Stellaris

meStevo said:

Tradewars is like the old EQ to me, nostalgia for it that can't really be reproduced, but an itch that is occasionally scratched in some form by games like Stellaris.

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Yeah, that is true, but I feel it's the closest I'll get.

Anyone else experiencing random crashes? Started a few days ago.

So, just started playing this after not picking it up for a couple years after buying it on sale. 30 turns in, have 5 worlds, one is a Gaea planet, rest are nice continentals. I'm nearly double my admin cap but it still 'feels' like I'm behind on worlds? How many worlds do you guys aim for before turn 50 usually. I'd rather play tall, but I'm not sure if that's a great strategy in this game.

Lithose said:

So, just started playing this after not picking it up for a couple years after buying it on sale. 30 turns in, have 5 worlds, one is a Gaea planet, rest are nice continentals. I'm nearly double my admin cap but it still 'feels' like I'm behind on worlds? How many worlds do you guys aim for before turn 50 usually. I'd rather play tall, but I'm not sure if that's a great strategy in this game.

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Yea, the admin cap is just a malus to slow you down, but as long as your economy and homeworld population can support it, without gimping development, you can keep colonizing 80%+ hab planets in your territory.

That said, my access to habitable worlds is usually limited by how I expand, so I rarely go that far over the admin cap before acquiring the tech to be within 30% of the cap. My main goal of early game is to box in my future territory by owning systems that block all the neighbors from expanding toward my homeworld, even if I have to skip a few systems to do it (only if the crossroad system is very close to their territory). This usually means I dont claim any systems, outside of the first few around my homeworld, unless it's on the way to claiming the choke points I want. Once my borders are set, I come back and claim the rest and start my colony boom.

Mining and research stations are king of early game, and that's where most of my resources go when I cant build outposts.

Also, no one gets open boarders unless they are a Fallen Empire (Tip: dont claim systems that are 1 jump away from Fallen Empires).

Edit: I'm not sure where I am usually at, at the 50 year mark, colony wise. I think it would be heavily reliant on the RNG of the map, it's size, and the placement of other empires.

Lithose said:

So, just started playing this after not picking it up for a couple years after buying it on sale. 30 turns in, have 5 worlds, one is a Gaea planet, rest are nice continentals. I'm nearly double my admin cap but it still 'feels' like I'm behind on worlds? How many worlds do you guys aim for before turn 50 usually. I'd rather play tall, but I'm not sure if that's a great strategy in this game.

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For the most part, admin cap isn't something to worry about if you go over by a little bit. Unless you are playing as a Megacorp, then it hits pretty hard. So if you go over, don't fret unless the penalty starts getting really high, then just work on getting it back to a more manageable level. Having a crappy planet dedicated to Admin cap is also a great way to go in that regard, once you have other planets specializing in Minerals, Food, etc.

As for how far I get in 50 years, it just depends on planet habitability spawn amount. I personally play wide empire in the sense of getting as many star systems as possible, but hate micromanaging so many worlds, and have anywhere between 10 and 15 by that point, and I don't get too many more after that (I generally bomb xeno scum planets into tomb worlds, so I don't have to worry about them, or crack them when I get the planet killer ship). And if I've been lucky with tech, I might have started a habitat or two.

Research is king in this game, as outpacing the other empires in tech is the best way to win as well as catching up the the Fallen Empires more quickly.

I highly suggest looking up youtubers Aspec and Stefon Anon, they have pretty good videos for tips and empire builds.

Bump.

Game is daunting AF.

I always suggest watching a YouTuber do a let's play or two, ideally one geared toward new players. You can learn a lot of the mechanics that way. That's how I learned to play EU4 and Stellaris both.

ColorsFade Gaming also has a bunch of useful tutorial videos and a 'newbie' playthrough (though 32+ hours!) to watch.

I recently picked the game up with Humble's excellent bundle and got raped by a Great Kahn empire on my first blind playthrough after 6 hours or so.

It's the glacial pace on top of how mucht here is to do. Offputting isn't quite the right word which is why I went with daunting.

meStevo said:

Was in this thread hours ago, eager to finally give this another go, went to youtube and fell in a hole and have just been watching videos about it instead of playing it.

Watched every episode of this, was kinda fun.

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Well shit. I guess I'm not going to actually play anything tonight.

PSA: (Last I played) Huge+ galaxies start to have performance issues with genetic engineering in the mid-late game. Different subspecies are treated as a different race, which each require their own computations from the AI for things like migration, happiness, reproduction, and so on. The game can become unplayable, depending on your hardware.

There are mods that can limit the computer making 5 million sub-races and allow you to clean them up manually, but I don't know if you need to start the game with them enabled, to take full advantage of the performance boost.

Is there a way to turn off edge scrolling I'm not seeing? Driving me nuts.