What changed in Stellaris in 2020

Players can gain temporary Intel Reports for specific categories, providing high-level insights for a limited time.

Information is categorized into Government, Military, Diplomatic, Economic, and Technology, each with varying Intel levels.

Players will no longer see all systems and borders of contacted empires; visibility is tied to Intel levels.

Players may lose access to previously available information, which will be marked as stale.

Establishing first contact will now reveal less information about alien empires, enhancing the mystery of exploration.

An Intel value system (0-100) will determine the amount of information available about alien empires.

Players can run multiple first contact investigations simultaneously as long as they have the required Envoys.

Choices made during first contact can have long-term effects on relationships with alien empires.

First contact is now a more engaging process with interesting choices supported by narrative.

Players can set a policy for their approach to newly discovered alien civilizations, affecting diplomacy.

An Envoy must be assigned to initiate a First Contact Investigation, which runs through stages and delivers narrative events.

Corrected name for necroid titan engine effect so the effect spawns in the correct position.

Made the contingency constructor choose better systems to build in, and fixed their getting stuck after a while.

Crisis countries will now use Armageddon Bombardment.

The AI will not try to build a megastructure if it's already building or upgrading one.

Necrophages with Glandular Acclimatisation will now make pops that suit the local planet.

Moved the calculations for attack radius to threaded code instead of serial.

Various improvements to crisis military AI.

Added a define OVERCROWDING_ABSOLUTE_THRESHOLD_FOR_NO_GROWTH that sets the minimum number that overcrowding must be for a planet's population to stop growing, set it to 5.

Fixed a nasty slow down when owning many planets and opening the planet view.

The Necrophage AI will no longer build Houses of Apotheosis so as to make it less likely it'll run out of necrophytes.

Ring Worlds have been increased from 5 to 10 segments, with adjusted jobs per segment.

Added missing undead army translations for Chinese.

Extensive modifications to the resettlement system, allowing unemployed pops to move to planets with available jobs.

Tradition swaps for Void Dwellers to improve their benefits.

Ecumenopolis can now have both Factory and Foundry building lines on the same planet.

Shattered Ring origin now has a warning for Lithoids and applies Ring World Habitability Preference to pops.

The Unbidden will no longer wait patiently to be allowed out of their initial system.

The option to play as the Machine Uprising when that happens is now back.

The AI will now check whether it would have any pops on the planet willing and able to take a job before building a building providing that job.

Made the crisis worry less about ship health and more about taking over the galaxy.

The AI is now drastically more likely to know to build shipyards and titan/colossus factories.

Fixed AI not changing fleet bombardment stances.

Fixed a black face-tentacle on a Necroid Portrait to have color.

Most buildings now provide 2 jobs per tier instead of the previous 2/5/8 progression.

Fixed a bug with a Necroid Battleship weapon slot.

Experimental DX11 mode now supports Chinese, Polish and Russian.

Added debug tooltips to the fleet view header and rename button.

Fixed leader clearing by right-clicking.

Massively sped up all types of purging, with the crisis factions now purging 2 pops per month.

Evasive fleet now cancel order if the path to their targets contain hostiles.

Added 'ignores_sapience' flag to job types to say a job works for both sapients and presapients.

The AI will no longer sell the last pop of a planet.

Augmented the distance at which AI looks for targets on larger maps.

Made it so the positions of hostile forces are remembered while you're at war.

Fixed the Pasharti Absorbers' default purge type being Displacement rather than Necropurging.

Implemented changes to reduce the number of pops in the galaxy to improve performance and reduce micromanagement.

Fixed a case of the AI wanting to attack disabled starbases and getting stuck in a loop.

Fix Ships not reaching their assigned slots when there are too many ships.

Minor changes made to Habitat modules and their districts.

Added a filter on the colonization interface for improved usability.

Fixed an OOS related to fleets.

Fixed impossibility of swapping scientists between research areas.

Update trade routes every 7 days instead of every day.

Fixed a layering issue with Necroid Portrait 11.

Setting a sector to Production focus now correctly updates the icon in the UI.

Death Priest job upkeep raised to 3 Consumer Goods in addition to the baseline level for specialist workers.

Redid sector automation scripts and code to improve knowledge of nonstandard planet districts and building upgrades.

Fixed being unable to load 2.7.2 saves in 2.7.2 made after installing Necroids.

Increased Necroid Corvette size and optimized some other textures.

Fixed an issue where loading would get stuck when trying to load a lot of mods.

Fixed purging and assimilation not working on presapients.

Spawning Pool and Clone Vats have had their Pop Growth modifiers replaced with new Organic Pop Assembly.

Fixed the Death Cult sacrifice effects so that the counting of Mortal Initiates proceeds as intended.

The economic AI will now take better account of the resources a district would provide when choosing whether to build one.

AI considers 'Take Point' fleet as objective when appropriate.

Made the crisis worry less about ship health and more about taking over the galaxy.

Redid sector automation scripts and code to close gaps in sectors' knowledge and improve reliability.

Fixed the Death Cult sacrifice effects so that the counting of Mortal Initiates proceeds as intended.

Fixed an issue where loading would get stuck when trying to load a lot of mods.

Fixed a layering issue with Necroid Portrait 11.

Death Priest job upkeep raised to 3 Consumer Goods in addition to the baseline level for specialist workers.

Fixed leader clearing by right-clicking.

Setting a sector to Production focus now correctly updates the icon in the UI.

The Unbidden will no longer wait patiently to be allowed out of their initial system.

Experimental DX11 mode now supports Chinese, Polish and Russian.

Fix Ships not reaching their assigned slots when there are too many ships.

Fixed impossibility of swapping scientists between research areas.

Added a define OVERCROWDING_ABSOLUTE_THRESHOLD_FOR_NO_GROWTH that sets the minimum number that overcrowding must be for a planet's population to stop growing, set it to 5.

Fix issue with military AI ping-ponging fleets.

Added missing undead army translations for Chinese.

Fixed a bug with a Necroid Battleship weapon slot.

The economic AI will now take better account of the resources a district would provide when choosing whether to build one.

Crisis countries will now use Armageddon Bombardment.

Update trade routes every 7 days instead of every day.

Made it so the positions of hostile forces are remembered while you're at war.

Massively sped up all types of purging, with the crisis factions now purging 2 pops per month.

Evasive fleet now cancel order if the path to their targets contain hostiles.

Added debug tooltips to the fleet view header and rename button.

The AI will not try to build a megastructure if it's already building or upgrading one.

Increased Necroid Corvette size and optimized some other textures.

Moved the calculations for attack radius to threaded code instead of serial.

The Necrophage AI will no longer build Houses of Apotheosis to avoid running out of necrophytes.

Added 'ignores_sapience' flag to job types to say a job works for both sapients and presapients.

Necrophages with Glandular Acclimatisation will now make pops that suit the local planet, even if they have Necrophage pops that don't on the planet already.

Made the contingency constructor choose better systems to build in, and fixed their getting stuck after a while.

Augmented the distance at which AI looks for targets on larger maps.

Corrected name for necroid titan engine effect so the effect spawns in the correct position.

AI considers 'Take Point' fleet as objective when appropriate.

Fixed purging and assimilation not working on presapients.

Various improvements to crisis military AI.

The AI is now drastically more likely to know to build shipyards and titan/colossus factories.

The AI will now check whether it would have any pops on the planet willing and able to take a job before building a building providing that job.

Fixed AI not changing fleet bombardment stances.

Fixed a black face-tentacle on a Necroid Portrait to have color.

The AI will no longer sell the last pop of a planet.

Fixed a case of the AI wanting to attack disabled starbases and getting stuck in a loop.

Fixed the Pasharti Absorbers' default purge type being Displacement rather than Necropurging.

Fixed an OOS related to fleets.

The option to play as the Machine Uprising when that happens is now back.

Fixed a nasty slow down when owning many planets and opening the planet view.

Demotion time for pops cut in half across the board.

Major pass on automated colony management to enhance effectiveness, including building districts and upgrading buildings.

Urban World designation now provides a Trade Value bonus instead of previous growth bonuses.

Resettlement costs adjusted with added Influence cost for many pop types.

Scripts improved to handle issues like low amenities and high crime on planets.

Removed unnecessary habitability markers from completely consumed planets.

Terravores now automatically resettle pops back to the capital after consuming a planet.

New building that allows limited automated resettlement of unemployed low strata pops between planets.

Filtered unemployed pops to the top and highlighted them for easier management.

Colony designation updated to better satisfy needs of newly colonized worlds.

The number of jobs per district on Ecumenopoli has been adjusted as part of an economic balance pass.

Changes facilitate easier automation of planets, allowing for better management in mid to late game.

Two new technologies, Ceramo-Metal Infrastructure and Durasteel Infrastructure, unlock additional Building Slots.

New Industrial Districts provide Artisan and Metallurgist jobs, enhancing planetary development.

Building Slots are now opened by increasing planet infrastructure instead of relying on population counts.

Branch Offices now tie their slots to the level of the colony's capital building, enhancing economic strategy.

Will split its fleet up a bit more.

Greatly improved performance.

Trigger num_assigned_jobs = { job = <key>/unemployed value > 2 }.

As they have no use for it.

Both increase Administrative Capacity in relevant Pop Jobs.

15 normal + 1 robot of spooky scary Jeffoids Necroids.

Now cares if Cohesion and Monthly Cohesion are negative.

Cannot be purchased any longer.

Now grants +10% more admin cap instead of just +20.

A Halloween themed multiplayer stream is scheduled for October 31st and November 1st.

Reward has been buffed slightly.

Might cause a CTD/freeze when starting the game.

The Necroids Species Pack is now available for Stellaris, allowing players to create new empires.

Now has a 540 day cooldown before they can fire again.

Civic that replaces the Military Academy with a Dread Encampment, allowing recruitment of Undead Armies.

New building introduced with the Reanimated Armies Civic.

New Civic introduced as part of the Necroids gameplay.

New gameplay aspects for the Necroids Species Pack announced, including new Origins and Civics.

New Origin that allows the primary species to transform other Pops into themselves.

New Civic introduced as part of the Necroids gameplay.

New job type introduced as part of the Necroids gameplay.

Introduction of a new origin for gameplay.

A new city set will be included in the Necroids pack.

Introduction of a new advisor voice for players.

Upcoming Species Pack themed around death featuring new content.

A new room background themed around death.

A new pre-scripted empire will be part of the pack.

Includes 15 new portraits plus one machine portrait.

Includes three new civics for players to explore.

Introduction of a new ship set with a sinister appearance.

New job available for Mortal Initiates in Death Cults, providing unique benefits.

New job dedicated to improving game performance for empires with Death Cult civics.

Three new edicts allowing ritual slaughter to gain blessings, with varying benefits.

New civic for Spiritualist empires that allows ritual murder for funds and prophet.

Replaces regular Temples for empires with Death Cult civics, providing unique job opportunities.

New civic available for Spiritualist empires that replaces Temples with Sacrificial Temples providing unique jobs.

A new civic planned for a future release, available to regular, machine, and hive empires.

Next patch will offer an open beta for a new DirectX11 rendering engine, replacing the old DX9 renderer for better multi-threading optimizations.

Drastically reduced the startup time of the game through optimizations in the files and assets loading system.

Resolved the cause of a significant performance issue.

Players can opt into the beta branch for testing the new patch.

Players can opt into the 'crossplay-rollback' branch for crossplay multiplayer.

Warning issued regarding save file compatibility between versions 2.7.1 and 2.7.2.

An entry regarding the enigmatic fortress not regenerating was removed due to ongoing issues.

Players can now engage in joint operations within federations.

New resolutions have been added to the Galactic Community.

Habitats have received updates to enhance gameplay.

A performance hit in version 2.7.1 has been acknowledged, with a fix in progress.

Players can roll back to a prior version if they encounter issues with save games.

The visuals of the galaxy have been reinvigorated.

Leaders of Common Ground or Hegemony starts are less likely to be blocked by federation members.

New flavor events for federations that allow members to contribute to joint operations.

Changes to how AI acceptance works for federation laws, making it more transparent and consistent.

New pop-up to inform players of the results of federation law votes and how allies voted.

UI for voting on war declarations has been improved for clarity on war goals and allies.

Improvements to how voting in federations is handled, including using Favors to increase acceptance chances.

Introduction of a new Edict system to reduce micromanagement and enhance player choice.

Several new Edicts added to fit the new Edict Capacity system.

Nutritional Plenitude is now a toggled Edict instead of a Food Policy.

New mechanic that limits the number of active Edicts, with penalties for exceeding capacity.

Changes to reduce Pop Growth from various sources.

Dictatorial and Imperial Authority now increase Edict Capacity by +1.

Edicts can now be toggled on/off with associated Activation and Deactivation Costs.

New tiers of Orbital Habitats will be introduced, accessible to players with the Utopia expansion or using the Void Dwellers origin.

Upgrading to an Advanced Habitat provides 2 additional district slots and allows basic housing buildings for normal empires.

The first tier of Orbital Habitats will come earlier in the tech tree and require fewer alloys to build, starting with 4 district slots.

New technology allows upgrading an Orbital Habitat to an Advanced Habitat using a planetary decision that costs time and alloys.

A third technology allows upgrading a fully developed Advanced Habitat into a Habitat World with 8 districts.

Players must manually opt in to access the beta patch via Steam properties.

Save file compatibility between versions is not guaranteed; avoid loading 2.6.2 saves in 2.6.3.

Opt-in beta patch available on Steam with crossplay rollback option.

Cross platform Multiplayer won't work until the official release of patch 2.6.3.

Xenophile empires will not approve of hunting tiyanki.

The tiyanki now have a home system, Tiyana Vek, which can spawn more space whales throughout the game.

The tiyanki species has been updated to include hatchlings alongside Bulls, Cows, and Calves.

Roaming tiyanki fleets now have more randomized compositions.

Hunting the tiyanki will yield energy credits and exotic gas.

Fixed so a designable starbase updates correctly on upgrading, resolving the issue with upgraded juggernauts disappearing.

Fixed the sectors trying to clear blockers they can't.

Implemented a variety of other fixes to improve game stability.

Addressed various out of sync problems that were affecting gameplay.

Corrected missing localizations in the game.

Players can opt into the 2.6.1 beta patch through Steam.

The free 2.6.0 update, named 'Verne', is now live.

The new Federations expansion is now available for Stellaris.

Players are warned that save file compatibility between versions 2.5.0 and 2.6.0/2.6.1 is not guaranteed.

Patch 2.6.1 will be available as an opt-in beta for players who want to test new features and fixes.

The new Federations expansion is set to be released soon, introducing new gameplay features.

Improvements made to the military AI, including visualization enhancements for debugging AI behavior.

AI is configurable in script for modders, allowing for customization of AI behavior for different empires.

Introduction of three broad types of AI ministers: foreign, interior, and military, each handling specific roles in an AI empire.

Introduced new triggers to check species-level conditions instead of iterating through every pop.

Added triggers at the fleet level for events that previously checked every ship.

Jobs distribution is now only done on demand instead of daily, reducing unnecessary calculations.

Reworked the approach to checking if pops can change ethics, restoring its functionality.

Achieved a 15% to 30% improvement in late game performance, especially with large populations.

Identified and utilized more opportunities for multi-threading to improve performance.

Announcement of Q&A sessions related to the Federation Rework and other topics.

A new slavery type called Indentured Assets has been added, allowing for more dystopian and evolved empires.

Focus on enhancing the economic AI and creating unique behaviors for the end game crisis AI.