by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

Last week we went over some Community fixes that we are incorporating in the 3.11 “Eridanus” update. Today we’ll be looking at some of the changes the Custodians have been up to. This is not an exhaustive list as while we’re rapidly approaching Code Freeze, it hasn’t hit quite yet so bugs are still being worked on.

As I’ve mentioned previously, for the Eridanus update we focused mostly on bugfixing and polish.

Feature​

• Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs slider added to galaxy generation. This slider adjusts technology costs based on tier and game difficulty.

Improvements​

• Added notification message when new pop settles in zeya (Gaia planet in azilash)
• Added the Seddom system.
• Allowed conversion between Sovereign Guardianship and Corporate Protectorate civics
• Dimensional Locks now forbid access to countries without communications
• Every participant in a war now gets a truce with the others after it ends, even if they were on the same side
• If you have a colony in a system when pre-FTLs become space faring you can apologize and annex them
• Progenitor Hive speed malus and bonuses now only affect military ships, removing the need of science ship escorts
• Technology and Tradition costs are now distinct sliders in galaxy setup
• The Anglers civic now swaps to Trawling Operations if you reform your government into a megacorp and vice versa
• The Eager Explorers civic now swaps to Privatized Exploration if you reform your government into a megacorp and vice versa
• The Eager Explorers, Privatized Exploration and Exploration Protocols civics can be removed and readded after researching Jump Drives. The Stargazers civic cannot be removed as it is linked to the species trait of the same name
• The Foreign Consciousness trait is now a destiny trait
• When the Khan awakens the event will now properly have a go to button

Balance​

• All pop types will now be happy while living on a gaia world.
• Added a tier 2 Advanced Bio-Reactor technology and building. Advanced Bio-Reactors further reduce the food output of farmers in exchange for a small amount of exotic gas output
• Added Gateway Cost and Megastructure Build Speed modifiers to the Galactic Doorstep origin
• Ascension Theory is now a Tier 4 technology that requires at least 6 traditions trees to have been completed to be drawn
• Bio-Reactors are now a tier 1 rare technology instead of a tier 0 Technology. Bio-Reactors now reduce the food output of farmer jobs and give them a small amount of energy output
• Bio-Trophy buildings no longer provide Artisan Drone and Maintenance Drone jobs
• Decreased the amount of research produced by unemployed pops with Utopian Abundance
• Delegate GalCom focus traits now have a small chance to give favors
• Ecclesiastical Arcologies no longer provide Manager jobs for Corporate Death Cults
• Ecclesiastical Arcologies now provide Prosperity Preachers for MegaCorps instead of a split between Priests and Managers for regular Spiritualist MegaCorps
• Event options in the Knights’ quest that improve their capital have been buffed to be better balanced compared to the options that improve knight jobs
• First League Offices now provide Prosperity Preacher jobs for Spiritualist MegaCorps
• Galactic Doorstep event chain now directly rewards the Gateway Activation technology and gives far more progress on the Gateway Construction technology
• Gospel of the Masses now provides +1 Trade Value to Prosperity Preachers (both inside their empire and those on planet on which they have branch offices)
• Increased technology costs, especially those of higher tier technologies
• Increased the cost of the Rock Potential special project to 1000 energy to account for Stellaris Inflation
• Increased the effects of Empire Size on Technology to match its effect on Traditions
• Knight output modifiers now only apply to resources, like other job output modifiers
• Knights now correctly inherit production modifiers from researchers and administrators
• Lost Colony Parents now spawn with more developed colonies to avoid overcrowding on their capital.
• Machine Intelligences with a biological secondary species now have a base food income of 10 food/month, and without a secondary species or with a Lithoid secondary species, they now have a base mineral income of 10 minerals/month.
• Moved habitat upkeep modifiers from the domination opener to the expansion opener. Available for all, not just void dwellers
• Curator leader trait now provides +10% Research Speed (was +15%) with an associated +10% Researcher Upkeep. The Survey Speed bonus remains unchanged
• Penal Colonies now provide 10 housing.
• Prosperity Preachers are now a specialist strata job
• Rebalanced leader traits gained from Ascension Paths (Psionic, Chosen One, Synthetic, Cyborg, Erudite)
• Reduced output of researcher jobs
• Reduced the amount of Naval Cap granted by technologies
• Refactored how the output scaling for Knights from Squires functions, these now behave as normal additive modifiers instead of multiplicative modifiers
• Removed most sources of Ship Cost and Upkeep reductions from the game
  • Bulwark ship upkeep reductions reduced by 50%
  • Corporate Crusader Spirit now reduces ship upkeep by 5% instead of 10%
  • Crusader Spirit civic now improves ship build speed
  • Fleet Supremacy edict no longer reduces ship upkeep
  • Grand Fleet ambition now increases power projection instead of reducing ship upkeep
  • Logistic Understanding, Armada Logistician, and Gunboat Diplomat traits now reduces ship upkeep while docked
  • Mark of the Instrument ship component no longer reduces ship upkeep
  • Master Shipwrights tradition in the Supremacy tree no longer reduces ship build costs
  • Match tradition in the Enmity tree bonus to ship build costs reduced to 5% instead of 10%
  • Military Buildup Agenda now improves ship build speed and reduces claim costs. (It still reduces War Exhaustion on completion.)
  • Military Pioneer trait now reduces starbase upgrade costs instead of ship build costs
  • Naval Procurement Officer councilor now improves ship build speed
  • Progress Oriented modifier no longer reduces ship build costs
  • Psionic Supremacy (Eater of Worlds) finisher no longer reduces ship build costs
  • Reduced penalty the Irenic trait applies to ship build costs
  • Sanctum of the Eater ship upkeep reduction reduced from 10% to 5%
  • Shipwright trait no longer reduces ship build costs
  • Vyctor’s Improved Fleet Logistics trait now reduces ship build costs by 10% instead of 20%
• Rulers now gain 12 XP per month
• Squires now increase the resource output of Knights by 2.5% per Squire not 2% per Squire
• Temples now provide Prosperity Preachers for Spiritualist MegaCorps instead of a split between Priests and Managers
• The Entangled Dark Matter astral rift now completely overwrites the personality of the selected scientist if they are not psionic
• The Fortress Habitat Designation for Knights no longer provides +1 Defensive Army per Pop on the habitat, instead each Squire job provides +1 Defensive Army
• The Luminous Blades modifier from the Knight’s Quest now removes the alloy upkeep of knights and gives +25% Army damage instead of an empire-wide +1.5% alloy production modifier per knight
• The Traumatized trait now negatively impacts Astral Rift Exploration Speed
• Tier 2 and Tier 3 Sacrificial Temples no longer provide Manager jobs for Corporate Death Cults
• Tweaked the tiers of technologies that increase naval cap and fleet command limit
• Warpling armies now have an upkeep of 1 energy and 0.1 astral threads per month

Bugfixes​

• Added missing class name and icon in the leader upkeep tooltip
• Added missing required components to the Marauder Galleon
• Added new localization and triggers for Machine Empires exploring the Rift World origin.
• Armies now disband instantly instead of waiting for next tick
• Cordyceptic Empires that only had Subspace Drives on their ships are now also capable of reanimating space fauna
• Corrected draw weight for Shipbreaker trait
• Corrected modifiers on Agrarian Upbringing
• Corrected some trait names
• Corrected the Scout Wing using the wrong 3d entities
• Correctly locked a number of Delegate GalCom focus traits to require the DLC that unlocks their resolution category
• Diplo action tooltip now shows why we can’t claim any systems
• distar.1081 will no longer spawn pops on colonies in progress
• Driven Assimilators with the Protected Pre-Sapients policy will no longer purge pre-sapients
• Empires with the Mechromancy AP can no longer purge cyborg zombies
• Event windows now correctly have no effect after the player has been defeated
• Extra trait points for script-generated species are now added correctly
• Fix countries created by `create_country` script command not having any leaders in their recruitment pool
• Fix duplicate ship role buttons when switching ship templates in ship designer
• Fix not being able to exit the game or return to menu when certain other UI windows were open
• Fix some leaders (e.g. paragons) getting a trait pick when you hire them even though they should not, how greedy!
• Fixed a number of opposite trait pairs not taking into account their leveled versions
• Fixed a string being undefined in the ruler designer menu
• Fixed an Astral Rift calling the Baol for Boal or was it the other way around?
• Fixed an error that prevented some Fallen Empire task events from firing
• Fixed cyborg zombies having a 100% chance of spawning instead of 33%
• Fixed default weights for pre-sapient policies
• Fixed Discoveries tab not being displayed when tabs order has been customized
• Fixed gestalt scientists getting research expertise traits when those traits had no effect for them
• Fixed heirs being able to have the Planar Theorist trait despite not being capable of exploring astral rifts
• Fixed incorrect weapon effect being used for the World Cracker
• Fixed invalid scope allowing pre-sapient pops to be turned into cyborg zombies
• Fixed issues with leaders assigned to armies or fleet that contain armies
• Fixed leaders sometimes getting invalid trait choices on level up
• Fixed missing 0 on Collaborator II
• Fixed missing message title for Restoring the Balance
• Fixed newest achievements not working on MS Store
• Fixed Orbital Bombardment planet modifier not having a tooltip if there are no other planet modifiers there
• Fixed possibility of leader trait picks including opposites of existing traits
• Fixed Revolutionary Medi-Gel not affecting Pharma State civic production for Medical Workers
• Fixed systems at the bottom of the map spawning at wrong coordinates
• Fixed the Shared Burdens tooltip being outdated and mentioning additional unity from the Egalitarian faction
• Fixed Unity Ambitions referencing their pre-Unity rework state.
• Fixed Urbanist being both a Destiny trait and a Veteran trait (which prevented it from being available as a trait pick)
• Fleets of countries without ship_disengagement = yes (e.g. Horde) now correctly cannot use emergency retreat
• Former Satrapies of the Khan should no longer be informed twice when the new Horde forms.
• Hiring Renowned and Legendary Leaders no longer hires a mysterious clone of them instead
• If the Knights Keep is hit with a Pacifier Colossus there will now be unique event text
• It now costs 200 influence to abandon planets even if they have pre-sapients living there.
• Livestock slaves now inherit farmer and miner modifiers as appropriate.
• Making sure the negative situation outliner notifications only happens for negative situations
• Modifiers to empire-wide resource production now apply to resources generated through trade policies
• Removed reference to a loc key inside of an Under One Rule event.
• Renowned and Legendary Leaders no longer lose Council traits when hired by gestalt empires.
• Repairing The Black Crown should no longer fire generic gateway repaired events
• Replaced all sources of “is_leading_research = x” with “is_head_of_research” fixing numerous broken events and scopes
• Replaced one of the descriptions being reused for the Old Gods event chain
• Show turrets correctly on the Maven Cruiser and Caravaneer ships
• Sobek will no longer be confused and think that they came from your capital
• Species habitability for randomized empires is now correctly set for origins like shattered ring
• Stellar Culture Shock will now be applied to hive pre-FTLs if you are a hive empire.
• Terraforming a Barren World into a Machine or a Hive World will no longer fill that world with blockers
• Terraforming straight into a Hive or a Machine World now correctly removes “Terraforming Candidate”
• The astral rifts now correctly checks for Chosen One traits in addition to the Psionic trait
• The Azizians event can no longer target planets that are under colonization
• The chance to gain negative leader traits depending on leader age now takes into account leader lifespan
• The Ranger Lodge will now properly produce +2 and +3 additional unity as the higher tier of Environmentalist Galactic Community Resolutions are passed.
• The Speed Demon anomaly will no longer show up for Synthetic empires.
• Updated the hire_event_leader_effect scripted effect to take account of the the Eternal Throne relic
• Updated the tooltip for Universal Prosperity Mandate to mention the Employee Ownership living standard
• When the “Prohibit Separate Treaties” federation law is enable it should now correctly remove treaties from both parties and not only the outside one
• When transferring ships from one fleet to another, the fleet’s leader will now always stay on the old fleet

Performance​

• Improved speed of AI checking whether it should send subjugation offers

Stability​

• Fixed crash when completing an Astral Rift if the exploring ship no longer exists
• Possibly fixed rare crash in galaxy map special project icon tooltip.
• Several Out of Sync fixes.

UX​

• Add assigned Leader’s name and council title to archaeology view and rift view
• Additional Content tab text is centered correctly
• Clicking on a resource in the top bar now switches to that resource in the market view instead of closing it if it was already open
• Clicking on the “capped resource” notification will now take you to the correct tab depending on which resource is capped (correct market tab, relics view for minor artifacts, claims view for influence)
• Fix claim buttons being misaligned on partially or fully occupied systems
• Fix Outliner tab buttons appearing over the fleet manager sidebar on smaller resolutions
• Fixed incorrect speed value in ship designer
• Fixed Outliner tab buttons appearing in front of the archaeology window.
• Inactive leader trait triggered modifiers are shown in the tooltip along with their trigger conditions
• Remove double error message for starbase building tooltips
• Trade protection tooltip lists empire-wide modifiers
• Use up to 2 decimal places for displaying stability modifiers
• Use up to 2 decimal places for production/upkeep in building/district tooltips

AI​

• Added better script to evaluate planet and fleet for leaders, and added description of the AI algorithms for leader assignation in the leader_classes/00_base_classes.txt
• Awakened Empires can now upgrade their starbases.
• Changed leader assignation into a single loop for all location types, sorting locations by priority and leaders by skill, then trying to assign the highest priority leader to locations in order
• Fixed AI being able to improve and harm relations at the same time
• Fixed another case of the AI assigning Leaders to invalid (empty) fleets
• Fixed the AI trying to assign military leaders to science fleets.
• Improved AI weights for Ascension Paths
• The AI now hires leaders the same way it assigns them. Expect an increased number of generals.
• The AI will evaluate a leader for a location based on the `ai_location_weight` scripted value in the leader class
• The Fear of the Dark AI empires will be less predictable with what extreme paths they might take.
• The weight value for location priority when assigning leaders is now a define. When assigning leaders, there are 2 steps, first steps leader and locations are assigned a priority value, and then each leader calculates a final weight for each location. The leader/location pair with the highest weight is then assigned. This change affects the first step (the priority in the queue), as the second step is already fully scriptable.

Modding​

• Add `last_resolution_category_changed` trigger
• Added a check for the block_homeworld_traits leader flag in all traits that provide additional jobs to the leader’s background planet. This flag is not currently used in the vanilla game
• Added checked for the following leader flags to leader trait weights and potentials: block_army_traits, block_council_traits, block_federation_traits, block_galcom_traits, block_governor_traits, block_pilot_traits these flags set the selection weight for leader traits in their category to 0 but are ignored if the leader has a subclass specializing in the category. These flags are currently unused in the vanilla game
• Added game rule ‘can_ai_assign_governor’ to let the AI decide if a planet can have a governor or not
• Added NON_PARAGON_TRAIT_OPTIONS_ON_LEVEL_UP define
• Added not_potential_override_text_key parameter to triggered modifier (currently only used in leader trait tooltips)
• Added on_army_disbanded on_action
• Added show_if_not_potential parameter to triggered modifier (currently only used in leader trait tooltips)
• Added text_offset variable to buttonType (only used for buttons that have both a sprite and text)
• Added the “is_urban_planet” scripted trigger for pc_relic and pc_city planets
• leader_class trigger can now appear in tooltips
• Renamed LEADER_RULER_MONARCH_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_RULER_EXPERIENCE and LEADER_RULER_HEIR_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_HEIR_EXPERIENCE
• Replaced “negative”, “subclass_trait”, “destiny_trait” and “veteran_class_locked_trait” leader trait variables with “leader_trait_type”
• Updated documentation for create_species effect
• Updated LEADER_GOVERNOR_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE to LEADER_ASSIGNED_MONTHLY_EXPERIENCE

There are a few more currently in the works.

We’ve assembled some fun statistics from all the Stellaris playthroughs you did in 2023. If you’re interested, take a look:

Next week we should have the full Eridanus release notes prepared for you. Barring unforeseen circumstances the 3.11 release is currently planned for release on Tuesday, February 27th.

See you next week!