Might want to try my idea of militaristic slavers that just conquer worlds to enslave them.
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Stellaris |OT| Imperium Universalis
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Might want to try my idea of militaristic slavers that just conquer worlds to enslave them.
LurkerPrime
Member
Ah, the System Lords--aka Goa'uld. Yes, that could work.
Dunno how slavery will be with actual rebellion changes now, though.
All of the changes make it sound like games will be a lot more active now. Federations forming, military civs growing, rebellions and diplo actions splintering empires, etc. Should give everything a much more dynamic feeling, avoiding the federation blocs that I saw everywhere in my first game (which basically made it "federate or get crushed/boxed in").
Is purging a policy you could take? So in case they are rebelling just purge the planet.
LurkerPrime
Member
It cripples the planet's output, requires a lot of micromanagement, and once pops start diverging then it just leads to mass, unending purges due to their unhappiness. Or at least, that's how it was in 1.0 with the ethics divergence bug where pops would copy the newest one or whatever (leading to incredibly insane ethos drift on a planet, trending neutral). A very bad bug for fanatic collectivists to have on slave-powered manufacturing worlds. Also not sure how viable it would be for sectors.
In general, unless I'm missing something, slavery seems like a bad choice unless you're full fanatic collectivist or fanatic xenophobe. Even then, the happiness hit sympathetic pops get is crazy and the miniscule output gain isn't worth it except on highly developed, highly-capacity worlds. Not the kind of thing slaver empires could really pull off easily, AFAIK.
Bit of TOS fun to go with the recent TOS Romulan release:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=708799315
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=708799315
Right here:
These are very significant changes to the game. I'm very much looking forward to playing again once the patch is out of beta.
Thanks but I was thinking more the next patches. I ain't playing no broke ass Paradox game. They need to fix this fucker up for Dennis.
Some good changes right there.
But I'm disappointed that they don't address anything on the randomness and the repetitiveness of anomaly event. I said repetitive because instead of showing untriggered events or new artifacts for precursor events, I got the Solar Sailor anomaly for the 7th times. They seriously need to fix this shit considering exploration is the main attraction of the game right now.
There's this roadmap. We're up to Asimov, but they have plans up to the next major update, Heinlein.
The change to border policy bugs me. Now you have to actively close your borders to other empires to keep them from wandering your systems looking for planets to colonize in your dominion. I imagine that closing your borders causes a relations hit as well. Not liking that change at all.
GrandHarrier
Member
I'd assume they can't settle in your space. And if you want to block off someone from expanding on the otherside of your territory then close your borders. For most empires it'll be a non issue for you since distant colonies will have a large upkeep penalty.
call_kotaku
Member
The upkeep penalty is a good change, but it's going to take a while to get used to all the new influence mechanics.
Moving forward are we going to need to tack on a humiliation goal on every war just to be resource efficient? Even with +4 influence it always felt like I never had enough, especially for large empires that have to deal with suppressing factions and hiring leaders on top of colonizing planets and upgrading command centers.
Moving forward are we going to need to tack on a humiliation goal on every war just to be resource efficient? Even with +4 influence it always felt like I never had enough, especially for large empires that have to deal with suppressing factions and hiring leaders on top of colonizing planets and upgrading command centers.
What happened to the core planet + research? Loaded my old save with the new patch thinking I'd be able to have some more core planets with having them on the same system but I was down from 18 to 5 and had a huge economic deficit demanding I create more sectors not have more core planets...
If anyone's interested, I updated the Enterprise era Starfleet uniforms mod to be on par with the quality of the Wrath of Khan and First Contact uniforms (also added a much better Admiral uniform):
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198037869976/myworkshopfiles/?appid=281990&p=1&numperpage=30
Also went back and improved the Vulcan mod.
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198037869976/myworkshopfiles/?appid=281990&p=1&numperpage=30
Also went back and improved the Vulcan mod.
call_kotaku
Member
hm it seems like robots are bugged in the beta, atleast for me
it counts it as a pre-sentient population so it doesn't work, can't be moved, and triggers pre-sentient planet events that constantly tank happiness.
might be a brexit joke in there
it counts it as a pre-sentient population so it doesn't work, can't be moved, and triggers pre-sentient planet events that constantly tank happiness.
might be a brexit joke in there
Played a bunch with the 1.2 beta patch. It's a bit less bad, but doesn't really address the deeper problems with the game.
It really does feel like the release of EUIV all over again. EUIV was giant mess at release, but has turned into an amazing game (Paradox's best by far) by now. Adding fundamental things like trust, war contribution + peace treaties, autonomy, estates, forts and a million other little thing has made the game come to its own.
I really hope that something similar happens to Stellaris. At the moment it feels that the potential is there, but you get the same few boring missions, soulless aliens only defined by a few symbols, fleet battles throwing two numbers at each other and micromanagement up the wazoo.
It really does feel like the release of EUIV all over again. EUIV was giant mess at release, but has turned into an amazing game (Paradox's best by far) by now. Adding fundamental things like trust, war contribution + peace treaties, autonomy, estates, forts and a million other little thing has made the game come to its own.
I really hope that something similar happens to Stellaris. At the moment it feels that the potential is there, but you get the same few boring missions, soulless aliens only defined by a few symbols, fleet battles throwing two numbers at each other and micromanagement up the wazoo.
Anyone want Nemesis era Romulans?
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=711507255
Scientists, Admirals and Generals get different colour uniform straps. Pops get three items of clothing (random for each pop) for each gender.
To my knowledge nobody else is using random clothing sets for pops...
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=711507255
Scientists, Admirals and Generals get different colour uniform straps. Pops get three items of clothing (random for each pop) for each gender.
To my knowledge nobody else is using random clothing sets for pops...
LurkerPrime
Member
Looking great, as always.
I dunno about the fourth one, though. A smiling Romulan? Although maybe it's a frown... kinda hard to tell, so I guess it fits.
I dunno about the fourth one, though. A smiling Romulan? Although maybe it's a frown... kinda hard to tell, so I guess it fits.
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
Making me feel better that I haven't really played yet even though I pre-ordered...
Suppose I can just wait till it's more polished through patches.
Also, just noticed, but in the DLC section on Steam it says "Stellaris - Nova (Pre-Order) - Termination 99329" along with other stuff. The "Termination 99329" seems to be new. Anyone know what's up with that or what it means? I pre-ordered from GMG if that affects anything.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Are you implying he's a faaaaaaaake Romulan?
FrontalMonk
Banned
So as someone who played a fair bit of MoO2 back in the day and have been getting more and more into paradox games recently (have a couple dozen hours into HoI4) I'm wondering how much Stellaris is like your typical paradox grand strategy and how much it's like MoO. Thoughts? It seems like EU but with more emphasis on exploration, since you don't know what the hell the galaxy looks like yet.
Hari Seldon
Member
Stellaris is not really like a typical Paradox game. I haven't played MoO2, but Stellaris seems to be a pretty standard space 4x, with touches of nice paradox complexity like fleet composition. TBH once I got HOI4 I stopped thinking or caring about Stellaris lol. The thing with Stellaris is that the gameplay loop is the same every time with minor differences based on your initial race composition and the random galaxy. This makes Stellaris a great 60 hour game, but not 600+ hour game like HOI4 or EU4.
FrontalMonk
Banned
Ahh. Yeah, Master of Orion is basically the archetypal space 4x that all others are ultimately based on (I always kinda consider the holy trinity of 4x to be Civ, MoO and Master of Magic), so that makes sense. Stellaris sounds like a "wait for the inevitable 50+% off sale for me then, I'll put my money into HOI expansions.
Thanks for the tip!
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Huh, thought it basically turns into space EU4 once you are out in the galaxy. Oh well, will wait till Winter sale then and reconsider.
Hari Seldon
Member
No the diplomacy was way too shallow to be EU4, however that is correctable in the future with patches/expansions. So many people have said this but Stellaris is a solid base for something potentially fantastic down the line. Having said that, it is still a really fun game for 40-80 hours.
So, Asimov is officially out then? I guess I'll start a new game later.
From what I've been reading about Asimov it already adds a ton to diplomacy.
From what I've been reading about Asimov it already adds a ton to diplomacy.
LurkerPrime
Member
Woohoo! Asimov!
I'm really excited to see how all the little changes in 1.1 and 1.2 affect the galaxy layout late-game.
No. But I would believe it.
I'm really excited to see how all the little changes in 1.1 and 1.2 affect the galaxy layout late-game.
No. But I would believe it.
I can kinda see why they took away the happiness buff. It was too easy for a materialist nation to take over a spiritualist one and keep its pops happy(the spiritualist buff and materialist overlord debuff would clash).
At the same time, yeah it's crap. I like what they did to all the other ethics, though.
There is a big design conundrum with this game. I'm only 8 hours in, so a long way to go yet.
There is heaps of micromanagement once you start colonising more than a few stars. Your success can vary greatly depending on much micromanagement you want to do. Something I guess that is inherent with many 4X games including Civ. Right now I'm balancing 20-30 things that are building, researching, colonizing at once.
The solution to fix all that was sectors but that almost means the computer is playing for you on autopilot.
I'm somewhat enjoying the game and look forward to playing out at least one game before making conclusive comments, but I'm a little concerned how much micromanagement to do later looking at the size of the galaxy map.
The other thing I feel like is that there's not much interaction with AI opponents, but I guess its still early on. Still it feels like I can go about without a defence for now.
There is heaps of micromanagement once you start colonising more than a few stars. Your success can vary greatly depending on much micromanagement you want to do. Something I guess that is inherent with many 4X games including Civ. Right now I'm balancing 20-30 things that are building, researching, colonizing at once.
The solution to fix all that was sectors but that almost means the computer is playing for you on autopilot.
I'm somewhat enjoying the game and look forward to playing out at least one game before making conclusive comments, but I'm a little concerned how much micromanagement to do later looking at the size of the galaxy map.
The other thing I feel like is that there's not much interaction with AI opponents, but I guess its still early on. Still it feels like I can go about without a defence for now.
I'm also wondering how much 4X is in Stellaris, because I had read from previews it was really in the early game to ease new players in. That 4X gameplay loop of colonising and expanding doesn't work as well in a 600 star galaxy because it is mostly just building as many ships as you can and colonising empty parts of the map (and that is only a medium galaxy map size too).
One Foul Note
Member
It does seem a lot better from the few hours I have put into Asimov. Not quite the place it needs to be yet, but better for sure.
Last game I had, one of the AI empires (a loose ally of mine) invited me to join him on a fight against one of his foes, an empire he was stronger then but had a defensive pact with another empire which made them combined stronger then him. Looking at the war goals I figured out that my ally was essentially using me as a buffer to stop the defensive pact from getting together and he was rewarding me with most of the pact partners systems as an incentive. It was a real interesting power play and I spent like 10-15 minutes just sitting at the pause screen thinking about the advantages of joining this war pact and having that all come from an AI was rather awesome. Arguably it was one of the only super interesting political things to happen from that game in question but it happening at all is a vast improvement from the stony silence that previous versions of Stellaris featured.
call_kotaku
Member
After many more hours in this game I wish I could set specializations on a per-planet basis and they should introduce more interesting things in the sector-management scale. Maybe something about sectors being able to having different policies and whatnot.
There isn't really that much of a micromanagement angle in my experience, since outside of ethics divergence and slavery building an optimal planet is extremely straightforward and linear which honestly the computer does fine most of the time. The only problem is that it's obvious what certain planets should specialize for but their map location means you need to fold it into a sector that specializes in something else, which feels arbitrary and dumb.
There isn't really that much of a micromanagement angle in my experience, since outside of ethics divergence and slavery building an optimal planet is extremely straightforward and linear which honestly the computer does fine most of the time. The only problem is that it's obvious what certain planets should specialize for but their map location means you need to fold it into a sector that specializes in something else, which feels arbitrary and dumb.
Playing as super religious and collectivist fungoids. Colonize my first planet and have the natives become labor. The natives multiply quickly and create a seperatist movement. I try to hold down their approval but it costs too much and there are then riots and violence. I then set the entire native population to be purged and the faction disappears as they are slaughtered and my people on the planet have no fucks to give. Peace is achieved in our time.
Screaming_Gremlin
My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
Have they made sector management any better in this patch? I hope so, since they got rid of the tech that allows you to increase the number of core worlds. I honestly don't really see the point in that, since it isn't like this game is that micro heavy in the first place.
Also not happy that for some reason when I loaded my main save about a quarter of my population was enslaved, even though I had never used slavery before. I now have a ton of different factions, where as before everyone in my empire was loyalist (since I would purge all aliens and terraform the world for my species). Even if I free everyone, not sure how long it will take to recover my happiness.
Edit - After doing some reading, apparently the issue is that they allow the sector AI to enslave population? How incredibly stupid. I already am not a fan of how sectors currently operate. I think I might just be done with this game for now.
Also not happy that for some reason when I loaded my main save about a quarter of my population was enslaved, even though I had never used slavery before. I now have a ton of different factions, where as before everyone in my empire was loyalist (since I would purge all aliens and terraform the world for my species). Even if I free everyone, not sure how long it will take to recover my happiness.
Edit - After doing some reading, apparently the issue is that they allow the sector AI to enslave population? How incredibly stupid. I already am not a fan of how sectors currently operate. I think I might just be done with this game for now.
I mean that's what policies are for. If you don't want slaves, then ban having slaves.
Screaming_Gremlin
My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
I have slavery open for a reason, as I have found it useful in managing conquered populations. Especially in border areas where I risk losing territory if I purge the population before I am prepared to repopulate with my playable species. Why the sector AI thinks it is a great idea to enslave a large part of my native population that was at high happiness I don't really understand. Especially since it has now caused several factions to appear who are all pissed at me.
But that goes back to my main issue with this game. I understand trying to reduce micromanagement, but if you are going to force the vast majority of my empire to be managed by an AI (that is probably going to do a shittier job than me in the first place), you need to at least allow better options for giving the AI directions in what it can or can't do.
For some reason, I think I'm the only person that does not use slavery or purging to handle pissed off aliens in my empire. It takes time, but they slowly can grow to like your empire. About to go back in and love trying everything in my power to keep everyone decently happy.
While I agree this is shit, could you maybe put slavery at xenos only?
Screaming_Gremlin
My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
My current game I am pretty much playing a ridiculously xenophobic, military dictatorship. My next game, I actually was wanting to play a peaceful federation. Going to use a much smaller galaxy.
I completely forgot that is an option (feel sort of stupid now) and is a really good idea as a stop gap. Will still be annoying to recover from the initial hit when I loaded up my save post patch, but at this point I have enough resources to recover with propaganda broadcasts.
The Hamburglar
Banned
what mods are worth using now? Any AI mods? I see beautiful battles is compatible with the latest patch but is there any point in it?
LurkerPrime
Member
Looks good, but also kinda looks like they stole the Enterprise's warp nacelles. Mostly because the architecture doesn't really match the rest of the ship. If it was flattened out and made more angular (like the other parts) I think it'd fit in really well.
But then again, kitbashes are a big part of Trek as I understand it, so I dunno.
Now that 1.2 Asimov patch has been released. We are trying to get a MP game going for next Wednesday (Jul 6). Just posting this here to see if anyone is interested in playing.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1216199&page=5
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1216199&page=5