• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #214: Announcing “The Custodians” initiative and the free Lem Update

Greetings!

Today I am here to announce some very good news! Stellaris is not slowing down, but rather picking up the pace! We at PDS Green are very happy to announce our new “Custodians” initiative as well as the next free update, coming sometime after summer.

The Custodian Team
Stellaris as a game has been very exploratory, and the game has seen a lot of big changes over the years. I want to start by giving some insight into why we’ve chosen to focus on this initiative.

As we’ve released more expansions we’ve had to take longer and longer between each release, as we’ve needed to spend more time on focusing on quality, making sure each release is as stable as possible. Paradox Development Studio also looks very different today vs. how it looked just a few years ago. Things take longer, there are more processes in place, and there are a lot more people involved. Because each release is now further apart, it makes it harder for us to address some of the outstanding issues that might be affecting the community between DLC releases.

As we’ve added more content it's also been harder to polish and maintain all of the amazing existing content that we’ve added over the years. We want to keep creating new cool experiences for Stellaris, but we also want to be able to maintain a high quality for the base game itself, and for older content.

What we have done now is that we’ve staffed up, and split the Stellaris team into two teams that focus on different aspects of the game. One team, that we call “the Custodians” team, will focus on free updates that we aim to release every 3 months, while the “expansion team” will focus on creating new content for the game.

Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:
  • Tweaking game balance
  • Adding new content to old DLC
  • Polishing existing content
  • Bug fixes
  • Performance improvements
  • AI improvements
  • Multiplayer stability
  • UI and quality-of-life improvements

This does not mean that the game will suddenly “be fixed” or done (whatever that means). Together with you, the community, we now have a better opportunity than ever to keep improving the game. In fact, I think working with the community is going to be crucial to really make this work well. We are going to need to improve how we communicate with each other, so that we can better understand each other.

What “The Custodians” initiative is not
It is very important that you understand that “The Custodians” initiative is no magic bullet or quick fix. We’re in this for the long run, and we hope you are too.

We will need to manage our expectations and small, incremental improvements with more regular updates should be our approach.

Honoring Stanislaw Lem
The first free Update, the Lem Update, will be named in honor of the Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Stanislaw Lem is famous for works such as Solaris, which has already inspired the Stellaris you know today. The Lem Update is currently scheduled for release sometime after summer.

To set expectations more clearly, the Lem Update will be a bit more ambitious and larger in scope compared to what you can come to expect from “Custodian” updates in the future. The reason is that we’ve had a longer time to work on it than what is planned for future updates. It’s also important to note that as of now, the Lem update is scheduled to be a standalone free update, and will not be associated with a paid DLC.

The Lem Update planned features:
  • Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
  • Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
  • Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
  • And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

We will go into more detail about these features in future dev diaries, but for now I will leave it at that. We’ll be back next week to talk a bit about some thoughts regarding game balance.

1622707516974.png

No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.
 
  • 498Love
  • 260Like
  • 19
  • 14
  • 1
Reactions:
Just when I thought I was out, you pull me back in.

I heartily applaud anyone and everyone involved with deciding on, and then making this happen.

This Dev Diary is the best news I've read about this game in a long time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Thank you for all of this! It is good that you are doing some introspection and revitalizing your development teams! One question. Will we get a free bubbles with the Lem update as a gift?
 
The question is, how long until we get complaints about the "arbitrary hard cap of seven traditions"? "I've got unused Unity, why can't I go on and open another Tradition? This makes no sense!" :p

Thats what ambitions are for, but they dont scale well in the current system. They should work them into the traditions, unlocking them when all or some traditions are finished and they should scale with the amount of unity overflow campared to my empire size.

With that it would even be useful to expand in unity in the lategame to get these juicy bonuses for my empire.
 
  • 3Like
  • 1
Reactions:
The question is, how long until we get complaints about the "arbitrary hard cap of seven traditions"? "I've got unused Unity, why can't I go on and open another Tradition? This makes no sense!" :p

I . . . don't understand . . . are you suggesting Stellaris be played without mods? *protectively clutches Expanded Stellaris Traditions*
 
  • 13Haha
Reactions:
The question is, how long until we get complaints about the "arbitrary hard cap of seven traditions"? "I've got unused Unity, why can't I go on and open another Tradition? This makes no sense!" :p
Actually, this could be mitigated if there were cases where you have to pick one tree or the other, but you can't have both. Some of the mods out there that add traditions do something similar. For example, you could take Diplomacy OR Dominance but not both (just an example, not necessarily suggesting those should be considered opposites).
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Doesn't this do the opposite? The Lem Update will NOT be an example of future Custodian Updates if I understand correctly, therefore our expectations on Custodian Updates should NOT be based on the Lem Update.

I am not hating, just trying to get clarity. Lem Update sounds amazing and does anyone else keep thinking of the LEM from Apollo?
I thought that's what he was saying? That the Lem update is not a typical Custodian update, and therefore shouldn't be used to set expectations for what a typical Custodian update be like?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:
  • Tweaking game balance
  • Adding new content to old DLC
  • Polishing existing content
  • Bug fixes
  • Performance improvements
  • AI improvements
  • Multiplayer stability
  • UI and quality-of-life improvements
I love this so much.

This is such a good idea to split up polishing existing content and developing new content into two separate groups.
My favorite bullet point is one i frequently suggested myself. (new additions to old content) I hoped it would come in additional DLC that'd bring us more, but that you make this part of the free patches is beyond what i would have hoped.

I get we will not be showered in new content every month now, but just seeing this come AT ALL makes me really happy.
This is amazing.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Hoping to see a special espionage mission for Criminal Heritage to increase crime or reduce Enforcer efficacy on planets with their branch offices, as that would be a perfect example giving DLCs "integrative value."

This is also a chance to fix up so many weak civics (especially for Gestalts). Gah I want details so much!
Last wish list item for now, seeing the code for Relic theft fixed. I wanna have a chance to steal the Surveyor from those dirty AI!
 
  • 4
  • 2Like
Reactions:
More traditions which would never be possibly filled up sounds great.
 
Wow, we're actually getting gameplay features on humanoids and plantoids? I remember like a year ago talking about that kind of thing, but thinking I'd never see it actually happen, so color me surprised. As a note on that, this would mean that there will no longer be some asthetic things off-limits if you don't own them when the host of a match does, since the logic on it is that only gameplay-affecting DLC gets shared.

On the tradition trees, it does sound better than the current "every empire ends up the same unless they have special locked ethics" thing, but I would like to express a worry that it will result in uncorrectable mistake issues if choices can never be changed. You're essentially going more towards the Civ 5 model of tradition trees, and I think Civ 6's greatest improvement over 5 is that it made traditions into essentially ethics with policy cards you could swap in and out.
If traditions got reworked into unlockable civics, it would also allow for simplifying the "society" aspect of things.
 
  • 5
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Greetings!

Today I am here to announce some very good news! Stellaris is not slowing down, but rather picking up the pace! We at PDS Green are very happy to announce our new “Custodians” initiative as well as the next free update, coming sometime after summer.

The Custodian Team
Stellaris as a game has been very exploratory, and the game has seen a lot of big changes over the years. I want to start by giving some insight into why we’ve chosen to focus on this initiative.

As we’ve released more expansions we’ve had to take longer and longer between each release, as we’ve needed to spend more time on focusing on quality, making sure each release is as stable as possible. Paradox Development Studio also looks very different today vs. how it looked just a few years ago. Things take longer, there are more processes in place, and there are a lot more people involved. Because each release is now further apart, it makes it harder for us to address some of the outstanding issues that might be affecting the community between DLC releases.

As we’ve added more content it's also been harder to polish and maintain all of the amazing existing content that we’ve added over the years. We want to keep creating new cool experiences for Stellaris, but we also want to be able to maintain a high quality for the base game itself, and for older content.

What we have done now is that we’ve staffed up, and split the Stellaris team into two teams that focus on different aspects of the game. One team, that we call “the Custodians” team, will focus on free updates that we aim to release every 3 months, while the “expansion team” will focus on creating new content for the game.

Examples of what “The Custodians” could be working on:
  • Tweaking game balance
  • Adding new content to old DLC
  • Polishing existing content
  • Bug fixes
  • Performance improvements
  • AI improvements
  • Multiplayer stability
  • UI and quality-of-life improvements

This does not mean that the game will suddenly “be fixed” or done (whatever that means). Together with you, the community, we now have a better opportunity than ever to keep improving the game. In fact, I think working with the community is going to be crucial to really make this work well. We are going to need to improve how we communicate with each other, so that we can better understand each other.

What “The Custodians” initiative is not
It is very important that you understand that “The Custodians” initiative is no magic bullet or quick fix. We’re in this for the long run, and we hope you are too.

We will need to manage our expectations and small, incremental improvements with more regular updates should be our approach.

Honoring Stanislaw Lem
The first free Update, the Lem Update, will be named in honor of the Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Stanislaw Lem is famous for works such as Solaris, which has already inspired the Stellaris you know today. The Lem Update is currently scheduled for release sometime after summer.

To set expectations more clearly, the Lem Update will be a bit more ambitious and larger in scope compared to what you can come to expect from “Custodian” updates in the future. The reason is that we’ve had a longer time to work on it than what is planned for future updates. It’s also important to note that as of now, the Lem update is scheduled to be a standalone free update, and will not be associated with a paid DLC.

The Lem Update planned features:
  • Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
  • Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
  • Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
  • And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

We will go into more detail about these features in future dev diaries, but for now I will leave it at that. We’ll be back next week to talk a bit about some thoughts regarding game balance.

View attachment 727351
No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.

"Buffing the Backlog: We’re reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?"

TITANIC EXCITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Woah! This is all amazing and incredibly good news. You guys rock.

EDIT: I literally have a custom empire called The Artificers that are a Machine Empire. Can I pick the Masterful Crafters civic for them? I'm guessing not, since ME don't have Consumer Goods.
Rogue Servitors do. If they can combine it with Introspective it'll be *huge*