since the vanishing of the cool hyperdrive types, all i ever wanted from stellaris has been to create a small-mid size empire with impenetrable chokepoints which could start developing megastructures and then take on fallen empires, but then:
-too many aggressive neighbours, i get attacked and raped before even building the first base
-not enough neighbours, i get too strong too fast
-megastructures tech refuses to pop up, i don't need them anymore
-not enough planets to colonize, i get attacked and raped
-too many planets to colonize, i don't need megastructures anymore
finally the perfect game, with a huge, unstoppable enemy on the other side who keeps growing, on my side of the galaxy instead some juicy targets to vassallize and a big federation i'm in good terms with, i'm big but not too much, i have subjects, i'm developing megastructures in a few months, until i meet a systematic crash. on the second day of the following month the game crashes. feel the desperation.
on an unrelated note, i need two mods:
megastructures, and maybe even habitats, unlocked from the beginning
all ship sizes unlocked from the beginning, compatible with nsc or maybe not, i can live with that