Cool that's the new one right? I'll pick that up and wait for a sale for the Leviathan one then.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Stellaris |OT| Imperium Universalis
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Cool that's the new one right? I'll pick that up and wait for a sale for the Leviathan one then.
Meccs
Member
Utopia is great. It is expensive but I would just get everything.
One thing that annoys me is the lack of information for stuff like Federations and Association Status. There is nothing that tells you it costs -2 influence for being in a Federation if someone asks you to join. I should not have to Google that.
One thing that annoys me is the lack of information for stuff like Federations and Association Status. There is nothing that tells you it costs -2 influence for being in a Federation if someone asks you to join. I should not have to Google that.
Finally played one of these long enough to have a fallen empire awaken and they are very VERY upset with me for some reason. He's basically squashing everybody on his side of the map and I think it's only a matter of time before he pulls my card. I think I'm about to lose...
Had such a terrible start in this game and managed to turn it around quite a bit. I'm going to miss you, Pantsu Party.
In other news, I just fought my first war against a wormhole empire (I'm warp) and that had to have been one of the most annoying things I've ever done in this game. They rebuild wormhole stations like 10 times faster than you can destroy them and their ships are impossible to catch. Took like 4 hours of white knuckle positioning and tactical fleet splitting in order to box them out and capture some planets.
Didn't help matters that they had a defensive pact with one of my federation associates who is like smack dab in the middle of my empire, so they were basically picking apart my homeworlds little by little giving me a ticking clock to finish the damn thing. Most rage-inducing video gaming moment I've had in years.
Was totally worth it it after I'd won and vasselized those froggy fucks tho.
Had such a terrible start in this game and managed to turn it around quite a bit. I'm going to miss you, Pantsu Party.
In other news, I just fought my first war against a wormhole empire (I'm warp) and that had to have been one of the most annoying things I've ever done in this game. They rebuild wormhole stations like 10 times faster than you can destroy them and their ships are impossible to catch. Took like 4 hours of white knuckle positioning and tactical fleet splitting in order to box them out and capture some planets.
Didn't help matters that they had a defensive pact with one of my federation associates who is like smack dab in the middle of my empire, so they were basically picking apart my homeworlds little by little giving me a ticking clock to finish the damn thing. Most rage-inducing video gaming moment I've had in years.
Was totally worth it it after I'd won and vasselized those froggy fucks tho.
Alright most successful game yet! Had an Influence crisis that force me to go to war a bit early, but I set my war demands such that if I won, I'd leave them their shittiest planet and snatch a couple productive planets. Victory took me from one border empire to three, at which point I threw up a galactic middle finger and broke a defense pact and a non-aggression pact and then declared them all my rivals lol.
Now this clown on the other side of my empire just declared war. I don't think he realized I'd accidentally stockpiled several thousand materials while I was sector-ing and managing my spoils, so no I have four strong space ports immediately queued with enough projects to almost double my fleet strength in a couple months. I just my spoils there as "humiliate" and "demand tribute", I figure I'll win a fight or two in my territory, then push into his shittiest border colony and then call the war early.
I really don't like the influence system. That moment when all your research scientists and half your governors all just die within a three month span is so brutal...
Now this clown on the other side of my empire just declared war. I don't think he realized I'd accidentally stockpiled several thousand materials while I was sector-ing and managing my spoils, so no I have four strong space ports immediately queued with enough projects to almost double my fleet strength in a couple months. I just my spoils there as "humiliate" and "demand tribute", I figure I'll win a fight or two in my territory, then push into his shittiest border colony and then call the war early.
I really don't like the influence system. That moment when all your research scientists and half your governors all just die within a three month span is so brutal...
Man I just routed this dude. Captured one planet with a quickness, then fended off his fleet in orbit around the second, and just landed armies on it. I think this'll do me on my demands.
I wish there was more flexibility with the wargoals. It's conceptually a cool concept, but I gotta get in the habit of demanding things I don't necessarily intend to take, just in case things go well and I can throw my weight around at the peace negotiations. "Hey also burn down all your frontier outposts just 'cuz I don't like you!"
Also in the middle of the war some federation invited me in as an associate. I have no idea what that means so I just said no. Gotta go read up on federations I guess... Frustrating that they don't at least put a tooltip on accept that says like "-1 monthly influence" or whatever it does.
Associate is the first step to joining a federation. You don't really get anything other than diplo points I think. Once in a federation it's a group alliance with a rotating fleet of ships that belongs to the federation. The good thing is that you can put all the techs of all the members in those ships.
CertifiedFP
Member
So, w/e, just conquered some of my former allies bordering me and vassalized their biggest other ally while I was at it, no big deal.
(The Sector accounts for all of what used to be their territory, the Pious Keplodian Union, now Keplodiah Province. To the south is my Vassal)
So I notice I've got the Research option for Betharian refining, which means I acquired some stone from their planets, awesome! So I check around and...
They landed a Colony Ship directly on Betharian Stone.
My Betharian Stone.
If my Ethics allowed purging, there would be purges right now.
Oh and the most bizzare thing going on? That new faction is composed entirely of the people I just conquered - No, not that... They're being lead by the Admiral that went around doing the conquering.
(The Sector accounts for all of what used to be their territory, the Pious Keplodian Union, now Keplodiah Province. To the south is my Vassal)
So I notice I've got the Research option for Betharian refining, which means I acquired some stone from their planets, awesome! So I check around and...
They landed a Colony Ship directly on Betharian Stone.
My Betharian Stone.
If my Ethics allowed purging, there would be purges right now.
Oh and the most bizzare thing going on? That new faction is composed entirely of the people I just conquered - No, not that... They're being lead by the Admiral that went around doing the conquering.
piratepwnsninja
Member
Did they ever give the ability for you to not have all the AI races clustered close to you? I really want to do a large map with very few AI races so that discovering one is actually rare and exciting, but with the original game they purposefully clustered everything nearby-ish.
There is now a choice between clustered and random (which can still mean people near you, but if you have only very few AI players, it isn't likely)
Ahh yes. The Fred Johnson effect.
CertifiedFP
Member
Can't I just Drone this guy? The Republic of Inaro has no time for dissident factions.
Also hilarious is my vassal (With the Democratic Crusaders personality) proclaims I "Hate Freedom" when I go into the Diplo screen. Bitch please, you just got Democratic Crusader'd. I'd totally have just Annexed them in one go like I did their friends pre-Utopia, but it's enough effort as-is to manage the new province that I've just brought the light of GLORIOUS DEMOCRACY to.
If you subtract the 4X elements and then add more inter-faction diplomacy/politics you'll get EU4. It's not a huge step up but it's a pretty different pace.
One Foul Note
Member
Oh come on Stellaris! Since they put in the 'no advanced neighbours' toggle on I generally always leave it on to prevent situations like this, but Stellaris still decided to put a mass purifier with a fleet strength of 1.7k on my doorstep last game. I had just settled my 2nd planet before his empire rolled in and stopped the game. Ug, my peaceful federation builders game out the window, time to be a slightly more sinister race.
Had two cool discoveries today. Came upon straight-up Humans, who I think are one of these "Fallen Empires"? They're Overwhelming strength on the empire screen but they seem like benevolent xenophiles. Also I finished one of those "Precursor" research project chains which created a new system that featured the ruins of a Halo ring. There was a nice little story about that empire to go along with the chain. And now I have a +15 research system plus a special technology available!
Aight three specific questions:
1) One of my factions demands I make a religious government. I... didn't realize I wasn't one. I have Lvl 2 Military, lvl 1 Spiritual, Oligarchy. The game calls me "War Council". Is there a way to make my government have a religious tinge?
2) I'm a shining beacon of military prowess in my region but my coward neighbors have a federation that basically surrounds me. I actually do think I could take them on but I'm curious to expand further afield. There's an empire on the opposite side of the galactic North Pole from me (we both border the cloud thing). Except that the long reinforcements supply line will make conquest tough, is there a reason not to do this? Will it be a problem for me to end up with discontinuous borders? Maybe I just make that empire my vassal or tributary instead?
3) Is there a cleaner way to spot strategic resources? I just discovered one and the only icon I can see on the map is on a planet inside someone else's borders. But there's a bazillion little icons in this dang game so I can't tell if it's available elsewhere. I'm not above fighting a lightning war to force that system to form a little "liberated" empire in thrall to me. But it's weird because that empire doesn't have the resource showing on the trade screen -- do they need the technology I have that revealed it?
Aight three specific questions:
1) One of my factions demands I make a religious government. I... didn't realize I wasn't one. I have Lvl 2 Military, lvl 1 Spiritual, Oligarchy. The game calls me "War Council". Is there a way to make my government have a religious tinge?
2) I'm a shining beacon of military prowess in my region but my coward neighbors have a federation that basically surrounds me. I actually do think I could take them on but I'm curious to expand further afield. There's an empire on the opposite side of the galactic North Pole from me (we both border the cloud thing). Except that the long reinforcements supply line will make conquest tough, is there a reason not to do this? Will it be a problem for me to end up with discontinuous borders? Maybe I just make that empire my vassal or tributary instead?
3) Is there a cleaner way to spot strategic resources? I just discovered one and the only icon I can see on the map is on a planet inside someone else's borders. But there's a bazillion little icons in this dang game so I can't tell if it's available elsewhere. I'm not above fighting a lightning war to force that system to form a little "liberated" empire in thrall to me. But it's weird because that empire doesn't have the resource showing on the trade screen -- do they need the technology I have that revealed it?
Yeah, I noticed this in my games too. The AI has no idea what to do with Betharian Stone. They usually put their capital on it or build an Energy Nexus on it.
I'm so happy that Paradox patched those options in. The standard setting a while ago were clustered and advanced neighbours (so you had nighbouring empires who started with three planets, a bigger fleet and a bunch of tech already researched). I've had games where I was just shit out of luck because my direct neighbour two systems over was an advanced militant empire who immediately declared a (for me) literally unwinnable war. Because of that clustered empires and advanced AI/neighbours get turned the fuck off.
Well my first trip to Stellaris' late game was a massive disaster. I could probably dig myself out of the hole the game put me in, but I'm too exhausted with all the petty wars and land grabs.
Everybody in my galaxy loves me but since an Ascendancy awakened and started annihilating my federation (they made sure to focus on me, natch), then immediately after I bent over and took enough for them to offer us peace the Unbidden spawned on the opposite side of me and started eating up the entire southern half of my empire. After they ravaged me down to about half my old power the Blorg woke up and vasselized me, booting me from my federation, who then scooped up the other 2 mega powers in the galaxy I'd been trying to recruit all game to actually win this damn thing. I guess next time I'll try and conquer and subjugate the galaxy rather than be a nice guy cause it just got me rolled.
Everybody in my galaxy loves me but since an Ascendancy awakened and started annihilating my federation (they made sure to focus on me, natch), then immediately after I bent over and took enough for them to offer us peace the Unbidden spawned on the opposite side of me and started eating up the entire southern half of my empire. After they ravaged me down to about half my old power the Blorg woke up and vasselized me, booting me from my federation, who then scooped up the other 2 mega powers in the galaxy I'd been trying to recruit all game to actually win this damn thing. I guess next time I'll try and conquer and subjugate the galaxy rather than be a nice guy cause it just got me rolled.
Meccs
Member
Yes exactly. I had the same problems which resulted in me having less fun. It's nice to have the option to adjust this to my liking.
As a pacifist can I integrate empires with diplomacy or something? I currently have the technological edge and have a pretty good standing in my galaxy with almost anyone. Not sure what I should aim for. I'm beginning to think the "peace" route wasn't such a good idea... Or should I start liberating planets, make them my vassal and finally integrate them? Hmm that should be my strategy I think.
Lister
Banned
Lol, looks like the empire of EMAIL is doing well
Must be lucrative to handle the galaxy's correspondence.One little minor nit picky thing I hope they fix in 1.6:
The little story bit when encountering the first sentient, space faring empire that tells you how your people react, isn't triggered by enclaves. And in most of my games (since I play on random distribution of empires) enclaves are the first thing I encounter. So after meeting like two of them, and 25 years later, I finally encounter another empire and THEN everyone celebrates or gets nervous, depending on my ethics. Nah, guys, remember those other aliens that lived in giant space stations we discovered like 25 years ago?
My people: "Whatcha talkin' bout Willis?"
They actully talked about wanting to create a gameplay element that would allow Federations to become a new nation in the last development diary, so it seems only a matter of time before a pacifist can do some form of diplo-annexation. Until then liberation wars + vassalization is pretty much the only way. Fanatic pacifists can't even do that.
Type 'mature_galaxy' or something like that into the console.
CertifiedFP
Member
Yeah, but what happens to the other Federation members?
Do they become a "Super-Sector" of sorts, or is it Game Over for anyone who isn't Federation President when the merger happens?
They kinda do if you mouse over stars before you have data on them it says if habitable planets are likely and what type are likely. There's just a small chance for habitable planets to spawn around other stars.
Yeah, in Starsector, even if you just jump into a pulsar system you're straight fucked.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Lol, looks like the empire of EMAIL is doing well
One little minor nit picky thing I hope they fix in 1.6:
The little story bit when encountering the first sentient, space faring empire that tells you how your people react, isn't triggered by enclaves. And in most of my games (since I play on random distribution of empires) enclaves are the first thing I encounter. So after meeting like two of them, and 25 years later, I finally encounter another empire and THEN everyone celebrates or gets nervous, depending on my ethics. Nah, guys, remember those other aliens that lived in giant space stations we discovered like 25 years ago?
My people: "Whatcha talkin' bout Willis?"
Yeah IMO enclaves are weird. They are city states from civ but don't feel like they really truly belong in the game mechanics.
Lister
Banned
The trade one is essentially a get out of jail free card when you haven't been paying attention and fucked up your economy. Never really used the others.
This is my first game since vanilla. I have both Leviathan and Utopia. War of Heaven was triggered and I decided to fight as non-aligned. A few months later Prethoryns are invading.
How screwed am I? The only advantage I think I have is my entire empire is located in the centre and the FEs are on the outer edge.
How screwed am I? The only advantage I think I have is my entire empire is located in the centre and the FEs are on the outer edge.
So, yeah, I've been banging my head with this game for a while.
Always leave after 50 or so years of gameplay,any way to make myself go through the whole campaign?
I dont want to force myself but at the same time I spent money on this.
Edit: Nvm, going to consume the world with this one.
Always leave after 50 or so years of gameplay,any way to make myself go through the whole campaign?
I dont want to force myself but at the same time I spent money on this.
Edit: Nvm, going to consume the world with this one.
CertifiedFP
Member
Lol, looks like the empire of EMAIL is doing well
Not anymore.
Rebel faction rose up and seceded.
I did the one thing that was natural.
*YOINK*
And the previous owners can't do shit because of a defensive pact, and if they try anything I'll have a navy ready to crush theirs and yoink more planets before the ten year truce is up.
Now to start integrating my southern vassals before they get any ideas. OH GOD NVM THAT'S EXPENSIVE.
Meccs
Member
The sector management is weird. I don't really understand it to be honest. I had it working and suddenly it was at -5 energy per month and I don't know why. It also bothers me that I can no longer manage the surface. I don't really know what the point is to have sectors. I feel like I need to get imperial prerogative asap.
I just haven't been bothering with sectors, honestly. The few times I use them is when I've got some worlds that have been completely built up so the AI doesn't have to do anything. I just stack a bunch of core systems with habitats and make a ring world when available. For wars I just liberate and then vassalize.
Also, they really need to make traditions either longer or not let you get through them all.
Also, they really need to make traditions either longer or not let you get through them all.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
In theory it represents the delegation of power to local authorities in large empires. It is directly related to the Demense limit in Crusader Kings II, where you don't hold all the titles in your realm directly you hold the top title and a few smaller ones then have a series of vassals that manage everything else.
Since the game can get very large it's also designed to reduce micromanagement in large empires. You CAN micromanage it all now with various mechanics that increase the number of planets you can directly control, but you may not always want to.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I think sectors need two things to be really worthwhile. First, the AI needs to be better. Second, and perhaps more relevantly, they need more personality. There's a little of that already in there, with per-sector independence movements and increased ethics divergence, but they need a face, like vassals in CKII. Governors just don't cut it.
My biggest problem with sectors is that it makes it way harder to access your spaceports to mass construct fleets. You basically need to waste your control groups on them or click thru like 3 layers of menu to get to them.
And yeah, you basically need to max out a planet before you hand it over to the AI to manage otherwise shit will never, ever get done there.
And yeah, you basically need to max out a planet before you hand it over to the AI to manage otherwise shit will never, ever get done there.
Which one? The UI Overhaul 1440p mod?
If your sector is currently colonizing a planet, that could cause an energy deficit.
Lister
Banned
Yeah. It makes the UI fill out more of the verticla space on 1440p monitors so there isn't as much scrolling as usual.
Meccs
Member
So I am at the point where the Unbidden come to the galaxy and I think this is ruining my game. They just go from planet to planet and destroy everything. We have a Federation that has 80% of the galaxy in it and no one does anything. They let them destroy their bases and planets and just watch. The fuck is this shit? They have multiple fleets with 70k damage, how am I supposed to fight that? If others joined in maybe it would work but no one is interested it seems...
DiscoShark
Banned
Late game crisis just shines a spotlight on the horrible Federation AI during conflicts. What you can try to do is declare war against some random AI empire to set your federation up in "war" mode where they actually have a chance of grouping up to fight with you. It's still going to be hairy in the best of times if you don't have control over the federation (and thus, the federation fleets) at the time when you actually want to coordinate something. I ran into a very similar roadblock in my most recent game as well.
Meccs
Member
This is broken as Fuck! I took the "Defender of the Galaxy" perk which gives +50% damage against them and I am fighting them alone! I lose a lot of ships but I can take them on one fleet at the time and NO ONE is fucking helping me. The AI acts as if they don't exist. It isn't even a federation problem. They just don't send their fleets at them, even without federation. They lose planet by planet and watch. Lol.
Why would they ruin a fantastic game like that?
Seriously.
It's like EU3 all over again. Just a simple empire-wide build button would be such a huge QOL improvement.
CertifiedFP
Member
If Espionage properly becomes a thing, what we need is some stuff from HoI4.
Like "Promote Ethos", "Stir Unrest", or outright "Stage Coup".
Like, right now, sure, I can pull a Crimea's Little Green Men on planets that rebel against my neighbors, but I should be able to pull a 2016 American Election/Brexit as well.
Democracies in Stellaris need to be vulnerable to the potential to get Trump'd, May'd, or even I dare say, Le Pen'd. As a hard counterbalance to the sheer number of advantages Democracies get over Autocracies.
tl;dr, I need to be able to invoke "It Can't Happen Here" and "The Handmaid's Tale" on democratic neighbors.
Like "Promote Ethos", "Stir Unrest", or outright "Stage Coup".
Like, right now, sure, I can pull a Crimea's Little Green Men on planets that rebel against my neighbors, but I should be able to pull a 2016 American Election/Brexit as well.
Democracies in Stellaris need to be vulnerable to the potential to get Trump'd, May'd, or even I dare say, Le Pen'd. As a hard counterbalance to the sheer number of advantages Democracies get over Autocracies.
tl;dr, I need to be able to invoke "It Can't Happen Here" and "The Handmaid's Tale" on democratic neighbors.