Hello Stellaris Community! We are now less than a week away from the May 7th release of The Machine Age, the first release of content included in Stellaris: Season 08! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08/ For those of you who havent been following our weekly dev diaries, weve summarized all of The Machine Age and free 3.12 Andromeda update dev diaries into this one post! This is also patch notes day over on the forums, so feel free to go over and feast your eyes on what the Custodian team has been up to since the release of 3.11 Eridanus, and what the Expansion team has been working on for over a year! Read the patch notes. (Patch notes are in English only, sorry)

Free 3.12 Andromeda Update

Containing a host of bug fixes, modding improvements, out of sync fixes, AI improvements, and more, the 3.12 Andromeda update is the baby of the Custodian team. As some of you already know, the Custodian team is a team of developers we have here on Stellaris that work on long-standing issues with the base game itself, focusing on quality of life improvements, bringing older content up to modern standards, bug fixing, and just generally improving the game.

Species Auto-Modification

With the 3.12 Andromeda update, we have introduced a new class of traits that will, over time, replace themselves with temporary versions of other traits based on the job the pop is currently filling, but will remain the same species for the purposes of the species view. For example, a Machine pop filling a Farmer job will eventually have their Adaptive Frames change to replicate the Harvesters trait, and if they move to a Mining job theyll eventually switch to mimicking Power Drills. AutoMod traits have a defined list of available traits to choose from for each trait, and one pop per month will adapt to their jobs, modified by buildings like the Robot Assembly Plants or Gene Clinics. We recognize that these traits are extremely strong, but the quality of life benefits of having your pops modify themselves to fit their jobs is very high. Auto-Modding and the associated traits are part of the free 3.12 Andromeda release.

Buffing the Backlog

Previous to 3.12, Machines were extremely limited in the number of origins they were able to use. Some Origins did not thematically fit immortal, 200% habitability machines, and were locked out, while others had narrative issues that didnt make sense for a collective consciousness. With the focus on machines for The Machine Age, the Custodian team was able to open up some previously-released origins for machine species. The full list of Origins that Machine Empires have access to as of the 3.12 Andromeda release is:

• Syncretic Evolution (Individualist Machines only)
• Life-Seeded
• Post-Apocalyptic (Radioactive Rovers)
• Void Dwellers (Voidforged)
• Hegemon
• Ocean Paradise (Subaquatic Machines)
• Subterranean (Subterranean Machines)
• Arc Welders
• Prosperous Unification
• Remnants
• Shattered Ring
• Galactic Doorstep
• Resource Consolidation (Gestalt Machine Intelligence only)
• Common Ground
• Doomsday
• Lost Colony
• Here Be Dragons
• Slingshot to the Stars
• Imperial Fiefdom
• Riftworld

Resync Button for Multiplayer

This is a long-requested feature from the Community, that weve been trying to fit into a patch for a while. While 3.12 Andromeda also fixes a number of other OOS issues, we know that desyncs are frustrating to people who play multiplayer. As such, in 3.12, when a desync occurs, there will be an option to resynchronize all clients before proceeding with the multiplayer game. Its important to note that this button does not fix desyncs, only allows you to keep playing without rehosting or hot joining into the lobby. If something is causing desyncs, and continues to happen after the resync, the game will desync again. If you run into an issue with 3.12 Andromeda, make a bug report on the bug report forums! Be sure to include an OOS report (you can find these in /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/oos/) from the host and desynced client to better help our developers crush these desync bugs!

Machine Habitability and Aging

This section is also known as: The Machines Age. Machine immortality was a frustrating thing previous to 3.12. Yes, your leaders were essentially immortal, but could be targeted by a random death event every few years, and die anyway, effectively rendering them not immortal at all. In the 3.12 Andromeda update, Machines will no longer break down and die. Machine leaders will start around age 5, and live to be roughly 100. After 100 their chance to die will increase over time. Machines will also get access to society research that increases their leader lifespan, allowing you to further increase the age of your leaders, and have their lifespans extend much further previously. For those who feel that immortality is an essential part of the machine experience, we have added a new Eternal Machine trait for machines, allowing you to return their lost Immortality. Another issue with machines addressed in the Andromeda update is that of habitability. That you would start on a desert world, invent robots and then have robots that functioned absolutely perfectly on ocean worlds with no issues what-so-ever, felt like a wasted opportunity when it comes to storytelling and problem solving. To reflect this, Machines in 3.12 Andromeda will have a habitability floor of 50%, additionally to further reflect our vision of machine habitability being different from biological habitability, machine habitability only cares about wet and dry and cold-type planets. Meaning an ocean preference robotic species will have good habitability (75%) on Ocean, Tropical and Continental worlds, and minimum habitability (50%) on the other two types of worlds (dry, cold). Machines have also been given renamed versions of the habitability increase technologies, which were previously unavailable to them.

A Familiar Friend

First teased (aka, included by mistake) in the open beta patch notes for 3.11.3, it will now be possible to find a familiar friend from the good old days of Stellaris while exploring Astral Rifts. We look forward to seeing the Communitys reaction to this new character showing up in their games!

Robot Assimilation

Another long standing community request involved being able to combine your robot species into one species of robot. Previously, when conquering a machine intelligence as a machine intelligence, or any empire involving robots, their species would be listed additionally to your own. Now machine empires can assimilate robots and other machine intelligence pops into their main species, allowing you to clean up your species list.

The Machine Age

The Machine Age is a time of unbridled progress. As cybernetic augmentation transcends the limits of the body, synthetic ascension beckons with the promise of eternal life. Structures of immense size and power appear between the stars with shocking regularity. Scientists race to unlock the secrets of creation even as individual machines compete for resources and prestige. It is a period of technological marvels, rapid change, and unchecked ambition... But from the ashes of a Fallen Empire, a danger unlike any before encountered is about to emerge, a looming threat that will throw the very meaning of life into question. Welcome to The Machine Age!

New Crisis: The Synth Queen

In house, weve always loved our Rogue Servitors - the idea of a powerful AI that somehow turns on its creators, not in a violent or destructive way, but out of a misguided sense of purpose. We wanted to do something that felt both apocalyptic but not inherently militant, a crisis that wasnt exclusively about shooting something on first contact. The first phases of this Crisis are decidedly non-combat. How might an all-powerful being react to the directive to 'eliminate suffering?' Obviously, because this is Stellaris, our antagonist is going to take her answer way, way too far. What happens next is up to the player. Will you try to oppose her directly, or play the part of a loyal pupil? This all came together in a terrifying, driven entity: The Synth Queen. There are some very obvious spiritual and historical influences in her design, and philosophical ideas regarding the nature of suffering and awareness are woven through her narrative. We wont spoil the story for you, however, and we look forward to hearing about your experiences with this new End-Game crisis!

Become the Crisis: Cosmogenesis

Cosmogenesis has a bit of a different philosophy than the previous crisis path. Where the Galactic Nemesis (renamed from Become the Crisis) operates through explicit malice, intentionally attempting to maximize the amount of suffering they can cause, an empire following the path of Cosmogenesis is more of a crisis to the galaxy due to callous indifference while pursuing what is theoretically a more noble cause. Cosmogenesis can be selected as your fourth Ascension Perk. You cannot take Cosmogenesis if you are Custodian or Emperor, or are not independent. Unlike the previous crisis path, however, this one is not ethics locked. Even a Xenophile Pacifist can delude themselves into thinking that a small amount of possible, unintentional suffering now may be a worthwhile sacrifice for a better future. One of the shortcuts you can use to get there is the Synaptic Lathe. A powerful research facility, it harnesses the power of minds to compute and store data, with the slight downside of burning them out over time. It can be upgraded twice. The more Neural Chips you have contained within the Lathe, the more effective it becomes, as every chip improves the output of every other chip, resulting in a nonlinear productivity growth curve but make sure that there is always pops for the lathe to process, or risk seeing it break down for lack of suitable components.
At Crisis Rank 4, youll gain the ability to experiment upon reality through your Applied Infinity Theses. Applied Infinity Theses allow you to attempt to make improvements on a stubborn reality, which can have galactic or localized effects. Sometimes these go well But other times things dont go quite as planned, and the simple folk from other empires that just dont understand may get upset. Frustratingly, reality is resilient, and does not take kindly to adjustment.
The aftereffects of your final experiment will ripple across the galaxy, causing significant problems for those that were left behind. A control group that elects to stay behind and observe from your former empire will protect itself well. The rest of the galaxy isnt quite as prepared.

Origins

Cybernetic Creed

Embarking first on our divine odyssey of silicon and the soul, we introduce you to Cybernetic Creed, a spiritualist fast track to Cybernetics. Your spiritualist pops and leaders will start with the Ritualistic Implants Trait, representing your people's long dedication to attempting the perfect fusion of flesh and steel. Eschew the mundane traditionalist factions of more standard empires for a quartet of Creeds, each a pillar of your economy and spiritual ethos. Though united in their quest for divine fusion, harmony is a rare commodity among the Creeds. Dissonance and debate fuel their fiery passion for transcendence, and often, you will be asked to make choices that will make one Creed joyous at the expense of the others. Will you elevate a single Creed to celestial prominence or attempt to weave a tapestry of unity among them? Augmentation is worship. To fuse is divine.

Synthetic Fertility

Boosted by a deep understanding of artificial intelligence and advanced virtual reality, your empire starts the game with 37 Pops. But despite your success, your people are on the brink of extinction. An incurable genetic affliction ravages your species, stopping them from being able to produce offspring. In a daring leap of innovation, your civilization constructs the Identity Repository. It's a race against time as minds are uploaded, seeking refuge in the digital expanse before death takes them. Parallel to this digital exodus, you're thrust into the urgent quest for the pinnacle of synthetic salvation - constructing robotic brains and bodies sophisticated enough to host your digital essences. Will you seek aid? Will you engineer Synthetic Frames in time to reclaim your place among the stars? Or is this the dawn of an eternal digital slumber for your people?

Arc Welders

Arc Welders is available to any Machine empire - whether a Gestalt Consciousness or Individualistic Machines. In some ways, it is the opposite of Resource Consolidation. Rather than having an exceptional homeworld where all of the resources of your home system are gathered, these celestial architects hail from a small, resource-poor planet and set their eyes on the skies. The Arc Welders began constructing an Arc Furnace on a molten world in their home system before achieving Faster-Than-Light travel. This new megastructure lets them exploit the rest of their system for minerals and, once complete, for alloy production. As expert engineers, it will only take a little more practice before they figure out the basics of Mega-Engineering. However, it may take a while before they can finish researching that technology. More details on the Arc Furnace below!

Civics

The Guided Sapience civics focus on coexistence with natural or created pre-sapient species and the environment around them. Their homeworld and Genesis Ark colony ships uplift some of the most promising local wildlife to pre-sapient status, creating a Genesis Preserve that increases Society Research and Unity. While other empires seek to improve themselves through genetic modification or through ascension, empires with the Natural Design Civic are quite certain that they are already at the apex of evolution and get bonuses to improve their main species at empire creation.. Available to gestalt machine intelligences, Obsessional Directive sets you in charge of a malfunctioning AI, whos been given the task of producing Consumer Goods... At any cost. Create a spire of Commodities to demonstrate your commitment to creating office supplies, toasters, handheld electronics, or whatever other form you imagine your Consumer Goods take. Failure to meet your quota will result in a bit of a breakdown until your new, lower quota is met. On the other hand, the experience of failure does unlock a new direct to Consumer Goods purge type to make it easier to achieve your next goal. (Determined Exterminators will start with this purge type unlocked.) Empires with the Diplomatic Protocols civic were initially designed for cross-cultural interpretation, and excel at translation and protocol support. They can suggest new strategies and calculate odds at a moments notice, and get extra Envoys and Diplomatic weight to represent this. Pops in a Machine Empire with Tactical Algorithms were designed for war games and fleet support, and their leaders excel at generating war strategies and combat analysis. These gestalt Machine Intelligences can create Mercenary Enclaves (if the game host has Overlord), have immortal Commanders, and gain military benefits from getting the opportunity to study the strategy and tactics of other empires. In Empires with the Augmentation Bazaars Civic (requires MegaCorp), your pops can pay a visit to the Augmentation Bazaar and purchase cut-rate augmentations and visit shady mod clinics. You too, can build a better you, and all it will cost is an arm and a leg!

Megastructures

Dyson Swarm

Fresh with the Machine Age, we are introducing the Dyson Swarm, a predecessor and proof of concept for your Dyson Sphere plans. Dyson Swarms function slightly differently than Spheres. Instead of producing energy all on their own, they amplify whatever resources their star produces, up to 30 times, so placing a Dyson Swarm to capture the correct resource is very important. That delicate little 3 energy star will now produce 90 energy and if you were to put it on a 3 physics star, that would be a decent 90 physics research from 1 star. But with all that said, there are certain restrictions on building Dyson Swarms: you may not build Swarms around Black Holes, Neutron Stars nor upgrade them past Swarm state in systems with thriving colonies. Those restrictions exist for a simple reason. You can upgrade one of your Swarms directly into a Stage 2 Dyson Sphere, for a cool 1000 energy per month.

Arc Furnace

A splendid planet-based megastructure, meant to help you alleviate your industrial needs. Just like the Dyson Swarm, to get the most out of your shiny new Arc Furnace requires a bit more effort than merely finding a molten world and putting it down. Instead of producing resources itself, it allows you access to more of the system's resources. That means at each stage, the Arc Furnace will create deposits on every planet or asteroid in the system:

• Stage 1: 1 mineral deposit
• Stage 2: 2 mineral deposit
• Stage 3: 3 mineral and 1 alloy deposit
• Stage 4: 4 mineral and 2 alloy deposit

In addition to the deposits, the Arc Furnace also makes mining in general more effective in the system, which manifests as a small bonus to your mining station output, of 100% bonus output at the final stage. To get the most out of your Arc Furnace, you want to find molten worlds in large systems, with plenty of planets and asteroids.

Ascension Paths

Virtuality

Embrace a virtual existence for the majority of your pops. From the cloud, your pops are created and to the cloud they return when their job is done. Spreading your servers across the stars is an expensive endeavor but your concentrated efforts are unmatched. Your pops will gain access to the unique Virtual trait. This traits effects are reduced as you accumulate more colonies for your servers to run pops on, and the more expensive those servers are to run. Once you finish the tree, you will transition from a pop-limited playstyle into a planet-limited playstyle, as open jobs will be instantly filled with virtual pops as needed, while unemployed virtual pops will be turned off.

Nanotech

By becoming a flood of nanites, your empire changes not just its makeup, but also its economy and growth strategy. Grow. Exploit. Replicate. While Virtual Machines may seek a Tall playstyle, Nanotech Machines flood across the galaxy like an off-white or silvery tempest, specializing in the physical. You will transform basic resources into nanites and nanites into advanced resources. Consume worlds with nanites, activate powerful edicts to increase your production or combat capabilities, and build Nanite probe ships to bolster your fleets.

Modularity

The most advanced traits require the most advanced minds. By embracing Modularity, your empire will have access to traits other machines can only theorize at. The rarest of resources will fuel your enhanced shells. Unlock access to powerful Modularity Machine traits, plus extra trait picks and points, and a reduced modification cost. Utilizing the galaxys rarest resources, and cutting-edge technology, your empire will perfect mechanical augmentations.

Cosmetics

And of course, what would a Stellaris expansion be without eyecandy? The Stellaris Art department has put a ton of work into The Machine Age, including two shipsets, two sets of portraits, event pictures, and more.
The Machine shipset
The Cybernetic shipset For portraits, the Synthetic set of portraits comes in pairs: Each portrait includes a squishy biological version, and a machine version.
Synthetic Portraits.. each of these has a Machine version as well

The Cybernetic portraits on the other hand will become more cybernetic over time, which we hope will add to the depth of your roleplay when it comes to Cybernetic ascension.
Cybernetic Portraits.. these portraits will become more Cybernetic as you progress through Cybernetic ascension
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3 Full list of Features:

• Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires
• Gestalt Machine Intelligence Empires (also unlocked by the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack)
• A new End-Game Crisis - The Synth Queen
• A new Player Crisis Path - Cosmogenesis
• Three new Origins
  • Cybernetic Creed
  • Synthetic Fertility
  • Arc Welders
• Civics
  • Guided Sapience
  • Natural Design
  • Obsessional Directive
  • Protocol Droids
  • Tactical Cogitators
  • Augmentation Bazaars (requires Megacorp)
• Two Mid-Game Structures
  • Arc Furnace
  • Dyson Swarms
• Three New Ascension Paths
  • Virtuality
  • Nanotech
  • Modularity
• Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension (also unlocked by Utopia)
• Exploration of the effects of the cyberization or synthesization of society, with Advanced Government Forms for those who complete it.
• New Species Traits for Cyborgs, Machines and Robots
• Cybernetic portraits that change based on advancement through cyberization
• Synthetic portraits with both organic and synthetic variants that changed based on synthesization, usable by either organics or machines
• Two new Shipsets, Diplomatic Rooms, and City Sets
• 7 new music tracks synthetic and cybernetic inspired music tracks

Preorder The Machine Age today or as part of Stellaris: Season 08! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863190/Stellaris_Season_08/ Thanks for playing Stellaris, and well see you for the release on May 7th!