Stellaris Dev Diary #430 - 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Development Continues

by Eladrin

We have another update to the 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Open Beta planned for today! 4.5 Update 7 contains fixes for Nascent Stage (again), some AI updates, and more.

Feature:​

• Nomadic empires and settled empires can negotiate Exclusive Harvesting Rights, letting the nomads harvest the celestial bodies in that empire's space without diplomatic penalties in exchange for a negotiated share of the yield.

• The Arc Furnace can now be set to different Smelting Processes from tier 3 onwards, changing whether the deposits it uncovers yield minerals, alloys, or a mix of both (as the current behaviour). Switching costs energy and locks the furnace out of changing mode again for 720 days.

  • Empires with the Obsessional Directive civic unlock an additional Commodity Fabrication Smelting Process for the Arc Furnace.

Balance:​

• Autocannons, Disruptors and other short-ranged weapons are no longer equippable on Starbases, Orbital Rings or Deep Space Citadels.

• Trade deposits now increase the resources gained from harvesting a planet.

• Deep Scanning is less likely to uncover Minor Artifacts if Minor Artifacts have already been found in the system. Shoutout to the Composer of Strands for abusing this.

• Reduced the arkship harvesting and action modifiers provided by harvester jobs.

• Reduced the weapon damage each Ordnance Engineering weapon zone grants per soldier job from 5% to 1%.

• Cybernetic pops now gain 10% Job Efficiency, up from 5%. The Limited Cyberization penalty for hive drones doubles to match.

• The Cybernetic Luminary leader experience penalty is reduced from 25% to 10%.

Bugfix:​

• Nascent Stage pre-sapients mature into their adult species again. (Again.)

• When new paragon leaders offers their service, accepting or dismissing them play their respective reaction sounds as expected

• Fixed a case of duplicate options to "Observe entangled mass"

• Fixed the amount of attunement from the Safeguarding deed.

• The Dayside Solar farms can now be re-established after terraforming the planet, if the planet is still tidally locked.

• The Developmental Pheromones for Arkships is now restricted to Arkships.

• Gestalt capital buildings now properly lists Chronicle Drones when appropriate.

• Robotic species are now able to remove the Terraphobic trait.

• Fixed a missing loc string for Gray in their ship from.

• Fixes several instances of missing loc in specimen descriptions.

• The incoming Asteroid should no longer get an event telling about its end as if it was a real empire.

• Fixed Combustible Atmosphere spawning an incorrect deposit of volatile motes.

• Imperial Heirs can no longer receive the Scout trait through events.

• Fixed the AdAkkaria's secrets event tooltip description.

• Fixed Synaptic Lathe collapse warning not triggering for Nomadic Empires.

• Harvest automation no longer sends Logistic Ships to planets whose deposits can only be worked by a Research Station.

• Fixed the Unaligned Shield Projectors planet modifier showing the resource harvesting cooldown instead.

• Fixed `set_fleet_settings` effect causing incorrect fleet behavior (such as Cetana's titan not entering combat).

• Crystal asteroids can now contain Rare Crystal deposits. Previously they could never hold any mining deposit.

• The Viridescent Lightbringer can now be granted Exotic Gas and Volatile Mote deposits by the Surveyor relic and by Arkship Deep Scanning.

• Fixed a broken subject icon and an intermittent crash on Negotiate Terms when a Nomad empire inherited a Scholarium or other specialist subject by winning a subjugation war.

• Female council members now use the female form of their title where one exists.

• Restoring a culled Gestalt node no longer strips the extra starting trait granted by the Aptitude tradition tree or Optimized Neurology.

• Renowned and Legendary leaders no longer gain an extra trait when the Aptitude tradition tree is finished.

• Fixed the Cosmogenesis exodus ending in a defeat instead of the intended victory when the empire's capital had moved to the Synaptic Lathe.

• _Apply Genetic Modification_ window now checks if the chosen template traits are valid in the template species instead of the original species.

• The ideology behind a planetary revolt is now weighted by how many pops on the planet actually hold that ethic, instead of every ideology being equally likely.

• An archaeological dig no longer offers a second Find the Curators objective when the event chain is already running.

• The Imitator anomaly now reliably records that it has already appeared for an empire, including when it rolls in an unowned system.

• Fixed an error when an astral rift exploration fleet was destroyed before its leader's death protection was cleared.

• Construction ships now automatically move on to Special Projects if more than one automation option is selected and they have finished everything else

• Hid the follow-up event from the tooltip of The Drums of War

• Re-enabled Distribute Luxury Goods for Nomads. Let the people have their free smart phones!

• Leaders of a Cybernetic Creed empire now reliably hold the Ritualistic Implants trait. Previously a leader could miss it depending on how they joined the empire.

• Deposits whose output depends on a condition, such as Zro deposits before the relevant technology is researched, no longer show a blank entry in the Planetary Features list while their tooltip shows the correct value.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when reopening the Situation Log after a situation ended and a new one began.

• Fixed Nomadic Machine Uprisings not getting all of the technologies they should

• Fixed an empire losing all of its fleets when one of its colonies was destroyed while it still owned other colonies.

• The Veiled Planet can no longer be colonized while it is phase-shifting; it must be phase-locked first.

• Nomadic empires that are not Storm Chasers can now get Storm technologies too.

• Bureaucrat job modifiers now correctly affect the Unity produced by Synapse Drones.

• Gestalt council nodes are now labeled with their position, instead of with a separate node name.

• A gestalt node's description no longer names the node differently depending on where you hover.

• The Synaptic Lathe no longer gains extra districts from empire-wide modifiers, such as the Instrument of Desire blessing or the Corridor astral rift.

• Separatists from a Nomad empire are now created as Nomad empires, with Operational Reserves and a Logistic Ship, instead of settled empires.

• Nomad separatists no longer become gestalt consciousnesses far more often than intended.

• Fixed multiple instances checking for the wrong version of the DotG AP.

• Fixed the Franchising civic granting no additional Subject Holding slot.

• Fixed the Feudal Society Chief Herald of Arms councilor granting no Unity from subjects.

• Fixed specialized subjects never granting the tier 2 leader traits that allow a leader to be traded to the overlord.

• Fixed gestalt empires patroned by the Instrument of Desire receiving no Psionic Choir policy.

• Fixed Machine Intelligence, Shattered Ring and Anglers empires almost never drawing food technologies.

• Fixed strike craft losing their target before completing an attack run, so they dealt no damage.

• Fixed Augmentor Drones producing no research before the third Cybernetic stage.

• Fixed the machine Bath Attendant job efficiency bonuses never applying to any empire.

• Fixed the Resort World decision allowing a second resort while the first was still queued.

• Fixed Cosmogenesis worlds being eligible to become treasure planets.

• Fixed the Incubator trait combining with clone soldier infertility.

• Fixed the Sector as Vassal deed being offered to Nomad empires.

• Fixed a Nomadic Princess option revealing a second wreck.

• Corrected tooltips for Agrarian Idyll and Anglers Amenities, Gaia Preference, Acidic Vascularity, Spare Organs, Resort Worlds,

• Auto-designed ion cannons now equip their default weapon even if you can't afford the rare crystals.

• Fix Gestalt Nodes that were sometimes displaying as portraits

AI:​

• The AI will no longer upgrade and destroy Gene Clinics in a loop because that specific Gene Clinic is increasing stability and amenities to the point where they think they no longer need it.

• Nomad AI empires now upgrade an Arkship they already own before building another one. Previously they saved for a new Arkship while an upgrade they could afford went unbought.

• Nomad AI empires now set aside resources for the districts and buildings of every Arkship they own, instead of budgeting as though they had one.

• Nomad AI empires no longer stall their economic plan because they hold energy and minerals as Operational Reserves rather than as a stockpile.

• Fixed the alloy production hint for tier 2 Coordinated Fulfillment Centers being lower than intended.

• Automatically generated defense platform designs no longer use autocannons, disruptors, psionic disruptors or mining lasers. Unlike the corresponding change to starbases, these can still be manually equipped in the ship designer.

• Nomad harvest target selection accounts for harvesting agreements, including a new Harvesting Rights harvest automation option.

• An AI empire is readier to grant Exclusive Harvesting Rights when it has an embassy with the nomads, or when it has adopted the Diplomatic Networking tradition.

• Joining and Leaving War changes:

  • AI empires are considerably less willing to join ongoing wars. They now weigh the size of the war, whether they are already fighting other wars, whether they have any quarrel with the opposing war leader, and how they feel about the empire that is asking.

  • When deciding whether or not to join a war, an empire's opinion of each side is now averaged across that side rather than summed, so a war is no longer more tempting to join just because there are many empires in it.

  • Bribing a reluctant empire into a war costs substantially more, and each reason they would rather stay out raises the price further. Empires are more easily talked into defending than into attacking.

  • AI empires no longer offer to join wars they do not actually want to fight.

  • Coalitions against a galactic crisis are unaffected by the new reluctance, and still form as readily as before.

• AI Empires now choose megastructure overclock modes based on designer supplied weights.

UI/UX:​

• Added missing authority tooltip in several UIs.

• Fixed missing tooltip for ethic icon in some leader portraits.

• Gestalt nodes no longer carry a separate name, and are renamed by their title alone.

• Trade actions with a negotiated value now show that value on the offer and on the ongoing deal, and a trade action that cannot currently be offered stays visible with an explanation instead of disappearing.

• The trade acceptance breakdown now lists a trade agreement even when it comes to zero, and names the reasons behind any acceptance bonus.

• Further polish on the policy pop ups in the Research and Fleet Management UIs

• We now notify you when another empire joins or leaves a war you are fighting in, including which side they joined. Clicking the notification opens the war overview.

• Megastructure effects are now grouped and labelled by what they apply to, separating empire wide effects from effects on the solar system and on the megastructure itself.

Modding:​

• Colony designations are now split across six files by group.

• AI budget files are now numbered by resource types.

• Added the has_upgradable_arkship and owns_arkship_fleets_at_least triggers.

• Added `can_be_capital` planet_class flag.

• Planet classes now support inherit_country_district_modifiers, which blocks the general max district modifiers and leaves only the planet class-specific ones.

• Tradable actions support a negotiated value (has_negotiable_value and the negotiable_value_* properties), a new trade_action_value trigger to read it, and a possible block that blocks an action with a player-facing reason.

• Tradable actions support an ai_acceptance block, a flat bonus to how far an AI will go to accept the deal the action is in.

• Added JOIN_WAR_DESIRE_OPINION_MULT, JOIN_WAR_DESIRE_PER_PARTICIPANT, JOIN_WAR_DESIRE_TO_OFFER, JOIN_WAR_PENALTY_ALREADY_AT_WAR, JOIN_WAR_PENALTY_NO_INTEREST, JOIN_WAR_PENALTY_DISLIKES_ASKER, JOIN_WAR_DEFENSIVE_PENALTY_MULT and JOIN_WAR_PRICE_MULT_PER_VIOLATION defines. Removed JOIN_WAR_DESIRE_AGAINST_RIVALS. Raised JOIN_WAR_MIN_TRADE_VALUE.

• Megastructure overclock modes support conditions for being unavailable as well as hidden, modifiers that apply to the whole solar system or to the megastructure itself, effects when a mode starts and stops, AI weighting, and custom tooltips. See common/megastructure_overclock_types/99_README_OVERCLOCKS.txt for documentation.

• Megastructures can rename the Overclocking tab and its strings, declare a cooldown between mode changes, apply a modifier to their whole solar system, and replace their listed modifiers with a custom tooltip.

• Added a trigger to check which overclock mode a megastructure is using, and the effect to set one now optionally skips the switching cooldown.

• Megastructure overclock modes can be grouped. An upgrade to a level with a different set of modes keeps the mode the player selected.

Let’s look into the Join War changes with more detail.

If you’ve been enjoying the games where it felt like every minor border skirmish escalated into War in Heaven-like grand campaigns, I’m sorry to say that we’re exploring a few changes to the behavior of the Join War feature.

We have two sets of changes coming that should make this feature feel better. First, informing you what happened. Second, making it happen less.

In the original implementation, Join messages were only being sent to a limited number of participants - they’ll now go to everyone involved in the war. The messages will name the empire, the war, and which side they’re joining. It’ll be colored as positive or negative depending on whether they’re joining your side of the war or the opposition. (If an entire federation jumps in at once, or an overlord with a passel of vassals, it’ll be one message - the primary plus x allies.)

Join us in glorious combat!​

Leaving a war was worse - nobody was getting any messages at all. We’ll now share a similar message when cowards leave a war that you’re in.

Viewed from the other side.​

The deeper issue was related to why everyone kept ganging up into gigantic wars. When you asked another empire whether they wanted to join your war, we worked out the price for their involvement. An AI with no interest in the war would have a higher price, but anyone could be bought, while an AI that liked your side would enthusiastically join for no cost at all.

The catch was that they considered every member on each side of the war, which meant that opinion swamped any other portion of the calculation - if several empires an AI liked were beating up someone they didn’t, they’d gleefully join into the dogpile. This caused the snowball effect that many of us saw - it was baked into the basic arithmetic.

Opinion still matters a great deal, but is now averaged across each side rather than being a sum, with the actual war leader on each side counting twice because it’s fundamentally their war. Adding five empires to a side that an AI has no strong feelings about will dilute their eagerness to join the war instead of increasing it. The AI will now also consider:

• The size of the war. Being asked to step into a seven-empire war is a bigger commitment than a minor border skirmish, and the AI will price it that way.

• Whether they’re already fighting. An empire already at war will be much less interested in getting involved in another.

• Whether they have a grudge against the opposing war leader. Previously, they’d count this as satisfied as long as there were any hated empires on the other side.

• How they feel about the allied war leader specifically. If an empire would rather see you weakened, it’ll cost you to get them to join you as an ally.

Their willingness to join and their price tag are both modified multiplicatively based on the number of tests failed. You can still buy your way out of trouble, but bribing a disinterested empire is more of a significant diplomatic (and economic) ordeal, rather than just a rounding error of your energy stockpile.

We have a couple of exceptions, though. Defensive wars are considered cheaper than attacking - helping a friend survive is an easier ask than helping them conquer someone. Crisis wars are also exempt from the size penalty entirely. A galactic crisis is supposed to be ganged up on, and these are not intended to make it harder to assemble that galactic coalition.

The AI should no longer offer to join wars it has little interest in, which means that if they come to you offering to join your war, they legitimately want in. You should still be able to ask them at any time, but if they’re not interested, they’ll make that clear with their pricing.

We’re currently focusing on the stabilization of 4.5, but we’re also currently still looking at AI and a handful of other high-priority issues.

Next week will likely remain a short dev diary on the status of the Open Beta, but depending on how that stabilization goes, we may share an expected release date for the 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ update.

See you then!