4.0.22 Release Notes
Improvement
- [p]Significant quality of life and system changes to Wilderness empires.[/p][list]
- [p]To prevent issues with biomass not being available on planets due to construction, all Wilderness jobs are now automatically worked without requiring biomass. These jobs are worked by your primary species.[/p][/*]
- [p]Jobs for Wilderness are now also properly represented instead of being worked by a single pop with massive workforce bonuses, you now see exactly how the job is worked, and the sliders are also now usable to customize how much of each job will be worked.[/p][/*]
- [p]These changes are intended to prevent situations where some jobs would go unworked, make Wilderness less bug-prone, and are intended to give you more control over your economy in deficit situations.[/p][/*]
- [p]Added the Refactored Restrictions to the Ethical Guideline Refactoring GalCom resolution, which increases the draw chance for dangerous and rare technologies.[/p][/*]
- [p]Added demands to the Technologist faction pertaining to Research Restriction policies.[/p][/*]
- [p]Being humiliated by the Materialist Fallen Empire while undertaking Cosmogenesis will lock you into the “Restrictions Imposed” policy for up to 10 years, significantly decreasing the chance of drawing Cosmogenesis-related technologies.[/p][/*]
Balance
- [p]The Arc Furnace no longer decreases in Mineral output as it increases Alloy output. The stages are now: 1m, 2m, 2m+1a, 2m+2a.[/p][/*]
- [p]Updated the broadside stingers to correctly follow the 24-36-48 small slot-equivalency for their weapon slots. The youngest stage now has more medium slots but fewer large slots, while the adult and elder stages only have large slots.[/p][/*]
- [p]The Cipher Mauler has given up two of its small weapon slots in exchange for two point defense slots[/p][/*]
- [p]20% of the habitability ceiling reductions from Shattered Ring blockers have been moved to the more easily cleared Ancient Rubble blockers.[/p][/*]
- [p]Shattered Ring Origin now starts with two additional Scrap Mining districts.[/p][/*]
- [p]Various guardian space critter factions will now ignore ftl inhibitors.[/p][/*]
- [p]The diplomacy tradition "The Federation" now also gives 25% progress in the Federation Code technology[/p][/*]
- [p]The Holo-Museums acquired from the Curator enclave now swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones). These jobs produce Unity and Amenities, with each Holo-Museum adding additional job upkeep and output. Holo-Museums can now be constructed in research and resort specializations. Finally, these buildings are improved by the Archaeo-Engineers AP.[/p][/*]
- [p]Galactic Curator civics also swap Entertainers (or Evaluators) to Curators (or Curator Drones)[/p][/*]
- [p]Substantially increased the base Command Limit of fleets and most sources of Command Limit. We know you were going to doomstack those fleets anyway.[/p][/*]
- [p]The Charismatic and Repugnant traits (and their robotic, cybernetic and overtuned equivalents) now additionally provide job efficiency modifiers for elite strata and bio-trophy jobs. Go forth and pamper the galaxy's most adorable creatures![/p][/*]
- [p]Decreased amenities granted by housing buildings[/p][/*]
- [p]Reactor Boosters now give a percentage boost to reactor output.[/p][/*]
- [p]Later growth stages of biological ships now have an inherent reactor output percentage boost.[/p][/*]
- [p]Rebalanced trade policies for regular empires.[/p][list]
- [p]Wealth Creation: 50% Trade, 50% Energy.[/p][/*]
- [p]Consumer Benefits: 50% Trade, 25% Consumer Goods, 25% Conversion Tax.[/p][/*]
- [p]Marketplace of Ideas: 50% Trade, 25% Unity, 25% Conversion Tax.[/p][/*]
- [p]Trade League: 50% Trade, 15% Energy, 15% Consumer Goods, 15% Unity, 5% Conversion Tax.[/p][/*]
- [p]Holy Covenant: 50% Trade, 37.5% Unity, 12.5% Conversion Tax.[/p][/*]
- [p]Mutual Aid: 25% Trade, 20% Energy, 20% Minerals, 20% Food, 15% Unity.[/p][/*]
- [p]Assorted planetary features that gave rare crystals or exotic gases from technicians now apply to miners or farmers respectively[/p][/*]
- [p]Added new District Specializations for strategic resources and some special features:[/p][list]
- [p]Rare Crystal Extraction district specialization to Mining Districts[/p][/*]
- [p]Volatile Motes Harvesting district specialization to Generator Districts[/p][/*]
- [p]Exotic Gas Capture district specialization to Agricultural Districts[/p][/*]
- [p]Central Spire district specialization for the Urban Districts of certain Relic Worlds[/p][/*]
- [p]Refinery buildings now add +0.25 strategic resource income to industrial jobs at the cost of 1.25 minerals or 2 food.[/p][/*]
- [p]Mote Harvesters, Gas Extractors and Crystal Mines now give +0.5 strategic resource income to rural jobs instead of +1.[/p][/*]
- [p]The Nanite Transmuter and Dimensional Replicator have had their outputs and upkeep roughly doubled.[/p][/*]
- [p]Knight Jobs now receive a 15% base upkeep increase everytime they unlock a quest reward that increases their base unity or research output[/p][/*]
- [p]The impact of knight jobs on the speed of the Quest situation has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.2[/p][/*]
- [p]Squire jobs now also grant a slight increase to the upkeep of Knight jobs[/p][/*]
Bugfix
- [p]Fixed the Controlled Evolution achievement checking you had the pre-BioGenesis genetic ascension. Also made it check that the species that granted the achievement did in fact have genes.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix Slaver Guilds constantly reassigning slaves and never enslaving workers[/p][/*]
- [p]Updated the ship role handling of the cosmogenesis biological ships[/p][/*]
- [p]Cosmogenesis biological ships can now equip the unique components of the equivalent regular biological ships, excluding growth components.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixes building limit calculation that was causing incorrect removal of buildings.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fallen Empire trade buildings should no longer self destruct[/p][/*]
- [p]The Corporate Embassy now correctly gives trader jobs for Worker Coop empires[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix to building limit logic that was destroying things like the Archaeostudies building.[/p][/*]
- [p]Land Appropriation once again kicks pops off their planets and makes them into refugees.[/p][/*]
- [p]Strategic resource maximum for invalid countries is now calculated as zero[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed edge cases where shipyards could have ships from the old owner in the construction queue after being taken over[/p][/*]
- [p]If you change your civics but not your authority the Ruler Chips modifiers should no longer reset.[/p][/*]
- [p]Synapse drones job modifier will use the correct icon in the building effect summary.[/p][/*]
- [p]Jobs production modifier fix in nested tooltip for Serviles trait[/p][/*]
- [p]Maze Harbingers now use the correct amount of naval capacity[/p][/*]
- [p]The hive Sensorium building no longer mentions Evaluators[/p][/*]
- [p]The effects of the Galactic Curator civic councilors (both regular and corporate) now apply to Entertainers[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Integrated Preservation still giving modifiers to Evaluator jobs[/p][/*]
- [p]Job swaps that require buildings on a planet now require the building to not be disabled.[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved consistency with the tooltips for the Galactic Curator civics[/p][/*]
- [p]Virtuality Machine Empires on Ringworlds should no longer get regular engineering or physicists jobs, only gestalt ones.[/p][/*]
- [p]Behemoth empires that have become Ever Hungry will no longer get "Nice Guy" event options, such as not being allowed to space Reth Unddol.[/p][/*]
- [p]Unrest.4200 will no longer generate descriptions that don't describe the planets.[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved dead object database[/p][/*]
- [p]Science ships can no longer continue progressing archaeological sites without a leader[/p][/*]
- [p]Biomass and Neural Chip Processing and Unprocessing jobs now have unique names so it's easier to tell what's going on.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Workforce calculations.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix to Neural Chips in the Synaptic Lathe not functioning properly.[/p][/*]
- [p]Planetary Logistic Deficits slider should now correctly apply.[/p][/*]
- [p]Erudite trait now correctly applies to Leaders when gained through Adaptive Evolution[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed certain events not correctly creating buildings when initializing planets or otherwise changing AI controlled worlds.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed unused portraits blocking custom prescripted countries from being considered for spawning[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Pop group modifiers of Deposits not being handled[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed specimens not filling exhibits when room is made[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed bioships designs with the same name being exploitable[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed GDF alloy cost reduction not working[/p][/*]
- [p]The Spare Organs species trait will no longer interfere with Envoy assignment. Death now relieves them from their duties.[/p][/*]
- [p]Purging now properly disables regular pop upkeep because we really don't budget for the dead[/p][/*]
- [p]Fleet that are fighting are no longer eligible for special project requirements[/p][/*]
- [p]Civilians will now be properly used in the Lathe[/p][/*]
- [p]Updated Synaptic Reinforcement and Industrial Maintenance edicts to account for 4.0 changes.[/p][/*]
- [p]Robots no longer benefit from Cloning Vats[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed the Housing tooltip not correctly showing district modifiers[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Buildings modifiers not being calculated at game start[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed some duplicated entries of haruspex occurring from spiritualist federations[/p][/*]
- [p]Wilderness empires now have a fallback if their capital buildings are deleted during the monthly tick.[/p][/*]
- [p]Updated the Chronicle Drones production tooltip to reflect that they no longer produce amenities.[/p][/*]
- [p]The Lethal Ecosphere blocker will no longer require a technology to clear, cleaning up the technology view.[/p][/*]
- [p]Leviathan Parades should now have the name of the beastie you killed in the title again.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed a few more cases in which pops that should be bio-trophies weren't be pampered correctly (for example refugees that were insisting that they were being purged)[/p][/*]
- [p]Pops resettled to the Synaptic Lathe should no longer retain any belief that they still belong to any social stratum that isn't being part of a computer[/p][/*]
- [p]Stasis Wardens no longer scale their own or Civilian workforce into infinity and beyond[/p][/*]
- [p]Dramatically increased the weight for Offspring Drones, meaning that your planets are more likely to employ them and avoid the negative modifier.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Pirate Events not spawning pirates[/p][/*]
- [p]Artisan Drones now have a food upkeep instead of a mineral one if you have a Catalytic Processing Civic.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed the space time anomaly saying it converted physicists into dimensional researchers.[/p][/*]
- [p]Added volatile mote cost and upkeep for alloy reclamation plant.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix commercial pacts saving their last month value incorrectly, leading to them sometimes not giving any trade value[/p][/*]
- [p]Removed duplicated entry in clone vats upkeep causing them to cost 45 food per month instead of 30.[/p][/*]
- [p]Script profiler no longer collects data for ship logistics if it does not actually do the calculations[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix the presapients of Gestalt Genesis Guides not all joining the Conserved Fauna job[/p][/*]
- [p]Popgroups will now have portraits other than the default one[/p][/*]
- [p]The cap for the number of armies supported by a species is now one per 100 pops instead of one per pop to match the 4.0 pop counts.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed farming districts on relic worlds that went missing from the open beta.[/p][/*]
- [p]The behemoth superweapon now correctly turns ecus into relic worlds.[/p][/*]
- [p]Ship Experience Mult modifier now works as expected[/p][/*]
- [p]Mindless robots are no longer eligible for social welfare[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix commercial pacts saving their last month value incorrectly, leading to them sometimes not giving any trade value[/p][/*]
- [p]Removed duplicated entry in clone vats upkeep causing them to cost 45 food per month instead of 30.[/p][/*]
- [p]Implemented loc fix for Warform recruitment dialogue uses "reparations" instead of "repairs"[/p][/*]
- [p]fixed formatting issues in several tooltip text: Stalwart Network civic description, message in outliner for starbase upgrade, removed unnecessary quotation mark for research points[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed edge case with has_active_building Alien Zoo Building checks[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed some GalCom modifiers tooltips[/p][/*]
- [p]Technocracy Civic now mentions you start the game with an additional Scientist[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed a case that would let people stack behemoth eggs on top of ruined ones[/p][/*]
- [p]Luminary Leaders no longer get Backup Clones as they interfered with the Origin[/p][/*]
- [p]Growth modifiers from Traits and Strata don't scale on Pop group size squared anymore[/p][/*]
- [p]Multiple auto modding traits will now work together.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix ships with a jump drive being able to use bypasses they shouldn't and getting stuck[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed megastructure resource harvesting not always being shown even though it was happening[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed armor for biological ships displaying the regen values for shields in tooltips[/p][/*]
- [p]Added a missing 'a' to a seven-year-old localization string.[/p][/*]
- [p]Updated Synaptic Reinforcement and Industrial Maintenance edicts to account for 4.0 changes.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed awoken Fallen Empires not expanding[/p][/*]
- [p]The Nothing to See Here Achievement now requires you to have a cloaked military fleet in your enemies capital, a science ship will not do![/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed titans for biological shipsets sometimes not having ship names.[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved AI budgeting of titans for biological shipsets.[/p][/*]
- [p]Hard Reset Origin, "Machine of War" event text correctly references planet.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fallen Empire robotic assembly techs now take into account your policy on robots[/p][/*]
- [p]Fallen Empire robotic assembly techs now require you to have invented robomodding[/p][/*]
- [p]Re-introduced the effect description for the Ministry of Acquisition, Energy, and Extraction[/p][/*]
- [p]Getting the Genetic Entertainment event multiple times should now properly only generate 3 options.[/p][/*]
- [p]Setting Slaves to Livestock should now force them into their new "job".[/p][/*]
- [p]Slaves should be less likely to get stick in a "repurposing" job.[/p][/*]
- [p]Unemployed Slaves should now appear in the Worker stratum as Unemployed Slaves instead of disappearing entirely.[/p][/*]
- [p]The tooltip explaining automatic migration has been updated to the way it works in 4.0.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix Contingency not finishing off Planets after destroying starbases[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixes triggered planet modifiers not applying properly (like Budding)[/p][/*]
- [p]reanimated_ship_fire_rate_mult and space_fauna_ship_fire_rate_mult should be applied the same way as ship_fire_rate_mult[/p][/*]
- [p]Fix Happiness modifier from Factions not always being applied[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Penal Colony giving the non-existant "Warden" job. Instead it gives enforcers per pops.[/p][/*]
- [p]Ships gained from the Cultist event ship will no longer be unable to be destroyed.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed progenitor hive debuff applying for lacking offspring if the nest is in a district where the workforce automated district[/p][/*]
- [p]Colossi equipped with the Devolving Beam can no longer target Contingency Worlds if you lack the Archaeo-Engineers AP.[/p][/*]
- [p]Living Metal Mega-Construction Insight empire modifier no longer shows a placeholder icon.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed AI weights for determining if a job was amenities focused or not.[/p][/*]
- [p]When reverse-engineering minor artifacts, the Affluence Emporium, Omnivident Administration, and Robot Manufacturing Nexus are blocked for empires that cannot construct them[/p][/*]
- [p]The tooltip for the Shattered Ring origin now explicitly tells the player about the habitability decreasing blockers.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed issues with industrial job refinery modifiers.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Flash Forge Hyper Relay not working.[/p][/*]
AI
- [p]The AI should no longer occasionally just decide to stop building anything and wait for the sweet release of death.[/p][/*]
- [p]Reduced the AI's love of hydroponic farms and other static job resource production buildings, and commercial nexuses.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI is more likely to build Engineering, Physics, or Society Research modifying buildings if they have a specialization focusing on that research branch on the planet.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI Shattered Ring empires will now actually clear their blockers to make use of their other habitable segments. They also favor the techs that are prerequisites for their shattered ring blockers.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI Shattered Ring empires will wait a bit longer and space out their colonization of the other segments.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI now has a better opinion of housing buildings and will not blow them up as often.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI (and automatic tech selection in general) now more strongly favors techs that unlock District Specializations.[/p][/*]
- [p]Reduced the "stickiness" of trade and urban designations on planets[/p][/*]
- [p]The AI now has a greater preference for Cruisers and Battleships.[/p][/*]
- [p]Adjusted AI priorities regarding research and trade targets.[/p][/*]
- [p]The AI is no longer quite as gung-ho about Defense Privatization.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI will no longer spam amenity buildings if it doesn't actually need them.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI will no longer mix unity or trade district specializations with research or industrial specializations.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI will now re-evaluate planet designations once per year.[/p][/*]
- [p]Relaxed some restrictions regarding the AI building "flat job" buildings like Research Labs and Foundries.[/p][/*]
- [p]The AI will now only build Research Specialization buildings on planets likely to have those types of researchers, but are more likely to do so than before.[/p][/*]
- [p]The AI will only build more than two Strongholds on planets with a Fortress District Specialization.[/p][/*]
- [p]AI Void Dwellers will now correctly budget alloys towards building Districts.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed a bug where the AI would order fleets to follow one another, resulting in no fleet movement at all[/p][/*]
- [p]AIs now have distinct advanced and endgame economic plans that focus largely on Research, Naval Capacity, and whatever it is they use to build ships.[/p][/*]
- [p]The AI is less enthusiastic about building Storm related buildings.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed Reanimators and Bio-repurposing custom debris[/p][/*]
- [p]Reworked how the AI calculates shipyards, if all their shipyards get occupied during a war they will attempt to build a new one when next building a starbase.[/p][/*]
Stability and Performance
- [p]Fixed an OOS at reconnect related to the bureaucrat job[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed OOS related to Specimens and Exhibits[/p][/*]
- [p]Several OOS Fixes including one Num_Pop_Groups OOS[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed an OOS when a client uses a different language from the host[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed CTD related to specimens[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed another OOS at reconnect[/p][/*]
- [p]OOS fix related to bombardment and ground combat[/p][/*]
- [p]Potential OOS fix related to Grand Archives[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed undefined behavior in planetary construction (potentially leading to CTDS:s and OOS:s) of Districts and Zones as well as replacing/upgrading/repairing Buildings, Districts and Zones.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed crash when using the "Alerts.ShowAll" console command.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixes OOS due to ship construction time is calculated to 0 on client but correct on server[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved the logic that checks for hidden Cutholoids[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed OOS with ship positions due to combat.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed biomass growth on_monthly being called for non-wilderness empires[/p][/*]
- [p]Refactored parts of the Planet UI to improve performance, this likely has the greatest benefit for lower end machines[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved Nascent Stage Logic by roughly 75%. Let your favorite gladiatorial beasts flourish![/p][/*]
- [p]The AI will no longer constantly be starting and canceling Arc Furnaces and Dyson Swarms[/p][/*]
- [p]Minor improvement to refugee_effect[/p][/*]
- [p]Minor improvement to handling modifiers[/p][/*]
- [p]Memory leak fix from faulty pattern.[/p][/*]
- [p]Reduced amount of calculations and allocations in ship logistics calculation[/p][/*]
- [p]Reduced amount of calculation for handling/building of data used for ship/component target selection in combat.[/p][/*]
- [p]Optimized the script side calculations of biomass. Non Wilderness empires will no longer try to tally up their citizens as potential biomass reserves.[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed potential crash when finishing terraforming process[/p][/*]
UI
- [p]Update Deposits when a blocker is cleared while Planet view is open[/p][/*]
- [p]Centered the army icons to be in the middle on background[/p][/*]
- [p]Habitability and Dig site no longer overlap each other in the Planet UI.[/p][/*]
- [p]Pop amount in the Current Population does not overlap other elements when it has more than 2 digits anymore in Planet UI.[/p][/*]
- [p]Pop Count of Pop Group in the Ressettlement Window does not overlap when it has more than 4 digits.[/p][/*]
- [p]New icon for strange wormhole[/p][/*]
- [p]Introduced min/max pitch settings for Ship model preview: It will no longer do sharp and unpredictable turns when turning the ship model around.[/p][/*]
- [p]Pop Strata with no possible unemployment (like Civilians) hide the Unemployment values in collapsed planet jobs view[/p][/*]
- [p]Improved District tooltips:[/p][list]
- [p]Hovering a district now shows the scaled and separated modifiers[/p][/*]
- [p]Hovering the build button shows the values for a single district (this is what you'll gain)[/p][/*]
Modding
- [p]Add district_limit to buildings[/p][/*]
- [p]Console commands now use country index instead of country ID, making them easier to use[/p][/*]
- [p]Add displace_pop_amount effect that simply raises on_pop_displaced[/p][/*]
- [p]Add research speed and draw chance modifiers for tech types (rare, dangerous, insight, custom)[/p][/*]
- [p]Added a new ignore_ftl_inhibitors flag for the country type. Setting this to true, would enable that country type to ignore FTL Inhibitors.[/p][/*]
- [p]It is now possible to override the Icon for the dynamically generated modifiers by adding a \[modifierName]_icon entry in the localization.[/p][/*]
- [p]Added on_queued, on_unqueued, on_built effects for district specializations[/p][/*]
- [p]Added a capital_tier parameter for capital building and an associated planet scope trigger.[/p][/*]
- [p]Refactored the has_x_capital scripted triggers to account for capital building tiers[/p][/*]
- [p]Added ship_reactor_power_add/mult modifiers[/p][/*]
- [p]The num_empires trigger now correctly counts the number of empires instead of the number of fallen empires. Whoops.[/p][/*]
- [p]should_add_ship_to_debris now uses growth stages instead of designs[/p][/*]
- [p]Added overlay_icons for districts which displays sprites overlaid on the district icon.[/p][/*]
- [p]Added support overrides for district grid boxes and district backgrounds[/p][/*]
- [p]Add
_max_mult modifiers and rename _max to _max_add[/p][/*] - [p]Added federation_modifier option to crisis perks.[/p][/*]
- [p]Buildings, districts and district specializations don't need triggered descs for job descriptions, they are now automatically generated[/p][/*]
- [p]Fixed create leader effects not adding traits in some cases if randomize_traits is true.[/p][/*]
- [p]Create leader effects now correctly add pending trait selections if randomize_traits is false.[/p][/*]
- [p]Create leader effects no longer ignore levels in the traits list if randomize_traits is false.[/p][/*]
- [p]traits in the create leader effects now support random_negative and random_common.[/p][/*]
- [p]No longer check prerequisites for traits in create leader effects (except for random traits).[/p][/*]
- [p]Re-added support for "add_trait =
" syntax for leaders.[/p][/*] - [p]Added divide_over_pop_groups support for triggered planet modifiers. So that modifiers can be used that apply for the pops instead of always being divided by the pop groups[/p][/*]
- [p]Added automated_workforce support to the num_assigned_jobs trigger[/p][/*]
- [p]Added the habitability_ceil_uncapped_add modifier, allowing species that benefit from the species_has_uncapped_habitability_on_planet game rule to have habitability above the HABITABILITY_CEIL_UNCAPPED define.[/p][/*]
Today I want to talk about some of our goals and provide a comprehensive look at the new Planet UI that will be coming in the 4.1 “Lyra” update alongside Shadows of the Shroud.
[/p]
Looking Back and Looking Forward
[p]The 4.0 Phoenix update was an extremely ambitious undertaking, intended to lay the foundation for the future of Stellaris. Large foundational updates are very disruptive, and I drastically underestimated the amount of time it would take to get things back into proper shape following this one. These systematic reworks, however, will allow us to expand and improve the game for years to come. This is only the beginning.
Stellaris has several parallel development tracks. The Custodians on the core team remain primarily focused on improving and optimizing the base game experience. This structure proved especially valuable during this release cycle, as our partners at Abrakam were able to step in and assist with the Planet UI, something I’ll be showing off next.
Continuing to refine the systems from 4.0 remains at the top of our priority list, with the goal of meeting your expectations. As I said back in Dev Diary #361:[/p][p]Fundamentally, as the players, Stellaris is your game. [/p][p]
Your feedback has helped make Stellaris the leading Sci-Fi 4X Grand Strategy Game, and it’s what will carry us into the next era of development. The Wilderness Open Beta was a success thanks to everyone who took part, giving us the chance to experiment while maintaining a quick release cadence over the summer. The 4.0.22 release was vastly improved because of your contributions.
Internally, I’m currently experimenting with some major changes to ships with a focus on improving performance, which - if they look promising in our internal tests - I plan on bringing to you as our next Open Beta later on during the 4.1 cycle. Like the Technology and Combat Open Betas, this will let us try changes without disrupting the main branches and may be discarded or revamped if we don’t like how it’s turning out or if they cause issues. I’ll keep you all updated on the state of the experiments and share more details in another dev diary, and like the Wilderness changes, your reactions will help determine whether or not we keep them.[/p][p][/p]
The 4.1 “Lyra” Update
[p]The next major Stellaris update will be the 4.1 “Lyra” update.Lyra represents the Lyre of Orpheus, who in Greek mythology enchanted both enemies and beasts with his melodies, descending into the underworld to rescue his late wife, Eurydice. Hades himself was moved by his song, and let him take Eurydice with him on the condition that she walk behind him, and that he never look back. His tale ended tragically, his faith faltering just steps from the surface, and Eurydice was lost to him forever.
Making questionable pacts with potentially malevolent entities felt especially fitting for a release paired with Shadows of the Shroud, which completes our ‘Arc of Ascension’ by exploring the Shroud and Psionic Ascension. It’s still too early to go into detail, though. We’ll be introducing Shadows of the Shroud next week.
At this time, we do not yet have a date to announce for the 4.1 release, but I still want to start talking about what’s going to be in it.[/p][p][/p]
Planet View Improvements
[p]\[Note: Steam upload size limits means we had to compress these GIFs. To see them in their full glory, please visit this post on the Paradox Forums.][/p][p]There have been a number of requests to reorganize some of the information and buttons on the planet view UI, and we’ve tried to improve the general flow of some common actions.The new planet UI is wider than the current one, making better use of the space available for most Stellaris players while still remaining usable on our lowest resolutions.
On the Surface tab this extra space is filled with the Planet Summary that was previously on the Management tab, and the Build Queue is once again permanently visible. Constructing a building will advance to the next open building slot and will no longer close the building list. Decisions and Terraforming have also moved over to this tab.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/d41f672234bc99596dfad2a3700cb88cc068dad7.gif"][/img][/p][p]The Management tab now contains a better breakdown of pop groups with a collapsible list that is first grouped by Species, then Stratum, then individual Pop Groups. We’ve added a Monthly Pop Summary that includes the Growth, Migration, and Assembly that occurred the previous month, and pie charts have returned.[/p][p][/p][p]Pie charts throughout the planet view will also highlight their segments when you hover over different elements.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/d190018a30f02d6a99e63409a4b6fe6fb3c7c515.gif"][/img][/p][p][/p][p]The biggest changes on the Economy tab are better use of space, the addition of the summary in the top right, and vastly improved tooltips. Hovering over a job will now show full production information rather than partial (in the older UI many tooltips only showed pop based upkeep and production rather than combining their inherent values and their job based values.)[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/0b275dc25793318d91de573528f07eebcf878c9e.gif"][/img][/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/b6d8c72b5890226ab7cda999e694407662a1c3ac.png"][/img][/p][p]Job tooltips now show complete production and upkeep information for both the job and the pops involved.[/p][p][/p][p]The Armies and Holding tabs remain mostly unchanged, but with the extra space available, Recruitment no longer needs to be a pop-out tab to list the available armies.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/38c62058d8ee0289606404075631e29c6db129e6.gif"][/img][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/1c099ba59c7dc92802fa999ec7279920ee0ebac5.gif"][/img][/p][p]There are a number of other changes coming in 4.1, such as the addition of an “Organic” trait to make food consuming pops more explicit and allow us to simplify a ridiculous number of triggered upkeep checks, and continued bugfixing and work on stability and performance.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/9703436/89f49615567eaad38b00ae8d9bc5dfc9fcd4fe95.png"][/img][/p][p][/p]
What’s Next?
[p]Next week we will begin to breach the mysteries of the Shroud, revealing some of what’s coming in Shadows of the Shroud and providing a dev diary schedule for its features.See you then![/p]