Cauldyth

Yeah, this one might just be it for me. The screenshots look fantastic and the potential premise is my jam. I'm looking forward to the official announcement!!!

Additional tidbits:

• Lead designer is Henrik Fahraeus, lead designer of CK2 and HoI4
• In the same mould as EU4 - real-time, multiplayer
• Discovery and exploration are a huge part
• Early part of the game is like questing heroes in an RPG as you explore the universe around you
• No technology tree, you discover technologies to research
• Becomes more like EU4 and CK2 once you have an established empire and start to meet other races in the mid-game
• Same deep complex diplomacy and warfare as their other games
• Empire population grows more diverse as your empire grows, becoming like Victoria 2 in the late-game, with factions potentially forming within your empire that can cause you internal problems
• Pops like in Victoria 2 - all of your population starts as your ethics/species, but as the game progresses factions of different ethics can appear, and even genetic offshoots
• Have to deal with those internal factions, including the ability to negotiate with them, and their leaders can win the next election
• Late-game technologies can be dangerous and cause galactic crises, such as your robotic workers become a problem...
• Galactic crises will be different from game to game
• Ship designer and visualized space combat (though I'm guessing hands-off, as with all their games)
• Most usable and accessible game they've made, because you start small and get introduced to game systems as the game progresses
• Not a war-focused game (though there's plenty of warfare), it's a grand strategy game with emphasis on exploration and procedural storytelling
• Symmetrical starts, unlike their other games
• Galaxies up to 1000 stars, many planets per star
• Species are randomly generated every game, so you truly don't know what's out there
• Universes will have great variability from game to game
• Warfare will be governed by rule of law and the community of nations, it's not just the simplistic "peace or total war" of other space games

They seem to have taken the best bits of their other games.  Sounds like my dream come true!

When you say real time, does it allow 'pausing' so you can post orders?

Yeah, it's real time in the Paradox sense, which means sloooooooow and pausable.  I wouldn't let the real-time thing discourage you, I loath real-time games but love Paradox games.  There's zero time pressure whatsoever, you can muck along at your own pace (as I do), and pause for as long as you want while you explore all the stats screens, make policy changes, etc. If it's like their other games, you can also configure it to auto-pause when certain events occur.

It sounds like the combat is hands-off like in their other games (a good thing, imo).  In the grand strategy tradition, you win your battles by making sure you have superior forces led by superior commanders in conditions that favour you.  Paradox games aren't technically even real-time.  Nothing happens in less than 1 day increments, including the movement of armies (they move in 1 day jumps).  They're like games where things take 10s or 100s of turns to occur, but where you have the game auto process the turns until something happens.  Not sure if Stellaris will be identical to that, but I'm guessing it's similar.

I like... and I am a fan, in strategic games, of tac battles being 'hands off' as you say.  The winner plans ahead better.  Yes.