Stellaris Dev Diary #356 - Building a Grand Archive and Displaying Your Collection:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-356-building-a-grand-archive-and-displaying-your-collection.1706729/Nice. Lots of good stuff here.
To start off with, in case it wasn't already clear, the ***Grand Archive*** DLC is focused around science & exploration, and will synergize well with similarly-themed DLC such as Distant Stars, Ancient Relics, and Astral Planes. Indeed, the developers went and "refreshed" the content in those three particular DLC's (along with various content in the base game) specifically so that it will work better with Grand Archive. :sunglasses:
As for the Grand Archive itself, it appears it's another "kilo-structure", similar to the Arc Furnace and Dyson Swarm that were introduced in the recent ***Machine Age*** expansion. Both the technology & resource requirements for the Grand Archive are pretty modest, so you'll be able to build it pretty early on. Every empire can only build one, and you probably want to place it at your homeworld, or at least somewhere in your core sector where it will be well-protected.
From reading the dev diary, the Grand Archive is essentially the British Museum or Smithsonian *IN SPAAAACE!!* You can display up to a total of 27 "Specimens" -- 9 each from 3 categories (Aesthetic Wonders, Galactic History, Xeno Geology), and of varying availability (Common, Rare, Epic, Exceptional). Displaying each Specimen has a cost, but also bestows a benefit of some kind. You'll likely end up acquiring more Specimens than you have exhibition space for,; so you may choose to rotate them, or sell off your excess Specimens if you like.
Interestingly, the Grand Archive is one of the few types of mega-structures that can be destroyed: If you destroy another empire's Grand Archive, you'll automatically be rewarded with some Specimens that you ~~raided~~ preserved from destruction. Specimens can also be traded with other empires via the diplomacy screen.
Once you’ve researched Galactic Archivism (which also lets you build the Grand Archive), you gain access to the Archivsm Traditions. These new traditions largely focus on improving either your Scientists' overall abilities, and/or the Exhibition "output" from the Specimens on display in your Grand Archive. However, almost certainly the most notable of these new traditions is "Frontier Archeology", which allows your Scientists to -- at last!! -- excavate Archeological Sites in unowned star systems. I'm almost unreasonably excited about this.
There's also a new Civic called "Galactic Curators", along with similar Civics for hive minds, machine empires, and even genocidal empires: Galactic Curators really leans into the new Specimens mechanic, as well as rewarding your empire with a chunk of Unity every time you complete an Archeology dig. You also receive bonuses when interacting with the Curator enclave.
Speaking of the Curator enclave, there are now additional options & interactions available when contacting them in the diplomacy screen. For a price, they may offer rare (or better) Specimens from their personal collection to display in your Grand Archive. You can also ask them for various things (again, at a price), such as specialized museum plans, or help setting up cultural enrichment programs.
And then on the base game, the Custodians team has done a rather major cleanup & overhaul of the game settings screen. I gotta say, it looks good. These are the kinds of quality-of-life improvements I really appreciate.
