What changed in Stellaris in 2019

A variety of new Origins will be added to provide interesting starting positions for empires.

A new feature called Origins will represent your empire's background, allowing for more customization.

Certain Civics like Mechanists, Post-Apocalyptic, Life-Seeded, and Syncretic Evolution will be converted into Origins.

Origins will now be available to more types of empires, including hive minds and megacorps.

Hit the dirt on a variety of enigmatic and alien worlds with new archaeological sites available for study or plunder.

Encounter clues about two extinct Precursor civilizations, the Baol and the Zroni, and investigate their home systems.

Excavate guaranteed archaeological sites on Relic Worlds to uncover powerful relics and artifacts.

Discover Minor Artifacts, a new consumable resource type that can help empower your empire through archaeological research.

Collect valuable relics in your adventures as rewards for resolving game events or completing digs at archaeological sites.

Uncover the ruins of long-dead civilizations in Relic Worlds to piece together the story of their rise and eventual downfall.

A new crash reporter will send crash reports immediately instead of waiting for the next game start.

The game is reported to be 10% to 30% faster than version 2.2.7 due to various optimizations.

Stellaris is now a 64-bit game, allowing for more than 4GB of memory usage, which prevents crashes in large galaxies.

Enhancements made to the non-Steam network stack to address connectivity issues.

Improvements made to reduce the CPU time consumed by jobs and pops, including optimizations for daily regeneration calculations and off-screen icon updates.

A new system for calculating modifiers has been implemented, reducing unnecessary recalculations and improving performance.

General AI job distribution has been improved using job weights from community member Glavius.

Explore the fate of two new precursors, the Baol and the Zroni, in the upcoming DLC.

Added new features and rewards for existing precursors, including artifact actions related to the Irassians.

Plans to adapt old precursor content to the new archaeology system, though not guaranteed for the next update.

Precursor spawns are now randomized, no longer appearing in specific parts of the galaxy.

Scientists may trigger random events during excavation phases, adding unpredictability and emergent storytelling.

Excavation rewards include minor artifacts, resources, research points, and unique items.

Players can uncover and excavate archaeological sites, which can be discovered through surveys, events, or generated at game start.

Archaeological sites consist of 1-6 chapters, each with its own narrative and rewards, unlocked through successful excavation phases.

Excavation mechanics involve dice rolls, skill modifiers, and difficulty, determining the outcome of each phase.

Ring Worlds are now size 5 with unique segments instead of size 50 with regular districts.

Habitats now have a default of 80% habitability.

The Master Builders ascension perk now increases the number of megastructures that can be built simultaneously by +1.

Mega-Engineering technology is now more likely to appear as players build more Habitats and Citadels.

Habitats are now a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology, no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk.

The Voidborne ascension perk now increases habitat size by +2 and habitat habitability by 20%.

Minor Artifacts can now be found and consumed for various effects, with some actions locked behind technology.

Placement rules for the mentioned megastructures have been standardized.

Galactic Wonders now unlocks only the most powerful megastructures and requires technology research.

Strategic Coordination Center, Mega Art Installation, Interstellar Assembly, Science Nexus, and Sentry Array are now unique technologies.

Fixed assimilation

Crashfix when invalid leaders are left in a country's leader pool

Fixed Machine and Hive world terraforming removing rare deposit types

Fixed broken localization for crisis purge jobs in non-English languages

Fixed species ethics wrongly displaying the same for all empires in the empire selection screen

Fixed crash in tech progress tooltip while in observer mode

Reduced from 50% to 10%.

Various adjustments including housing changes and job outputs.

Improved military AI for smarter and more aggressive behavior.

Added hyperlane distance and jumps to system initializer.

Removed redundant calculations related to end game crisis.

Civic no longer reduces army upkeep; replaces Entertainers with Duelists.

Resolved lag when big empires with many pops being assimilated convert them into proper citizens.

Refund amount from old components increased to 90%.

Bio pop growth reduced by 40%; other resource adjustments.

Improved organization and display of info and buttons.

Now makes rare technologies 50% more common.

Ship upgrading is now handled individually, allowing partial upgrades if interrupted.

Adjusted to prioritize majority pops over minority pops.

Leader pool size effect removed; replaced with specialist output +10%.

Hallucinogen Removal cost reduced from 5000 to 3000; Breaching the Shroud from 50000 to 20000.

Added shortcuts for upgrade 'U' and trade route 'T' buttons in starbase interface.

Driven Assimilator tweaks including bio pop growth reduction and resource adjustments.

Added Logistical Corps tradition custom flavour text swap for Hive Minds.

Big rework of military AI making it smarter and more aggressive in war.

Warrior Culture civic no longer reduces army upkeep, replaces Entertainers with Duelists.

Meritocracy Civic effect on leader pool size removed, replaced with specialist output +10%.

Added Great Game tradition custom flavour text swap for Devouring Swarms.

Added shortcut 'U' to upgrade starbase platforms button.

Removed redundant double calculations related to end game crisis that negatively affected late game performance.

Ship upgrades are cheaper due to refund amount from old components being increased to 90%.

Clerks and Preachers job weights adjusted.

Added new animation to Plantoid 13 (cactus) portrait with butterflies.

Rogue Servitor tweaks including housing changes and job output adjustments.

Synth Empires pay only alloys for Colony ships, like Machines.

Added 'hyperlane_distance' and 'hyperlane_jumps' to system initializer.

Pops have a wider possible range of Political power.

Various ascension perk slot requirements reduced.

Transcendent Learning ascension perk effect on leader pool removed, replaced with Leader Experience Gain +50%.

Strategic resources summary on the top bar will now show in red if any are in deficit.

Added a bunch of shortcuts to the planet view.

Clone Vats no longer required to build Clone armies, now unlocked by Gene Banks tech.

Pop growth further adjusted to put less priority towards minority pops.

Added the Legion flag set with six new selectable flag emblems.

Technological Ascendancy ascension perk now makes rare technologies 50% more common.

Shroud entities have been tweaked for balance.

Fixed edge case where multiple megastructures could be built in the same system.

Added missing modifier icons for mote harvesting traps and extractors.

Reduced the machine empire bonus to orbital station production to 10% (was 50%).

Hallucinogen Removal special project cost reduced from 5000 to 3000.

Breaching the Shroud special project cost reduces from 50000 to 20000.

Fixed devastation progress bar reaching 100% and disappearing.

Fixed unemployment by strata icons being properly displayed and having a working tooltip.

Added a new, more user-friendly planet screen, with better organization and display of info and buttons

Ship upgrading is now handled individually, on a per ship, per shipyard basis, allowing partial upgrades.

Battle Thralls can now take enforcer jobs.

Numistic shrine now costs 4000 energy to buy and 1000 minerals to build.

Machine and Mechanical AI empires will favor generator districts more.

Agri Drones now produce 5 food (down from 6) base.

Reduced performance cost of the outliner.

Migration pull tool tip now displays actual pull with factors.

AI only becomes more interested in building commercial zones if it needs energy and amenities.

Fixed the Expansion Tradition finisher effect not being displayed in tooltip about max district numbers.

Coordinators now produce 1 of each Research (was 3 Society).

Fixed some text overlaps in the empire creation screen for Robot Empires in Russian language.

Added missing modifiers on army strength to some tooltips.

Energy grids/nexus' are more expensive but give an additional 5% bonus and add 2/4 Max Generator Districts.

Mineral purification plants/hubs are more expensive but give an additional 5% bonus and add 2/4 Max Mining Districts.

AI will not build housing buildings when it doesn't need them.

Outposts now cost 150 alloys.

Fixed a pathfinding issue that would cause fleet to not move towards their destination.

Capital planet grants +5% drone output.

Updated Machine intelligence food tooltip to mention that Cyborgs need food too.

Citizen Service civic effect on soldier unity generation increased from +1 to +2.

Fixed bug where closing planet view side panel brings up redundant window for a split second.

Fixed resource cost display in colonization menu showing all required resources as red.

Fabricators produce 4 alloys (up from 3) at the cost of 8 minerals (up from 6).

Tech Drones now produce 6 energy (up from 4) base.

Reduced random factor in pop growth, habitability has more penalty on growth selection, and traits have a larger effect on Robot selection.

Clarified relative power requirement to offer subsidiary status in the tooltip.

Machine Empires get 50% more resources from mining bases.

AI empires will generally not build more than 2 buildings of the same type per planet.

Strike craft now do more damage, have longer range, are faster, and turn and accelerate quicker.

AI should be keen on building Organic sanctuaries if their bio-trophy pops are unemployed.

AI will no longer start scrapping buildings immediately once it decides it doesn't need more of them.

Fixed not being able to assign/unassign leader from fleet manager view.

Replicators now also produce 1 Engineering research.

Threaded calculations for rendering planet icons on the galaxy map.

Various technologies now increase output from +10% to +20%.

Unemployed Machine Pops now use 0.25 Energy for upkeep (down from 1).

Fixed debug string shown in the tooltip of certain diplomacy interactions.

Plasma Accelerators no longer display Caravan Cannon tooltips.

Improved AI budgeting for megastructures.

The Repugnant/Uncanny trait now has less of an effect on pops avoiding amenity producing jobs.

Fixed Private Colony Ships being generated without names in some circumstances.

Fixed broken targeting for strike craft that caused them to meander out to the edges of the system.

Cached habitability calculations for planet icons on the galaxy map.

Foundry level 3 now correctly gives Machine Empires Fabricator jobs instead of Foundry Drones.

Fixed some Planetary Features not surviving the terraforming process to Gaia planet class.

Colony ships now add 2 pops to a new colony, but cost 400 alloys (up from 300).

Maintenance drone job priority now considers amenity level of the planet.

Fixed broken string in tooltip for event option you absolutely should not click.

Fixed an issue where the Galactic Market Hub Nomination Decision would become available if a nominated planet's rating was boosted.

New colonies start with 2 replicator jobs (up from 1).

Fixed issues with Planetary Features not surviving terraforming.

The UI has been polished up, especially for habitats and ecumenopolises.

Resolved targeting issues causing strike craft to meander instead of engaging.

Machine Empires receive more resources from mining bases and adjustments to colony ships.

New military AI is more challenging in wars.

Fleets will now upgrade ships individually, allowing for partial upgrades if cancelled mid-way.

Strike craft now do more damage, have longer range, and improved maneuverability.

Started updating civics and ascension perks to have more unique effects.

Changed scope of the faction_approval trigger to fix issues.

Reduced random factor in pop growth and adjusted habitability penalties.

Reduced performance cost of the outliner and optimized planet icon rendering.

Fixed Deviancy stat being listed as 'Crime' when a Criminal Heritage empire views the worlds of Gestalt.

Added Nanite Actuators edict, which increases research speed.

Fixed pop status icon being misaligned in Resettlement view.

Set minimum market fee to 5%.

Fixed stability tooltip for Gestalts.

Xeno-Zoo no longer wrongly available for nonstandard empire types.

Fixed martial law decisions staying permanently activated on planets captured in war by empire types that cannot use the martial law decision.

Zro is now significantly more likely to appear in the galaxy, although still being very rare.

Disabled replacement of buildings the planet cannot currently support.

Null Void Beam now has its own icon.

Fixed superfluous line break in technology power number in federation view, if over 4 digits.

Added a new decision to stop or continue Robot, Droid, and Synthetic Pop assembly, working independently of organic population controls.

Made some changes to trade calculations that should improve performance.

Fixed some Planetary Features getting deleted when terraforming to Gaia World.

Machine empires no longer start with a maintenance depot.

Fixed trade value text not being wide enough to display 1000+ trade value.

The dense urbanization of city planets is repellent to the Worm, and it will no longer take them into its nuclear embrace.

Fixed missing flavour image on the completed Strategic Coordination Center.

Fixed truncation of fleet capacity display when it gets to 4 digits.

Fixed incorrect doubled amenities value displayed when viewing the tooltip of a strata.

Fanatic Purifiers can no longer draw the Uplifting or Xenomorph Armies techs.

Exalted Priesthood civic now properly increases unity output for all priest jobs.

Nexus Districts now provide 1 tech drone job and 1 maintenance drone job.

Maintenance Drone effect on amenities reduced from 5 to 4.

Fixed so that monthly trade resources don't overlap with the amount box.

Removed bulk discount on Internal and Galactic Market.

Fixed missing description in market fee tooltip.

Planetary modifiers now affect the district cap for mining/farming/generators if they affect its output.