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Stellaris Dev Diary #173: Federations is soon upon us! (with patch notes)

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Hello everyone!

In a couple of days we will finally bring you Federations, an expansion that we’ve worked incredibly hard on for quite a while now. We’re extremely excited to get it into your hands and see what you all think of it!

I’m posting today to bring you the Patch Notes for 2.6.0 (Verne). But before I do that, I want to talk a bit about something we’re doing a bit differently this time around. In game development there are several milestones and key dates that you need to hit to make sure that a game is made. That’s where the Producer (that’s me!) comes in to oversee that things are done in a prioritized manner (within the time/resource constraints we have) and as we get closer to what is called a “Release Candidate” (RC), we have to be as certain we can that we don’t add things that could risk the stability of the version we will put out into the public.

So what did we do differently this time around? The RC we created was ‘frozen’ earlier to ensure an as stable build as possible. Because once an RC is frozen, it is sent to QA for rigorous testing with not only our in-house testers, but also our outsourced partners. Scheduling this requires weeks (sometimes months) of advanced notice, so it’s not something we take lightly. So during this time of testing, we need to limit the amount of times we send them a new RC. Because, a new RC means the testing needs to start over and all the previous testing would have been wasted!

But as everyone knows, especially you guys, a build is never bug-free. We could work on Stellaris on now until forever to fix every bug imaginable, and there would still be a typo in a tooltip somewhere. That is the nature of our industry and software development in general. Which means that after the RC was frozen, we found some issues that we wanted to fix but didn’t want to risk the overall integrity of the RC and put in.

Which brings me to “branching”. Since there were still bugs to be fixed and features to be balanced, we “branched off” from the RC and started working on the first patch we plan to release. That patch is something we would love to get into your hands as early as possible, but as I mentioned before, stability and integrity of a build something that’s extremely important to us. So instead of putting the patch live immediately, we will be putting 2.6.1 as an opt-in beta! Which means that those of you who want to check it out early, will be able to do it on release day.

I hope this has given you some more insight into the inner workings of game development, and if you want to know more feel free to ask questions about our processes (or request another Dev Diary ;) ) !

Please note that 2.6.1 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.

Also note that save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed. If you have an important 2.5.0 game going, don't try to load the save in 2.6.0 or 2.6.1.

But without any further ado, here are the patch notes for 2.6.0 and 2.6.1!


#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.6.0 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Federations Expansion Features
###################

# Federations Rework

* Form new types of Federations, each with unique passive effects, and level them up to unlock perks. Customize them further through the new Federation Laws.

# Galactic Community

* Join the Galactic Community and pass resolutions by voting with the rest of the Community to make the galaxy a better place for everyone. Or slowly build up your diplomatic weight, and become the senate!

# Origins

* A new way to customize your Empires, by choosing their Origin story. Is your Empire a race of people who survived the destruction of their homeworld who now live on Habitats? Or did your Empire discover nearby allies that it formed a Federation with? Or...?

# Juggernaut

* Bigger is better! The Juggernaut is a new ship class as large as a starbase that can build and repair ships in the field, turning your offensive fleet into an unstoppable force!

# Mega Shipyard

* A new Megastructure with a name so fitting you wonder how we even thought of it. The Mega Shipyard will allow you to build ships quicker and in more numbers than ever before, having up to 30 shipyards and passively increase your empires Ship build speed, while also starting ships off with some XP.

# Achievements

* Show off your soft power with 10 new Steam achievements.

######################
# 2.6.0 "Verne" Free Features
######################

# Diplomacy Polish

* Envoys have been added to the game. A Mini-leader that you don't need to hire, but you have a limited amount of. Meant to be used to improve or harm relationships with other Empires, to increase your Federations Cohesion, or to increase your Diplomatic Weight in the Galactic Community.
* Envoys are displayed in the top bar with informative tooltips.
* Countries now have a Diplomatic Stance. These can be found under Policies and set your empire's general disposition towards other empires. Isolationist? Belligerent? Cooperative? Each comes with its own sets of benefits and drawbacks.
* If a country that has subjects leaves or is removed from a federation, its subjects are also removed.
* Diplomacy action view and response view now have background colors depending on if the action is aggressive, positive, negative or neutral.
* The "attitude" displayed in the diplomacy window will now say that it is a human empire if it is.
* The Diplomatic Grants edict now increases Diplomacy Weight and improves Envoy effectiveness instead of Trust Growth and Trade Attractiveness.
* Diplo info pop-up now has an icon indicating the action.
* An icon (currently set to the closest relevant diplomacy status) is now shown in the diplomacy action view as well as the response view.
* The alien message flavor text in the diplomacy view now animates and fades in, and then animates and fades out after five seconds (tweakable in defines).
* Progress bar for opinion levels in diplo view now has different colors per level.

# Other Stuff

* Updated the War in Heaven scripts. The leader of the strongest federation will now be given the option to turn their federation into the League of Non-Aligned Powers (if all federation leaders say no, other countries can still form a new federation)
* The "Eat the Titans" planet modifier (for planets with titanic life forms) now gives Titan Hunter jobs.
* The Commonwealth of Man now always spawns somewhere if playing UNE.
* Strike Crafts now have an engagement_range, making a pure hangar based design viable. Modifier: ship_engagement_range_mult
* Added a generic way to block archetypes in create_species effect.
* Added a Lithoid prescripted empire for the Lithoids Species pack.
* Fleet reinforcement is now handled as an MIA event: When a ship is built to reinforce a fleet that is not in their system, they will go MIA for as long as it would have taken them to get to the fleet. In order to reinforce, a path with no hostiles (including pirates and space wildlife) blocking the way to the fleet must exist.
* A notification will now appear when a Terravore's Consume World decision completes, listing the benefit they received from wrecking the place and making it easier to reselect the planet.
* When terraforming a planet to a Machine World, any non-cyborg Biological pops will be killed off and an Organic Slurry deposit will be added. Determined Exterminators will gain 100 unity per pop killed this way.
* Colossus Assembly Yard is now called Colossal Assembly Yard, and is now also unlocked by the Juggernaut tech.
* Added cooldown to leaders (currently only used by envoys) that need to tick down before they can be moved. Also added leader modifiers for improving and harming relations.
* Added Docile and Unruly traits, which affect empire sprawl from pops.
* Added Streamlined Protocols and High Bandwidth robot traits, which affect how much empire sprawl the robot pops cause.
* Added Maintenance Protocols civic for machine empires, which makes maintenance drones produce 1 unity.
* Added Instinctive Synchronization Synchronicity tradition that increases admin cap from synapse drone by +2.
* Added Bureaucrat governor trait that increases admin cap from bureaucrat jobs by +10%.
* Added a new free archaeological site, and a new one for Ancient Relics.
* Added a colony event chain about dancing.
* Made debugtooltips show information on flags, modifiers and variables when hovering over a country icon.
* Now possible to use ethos list as preferred when randomizing ethics by setting randomize_ethos = yes
* Added new Civic: Effective bureaucracy which gives +5% admin cap

###################
# Balance
###################

* Xenophile empires now start with additional envoys.
* The Federation tradition now grants an additional envoy (Universal Compatibility does not).
* Hive Districts on Hive Worlds now provide extra housing and maintenance drone jobs.
* Hive Warren buildings no longer provide maintenance jobs, but instead provide housing and amenities
* Countries with high income from trade value will now be somewhat more likely to be picked as the host of the Galactic Market, whereas Gestalts are less likely to be chosen.
* The One Mind hive mind civic now also makes your leaders less likely to gain negative traits.
* Removed civic restrictions from Byzantine Bureaucracy. Philosopher King now also makes your Rulers and Governors less likely to gain negative traits.
* Fallen Empires will now use up to 8 armies' worth of occupation armies, up from 0.
* Khanate Diadochi now always get claims on all systems belonging to their rival Diadochi.
* More Pops from the Great Khan's Horde are now generated when they conquer a planet.
* The Khanate Successor States now get Alloys and Consumer Goods when they are created.
* Genetic Resequencing now permits Lithoids to gain the Adaptive and Rapid Breeders species traits.
* Synchronicity Tradition Change: Instinctive Synchronization (Hive) now causes Synapse Drones to produce 2 Amenities. Integrated Preservation (Machine) Coordinators increase Admin Capacity generation by an additional 3 and reduce Deviancy by 2.
* Prosperity Tradition Change: The Prosperity finisher will now grant +1 Maintenance Drone per 20 pops for Machine Empires.
* Domination Tradition Change: Modular Depots (Machine) now decreases Empire Sprawl from Districts by 25%.
* The reward for destroying pirates now scales somewhat as the game progresses, and destroying the Privateer Conglomerate will grant you a reward proportional to the task.
* Resource Processing Centers now provide two Alloy Drones or one Fabricator instead of a Synapse Drone or Coordinator.
* The second housing tech will now give gestalts extra maintenance drones per city section.
* Increased Gestalt empires' maintenance drones from arcology habitation districts from 2 to 9, to scale for the larger population they can support.
* Federation influence upkeep reduced from 2 to 1.
* The UNE is now more powerful when it is spawned by playing as the Commonwealth.
* The Byzantine Bureaucracy civic's effect is now: Bureaucrats now produce +1 Unity and +1 Stability. Fill out these forms in triplicate and have them properly stamped and filed, everything will be fine, citizen.
* Empire Sprawl Changes: Colonies are worth 5 Empire Sprawl instead of 2. Each Pop produces 0.5 Empire Sprawl. Sector Governors reduce Pop Contribution to Empire Sprawl by 2% per level. The Species traits Unruly, High Bandwidth, Docile, and Streamlined Protocols increase or decrease Pop contribution to Empire Sprawl by 10%.
* Minor tweaks to Arc Site rewards related to the Zroni.
* Added two new Engineering (Materials) techs that increase Metallurgist production and two new Physics (Computing) techs that increase Artisan production.
* Master Builders ascension perk no longer requires Voidborne or Galactic Wonders, and now only requires Mega-Engineering.
* Defense Platforms can start with Hangar sections (using scout craft).
* Some changes have been made to strike craft to make hangar sections more valuable. Strike craft now move significantly faster, reinforce losses faster, and have increased tracking and evasion. They will now engage from a larger distance, and will act as a point defense screen against missiles, other strike craft, and act as a counter against swarms of light ships such as corvettes. A "Carrier" combat computer has been added that will attempt to stay at extreme range during combat.
* Reduced research cost of the "Hallucinogen Removal" project.
* Gaia worlds can no longer get the "High Gravity" or "Hazardous Weather" modifiers.
* Added the "Indentured Servitude" slavery type, which allows slaves to be employed in Specialist jobs, but leaves them with most of their political power. This requires the expanded slavery types from the Utopia DLC.
* Tweaked the reward from the "Finding the Truth" event.
* Tweaked the cost of the "Probe the Void" Project.
* Barbaric Despoilers now have access to the Form Federation tradition if the host has the Federations DLC enabled. They are restricted to only being able to form Martial Alliances or Hegemonies (if they meet the other prerequisites).
* Lowered the duration of the "Scared Populace" modifier from 20 years to 5.
* Mardak vol should spawn a bit more often
* Reward for selling Alien Box is now Consumer Goods rather than Minerals.
* Nanite-oriented events now reward actual Nanites.
* Player now gets paid in Consumer Goods rather than Minerals for giving up findings in Teaching of Explorers event.
* Rebalanced hive start to have 3 more pops, 1 less hive district.
* Rebalanced hive capitals to have amenities/housing 8/8 and 15/15.
* Having Empire Sprawl over your Administrative Cap no longer modifies Leader Upkeep.
* Private Military Companies civic now also increases army starting XP by +100.
* Shadow Council civic now also increases ruler resource output by +10%.
* Ascetic civic now also increases habitability by +5%.
* Divided Attention civic now increases admin capacity by +10% instead of +20.
* Strength of Legions civic now also increases army starting XP by +100.
* Subsumed Will civic now reduces empire sprawl from pops by -20% instead of reducing edict cost.
* Pooled Knowledge civic now increases leader experience gain by +10% instead of increasing leader pool by +1.
* Scrapping the ship in the "Atomic Countdown" event now gives you Alloys instead of Minerals.
* Adaptive Bureaucracy tech now increases empire admin cap by 5% instead of reducing bureaucrat upkeep.
* Colonial bureaucracy now gives +10 admin cap and level 2 bureaucrat building
* Galactic bureaucracy now gives + 10 admin cap and level 3 bureaucrat building
* Adaptive Combat Algorithms tech no longer requires Colonial Bureaucracy.
* Adaptive Combat Algorithms tech category is now Military Theory instead of Biology.
* Criminal Syndicates can now form and join Federations, and now use the standard Diplomacy traditions.
* Lithoids are now less likely to take farming jobs if they are not running low on food.
* The Interstellar Assembly now grants an additional envoy at the second and fourth tiers.
* The Private Prospectors MegaCorp civic now reduces Empire Sprawl from Systems by 33% instead of adding a flat bonus to Admin Capacity.
* Migration Pacts now also cost 0.25 in influence upkeep
* Use of Javorian Pox bombardment requires the Indiscriminate (or worse) Bombardment policy.
* Harmony/Synchronicity tradition finisher no longer increases stability, but reduced empire sprawl from pops by 10%.
* Utopian Dream tradition no longer reduces pop amenities usage, but increases stability by 5%.
* Pacifist ethics now reduce empire sprawl from pops by -15%/-30% instead of increasing admin cap by 10/20.
* Imperial Prerogative ascension perk now increases admin cap by 20% instead of by +30.
* Courier Networks expansion tradition now reduces empire sprawl from colonies and systems by 25%.
* Auto-Curating Vault now increases unity and culture worker output.
* Citadel of Faith now also provides high priest jobs.
* Standardized technology costs for resource building upgrades and booster buildings (Ministry of Production etc.).
* Psionic Theory now reduces empire sprawl from pops by 10% instead of increasing unity output by 5%.
* Construction Templates technology now also reduces empire sprawl from districts by 10%.
* The Resourceful achievement has been changed to "Have monthly income above one for every resource in the galaxy". (Resources potentially found outside the main galaxy are not required.)
* Divine Enforcers are now able to shine their righteous light upon the core worlds of the Contingency, granting them blessed release from their regrettable soulless existences.
* Hyperlane Registrar has been reworked and now increases trade collection range by 1 instead of its previous effects.
* Secrets of the Precursors artifact actions are now clearer on use that they start a special project. Secrets of the Cybrex no longer grants 25% progress in its associated tech (but still provides it as a research option).
* Switching assembly focus from one robot to another now only removes 10% progress instead of the default 50%.
* Rebalanced starting positions for all empires so that they are more similar to each other.
* Tradition Cost penalty from Empire Sprawl exceeding Admin Cap is now increased by 20%.
* Technology Cost penalty from Empire Sprawl exceeding Admin Cap is now increased by 33%.
* Resource districts now provide 1 additional housing for machine empires.
* Normalized buildings so that upkeep, build costs and times, are more consistent across tiers.
* Unity buildings have been standardized to have 3 levels which upgrade similarly to other buildings, and provide similar amounts of jobs.
* Calculator jobs now turn energy instead of minerals into research.
* Integrated Preservation Synchronicity tradition now increases maintenance drone jobs from nexus districts instead of maintenance depots.
* OTA Updates machine civic now reduces Empire Sprawl from Pops instead of reducing Edict Cost.
* Added Mega-Assembly technology, which unlocks the Machine Assembly Complex.
* Machine Assembly Complex building added, which is an upgrade to Machine Assembly Plant, with 3 Replicator Jobs.
* Driven Assimilators now have an additional maintenance drone job, but still have 1 less replicator jobs than other machine empires.
* Machine capitals no longer receive more Replicator jobs the higher the population is.

###################
# Performance and Stability
###################

* Changed on_entering_system events to use on_entering_system_fleet or on_entering_system_first_time, which are less expensive on_actions.
* Added specialized triggers to reduce the amount of going through every pop in the country and improve performance.
* Threaded the job distribution.
* Rewrote the job distribution system for better performance.
* Slight performance improvement in planetary building AI.
* Improved performance of the verify thread.
* Fix a possible OOS after hotjoin when a fleet is looking for a starbase to orbit around.
* Fixed an OOS after hotjoin when a country was employing a leader from another country (we still don't know where that comes from).
* Planets being infested should be considered 'technically colonizable' to be processed during updates, to prevent a potential OOS.
* Added fix to prevent CTD in incoming diplo screen.
* Crashfix when a blocker adds an event.
* Fix crash when trying to refund an automated building to a planet without a controller.
* Fixed crash with missing entities.
* Replaces a crash when an entity handle isn't set with an error log.
* Fixed an OOS caused by AI commands being written and read as another command
* Lots of general crash, OOS, stability fixes.

###################
# UI
###################

* When you copy the In Limbo species for the Fallen Empire, it will correctly show a species in the tooltip, even if you unpause the game.
* Alerts that require votes now automatically opens the relevant window.
* Opinion modifiers due to claims have been made clearer.
* The number of available housing in the planet view displays the expected amount.
* The number of available amenities is calculated correctly and shows the expected amount.
* Added a missing line break in the tooltip for planet modifier Anti-Crime Campaign
* The tooltips for constructing and upgrading a megastructure shows any effects that it applies.
* The megastructure view now displays any effects from it in the description.
* Fixed several interface issues that resulted in Hives and Machine Empires having the wrong description for traditions in some tooltips.
* Enclave trades now count as monthly trades in the income breakdown tooltip.
* The tooltip describing why you cannot colonize planets outside your borders only tells you the reason once.
* Fixed leader portrait sometimes missing from the arch excavation window.
* The tooltip when trying to land armies that are in orbit on a primitive planet only says that the planet is outside your borders. "There are no armies in orbit that can land." was redundant.
* The icon indicating ships being upgradable only shows if the active empire controls the ship
* Changed a few UI SFXs.
* Fleet arrows now show in Observer Mode.
* Empire view displays all pop growth modifier categories.
* Fixed tooltips where some Civics would show bonuses twice.
* Fixed Subterranean Liason Officer Jobs using the wrong icons.
* Fixed Hive Mind Empath Civic showing bonuses twice.
* Moved strategic resources container slightly to the left to not overlap in lategame
* Fixed empire sprawl top icon positioning so that you can have 1000/1000 sprawl showing
* The trade negotiation view now correctly refers to an empire's disinterest in trading away systems, rather than planets.
* An item of button text within "The Oracle" event chain is no longer displayed out of bounds.
* Added a flag "default_planet_selection" to planet classes that can be set to use a default planet type for the city selection
* Added a define "CITY_SELECTION_DEFAULT_PLANET_CLASS" to choose which planet type to display for planet classes with the default setting
* Fixed the alert spam when a science ship set on evasion stance cannot run away.
* Diplomacy view sprawl item tooltip now refers to the country viewed instead of yourself.
* Tooltip for the "Discover L-Gate Insight" minor artifact decision no longer duplicates "L-Gate Insight Gained +1".
* "Cell Cells" anomaly event now references the Ancient Genetic Library deposit in its tooltip.
* Fixed the game appearing as "not responding" during the early loading.
* Fixed the game starting in the background without input focus.
* Improved naval capacity tooltip
* Fixed lithoid trait description not using the correct text color.
* Fixed width for sprawl text in top bar.
* Empire sprawl displayed as a ratio in top bar.
* Removed colony and systems entries from top bar.
* Traumatized and Maimed trait icons now have red backgrounds.
* Fixed text overflow for produces text in buildings/deposits list.
* fixed minor localization error in infward perfection civic description.
* Lots of minor Localisation tweaks and fixes in various events and tooltips.

###################
# AI
###################

* Improved all Crisis AIs, giving each a unique behavior.
* Adjusted AI weights for Maintenance Drones.
* Fleet AI should consider attacking fleets right outside its borders.
* Improved The Horde AI.
* Improved fleet AI during peacetime.
* Improved AI fleet group assignment calculations.
* AI now sets favorite jobs if it can and is losing resources.
* Revised military AI to better handle regrouping and escorting.
* Fixed some cases with buildings where the AI might end up with a deficit in a strategic resource and not know what to do about it.
* Fixed several AI weights in buildings where it checked for 0 free jobs rather than < 1 free jobs (since free jobs can go into the negative), meaning that the AI only knew what to do if the situation hadn't become critical.
* Any AI defenseless ship should avoid venturing alone in enemy territory.
* Military AI should now split fleets that are too big for their mission
* AI should not consider fleets without armor to be in constant need for repairs
* AIs will no longer build habitats if the system already has one that has not yet been colonized. AIs now have a preference for building habitats in or near their capital system.
* Fixed the AI where it was keeping outdated plans about hostile fleets.
* The AI will now build one habitation district per habitat
* Made significant adjustments to AI weights for buildings.

###################
# Modding
###################

* Added random/every/count_war to go with any_war.
* Added remove_war_participant effect.
* Added information on modifiers, flags and variables to the debugtooltip for countries.
* The various effects to fire an event will now display sensible tooltips so that hiding them in a hidden_effect is no longer obligatory.
* The game will now warn you which invalid event target you are using in localisations.
* Changing primitive age should now be done via the scripted effect set_primitive_age_effect.
* Created scripted list fleet_in_system, fleet_in_orbit, owned_fleet.
* Added random/any/every federation scopes.
* realtive_power trigger now supports federation scope for category = fleet.
* fleet_power trigger now supports federations scope.
* Improved the tooltip for add_opinion_modifier effect so it shows the value it changes opinion by.
* Add must_be_advanced_empire and is_allowed_to_be_advanced_empire game rules.
* is_criminal property can be used to mark criminal jobs.
* New trigger: "has_available_jobs = <job-type>" lets you know if a given job has openings

###################
# Bugfixes
###################

* Fixed issue when empty habitats colonized by the Prethoryn weren't being dismantled.
* Fixed CTD when trying to generate a greeting for an empire without ethics.
* Fixed issue where the wrong species was sometimes assigned to an empire after picking the Transcendence ascension perk.
* Spawn chance for the Rubricator event chain (beginning with Weapon Trails anomaly) adjusted upwards from effectively 5% to 12%.
* In the Rubricator event chain, immediately following her emergence from the affected planet: Shard no longer opens multiple, identical diplomacy windows.
* The Rubricator archaeology site will no longer disappear once you've finished it.
* If the Non-Aligned League destroys an Awakened Fallen Empire, all WiH conflicts involving that AFE will end.
* Trigger 'has_ruler_trait' will now properly check ruler traits instead of behaving like 'has_trait'.
* Fixed an event in the Nivlac chain referring to tiles. Everyone knows planets don't have tiles, that's so last century...
* If somehow you are able to build a ship through reinforcement and it is missing a fleet template, it should no longer crash.
* The event Stranded Scientist will now give you a scientist even if you unpause.
* A Lithoid nation now knows how to clear Hibernating Lithoid blockers.
* The description for maintenance drones no longer refers to a machine consciousness as hive minds also have them.
* Fixes pops getting enslaved and freed and enslaved again all the time.
* Non-conquest war goals can no longer be used if it would result in the annexation of the enemy.
* If a country that is rebelling against someone conquers a planet that does not belong to their rebellion target OR their overlord, it is handled as a regular conquering.
* Changed volume for endgame crisis SFX.
* Servile pops can no longer become enforcers or duellists.
* Pacifist nations are now correctly allowed to promote the Pacifist pop faction.
* Clearing "Sprawling Slums" will now give you a pop of a species present on the planet, rather than simply the owning empire's species.
* The Nanite Interdictor ship that you can get as an event reward now suppresses pirates.
* The Natural Neural Network hive mind civic now also causes unemployed drones to produce some research.
* Fixed a large number of syntax errors in (especially translated) localisations.
* Driven Assimilators will now prioritise using "Intelligent" and similar pops as Calculators and will no longer insist on using them as Replicators.
* Miners will no longer use the crystal mine building icon rather than a generic mine for their background.
* Closing the Dimensional Portal will now correctly reduce the research output of the dimensional researchers, as the event tooltip says it should.
* Fixed the building background for Mote Harvesters and Gas Extractors.
* Corrected the pips icon for the Marauder Cruiser event ship.
* Fixed various issues when primitive civilisations change their civilisation level in several observation events (e.g. no pop jobs available due to no new buildings being created). Changing primitive age should now be done via the scripted effect set_primitive_age_effect.
* Flag icon tooltip differentiates between member and leader of a federation
* You can now rebuild the Ministry of Culture elsewhere if you replace it.
* Significantly increased the likelihood that robots with power drills traits will actually work as miners.
* Changed volume for various Lithoid assets.
* Deviancy Protocols and Divergence Suppression now correctly refer to Deviance rather than Crime.
* Cost tooltips in the Ship Designer will no longer display an extra minerals symbol loitering before the actual cost.
* The Flesh is Weak will no longer change your species' planet preference when it doesn't match the planet class of their home planet.
* The Shard dragon will now destroy the colony on its planet if you have settled it to avoid Criminal Syndicates having a scary dragon protecting their final planet.
* Fix Fallen Empires always generated in the order of types in 00_fallen_empire.txt
* You can no longer continue to observe primitives who e.g. were just destroyed by a planet cracker.
* Fixed a bug where the construction site was displayed incorrectly.
* Fixed wrong expansion influence distance cost when there are equidistant paths with different amounts of jumps.
* Fixed various weirdnesses with pop stratas and jobs when Awakened Fallen Empires conquer default empires' planets.
* Building any tier of Dyson Sphere now removes the Terraforming Candidate modifier from the planets in their systems.
* Modifiers to all districts' cost and upkeep are now correctly applied to city districts.
* Archaeological trap events which kill the leader now show the leader's name correctly in the event text.
* Each caravaneer fleet will now no longer offer to sell you stuff within 540 days of having previously done so (if they exit and re-enter your territory in that time).
* Fixed a rare case where the event "Party Aftermath" could produce a half-breed between members of the same species.
* Mind over Matter ascension perk will now change your dominant species to having being latent psionic, rather than just all the pops that are your species.
* Fixed confusing Naval Capacity values in Fleet Manager and added tooltip.
* The special project to launch a preemptive strike on the subterranean civilisation now times out after 360 days, up from 2 days. The subterraneans will now also properly make peaceful contact with you if you let the project time out, at least some of the time.
* Fixed an issue where the Rubricator system could fail to spawn if you researched the special project late in the game.
* The event "Azizians" will now correctly create a slug species on one of your planets.
* Housing techs, traditions and civics now add housing to arcology housing districts.
* Hive Minds now get maintenance drones for their ringworld sections.
* "The Great Game" tradition is now a purely flavoursome tradition swap for Terminators.
* Made ambient object "Syzygy Remains" (from the Horizon Signal event chain) be localised.
* Added missing localisation key for Cybrex Transports and several crystalline entity ships.
* Fixed a number of literally unpalyable typos.
* Fixed the issue of delayed events not happening, or even being extremely... delayed.
* Having an enemy's capital claimed by a war ally should not block the player from claiming other unclaimed systems.
* Secondary species gets its climate preference from the main species, and if the main does not have one the secondary gets a random one.
* Tweaked Prosperous Unification planetary modifier to make some Preset Empires less crime-ridden.
* Fleets targeting starbase should not get stuck on hyperlane entrance anymore
* Fixed so that the correct Planet Modifier image and frame is displayed.
* Fixed the modifier "POP_ETHICS_SHIFT_SPEED" not working correctly, makes sure that a pop that shifts will actually change ethics instead of choosing the same one it already has.
* Fixed text of event "Stranded Scientist" so it shows the name of the scientist's species correctly.
* Fixed Mercantile Xenophobes creating influence sink.
* Made sure that the planet and ship sprites are shown when entering species selection.
* "Alien Lasers" event now makes proper reference to the relevant planet in all localisations.
* Minor tweaks to some events.
* Fixed so that all Caravaneer Loot Rewards are correct.
* Added script to fix a bug and to make FE buildings "Player-ready" with build speed and build cost.
* Completing a Dyson Sphere now removes Terraforming Candidate from the frozen worlds.
* Fixed a case where the Wanderlust event chain wouldn't continue because it couldn't find systems.
* Fixed the "Sensor Malfunction" event to properly replace the resource of the star.
* The Prethoryn Main Fleet no longer fails to appear if their Vanguard was destroyed too quickly.
* Fixed a case where a Zroni excavation site could spawn on a Hatchling world.
* Fixed the bug where lost systems didn't have claims.
* New game pop up now displays the correct leader portrait.
* Fixed potential error with the Star Patterns event.
* Fixed a rare issue where the main Prethoryn invasion failed to spawn after the vanguard arrived.
* Finding the Hyacinth system via gaining comms with another Empire should no longer cause event spam.
* Unplayable "are a the" removed, rejoice!
* Fixed issue with the Nivlacs not being set up as a proper country.
* Fixed Duuk's bug. (Election alert and window now refer to the rulers proper title if there is a custom one).
* If consecrating a spiritualist Fallen Empire's Holy World, their opinion boost is now properly applied.
* Observation Posts are now removed from Primitive planets if all Pops have been abducted.
* Horizon Signal event chain can now turn all stars in a system into black holes.
* Horizon Signal end event now turns all common planets into Tomb Worlds, regardless of size.
* Pulsating Star Research Project can no longer spawn on black holes.
* Fixed localisation to mention the correct name in The End of the Cycle: Reckoning event chain.
* Made sure scrollbar is reset when selecting a resolution proposal in galcom view.
* Lokken Mechanist and Xanid Suzerainty pre-scripted empires begin with all their civic points spent. The Lokks have adopted Meritocracy; the Xanid have embraced Cutthroat Politics.
* Caravaneers no longer offer to create Numa's Breath on Habitats or Ring Worlds.
* Defense Platforms now get Hangar sections with Carrier Operations instead of needing Advanced Strike Craft.
* Curator's research aid text now refers to Research Labs, rather than Science Labs.
* Clarified tooltips for establishing Branch Offices on alien worlds have been made easier to understand.
* Tooltip for the "Pacifist Movement" colony event now references a shift to the correct, non-fanatical pacifist ethic.
* Crisis events "Synths Scuttle Spaceport" and "Spaceport Hijacked" now address starbases instead.
* Any Leader now has the chance to acquire a Leader Trait from defeating the Leviathan Ether Drake.
* Curator Order no longer talks about unknown Leviathans if all Leviathans are known to the Player.
* Fixed the bug when automatic survey was inconsistent with real survey.
* Made sure cyclical (and theoretically impossible) trade routes at least don't freeze the game.
* Lithoid rulers in a Democracy should no longer issue Food Growth or Aggressive Agriculture mandates if their country does not actually use food for any reason.
* Rulers in a democracy will only issue Energy Infrastructure, Planetside Mining, and Aggressive Agriculture mandates if you own a planet that can complete them.
* Underground vault special project outcome no longer gated by having 50 free housing
* Fixed pop job allocation "dancing" when a job is set as a favourite.
* Leader reassignment cooldown now saved and loaded properly.
* Lithoid portraits that were using incorrect sounds now use the correct ones.
* Resort Worlds and Penal Colonies will now be more thorough in destroying buildings that cannot be built upon them.
* Lithoid empires no longer obliterate Agricultural Segments on Ring Worlds, even though they're a gigantic waste of space.
* Hide planet status icons if the planet is under colonization.
* Fixed so that empires don't get notifications for discovered archeological sites unless they're in uncontrolled territory or within their own borders.
* Zroni arc site spawning now looks further for a suitable system.
* Fixed an error in the Fanatic Purifier civic's tooltip that displayed an incorrect value for their discount to ship costs.
* The Basic Combat Computer for Defense Platforms no longer gives an unintended +20 bonus to tracking.
* Added missing notification message when a megacorp turns another empire into a subsidiary.
* Fixed a rare issue where a crime event could fire on a planet being colonized.
* Fixed an incorrect ship reference in an anomaly description.
* Fixed issue with several leader traits using the wrong icons.
* The Repugnant trait on maintenance drones now correctly reduces amenities generated instead of increasing them.
* Fixed issue where Contingency would not spawn if their hub planets had already been destroyed.
* Fixed issue where L-Cluster event chain was not properly cleared from the Situation Log.
* Fixed excavation speed issue with the Traumatized and Inspired Archaeologist leader traits.
* Demolish Art Monument decision renamed to "Remove Art Monument", description clarified, and it no longer locks you out of buying more of them after you've smashed five. Added a 15 day implementation timer to the art monument decisions since they were entirely costless.
* Fixed pop initialization on startup.
* Finishing the Contingency off with a Colossus will now grant the Does Not Compute achievement.
* Plantoids portrait category will no longer be visible in Empire Creation if there are no plantoid portraits to choose from.
* Added missing localisations for job_fe_maintenance_bot_add (a modifier visible Ancient Control Centers).

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.6.1 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Balance
###################

* Titans now have access to the Carrier combat computer (so they can stay back with a carrier based fleet instead of closing to Artillery range).
* "Interpretation Signal" anomaly event now also offers a reward in society research.
* Removed Empire cohesion from the game.
* Removed most restrictions from the Slaver Guilds civic. When combined with Syncretic Evolution, your main species will usually start in Indentured Servitude (unless species traits push them to a different slavery type).
* The Galatron now increases Diplomatic Weight by +100%.
* Envoys are sent home when their origin country enters war against their host country.
* Empires may now forcefully resettle pops off of doomed planets regardless of their resettlement policy. The egalitarian faction has been paid off and will ignore this trampling of the rights to explode on your own terms.
* Repeatable technologies now provide full points towards victory score and diplomatic weight.
* Increased the effect technology has on diplomatic weight.
* Reduced the effect fleet power has on diplomatic weight.
* Denouncement resolutions can now only be proposed against rivals or empires you have poor relations with.
* Empires are more likely to abstain from resolutions in the Galactic Community.
* Increased the effect opinion of the proposer (or target, for targeted resolutions) has on willingness of AIs to support or oppose resolutions.

###################
# Stability & Performance
###################

* Fixed a CTD when debug tooltip was active in planet view for primitives.
* Improved the performance of the AI checking what armies to build and what species to use for colonization.
* Fixed memory leak and potential cause for CTD when generating half species.
* Fixed a FLEET_MODIFIER OOS on hotjoin.
* Fixed an OOS related to victory rankings.
* Fixed an AI related OOS.
* Fixed an OOS caused by AI commands being written and read as another command.
* Fixed CTD on some edge cases of federation votes.
* Fixed CTD that could happen when loading a safe file and it tried to repair some issues with strike craft.

###################
# UI
###################

* Added missing loc for Polish, Spanish, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese.
* The Project Cornucopia planetary decision now has a description.
* Localised event option for restoring a ruined mega shipyard.
* Added a bunch of missing audio for different UI.
* Senate floor portrait changes to reflect the current votes.

###################
# AI
###################

* Contingency will now be able to handle the case of not being spawned next to the empire it wants to destroy.
* AI should now consider enemies on the path to target and abort if there's too much resistance on the way.
* Fleets with passive repair effects should no longer be considered busy by Fleet AI.
* Fixed AI ignoring hostile forces in occupied and systems within sensor range.
* Made AI try to beef up offensive fleets up to a fraction of their offensive fleet power.
* AI will now commit between 75% and 100% of fleet power to offensive missions if available.
* Added a define for base offensive commitment.
* Made AI merge fleet groups when possible.
* Fixed edge case in average fleet power estimation when AI borders a Leviathan.
* Fixed edge case bug when AI is 100% committed to offense but ends up splitting between all owned systems.
* Default AI will now only consider capital and chokepoints as candidates to park defensive fleets.
* AI will compute how many offensive fleets based upon the strength of allies and enemies at war.
* Crisis AI will compute how many offensive fleets based upon the strength of their biggest foe.
* AI debug tooltips will now show the minimum fleet power estimated for objective completion.
* AI is no longer completely locked in to waiting for resources to get the highest prio one (counting all planets).
* Non-Xenophobe Authoritarian AIs will enslave properly again.

###################
# Modding
###################

* Added trigger for checking the selected number of AI empires to spawn in galaxy setup.

###################
# Bugfixes
###################

* Players are no longer allowed to spam federation invitations until they get an answer.
* Clarifies localisation when invitíng to form a new federation, compared to when inviting more members.
* Fleets now use pathfinding for both Megashipyards and Juggernauts for upgrading and repairing.
* Federation Perk "Welcoming Nature" now correctly modifies the cost for countries to join the federation.
* Leaving the galactic community should now correctly cost between 100 and 500 influence, scaling with administrative size.
* Improved lighting settings for Ringworld preview in empire design.
* Federation leader/member modifiers are now recalculated for old and new leader when leadership changes.
* Indentured slaves can now be permitted to colonize and accept additional living standards.
* Federation fleet ships will now properly check their special constraints (capacity, leadership...) in construction interface.
* Fixed the "Whatever it is, I'm against it" achievement so that it is correctly fulfilled by leaving a federation (rather than being the leader of a federation where a federation member leaves!)
* Fixed certain designations not using correct icons.
* Upon changing Federation Fleet Contribution away from "None", the federation will no longer be locked to "Only Leader" Federation Fleet Construction for 10 years.
* All federation members should get feedback on vote failure. Country asking to join a federation should get feedback on the vote result.
* You can now no longer change federation succession type and term while at war, since changes would only come into effect after the actual war.
* Losing a federation level and losing laws because of it will now set the new law to the next one down the level list even if a cooldown is active.
* Closed starbase window that should be no longer accessible after returning a occupied starbase to its owner.
* Events relating to construction of the Sentry Array now display some helpful information in their tooltips.
* Tooltips for Galactic Community resolutions shows the empire name of the actual target and not only your own empire name.
* Fix for Golden Rule election type, accounting for a scenario in which the sitting federation leader forfeits the challenge.
* Added descriptions for the Spiritualist/Materialist Attraction modifiers, from "A Change of Heart".
* You can no longer propose denouncing yourself in the Galactic Community, even if you really deserve it. (You can still vote in favor of it if someone else proposes it.)
* Fixed a bug where disabling a building didn't update it immediately.
* Megastructures can no longer be built by construction ships that are unable to reach the selected system.
* Autogen of ship designs will now use components that require rare resources for non default empire types.
* Event-generated enemy fleets will now fight.
* Added missing localisations for job_fe_maintenance_bot_add (a modifier visible Ancient Control Centers).
* Fallen Empires should no longer occasionally send their envoys to improve or harm relations with you.
* Fixed an edge case where machine empires could be offered a caravaneers deal that would give it no benefit.
* Policies relating to primitives and pre-sapients can no longer disappear in certain circumstances, messing up various elements of the game.
* Envoy effect on relations now decays properly if no envoys are active.
* Origins are shown in the Empire selection interface when the Empire has a biography.
* Federation fleet is no longer counter for diplo weight and federation supremacy.
* Federation votes should ignore abstainers when timer ends.
* Asking to join a federation should bypass checks whether or not the recipient has good relations with the actor

And here are the newly added Achievements for Federations!
  • League of Nations: Be a founding member of the Galactic Community
  • To the Next Level: Level up your Federation
  • We're Number One: Be the leader of a max level Federation
  • Unstoppable Force: Build a Juggernaut
  • Forge Among the Stars: Construct a complete Mega-Shipyard
  • Whatever it is, I'm against it: Refuse to form the galactic community and leave a federation
  • Throw Your Weight Around: Have a Diplomatic Weight of over 9000
  • Opposites Attract: Have all eight ethics represented within your Federation
  • Humble Pie: Humiliate an Empire that is in the Supremacy Diplomatic Stance, forcing them out of it
  • See You In Court: Denounce an Empire that is not actually in breach of galactic law while all major sanctions have been passed
And last, but not least, here’s the feature breakdown video for Federations:
 
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Literally just got home and turned my PC on. So fast.
 
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It's nice to have access to the 2.6.1 patch on launch !

I'm interrested about the Machine Assembly Complex building, which might make the robots more powerful than they already are.
 
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Thanks guys. not many more sleeps to go now!
Looking forward to this one. So many great improvements. Or they look like they should be great anyway. Guess I'll find out soon enough.
 
Fixed edge case bug when AI is 100% committed to offense but ends up splitting between all owned systems.
Was this when the AI would only send a few ships at a time, all split up, to fight you? Because I saw that in one of the Origin reveal videos.

Removed Empire cohesion from the game.
When I originally saw this in the game, when it was introduced, I honestly felt that this should've been related to your actual Cohesion as an Empire. Like it could be linked to Admin, faction approval, and planet stability for example. Taking planets in a war, letting crime or unemployment (without good benefits) get too high for too long would all contribute to lowering it.
 
* Empire Sprawl Changes: Colonies are worth 5 Empire Sprawl instead of 2. Each Pop produces 0.5 Empire Sprawl. Sector Governors reduce Pop Contribution to Empire Sprawl by 2% per level. The Species traits Unruly, High Bandwidth, Docile, and Streamlined Protocols increase or decrease Pop contribution to Empire Sprawl by 10%.

IIRC from a previous dev diary, Empire Sprawl for Systems was reduced from 2 to 1. Is this still the case or has it been reverted?
 
It's nice to have access to the 2.6.1 patch !

I'm interrested about the Machine Assembly Complex building, which might make the robots more powerful than they already are.
I thought they had already posted access to the beta on Steam... Got very excited at being able to check out Verne lol.

Do normal empires have access to a machine assembly complex equivalent?
 
But as everyone knows, especially you guys, a build is never bug-free. We could work on Stellaris on now until forever to fix every bug imaginable, and there would still be a typo in a tooltip somewhere. That is the nature of our industry and software development in general. Which means that after the RC was frozen, we found some issues that we wanted to fix but didn’t want to risk the overall integrity of the RC and put in.
If there's one thing I don't like about PDX, it's this cavalier attitude to QA. I mean, I'm sure nobody would care too much about a typo somewhere and I can understand not achieving some mythical perfection. But this "it's inevitable that there'll be bugs" attitude is pretty ridiculous.
 
If there's one thing I don't like about PDX, it's this cavalier attitude to QA. I mean, I'm sure nobody would care too much about a typo somewhere and I can understand not achieving some mythical perfection. But this "it's inevitable that there'll be bugs" attitude is pretty ridiculous.

It's really not. Even in smaller, simpler codebases (and Stellaris' is anything but), if you have a team continually shipping features, regardless of QA, you're going to get bugs. That's just the nature of software development.
 
I thought they had already posted access to the beta on Steam... Got very excited at being able to check out Verne lol.

Do normal empires have access to a machine assembly complex equivalent?

I edited the message so it's clearer.

Its states that the building adds replicator jobs so I assume it's for ME