• 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 #277 - The Hunt is On (Stellaris 3.6 ‘Orion’ Patch Notes)

Hello everyone!

I know that we said that we weren’t going to be updating the 3.6 “Orion” Open Beta branch again, but since the Thanksgiving holidays are coming in the US, I’ve asked for one last update to be pushed to the open beta branch, with a potential release candidate.

This update should be going up right about now, so you get this week's dev diary a day earlier than usual.

Release Candidate, does that mean…?​

Yes, Orion will be released soon. We’re currently targeting the 29th of November unless unexpected issues arise from this final (really!) beta release.

Here are the complete notes for Stellaris 3.6.0 “Orion”.

############################################################​

#################### VERSION 3.6.0 - Orion ######################​

############################################################​



Changes and additions

The Stellaris 3.6 “Orion” update includes many changes to combat. More counters should exist for different strategies, and mixed fleets should be more viable than before, covering for the weaknesses of other ship types.

COMBAT REBALANCING
  • Ship Roles can now be selected to auto-design ships that actually fulfill certain roles, such as Artillery, Brawler, Torpedo, and so on. If you do not possess any weapons that fulfill the selected role, it’ll do its best with what you have.
  • Added a new ship size: Frigates are an advanced form of Corvette specialized in delivering G class weapons.
  • Torpedoes now gain a multiplicative damage bonus to their damage based on the ship size of the target, as do Prethoryn missiles. The Unbidden also get a reduced variant of this. This bonus is capped at +800% damage.
  • Torpedoes now have a maximum firing arc of 25 degrees and a shorter maximum range.
  • Energy Torpedoes such as Proton and Neutron Launchers have been changed into G class weapons with a minimum range. Damage has been adjusted to be balanced as a Torpedo class weapon, and like the new Torpedoes, they deal increased damage to larger targets. Unlike standard torpedoes, they remain instant hit weapons for now.
  • Some sources of Evasion have been replaced with other effects.
  • Small weapons of a category now have a slightly faster refire rate, Large weapons of a category now have a slightly slower refire rate.
  • Added a minimum range to all Large weapons except Lasers and Autocannons.
  • Weapon component tooltips now display minimum range and firing arc.
  • Significant adjustments have been made to various ship combat behaviors.
  • Ship combat computers now ignore certain weapons for desired range purposes, and base their desired distance on the actual loadout of the ship. "Swarm" and "Torpedo" behavior will charge in, "Picket" and "Line" behaviors will attempt to stay at the range of their median range weapons, and "Artillery" and "Carrier" will try to stay at the range of their longest ranged weapons.This generally increases the desire for ships to remain at range if possible.
  • Artillery and Carrier combat computers now use the new maintain_range combat behavior, which attempts to back off if at less than roughly half their desired range.
  • Strike Craft no longer intercept missiles, but will continue to fight each other. Reduced the health and refresh rate of most strike craft.
  • Flak Batteries now more strongly counter Strike Craft, while Point Defense now more strongly counter missiles and torpedoes. Strike Craft are more reliant on Shields, Missiles and Torpedoes are more reliant on Armor. Due to their ability to bypass shields, Strike Craft are very effective against other Strike Craft.
  • Added Armor Hardening and Shield Hardening modifiers, which reduce armor and shield penetration. Added new aux components that use Exotic Gases, Rare Crystals, Living Metal, or Zro to provide armor and shield hardening.
  • Autocannons now have a faster fire rate (and thus are very high damage for their weapon size, but have very short range).
  • Added Medium and Large Autocannons.
  • Disruptors and Autocannons are now considered Brawling weapons, with short range but faster attacks.
  • Mining lasers are now classified as Brawling weapons. Refire rate and general stats have been adjusted.
  • With the exception of Autocannons, Kinetic and Missile weapons no longer have bonus hull damage.
  • Lasers now deal 25% bonus hull damage.
  • Increased the power consumption, cost, and damage of Plasma weapons to differentiate them more from other energy weapons.
  • Ships now get a limited number of disengagement opportunities. All current drives provide 1 disengagement roll once the ship takes hull damage below its disengagement threshold, and the Hit and Run war doctrine grants all of your ships an additional attempt. Civilian ships set to evasive will continue to try to disengage with each hit.
  • The Hit and Run doctrine provides +2 Disengagement Opportunities.
  • Admirals now grant their fleet +1 Disengage Opportunity at levels 5 and 10.
  • The Enigmatic Encoder now proves +1 Disengagement Opportunity rather than evasion.
  • Armor components now grant twice as much armor as before. Shield components now grant +50% more than before, but regen remains the same. Hull components grant less than before.
  • Hull Technologies now give 10% hull instead of fixed values.
  • Armor and Hull regen now behave like shields - five times faster outside of combat. (Regen values are now 20% of the previous values for most components.)
  • Missiles now fit into S weapon slots and have had their damage modified accordingly, Swarmer Missiles go into M. Torpedoes (and Proton/Neutron Launchers) are now the only weapons that fit into the G slot.
  • Adjusted the maximum range of all non-torpedo missiles. Reduced the range of torpedoes. Decreased Missile Accuracy from 100% to 85%.
  • Made XL weapons more likely to target battleships and titans.
  • Massively increased the chances to lose or damage ships when a fleet uses emergency FTL to escape a battle.
  • Reduced the time before emergency FTL can be initiated during combat.
  • Ships should try to spread out a little further away from one another in combat.
  • Ion Cannons now have 3 Aux slots. The Destroyer (Interceptor), Cruiser (Gunship), and Battleship (Broadside) stern sections now have an extra Aux slot.
  • Adjusted power costs for Aux slot utilities.
  • It is no longer possible to kill a dragon by distracting it with a large fleet of transport ships.
  • The cap to the Force Disparity bonus for fleets that are significantly outnumbered has been dramatically increased.

FEATURES
  • Reworked the Ascension Paths from Utopia. Instead of requiring two ascension perks to be taken, each Ascension Path is now a tradition tree unlocked by an ascension perk. The Synthetic path is now split into two paths, Cybernetics and Synthetics.
  • Added a version of the Synthetic ascension path for machines to Synthetic Dawn.
  • Added a new tradition tree (Politics) to the Federations DLC, which requires the Galactic Community to exist. These traditions empower those that are active in the galactic community, including giving Council members new resolution options to propose.
  • Added Conclave Federation Election type to Federations.
  • Added Ascensionists civic to Utopia for regular empires and equivalents for hives and machines. Provides +25% planetary ascension effects, -10% ascension cost, and reduces the additional cost of traditions from empire size by 25%.
  • The Epi-Genetic Triggers technology and Genetic Resequencing tradition now both allow the removal of pre-sapient traits from species via species modification. The Servile trait from the Syncretic Evolution origin and traits bestowed by the Enigmatic Cache count as pre-sapient traits for this.
  • Added various new galaxy shapes, such as 3 and 6 arm spirals, and some more experimental and irregular shapes.
  • Galaxies now default to Spiral (2-Armed) rather than Elliptical. Tiny Galaxies now support Spiral (2-Armed) galaxies.
  • Added an archaeology site in a new solar system with a debris belt.
  • Added support for Text To Speech in various views containing longer texts.
  • Added the Cordyceptic Drones civic to Necroids for hiveminds, allowing them to reanimate all organic space fauna..
  • Added an event on game start with Common Ground origin to let you pick your federation type.
  • Implemented new event chains.

IMPROVEMENTS
  • AddedRolled Slave Revolt content into the general Separatist Revolt Situation as a variety when slaves try to revolt.
  • Added "planet revolt" VO to planetary revolt situation
  • The habitability planet icons in the system view can now be clicked just like on the galaxy map.
  • Added a Planet Automation setting which allows for construction even during resource deficits.
  • Added tooltip for Detox saying how many Toxic Terraforming CandidatesTCs existyou have within your borders.
  • Machine name lists now use hexadecimal and 0-based sequential names.
  • Made auto-migration happen via weighted random (so the destination planet will be algorithmically chosen from among the valid destinations, rather than pops always favoring a certain planet until it is full even when multiple are available).
  • Changed how Planet Automation is presented in the Planet View to more clearly show that there are settings available.that the player can use.
  • Planet Automation Crime Management will now forbid enforcer jobs if you have 0 crimes and allow enforcer jobs if you have more than 27 crime.
  • The tooltip for planetary automation designation setting now explains when it will create new jobs.
  • Added a new event image for reanimation related events
  • Added the Parasitic Overmind Government type.
  • Explicitly prevented various scripted solar systems from spawning inside Marauder territory. These include Amor Alveo, Wenkwort, the Caravaneer capital, and Lost Colony origin systems.
  • Delayed the start of precursor events for empires with the On the Shoulders of Giants origin. Players who are busy exploring their own backstory may begin exploring those of the broader galaxy after completing the 'Intercepting History' event chain, at which point Precursor events are 3x more likely to appear.
  • Habitats built in orbit of large zro, alloy or dark matter deposits now also collect these deposits.

BALANCE
  • Occupied planets no longer produce or consume resources from buildings or pops.
  • Added nanite autocannons and flak cannons as a reward for killing the scavenger bot.
  • The Aquatic trait now costs 2 points.
  • Driven Exterminators should now be able to assimilate other machines after taking Synthetic traditions.
  • Added a Robot Assembly Complex building that gives 2 roboticist jobs. This is unlocked by a new Robotic Assembly Systems technology.
  • The Logic Engines trait is now allowed on droids.
  • Tweaked Galactic Market location formula to far more strongly favor trade value in its criteria.

  • Capped Federation Experience at 2000 above what is required for level 5, so that level 5 federations with AIs are no longer one of the most fragile configurations known to man.
  • If a species cannot live on a planet, it is now the first to be purged from it (this closes a Clone Army exploit related to slowly purging other species instead).
  • Artificers now no longer produce engineering research.
  • Made Zro Distillation more likely to appear if you have a Shroudwalker teacher.
  • Pearl Divers have had their CG output increased, with a corresponding increase in food/mineral upkeep. Their trade value output has been reduced.
  • Splinter Hive holdings now require at least 30 pops present on the subject planet to be constructed.
  • The Toxic Entity now has an acidic gland dealing 1.25% hull damage per day to all ships in the same system. This does not apply to the player controlled variant.
  • A large number of tweaks to the ethic assignment weights. Includes making certain weights based on diplomacy with empires of a particular ethos have an impact that is more dependent on the number of empires you are engaged in such diplomacy with.
  • Fixed some oddities that hampered authoritarianism, e.g. now relations with authoritarian empires boosts authoritarianism, and if you are authoritarian, it will no longer boost egalitarianism for you to give your pops good living standards. Finally, also added some weights based on the job the pop is actively working (e.g. priests, nobles and soldiers)
  • Certain technologies are no longer cheaper than other technologies in the same tier.
  • Food Processing Centers, Mineral Purification Hubs, Energy Nexuses, Alloy Nano-Plants, Civilian Repli-Complexes, The Auto-Curating Vault, Citadel of Faith, Corporate Vault and Alpha Hub now have increased cost and upkeep on ringworlds, in exchange for providing the benefits normally giving by their related orbital ring buildings.
  • Ringworld colony designations and ecumenopolis planet class now provide both mechanical and organic pop assembly.
  • Colony designations on ring worlds now provide +10% pop growth and assembly speed (this can be multiplied through planetary ascension). The default "ring world" designation provides +15%
  • Ecumenopolises now give +25% growth and assembly speed, rather than +50% growth (and no assembly)
  • Efficient Bureaucracy civic now grants Bureaucrats, Priests, Managers and Death Priests with Edict Fund production that scales with modifiers to their Unity production.
  • Imperialist and Supremacist factions will now be pleased forever if you defeat a Leviathan, not just for 20 years. They are also a bit less selective about which Leviathans they are pleased about you killing (i.e. the list has been updated for those added since the Leviathans DLC)
  • Several factions now care about the type of federation you are in, if it is one attached to a particular ethic
  • The Imperialist faction will now care about how much of your fleet power you are using.
  • Factions will now disband and not reform if they can command the support of less than 3% of the electorate.
  • Halved the culture worker modifiers for Egalitarians, Xenophobes and Xenophiles.
  • Doubled the culture worker modifier for Pacifists.
  • Increased the time it takes to do first contact with other civilisations by about 30%.
  • Slightly increased the chance of having a unique first contact event chain.
  • It is now allowed for the galaxy to contain multiple void dweller empires.
  • Moved the repeatable technologies for strike craft into Society - Military Theory.
  • Reduced governing ethics attraction of newly-conquered pops.
  • Removed defense platform cost and upkeep reductions from Bulwarks. Bulwarks now gain inherent shield and armor hardening as they level up.
  • Strategic resource planetary automation will no longer fill fortress designation planets with refineries instead of strongholds.
  • Subjects that are not disloyal will now gain ethics attraction corresponding to their overlord's ethics (this was already the case for spiritualism, now it is the case for all ethics).
  • The Cybrex and Sentinel factions now scale to a limited degree based on the setting for endgame crisis difficulty (their difficulty = square root of crisis difficulty).
  • Martial Law, Hunter Killer Drones and Compliance Drones planet modifiers now provide penalties to both mechanical and organic pop assembly.
  • Zro distillation technology no longer explicitly requires Psionic Theory, but is extremely rare without it.
  • Buffed the daemonic incursion by giving them additional naval capacity, reduced ship upkeep and many more fleets (scaling off of their naval cap).
  • Updated Merc and Salvager station designs due to changes in which weapons could fit in which slots.
  • Extradimensional Anchors and Portals now have a shield hardening aura for allies in that system.
  • Larger Extradimensional ships and structures now have a point defense solution. Bzzt.
  • Special endgame crisis factions such at the Aberrant, Cybrex and Sentinels now show up a bit earlier on large galaxy maps.
  • Presapient traits now have no trait point or trait pick cost.
  • Ascension Paths:
    • Assimilation tooltips now state if they will remove psionic or cybernetic traits.
    • You can now psionically awaken cyborgs. Doing so removes any cybernetic implants they have.
    • Installing cybernetic implants in a psionic species now prevents them from having any psionic abilities.
    • Non-hive-mind cybernetically ascended empires can now remove the hive-mind trait from hive-minded cyborg pops by assimilation.
    • The budding trait is no longer mutually exclusive with the vat-grown trait. The polymelic trait is now mutually exclusive with all versions of the budding traits.
    • Rebalanced the Cyborg, Erudite, Psychic and Synthetic leader traits.
  • AI Opinions:
    • Dramatically increased the absolute value of most opinion modifiers.
    • Increased the opinion modifiers granted from first contact, decreased the base rate at which they decay and made the decay rate modified by improving/harming relations.
    • Increased the opinion penalty for undertaking Become the Crisis.
    • Maximum opinion from Improve Relations has been increased to 150. Minimum opinion from Harm Relations has been decreased to -150. Previous values were 100 and -100 respectively.
    • Opinion modifiers from espionage operations now have their decay rate affected by improving and harming relations.
    • Opinion modifiers from Galactic Imperium interactions now have their decay rate affected by improving and harming relations.
    • Refactored opinion modifiers from Galactic Imperium.
    • Only xenophobes are now happy if the caravaneers are destroyed.
    • Xenophile, pacifist and corporate are upset if the caravaneers are destroyed.
  • Traditions:
    • Rebalanced Harmony, Prosperity, Mercantile, Versatility, Synchronicity and Adaptability traditions.
  • Origins:
    • Mechanists: Now provides +15% robot assembly speed and +1 robot trait pick as origin modifiers instead of -5% robot upkeep. The starting robots now have the bulky and high maintenance traits and the matching trait for whichever worker job they hold. Finally, they now have Robomodding as a guaranteed research option from the start of the game.
    • Shattered Ring: The number of segments that are colonizable on game start now depends on the Guaranteed Habitable Worlds setting. These segments have a large amount of blockers including some that require advanced technology to clear, but impact the habitability of the segment. Shattered Ringworld segments are no longer ideal worlds, but have a base of 100% habitability. Repairing shattered ringworld segments now qualify you for the Galactic Wonders AP. The cost and time to restore the shattered ringworld segments has been reduced by 25%.
  • Corpse-Filled blockers now take a year to clear.

AI
  • AI will now value you offering them fleets. This fixes several cases where you could cheese the AI with worthless offers (e.g. fleets that you have just disbanded, or fleets that have no FTL drive, or are 100% of your total fleet despite being just 1 ship)
  • Added base unity target for machine empires so they can afford more leaders in the early game.
  • AI assault transports will now go ahead and invade planets if they have enough strength even if they have additional reinforcements on they way.
  • AI will no longer assign excessive amounts of fleets to bombard the same planet.
  • AI will no longer get stuck trying to activate tradition trees it was blocked out from activating, like the ascension perk trees. (This previously mainly affected modded games).
  • AI will now build armies based on the size of their economy.
  • AI will now correctly avoid superior enemy forces when pathing to link up with their fleet group
  • AI will now use war time edicts, and pay for their strategic resource from their stockpile without constructing additional rare resource producing buildings.
  • AIs lacking rare resources will no longer create ship designs that rely on them.
  • Fixed an issue where the Prethoryn Scourge did not get all AI updates it should.
  • Fixed an issue where AI would sometimes build strongholds even though their economy plan for navy cap was not activated.
  • Made the AI generally want more battleships, and generally varied the AI's desire for a certain distribution of ship sizes between personalities.
  • Made strategic AI take friendly following fleets into account when computing fleet power.
  • Empires will now support crisis decelerations against empires they are at war with.
  • Fixed issues with AI's difficulty-adjusted economic modifiers, and certain misevaluations of modifier benefits in its economic strategy

STABILITY
  • Fixed Out of Sync involving branch office power production.
  • Fixed a crash when ascending planets
  • Eliminated potential out-of-sync due to diplomatic relations.

PERFORMANCE
  • Fixed lag from having a combination of a large number of species and a large number of colonisable planets.
  • Opening the fleet manager in the late game will now have a much-reduced impact on frame rate
  • Reduced UI frame rate lag from several sources (notably related to fleets and calculations of whether and where any reinforcements can be recruited)
  • Further improved the performance of using triggered economic category modifiers.
  • Made mean time to happen events early out if they have fire_only_once and have already fired. (I.e. they will stop draining performance once no longer relevant).
  • Slightly sped up the calculation of pop job weights when updating them from serial (i.e. not during the monthly batch parallel update)
  • Added caching to AI fleet power calculations.

UI
  • Added terraforming candidate icon to galaxy map and system view.
  • Reduced notification spam from empires having certain CBs on you.
  • Selecting fleets from the galaxy map will now no longer select fleets merging with larger ones. This permits selecting all large fleets in a system without disrupting any fleets that are on their way to merge with them.
  • Caravaneers now tell you when you will be allowed to open another Reliquary in the tooltip where they say they can't offer one right now as they need more time to prepare.
  • Added planetary designations to the dropdown list for selecting planets in the resettlement view, and generally made it look a bit nicer.
  • Tooltips regarding offering or receiving Federation Association status now explain that this is basically a non-aggression pact
  • Added a more helpful tooltip to the Inter-Dimensional Trade modifiers.
  • The technology card UI will now resize dynamically depending on the size of the content in the card.
  • Fixed selected technology card scroll bar overlapping the unlocked content icons.
  • Fixed mouse shortcut tooltip for pausing the game being displayed in multiplayer even though it cannot be used in multiplayer.
  • Added a tooltip for war demand achievement acceptance that lists systems you lack claims on.
  • Added information on potential branch offices for megacorps to the "Kick from Federation" diplo action's tooltip, since Commercial Pacts between federation members are not a thing
  • Expansion planner view now has ahave Terraforming Candidate filter. which will help the player to find the uninhabitable planets which has potential to be terraformed to habitable ones. Also there is new status icon which will help distinguish the planets which are possibleis possible to terraform from the ones that are notis not. (not owned, tech requirements, etc...)
  • First Contact event chains will now progress if there is a purely random event with only one option. (Note that this only covers events between stages, not the ones that end stages, which may also only have one option). You can tell if your first contact chain is not blocked by a pending event by the alert looking less urgent.because the alert icon will look a bit less threatening.
  • Fixed the tooltip for commercial pacts showing the wrong value for how much you would benefit in terms of trade income.
  • Fixed it being possible for the subject toThe subject will no longer be able to press the "Build Holdings" button in the agreement view.
  • Added modifier details to production and upkeep of buildings.
  • Added modifier details to production and upkeep of districts.

BUGFIXES
  • Fixed strike crafts flying far below the fleet during combat.
  • Added check for disabled fleet when ships are destroyed and end combat if the last ship is disabled. This may solve some instances of the “invincible fleet” bug.
  • The last pop on a planet will no longer auto-migrate away.
  • The asteroid colony event will no longer get distracted when shot and is now slower to allow for more time to react.
  • The Holy Guardians will no longer mind if you turn their Holy Worlds into other planet types as long as you have the Head of Zarqlan. MAY HIS WILL BE DONE
  • Fixed planetary ascension modifiers increasing rather than decreasing empire sprawl.
  • Auto-designed ships can no longer equip space amoeba weapons.
  • Fixed it being possible to get Slave Optimization agenda and Iron Fist trait without actually having any slaves.
  • Added missing megastructures to the Giga-Engineering achievement check.
  • Repairing the Shattered Ring now makes it have an appearance that matches your empire’s scheme (as restoring ruined ring worlds does).
  • Fixed the possibility that the automatically-spawned Commonwealth of Man or United Nations of Earth could spawn next to a xenophobic fallen empire.
  • You will no longer get a notification of another empire completing their gateway construction when you are the first to make a gateway and it activates some other gateway.
  • The Horizon Signal events converting your empire species' portraits wholesale now give you a little bit of warning ("This may have significant and unpredictable consequences")
  • C.A.R.E. Relic World now has Dense Ruins rather than Former Relic World (which it could then get twice if you made it an ecumenopolis)
  • Fixed a case where the Caravaneers would ask en empire they had never met to relocate there after their home system was destroyed.
  • It is no longer possible to engage the Marauders in conversation multiple times, simultaneously.
  • Fixed some cases where orbital deposits could spawn on habitable planets.
  • Expand the Planetary Sea is now no longer available on a planet you are terraforming.
  • Renamed the 'Planetary Government' and 'Planetary Unification’ technologies for Machine and Hive Mind empires. Machines now begin with 'Planetary Instantiation', and may research 'Uniform Data Standards' as before. Hive Minds begin with 'Planetary Plexus', and now refer to the subsequent technology as 'Evolutionary Convergence'. The actual effects of these technologies remain unchanged.
  • Fixed that the ruined quantum catapult in the salvager system spawned above the black hole.
  • Tweaked a solar system generated as part of the Imperial Fiefdom origin. The vassal's neighborhood gas giants are no longer quite as close to consuming nearby asteroid belts.
  • Marauder clans may no longer spawn in systems which are adjacent to player empires.
  • Fixed "blocker cleared" VO not playing.
  • Fixed STT button not being clickable in the multiplayer lobby.
  • Fixed STT button being malplaced in the multiplayer lobby.
  • Fixed an issue which would prevent the Galactic Rebellion from forming if its instigator was the only independent (i.e. non-subjugated) empire left in the galaxy.
  • The Spiritualist Awakened Empire should no longer be capable of making a gestalt consciousness turn into a spiritualist empire.
  • Fixed some issues with intel logic that could mean that occupied planets could be set to flip between surveyed and unsurveyed each day.
  • Executing the envoy that hand-delivered a strongly worded letter no longer incorrectly locks policies that are not causing you to be in breach of galactic law.
  • Eating the envoy that hand-delivered a strongly worded letter now locks policies that are causing you to be in breach of galactic law.
  • Pacifist Xenophobe empires are no longer in two minds about those who choose to destroy Caravaneer fleets. Pacifism wins out and they now only hold a negative Opinion towards such empires, rather than both positive and negative.
  • Reunited the ‘Code Changes’ and ‘Incompatible Code’ empire modifiers with their missing icons.
  • First Contact events involving the Shroudwalker and Salvager enclaves now play appropriate sound effects.
  • Fixed the broken ringworld segment for the fallen machine intelligence from hiding behind the other segments.
  • Empires released by those that have the Divine Sovereign civic will no longer inherit the Divine Sovereign civic.
  • Devouring Swarms should no longer come and inspect your ringworlds.
  • Fixed an unsupported glyph appearing in place of apostrophes in assorted 'Specialist Subject' events.
  • Fixed Corporate Dominions required to have finished Mercantile Traditions to form a Trade League.
  • The unbidden no longer have an increased opinion of you if you destroy the Caravaneer's home.
  • Fix a missing "Missing DLC" tooltip for authority type
  • Added missing flags for Could Be Worse to the Knights' version of Venus and the toxic planets in the Toxic Entity's system.
  • Colony event "Wasteland Radiation" won't trigger anymore if your species is immune to radiation.
  • Completing the Flesh is Weak special project will no longer allow psionic pops to keep the psionic trait when they gain the cybernetic trait.
  • Contingency Worlds now become ordinary colonizable worlds upon losing their Pops.
  • Colonies that are depopulated in the middle of ground combat will now correctly end the battle.
  • Fixed generated war names when a crisis is declared by the Galactic Community.
  • Fix for when becoming a vassal resets all Policies and Species rights to Default.
  • Fixed issue with war names using the wrong Empire's name.
  • Fixed "Crystal Ball" event not triggering correctly upon entering the Crystalline Home System.
  • Fixed being unable to reorder the build queue of your branch offices and subject holdings.
  • Fixed colony auto designations really thinking you wanted hydroponics stations.
  • Fixed galcom resolution Neutral Defenders, Tiyanki Pest Control and the Tiyanki Conservation Act not correctly unlocking sanctions.
  • Fixed missing alpine world modifier in Contingency's habitability preference.
  • Fixed missing goto button for "Mineral Factorial" anomaly event.
  • Habitats built in orbit of planets with multiple deposit types, such as the mixed energy and alloy deposit spawned as part of the Knights of the Toxic God origin can now only have one of research, mining or generator districts instead of overflowing with too many district types
  • If you open a Vault on a tomb world Earth, you will now find Humans inside rather than random aliens (unless Humans already exist in the galaxy).
  • Lead ships should no longer run into the enemy disregarding their combat computer.
  • Percentage based hull, armor, and shield regen modifiers now show their values correctly. (As +1% rather than +0.01%)
  • planet_stability_add modifier now has a single decimal place, meaning that Death Chronicler and Chronicle Drone jobs are correctly shown to be producing 2.5 stability instead of 2.
  • Fixed localization for the Trader Proxy Office.
  • Removed out dated sector automation logic which was activated for planets when sector automation was enabled but planet automation was deactivated.
  • Robot empires will now take planet habitability into account correctly for auto-survey targets.
  • Shroud Chosen Leaders will no longer lose their chosen trait on becoming rulers.
  • Stopped you getting the Xeno Comedy event as a gestalt empire as it didn't really work flavour-wise for them.
  • Synth ascension now gives a warning for the Overtuned origin.
  • You can now crack pre-ftl worlds within your borders.
  • Using planet crackers against pre-ftl civilizations now requires the Unrestricted Native Interference policy.
  • Fixed caravaneer diplomacy view not having a close button.
  • A fleet now tries to target system star if starbase or planet orbital target gets destroyed
  • Adjusted fleet view textbox max height to remove truncation in Korean.
  • Non-potential resource terms will not be validated for agreement proposal
  • Defense platforms no longer sail away when in combat but too far away from engaging the enemies.
  • Corrected the caravaneers focus button sprite and added a location for every related diplomacy event script so that the button shows up.
  • Pops employed at removed jobs now gets fired instead of sticking around.
  • Fixed species modification window not showing all species traits if you had a large number of traits.
  • Thought Enforcement edict is now available even if you haven't made contact with another empire.
  • Fixed the ‘disband fleet’ button in the fleet view using the disband ship icon.
  • The option to close communications with Mercenary Enclaves upon first greeting them has been moved to the bottom of the event screen, in line with other, similar events.
  • Corrected SPQR family name gender.
  • Daemons will no longer use any random namelist.
  • Fixed inconsistent coloring in leader trait descriptions.
  • Fixed the diplomatic mapmode showing tooltips saying you were in a Commercial Pact with someone if you had a Research Pact with them, and vice versa.
  • The tooltip for planetary ascension upgrade will no longer show upgrade info for the non existent tier 11.
  • Fixed missing X on Xeno-Compatibility tooltip for non-xenophiles.
  • Fixed a tooltip for the Life-Seeded Origin which would appear to repeat a query on the Relentless Industrialists civic.
  • Added missing tooltip for district sorting in expansion planner.
  • Currently picked anomaly scientist's skill icon now has the correct tooltip.

MODDING
  • Fixed num_free_districts sometimes providing erroneous results if used with districts that were not capped by modifiers.
  • Made excessively confusing way of doing tradition tooltips make you have to explicitly tell the game you want to overwrite the automatic modifier and effects tooltip with a custom one (custom_tooltip). Also added custom_tooltip_with_modifiers and made on_enabled show up in the tooltip too
  • Added government_election_years_add and government_election_years_mult.
  • Added ability to script in modifiers on ship sections.
  • Added support for sound_is_advisor on show_sound in events.
  • Added on_resolution_passed and on_resolution_failed on_actions.
  • Added position_on_current_resolution and position_on_last_resolution.
  • Added a quick open option for IMGUI views related to selectable entities ingame. Holding ctrl + alt and selecting a ship or fleet will now open the IMGUI debug view for fleets and ships.
  • Split if_resolution into a separate if_scaled_resolution. This allows for separation of pure and scaled resolution conditions in GUI script.
  • Added <resolution_category>_vote_strength_mult modifier.
  • Added a galaxy_shape trigger.
  • Added a is_capitalist scripted trigger to check for corporate authority, merchant guild civic or corporate dominion civic.
  • Added a valid_leader parameter to federation types to limit the leadership candidates.
  • Added ability for planet automation to forbid and allow jobs.
  • Added additional_crisis_strength trigger.
  • Added console commands "text_to_speech_raw" and "text_to_speech_loc".
  • Added country scope num_planetary_ascension_tiers trigger.
  • Added envoy_cohesion_effect_mult modifier for federations.
  • Added federation_experience_add modifier.
  • Added modifiers planetary_ascension_effect_mult and planetary_ascension_cost_mult.
  • Added set_variable_to_random_value effect.
  • Added triggered_ship_modifier in component templates.
  • Added upgrade_trigger block for planet automation which allows for individual logic of when buildings should be allowed to be upgraded.
  • Fixed last_added_deposit
  • Fixed print_scope_trigger not working
  • Fixed root and from scopes within create_leader and create_ship
  • Fixed show_in_outliner in megastructures not actually working.
  • If you add too many options in an archaeology site or first contact, it now adds a scrollbar for those that don't fit in the interface.
  • Made galaxy shapes (map/galaxy) into regular database objects. This means you can define new ones.
  • Made the fail text of a tradition's "possible" check show up in tooltips.
  • Moved most pop upkeep and resource production to inline script.
  • Removed pop_assembly_speed modifier. You should use planet_pop_assembly_(organic_)mult instead. The sole difference previously was the former only worked in species traits (the untriggered sections) and the latter worked everywhere else (but not species traits). The error log didn't warn you of this, either. So now the latter works everywhere and the former no longer exists.
  • Added destroy and abort triggers for starbase modules and buildings.
  • Ship roles can now affect weapon selection. Added a define for the ship roles effect on the weapon selection.
  • Integrated ship roles to the remaining components and their selection process with an additional define for utility components.
  • Ethics are now individually overwritable.
  • Added size_damage_factor to weapon components, which modifies damage based on the ship size. At 0, there is no effect. Positive values multiply the weapon damage by the value times the target ship size. (Ship size is treated as a minimum of 1 for these calculations.)
  • Added point_defence_targets to component template, which sets valid targets for PD weapons. "missile" and "strike craft" are valid options. See 00_weapons_pointdefence.txt and 00_strike_craft.txt for examples.
  • Localization can now handle grammatical cases and complex grammatical dependencies.
  • Added support for grammatical gender and plural in names.
  • Added a new way to make localization aware of names' grammatical genders and similar attributes.

Final Comments on the Open Beta​

Due to the incredible success of the Orion Open Beta, we’re very likely to do similar releases in the future. Thank you all again for your help - Orion’s in much better shape thanks to your feedback.

I intend on pursuing a smaller set of changes for the next one - testing out a limited set of AI vassalization acceptance changes as the next Open Beta, and possibly some economic tweaks.

So What’s Next?​

The Canis Minor update will follow Orion in Q1 of 2023, and among other things it will include some of the feedback from the Orion beta that we weren’t able to address for 3.6, and further combat adjustments based on live observation.

This includes things such as a rebalancing of technologies to make the Engineering branch less heavy compared to the other two. I’ll go into the other things planned for the update in the new year.

One of Ptolemy’s constellations, Canis Minor is the little dog that follows the hunter Orion.

Tofu, our QA Director's new puppy!

Meet Tofu, the little dog that follows our QA Director.

That’s it for today. Enjoy the release candidate!



Please note that the 3.6 "Orion" Open Beta is an optional beta patch. You have to manually opt in to access it.

Go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> betas tab -> select "stellaris_test" branch.


Reminder: If you’re using mods, they’re likely to break.
 
Last edited:
  • 73Like
  • 41Love
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
Can you please reduce the notification spam from terraforming candidates discovery? Since you're going to put them on the galaxy map, you can safely remove the event that fires every time our science ships find one.
I play with pop-ups disabled and it does little to allieviate how annoying first-contacts are.

A bubble for first contact
And a bubble for the envoy project
And a bubble for every stage
And a bubble for finishing the project
And a bubble for establishing communication

Surely we could do without the 1st and 4th?
At the very least, removing the 4th would mean that when I join the GC I don't get spammed with twice as many bubbles as there are new empires to meet
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Should be fixed.



3.6 is a Custodian update with no associated DLC. The Custodian team does a release every quarter, the Expansion team does not.

Re: Rationale for Torpedoes dealing extra damage to large ships:

We have a strong precedent for not explaining every detail, so you can create your own canon. Like how we don't explain exactly how your FTL drives work, this is a case where I'd prefer to leave some room for personal interpretation.

My own interpretation is similar to that of some of posts in this thread - torpedoes either blow clean through smaller vessels, or their explosions somehow react with the greater mass of the larger ships, perhaps somewhat like the Molecular Detachment Device from the Ender's series. Different empires may have different mechanisms for this.
which team do we need to beg to get a machine shipset or a "ringworld Sol" variant of shattered ring origin?
 
  • 2
Reactions:
which team do we need to beg to get a machine shipset or a "ringworld Sol" variant of shattered ring origin?
I highly recommend the machine shipset mod, I'm just happy we get a new machine portrait every time they make a species pack, other types don't get that much.
 
  • 6Like
Reactions:
Between Aquatic now costing 2 and Artificers no longer producing Engineering research, I'm going to have to create a whole batch of new empires... Fortunately, creating new empires is one of my favorite things.

I don't like the Aquatic change, but I can see how it might get super crazy if tall, spiritualist play becomes actively strong (which seems at least a possibility). The artificer change really seems like it should go hand-in-hand with the tech tree balancing, to make Engineering less heavy, compared to the other two, but we shall see.

Thanks for all the great work, Custodians. Have an extra coat of polish for your golden armour on me!
 
Changes between beta 2 and beta 3 files in common and events, for anyone interested for the additions specific to this build:
  • [Balance] Strike Craft have been nerfed.
    • Launch time increased from 1.5 to 2.
    • Regen decreased from 1 to 0.5.
      • It's unclear to me whether this is hull/shield regen or time to regenerate destroyed ships. If the latter, then this is a buff that mostly negates the nerf to defenses (but not launch & travel time).
    • Shields and Hull have been halved (rounded down, in the case of t1 and t3 hull)
    • Amoeba strike craft hull reduced by more than half, from 50 to 20.
    • Prethoryn strike craft did NOT have their armor reduced (but did halve their hull from 80 to 40). Their launch time remains 1 and they already had 0.5 regen.
    • [New bug?] Grey Tempest nanite strike craft are unchanged and keep their 100 hull and 50 shields & armor, now at least double the health of any other strike craft for each defense type (Strike Craft III now have 25 shields, Prethoryn strike craft have now 40 hull and 20 armor).
  • Armor Hardeners now use different icon keys.
  • [Improvement] Reanimators civics
    • Reanimation events now use picture = GFX_evt_necromancy. (ancrel.4026, ancrel.4026, aquatics.115, distar.59, distar.218, distar.5016, leviathans.675)
    • Reanimated 'ship' designs now use special reanimated ship section templates with reanimated GFX entities.
      • Reanimated Tiyanki hatchlings and calves now have hull_scale = 0.2.
      • Reanimated Tiyanki Matriarch auxiliary slots increased from 1 to 4.
  • [Improvement] Evironmentalist civic now interacts with the Migrating Forests colony event chain:
    • colony.1 (# Migrating Forests): Empires with the Environmentalists civic can no longer get the "Burn Migrating Forests" special project.
    • colony.2 (# Special Project Completed 1): Empires with the Environmentalists civic now get a tier 1 unity reward lump for completing the "Study Migrating Forests" special project.
  • [Improvement] On the Shoulders of Giants origin empires are now blocked from getting precursor anomalies until they complete the Intercepting History event chain (via the new scripted_trigger has_precursor_intro = no), after which precursor anomalies have 3x weight (@origin_shoulders_multiplier) to make up for lost time.
    • origin.1360 (Closure, On the Shoulders of Giants) now sets the origin_shoulders_closure flag, allowing the new has_precursor_intro scripted trigger to return true for empires with the On the Shoulders of Giants origin.
    • New scripted triggers: has_precursor_intro
    • New scripted variable: @origin_shoulders_multiplier = 3 # allows 'On the Shoulders of Giants' empires to catch up on precursor content
  • [Removal] The Insidious Ophidians event chain has been removed (commented out).
  • [Bugfix] agreement_term_values: implemented restrictions/tooltips for the A Voice for All and Ensured Sovereignty resolutions in the subject_can_be_integrated, subject_cannot_expand, and subject_can_expand_with_tithe terms.
  • [Bugfix] Edicts: Thought Enforcement no longer requires communications with another empire.
  • Assimilation
    • [Bugfix] Modifying a species to be Cybernetic (with the create_cybernetic_species_mod scripted effect) now removes the Psionic and Latent Psionic traits.
    • [Bugfix] Adjustments to when the Assimilation citizenship type is potential or allowed.
    • [Bugfix] Identity Sublimation and Transubstantiation Synthesis living standard types are now always invalid for robotic pops.
  • Species Traits
    • [Improvement] Presapient traits no longer cost trait points or trait slots.
    • trait_robot_notofthisworld (no localization?) now gives Pop Upkeep +10% instead of Robot Upkeep +10%
    • The Not of this World and trait_robot_notofthisworld traits now give +0.5 monthly physics research instead of +5% physics research from jobs.
  • Predefined solar systems
    • Alpha Refuge (Machine FE) ruined ringworld orbit angle changed from 270 to -90.
    • Adjusted orbit distances for the home system of the fanatic spiritualist Imperial Scion origin NPC.
    • [Bugfix] Venus now has the toxic_terraforming_candidate planet flag for Knight of the Toxic God origin empires starting in Sol, as do the two terraforming candidates in the toxic god finisher system, allowing them to trigger the Could Be Worse achievement.
  • [Bugfix] Ship sizes (except for colony ships) are now triggered_cost_modifiers in the ships economic category instead of distinct economic categories. I believe this is intended to fix the bug where ship cost modifiers specific to specific ship sizes weren't applied.
    • [New bug?] Defense platforms (ship_military_station_small) now have two identical triggered_cost_modifiers. Not sure if this has any in-game impact. EDIT: Whoops, not actually identical - one's a triggered_cost_modifier and the other's a triggered_upkeep_modifier.
  • Rules
    • [Bugfix] can_terraform_planet now verifies that a country exists before attempting to check its pre-sapients policy or if it has the terravore civic.
    • [Bugfix] pop_has_random_ethics now specifies the country it must not have bio-trophy citizenship in to trigger.
AI and NPC updates:
  • [Bugfix] agreement_presets: should_ai_use_for_proposals = no was added to preset_release_sector
  • [Bugfix] Fixed the bug where AI thought they could get away with colonizing FE holy worlds, and the Spiritualist FE can no longer use the Cleanse Holy Worlds war goal against empires that own the Head of Zarqlan.
  • [AI Improvement] ai_budget: some stuff related to armies in the energy and minerals budgets
  • [AI Improvement] buildings: Administrative Offices, Temples, and Uplink Nodes are no longer exempt_from_ai_planet_specialization. Synaptic Nodes already were.
    • [New bug?] Sacrificial Temples still aren't.
  • [AI Improvement] Defines to allow AI to destroy buildings & districts if they're overproducing resources.
    • AI_ADDITIVE_SUPERFLUOUS_INCOME_THRESOLD = 50
    • AI_MULTIPLICATIVE_SUPERFLUOUS_INCOME_THRESOLD = 1.3
  • Economic plans:
    • [AI Improvement] Base minerals target increased from 30 to 50.
    • [AI Improvement] Added subplan with base unity target of 40 for Machine empires.
  • Edicts
    • [AI Improvement] AI can no longer use the Industrial Maintenance edict (presumably because it's bad).
    • Changes to rare resource ship stat edicts (Exotic Gases as Fuel, Exotic Gases for Shield Boost, Volatile Ammunition, Volatile Reactive Armor, and Focusing Crystals) except for Volatile Explosives and Crystalline Sensors:
      • Now have the is_wartime_edict = yes attribute.
        • [New bug?] Volatile Explosives should probably also get is_wartime_edict = yes, even if AI isn't allowed to use it due to ai_weight = { weight = 0 }.
      • [AI Improvement] AI will now only use these edicts if it has more that 100 of the corresponding rare resource.
      • AI is still prohibited from using Volatile Explosives (even if explosives are their preferred weapon type), Volatile Land Clearance, and Crystalline Sensors.
  • Enclave station ship designs
    • [AI Improvement] Mercenary enclave stations no longer try to mount energy torpedoes in a Large slot, and swap their regular Torpedoes for Swarmer Missiles.
    • [Bugfix] Salvager stations replaced their G slots with M slots (they still mount Swarmer missiles).
    • Enclave stations had their rotation_speed reduced from 0.1 to 0.002 (enclave_station, sentinel_station, caravaneer_station_01, enclave_mercenary_station, enclave_salvager_station, enclave_shroudwalker_station)
Event adjustments
  • Negative Mass event chain (colony_events_3.txt)
    • colony.9815 (#Gateway appears): ship design name changed from "B_World_Corvette" to "NAME_B_World_Corvette".
    • colony.9820 ("An Old Code") now has fire_only_once = yes.
    • [Bugfix] colony.9870 (One Last Plea) can no longer fire after the situation has reached 100 progress.
    • colony.9880 (Desperate Drones): The Dominated Drones country is now created immediately as the event fires instead of after you choose an option, although the armies still aren't created until an option is selected.
    • colony.9889 & colony.9890 (Demands): New helper event does something with scopes. Losing the planet to the rebels now removes all their armies and adds 15 situation progress.
  • Living Planet event chain (distant_stars_events_1.txt)
    • [Bugfix] Living Planet event chain now aborts if the planet doesn't exist.
    • [Bugfix] distar.193 (Revelations): Now can only fire if event_target:living_planet_tar still exists.
  • galactic_community_events.txt
    • galcom.300 (# Quid Pro Quo, politics tradition event): Message target changed from root to root.capital_scope.
  • [Bugfix] marauder_events.txt
    • Most marauder events have been removed from the on_custom_diplomacy on_action.
    • Added new Marauder & Horde gatekeeper event (marauder.1)
    • The has_marauder_event = no and has_khan_event = no triggers have been removed.
    • The marauder_diplomacy_engaged country flag is no longer used.
  • necroids_events_2.txt
    • Messages created for subjects who sacrifice pops for their Death Cult overlord now have target = prev.capital_scope. (necroids.200 (Sacrifice: Togetherness), necroids.201 (Sacrifice: Harmony), necroids.202 (Sacrifice: Bounty))
  • nemesis_emperor_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] emperor.104 (# We Stand Alone) now fires emperor.105 (# Tally Rebels (HIDDEN), fixing the "issue which would prevent the Galactic Rebellion from forming if its instigator was the only independent (i.e. non-subjugated) empire left in the galaxy."
  • [Improvement] precursor_events.txt: # PRECURSOR ARTIFACT CATCH-UP
    • precursor.301 (Precursor Anomaly Found), precursor.310 (# Private Collector has Artifact), precursor.311 (# Neighbor Offers to Sell Artifact), and precursor.314 (# Neighbor Gifts Artifact) are now all fired by the on_five_year_pulse_country on_action instead of using a mean_time_to_happen of 20 years, with a 14.3% chance each (and a 42.9% chance of none).
    • 301, 310, and 311 have weight_multipliers of x1.25 if more than 100 years have passed, x0.75 if you had this event within the last 9 years, and x1.5 for On the Shoulders of Giants empires that have completed the Intercepting History event chain.
    • 301 has an additional weight_multiplier of x0.9 if gestalt (# NOTE: although gestalts are ineligible for the other events in this series, that actually increases their odds of receiving this one (as opposed to nothing at all). This is because 'on_actions' do not count weightings for random_events whose triggers will fail. The same therefore applies to regular empires who have already triggered the one-off events in this series.)
    • [New bug?] Unlike other events in this set, precursor.314 (# Neighbor Gifts Artifact) did not gain any weight_modifiers. Possible bug?
  • toxoids_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] Terraforming a Holy World into a Tomb World no longer angers the Spiritualist FE if you own the Head of Zarqlan.
  • unrest_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] unrest.161 (# Revolt Suppressed): Now requires event_target:revolt_planet to still exist.
  • utopia_on_action_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] New event - utopia.2654, fired on_ruler_back_to_pre_ruler_class, gives your ex-ruler the appropriate Chosen One trait for their new leader class after they leave office.
    • [Balance] utopia.2665 (# Monthly Covenant Rank Increase): Being a Fanatic opposed ethic now only reduces your covenant rank by -0.05 each month while it's less than 2.
    • [New bug?] utopia.2681 (# Covenant level 3 - Chosen One): If you have a covenant with the Eater of Worlds, it's now possible for the event to fail to find a valid leader for leader_2 because it's now possible for it to select a scientist (maybe also an envoy or heir, depending on how the random_owned_leader effect works), but only admirals, generals, and governors will be saved as event_target:leader_2.
      • This looks like a bug to me. Possibly it was intended to make it more likely to choose an admiral > general > governor, but that's not actually what the limit and if statement seem to do.
  • utopia_shroud_events.txt
    • [Balance] utopia.3303 (# Pick a Patron to contact): Having a patron's disliked ethic now makes them much less likely to be contacted. The modifier for the moderate version is now x0.3 (previously x0.7), and the modifier for the fanatic ethic is now x0 (previously x0.5).
    • [Bugfix] utopia.3346 (# Composer of Strands - Pops get devolved): Now requires a planet with at least 9 sapient, psionic pops that don't already have a presapient trait (previously it only required a planet with 9+ pops, at least one of which was psionic). Pops that already have a presapient trait can no onger be devolved repeatedly to collect multiple traits.
      • New scripted effect: create_random_devolved_species takes an existing species, adds a random presapient trait, and sets it to be nonsapient.
      • New scripted trigger: has_presapient_trait is pretty self-explanatory.
    • [New bug?] utopia.3400 (# Chosen One becomes ruler): Now permanently exiles your previous ruler as event_target:destituted_ruler_chosen_one, with no apparent way to bring them back.
      • Bug preventing empires that already have Imperial authority from getting the Divine Sovereign civic is not fixed.
 
Last edited:
  • 18
  • 8Love
  • 1Like
Reactions:
I highly recommend the machine shipset mod, I'm just happy we get a new machine portrait every time they make a species pack, other types don't get that much.
the author of the machine shipset mod is a horribly rude person who not only abandoned his mod, but also threatens to copyright strike anyone who tries to update it and post the updated version. i don't think that would actually stand up in court, but it would be too annoying to try to fight the DMCA takedown over it. if he's abandoned it, he needs to turn it loose and stop being a pickled sausage about it.

it also breaks checksum, which means i can't use it for achievements
 
[New bug?] Defense platforms (ship_military_station_small) nowhave two identical triggered_cost_modifiers. Not sure if this has any in-game impact.
Nope, no worries, the second one is a triggered_upkeep_modifier:
Code:
    triggered_cost_modifier = {
        key = ship_military_station_small
        use_parent_icon = yes
        modifier_types = {
            mult
        }

        trigger = {
            is_scope_valid = yes
            is_ship_size = military_station_small
        }
    }

    triggered_upkeep_modifier = {
        key = ship_military_station_small
        use_parent_icon = yes
        modifier_types = {
            mult
        }

        trigger = {
            is_scope_valid = yes
            is_ship_size = military_station_small
        }
    }

Thank you for the list of changes, it's pretty handy.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Changes between beta 2 and beta 3 files in common and events, for anyone interested for the additions specific to this build:
  • [Balance] Strike Craft have been nerfed.
    • Launch time increased from 1.5 to 2.
    • Regen decreased from 1 to 0.5.
      • It's unclear to me whether this is hull/shield regen or time to regenerate destroyed ships. If the latter, then this is a buff that mostly negates the nerf to defenses (but not launch & travel time).
    • Shields and Hull have been halved (rounded down, in the case of t1 and t3 hull)
    • Amoeba strike craft hull reduced by more than half, from 50 to 20.
    • Prethoryn strike craft did NOT have their armor reduced (but did halve their hull from 80 to 40). Their launch time remains 1 and they already had 0.5 regen.
    • [New bug?] Grey Tempest nanite strike craft are unchanged and keep their 100 hull and 50 shields & armor, now at least double the health of any other strike craft for each defense type (Strike Craft III now have 25 shields, Prethoryn strike craft have now 40 hull and 20 armor).
  • Armor Hardeners now use different icon keys.
  • [Improvement] Reanimators civics
    • Reanimation events now use picture = GFX_evt_necromancy. (ancrel.4026, ancrel.4026, aquatics.115, distar.59, distar.218, distar.5016, leviathans.675)
    • Reanimated 'ship' designs now use special reanimated ship section templates with reanimated GFX entities.
      • Reanimated Tiyanki hatchlings and calves now have hull_scale = 0.2.
      • Reanimated Tiyanki Matriarch auxiliary slots increased from 1 to 4.
  • [Improvement] Evironmentalist civic now interacts with the Migrating Forestscolony event chain:
    • colony.1 (# Migrating Forests): Empires with the Environmentalists civic can no longer get the "Burn Migrating Forests" special project.
    • colony.2 (# Special Project Completed 1): Empires with the Environmentalists civic now get a tier 1 unity reward lump for completing the "Study Migrating Forests" special project.
  • [Improvement] On the Shoulders of Giants origin empires are now blocked from getting precursor anomalies until they complete the Intercepting History event chain (via the new scripted_trigger has_precursor_intro = no), after which precursor anomalies have 3x weight (@origin_shoulders_multiplier) to make up for lost time.
    • origin.1360 (Closure, On the Shoulders of Giants) now sets the origin_shoulders_closure flag, allowing the new has_precursor_intro scripted trigger to return true for empires with the On the Shoulders of Giants origin.
    • New scripted triggers: has_precursor_intro
    • New scripted variable: @origin_shoulders_multiplier = 3 # allows 'On the Shoulders of Giants' empires to catch up on precursor content
  • [Removal] The Insidious Ophidians event chain has been removed (commented out).
  • [Bugfix] agreement_term_values: implemented restrictions/tooltips for the A Voice for All and Ensured Sovereignty resolutions in the subject_can_be_integrated, subject_cannot_expand, and subject_can_expand_with_tithe terms.
  • [Bugfix] Edicts: Thought Enforcement no longer requires communications with another empire.
  • Assimilation
    • [Bugfix] Modifying a species to be Cybernetic (with the create_cybernetic_species_mod scripted effect) now removes the Psionic and Latent Psionic traits.
    • [Bugfix] Adjustments to when the Assimilation citizenship type is potential or allowed.
    • [Bugfix] Identity Sublimation and Transubstantiation Synthesis living standard types are now always invalid for robotic pops.
  • Species Traits
    • [Improvement] Presapient traits no longer cost trait points or trait slots.
    • trait_robot_notofthisworld (no localization?) now gives Pop Upkeep +10% instead of Robot Upkeep +10%
    • The Not of this World and trait_robot_notofthisworld traits now give +0.5 monthly physics research instead of +5% physics research from jobs.
  • Predefined solar systems
    • Alpha Refuge (Machine FE) ruined ringworld orbit angle changed from 270 to -90.
    • Adjusted orbit distances for the home system of the fanatic spiritualist Imperial Scion origin NPC.
    • [Bugfix] Venus now has the toxic_terraforming_candidate planet flag for Knight of the Toxic God origin empires starting in Sol, as do the two terraforming candidates in the toxic god finisher system, allowing them to trigger the Could Be Worse achievement.
  • [Bugfix] Ship sizes (except for colony ships) are now triggered_cost_modifiers in the ships economic category instead of distinct economic categories. I believe this is intended to fix the bug where ship cost modifiers specific to specific ship sizes weren't applied.
    • [New bug?] Defense platforms (ship_military_station_small) now have two identical triggered_cost_modifiers. Not sure if this has any in-game impact. EDIT: Whoops, not actually identical - one's a triggered_cost_modifier and the other's a triggered_upkeep_modifier.
  • Rules
    • [Bugfix] can_terraform_planet now verifies that a country exists before attempting to check its pre-sapients policy or if it has the terravore civic.
    • [Bugfix] pop_has_random_ethics now specifies the country it must not have bio-trophy citizenship in to trigger.
AI and NPC updates:
  • [Bugfix] agreement_presets: should_ai_use_for_proposals = no was added to preset_release_sector
  • [Bugfix] Fixed the bug where AI thought they could get away with colonizing FE holy worlds, and the Spiritualist FE can no longer use the Cleanse Holy Worlds war goal against empires that own the Head of Zarqlan.
  • [AI Improvement] ai_budget: some stuff related to armies in the energy and minerals budgets
  • [AI Improvement] buildings: Administrative Offices, Temples, and Uplink Nodes are no longer exempt_from_ai_planet_specialization. Synaptic Nodes already were.
    • [New bug?] Sacrificial Temples still aren't.
  • [AI Improvement] Defines to allow AI to destroy buildings & districts if they're overproducing resources.
    • AI_ADDITIVE_SUPERFLUOUS_INCOME_THRESOLD = 50
    • AI_MULTIPLICATIVE_SUPERFLUOUS_INCOME_THRESOLD = 1.3
  • Economic plans:
    • [AI Improvement] Base minerals target increased from 30 to 50.
    • [AI Improvement] Added subplan with base unity target of 40 for Machine empires.
  • Edicts
    • [AI Improvement] AI can no longer use the Industrial Maintenance edict (presumably because it's bad).
    • Changes to rare resource ship stat edicts (Exotic Gases as Fuel, Exotic Gases for Shield Boost, Volatile Ammunition, Volatile Reactive Armor, and Focusing Crystals) except for Volatile Explosives and Crystalline Sensors:
      • Now have the is_wartime_edict = yes attribute.
        • [New bug?] Volatile Explosives should probably also get is_wartime_edict = yes, even if AI isn't allowed to use it due to ai_weight = { weight = 0 }.
      • [AI Improvement] AI will now only use these edicts if it has more that 100 of the corresponding rare resource.
      • AI is still prohibited from using Volatile Explosives (even if explosives are their preferred weapon type), Volatile Land Clearance, and Crystalline Sensors.
  • Enclave station ship designs
    • [AI Improvement] Mercenary enclave stations no longer try to mount energy torpedoes in a Large slot, and swap their regular Torpedoes for Swarmer Missiles.
    • [Bugfix] Salvager stations replaced their G slots with M slots (they still mount Swarmer missiles).
    • Enclave stations had their rotation_speed reduced from 0.1 to 0.002 (enclave_station, sentinel_station, caravaneer_station_01, enclave_mercenary_station, enclave_salvager_station, enclave_shroudwalker_station)
Event adjustments
  • Negative Mass event chain (colony_events_3.txt)
    • colony.9815 (#Gateway appears): ship design name changed from "B_World_Corvette" to "NAME_B_World_Corvette".
    • colony.9820 ("An Old Code") now has fire_only_once = yes.
    • [Bugfix] colony.9870 (One Last Plea) can no longer fire after the situation has reached 100 progress.
    • colony.9880 (Desperate Drones): The Dominated Drones country is now created immediately as the event fires instead of after you choose an option, although the armies still aren't created until an option is selected.
    • colony.9889 & colony.9890 (Demands): New helper event does something with scopes. Losing the planet to the rebels now removes all their armies and adds 15 situation progress.
  • Living Planet event chain (distant_stars_events_1.txt)
    • [Bugfix] Living Planet event chain now aborts if the planet doesn't exist.
    • [Bugfix] distar.193 (Revelations): Now can only fire if event_target:living_planet_tar still exists.
  • galactic_community_events.txt
    • galcom.300 (# Quid Pro Quo, politics tradition event): Message target changed from root to root.capital_scope.
  • [Bugfix] marauder_events.txt
    • Most marauder events have been removed from the on_custom_diplomacy on_action.
    • Added new Marauder & Horde gatekeeper event (marauder.1)
    • The has_marauder_event = no and has_khan_event = no triggers have been removed.
    • The marauder_diplomacy_engaged country flag is no longer used.
  • necroids_events_2.txt
    • Messages created for subjects who sacrifice pops for their Death Cult overlord now have target = prev.capital_scope. (necroids.200 (Sacrifice: Togetherness), necroids.201 (Sacrifice: Harmony), necroids.202 (Sacrifice: Bounty))
  • nemesis_emperor_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] emperor.104 (# We Stand Alone) now fires emperor.105 (# Tally Rebels (HIDDEN), fixing the "issue which would prevent the Galactic Rebellion from forming if its instigator was the only independent (i.e. non-subjugated) empire left in the galaxy."
  • [Improvement] precursor_events.txt: # PRECURSOR ARTIFACT CATCH-UP
    • precursor.301 (Precursor Anomaly Found), precursor.310 (# Private Collector has Artifact), precursor.311 (# Neighbor Offers to Sell Artifact), and precursor.314 (# Neighbor Gifts Artifact) are now all fired by the on_five_year_pulse_country on_action instead of using a mean_time_to_happen of 20 years, with a 14.3% chance each (and a 42.9% chance of none).
    • 301, 310, and 311 have weight_multipliers of x1.25 if more than 100 years have passed, x0.75 if you had this event within the last 9 years, and x1.5 for On the Shoulders of Giants empires that have completed the Intercepting History event chain.
    • 301 has an additional weight_multiplier of x0.9 if gestalt (# NOTE: although gestalts are ineligible for the other events in this series, that actually increases their odds of receiving this one (as opposed to nothing at all). This is because 'on_actions' do not count weightings for random_events whose triggers will fail. The same therefore applies to regular empires who have already triggered the one-off events in this series.)
    • [New bug?] Unlike other events in this set, precursor.314 (# Neighbor Gifts Artifact) did not gain any weight_modifiers. Possible bug?
  • toxoids_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] Terraforming a Holy World into a Tomb World no longer angers the Spiritualist FE if you own the Head of Zarqlan.
  • unrest_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] unrest.161 (# Revolt Suppressed): Now requires event_target:revolt_planet to still exist.
  • utopia_on_action_events.txt
    • [Bugfix] New event - utopia.2654, fired on_ruler_back_to_pre_ruler_class, gives your ex-ruler the appropriate Chosen One trait for their new leader class after they leave office.
    • [Balance] utopia.2665 (# Monthly Covenant Rank Increase): Being a Fanatic opposed ethic now only reduces your covenant rank by -0.05 each month while it's less than 2.
    • [New bug?] utopia.2681 (# Covenant level 3 - Chosen One): If you have a covenant with the Eater of Worlds, it's now possible for the event to fail to find a valid leader for leader_2 because it's now possible for it to select a scientist (maybe also an envoy or heir, depending on how the random_owned_leader effect works), but only admirals, generals, and governors will be saved as event_target:leader_2.
      • This looks like a bug to me. Possibly it was intended to make it more likely to choose an admiral > general > governor, but that's not actually what the limit and if statement seem to do.
  • utopia_shroud_events.txt
    • [Balance] utopia.3303 (# Pick a Patron to contact): Having a patron's disliked ethic now makes them much less likely to be contacted. The modifier for the moderate version is now x0.3 (previously x0.7), and the modifier for the fanatic ethic is now x0 (previously x0.5).
    • [Bugfix] utopia.3346 (# Composer of Strands - Pops get devolved): Now requires a planet with at least 9 sapient, psionic pops that don't already have a presapient trait (previously it only required a planet with 9+ pops, at least one of which was psionic). Pops that already have a presapient trait can no onger be devolved repeatedly to collect multiple traits.
      • New scripted effect: create_random_devolved_species takes an existing species, adds a random presapient trait, and sets it to be nonsapient.
      • New scripted trigger: has_presapient_trait is pretty self-explanatory.
    • [New bug?] utopia.3400 (# Chosen One becomes ruler): Now permanently exiles your previous ruler as event_target:destituted_ruler_chosen_one, with no apparent way to bring them back.
      • Bug preventing empires that already have Imperial authority from getting the Divine Sovereign civic is not fixed.
Gosh, Insidious Ophidians are now commented out, too? Will they at least make snek-pops in the future, and bring the event back?

The amount of colony events that are commented out (that, the effects of the Magnetic Field thing, and I'm sure there are others) or that simply don't behave as intended (the Asteroid targeting ships and stations instead of planets despite not having weapons) is getting to be very absurd. I'm amazed they haven't gotten rid of all of them yet. They're already balanced around Singleplayer, or in other words "no one else getting them".
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Gosh, Insidious Ophidians are now commented out, too? Will they at least make snek-pops in the future, and bring the event back?

The amount of colony events that are commented out (that, the effects of the Magnetic Field thing, and I'm sure there are others) or that simply don't behave as intended (the Asteroid targeting ships and stations instead of planets despite not having weapons) is getting to be very absurd. I'm amazed they haven't gotten rid of all of them yet. They're already balanced around Singleplayer, or in other words "no one else getting them".
I mean even if they have no intention of bringing them back, leaving them in but commented out still leaves them available for modders so I'd rather not see them removed from the files entirely.

I'm actually kind of surprised that Insidious Ophidians was entirely removed instead of being tweaked so that you don't get it every singleplayer game by doing something like making it available to AI (so that the number of other empires naturally prevents a human player from seeing it most games) or setting a random variable on game start and requiring at least that many human players to fire the event (so that it's more likely to happen at all the less likely it is to happen to any specific player). As far as I know the event wasn't mechanically broken in some way, just annoying to get over and over.

Also the asteroid targeting ships and stations in one of the things listed as fixed in the notes!
And the Strong Magnetic Field event isn't commented out, it just doesn't work properly and requires you to personally colonize three different planets with the modifier in order to get the special project on the third.
 
  • 3
  • 2Like
Reactions:
I mean even if they have no intention of bringing them back, leaving them in but commented out still leaves them available for modders so I'd rather not see them removed from the files entirely.

I'm actually kind of surprised that Insidious Ophidians was entirely removed instead of being tweaked so that you don't get it every singleplayer game by doing something like making it available to AI (so that the number of other empires naturally prevents a human player from seeing it most games) or setting a random variable on game start and requiring at least that many human players to fire the event (so that it's more likely to happen at all the less likely it is to happen to any specific player). As far as I know the event wasn't mechanically broken in some way, just annoying to get over and over.

Also the asteroid targeting ships and stations in one of the things listed as fixed in the notes!
And the Strong Magnetic Field event isn't commented out, it just doesn't work properly and requires you to personally colonize three different planets with the modifier in order to get the special project on the third.
1. Fair enough.
2. Same. Honestly I thought you could get it multiple times in a single game.
3. Oh, that's neat!
4. WHAT?!
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
German is not among 4 languages I speak, I'm afraid. I know that english is an easy language, and to describe more things you could use only one word. However, in english sea is sea, and ocean is ocean. According to Cambridge dictionary, sea is the salty water that covers a large part of the surface of the earth, or a large area of salty water, smaller than an ocean, that is partly or completely surrounded by land. The definition is similar to the ocean, but, as it states, the sea is smaller than ocean and is surrounded by land.
I speak English natively, and the usage of “sea” by the devs is just fine. The first definition is the one they used.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Can you please reduce the notification spam from terraforming candidates discovery? Since you're going to put them on the galaxy map, you can safely remove the event that fires every time our science ships find one.
Maybe a clickable option? It lets me know to look at my expansion planner early on. So though I do enjoy it, I realize others such as yourself do not.
 
I'm actually kind of surprised that Insidious Ophidians was entirely removed instead of being tweaked so that you don't get it every singleplayer game by doing something like making it available to AI (so that the number of other empires naturally prevents a human player from seeing it most games) or setting a random variable on game start and requiring at least that many human players to fire the event (so that it's more likely to happen at all the less likely it is to happen to any specific player). As far as I know the event wasn't mechanically broken in some way, just annoying to get over and over.
It was a very unpopular event chain even before the bug that made it fire multiple times in a game (though I'm surprised it actually got removed). No matter what you pick, your colonies get a production penalty and the snakes get away only to never be heard from again (outside of the event re-firing). It was just a pointless penalty that you could completely avoid by not researching the special project at the start, and there wasn't even much going on narratively to redeem it. Easier to comment out than to rework the event chain.
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
So spiritualist got a stealth nerf from the new ecu bonus while any other ethic got stealth buff cuz spiritualist kind of got soft locked into psionic which doesn't have any pops assembly that ever worth using and is in fact the only ethic that actively discourage you on ever using pops assembly.

Will it kill you to give psionic and to broader extent spiritualist straight upgrade instead of this sidegrade that further nerfing them down on other thing or conditional upgrade that make you do or don't do something (and in practice nerfing you down).

It's stupid really, psionic is the only ascension path that to play competitively against any other paths will required you to play with a walkthrough that you must do this and must not do this, a step by step playthrough but even then the result is really disappointing.

It's much easier and more enjoyable to not play psionic at all, even not ascending might be preferable than going psionic.

When will the dev finally fvking fixing this.

It's really infuriated me and really make me unable to finish any game that I chose to go down psionic path (at some point literally quit and delete my save is more preferable than dealing with this bs constantly nerfing you down and limiting your choice of psionic).
 
Last edited:
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
minor problem... the current combat system may encourage a player to have more than 1 type of ship of a given class - for example, some destroyers with anti-missile weapons and others with anti-aircraft weapons... but the game allows you to upgrade ships of a given class only to the latest, i.e. the last saved type... and only the entire fleet can be upgraded, not individual ships... so if I have two parallel types of destroyers, and I come up with a new drive that I want to install on ships - the game will upgrade all destroyers to one - last - type... :(
 
  • 1
Reactions:
It was a very unpopular event chain even before the bug that made it fire multiple times in a game (though I'm surprised it actually got removed). No matter what you pick, your colonies get a production penalty and the snakes get away only to never be heard from again (outside of the event re-firing). It was just a pointless penalty that you could completely avoid by not researching the special project at the start, and there wasn't even much going on narratively to redeem it. Easier to comment out than to rework the event chain.
It gave you a minor penalty, which you could generally completely ignore if the particular planet wasn't a generator planet (or, a mining planet, for 8 months, later in the chain). In return you got... minerals!

Seriously, I don't understand the hate (aside from the annoyance of it spawning constantly, when it was bugged). I don't think I've ever had it actually impact me negatively. You spend 1000 society research ("use science") to get 1000 minerals, and otherwise just ignore it. So you're trading 83 months of researcher output (taken from the, generally considered, least useful research tree) for 250 months of miner output. If they'd just handed you 660 minerals and didn't require research at all, I would consider it roughly equal.

Granted, that makes it somewhat pointless, after the first time. The narrative was funny and punny until it was continuously spammed.
 

Any word on fixing this origin bug for the Shattered Ring starts?

I'd love to be able to try out that origin, but any and all broken ring sections do not spawn in. So, no Machine fallen empire ringworlds other than the 3 populated sections in Alpha Refuge, no Cybrex Alpha ring world, and no random broken ringworld in the galaxy if there are any Shattered Ring starts in a game, means no bueno if any of those 3 are found/spawn in on galaxy generation
 
Last edited: