Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Stellaris is set to have some big changes with the next major update, along with some minor free content added to the Humanoids Species Pack and the Distant Stars Story Pack.

The biggest change coming in Stellaris 2.2 "Le Guin" is a planetary system re-work. There's so many differences they spread out details of it across four different development logs so it's quite hard to parse into an overview for you. See parts one, two, three, four. It really does seem like a massive change, with the old population tile system being removed. I will let them explain it better:

Before I start going into details on the actual rework, I just wanted to briefly talk about the reasons and goals that are behind this massive rework, and why we're removing tiles and building a new system instead of iterating on the existing systems. For me, getting away from the constraints of tiles has been my single most desired long-term goal for the game. It's not that I think the tile system is inherently a bad system - it works well to visualize your pops and buildings and for the early game it works well enough in giving the player some interesting economic management decisions. However, the tile system is also very constrictive, in a way I feel is detrimental to the very core concepts of Stellaris. The hard limitation of one pop and one building per tile, as well as the hard limitation of 25 tiles/pops/buildings to a planet, it severely limits the kind of societies and planets that we can present in the game.

Honestly, trying to understand everything that's changed has practically fried my brain like an egg. They recently did a livestream to go over the changes which might make it easier to parse than reading four different logs, see below:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

On top of that, the Humanoids Species Pack and Distant Stars Story Pack both got some new free content added in too!

For the Humanoids Species Pack, Paradox worked with community modder Silfae, to add in a load of new customisation options. So you now have more hairstyles, beards, colours and so on to several species so there's even more customisation to be found when picking a race.

For the Distant Stars Story Pack, they adjusted several key anomalies and events to fully flesh them out, especially those relating to the L-Cluster.

If you wish to pick up Stellaris, the best place right now is Steam directly as they're having a Paradox Publisher weekend sale.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Strategy
5 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
17 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

Leopard Sep 7, 2018
Quoteplus free content added into some DLCs

Lol
Rooster Sep 7, 2018
Stellaris was on my wishlist for a long time, but not anymore (bought it yesterday). Hope it delivers.
KohlyKohl Sep 7, 2018
Quoting: Leopard
Quoteplus free content added into some DLCs

Lol

I really like Stellaris. However, the fact that I need to spend $100 to get the complete experience is a big turn off for me to buy anything in the future.

It really is a disappointment that I cannot enjoy the full game experience.

As for the game update, I found the tile mechanic to be boring and tedious. The changes look to be going in the right direction from what I've seen and should breathe life back into this game.


Last edited by KohlyKohl on 7 September 2018 at 4:27 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Sep 7, 2018
I never minded the tile system that much but I also was never enthralled by it. This looks like it could be pretty good.
And really, I think it's a bit much for the conversation to be focussing on Paradox's DLCs when this is a major free update--happening how long after the game's release? Yeah, how many of your no-DLC games get that level of support? Frankly, Paradox games are just bigger than most other games. So they end up costing more; this is made more workable by splitting the cost into chunks. But your price per hour of play, your cost per amount of entertainment, on a Paradox game tends to be very competitive.
If you prefer little games that you play through once or twice in a few hours, nothing wrong with that. But that isn't a reason to diss the existence of big games that repay dozens of hours of play on the basis that they cost more than little ones; of course they do.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 7 September 2018 at 4:53 pm UTC
NovenTheHero Sep 7, 2018
Yeah I agree about the constant trickle of DLC and it costing plenty, but for games where the lifespan of the game is several years, I am alright with this model. I have like over 3000 hours into CK2.
14 Sep 7, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
I bought the base game for like $20 and have probably spent about $20 on DLC since then. I have over 100 hours in the game. I'm not unhappy.

I will, however, probably wait for the big update to release before I jump into a new game because I don't like my saves becoming incompatible.
omer666 Sep 7, 2018
I don't think that you need all the DLCs to enjoy the game, really.
What I did, just like I did with Cities: Skyline, was to wait until I can get all DLCs I don't have for the price of an expansion and I buy them in batch. That way, it really does feel like a fully fledged expansion, and in the case of City: Skylines, it almost felt like a sequel (apart from graphics, of course.)

Their DLCs are really feature-heavy, it's not like it was a 10€ map pack.


Last edited by omer666 on 7 September 2018 at 6:24 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Sep 7, 2018
You can enjoy the game without a single DLC. Personally, I think how they've supported Stellaris has been fantastic.
jo3fis Sep 7, 2018
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI never minded the tile system that much but I also was never enthralled by it. This looks like it could be pretty good.
And really, I think it's a bit much for the conversation to be focussing on Paradox's DLCs when this is a major free update--happening how long after the game's release? Yeah, how many of your no-DLC games get that level of support? Frankly, Paradox games are just bigger than most other games. So they end up costing more; this is made more workable by splitting the cost into chunks. But your price per hour of play, your cost per amount of entertainment, on a Paradox game tends to be very competitive.
If you prefer little games that you play through once or twice in a few hours, nothing wrong with that. But that isn't a reason to diss the existence of big games that repay dozens of hours of play on the basis that they cost more than little ones; of course they do.

Totally agree.
Purple Library Guy Sep 7, 2018
Quoting: GuestI enjoyed Stellaris initially but got bored with it pretty quickly, especially the end game.
I don't think I'll go back to it for a while. I did play it without any of the DLC's.
IMO the end game can still get a bit stodgy, but some of the DLCs do pep things up significantly.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.