by Eldarin

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Stellaris Dev Diaries!
During the Cetus cycle, dev diaries will be on a once-every-two-week cadence.

The 4.3 ‘Cetus’ Open Beta continues!

Last week we casually snuck the ability for multiplayer games to allow new hotjoins while an existing hotjoin was ongoing into the Beta, but a flag wasn’t being set properly and broke Resync, so we’re updating again this week.

Improvement​

• Field Modulation, Eco Simulation, and Geothermal Fracking technologies are now marked as Gateway technologies for Rural District Specialization.

• Improvement "Scorched World Heralds" civics now mention that diplomacy with other Thermophiles is possible

• Option text for Rogue Servitors discovering alien life is tonally appropriate

• First Robot timeline event blocked for machine species

Balance​

• "Scorched World Heralds" cannot longer grant Full Citizenship or Residence status to conquered non-Thermophile pops

• Reduced the minimum fleet power necessary to trigger the fight with the ambushing Cutholoid to 600. It'll be a tough fight and you'll probably lose some ships, but usually win.

Bugfix​

• Fixed the Resync button in multiplayer

• Fixed some scoping issues with the random events if you neighbour the caravaneers

• The Luminary for Under One Rule will now have the correct number of traits for their level

• Fixed the Galactic Crucible not triggering a notification / event choice after capture in certain situations (after the war)

• The "Scion" origin now blocks the "Scorched World Heralds" civic

• Modifiers from starbase targeting owner country now makes the country recalculate as it should

• Upgrading a Starbase with a Resource Silo on it no longer lowers the total resource capacity for the Empire.

Performance​

• Optimized event parameter storage.
  Effects of this include:

  • Reduces heap allocations for 95% of EventScope uses.

  • AddOrUpdateScopeParameter now 71x faster. Improved consistency and eliminated performance spikes.

  • CreateEventScope now 48x faster. Performance variability eliminated.

  • AddScopeParameter 83x faster. Highly consistent.

  • GetScopeParameter 35% faster - median time reduced by 84%; meaningful improvement on a less frequent code path.

  • Ship CalculateModifier 68% faster.

  • Army CalculateModifier 5.3% faster.

  • Uninhabited Planet DailyUpdate 3-5% faster.

Summary: Changes result in smoother gameplay, reduced load on memory allocator, frame processing time reduced by ~10%.​

Note: This change snuck into last week’s update.​

• Improved Scripted Trigger caching

• Optimize string allocation 76% faster

Let’s look at some of the feedback that we’ve gotten over the holidays.

Just over half of the respondents placed the economic balance rating as “just right”, with the remainder being split over a nice curve in both directions, skewing a little bit towards being a bit underpowered.

Several of you mentioned Tankbound in comments - we agree that they’ll need more review. Others commented on Energy being more of a struggle, which is a significant change from earlier 4.x builds, with some comments stating a dislike of the “static job” buildings and how they don’t fit terribly well in the current design.

While there’s a nice spike at 3 for mechanical ships, there’s a pretty strong lean towards “too weak” for Fauna. Most comments in general were extremely in favor of the changes, though pirates and Fallen Empires were mentioned repeatedly, as well as that first Cutholoid special project. We’ve already nerfed pirates, and we do want Fallen Empires to be much more of a challenge than they’ve been for a few years, but they might be overdoing it a little. The Cutholoid definitely wasn’t fun - so we’ve reduced the required threshold to challenge it in today’s update.

Food production appears to be considered an issue with Space Fauna empires.

Many of you wrote that static defenses were too powerful - though we did adjust some of them in last week’s beta update. We’ll continue monitoring them.

Battlefield control weapons from Bio-Ships may be a bit oppressive with the lower ship counts.

The general consensus seems to be that high Stability is still too easy to maintain in the Open Beta, and many of you were pretty content with the changes to Empire Size.
Overall, the feedback thus far has been solid enough that I expect that we’re on track to go through with both the economic rebalancing and the naval changes, and will continue balancing with the expectation that both will ship with 4.3 Cetus.

We have an update to the bug report forum from @MrFreake_PDX[forum.paradoxplaza.com] :

In response to your feedback about the level of transparency around Stellaris Bug Reports, we’ve been trying to improve in that area over the last couple of months. Some of you may have noticed myself and others replying to bug reports more often, keeping you apprised of the status of the bug reports. In order to be able to turn on further automation with regards to this, we needed to switch to a new bug report forum style. This is still a work in progress, and we hope to see the new features roll out fairly soon.

All previously reported bugs are still logged internally, so don’t worry if you can’t see a bug you’ve reported in the past. We will continue to go through them, but any new bug reports should be added to this new section on the forum instead.

In order to do this, we’ve had to change the format of our Bug Reports forum to line up with the fields we used in our internal bug tracker.

Please fill out all of these fields to the best of your ability.

How to Verify your Game Files:

On Steam:

Right Click Stellaris (in Steam), go to Properties, Local Files, and click Verify Game Files

On GOG:

Right click your game in your library, Click Manage, Click Files at the top, Click Verify and Repair and let it finish

On Microsoft Store:

Select your game in your library, Click the Customization button (to the right of the Play button), Click Manage Installation, Click Verify/Repair and let it finish

How to Verify your Mods are disabled:

All versions:

Open Stellaris, at the Main Screen at the bottom, mouse over the version number, if it says “Checksum Is Modified” then you still have a mod enabled (or have extra/modified versions of files in your Stellaris directory).

How to use the new Bug Report form:

Here is the new bug report form, these have been changed to better line up with the fields in our internal bug tracker.

Issue Type:Don’t worry too much about getting the correct Issue Type, QA can update the report to ensure it has the correct issue type.

• VFX - Issues with Visual Effects (Explosions, Space Storms, etc)

• Audio - Issues with in-game sounds or music

• Out of Sync - Report multiplayer desyncs. Please include OOS reports from the host and client. You can find OOS reports here:

  • On Windows: C:/users/YOURUSERNAME/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/OOS/

  • On Mac:

    1. Open Finder: Click the Finder icon in your Dock.

    2. Go to Documents: Click on Documents in the sidebar.

    3. Navigate: Open the Paradox Interactive folder, then Stellaris, then the oos folder.

    4. Find Files: Inside OOS, you'll see folders for each desync. We need one from the client who desynced, and one from the host of the multiplayer game

  • On Linux:

    1. if environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is not empty logs will be in:

$XDG_DATA_HOME/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris
Otherwise they will be in:
~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris

• Content Design - for literally unplayable typos, issues with Script, in-game Events, Situations, etc.

• Crash - For crashing issues, please be sure to include a Crash Report. By default you can find Crash Reports here:

  • On Windows: C:/users/YOURUSERNAME/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/Crashes

  • On Mac:

    1. Open Finder: Click the Finder icon in your Dock.

    2. Go to Documents: Click on Documents in the sidebar.

    3. Navigate: Open the Paradox Interactive folder, then Stellaris, then the crashes folder.

    4. Find Files: Inside crashes, you'll see folders for each crash, containing exception.txt, error.log, debug.log, and settings files, which are very helpful for debugging.

  • On Linux:

    1. if environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is not empty logs will be in:

  $XDG_DATA_HOME/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris, otherwise they will be in: ~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris

• UX - Report issues with the User Interface

• Code - for issues that are not handled through script. Don’t worry too much about having to choose between this and Content Design, QA can update the report

• Game Design - for systems-related issues, whether they be mechanics that don't seem to work right, the numbers seeming off on something, or general balance issues. If it fits on a spreadsheet, it probably goes here

• Art - Issues with models, event art, etc

Summary:

• This will be the title of your bug report, keep it short and succinct

Description:

• Here you can describe the issue in more detail

Expected Result:

• What you expected the outcome to be when you encountered this issue

Actual Result:

• What actually happened when you encountered this issue

Steps to Reproduce:

• We always treat this internally as an “Explain Like I’m Five” steps to reproduce, so include things like “Launch the Game”, “Start a New Game”, etc.

Repro Rate:This is the Reproduction Rate. Does it happen every time, or only occasionally? This field can let QA know that if they don’t reproduce the issue the first time, that they should probably try, try again.

Attachment:
Use this to upload screenshots, save files, and in the case of Crashes or OOSes the applicable reports (see the sections above)

We would like to thank you all for your cooperation while we roll out this new system, and hopefully give you all a little more transparency into what’s going on behind the scenes here at Paradox Green!

The next Stellaris dev diary will be about further updates to the Open Beta, and will be on February 5th.

See you in the beta!

To access the Stellaris beta, go to your Steam Library, right-click the game, and select "Properties". From there, choose the "Betas" tab, and in the "Beta Participation" dropdown menu, select the "cetus_open_beta" beta branch from the list.

A Note for Linux Users:

The Linux binary at the moment requires a openssl 4 enabled version of curl, this is not provided by Steams base environment, we are currently addressing this.
You can either try and run Stellaris directly if your system has this provided for you or use proton to run the windows version

Run Stellaris directly:

1. Right click Stellaris in Steam and select "Properties..."

2. Goto "Installed Files" tab and select "Browse..." (this should take you to where Stellaris is installed)

3. Find the file "stellaris" and double click it

Run thru Proton:

1. Right click Stellaris in Steam and select "Properties..."

2. Go to "Compatibility" tab and tick the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" checkbox

3. Select "Proton 10.0-3" or a suitable version (https://www.protondb.com/app/281990 for help)

4. Update the game and press "Play" in steam

by MrFreake_PDX

Hello Stellaris Community!

We hope you all had a great holiday season. Thank you all for your feedback on the last open beta update, we're looking at how we can incorporate that feedback moving forward. We've got another beta update coming today with some smaller fixes and tweaks that were worked on over the holiday period.

We will continue to use this Open Beta Feedback form[pdxint.at] to collect feedback for this update of the Open Beta.

Known issue: Resyncing after an OOS will cause the host to be unable to resume the game (You can work around this by rehosting the lobby). We hope to have this issue resolved next week.

Balance

• Increased base Naval Capacity to 50.

• Reduced the number of Utility slots on Starbases and Deep Space Citadels.

• Deep Space Citadels now have the Hull and Armor matching normal Starholds, Star Fortresses, and Citadels, plus innate shields equal to their armor.

• Ground Combat Changes:

  • Generally reduced the Army Count and effects that grant extra Defensive Armies.

  • Many weapon and defensive technologies now also improve army health or damage. Subdermal Stimulation increases Army Morale.

  • Powered Exoskeletons now grants a higher bonus to Army Damage. Replaced Worker Production bonus with a larger bonus to Worker and Simple Drone Job Efficiency.

  • Integrated Cybernetics now also grants bonuses to Army Damage and Health.

  • Psionic Theory now also grants a reduction to Army Morale Damage Taken.

• Slightly increased Orbital Bombardment Damage.

• Removed Gestation Worlds. Instead Cybernetic traditions now grant access to Augmentation Centers for Driven Assimilators, providing Augmentor Drones. These jobs provide Amenities and Organic Pop Growth for Cyborgs.

• Branch Offices now cost trade to establish instead of energy.

• Imperious Architecture/Synaptic Extensions now grants additional housing and jobs to capital buildings, scaling with the tier of the capital.

• Trickle Up Economics now increases trade from living standards.

• Volcanic Worlds are now less common than other habitable planet classes.

• Replaced the increased naval capacity for artificial ships for Beastmaster empires with increased cost and upkeep.

• Reduced the power of Pirate Fleets

• Driven Assimilators now start with 2,000 cyborg pops instead of 1,000. However, they start with 1,000 fewer machine pops.

• The Animator of Clay's interaction that spawns pops for Shroud-Forged Empires now only spawns pops on planets with a Shroud-Touched Region or a Zroni Equilibrator. The cost has also been changed from a flat 500 Zro to 250 Zro per colony targeted.

• Cybernetic Creed changes:

  • Augmentations of the Fellowship now gives +10% Job Eff to Metallurgists, Artisans and Bureaucrats.

  • Augmentations of the Templars now gives +10% Job Eff to Soldiers and Bureaucrats, and +10% to both Army Damage and Health.

  • Augmentations of the Choir now gives +10% Job Eff to Researchers and Bureaucrats.

  • Augmentations of the Commune now gives +10% Job Eff to Workers and Bureaucrats.

  • Ritualistic Implants now gives +5% Job Eff to Metallurgists, Engineers, Bureaucrats, Soldiers and Workers, and +5% Army Damage.

  • Cybernetic Creed traits are no longer locked to Spiritualist ethics.

  • When combined with Media Conglomerate, the United Creeds will continue to produce Unity instead of Trade.

Bugfix

• Prevent nascent stage purifiers from purging their own children

• The Anomalous Cube dig site will now be properly hidden until it can be properly explored.

• Servile species no longer generate leaders.

• Gestalt Empires will no longer gain the "Form a Mercenary Enclave" focus.

• Genocidal Empires will no longer gain the "Enclave Research Support" focus.

• Fixed the incorrect trigger used for collateral damage

• Fixed a large number of ship components that did not have their modifiers applied correctly.

• Fixed some old triggers that were checking for pre-4.0 pop assembly. This should improve AI handling of building Clone Vats and Robot Assembly Plants.

• Ground Combat Collateral Damage will no longer kill the last 300 pops on a planet. (Instead of the last 3.)

• Added missing name list for the Mindwarden species. They can now be insulted properly.

• Fix upgrading Hunting Expanse to Hunting Nexus.

• Changing the design of Deep Space Citadels now works correctly, persisting in save games.

• The GDF/Imperial Armada now correctly shows their naval capacity in the GalCom UI.

• The Independent GDF no longer grows infinitely.

• Fix techs showing Experimentation Chambers unlocks even without Twisted Experiments civic

• The Generator Ring World designation is now available to non gestalt empires

• The Enhanced Memory and Learning Algorithms cyborg species traits and their negative versions have been differentiated. Learning Algorithms now grants +25% leader xp gain and +1 councilor skill.

• The Infinity Sphere leviathan species trait now grants +25% researcher job efficiency instead of the deprecated -50% researcher job upkeep.

• The "Population trials" option from the Synthetic Transformation situation now properly grants the biggest resource deposit.

• Fixed several civics preventing Megacorp government reform.

• The tooltip for the Hive World AP no longer lists removed modifiers.

• Fixed several cases of Corporate civics being removed upon becoming galactic emperor.

• The Elevated Synapses Overtuned trait now properly doubles it's leader XP bonus when "Damn the consequences" is activated

• Lost Colony Hiveminds now also get the +10% habitability granted by the non hive version of the origin.

• Machine Leaders should no longer get the Synthetic trait after any species modification. It should now only occur after the relevant traditions have been unlocked.

• The unique planet modifier from Payback now gets properly removed if their capital is conquered before it expires.

• Thrall Worlds now properly swap out soldier jobs from districts and buildings into battle thralls

• The vivarium effects from Primal Calling have now been properly scaled to account for the vivarium size increase

• Fixed and unlocalized string in the Rainbow Ice Sheet event.

• Fixed a missing loc string in the Flaming Tornadoes event.

• The gene mentorship description now properly displays 30% leader experience gain

• Psychological Infertility is now properly compatible with Lithoid species

• Slightly increased the odds of caravaneer proximity events happening

• Reverted: add_skill_without_trait_selection now correctly only levels up without adding traits.

• Fixed the amount of amenities that Identity Designers were providing.

UI

• Fixed planet modifiers not updating correctly in the colonization view.

• Fixed planet modifier icons in Expansion Planner not updating correctly in some cases.

• Fixed the overlap of Dig Sites and Devastation components in Planet UI.

Performance

• The render cycle is optimized to perform as if V-Sync were off, but without screen tearing.

Stability

• Added the possibility to hotjoin while other players are hotjoining.

Modding

• Console command effect can now target the observed country with root

The patch notes from previous open beta updates are available on the Paradox forums.[forum.paradoxplaza.com]

To access the Stellaris beta, go to your Steam Library, right-click the game, and select "Properties". From there, choose the "Betas" tab, and in the "Beta Participation" dropdown menu, select the cetus_open_beta beta branch from the list.

The Linux binary at the moment requires a openssl 4 enabled version of curl, this is not provided by Steams base environment, we are currently addressing this.
You can either try and run Stellaris directly if your system has this provided for you or use proton to run the windows version

Run Stellaris directly:

1. Right click Stellaris in Steam and select "Properties..."

2. Goto "Installed Files" tab and select "Browse..." (this should take you to where Stellaris is installed)

3. Find the file "stellaris" and double click it

Run thru Proton:

1. Right click Stellaris in Steam and select "Properties..."

2. Goto "Compatability" tab and tick the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" checkbox

3. Select "Proton 10.0-3" or a suitable version (https://www.protondb.com/app/281990 for help)

4. Update the game and press "Play" in steam

Thank you for all your feedback so far, and thank you for playing Stellaris!