STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[Tonitrus]

A "council"? 

[Zanza]

  Almost exactly that.

[Josquius]

Like most paradox dlc stuff seems to be the sort of thing that makes the early game more fun though soon becomes a drag.

[Zanza]

The early game is the fun part of Stellaris in general. Later it lacks exploration and the warfare is mediocre.

[Darth Wagtaros]

It is a grind.  Not worth playing after a point.

[Tamas]

So it seems like reviewers are digging the new patch and DLC but the official forum is in total uproar - as far as I can tell, the previous meta was to spam leaders mercilessly - not just for every single planet and fleet but having a multitude of science leaders to swap around based on the exact tech being researched.

Now, leaders having been buffed to be more special and much more powerful, there's a very low soft cap of 6 on them at start. As usual, peeps who play these games to establish a powergamer routine and repeat it again, and again, and again, and again, are upset.

[Syt]

I started a campaign with the new patch/expansion ... I didn't get far, because the new leader system was a bit much to wrap my head around between learning AoW4 and the new CK3 content. "What do you mean, I only have one researcher now??"

The changes overall look good, though.

[Zanza]

My first impression of the leader mechanic change is very positive. I actually care to remember them and what I use them for. Before it was fire-and-forget.

I have not met primitives yet, did not research cloaking and did not pick any of the origins. So I did see any of the new First Contact content yet.

[Tamas]

So the patch and DLC definitely seem promising and I could see myself really liking it if I was really in a Stellaris mood, but apparently I am not.

I guess to say something negative it's hard to imagine a very few leaders having such a massive effect on a galaxy-spanning empire, but it's not a big deal.

[Solmyr]

I use a mod that raises the leader cap to 12.

But yeah, having a good time with the game right now.

[Tamas]

Pffft, cheater :p

[Syt]

Paradox are caving in to the whining are listening tot heir loyal fans, with upcoming patch changes.

Balance
- Legendary leaders no longer count towards Leader Capacity.
- Admirals that command fleets hired from marauders no longer count towards your Leader Capacity.
- Added the Leader of Opportunity trait, leaders that have this trait do not count towards Leader Capacity while under Level 4.
- Assigned some event spawned leaders the Leader of Opportunity trait.
- Aptitude Tradition "Champions of the Empire" now gives bonus per Leaders' levels.
- Effect is now a flat -2 Empire Size per Governor level, and 0.5% Exp per Scientist level and 2 Naval capacity per Admiral/General level.
- Autocannons are no longer valued at three times their intended military power.

Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where ships would sometimes stop following its target when they entered a hyperlane
- Leaders can no longer start the game with traits that produce resources. This should stop machine leaders from keeping a bonsai tree garden as a hobby.

AI
AI will now wait until it has at least 5 planets and 25 years before choosing a specialization designation for its homeworld

Performance
Leader view performance optimizations

From here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-301-galactic-paragons-is-out-whats-next.1584568/

(No ETA on balance patch)