by Eladrin

Stellaris is having a free weekend! Tell your friends!

Play Stellaris for free this weekend!

We’ve asked the Dev team for some tips to help new players out during their first steps out into the wondrous unknown.

• Don't forget to unpause the game, but don't be afraid to pause it again if you need time to think. - Eladrin
  
• The different options in empire creation aren’t created equally, some empires will be more powerful than others, but regardless you’ll get more enjoyment out of the game by playing what you find fun (or what you find the idea of to be fun) without looking up the “perfect build”. - Alfray Stryke
  
• Buildings don't produce Resources, Jobs produce Resources! Just because you've built a shiny new Research Lab doesn't mean there's anyone working there. Click the Population tab to learn more! - OK_Television_391
  
• Stellaris has mid-game and end-game crises that you might not be able to defeat on your first try. Each defeat makes your eventual triumph more satisfying. - Eladrin
  
• Read the tooltips. - PDX_Ferry
  
• Not every Species eats food, some eat energy and others minerals. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Got a neighbor that closed the borders and rivaled you? It is a matter of time before they will declare war on you. Choose a choke point, build a star base, upgrade it with defense buildings. It might be just enough to defend the border, but for extra measure you can also build some defense platforms on the station or station your fleet there. This will enable you to mostly ignore that aggressive neighbor and focus on expanding/exploring the other direction.
  
• Losing a war isn't losing the game, enjoy your moments of vengeful plotting as much as your triumphs. - Beals
  
• Just because you've got slightly more fleet power than an enemy, it doesn't mean you're definitely going to win.
  
• If the notifications are too spammy (or not spammy enough), you can configure them in the settings. - pthooie
  
• A few Origins are more challenging than others. Doomsday, Broken Shackles, and Payback start you off with some major challenges to overcome, and may be better to save until you have a few games under your belt. - Eladrin
  
• Don't worry too much about what people say is best. Making an empire with a cool backstory will keep you entertained a lot longer than one with perfect numbers! - Iggy
  
• Make sure you expand you fleet early on, or you might be prey to the first neighbour you find. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
• Your pops will love the Holo-Theater building.- PDX_Ferry
  
• As expected in a sci-fi game, Research is king, however this means Unity is queen - don’t neglect the development of your empire’s Traditions in pursuit of new Technologies. - Alfray Stryke
  
• If you spawn next to a Criminal syndicate, keep an eye on your planets, or you might get overwhelmed by crime. - Paradoxical_Nikname
  
  • Correction: If you spawn next to a criminal syndicate, blow it up - Beals
• Pops > Everything. Want to increase your power in the galaxy? Colonize, boost Pop Growth Speed, encourage Immigration... But whatever method you choose, remember ABP: "Always Be Poppin!" - OK_Television_391
  
• For single player, it's good to queue up your science ship exploration and pick your first three technologies to research before you un-pause.
  
• Set up a monthly trade in the Market to get missing resources.- PDX_Ferry
  
• Be brave and break things, choose a clearly wrong choice, make mistakes, crack open that ancient tomb, the galaxy is yours and full of wonders! - Beals
  
• But most of all, have fun, and thanks for playing Stellaris! - Eladrin

Do you have any tips for the new explorers? Share them!

Stellaris is partnering with Makeship to produce a limited edition Stellaris Starfish plushie!

They may have destroyed Europa VII, but we can still be friends, right?

Click to go to the campaign![www.makeship.com]

Summer vacations are here, so this will be the last dev diary until mid-August, when we will return with information about Cosmic Storms and the Stellaris 3.13 “Vela” update.

Have a great summer, and thank you for playing Stellaris!

Dear Stellaris Fans,

Our latest and greatest version of the game, the 3.12.5 patch, is now live and available for download.

This patch brings further fixes and tweaks and wraps up our 3.12 + The Machine Age release cycle.
Please find the patch notes below.


Improvement

• Obsessional Directive empires that control a black hole now get an option for safe and secure storage for their commodities.
  
• Reworked how Fallen Empires view empires trying to match their technological level. Unless you're a Scion, any FE level tech you acquire will accrue a stacking opinion penalty with them, that is doubled for the materialist Fallen Empire.
  
• Added new building icons for the Sensorium and Simulation Sites and their upgrades
  
• Species list will not longer show founder species from various contacts that do not even have any presence on any of the planets.
  
• Megastrutures that are supposed to be built outside the gravity well will not be displayed in the list whilte trying to build one on top of planets or stars.
  
• Nanite deposits with non-zero available quantity below 1 now appear in galaxy and solar system views
  
• Nanotech empires will no longer receive ships every 5 years, and will instead gain an equivalent amount of nanites with which to build ships. They now have access to the Interdictor ship, a battleship alternative with a fixed nanite cost that can use torpedoes and hangars.

UI

• The first Outliner tab now includes military fleets, civilian ships and armies by default.

Balance

• Constructing an Arc Furnace in a system will now remove all trade deposits to make way for the mining stations
  
• Increased the output of Haruspex and Technophants.
  
• Haruspex now produce 3 Unity and 2.5 Engineering Research (was 2 Unity and 2 Engineering Research).
  
• Technophants now produce 6 Unity and 5 Engineering Research (was 4 Unity and 4 Engineering Research).
  
• Spyware Directives now start with Basic Cloaking Fields as a research option
  
• Synaptic Subprocessing for Hive Minds now grants Augmentor Drones to Spawning Pools instead of Modular Cybernetics, however the effect on Empire Size from Districts was halved
  
• Modular Cybernetics now grants Hive Minds +3 Organic Species Trait Points as they cannot research robotic technologies
  
• The AI Emporium Branch Office Holding no longer provides +5% resources from jobs, instead it provides +1 Identity Designer job and +10% Branch Office Value from Roboticists and Identity Designers. This allows the empire in which it is constructed to assemble robots even if they do not have the required technology. However, only one can be constructed in each empire in which you have a branch office and it can only be constructed if the empire has not outlawed robots.
  
• The Customer Insights edict now reduces both the energy and influence cost for Branch Offices
  
• The Empire Size Effect for Integrated Hives has been reduced from -50% to -33%
  
• Empire Size from Pops for OTA Updates has been reduced from -20% to -15%
  
• Empire Size from Pops from Harmony and Synchronicity tradition trees have been reduced from -15% to -10%
  
• Cetana's relic now provides -50% planetary ascension cost, down from 75%.
  
• The job strata bonuses from Synthesization have been rebalanced, moved to the robot assembly buildings, and apply to both regular empires and Synthetic Fertility

Bugfix

• Planets which had an anomaly present while an Arc Furnace was constructed will now correctly inherit all the deposits when the anomaly is cleared, if the planet can support mining deposits
  
• Updated many anomalies to no longer remove deposits if applicable.
  
• Gone Native' event has default text in case none of the other options were appropriate
  
• AI Empires will check if they already have an assigned emissary for the galactic community before assigning a new one.
  
• AI will assign emissaries to the Galactic Community.
  
• AI will check if a federation already has an assigned representative before assigning a new one. Will prevent it from continually switching representatives.
  
• Cybernetic Creed start event duplication blocked
  
• Fallen Empires created by Cosmogenesis should now no longer sometimes be created tragically without a personality.
  
• Federation/Galcom fleet template size is now limited by the corresponding capacity, not by the command limit.
  
• Fixed Augmentation Bazaars sometimes not granting the full effects from some Cyberization choices
  
• Fixed Expand the Council agenda behavior for savefiles that predate Galactic Paragons DLC
  
• Fixed former federation fleets being treated as federation fleets when checking which ship designs can be added to the template.
  
• Fixed some logical errors for the Bot Lord, Truth Seeker and Shroud Preacher traits
  
• Fixed the concept tooltip for Machine Template System
  
• Fixed the nanite deposit scaling
  
• Fixed the void dweller origin sometimes trying to spawn a mining station around the habitat central complex
  
• Hide Dyson Sphere build option when Machine DLC is enabled
  
• Increased the animation speed of Imperial Colossus. Now it has enough time to trigger laser beam animation.
  
• New rulers will properly abandon their old council positions.
  
• Paradox titan graphics no longer uses the same mesh twice and looks broken.
  
• Pre-sapient pop will no longer display colony abandonment cost if only one sapient pop is left on the planet.
  
• Psionic species variants can be cyberized
  
• Refugees will no longer flee to places where they will be dismantled on arrival
  
• Replaced most checks for the Servile, Nerve Stapled, Zombie and Suppressed traits with the can_think trait.
  
• Science ships using automation should no longer excavate archeology sites that aren't available to the owning empire.
  
• Script error in resort worker job block
  
• The Psionic Theory no longer tries to check if your empire has the Psionic Expertise trait, instead it checks if a Councilor has the trait.
  
• The tooltip for Diplomatic Weight now states "Delegate" instead of "Envoys"
  
• The Victory Score breakdown will now correctly include Victory Score from effects in its Score calculation at the top of the screen.
  
• When a country leaves a federation, its federation fleet templates are now transferred to the president.
  
• When a federation is disbanded, the president takes control of all federation fleet templates, including ones without a fleet.
  
• When a non-president country builds a federation fleet from a template, the template is now transferred to the president along with the fleet.
  
• When the GDF changes ownership, GDF fleet templates without actual fleets are now transferred.
  
• The Eternal Throne relic still grants immortality after the Eternal Machine species trait has been modified away.
  
• Arc Furnace and Dyson Swarm limits no longer suffer an off-by-one error
  
• Outposts raids conducted by multiple fleets should no longer be cut short after one of the fleets is destroyed.
  
• Made sure that non player countries are properly destroyed upon activation of the Aetherophasic Engine.
  
• The Reformed Queen event should now properly display Cetana.
  
• Ministry of Acquisition checks for Overlord Consumer Goods Use
  
• Ship preview should no longer black out when viewing certain ships

AI

• AI empires can no longer adopt Virtuality.

Stability

• Fixed crash in federation fleet ui entry after resync
  
• Fixed crash in federation member UI item when resyncing
  
• Fixed crash upon loading a save with faulty owners of megastructures
  
• Fixed CTD when technology without tech area is processed by the database
  
• Fixes oos related to mining planet megastructure
  
• Fixed CTD at startup on older macOS (before 13.x) due to missing library

Modding

• Added on_auto_colony_type_changed on_action.
  
• Added the Servile trait to the can_think scripted trigger

The team will now shift focus to our next major release, as well as take some vacation in between.

See you again after summer!