I've been in the game developing scene for 6 years now. I've studied game design, and I've studied failed, and successful games and why they are that way. I know what it takes to develop a game, and I know how difficult it can be to balance.
This is honestly a suggestion, and friendly heads up to Paradox. (Most of which I'm sure they already know, but a reminder, or at least just in case.. friendly suggestions). Though I am going to be brutally honest despite, because honesty is how you move forward.
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Having played Stellaris since it first came out, and seeing all the iterations, 2 things have been a constant, which has not only killed the enjoyment for so many people I see on the forums, but also my own.
1) Bland boring mid/late game.
2) Horrendously stupid AI.
Unfortunately, these two things are a staple foundation to a game that expects to be a "Great" game. or a game that you want people to continue to enjoy for years and years after their purchase.
The AI is the only thing the player has to play with. The more limited and basic an AI is, the less "replay ability" the game gets, and in many cases is an axe in the log of fun, chopping away at it as you go on.
A good game has to also have a longevity to its game-play, and balance from start to finish -In Some Way-. This is a HUGE problem for most games, I'm not going to lie. Even some of the best games out there like Witcher 3 have this problem, where half way through the game everything becomes rather repetitive and you're well over leveled or over geared with more money than the Rockefellers to throw around..
The difference between that game and this one in terms of replay ability, and longevity keeping the players in the game is the story, atmosphere, and immersion is so high up there, it counters the less than perfect balance everywhere else by a long shot.
Stellaris does NOT have this. Once you hit that mid game, there is nothing engaging for the player anymore than to mindlessly start wars and take over the galaxy in one boring war after another. A GALAXY that after the first 30 minutes becomes entirely explored, and nothing to engage in anymore (Though the last expansion did help this with randomly generated exploration stories, which I have to say is really great).
I have many times in the past gave suggestions for everything, so please excuse me if I take the liberty to do the same here at certain points.
It cannot be stressed enough however, that for Stellaris to truly dig itself out of the rut it's been in for the last 4 years several things must be done on the development side:
1: every new mechanic must have a plan to make it survive and be engaging from turn 1 to end of the game.
2: Every mechanic should play and hook into every other mechanic in some way.
Both of these are not done, it's a series of stand alone 1 off mechanics trying to create a big grand strategy game without ever tieing into each other directly.. It simply won't cut it.
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To give an example, and one of the most notable complaints, is simply the exploration. Right now exploring is a press to scan stand alone mechanic with no depth, meet another AI you instantly get to see their entire border; another stand alone mechanic, then engage in yet another stand alone mechanic of diplomacy. There is no push or pull, or engaging mechanics beyond this, and those mechanics in no way "speak" or interact with each other or the player beyond their most basic functions.
This however, can be fixed relatively easily, (though it would take awhile to restructure).
Now what if exploring and scanning had tiers? As the ages and technology expand you gain access to new scanning technology allowing you to scan deeper into a planets crust, and then even core? A tier of 3-4 even stretching from early game to end game, allowing science ships to scan and re scan your entire systems through the entire game? You can expand on this by way of adding tiers and "higher grade" rare resources the deeper you scan. These don't become available, or even shown until you scan them at that depth/tier.
Now Imagine you meet another race, their borders don't automatically show you where they are unless you sign an agreement to do so. This mechanic plays into the ethics, and goverment types. Governments and ethics that are going to close their border to you aren't going to tell you squat about them. This allows for "Gaps" of unknown space to occur to the player, lending exploration a longevity and reason. This also can have tiers as you move up in reputation and opinion. Going from "Border information", to "Intelligence INformation" such as what type of ores/resources are on their systems, etc.
Now fast forward 400 years, you've established a somewhat friendly but rocky relationship with this said empire, only to find that they hold mass quantities of tier 3 high grade resource you desperately need as your science ships begin scanning tier 3 level on their planets. Or perhaps you engaged in a trade with them and realized "wait a minute.. they have access to tier 3 high grade <resource>". Now you're scanning their planets in an effort to find where in their borders they are gaining this resource to decide if perhaps, it would be better to simply break this unstable friendship or not..
This example could continue going on and on, as every mechanic and system in the game would be tied together and pushing and pulling, but with just these changes suddenly you have technology, diplomacy, ethics, government types, and constant engagement with the player from start to finish of the game pushing and pulling on each other and the player.
Imagine the landscape of Stellaris constantly changing as you and the AI are scanning deeper and finding new resources and valuable compounds throughout the galaxy. Diplomacy is extremely stagnant in Stellaris and this would inject much life and engagement into that aspect as well, as friends, even alliances slowly turn on each other as the fields and resources shift and the balance of power shifts from these.
Of course the AI would have to be able to reason all of this, which is why a major focus on the AI would be important, but necessary regardless.
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In the future, when you begin looking at the Diplomacy, Alliances, etc. which I'm sure you guys are as that's the last real thing that hasn't been touched since the release of Stellaris, focusing on how to make Diplomacy engaging from start to finish is a neceessity. Reasons for friendships, alliances to break, and ways to stop it, as well as reasons for two shaky friendships to come closer and grow stronger. It's no simple task, especially if you dont have other engaging mechanics surrounding diplomacy, which is why I urge, and highly suggest you guys look at how to tie in, and engage as many mechanics as possible into every system like my example above. It doesn't need to be convoluted or overly difficult either, as my example isn't, but it adds huge breaths of air into otherwise rather dead and boring mechanics by themselves.
You have the pieces of a game to stand the test of time here.. A jigsaw puzzle of a great piece of art, it's just a matter of putting them together in the right order.
This is honestly a suggestion, and friendly heads up to Paradox. (Most of which I'm sure they already know, but a reminder, or at least just in case.. friendly suggestions). Though I am going to be brutally honest despite, because honesty is how you move forward.
------------------------
Having played Stellaris since it first came out, and seeing all the iterations, 2 things have been a constant, which has not only killed the enjoyment for so many people I see on the forums, but also my own.
1) Bland boring mid/late game.
2) Horrendously stupid AI.
Unfortunately, these two things are a staple foundation to a game that expects to be a "Great" game. or a game that you want people to continue to enjoy for years and years after their purchase.
The AI is the only thing the player has to play with. The more limited and basic an AI is, the less "replay ability" the game gets, and in many cases is an axe in the log of fun, chopping away at it as you go on.
A good game has to also have a longevity to its game-play, and balance from start to finish -In Some Way-. This is a HUGE problem for most games, I'm not going to lie. Even some of the best games out there like Witcher 3 have this problem, where half way through the game everything becomes rather repetitive and you're well over leveled or over geared with more money than the Rockefellers to throw around..
The difference between that game and this one in terms of replay ability, and longevity keeping the players in the game is the story, atmosphere, and immersion is so high up there, it counters the less than perfect balance everywhere else by a long shot.
Stellaris does NOT have this. Once you hit that mid game, there is nothing engaging for the player anymore than to mindlessly start wars and take over the galaxy in one boring war after another. A GALAXY that after the first 30 minutes becomes entirely explored, and nothing to engage in anymore (Though the last expansion did help this with randomly generated exploration stories, which I have to say is really great).
I have many times in the past gave suggestions for everything, so please excuse me if I take the liberty to do the same here at certain points.
It cannot be stressed enough however, that for Stellaris to truly dig itself out of the rut it's been in for the last 4 years several things must be done on the development side:
1: every new mechanic must have a plan to make it survive and be engaging from turn 1 to end of the game.
2: Every mechanic should play and hook into every other mechanic in some way.
Both of these are not done, it's a series of stand alone 1 off mechanics trying to create a big grand strategy game without ever tieing into each other directly.. It simply won't cut it.
-----------------------
To give an example, and one of the most notable complaints, is simply the exploration. Right now exploring is a press to scan stand alone mechanic with no depth, meet another AI you instantly get to see their entire border; another stand alone mechanic, then engage in yet another stand alone mechanic of diplomacy. There is no push or pull, or engaging mechanics beyond this, and those mechanics in no way "speak" or interact with each other or the player beyond their most basic functions.
This however, can be fixed relatively easily, (though it would take awhile to restructure).
Now what if exploring and scanning had tiers? As the ages and technology expand you gain access to new scanning technology allowing you to scan deeper into a planets crust, and then even core? A tier of 3-4 even stretching from early game to end game, allowing science ships to scan and re scan your entire systems through the entire game? You can expand on this by way of adding tiers and "higher grade" rare resources the deeper you scan. These don't become available, or even shown until you scan them at that depth/tier.
Now Imagine you meet another race, their borders don't automatically show you where they are unless you sign an agreement to do so. This mechanic plays into the ethics, and goverment types. Governments and ethics that are going to close their border to you aren't going to tell you squat about them. This allows for "Gaps" of unknown space to occur to the player, lending exploration a longevity and reason. This also can have tiers as you move up in reputation and opinion. Going from "Border information", to "Intelligence INformation" such as what type of ores/resources are on their systems, etc.
Now fast forward 400 years, you've established a somewhat friendly but rocky relationship with this said empire, only to find that they hold mass quantities of tier 3 high grade resource you desperately need as your science ships begin scanning tier 3 level on their planets. Or perhaps you engaged in a trade with them and realized "wait a minute.. they have access to tier 3 high grade <resource>". Now you're scanning their planets in an effort to find where in their borders they are gaining this resource to decide if perhaps, it would be better to simply break this unstable friendship or not..
This example could continue going on and on, as every mechanic and system in the game would be tied together and pushing and pulling, but with just these changes suddenly you have technology, diplomacy, ethics, government types, and constant engagement with the player from start to finish of the game pushing and pulling on each other and the player.
Imagine the landscape of Stellaris constantly changing as you and the AI are scanning deeper and finding new resources and valuable compounds throughout the galaxy. Diplomacy is extremely stagnant in Stellaris and this would inject much life and engagement into that aspect as well, as friends, even alliances slowly turn on each other as the fields and resources shift and the balance of power shifts from these.
Of course the AI would have to be able to reason all of this, which is why a major focus on the AI would be important, but necessary regardless.
-------------------------
In the future, when you begin looking at the Diplomacy, Alliances, etc. which I'm sure you guys are as that's the last real thing that hasn't been touched since the release of Stellaris, focusing on how to make Diplomacy engaging from start to finish is a neceessity. Reasons for friendships, alliances to break, and ways to stop it, as well as reasons for two shaky friendships to come closer and grow stronger. It's no simple task, especially if you dont have other engaging mechanics surrounding diplomacy, which is why I urge, and highly suggest you guys look at how to tie in, and engage as many mechanics as possible into every system like my example above. It doesn't need to be convoluted or overly difficult either, as my example isn't, but it adds huge breaths of air into otherwise rather dead and boring mechanics by themselves.
You have the pieces of a game to stand the test of time here.. A jigsaw puzzle of a great piece of art, it's just a matter of putting them together in the right order.
And midgame Witcher is boring, so Stellaris must not be. Mm, ok. 
