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Stellaris Dev Diary #34 - Clarke Patch

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, there was no Stellaris development diary this week, because the team has been extremely busy working on the first free patch for the game, which we have named Clarke. Clarke is currently undergoing internal QA testing, and we hope to have a beta version of the patch out for you before the end of the week. Therefore, we decided to do a dev diary after all, detailing some of the fixes, changes and improvements coming in the patch.

Please note that the highlights below are just highlights, NOT exhaustive patch notes!

UI IMPROVEMENTS
A major target area for Clarke was the UI, particularly in regards to sectors and diplomacy. A few highlights:

  • Sectors can now be managed directly from the outliner.
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  • Diplomatic Notifications are now much more detailed.
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  • End of Combat interface has received a major face-lift.
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  • Habitability icons/tooltips now show you more detailed information, including which worlds in a system you can currently colonize.
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AI IMPROVEMENTS
Another major target area for Clarke was to address complaints regarding the AI, particular in sectors to sectors and warfare. A few highlights:
  • Greatly improved sector AI handling of pops, buildings, spaceports and mining stations.
  • Fixes for AI in end game crises.
  • Improvements and fixes to AI handling of its fleets.
  • Less restrictions on what the AI will trade and with who, especially in regards to border access.
  • In multiplayer, empires that are player-controlled will have a 'limited' AI for a period of 10 years if the player drops. The limited AI will not make any drastic changes to the empire, such as changing sectors, disbanding ships, declaring wars, etc, allowing a player to rejoin their empire pretty much as they left it.

We've also added a new option in galaxy setup where you can set the AI's overall aggressiveness.
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EMPIRE BUILDER IMPROVEMENTS
We also took some time to add a pair of highly requested features to the empire builder. Namely, the ability to write a biography for your species and empire, and the ability to customize ruler titles. Ruler titles are customized separately by gender, and will remain even if you change government type, so long as the new government is of the same type as the previous one (so changing from a Monarchy to another Monarchy will not clear your ruler titles, while changing from a Monarchy to a Democracy will).
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BALANCE CHANGES
While balance wasn't our main priority for Clarke, we nonetheless targeted a few major balance issues. A few highlights:
  • War score costs now scale to the size of your target, so you can take more planets from large empires but can't vassalize them in a single war.
  • The ability to stack evasion on Corvettes was nerfed.
  • Strike craft had their range substantially increased.
  • Ethics were rebalanced to make Xenophile/Xenophobe stronger picks, among other changes.
  • It is no longer necessary to control planets to demand them in war, but controlling planets that are set as wargoals are now worth more warscore.
  • Technology cost is now increased both by number of planets owned and size of population, instead of just population. Accordingly, the tech increase cost from population was lowered.

BUG FIXES
In addition to all this, Clarke naturally also includes dozens of fixes for bugs large and small. A few highlights:
  • Military Station maintenance is now correctly calculated (was far too high previously).
  • Numerous fixes to events, including fixing up the Old Gods event chain.
  • Fixed 'ghost' trade deal entries and trade deals silently failing when you traded above a certain percentage of your resource stockpiles.
  • Democracies that don't allow slavery will no longer get the Slaver mandate.
  • Difficulty settings are now available in multiplayer setup.

With Clarke almost finished, we're now switching over fully to working on the Asimov patch, as outlined in last week's dev diary. Where Clarke was mainly a fix and UI improvement patch, Asimov will target the midgame with new diplomatic features and event chains. More details about Asimov will be released in development diaries over the next few weeks, but if you have any questions about the Clarke patch, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.
 
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Will we get a notification if an alien pet resource appears under a tile? Also, will the sector AI know to leave the tile blank and not plop a science lab on it? I had this resource appear in my empire but never knew about it until I checked a tile by pure chance. I understand they like appearing on tiles that start with a society resource (once the pet shows up, it's a 1 pet + 5 society tile), so it's highly likely that players accidently supress it. Better yet would be if Research Labs didn't supress it.

Buildings no longer surpress strategic resources in Clarke.
 
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Q shortcut - don't zoom-in system when on galactic map. We already have a shortcut for that (E). Make it pan to the system where the fleet is and center so I don't lose my galactic orientation all the time. Please.

Also rally points. We need them.

Also upgrade all button. When you left click on small triangle in top-right of the building it should upgrade it without asking am I sure or giving me a list of possible upgrades for mines since the only upgrade is a better mine. When I right click on same triangle upgrade all buildings of the same type. Color code the triangle: green - have money to upgrade all; yellow - have money to upgrade some, so right click wont work; red - no money for nothing, git gud.
 
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1. Will this patch address the problem with ship icons blocking the + symbol when adding systems to a sector? (Currently when a ship is in a system the ship icon that indicates its presence there, in the galaxy map, is on top of the + icon and thus it must first be moved to another system in order to ''free'' the + symbol)

2. Will this patch address the problem with ship removal from a fleet? (Currently when trying to create a new fleet out of an existing one you must select each of the ships you want removed one at a time and on top of that, when you click on a ship you want removed it scrolls back to the top of the ship list!) A simple system like in previous paradox games is sorely needed here!

3. Will this patch or any following one address the lack of notification customization? One very useful tool of previews paradox games was the ability to customize, to a great extent, the information you receive and the way you receive it (pop up & pause, display in the log etc.) about what's going on in your domain and the rest of the world.

4.Is there any system for prestige gain/loss in the works? Prestige could be an extremely nice addition to the game, in my humble opinion anyway.

It’s a great way to receive recognition (with bonuses/penalties) for your actions. For example, when defeating a fallen empire in war or when you deal a galaxy wide threat you should gain the admiration/appreciation of the other galaxy members. Anyway this is a huge subject better suited for a thread of its own in the forums. I just wanted to know if such a concept even exists in your designs.

Sorry for the long post but I haven’t been this excited for a game since I discovered Europa Universalis 3. (The Withcer 3 excluded)
 
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Q shortcut - don't zoom-in system when on galactic map. We already have a shortcut for that (E). Make it pan to the system where the fleet is and center so I don't lose my galactic orientation all the time. Please.

Yes. You should only zoom in when you explicitly ask to.
 
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Any chance of being able to set the number of Fallen Empires in game setup?
 
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Will this patch address the issue where civilian ships built in sectors do not get put in the outliner?

Will we be able to control observation posts in sectors?

Will we still lose strategic resources if they are in a sector?

Do the sector UI improvements include better ways to control and access spaceports in the the sectors?
 
1. Will this patch address the problem with ship icons blocking the + symbol when adding systems to a sector? (Currently when a ship is in a system the ship icon that indicates its presence there, in the galaxy map, is on top of the + icon and thus it must first be moved to another system in order to ''free'' the + symbol)

2. Will this patch address the problem with ship removal from a fleet? (Currently when trying to create a new fleet out of an existing one you must select each of the ships you want removed one at a time and on top of that, when you click on a ship you want removed it scrolls back to the top of the ship list!) A simple system like in previous paradox games is sorely needed here!

3. Will this patch or any following one address the lack of notification customization? One very useful tool of previews paradox games was the ability to customize, to a great extent, the information you receive and the way you receive it (pop up & pause, display in the log etc.) about what's going on in your domain and the rest of the world.

4.Is there any system for prestige gain/loss in the works? Prestige could be an extremely nice addition to the game, in my humble opinion anyway.

It’s a great way to receive recognition (with bonuses/penalties) for your actions. For example, when defeating a fallen empire in war or when you deal a galaxy wide threat you should gain the admiration/appreciation of the other galaxy members. Anyway this is a huge subject better suited for a thread of its own in the forums. I just wanted to know if such a concept even exists in your designs.

Sorry for the long post but I haven’t been this excited for a game since I discovered Europa Universalis 3. (The Withcer 3 excluded)

1 - click on the star!

2 - +Infinity

3 - +1
 
Nope! Is now based on size of upgrade rather than size of fleet, and overall much faster.
Will upgrades be resumable, or proceed per-ship, rather than on the fleet as a whole? It's really annoying to have to cancel an upgrade at 90% because someone DoWed you and you need the ships at the front.
 
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Looks great I must say, thanks alot.
 
Is there an option to pick specific ethos windows for your race's portrait included in Clarke? Some ethos currently take priority over others if you're selecting three tier 1s instead of a tier 2.

Edit: Or the UI issues when playing on a lower resolution?
 
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So just to be clear sector A.I. will now actually respect tile resources when told to and will actually be prevented from redeveloping my buildings when I disallow that? This is the #1 concern for me with this patch.
 
So just to be clear sector A.I. will now actually respect tile resources when told to and will actually be prevented from redeveloping my buildings when I disallow that? This is the #1 concern for me with this patch.

Yes, under all circumstances.
 
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@Wiz even on the danger to repeat my self, or in this case qoute, It is so easy with so many resonses to scroll over a comment by accident, or by answering on a differend page.
Does that mean I still have to wait for the asimov update for battle wreckage to scan after a war ends suddenly through AI surrender?

Does that mean, we finaly can see (like in EU,CK games) with wargoals are set in a third party war?

And I took a planet In a war for my self to revive a small AI empire I couldn`t save before it got annexed. Now I can't create a vassal to release this species. The Faction for the species whant to rejoin their former overlord instead of becomming a independed nation. Is this a bug or intetend?

Oh and before I forget: Are there any changes that the problem with having mining sites inside already expored systems not beening recordnised got fixed as well, or create some kind of special project that can be done if exporer by another empire. I don't what to war against a peacefully weaker AI just to get a system neutral/in my influence and then havening no way to turn it back.
 
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