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[CertifiedFP]

Hmm, out of curiosity - Do custom Earth-start Human empires replace the UNE?

Or does the "Two Earths" thing still happen in Banks?

Anyway, dropped the Atrian Empire for now, got fucked by Stellaris's love of excessive spawning of militarist Egalitarians who's desire to SPREAD LIBERTY makes George W Bush look like Mahatma Gandhi.

So I made my own Militarist Egalitarians based off the best of both the UNE and COM. Working out pretty good so far, already got a good Federation with a lot of hard-power going for it... Just struggling to come up with decent lore for them despite somehow instantly coming up with Atria's excuse-plot for Space Elves.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Finally dived into a game as a Hive Mind. Went full-on Zerg and done everything I can to reduce growth time and increase controllable planets, allowing me to proliferate across the galaxy. Currently have -30-35% reduced growth time (which, grumblegrumble, I didn't realise was hit so hard by habitability) and am rapidly outpacing the growth of my neighbouring civilizations. Running into huge mineral and food issues, but I will persevere.

My neighbouring civilizations are of course militaristic xenophobes; not Fanatic Purifiers, but still... Ugh. There's one on my South and North border, with the Northern one, a horde of warlike butterflies, having already conquered a neighbouring faction. The Southern one has been stockpiling ships, and war with them seems inevitable. I'm hoping the Northern one is plagued by dissent after doubling their population via their conquest to prevent them from eyeing me.

The only good news right now is that there's a bevy of habitable Desert worlds for me to take, and less so for my neighbours, who both prefer Tundra. If I can hold the line and expand while also keeping a decent military, it may dissuade them from attacking long enough for me to eclipse their potential.


Now, a question... is this image the result of a bug, or just a super giant asteroid?

(The Mandasura Entity is my Hive Mind's territory, FYI. Such an exceptional naming convention; I love it.)

 

[DiscoShark]

I honestly forgot how much of a dumpster fire the federation AI was. Had the Unbidden show up in my galaxy and its basically impossible to mount an effective attack when you have to count on hilariously ineffective AI to rally around you. Did the work around of declaring a war on some random schmo in the galaxy and I still have moments where the AI just wanders off in a random direction to do who knows what else while I get ripped apart.

Can we get a combat related expansion next time around? I'm honestly of the opinion that we'd be better off just scrapping the real time combat stuff and going for a CK2 style ... thing.

Edit : Saltiness aside I'm definitely going to be building tall in my next playthrough. I only got as far as Habitats for megastructures with my last dudes (focused on the Psionic stuff and accessing the shroud) but the science output for even the non-science focused megastructures is pretty impressive.

 

[CertifiedFP]

Federation AI is still a fucking JOKE though. Managed to start a Federation... And then my one other member of it (Kel-Azan, Democratic Crusaders) started to suddenly Rival everyone in sight who I intended to invite (Who are all also democracies) for no discernible reason whatsoever. Before long some pretty nasty bordergore started as everyone scrambled to cut eachother off with yoink colonies and yoink outposts that covered no resources of note. Jesus fucking christ, basically made my entire Diplo build a bunch of wasted points.

Then later that same ally decided to hang back in one of my wars for no apparent reason with their doomstack, going almost to the big fight and then deciding to go fuck off back to its own spaceport. Not that I needed them since this was a routine steamroll of expansion, but Jesus, it's the thought that counts here. Oh, and then the rivals of the guy I conquered suddenly decided to Rival me out of nowhere for conquering the thorn in their side (Despite no Threat malus) - Does the AI react to players beating them to the punch on things or something? I mean, SOMEONE was going to have to do what I did sooner rather than later - I did everyone a service getting that Question out of the way while it was still weak.

And the one nation I'm on good terms with and intend to invite to my Federation that Kel-Azan hasn't pissed off yet doesn't want to join because of their Religious Zealots personality.

Like, is this a side-effect of the new Factions system? Did the Kel-Azan who looked like they'd totally be the backbone of an unbreakable alliance suddenly have to please a faction that demanded they spam Rivalries? Because in my pre-1.5 games, Kel-Azan has been one of my most dependable allies when forging a Federation.

 

[CloudWolf]

Fucking hell, I've got a 250k fleet, a 5* psionic admiral with the agressive trait and that's still not enough to defeat the Ascended Fallen Empire next to me. Jesus christ on a stick.

Luckily this is the most passive AI ever, he just keeps hanging around the one planet I managed to conquer (with his freaking 300k fleet) and doesn't leave his territory, then after 30 years he asks for peace, but I can't even make a dent if I attack.

 

[Tacitus_]

Fucking hell, I've got a 250k fleet, a 5* psionic admiral with the agressive trait and that's still not enough to defeat the Ascended Fallen Empire next to me. Jesus christ on a stick.

Luckily this is the most passive AI ever, he just keeps hanging around the one planet I managed to conquer (with his freaking 300k fleet) and doesn't leave his territory, then after 30 years he asks for peace, but I can't even make a dent if I attack.

Get a couple defense stations with the debuffs and a FTL inhibitor and engage at point blank range. Awakened Empires will eat you alive if you engage from max range.

 

[Walshicus]

I really wish there was some more nuance to the xenophobe mechanics. Like, being able to treat same class species better than other class.

 

[ElFly]

stellaris and its habit of not loading all the saves is annoying

gotta restart a bunch of times before they will show up

 

[mcz117chief]

I have played about 5 hours of Banks/Utopia and I don't see many differences. I guess the bulk of the new stuff is late game oriented. I hope the Utopia DLC is worth the 20€, a couple of new UI buttons don't really blow me away (traditions and factions).

 

[Quixzlizx]

I have played about 5 hours of Banks/Utopia and I don't see many differences. I guess the bulk of the new stuff is late game oriented. I hope the Utopia DLC is worth the 20€, a couple of new UI buttons don't really blow me away (traditions and factions).

If you're going to be reductive, pretty much any gameplay addition can be considered "new UI buttons."

 

[CloudWolf]

Get a couple defense stations with the debuffs and a FTL inhibitor and engage at point blank range. Awakened Empires will eat you alive if you engage from max range.

The problem with that was that the AI would literally not move from their home system when I attacked them, so I couldn't set up traps etc. I did manage to beat him though since he declared war on someone, which caused him to send some of his fleets to the other side of the galaxy. So I DoW'ed him and took apart his fleets one by one. Defeating the Titan-led fleet was a hard battle, but as soon as that was gone, it was a cakewalk.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Did they never fix vassals breaking free immediately during the War in Heaven? I saw someone talking about it in a thread in November with Wiz saying he'd look into it, but it just happened to me in my current game.

Also does joining the Non-aligned League not work if you're already at war? I got the opinion bonus but I'm not at war with either of the Fallen Empires.

 

[fanboi]

Wait, fallen empires are suppose to be harder now?

I attacked the conservers, and they came at me from FTL quite close but had 200k army, I was, with allies 130k, but we destroyed them.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Wait, fallen empires are suppose to be harder now?

I attacked the conservers, and they came at me from FTL quite close but had 200k army, I was, with allies 130k, but we destroyed them.

I thought other than the Leviathan stuff the only change was you can't liberate their planets for research agreements anymore.

 

[mcz117chief]

If you're going to be reductive, pretty much any gameplay addition can be considered "new UI buttons."

Not being reductive at all. I was expecting bigger fortresses, bigger warships, more leviathans, more planet types, more music (which we got a little), more dynamic combat and war, etc. those are not UI elements, while on the other hand the factions and traditions are nothing but that, just numbers on the UI. I hope the megastructures at least are decent.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Not being reductive at all. I was expecting bigger fortresses, bigger warships, more leviathans, more planet types, more music (which we got a little), more dynamic combat and war, etc. those are not UI elements, while on the other hand the factions and traditions are nothing but that, just numbers on the UI. I hope the megastructures at least are decent.

The fortresses, ships, and planets can all be described as different numbers, unless you're hung up on a perceived lack of new art assets.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Eh, I think there is a little bit of a problem with the megastructures and stuff being fairly late game- Dyson Spheres don't really seem worth it by the time you get them, for example. Some of the ascension options are more interesting than others as well- Shroud seems the most involved, with genetic engineering being fiddly but nice and synthetic just basically hitting a switch.

 

[mcz117chief]

The fortresses, ships, and planets can all be described as different numbers, unless you're hung up on a perceived lack of new art assets.

I would love to just answer with "lol" and be done with it but that is not taken kindly around here so I'll just say that adding a tool tip is different than adding a whole new model with animations and everything. Thus a new ship is a much more interesting piece of content than just "you got +1 bonus stuff". If the traditions actually made a difference in your empire's aesthetics than it would be a lot more interesting. For example by starting "supremacy" you could see holographic flags in your systems or harmony adding a new graphical effect to your planet,. but instead it is just "click here, now you got new stats". And the ascension perks aren't any different, only the "voidborne", "circle of life" and "galactic wonders" actually have a unique representation in the game's world. They should have also added more endgame dangers.

 

[Quixzlizx]

I would love to just answer with "lol" and be done with it but that is not taken kindly around here so I'll just say that adding a tool tip is different than adding a whole new model with animations and everything. Thus a new ship is a much more interesting piece of content than just "you got +1 bonus stuff". If the traditions actually made a difference in your empire's aesthetics than it would be a lot more interesting. For example by starting "supremacy" you could see holographic flags in your systems or harmony adding a new graphical effect to your planet,. but instead it is just "click here, now you got new stats". And the ascension perks aren't any different, only the "voidborne", "circle of life" and "galactic wonders" actually have a unique representation in the game's world. They should have also added more endgame dangers.

I don't know why you'd answer "lol" considering it seems like you agree with me. Your beef is with the lack of new graphical assets.

That's generally not going to be the focus of Paradox game expansions. They do sell art content packs like the Plantoids.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

My current beef with traditions is that they feel like a choice of which 1-2 traditions you won't take rather than which ones you will take. Like the games can go on easily long enough to unlock most of them, if not all of them.

I'd prefer a few more tradition trees but making choosing some lock you out of others.

 

[Poodlestrike]

My current beef with traditions is that they feel like a choice of which 1-2 traditions you won't take rather than which ones you will take. Like the games can go on easily long enough to unlock most of them, if not all of them.

I'd prefer a few more tradition trees but making choosing some lock you out of others.

Yeah. It'd make more thematic sense too to have exclusionary traditions. Like, take Prosperity or Expansion right now. You are, by default, a spacefaring empire. You already *have* a tradition of Prosperity and Expansion or you wouldn't have been able to unify and make it off your rock to begin with. So why not have it be like Markets vs. Planned Economy (or better names)?

 

[LurkerPrime]

They'll probably add more tranditions when they implement espionage, full-scale trade mechanics (e.g. trade routes), etc.

At least, that's what would make the current set-up make sense. It's futureproofed.


Also, protip: for the true Hive Mind experience, turn off the music. The brooding ambiance is perfect company.

 

[Unicorn]

I can never figure out diplomacy. Nothing works.

 

[fanboi]

Quite interesting game I played.

Was going for federation building which ended in my being a pacifist.

Haven't declared a single war, took out a a fallen empire that attacked me and my federation. Ceded their planets. Took the synthetics ascension so no measly fleshy beings anymore.

I let the unbidden be for a while, they more or less exterminated 1/4 of the galaxy before I just jumped in and took out one anchor and destroyed some small fleets of 70k each.

I also took the defenders of the galaxy thing, everyone in the galaxy loves me, except the four fallen empires.

 

[spiritfox]

Godamnit let me through so I can fight the Unbidden.

 

[mcz117chief]

Godamnit let me through so I can fight the Unbidden.

They really need to give us the option to violate borders

 

[CloudWolf]

I can never figure out diplomacy. Nothing works.

It seems weirdly random. For instance, a new thing I found out is that another empire that absolutely loves you can simply refuse to enter a Federation you started simply because they "Dislike" another member and there's no way you can alleviate that. It seems completely impossible to just naturally create a Federation with more than three members because every random empire in the galaxy will always dislike another one of the three empires in there thus preventing him from joining. It's not even that you can easily figure out who dislikes who, I had one empire 'dislike' me, even though their opinion was +60.

 

[Kerensky]

They really need to give us the option to violate borders

They have lowered the open border threshold at 1.4 or 1.3, otherwise just wardec them for open borders.

Fucking hell, I've got a 250k fleet, a 5* psionic admiral with the agressive trait and that's still not enough to defeat the Ascended Fallen Empire next to me. Jesus christ on a stick.

Luckily this is the most passive AI ever, he just keeps hanging around the one planet I managed to conquer (with his freaking 300k fleet) and doesn't leave his territory, then after 30 years he asks for peace, but I can't even make a dent if I attack.

Yes, the devs are actually discouraging doomstacks so split the fleets up into hunter/killer teams that can trap them with the right lure.
The fallen titans have a flux cannon that vaporises whatever ship it hits instantly. Every fallen Battleship has a free tachyon lance on it too!
Lure them with a few HP-brick battleships while attacking them in the rear with 6M plasma cruisers.

Wish me luck!

 

[J3ffro]

Nearly ten hours in, I'm hooked. Still playing my first go, with tutorial help and aggression turned down, but I'm absolutely amazed/fascinated at the amount of story inherent in the game. From the ancient civilization that allowed me to download their consciousness (that ended up going into the robots I researched and now make up about 3% of my population), to the colony that had earthquakes being caused by the first inhabitants who ended up joining me, to the black hole that's called out several of my scientists by name and seemingly spawned a clock based religion on one of my stone age planets I've been observing (and then got really weird, and every single one of them suddenly disappeared, mid-meal and everything, leaving behind black hole related verbiage) to the strange infection that started on a colony, and when I didn't contain it there (because I thought that might mean killing that colony) it spread, and as a member of the human race we certain don't look human any more.

I love that I've done all of this, and explored so much of the galaxy with minimal fighting. I need to work on my ship building, but so far all I've fought are random pirates.

This game is amazing, thanks folks of this thread. And yeah, I pulled the trigger on CK2 and EU4 with some DLC for each, for some undetermined point when I need to move on. Not sure when that will be though.

 

[mcz117chief]

Man, I dunno if it is the new update + Utopia but the game totally hooked me again (or maybe the game is just that good). Around 26 hours during the past two days, bloody hell.

 

[CloudWolf]

Man, I dunno if it is the new update + Utopia but the game totally hooked me again (or maybe the game is just that good). Around 26 hours during the past two days, bloody hell.

Yeah, it's weird. I know it's far from perfect and I recognize the major flaws, yet when I start a game I have to convince myself to stop at a certain point (even going as far as to set an alarm clock). I guess that's the power 4X and Paradox has over me.

 

[PeskyToaster]

so I just bought this game and utopia cause a hivemind sounded cool. I also did wormhole travel cause it sounded cool even though it said advanced players. Well the tutorial is now disabled because of Hive Mind so here goes nothing.

 

[One Foul Note]

so I just bought this game and utopia cause a hivemind sounded cool. I also did wormhole travel cause it sounded cool even though it said advanced players. Well the tutorial is now disabled because of Hive Mind so here goes nothing.

I dunno if I would advice Hive Mind for your first time through. They are not necessarily more difficult to play then other races but they lock you out of core features of the game which turn Stellaris from this grand narrative sim about a space empire and more into an economic simulator. Which is cool if you've got experience with Stellaris but for your first time it might make the game feel a little cold and feature lacking.

 

[Watcher]

I bought this game and the utopia dlc never having played this genre before and im hooked! Clocked in over 18 hours this past weekend. Send help

Im curious, how do multiplayer games work? Im about 7 hours into a game with no end in sight. I cant imagine getting a group of people to complete a single game

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I bought this game and the utopia dlc never having played this genre before and im hooked! Clocked in over 18 hours this past weekend. Send help

Im curious, how do multiplayer games work? Im about 7 hours into a game with no end in sight. I cant imagine getting a group of people to complete a single game

You can save and load games in multiplayer and you don't need the same players there every time since AI can take over if someone drops out. It does take a lot of time to get a MP game rolling though.

 

[Unicorn]

What does the expansion add that the update didn't? Was expecting the faction stuff to be paywalled but now I'm wondering why I would need the expansion?

 

[EndcatOmega]

The Ascension Perks, Megastructures, Fanatic Purifiers/Hive Minds, Space Habitats and some slaving/purging stuff (the livestock thing for example). I'm a little worried about the Ascension perks being behind the paywall for the long term, as I remember that being one of the reasons CKII never really expanded on retinues, though it's understandable otherwise.

 

[AxeMan]

I've just bought this game at the recent sale and really liking it though I've pretty much hit a wall that I can't see a way past and it's making me want to drop the game.

Basically it's around war and fleets. No matter what I do I can't defeat any other fleet. In my most recent game I'm going to war against another group and I built my fleet up and went in - got creamed.
Re-loaded my save and this time re-adjusted my fleets loadout and waited until some new tech was discovered and I also increased my fleet size.
Went to war with about 1.5k fleet power and thought I'd be a chance but nope - they just came and creamed me again.

I'm not sure what I can do. I'm at my fleet limit (30 odd ships) and decked out with destroyers and covettes but I'm getting hammered.
They've got some laser weapons that is dropping my fleet like flys. Looks like they also have shields cause I'm not doing any damage

 

[Quixzlizx]

What does the expansion add that the update didn't? Was expecting the faction stuff to be paywalled but now I'm wondering why I would need the expansion?

Superstructures, advanced slavery/purging options, psionics/robotics/genemod ascensions are some of it.

 

[Unicorn]

Superstructures, advanced slavery/purging options, psionics/robotics/genemod ascensions are some of it.

Good to know. Seeing those systems mentioned in game but not knowing I can't interact with them had me wondering what I was actually missing.

 

[matt05891]

Tach lances still GOAT?

Getting ready to jump back in this weekend. I see doomstacks got "discouraged" but any major weapon system changes since leviatians/heinlein ?

 

[spiritfox]

I've just bought this game at the recent sale and really liking it though I've pretty much hit a wall that I can't see a way past and it's making me want to drop the game.

Basically it's around war and fleets. No matter what I do I can't defeat any other fleet. In my most recent game I'm going to war against another group and I built my fleet up and went in - got creamed.
Re-loaded my save and this time re-adjusted my fleets loadout and waited until some new tech was discovered and I also increased my fleet size.
Went to war with about 1.5k fleet power and thought I'd be a chance but nope - they just came and creamed me again.

I'm not sure what I can do. I'm at my fleet limit (30 odd ships) and decked out with destroyers and covettes but I'm getting hammered.
They've got some laser weapons that is dropping my fleet like flys. Looks like they also have shields cause I'm not doing any damage

What's the enemy fleet's power? Do you have shields to reduce laser damage? Maybe post the post battle summary so we can analyse it.

 

[AxeMan]

What's the enemy fleet's power? Do you have shields to reduce laser damage? Maybe post the post battle summary so we can analyse it.

The first time I went in I had a fleet strength of about 1k. They came out with a little over that.
So I changed my load out to increase the strength and added more ships to about 1.5k, went back in and they came out with a 1.9k.

I don't have shields available. When I get back to the game I'll try again and I'll post some screen grabs - that's a good idea.

It's really sucking my enjoyment from the game tbh

 

[spiritfox]

The first time I went in I had a fleet strength of about 1k. They came out with a little over that.
So I changed my load out to increase the strength and added more ships to about 1.5k, went back in and they came out with a 1.9k.

I don't have shields available. When I get back to the game I'll try again and I'll post some screen grabs - that's a good idea.

It's really sucking my enjoyment from the game tbh

A power disadvantage is more disadvantageous in the early game, plus you're taking full damage from their attacks while not dealing full damage to them. It's not a fight you can win unless you try playing defensive around your starport and retool your fleet to use non laser weapons.

 

[AxeMan]

Here are some images. This was from one battle that I got snotted in.
I tried again - got a fleet up to 2.5k. They came in with the same size and I still got snotted.

 

[CertifiedFP]

I tried again - got a fleet up to 2.5k. They came in with the same size and I still got snotted.

♪Know when to hold em, know when to fold em...♪

 

[Maledict]

So from what I can see your two main issues are that you are massively outnumbered, which does count for something as each loss you sustain has a much bigger impact on your fleet, and your choice of weapon. They don't seem to have much armour at all and heavy shields, so you need to configure your offenses around that. Similarly, they only have beam weapons which mean they are great versus armour but very weak versus shields - again, reconfigure your ships to take advantage of that.

It's possible to have two equal number fleets, and one completely obliterates the other because of the weapons and defended chosen. It's often worth refitting ships once you get a read on your enemies main weapons and defended to exploit their weakness.

Edit; also, the majority of your damage comes from missiles. Even though the enemy doesn't have point defended at all, I think missiles are deceptively weak until you get the higher level swarm missiles. They particularly suffer against enemies with tons of small ships (like your opponent) because they massively, massively overkill on targets.

 

[spiritfox]

Oh missiles. They're too powerful without point defense, but utterly pointless if there's some.

 

[LurkerPrime]

If you're completely outmatched in terms of fleet, try to gather allies, or at least isolate the enemy, while simultaneously teching for war and building up your own fleet and economy. Preparation is the first and most important war in any conflict.

Fortunately you know their fleet comp so it will be that much easier to counter them.


Now just a general thing I've noticed: Hanger-based fleets are super powerful. Back them up with corvettes and destroyers, and together they'll wipe out the enemy with minimal resistance; anything that can hit them will die first, by virtue of how the fleets engage, and then they'll wreak tiny death on the capital ships. It's sooo good.

 

[AxeMan]

♪Know when to hold em, know when to fold em...♪

So from what I can see your two main issues are that you are massively outnumbered, which does count for something as each loss you sustain has a much bigger impact on your fleet, and your choice of weapon. They don't seem to have much armour at all and heavy shields, so you need to configure your offenses around that. Similarly, they only have beam weapons which mean they are great versus armour but very weak versus shields - again, reconfigure your ships to take advantage of that.

It's possible to have two equal number fleets, and one completely obliterates the other because of the weapons and defended chosen. It's often worth refitting ships once you get a read on your enemies main weapons and defended to exploit their weakness.

Edit; also, the majority of your damage comes from missiles. Even though the enemy doesn't have point defended at all, I think missiles are deceptively weak until you get the higher level swarm missiles. They particularly suffer against enemies with tons of small ships (like your opponent) because they massively, massively overkill on targets.

Oh missiles. They're too powerful without point defense, but utterly pointless if there's some.

So basically I've got no hope.

I can't defend against beam weapons because I don't have shields available to fit on my ships.
What goes through shields? Anything?