written by Eladrin Hello everyone! I know that we said that we werent going to be updating the 3.6 Orion Open Beta branch again, but since the Thanksgiving holidays are coming in the US, Ive asked for one last update to be pushed to the open beta branch, with a potential release candidate. This update should be going up right about now, so you get this week's dev diary a day earlier than usual.

Release Candidate, does that mean?

Yes, Orion will be released soon. Were currently targeting the 29th of November unless unexpected issues arise from this final (really!) beta release. Here are the complete notes for Stellaris 3.6.0 Orion.

Final Comments on the Open Beta

Due to the incredible success of the Orion Open Beta, were very likely to do similar releases in the future. Thank you all again for your help - Orions in much better shape thanks to your feedback. I intend on pursuing a smaller set of changes for the next one - testing out a limited set of AI vassalization acceptance changes as the next Open Beta, and possibly some economic tweaks.

So Whats Next?

The Canis Minor update will follow Orion in Q1 of 2023, and among other things it will include some of the feedback from the Orion beta that we werent able to address for 3.6, and further combat adjustments based on live observation. This includes things such as a rebalancing of technologies to make the Engineering branch less heavy compared to the other two. Ill go into the other things planned for the update in the new year. One of Ptolemys constellations, Canis Minor is the little dog that follows the hunter Orion.
Meet Tofu, the little dog that follows our QA Director. Thats it for today. Enjoy the release candidate!

Please note that the 3.6 "Orion" Open Beta is an optional beta patch. You have to manually opt in to access it. Go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> betas tab -> select "stellaris_test" branch.

Reminder: If youre using mods, theyre likely to break.