Hello Stellaris Community!

The 3.9 “Caelum” update is currently scheduled to release on September 12th!

This update brings a host of new features to previously released DLC, including a habitat rework, trade rebalance, softening of the leader cap, new features and updates to previously released DLCs, plus a plethora of other bug fixes, AI and performance improvements. We’re going to go through some of the major features of this new update so that you can hop in and start playing on day one!

You can read the full patch notes on the Stellaris forums here.

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Game Director Eladrin takes us through the features coming in the 3.9 “Caelum” update!

Leader Cap Rebalance
We’ve heard your feedback on the leader cap, and we’ve softened up the penalties for going over the Leader Cap in 3.9. Leader XP gain reduction will now follow a curve, allowing you to hire more leaders. This in itself is a temporary measure, as we are continuing to experiment internally to find a Leader system that we’re truly happy with.

Automation Improvements
In the 3.9 “Caelum” update, Sector Automation has been completely removed, in favor of individual Planetary automation. Planetary Automation will now take resources directly from an Empire’s resources, and we have added the ability to forbid using specific resources.

Just a reminder that Planetary Automation builds planets based off of the designation of the planet – so remember to set your Planetary Designation before turning on Automation, for a consistent experience!

Performance Improvements
Performance concerns are always top of our list when it comes to creating new patches, and 3.9 “Caelum” is no different. In this version, we have fixed a case where Country Modifiers would continuously recalculate, decreased the amount of texture loading on the Council and Leader list screens, refactored calculations for Trade Value from Living Standards, parallelized the Construction Queue and Trade Route/Piracy calculations, optimized the AI evaluation of subjugation actions, improved the way old events are fired and optimized triggers for Jobs, Casus Belli and Opinion modifiers.

I don’t know what any of these things means either. How do these changes feel to you? You can find out now in the Open Beta!

Ascension Path Updates (Requires Utopia)

We know how important it is for you to get your synth on. We’ve reduced the RNG-factor of completing the tech requirements for ascensions. We’ve added new Council Agendas to Utopia that will give you partial research on the technologies required to complete your chosen ascension. That way, you will be able to research them as soon as you learn to talk to those fleshy things from Eta Sigma 9.

Habitat Rework (Requires Utopia, Federations, Toxoids or First Contact)

Habitat Central Complexes are a new type of space construction, which act as the central hub of the Habitat system. Major and minor orbitals can be constructed around stars and planetary bodies in the system to further expand the Habitat Central Complex’s capacity for districts and buildings.

And before you ask, yes, if you blow it up with a Colossus, it leaves a ruined Habitat Central Complex that can be restored.

Expanded Leaders from Enclaves (Requires Overlord or Leviathans)

Shroudwalker Enclaves and Salvagers now both have a leader that you can hire. The leader from the Trade Enclave has been improved, plus all Enclave-hired leaders will now provide a special Council seat for those who own Galactic Paragons.

More Origins for Hives and Machines (Requires Utopia or Synthetic Dawn)
Machine Intelligences and Hive Mind can now choose the Lost Colony, Common Ground* and Hegemony Origins*. Hive minds can also now start as Void Dwellers*!

*also requires Federations

Workers Cooperative (Requires MegaCorp)
Live in a classless society, where the Ruling Class is replaced with democratically-elected Stewards, and quality of life is high. Worker Cooperatives also gain access to the Mutual Aid trade policy, which converts trade value into basic resources.

The Kaleidoscope (Requires Nemesis)
An energy-hungry parasite has appeared over your homeworld. Do you attack it, or nurture it? A new Situation-based event chain has been added for the owners of Nemesis. We won’t spoil anything else about this, but let’s just say it’s not your garden variety event chain.

Price Increase for Species Packs
Stellaris Species Packs started as purely cosmetic add-ons, consisting of portraits, ship sets, city sets, and advisor voices. They’ve come a long way since them, now including a much greater variety of content. While the exact spread of features varies by pack, they now all include things such as origins, civics, traits, events, and new mechanics.

With the changes coming in 3.9 ‘Caelum’, we believe that the older Species Packs will be on par with the newer ones, and we’re planning an increase in the base price of the Plantoids, Humanoids, Lithoids, and Necroids Species Packs from $7.99 to match the $9.99 base price of the more recent Aquatics and Toxoids Species Packs.

Read on to see the new additions coming to the older species packs!

Plantoids Additions (Requires Plantoids)
Plantoid and Fungoid species will now be able to spread via seed in the Fruitful Partnership Origin, with their seeds hitching a ride across the galaxy on the backs of wandering groups of Tiyanki. We’ve also added a new Invasive Species trait, that gains habitability and growth bonuses from each negative trait it carries, a new Dryad-inspired portrait and new prescripted empire: Blooms of Gaea. Improvements are also coming for the Idyllic Bloom civic, with its level four Gaia Seeder building now also improving your pops over time, as well as increasing the effectiveness of their other Plantoid traits. The Catalytic Processing civic has also been improved and now uses food to produce Strategic Resources.

Humanoids Additions (Requires Humanoids)
Owners of Humanoids will now get access to the Enmity Tradition tree, which is all about benefiting from rivalries, as well as three new species traits, and two new Humanoid portraits!

Lithoids Additions and Updates (Requires Lithoids)
Lithoid Hiveminds will now be able to mine space deposits without protection with the new Void Hive Civic, and get mining and research stations built automatically as the hive expands its control over the system. Owners of the Lithoids Species Pack will also get access to the Selective Kinship civic, allowing only their phenotype to be rulers and a new Humanoid-inspired Lithoid, and a prescripted empire: Federated Theian Preservers.

Mechromancy Ascension Perk (Requires Necroids and Synthetic Dawn)
Machine Intelligences can now also reanimate biological leviathans, as well as create cyborg zombies out of biological pops. I, for one, am terrified of our new robot overlords.

Thanks for reading! We hope to see you all on September 12th for the release of Stellaris 3.9 “Caelum”!