Stellaris News

by Eladrin

Hi 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”, and so is #361.

[h3]What is Stellaris?​[/h3]
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?”:
[hr][/hr][h3]The Galaxy is Vast and Full of Wonders​[/h3]
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 our domain.​
​[hr][/hr][h3]Stellaris is a Living Game​[/h3]
Over time, Stellaris has evolved and grown to meet the desires of the player base.​

• At launch, Stellaris leaned deep into its 4X roots.​
  
• It evolved from that base toward Grand Strategy.​
  
• As it continues to mature, we have added deeper Roleplaying aspects.​
  

All of these remain part of our DNA.

Stellaris is a 4X Grand Strategy game with Roleplaying elements that continues to evolve and redefine itself.​

[hr][/hr][h3]Every Game is Different​[/h3]
We desire for players to experience a sense of novelty every time they start a game of Stellaris.

They should be able to play the same empire ten times in a row and experience ten different stories.
A player’s experience will differ wildly if their first contact is a friendly MegaCorp looking to prosper together or if they’re pinned between a Fallen Empire and a Devouring Swarm.

Stellaris relies on a combination of prescripted stories (often tied to empire Origins) and randomized mechanical and narrative building blocks that come together to create unplanned, emergent narratives.

A sense of uncertainty and wonder about what could happen next is core to the Stellaris experience.
​[hr][/hr]
[h3]What is this About?​[/h3]
Fundamentally, as the players, Stellaris is your game.

Your comments and feedback on The Machine Age heavily influenced our plans for 2025. We work on very long timelines, so we’ve already been working on next year’s releases for some time now. Most of what I’m asking will affect which tasks the team prioritizes and will help direct our direction in 2026 and beyond.

We’re making some changes to how we go about things. Many people have commented that the quarterly release cadence we’ve had since the 3.1 ‘Lem’ update makes it feel like things are changing too quickly and too often, and of course, it disrupts your active games and mods. The short patch cycle between Vela and Circinus was necessary for logistical reasons but really didn’t feel great.

We’re going to slow things down a little bit to let things stabilize. I’ve hinted a couple of times (and said outright last week) that we have the Custodian team working on some big things - the new Game Setup screen was part of this initiative but was completed early enough that we could sneak it into 3.14.1. My current plan is to have an Open Beta with some of the team's larger changes during Q1 of next year, replacing what would have been the slot for a 3.15 release. This will make 2025Q2, around our anniversary in May, a bigger than normal release, giving us the opportunity to catch up on technical debt, polish, and major features.

[h3]What is Stellaris to you?​[/h3]
How does this match what you think Stellaris is, and where it should go? Would you change any of these vision statements?

What systems and content are “sacred” to you, which would make Stellaris not Stellaris anymore if we changed them?

Some examples to comment on could include:

• How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
  
• If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
  
• What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
  
• How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
  
• How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
  
• Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
  
• Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
  
• If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
  

[h3]To the Future, Together!​[/h3]
I want to spend most of this year’s remaining dev diaries (at least, the ones that aren’t focused on the Circinus patch cycle) on this topic, talking with you about where our shared galactic journey is heading.

Next week we’ll be talking about the 3.14.159 patch.

[h3]But First, a Shoutout to the Chinese Stellaris Community[/h3]​
Before I sign off, I want to commend the Chinese Stellaris Community for finding the funniest bug of the cycle. I’ve been told that they found that you can capture inappropriate things with Boarding Cables from the Treasure Hunters origin, and have been challenging each other to find the most ridiculous things to capture.

You know, little things like Cetana’s flagship. The Infinity Machine. An entire Enclave.

I’m not going to have the team fix this for 3.14.159, but will likely have them do so for 3.14.1592. I want to give you a chance to complete your collection and catch them all. After all, someone needs to catch The End of the Cycle and an Incoming Asteroid. Post screenshots if you catch anything especially entertaining!

See you next week!

by Eladrin

Hello 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!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]The Release Thus Far​[/h3]
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:

[h3]3.14.15 ‘Circinus’ Hotfix Release Notes[/h3]
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 are related to incompatible UI mods, so please remember to disable your mods that haven’t updated to the latest version before playing. Several players have reported their mods not fully uninstalling, so you may need to manually clear your mods folder if you continue having issues.

Please keep reporting issues you encounter in our Bug Reports forum.
[h3]The Plan​[/h3]
If everything goes according to plan, I expect that our next patch, 3.14.159, will be released on Tuesday, November 12th. This will let us include some fixes to issues that are reported this weekend and early next week.
[h3]Dev Q&A Transcript[/h3]​
We held a developer Q&A last week, and have exported a transcript for you here:

[Click through to the Paradox Forums to see the entire Q&A transcript]

[h3]Next Week[/h3]​
Next week is going to be a little bit different.

We’ll be looking at the internal vision statement of Stellaris and compare it to how the game has developed over the years, and I’d like to begin a conversation about how we’ll continue to evolve over the next few years.

The Custodian team has been up to something, and I want you to help guide them.

The Grand Archive Story Pack is available now!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Get it today, or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!

The Grand Archive Story Pack includes:

• 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​
  
• New Megastructure - The Grand Archive
  
• Two Tradition trees - Archivism and Domestication​
  
• Two Origins - Primal Calling and Treasure Hunters​
  
• Two Civics - Beastmasters and Galactic Curators​
  
• Two forms of spaceborne life - Cutholoids and Voidworms​
  
• Mid-game crisis - the Voidworm Plague​
  
• Three new music tracks​
  
• Events, Anomalies, Archaeology Sites, Technologies, Galactic community resolutions, and more!​
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863080/Stellaris_Grand_Archive/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08__Expansion_Pass/

[h3]New Megastructure - The Grand Archive[/h3]

The Grand Archive preserves and exhibits the most valuable artifacts we have collected throughout the galaxy. Reserved within is also a dedicated Vivarium for live Space Fauna containment and observation.



Constructing the Grand Archive allows for the exhibition of specimens you have found, as well as the containment, breeding and ultimately cloning of captured space fauna in the Vivarium.

[h3]New Discoveries - Specimens[/h3]

Specimens are rare and valuable objects that you collect while exploring the galaxy. Each Specimen has a Display Effect, providing small modifiers to boost your production across a wide variety of metrics, with their effects scaling based on the rarity of the specimen in question.

Specimens also provide additional information about the discoveries you have made, adding new details and information about events in the galaxy.



[h3]New Spaceborn Life[/h3]

Cutholoids

Cutholoids are massive organisms that inhabit asteroids in order to provide suitable protection for their otherwise soft bodies. This creature swallows its prey whole, using radioactive digestive fluid to slowly consume its prey.

Cutholoids are ambush predators that disguise themselves as asteroids. They will ambush and devour lone ships - these ships can be rescued by either capturing the Cutholoid or defeating it in battle. When cloned from Hatcheries by the player, these creatures can steal enemy ships by swallowing them whole.



Voidworms

Voidworms are parasitic organisms that must deposit spores on inhabited worlds with suitable biomass in order to reproduce. Mature individuals form mating trios, known as "Troikas", and will construct nests near black holes to shelter and raise their young.

Voidworms are aggressive parasites and will often bombard colonies in order to increase their numbers back in their nests. If their population is left unchecked, they will attempt to take over the galaxy in the new Voidworm Plague mid-game crisis.



[h3]Mid-Game Crisis - The Voidworm Plague[/h3]

The Voidworm population has reached a critical mass. The parasites no longer spare the planets they feed from. A breeding frenzy on the galactic scale is upon us.

This Mid-Game Crisis can be triggered if Voidworm populations reach a critical mass in the galaxy. Swarms of Voidworms will invade colonies and bombard them with abandon, adding to their numbers.



[h3]Origins[/h3]

Primal Calling

Masters of animal handling and ranching, their relationship with fauna has grown according to their ethics. How will this bond evolve on a galactic scale?

This mechanically-driven origin introduces a new Wrangler job, which changes based on the player's ethics and choices. Primal Calling empires also start with the ability to build Voidlures, and is ideally suited to support a creature-focused playstyle.



Treasure Hunters

Armed only with a mysterious map, race across the stars to secure a legendary pirate treasure.

This narrative-focused origin follows the trail of a forgotten pirate legend in search of her hoard. The Black Needle stands in your way, a long-standing pirate organization that will do anything to secure this treasure. On your journey, you will face deadly threats, memorable characters and maybe even the Pirate Queen herself.



[h3]Civics[/h3]

Galactic Curators

The meticulous collection and preservation of historical artifacts has always fascinated this civilization. But now, with the mysteries of the galaxy at their doorstep, there is everything left to learn.

Galactic Curators empires start with a set of three specimens and get a head start on building their Grand Archive thanks to insight into Galactic Archivism technology and a reduced cost and build time. Additionally, Galactic Curators gain bonus unity when completing an Archaeological Site or finding a Specimen.

As fellow Curators, they have increased starting opinion with the Curator Order and receive a discount on their services.

Beastmasters

Coming to full technological maturity in a system that serves as a feeding ground for Space Amoebas, this society has acquired a deep knowledge of their life cycle. They now work to nurture, raise, and ultimately clone these creatures for mutual benefit.

Start with the ability to capture Space Fauna and a fleet of Cloned Space Amoeba instead of Corvettes. Standard military ships use 3x naval capacity, so you must learn to harness the power of Cloned Space Fauna in order to succeed.

Find out more:
Watch the playlist on YouTube Read the Developer Diaries

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863080/Stellaris_Grand_Archive/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08__Expansion_Pass/