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Hi and welcome to another Stellaris dev diary. Today we’re going to talk about some of the things we’re adding in the upcoming Kennedy update.

The Extradimensionals didn't work quite as we had imagined them. Players were more or less forced to throw everything they had at their dimensional portal, but there was no way to slowly push them back. The mechanics through which they received reinforcements also felt a bit too arbitrary, so we decided to shake things up a bit.

As before, the Unbidden care little for planets (aside from harvesting their populations). They are an entirely space-based civilization, but now they will also build a new class of station: Dimensional Anchors. These Anchors increase the ability of the Unbidden to bring in reinforcements from their portal. The more Anchors they have constructed, the shorter the time between their reinforcement waves. In addition to that, they will also bring in a new fleet from their portal every time an Anchor finishes construction.

As long as an Anchor is active, the Dimensional Portal will be indestructible.

Anchor.jpg


Anchors are very large stations, and they take a long time for the Unbidden to build. They also function as Frontier Outposts, in that they generate borders. If you see one under construction, you may want to consider a preemptive strike before it comes online…

Overall these changes mean that the Extradimensionals can no longer simply be defeated with a single surgical strike once they have had time to establish themselves in the galaxy, but also that they don’t get unlimited and instant reinforcements, so you can wear them down in a war of attrition.

Our illustrious Art Department has not been idle while we worked on these changes. They have added new death animations for all Extradimensional ships and stations:

ed_effect'.jpg


Extradimensional Constructors have also been given a new effect when they are building stations:

ED_construction_effect.png


We have also revisited the Precursor anomalies. It was much too difficult (sometimes impossible) to collect all six artifacts needed to finish their chains. As you approach the mid-game now, there is a chance that you will get a new event that spawns an additional anomaly somewhere inside your space.

lrCyMQI.png


That’s all for today! Next week we’ll be talking about new Achievements coming in the Kennedy update.
 
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I'll admit I don't understand whether the condition to stop the Unbidden is still "destroy the portal", whether anchors exist or not, and that's what would really fundamentally change the approach to fighting the Unbidden.
 
An improvement to the Unbidden is welcomed. The one time I won against them (pre Heinlein) they spawned in the middle of my Empire, so my fleet was there immediately. Even so when entering the system I had a combat that took years to complete until the portal was even in range. It was a bit annoying to have my fleet inching slowly closer to the portal while that was spewing out one 60k fleet after another. In the end I think I blew up somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million points of their ships...
 
How come in all 5 games I played I encountered only the Unbidden and no other end-game crisis?
 
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yea since the time it usually takes to complete those precursor event chains takes soooo ridiculously long and sometimes stuff can be hidden in hostile empires spaces and you can even get boxed in with the ever changing universe i feel the rewards by the time i eventually DO get one of these chains finished is laughable at best, i think we need some new unique techs/ships or something from the chains, for instance the Cybrex one where ya find the ring world, after doing an additional chain after finding there homeoworld maybe be able to construct a smaller scale version of the ringworld but instead of around a star, around a planet, and be able to specialize it as well for either,manufacturing, agriculture, ship yard, research or even huge defense installation, some unique and wondrous projects like these as rewards for uncovering secrets from ancient civilizations should be out there.
 
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I apologize for being ignorant, but I'm afraid I don't see, from what's written in the devdiary, how this actually changes up the Unbidden?
The anchors bring in reinforcements from the portal - so throwing everything at the portal is still the only sensible answer?
Have you changed up the guardians of the portal? Have you slowed down reinforcement waves so that only by constructing X number of anchors will the Unbidden be able to overwhelm the galaxy? What has actually changed, apart from the Unbidden being given a new way to spawn in extra help? D:

Destroying the portal will put an end to the renforcements, but the Unbidden will remain there until there are no anchors left. At least, that's what I understood from the dev diary.
Otherwise... Well... Destroying the Anchors might slow down the Unbidden, but the player will still always try to trick the Unbidden fleet in order to destroy the portal (the "chirurgical strike" mentionned in the dev diary).
 
Good changes. While you probably can't comment on it, I certainly hope you'll improve the precursor questlines a little bit, too. To be blunt, they kind of suck.

First and foremost, the rewards for most of them are really really bad. Cybrex is great: an abandoned ringworld, giving you access to Living Metal. It's a unique reward that, for a first-time player feels exciting, and for more experienced players has obvious benefits that they want. But the rest? You get a pittance of minerals, energy, and/or research point. They're a huge let-down. The quest line has such a big build-up, it's a shame to see the reward be so lame. Preferably, I'd like to see some unique tech, or something (something useful, better than mining lasers, please). Maybe throw me a nice gaia world. Something I can use. Something I can't generate on my own in a few months.

Secondly, the spawning mechanic is kind of annoying in practice. I appreciate the idea: a mad race for the reward. However, if I've just spent a couple hours of my game looking for anomalies, only for the special system to spawn on the other side of the galaxy, possibly where I can't even get to it because I'm blocked by other empires, or even to have another empire snipe all that work away from me just feels immensely terrible for the player, especially considering it's something that's largely out of their control.
 
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Cool. Are sectors getting some love?
 
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Sorry for the confusion.

I edited the original post. As long as there are any active Anchors, the Dimensional Portal cannot be destroyed.
 
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Additional precursor problem i encountered in my latest game. Found all six precursor artifacts, have active sensor link with another empire, rush to survey precursor home system, other empire surveys part of system i survey the other, no finish to precursor quest line.
 
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Sorry for the confusion.

I edited the original post. As long as there are any active Anchors, the Dimensional Portal cannot be destroyed.
Thanks!

That's interesting. It also excludes bum-rushing the Unbidden and/or drawing them out to the anchors to kill their portal.
 
Sorry for the confusion.

I edited the original post. As long as there are any active Anchors, the Dimensional Portal cannot be destroyed.
But how does this change the "if they arrive, throw everything at the portal" only-possible-strategy? Or does it automatically spawn some Anchors around the area along with the portal, so you can't rush to that portal immediately?
 
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No Kennedy will not be paired with DLC. It will be a minor free update. The next (Banks) will be paired with a DLC. Of course, in case of no change in planning.
(source: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...llaris-dev-diary-50-the-journey-ahead.978042/ )
The only dev posts mentioning "free" "paid" or "DLC" in that thread are in reference to the free 1.3 patch with a paid DLC called Leviathans.

Banks will include an *expansion*, which is larger than a DLC. No where does it say Kennedy will not be paired with a DLC or "story pack".

All you have to do is wait, and then pay for a Christmas self-gift. :)

Just my speculation, of course.
 
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