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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.
 
I guess Distant Stars will be the pack with the least entries in the dev diaries this game will possibly see. But I'm mostly interested, if there are gonna be anomalies to spice up the mid- to lategame a little bit.
 
Have you thought about adding unique, legendary worlds, like in Sins of a Solar empire, or Endless Space 2?
Planets truly worth fighting over and can be the focus of an entire galactic battle - much like Sins modded dyson world etc.
I know we have ring worlds etc. and they are great, but they can be created late game by everyone (almost)
 
I guess Distant Stars will be the pack with the least entries in the dev diaries this game will possibly see. But I'm mostly interested, if there are gonna be anomalies to spice up the mid- to lategame a little bit.

That's the problem with making a story pack based on exploration: We don't want to take away from the joy of exploration by listing everything there is to find. Sparse dev diaries definitely doesn't mean sparse content, though!
 
@Wiz

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.

I'm always up for making new friends but will this new one be an exclusive friend to the one who finds him or can he have opinions on different empires? After all those you are friends with might not be friends with each other.
 
And... here comes the mess. We'll have access to curator enclave if we own this, but not to the other types of enclave. However, there's a new leviathan that is not included in the leviathan dlc, but we will also have new (fixed) events even if we dont buy this......
It's exausting
 
Did you add any anomalies which may appear later in the game and are linked to your empire activity?

Like for example mining activity on molten/frozen worlds leading to discovery of "psychic rare lava species"/"ancient prisoner in the ice".

Or being a result of your scientists messing with something in your labs, creating new anomaly at the planet which can later be turned into new planet modifier or kill whole population.

And of course new anomalies which can appear after picking and using certain ascension perks.
 
Oh good grief the Giant Spiders from Guilli's planet modifier mod are becoming cannon aren't they? D:
 
Oh good grief the Giant Spiders from Guili's planet modifier mod are becoming cannon aren't they? D:

That would be amazing lol.

I cant wait for this update and the DLC.
More story stuff to enrich the gameplay is just awesome. Can't wait to RP my way in/out crazy new situations again.
 
In a 1000-star galaxy, how many unique systems and Leviathans (including old ones) can one expect to encounter on average?
 
And... here comes the mess. We'll have access to curator enclave if we own this, but not to the other types of enclave. However, there's a new leviathan that is not included in the leviathan dlc, but we will also have new (fixed) events even if we dont buy this......
It's exausting
You should probably go and see your gp about how quickly you become exhausted.