I'd welcome any talk about concrete plans for Stellaris' future, it seems very quiet on that front.
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Stellaris |OT| Imperium Universalis
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Sounds like that will be Monday. European summer vacation struck at a bad time for Stellaris, I think. I'm actually surprised that the concurrent numbers and reviews have held as well as they have.
Yeah, looking forward to developer diaries with actual content.
There was an interesting post on reddit about Paradox's player numbers, which are conveniently available on steamDB and Stellaris had a crazy start, but has dropped below EUIV in less than 2 months.
Stellaris needs to have diplomacy events that add modifiers to involved empires(There's a few already, but they're rare as hell). Like, perhaps espionage can give research bonuses to certain techs already reserached by the other empire, or picking the wrong answer in a diplomatic event causes an international incident that lowers your influence and gives the other empire a prompt that says that they'll gain a happiness bonus if they go to war with you over the incident as well as lowering the AI's happiness with you.
call_kotaku
Member
Yeah I mostly play Stellaris for atmosphere more than gameplay, it becomes a fairly repetitive game even when you're managing vastly different government systems.
It's something I want to boot up and play immediately after watching a Star Trek episode or reading a Culture novel, but once I get past the early game I lose interest really quickly. I still have way more fun with it than other 4X space games, maybe we're just spoiled by Paradox's other offerings.
It's something I want to boot up and play immediately after watching a Star Trek episode or reading a Culture novel, but once I get past the early game I lose interest really quickly. I still have way more fun with it than other 4X space games, maybe we're just spoiled by Paradox's other offerings.
GunslingerVit
Banned
An empire is subject to me, but is disloyal with -200 points. However, I can integrate them. Worth it?
The Hamburglar
Banned
the diplomacy is still screwed. Had a 200+ relation with someone same power, trade going on, defensive pact etc and still can't get an alliance. Also what is this -50 base attitude thing, everyone always has it.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Base reluctance is a diplo modifier in paradox games that represents the idea that you need actual positive reasons to do something. Without it, generally anyone would accept any alliance or marriage or what not unless they had explicit negative reasons to do so.
GrandHarrier
Member
Try offering them a "gift" in the form of free minerals, energy, a research agreement. You can get a significant modifier for that (up to like +100) which can push them over the edge.
GrandHarrier
Member
I could imagine XL weapons being a way to counter doomstacks. Imagine super weapons that deal damage to all ships in a fleet, for example.
GunslingerVit
Banned
AI triggered an annoying end-game event - while I was in a war with an annoying AI that used hit-and-run tactics with its spaceships. I need a break.
We tried this with New Horizons, but it wasn't stable.
We'd basically count fleet power and then apply negative modifiers to ships when over certain limits. Worked okay in most cases, but since the modifiers were permanent and you can't remove said modifiers directly (you have to add a countering modifier) we quickly got situations in end game where we went past some innate limits and triggered CTDs.
Shame really. That said, I'm sure they'll revisit the Stack Limit system from HoI to make Admirals worth more.
LurkerPrime
Member
Yeah. Hyperlanes are the worst.
Intresting.
I hope something just like HoI as you say, if your fleet commander (plus Tech) allows, let's say, 200 ships in a single army, every ship added above would give a minus to combat efficeny.
We will see!
Stellaris Dev Diary #40 - Heinlein Patch (part 1)
Auto-Explore
Rally Points
Expansion Planner
Strategic Resource Rework
Auto-Explore
Rally Points
Expansion Planner
Strategic Resource Rework
Looking forward to that one.
One Foul Note
Member
All the talk of automating exploration makes me hope they are looking into overhauling it at some point. With the exception of perhaps the first five or so systems you explore the role of the science ships feels more like a fairly routine space surveyor rather then a brave expedition into the unknown.
This is all great stuff... that should have come up during rudimentary testing before release. After you've made multiple series, considered the best in their respective categories, not having things like auto-explore and rally points is just sad.
Looking forward to what else they manage to cram into this update that's going to take 3 months to make.
The Hamburglar
Banned
last time the unbidden shown up in my galaxy probably patch 1.03 or 1.1 they were pathetically weak, 3 or 4 fleets of 17k.
now they have about 8 fleets and thats all I can see that are 70k each, a couple of 100k. Have they upped the difficulty ? Do they remind their fleets as well?
now they have about 8 fleets and thats all I can see that are 70k each, a couple of 100k. Have they upped the difficulty ? Do they remind their fleets as well?
Kinda neat thing. Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games fame (Sunless Sea, Fallen London) is apparently now freelance of some sort and will be doing writing for mid-game story content for Stellaris. Presumably part of Heinlein? Either way, having someone that produced and I think wrote for one of the best written games in years is heartening.
LurkerPrime
Member
Oh man, that is very exciting. Failbetter's stuff has some of the best video game writing ever and Stellaris can only benefit from his touch.
Ronin away, Mr. Kennedy.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
The Hamburglar
Banned
Ai is a crock of shit in this game. All just sit around doing nothing, defending themselves from unbidden while I have to spend probably 20 to 40 in game years destroying them.
Ooooo.....
Nice. I recently got into Sunless Sea again (or at least, I'm trying) and I love the writing in the game. I actually based one of my Stellaris nations on the
militaristic autocratic guinea pigs you can encounter.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
I'd advise anyone with a even a hint of a desire to make their own events in Stellaris to try doing so. It's not difficult really, and the scope of your creativity can be pretty big.
Stellaris Dev Diary #41 - Heinlein patch (part 2)
The ship changes actually sound pretty cool. I just hope it is implemented well, and there are changes to defense stations too.
The ship changes actually sound pretty cool. I just hope it is implemented well, and there are changes to defense stations too.
This is a good start, but very much something that they should have thought about in testing. Obviously being able to put anything on any chassis will encourage a race to the most efficient design (firepower per space buck) and not interesting fleet combat dynamics.
Ultimately what I think Stellaris needs is a tactical combat system like the ones in CK2, EU4 or even HoI4 with different tactics and leaders interacting more with it. Not a clue why they didn't make one for Stellaris. At the moment you're still essentially throwing two numbers against each other with no transparent way to understand the course of the battle.
LurkerPrime
Member
I like the sound of all the changes, but particularly the flagship thing. I've always wanted one "key" ship leading the charge; it's part of why I like that oversized ship thing (although I still don't fully understand it).
But these initial changes sound promising. Mixing up fleet comp and adding flagships is a great addition.
I figure they'll eventually do the CK2 thing of making armies only truly effective when they have an admiral on hand, perhaps alongside some kind of morale system. Something to not only cut down on fleet spam, but also control fleet size, while also making the spot you engage from more of a thing rather than an irrelevance. It would go a long way to making the engagements more interesting.
But these initial changes sound promising. Mixing up fleet comp and adding flagships is a great addition.
Yup, the spam is out of control. I had an idea about splitting the health bar into hull/armor and crew/morale before. This way you'd have different approaches, weapons and possibly tactics. Also, it would be nice if you could design an army and then have it build and assemble it, maybe unlock some bonuses or tactics when it has x amount of ships with x weapons (point defense screen, focus fire on capital ship, etc.).
LurkerPrime
Member
Oh, crew is a good one. Would provide some interesting possibilities, re: automation and tech level, or alternately give high-pop/high growth species with some kind of edge for boarding. (Also, add boarding just 'cause.)
I don't want combat and fleet design to get too micro-y or anything, but just a little more deep and interesting. And sci-fi.
That's exactly what I was thinking, you could have cheaper AI ships vs more costly crewed ships that get experience or whatever. Different vulnerabilities and potential to make your species' physical bonuses/penalties count for boarding.
LurkerPrime
Member
Oh, never even considered it being tiered. Something like this would be my idea:
- Automated | (Tech locked) reducing ship cost but sacrificing most crew; reduced XP. Effectively subsidizes the higher cost of high-tech ships while largely giving up the potential of experienced crews, and giving them a huge vulnerability for boarding (though it won't be automatic losses or anything).
- Standard | Normal crew, no changes to default. XP gain, boarding potential and defense, etc. Creator species' traits and techs plays into crew resistance and boarding strength.
- Boarding Party | Expanded crew capacity, increased ship cost. Excellent at boarding. Probably for Corvettes exclusively.
- Mechanised | (Tech locked) increased ship cost, similar to Standard but with robotic crew vs. that of any species.
Boarding might even be a tiny aura that gives a chance to gain control of a (1) ship depending on their resistance (total health, crew), vs. the traiditonal docking thing which wouldn't work well with how combat works. The tradeoff of boarding being how close they need to get to their targets to have any chance at succeeding.
It is not enough to win against your opponent. You must crush them, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their people as you conquer them with their own flagship.
Figured you guys might like a beauty shot of Cardassians invading the Sol System in our latest New Horizons release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=jVfii5FKFNc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=jVfii5FKFNc
Figured you guys might like a beauty shot of Cardassians invading the Sol System in our latest New Horizons release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=jVfii5FKFNc
Quick, do the Picard Manoeuvre
Lots of good ideas here. For boarding I was thinking of a marines module for extra crew health/morale against boarding and some kind of figher-sized drop pods for boarding actions with the risk of them getting shot down.
One game that did a good job with space boarding was Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, you could see your boarding party slowly fight through the various subsystems making their way to disable the shields or whatever.
LurkerPrime
Member
That video looks good... though huge fleets focusing on one tiny ship always looks funny to me, both there and in-game.
Whoops, forgot about modules. Would be a good use of them, I think.
For boarding, I was thinking more of using it purely to gain control of the ship... though sabotage is also a good option. Again, with how automated it battles are, I can't really picture a good way to make boarding look good either way, though.
And I haven't played Nexus, but if you want to see boarding sabotage with your own eyes, play FTL. You can use your crew as well as the ship itself to get rid of intruders... like, just vent the atmosphere, lock the doors, and wait for everything to take care of itself. Or cower in a corner as they destroy system by system, disabling your ship as they attack it both inside and out. FTL is a ruthless game.
Whoops, forgot about modules. Would be a good use of them, I think.
For boarding, I was thinking more of using it purely to gain control of the ship... though sabotage is also a good option. Again, with how automated it battles are, I can't really picture a good way to make boarding look good either way, though.
And I haven't played Nexus, but if you want to see boarding sabotage with your own eyes, play FTL. You can use your crew as well as the ship itself to get rid of intruders... like, just vent the atmosphere, lock the doors, and wait for everything to take care of itself. Or cower in a corner as they destroy system by system, disabling your ship as they attack it both inside and out. FTL is a ruthless game.
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
I still feel bad for having bought this but not really played it. But it seems like the more I wait, the more polished it's gonna get anyway. :>
D
Deleted member 231381
Unconfirmed Member
Honestly, waiting at least a year to buy any new Paradox game is more or less common sense at this point. Stellaris has a lot of potential, but sadly it goes mostly unused. It'll need a fair few content packs yet before I'd recommend it over the other Paradox titles or competitor sci-fi 4X titles.
Thing is, they've built a *really* strong base to build on. The stuff you can do with modding is crazy, they just need time to build some of this stuff out.
FTL is great, but not very useful here as any boarding stuff would need to be heavily abstracted.
Stellaris Dev Diary #42 - Heinlein patch (part 3)
I like the idea of less habitable planets, but I want space (i.e. stations, asteroids, etc.) to matter more. Right now I feel like the space around planets are just there to fill up the areas between habitable planets.
I like the idea of less habitable planets, but I want space (i.e. stations, asteroids, etc.) to matter more. Right now I feel like the space around planets are just there to fill up the areas between habitable planets.
One Foul Note
Member
All seems like solid choices, although it is tough to really see what the effect of all the federation changes will have on the political game until they are in. I do approve of the removal of colony type techs, they always felt like a strange bottleneck on your empires growth which I am glad won't be there anymore.
I'm just really hoping they fix up a bunch of things for modding in Heinlein. They've already confirmed to me that the set_name effect not working in country scope will be fixed (so we can rename United Earth etc. to "The Federation" when it gets formed), but there's a bunch of other UI issues to resolve.
For instance, we added a new accumulable resource (like Energy and Minerals) for Ketracel White recently. It *works* but we've got no way of adding it to the UI. Plus, we can set an initial cap value for the resource, but there's no effect available to increase that cap with events or buildings...
Similarly, I've asked a few times about whether the changes to weapon slots will mean modders have access to make new slots, but no response. At the moment we can only use the existing slots in different ways - e.g. we replaced L weapons into a T slot a while back, but we had to get rid of L sized beams...
Either way, these are some good changes!
For instance, we added a new accumulable resource (like Energy and Minerals) for Ketracel White recently. It *works* but we've got no way of adding it to the UI. Plus, we can set an initial cap value for the resource, but there's no effect available to increase that cap with events or buildings...
Similarly, I've asked a few times about whether the changes to weapon slots will mean modders have access to make new slots, but no response. At the moment we can only use the existing slots in different ways - e.g. we replaced L weapons into a T slot a while back, but we had to get rid of L sized beams...
Either way, these are some good changes!
LurkerPrime
Member
The habitability changes are very nice. Should make the galaxy much more interesting overall. Particularly with those diplo changes.
Screaming_Gremlin
My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
If nothing else I am really happy with the new options for sector management. Overall, I still think the entire system needs a revamp (or drastically improved AI), but at least those options can limit the damage the sector AI does to your resource management.
