What did I miss since Astral Planes?

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Shortly before Astral Planes, I ended up taking a break from Stellaris because it is annoyingly incompatible with GeForce Now, which I was reliant on while at university (namely, custom species are saved locally, which makes starting runs a pain). Now that university is nearly over, I have access to my gaming PC on a regular basis and want to resume playing Stellaris.

Apparently, Astral Planes caused a lot of controversy, can someone enlighten me as to why? Was it just unpolished a la Leviathan and Cities Skylines 2, or was there something else? Should I get it as someone who mainly plays Spiritualist empires? I like Stellaris because it's a sci-fi series that appreciates religion, which is a nice change of pace from the flack I face in academia for being a religious scientist.

And what's this DLC pass? Does anything in it seem worthwhile? After Cities Skylines 2 getting its pass delayed and Sphere of Influence taking nearly 2 years to release, I don't see why I would buy a pass from Paradox when I can get them cheaper later.

[arronax06]

So to quickly sum up (I'm sure other people will have more to say):

Astral planes is an ok DLC, in the sense that it doesn't break the game, but it also doesn't add a lot, so a lot of people were disappointed by its price. It adds something similar to archeological sites, with some good but random events, and an origin that leans into that concept.

The DLC pass (the expansion subscription) is what it says: instead of buying each DLC, you can rent all of them at once for a period of time. How useful it is to you depends on how often you play and how many DLC you already own. It doesn't have anything in it that you wouldn't get by buying the DLCs separately.

The Season 08 pack on the other hand is a way to buy in advance the next 3 DLCs of this year, for a discount. But in exchange for that discount, you'll have to basically pre-order those DLCs.

The main subjects of controversy are about the concepts of pre-orders and subscription themselves, and in addition to that, the increase in cost of the next DLC to be released (The Machine Age) vs what it contains.

If you usually buy all the DLCs, there is no reason not to get Astral Planes. But if you usually pick and choose the DLCs you buy and only get the ones that you'll specifically enjoy, I think you wouldn't miss much if you passed on it.

[Sorceri]

Thank you for cleanly explaining this. I was a bit confused.

[Avan]

Like Arronax says Astral Planes just costs too much for what its offering. You get access to what is essentially blue mid game archeology sites that can spawn within your established borders. They have some pretty cool stories to read about and you can get some good modifiers and relics from them.

[Elitewrecker PT]

If Astral Planes had been 10 or at most 15 itd just be what you'd normally expect and consequently be probably mixed or slightly positive in reviews like all other dlcs.
At 20 (and being classified as an expansion) it's overpriced and overclassified and therefore mostly negative.