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Stellaris Dev Diary #47 - Guardians

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we'll continue talking about the Leviathans Story Pack, specifically its headline feature: the Guardians.

The Guardians (Paid Feature)
The Guardians, or Leviathans as they're also known, are space-dwelling beings of immense power. They vary a great deal in biology and composition: Some are enormous space creatures, some are technological remnants of ancient civilizations, and some are something far different altogether. How you find them also varies - some you may encounter in their home systems, jealously guarding their territory, others may be unleashed on the galaxy by exploring the wrong planet or star.

The chance of a particular Guardian being present in your game will depend on the size of your galaxy - a tiny galaxy might only have one or two, while a Huge galaxy might contain nearly all or even all of them if you explore far enough. Defeating them, or in some cases, helping them, will unlock rewards in the form of resources, empire-wide modifiers and unique technologies. Guardians vary in power, but are meant to be a serious challenge for a mid-game empire, so don't expect to be able to bring them down in the first decades of the game.

Below I am going to talk a little about a few of the Guardians. These are just a sample and not nearly all of them, but we want to avoid showing off everything there is for a player to find in the Leviathans Story Pack for those who wish to explore and find out for themselves.
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The Space Dragon
The Space Dragon is a capricious being, jealously guarding its hoard. With this particular Guardian, there is no reasoning or dialogue... it wants to be left alone, and will attack any and all trespassers in its territory. If you wish to get at its hoard, you will have to slay it, and you had best be sure to bring a large enough fleet - anger it enough, and it will not settle for simply driving you off. Should you bring it down, however, the vast mineral riches of its hoard will be yours to claim... and who knows what you might find among the treasures. Technology, artifacts... perhaps even a dragon egg?
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The Infinity Machine
The Infinity Machine, a strange metal sphere, sits at the edge of a massive black hole, unmoving. It does not attack as you approach, does not communicate, does not even react. It seems to be waiting for something. Perhaps if you find a way to speak with it, you can find out what it wants. Perhaps you can even help it? Or, if you choose, you could simply order your fleet to attack... after all, how much of a threat could a mere metal sphere be?
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Stellarite
What can live inside a star?

What sort of being can withstand, and even thrive in, such immense heat and pressure?

What could be its purpose?

... what does it eat?
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That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about changes to the graphics and sound of Stellaris coming in the Heinlein update, as well as a teaser on the more than 20 minutes of new music by Andreas Waldetoft included in the Leviathans Story Pack.
 
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Will the Heinlein patch be savegame compatible? (In other words, should I disable updates until I finish my current - really nice - game, or will it be no problem if Stellaris updates?)
 
Will the Heinlein patch be savegame compatible? (In other words, should I disable updates until I finish my current - really nice - game, or will it be no problem if Stellaris updates?)

I am fairly sure it is not. Since habitability is being changed a lot of your citizens would probably die off if their planet is suddenly "toxic" to them.
 
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Will the Heinlein patch be savegame compatible? (In other words, should I disable updates until I finish my current - really nice - game, or will it be no problem if Stellaris updates?)
I believe it's safe to assume every new big patch makes saves non-compatible.
 
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Really like the additions in Leviathan. They feels very much in line with the vision for Stellaris.

Also, I hope the developers will continue to build upon content like this. Adding more types of Guardians etc. (depth as well as width)
 
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Will the Heinlein patch be savegame compatible? (In other words, should I disable updates until I finish my current - really nice - game, or will it be no problem if Stellaris updates?)

No, but there will be a 1.2 beta branch you can continue the game on.
 
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The Space Dragon
The Space Dragon is a capricious being, jealously guarding its hoard. With this particular Guardian, there is no reasoning or dialogue... it wants to be left alone, and will attack any and all trespassers in its territory. If you wish to get at its hoard, you will have to slay it, and you had best be sure to bring a large enough fleet - anger it enough, and it will not settle for simply driving you off. Should you bring it down, however, the vast mineral riches of its hoard will be yours to claim... and who knows what you might find among the treasures. Technology, artifacts... perhaps even a dragon egg?
Is there anything stopping an AI from ninjaing the reward once you kill the Dragon?


Stellarite

... what does it eat?
Pizza. Everyone eats pizza.
 
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But how is the player to even determine when, if ever, they are able to tackle these monsters when there is no military power indicator?

I feel like my first interaction with them is going to be to just nope myself right out of there.

And with no knowledge of its strength when am I going to come back? When am I going to feel I'm ready enough to deal with him with no number?

I mean the stream just taught us that a 6k stack isn't going to do it. My minimum would be a 10k fleet but really it should be much higher I suppose.