvl 5 perk (Federal Unity) now gives +2 unity and +5 Trust Cap per envoy.

* Gestalt capital buildings now provide more amenities and/or maintenance or synapse drone jobs.
* Increased base colonization growth to 3.
* Bureaucrat upkeep raised to 2 Consumer Goods. Coordinator upkeep raised to 6 Energy.
* Medical Workers now increase planet habitability by 1% each.
* Greatly increased the amount of research points you are rewarded in events.
* The Wenkwort Custodian planet modifier now restricts output from industrial, mining and refining jobs. Instead its gardens provide a boost to the output of cultural workers and researchers.
* The science federation election challenge now takes each participating country's level of scientific progress into account to a far greater degree than previously.
* Buffed Enclave stations a bit so they can no longer be wiped out by passing Amoebas.
* Base speed of purge is now set in the purge type on species rights.
* It is now possible for pop growth, assembly and purge to 'overflow', adding or removing multiple pops per month.
* Changed timing for Caravaneers.
* Outposts and other starbases now grant 1 sensor range. (Occupying starbases during a war will therefore allow you to attack adjacent systems if you have visibility into them. You may need a science vessel to escort military vessels into nebulas the first time!).
* The hyperlane detection range of sensors and science ships has been reduced. The Map the Stars edict now also increases hyperlane detection range by 1.
* Subjects of the Khan or Fallen Empires no longer gain their vast knowledge of geography.
* Clone Vats now cost 500 minerals and food to build, and have minor energy but significant food upkeep.
* Necrophages now have an assembly speed penalty so you can't just build them out of spare body parts, as cool as that is.
* Lithoids now also have -25% organic pop assembly, the clone vat and spawning pool processes lose efficiency turning food into rock.
* Planets that have been reduced to zero districts by Terravores will now shatter, with drones automatically resettled to their homeworld.
* The Corporate Embassy now requires a major capital building instead of 50 pops on the planet, and gives 5% Economic Diplomatic Weight instead of 10%.
* The Disinformation Center now requires a major capital building instead of 50 pops on the planet, reduces ethics attraction by 25% instead of 50%, and increases the maximum infiltration level your spy networks can reach rather than providing an Economic Diplomatic Weight bonus.
* Organic Paradise building now has both Artisan and Maintenance Drone jobs.
* Necrophage Centers of Elevation now produce 1, 2 or 3 Necrophyte jobs depending on how many organic pops grow in ten years, so that you are unlikely to run out of Necrophyte pops even with the new pop system. The upgraded House of Apotheosis now gives a flat 6 Necrophyte jobs.
* The Planetary Unification homeworld modifier from the Prosperous Unification origin now expires after 10 years.

###################
# Automation
###################

* Significant updates have been made to planetary and sector automation.
* * Planetary Automation build lists and behavior have been heavily revised.
* * Planetary Automation will now only upgrade non-capital buildings if it will not cause a monthly deficit and if at least one job in the upgraded building would be filled.
* * Sector AI now prioritises districts->buildings->upgrades rather than vice-versa
* * Sector AI now knows when to stop building (i.e. will not build when the planet's employment and housing situations are perfectly fine)
* * Sector AI now knows how empire sprawl actually works
* * Sector AI now knows that the Crime Lord Deal makes anti-crime buildings superfluous
* * Fixed a bug where the Sector AI would not really care about its designated speciality - e.g. Research Sector AI now prioritises research a bit more
* * Sector Automation will now routinely build Organic Sanctuaries when needed.
* Renamed automatic exploration to automatic survey.

###################
# Performance and Stability
###################

* Fixed many inefficiencies in the scripts deciding which species rights you could pick. As a bonus, the scripts are also infinitely more readable now.
* A hotjoin.oos save is created on gamestart too now.
* Added a new checksum (systems flags), only used in hardoos.
* Fixed an OOS happening when modifying a species.
* Fixed an OOS due to robotic pops getting happiness
* Fixed OOS issue arising due to incorrect order of updating caches.
* Fix desync that could happen if two empires picked the same start.

###################
# UI
###################

* MP games now show an icon in front of the player that paused.
* New loc text for the Golden Rule federation challenge.
* Improvement to Golden Rule challenge outcome message.
* Added a "menace" console command that grants Menace.
* Added console command "menace_perk" that lists the player's perks and their status when there are no arguments.
* fixed machine names, species_00 chinese files, and species_01_SC.txt to match the english version (more content for chinese loc)
* Galactic community button appearance is improved.
* Windows-Only: Makes console more gracefully handle dead keys. On many keyboard layouts the console hotkey is also a deadkey, which ends up corrupting console text input.
* The icon for a resolution is now shown in the popup window for proposing it
* Added Outliner option for showing Colony Designation instead of Planet Class icons.
* Can now sort and reorder planets in the outliner.
* It's now possible to Cycle viewed Planets with Tab and Shift+Tab (or Ctrl+Tab), same as pressing Next/Prev buttons.
* Outliner now correctly Highlights open planet when cycling planets with Next/Prev buttons.
* Remove unhelpful tooltip text from some "Ok" buttons.
* Contacts view now shows relation instead of opinion.
* Added timer to the next pop being grown/assembled if you hover over the species being grown
* The "current population" pie chart tooltip now lists the 10 species with the most pops on the planet, rather than just one, which is randomly picked.

###################
# AI
###################

* The AI should now better understand what a building that gives a % bonus for a resource does.
* Fixed cases where a weakened fleet would get stuck trying to return to its homebase, which is unreachable.
* Made the AI use the caravaneer to buy loot boxes and play the slots.
* Cost is now properly withdrawn from the AI budget when proposing a resolution.
* Genocidal AIs will now attack any unknown science ships that enter their systems.
* The AI will now take better consideration of which ships already exist in Federation fleets before building new ones.
* The AI will now build better distributions of different ship types for Federation fleets.
* Fixed a bug that stopped the AI from ever proposing federation laws; also made AI-only federations more active in setting laws as they would like (especially centralisation).
* Fixed AI not starting fresh research while currently researching a special project with no science cost.
* AI will now prioritise spending on fleets a bit better if it recently lost a war.
* Reduced the AI's need for passing sanctions upon sanctions in the galcom.

###################
# Modding
###################

* Added OUTLINER_UPDATE_EVERY_N_FRAMES define (optimization mainly for late game).
* Buildings now use a position priority system instead of the simple "add first" that they used to have.
* Planet classes can now have adjectives e.g. "tropical", referred to via [<planet>.GetPlanetClassAdj].
* Using orbit = { } on a moon will now return the planet the moon is orbiting.
* Added ship localisation commands GetShipSizeName, GetShipSizeNamePlural and GetDesignName.
* Added solar system localisation command GetClassName.
* Added country localisation command GetRealName (to get a country's real name even if your current country doesn't know it yet).
* Added species localisation commands GetOrganNamePlural, GetHandNamePlural, GetEarName and GetEarNamePlural.
* The species parameter in create_army_transport now works as expected.
* Standardised country, planet, species leader and location target calls for effects and triggers (e.g. set_owner = <country>), so that they all allow the same set of scopes and will reliably raise error log messages if the required scope cannot be found. The following is now allowed:
* * Country: country, planet, fleet, system, ship, pop, army, leader, faction, megastructure, starbase, deposit, sector, arc site, first contact, spy network and espionage operation / asset. In all cases, it refers to the owner of the object (e.g. deposit: owner of the planet where the deposit is)
* * Species: species, country (founder species), pop, leader, army, fleet/ship (species on board if colonist ship, else owner’s founder species), planet (owner’s founder species), first contact (target country’s species)
* * Planet: planet, pop, deposit, arc site (if on a planet), megastructure (if built on a planet), fleet/ship (if in orbit), army (if on a planet)
* * Leader: leader, country (ruler), fleet/ship (admiral/scientist), faction (faction’s leader), army (general), sector (governor), arc site (researcher), first contact (envoy)
* * Location - spatial object (i.e. object that you can find on a solar system map): planet, ship, fleet, system, ambient object, megastructure, starbase, arc site, first contact
* * Location - celestial coordinate (i.e. object with a coordinate in space): planet, deposit, fleet, ship, pop, army, country (capital), system (returns centre of system), leader, ambient object, megastructure, starbase, arc site, first contact (returns centre of system)
* Added set_colonization_controls effect.
* Added per-species namelist entries for ears (singular & plural), and plural forms for organs and hands.
* Error log entries for wrong localisation [ ] entries now give more context.
* Added clear_variable effect, because setting to 0 is confusing.
* Added first_contact_speed_mult modifier.
* Added first_contact_clues_add modifier.
* Added first_contact_defense_add modifier
* Added trigger for has_active_first_contact_with, scope change reverse_first_contact and scope lists random/every_first_contact and _active_first_contact.
* GetFirstName now returns the very first word in leaders' names, i.e. "Stalk" instead of "Stalk of" in a Plantoid namelist. If for some reason you really want "Stalk of", you can now use GetFirstNameFull. It also cuts off commas at the start of the first name.
* Added effect copy_random_tech_from (with optional parameters for tech area, category and the amount of progress that should be added) to steal technology from another empire. Also added trigger can_copy_random_tech_from, to see if such a tech exists.
* Added trigger can_research_technology, to check whether a country is able to research a given technology (recommended for use with give_technology or add_research_option effects).
* Added compare_distance trigger to see if object A is closer to object B or object C in the same solar system.
* Distance trigger now has a same_system parameter, to check objects in the same system. It also now checks the distances of more object types.
* Added effect unlock_menace_perk.
* Added has_menace_perk trigger.
* Invalid context switch error log messages in triggers now correctly show scope details.
* is_owned_by now works in most scopes, rather than just a select few.
* Rationalised first contact rules in country type. Replaced script_only with on_action_only, which means only the on_action will be fired, not the first contact site.
* Added "on_pop_bombed_to_death" on_action, with current scope being the planet where this happened, and from being the country that is bombing.
* Added a "pop_purge_mult" modifier that affects the speed of purging pops.
* Added planet trigger is_artificial = yes/no.
* In special projects, the "prev" of the original scope is now the owner country of the project.
* Add war scope as FromFrom to on_accept, on_war_goal_set and on_status_quo in war goals.
* If you accidentally use the same key for two triggered descriptions (e.g. in event descriptions), it'll now raise an error.
* Added check_variable_arithmetic trigger, which checks the value of a variable if you add/subtract/multiply/divide/modulo another value with it).
* Added modulo_variable effect.
* You can now use "value = { scope = x variable = y }" in variable effects and triggers, making it possible to compare variable A on scope B with variable C on scope D.
* Added effect fire_on_action = { on_action = <string> scopes = { from = X fromfrom = Y } }, so that you can define your own on_actions in script.
* is_within_borders_of now works in ship and fleet scope as well as planet and system.
* Added is_civilian trigger for ships and fleets.
* Added set_mia effect for fleets.
* Added on_vassal_released on_action.
* Added set_emperor_can_change_council_members (= yes/no) effect.
* Added is_capital_system trigger.
* Added set_star_class effect.
* Added on_add_to_imperial_council/on_remove_from_imperial_council on_actions for when the Emperor changes Imperial Council members
* Added pop_purge_speed modifier, which is applied instead of pop_decline_speed to pops that are declining because of purge.
* subject_can_diplomacy trigger is now a boolean, as it didn't work anything like as expected before!
* member_of_faction trigger now works with explicit pop faction keys i.e. member_of_faction = isolationist.
* Added destroy_and_spawn_debris_for = <country> effect.
* Added set_policy_cooldown effect.
* The "from" scope now works consistently in casus belli potential checks.
* Add trigger galactic_defense_force_exists and effect set_galactic_defense_force
* closest_system now has a use_bypasses parameter (default: no).
* is_war_participant = war now works in country scope.
* Add ship_community_territory_speed_mult modifier, affecting ship speed in systems belonging to Galactic Community members (if you are also a member).
* Fixed the destroying country not being in the "from" in on_country_destroyed.
* Fixed the country "on_destroy" not being called correctly when the last planet is removed from a country.
* Added num_unemployed planet trigger.
* Added galactic_emperor and galactic_custodian static modifiers, affecting veto cost/cooldown and emergency measures cooldown.
* Event desc texts are now randomized if more than one text entry is provided
* Made a bunch of useful triggers such as num_pops and controlled_systems work in sector scope.
* pop_maintenance_cost now works with "= { value > X resource = Y }" rather than defaulting to mineral upkeep.
* Added join_war_on_side effect.
* Added galactic_community_actions database for data about specific actions related to the Galactic Community.
* Added "use_shipnames_from" to ship_sizes that will allow a size to use the ship name from another size.
* Resettlement Cost now supports triggered modifiers, see 00_social_classes.txt for examples.
* Removed every/random_war_attacker/defender and instead made random/every/any/count versions of _attacker/defender.
* Rename every/random/any_planet to _galaxy_planet, to avoid confusion (modders take note - you may need to batch-replace stuff!).
* Added count_owned_planet, count_controlled_planet and count_galaxy_planet triggers.
* Added would_work_job trigger, which checks whether a pop a) is allowed to work a job, and b) would choose to (i.e. has higher weights for that one than its current one).
* Added a market_resource_price trigger.
* added modifier "ship_damage_against_starbases_mult" to affect damage ships do to starbases.
* Consolidated owned/recruited_leader checks to one (owned_leader) as they did the same thing with parallel coding
* Renamed any/every_sector script list to galaxy_sector to avoid confusion.
* Added count_subject trigger.
* Added every/random/count_ship_in_system and fixed the tooltip for the “any version”. Note: count_system_ships is now deprecated
* Replaced every/random/any/count_ship with galaxy_fleet, because checking every ship in the game is a bad idea (and was used wrong in 100% of cases in the game scripts).
* Added Get(Species)ToothName(Plural) loc command.
* Made ‘target country’ of targeted resolutions accessible as 'from' scope in targeted resolutions.
* Added on_branch_office_established and on_branch_office_closed on actions.
* Added "on_starbase_destroyed" on action, and added "starbase_event" event type.
* Added "on_system_occupied" on action that is called when a system is fully occupied (all planets and the starbase). Scope (this = system, from = occupant, fromfrom = original owner)
* Added "system_event" type of event that ensures events are fired in a galactic object scope.
* Megastructures can now have a victory score value.
* Added "add_victory_score" effect, add_victory_score={ reason=<loc_key> score=<value> }.
* You can now hide static modifiers from the country government list of modifiers by adding "hide_from_country_list = yes" to them.
* owned_pop script list (e.g. any_owned_pop) now works in sector scope
* Added every/random/any/count_species_pop which scopes from species to all pops in the galaxy of that species, but use with care because performance on that one ain't gonna be great.
* Deprecated random_pop, any_pop, count_pops and count_owned_pops.
* Made system_within_borders script list work in sector scope too.
* Added "add_victory_score" effect that adds score to a country.
* Added a new trigger has_ship_owner_type to check what type of entity a ship, fleet or ship design is owned by.
* Added "system_event" effect that fires an event in a galactic_object.
* Added "starbase_event" effect to fire events in a starbase scope.
* create_ambient_object can now use effect = { } inside it.
* Added effect fields to a bunch of further create effects that were missing them: create_army, modify_army, create_army_transport, create_pop, create_mining_station, create_research_station, create_half_species.
* The debugtooltip of the planet building queue now shows the sector AI's priorities.
* Now each ship size has their own version of the following modifier shipsize_<shipsize>_evasion_mult, shipsize_<shipsize>_disengage_chance_mult, shipsize_<shipsize>_tracking_mult. For example: shipsize_crisis_corvette_evasion_mult, shipsize_crisis_corvette_disengage_chance_mult, shipsize_crisis_destroyer_tracking_mult.
* added a "Star Destroyed" message sent when a star gets destroyed (instead of planet destroyed).
* Added a room_name_override effect to set a specific room background to an empire.
* Add effect transfer_galactic_defense_force_fleets = <target>.
* Renamed has_completed/failed_special_project to have _in_log at the end, to avoid confusion as to what exactly they do.
* color entries in scripted map modes now take a type = borders, country or country_and_borders (default).
* Add "zoom" value to scripted map mode colors. The color will only be applied when zoomed out more than this value (default is 0).
* Add "filter" support for scripted map mode colors. The color will then only be applied if the selected map filter is active.
* Made message_types have their own directory, so that modders can add new ones in a new file without overwriting the Vanilla file.
* Mod-made juggernauts which aren't specifically the "juggernaut" ship size will no longer suffer from a variety of deal-breaking issues.
* You can now use [] commands in district descriptions.
* AI weights are now used in the calculations for all component templates (not just the required ones for a ship).
* Added on_pre_government_changed and on_post_government_changed on_actions.
* Added a bunch of triggers to get the number of X sort of diplomatic relations a country has (e.g. num_defensive_pacts, num_rivals, num_truces)
* Added associated_federation and federation_leader scope changes.
* Added effects to add/remove_associate_member of a federation.
* join_alliance effect can now target a federation.
* Added any/every/random/count_associate scopes for getting the associates of a federation.
* Added num_members and num_associates triggers for federation scope.
* Country scope special projects are now possible.
* "allow" fields now work as expected in archaeology sites (and first contact and espionage operations) - previously it was treated as "potential".
* Add support for reading multiple_active_resolutions = yes/no in Resolution categories.
* Added a "set_ai_personality" effect, which lets script force a personality on a country. ex: set_ai_personality = became_the_crisis.
* create_fleet_from_naval_cap effect can now take an optional ship_owner_type parameter, for using Federation or Galactic Defense Force ship designs.
* provided a way for personality to override country type AI Modules.
* Added trigger can_set_policy (to be used in conjunction with set_policy)
* Fixed pop_citizen_happiness so that it works as intended, rather than as just pop_happiness.
* Added effect cancel_resolution = <resolution_type>. Cancels/removes the last active/passed/proposed/voting for/failed resolution of <resolution_type>.
* Fixed start_colony effect.
* Added export_modifier_to_variable effect and check_modifier_value trigger to be able to get the values of modifiers on the current scope in script
* You can now define "icon = { icon = <sprite> text = <localisation> }" in event options, and define a custom icon (and the tooltip for it) there.
* Portrait category is now hidden in the empire creation GUI for graphical cultures and species classes that don't contain any portraits.
* Added new has_city_graphics attribute to graphical cultures for hiding city GUI element in the empire creation menu.
* Global event targets now work on every scope type, instead of quietly failing on a bunch (e.g. Megastructures, Federations) as previously.
* You can now use [X.GetName] and so on in sector, megastructure and deposit scope.
* Variables are no longer cleared if set to 0, use the clear_variable effect instead.
* Added is_variable_set trigger to check whether a variable has been set (to avoid missing variable errors).
* Add support for display_espionage_operations to scriptable map modes.
* Fixed various irregularities with scope change tooltips e.g. "from" being shown on triggers, or the scope change being hidden on effects sometimes.
* scripted_trigger = { PARAM = whatever } will now check if the specified scripted trigger evaluates to TRUE as one would expect, not to FALSE! (Modders take note - manual hacks to avoid this bug need to be reversed)
* Added trigger can_buy_on_market = resource, to check if the current country is able to buy the specified resource on the market they have access to.
* Added add_custodian_term_days effect for increasing or decreasing the remaining term of the current Galactic Custodian.
* Added set_custodian_term_days for setting the remaining time of the current Galactic Custodian's term limit, or setting it to be permanent.
* Added on_federation_new_leader.
* Added support for nested OR/AND in the outer scope of government restrictions scripts. This allows one to e.g. require either an authority or a civic.
* Added is_defensive_army trigger.
* Added pass_resolution_no_cooldown effect to pass a resolution without triggering a cooldown for the relevant category.
* Added leader_events.
* Added trigger is_idle for leaders.
* Introduce add_spy_network_level effect.
* Split trigger_docs into its own log file and added information on scope changes and localisation commands there
* Added new galactic_community_patrol_military_minister_module AI module, that will patrol all capitals of Galactic Community members when not at war.
* Events can now have triggered sounds like pictures: show_sound = { sound = X trigger = { <triggers> } }
* button_effects now take their scope from the context they are in, so long as that scope is one of the following (with player country as fallback): planet, ship, fleet, system, ambient object, megastructure, espionage operation, arc site or first contact.
* Added ground_combat_attacker/defender script lists.
* Added exclude = {} trigger in pop_percentage and fixed that trigger's scopes (specifically prev).
* Added check_galaxy_setup_value trigger counterpart to get_galaxy_setup_value effect.
* add_resource, add_modifier and resource_stockpile_compare now accept mult = variable.
* Added effect round_variable.
* Added effect export_resource_value_to_variable (exports current stockpile of X resource to a specified variable).
* Added on_save_game_load on_action.
* Added on_ground_combat_started on_action.
* Added growing/assembling/declining_species scope changes.
* leader skill level modifiers are now calculated in leader scope (so e.g. a leader trait affecting max skill level will now work).
* Fixed a bug where setting the adjective in create_country would also set the ruler's name.
* Added on_actions on_leader_fired, on_leader_assigned and on_leader_unassigned; kill_leader effect can now have a "fire = yes" parameter to use this on_action instead.
* Added is_mobile trigger for fleets.
* Renamed effect "surveyed = { set_surveyed = yes/no }" to "set_surveyed = { surveyed = yes/no }", because that just made no sense. Also made it work in system scope.
* Added defines for relative encryption levels and bonuses.
* Added effect "win = yes". I'm sure no one will misuse this.
* Added on_subject_integrated on_action.
* Added num_organic/artificial_pops_per_year triggers, which return the amount of organic/artificial pops you'd expect to get per year (i.e. ( monthly growth / required growth ) * 12 )).
* Scripted localization can now be used in Galactic Community greeting phrases.
* Added pass_targeted_resolution effect.
* Graphical modifier descriptions now support global event targets in scripted localization.
* Planet modifier descriptions now support scripted localization.
* The create_message effect now supports scripted localization.
* Alert tooltips now support global event targets in scripted localization.
* Notification titles now support global event targets in scripted localization.
* It is now possible to escape opening square brackets in localization text to bypass scripted localization, by using two opening square brackets in succession.
* You can now optionally not localise tradition descriptions, and it'll generate one from the modifiers in the txt file.
* has_communications now returns false if you check it against yourself.
* Added has_been_declared_crisis scripted trigger for use in cases where a BtC Level 5 empire might manage to dodge the declared_crisis flag check.
* Added script effect log_error, because we all love logging our errors!

###################
# Bugfixes
###################

* The purge type tooltip for Processing a Lithoids species now correctly states that this will produce you minerals.
* Many improvements to tooltips giving reasons why a certain species right is unavailable to you.
* Purifier, Terminator and Devourer player empires will no longer be invited into the Non-Aligned League. Those guys are too dangerous to be trusted, even if the fate of the galaxy depends on it!
* Fixed many cases where buildings would show extensive and barely-readable AI-only requirements for constructing a building if you lacked the resources to do so.
* Galactic Storms may now no longer be called "Storm Stalk of", instead they will be called the rather more menacing "Storm Stalk"
* Awakened Empires are now properly destroyed when they lose their last planet.
* Self-modified Pops can no longer be resettled on other planets.
* Added event for if Horde is destroyed before Khan returns with their second fleet.
* Oracle event dialogue now correctly refers to your capital instead of your species' homeworld.
* Sensor Array Power Surge event can no longer target Habitats or Ring Worlds.
* Zone A no longer spawns on planets before you actually research its anomaly.
* Pops can now only take soldier jobs if they belong to a species that is allowed to serve in the military.
* Nerve Stapled pops can no longer have full military service, as they lack the mental capacity to be generals or admirals.
* Now you can only ask the President of a Hegemony whether you may join it, since only they are allowed to say yes.
* Planet nominations can now be boosted when the Galactic Market is relocated, not just when it is founded.
* Removed empty modifier from tooltip in Ancient Drones event.
* Empires destroyed from Doomsday origin no longer trigger the default empire destroyed notification event.
* Purchased Caravaneer Pops can no longer be pre-sapient.
* Lithoid Ecumenopolis emissive fix.
* Enabled a better event text for the start of the War in Heaven if someone else leads the Non-Aligned League and is converting their federation into it. It had previously accidentally been unused.
* Hidden Worlds event will no longer say you were clearing kelp when you cleared a sinkhole.
* Released vassals will no longer not have an origin.
* In the Wenkwort chain, the Keeper country was sometimes deleted between events, causing errors. Now it's remade if it doesn't exist.
* Added fallbacks to Dismembered Cloud federation chain if countries lacked starbases in their capital system.
* The Great Khan will no longer try and fail to form a Democratic Federation of Khandom if they lack inhabited planets.
* Fixed a Caravaneers pathfinding script that led to them going home rather than to the next capital every time.
* Fixed a few cases where the Research Cooperative federation election challenge would not correctly show the title of the winning thesis.
* Scripted federation election challenges will no longer elect subjects as president.
* If you turn your capital system into a Black Hole with Horizon Signal, the game will properly treat it as a Black Hole for the purpose of galactic map graphics and starbase buildings and the like.
* Fixed some cases where it was possible to complete the Colossus Project and not get a tech for a planet cracker weapon.
* Synthetically Ascended empires can now successfully block the Ghost Signal.
* Subjects can no longer violate the Military Readiness Act galactic resolution, as the tooltip already stated.
* Fixed a bug where certain Casus Belli e.g. Ideology would tick between available and not available every day when you were a member of a federation.
* Fixed a country/federation check in script for the Ideology CB.
* Fixed some irregularities with having the Scion start and not getting first contact projects.
* Fixed Caravaneer respawning generating the trade station.
* Habitat capitals will now retain the capital designation instead of being shifted to other colony designation types.
* Fixed an issue where it was possible for one country in a federation to establish communications with other countries (esp non-standard ones like Tiyanki) but not pass this knowledge on to its federation allies.
* Fixed a country/federation check in script for the Ideology CB.
* Fixed bug where tooltip for "Every X" would lack a ": " and jump straight into the effects; also the missing tabspace for count_x tooltips.
* Fixed hivemind chinese file to only show up if playing in chinese.
* Fixed Successor Khanates of the Great Khan spawning with no planets (again, for real this time!).
* Fixed a bunch of cases that were checking every ship in the galaxy rather than the system or the fleet. Clash of the Titans achievement just got a lot harder to fulfil!
* Shattered Ring Driven Assimilators and Rogue Servitors with a lithoid subspecies will no longer have their farming segment vaporize.
* Fixed terraformation leaving a giant planet on the galaxy map if you left system view too quickly
* Fixed an issue with the effect of blocked districts sometimes being counted twice.
* Fixed an issue with districts not always being counted as occupied when queued in the build queue
* Fixed memory leak when using -randomlog.
* Disallowed duplicate traits on species to prevent it being exploitable.
* Only allow predefined sets of starting planet classes. This prevents any kind of exploits where planet classes are manually entered that are not part of this set.
* Fixed the reinforce fleet button being greyed out without reason.
* Simplified an option tooltip for an event heralding the completion of a Ring World nearby. The tooltip will no longer try to list every single pop being given the 'Megastructure Demands Rejected' modifier.
* Earth is now consistently size 18.
* Rivaling someone now incurs a truce for breaking non aggression pacts and defensive pacts. Research agreements will now also be broken.
* One-way truces no longer allow you to traverse a nation's space that has closed its borders to you.
* Curator stations will no longer pretend not to understand you and actually pick up when you bother them on the galactic map.
* Crossbreeding events will no longer happen if Xenocompatibility is disabled
* Fixed a case where caravaneer crossbreeding events would badly fail to create a new species.
* Fixed pleased fallen empires sometimes trying to give you a technology you were not allowed to have
* Uplift button now works instead of just giving you the sad button noise.
* Fixed one of the tracked locations in the Cultists/Church of the Light chain being the centre of the galaxy
* Fixed the tooltips and fancy icon frames of the species in the colony ship construction interface being mismatched (saying that every species but your founder species was the founder species)
* Fixed a bug where the tooltip of the "Upgrade all defense platforms" button would always show that 1 platform would be upgraded
* The tooltip of the "Upgrade all defense platforms" button now correctly shows the cost of the upgrades
* The Curator option to "Tell us something we don't know" and find out the location of a Leviathan is back, and the list of Leviathans it can tell you about has been updated.
* Added missing Unbidden Starbase name text.
* Federation election challenges are no longer broken by the leader leaving.
* Fixed a bunch of typos in Colony Type assignments that led to the wrong one being assigned in certain circumstances.
* Punctuation fixes to Greater Than Ourselves event responses.
* Corrected tech costs for technologies that boosted artisan and metallurgist output.
* Fixed a bug that stopped the resource upkeep of various jobs (e.g. Hive Spawning Drones) showing in the building and district tooltips
* Disallow harming and improving relationship via envoys with the same empire simultaneously.
* Removed notification spam from joining the Galactic Community when it is first formed.
* Passed resolutions now shows "Passed" instead of support string.
* Make a new fleet savable even if you are upgrading a fleet of the same type (but other design).
* Fixed an exploit where you could get unity benefits for not changing a policy in response to Galcom resolutions and then immediately afterwards change the policy
* Gateways in enemy systems cannot be used by the occupying side.
* Use correct offset for claim icons next to sector capitals.
* Fixed a game breaking audio script typo that made the game literally unplayable!
* Empire sprawl now always increases rare edict costs.
* Assorted, minor grammar fixes to "Shroud Covenant" and "A Strongly Worded Letter".
* Fixed an issue where the wrong empire name was shown in descriptions of targeted Galactic Community resolutions
* Fix add_resource effect for adding tech.
* Remove subterranean contact zone planetary feature, after the invasion event.
* Fixed an issue in the Fleet Manager where Federation ship designs can be added to regular fleets and regular designs can be added to Federation fleets.
* Refund resource cost when a fleet order was aborted by the game.
* Fixed a case where the game would crash if the resettlement view was open while a pop was purged.
* Made excavation UI more consistent.
* Stop excavation progress when leaving the site.
* Fixed a bug where federation ship designs would not automatically upgrade when new technology was researched.
* The Fleet Manager no longer loses track of ships with pending design upgrades after the ships complete another upgrade.
* Federation ship designs now show up in the retrofit menu for Federation ships in the Fleet Manager.
* Gateways in enemy systems cannot be used by the occupying side.
* Show alert for food shortage.
* Stations in occupied systems will no longer build or upgrade Ships.
* Fixed cases where the auto ship upgrader was a bit overzealous in protecting the player and to a lesser degree the AI from deficits.
* Added a notification for when your federation's leader changes.
* Fixed an omission which meant that the AI did not actually even want to build a juggernaut.
* Fleets that can't be modified (event fleets) won't have the option to add designs in the fleet manager.
* The first ruler, when losing elections, becomes a governor.
* Fixed an issue where the Fleet Manager would lose track of ships that had pending upgrades after merging two or more fleets.
* Make lens flare setting toggle off if bloom is turned off.
* Now every tooltip showing a truce with an empire will tell you when that truce ends.
* Fixed broken denunciation of Fallen Empire resolution name in proposal list.
* Various types of ships (notably Space Monsters) will no longer produce ugly placeholder “?” icons in fleet breakdown tooltips.
* Fixed an issue where former federation ships could not be merged into normal fleets.
* Council election alert and notification should now show more correct information.
* Fixed an error message from killing too many Tiyanki at once.
* Non-federated AI empires will no longer force the player into offensive wars. Missing the invitation vote will now properly auto decline.
* Empires that do not use Consumer Goods can now access the Global Production Strategy technology without needing to research Nano-Circuit Assembly (which is not available to them).
* You are no longer prevented from proposing a targeted Galactic Community resolution if a similar resolution for a different target has already been proposed.
* Fixed a bug that stopped you from being able to bombard the Great Khan's planets.
* Fixed bug where the cost for starbases would be drawn twice when queuing something in front of the build order.
* Fixed certain ships being counted twice in the navy tooltip if upgrades were occuring.
* Added tooltip to disabled and ruined icon.
* The "Queening" achievement for capturing a Prethoryn Brood-Queen is now unlocked upon seizing the Brood-Queen relic in battle.
* Fixed some confusing triggers that could appear on the Supremacist Diplomatic Stance.
* Fixed the ship name for the Shard Dragon being $NAME_Grand_Dragon$.
* Primitives no longer prefer hard labor in the fields to cushy specialist jobs.
* Requesting federation association status now correctly triggers a vote if accepted.
* Fixed a bug where a country would not be able to establish comms with newly created or teleported fleets.
* Fixed issues where empire names starting with "The" would have "the The <name>" in many event texts.
* You will no longer hear about Marauders being destroyed if you have never met said Marauders.
* Fixed an edge case where the final event in the Galactic Doorstep origin chain would fail to fire.
* Fixed a bug where you could build another megastructure if you had a Megashipyard in the system (but not vice versa).
* Federation ship designs should no longer be auto generated if the option is turned off in the federation ship designer.
* We now no longer try to resuscitate the Great Khan twice after he gets blown up once.
* Fixed some cases where high war exhaustion tooltip claimed that peace could be forced despite the war goal not allowing a forced peace.
* Fixed the Enigmatic Fortress continually repowering itself every 10 days (again, for real this time).
* Fixed the tooltip for NOR triggers being logically wrong.
* Fixed too-small icons for Zro and Living Metal in the Market interface.
* Federation fleet reinforcement ships will now always be owned by the federation leader even if the shipyard is owned by another member.
* Newly built federation ships will now always have the appearance of the federation owner, even if they were built as fleet reinforcements.
* Fixed an issue where ships remained in the build queue of shipyards after the starbase was taken back from an occupier.
* Fixed erratic camera panning that could occur when cycling systems with Tab.
* Keyboard Shortcuts ('e' and 'm') for toggling between the System/Galactic map should be more responsive if the camera happens to be panning.

We've also just released the Expansion feature breakdown video. Watch it now!

Lastly, don't forget to watch our Stellaris: Nemesis Feature Stream today at 6 PM CEST (5 PM UK, 12 PM EDT, 9 AM PDT) on http://twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive !
 
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I pretty much agree with this. My one small issue here is that the the examples you give will happen based on science/unity progression. The prosperous unification has a hard end date. This means that when you adjust the tech/tradition cost slider, these three will change when they happen, but the PU buff still disappears after 10 years. Obviously it would be vary hard to do something like this in stellaris, but would be nice to see certain other things scale based on the tech/tradition cost slider.
Yeah, and if you reduce Guaranteed Habitable Worlds to 0, it penalizes most empires, but has less impact on machine empires and Life-Seeded empires, and doesn't affect Void Dwellers, Shattered Ring denizens, nor Doomsday victims at all.

Changing game settings is going to skew the difficulty in favor of certain origins, ethics, and playstyles. I guess some people think of the tech/tradition cost slider as "game pace", and want it to have equal impact on everyone, but it's gonna distort more than just Prosperous Unification. I think trying to counteract those distortions sort of undermines the purpose of having mutable game settings. (If I tell the game not to spawn any other empires at all, I don't expect the game to randomly blow up my ships to compensate for the lack of conflict. I expect the game to flow differently than it normally does.)
 
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And the expiring modifier isn't a bad thing - it makes sense that the burst in prosperity from the unification wouldn't last forever, and the expiration also means you can't get the benefit of the origin by conquering the homeworld.

The first part is a response from a roleplay perspective... and even there, it could just as easily make sense that the additional prosperity from the unification is a permanent change to the planet and it's inhabitants like it's always been. The second part is also the wrong perspective, having no additional benefit from conquering a homeworld is a negative thing, having enticing rewards for capturing certain homeworlds makes games more interesting.

It's also consistent with many other origins, in the sense that each one has an aspect that stops being relevant after a while.
  • Mechanists get two techs for free, but ... other empires eventually research those techs, so that "bonus" disappears. The robots, however, do not, nor do the resources they collected; the rest of the empire's history still enjoys the fruits of that early advantage.
  • Syncretic Evolution gives you a second species, but it's not long before every non-gestalt empire has the same distinction.
  • Common Ground gives you a federation, but you won't be the only federation for long

The origins you're comparing it to though are currently D or F tier in terms of power level. If you want to play a D or F tier origin for the challenge, that's great, but for those of us who are competitively minded, we'd like to see MORE viable competitive origin options not less.

That means either heavily nerfing the current best origins (Shattered Ring, Void Dwellers, Scion) or the much better solution, giving some slight buffs to the currently underpowered origins. And sure, if all you care about is roleplay you can say "the origins aren't intended to be balanced against each other, so we don't need to nerf overpowered ones or buff underpowered ones." But you can make that argument for any mechanic in the game that is currently overpowered or underpowered... and most of us want to see those other mechanics brought into relative balance for the sake of game diversity and meaningful choices.

So for competitive players who do care about the relative power level of origins, it's very frustrating to have the most common, generally solid and balanced origin (and the only decent one not from Federations) receive a significant nerf for no real reason when things like Void Dwellers remain relatively untouched. The consensus from other threads I've seen about the 3.0 changes is that Prosperous Unification will pretty much never be a good pick in a competitive environment after this nerf, and that seems like a shame.
 
Could be tricky to make the AI make good use of it though, with random empires' civic picks being, well, random. Though I do not actually know how it works - for instance, if it starts with ethics and then picks civics, or if it starts with civics and then picks required ethics before picking random ethics with any remaining points. Or if the AI actually evaluates the civics available before picking one.
I'm not a game developer, but if I had to guess I would assume that they would start with ethics first. If they started with civics they would have to code in rules for civics that have fanatic ethics or government type requirements to make sure they don't end up with an impossible empire, while if they started with ethics they could just use the same rules the empire creation screen uses. If that turns out to be the case, it should be possible to have something like "If spiritualist, must pick at least one of these civics."

Though it would only be a simulation, not the original, the same way that a genetic clone would not be the original. Even if someone creates a perfect simulation of your brain, you would not stop being your brain and start being the computer.
I'm also no neuroscientist or philosopher or whoever deals with this stuff, but I feel like the idea of a long-term "self" wouldn't be something Materialists would believe to exist. If we worked under the assumption that the sense of self is merely created by brain processes, then that would mean your "self" is purely based on your present mind, with no connection to past You. The past You would have a completely different self from current You, who would eventually cease to exist and be replaced by a future You. You can also see that you will never actually consider another version of yourself to be truly You; Even if a future version of yourself time travelled to your time, you would still not consider it to be yourself, even though that future You shares your original brain and you will one day become them. In this logic, the feeling of a continuous self would be merely an illusion created by your current conscious mind, and thus your current feeling of self will inevitably stop existing in the future because your current conscious mind only exists in the present. The only things that tie Present You to Future You are your personality, memories and beliefs; things stored in the material structure of your brain.

So in a theoretical scenario where Present You undergoes the brain uploading process, and Future Organic You and Future Synthetic You wake up afterwards, then in materialistic logic both would be equally you and neither would be truly you. If your current sense of self only exists in the present and no longer exists afterwards, then none of them would actually be You. The only thing you would have in common with either is your brain structure, which they both have. Therefore, to present You, Synthetic You would be you just as much as Organic You, merely housed in different vessels. At least, that seemed like the logical conclusion to me, I'm not sure if it makes sense.

TL;DR The idea of an "Original You" may contradict Materialism, since it suggests that something immaterial connects past and present you.
 
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[valuing a time limit for Prosperous Unification because it won't benefit conquerors] is also the wrong perspective, having no additional benefit from conquering a homeworld is a negative thing, having enticing rewards for capturing certain homeworlds makes games more interesting.
I think it's fair to expect some kind of special reward for conquering an empire's capital or a species' homeworld, but if such a reward exists, I don't think it should only be granted if your victim had Prosperous Unification.

I think it'd be bizarre for a conquered homeworld to get special boons because its native peoples did a good job of globalizing 100 years ago; if anything, their excitement about having formed a world government should make them more inclined to resist. (And, supposing you purge them, why would their past cultural achievement have any impact on the world's new masters?)
The origins you're comparing it to though are currently D or F tier in terms of power level. If you want to play a D or F tier origin for the challenge, that's great, but for those of us who are competitively minded, we'd like to see MORE viable competitive origin options not less.
Fair. The comparison I was drawing was meant to be more qualitative than quantitative, and you're right that my argument fails to address the question of how powerful the origin is. Its power has certainly dropped.

My impression is that they reduced its power because what you describe as D and F tiers are meant to be the baseline, and the more powerful origins are out of alignment with that. (Or, cynically, they want to incentivize buying recent expansions, for people who are influenced by that kind of thing.) If they were to reduce other origins' advantages to bring them closer to 3.0 Prosperous Unification, would that address the competitive community's needs?
 
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Dear Devs

hi I love playing your game so much but I found one tiny flaw to the game why can't you have a key binding for the next and previous tab in the planet map please add it will make the game perfect
UI section of the patchnotes:

"* It's now possible to Cycle viewed Planets with Tab and Shift+Tab (or Ctrl+Tab), same as pressing Next/Prev buttons."

Or did you mean cycling between the tabs on each planet, i.e. overview, population and corporate?
 
A couple items that I did not see mentioned:

1) mega shipyard bug where ai keeps making ships even after you have taken control of the system. I modded them out from the game due to this.
2) some way to create a federation excluding vassals from the start or requiring your vassals to vote with the overlord. Getting trapped in a federation and unable to declare war because your vassals keep voting against you is no fun. We can not even mod these things out.
3) Having the ai especially the awaken ones attack rather than just sit there.
 
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* Fixed start_colony effect.
How fixed is start_colony? Prior to the 2.8 "never finish colonizing" bug there was a longstanding bug where it pretty much ignored what you input for species and just finished with whatever. Is this also fixed? Is It also correctly triggering on_colonization_started?
 
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Though one might then wonder, what is the point of creating a digital copy?
And if there is a point, why just one copy?
And why destroy the original bio-unit?
But these questions can probably only be discussed in a highly speculative and hypothetical manner.
I guess that the Stellaris method for brain transfers destroys the physical brain in the process? Though even in that case, it's true that from an immoral empire-wide perspective there would be no real benefit to uploading an organic brain compared to duplicating a synthetic one. It would likely just be the people of your species choosing to upload themselves, desiring to achieve a more efficient form.

Realistically, any empire which is capable of creating digital minds would be able to create far more minds then they would have bodies for. It is kind of silly that synthetic evolution sort of just ignores that everyone in your empire is now literally software, which really needs nothing but storage space to live and quite plausibly would just see mechanical bodies as property, and instead treats them like you merely transmuted their bodies into metal.

Though it is actually fictionally odd that digital empires in Stellaris don't create digital backups of leaders, or additional copies of the good ones. And that Stellaris so far lacks the bio-equivalent of "uploading to a robot brain", i.e. transplanting brains to cloned bodies, or any other means of effectively removing the age limit of biological pops/leaders. Bio-ascension #2 allows us to completely transform people, but not rejuvenate them, which seems slightly inconsistent.
Yeah, the way leaders work doesn't make sense a lot of the time. I really doubt the technology to reverse or stop aging permanently is that difficult, and making clones/digital copies of a leader should be childs play for any late-game empire. It makes sense why, since they probably don't want every leader to be immortal, but it still feels silly.
 
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* Changes have been made to resettlement:
* * Planets with sapient, unemployed, free pops now have a 10% chance per month for one to automatically migrate to other planets with appropriate jobs, housing, and decent habitability. Migration controls will prevent this auto-resettlement. Having multiple unemployed pops on a planet will increase the chance of one of them moving.
* * Greater Than Ourselves has been changed to significantly increase Automatic Resettlement Chance.
* * Transit Hub starbase building has been added, which increases the chance for auto-resettlement from all planets within its system.
* * Manual resettlement costs have been increased and now also for many pops also have an Influence cost. This Influence cost is waived by the Corvée System civic. The Subsumed Will and OTA Updates civics also waive influence costs for manual resettlement of drones. (Note: OTA Updates also does not waive the influence cost for moving Bio-Trophies, as they are not drones and they tend to resist the necessary OTA receiver upgrades.)
* * Manually resettling the last pop on a planet now has a significant Influence surcharge. (Which is not waived by the resettlement civics.)
How will this affect assimilated pops for driven assimilators? Are borged organics considered "sapient" for the purposes of migration?
 
The Crisis can now take starbases like in a total war, which speeds them up a lot since they don't have to build bases.
and, importantly, should stop them from getting entirely wedged due to constructor ship routing flap.
 
It's been a long time coming, but will we ever see special ship types for Hive Minds or Machine Empires or will they be stuck using the normal organic ship types? They added new ones for Lithoid, Necroid, and Plantoid.. So, especially with them having their own expansions I was hoping it's coming at some point in the future!
 
Now that I'm playing with the patch, I am completely confused by the industrial zones and and civilian industries/alloy foundry buildings. The below portion of the patch notes made me think that industrial zones were replacing the consumer goods/alloy-producing buildings, yet I can still build them the same. I can even build multiple from the looks of it just like before, even though the patch notes suggest these buildings have been turned into planet-unique buildings like the mineral purification plants, that simply improve the districts. What am I getting wrong here?
* Industrial Districts:
* * Alloys and Consumer Goods are now produced by Industrial Districts instead of Factory and Forge buildings. Specialized districts remain on an ecumenopolis.
* * Factory and Forge buildings now add additional consumer good or alloy producing jobs to Industrial Districts and are both exclusive and planet unique. (Both may be built on an ecumenopolis.)

EDIT: Nevermind, my initial interpretation was actually right, and basically I'm retarded for not seeing "Build Limit: 1" right on the building. Lol.
 
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* Homeworlds now normally range from size 18-21 instead of 16-18

Since other origins are getting a buff to homeworld size, this should be applied to the Remnant origin as well. Part of the benefit of Remnant was that it got to start with a a bigger homeworld (fixed size 22) which was 4-6 sizes bigger than other origins, but after the homeworld size buff to other origins, that bonus might be as small as only 1 size bigger.

As a personal fan of the Remnant origin (I liked that it was competitive, pretty much in the middle of the tier list, but not over powered like Void Dwellers/Shattered Ring/Scion) I'm really hoping the next patch gives the same size buff to Remnant as well (from 22 to 24-25) so that this change isn't a relative nerf to a well balanced origin.
 
this AI is very bad,
1618770352488.png


armies of allies do nothing, they just settle in my system, there are a lot of enemies around and the ally does nothing, selecting the option to follow also does not help, they have been doing this for 150 years already. it completely destroys the game, you have 100k armies in your system and the computer does not move even 1 system when there is an enemy with 30k and the ally's home planet is bombed