by EladrinHappy holidays everyone!As is tradition, in the last dev diary of the year I like to look over what we’ve done and insert sneaky leaks about next year. I want for nothing. My purpose is to give. We began 2024 with a technology open beta that ran over the holidays, which was released as the 3.11 “Eridanus” Custodian update. Since we’re planning on having another Open Beta next year, I want to point out how successful that Open Beta was, finding critical issues related to the breakthrough technologies and giving us a much better release overall. I’m hoping that next year’s Open Beta will be equally effective.We had some really cool cinematics too.In March, we saw the light..
You too will see the light.And soon became part of something greater with the release of The Machine Age and Stellaris: Season 08.
Become part of something greater.The Machine Age began our remastering of the Ascension Paths, starting with Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension. It significantly expanded Mach... Read more

by EladrinHello again, Stellaris Community!Last week we looked back at where we’ve been, and today we’re going to look at possible themes I think we might explore in the future. Like the past few dev diaries, this is one where we’re actively soliciting your thoughts.If you haven’t had a chance to add your bit of feedback to The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com], you still have a couple of days left - it’s going to stay active until the end of November.Today is the 3.14.1592 release day, so before we get to the main diary I’ll start with the final release notes.
3.14.1592 Release Notes The 3.14.1592 patch addressed the following issues - I’ve bolded new additions (all under Bugfixes) since last week’s diary:Balance

• Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
  
• Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
  
• Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
  
• Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
  
• Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
  
• Remove ...

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by EladrinHello, Stellaris Community!Today we’ll start with preliminary release notes for 3.14.1592, then look back at the past at all of the changes Stellaris has gone through and summarize the feedback you all gave in the dev diary two weeks ago - The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com]. We’re still reading the responses to that one and will continue doing so, so if you haven’t had a chance to add your thoughts, please add them! Preliminary Release Notes for 3.14.1592 If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing the 3.14.1592 patch sometime next week.These are our preliminary release notes: Balance

• Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
  
• Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
  
• Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
  
• Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
  
• Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
  
• Remove minor artifacts production from Decentralized Research edict
  
• Rework Mutated Voidworms fleets content and scaling...

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by EladrinHi everyone!Now that the Grand Archive Story Pack is out, I want to do something a little different. With 360 Stellaris Dev Diaries complete, I thought it was time to circle right back around to the beginning: what was, will be.Stellaris Dev Diary #1 was “The Vision[forum.paradoxplaza.com]”, and so is #361. What is Stellaris? The vision serves as a guiding tool to keep the entire development team aligned. As the game evolves, we work hard to update it regularly to remain accurate and consistent with our core vision.Here’s how I currently answer “What is Stellaris?”:

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The Galaxy is Vast and Full of Wonders For over eight years, Stellaris has remained the ultimate exploration-focused space-fantasy strategy sandbox, allowing players to discover the wonders of the galaxy.From their first steps into the stars to uniting the galaxy under their rule, the players are free to discover and tell their own unique stories.Every story, trope, or player fantasy in science fiction is within o... Read more

by EladrinHello everyone!The Grand Archive Story Pack and the Stellaris 3.14.1 ‘Circinus’ update released on Tuesday. Go forth and collect things and capture space creatures! The Release Thus Far The update appears to be a very stable and clean release so far, with few critical issues reported.A 3.14.15 hotfix is being prepared for today, which includes fixes for two crashes that have occurred a handful of times, and a bug that let you power your economy exclusively through chain-firing Gravity Snares: 3.14.15 ‘Circinus’ Hotfix Release Notes Bugfixes

• Gravity Snare costs can no longer go negative.
  
• Fixed a case where lured space fauna were uncapturable.

Stability

• Fixing potential crash when trying to create a ship from a scripted design that contains unusable components for the creator
  
• Fixed potential crash when using FromFromFrom scope in "on_planets_zero_pops" on action
  
• Fix a crash where an AI could capture fauna even if they shouldn't be able to.

The vast majority of the other crashes... Read more

Hi everyone!The Grand Archive Story Pack and the Stellaris 3.14.1 ‘Circinus’ update will be releasing next Tuesday, October 29th.Today we have some Preliminary Release Notes for the 3.14.1 release!
Preliminary Release Notes
Grand Archive Story Pack Features

• Space Fauna capture, breeding, and modification systems
  
• 151 Specimens to collect and display across events from Grand Archive and the base game
  
  • Over 240 Specimens total including those distributed across other Stellaris content
• 15 new Relics
  
• Two new Tradition trees
  
  • Archivism
    
  • Domestication
• Two new Origins
  
  • Primal Calling
    
  • Treasure Hunters
• Two new Civics
  
  • Beastmasters
    
  • Galactic Curators
• Two new forms of spaceborne life
  
  • Cutholoids
    
  • Voidworms
• A new possible mid-game crisis - the Voidworm Plague
  
• Three new music tracks
  
• Events, Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Technologies, Galactic community resolutions, and more!

Improvements

• Renamed Shattered Ring "Irreparable Damage" to "Reparable Damage" as once you have researched Mega Engineering. You ca...

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Hi everyone!The Grand Archive Story Pack is lurking in an asteroid field nearby, and will ambush nearby Science Vessels on October 29th.Today’s dev diary will look at the two new space fauna being added to Stellaris, as well as a peek at the Origins.
Cutholoids Cutholoids are cunning ambush predators, lurking within the shadowed hollows of desolate asteroids. There, they bide their time, waiting to ensnare unwary vessels that drift too close.A typical first encounter with them may look something like this:
If my science ship was cloaked or had encountered them before, things might have turned out differently.Thankfully, Cutholoids have a very slow digestive process so these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle.
I don’t have Gravity Snares yet, so arm the Nuclear Missiles – there’s “research” to be done.When cloning your own Cutholoids from Hatcheries, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.
Om nom nom. I wouldn’t call it ... Read more

by EladrinSaddle up, everyone! It’s time to go a-ranchin’!The Vivarium of the Grand Archive will be accepting genetic material donations as of October 29th.Today we’re looking at the capture and domestication of spaceborne fauna, Domestication traditions, and the Beastmaster civics. Let’s get to it, this is a long one!
Vivariums and Hatcheries The Vivarium is essentially a space fauna breeding and observation tank. You can access it under Discoveries as soon as your Vivarium capacity is above zero or the Gravity Snares technology has been researched.The Hatchery module is the space fauna equivalent of Shipyards, and can only be built on a station that has no normal Shipyards. It’s unlocked by the Artificial Breeding technology.You can also increase your capacity by building Vivarium Tanks. These increase the growth rate of your docked fauna and are unlocked by the Gravity Snares technology. Building a Grand Archive will give you the biggest boost to Vivarium capacity.This particular Vi... Read more

by EladrinHello, everyone!The Grand Archive opens its doors on October 29th.Today we take a look at the Grand Archive structure itself, specimen collection and display mechanics, and then examine the new Archivism tradition tree.
What is a Grand Archive? The Grand Archive is the cultural center for your empire, a place to house and display the story of your people through the greatest specimens of interest that you have collected over the years.This one-stage structure can be built over any colony with 25 or more pops, and will not block other improvements such as Orbital Rings. We expect that most empires will want to build them over their capital world, to keep their treasures close.The Galactic Archivism technology required for building a Grand Archive can appear as a tier 2 society tech, and as such building a Grand Archive does not require high tier technologies such as Mega-Engineering.Shortly after you have discovered your first Specimen worthy of display, you have the chance to... Read more

by PDX-LokeDear Stellaris Fans,We've created another small patch for you, aiming to address a couple of noteworthy issues coming out of last week.3.13.2 is available for download now. 3.13.2 Patch Notes Bugfix

• Fixed the issue where Gestalt Empire industrial districts only provided 1 Fabricator job instead of 2.
  
• Fixed the issue where the tooltip of a Cosmic Storm incorrectly stated 0 days remaining.
  
• Triggered species modifiers will now show in trait tooltips even when there are no regular modifiers.
  
• Fixed crash in species creation when trait for planet class does not exist.
  
• Fixed crash in espionage tooltip on multiplayer resync.

The team is now focusing their effort towards the next major patch.More on that later! Read more

Dear Stellaris Fans,The team has produced a bugfix and balance patch following our 3.13 + Cosmic Storms release September 10th.3.13.1 is now available for download. Please find the patch notes below, identical to what was posted earlier by Eladrin. 3.13.1 Patch Notes Balance

• Added free pop to first blocker for planetscapers
  
• Decreased Storm Creation costs and buffed Astrometeorology job
  
• Stormriders and Subterranean get less devastation from storms
  
• Scientist governors now also reduce devastation from storms
  
• The Nexus Storm of 2211 will no longer happen. (Nexus Storms have been removed from the Early Game storm pool.)

Bugfix

• A Fallen Empire cannot ask for a scientist that is exploring an Astral Rift
  
• Added traits to hired marauder leaders
  
• Added victory score to the two new precursor relics
  
• All starting council positions are also filled without Galactic Paragons
  
• Fixed a spelling error in the event Stormbound Sighted
  
• Fixed empire designs with different randomized names sometimes preventing ea...

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by EladrinHi everyone!Today’s dev diary is going to be a relatively short one. The 3.13.1 ‘Vela’ patch is planned for next Tuesday, September 24th, and we have a set of preliminary release notes for you to look over.The biggest change is probably the removal of Nexus storms from the early game pool.The Vela cycle will be a very short one, since the 3.14 ‘Circinus’ update and Grand Archive is already bearing down on us. Preliminary Release Notes On to the release notes! 3.13.1 ‘Vela’ Preliminary Release Notes
Balance

• Added free pop to first blocker for planetscapers
  
• Decreased Storm Creation costs and buffed Astrometeorology job
  
• Stormriders and Subterranean get less devastation from storms
  
• Scientist governors now also reduce devastation from storms
  
• The Nexus Storm of 2211 will no longer happen. (Nexus Storms have been removed from the Early Game storm pool.)

Bugfix

• A Fallen Empire cannot ask for a scientist that is exploring an Astral Rift
  
• Added traits to hired marauder leaders
  
• Added vict...

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Hi everyone,Gruntsatwork here, putting on my writing hat for today only, while Eladrin is on sick leave. While Dev Diaries are the domain of the Game Directors, we wanted to keep in close contact shortly after a release.The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion released 2 days ago and we have been collecting your feedback on our forums and every other form of social media we could find.We will continue to do so over the next few days, working on fixes and improvements to Cosmic Storms, for example:
Individualist Machines will get access to the Storm Touched trait so that they can use the Storm Devotion civic.
Planetscapers will get a deposit on game start to clear for +1 Pop.There are also a few balance considerations we are making that we figured would be nice to mention.
I’d like to get off Mr. Nexus Storm’s Wild Ride! We teased them before as being incredibly destructive and as it turns out, they are! What we didn’t intend was for them to appear as often and as early as they do. Their ch... Read more

by EladrinHello everyone!The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is nearly here, so today we’ve got preliminary release notes and some of the Custodian changes.Cosmic Storms is going to be released next Tuesday, on September 10th.
Changes to Planetary Resource Deposits As part of the Custodian changes in 3.13 ‘Vela’, we’ve made some changes to how some planetary deposits for rare resources are handled.The deposits that previously gave access to Crystal Mines, Gas Extraction Wells and Mote Harvesting Traps buildings, now instead increase the number of mining districts available on the planet and, after researching the technology to extract the relevant resource, add a small amount of resource production to miners on that planet.Additionally, we’ve buffed the Betharian Power Plant to increase the energy produced by Technician Jobs. Penal Colonies & Thrall Worlds Much like how Resort Worlds were updated earlier this year, we have taken the time to revisit both Penal Colonies and Thrall wor... Read more

by EladrinHi everyone,Today, we’ll review the Origin and Civics of the Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion and provide some information about the new Precursors (without spoiling everything!)Cosmic Storms is going to be released on September 10th.Passing it over to @PDX_Ferry[forum.paradoxplaza.com] and @Gruntsatwork[forum.paradoxplaza.com] to take over from here. Storm Chasers Don’t make unnecessary journeys, don’t take risks on treacherous roads, and don’t swim in the sea! This is PDX_Ferry, braving the winds to deliver you a report on the new "Storm Chasers" Origin. For those who thrive on danger and yearn for the thrill of the unknown, this Origin was designed with you in mind.Start your game as a civilization that has always sought out the extremes. Born on a world ravaged by relentless storms, the Storm Chasers are daredevils and thrill seekers who push themselves to the limits and beyond. They’ve grown strong and daring, turning their chaotic environment into a crucible of innova... Read more

Hi everyone,The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is going to make planetfall on September 10th. That’s not that far away, so today we’ll be going over the Storm mechanics and their aftermath effects.Passing it over to Gruntsatwork [forum.paradoxplaza.com]to take over from here.
How Do Storms Spawn? Hello everyone, without much preamble, lets dive right into the new storm mechanics.

• Storms will randomly start to spawn a few years after gamestart.
  
• Each Storm triggers a cooldown until the next natural storm can spawn (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• There is a limit to how many storms can spawn naturally in the early, mid and late-game (adjustable in Game Settings)
  
• Those limits only apply to randomly spawned storms. Storms created by players, by event or mechanic, will always spawn regardless of any other settings
  
• Upon being spawned, they will have a target system towards which they will move, dissipating upon reaching that goal or timing out

What Do They Do? While the storms through the g... Read more

Hello everyone!Welcome to another mod highlight! This will be the final mod highlight of the summer, and we will be returning to our regularly scheduled dev diaries on Thursday!This mod highlight is all about new technologies, and all of the mods add new techs to expand on vanilla mechanics.

Extra Ship Components NEXT By NHunter
Written by NHunterExtra Ship Components aims to provide an extended and expanded technology tree that features upgraded versions of all vanilla weapon and utility components, as well new technology branches such as extra-large autocannons and missiles, and new kinetic and energy weapons. In addition to that, entirely-new types of weapons are introduced:

• Psionic weapons that allows one to unleash the full might of their empire's most powers psionics,
  
• Biological and Crystalline weapons based on spacebourne creatures, showcasing the empire's mastery over genetic engineering,
  
• Gravitic and Chrono-spatial weapons that utilize fundamental forces of nature to great an...

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by MrFreake_PDXHello everyone!Welcome to another mod highlight, Michael_Stellaris has some great mods lined up for us this week, and this week’s theme is exploration! These mods will make the galaxy more interesting and diverse, and who doesn’t love new things to find out in the galaxy. I’m sure nothing bad will happen. —Dangerous Wildlife Expanded is a very unique mod, adds much more depth to dangerous wildlife, and should make planets feel much more unique, and can even alter the course of your playthrough.
WP's Dangerous Wildlife Expanded By WoodenPotatoes
This section was written by WoodenPotatoesFirstly, I really liked the idea of expanding on the sorts of non-intelligent fauna we might find around the galaxy, like T-Rexes and Mammoths and whatnot. Stellaris is utterly fantastic with intelligent aliens, primitive aliens, and even has pre-sapients. But what kind of wildlife is out there? What alien monsters and creepy crawlies lurk on foreign worlds?Secondly, I really liked the con... Read more

Hello everyone!While the devs are off frolicing in the sun, we decided this is a great opportunity to highlight (mostly) community mods! We wanted to change things up a bit this year, but we have such a hard time choosing between all the amazing mods on the workshop, so instead we made Michael~ do it. Michael has assembled several collections of mods each based on a theme, and then we tracked down the modders and asked if they had anything they wanted to share about their mods.So without further ado, I present:
-----The Friends We Made Along The WayThis mod collection is all based on the various storytelling aspects of Stellaris. From origins (letting the player create a unique backstory), to event mods (allowing you to create compelling narratives throughout the game). That's the reason why many people (including myself) got into the game, and that's the unique quality about Stellaris - the ability to create your own story, and fulfill your scifi fantasy. Darkspace By ExakanDarkspace ... Read more