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

I mean, this whole story pack seems awfully lackluster from what I have read so far.

Just compare this Distant Stars story pack to the Synthetic Dawn story pack.

We get new anomalies, new leviathans, new starsystems and L gates in this pack, while in Synthetic Dawn we got a whole rework of how robots work, robotic civilizations with a whole set of perks and civics, unique playstyles for those civilizations, a whole new endgame crisis, new voices for VIR and new ascension perks.

I'm sure you'll understand why I'm a little bit diappointed by Distant Stars from what I've heard so far. I hope there's more to it than what has already been announced.
 
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I mean, this whole story pack seems awfully lackluster from what I have read so far.

Just compare this Distant Stars story pack to the Synthetic Dawn story pack.

We get new anomalies, new leviathans, new starsystems and L gates in this pack, while in Synthetic Dawn we got a whole rework of how robots work, robotic civilizations with a whole set of perks and civics, unique playstyles for those civilizations, a whole new endgame crisis, new voices for VIR and new ascension perks.

I'm sure you'll understand why I'm a little bit diappointed by Distant Stars from what I've heard so far. I hope there's more to it than what has already been announced.

The last sentence seems to indicate there is a rework of the space creatures. This can be interesting.
 
Will anything be improved/expanded with the Leviathans from Leviathans?
They already felt a bit bland, especially now given what's been hinted at here. Could the Enigmatic Fortress be non-fourmalic for example?
 
I mean, this whole story pack seems awfully lackluster from what I have read so far.

Just compare this Distant Stars story pack to the Synthetic Dawn story pack.

We get new anomalies, new leviathans, new starsystems and L gates in this pack, while in Synthetic Dawn we got a whole rework of how robots work, robotic civilizations with a whole set of perks and civics, unique playstyles for those civilizations, a whole new endgame crisis, new voices for VIR and new ascension perks.

I'm sure you'll understand why I'm a little bit diappointed by Distant Stars from what I've heard so far. I hope there's more to it than what has already been announced.

Alternately, you could phrase is like this:
In Synthetic Dawn all we got were Machine Empires (woo... only gestalts...), robot modding lol finally same problems as biomodding, a reworked FIXED FINALLY AI crisis, and... a voice over (overwhelming!)

And in Distant Stars we're getting HUNDREDS of new Anomalies! Fundamental changes to the anomaly system! Improved scientist level icons! New leviathans for new tech, stories, an entire new type of travel type, star clusters! New hyperlane layouts! More unique star systems to add galactic topology!

etc.
 
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.
View attachment 365336
View attachment 365338

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.
View attachment 365337

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).
View attachment 365335

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.
Cool! But still no pause on popup for anomalies?
 
(including the opportunity to make a new and very different kind of friend...)

So Leviathans will be able to fall in love with our leaders? (Now imagining an admiral chased through an enemy empire, chased by a lovesick dragon)
 
No, please don't make strategic resources even harder to deal with. I much prefer the current system, a la Civilization, where 1 is enough to supply your empire, and you can trade extra to other empires. Would be cool to see more strategic resouces added though.
 
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).
Is more precursors something you hope to do in the future?

So Leviathans will be able to fall in love with our leaders? (Now imagining an admiral chased through an enemy empire, chased by a lovesick dragon)
Saving the day Kirk style.
 
No, please don't make strategic resources even harder to deal with. I much prefer the current system, a la Civilization, where 1 is enough to supply your empire, and you can trade extra to other empires. Would be cool to see more strategic resouces added though.
I prefer a real economy system with strategical resources, impactful strategical resources and pressure to take more of the same resource.
 
@Wiz , can we get a large update of generic anomalies? Is there any reason that these can't be crowd sourced from the community? Ie. get broken by some future patch?

I'd rather some variance in the generic anomalies, that if some rock is supposed to get +5 minerals, it won't be an ancient survey beacon a couple of times a game.

I like more unique systems. Gives the game a serious unique feel per run.

All that's left now, is the means of counter attacking the Unbidden through a gateway. :ninja:
 
I mean, this whole story pack seems awfully lackluster from what I have read so far.

Just compare this Distant Stars story pack to the Synthetic Dawn story pack.

We get new anomalies, new leviathans, new starsystems and L gates in this pack, while in Synthetic Dawn we got a whole rework of how robots work, robotic civilizations with a whole set of perks and civics, unique playstyles for those civilizations, a whole new endgame crisis, new voices for VIR and new ascension perks.

I'm sure you'll understand why I'm a little bit diappointed by Distant Stars from what I've heard so far. I hope there's more to it than what has already been announced.

Much of what you mentioned was in the Capek update, not in Synthetic Dawn.
 
Are you doing anything to make anomalies relevant in the later stages of the game?

Since contact with alien empires automatically results in their entire territory becoming fully surveyed, I find that we quickly run out of systems to explore and anomalies to study after the early game.

Some sort of mechanic where there is a small chance for anomalies to randomly appear in surveyed systems would make anomalies more interesting and exciting for the full course of a game.
 
You can already pause on anomalies - they are treated like any other event, and there are settings for events:

View attachment 365381
Nice! I hadn't notice.
Are you doing anything to make anomalies relevant in the later stages of the game?

Since contact with alien empires automatically results in their entire territory becoming fully surveyed, I find that we quickly run out of systems to explore and anomalies to study after the early game.

Some sort of mechanic where there is a small chance for anomalies to randomly appear in surveyed systems would make anomalies more interesting and exciting for the full course of a game.
I as thinking maybee every time you research a tech you have a chance that an anomaly will spawn on a planet in your space. To simulate that you have developed the technology required for discovering that anomaly. Or maybe it could be only if you have a certain ascension perk.
 
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@Wiz

Are you going to change how anomaly are discovered? Because as soon you crank up the number of AI, you will be lucky to experience a few anomaly if at all. Forget about finishing percursor event chain and the likes in a reasonable timeframe.

Are you going to fix the problem with science ships and auto-exploration where they will just refuse to survey the system they currently are in which hasn't been mapped by you just because the science ship itself is 100% stuck behind closed border. This is fairly easy to reproduce to be honest.

Is the science ship's new ability, the "go off hyperlane grid thingy", slated to be mid-game unlock or late-game unlock? Or hopefully earlier than that.