Stellaris

Sludig · Dec 27, 2018

Is this a change? I dont seem to get spreading control/influence in neighboring sectors I've built a starbase or colonized on. Is the idea now to spam all those lv 1 outposts around the systems sun to be able to harvest them? Costs of this lv 1 outpost doesn't outweigh trying to control a lot of random resource systems? (Seems that the lv 2 starbases is what is the big one I'm limited to like 3 at start w/ out penalty)

Also confused on trade routes, have 3 routes between all my bases or whatever, but I don't see exactly how those "trade" resources are benefiting me?

khorum · Dec 27, 2018

oh you havent played in a while. Yeah you have to chain up neighboring stars with outposts to expand now. Your borders dont expand organically anymore.

Sludig · Dec 27, 2018

If I snagged some of the expacs on sale, what would be the most key for giving me actual usable good content not just fucking portraits etc.

I do like to try and be warlike though so far in my tutorial getting enough alloy is hard and knowing wtf I'm doing with upgrades seems a pain. (Slowed by not taking as many systems from aforementioned question and being hesitant to use the market to juggle resources around)

Not for sure I'm ready to actually dive in heavy is why I'm a bit leery of just grabbing all the DLC. Trying to do giant games with diplomacy and focused on care bear type stuff isn't my forte.

The be a mechanical race stuff for example sounds fun, until it turns out it's not much different other than portraits, still just watching a zoomed out galaxy map.

khorum · Dec 27, 2018

Oh no, the machine and hive mind civs are different. Different civics, and traditions and rulesets. For example Machines don't need food and have 100% habitability on all planets ---IE: they don't bother with the terraforming game at all. Hive minds don't have to deal with happiness, breed faster etc. Megacorps are radically different too, their expansion penalty encourages tall builds and roughly half their gameplay is on building and managing branch offices on other empires' planets.

Even among the empire types there are wildly different civics that dictate different playstyles. Amongst Machine civs there are the obvious Skynet-like driven exterminators but there are also the assimilators who expand by absorbing alien populations like the borg and then there are rogue servitors which are runaway caretakers that get a massive production and energy boost by pampering their biological masters in utopia domes (their masters produce nothing).

Araysar · Dec 27, 2018

Whats the most OP civs these days?

khorum · Dec 27, 2018

I dunno. Sure as isn't Media-Conglomerate Megacorps with a Criminal Heritage tho.

Araysar · Dec 27, 2018

khorum said:
I dunno. Sure as isn't Media-Conglomerate Megacorps with a Criminal Heritage tho.

you mean CNN?

khorum · Dec 27, 2018

Araysar said:
you mean CNN?

lol CNN was my third choice for a Criminal Media Conglomerate name, behind Pornhub.com and the one I finally chose:

Sludig · Dec 28, 2018

After like 12 hours yesterday decided I can't do it. Too fucking slow, even on like one size up from tiniest. Forced peace time after a war, combined with when I tried to seize a paltry 3 minor systems they didnt really have shit in from my rival, they refused to accept defeat even as I mowed down 3/4 of their empire with a 2k power fleet and dropped their homeplanet to 100% devastation...... wtf. So I eventually had to settle for status quo that gave me 2 of the minor systems.

General Antony · Dec 30, 2018

Machine empires suck dick right now, but Determined Assimilators are probably the strongest empire type in the game. The important part is you get a total war CB at the start and any conquests allow you to assimilate rather than purge all the population (unlike purifiers, devouring swarms, and exterminators must do) - by far the most explosive opening possible.

Inward perfection & agrarian idyll is also very strong as a builder / fast tech option. The tricky aspect is shifting out of fanatic pacifism at some point to start conquering once you have a colossus - you need to plan ahead because you'll lose a lot of bonuses from your civics all at once.

khorum · Dec 30, 2018

I must be doing these trade routes wrong because late in the game you start getting trade routes worth 10-15k Trade Value and the piracy value is generated is always a proportion of that. Which means you start getting cases where super-busy trade routes to your capital will be generating MORE PIRACY than even a 50k stack of your most advanced corvettes can suppress.

So I've tried dispersing starbases along the most lucrative trade routes with overlapping trade security coverage and built a 100k fleet dedicated to patrolling along that route but it would still occasionally go into the red and choke off trade along that route (which is like half of all my income). I wish there were specialized ship mods or starbase mods that buff or expand trade security.

General Antony · Dec 30, 2018

Early game just keep your trade focused planets to within 6 jumps of your capital so you can collect there and avoid any traded routes - always replace your capital station with trade hubs rather than shipyards when you have a second station up.

Trade values that high are probably late game territory where you can have gateways at each of your trade hub stations. You can still "push" trade from a hub through a gateway, the change from the patch just disallowed collecting through a gateway.

The other alternative is to notice that systems with any level of star base suffer no piracy, so you can "conga line" star bases along main routes. Basically you want to avoid interacting with the piracy mechanic altogether (either the star base module or fleet suppression) because it scales so poorly.

sadris · Jan 9, 2019

Funkor · Jan 9, 2019

sadris said:

The crises being broken can be found in code with a big #TODO comment on it that they just didn't finish implementing.
See: Steam Workshop :: Crisis Purge Fix

Performance of current game is also much worse than 2.1.5 despite the claims that moving from away from planetary tiles system would help alleviate that.

They rushed this update out too early in order to make it for the Christmas holiday sales. Wiz got moved to some other project so we'll see if the new lead makes this stuff better or worse.

sadris · Jan 9, 2019

Funkor said:
The crises being broken can be found in code with a big #TODO comment on it that they just didn't finish implementing.
See: Steam Workshop :: Crisis Purge Fix

Performance of current game is also much worse than 2.1.5 despite the claims that moving from away from planetary tiles system would help alleviate that.

They rushed this update out too early in order to make it for the Christmas holiday sales. Wiz got moved to some other project so we'll see if the new lead makes this stuff better or worse.

They're also swedish faggot socialists, so they go for some like 4 week break for chrismas.

Good job. Push out garbage then disappear for 4 weeks.

Funkor · Jan 9, 2019

Not even unique to just this title alone as they've done it with CKII as well. Push out release with game breaking flaws, disappear on holiday, reappear with the same tired bullshit excuses. Shouldn't have to literally downgrade your game version to get a better experience.

Ridas · Jan 9, 2019

I played a middle size map to endgame, but it became too slow to bother. I also only play max 2 or 3 planets. Vassals and AI are retarded atm.
Reversing the patch next map I think.

sadris · Jan 14, 2019

Funkor · Jan 15, 2019

Whichever looks better printed on a body pillow.

Obviously.

Dioblaire · Feb 8, 2019

So the latest beta patch 2.2.5 has completely reversed machine empires and made them hella fun to play. I'm fairly certain they will nerf it a bit, but pop growth is ridiculous with them now. I have 179 pops just short of 70 years in, with no slaves. And they fixed the energy issue that the Le Guin patch caused. I have had no issues with energy credits.

Performance wise, they seem to be headed in the right direction, so hopefully that trend will continue as well.

If you haven't felt like playing recently due to all the changes, I would strongly suggest to give it another go with the latest beta patch.

Stellaris

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