Stellaris Dev Diary #434 - 4.5.2 'Cygnus' Tentative Patch Notes

by Alfray Stryke

Hey folks, unfortunately Eladrin's been off ill this week, so we don’t have a full Dev Diary for this week. However I do have tentative patch notes for the 4.5.2 patch to share with you.

As always, thank you for playing Stellaris and giving us the feedback/bug reports, they help a great deal.

Stellaris 4.5.2 Patch Notes

Changes in placeholder italics are still in progress, but aim to be ready for the patch release.

Feature

• Nomadic Knights of the Toxic God who tame or slay the Toxic God can now use their Arkships to Detoxify Toxic Terraforming Candidates into habitable worlds.

Improvement

• The Job Efficiency from Specialist Training now displays the correct source in the tooltip.
• Logistic Ships now show Waystations in the Megastructure Build Menu alongside their dedicated Build Waystation Button for consistency with Arkships.
• Renamed the Envoy capacity modifier to be less confusing.
• Fire Cult combination jobs now appear for any empire that meets the same conditions as the base job, such as owning a Citadel of Faith or a Galactic Stock Exchange.
• Without Shadows of the Shroud, forming and advancing a Covenant now tells you what your Telepaths gain.
• Split the defense platforms into their own weapon/defense preference policies. Removed the starbase strike craft weapon preference policy following this as it was no longer needed.
• Added the Weapon Preferences (Arkships) policy for nomadic empires. It sets the point defense of all Arkships and the Military Arkship Armaments.
• Added the Defense Preferences (Waystations) policy for nomadic empires
• The starting Fleet Doctrine, Weapon Preferences and Defense Preferences policies are now randomized, weighted towards the empire's default preferences

Balance

• The Conserve approach for Operational Reserves now gives -50% Specialist Job Efficiency, instead of -50% output for Bureaucrats and Researchers.
• Armor now costs the same energy and alloy upkeep as a shield of the same tier, down from double.
• Maulers are now slightly slower with a base speed of 140 (comparable to frigates) down from 160 (comparable to corvettes).
• The Franchising Civic can now ignore Opinion, Trust, and Embassy requirements for proposing Subjugation.
• The Pilot Project bonuses now only apply to Cyborg Pops.
• The Pilot Project bonuses now give +15% to Elites, +7.5% to Specialists, +10% to Workers and +5% to all.
• Fire Cult now grants Job Efficiency to Fire Dancers instead of Unity output, and it scales with the Habitability of each Pop Group rather than the planet average.
• Experiment Engineers produce 1 of each research type instead of 2, with their upkeep halved to match. Crime now raises their Job Efficiency rather than scaling research and upkeep in separate steps.
• For Gestalt empires, the Covenant with the Cradle of Souls now gives Unity from Psionic Pops, instead of a percentage bonus to Telepath Unity.
• Telepaths under the Covenant with the Whisperers in the Void now give 1 of each Research per rank, down from 1.5.

Bugfix

• The Large Mega Bombard mutation now has the correct range and fires in combat.
• With Archaeo-Engineers, Ancient Suspension Epidermis and Ancient Energized Carapace now add a flat shield bonus instead of multiplying the Space Fauna's total shields.
• Ancient Suspension Epidermis, Ancient Energized Carapace and Null Void Epidermis now have stats in line with the other Space Fauna mutations.
• Medium and Large Pulse Carapace now have the same armor hardening as the Small size.
• Updated waystation collection prioritisation by using a monthly cache for percentage of stockpile used.
• Fixed a subject sometimes staying in a war it should have left when declaring independence or changing overlords while fighting multiple wars at once.
• Fixed the Hive Fallen Empire installing psionic circuitry into pops made of meat (or rock)
• Fixed the "max" parameters of complex_trigger_modifier overwriting the "min" parameter.
• Fixed Imperious Architecture not working.
• Fleets no longer stay locked in a battle forever when one of their ships drifts out of weapon range.
• Starbases and stations that stopped defending themselves during a long battle now recover when the save is loaded.
• Fixed Prosperous Unification not giving additional districts for Nomadic empires. Also improved the tooltip for the Nomadic version of the origin.
• Bioship living metal armor now mirrors regular living metal armor, including hardening and hull regeneration.
• Fixed some tiers of living metal armor being cheaper than intended.
• The Crystallinus Diffuser triumph now only boosts non-robotic pops. It now grants +50% Job Efficiency instead of +100% Resources from Jobs.
• Individualist Machine and Synthetically Ascended empires now use the Machine rewards for the Crystallinus Diffuser.
• Fallen Empire buildings no longer provide automation for Virtual empires.
• Nomadic Synthetic Fertility no longer starts with a size 20 Arkship.
• Fixed civics and origins trying (and failing) to give traits to Envoys.
• The Chamber of Elevation and House of Apotheosis now stop Necrophage Bonus Growth as well as base growth.
• Clone Vats and similar no longer have their output diluted by Pops that cannot use them.
• Fixed issues with Syamelle's Curse
• Crystallization now gives its full bonus on a Massive Crater.
• Species traits that produce resources now work for the Precursor stratum.
• Fixed the Adaptive Architecture tradition referring to Arkships for Void Dwellers
• Fixed Void Dwellers ignoring the thermophile district initialization.
• Fixed issues with Psionic Authority tooltips
• Hive-minds no longer gain unworkable farmer jobs when choosing to eat titanic life.
• Fixed Gateways, Hyper-Relays and the Grand Archive not being buildable by Nomadic empires in some cases.
• Fixed tooltip drift with the Dictatorial Alignment Cybernetic Authority.
• Fixed Endbringers being allowed to be invited to Federations.
• Fixed Endbringers getting the Federation Code tech via Focus rewards
• Fixed Democratic Transference only increasing the energy upkeep of districts, not all upkeep.
• Fixed the Cybernetic Pilot Projects describing Resource Output when they give Job Efficiency.
• A colony that revolts with the backing of another empire now joins that empire, instead of becoming independent.
• An empire that backs a revolt is now notified when the colony joins it.
• The Planetary Revolt situation now names the empire that the colony will join in its outcome description.
• Hive Mind and Machine Intelligence empires that back a revolt now receive the correct message.
• Rebels who break away now also claim nearby empty systems.
• Species with the Aquatic trait can now use the Wet Climate Mods planet preference from the Cybernetics ascension path.
• The Hydrocentric Ascension Perk is now available to Aquatic species that use the Wet Climate Mods planet preference.
• Fixed several issues with disabled Nomad Arkships being re-enabled ahead of time.
• Nomads that win a war as a secondary participant no longer keep a permanently disabled Arkship.
• A recovered Arkship comes back repaired, and the Recover Disabled Nomad Vessel special project can be offered again if the first attempt runs out of time.
• Making peace in one war no longer ends occupations that belong to a second, ongoing war against the same empire.
• Fixed high Councilor levels inverting the Test Subject losses of the Experimental Testing situation, which added Pops instead of removing them.
• Fixed the Fire Cult civic tooltip stating that Fire Oracles and Ember Legions need Habitability below 50% and 20%, when exactly 50% and 20% also qualify.
• Fixed a double space in the Fire Cult civic tooltip.
• Fixed the Cybernetic Creed tooltip reading "Priest are replaced by Haruspices".
• Covenant telepath bonuses now apply as soon as the Covenant is formed, instead of one year later.
• Covenant tooltips now show the correct effect for Machine and Gestalt empires.
• The Covenant with the Cradle of Souls now shows its Telepath bonus in the Patron panel.
• Fixed the Animator of Clay and Pale Mountain minor patrons having misleading tooltips.
• The Shroud-Warped leader trait and the Unemployment Benefits modifier no longer scale with the number of traits a species has.
• Blocking the Kaleidoscope event from firing for Wilderness Empires in several different circumstances.
• Reanimator AI Empires can build Undead Armies again.

• Astral Rifts no longer re-open after AI finishes exploring it.
• AI empires no longer receive double the rewards from some events.
• Espionage operations set to Commence When Ready no longer grant their event rewards twice.
• Nomadic Knights of the Toxic God can now settle once they reach the Toxic God system, and keep the Order's Keep and their Knights on the new homeworld.
• Nomadic Knights of the Toxic God no longer get stuck when they lose the Order's Keep Arkship. The Quest for the Toxic God now locks while the Arkship is lost, and ends if it is destroyed.
• The extra moon of Earth for Nomadic Knights of the Toxic God starting in Sol is now named appropriately.
• Fixed issues with the Knights of the Toxic God origin tooltips
• Leader traits for gestalt empires are now named correctly
• Fixed a leveled technology losing its identity when written to a save.
• Fixed starbase weapon preference policies not taking priority when other weapons scored higher. (e.g. starbases preferring to equip plasma weapons instead of swarmer missiles, even with explosive weapon preference)
• Fixed the weapon and defense preference policies not appearing until 2200-01-02
• Gated the starbase explosive weapon preference policy behind the swarmer missiles tech
• Fixed starbase weapon and defense policies not working if the ship auto-designer is turned off
• Turning the ship auto-designer back on now refreshes the loadout of existing starbases.
• Nomadic empires no longer have the starbase and defense platform preference policies
• Fleets no longer keep vanishing and reappearing in the same system when their capital is occupied or held under an enemy FTL inhibitor.
• Fleet actions that cannot be used because of their cost, a cooldown or an ongoing action on the same target now appear disabled in the right-click menu, with the reason in the tooltip.

AI

• The AI now values the Aquatic trait on species that use the Wet Climate Mods planet preference

UI/UX

• Marauder and Fallen Empire Flags are now different to the normal empire flag on Game Setup
• The Fire Cult civic tooltip now lists its job replacements under a single Fire Cult Priesthood entry.
• The Shroud tab no longer opens itself after you breach the Shroud or start as a Shroudwalker Apprentice.
• Tooltips now explain when a nomadic empire is blocked from entering other empires where it was expelled through war.
• Renamed the weapon and defense preference policies to Weapon Preferences and Defense Preferences, with the Fleets, Starbases, Defense Platforms, Arkships or Waystations they apply to in parentheses, so they appear together
• The Military Policies window opened from the Fleet Manager is now as tall as the Fleet Manager and wider, so the full policy names fit
• The Military Policies and Research Policies windows now sort their policies alphabetically, the same as the Policies view

Graphics

• Deselect Button now have its own bespoke icon.
• The Fleet Manager Red BG now fills up the entire panel.

Stability

• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a save with an unrecognized asteroid belt type.
• Fixed a crash on startup caused by a missing or empty language list.
• Fixed an issue where a name using a language-specific grammatical form could cause a multiplayer desync.
• Fixed a rare case where a war could remain active forever after every real participant on one side was gone.
• Fixed a waystation network sometimes keeping a stale reference after a starbase was destroyed under occupation.

Performance

• Reduced micro-freezes in late game with nomad AIs

Modding

• Shield upkeep scripted variables are renamed to the shared @defense_<size>_t<N>_upkeep_* family.
• Scripted trigger basic_eligibility_for_separatism_joining_trigger is now separatism_joining_eligibility_trigger, and it takes the rebelling species and the situation as parameters.
• Removed the multiply_by_habitability_effect_modifier civic field. Use a triggered_pop_group_modifier on a pop category with a script value instead.
• Added define "STATION_BUILD_DISTANCE_MAX" for how many jumps away from a fleet the AI and fleet automation will look to find something for a civilian fleet to do.
• Added DESIGNER_STARBASE_WEAPON_PREF_MUL as the starbase and defense platform sibling to DESIGNER_WEAPON_PREF_MUL
• Added is_preferred_platform_weapons trigger as a sibling to is_preferred_starbase_weapons
• Added set_ai_platform_weapon_preference, set_ai_platform_armor_ratio and set_ai_platform_shields_ratio, with matching clear_ai_platform_weapon_preference, clear_ai_platform_armor_ratio and clear_ai_platform_shields_ratio
• Moved the fleet, starbase and defense platform policies to 06_policies_fleets_and_starbases.txt
• Added preferred_* country flags that the fleet doctrine and weapon and defense preference policies set when enabled
• Added the clear_*_preference_flags, clear_fleet_doctrine_flags and clear_*_preference_overrides scripted effects, and the has_*_doctrine_personality scripted triggers
• Renamed defense_platform_policy_effects.txt to fleet_and_starbase_policy_effects.txt

The rest of the team wanted me to include a photo of the co-author of today’s Dev Diary

If all goes to plan, this should be released next week, on Tuesday, October 6th.

What’s Next?

Next week, Eladrin should be back (unless he’s still battling the Scourge).

See you then!