• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Stellaris |OT| Imperium Universalis

Alright, I spent an hour with the game now (this is my first "Grand Strategy" game) and I think I am ready to restart now. I don't think it's as complicated once you get a bit into it but the start is a bit overwhelming with "OH HEY WHAT'S THIS RESEARCH THAT BUT ALSO THAT AND HERE IS A NEW THING AND WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?"

The game told me to research something to make some dumb species smarter but I don't know where. Or how. But I think I'll eventually will "get it"
In any case, I love the music
 
Have a situation that is confusing me. I have an asteroid that has Engineer Research on it. I also have a planet that has Physics Research on it. The asteroid tells me I have to build a Mining Station to get the Engineering and the planet tells me I have to build a Research Station to get the Physics. I would think I would need a Research Station for both. Why is it telling me to build a Mining Station for the asteroid?
 
Have a situation that is confusing me. I have an asteroid that has Engineer Research on it. I also have a planet that has Physics Research on it. The asteroid tells me I have to build a Mining Station to get the Engineering and the planet tells me I have to build a Research Station to get the Physics. I would think I would need a Research Station for both. Why is it telling me to build a Mining Station for the asteroid?

Yeah I noticed this too. The Wiki states that mining stations are for energy/minerals, research for the various science resources.

My guess is: a bug?
 
The game told me to research something to make some dumb species smarter but I don't know where. Or how. But I think I'll eventually will "get it"

That was probably "uplifting". That technology (named "Uplift", IIRC) will pop up eventually, but you cant use it unless you have discovered a pre-sentient race somewhere on a planet in your territory. It allows you to turn those pre-sentient species into another faction under your vassalage. Think Planet of the Apes.
 
Alright, I spent an hour with the game now (this is my first "Grand Strategy" game) and I think I am ready to restart now. I don't think it's as complicated once you get a bit into it but the start is a bit overwhelming with "OH HEY WHAT'S THIS RESEARCH THAT BUT ALSO THAT AND HERE IS A NEW THING AND WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?"

The game told me to research something to make some dumb species smarter but I don't know where. Or how. But I think I'll eventually will "get it"
In any case, I love the music
An hour? That's nothing. It took me 7 hours of trying stuff before I was finally ready for an actual Ironman game.
 
Have a situation that is confusing me. I have an asteroid that has Engineer Research on it. I also have a planet that has Physics Research on it. The asteroid tells me I have to build a Mining Station to get the Engineering and the planet tells me I have to build a Research Station to get the Physics. I would think I would need a Research Station for both. Why is it telling me to build a Mining Station for the asteroid?

I noticed this too and I figured, I dunno, maybe engineering research comes in the form of, like, rocks.

I don't know if it actually matters since Mining Stations and Research Stations are identical in every way right now, but it's a little weird.
 
An hour? That's nothing. It took me 7 hours of trying stuff before I was finally ready for an actual Ironman game.

I wouldn't play an ironman game with the state the game is in. Especially if you're an absolute grand strategy noob like Fantastapotamus. Better wait for a couple of patches first.
 
Tested it out, sectors do build upgrades that cost Influence. Colonised a new planet, instantly stuck it in a sector and its currently building the Planetary Administration upgrade.

uVs6AGJ.jpg

Perhaps its bugged, but sectors do seem able to spend influence
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".
 
I made this war like bird empire with the intent of taking over everything because of the ridiculous 60% bonus to armies and like 10% cheaper fleets.

But instead i've played probably the most peaceful game of my life while also becoming insanely prosperous.

Also I really ended up loving wormhole generators, I did not think they would be as fun as hyper lanes but they're actually awesome despite giving you a rather slow start because once you start controlling a massive amount of space you can travel across it SO FAST.

It almost feels like cheating when you can warp in a 14k fleet from across the galaxy within like 5 jumps.
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".

Are you playing on Ironman? That is required for achievements.
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".

You only get achievements in Iron Man mode. Also most mods disable them as well.
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".
Do you play on Ironman? Cheevos are Ironman Mode only in all Paradox Grand Strategy Games.
 
The buildings that increase happiness like the Paradise Dome and the Zoo don't seem to be working at all.. Has anyone else encountered this problem?.

Are you at the planetary cap? Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they said in one of the Blorg streams that the habitability rating works as the happiness cap for that planet. i.e. if a planet has 60 percent habitability then the max happiness for your pop on that planet is 60 percent. Though you can build building that raise the habitability rating.
 
Are you at the planetary cap? Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they said in one of the Blorg streams that the habitability rating works as the happiness cap for that planet. i.e. if a planet has 60 percent habitability then the max happiness for your pop on that planet is 60 percent. Though you can build building that raise the habitability rating.

No i wasn't at the happness cap but the problem seems to have resolved itself :).

Guess it's just a small bug.
 
I noticed this too and I figured, I dunno, maybe engineering research comes in the form of, like, rocks.

I don't know if it actually matters since Mining Stations and Research Stations are identical in every way right now, but it's a little weird.

I guess my worry is if it's a bug and they fix it and you've built mining stations there that suddenly don't work anymore because it should have been research stations.
 
Oh god, this one so much. Had a large empire, and getting all the mining and research stations set up was an absolute pain, especially as the boundaries grow and I have no clue which ones I have done. Right-click mania.

If the numbers on the map are white then they've not had a station built yet, and by right clicking on a system from the map you can select build stations and it will do all of them in that system, saving you from manually doing each one.
 
I'm loving this game but I'm worried about longevity. Playing as a different race doesn't really seem like it will be that different since early game and mid game all seem like they'll play pretty similarly. It's not like EU4 where you have the added interest of taking over historical countries in interesting starting situations with unique goals and opportunities for gameplay.
 
I only have about 12 hours in but I don't think it's clicked for me yet.

I'm a big 4X guy and I still want to fire up MoO2 every now and then because that game is rad. I love Stellaris but I feel like the bugs and all the anecdotes about stagnant mid-games and broken AI, coupled with the two win conditions are really putting a damper on my enjoyment. Is the AI really fundamentally broken or just bugging out for some?

I really want to love this game, but the negative buzz I see online about it is really bumming me out and driving me away from the Paradox community. :(
 
If the numbers on the map are white then they've not had a station built yet, and by right clicking on a system from the map you can select build stations and it will do all of them in that system, saving you from manually doing each one.

To add to this, you can also queue up construction orders by holding down Shift, so go to galaxy view, right click on system select build mining, hold down shift, select build research, hold down shift and do it for the next system and so on.

I love Stellaris but I feel like the bugs and all the anecdotes about stagnant mid-games and broken AI, coupled with the two win conditions are really putting a damper on my enjoyment. Is the AI really fundamentally broken or just bugging out for some?

The mid-game is certainly slower but I think thats as much due to the change of scale the game goes through as anything else. I also wouldnt say the AI is broken, it has issues but several of the complaints people have about the AI being "broken" are simply wrong/possibly bugs/due to the poor UI/etc.
 
Anyone try playing the game on an Nvidia Shield tablet? OR otherwise streaming it to a small screen? Thinking about giving this a go but my tablet is elsewhere for a few days.
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".

I've had 3 so far including that one you mentioned. As above mentioned you need to play on iron man for achievements.
 
The mid-game is certainly slower but I think thats as much due to the change of scale the game goes through as anything else. I also wouldnt say the AI is broken, it has issues but several of the complaints people have about the AI being "broken" are simply wrong/possibly bugs/due to the poor UI/etc.

My pet theory about the AI which I have yet to confirm relates to FTL. I think mixing FTL types can "break" certain AI FTL users and kind of make the AI hang.

Glad people in the OT are cool and reasonable, the Stellaris subreddit and the Paradox forums are full of threads about how Paradox is going to nickel and dime everyone with DLC that should have been in at launch, and how the game is "literally" broken and unplayable.
 
Some buildings have more than one possible upgrade (e.g. science labs), which would prevent this from being as easy as it seems.



I actually think the sectors do a pretty good job. I gave my largest sector a research focus, kept pumping minerals into it, and a few years later it's producing far more research for me. I think a lot of people complaining about sector management (not you) are just ignoring their sectors and expecting them to survive on the 2 or 3 minerals they accrue every month. You really have to dump minerals on them if you want them to improve.

The inability to upgrade the capital is an issue, although I usually make sure it's upgraded before I hand a planet over to a sector. You can also temporarily remove a planet from a sector, initiate the upgrade yourself, and then hand the planet over again, although that's a hassle. I'd imagine they'll fix it soon enough (Paradox tend to be quite responsive to these kinds of things). The most sensible way to do it would probably be to give you a popup requesting the necessary influence whenever a sector wants to upgrade:

"Governor X requests 100 influence to upgrade the Planetary Administration on Planet Y to a Planetary Capital

Approve/Deny"

Another problem that annoys me with the sectors is that you lose the influence even when the game is paused. I was messing around turning the sectors on and off a few times trying to get these two planets that were near to each other into the same sector and lost all my 200 odd stored influence all while the game was paused.

In general it's weird how pause works in this game. Its not like other games where when you pause your just queuing up actions and they activate when unpaused. I've had events appear when paused, and I dont mean straight away, I mean I do a few actions wait a while and then this random event pops up like time had been running all along. You can also speak to other aliens while paused.
 
I only have about 12 hours in but I don't think it's clicked for me yet.

I'm a big 4X guy and I still want to fire up MoO2 every now and then because that game is rad. I love Stellaris but I feel like the bugs and all the anecdotes about stagnant mid-games and broken AI, coupled with the two win conditions are really putting a damper on my enjoyment. Is the AI really fundamentally broken or just bugging out for some?

I really want to love this game, but the negative buzz I see online about it is really bumming me out and driving me away from the Paradox community. :(

Forums, man. You gotta watch out for those forums.

I think the game is pretty fun and I'm actually enjoying the midgame (I think this is the midgame?). The AI is probably pretty stupid, but I don't know if it's "fundamentally broken."

I think this is a relatively smooth launch for Paradox, but honestly they're not really known for super good day 1 builds. There are definitely bugs and issues (the most notable thing I ran into is that rivalries and embassies with empires that get destroyed don't go away, which is actually a problem after a while), but in a couple of weeks they'll have a bugfix patch and probably a content patch and things will keep getting better.
 
I installed a bunch of cool Steam Workshop mods. Turns out my start put me right next to the Kerbal Space Program. Cute Blorgs are out there somewhere too.

This game is going to have an amazing mod scene.

What I really want is an Ur-Quan Masters mod, though.
 
Another problem that annoys me with the sectors is that you lose the influence even when the game is paused. I was messing around turning the sectors on and off a few times trying to get these two planets that were near to each other into the same sector and lost all my 200 odd stored influence all while the game was paused.

In general it's weird how pause works in this game. Its not like other games where when you pause your just queuing up actions and they activate when unpaused. I've had events appear when paused, and I dont mean straight away, I mean I do a few actions wait a while and then this random event pops up like time had been running all along. You can also speak to other aliens while paused.

This has nothing to do with the game being paused or not, it's the sector interface, when you remove a system from a sector you instantly lose 25 influence (it's in the tooltip when you hover over a "blue" system). If you add it back in and remove it again that's another 25 influence. It works that way for every other immediate cost, they all are subtracted, well, immediately. The game could really do with a manual.
 
That reminds me I hate how the sectors work. I should be able to play around a little bit when creating a sector to figure out which one works best before I start losing influence from removing a system. Once I have it created sure, but there should be a window where I can make adjustments at no influence cost.
 
Yeah, that would make sense. Or alternatively, a way to feed some influence (monthly or instantaneously) into sectors.

I think that influence is such a precious resource I'd be hesitant to feed much of it into my sectors, especially if it turns out they don't have anything to spend it on.
 
I think that influence is such a precious resource I'd be hesitant to feed much of it into my sectors, especially if it turns out they don't have anything to spend it on.

I actually think influence is a really weird resource right now, because there are no particular ways to get more influence but you need a ton of it for most empire management tasks. It's not just about resettling or building administration buildings -- you need it to have scientists! Basically the game really strongly incentivizes you to rival everybody and never ally anybody, because those are major contributors to your income. This seems like a really big problem for pacifists, actually.

I think there probably need to be some planetary unique buildings or something to give more influence so that if I need to engage in a huge resettlement program I can actually invest in that.
 
I actually think influence is a really weird resource right now, because there are no particular ways to get more influence but you need a ton of it for most empire management tasks. It's not just about resettling or building administration buildings -- you need it to have scientists! Basically the game really strongly incentivizes you to rival everybody and never ally anybody, because those are major contributors to your income. This seems like a really big problem for pacifists, actually.

I think there probably need to be some planetary unique buildings or something to give more influence so that if I need to engage in a huge resettlement program I can actually invest in that.

There are various research options that increase your influence gain, I've never rivaled another empire and Influence hasnt been an issue since the early game. The random nature of the tech tree means that people are likely having fairly different first experiences with the game.
 
Glad people in the OT are cool and reasonable, the Stellaris subreddit and the Paradox forums are full of threads about how Paradox is going to nickel and dime everyone with DLC that should have been in at launch, and how the game is "literally" broken and unplayable.

Feh, it isn't perfect, but totally playable. I was concerned about some of the 4X leanings but it all seems well restrained at this point. Which I guess gives it a more conservative feel, but nickel and diming DLC? Yeah, that tooottaly sounds like Paradox *wetfart.wav*

They've earned plenty of benefit of doubt at this point in terms of content and systems.
 
There are various research options that increase your influence gain, I've never rivaled another empire and Influence hasnt been an issue since the early game. The random nature of the tech tree means that people are likely having fairly different first experiences with the game.

It's not the tech tree, I'm well aware of those options.

I am not really sure what you're doing to improve your influence if that's the case, frankly. Are you using the frontier outpost in sector exploit? My influence income has been consistently around 5-6 while doing pretty much everything available to gain influence, avoiding alliances, and building very few frontier outposts. (The design where if you build too many frontier outposts you run out of income and can never hire leaders again is also just badly considered, but that's kind of separate.)

Meanwhile it's 100 influence to upgrade a planet to planetary administration and 35 influence per pop I want to resettle (which means 70 per tile, because after I ship the aliens off to slavery I need to send Fremen in to take over). That's with the largest resettlement cost reductions available. Doesn't leave a lot of room for enacting edicts at 127 per planet or 0.85 per month for the empire!

That is a significant influence gate when I need to ship twenty dudes to Arrakis. It is by far the most limiting resource I have to deal with right now, because I've built enough buildings to make energy and minerals irrelevant, but there's nothing I can do to improve influence income.
 
So I've never gone into a war,but I want to start one with my dick neighbor who has gobbled up some good planets near by. Can I just declare war, stomp him, then turn him into a vassal so I can colonize some planets in his former region?

Are there any direct consequences to this?

The other option would be to physically demand those regions as a consequence of losing the war, but them I'm just randomly stuck with those pissed off civilians?
 
It's not the tech tree, I'm well aware of those options.

I am not really sure what you're doing to improve your influence if that's the case, frankly. Are you using the frontier outpost in sector exploit? My influence income has been consistently around 5-6 while doing pretty much everything available to gain influence, avoiding alliances, and building very few frontier outposts. (The design where if you build too many frontier outposts you run out of income and can never hire leaders again is also just badly considered, but that's kind of separate.)

Meanwhile it's 100 influence to upgrade a planet to planetary administration and 35 influence per pop I want to resettle (which means 70 per tile, because after I ship the aliens off to slavery I need to send Fremen in to take over). That's with the largest resettlement cost reductions available. Doesn't leave a lot of room for enacting edicts at 127 per planet or 0.85 per month for the empire!

That is a significant influence gate when I need to ship twenty dudes to Arrakis. It is by far the most limiting resource I have to deal with right now, because I've built enough buildings to make energy and minerals irrelevant, but there's nothing I can do to improve influence income.

Didnt realise you were aware of those options, so when you said there are no particular ways to get influence you meant no particular ways to get immediate boosts? I am using the frontier outpost in sector exploit, honestly dont see how you could avoid it as you have to use sectors. However I have never resettled a pop, not really sure why you would. Dont use edicts that much either. Influence was tight early on but as soon as I got the research tech for it I found ~+7 influence was more than enough to meet my needs. I'm playing on Normal if that (no pun intended) influences it. That said I certainly wouldnt be adverse to an influence generating building option.
 
Kinda blows that I need to research Arctic Colonization when I have a race in my empire indigenous to an arctic world and I want to spread them out. Oh well.
 
So I've never gone into a war,but I want to start one with my dick neighbor who has gobbled up some good planets near by. Can I just declare war, stomp him, then turn him into a vassal so I can colonize some planets in his former region?

Are there any direct consequences to this?

The other option would be to physically demand those regions as a consequence of losing the war, but them I'm just randomly stuck with those pissed off civilians?

Direct consequence of war is that it puts a negative "threat" dispostion buff to every other race around you. It goes down with time after a war. You can't colonize land in a vassals territory, however after 10 years you can begin to integrate them into your empire and make them a part of your empire proper.
 
Direct consequence of war is that it puts a negative "threat" dispostion buff to every other race around you. It goes down with time after a war. You can't colonize land in a vassals territory, however after 10 years you can begin to integrate them into your empire and make them a part of your empire proper.

So I integrate them at 10 years, then I can colonize that area too? Or that area is just gone indefinitely?

Conversely, what would be the downsides of taking those systems in order to stop the war? Could I then colonize those planets? What happens to the citizens from the former empire in that scenario?

He is arid, I'm tropical BTW, so I'm not colonizing the same planets he is on.
 
By the way, is anyone else having trouble unlocking achievements?

It's not a big deal, and I'm happy that it's pretty much the only bug I've experienced so far, but I'm not getting any achievements for the game at all, even stuff which I should obviously have like "colonize a planet".

There was one that I didn't get until a couple of hours after I did what I had to do to get an achievement. Pretty much the only bug I've experienced thus far as well.
 
So I integrate them at 10 years, then I can colonize that area too? Or that area is just gone indefinitely?

Conversely, what would be the downsides of taking those systems in order to stop the war? Could I then colonize those planets? What happens to the citizens from the former empire in that scenario?

He is arid, I'm tropical BTW, so I'm not colonizing the same planets he is on.

The way it works is that you get his pops, so you can colonize Arid. And the after 10 years things starts an integration process that takes a couple years in which you're continously spending some of your influence income to integrate his pops. You then get his territory and populations(that are arid) under your control, and you can colonize the other planets in his territory.
 
Didnt realise you were aware of those options, so when you said there are no particular ways to get influence you meant no particular ways to get immediate boosts?

I meant, like, something controllable and repeatable. I can't actually control whether the influence granting techs appear, and there's only three, all of which I've already researched. So there's nothing else I can do on that front.

However I have never resettled a pop, not really sure why you would. Dont use edicts that much either.

I just took over a planet that was chock-full of individualist fanatic xenophobes. They are basically not huge fans of my collectivist spiritualist God-Empire full of slaves. The only practical solution seems to be enslaving them all and shipping them onto planets that need slaves so that I can send Fremen to work at the labs and power plants. (I guess I could purge the whole planet but I was worried about potential negative consequences from stellar genocide, plus hey free slaves).

I hardly ever use edicts either, but that's mainly because they're too expensive for what they offer given my influence levels. There are some I'd love to use -- like, giving everybody +15% happiness sounds efficient to me -- but I can't in practice. I mean, maybe that's a balance point and that's why there's a government type that specializes in edicts, but it seems weird to design such a detailed system but tune it so that the majority of players will basically not be able to afford to use it.
 
The way it works is that you get his pops, so you can colonize Arid. And the after 10 years things starts an integration process that takes a couple years in which you're continously spending some of your influence income to integrate his pops. You then get his territory and populations(that are arid) under your control, and you can colonize the other planets in his territory.

That sounds like a decent option despite their ideologies being starkly opposed to my own (xenophile, fanatic materialist to a xenophobe slaver).

I'm still curious what would happen if I took those systems as a condition of peace. There are a couple juicy ones that he snatched right around my borders while I was expanding laterally.
 
So I just had my fleet bug out while on the attack, getting stuck in place - and when I quit and tried to reload, it just said "Corrupted Save" and gave me a completely empty galaxy.

I liked that game! It was going well!
 
Top Bottom