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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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So instead of surgically striking one target with the entire Unbidden navy descending upon you at once, we will now have to do this multiple times? It's already 30+ years before one gets a fleet strong enough to surgically strike the one portal target as is now (assuming being completely unprepared, or losing your fleet). It would also be nice to have intel on how often they spawn so one can plan accordingly.


Speaking of crisis empires though, I would love to see a crisis AI empire that uses ships that have the ability to attack by converting your ships to their side so your own ships fight you back. I designed such a force in Space Empires V and called it The Mentality. It was practically invincible. The counter to such though was computer controlled ships without crews. Of course, in Stellaris, computer controlled ships could eventually lead to the arising of AI Rebellion. Could be a great addition where resolving one crisis could directly lead to another.
 
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Oh please. Micro-shmicro. We can pause the game and issue orders to our hearts' content.

Hunting down the constructors is easy: have you noticed the insane range you can get on ship sensors? And you can click those ships and see where they are going, too. So, it's not just the computer that can know what an enemy fleet is doing with 100% accuracy.

And again, for the 100th time, you're going to strike before the anchors are even built. If you're worried that a constructor will slip out, have a few k of corvettes hanging out in reserve to chase them down.

Insane sensor range? What size maps do you play on?
 
Insane sensor range? What size maps do you play on?
Map size has no effect on sensor range. You can get this in small or huge maps.
PlsHqpW.png

If you cannot keep track of Unbidden constructors when the sensors of even your most basic ships have twice the range of a planet with an observatory, you simply fail at the game.
 
It was much too difficult (sometimes impossible) to collect all six artifacts needed to finish their chains
Understatement of the year, in about 20 plays I had one of the precurser events, I was able to finish ONE of them. Up to today I don't know how the cybrex one ends..

Even with 3 research ships and letting them explore everything available ion the map, it's just so much luck if you can finish them right now.

And all my friends have the same problem, afaik no one of them ever managed to find all 6 artifacts.
 
Hi, thanks for the DD.
I would like some clarification :
Does the presence of anchors forbid the player from surgically destroying the portal ? if not then this is still the best strategy.
"As long as an Anchor is active, the Dimensional Portal will be indestructible." in the same paragraph as they describe how it works
 
Map size has no effect on sensor range. You can get this in small or huge maps.
PlsHqpW.png

If you cannot keep track of Unbidden constructors when the sensors of even your most basic ships have twice the range of a planet with an observatory, you simply fail at the game.

That was not my meaning. On a huge map, a bubble even that large is irrelevant...it's only a tiny fraction of a huge map. On a tiny map, it's most of the galaxy. Still not getting what you think is so "insane" about that sensor range. Still more reasonable than pretty much any other space 4x game ever produced.
 
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I just had to abandon a game because it got so tiresome trying to finish off the unbidden. First off, the rest of the universe basically just sits there and once in a while sends a sacrifice fleet to the portal (that can't even be attacked). I even have an awakened 'defender of the galaxy' that just sits with 200k of fleet at their home while unbidden gobble most of universe. Once he sent his fleet to portal, sat there, killed one unbidden fleet then headed home (as AI has no idea to attack anchors). So, my fleet that can beat one unbidden fleet has to tool around, find the anchors and kill them. Of course, the AI makes new anchors as fast as i can kill them. spitting out another fleet, rinse and repeat. After literally playing hours with 'kill anchor, kill defending unbidden fleet, repair my wrecked fleet, see new anchor spawn, repeat, ad nauseam", I just quit game. so boring
 
I just had to abandon a game because it got so tiresome trying to finish off the unbidden. First off, the rest of the universe basically just sits there and once in a while sends a sacrifice fleet to the portal (that can't even be attacked). I even have an awakened 'defender of the galaxy' that just sits with 200k of fleet at their home while unbidden gobble most of universe. Once he sent his fleet to portal, sat there, killed one unbidden fleet then headed home (as AI has no idea to attack anchors). So, my fleet that can beat one unbidden fleet has to tool around, find the anchors and kill them. Of course, the AI makes new anchors as fast as i can kill them. spitting out another fleet, rinse and repeat. After literally playing hours with 'kill anchor, kill defending unbidden fleet, repair my wrecked fleet, see new anchor spawn, repeat, ad nauseam", I just quit game. so boring
What ever happened to "Never retreat, never surrender"?
 
I just had to abandon a game because it got so tiresome trying to finish off the unbidden. First off, the rest of the universe basically just sits there and once in a while sends a sacrifice fleet to the portal (that can't even be attacked). I even have an awakened 'defender of the galaxy' that just sits with 200k of fleet at their home while unbidden gobble most of universe. Once he sent his fleet to portal, sat there, killed one unbidden fleet then headed home (as AI has no idea to attack anchors). So, my fleet that can beat one unbidden fleet has to tool around, find the anchors and kill them. Of course, the AI makes new anchors as fast as i can kill them. spitting out another fleet, rinse and repeat. After literally playing hours with 'kill anchor, kill defending unbidden fleet, repair my wrecked fleet, see new anchor spawn, repeat, ad nauseam", I just quit game. so boring
Lucky you... My unbidden got buged again. They don't do much, and was wiped in one attack of AE.
 
What ever happened to "Never retreat, never surrender"?

well where is the fun in banging your head againist a wall for hours getting no where because of pour coding i mean if the Ai doesn't even bother to attack the anchors it is litrally you vs a galaxy level threat and unless you control most the galaxy by the time it starts you might aswell quit
 
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