Stellaris: Leviathans Story Pack Announced, Post-release Support Round-up

The folks at Paradox Interactive have announced a new DLC for Stellaris, their 4x/grand strategy hybrid set in space, titled Leviathans and slated to come out this Fall. This story pack – apparently the first of a number of them, judging by Paradox’s description – will add new powerful space entities, a number of independent outposts populated by traders and artists, and new “War in Heaven” conflicts between Fallen Empires, among other things. Here’s the announcement trailer:

And the description:

In Stellaris: Leviathans, the galaxy will be filled anew with adventure and challenge as your new and naïve space-faring empire comes face-to-face and ship-to-ship with a host of dangers and rewards.

Guardians: Powerful space entities with mysterious origins and motives. Fight or investigate them to unlock technologies and gain access to great treasures.
Enclaves: Independent outposts of traders and artists who are willing to make a deal. Exchange resources, purchase information about the galaxy, or commission a great work of art for your empire.
War In Heaven: Where will your fledgling empire lie if two ancient Fallen Empires decide to renew old grievances in a War in Heaven? Will you err on the side of caution and take a side with the stronger power, or will you strike at both whilst they are occupied with their own titanic struggle?

Leviathans is the first Story Pack for Stellaris, Paradox Development Studio’s best-selling science fiction strategy game. With new events, new species portraits, new encounters and new options, Leviathans adds a lot of new material, including new music and sounds, to one of 2016’s biggest strategy hits.

Stellaris: Leviathans will be available this Autumn.

This is a very good opportunity to take a look at the progress Stellaris has made since release, with a number of patches fundamentally revising some of its mechanics and its balance, making for what sounds like a different experience. I haven’t had the chance to go back to the game myself, but most of the changes sound good and seem like they address some of the problems I had with the base game.

The first meaty update released for the game was patch v1.1, codenamed “Clarke”, which made a number of UI improvements, changes to the balance, and implemented a large number of fixes, especially to the AI. The full changelog can be found at this link.

This was followed by patch v1.2, codenamed “Asimov”, which overhauled the diplomacy system (embassies were removed, borders became open by default, and diplomatic incidents were added to the mid-game) and made a number of changes to other mechanics, aside from implementing the usual fixes. The full changelog can be found at this link.

Finally, the developers are currently working on patch v1.3, codenamed “Heinlein”. Six developer diaries on the patch are currently available, covering an overview of the interface and quality of life improvements, the fleet combat overhaul, a series of miscellaneous changes concerning federations, planet habitability, sectors and options, the Fallen Empire reworks, changes coming to space creatures, and ship balance. The patch is expected to come out in October and will complement the Leviathans Story Pack DLC.