Hi all, Jamor here, with some news for you just before our biggest event of the year, PDXCON.
Today we are releasing version 2.4.0 “Lee”. The primary objective of this version is to get our new Paradox launcher in to Stellaris:
Why are we doing this? There are two main reasons: Firstly, as you know, Stellaris is available on Steam, Paradoxplaza, GOG, and as of today, the Microsoft Store. Currently, there are hoops that someone has to jump through if they want to do a multiplayer game with users on another platform, involving opting in to beta branches. Our long term goal is to unite all Paradox gamers under one universal MP umbrella, so everyone can play with anyone they want at any time, on any release platform, with a minimum of fuss. To do that, a single unified launcher for all our of various platforms is a key prerequisite (just to clarify, this is the end goal, it does not change how you play Stellaris in multiplayer today). The launcher also has its own dedicated personnel which means it is a time saver for each game team at Paradox, letting us focus exclusively on making and improving the game itself. As a producer, I gotta tell ya, anything that lets us focus more on our core mission is most welcome.
The second big reason for the move is that this new launcher will become a much more feature-rich hub for all things related to the game. We plan improved presentation of announcements and dev diaries, mod management with player control over load order, mod support for non-Steam users via PDX Mods, the works. A low key but nice convenience feature that's in right now is the addition of a “resume last save” button right at the top, letting you start up your most recent game with one click. Our ambitions for it are high.
Here’s some more details from my colleague Anders, the Product Manager for Launcher Team:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/about-the-paradox-launcher.1254011/
The launcher has benefitted from user feedback from prior releases on other PDS games, and will be continually developed by the launcher team. In that regard your input is very helpful. It is self patching, which means updates to the launcher can be deployed without the game version needing to change. It is a separate binary that is used by all PDX games employing it, meaning it only installs once per computer.
Without diminishing the effort of the core dev team working on <redacted>, we were also able to incorporate some fixes from the development branch, which are included in 2.4.0:
*edit: some items in the patch notes were included in error, I'm crossing those out. They'll be put in at the soonest opportunity where we can get them merged and tested safely.
Please note that save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed. If you have an important 2.3.3 game going, please roll back to that version before trying to load the save in 2.4.
Instructions on how to keep playing on older versions here.
You can also use this method to opt in to the stellaris_test branch on Steam, which is necessary for multiplayer cross play between Steam and the other stores we are available on.
Stand by for the big reveal of <redacted> October 19th on the big stage at PDXCON, along with more fixes and improvements from the main dev branch as they get tested and merged. In the meantime, happy gaming, and you’ll hear from us again soon.
Today we are releasing version 2.4.0 “Lee”. The primary objective of this version is to get our new Paradox launcher in to Stellaris:
Why are we doing this? There are two main reasons: Firstly, as you know, Stellaris is available on Steam, Paradoxplaza, GOG, and as of today, the Microsoft Store. Currently, there are hoops that someone has to jump through if they want to do a multiplayer game with users on another platform, involving opting in to beta branches. Our long term goal is to unite all Paradox gamers under one universal MP umbrella, so everyone can play with anyone they want at any time, on any release platform, with a minimum of fuss. To do that, a single unified launcher for all our of various platforms is a key prerequisite (just to clarify, this is the end goal, it does not change how you play Stellaris in multiplayer today). The launcher also has its own dedicated personnel which means it is a time saver for each game team at Paradox, letting us focus exclusively on making and improving the game itself. As a producer, I gotta tell ya, anything that lets us focus more on our core mission is most welcome.
The second big reason for the move is that this new launcher will become a much more feature-rich hub for all things related to the game. We plan improved presentation of announcements and dev diaries, mod management with player control over load order, mod support for non-Steam users via PDX Mods, the works. A low key but nice convenience feature that's in right now is the addition of a “resume last save” button right at the top, letting you start up your most recent game with one click. Our ambitions for it are high.
Here’s some more details from my colleague Anders, the Product Manager for Launcher Team:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/about-the-paradox-launcher.1254011/
The launcher has benefitted from user feedback from prior releases on other PDS games, and will be continually developed by the launcher team. In that regard your input is very helpful. It is self patching, which means updates to the launcher can be deployed without the game version needing to change. It is a separate binary that is used by all PDX games employing it, meaning it only installs once per computer.
Without diminishing the effort of the core dev team working on <redacted>, we were also able to incorporate some fixes from the development branch, which are included in 2.4.0:
*edit: some items in the patch notes were included in error, I'm crossing those out. They'll be put in at the soonest opportunity where we can get them merged and tested safely.
#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.4.0 ##########################
#################################################################
###################
# General
###################
* Added Launcher v2
* Updated all factions titans with panning light meshes. Updated vfx for ether drake’s wing attack (muzzle, projectile, hit effect)
* Caravaneer ship & station vfx update
* Added "/mute <user name>" and "/unmute <user name>" chat commands
* Cloud saving support added on GoG and Paradoxplaza versions of the game
###################
# Balance
###################
* Hunter-Seeker Drone jobs now have a preference for pops who would actually be good at it
* The Pop Growth Reduction for Bio-Trophies now actually reduces their growth rate. Driven Assimilators now apply their organic growth penalty as a multiplier the same way as Rogue Servitors do, and is now also 50%
* Defensive Platforms placed on Outposts now provide 2 points of Piracy Suppression for their system. The Great Game tradition from the Supremacy tree now also reduces the cost to build Defensive Platforms by 33%
###################
# UI
###################
* Shift+clicking on ship count in the Fleet Manager now adds ships up to the nearest unit of ten, using ctrl fills up to the template max size
* Fixed improperly displayed text in the name of Galatron wars
* Protection war name list no longer includes machine uprising and war in heaven
* Removed unnecessary decimal precision in lacking resources tooltips
* Added some tooltips to the planet screen: close button, decisions, tab buttons, garrison and armies, planetary features
* Added a notification when one empire guarantees the independence of another
* Added a defense army icon to the Stronghold and Fortress buildings to help visually identify their effect, and updated the garrison tooltip
* Fixed a cut off display of the clearing cost for ruined arcology blockers
* Fixed incorrectly reversed "they get" and "we get" information showed in commercial pacts
###################
# AI
###################
* The AI will now look at several Edicts and try to enact one of them, whilst still remembering the one they want the most and save towards enacting that
* AI will now wait at least a year before attempting to propose the same diplomacy deal to the same target
* Fixed AI not building enough defense platforms
* Automated building now checks that upkeep cost is covered by income
###################
# Stability
###################
* Improved performance by reducing the number of string copies in modifiers
* Parallelized some planet functions
* Optimized calculations done in frame rendering
* Bunch of caching and optimizations to planet job calculations
* Fixed a slowdown when viewing the slave market
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
* Fixed an incorrect scripted trigger which could sometimes result in the deletion of research labs when upgraded
* Fixed literally unplayable "the the" typo in ancrel.23.desc
* Fixed empires that have outlawed slavery not emancipating slaves on planets they conquer
* Fixed a possible crash when a planet has no pops
* Fixed an instant repair exploit when you dismantle a starbase module while it's under attack
* Fixed a bug that could cause rivalry declarations and closed borders enacted by you to make you instead the target of those things from the other empire
* Removed an exploit where when transferring, merging, and transferring ships again while paused, one could cheekily cause them to become invisible and untargetable in combat
* Fixed an overflow bug with relative empire power calculations
* Removed incorrect ability to completely depopulate primitive planets with raiding bombardment stance
* Fixed nonfunctional modifiers to colony ship build cost
* Fixed a potential crash in AI when evaluating market values
* Odd Factories no longer sometimes block pops from getting purged, because you monsters should be free to purge whatever you want
######################### VERSION 2.4.0 ##########################
#################################################################
###################
# General
###################
* Added Launcher v2
* Updated all factions titans with panning light meshes. Updated vfx for ether drake’s wing attack (muzzle, projectile, hit effect)
* Caravaneer ship & station vfx update
* Added "/mute <user name>" and "/unmute <user name>" chat commands
* Cloud saving support added on GoG and Paradoxplaza versions of the game
###################
# Balance
###################
* Hunter-Seeker Drone jobs now have a preference for pops who would actually be good at it
* Defensive Platforms placed on Outposts now provide 2 points of Piracy Suppression for their system. The Great Game tradition from the Supremacy tree now also reduces the cost to build Defensive Platforms by 33%
###################
# UI
###################
* Fixed improperly displayed text in the name of Galatron wars
* Protection war name list no longer includes machine uprising and war in heaven
* Removed unnecessary decimal precision in lacking resources tooltips
* Added some tooltips to the planet screen: close button, decisions, tab buttons, garrison and armies, planetary features
* Added a defense army icon to the Stronghold and Fortress buildings to help visually identify their effect, and updated the garrison tooltip
* Fixed a cut off display of the clearing cost for ruined arcology blockers
* Fixed incorrectly reversed "they get" and "we get" information showed in commercial pacts
###################
# AI
###################
* The AI will now look at several Edicts and try to enact one of them, whilst still remembering the one they want the most and save towards enacting that
* AI will now wait at least a year before attempting to propose the same diplomacy deal to the same target
* Fixed AI not building enough defense platforms
###################
# Stability
###################
* Improved performance by reducing the number of string copies in modifiers
* Parallelized some planet functions
* Optimized calculations done in frame rendering
* Bunch of caching and optimizations to planet job calculations
* Fixed a slowdown when viewing the slave market
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
* Fixed an incorrect scripted trigger which could sometimes result in the deletion of research labs when upgraded
* Fixed literally unplayable "the the" typo in ancrel.23.desc
* Fixed empires that have outlawed slavery not emancipating slaves on planets they conquer
* Fixed a possible crash when a planet has no pops
* Fixed an instant repair exploit when you dismantle a starbase module while it's under attack
* Fixed a bug that could cause rivalry declarations and closed borders enacted by you to make you instead the target of those things from the other empire
* Removed an exploit where when transferring, merging, and transferring ships again while paused, one could cheekily cause them to become invisible and untargetable in combat
* Fixed an overflow bug with relative empire power calculations
* Removed incorrect ability to completely depopulate primitive planets with raiding bombardment stance
* Fixed nonfunctional modifiers to colony ship build cost
* Fixed a potential crash in AI when evaluating market values
Please note that save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed. If you have an important 2.3.3 game going, please roll back to that version before trying to load the save in 2.4.
Instructions on how to keep playing on older versions here.
You can also use this method to opt in to the stellaris_test branch on Steam, which is necessary for multiplayer cross play between Steam and the other stores we are available on.
Stand by for the big reveal of <redacted> October 19th on the big stage at PDXCON, along with more fixes and improvements from the main dev branch as they get tested and merged. In the meantime, happy gaming, and you’ll hear from us again soon.
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