4.3.4 Open Beta (part two) is now on stellaris_test

Hello everyone!

We've just updated the [c]stellaris_test[/c] branch with the fixes we were talking about yesterday.

4.3.4 ‘Cetus’ Release Notes (ONGOING)​

Notes in italics were not in the 2026-04-02 Open Beta update.

Balance​

• Added a cap of 10 years (in defines) for how long a fleet can go MIA. (Exceptions: Phased or Eaten fleets, and those exploring Astral Rifts.)

• Disruptor weapons now also reduce Regeneration Effectiveness on hit for 10 days.

  • T1: -20% Shield, -10% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • T2: -35% Shield, -20% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • T3: -50% Shield, -30% Armor/Hull Regen.

  • Psionic: -35% Shield Regen, -20% Fire Rate, but remains on the anti-fire-rate channel so will stack with other disruptors.

• Increased Exotic Gas production of Advanced Bio-Reactor to 0.1 from 0.05.

• Increased Ministry of Production and Production Center Alloy and Consumer Goods bonus to 0.2 from 0.1.

• Faculty of Archaeostudies:

  • Biologists on a Relic World now produce +0.25 Minor Artifacts (was +0.1)

  • Archaeo-Engineering AP now increases Biologist Minor Artifact Production by +0.15 (was +0.05)

  • Increased Minor Artifact storage cap to 2000 (was 1000) and the Archaeo-Engineering bonus to 3000 (was 2000)

  • Reduced Building Upkeep to 8 Energy from 10 Energy

  • Corrected tooltip that has been very wrong for a very long time

• Astral Siphon:

  • Increased Astral Siphon thread production to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50 (was +0.1, +0.2, +0.3).

  • Reduced Astral Siphon Physics bonus to +0.2, +0.35, and +0.50 (was +0.25/+0.5/+0.75)

  • Reduced additional upkeep to +1/+1.5/+2 CG or +2/+3/+4 E/M for Gestalts. (Was +1/+2/+4, +2/+4/+8, and +2.5/+5/+10)

  • Increased thread storage to +200, +400, +600 (was +100, +200, +300).

• Reduced the fleet power of Voidworms to be more accurate to their capabilities. (Especially if you use Point Defense against them.)

Bugfix​

• Fixed Mutagenic Habitability being capped at a lower threshold than stated.

• Fixed an issue in the create_random_fleet and create_fleet_from_naval_cap effects that didn't recognize that ships are much bigger than they used to be, so was typically creating fleets five times the size it was supposed to.

  • This will primarily impact the GDF reinforcement fleet, Revolts, Machine Uprisings, and Civil Wars, Habinte, and a Zevox ending.

  • The Doom of the Eater fleet has been increased to compensate for this change - plus a little extra on top.

• Fixed the "Volcanic Forge" technology from "Planet Forgers" not appearing for certain origins

• Adjusted the name of the "Conduit" ship class in the German translation

• Purges like the Prethoryn, Sentinels, and others now really only occur while they are left alone on the planet. ALL purges now pause any time there is a ground battle for the planet going on. (This includes normal purges, though collateral damage may still kill pops.)

  • Updated Mechanocalibrator, Terraforming Mutants, Mutant Horrors, and Titanic Guardian events to clean up properly as well.

  • Corrected a logical error where if an empire was bad at purging, they’d be able to slow the decline of pops by setting them as Undesirable.

• Updated Luminary tooltip to reflect their improved lifespan.

• Scourge Missiles were missed in the initial pass that kept torpedoes and similar weapons from dealing 5x intended damage. Your behemoths are now slightly safer.

• Oppressive Autocracies can now build medical centers.

  • Reminder: Only Elite stratum jobs generate amenities in Oppressive Autocracies and Medical Workers & Genomic Researchers are Specialists.

• Fixed Necrophage+Planet Forgers pre-FTL worlds becoming volcanic at game start

• Fixed Necrophage+Planet Forgers not getting Volcanic Forge as guaranteed research

• Fixed Ministry of Acquisition tooltip showing blank consumer goods job name

• Fixed star_eater_cap displaying as raw LOC key instead of ship name

• Fixed Offworld Foundry job localization tooltip

• Corrected Ion Cannon collateral damage. (Should be 100, was 20)

• Storm Chasers should have an increased chance to draw Storm techs, not decreased.

Also fixed the math error that was causing the cost of level 1 leaders to be too high again, and made sure it stuck this time. (Bug only affected the beta branch.)*

AI​

• Updated AI alloy and food budgets to better handle new Starbase costs.

• Adjusted AI food budget so bio-ship empires will rebuild their fleets if they recently lost a war.

• Adjusted AI influence budgets so they'll be less prone to immediately allocate their entire influence stockpile to changing vassalization contract terms if they become an Overlord.

Stability​

• Fixes an OOS when a hotjoiner is accepted during a hotjoin, after the "start" button had become active in the hotjoin status window

• Fixed an OOS when a player leaves and rejoins

• Fixed an OOS related to Spy Networks.

• Fixed an OOS at start when players don't have the same DLC as the host, and someone choses a random empire.

We expect this patch to go live next Thursday with a few more fixes.

We currently have an internal experimental branch relating to refactoring job assignment - I'm hoping we'll be able to have another "YOLO" branch update sometime next week. Those changes definitely won't go live in 4.3.4 - but if we don't see any problems during the Open Beta they might go into a 4.3.5. That refactor seems to clean up most of the issues we still have around promotion, demotion, job displacement, and the like.