Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[Preben]

Is it just me, or has Stellaris become a complex economic game that feels much like Victoria?

 

[Space Satan]

Changes are cool but as always with paradox, you'll need several months for Paradox to make all that cook features work...because it's a mess right now, as always with all new patches

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Any opinions on which DLC's are actually worth it? I have the base game and Utopia at the moment.

Get the major expansions first:
- Utopia
- Apocalypse
- Megacorp

Synthetic Dawn is also recommended, because it lets you play Robots.

I would't know, because I'm a dirty pirate.

Is it just me, or has Stellaris become a complex economic game that feels much like Victoria?

I would't cal it complex yet, Victoria has a far more complex economy.
Honestly I would like to see another Alloy-like finished product resource, everything seems too dependent on alloys right now.

But it got substantial development. Before MegaCorp, it was pretty much all about maximizing minerals. Now you have to care about things like consumer goods, market dynamics, crime, pops, demographics, etc.

One problem I have with many things in Stellaris, is that there are too damn many +% whatever bonuses. Frankly, that just lets you do something you already do, but more.

Changes are cool but as always with paradox, you'll need several months for Paradox to make all that cook features work...because it's a mess right now, as always with all new patches

I disagree, let's not relativize things.

Dharma released and only had a few minor bugs. The thing most people complained about? Not being able to convert Territories, because it led to ahistorical shit like the Portuguese letting their land in Africa and India continue in abject paganism, because its the more lucrative thing to do, despite the fact the Portuguese probably would actually physically DIE if they didn't engage in Missionarism at some point, any point. Same for the Spanish.

Holy Fury released to MUCHO HYPE, and it fucking delivered. I think the most serious bug were the headless Andalusians and the black dynasty shields, and I didn't even see them.

Meanwhile, Megacorp:
a) Bugged to hell and back.
b) AI is braindead, keeps building fuckloads of precincts and enforcers. and falling into death spirals.
c) Supposed to increase performance. Decreased performance, the game runs like pure and complete ass now. Now, my opinion is relative here because I use a potato laptop. But I see plenty of complaints from people running supercomputers.

 

[Average Manatee]

On my 2nd game and I'm already starting to sour on the whole thing.

The economic complexity is pretty good, but the means to manage it is just not there. The AI and the way sectors work is completely unusable garbage. On top of that the more you figure out about how the economy works the more you have to micromanage to fix it, and the better you play the sooner you acquire too many planets to manage. Mod-added complexity is going to become basically unplayable unless you stay on one planet.

 

[Space Satan]

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.2.2 ###########################
#################################################################

######################
# 2.2 ‘Le Guin’ Free Features
######################

* Added the new "Legion" flag set, with 6 new flags

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

* Reduced effectiveness of Bio-Reactor
* Increased cost of Unity buildings
* Reduced mineral cost of roboticist and fabricator jobs
* Increased base alloy job production from 2 to 3
* Resource stockpiles have by default been increased from 10000 to 15000. Default stockpile for Energy Credits increased to 50000
* Drone Campaign and Robot Campaign effects reduced from +20% to +10%
* Synthetic Evolution ascension perk now gives +10% robot output
* The chance of criminal Branch Offices getting shut down has been reduced slightly, and the cooldown between shutdown events has been reduced to 10 years
* At least one year with little or no crime must pass for a colony's criminal Branch Office to potentially get shut down (increased from one day)
* Different kinds of Unity buildings are now more consistent in how many Jobs they create
* Betharian Power Plant building now creates Jobs in addition to its flat Energy Credits output
* Bunker Bot's scrap value increased
* Massively reduced point defense weapon damage against armour
* Democratic Crusaders now also take a dim view of corporate authority
* Caravaneer home base will only be re-established if at least one Caravaneer fleet is still alive

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

* Improved AI planet building priorities
* Improved AI market trading
* AI no longer bounces a single scientist around multiple ships, choking their exploration and growth

###################
# UI
###################

* Building and District tooltips are now more informative in regards to what resources they use and produce from their jobs
* Fixed the missing "Megacorp" ownership icon in the MP lobby
* Added a warning when you try to colonize a very low habitability planet directly with a colony ship
* Piracy is now shown for non trading nations (if within their borders)
* Fixed the UI shattering hilariously if you clicked the population tab on an uncolonized planet
* Fixed Expansion Planner wrongly revealing rare deposits on unsurveyed worlds
* Fixed tooltip for Aristocratic Elite to show the building it unlocks
* Added a popup to tell player when resettlement will cause building destruction
* Adjusted the resource deficit notification to pop once you are down to 12 months' reserves
* Small tweaks to the Planets and Sectors screen
* Fixed tooltip wrongly stating planet had no rare planetary features if they were covered by a blocker

###################
# Modding
###################

* Add num_uncleared_blockers trigger - checks the planet's total amount of uncleared blockers

###################
# Bugfixes
###################

* Number of districts required to enact Arcology Project is no longer reduced by uncleared blockers
* Fixed overlapping UI elements in Megastructure view
* Authoritarian faction is now also OK with Academic Privilege and Robotic Servitors
* Tech drones and Technician jobs now correctly look for the Ingenious trait rather than Thrifty (which was changed to trade value)
* Starting on Earth as Life-Seeded now properly gives you a 25 size planet with rare deposits
* Fixed an OOS on hotjoin due to MIA ships reappearing in different places on server and client
* Fixed status quo peace not spawning new empires in ideology and vassalization wars
* Fixed ship alloy costs being truncated in the choose design window of the fleet designer
* Fixed first wave scourge invasion fleets being led by admirals using robot portraits for some bizarre reason
* Fixed massively out of date credits in the Chinese version, because Jamor is a human that exists in the universe apparently
* Fixed out of synch event related to special projects
* Added missing effects to the description of the Trium Caravaneer's atmospheric deodorizer deal
* Gateways will no longer spawn in directly adjacent systems on galaxy creation
* Fixes the issue of people not able to hot join a multiplayer when too many players are present
* Made tweaks to Galactic Market that should prevent an infinite profits exploit from flooding the market, then rebuying, you shameless tophat-wearing capitalist exploiters, you
* Fixed a graphical display bug with shielded worlds
* Fixed an incorrect modifier being applied by the "Alien Drag Racing" anomaly
* Improved the text truncation in longer planetary Decision descriptions, should avoid spillouts
* Reduced number of calls to CalcMaxEmployed done in DailyUpdate by up to 50%. Should improve performance
* Fixed literally unplayable grammar issue in the Horizon Signal event chain
* Fixed leader portraits being slightly off-center in level up windows
* Fixed OOS due to Leaders not being reregistered when changing class (Scientist to Empire Leader, etc)
* Fixed potential CTD when loading market and certain empires no longer exist, because all those empires will be lost, in time, like tears in rain
* Empire size modifier on leader cost and upkeep is now multiplied on the total and not added to the other mult modifiers
* Fixed OOS due to Galactic Market cache
* Fixed Master's Teaching: Warring States edict not affecting army upkeep as it should
* Fixed Gospel of the Masses civic not applying trade value bonus
* Fixed event spam when gaining access to the Galactic Market
* "Free at last" modifiers are now removed from the planet after it's reconquered (or conquered by anyone else)
* Prevented abandoned terraforming project or underground civilization events on an Ecumenopolis
* Added a check so that servitude robots cannot become criminals. We'll miss you, serial killer auto assembly claw.
* Khan, "berserker" and "invader" AI personalities should no longer get stuck considering targets they cannot reach
* Fixed empire size tooltip with literally unplayable missing % signs
* Fanatic Purifiers, Determined Exterminators, and Devouring Swarms now have a tooltip properly explaining why, as generally antisocial genocidal murderers, they are not welcome in the Galactic Market
* Fixed issue where the Marauder Horde was not dealt with properly if the Khan died of old age
* Reworked refugee pop effect script to eliminate faulty event spam
* Fixed a situation with total wars. If a player takes a planet that has the same name as a planet he already owns, a new sector would be created with that name, but with no planets in it
* Effects of "Survival of the Fittest" tradition now include a "%" character where needed
* Fixed broken tooltips for Gang Wars and Mob Rule events
* Fixed a bug where presapient pops on a planet would distort the necessary number of fully sapient pops required to unlock the next building slot
* Fixed some missing resource icons in various screens and tooltips

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So anyone tried space pervert empire yet?

 

[Space Satan]

There's an event when caravaneers stay at your capital and throw a big fair. Then it stated that party and debauchery resulted in some half-breed offspring and you are awarded with half-xenos scum pop.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Finally! Let's see if they can fix more things soon!

So anyone tried space pervert empire yet?

oOOOH good reminder

Time for to get out of the closet (heh) one of my older custom empires, which I called The Degeneracy of Man.
A bunch of Xenophile/Pacifist/Materialistic xeno-lovers.

Time to fuck a god into existance

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

No Authoritarian? Surely any self-respecting space sex pervert empire would have a rigid caste system for all their hybrids and bio-reservations.

 

[Delterius]

Someone did it.

 

[Preben]

There's an event when caravaneers stay at your capital and throw a big fair. Then it stated that party and debauchery resulted in some half-breed offspring and you are awarded with half-xenos scum pop.

Dammit. I got that event and all I received was lousy 5000 energy credits.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

No Authoritarian? Surely any self-respecting space sex pervert empire would have a rigid caste system for all their hybrids and bio-reservations.

You can't opress us, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.
Love and peace, yo

 

[Preben]

Someone did it.

Gotta admit. That requires some serious dedication.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

sorry, i can't try it myself: how do "mono" planets work with the new economy system? i mean, the planets specialized in only one single production. previously one or two big planets with only mines were pretty mandatory, because not only they were viable but extremely useful.

 

[Average Manatee]

The way pops grow is apparently fucked up to massively prioritize minorities, meaning if one alien gets in your empire your options are to either prevent it from breeding at all or watch as you become 50/50 in a few decades because only the aliens breed. If two aliens get in it quickly becomes 33/33/33, I presume something like that screenshot where 50 different races exist head towards 2% of each. Basically its an unmanageable clusterfuck. Wouldn't be surprised if

sorry, i can't try it myself: how do "mono" planets work with the new economy system? i mean, the planets specialized in only one single production. previously one or two big planets with only mines were pretty mandatory, because not only they were viable but extremely useful.

Ideally you want to choose one base resource (energy/minerals/food). This way you only need to build one building that gives +15%, which is good because those buildings aren't great and only provide 1 job. There also seems to be some kind of system where focusing leads your planet to become a "agri-world" or "mining-world" automatically which gives +5% to the related type of production.

Other than that it's kind of free form, you have lots of building space to build what you want. There is a similar +15% building that boosts research and another that boosts alloys/consumer goods so you eventually want to specialize around one of those as well. There's no special benefit that I know of to doing something like minerals + alloys on one planet that I can see, except if you lose your mineral planet in war then obviously your alloy production runs dry.

Mostly just keep growth going, don't upgrade buildings to the higher tiers until you run out of space, and try to avoid clerks (disable them and only enable when you can't provide better jobs in the near future).

 

[Mortmal]

Got it, played a bit recently.

1. I'm liking a lot the new economic system. I do find it a bit too alloy-dependant, everything really important (spaceships, outposts, space stations) seems to be gated behind alloys now. But the economy is massive incline to what existed before.

2. Game still runs like ass, or runs even worse, because I don't remember how well it ran before. Granted, my computer is a bit of a potato, but I see dudes with super-computers complaining about late-game slowdown. Mods only do so much. They really need to take a look at what the CKII team is doing and do it like them - every patch should run faster than the previous one. CKII has never been more complex, yet it has never been faster.

3. The Game is kinda bugged so far. So far, I think I got the First League Homeworld pop-up twice (when it is finally explored) and got the bonuses twice, too, and there was something that once went weird with the trade window. Lots of complaints about typos and things working weirdly in places they should't.

4. The AI is fucking broken. Glavius is trying to fix it, but...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/a4kkyk/can_we_give_shoutouts_to_glavius_for_fixing_the/

5. The price for upgrading ships is atrocious, you could build a brand-new fleet with all these alloys.

6. Diplomacy is even more bare-bones than in the older versions, because you can't make research treaties anymore. On the other hand, you now can trade more things. Diplomacy needs a overhaul pronto.

So completely broken and unfinished like every single pc game i bought this year, except that CK2 dlc which was surprisingly bug free...

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Glavius is updating his mod like mad, I mean look at this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1584133829

Yesterday I downloaded update 19. He's on update 28 today.
He even made it compatible with the beta, holy shit. Nigga is on a roll.

By the way, the fuck is up with Research treaties? I'm seeing the AI do them between each other, but it never wants to do it with me. Turns out Research Treaties still exist, they're just out of the Trade Tab now.

I'm not touching this game until the next patch comes out

 

[lefthandblack]

I'm not touching this game until the next patch comes out

That's what I said a couple of months ago when I bought it from Gog and shortly thereafter found out that a major patch was going to completely change the game.
Now I'm waiting for that patch to not suck.

 

[ThisNameIsFree]

Robots screwed up even more than before. Everything requires more energy and fleshbags can easily get this energy from trade routes. But robots can't use this new mechanic + they require much more energy by itself, thanks to this they are very energy starved. Just played robots - pretty much impossible properly expand before Dyson spheres. AI even more shit now.

Btw paradox already made some bugfixes and rebalance in stellaris_test branch.

 

[Preben]

Glavius is updating his mod like mad, I mean look at this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1584133829

Yesterday I downloaded update 19. He's on update 28 today.
He even made it compatible with the beta, holy shit. Nigga is on a roll.

By the way, the fuck is up with Research treaties? I'm seeing the AI do them between each other, but it never wants to do it with me. Turns out Research Treaties still exist, they're just out of the Trade Tab now.

I'm not touching this game until the next patch comes out

We are now at Update #30. A true patriot.

 

[Space Satan]

Wiz stepping down as a game director, Daniel, Game Designer of Stellaris will take over. Wiz is heading to secret project.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

and this means?

 

[LizardWizard]

Vicky 3

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

He's going to make RPG.

 

[Average Manatee]

Megacorp is basically a template for a Vicky 3 economy. Wonder if it was done as a sort of proof of concept to show that their players were actually interested in a Vicky-like economy.