Stellaris

Sulrn_sl said:

Reading the thread and watching Let's Plays, I feel like I dodged a bullet with Stellaris and that makes me sad. Game seems like it has potential with updates/DLC, but it seems like a sandbox without any borders keeping the sand in that the neighbors cat left some "black holes" in.

Meanwhile, I'll keep playing with my HoI4 media alone in my corner. :'(

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LOL if you like scifi 4X's just take the bullet. In no other game will you have to decide between allowing your robot workers to become slightly smarter so they can work as researchers and risk certain destruction from the ancient aliens who enforce a billion-year ban on self-aware AI.

Those flaws are real and yeah they're a pain in the dick. More than the bugs with the Zerg planets or the engine chugging down when a fully populated galaxy is at war there are fundamental design issues like how you FIGHT THE UI for so many things that they had gotten right in their older games. FFS all the HOI/EU games had got supply and queing across the empire right, but they took two steps back with this game for some reason. And yeah, corvettes are fucking cheese because the AI doesn't stack small turrets on enough destroyers to effectively shut them down (worse they're super fast on the world map so MP games tend to be all-corvette affairs unless you like being kited all fucking day).

But the game's charm is undeniable even with all that. If you like Space 4X games, there is nothing better out there right now.

I'm a space 4x junkie and I've played them fanatically since MOO1---I have an 5-year-old Distant Worlds save I come back to every once in a while and I actually bought my first iPad when I learned Ascendancy came out for it hahaha---this is definitely one of the best out there today. It's got the AMBITION of distant worlds but the gameplay of the HoI/EU/Clausewitz engine.

I just finally beat a playthrough on Hard and it was pretty much dumb luck with having started near a couple fallen empires who shielded me better than starting at the edge of galaxy. The Scourge showed up but I was able to vassalize just enough people before they snowballed too badly. And snowball they did, the last stack I saw headed for my fallen empire neighbor was like three 40k fleets.

Today's patch fixed my issues with late game lag. Sure, when you have five fleets all at 50k+ and 82 Planets (cut into 4 sectors), it does not run as 'smooth' as it does when you are just starting out. But a full year of the game at fastest speed is down from 12.5 minutes to a much more reasonable 4~ minutes.

Stupid hotfix uninstalled my cool Mass Effect soundtrack mod.

Khorum owning the thread. I'm 100 hours in and loving it.

I've managed to put in a few hours here and there, and I'm having a great time. I suspect this will be my primary game for a the next few years.

Flight_sl said:

Khorum owning the thread. I'm 100 hours in and loving it.

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I thought that was Mist. That's not cool bro. Now I have to re-read half the thread.

khorum_sl said:

I'm a space 4x junkie and I've played them fanatically since MOO1---I have an 5-year-old Distant Worlds save I come back to every once in a while and I actually bought my first iPad when I learned Ascendancy came out for it hahaha---this is definitely one of the best out there today. It's got the AMBITION of distant worlds but the gameplay of the HoI/EU/Clausewitz engine.

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What would you rate as the top 3 4X games outside of this one Khorum ?

Of the newest ones I'd say I've played Endless Legend and CK2 the most. As far as space 4x that isn't Distant Worlds, it's definitely Endless Space and Stardrive 1 during its crawl to release (I was a kickstarter backer).

I've been playing Distant Worlds off and on for years---like Rome:Total War it's never been uninstalled on my PC---but I wouldn't exactly recommend it. It's kinda weird... it's not really a GAME in the modern, super-polished, market-oriented sort. It's closer to like those massive train sets you start when you're a teenager and by the time your kid goes to college it's a sprawling miniature city in your basement. DW definately plays more like a HOBBY than a game, and I kinda think it's deliberately unapproachable haha.

But I'm an inveterate Endless Space fanboi. The game's UI should be taught in them game design schools for real. Sit through a playthrough of Civ5 or even Xcom and think about all the REALLY SMART ways they used ABSTRACTION to diminish the compexity and tedium of the old xcom game. Firaxis has made "Accessibility-Through-Abstraction" their overarching design philosophy.

But the dudes at Amplitude Studios went the other direction and showed that instead of dumbing down your game, you can just spend your budget on world-class UX design an put all that rich complexity up front with a smart UI. Endless Space doesn't boil away the GINI coefficients in its tax systems or pare down the battle DPS benefit of more education spending with a "betterer++" stat, they just present that information smarter in those places where the user would need that information to make decisions and not all over the place where it muddles shit.

It's not just some hipster flat UI voodoo tho. They carry that philosophy over into Endless Legend, which is basically their take on Master of Magic/Age of Wonders but doesn't suck. Like with Endless Space it's a case where they don't throw away all that rich depth that old 4X gamers ACTUALLY want but present it in a way that doesn't scare off the casuals who have all the money and vaginas.

Bought it 3 days ago and really enjoying it. So far I had three games. First one I was derping around and eventually suicided into a big alliance. Second one I got too close to a Fallen Empire apparently, but didnt really pay attention. They proceeded to rape me and I started a new game.

Now, I post here with a bleeding anus. Apparently I was too close again and the Fallen Empre decided to rampage through my Third Reich. I endured and started to rebuild, but I lost my fleet. An alliance of weaklings I was blitzkrieging earlier decided that it is now time for revenge and I had to commit suicide in my F?hrerbunker.

tldr: Fallen Empires are dicks and this game can just decide to end your fun here and now. Time for fourth Reich next week.

Ridas_sl said:

tldr: Fallen Empires are dicks and this game can just decide to end your fun here and now. Time for fourth Reich next week.

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Or : just because you can expand somewhere, doesn't mean you should ;p

Don't misunderstand me. I really like the way it works. Games like these should be punishing. If you piss off the big guy, you better be ready.

Payback will come sooner or later. Gives me a good goal for my next run.

Ridas_sl said:

Bought it 3 days ago and really enjoying it. So far I had three games. First one I was derping around and eventually suicided into a big alliance. Second one I got too close to a Fallen Empire apparently, but didnt really pay attention. They proceeded to rape me and I started a new game.

Now, I post here with a bleeding anus. Apparently I was too close again and the Fallen Empre decided to rampage through my Third Reich. I endured and started to rebuild, but I lost my fleet. An alliance of weaklings I was blitzkrieging earlier decided that it is now time for revenge and I had to commit suicide in my F?hrerbunker.

tldr: Fallen Empires are dicks and this game can just decide to end your fun here and now. Time for fourth Reich next week.

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<3

How do you go about taking over other empires? I declared war on a neighbor with the term being vassalization (I read it as him being my bitch) and proceeded to blow up his fleets, and eventually he accepted the terms, but now how do I get all his shit? I want his resources, planets, everything. I can't build in his area because it's not owned by me, I can't seem to colonize or use his planets...I'm not really sure what I got from becoming his overlord, besides a fancy title.

Also, is there a 'point' to your leaders aging? So far, it just seems like a big annoyance. Instead of recruiting badass guys and leveling them up, I just recruit any random guy, forget about him, he levels up a few times to seemingly not much effect (although one caveat is I had one admiral that got an ability with two kinds of +move speed and evasion), and at some point they croak and I immediately replace them with some other schmo. I get no sense of attachment to any of these guys. Am I playing wrong?

Jabberwhacky_sl said:

How do you go about taking over other empires? I declared war on a neighbor with the term being vassalization (I read it as him being my bitch) and proceeded to blow up his fleets, and eventually he accepted the terms, but now how do I get all his shit? I want his resources, planets, everything. I can't build in his area because it's not owned by me, I can't seem to colonize or use his planets...I'm not really sure what I got from becoming his overlord, besides a fancy title.

Also, is there a 'point' to your leaders aging? So far, it just seems like a big annoyance. Instead of recruiting badass guys and leveling them up, I just recruit any random guy, forget about him, he levels up a few times to seemingly not much effect (although one caveat is I had one admiral that got an ability with two kinds of +move speed and evasion), and at some point they croak and I immediately replace them with some other schmo. I get no sense of attachment to any of these guys. Am I playing wrong?

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Short answer is yeah you're kinda playing it wrong hehe.

The best way to play out a classic 4x ANNEXATION of an empire is to get attacked first and toNOTset demands until you've got hundreds of points in warscore. Then you add "Cede planet X" for each of their planets to your empire as part of your war demands. If they accept your terms then those planets will be annexed into your empire. Vassalizing just makes them count towards your domination victory totals and they will send their fleets alongside your LARGEST fleet during war. Also they'll send ground troops to invade planets you're bombarding if they have the means to produce non-shit troops (if they're not a weak species or if they can produce bio-engineered ground troops or droid armies). They don't pay you tribute, tho the devs are patching in a "Become Tributary" demand in a couple weeks.

The most useful critique of the game so far is from some RPS guy who was whining about how the game expects players to have already played EU/CK/HoI or any of the other Clausewitz games---and the way wars resolve is actually an important example of that. CK2 models war resolution very closely to history: empires who lose wars aren't usually annexed to the victors, instead they fall apart into balkanized little petty states based on the divergent ethical groups. You want to watch out for those divergent ethics btw, if a pop's loyalty is low or if it's close to a strong rival with different ethics it'll diverge from your starting ethical choices and they'll be the planets that'll be easy pickings as "liberated" puppets during a war. If you pick a democratic/pacifist state with high divergence you'll start seeing like three pages worth of different ethics groups when choosing which pop to put on a colony ship lol.

I broke down and bought this, have about 40 hours or so. I played the first game for 30 minutes to get the basics down and then started this turn...its nearing the year 4,000. I have a huge amount of population compared to everyone else and top tier army. There are a few stronger then me....I am not really sure what to do next, entire map is reveled and I cannot really expand anymore. Is it time to just declare war and start invading other systems to win? I read the post above but no one is attacking or doing much...

Crazily_sl said:

I broke down and bought this, have about 40 hours or so. I played the first game for 30 minutes to get the basics down and then started this turn...its nearing the year 4,000. I have a huge amount of population compared to everyone else and top tier army. There are a few stronger then me....I am not really sure what to do next, entire map is reveled and I cannot really expand anymore. Is it time to just declare war and start invading other systems to win? I read the post above but no one is attacking or doing much...

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Pretty much. There is not really any 'diplomatic' victory. (I am not sure if having everyone in your Federation counts towards the control/conquer victory?)
The only victory options are to control 40% of the planets in the Galaxy (On a 600 Map, this is around 200 planets. So guessing it is around 300-350 for 1000?) or to control everyone else (either through turning them into a protectorate, vassal, or straight up conquering their planets).

Federations do count towards victory according to what I've read. So that's the "diplomatic" victory. 4 decently powerful species in a Federation already control a huge chunk of space and probably have similar distaste for other races that you can work on annexing.