Stellaris

faille_sl said:

EU is set in europe from 1400 - 1800 ish. So you have all the existing nations big and small you can place. Creates a feeling of a real world you're entering and part of the challenge you have is which nation you place, and then what you decide to do with them. Kinda like if it was set today, you could choose to place america / china / russia and take over the world, or play as german and focus on unifying europe, or playing Greece with the goal of getting out of debt...

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I agree in a different light. Game feels hollow and without soul due to the lack of narrative (which is the point) because of everyone being a list of randomized bullet points. Even with the tech-advantage start there's a distinct lack of setting/purpose (for me) with no established empires of substance. In CK2/EU4 you're playing as a Lord/Country based in history that can follow/diverge nearly at will and adds artificial meaning to your choices as it's a reimagining of what could have happened. In this, you're a blorg and you can still do whatever you want, but what's the point? Besides sci-fi voyeurism/jokes there's no real reward for progressing in the game. Other games have tried to get around this with story-factions/in-depth combat/shipbuilding, but Stellaris isn't doing anything. The game is polishing a lot of things that other games haven't done well, but it's still nothing more than a spreadsheet manager with a space background at this point.

I want to like this game, because Paradox, but it's hard for me to imagine playing this long term without something to tie it all together as a meaningful experience. I say this as someone who is planning on proving the righteousness of Germany ruling Europe come June 6th.

PS Their stream team is absolutely cringe-worthy at times. The AI-dev is okay, but their QA/Community? guy just seems straight awkward.

Yea, I would like a "campaign" with a fictional historical setting, but I'm willing to give Paradox the benefit of the doubt atm. They've blended making large and small entities relevant for a few years now in a way no one else has come close to. I don't think we'll need asymmetric starting points to achieve that, but if enough customers request it then Paradox will find a way to add it in.

The thing about Paradox games is that their games ripen over time with patches/DLC much more than others. CK2 and EU4 now are wayyyyy different than launch. I suspect Stellaris will be the same, it does look very bare bones now, but given a couple years and like 4 DLC/Expansions, the game will probably be in CK2/EU4 territory.

The argument isn't that it can't grow into something like the other Paradox games, the argument is that unlike the other Paradox games, it doesn't stand on its own feet [firmly] at launch.

This is being released Tuesday. I know many people here don't seem too enthused, but having watched up to part 19 of the Stellaris - All hail Blorg, Space Friends videos, I'm beyond sold. MoO4 has dropped completely off my radar, as this game has quite some depth to it, even if some would argue it lacks personality (I think?). It's not that I disagree, it's just that I don't care. But I realize we each have our own shit that's important to us.

Fallen empires, uplifting races, research projects, Federations, war dec mechanics, 3 different movement types, endlessly repeatable tech, Sectors, Surveying - I'm just sold. I cannot wait. Hopefully there will be no massive bugs haha

Monday actually.

Sulrn_sl said:

PS Their stream team is absolutely cringe-worthy at times. The AI-dev is okay, but their QA/Community? guy just seems straight awkward.

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His Kazoo skills are tight.

OneofOne_sl said:

Fallen empires, uplifting races, research projects, Federations, war dec mechanics, 3 different movement types, endlessly repeatable tech, Sectors, Surveying - I'm just sold. I cannot wait. Hopefully there will be no massive bugs haha

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Quest system too.

Thank Cyrus, no idea why I said Tuesday.

The only thing that seems to meaningfully set this apart from any of the other space 4x games that have been released over the past few years is the 32 player multiplayer. It's a shame that the combat is so hands off and that there's no tactical use to any of the stellar bodies or anomalies. Anyway it could be interesting if they have good matchmaking and the ability to play with people that you don't already know. But that said I've watched a few multiplayer matches in EU4 and it was quite unstable at times, hopefully they managed to iron that out.

Quill18 seemed to be happily gushing over the event he participated in at any rate.

faille_sl said:

Still no release

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I heard it will release at 19:00 CET, Paradox will do a stream starting around 13:00 CET then push the go live button on stream at 19:00.

Any early reviews would help me decide...thanks.