ATCHED
Stellaris
Stellaris
Apr 16, 2026
View on Steam↗

Stellaris Dev Diary #416 - Quality of Life Improvements

3/5 Moderate

Stellaris v4.3.4 'Cetus' introduces a 10-year cap on MIA fleets and adds regeneration debuffs to Disruptors, while the v4.4 'Pegasus' preview details a massive job system overhaul.

Share:

Key Changes

  • 1Added a 10-year cap for fleets staying Missing In Action (MIA)
  • 2Disruptor weapons now apply a 10-day regeneration debuff to enemy Shield, Armor, and Hull
  • 3Complete removal of the Unemployment mechanic in favor of immediate stratum fallback (Beta)
  • 4Reworked job displacement logic to prioritize worker efficiency over incumbency (Beta)
  • 5Increased Grand Archive Specimen Storage to 60 and added manual storage management
  • 6Fixed a major bug where GDF and Revolt fleets were spawning 5x larger than intended
  • 7Increased Alloy and Consumer Goods bonuses for Ministry of Production and Production Centers
  • 8Astral Siphon thread production increased while Physics bonus was reduced
  • 9Purge mechanics now pause during active ground battles on a planet
  • 10Added workforce limit sliders to allow manual capping of automated jobs

All Changes

⚖️Balance(18)

  • changeFleets: Added a cap of 10 years for how long a fleet can remain Missing In Action (MIA).
  • buffDisruptors: T1 Disruptors now reduce Shield regeneration by 20% and Armor/Hull regeneration by 10% on hit for 10 days.
  • buffDisruptors: T2 Disruptors now reduce Shield regeneration by 35% and Armor/Hull regeneration by 20% on hit for 10 days.
  • buffDisruptors: T3 Disruptors now reduce Shield regeneration by 50% and Armor/Hull regeneration by 30% on hit for 10 days.
  • buffPsionic Disruptors: Psionic Disruptors now reduce Shield regeneration by 35% and Fire Rate by 20% on hit for 10 days.
  • buffAdvanced Bio-Reactor: Increased Exotic Gas production of Advanced Bio-Reactor from 0.05 to 0.1.
  • buffMinistry of Production: Increased Alloy and Consumer Goods bonus from 0.1 to 0.2.
  • buffProduction Center: Increased Alloy and Consumer Goods bonus from 0.1 to 0.2.
  • buffFaculty of Archaeostudies: Biologists on Relic Worlds now produce +0.25 Minor Artifacts (up from +0.1).
  • buffArchaeo-Engineering: Archaeo-Engineering AP now increases Biologist Minor Artifact Production by +0.15 (up from +0.05).
  • buffMinor Artifacts: Increased Minor Artifact storage cap to 2000 and Archaeo-Engineering bonus to 3000.
  • buffFaculty of Archaeostudies: Reduced Building Upkeep from 10 Energy to 8 Energy.
  • buffAstral Siphon: Increased Astral Siphon thread production to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50.
  • nerfAstral Siphon: Reduced Astral Siphon Physics bonus to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50 (down from +0.25/+0.5/+0.75).
  • buffAstral Siphon: Reduced additional upkeep for Gestalts to +2/+3/+4 Energy/Minerals.
  • buffAstral Siphon: Increased thread storage to +200, +400, and +600.
  • nerfVoidworms: Reduced fleet power of Voidworms to be more accurate to their capabilities.
  • buffHabitats: High tier habitat capitals now gain +1 habitat district per major body.

🐛Bug Fixes(11)

  • fixMutagenic Habitability: Fixed Mutagenic Habitability being capped at a lower threshold than stated.
  • fixFleets: Fixed fleet creation effects creating fleets five times larger than intended; impacts GDF, Revolts, and Uprisings.
  • buffDoom of the Eater: Increased Doom of the Eater fleet power to compensate for fleet size scaling changes.
  • fixVolcanic Forge: Fixed Volcanic Forge technology not appearing for certain origins.
  • fixPurges: All purges now pause whenever a ground battle for the planet is occurring.
  • fixPops: Fixed logical error allowing empires to slow pop decline by setting them to Undesirable.
  • fixScourge Missiles: Fixed Scourge Missiles dealing 5x intended damage to behemoths.
  • fixOppressive Autocracies: Oppressive Autocracies can now properly build medical centers.
  • fixIon Cannon: Corrected Ion Cannon collateral damage from 20 to 100.
  • fixPrethoryn Scourge: Fixed Prethoryn Scourge having more fleets on lower difficulties than higher ones.
  • fixGravity Storms: Updated Gravity Storms to have reduced damage penalties based on ship size.

🤖AI Behavior(3)

  • changeAI: Updated alloy and food budgets to better handle new Starbase costs.
  • changeAI: Adjusted food budget so bio-ship empires rebuild fleets more effectively after losing a war.
  • changeAI: Adjusted influence budgets to prevent immediate depletion on vassalization contract changes.

💾Stability(5)

  • fixMultiplayer: Fixed Out-of-Sync (OOS) error when a hotjoiner is accepted during the hotjoin process.
  • fixSpy Networks: Fixed OOS error related to Spy Networks.
  • fixMultiplayer: Fixed OOS error caused by strategic war data being calculated differently on host and clients.
  • fixPerformance: Fixed particle system crash occurring during low frame times or invalid scripting.
  • fixFleets: Fixed issue where fleet move vector distances could freeze the game.

📅Coming Soon(10)

  • newGrand Archive: Increased Specimen Storage to 60 and added a scroll-bar to the list.
  • changeGrand Archive: Specimens can now be moved to Storage via right-click and only sold from Storage.
  • removeGrand Archive: Removed Specimen Collection Auto-Selling.
  • changeGrand Archive: Added a 2-year cooldown for moving a Specimen from Exhibition back to Storage.
  • newAutomation: Added workforce limit sliders for automated jobs to cap slot filling.
  • newUI: Starbases now support Tab and Ctrl-Tab for cycling through the list.
  • changeJob System: Removed Unemployment; pops losing jobs now immediately fall to their stratum's fallback category.
  • changeJob System: Reworked job displacement so efficient workers or slaves more reliably displace existing workers.
  • changeNascent Stage: Nascent Stage maturation is now driven by a forced integration block rather than script demotion.
  • removeModding: Removed demotion and promotion blocks from pop job script definitions.

Summary

The 4.3.4 'Cetus' update focuses on critical balance adjustments and stability. Key highlights include a new 10-year limit for fleets lost in action and a significant rework of Disruptor weapons, which now apply a 10-day regeneration debuff to enemy shields, armor, and hull. Additionally, the developer diary previews the upcoming 4.4 'Pegasus' update, which will feature a complete removal of the unemployment mechanic in favor of immediate stratum fallback and a more dynamic job displacement system based on pop efficiency.

← Older4.3.4 Open Beta (part two) is now on stellaris_test [checksum 44ba]Apr 10, 2026

More from Stellaris

View all patches →