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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.

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No longer will your empire have to suffer the mediocrity of artisans.
 
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Dear spirits of the shroud! I ignored Stellaris lately only to just notice this DD. This is great. The new model, with dedicated bug-fixing and QoL team, the free update and the overall commitment are all great news.
 
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My personal request to the Custodian Team:

Please read through the suggestions forum regarding any issue you're working on.
There are a lot of really great ideas out there that you could investigate. Many different useful approaches worked out by people who care about the game a lot and are personally invested in improving it. :)
(Just try not to be discouraged by the "Change X, because it is a problem - i don't know how, but change it." - threads.)
 
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Oh, nice! If the Custodian Initiative pays off I can actually start buying Stellaris DLC again...
 
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Sounds awesome is there a place to write ideas like. that you CHANCE/INFLUENCE or just make faction leader chosing smart. I have imperial curt and my immortal chosen one leader just joint an opposing faction. seems logical. i think faction leaer chosen can oppose role play. i have my story of my chosen one from the beginning. and che would not join that faction.
and mayke the xenophile ethic please not like a plague. or give pops the ability to have multiple ethics at least.
 
So much of the gaming industry has been ignoring consumers and failing to produce viable products. Honestly, I have included Paradox in this group for awhile now. This announcement is almost word for word what I dreamt I would one day hear from you guys.

I am positive this took an enormous push from you the devs to the company at large and I hope this succeeds and the company learns a new way to make their consumers happy.

I needed to post this to say thank you for making a positive difference here. So much of the world seems so hopeless-“we the people” have in many cases lost our power and are sidelined at the leisure of the corporate class. I know it’s just a video game but it’s something I care about and to see you all taking the initiative to admit mistakes and make things right (this action speaks much louder than words ever could) makes an ENORMOUS difference.


It’s the little things. Today you made me smile a bit more, thanks.
 
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This is an amazing idea! So glad to hear Paradox is doubling down on Stellaris. I've never known a studio, for any games I've played at least, to revisit old DLC and add new content. Keep up the good work.
 
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With Victoria 3 promising to be an 'empire-tending' game more than a wargame, I'm hoping to see a similar development for Stellaris (or Stellaris 2, when the time comes) - a game that's more about exploration, diplomacy, and tending to your empire more than map painting and warfare. I especially like Vicky 3's promise that you'll be able to use diplomacy to get everything you can get from warfare.
 
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Exactly so. To be effective, we can't have the Custodians showered with all kinds of balance feedback, suggestions or requests for improvements. If we could get to a place where the community can discuss those issues among yourselves and come up with a prioritized list its easier. I'd really want to be able to have some sort of voting for issues, similar to how Minecraft has an open issue log. We're not quite yet there tho, so we'll need to together figure out how to proceed.
I think this a pretty good idea.

Potentially separate voting on issues first and then solutions.
First determining what to solve and then figure out how to solve it.
 
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I . . . don't understand . . . are you suggesting Stellaris be played without mods? *protectively clutches Expanded Stellaris Traditions*
*Clutches my own copy of Expanded Stellaris Traditions and growls as well. "You'll have to pry Expanded Stellaris Traditions from my cold, dead hands, game designers....."
 
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It's already live, my friend.