Hello everyone!

We are finally ready to release 2.8.1 on all platforms. First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for the feedback that you have given us to help us make the best version of Stellaris yet. And secondly, with this release we are hoping to end the post-launch support for Necroids as we shift our focus to [redacted].

[h3] 2.8.1 "BUTLER" PATCH NOTES[/h3]

Balance
* 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.
* Redid sector automation scripts and code with the following goals:
** Closed vital gaps in sectors' knowledge concerning the likes of nonstandard planet (habitat etc) districts and bureaucracy buildings.
** All sectors now know about all buildings, i.e. if you put an alloys foundry on a science sector, it will still know how to upgrade it (it will of course still favour research buildings).
** Made checking for whether building a certain building would cause resource shortages and whether there were pops ready to take the job more reliable by shifting them to hardcoded checks.
** The automation will no longer clear blockers before districts are blocked by them.

Stability & Performance
* Moved the calculations for attack radius to threaded code instead of serial.
* Update trade routes every 7 days instead of every day.
* Fixed a nasty slow down when owning many many many planets and opening the planet view
* Fixed an OOS related to fleets.
* Fixed an issue where loading would get stuck when trying to load a lot of mods.
* Fixed being unable to load 2.7.2 saves in 2.7.2 made after installing Necroids.

UI
* Added debug tooltips to the fleet view header and rename button.
* Experimental DX11 mode now supports Chinese, Polish and Russian

AI
* The AI will not try to build a megastructure if it's already building or upgrading one.
* Fixed a case of the AI wanting to attack disabled starbases and getting stuck in a loop.
* The economic AI will now take better account of the resources a district would provide when choosing whether to build one.
* 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 (i.e. Necrophages will not spam consumer goods buildings when there are no necrophage pops on the planet).
* Made the contingency constructor choose better systems to build in, and fixed their getting stuck after a while.
* Massively sped up all types of purging, with the crisis factions now purging 2 pops per month.
* Various improvements to crisis military AI.
* Fix issue with military AI ping-ponging fleets.
* Fixed AI not changing fleet bombardment stances.
* Crisis countries will now use Armageddon Bombardment.
* Augmented the distance at which AI looks for targets on larger maps.
* The Unbidden will no longer wait patiently to be allowed out of their initial system.
* The AI will no longer sell the last pop of a planet.
* Made the crisis worry less about ship health and more about taking over the galaxy.
* The Necrophage AI will no longer build Houses of Apotheosis so as to make it less likely it'll run out of necrophytes.
* AI considers "Take Point" fleet as objective when appropriate(*)
* The AI is now drastically more likely to know to build shipyards and titan/colossus factories

Modding
* Added "ignores_sapience" flag to job types to say a job works for both sapients and presapients.

Bugfixes
* Corrected name for necroid titan engine effect so the effect spawns in the correct position.
* Added missing undead army translations for Chinese.
* Fixed a layering issue with Necroid Portrait 11.
* Fixed a black face-tentacle on a Necroid Portrait to have color.
* Fix Ships not reaching their assigned slots when there are too many ships
* Evasive fleet now cancel order if the path to their targets contain hostiles
* Made it so the positions of hostile forces are remembered while you're at war.
* Fixed purging and assimilation not working on presapients
* Setting a sector to Production focus now correctly updates the icon in the UI.
* 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.
* Death Priest job upkeep raised to 3 Consumer Goods in addition to the baseline level for specialist workers.
* Fixed the Pasharti Absorbers' default purge type being Displacement rather than Necropurging
* Fixed a bug with a Necroid Battleship weapon slot.
* Increased Necroid Corvette size and optimized some other textures.
* Fixed leader clearing by right-clicking.
* Fixed impossibility of swapping scientists between research areas.
* Fixed the Death Cult sacrifice effects so that the counting of Mortal Initiates proceeds as intended.
* The option to play as the Machine Uprising when that happens is now back.

[h3]Take Point AI Behavior Explained [/h3]
Both countries must have the "follow allies" flag, or the leading country has to be human
if both countries are in a war:
- Vassals will follow their Overlords.
- If they're in the same war:
- - The AI will follow the war leader if they're in a defensive war.
- - The AI will also follow a stronger ally if they're close enough.
- - They'll follow a human player if they're not human.
- If the AI is fighting the Crisis.
- - If they're in a federation, they'll follow the federation leader (or a human player).
- - If the AI isn't under attack by the crisis they'll follow someone who is.
- - They'll follow a human who is also fighting the Crisis.


We hope you enjoy this patch and we appreciate your continued support :)

If you want to play crossplay multiplayer with your friends on non-steam platforms you can opt into the "crossplay" branch in Steam by right clicking on Stellaris in library -> Properties -> Betas -> choose the desired version.