The developers of Stellaris pushed an update to the open beta testing branch for version 4.5 "Cygnus" — this is patch five. It touches station weaponry, faction systems, several balance bits, and some mechanics that players had been grumbling about.
The headline change is a rewrite of weapon modules on Starbases, Orbital Rings, and Waystations. Those modules are now linked to specific weapon types and tech tiers and will auto-upgrade when you unlock the next level. Station weapon selection policies gained options for explosives and strike ships; automatic designs will follow the preferences you choose (e.g., if you lean into strike craft, the autos won't keep shoehorning in turrets).
Nomadic empires received attention too. They can now arrange agreements with certain patrons of Psionic Ascension and get rewards tuned to the Arkship (i.e., the mobile habitat itself). Faction attractiveness got a serious rethink: promotion and suppression can work independently even when ethics overlap, and groups that bleed members don't disappear on a dime any more.
Balance adjustments are scattered through the patch. The Cradle of Souls aura picked up a new mechanic, Synthetic Awareness now improves the efficiency of worker mechanical pops, and there’s a safeguard so ships and cloned space fauna won’t be built using mineral costs when operational reserves are at critical levels (meant to stop nasty loops). The Dimensional Manipulator no longer gives a percentage bump — it now creates a fixed five districts instead of the previous 33% bonus.
They also squashed a huge number of bugs.