• 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 #243 - 3.3 'Libra' is out, now what?

Hi everyone!

The Stellaris 3.3.1 “Libra” Custodian Update has been released, and once again it’s time to look back on the past and forward to the future.


The 3.3 update went through an Open Beta which we feel was a stunning success. With the aid of the community, the systems were significantly improved and a large number of bugs were found and squashed. Thank you again for your help!

The 3.3 Cycle​

A 3.3.2 release went up today to fix a few things that got found at the last minute, including localization issues in French, Portuguese, and Russian, as well as a potential crash some people have encountered.

  • Fixed localization issues affecting articles in French, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese
  • Fixes a crash that would occur when attempting to apply a species template to a species with a different amount of traits than what is in the template.
  • Fixed species template application trait add/remove checks being inverted.

A 3.3.3 update is expected to follow in a few weeks to address additional issues.

New Players and the Tutorial​

Stellaris isn’t always the easiest game to get into. Don’t be alarmed if there are changes to the tutorial and early game experience. We’re going to be gathering data about different elements of the new player experience, trying out various things and seeing what works.

Onwards to 3.4​

Meanwhile, 3.4 is just around the corner. Currently planned for May, the Custodian side of the 3.4 update will continue to refine the balance around Unity and address some more of the feedback from the Open Beta and 3.3 release, as well as being the target for the planned release of the Situations system first described in Dev Diary 234. We’ll give Situations and our planned uses for them a complete Dev Diary in the near future.

Influence and Espionage​

With 3.3, Influence is the primary resource for external diplomacy, fast travel, and expanding living space.

One of the changes we’re planning for the May update is inspired by some of the feedback we received during the Unity Open Beta. We’re switching the initial costs for Espionage Operations to Influence rather than a massive pile of Energy Credits. Operation Upkeep will remain in Energy Credits. Exact values are subject to change.

Acquire Asset tooltip. Now requires 45 Influence instead of 450 Energy Credits to initiate.

Influence is purple. Espionage is purple. How can we argue with that?

While making that change we also added a few improvements to the Subterfuge Tradition Tree.

A focus on Espionage can put some strain on your Envoy supply, so the Double Agents tradition will now provide one, in addition to increasing your Maximum Infiltration Level by 10.

Double Agents tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also gives +1 Available Envoys and +10 Maximum Infiltration Level.

The known and the nameless, familiar and faceless.

Meanwhile, earlier in the tree we’ve decided to add some combat benefits to the tree to represent their enhanced ECM and ECCM capabilities. Empires focusing in Subterfuge now have an easier time locking on to enemy ships, as well as foiling the attempts of others to do the same to them.

Operational Security tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also grants +10 Tracking.

Computer's locked. Getting a signal.

Information Security tradition from the Subterfuge tree. Now also grants +5% Evasion.

Go dead. Shut everything down and make like a hole in the void.

As with the earlier changes, these numbers are also still subject to change and a deeper review of Espionage Operations is still planned in the future.

Idyllic Bloom Improvements​

A quality of life change being made to the Idyllic Bloom civic is also planned for 3.4 (coming in May).

Currently, Gaia Seeders can only be built on planets that match your planetary preference, which led to a play cycle where they had to terraform a planet before being able to utilize their special buildings.

Instead, we’re going to expand the valid planets of the Gaia Seeders as you gain terraforming technologies.
Idyllic Bloom tooltip. As you unlock improved Terraforming techologies, Gaia Seeders can be constructed on additional planet types.

Much easier.

Gaia Seeders - Phase 2 tooltip. Requires Ecological Adaptation to build on Dry or Cold Planets error shown.

Okay, it’ll be much easier once we actually know how to do it.

Gaia Seeders can be freely built on planets that match your homeworld type as before, but can also be built on other planets of the same general climate type (Dry, Wet, or Cold) once you have Terrestrial Sculpting.

Since the Maweer Caretakers come from a Tropical World (Wet), they need the Ecological Adaptation technology to upgrade the Gaia Seeders on this Alpine World (Cold).

Tomb Worlds can also be seeded once the Climate Restoration technology has been acquired.

The upkeep of the Gaia Seeders building is increased using the same tiers of terraforming difficulty as the building placement.

What Else is Coming?​

Regarding what the Crisis Expansion Team has been working on, they’re not quite ready to share that information quite yet. Soon™.

One of our agents did manage to sneak some of the wonderful work of the Concept Art Team out though...

Concept art of a structure of some kind. It's a thing, with greebles.

It’s a thing, with greebles! And it’s game-changing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • 85Like
  • 26Love
  • 9
  • 4
  • 3
Reactions:
That last thing is either a new Megastructure, or the Colossus of a new Species Pack and frankly I am excited for both!
 
  • 7Like
  • 5
Reactions:
That is a much-needed buff to Idyllic Bloom. I question whether it is enough though.
 
  • 5Like
  • 4
Reactions:
The patch at large is nice but, you really need to look at three things in my opinion:

1. Ambition/Edict cost still scales to an extreme degree. This actually makes Unity worth less. As you won't really be able to afford Ambitions in the same way you used to be. Discouraging an increase in Unity production, as Unity production negatively scales with itself as it requires new pops, districts, etc all of whom in turn increase the Unity requirement.

2. Planetary Ascensions are currently absolutely not worth it, in fringe cases on might get minor benefits from it such as using a few tiers on an Ecu when you never used them before. But the cost increasing with each one, permanently breaks this quickly. To the point where one should rather reduce Unity production in favor of direct resource production because it'll be more efficient than Planetary Ascension.

3. You really should look into the Living Mental/Nanite Edicts. Currently they scale with Empire Sprawl. The problem is, these resources are INCREDIBLY limited in supply. They don't grow alongside your empire, nor are there any ways to increase them beyond a relatively small income. This leads to a point you can reach relatively quickly where both of these resources are pretty much entireless useless. As you would need to wait for years before you can run either edict for a single month.
 
  • 35Like
  • 6
  • 3
Reactions:
  • 5Like
Reactions:
This looks like great news for the espionage system, as well as for Influence as a resource, which is currently in an unbalanced state. Hopefully Planetary Ascensions will get the glowup they need in the next update as well.

The tracking and evasion bonuses in the Subterfuge tree might also open for slightly more variation in the combat meta - Corvettes, which are already viable in the endgame, will be extremely deadly against Battleship spam when they have even more evasion, unless the Battleship owners have also taken the same tree. Hopefully that doesn't just end up making that tree mandatory in the meta. Maybe the tracking bonus should be removed in that case.

That new teased contraption is very interesting... it's probably a new structure, but I can't help seeing the potential for a transforming giant space robot, a sci-fi fantasy that Stellaris is sorely lacking in!
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Since this dev diary is primarily about Espionage, any chance you could display the Intel Category Icon next to each operation?

It's already like that for assets, but for some reason Operations only display the Operation Category Icon.

As it is right now, you have to constantly hover your mouse over the tooltip to figure out which Asset is the best for the job.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Onwards to 3.4
Meanwhile, 3.4 is just around the corner. Currently planned for May, the Custodian side of the 3.4 update will continue to refine the balance around Unity and address some more of the feedback from the Open Beta and 3.3 release, as well as being the target for the planned release of the Situations system first described in Dev Diary 234. We’ll give Situations and our planned uses for them a complete Dev Diary in the near future.

You know, when you talk about the 'Custodian side of the 3.4 update' it heavily implies there is going to be a Crisis side for the update as well (I think the crisis name is going to stick). much in the same way as talking about the dark side of the moon implies the existence of another side not currently being talked about.

New release incoming?
 
  • 7Like
  • 1
Reactions:
So nice! I hope Edict Funds are getting rebalanced, and sprawl from pops (relative to territory) reduced. These are frequent requests that we make the improve tall play after the latest changes.

Situations will be fun, I hope there will be rebellions to crush every so often.
 
Last edited:
  • 4Like
Reactions:
I'm hoping the influence costs won't be too high, because there are quite a few espionage operations that require several rounds to become really effective (smear campaign for example which can easily end up doing nothing at all).
 
  • 6Like
  • 1
Reactions: