Hey everyone,

We've spent the week since PDXCon and the 2.1 Niven release listening to your feedback and addressing bugs, balance, and stability issues. I'm happy to report the new 2.1.1 opt-in patch is available.

Spoiler: Full Patch Contents
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######################### VERSION 2.1.1 ###########################
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# Free Features
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* Hyperlane density can now be changed to "full", which guarantees every possible hyperlane will exist
* You can now choose to start in a trinary or binary star system when creating your empire
* Experimental ETA feature put in for starship movement orders, telling you the approximate date of arrival
* Now possible to achieve partial victory in subjugation and liberation wars with occupied systems splitting off as a new subject or ally in the event of a status quo peace

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# Balance
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* Increased power usage of torpedoes
* Reduced frequency of gaining L-Gate Insights from unrelated anomalies by 70%
* A technology must now be researched after gathering all L-Gate insights before you can start the project to open the gates
* Reduced HP of missiles across the board, making point defense more potent
* The Prosperity faction will now be happier if you have war policy set to Defensive Wars Only
* The Imperialist faction is now also OK with ideological wars, and will only be angry if policy is set to Defensive Wars Only

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# UI
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* New icon for the L-cluster

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# Performance
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* Cached tile resource production for faster performance
* More border calculations optimization
* Borders are now only updated if they need to be, reducing unnecessary operations

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# Modding
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* Moved scripted variables for buildings into the scripted variables file
* Saved Event Targets should now always persist through Special Projects
* Added is_event_design setting for event ship designs that should be blocked by fleet manager
* Improved performance of Global SavedEventTargets

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# Bugfixes
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* Fixed a bug where guaranteed nearby colonizable worlds sometimes did not appear
* Fixed pop_modifier out of sync in MP
* Fixed several other OOS causes with convoluted causes
* Fixed several crashes with similarly arcane origin stories
* Added Distant Stars ownership icon for MP setup
* Fixed an OOS related to ship armor stats
* Fixed missing ambient sounds for certain star classes
* Fixed missing brain slug traits for scientists and admirals
* Fixed getting brain slugs and other non-robotic traits for event-spawned robotic leaders
* Fixed "Asteroid Collision" anomaly awarding the wrong deposit type
* Fixed "...and Hope?" achievement for opening the L-Cluster not being awarded
* Fixed missing text description for the L-Gate insight technology
* Missing word added in Phase Disruptor tech description
* Fixed other typos rendering the game literally unplayable
* Fixed some Horizon Signal-related building tooltips
* Improved janky Tiyanki death animations, giving rise to a desire for a new 1930's dance craze
* Fixed cases where you would sometimes not identify Leviathans after meeting them, this should also fix Curators not having anything to say about them
* Fixed The Gray Tempest event having 2 choices with identical outcomes, because it was painfully close to much of real life
* Gestalt consciousness can no longer pick liberation wars policy as it did nothing for them anyway
* Phaseshifting planet now has edge case handling if a nation completes the project before researching the anomaly
* Pacification of Space Amoebas or Crystals now turns them neutral instead of friendly because come on guy, you don't know me like that
* Fixed Fanatic Purifier, Devouring Swarm, and Determined Exterminator Empires suddenly becoming socially presentable when talking to the Curators about L-Gates
* Fixed instances where Empires created after initial L-Gate activation would be unable to use the L-Gates
* Fixed a text overflow issue in the Anomaly tracker
* Fixed "Bunker-Bot" anomaly not generating an L-Gate Insight
* Fixed a crash when the gateway type doesn't exist (affected certain mods)
* Fixed an OOS due to Experimental Subspace Navigation
* Added missing modifier string for all languages
* Marauder neighbor events can no longer trigger for empires that have no communications with them
* Properly calculate cached values when ships are created, meaning fleet power is now displayed correctly
* Fixed a bug where freshly created ships would not benefit immediately from bonus hull point effects
* Addressed a couple of edge cases that might cause improper Strategic Resource tech weights
* Added Go To buttons to a couple of Anomalies
* Fixed a cause of ship stats OOS. Some code was executed in unsafe order somehow when recalculating for hot join
* Scriptable localization error logging fix
* Asteroids can now glow

Give us a try and let us know how it goes. We'll continue to update the beta in the coming days as we get more fixes and improvements to send your way.

Please note this is an opt-in patch. You have to choose to activate it.

Steam library -> Right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose "2.1.1_beta"