Ok, so I decided to not remove Stellaris 1.4.1 from inventory to scratch my biannual 4X itch and... oh boy, I think I'm actually having fun. Yes, I'm as shocked as you are.
Although I feel like I've threw too much money at those Paradox bastards already for EU4 in its hundred fifty DLCs, I'm considering opening my wallet again for Stellaris when Utopia comes out, because RNGod blessed me with a really interesting game this time.
I turned Leviatians DLC off because space dragons is something I can surely live without. Since I've barely played Stellaris before, I set up the game in large 2 arm spiral galaxy, normal difficulty with default number of AIs, randomized starting locations. But to get any challenge at all, like 90% of them were given advanced start.
I've spawned near the very edge of the galaxy, which kinda sucks, but at least those advanced AIs won't be able to zergrush me from all 4 sides, right? So I've immediately started exploring my immediate surroundings and fortunately nothing more hostile than a lone void cloud (that I left the fuck alone because it would rape my starting corvettes without even breaking its voidcloudy sweat) was found. So at least for a time being, I had plenty of spacetime to expand.
Now I think it's a good time to mention that the game scripts spawn 2 planets of ideal type for your species near your homeworld, just so you have something to colonize early. But I don't like the idea of welfare colonies, so I've modded that shit out immediately. Still, RNGod decided that a neighborly system will have a not-ideal, but colonizable planet to which I quickly sent a science ship to survey the surface... only to discover that the surface of the planet was made out of pure, double-distilled and aged, weapon grade disappointment. Small, full of tile blockers and with shitty resources. It simply wasn't worth to send a colony ship there, so I decided to look for greener pastures elsewhere. So I looked, and looked, and looked... only to discover that my part of the galaxy doesn't have those kind of habitable planets that my species like. Plenty of others though, but they're kinda are useless at the game start.
I think the lesson to learn from this is: "who scoffs at prescripted welfare colonies will be building his empire tall".
Fortunately, I had few good clusters of systems with lots of good spots to build mining and research stations. With limited population and "encourage free thought" edict permanently on (because increased ethic divergence if all you have is a homeworld isn't an issue) I was teching quite fast, while strategically placed frontier outposts surrounded by a wreath of space stations were providing most of the minerals and research points. I was also lucky in tech roulette and managed to almost beeline to droid tech which in turn gave me an option to colonize planets without those picky meatbags organic pops who like their temperatures just right and don't like dying from dehydration. Pussies, all of them, I tell ya. Still pure droid planets aren't the best, because they:
a) are expensive to develop as you have to pay to build every pop and then pay maintnance costs every month
b) can't really do science
c) have decreased energy production.
But a colony is a colony, and that means additional starport and increased military fleet capacity. Which was becoming super handy super fast, as I finally had met another sentient species. Who happened to be "democratic crusaders" type and wasn't really getting along with my fanatic militarist, xenophobe junta. I decided to place my robot colony on the border (because planet's starport doubles as a pretty decent defense station, at least in early game) meanwhile carefully balancing my minerals between developing newly funded colony for long term profit and expanding my fleet to deter my new neighbors from showing me their democratic values, George Bush vs Saddam Hussein style.
Although I was successful enough to prevent the war, I couldn't explore further in that direction. So my science ships turned around and went the other way along the galaxy arm. Soon, the reports of additional habitable, but not for our species of course, planets came pouring in. Well, they were pouring for a while, until my science ships hit a brick wall called border Fallen Empire of Militant Isolationist variety space. Well shit, but at least I know nothing will be coming from that direction anytime soon. Which means I can pretty much leave that sector of space unclaimed until I can start terraforming and not worry about it too much. Nonetheless, that leaves the only direction to look for a new planet for my people toward galactic core, so checking that out that's gonna be my next exploration goal. I haven't gone too far in that direction but so far I've found another aliens, who look like giant blueberries with tiny arms and long legs, but they are pretty chill and we get along fine so far.
Meanwhile, I found out that my "democratic crusaders" neighbors had their own set problems. The smaller one was another empire, their declared rivals, awkwardly wedged between them and the edge of the galaxy. And apparently that "wedge" empire heard the old "enemy of my enemy is my friend" adage, since they happily agreed to sign a defensive pact with me. That made me feel secure enough to chill with the new military ships for a bit and instead look for a way to expand again. And when I was considering whether to make yet another robot colony or actually send some unlucky bastards from my homeworld to that godawful planet made of broken dreams and motherly neglect that I mentioned earlier, suddenly there was a happening that reminded me of another alternative.
But I'm tired of typing right now, so maybe I'll finish this wall of text tomorrow.