what's next for Stellaris?

It's been some time since Leviathans was released, the paid content adding in everything from new species portraits to giant space monsters, and it's generally been well received (including myself, but you can read all about my thoughts on it here) but now that the initial excitement has worn off people are starting to wonder. What's next for Stellaris? 

Well, we've got a rough outline of what's coming soon. By the end of the year we'll be getting something called the 'Banks' and 'Kennedy' updates. Now of course, they're being very hush-hush about all of the specifics but we do have a list of what Paradox is hoping to accomplish by the end of the year. Now this list is by no means complete and there's quite a bit left out, but there's enough given to give you a general idea of the direction we'll be going with the game in the months to come. 

These are three points that Paradox wants to continually update with every expansion:

• Fleshing out the mid- and lategame through the addition of more interesting narratives and 'galactic events' akin to Awakened Fallen Empires that shake up the galactic scene. 
• Improving the internal workings of empires, making pops and leaders more interesting, and making empires feel more alive. 
• Expanding on the ethics system, creating more unique playstyles and enhancing roleplaying.

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And here's a list of what the developers WANT but won't make any promises of giving us:

• Ship appearance that differs for each empire, so no two empires' ships look exactly the same. 
• More story events and reactive narratives that give a sense of an unfolding story as you play. 
• More potential for empire customization, ability to build competitive 'tall' empires. 
• Deeper Federations that start out as loose alliances and can eventually be turned into single states through diplomatic manuevering. 
• Ability to set rights and obligations for particular species in your empire. 
• Global food that can be shared between planets. 
• Superweapons and planet killers. 
• Ability to construct space habitats and ringworlds. 
• More interesting mechanics for pre-FTL civilizations. 
• Factions that are proper interest groups with specific likes and dislikes and the potential to be a benefit to an empire instead of just being rebels. 
• A 'galactic community' with interstellar politics and a 'space UN'. 
• Buildable Dreadnoughts and Titans.

Now I'm definitely envisioning an EU 4 style setup in the coming years in terms of where some of these expansions are going to go, and I think the modding community has done a wonderful job so far of beating the developers to it in some aspects. We already have something akin to more interesting mechanics for Pre-FTL civilizations in the form of this mod which lets you actually play as a Pre-FTL civilization. While Leviathans might have had its few minor flaws I really do think that Stellaris is one of the best games to have come out of this year, and I think when next year rolls around it'll only get better.