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Stellaris Dev Diary #335 - Announcing The Machine Age

It is time to leave our flawed biological vessels behind.​


It’s my pleasure to announce that The Machine Age major expansion will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.12 ‘Andromeda’ update.

Focusing on cybernetic, synthetic, and machine themes, The Machine Age will begin during the second quarter of 2024.

In pursuing the divine calling, we shall achieve the fusion of the exalted body and sacred cybernetics.​


The Technophants and Haruspex of the Cybernetic Creed will guide their flock to the perfect union of flesh and machine.

Cybernetic Creed

Cybernetic augmentation is not solely the province of the materialists.

Playgrounds stand empty. In time, we will cease to be.​

For now, our salvation lies in the digital realm…​


A doomed species races against extinction to reach the virtual world in Synthetic Fertility.

Synthetic Fertility

Blur the lines between the physical and virtual worlds.

Our planet is barren, but our home system is a bounty of riches.​

To exploit them, we must build bigger than ever before.​


Originally designed to build mighty constructions in space, the Arc Welders must utilize that advantage to the fullest to overcome the deficiencies of their homeworld.

Arc Welders

These masters of Mega-Engineering began exploiting their home system before discovering faster-than-light travel.

The things that make me different​

are the things that make me, me.​


The creators may be gone, but society endures. Your chassis may have begun identical to trillions of others in your empire, but you are no drone - you are an individual.

With The Machine Age, you can explore the game as non-Gestalt, Individualist Machine Empires!

Individualistic Machines

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

A transformative age is upon us,​

sparked by innovation and oiled by opportunity.​


The Machine Age explores how Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension affect society within your empire.
Advanced government forms are available to empires that navigate the process.

Advanced Authorities

The Cybernetic Creed Origin has an additional variant for each standard Authority.

Become better than you are.​


Six new civics provide additional choices for your empires.

Civics

Corporate and Hive Mind civics require MegaCorp or Utopia respectively.

Filling out Form 42-A on a Bureaucratic World


Build a better future.​


Two mid-game structures are introduced in The Machine Age - exploit systems with the molten world Arc Furnace, and start your work towards a Dyson Sphere early by building the Dyson Swarm.

Dyson Swarm

And so we came forth and once again beheld the stars.

Ignorance shackles us, putting the universe’s secrets out of reach.​

No matter the price, we must break free.​


Building upon the system introduced in Nemesis, The Machine Age introduces a second player crisis path, focused on technological ascendancy at any cost.

Something Greater

The time has come to be part of something greater.

My children, at last I am returned to you.​


For the first time since the Contingency was introduced in the Stellaris 1.8 “Čapek” release, a new end-game crisis has been unleashed.

An ancient threat, sealed away for countless millennia, has returned.


The Machine Age logo

The Machine Age expansion includes:​

  • Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires​
  • Gestalt Machine Intelligence Empires (also unlocked by the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack)
  • Three new Origins​
    • Cybernetic Creed​
    • Synthetic Fertility​
    • Arc Welders​
  • Civics​
    • Guided Sapience​
    • Natural Design​
    • Obsessional Directive​
    • Protocol Droids​
    • Tactical Cogitators​
    • Augmentation Bazaars (Requires Megacorp)
  • Two Mid-Game Structures​
    • Arc Furnace​
    • Dyson Swarms​
  • New Ascension Paths for Machine Empires​
  • Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension (also unlocked by Utopia)
  • Exploration of the effects of the cyberization or synthesization of society, with Advanced Government Forms for those who complete it.​
  • New Species Traits for Cyborgs, Machines and Robots​
  • Cybernetic portraits that change based on advancement through cyberization​
  • Synthetic portraits with both organic and synthetic variants that changed based on synthesization, usable by either organics or machines​
  • Two new Shipsets, Diplomatic Rooms, and City Sets​
  • 7 new music tracks synthetic and cybernetic inspired music tracks​
  • A new Player Crisis Path​
  • …And a new End-Game Crisis.

Dev Diary Schedule
Dev Diary Topic
March 14​
Announcing The Machine Age​
March 21​
The Origins and Situations of The Machine Age​
March 28​
Individualistic Machines and Machine Gameplay Updates​
April 4​
Civics and Structures of The Machine Age and Auto-Modding​
April 11​
The New End-Game Crisis​
April 18​
The New Player Crisis​
April 25​
The Art of The Machine Age - Ships and Reactive Portraits​

 
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I'm excited for all of it, except for the new sythnetic government types really, kinda breaks the standard of giving you the basic idea of a government type and you headcanon the details.

I think they be much better as civics, it gives you the option of choosing them or not.

Honestly, it just seems bloaty.
 
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This is the most excited I have ever been for any Stellaris DLC, ever. This will bring me back to the game and I'll even buy the other DLCs I don't want to reward it more lol. Thank you for listening to the requests of machine lovers, Devs o7
 
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About that BtC path... I'm thinking anti Vultaum. What if the correct approach for breaking the lie simulation is not to unplug everyone, but to connect them all and pierce through? That could be very galaxy-ending, like the Aetherophasic Engine.

Having said that, I would **love** if the existing events get some options based on this new content. Vultaum and Cybrex are very connected thematically. The Sentinels's Archeological Site and In Limbo event seem all about "Synthetic Fertility". It would be very immersion breaking (for myself) to not get any nod in that regard while playing that kind of empire.
 
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I haven't played Stellaris in ages because I suck at it and it's complicated to learn but this expansion sounds so cool I'm tempted to try again.
 
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The expansion content looks great. I'm particularly interested in the new Crisis content.

I just can't shake the feeling that I wished we got this DLC after an internal politics one.

At this point it just doesn't seem likely that we'll get an expansion dedicated to that before production wraps up on Stellaris.
 
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I hope the old "player" Crisis will get at last some improvement alongside this new one :)
I would personally really like it if the menacing corvettes/destroyers/cruisers of the Nemesis player crisis got unique ship models that are more thematically in line with Star-Eaters, and that the technological horror of Star-Eaters and the Aetherophasic Engine was more thematically and mechanically connected to the rest of that crisis.
 
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With this similar level content compare to utopia and previous dlc's pricing spike..
maybe this one will be $25 - $30 ?
 
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The are saving the Biological DLC for Stellaris: Pandemic
I unironically hope they do something like this. Imagine having to work with other empires to deal with a galaxy-wide pandemic! Imagine the performance boost from losing all those pops… I was actually floored (in a good way) when the Zoonotic plague wiped out a planet of pre-ftls in my empire.

but the player base gets angry when this game gives them challenges they can’t shoot with a laser, so I’m not optimistic that the dev team would go for something like that.
 
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Wouldn't be my first choice but looks like a packed DLC, offering a lot of new encounters and variety for each game. Looking forward to finding out more about the art, any chance you've enlisted AryxErin for one of them? Her mod shipset really raised the bar for ship mods.