devouring mechanical space cthulus coming out of the inaccessible galactic core and spreading like a swarm, think mass effect reapers.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Stellaris |OT| Imperium Universalis
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Really? I get 3/4 FEs awakening per game. And they don't even need to be opposite ethics, I've had xenophiles take issue with spiritualists. Of course, in these games the Unbidden always come out shortly after the Fallen Empires awaken.
Other than the mechanical part and the core part, that's pretty much what the unbidden/abberant/vehement are.
The Hamburglar
Banned
there is isnt there? if you transcend you can get some death bringer cloud.
Did you buy the Leviathans DLC?
captjohnboyd
Member
So I may be taking a shot in the dark here but I wanted to ask a question re: the mechanics in this and other games by the publisher. I LOVE the idea of the games and am all about deep mechanics but I'm not sure if I'm playing them right. For instance I just started playing crusader kings 2 and Stellaris and they take forEVER. I like that don't get me wrong but am I doing it right by basically having the speed up all the way constantly? Cause it seems to me that you sort of have to play that way if you want to get a decent session in before like eight hours disappears. I keep the speed cranked then occasionally stop it to maneuver and army or deal with some diplomacy issue then right back to top speed. Is that right? Am I missing something that not an awful lot can happen sometimes while you just sit there going through turns for an hour before something of consequence happens? This is particularly a CK2 thing for me
If you accept what the Shroud is offering... let's just say that things are not going to end well.
Yep, it just never happens in my games
I haven't played a spiritualist since utopia, so I wouldn't know. Sounds interesting, but doesn't seem to be on the scale of an end-game disaster.
Welp I got totally obliterated lol. I don't really understand the combat / ship design. I had researched point-defense systems but didn't realize I could change the ship sections in my designs to actually get a P slot... Ended up in a war against two enemies. The first only had one serious laser-armed fleet and I beat it, then I went to regroup and push into the other guy and he had one fleet twice as strong as my largest... I just let him take a system while I bulked up a bit, then went to go fight at like his 1.7k power vs my 1.5k, but he just shattered my fleet with a volley of such missiles, barely even taking any serious damage. I wish the game would should combat projections or something, that power level doesn't seem super useful if you're about to get hard-countered by the loadout.
First game: whoops!
First game: whoops!
Do not just leave it auto. You need at least one destroyer design that has point defense, you need at least one corvete with torpedos when that's available, you also want to have cruisers and battleships with fighters and bombers and you need to make sure that you have designs with XL slots if you research XL weapons... Not to mention the auto has a weird habit of putting tier 1 afterburners in all the A slots.
Auto does an OK job for 90% of a single design, but auto doesn't change the frames of your ships to be specced differently. Keep in mind if you're fighting fleets that lean heavily on corvettes and destroyers, large weapons won't do you a huge amount of good either.
CertifiedFP
Member
Huh, funny, because a lot of other people told me that a Destroyer that doesn't use Large weapons is a wasted Destroyer.
The Ship-AI upgrade for the Destroyer gives it a Large-weapon tracking bonus.
As of 1.5/Utopia, that is. So recent advice.
The Ship-AI upgrade for the Destroyer gives it a Large-weapon tracking bonus.
As of 1.5/Utopia, that is. So recent advice.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Depends on what you're fighting. If enemy ships are using missiles of strike craft you want point defense, if they're not, then don't waste the slots. Laser weapons counter armour but are weak to shields, disruptors do bonus shield damage, so if you combine plasma+disruptors that can be a decent way to mix things up. An all rounder ship will have all mass drivers.
Don't get me wrong, destroyers with large weapons are good, but large weapons on cruisers and battleships are still gonna be missing corvettes and destroyers left and right. And having a dedicated point defense design vs a FE with tons of strike craft or an empire that masses missiles pretty much completely negates them. Then again, by the time you have flak cannons they become a lot less necessary.
I disagree with that guide though, Battleships are great as carriers and tend to live longer than the rest of the fleet in most cases. Though, when they're the only thing left, your fleet is pretty vulnerable. XL weapons also do quite well against Unbidden, a battery arc emitters in particular ignoring their shields and armor altogether whittles down their destroyer/battleship fleets pretty well.
That being said, fighters and bombers do have the problem that they take about half the fight to get in range to do damage, but once they do...
One Foul Note
Member
I'll keep it vague as to not spoil anything, but the spiritualist disaster easily matches if not exceeds the scale of all the other end games.
mcz117chief
Member
PD works against normal missiles? I tried it against a rocket heavy empire by building a ton of picket destroyers to serve as my front line but they never actually shot down any missiles. I think PD works only against fighters/bombers and torpedoes.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Yes, although it's sort of a very explicitly easy to avoid one. Nobody would do it except to troll, methinks.
Yes they do. I have fights where I'll win with PD and lose without.
Trolling? Nah man, I just want to see the galaxy burn.
mcz117chief
Member
Well, they never worked for me, I wonder what could be the issue, they just never activate unless they are shooting down fighters/bombers or torpedoes.
They get shot down by PD?
There's only one thing everybody agrees on: never, ever use missiles.
It's funny actually, because I was recently looking up what the best weapon load-out is for Endless Space and again everybody kind of agrees that missles are completely useless.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Only custom load out 4x games I can recall where Missiles were competitive was the Sword of the Stars series. The insistence on using real firing arcs meant that it was totally possible to overwhelm PD if you focused your fire. Plus there were neat variants like dumbfire rockets and multi warhead missiles.
Bad screenshot, but I'm orange. I played a warlike species which developed a "maintain two rivals" faction immediately... But the game didn't spawn any other empires around. I built too many Frontier Outposts and went into a negative influence mode. I started war with the other guy but couldn't finish it before my influence hit zero and *all* my leaders died. Lame.
I really don't like the auto-rally thing that ships do. I wish I could assign rallies and routes for new construction. I beat his main fleet in one system and then was constructing ships from two of my spaceports. I was focused on the ground invasion and panicking about counting out my leaders' lifespans so didn't notice that one of my spaceports was routing ships through their homeworld on the way to reinforce my invasion fleet. Threw two Corvettes straight in the garbage that way, then I had two more in transit I had to manually re-route to avoid passing through their homeworld. I suppose you set their "Stance" or whatever to "evasive" and they'll auto-avoid conflict on the way to reinforce the rally fleet?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
How do you stop ships from automatically streaking off to join your first fleet as soon as they're finished btw?
That's what I'm saying. One kludge is to put a ship in orbit around your spaceport and then set that one as a rally point. I think ships rally to the nearest rally point fleet.
There's a little icon on the nameplate of a fleet that lets you set it as a rally.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
That's dumb, I was wondering why they weren't going to my nearest rally point, but there has to be a ship there? Frustrating
I'm in an early game and playing as a pacifist. There are a couple of empires near me; one of them has added me as a rival but otherwise the relationship stats aren't too bad; and the other one is negative but only so slightly. How can I try to raise relations? I can't trade with either of them, so the options appear limited. I was hoping for some more diplomacy options.
Give the one that's only slightly negative free stuff. Research agreements will build trust, giving them a map will temporarily buff your relations with them and hopefully that will buff them enough to get you a non-agression pact which will in turn build trust.
Also, if the one that only slightly hates you has a rival themselves, rivaling their rival will give a relations boost.
The one that's your rival? Not much you can do.
Fleet rally points get priority. So check the Outliner for any fleets that are set as rally points and remove them (click the fleet, then click the rally button on the fleet's window), and then they'll go to the nearest planet rally point instead (or stay where they're built if there are no rally points at all).
Most (all?) objects have a rally point button, so you can rally your fresh ships to your fleet, a planet or even a star. Fleets take priority over other objects. You can see your current rally points in the bar on the right side of the UI.
The Hamburglar
Banned
do you guys ever play online with each other. I've not played it online once since launch. Obviously aware these games are LONG so saving and picking off where you left off is ok?
Would love to play some games maybe at weekend. or weeknights.
Would love to play some games maybe at weekend. or weeknights.
We tried to get a game going last summer. Although, everyone appeared interested in the 'community' thread, it seems schedule and version bugs shot that idea down. I would assume with the DLC it will splinter the online community even more.
I had previously played with some Paradox forums members before and online multiplayer seemed to work surprisingly well when it works. I have yet to try it since the DLC has been released since I haven't purchased it yet. If you can get a game going with some GAF members, I'll be down (although I do not have the DLC yet so I am not sure how that works in multiplayer?). The thread in the community forum seems to be dead since last summer.
With Paradox games, as long as the host has the DLC, everyone gets to play with it.
I've had an online game going with a friend and it's pretty fun, but it works out well. Also, any DLC that the host has is active for everyone else in the game.
DiscoShark
Banned
You un-check this.
Don't need a ship. Any clickable object in game, in your borders or out of them, can be set as your rally so long as that system has had its fog of war lifted (aka - if your military scouts have literally ever put themselves in the system)
I hate the pathfinding in Banks. Why is my 50k fleet taking the long way round cause they saw enemy stations in the systems along the direct route. So many times I clicked on an objective, go do something else then realise my fleet is on the other side of the map and half my planets are invaded.
CertifiedFP
Member
Y'know, honestly, I think the -25% happiness for Militarist factions in Federations is an amazing game-balancing fix.
Pre-Utopia, a Militarist Federation-President of a sizable enough Federation simply had too much power, since Federation Presidency war-declaration forced all members in. God forbid if there were MULTIPLE aggressive militarist empires in a Federation.
I mean, this isn't a HUGE fix. It's a band-aid. But it's a band-aid in the right direction.
Pre-Utopia, a Militarist Federation-President of a sizable enough Federation simply had too much power, since Federation Presidency war-declaration forced all members in. God forbid if there were MULTIPLE aggressive militarist empires in a Federation.
I mean, this isn't a HUGE fix. It's a band-aid. But it's a band-aid in the right direction.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Chose fanatical purifiers on a small map to see how it would go. I haven't declared war a single time yet I've been in wars with every civ in the galaxy at least twice.
Ragequitting because the "adding wargoals window expiring" bullshit happened to me again. Got DOWd in the middle of a bigger war, so I was too distracted and didn't want to spend 15 minutes navigating the fucking painful wargoal screen to add what I want. Now I white peaced to focus on the smaller war, and I can't get anything out of the war.
Screams externally.
Ragequitting because the "adding wargoals window expiring" bullshit happened to me again. Got DOWd in the middle of a bigger war, so I was too distracted and didn't want to spend 15 minutes navigating the fucking painful wargoal screen to add what I want. Now I white peaced to focus on the smaller war, and I can't get anything out of the war.
Screams externally.
Yep, and in the upper toolbar there's a window showing what strategic resources you have available.
Meccs
Member
Ok thanks, I am probably a bit unlucky then. Another question: there seems to be no reason to not build a mining station for energy when it is at least at "2" since you will always get +1 out of it including the maintenance cost. Of course you will have to pay the minerals to build it but when you need the credits then it would make sense, right?
Energy mining stations actually don't cost maintenance, so if a planet/asteroid says '2', you get +2. So yes, always build energy mining stations, but prioritize the mineral stations.
Meccs
Member
Oh wow, that I didn't know. Thanks.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Utopia is a great addition, leviathans is okish.