ok, so it sounds like everyone is having a great time with this game but with obviouse issues with lack of some content or glitches.
Worth it to dive in now? I dabbled in Hearts of Iron and love the military aspect of it, and I've been wanting a HoI + Space game like this for a long time where I can live out my imperial fantasy.
I do have a question, I see that you can make your race and stuff, but can you alter you civilization mid game. Say I start as a democracy, but as time goes on I turn it into a theocracy, kinda like where you can change your form of government in HoI. Is that possible?
It's worth it, it's kind of a typical PDX release with quite a few bugs but nothing completely major like in the past with crashing bugs, etc.
Also yes you can change your government, it costs influence and can only occur every 20 years I believe. Also your pops (populations) ethos/traits can change too, they diverge, and this can create factions, split up your empire when they want independence, etc if it gets out of control. Actually in my current game, one fairly large empire split into two due to that, they were pacifists and the split one was a militarist, it diverged from pacifism, and now that militarist has joined a federation of nearby militarist empires and they're actually fighting a war against the pacifist empire they were once part of.
The main issue I have with it is that the sector system needs to be fixed up which is something they have acknowledged and have already began working on the first big patch.
Some people have had AI issues, others not, it basically comes down to there being balance/bugs with some empire ethos combinations etc, not game breaking, just typical things that are ironed out with patches that PDX always tends to do. Personally I haven't seen it, my game is still the same one from release and it's had a lot of tensions, and those in my alliance/federation have fought well along with me (and in the very first war, they actually "carried" me in the war), they were very proactive in their troop transports for capturing planets and actually pursuing the war goals. Again, some people have had difficulty with those in their alliance/federation members not doing anything well, it's pretty much typical AI balance issues that are sorted out.
In terms of lack of content, it's primarily the diplomacy and espionage, this is definitely things that'll come in expansion DLCs and patches, no doubt about it. It's a great foundation here that PDX always does with their games, and there's a lot of play time with the current game, I've been glued since release playing in all my free time. They've made some great additions to this whole sort of 4x/grand strategy hybrid genre and the game still offers a great experience in comparison to other 4x games, I'd say the only game that is somewhat comparable is Distant Worlds: Universe but that game has been out for years and didn't really innovate any where like Stellaris has.
Any ways, they plan on the first big patch somewhere in May, so maybe you might want to wait till then? Their big patches are really heft in changes based on past games, and sector changes is already part of what'll be in the first big patch. Next week we are supposed to get details on that patch!
I really like this game a lot but i am concerned from a few things.
a) I am not a friend of research randomness but i can live with it. However, there have to be some essential research projects where you can select them any time.
b) Again on research, i really can not understand why i cant swap researchers between the fields of research. I can only dismiss a researcher forever and that does not make sense.
c) Also, why researchers are considered leaders and compete to the elections? There should have been a researcher's pool that is totally different than the leader pool, the admiral pool and the general pool. It, again, makes no sense having them sharing the same leader pool.
d) As people have mentioned, the diplomacy mechanisms are weak. I wonder why a civilization could have 3 embassies only? They could have them as many as the races/civilizations we meet and if there is a need for boosting relations with a race we could send a diploma (political leader) there.
I am certain that Paradox will fix most of the issues players have, they always do.
With point A, yeah it's a combination of things, there's randomness in it too but it works like a deck and is shuffled and certain things are put on top and bottom of the deck, and certain things are guaranteed. New tech can also be uncovered by science ships, anomalies, event chains, etc, and I really like this because it's much more organic and I'm so, so, so tired of research trees in the last 20 years of these style of strategy games, I love that the early game is kind of like Star Trek with the science ships. The issue I have had with research trees in 4x games over the last decade of modern 4x games is that they are so static and have obvious paths that you never steer away from from no matter how many games you play since the game tends to be balanced a certain way that only a very few ways are viable.
With the one in Stellaris, research is game dependent too, so not every game has the same research (besides obvious stuff like ship types), and I've honestly found all of the tech to be useful and has its place. I really enjoy the randomness also thrown in because it also changes up the AI, in other 4x games I'd notice AI always following the same sort of research each game which became predictable in how to beat. I also saw a cool suggestion the forums about "covert science ships" since there is no way to do anomalies that may have a tech associated with it if its in another empire's territory unless you manage to negotiate border access.
With B I think you can (at least I have done it to put them on a science ship, haven't tried the other way) not too sure, with C I think it depends on your type of government/ethos, are you a direct democracy?
With D I suppose it just boils down to game rules/limitations PDX does with grand strategies just like you can only rival so many people (even in Europa Universalis). I'd like to see more diplomacy involved with improving relations but I don't think we need more embassies (unless maybe change how embassies work to allow more, otherwise I think it could be way too unbalanced if it was unlimited). Right now I'd also like a way to pressure an empire with rivals, at least those within my alliance for example, there's an empire I want to invite to my alliance and we are in great standing but it's being stopped because the other empire in my alliance rivaled them a long ago, so they are voting no when I want to get them in. It would be cool to have an espionage aspect or something to end a rival like propaganda or something, but yeah that is all ideas for patches/expansion DLCs.
But yeah as you say, PDX uses a lot of suggestions for the games to improve it and also their own ideas, the game will be supported for a long time, I feel kind of spoiled after the years of expansion DLC with Europa Universalis: IV, it feels like I'm back when EU:IV just released, haha.
