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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.
 
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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That sounds so cool. I can't wait (and must pre-order it asap)

I'd LOVE to see some more 'dead precursor' races (e.g the Yurt). I love to updates so far, made it easier to play and start wars/beat the system bosses but of the 4 races it picks for a story I get the Yurt 6 out of 10 times. I'd love to see some more races that are new to find there history and how they died out.
 
Oh sweet Jesus, is that a Colossus leviathan I see? Can you imagine pissing that thing off and it comes straight for your capital? Worm preserve us!
Edit: or maybe it's a fleet destroying super weapon? Either way can't wait to find out myself. I'm gonna poke it with a BIG stick. What's the worse that can happen?

They can have boards with nails in them :)
 
I'm excited for more sorely needed flavour text.
 
''Distant Stars increase the anomaly count of the game by about 50%.''

This is what you guys should write on the store page. Instead of ''dozens of new anomalies''. Much more reassuring to hear that the base game's anomaly count will be increased by 50% and it sounds more impressive. But of course that information could become outdated later if you guys decide to add more anomalies to the base game for free.

Overall I really liked this dev diary because it addressed some of my concerns for DSSP.
 
I am less than hyped for a new x-pac, when the game has numerous bugs including a totally broken Fleet Manager that makes the base game unfun and in some cases, practically unplayable. As it stands, while I have bought every x-pac so far and enjoyed the game for several hundred hours, I will not be buying more x-pacs going forward until the game is in a playable state again.
 
I am less than hyped for a new x-pac, when the game has numerous bugs including a totally broken Fleet Manager that makes the base game unfun and in some cases, practically unplayable. As it stands, while I have bought every x-pac so far and enjoyed the game for several hundred hours, I will not be buying more x-pacs going forward until the game is in a playable state again.
I'm going to buy it straight away. Just won't play it until it's in a better condition. While I'm totally understanding as to why there are so many bugs after the seismic shift that was 2.0, I do find it odd that they add more stuff before they fix the current version. Totally hyped for distant stars, looks great, can't wait to its out and they fix all the many, many little (and a few not so little) issues.
 
This is what you guys should write on the store page. Instead of ''dozens of new anomalies''. Much more reassuring to hear that the base game's anomaly count will be increased by 50% and it sounds more impressive.
Yes, but how many anomalies are there currently? 50% of 100 could be dozens of anomalies while 50% of 200 is a hundred ben anomalies. I tried to count the anomalies in the game files and by my count there might be up to 100 new anomalies (which is still more than implied by "dozens of new anomalies"). I hope that this is true rather than ONLY a few dozen. Of course, they are also adjusting some of the existing ones and there is the other content too. Paradox are being vague though and the sites page seems more definite than Wiz saying about 50% more.
 
New exploration features sound great.
I do hope there will be further improvements on other non-military aspects of the game in the future as well (diplomacy, espionage, internal intrigues, etc.).
 
Will all of the old Anamolies remain in the game?
 
I am less than hyped for a new x-pac, when the game has numerous bugs including a totally broken Fleet Manager that makes the base game unfun and in some cases, practically unplayable. As it stands, while I have bought every x-pac so far and enjoyed the game for several hundred hours, I will not be buying more x-pacs going forward until the game is in a playable state again.
Fleet manager is hardly broken. A little glitchy at times of war, but not broken.
The game with the FM is far superior than the game without it. I love being able to order up a fleet, and as long as I have the minerals, near instant fleet.
 
Fleet manager is hardly broken. A little glitchy at times of war, but not broken.
The game with the FM is far superior than the game without it. I love being able to order up a fleet, and as long as I have the minerals, near instant fleet.
So it no longer gets confused about which ships belong in which class? Cause I promised myself I wouldn't go back and play Stellaris until that's fixed.
 
I am less than hyped for a new x-pac, when the game has numerous bugs including a totally broken Fleet Manager that makes the base game unfun and in some cases, practically unplayable. As it stands, while I have bought every x-pac so far and enjoyed the game for several hundred hours, I will not be buying more x-pacs going forward until the game is in a playable state again.
This story pack and bug fixes are not mutually exclusive.
 
To be honest, not a fan of scripted systems. They are good for the first time, but then it just gets weird.

Agreed. Will just be broken or nerfed later in the development cycle by new DLC or patching. Best case scenario it just becomes a known quantity where if you find it you know you have XYZ system that produces ABC outcomes like the Worm is now.

I'm generally concerned about this. Am I missing anything in the dev diaries regarding emergent game-play and story-telling instead of pre-scripted events? I've been holding off on getting back into the game until they get to a point of feature stability and design focus.
 
This story pack sounds awesome but unless it allows me to right click the diplomacy notifications (why is this plural? Just have one!) and have that just close without triggering the pop up, all is for naught, the game is unplayable.

Having to actually communicate to alien scum that they walk the path of heresy for each and every little rodent I encounter breaks my immersion and will ruin the thrill of new events as a result.
 
I have always loved the leviathans concept I would like to do more interaction with them other than just killing them:

Maybe a project to remote study them: What can we learn/Maybe some extra lore on their physiology, giving you a breakthrough in tech or a buff to something like how you can research the Dimensional Horror when it is gone for jump drives or the dragon scales from the dragons horde, but to a lesser extent. More like learning about the creature before you encounter it, not just how to kill it from the curators

Some different options to interact other than killing them: For Xenophobic Authoritarians maybe after study/subdue an option to enslave them in their system e.g. the Stellarite Devourer used to mine energy from the star in its system or using the dimensional horror to open wormholes temporarily for tactical maneuvers. Capturing them using a megastructure project or a Psionic mind control. There could be peaceful options as well like relocating/corralling them to a system where the could continue to live that would cause them no harm while giving an option for study/research points. Just something other than the "Hulk Smash" option