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Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today, we're going to continue talking about the Distant Stars Story Pack that will be accompanying the 2.1 'Niven' update, on the topic of exploration and new things to find in the galaxy. As with the previous dev diary, we're going to be fairly light on the details to avoid spoilering too much of what's out there to explore in Distant Stars.

New Anomalies
Distant Stars adds several dozen new anomalies to the game, with everything from simple discoveries to complex event chains (including the opportunity to make a new and very different kind of friend...) Overall, Distant Stars increase the anomaly count of the game by about 50%. We've also taken the time to go back and improve some old anomalies and fix up others that did not spawn correctly, so that even those without Distant Stars will be able to experience new discoveries in the Niven update.
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New Systems
Distant Stars adds around 20 new, unique systems to the galaxy, similar to Sanctuary or Zanaam in the base game. Most of these systems have unique encounters, event chains or anomalies related to them, and some are actually several systems with a common background or event chain tying them together. Overall, though none of these systems are guaranteed to spawn in any individual game, every randomly generated galaxy in Distant Stars should contain some new and potentially rewarding discoveries for your empire to make.
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New Leviathans
Distant Stars also adds 3 new Leviathans to the galaxy. Two of these Leviathans work in a similar way to existing ones, while one is altogether different from anything you will have seen before. As with previous Leviathans in the Leviathan Story Pack, these new Leviathans have curator dialogue and interactions related to them, which means that the Curator Enclave will appear in the galaxy if you have Distant Stars but do not own Leviathans (Traders and Artists do not spawn unless you have Leviathans, however).
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That's all for today! Next week we're going to talk about the Niven update, on the topic of Space Creatures and Strategic Resources.
 
Much of what you mentioned was in the Capek update, not in Synthetic Dawn.

Edit: I'm a fool and should not be trusted.

And what exactly did I mention, that was part of the Capek update and not Synthetic Dawn?
According to the stellariswiki page for Synthetic Dawn https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Synthetic_Dawn I have not mentioned anything that was part of the free update, only things that are part of the paid expansion of Synthetic Dawn.

Maybe the page is wrong, in that case you might want to update the information there, or you just got something mixed up?

Anyways, my argument still stands. If I compare the paid features of Synthetic Dawn with the paid features of Distant Stars, I'm sure that you'll understand that I'm a little bit disappointed.

I'm still gonna buy it thought, since I still want those features. But I'm disappointed nontheless.
 
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And what exactly did I mention, that was part of the Capek update and not Synthetic Dawn?
According to the stellariswiki page for Synthetic Dawn https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Synthetic_Dawn I have not mentioned anything that was part of the free update, only things that are part of the paid expansion of Synthetic Dawn.

Maybe the page is wrong, in that case you might want to update the information there, or you just got something mixed up?

Anyways, my argument still stands. If I compare the paid features of Synthetic Dawn with the paid features of Distant Stars, I'm sure that you'll understand that I'm a little bit disappointed.

I'm still gonna buy it thought, since I still want those features. But I'm disappointed nontheless.

You don't know all the features... How can you be honestly disappointed with only partial information?
 
And what exactly did I mention, that was part of the Capek update and not Synthetic Dawn?
According to the stellariswiki page for Synthetic Dawn https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Synthetic_Dawn I have not mentioned anything that was part of the free update, only things that are part of the paid expansion of Synthetic Dawn.

Maybe the page is wrong, in that case you might want to update the information there, or you just got something mixed up?

Anyways, my argument still stands. If I compare the paid features of Synthetic Dawn with the paid features of Distant Stars, I'm sure that you'll understand that I'm a little bit disappointed.

I'm still gonna buy it thought, since I still want those features. But I'm disappointed nontheless.

The rework of how robots work (robomodding, robot traits, robot policies) and new endgame crisis (Contingency) were both part of Capek. Neither is mentioned as part of Synthetic Dawn on the wiki page you linked.
 
The rework of how robots work (robomodding, robot traits, robot policies) and new endgame crisis (Contingency) were both part of Capek. Neither is mentioned as part of Synthetic Dawn on the wiki page you linked.

You are right. Checking back the old dev diaries it seems the wiki page information is not complete, especially the list of free features.

I apologize for that and admit I was wrong. I have to rethink my stance on Distant Stars considering this.
 
The problem with Stellaris is that everytime a pacth comes out, and the hotfixes settle and I'm about to consider starting a new game, the next expansion news comes along and I do "nope, that sounds waay better, gonna have to wait for that one..."

I suppose eventually they'll be a bit of a tail-off, but...!
 
@Wiz Since this expansion pack is focused on exploration...are we going to get a First Contact rework? The current one is pretty stale and the “First Contact Protocol” is basically useless after the first few years since it literally takes a month to enstablish contact with other species.
 
Speaking of which, were are the Nomads? I've only ever seen them in 1.9, and they simply disappeared in my 2.0 games.
I have seen Galactic Nomads post-2.0 in some games, after stabilish first contact they can be contacted in diplomacy tab now, but the options are just flavor dialogues.
The major part of the event work fine, but I see weird things sometimes, for example, in one game the nomads voluntarily leave some pops inside a hive mind empire, the pops become livestock...
 
I think the addition of new Leviathans is the chance to rework the rewards for defeating the existing ones.

At least buffing the repaired dreadnought and the baby drake.
 
Are there any unique anomalies in the L-Cluster? With 50% more anomalies but each anomaly only occurring once how will anomaly finding be after you've surveyed half the galaxy of 1000 stars? Won't we run out?
 
We'll have access to curator enclave if we own this, but not to the other types of enclave.
However, there's a new leviathan that is not included in the leviathan dlc

Paradox should take this comment a bit more seriously since here's a possibility to improve their DLC-policy ...
01. Those, who already have the (old) Leviathan-DLC (V1) could get the possibility to "upgrade" it (with the stuff in this dev-diary) to a (new) Leviathan-DLC (V2) for let me say - 5 bucks ...
02. Those, who don't have the (old) Leviathan-DLC (V1) have to pay the 10 bucks for V1 + these 5 bucks for its "upgrade" to V2 or Paradox could act a bit more "generous" or "reasonable" (in regards to something like a long-term-support of already released DLCs) to offer V2 for the price of V1 - 10 bucks ...

Basically - Expansions for DLCs ...

Otherwise, it's pretty clear, that we get the same stupid mess of mixed (instead of distinctive) features among the Stellaris-DLCs like in any other paradox-title.
 
Are you all thinking what I'm thinking?

All this AND Space Unicorns?!? PLEASE, I need a release date!!! So I can clear my calendar for the next month!!!!!
 

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Paradox should take this comment a bit more seriously since here's a possibility to improve their DLC-policy ...
01. Those, who already have the (old) Leviathan-DLC (V1) could get the possibility to "upgrade" it (with the stuff in this dev-diary) to a (new) Leviathan-DLC (V2) for let me say - 5 bucks ...
02. Those, who don't have the (old) Leviathan-DLC (V1) have to pay the 10 bucks for V1 + these 5 bucks for its "upgrade" to V2 or Paradox could act a bit more "generous" or "reasonable" (in regards to something like a long-term-support of already released DLCs) to offer V2 for the price of V1 - 10 bucks ...

Basically - Expansions for DLCs ...

Otherwise, it's pretty clear, that we get the same stupid mess of mixed (instead of distinctive) features among the Stellaris-DLCs like in any other paradox-title.

That sounds far more complicated than what the current system is. I don't want to be having to keep track of which DLC upgrade I'm on. You'd also be looking at each DLC getting more expensive over time if you wanted to get all upgrades. Not saying that the current system is perfect, but I've never had an issue keeping track of what features are from what. If you read the dev diaries, it's pretty clear what goes with what. I don't see why we would have to complicate things further.
 
No new precursor event chains per se, though the L-Cluster chain mentioned in last dev diary is somewhat similar (though much more involved both in execution and outcomes).
Will the Archeologist scientist trait be applicable to the L-Cluster chain? Currently, that trait is only useful at most six times in a game, and is arguably the least useful of the scientist traits, when logically it should apply to far more of the anomalies that are about ancient lost civilizations and thus be far more useful.
 
The problem with Stellaris is that everytime a pacth comes out, and the hotfixes settle and I'm about to consider starting a new game, the next expansion news comes along and I do "nope, that sounds waay better, gonna have to wait for that one..."

I suppose eventually they'll be a bit of a tail-off, but...!

A problem I thoroughly enjoy. :cool:

Also, too many good games, not enough time to share among them all.
 
I think the addition of new Leviathans is the chance to rework the rewards for defeating the existing ones.

At least buffing the repaired dreadnought and the baby drake.

Yeah, the dread needs to be at least as powerful as a titan when repaired. The thing had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40k fleet power, but when repaired that number shrinks to less than 10k. It also needs to be FASTER. Way faster. Please. Buff the speed if nothing else. The baby drake also needs more power, it's so terrible that I actually consider the dragonscale armor to be a better find than it. I mean, it has about 8k power and no shields at all. We can't build a giant shield harness or something? The armor, on the other hand, is unique, tier 6 value, better than literally anything else in the game, and combined with enigmatic engineering, means you would be the only person to have it. Also, maybe some better interactions with the infinity machine and a civ on horizon signal. Recently did it, and while the lore was actually really cool, the actual in-game result was subpar. You loose 800 minerals and energy, and the other possible outcomes, which are all better than the measly 20 Society research it gives you for it.
 
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