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Stellaris Dev Diary #46 - Enclaves

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. This development diary will cover Leviathans, the recently announced DLC that will be accompanying the 1.3 'Heinlein' update. As previously mentioned, Leviathans is not an expansion but rather something we call a 'Story Pack', a collection of mostly scripted content that is larger than an event pack but smaller than a full expansion. Originally, Heinlein was supposed to be an update accompanying a full-fledged expansion, but we chose instead to do a Story Pack so that the Stellaris programmers would be able to focus on bug fixing, UI improvements and improving/reworking features in the free update.

The Heinlein update has already been covered in several development diaries, but I still thought I should take the time to remind everyone of what it contains. Note that this is NOT an exhaustive list:
  • Awakened Fallen Empires
  • Fallen Empire quests, tasks and general improvements
  • Fleet Roles and new XL weapons
  • Weapon Balance rework
  • Federation Victory Condition
  • Strategic Resource Rework
  • Auto-Exploration
  • Rally Points
  • Expansion Planner
  • Habitability System Rework
  • Federation/Alliance Rework
  • Federation Association Status
  • Better control over sectors
  • 4 new portraits (NOT the 'cuties')
  • Major sound and graphics improvements
  • Space Creature rework, including new art and encounters
  • Loads of bug fixes, AI improvements and UI improvements
The Leviathans Story Pack, meanwhile, will contain the following. This IS an exhaustive list:
  • Guardians feature
  • Enclaves feature
  • War in Heaven feature
  • 5 new portraits ('cuties')
  • 20+ minutes of new music by Andreas Waldetoft

With that out of the way, on to today's topic! Today we'll be talking about Enclaves, one of the above listed paid features. Enclaves are a new type of precursors those with the Leviathans Story Pack will encounter while exploring the galaxy. Instead of living on planets and controlling an empire, they are neutral traders, artists and scholars who reside in ancient space stations and who will offer their services to anyone who is willing to pay.
rszdfIQ.png


There are three types of Enclaves, each with their own range of interactions:
  • Traders allow you to exchange minerals for energy and vice versa.
  • Artists allow you to commission a piece of art that can be placed on one of your planets as a building, or become their patron to support more advanced works.
  • Curators allow you to purchase star charts, enlist their aid in furthering your research, or purchase information about the different Guardians and their weaknesses.
HBqDQn2.png


In addition to these basic interactions, each type of Enclave also has an 'advanced' interaction. This interaction is not immediately available, but must be earned by building up that Enclave's opinion of your empire. This is done by utilizing their basic interactions, so for example a Trader Enclave's opinion of you will increase every time you trade minerals and energy with them. An Enclave that is located inside of your borders will also have its opinion of you slowly increase over time. The advanced interactions are as follows:
  • Traders will sell you a unique strategic resource accessible only to them.
  • Artists can be asked to organize a festival across your worlds, improving happiness across your entire empire.
  • Curators will allow you to recruit one of their researchers, who provides access to unique technologies not otherwise researchable.
DFMb1sw.png


Of course, if your empire leans more towards the Fanatical Purifier type of thinking, you can also choose to simply attack an Enclave. Their space stations are powerful, but not invincible, and you may just find valuable salvage and technologies among the wreckage.

That's all for today! Next time we'll be talking about the headline feature of the Leviathans Story Pack, the Guardians, so stay tuned! In the meanwhile, here's a little teaser of what to expect...
c3NyPko.png
 
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Am I the only one who think this Enclave looks very similar to Civilization City-States?
Quite interesting, though.
Now shut up and take my money!
 
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Nice Work.
 
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Id shove money at the screen, but I dont know how much to.
 
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Hmm, not what I was expecting from a name like Enclaves. But space merchant guilds will definitely make the galaxy feel somewhat more alive; I just hope there will be some interaction with them and pirates (if/when those get worked out to be more interesting).

Will Enclaves own the systems they are in, or are you able to colonize a planet there still? With RNG it'll just be the case where they spawn in a system with a 20+ Gaia planet!
 
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Those prices seem egregious. 3 energy per mineral?

Also, is there a chance the recruited researcher can have the Psionics Eypertise trait so non-WH non-spiritualist empires can finally get somewhat reliable acess to jump drives?
 
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Do the enclaves need to be in your space/neutral territory for you to take advantage of them? Will closed borders prevent you from interacting with a known enclave?
 
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Looking good, especially the Guardian picture! I do have a question about the Heinlein content-list however. Back in the days when you announced the first three patches (Clarke Asimov and Heinlein) you gave a rough list of features. I understand that a lot has changed since then but you did talk about more mid-game and colony events in that developer diary. Can we still expect them in one way or another for Heinlein or are they scrapped or delayed until further notice?
 
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Those prices seem egregious. 3 energy per mineral?

Also, is there a chance the recruited researcher can have the Psionics Eypertise trait so non-WH non-spiritualist empires can finally get somewhat reliable acess to jump drives?
Ah, but these are the finest quality minerals from some of the best and most ethical quarries in the galaxy. Honestly, this rate is a steal, but we like you that much.
 
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Is the enclave space station really that much larger than the planet? I understand solar system visuals are mostly an abstraction for the benefit of UI, but the scaling is sometimes confusing.

And that guardian is scary. :oops:
 
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  • Curators will allow you to recruit one of their researchers, who provides access to unique technologies not otherwise researchable.
[...]
Their space stations are powerful, but not invincible, and you may just find valuable salvage and technologies among the wreckage.

It is possible to obtain the unique technologies among the wreckage?

And if we recruit one their researchers, the unique technologies would appear only with luck or like technology find in wreckage?
 
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Hmm, not what I was expecting from a name like Enclaves. But space merchant guilds will definitely make the galaxy feel somewhat more alive; I just hope there will be some interaction with them and pirates (if/when those get worked out to be more interesting).

Will Enclaves own the systems they are in, or are you able to colonize a planet there still? With RNG it'll just be the case where they spawn in a system with a 20+ Gaia planet!

An Enclave that is located inside of your borders will also have its opinion of you slowly increase over time.
 
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What about their ethos or other potential modifiers that could affect their trust with us? Will there be a few scenarios where a merchant guild will flatout refuse to trade with you or the curators deem you as not trustworthy enough to hand you information?

I also wonder if some of them could gain association status for a federation: It would certainly make sense for a federation consisting of traders to associate with a merchant guild, for example.
 
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to steal some ideas from an excellent designed game is no shame
 
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Curators allow you to purchase star charts
What benefit will purchasing star charts have over exploring with your own ships? Will buying the charts negate the ability to find anomalies? (Regarding the latter, I'll admit that I haven't played in a while, due to HoI4, and when I do I never trade for the charts, so if this has been changed so you can still find anomalies after getting access to other empires' data, I am unaware of it (but would be happy to learn that it is the case.))
 
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Resources and other goods Enclaves offers have fixed price or depend on relationship with Empires?

On side note, i'm surprised that proper Pirates aren't presented as separate enclave that breed troubles but can be used to harass other Empires in "Privateer style".
 
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