Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[Infinitron]

 

[Tigranes]

Definitely some nice improvements, the question remains as to how exciting War in Heaven etc is able to make the end-game, and how much the mid-game has been redeemed.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

it's probably going to work exactly like the megawar between christians and protestants works in eu4.

 

[Steve]

Definitely some nice improvements, the question remains as to how exciting War in Heaven etc is able to make the end-game, and how much the mid-game has been redeemed.

From what I've read it's exactly like the Thirty years war in EU4 except there is no Peace of Westphalia so the war goes on until the other side loses.

 

[you know what time it is]

Any good mods for the game yet? Total Conversions preferably, akin to civ's 4 caveman2cosmos and the like.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

alphamod.
it's a HUGE, HUMONGOUS mod, and the day after heinlein hit it was updated already. that guy is a beast.

 

[Jimmious]

Is anyone playing with Heinlein or are we all in Civ atm?Wouldn't mind some feedback

 

[Monocause]

Is anyone playing with Heinlein or are we all in Civ atm?Wouldn't mind some feedback

Currently playing.

1) Combat makes more sense now, although still needs work.

2) Mid-game still is a grind.

3) Pacifist nations are still useless - not as useless as before, but still useless. Going pacifist means you get huge penalties and your conquest slows down a lot, for no gain.

4) Federation victory is a very welcome sight!

5) Sector AI has been improved, and is less of an annoyance.

Paradox is slowly headed in the right direction, although kinda too slowly for my tastes - hope they pick up the pace with the patches and the new content.

PS playing without the Leviathan DLC so no idea what does it introduce.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

my alphamod isn't compatible with 1.3 o_O and yes, i tried to turn it off and on again.

 

[Space Satan]

Plans ahead DD

Spoiler

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we'll be talking a bit about where the game stands, where we're going, and what we want to focus on in the future.

Where we stand
As anyone who regularly reads the Stellaris dev diaries should know, the intent for Heinlein changed quite a bit back at the end of the summer. While we had originally planned Heinelin to be an update accompanying a major expansion, we decided instead to scale back the scope of the paid content by making a Story Pack, Leviathans, and focusing most of our resources on the actual free update. Now that Heinlein and Leviathans are out, my conclusion is that this was the right decision on our part. By doing this, we gave ourselves time to iterate on some of our weaker features and add a great deal of UI and quality of life functionality. Heinlein ended up as a *huge* update that we feel moved the game forward in a lot of ways, and judging from the huge amount of positive feedback we have gotten, you guys seem to generally agree with this assessment.

So where *do* we stand? My view is that we now have a very solid base game to build on, and that going forward it's time to scale up our ambitions. To make space even greater, so to speak.

Where we're going
So what's next for Stellaris? I have talked a bit about the planned 'Banks' update, which will be a major update accompanied by a full-sized expansion. This is still the plan, but before we release Banks we have another update, dubbed 'Kennedy', which we aim to release before the end of the year. This will be a small update targeting a few specific key issues, such as precursor event chains and endgame crises, that we did not have time for in Heinlein. After that will be Banks, and while we will not be providing any details about the Banks update or accompanying expansion at this time, I will say that the author name chosen for this update may offer some clues.

What we want
Finally, I just wanted to offer some insight into what we believe are the key areas of the game that we should focus on at this time. We have received, and continue to receive, an amazing amount of good feedback and ideas, and of course we have our own ambitions and ideas for where we want to take Stellaris, but at the moment there are three key areas that we aim to continually target with future updates and content, namely:

• Fleshing out the mid- and lategame through the addition of more interesting narratives and 'galactic events' akin to Awakened Fallen Empires that shake up the galactic scene.
• Improving the internal workings of empires, making pops and leaders more interesting, and making empires feel more alive.
• Expanding on the ethics system, creating more unique playstyles and enhancing roleplaying.

This is of course not the *only* things we aim to focus on, but they are what we consider to be the most important areas going forward right now. Just to give you an idea of what else you can expect in the future, here is a list of some features (in no particular order of priority) that we are looking into adding in the future.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE OR FINAL LIST, AND NOTHING BELOW IS CERTAIN TO HAPPEN!

• Ship appearance that differs for each empire, so no two empires' ships look exactly the same.
• More story events and reactive narratives that give a sense of an unfolding story as you play.
• More potential for empire customization, ability to build competitive 'tall' empires.
• Deeper Federations that start out as loose alliances and can eventually be turned into single states through diplomatic manuevering.
• Ability to set rights and obligations for particular species in your empire.
• Global food that can be shared between planets.
• Superweapons and planet killers.
• Ability to construct space habitats and ringworlds.
• More interesting mechanics for pre-FTL civilizations.
• Factions that are proper interest groups with specific likes and dislikes and the potential to be a benefit to an empire instead of just being rebels.
• A 'galactic community' with interstellar politics and a 'space UN'.
• Buildable Dreadnoughts and Titans.

Again, remember that the above is not a list of promises, that I can't answer any specific questions about future content, and that plans can and will change, but I hope I've at least given you some idea of where Stellaris will be going from here, and that you look forward to the journey ahead of us as much as we do here in the development team.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Man I almost bought this last week when it was 50% off or whatever. Maybe it will be on sale again next week during the sale.

 

[Anthedon]

I'd still wait until at least some of the things mentioned in that above DD are implemented.

 

[Trash]

Seems modding is finally taking off. The Alpha Mod seems to be the best overhaul so far. It also has heaps of add-ons from the modder himself which all look pretty neat. Including a fun 'uplifting' submod. Then there's the mod that improves the look of battles and adds civilian ships and billboards. Not sure if I dig the billboards but a more 'living' empire is nice. And we already have someone who added massive battleships and superweapons as well.

Now I just want Paradox to do something about making sectors a bit more exciting, up the chance of actual civil wars and spice up the middle game. Then we got something.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

the only problem with alphamod, and unfortunately it's huge, is that the interface can't keep up. you research a new building and have no idea what are its requirements. one of the worst offenders is the ministry of benevolence, i clicked on hundred of tiles, scrolled through hundreds of lists but it never showed its face.
stellaris could have used the "b" filter from europa universalis. not the most efficient solution but still better than nothing.

 

[LizardWizard]

How well does the AI deal with the massive amounts of resource/building spam Alpha Mod adds?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

better than me.

 

[Sranchammer]

Alpha Mod is going to reach critical mass - the game can be greatly improved without throwing more ingredients into the pot

 

[Jimmious]

Been playing a bit... The UI improvements are really good to be honest.
You get much more concrete info about any possible choices.

Also got the Leviathan DLC and while randomly scouting around, I found one. Well I saw it for like 4 seconds before it eradicated whatever I had.
Also have met a pirate faction and some other faction that I don't know more about yet.

Playing in a medium galaxy, ti does seem more "full and active" than before. It's not simply painting the stars, you have more things to consider when expanding around you

 

[Jimmious]

After a bit more of playing I can really say that the patch is worth a go even just for the UI improvements. They make the whole experience much smoother.
The expansion planner screen..

 

[Grotesque]

well, how many patches are in the works totally?
I am waiting for one that introduces more events when exploring and planetary events

 

[whatevername]

After trying 1.3 I think Norwegian prison guards should give Breivik a PC with just Stellaris installed on it. Also, shrinks should make depressed people play it; after a few hours they'll realize that depression actually wasn't so bad.

Anyway that's what I thought until I discovered that there is bloom in the options. The bloom effect is so awesome it's a total game-changer. It completely revolutionized the game once I turned it on: after a few minutes of looking at shiny blobs of light I started shaking uncontrollably and then I started seeing beautiful flashes like in a JJ Abrams movie and then a chimp appeared and then we ate bananas together. I tried to communicate with the chimp by using sign language, but all I could get from him was a middle finger. Instant classic! I will be disappointed if this game doesn't beome GOTY.

 

[Talby]

Played a game that spawned both a normal human empire plus a human fallen empire. I like to think the humans from the United Nations of Earth were exiled centuries ago, when the Human Vestige was at the height of their power. Kinda like the plot of Homeworld.

 

[Tytus]

New parch released today:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...checksum-54ed-not-for-problem-reports.986612/

##############################################################
####################### VERSION 1.4.0 ########################
##############################################################

###################
# Leviathans Story Pack
###################
* Added new introduction event for the Artisan Troupe
* Added encounter event for the Enigmatic Fortress

###################
# Features
###################
* Added 33 new achievements
* No longer possible to build robots on planets belonging to sectors
* Added victory event after defeating the Prethoryn Scourge
* Added new events for discovering additional Precursor anomalies, so that the quest chains can always be completed
* Changed the way the Extradimensionals work: Instead of spawning reinforcements as soon as a fleet is lost, the Extradimensional portal will create new fleets at a fixed rate depending on the number of dimensional anchors the Extradimensionals have placed in the galaxy. Dimensional anchors are a type of station that the Extradimensionals construct, and their main portal is invincible while any dimensional anchors exist in the galaxy. This should make the war against the Extradimensionals more of a long-term fight and less of a surgical strike against the portal.

###################
# Balance
###################

#General
* Evasion is now capped at 90%
* Ship mineral maintenance reduced from 0.5% to 0.4% of ship cost
* Ship energy maintenance reduced from 0.5% to 0.4% of ship cost
* Afterburners now use the auxiliary slot
* Regular empires now start with 8 pops
* Primitive farms and factories can now be upgraded directly to hydroponics farms/mining networks
* Pirate ships have been reworked slightly and buffed in most cases
* Primitives are now consistent in how many pops, farms and factories they get on each age of development, and get new pops, armies and buildings when advancing through the ages
* Stone age primitives now generate fewer tile blockers
* Space Torpedoes technology now requires Fusion Missiles instead of Nuclear Missiles
* Venerable trait cost reduced from 5 to 4
* Mineral Silos are now restricted to 1 per planet
* Increased max minerals from Mineral Silos from +1000/+1500/+2000 to +2000/+3000/+4000
* Level 3 mineral silo now only provides +1 mineral per adjacent tile
* Increased protectorate tech discount to 95%
* Protectorates can no longer conduct independent diplomacy
* Repeatable technologies have their base cost increased from 1500 to 3000 and their increasing cost increased from 480 to 1000
* Slave Processing Plant now gives +10% slave food/mineral production instead of +5%
* Reduced spawn odds of tomb worlds
* Increased frequency of alien pet deposits
* Reduced warscore costs for planetary and vassalisation wargoals
* Doubled Pre-Sentient Anomaly spawn chances
* Fixed CTD when generating a certain tooltip while the player has no planets
* Pops are no longer upset if an occupier purges Pops on one of your planets

# Components
* Space Torpedo mineral cost reduced from 20 to 10
* Space Torpedo power usage reduced from 20 to 10
* Space Torpedo maximum damage reduced from 260 to 215
* Space Torpedo armor penetration set to 50%
* Armored Torpedo mineral cost reduced from 40 to 15
* Armored Torpedo power usage reduced from 40 to 15
* Armored Torpedo damage reduced from 150-300 to 140-280
* Armored Torpedo armor penetration set to 50%
* Devastator Torpedo mineral cost reduced from 60 to 20
* Devastator Torpedo power usage reduced from 60 to 20
* Devastator Torpedo armor penetration set to 50%
* Devastator Torpedo missile HP reduced from 8 to 6

###################
# AI
###################

#War
* Federation AI is now better at picking wargoals for non-conqueror federations, will focus on retaking planets and liberating larger countries

#Sector
* Major work done to sector AI to make it better at budgeting and utilizing resources

#Diplomacy
* AI will now sometimes gift countries that are at war with their rivals and threats
* AI will no longer ask you to become their vassal multiple times in a row
* AI is now less keen to accept a lot of defensive pacts
* Slowed down AI requests for federation membership/association status to prevent message spam

#Misc
* Fixed a bug where AI would send fleets to deal with pirates, only to retreat due to pirates being stronger
* Fixed a bug where AI was trying to build buildings on tiles that had presentients on them

###################
# User Interface
###################
* Added a setting to disable all auto-unpausing from popups
* Clicking on some resource icons in top bar no longer opens tabs due to being inconsistent
* Construction Ship now sends notification 'fleet order finished' only when the last construction in the queue is finished
* Planet view colonize button opens same surface view window as when planet is clicked from expansion planner
* 'Closed Borders' and 'Truce' are shown as diplomatic statuses

###################
# Bugfixes
###################
* Garrisons are now properly shown and spawned on occupied worlds.
* Fleets will now prioritize spaceports and military stations over other stations (such as mining stations) in combat.
* Close borders wargoal now forces borders open for the duration of the truce regardless of rivalry status, etc.
* Ships and weapon components targeting logic now correctly accounts for evasion, so large weapons are much less likely to target corvettes etc
* Fixed armor absorbing too much damage if the ship also had shields left
* Fixed very high armor values negating the effects of armor penetration
* Fixed auto generated ship designs getting wrong combat computers
* Swarm units have had their sound volume adjusted
* Spaceport no longer provide Naval Capacity while under construction
* Fleet view shows current fleet activity instead of order description
* Vassals and overlords no longer gives sensor to each other while at war
* Sector AI will spend own resources instead of players resources when upgrading spaceports
* Uplift species button is locked if no species can be found on any owned planet
* Fixed a bug where some leaders could live forever
* Planets with Stone Age Primitives will no longer generate Anomalies
* Tzynn Empire now starts with the proper number of trait points
* Fixed Nomads getting wrong opinion modifier and habitability trait when allowed to settle on a planet
* Launcher MOD tab scrollbar appears with correct position and size when content overflows container
* Fixed a rare case of portrait duplication caused by prescripted species templates
* Fixed so that NPC ship designs now correctly have PD slots for their PD weapons
* Situation Log entry list of counters grows up instead of down
* Savannah and Alpine worlds now have proper localization in the start screen
* Fixed typo in Frontier Hospital technology description
* Fixed a bug where upgrade fleet progress could display numbers above 100%
* Fixed some outdated hotkey references in tutorial texts
* Fixed frantic twitching animation in diplomacy window for main species
* Fixed reversed fanatic/militarist bonus to rivalry influence
* Fixed some potential event spam when running on high speeds during War in Heaven
* Planet edict modifiers are applied to pops again. Use planet modifier categories when applying planet edict modifiers
* Fixed Continental, Savanna and Alpine worlds not being used for primitive civs
* Enclave governments now get a new ruler when the first one dies
* Primitives that nuke themselves will no longer leave pops on a tomb world where they have no habitability
* Fixed some ships getting stuck in a looping death animation
* Fixed CTD when looking at a ship that fired a shot during the same frame as it died
* Fixed CTD that could happen if ground combat was started on a planet without owner
* Garrison from Pops will no longer spawn on planets that have already been occupied
* Fixed CTD that could happen when assigning a new mission to an observation station
* Fixed various issues with Swarm behaviour


###################
# Graphics
###################
* Tweaked humanoid 02 and 05 portraits
* Added updated clothes textures
* Added fixed clothes for humanoid 05
* Arthropoid battleships sections now all line up
* Galaxy view textures have been updated.
* Extradimensionals' death effects have been updated.


###################
# Modding
###################
* Event chain counter max = -1 means max is ignored. Default value is -1
* Added count_countries trigger
* Script trigger pop_percentage = { percentage > 0.1 limit = { is_robot_pop = yes } }
* new trigger won_with_condition = domination_victory
* Added trigger num_strategic_resources


###################
# Performance
###################
* Misc performance improvements

 

[Tytus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KysBgh1Tvno&feature=youtu.be



Free DLC - Horizon Signal - was also released today.

 

[barker_s]

Added a setting to disable all auto-unpausing from popups

Good news, that was extremely annoying the last time I played.