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Stellaris Dev Diary #112 - The L-Cluster

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today, we're going to be covering the headline feature of the Distant Stars Story Pack that will be accompanying the 2.1 'Niven' update.

The L-Cluster
In Distant Stars, some Black Hole systems are home to mysterious "L-Gate" structures that the player can find while exploring the galaxy. Originally part of the regular Gateway network, these L-Gates were heavily modified shortly after the initial construction of the network. The gates are operable but stuck in perpetual maintenance loops, possibly due to intentional sabotage. L-Gates cannot be activated by the usual Gateway technologies, instead requiring the collection of insights relating to subspace and the nanite technology used to activate the gates. Insights can be collected in a wide variety of ways - from anomalies and exploration, from defeating certain enemies, and from researching a repeatable technology that becomes available once your empire is sufficiently advanced to conduct independent research on nanites.
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Once an empire has amassed enough insights, they will be able to open an L-Gate and access the L-Cluster, a cluster of stars located just outside the galaxy and entirely inaccessible from the regular hyperlane network. What precisely you will find there, we are not going to be spoil in this dev diary, but suffice to say that there are several possible outcomes, and that the gates may have been locked down for a reason...
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On a technical level L-Gates are a new and fully moddable bypass type, distinct from Wormholes and Gateways. L-Gates cannot be built and there is a finite number of them (up to 10) in the galaxy. They use a hierarchical (or hub-and-spoke) connection design, where all roads lead to the L-Cluster. This means that an L-Gate can only send a fleet to the L-Cluster, but once in the L-Cluster the fleet can travel to any L-Gate in the galaxy. This bypass type, along with the ability to create whole new areas of the galaxy (and specify their location relative to another system or the galactic core) is available for modders to use as part of the free Niven update.
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That's all for today! Next week we're going to continue talking about the Distant Stars Story Pack, on the topic of new anomalies, new systems and new Leviathans.
 
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Aëron Dúrr said:
@Wiz
If the Player is in the L-Cluster and wants to move to a L-Gate in the galaxy, will they move through the same L-Gate regardless of the destination?
Or will there be one L-Gate for each L-Gate in the galaxy, all of them surrounding the system?
Last one would be a nice reference to the Expanse series and it would make battles in this system more interesting (in my opinion).
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There is one 'central' gate in the L-Cluster that connects to all other L-Gates in the rest of the galaxy, while all other L-Gates can only go to the central gate.
 
I would be very happy to be able to mod in a 1:1 conetion type portal working like a wormhole. Unfortunately i failed to so in 2.0 also because of how hardcoded wormholes seem to be. You can place them via event but not remove them..
 
I really hope that one of the outcomes is that you find something terrible on the other side, and then need to desperately fight to destroy the gate before 'it' gets out.

I loved the climaxes of Wing Commander Prophecy and Freespace 2 in which you scrambled to destroy the gates into our galaxy before the Nephilim or Shivan armadas could enter. Would be an awesome Sci-Fi trope to include in Stellaris.
 
So regardless of what's inside of it, the player that controls the L-cluster will have unique access to a bunch of points in the galaxy and the ability to choose who else gets that privilege via open borders. Pretty powerful.

Also I hope the "bad thing" that can potentially be inside the L-Cluster isn't undertuned - we need more truly scary crises in the game!
 
One thing I learnt from the Kha'ak-Incident, leave isolated things alone...this couldn't end well ;)

But to be more serious, sounds interesting and I hope it will be more fleshed out then the Leviathans are.
 
Takfloyd said:
So regardless of what's inside of it, the player that controls the L-cluster will have unique access to a bunch of points in the galaxy and the ability to choose who else gets that privilege via open borders. Pretty powerful.

Also I hope the "bad thing" that can potentially be inside the L-Cluster isn't undertuned - we need more truly scary crises in the game!
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And can strike in potentially 9 locations at once.
 
Can mods create multiple different "L-networks"? Would allow creation of "wormhole junctions" of sort (like those in David Weber's Honorverse books) where the single central location leads to multiple different systems.
 
Oh boy, this does sound like quite the adventure.

After the initial announcement, I expected a segregated, gated (hah) cluster with some kind of boss and a reward -- but apparently there's going to be different versions for enhanced replayability, and the strategic value of the L-Gates as a way to project your naval power all across the galaxy!

I rarely if ever move my capital, but this mysterious cluster sounds like a great potential command center. At the very least it's the perfect staging ground.

Can't wait to collect Insights and send expeditionary fleets. :D
 
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Can you savescum right before opening to get different outcomes?

When opened, does that means any empire can access it by the other L-Gates? Or only the L-Gate you opened is activated?

Also, I'd assume a crisis-like outcome would automatically open the other gates so the threat can be released everywhere.
 
Are the systems inside the L-cluster subject to a set of special rules (possibly depending on the outcome)? And what about being able to construct regular gateways there, that'd seem to somewhat ruin the point ..?
 
If you control a system with a L-Gate in it, can you control access to it, or does anyone travelling from the L-cluster will be able to arrive in your space ? Also, if you colonize the L-cluster system with the L-Gate, can you deny access to other empires ?
 
samin said:
@Wiz regarding modding, I assume modders are still limited to that single L-Cluster, and couldn't for example have an L-Cluster and an M-Cluster with separate sets of gateways (and targets obviously)
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rubert said:
Can mods create multiple different "L-networks"? Would allow creation of "wormhole junctions" of sort (like those in David Weber's Honorverse books) where the single central location leads to multiple different systems.
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Modders will be able to create their own clusters and gateway networks, including special rules for which gates connect to which other gates.
 
Sapa Inca said:
Probably the Love Cluster. Behind the gates live lovely xenos wanting nothing more beyond be friends. : )
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You thought it was an unknown xeno, but it was we, Blorg!
 
Wiz said:
L-Gates cannot be built and there is a finite number of them (up to 10) in the galaxy. They use a hierarchical (or hub-and-spoke) connection design, where all roads lead to the L-Cluster. This means that an L-Gate can only send a fleet to the L-Cluster, but once in the L-Cluster the fleet can travel to any L-Gate in the galaxy.
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- so potentially you will be able to drop your fleet in the middle of other empire? Sounds hilarious if it true:D
 
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