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[Serrato]

So I might be missing info here, but since the game isn't turn by turn, how does it work in a multiplayer game? Fixed Speed? how do you pause it? Can you save and return?

 

[Red Arremer]

There's various speed settings, I assume MPs will be agreed upon to be lower speed. You can pause, and even save and reload (why is this even a question...?).
You can change speeds and pause in the top right of the UI.

So will you guys be up to play mp? We could go ahead and make big 32 player games lol.

Definitely up for MP.

 

[Aaron D.]

GB is live!

http://www.giantbomb.com/chat/

 

[Poodlestrike]

Yep, I expect we're going to see one of the first big expansion DLCs being a civilian/market one. In Distant Worlds: Universe it had one and it was a great addition for the genre, it was also a sort of 4x/grand strategy hybrid which the lead designer of this game has also played I believe. Would definitely like to see that.

Also since people like influence/territorial map timelapses, here's one of EVE, between 2007-2016 where I timestamped it from where it gets interesting. The far right of the map are the drone regions where Russian alliances and the Russian bloc coalition has stayed for many years as you can see, it changes a lot due to a lot of civil wars/internal fighting. On the left you can also see that reddit alliance (TEST) rise up strong, and then entirely be wiped out.

Not much unlike watching Stellaris timelapses. I've always loved timelapses since it tells so many stories, that one in EVE... so many wars, so many battles, so much politics,

Also Arumba's first episode of his LP is out.

Civilian economy is gonna be fun. Also hoping for a solid espionage system to even things up between warlike and peaceful species in terms of gameplay variety.

Never even thought of stuff like Gundam. That'd be awesome.


Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Dune, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica. Heck, I could see a Stargate SG-1 mod. Maybe even WH40k, although having everyone be fanatical militarist xenophobes will get old, I think. The possibilities are endless.

SG-1 would be a hell of a lot harder than the others, imo. Most of the actual action there takes place on a scale Stellaris isn't really built to demonstrate, and the titular Stargates aren't really an FTL system, so you'd just be sitting there playing a turn-based RPG through the event system until you got your first FTL capable ships

WH40k is actually already getting built over at the Paradox forums. Ditto Star Wars. Trek is of course underway everywhere. One thing I'm looking forward to is Mass Effect and Halo, though I haven't seen anybody working on those yet.

So will you guys be up to play mp? We could go ahead and make big 32 player games lol.

Yeah, I'd be game.

So I might be missing info here, but since the game isn't turn by turn, how does it work in a multiplayer game? Fixed Speed? how do you pause it? Can you save and return?

I think it's just locked at one of the lower speeds, like a really big RTS. You can indeed save and return to it, and if a player drops out, the AI takes over if the others wish to continue.

 

[Nzyme32]

GB is live!

http://www.giantbomb.com/chat/

Nice.

They are having the kind of discussion I would have when creating a race for the game, trying to make something for ridiculous reasons to suit a bizarre role play

 

[Octavianus]

That guy explaining things on the gb streams is kinda clueless. They were going to go with a galaxy with spiral arms but he picked a sphere instead and when he got called out on it he went all "nah they're just really busy arms so it's hard to tell..." and he doesn't really know how wormholes work, for example.

 

[Deleted member 286591]

You definitely can. You should be abel to manage a pace similar to what you could do in endless space.

Obviously too much time between play sessions might mean you have to sit there figuring out what you were planning on doing and getting re-acquainted with your empire.

Yeah that's mostly how i play Paradox games. The good thing is that you can pause and save at any point in time and just return to your save sometime later.

Okay, final nail in the coffin... Picking this up. Thanks

 

[Snakethesniper]

I'm getting hyped for this game, might preorder it!
Played only a bit of CK2 and liked it. I know this isn't the same thing, but is there something like spies and assassinations? Like building a "shady" empire?
Another thing I don't understand is if there's only the objective of "be the biggest empire" or if there's something like "being the most tech-advanced" and stuff

quoting myself

 

[bjaelke]

Someone in the Giantbomb chat just made the comparison to Spore :'(

 

[Octavianus]

Someone in the Giantbomb chat just made the comparison to Spore :'(

Some people actually like Spore.

Spoiler

Not me though. Those people are crazy

 

[Red Arremer]

quoting myself

There's several victory conditions.
There's no espionage in the game (yet), but knowing Paradox, it's extremely likely that they will release a DLC with an espionage mechanic at some point.

There is however "shadiness", as you can do stuff like slavery and the likes. You can be a massive galactic asshole.

 

[Nzyme32]

That guy explaining things on the gb streams is kinda clueless. They were going to go with a galaxy with spiral arms but he picked a sphere instead and when he got called out on it he went all "nah they're just really busy arms so it's hard to tell..." and he doesn't really know how wormholes work, for example.

Yeah that was fairly stupid. I guess he was somehow certain he had selected it so tried to reason it out

Someone in the Giantbomb chat just made the comparison to Spore :'(

Pretty ridiculous, unless that was meant to be regarding some of the possibilities later on / with the mod stuff where some races can evolve

 

[SmiteOfHand]

Some people actually like Spore.

Spoiler

Not me though. Those people are crazy

Coincidentally I just found out the Spore community is still active..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwDvmteP5Vo

(I think people are just using the closest frame of reference they have. Not a big deal. If No Man's Sky was out already it would probably be that instead.)

 

[bjaelke]

The closest thing to espionage is the option to do covert infiltration when discovering a new primitive world.

Essentially, agents that have been surgically altered to resemble individuals from a primitive species are sent to infiltrate their society. Political and military leaders are gradually replaced, until a point is reached where the primitives can be made to willingly accept an offer of annexation. This spares the need of a messy ground invasion, but more importantly, the primitives will be more positively inclined towards their new overlords, since they are living under the illusion that they accepted their rule willingly.

 

[Dhruv_hanom]

So which edition did you you guys buy? I'm wondering if I should just go for the Galaxy Edition.

Got the nova edition

 

[Red Arremer]

The closest thing to espionage is the option to do covert infiltration when discovering a new primitive world.

Not really espionage. It's closer to the Star Trek episode "First Contact" (not the movie mind you).
It's not covert actions on other empires to steal technology or sabotage them or something like that. But I definitely expect PDX to have that in a future expansion.

 

[Octavianus]

Yeah that was fairly stupid. I guess he was somehow certain he had selected it so tried to reason it out

Yeah alright, fair enough.

 

[ClosingADoor]

Someone in the Giantbomb chat just made the comparison to Spore :'(

When Spore was first announced, I was dreaming it become something like this. At least the galactic part. That was a big letdown after.

 

[bjaelke]

Not really espionage. It's closer to the Star Trek episode "First Contact" (not the movie mind you).
It's not covert actions on other empires to steal technology or sabotage them or something like that. But I definitely expect PDX to have that in a future expansion.

That's why I said closest And they've previously said that they'd want to look at espionage post launch. Well they mentioned a lot of potential dlc/ideas, but their enthusiasm came through the most on that particular subject (or so I felt).

 

[Red Arremer]

That's why I said closest And they've previously said that they'd want to look at espionage post launch. Well they mentioned a lot of potential dlc/ideas, but their enthusiasm came through the most on that particular subject (or so I felt).

Yeah.
And I gotcha. It's just that it's one of the various things you can do to deal with primitive indigenous races.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

Honestly, I'm about ready to suck dick for this game.

 

[Octavianus]

That's why I said closest And they've previously said that they'd want to look at espionage post launch. Well they mentioned a lot of potential dlc/ideas, but their enthusiasm came through the most on that particular subject (or so I felt).

That was my impression as well. I hope espionage and more types of federations are the first things they look at post launch.
They said espionage was something they want to either do it right (make it in-depth) or not at all because they feel like adding it just to have it there is one of the reasons why it's usually not a very good mechanic in other 4x games and they simply didn't have the time and didn't know exactly how they'd want to impliment it at this moment.

 

[Lister]

Damn it, did I miss the stream?

 

[infi]

I always want a strategy game to have espionage but most of the times I don't like the implementation so its good they aren't just adding it for the sake of adding it but are waiting till they've got it right.

 

[Lister]

I always want a strategy game to have espionage but most of the times I don't like the implementation so its good they aren't just adding it for the sake of adding it but are waiting till they've got it right.

Yep, agreed.

I think ripe for exploring in an expansion/DLC pack are:

1. Espionage
2. Trade markets where you cna sell/buy goods isntead of asking or trading for them in the diplomacy screen... and ways to manipulate them ::sinister smile::

 

[Steel]

I always want a strategy game to have espionage but most of the times I don't like the implementation so its good they aren't just adding it for the sake of adding it but are waiting till they've got it right.

Agreed. I can only think of a few times I actually liked an episonage mechanic. Off the top of my head I liked Medieval 2 total war's implementation; using spies and assassin's to kill off enemy characters, blow up buildings, open enemy gates, etc.

That being said, I also really liked plotting in CK2.

 

[Sickboy007]

Yep, agreed.

I think ripe for exploring in an expansion/DLC pack are:

1. Espionage
2. Trade markets where you cna sell/buy goods isntead of asking or trading for them in the diplomacy screen... and ways to manipulate them ::sinister smile::

I'll add:

3. Galactic UN
4. Democratic Federations

 

[Red Arremer]

Yep, agreed.

I think ripe for exploring in an expansion/DLC pack are:

1. Espionage
2. Trade markets where you cna sell/buy goods isntead of asking or trading for them in the diplomacy screen... and ways to manipulate them ::sinister smile::

Of course also more traits, more ethoses, more government types, and more unique ways to customize your race.

Coming just from Trek, for instance, I really would like something that emulates the Borg's proper collective, assimilating technology, as well as cybernetic upgrades. I also would love some sort of federation like the Dominion, where one race dominates and the subjugated races are specifically made to be warriors, traders, scientists, leaders, etc.
I also would like smaller AI empires to band together to form something like the League of Non-Aligned Worlds like from Babylon 5, as well as diplomatic projects that improve the races' treatment of each other, such as that particular station.
I also want the ability to start as a artificial race like the Meklars from MoO.

Finally, I would love more customization options for the home planet/system. I would like to be able to create a race that has evolved on a planet or at least in the same system with another sentient species that they enslaved, much like the Romulans enslaved the Remans in Trek.

Stuff like that.

 

[Snakethesniper]

There's several victory conditions.
There's no espionage in the game (yet), but knowing Paradox, it's extremely likely that they will release a DLC with an espionage mechanic at some point.

There is however "shadiness", as you can do stuff like slavery and the likes. You can be a massive galactic asshole.

What are the victory conditions? I searched on the wiki but didn't find any infos

 

[Red Arremer]

What are the victory conditions? I searched on the wiki but didn't find any infos

I only know of conquest and science victories, but I haven't kept up with all of the news. I'm sure there's more, and if not, there will be more in the future.

 

[bjaelke]

What are the victory conditions? I searched on the wiki but didn't find any infos

That's because you need to unlock them through technology and other events. Waiting for some of the Youtubers to get to that point.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Yep, agreed.

I think ripe for exploring in an expansion/DLC pack are:

1. Espionage
2. Trade markets where you cna sell/buy goods isntead of asking or trading for them in the diplomacy screen... and ways to manipulate them ::sinister smile::

I'll add:

3. Galactic UN
4. Democratic Federations

Of these, espionage, expanded trade (I'd like to see trade routes and civilian economy included in that), and advanced Federation mechanics are definitely things I see coming down the pipe sooner rather than later. Space UN is a much trickier thing, considering that it'd require a whole new way of doing diplomacy; you can't really incorporate it into the Rivalries and Embassies system they have now.

Of course also more traits, more ethoses, more government types, and more unique ways to customize your race.

Coming just from Trek, for instance, I really would like something that emulates the Borg's proper collective, assimilating technology, as well as cybernetic upgrades. I also would love some sort of federation like the Dominion, where one race dominates and the subjugated races are specifically made to be warriors, traders, scientists, leaders, etc.
I also would like smaller AI empires to band together to form something like the League of Non-Aligned Worlds like from Babylon 5, as well as diplomatic projects that improve the races' treatment of each other, such as that particular station.
I also want the ability to start as a artificial race like the Meklars from MoO.

Finally, I would love more customization options for the home planet/system. I would like to be able to create a race that has evolved on a planet or at least in the same system with another sentient species that they enslaved, much like the Romulans enslaved the Remans in Trek.

Stuff like that.

Some of this seems like stuff you'd have to mod in, especially the Romulans and Remans start. We already have the mechanics to do the Dominion idea; uplift and/or enslave races and genetically modify them to fit your needs.

The Borg are most of the way there. I *think* that cybernetic enhancements are in, and other than that... fanatic collectivist, materialist. You wouldn't start as the Borg, you'd need the right tech, but you could get there eventually.

 

[Red Arremer]

Some of this seems like stuff you'd have to mod in, especially the Romulans and Remans start. We already have the mechanics to do the Dominion idea; uplift and/or enslave races and genetically modify them to fit your needs.

The Borg are most of the way there. I *think* that cybernetic enhancements are in, and other than that... fanatic collectivist, materialist. You wouldn't start as the Borg, you'd need the right tech, but you could get there eventually.

Yeah I know that there's ways to emulate it through certain gamey ways, but I want them to be available from the start, is what I mean.
I want to be able to straight up build the Borg and be able to assimilate shit across the galaxy.

 

[Red Arremer]

DDRJake is struggling against the Unbidden, one of the late midgame/endgame threats.

 

[Anno]

Back to #1 global seller. And I guess there's going to be Yogscast coverage which is pretty big marketing. Could see this being pretty big from the get go.

 

[Octavianus]

It wouldn't suprise me if this ends up being their most successful game so far.
The symmetrical start does a lot for accessibility and Paradox has really started to make a name for themselves with how well recieved CKII and EUIV are. It's cool seeing my favourite dev finally getting the recognition they deserve. There are some really nice people working there and I love their games.

Also, I think the sci-fi setting is going to bring in people who are willing to try it just because it's sci-fi. My dad isn't too big on strategy games but he told me he'd watch some videos when I described it as a Star Trek / Babylon 5 simulator and I just got a text from him saying he's pre-ordered it just now

Adam Smith of RPS had a rather unpleasant encounter with a Fallen Empire:

Haha, exactly the type of stuff I was hoping for in regards to how they react to other empires screwing around.

 

[bjaelke]

Adam Smith of RPS had a rather unpleasant encounter with a Fallen Empire:

Little wonder, then, that they wanted me gone. I dutifully abandoned the colonies, not wanting to drag my allies into a war that we could never win, and I thought that’d be the last of it.

A few years later, another insult arrived with another list of demands attached. This time they wanted me to abandon even more planets and wanted to see me humiliated. I wouldn’t stand for it but after seeing precisely how much military power they were willing to hurl in our direction, I acquiesced and retreated to the naughty step.

The humiliation, previous iterations of which had involved a stern dressing down and a hit to happiness, involved the brutal murder of my democracy’s president, live on stage during a speech of surrender. Stellaris can be amusing but it can also be downright brutal.

 

[Karak]

Adam Smith of RPS had a rather unpleasant encounter with a Fallen Empire:

Ya I am under NDA so I don't want to say too much. But there is some stuff going on here that shows a maturity in the genre I am not sure I have ever seen before.

 

[Nzyme32]

Back to #1 global seller. And I guess there's going to be Yogscast coverage which is pretty big marketing. Could see this being pretty big from the get go.

Really hope Stellaris takes off. The mixture of Paradox's typically awesome support over time, a great community of players and modders, the game has amazing potential

 

[RulkezX]

£19.99 at Cdkeys, not even that bothered about getting Uncharted now. Can't wait until Monday. Genuinely think this is going to be a big big hit for Paradox

 

[Aaron D.]

Yeah, accessibility coupled with positive word of mouth could also bridge new Stellaris fans over to CK & EU.

I'm so happy for Paradox right now.

 

[pixelpatch]

this looks amazing!!!

 

[Red Arremer]

 

[Lister]

Ya I am under NDA so I don't want to say too much. But there is some stuff going on here that shows a maturity in the genre I am not sure I have ever seen before.

Are you reviewing the game?! Will you be extra caffeinated?

 

[Tworak]

DDRDead. that was pretty fun to watch.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo

 

[Karak]

Are you reviewing the game?! Will you be extra caffeinated?

Indeed and yes of course

 

[Red Arremer]

Decided to have some fun with the race builder again.

"House Harkonnen, from the volcanic wastelands of Giedi Prime. The Harkonnen know only malevolence, hatred and brutality. Their leader is the corrupt and vile Baron Rakan. Rakan's power-hungry sons — Gunseng and Copec — eagerly await the Baron's death. Each plots to take his place. But while he lives, they feed upon him like parasites."

Ethoses: Militarist, Xenophobe, Collectivist

Government type: Military Dictatorship

Traits: Decadent, Industrious, Strong

Summary:

• Can build an oversized ship
• Admirals/generals are eligible for rulership
• +50% Alien slavery tolerance
• +50% Alliance cost
• +30% Army damage
• +10 Fleet size limit
• -5% Food requirement
• +20% Minerals
• -10% Resource output without slaves
• +25% Rivalry influence gain
• -10% Ship upkeep
• +50% Slavery tolerance
• +5% War happiness
• +50% War tolerance
• +10% Xenophobia

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

I think I'll really enjoy playing with the empire creation. Which is why I haven't dabbled in the tools already out there - don't want to spoil myself.

 

[Fedelias]

Watching Arumba and Quill play has me so hyped. I've gotten pretty tired over the last year of EU4 and CK2, DLC hasn't really been the best (IMO) and the gameplay has just gotten stale. So fucking ready for Monday. When are reviews expected to come out?