Stellaris 3.99.* Open Beta Opt-in and Troubleshooting

[MrFreake_PDX]

Hello Stellaris Community!

The Stellaris 3.99 Open Beta is on-going. While we’ve seen a great number of players opt-ing in, and giving feedback on the open beta, we’ve seen a few issues crop up over the course of the open beta that are outside of our control, and as such we’ve put together a document to help those of you who are unaccustomed to opting-in to open betas on Steam, or are having issues with getting the latest and greatest version of the Stellaris 3.99.* open beta on Steam.

How do I opt-into/out of the Open Beta?

It is important to note that this open beta is only available on Steam.

1. In your Steam Library, Right-Click on Stellaris, then go to Properties

2. Click the Betas Tab, and then in the Beta Participation drop-down, choose “Stellaris_test - 3.99.0 Open Beta”. If you’re looking to opt-out of the Open Beta and return to the live version of the game, choose “None”.

3. After the game updates and downloads, you can confirm your version of the Open Beta by loading the game and checking the main menu. Your current version of the game is listed at the bottom of the main screen. This will also tell you whether or not the checksum is modified. If you are getting a modified checksum message, you are running mods and should restart the open beta without mods - mods will experience significant issues running the open beta!

I am opted-in to the Open Beta, but I am not getting the latest update

This is an issue that has only cropped up recently, and while we are investigating the cause of this issue, there is a workaround that has worked for most people who have tried it so far.

1. Uninstall Stellaris. Right-click Stellaris, go to Manage, and then click Uninstall.

2. Right-click Stellaris, go to Properties, then the Betas tab, and in the Beta Participation drop-down choose “None”

3. In the top bar of Steam, click “Steam”, then open “Settings”. Choose the “Downloads” tab and scroll until you find Clear Download Cache, then click the “Clear Cache” button. This will require you to re-login to Steam.

4. Reinstall the game, and then follow the opt-in instructions listed above.

On behalf of all of us here on Stellaris, we want to thank everyone who has taken the time to try the Open Beta so far, and those of you who are planning to try the Open Beta in the future. Community feedback is a big part of what we do here on Stellaris, and we want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to offer their feedback on the Open Beta so far!

[edwin gibson]

How do I give Feed back and Trouble Shoot for the Beta? I have some things to report:
1) Some AI Empire delete their Primitive Factory. Screwing them selves over. Having Constent Consumer Foods and Food Problems. almost allways in the red. Making Crises events for them selves. that they only fix temporarally when the event gets worse enough, by buying what they need. But then not fixing the problem. So all this repeates it self constently.
2) When watching My AI empire. the Religous empires don't start with Temple buildings, and Temples don't give Jobs like they used too. I'm assuming these are a Bug. because there is no Jobs related to Priests. even though i have a Bunch of Bonuses for them.

[Durasteel]

I can't bud industrial districts anymore and it was an objective to unlock

[DaLintyMan]

I turned on the beta and it seemed that the Science had been broken at some point because the amount I was getting was about a percent of what the tooltip of the Research building in the Urban zone said it should provide when fully staffed, which it was.

[Armyman064]

I've found that only one research center can be built in a research district even though there are three build slots. I don't know if this is supposed to be like this, and if it is then the research center should be moved to the overall urban district build slots, and the research district gotten rid of as it hampers game play quite a lot since you're wasting an entire urban district for a single building. Also there should be a way to change the district designation for urban districts as I've found that early game if you chose one district, say research, but you need more amenities you can't change the district to be able to build factories and produce amenities which is quite annoying in early game.

[FortKavanagh]

Will this new update have a overhaul to the army build systems for planetary invasions?

[Derubain]

some planets seem to lose their main nexus district in favor of one of the lesser ones. Bug or feature?
Also, would be pleased if the army invasion bug could be fixed before the 4.0 goes live

[Derubain]

Ok, now all the districts dissapeared in my ringworld except for the main one, imho, the beta is unplayable

[Codarek]

Hi i mostly play on "Admiral" difficulty so my current feedback right now.

1. Trade being a resource.
Very cool and an improvement. I like it better than the previous solution. You sell energy credits at the start, buy trade currency and then buy minerals.

2. Minerals seem the most important resource.
Well in the previous version minerals was the most important resource and it seems now its even more important. Previously you could easily buy 40-50 minerals at the start with no problems. You need 50 minerals per month at the start to build science buildings, otherwise you will be so behind.

Suggestion - Add a min cap of 50 minerals at the start for each empire for balance. If players choose to add modifers its their decision. Right now being behind minerals at the start is unfair compared to those who have minerals.

3. Planet UI is cool.
The new UI is pretty cool i like it. The only thing i dont like is the "Development 3 / 6" part. Its so small but maybe i just need to get the hang of it. Before those small boxes looked cooler in my opinion. Having them as lines is a bit out of the ordinary.

4. Dont really understand how population growth works.
The "Management" UI is hard to understand.

Suggestion - Show how many pops you grow each month? I didn't seem to find it.

5. Economy tab too big.
Very hard to pop manage. Dont forget that the higher you go in difficulty the more you want to pop manage it. Currently i have to scroll down scroll up, drag the slider left and right. I spend about 10-15 moves to setup my planet. This needs to be simpler. First of all maybe an ON/OFF button? OFF means no assigned population, ON means max population assigned. When pop managing i turn ON/OFF jobs. I dont care about percentages.

Suggestion - Add a MIN/MAX button to assign 0 to 100 pops. Scrap the slider idea, it looks cool on paper, but for avid players its just annoying. Also make the Economy UI smaller. Listen the thing is that economy/management should be = FAST. Not != COOL.

6. Empire focus and timeline is MEGA COOL.

7. Build QUEUE should be always visible.
Listen i really liked to sometimes watch how my planets are constructing buildings. The thought of just looking at building the next great temple or big construction. Hiding it defeats the purpose of me looking at my planet. Do not hide the build queue, its fun to wait for the finishing! I think something needs to be done with the buildings showing in general. I like to build my planets and just admire them. Right now i feel the admiration part has lowered a bit. I like looking at my planets having multiple research buildings. The other planet having temples and all sorts of buildings. Thats why i just like to admire them. Do not hide the cool building icons! Make them more visible!

All in all, great job team! Pretty cool features! I like it! Needs some tweaking for players who micro manage pops and maximize their planets. Some features look cool on paper but not when you actually min/max the game at higher difficulty levels. Some features are MEGA COOL and an improvement to the game.

[Ghsty]

Can you change a Zone after it has been built? For example: If I have an Industrial Zone can I turn it into a Research Zone?

[Helios]

Quick observation :

I have no idea how the population is growing.
The features of the planets have become boring. You don't feel that one planet is really unique compared to the others since the dust caves have become simple mining districts.
The build queue MUST always be visible, for goodness sake.
The unity is unmanageable at the start of the game, I can't increase it. (I play a basic empire)

[Dant]

Originally posted by Ghsty:

Can you change a Zone after it has been built? For example: If I have an Industrial Zone can I turn it into a Research Zone?

Yes, but you have to ensure any buildings in the zone are removed, then click on the Urban District picture, and it will give a list of the Zones, and buttons to change them.

[jokohono]

Managing the population has always been difficult in Stellaris, but in the new beta it's impossible.

My biological slaves are used pretty much everywhere (even in specialist jobs they're not supposed to be doing) except for power generation, which is exactly the vocation they've been genetically tuned and perfected for.

Old version or beta, why can't I just manually “take” a population unit and assign it to a job?

This was even possible in 1995 in Master of Orion II and was a simple, easy on the nerves method, why is this no longer possible 30 years later and why does it have to be so terribly complicated instead?

[Elitewrecker PT]

You could pre 2.2

[jokohono]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

You could pre 2.2

Of course I could, but isn't that what the beta test is for? To suggest alternative game elements and better playability?

[Elitewrecker PT]

I was just saying, since you mentioned 30 years ago you could have joined after 2.2 and didn't know.