Stellaris Dev Diary #415 - The Gamma Menace

by Eladrin

Hi everyone!

Currently we’re planning on updating the 4.3.4 Open Beta branch tomorrow, with the following changes:

4.3.4 ‘Cetus’ Release Notes (ONGOING)

Notes in Italics were not in the 2026-04-02 Open Beta update.

Balance

• Added a cap of 10 years (in defines) for how long a fleet can go MIA. (Exceptions: Phased or Eaten fleets, and those exploring Astral Rifts.)

• Disruptor weapons now also reduce Regeneration Effectiveness on hit for 10 days.

  • T1: -20% Shield, -10% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • T2: -35% Shield, -20% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • T3: -50% Shield, -30% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • Psionic: -35% Shield Regen, -20% Fire Rate, but remains on the anti-fire-rate channel so will stack with other disruptors.

• Increased Exotic Gas production of Advanced Bio-Reactor to 0.1 from 0.05.

• Increased Ministry of Production and Production Center Alloy and Consumer Goods bonus to 0.2 from 0.1.

• Faculty of Archaeostudies:

  • Biologists on a Relic World now produce +0.25 Minor Artifacts (was +0.1)

  • Archaeo-Engineering AP now increases Biologist Minor Artifact Production by +0.15 (was +0.05)

  • Increased Minor Artifact storage cap to 2000 (was 1000) and the Archaeo-Engineering bonus to 3000 (was 2000)

  • Reduced Building Upkeep to 8 Energy from 10 Energy

  • Corrected tooltip that has been very wrong for a very long time

• Astral Siphon:

  • Increased Astral Siphon thread production to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50 (was +0.1, +0.2, +0.3).

  • Reduced Astral Siphon Physics bonus to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50 (was +0.25/+0.5/+0.75)

  • Reduced additional upkeep to +1/+1.5/+2 CG or +2/+3/+4 E/M for Gestalts. (Was +1/+2/+4, +2/+4/+8, and +2.5/+5/+10)

  • Increased thread storage to +200, +400, +600 (was +100, +200, +300).

• Reduced the fleet power of Voidworms to be more accurate to their capabilities. (Especially if you use Point Defense against them.)

Bugfix

• Fixed Mutagenic Habitability being capped at a lower threshold than stated.

• Fixed an issue in the create_random_fleet and create_fleet_from_naval_cap effects that didn't recognize that ships are much bigger than they used to be, so was typically creating fleets five times the size it was supposed to.

  • This will primarily impact the GDF reinforcement fleet, Revolts, Machine Uprisings, and Civil Wars, Habinte, and a Zevox ending.

  • The Doom of the Eater fleet has been increased to compensate for this change - plus a little extra on top.

• Fixed the "Volcanic Forge" technology from "Planet Forgers" not appearing for certain origins

• Adjusted the name of the "Conduit" ship class in the German translation

• Purges like the Prethoryn, Sentinels, and others now really only occur while they are left alone on the planet. ALL purges now pause any time there is a ground battle for the planet going on. (This includes normal purges, though collateral damage may still kill pops.)

  • Updated Mechanocalibrator, Terraforming Mutants, Mutant Horrors, and Titanic Guardian events to clean up properly as well.

  • Corrected a logical error where if an empire was bad at purging, they’d be able to slow the decline of pops by setting them as Undesirable.

• Updated Luminary tooltip to reflect their improved lifespan.

• Scourge Missiles were missed in the initial pass that kept torpedoes and similar weapons from dealing 5x intended damage. Your behemoths are now slightly safer.

• Oppressive Autocracies can now build medical centers.

  • Reminder: Only Elite stratum jobs generate amenities in Oppressive Autocracies and Medical Workers & Genomic Researchers are Specialists.

• Fixed Necrophage+Planet Forgers pre-FTL worlds becoming volcanic at game start

• Fixed Necrophage+Planet Forgers not getting Volcanic Forge as guaranteed research

• Fixed Ministry of Acquisition tooltip showing blank consumer goods job name

• Fixed star_eater_cap displaying as raw LOC key instead of ship name

• Fixed Offworld Foundry job localization tooltip

• Corrected Ion Cannon collateral damage. (Should be 100, was 20)

• Storm Chasers should have an increased chance to draw Storm techs, not decreased.

Also fixed the math error that was causing the cost of level 1 leaders to be too high again, and made sure it stuck this time. (Bug only affected the beta branch.)

AI

• Updated AI alloy and food budgets to better handle new Starbase costs.

• Adjusted AI food budget so bio-ship empires will rebuild their fleets if they recently lost a war.

• Adjusted AI influence budgets so they'll be less prone to immediately allocate their entire influence stockpile to changing vassalization contract terms if they become an Overlord.

Stability

• Fixes an OOS when a hotjoiner is accepted during a hotjoin, after the "start" button had become active in the hotjoin status window

• Fixed an OOS when a player leaves and rejoins

• Fixed an OOS related to Spy Networks.

• Fixed an OOS at start when players don't have the same DLC as the host, and someone choses a random empire.

We’re currently targeting sometime around the 16th for this release, so there will likely be a few more updates next week.

Now let’s look ahead to something I’ve wanted to add to Stellaris for a long time, that is finally coming in the 4.4 ‘Pegasus’ update.

A Look Back to Apocalypse

The Apocalypse Story Trailer and the follow-up Launch Trailer, The Response, weren’t the first Stellaris Story Trailers, but they gave us all a glimpse of what they could be.

From the depths of the Pacific, to the edge of the galaxy…

They showed us what the United Nations of Earth and the Commonwealth of Man stood for and expanded the relationship between them.

With this attack, we have no choice but to protect our kind, by unleashing our almighty weapon upon them.

Summoning the Apocalypse.

Following the destruction of the UNE colony Europa VII by the Gamma Alien menace, the Commonwealth of Man came to the aid of the United Nations of Earth. They might be rivals, but the Commonwealth will always place Humanity first.

But there wasn’t a way to replicate this sort of thing in Stellaris itself. Wars are relatively static, with a predetermined set of attackers and defenders. The Commonwealth of Man could find a Casus Belli to use to come to the UNE’s aid, but it would be a separate war alongside the ongoing one.

Joining and Leaving Wars in Progress

Until now.

The Join War trade term can be offered to the leader of a side in a war. You can also go looking for allies in the middle of a war, but they’ll likely want something in return - though they’ll be more interested in joining a war that matches their interests - rivals, claims, and so on. (Of course, you could have invited them in the initial declaration!)

AI Empires will take the distance to the war participants into account when deciding whether or not it’s in their strategic interests.

To leave, you’ll need to bribe the war leader on the other side to let you out of the war. Naturally your former allies will be a bit upset that you abandoned them in their time of need, but sometimes they’re a sacrifice you’re willing to make.

This tends to be a bit more difficult, as they’re unlikely to be eager to let you off the hook so easily unless they’re losing the war.

Maybe I shouldn’t have joined a war against a fanatic militarist that hasn’t had any real losses yet.

And of course, some empires are unwilling to entertain such diplomacy.

Next Week

We’re targeting next Thursday for the 4.3.4 update, and we’ll look at some other 4.4 quality of life improvements.

See you then!