Paradox Interactive announced today that the free 3.1 Lem update for Stellaris is going to release on September 14.
The update is celebrating sci-fi author Stanisław Lem, who was born 100 years ago this month. It's also the first update released as part of Paradox's Custodian Team who are now responsible for all free updates to Stellaris going forwards. Speaking about the release, the Producer at Paradox for Stellaris said in the patch notes:
This update has been worked on for a long time, which you can probably tell from the massive changelog , but future updates made by the Custodian team will most likely not be as beefy. What we’re trying to achieve is smaller releases more often (as stated when we announced the Custodian initiative initially here). So now that we’ve hit our first release, we will aim for another one in roughly 3 months. Given the shorter timeline, that will also mean smaller releases.
However, I see that as something to celebrate! Since we no longer have to wait up to 6 months between releases, it means we can get things done quicker and respond to community feedback much more easily!
It really is a long changelog they certainly weren't kidding around. Full of new features and content for various DLC, balance changes, UI improvements, AI improvements and bug fixes. Check out the trailer:
Direct Link
Looking forward to jumping back in!
You can buy Stellaris on GOG, Humble Store and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
And as if to demonstrate my concerns, their forums server is now down.
Make sure to block the game from auto updating if you have a campaign going. Wait a month and it should be fine.
To their credit (and Steam's) they do make it pretty easy to defer updates like this. Very useful. Something I wish more developer/publishers would consider using.
Philadelphus Sep 10, 2021
I'm sure that can be balanced with feedback in the future if they're not amazing at launch. I'm just looking forward to no longer being forced to take Subjugation and Domination for my Fanatic Xenophile Pacifist species.It might let them tweak the Subjugation tree to actually be about that, too. Like, as things stand, it's actually surprisingly generally useful even if you've only ever had one species in your empire and never conquered anyone, because it gives you stuff like better law and order, higher leader level caps and stuff. They couldn't make it too specialized or everyone would be really annoyed at being forced to take it. But now, if there end up being some decent choices, they could make the Subjugation tree be about, like, subjugating people, and then if you don't want to do that you can take something else instead.
Off top of head, I was thinking I wouldn't mind seeing a tree about mobility/logistics. Easier/faster Gate building, maybe the ability to tie natural wormholes into your artificial gate network, better trade protection and other trade perks, faster strategic movement, stuff like that.
I'd take that before I took a tree about making lots of star fortresses, which I see as basically a loser strategy. The other guys should be building star fortresses to try and fail to stop my mighty fleets, not the other way around. I do use the things, but mostly for trade--one big star fortress with a stack of trade module thingies, to collect the trade out a massive number of jumps. And next to it, another big star fortress with a ton of hangar bays, to keep down pirates. I've never had more than one or two of the things per empire dedicated to actual defence.
The espionage tree is probably fine if you're really into that. Frankly though I've never seen a 4X game, whether Civ-like or MOO-like, where it seemed to me it was worth putting much extra effort into espionage. Sure, if the game gives you some spies, use them. But if it's a choice between specializing in spies or specializing in being awesome in some other way . . . taking the real stuff always seems to give better bang for the buck.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 10 September 2021 at 5:12 pm UTC
Philadelphus Sep 11, 2021
While I enjoy a good ol' galaxy-spanning conquest as much as the next person, I really like how with Federations and now espionage there's a lot more emphasis on soft power in the game, as playing a galactic web-weaver and behind-the-scenes kingmaker appeals to me. But it's good that everyone can choose their own specialization now.
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