Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[hello friend]

People still playing this game, huh. Did they make it not suck yet? Haven't played it since the month after launch.

 

[Jimmious]

It still sucks ass.

But we still play it. Say the whole truth. I know it hurts.

 

[Destroid]

I can barely tell the difference. Global food is an improvement but everything else seems the same since release.

 

[coldcrow]

Never seen the big appeal of missiles in a realistic space setting. Turtle-like velocity compared to tiny relativistic projectiles that travel many kilometers a second, easy to detect and shoot down with either projectile weapons or lasers, easy to jam if remote-controlled, susceptible to countermeasures if not, limited explosive power in space due to the lack of an atmosphere, expensive to make, heavy to carry... What's the point?

Missile swarms would beuseful as firststrike weapons versus large targets, planets and bases etc. The main selling point is the ability to be precise at very long range and deliver a warhead. But in close combat (space distances) railguns would likely be the most efficient weapon.

 

[rezaf]

Well, it doesn't help that they want to have their cake and eat it too by space combats being abstract (those combats take days or even weeks) and not abstract (individual ship maneuvers, individual missiles tracked etc) at the same time.
There's a reason most 4x games have combat as a seperate occurance from the rest of the game, often not even taking place on the same map (but a battle map instead).
Even though someone ridiculed me for the idea upthread, I still feel it'd be best if combat was handled like naval combats in HoI2.

Anyway, as for missiles vs. railguns and whatnot, ACTUAL space combat (should it ever come to that) will most probably look much different from what we imagine today. So any game developer should just formulate their own ideas and run with them, realism be damned.
And looking at it from that angle, I'd say it'd be better if missile weapons were more useful in what Paradox chose to run with.

 

[Grotesque]

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today's dev diary is a highlight of a few things coming in 1.6 'Adams', a bug-fixing and quality of life-focused update that we are currently working on. We can't tell you the exact release date of Adams yet, only that it won't be a very long wait. Since it's not a major update, it's also not expected to break saves from 1.5 'Banks'. There will be no paid DLC accompanying Adams, so everything listed below is either free for everyone or only requires a previously released expansion. We wanted to make sure we had time for as much bugfixing and smaller quality of life tweaks as possible, so don't expect any major features to be part of this update!


Ruined Megastructures
One of the things we were hoping to have time for in 1.5 'Banks' that ended up being cut for time was having ruined and repairable megastructures in addition to the ones you can build. This will now be part of the Adams update instead. Once Adams is released, you will be able to find ruined versions of all the different types of megastructures in a variety of systems while exploring. Claiming these systems will allow you to repair these ruined megastructures and restore them to full functionality. Repairing a megastructure is cheaper and faster than building a brand new one, and also doesn't require any Ascension Perks, only the Mega-Enineering technology. Ruined ringworlds that existed previously (such as the Cybrex homeworld and the ones owned by the Keepers of Knowledge) are also able to be repaired, and will be able to be restored even for players that do not have the Utopia expansion. Utopia is however required to find and restore the Science Nexus, Dyson Sphere and Sentry Array.

Sector Taxes & Stockpiles
Another addition to Adams is a few more tools for managing your sectors' economy. As of 1.6 you will be able to set taxes for Energy and Minerals separately, and we've added a new 'Drain Stockpile' interaction that allows you to seize 75% of a sector's stockpiled resources at the cost of 100 influence. In the event that you are fighting in a defensive war, this cost goes down to 25 influence, allowing you to use rich sectors as a resource reserve for an unexpected war declaration. Finally, we've added the ability to feed your sectors 1000 resources at a time through CTRL-clicking.

New Room Backgrounds
While the code and content design team have been busy with fixes and improvements, the art time has not been idle either. As part of the Adams update, we've created 15 new room backgrounds themed around the various AI personalities. Randomly generated empires will use the background appropriate to their personality, adding flavor and allowing you to more easily tell the Slaving Despots from the Federation Builders at a glance. All 15 rooms are naturally also available when designing an empire, so if you really want your pacifist xenophile egalitarians to conduct diplomacy in a room surrounded by alien skulls, we have you covered! In addition to the player-usable rooms there are also 4 new rooms for the Fallen/Awakened Empires that are designed to suit their unique aesthetics.

That's all for today! Next week we'll continue talking about the Adams update, so stay tuned.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i love the concept of megastructures.
as they are, they're completely useless. a humongous resource sink which in the end gives absolutely zero impact.
the dyson sphere is cool, but energy is mostly useless, you always have huge amounts and rarely need more. a single dedicated planet is all you need. well, you say, a complete sphere could support a bigger fleet, but why not just build the fleet in advance, steamroll some enemies and then feed the fleet with the brand new conquered planets?
ringworld. 4 planets? for the same amount of resources you could use to conquer 40 from whatever enemy?
research nexus? pitiful, it does less than a dedicated planet in more time and, as usual, more resources. and after all, who needs research when with all those minerals you could build the usual huge fleet and take planets?
sensors: 101% useless. maybe more.
habitats. come on, space is rarely an issue, and even if it was, build more, conquer, purge and voilà, lots of new space.
what's worse is that they're all very very late game, when you either have the huge fleet and are winning already or you grew bored and were looking to start a new game.

to make them truly useful, either the fleets numbers need the most gigantic nerf ever seen or habitable planets have to become the rarest resource ever.

 

[baturinsky]

Maybe they are useful when you play a Pacifist empire.

 

[thesheeep]

Maybe they are useful when you play a Pacifist empire.

In theory.
The problem is that even as a Pacifist empire (which I played as always), it is just too expensive.
I'm fine with pacifist empires being much harder to play than aggressive ones, but they really have little to make up for it. The only chance is growing extremely fast without warfare and that is solely based on how close to neighbors you spawn.

The only worthwhile structure is the Dyson sphere. Or it would be, if it wasn't so absurdly expensive.
You could build it, then scrap all of your old energy structures and replace them with minerals or unity stuff, whatever. I think that is the purpose.

 

[mutonizer]

Looking to do a WH40K themed modded campaign so I'm trying to prep what I can use for it or need to do myself.

Overall, I'm looking for as many as possible, especially ones harder to find or not available on steam workshop:
- Species portraits (no need to be animated)
- Planet types graphics
- Species based ships visuals

Cheerios.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

oh yes, i also forgot "only 1 working on at a time".
so i built something, time 10 months later, sometimes less, and i'm full minerals again but nooooooo, you have to wait 5 more years to spend your wasted minerals on.
idiotic.

Looking to do a WH40K themed modded campaign so I'm trying to prep what I can use for it or need to do myself.

Overall, I'm looking for as many as possible, especially ones harder to find or not available on steam workshop:
- Species portraits (no need to be animated)
- Planet types graphics
- Species based ships visuals

Cheerios.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870684792

 

[IDtenT]

to make them truly useful, either the fleets numbers need the most gigantic nerf ever seen or habitable planets have to become the rarest resource ever.

With the introduction of buildable dreadnaughts it could make late game more interesting.

 

[Average Manatee]

The only worthwhile structure is the Dyson sphere. Or it would be, if it wasn't so absurdly expensive.
You could build it, then scrap all of your old energy structures and replace them with minerals or unity stuff, whatever. I think that is the purpose.

Dyson sphere: 210k minerals, 55 years, 400 energy income.
4 Habitats: ~25k minerals, 5 years, 400ish energy income before bonuses. Can be unlocked probably 25-50 years earlier.

Funny thing is that Dyson spheres are (in the real world) supposed to be the ultimate efficiency in terms of getting maximal value out of a solar system, yet in Stellaris you can often build 6+ Habitats in a solar system and get more energy with a few scattered solar collecters than a literal star-sized one. Ring worlds are even better in space efficiency but still have the same problem of ridiculous build time. But 4x 25 pop planets is actually pretty nice since normal planets are more like 15 size and having them all in the same system makes you can shift your core there and have lots of starports pumping ships out. A Ringworld fully geared to produce energy could probably get you 1k.

 

[thesheeep]

Damn, man. I didn't even think to compare those numbers, as it would just make so little sense that anything should be able to beat the sphere at that.

I have to ask:
What were they thinking?

 

[Average Manatee]

I have to ask:
What were they thinking?

Obviously a megastructure that finishes construction 50 years after you could have won the game is in huge danger of unbalancing the game if you make it competitive with structures unlocked 30 years from the start.

As I've mentioned before, it seems that both the players and the devs think that super slow expansion/fiddling with pops and "winning" 500 years in is normal play. It's like there's a single player metagame that the game is balanced around, problem is the metagame is full

 

[AngryEddy]

major prob with the game is that aggressive play is utterly discouraged, none of the traits or governments let you steamroll one way or the other, and like you guys are saying, megastructures are FUCKING GARBAGE.

Alpha Centauri once again proves to have the best game mechanics as well as theme, music, VA etc.

 

[thesheeep]

I actually like the music in Stellaris. Very spacey.
Then again, space music is probably the easiest to get right.

 

[Destroid]

Is there a way to stop pops from abandoning buildings due to migration, other than banning migration?

 

[Raghar]

Is there a way to stop pops from abandoning buildings due to migration, other than banning migration?

Fill your empire by population. When they will not have a space to run to they will not migrate.

 

[Mortmal]

major prob with the game is that aggressive play is utterly discouraged, none of the traits or governments let you steamroll one way or the other, and like you guys are saying, megastructures are FUCKING GARBAGE.

Alpha Centauri once again proves to have the best game mechanics as well as theme, music, VA etc.

Agressive play works, as fanatic purifier or militarist with all your bonus. If you encounter an empire early as soon they settle another planet and start building,war declare them. Your fleet will be a bit stronger than theirs, they wont immediately build a starport, you invade the planet kill the fleet thats enough warscore for annexion . From there you just have to snowball.
The IA is so incompetent than when they form defensive pacts they dont muster their forces together. You pick the fleet one by ones and carpet invade. Just build many transports and leave troops on they wont figure how to counter invade.

 

[Raghar]

The funny part is that lots of Stellaris players seem to be doing this intentionally. Cases of "It's 2400 and I've stayed on 3 planets in order to not slow down my tech rate, how do I deal with Awakened Empires?"

I don't know where you find these individuals, but having 1 planet is too easy. After conquering everyone by 2270 I left 4 FE untouched and I've been waiting for them to awaken for 80 years to kick their asses, but nothing happens.

That's because you have too small fleet. Did you have any of possible crisis?

 

[AngryEddy]

major prob with the game is that aggressive play is utterly discouraged, none of the traits or governments let you steamroll one way or the other, and like you guys are saying, megastructures are FUCKING GARBAGE.

Alpha Centauri once again proves to have the best game mechanics as well as theme, music, VA etc.

Agressive play works, as fanatic purifier or militarist with all your bonus. If you encounter an empire early as soon they settle another planet and start building,war declare them. Your fleet will be a bit stronger than theirs, they wont immediately build a starport, you invade the planet kill the fleet thats enough warscore for annexion . From there you just have to snowball.
The IA is so incompetent than when they form defensive pacts they dont muster their forces together. You pick the fleet one by ones and carpet invade. Just build many transports and leave troops on they wont figure how to counter invade.

i get that, but pacifist races or whoever the fuck should not spawn with space stations that can defend their borders, peaceful races in SMAC get their shit pushed in without having to do this gay WAIT FOR 1 PLANET COLONIZATION shit.

 

[Raghar]

100 battleships, 1 dreadnought and several leftover cruisers and destroyers. I've researched jump drive and sentient AI long time ago, but there's no crisis either.

What's fleet power?

 

[thesheeep]

You are breaking the game, man

For full enjoyment, it is encouraged to stay within LARPing parameters.
I'm serious. This is not some hardcore strategy game requiring utmost perfection in exploiting mechanics to beat some overwhelming odds.

 

[Jimmious]

I'm curious about whatevername playtime. I see signs of early celeritism but it's not easy to tell. Best treated if detected early!