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Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

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Jan 7, 2012
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Yeah, the guy in question had a game with a massive, sprawling empire and switched via the console into its tiny vassal. In order to ensure that game has the same amount of objects to process, both empires shared their sensors. If it was AI or some other thing that caused the lag, the game should run much slower, because the CPU now had a gigantic empire to manage. It turned out that the game was running significantly faster, meaning that it's the horribly implemented UI to be blamed.

You don't even need a huge empire. Just make a fleet with 500 Corvettes and selecting them will send you to 5 FPS or something. Was horrific back when mass Corvettes were the best strategy, now you will get the problem when you have 500 Battlecruisers. What a ((coincidence)) that the next update will hard limit fleet sizes.
 

Space Satan

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DD: Edicts and other stuff
Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today, we continue talking about the Apocalypse expansion and 2.0 'Cherryh' update, on the topic of Edicts, Campaigns and Unity Ambitions.

Edict Changes (Cherryh Feature)
There will be a number of chnages coming to Empire and Planetary Edicts in 2.0 'Cherryh', with the aim of both making Edicts more attractive to use, and increasing the number of useful things players have to spend their pooled Influence and Energy resources on. Firstly, we have moved most of the edicts out of the Planetary Edict category, keeping only a handful of Edicts that are either about dealing with a specific short-term problem (such as Unrest-reducing edicts) or executing a long-term or permanent effect (such as Consecrated Worlds or the new Land Clearance edict given by Mastery of Nature). Instead, a number of these edicts have become Empire Edicts.
index.php


Empire Edicts have also been changed to work in the same way as Planetary Edicts, with an upfront cost and a duration rather than a monthly cost. The reason for this is that we wanted to ensure players always have a use for their pooled influence - an empire that is not using that influence on expanding through Starbases or Claims will be able to boost their empire in a variety of ways, including powerful resource-boosting edicts such as Production Targets and Capacity Overload. We decided to move away from the monthly cost because players tend to shy away from monthly costs that bring them into a negative balance, even if they are consistantly hitting their stockpile cap, and so ended up using Empire Edicts far less than they could actually afford to.

To make managing and renewing Edicts less of a hassle, we have added a message when an Edict (Empire or Planetary) expires.
index.php


Campaigns (Cherryh Feature)
Campaigns are a new type of edict added in the Cherryh update. Campaigns are edicts that are unlocked by the Planetary Unification technology and cost energy instead of Influence. They typically have fairly situational effects, and are meant to be an additional use for stored energy.
index.php


Unity Ambitions (Apocalypse Feature)
Unity Ambitions is another new type of edict added in the Apocalypse expansion. These are extremely powerful edicts that last 10 years and cost Unity to activate. You will get access to Unity Ambitions after researching the Ascension Theory society technology, and activating a Unity Ambition has a dynamic cost that is calculated in the exact same way as the cost for unlocking a new tradition (though activating an ambition will not raise the cost of future ambitions/traditions). Unity Ambitions are meant to give a use for Unity after the player has unlocked all the traditions they want to unlock, and to ensure the resource is never completely without use.
index.php


That's all for today! Next week we'll continue talking about Cherryh and the Apocalypse expansion, on the topic of Civics and Ascension Perks.
 

Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Gah, so far off... I'm guessing you mean the patches and stuff?
The new expansion (Apocalypse) along with the new patch 2.0 :)

Here is the release trailer too:



(The trailer is really cool btw)
 
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Hellion

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Feb 5, 2013
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They did state that "Diplomacy" and all it entails will eventually get a serious revamp/upgrade (I remember some bits and pieces about a "Space U.N." for example) but I'm not sure they'll do that in 2.0.
 

Althorion

Learned
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I prefer they do one thing at a time than half-arse two at the same time. Release early, release often is a great idea with software development—and Paradox does just that.
 
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Stellaris is included in the current Humble Paradox Bundle (along with Pillars of Eternity and a few other strategy titles) for about 9.8€. I think this is the lowest price to date.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/paradox-bundle-2018?partner=ragequitgr

(felt obliged to shamelessly add my site's affiliation suffix to the URL)

damn thanks for pointing out the sale. I already had stellaris, but I was able to get Majesty 2 complete, hearts of Iron III collection, Europa Universalis III Complete, Crusader Kings II and Crusader Kings the old Gods, Pillars of Eternity (already owned), and Magika 2 all for $7 dollars and Change...really good deal IMO, I have almost bought Crusader Kings II for 9.99 a number of times...
 
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Messages
2,930
I already own POE, and dont like it, u dont have to convince me.... I bought the bundle for the other games, mostly CK II, EU, Heart of Iron, and Majesty 2

I have played Majesty previously, and I know I won't like it for more than perhaps 15-20 hours, but it is a fun lite game for awhile IMO

If my 7 dollars even gets me 30 hours of entertainment it is well worth the price. And potentially it could give me much more than that
 

Lone Wolf

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It's amazing how much more they've added to Stellaris with each expansion, compared to EU4.

Not one EU4 expansion has been worth anywhere near $20USD. The closest would be Common Sense and The Art of War, but neither added any kind of real mechanical or content-based depth. Meanwhile, Utopia added habitats, megastructures, ascension perks and dozens of new techs, Synthetic Dreams a new way to play (and new techs, policies, traditions etc) and Apocalypse will bring with it the ability to destroy worlds and encounter marauder empires.

I haven't regretted purchasing any Stellaris expansion, whereas EU4 has been a consistent disappointment in that department.
 
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It's amazing how much more they've added to Stellaris with each expansion, compared to EU4.
wat

habitats, megastructures
Fairly meaningful additions, but they are well within the category of "shit that obviously should be in any space setting". Also Habitats make the game unplayably slow even quicker.

ascension perks
A meter you build up points for to unlock bonuses. Virtually every EU4 expansion adds a new one of these.

dozens of new techs

wat. Name them? Surely you don't think being able to research automatic exploration is noteworthy? Or buying +1 ascension perks in an expansion that adds ascension perks?

Synthetic Dreams a new way to play (and new techs, policies, traditions etc)
Hardly new ways to play. It's a slightly different paradigm and a slightly different set of bonuses, but if anything it's still more akin to normal Stellaris play than, say, playing a Horde is to normal EU4 play.

and Apocalypse will bring with it the ability to destroy worlds

Destroy worlds... again, this is something you should have gotten for free. It's a fucking space game, every noteworthy space game ever has let you destroy worlds. A $60 on release game does not get points for holding back features that were in MoO1 for a $20 DLC 2 years later.

encounter marauder empires

"we'll spawn a monster with different graphics and give it event dialog, they'll eat it up"

Other features that MoO 1/2 had that Paradox may/will eventually sell as $20 DLC:

Player-creatable warp gates
Bombing planets to get rid of all population (yes technically possible now but you'll die of old age IRL first).
Biological weapons to target population.
Terraforming to create more space on a planet.
Upgradable planet shields that actually matter.
Ground combat that works
Space weapons/armor/ship selection that matter beyond spreadsheet calculations to find optimal DPS, with special effects, range, etc actually mattering.
Stealth ships, and other ship abilities like teleportation.
Ship boarding and capture.
Ship experience levels.
Actual race customization beyond +-10% random bullshit.
Race start customization.
Ships having some sort of range limitations rather than being able to jump straight to the enemy capital from day 1.
Having pop management not being a completely tedious shitshow that requires letting the AI take over all but 5 worlds to keep the game moving.
Espionage.
Traveling to alternate dimensions to fight big bad end game enemies.
Space-UN with diplomatic victory, and alternate victory options in general.
and so on.

Obviously Stellaris is a different game and doesn't need to duplicate MoO1 1:1, but acting like Stellaris was a fully featured game on release is ridiculous, while EU4 was actually a finished product. And it's still 2 years after release with late game still becoming unplayable because they can't optimize their game properly.

Not that EU4's expansions are worth $20, but neither are Stellaris's.
 

Lone Wolf

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Not that EU4's expansions are worth $20, but neither are Stellaris's.

You can reduce anything to absurdity, if you try hard enough.

It's a slightly different paradigm and a slightly different set of bonuses, but if anything it's still more akin to normal Stellaris play than, say, playing a Horde is to normal EU4 play.

Here, for example, you're dismissing gestalt consciousness gameplay as a 'slightly different set of bonuses', while identifying horde gameplay in EU4 as meaningfully different from the norm...

:lol:

Give me a break.

Destroy worlds... again, this is something you should have gotten for free.

I should have everything for free. In my dreams, the world is gratis. In real life, if they produce something and charge a fee for it, I'm free to say it's not worth it and vote with my wallet. Otherwise, it's worth it to me, notwithstanding the possibility of buyer's remorse. I haven't bought most of the EU4 expansions, because they include absolute nonsense that makes no difference to core gameplay. And I'm not paying $20USD for a few more events for Islamic states, a few religious bonuses and army professionalisation. The Stellaris expansions I've bought (all of them, to this point), I've enjoyed a lot.

Other features that MoO 1/2 had that Paradox may/will eventually sell as $20 DLC:

You know, I liked MOO1/2 (and even 3 with the Tropical mod). But I'm not going back to any of those games.

Bombing planets to get rid of all population (yes technically possible now but you'll die of old age IRL first).
Biological weapons to target population.
Terraforming to create more space on a planet.
Upgradable planet shields that actually matter.
Ground combat that works

Well, you're in luck, because I'm pretty sure all those are Cherryh/Apocalypse features.

Space weapons/armor/ship selection that matter beyond spreadsheet calculations to find optimal DPS, with special effects, range, etc actually mattering.
Stealth ships, and other ship abilities like teleportation.
Ship boarding and capture.
Ship experience levels.

Not happening in a 4X grand strategy game. I mean, you don't control combat on a tactical level, so what's the point of asking for ship boarding/capture? Teleportation? To where? You already have fleet experience levels through admirals, along with admiral traits.

Actual race customization beyond +-10% random bullshit.
Race start customization.

The vanilla game definitely could spruce up race customisation. Thankfully, mods will fix it in the interim. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure there's no MOO1/2 race that you couldn't recreate in Stellaris, feature for feature, outside of the Darloks. Correct me if I'm not remembering correctly.

Ships having some sort of range limitations rather than being able to jump straight to the enemy capital from day 1.

Eh? They have very clear range limitations. In any case, fixed with Cherryh, considering the new hyperlane-only set-up.

Having pop management not being a completely tedious shitshow that requires letting the AI take over all but 5 worlds to keep the game moving.

Very vague.

Espionage.
Traveling to alternate dimensions to fight big bad end game enemies.
Space-UN with diplomatic victory, and alternate victory options in general.

Two out of three pretty much confirmed to be in the works. The alternate dimensions thing... Nah.
 
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Space Satan

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Player-creatable warp gates
They are adding it to 2.0 patch. It will be late-game tech.
Upgradable planet shields that actually matter.
Planetary shieds will prevent use of planet destroyers in Apocalypse according to dev stream.
Actual race customization beyond +-10% random bullshit.
Stellaris already have it. It is called civics and goverments. MoO2 also had most of it's traits working as +10% or such.
Race start customization.
Life-seeded, post-apocalyptic, syncretic evolution etc. How that does not fit your description of a race start?
 

coldcrow

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I think the main problem with stellaris is the tedious and boring nature of it's underlying systems, be them combat, economy or UI.
 

LizardWizard

Cipher
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Feb 14, 2014
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991
I think the main problem with stellaris is the tedious and boring nature of it's underlying systems, be them combat, economy or UI.

Tile management is the main thing that I feel just doesn't work and inevitably why I stop playing. Just tedious garbage. The game needed Vicky's Pop system and an actual economy.
 

Preben

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POP system is the most retarded feature of Stellaris. You wind up spending 80% of your time switching from planet to planet and upgrading buildings. But hey, at least we have something to do when the game slows down to a crawl even on high-end rigs due to bad UI implementation.

I was initially charmed by Stellaris. It was the very first game since MoO2 that actually brought in a score of fresh ideas into the space 4X genre. But now it's flaws are evident. To make matter worse, the Swedes prefer to shovel in more features rather than fix or rework things that actually make this game borderline unplayable.
 

Space Satan

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I think the main problem with stellaris is the tedious and boring nature of it's underlying systems, be them combat, economy or UI.

Tile management is the main thing that I feel just doesn't work and inevitably why I stop playing. Just tedious garbage. The game needed Vicky's Pop system and an actual economy.
Devs actually said that tile system is not something that could never be a subject to change, but now they are more concerned about war not working as they want
 

Preben

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I think the main problem with stellaris is the tedious and boring nature of it's underlying systems, be them combat, economy or UI.

Tile management is the main thing that I feel just doesn't work and inevitably why I stop playing. Just tedious garbage. The game needed Vicky's Pop system and an actual economy.
Devs actually said that tile system is not something that could never be a subject to change, but now they are more concerned about war not working as they want

Wiz said he doen't like, so there's some hope.
 
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Messages
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Here, for example, you're dismissing gestalt consciousness gameplay as a 'slightly different set of bonuses', while identifying horde gameplay in EU4 as meaningfully different from the norm...

Hordes in EU4 radically alter the way the primary game resource (mana) is generated. No starting option does that in Stellaris. There's no equivalent of a "raiding" race or a race that exists solely on plunder. I was kind of hoping the marauder empires were human-playable for this reason, but that would take effort from Paradox.

Destroy worlds... again, this is something you should have gotten for free.

I should have everything for free. In my dreams, the world is gratis. In real life, if they produce something and charge a fee for it, I'm free to say it's not worth it and vote with my wallet. Otherwise, it's worth it to me, notwithstanding the possibility of buyer's remorse. I haven't bought most of the EU4 expansions, because they include absolute nonsense that makes no difference to core gameplay. And I'm not paying $20USD for a few more events for Islamic states, a few religious bonuses and army professionalisation. The Stellaris expansions I've bought (all of them, to this point), I've enjoyed a lot.

Destroying planets is a core feature of every notable 4x space game since Star Wars A New Hope was released. Which is all of them. Would you prefer is colonization was stripped out of EU4 and relegated to DLC?

Bombing planets to get rid of all population (yes technically possible now but you'll die of old age IRL first).
Biological weapons to target population.
Terraforming to create more space on a planet.
Upgradable planet shields that actually matter.
Ground combat that works

Well, you're in luck, because I'm pretty sure all those are Cherryh/Apocalypse features.

They don't seem to be in any meaningful way.

Space weapons/armor/ship selection that matter beyond spreadsheet calculations to find optimal DPS, with special effects, range, etc actually mattering.
Stealth ships, and other ship abilities like teleportation.
Ship boarding and capture.
Ship experience levels.

Not happening in a 4X grand strategy game. I mean, you don't control combat on a tactical level, so what's the point of asking for ship boarding/capture? Teleportation? To where? You already have fleet experience levels through admirals, along with admiral traits.

What kind of response is that? "Generally accepted good and fun feature in previous 4x grand strategy games can't be added to grand strategy games in $CURRENT_YEAR"? I can see calling ship-level experience superfluous but the rest?

Actual race customization beyond +-10% random bullshit.
Race start customization.

The vanilla game definitely could spruce up race customisation. Thankfully, mods will fix it in the interim. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure there's no MOO1/2 race that you couldn't recreate in Stellaris, feature for feature, outside of the Darloks. Correct me if I'm not remembering correctly.

I don't consider +10% to bullshit meaningful in any fashion. That's the "we want to pretend you have options but in reality everything plays the same because we couldn't be bothered to balance giving players choice" route. In MoO when you create a race you choose between -50%, +50% and +100% as a general rule. You have traits like Subterranean/Aquatic which increases planet sizes (Stellaris climate is virtually meaningless), Tolerant to ignore pollution (no equivalent of Stellaris), stuff like Omniscient or Telepathic or Stealthy which just throw a massive curveball at the whole thing, separated combat bonuses between attack and defense (which encouraged different strategies), and so on. There's exactly zero MoO races that can be recreated in Stellaris unless you think a massively rich race overflowing with cash, able to rush-buy buildings and ships on the spot and bribe civilizations to do what they please is somehow equivalent to a Stellaris race with +15% energy output who builds 15% less energy buildings and 15% more mineral buildings, leading to no effective gameplay change.

Ships having some sort of range limitations rather than being able to jump straight to the enemy capital from day 1.

Eh? They have very clear range limitations. In any case, fixed with Cherryh, considering the new hyperlane-only set-up.

Stellaris ships have jump limitations, not range limitations.

Having pop management not being a completely tedious shitshow that requires letting the AI take over all but 5 worlds to keep the game moving.

Very vague.

Play a good game like MoO, it's not vague.

Espionage.
Traveling to alternate dimensions to fight big bad end game enemies.
Space-UN with diplomatic victory, and alternate victory options in general.

Two out of three pretty much confirmed to be in the works. The alternate dimensions thing... Nah.

I'm well aware they are in the works. It's the next $20 DLC. Everything is in the works!
 
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