What changed in Stellaris in 2018

Buy and sell labor on an industrial scale, with options to set them free or keep them as livestock.

Includes Matter Decompressor, Mega-Art Installation, Interstellar Assembly, and Strategic Coordination Center.

Step into the role as the leader of a Megacorporation and rule the galaxy through your business acumen.

Increase population density of core worlds to create a planet-spanning megacity.

Chief Executive Officers can conduct business on a galaxy-wide scale with new civics and Branch Offices.

Nomadic traders who offer bargains and surprises when visiting their home systems.

New perks to keep your economy competitive in a cutthroat galaxy.

The MegaCorp expansion introduces new gameplay features allowing players to manage their own MegaCorp.

Stellaris: MegaCorp will be releasing on December 6th, 2018.

A new Slave Market feature has been added to MegaCorp, allowing easier transfer of slaves between empires once the Galactic Market is founded.

The price of slaves on the market is set at 500 ± cost affected by traits, with certain traits increasing or decreasing the price.

Unity Ambitions has been made a free feature to ensure Unity remains useful.

New mandates have been added and existing ones reworked for democratic empires, focusing on resource gathering and income.

The Caravaneers are space-based traders who send out fleets across the galaxy to offer players great deals.

Players can visit the caravaneer base to exchange Energy Credits for CaravanCoinz and participate in games of chance or buy loot boxes.

The fleets include Racket Industrial Enterprise, the Numistic Order, and the Vengralian Trium, each offering specialized deals.

Four new Megastructures: Matter Decompressor, Strategic Coordination Center, Mega Art Installation, and Interstellar Assembly.

New city planet feature allowing players to create Ecumenopolises by unlocking an Ascension Perk and filling planets with City Districts.

Megastructures now cost alloys to build instead of minerals to fit the new economy.

MegaCorps can construct Branch Offices on other empires' planets to generate income based on trade value.

A civic that transforms MegaCorps into MegaChurches, boosting spiritualist ethics attraction and economic benefits.

A new civic that turns MegaCorps into criminal syndicates, allowing them to establish Branch Offices without permission.

Subsidiaries are a new subject type for MegaCorps, allowing them to maintain diplomatic independence while paying tribute.

MegaCorps have a higher administrative cap but suffer greater penalties for exceeding it.

MegaCorporations are a new type of empire with a Corporate authority focused on trade and energy credits.

Players can create planet-spanning megacities on Ecumenopolis.

Ability to buy and sell labor on an industrial scale.

New structures like Matter Decompressor and Mega-Art Installation for enhanced capabilities.

Nomadic traders who offer bargains and surprises in the galaxy.

Introducing a revolutionary new way to conduct business on a galactic scale with new features and mechanics.

Additional perks to keep the economy competitive in the galaxy.

New civics for MegaCorp CEOs to conduct business galaxy-wide and build Branch Offices on planets.

Added technologies that increase efficiency for space-based resource extraction.

New technology allowing planets to be designated as Penal Colonies, increasing crime but boosting immigration pull.

New technology allowing planets to be designated as Resort Worlds, enhancing amenities for other colonies.

Introduction of Raw Resource and Advanced Resource Technologies to streamline resource management.

Prosperity Traditions now focus on improving planets and enhancing specialists.

Domination Traditions shifted from vassals to reducing crime and improving workers, slaves, rulers, and governors.

Discovery Traditions are themed around research and space exploration.

Supremacy Traditions emphasize larger fleets and stronger starbases.

Harmony Traditions are centered around sustainability, amenities, and stability.

Diplomacy Traditions focus on federations, the galactic market, and trade.

Expansion Traditions now focus on faster colonization, larger populations, and a bigger empire.

Buildings become Ruined if the required Pops for operation are no longer met.

The Decisions system will be fully moddable for community enhancements.

Devastation increases from 0 to 100, impacting planet operations and requiring resources to clear.

Bombardment now causes Devastation, affecting housing, amenities, trade value, and pop growth.

Decisions replace the old Planetary Edicts, allowing for more complex actions on planets.

Introduced observer mode with numerous observer-only events to track galaxy happenings.

Introduced a player map mode displaying player names instead of empire names, greying out AI empires.

Corrected a bug where nanites would terraform stars instead of suitable planets.

Added a filter checkbox for non-player controlled empires in galaxy/contacts view.

Removed restrictions on making claims when possessing a Colossus.

Resolved an issue where the number of fleets in orbit was capped, affecting movement orders.

Properly reset the retrofit list to rebuild correctly when switching ship designs.

Enabled scripting for the size and distances of orbital ship stacks around planets.

Fixed advanced start AI empires lacking additional colonies at game start.

Access to earlier versions of PDS games will now require a Steam password and linking of accounts due to GDPR compliance.

Addressed multiple issues that could lead to out-of-sync problems in multiplayer.

Added '-observe' command line argument to start directly in observer mode.

Implemented a new multiplayer system allowing cross-play across all supported platforms.

Added extensive empire information to the hotjoin menu.

Addressed numerous missing text strings in the game.

Resolved an out-of-sync issue related to ship design upgrades.

Trade Value is a new value for non-Gestalt empires representing civilian and private-sector economies, generated by Pops and certain jobs.

Piracy accumulates along trade routes, affecting Trade Value transfer; players can use Starbases and fleets for protection.

Trade Value can be exploited for resources if collected by upgraded Starbases and sent to the capital system.

Trade Routes connect Starbases to the capital for the transfer of collected Trade Value, with player control over routing.

Detailed steps provided for linking Steam and Paradox accounts to access codes for previous game versions.

Instructions on how to switch to older game versions using codes retrieved from Paradox Plaza.

Factions now always provide some influence based on their Approval, with scaling benefits.

There is no longer any core sector limit, and bonuses previously given to core sector planets have been changed or removed.

Faction Happiness is now Faction Approval, affecting influence and Pop Happiness based on approval levels.

Sectors are now administrative units with layout based on galactic geography, automatically created when colonizing a planet in a new cluster.

A Market Fee of 30% on purchases and sales to prevent profit from immediate reselling.

Trader Enclaves will now sell rare resources and offer special Governor-type leaders.

Control of a Trader Enclave's home system allows building a Starbase that reduces Market Fees.

Prices on the Galactic Market fluctuate based on sales and purchases, affecting all empires.

The first empire to discover 50% of others becomes the Market Founder, establishing the Market Capital.

Initial access to the Internal Market with higher prices, transitioning to the Galactic Market as empires discover each other.

A new interface for buying and selling resources using Energy Credits, influenced by supply and demand.

Planet Stability now affects productivity and prosperity, ranging from 0 to 100%.

Amenities now represent infrastructure and facilities needed for population happiness.

Pop Happiness influences Approval Rating but no longer directly affects productivity.

Crime is generated by Pops and can lead to events without direct penalties, affecting stability.

Deposits now represent areas on the planet that can be economically exploited, affecting the number of Districts that can be built.

Infrastructure level affects the number of jobs provided by buildings, encouraging urbanization for efficiency.

Fixed end game crisis not expanding

Buildings are specialized facilities providing various jobs and resources, limited by the planet's Infrastructure.

"Fire once" events no longer report an error if fired multiple times, preventing error log spam

Districts represent large areas of development on planets, with types including City, Mining, Generator, and Agriculture Districts.

Complete redesign of the planetary management system and replacement of planetary tiles.

Fixed nonsensical requirement to have a free Leader slot.

Fixed not firing in own systems, affecting completion of certain events.

More AI empires are now picking sides among the Awakened Empires rather than staying neutral.

Fixed instances of fleets getting stuck.

Marauder empires are less likely to spawn close to an empire's starting system.

AI no longer thinks unreachable systems are the closest.

Limbobots can no longer be used to colonize worlds.

Certain opinion modifiers are now going away over time.

AI no longer considers fleeing fleets as support.

Players can now rename the currently selected faction in faction view by clicking its name.

Event trigger preventing chain from continuing after colonization fixed.

Raiding fleets are now always deleted a year after they start to withdraw.

Fixed wrong species rights in a Machine Empire.

Anomalies can now be set to be used by both AI and human empires.

Event text is now correct if only one L-Gate exists.

Fleets that cannot have their leader assigned or removed will now show this in the interface.

Existing Horde fleets are replaced by a fixed number of replacements.

Resolved error where these empires could get an alien scientist from an anomaly.

Players can no longer change components on auto-generated designs.

Will no longer appear on terraformed planets or Ring Worlds.

Only docked ships in starbases with upkeep reduction show green orbit icon.

It is no longer possible to construct event ships from starbases.

Requests between empires of the same species class now present correct localization.

Acquiring L-Gate and activation tech out of order no longer causes project to fail.

Fixed issues with upgrading designs twice.

Limbo can only trigger once per game globally.

AI empires are now more likely to find L-Cluster insights after 100 years.

Should no longer be placed on Holy Worlds or hostile systems.

Terraforming candidates reduced by about 50%.

Auto-upgrade can now be saved.

Resources generated via events will now trigger the message.

Replaced by a fixed number of replacements.

AI no longer thinks unreachable systems are the closest.

Event text is now correct if only one L-Gate exists.

More AI empires now pick sides among Awakened Empires rather than staying neutral.

Anomalies can now be set to be used by both AI and human empires.

Marauder raiding fleets are now always deleted a year after starting to withdraw.

Certain opinion modifiers now go away over time.

Event trigger preventing chain from continuing after colonization fixed.

Frequency of terraforming candidates reduced by about 50%.

Resolved error where Fanatic Purifier style empires could get an alien scientist from an anomaly.

Event not fired in own systems fixed, resolving various bugs.

Resources generated via events will now trigger the discovery message.

Non-sapient robots now get correct species rights in a Machine Empire.

Only ships docked in a starbase with upkeep reduction show a green orbit icon.

Cloud Lightning is no longer hidden and unavailable.

Acquiring L-Gate and activation tech out of order no longer causes project to fail.

Resources will no longer appear on terraformed planets or Ring Worlds.

Nonsensical requirement for free Leader slot removed.

AI empires are now more likely to find L-Cluster insights after 100 years.

Limbo can now only trigger once per game globally.

AI no longer considers fleeing fleets as support.

Marauder empires are less likely to spawn close to an empire's starting system.

Players can now rename the currently selected faction in faction view by clicking its name.

Fleets that cannot have their leader assigned or removed will now show this in the interface.

Limbobots can no longer be used to colonize worlds.

Requests between empires of the same species class now present correct localization.

Nivlac Empire no longer placed on Holy World or in hostile system.

Ability to see the claims of other empires on the galactic map in diplomatic mapmode.

Tweaking the spawning radiuses of space creatures and fallen empires to ensure regular appearances.

Ongoing work to flesh out the L-Cluster and add more outcomes.

Focus on bug fixes, QOL features, and performance/stability improvements.

New feature allowing dynamic naming of objects in script based on context, such as naming fleets after leaders.

Working on resolving decreased performance and stuttering issues experienced by users in version 2.1 compared to 2.0.

Addressing feedback on L-Cluster outcomes to add more flavor and detail, and improve balance and AI-related issues.

Fixed The Gray Tempest event having 2 choices with identical outcomes.

The Imperialist faction is now okay with ideological wars and will only be angry if the policy is set to Defensive Wars Only.

The frequency of gaining L-Gate Insights from unrelated anomalies has been reduced by 70%.

Fixed some Horizon Signal-related building tooltips.

Fixed a crash when the gateway type doesn't exist, affecting certain mods.

Fixed an out of sync due to Experimental Subspace Navigation.

Added is_event_design setting for event ship designs that should be blocked by fleet manager.

Fixed Fanatic Purifier, Devouring Swarm, and Determined Exterminator Empires suddenly becoming socially presentable when talking to Curators about L-Gates.

Missing word added in Phase Disruptor tech description.

Fixed instances where Empires created after initial L-Gate activation would be unable to use the L-Gates.

HP of missiles has been reduced across the board, making point defense more potent.

Saved Event Targets should now always persist through Special Projects.

Players can now achieve partial victory in subjugation and liberation wars with occupied systems splitting off as a new subject or ally.

Moved scripted variables for buildings into the scripted variables file.

Asteroids can now glow.

Fixed an out of sync related to ship armor stats.

Phaseshifting planet now has edge case handling if a nation completes the project before researching the anomaly.

Fixed pop_modifier out of sync in multiplayer.

Fixed '...and Hope?' achievement for opening the L-Cluster not being awarded.

More border calculations optimization implemented.

Hyperlane density can now be changed to 'full', guaranteeing every possible hyperlane will exist.

Borders are now only updated if they need to be, reducing unnecessary operations.

The Prosperity faction will now be happier if the war policy is set to Defensive Wars Only.

Fixed missing ambient sounds for certain star classes.

Gestalt consciousness can no longer pick liberation wars policy as it did nothing for them anyway.

Fixed 'Bunker-Bot' anomaly not generating an L-Gate Insight.

Fixed several other out of sync causes with convoluted causes.

Fixed cases where you would sometimes not identify Leviathans after meeting them, fixing Curators not having anything to say about them.

Fixed getting brain slugs and other non-robotic traits for event-spawned robotic leaders.

Fixed a text overflow issue in the Anomaly tracker.

Fixed missing text description for the L-Gate insight technology.

Added Distant Stars ownership icon for multiplayer setup.

Fixed missing brain slug traits for scientists and admirals.

Fixed a bug where guaranteed nearby colonizable worlds sometimes did not appear.

Pacification of Space Amoebas or Crystals now turns them neutral instead of friendly.

Players can now choose to start in a trinary or binary star system when creating their empire.

A technology must now be researched after gathering all L-Gate insights before starting the project to open the gates.

Fixed other typos rendering the game literally unplayable.

Introduced an experimental ETA feature for starship movement orders, indicating approximate date of arrival.

Improved janky Tiyanki death animations, giving rise to a desire for a new 1930's dance craze.

Scriptable localization error logging fix.

Cached tile resource production for faster performance.

Fixed 'Asteroid Collision' anomaly awarding the wrong deposit type.

Fixed several crashes with similarly arcane origin stories.

Hyperlanes are no longer immediately visible and revealed through exploration

Encounter new anomalies and strange beings in the depths of space.

Added unique systems and L-Gates to explore and research

AI will retreat its Colossus if alone in combat

Most requirements have been removed as they were gated by anomalies

Added 'Research Anomalies in System' right-click command

Added Voidspawn, Tiyanki Matriarch, and Scavenger Bot

Increased the total amount of anomalies by almost 50%

Curator Enclaves will now spawn to assist with new Leviathans

Now lists anomalies as well

Allows more Fallen Empires to spawn in large galaxies

More interesting hyperlane terrain with stars grouped in constellations

Now a Tier 3 tech (down from 4)

Including triggering for Gestalt Consciousness empires

Increased from 5% per level to 10% per level

More fixes implemented to address out of sync issues in multiplayer gameplay.

Distant Stars adds several dozen new anomalies, increasing the anomaly count by about 50%.

Old anomalies have been improved and fixed to ensure they spawn correctly.

To avoid unintentionally deleting files.

Now gives shorter emergency FTL cooldown instead of sublight speed bonus.

Ships are now consolidated into their ship size for a clearer view.

Hard cap on command limit raised from 200 to 500.

Firing speed reduced from 90 to 30 days; charge time from 270 to 90 days.

AI will no longer use jump drive in inappropriate situations.

Colossus now shows progress for charging weapon in the outliner.

Players can now properly use gateways they've built.

Scaled difficulty is now a separate setting from difficulty.

Pre-sapients now receive correct traits.

Gives +5 influence/month.

New L-Gate structures found in Black Hole systems, requiring unique insights to activate.

Uncover new anomalies and storylines, and encounter strange new beings in the uncharted depths of space.

Fixed occupation armies spawning mid-invasion/bombardment

Fixed broken/missing graphics, sound, and starship components

Fixed enlighten primitives action giving you low-level intel of the entire galaxy

Fixed AI not building Starbase buildings/modules

Numerous balance adjustments made in the 2.0.2 beta update.

Numerous balance adjustments made in the 2.0.2 beta update.

Improvements and fixes targeting out-of-sync issues experienced in multiplayer.

Additional fixes targeting out-of-sync issues experienced in multiplayer.

Modders will have the ability to change the duration before forced peace or disable it entirely.

The war exhaustion system will now flag sides at 100% war exhaustion and initiate a 24 month timer for forced peace.

Forced status quo peace will be reintroduced in the 2.0.2 beta, addressing player feedback on war exhaustion mechanics.

Modders will have the ability to change the number of months before forced peace is possible or disable forced peace altogether.

When a side reaches 100% war exhaustion, they will be flagged and a 24 month timer will start before forced peace can occur.

Forced status quo peace will be reintroduced in the 2.0.2 beta, with adjustments based on player feedback.

3 new tracks by composer Andreas Waldetoft, totaling about 15 minutes.

Includes achievements like 'Exterminatus' and 'Clash of the Titans'.

Includes 15 minutes of new music composed by Andreas Waldetoft.

New achievements include Exterminatus, Clash of the Titans, Stay On Target, and more.

Added small icons to the outliner indicating if planets have upgradeable buildings or unassigned Pops.

Outliner now shows when a starbase has an empty module or building slot.

Added small icons to the outliner indicating if planets have upgradeable buildings or unassigned Pops.

Outliner now shows when a starbase has an empty module or building slot.

World Shaper now requires terraforming Gaia worlds and provides a bonus to resource production on Gaia worlds.

Mastery of Nature now unlocks a planetary edict to permanently increase planet size instead of giving blocker techs.

Numerous changes to existing Ascension Perks in the Cherryh update, affecting all players.

Mastery of Nature now unlocks a planetary edict to permanently increase planet size by 1-3 tiles, instead of providing blocker techs.

Interstellar Dominion now provides a -20% reduction on the Influence cost of new Starbases and Claims.

Interstellar Dominion now provides a -20% reduction on Influence cost for new Starbases and Claims.

World Shaper now requires terraforming Gaia worlds and provides a bonus to resource production on Gaia worlds.

New edict introduced as part of the Mastery of Nature feature.

The Stellaris Apocalypse expansion releases on 22 February 2018.

The Stellaris Apocalypse expansion releases on 22 February 2018.

Most edicts moved from Planetary to Empire Edicts to enhance their attractiveness and utility.

New edict introduced as part of the Mastery of Nature feature.

Most edicts moved from Planetary to Empire category to enhance their utility and attractiveness.

Marauders are nomadic FTL societies that raid and extort tribute from settled empires.

Marauders are a new type of non-playable empire introduced in the Apocalypse expansion.

Marauders are nomadic FTL societies that raid and extort tribute from settled empires.

Marauders are a new type of non-playable empire introduced in the Apocalypse expansion.

Marauders are always hostile to regular empires but will not attack unless their home systems are entered or they are raiding.

Marauders are always hostile to regular empires but will not attack unless provoked.

New expansion introducing Space Marauders, Planetary Destruction Weapons, and new military options.

Introducing new levels of warfare, planetary destruction weapons, and military options.