Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

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Hot Dog Day #82: Jul 5, 2003; Soiled Meat

So is it easier to build tall in 2.0? I know that having a �life seeded� start is a thing now, which sounds interesting, and I�m sure play well with droids or the what have you. I�ve always found smaller �taller� civilizations more engaging than wide ones, for whatever reason, and up until this patch it has been a bit frustrating to get one off the ground.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 19:38

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:04

wiegieman: Apr 22, 2010; Royalty is a continuous cutting motion

Hot Dog Day #82 posted:

So is it easier to build tall in 2.0? I know that having a �life seeded� start is a thing now, which sounds interesting, and I�m sure play well with droids or the what have you. I�ve always found smaller �taller� civilizations more engaging than wide ones, for whatever reason, and up until this patch it has been a bit frustrating to get one off the ground.

There's really no building tall in the game. If you do, you'll eventually run into an aggressive empire that wants your nicely developed capital, and they'll have more mineral income and naval capacity. It might be possible with an evasion focused corvette swarm since that's really strong right now, especially since strike craft are so weak and there's no way to get enough guided hardpoints on the battlefield to overwhelm PD.

Actually, I really feel like the Guided hardpoint was a mistake. It should have been a Torpedo hardpoint, and missles/swarm missiles should have stayed standard weapons.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 19:44

Descar: Apr 19, 2010

Just stopped a fallen Empire with one simple trick

# ? Mar 4, 2018 19:49

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

I posted on the Paradox forums but I figured I'd repost here to see if anyone knows what the gently caress is going on.

I have a custom species that was submitted to me that won't show up in game no matter what I do.

-I copied their user_empire_designs text exactly and inserted it. Wouldn't show up in game.
-I created a new empire by hand that matched it exactly, and this one loads just fine in user_empire_designs.
--When I copy and paste the entry from user_empire_designs to prescripted_countries exactly, it doesn't show up in game.
---The copy in user_empire_designs does show up if I leave it there, even though the one in prescripted_countries doesn't.

There are 57 other custom empires in this mod and they all work fine. The only text differences between the files are the ship prefixes; "ELF" as compared to "ISS". I've tried it with both ship prefixes and it still doesn't show up.

Here are the relevant entries:

user_empire_designs.txt

code:

"Lords and Ladies"
={
    key="Lords and Ladies"
    ship_prefix="ELF"
    species={
        class="HUM"
        portrait="humanoid_05"
        name="Gentry"
        plural="Gentry"
        adjective="Gentry"
        species_bio="Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad."
        name_list="HUMAN2"
        trait="trait_charismatic"
        trait="trait_talented"
        trait="trait_adaptive"
        trait="trait_decadent"
        trait="trait_wasteful"
    }
    name="Lords and Ladies"
    adjective="Wicked"
    authority="auth_dictatorial"
    government="gov_bandit_kingdom"
    planet_name="Fairyland"
    planet_class="pc_arctic"
    system_name="Dim"
    initializer=""
    graphical_culture="humanoid_01"
    city_graphical_culture="mammalian_01"
    empire_flag={
        icon={
            category="ornate"
            file="flag_ornate_12.dds"
        }
        background={
            category="backgrounds"
            file="vertical.dds"
        }
        colors={
            "burgundy"
            "burgundy"
            "null"
            "null"
        }
    }
    ruler={
        gender=female
        name="Luciana Aguera"
        portrait="humanoid_05_female_01"
        texture=0
        hair=9
        clothes=0
        ruler_title_female="Queen"
    }
    spawn_as_fallen=no
    ignore_portrait_duplication=no
    room="personality_fanatic_befrienders_room"
    spawn_enabled=yes
    ethic="ethic_authoritarian"
    ethic="ethic_militarist"
    ethic="ethic_materialist"
    civics={
        "civic_barbaric_despoilers"
        "civic_slaver_guilds"
    }
}

prescripted_countries mod file:

code:

"Lords and Ladies"
={
    key="Lords and Ladies"
    ship_prefix="ISS"
    species={
        class="HUM"
        portrait="humanoid_05"
        name="Gentry"
        plural="Gentry"
        adjective="Gentry"
        species_bio="Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad."
        name_list="HUMAN2"
        trait="trait_charismatic"
        trait="trait_talented"
        trait="trait_adaptive"
        trait="trait_decadent"
        trait="trait_wasteful"
    }
    name="Lords and Ladies"
    adjective="Wicked"
    authority="auth_dictatorial"
    government="gov_bandit_kingdom"
    planet_name="Fairyland"
    planet_class="pc_arctic"
    system_name="Dim"
    initializer=""
    graphical_culture="humanoid_01"
    city_graphical_culture="mammalian_01"
    empire_flag={
        icon={
            category="ornate"
            file="flag_ornate_12.dds"
        }
        background={
            category="backgrounds"
            file="vertical.dds"
        }
        colors={
            "burgundy"
            "burgundy"
            "null"
            "null"
        }
    }
    ruler={
        gender=female
        name="Luciana Aguera"
        portrait="humanoid_05_female_01"
        texture=0
        hair=9
        clothes=0
        ruler_title_female="Queen"
    }
    spawn_as_fallen=no
    ignore_portrait_duplication=no
    room="personality_fanatic_befrienders_room"
    spawn_enabled=yes
    ethic="ethic_authoritarian"
    ethic="ethic_militarist"
    ethic="ethic_materialist"
    civics={
        "civic_barbaric_despoilers"
        "civic_slaver_guilds"
    }
}

# ? Mar 4, 2018 19:55

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

I don't have an answer, but considering how UFO abduction stories are the modern version of fair folk abduction stories, that's a cool idea for a custom empire.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:01

Pylons: Mar 16, 2009

Hot Dog Day #82 posted:

So is it easier to build tall in 2.0? I know that having a �life seeded� start is a thing now, which sounds interesting, and I�m sure play well with droids or the what have you. I�ve always found smaller �taller� civilizations more engaging than wide ones, for whatever reason, and up until this patch it has been a bit frustrating to get one off the ground.

Absolutely. You still want to claim a good chunk of space, but once you have, you won't suffer the penalties to unity and technology as harshly as an empire that's claiming everything. You have a big advantage too, in that once you've claimed the space you want, influence can be spent purely on edicts.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:01

Bryter: Nov 6, 2011; but since we are small we may-
uh, we may be the losers

It's possible to effectively play defensively with the new hyperlane system, so in that sense it's much easier to play a small empire. But yeah, as was already pointed out even the most efficiently developed small empires don't remain tall for very long. Unless you go all in on habitats, which I think actually cost more than they used to.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:12

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

The spiritual awakening colossus weapon is kind of underwhelming, at least in practice. Good against machine/hivemind empires, maybe - any pop capable of having an ethic is made spiritualist, anyone incapable is destroyed. But against regular empires with regular pops, everyone on a planet becoming spiritual is a pretty minor malus.

I guess it's neat conceptually.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:18

Magil Zeal: Nov 24, 2008

By the way, in 2.0.2, Unity/tradition cost is still bugged to poo poo. Only now it's bugged in the opposite direction. Though the tooltip says 20% per planet and 1% per system, it's actually just applying 1% per system twice (so 2% per system). There is current no tradition cost increase for settling planets in the beta.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:23

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Question: What happens to an empire's systems if you take all of their planets?

Why yes, yes you are welcome. Please settle in and take as much time as you need to acclimate.

Descar posted:

Just stopped a fallen Empire with one simple trick

What am I looking at?

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Mar 4, 2018

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:42

Fellblade: Apr 28, 2009

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

What am I looking at?

A planet with a billion defensive armies and an FTL blocker.

I think fallen empires have colossus though so might not last for long.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 20:48

Nalesh: Jun 9, 2010; What did the grandma say to the frog?

Something racist, probably.

Anyone have a fun machine empire build for someone wanting to get into machine empires/hiveminds in general?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:06

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Taear posted:

The real solution is get rid of them altogether and have all combat in space.

Yup. Having to track an entirely separate fleet is a royal pain in the rear end.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:08

Tomn: Aug 23, 2007; And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Doublepost: what is the best way to get conquered pops to change Ethics to my own? Because of a powerful faction I have forced resettlement off so I cant just move 'em around like I did pre-2.02, where I would move one conquered pop to a planet full of my pops then wait and hope a pop of the new species would grow and appear with my ethics.

Focusing on governing ethics attraction is probably about the only real direct control you have over that, I think. You don't have a lot of options to crash-change ethics, really, but that being said over time they should drift to a new equilibrium based on the factors influencing ethics, and you can speed it up if you'd like by promoting or suppressing a given faction. If you don't already know this, in the faction screen you can mouse over the ethics icons up top to see what exactly is causing people to drift to any given ethic - that could give you some ideas.

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Question: What happens to an empire's systems if you take all of their planets?

They become unclaimed and the race is on to claim them before someone else does.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:08

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.; Buglord

Can Rogue Servitors pick up Nihilist Acquisition or whatever it was that lets you abduct pops? And if not, is there a mod that lets you send UFOs to other empires to steal pops?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:14

Mundrial Mantis: Aug 15, 2017

Improbable Lobster posted:

Can Rogue Servitors pick up Nihilist Acquisition or whatever it was that lets you abduct pops? And if not, is there a mod that lets you send UFOs to other empires to steal pops?

Yep, empires with Gestalt Consciousness can take it.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:17

Thyrork: Apr 21, 2010; "COME PLAY MECHS M'LANCER."

Or at least use Retrograde Mini's to make cool mechs and fantasy stuff.; Slippery Tilde

How do you flag a system as a no go zone? I'd really rather not have my reinforcements fly through marauder zone.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:20

Shadowlyger: Nov 5, 2009; ElvUI super fan at your service!

Ask me any and all questions about UI customization via PM

Thyrork posted:

How do you flag a system as a no go zone? I'd really rather not have my reinforcements fly through marauder zone.

Click on the system, at the bottom of the screen there's a thing that shows its name. On the left side of that should be a button, click it to designate the system as no-go.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:21

ConfusedUs: Feb 24, 2004; Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!

Thyrork posted:

How do you flag a system as a no go zone? I'd really rather not have my reinforcements fly through marauder zone.

Click on the system so you're in the system view. The system name appears at the bottom. To the left of the system name is a button to toggle the no-go state.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:21

Reveilled: Apr 19, 2007; Take up your rifles

Admiral Joeslop posted:

I posted on the Paradox forums but I figured I'd repost here to see if anyone knows what the gently caress is going on.

I have a custom species that was submitted to me that won't show up in game no matter what I do.

-I copied their user_empire_designs text exactly and inserted it. Wouldn't show up in game.
-I created a new empire by hand that matched it exactly, and this one loads just fine in user_empire_designs.
--When I copy and paste the entry from user_empire_designs to prescripted_countries exactly, it doesn't show up in game.
---The copy in user_empire_designs does show up if I leave it there, even though the one in prescripted_countries doesn't.

There are 57 other custom empires in this mod and they all work fine. The only text differences between the files are the ship prefixes; "ELF" as compared to "ISS". I've tried it with both ship prefixes and it still doesn't show up.

Here are the relevant entries:

I copied your prescripted countries entry into my own mod's country file and it worked just fine. Could it be there's an upper limit on the number of empires you can have in a single file?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:29

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Reveilled posted:

I copied your prescripted countries entry into my own mod's country file and it worked just fine. Could it be there's an upper limit on the number of empires you can have in a single file?

If there is, I haven't hit it. I added a couple other species after that and they load just find. Incidentally, I found the error log:

code:

[14:00:48][select_empire_design_view.cpp:595]: Hiding invalid prescripted empire design 'Lords and Ladies':
[14:00:48][select_empire_design_view.cpp:599]:     Traits:
    The combined value of your chosen traits exceed the available Trait Points.
    You have chosen too many traits for your species.
    Government & Ethics:
    Selected Ethos is too expensive.
    Government Civics too expensive.

Also, check your PMs.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:31

Descar: Apr 19, 2010

Fellblade posted:

A planet with a billion defensive armies and an FTL blocker.

I think fallen empires have colossus though so might not last for long.

Hahaha yup..

It's a 160k fallen empire fleet over the planet, when i only can field 16k ones.
But i have built up the garrison strenght to 5k, and they only have 1.8k assault armies.
And im building up addition armies as fast as they are bombing them to bits.

So basically a stalemate forever. I can't win, but they will never pass this system.

It's not an activated fallen empire, and i havn't seen a colossus yet. That would be a deal breaker :/

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:31

Conskill: May 7, 2007; I got an 'F' in Geometry.

Hot Dog Day #82 posted:

So is it easier to build tall in 2.0? I know that having a �life seeded� start is a thing now, which sounds interesting, and I�m sure play well with droids or the what have you. I�ve always found smaller �taller� civilizations more engaging than wide ones, for whatever reason, and up until this patch it has been a bit frustrating to get one off the ground.

Tall and wide as diametric opposites kind of fall apart in Stellaris. More specifically you're choosing for a Unity build or a Not Unity build, everything else is improved going wide.

The main problem with tallness is aside from Life Seeded (which is problematic except if you specifically tailor your galaxy to be tiny and barren), the megastructures that allow you to take internal development to 11 are ultra-late into the game and, well, wide empires can build them more efficiently anyway.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:35

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

Nalesh posted:

Anyone have a fun machine empire build for someone wanting to get into machine empires/hiveminds in general?

I was skeptical of gestalt empires in general until I played Rogue Servitors.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:43

Nalesh: Jun 9, 2010; What did the grandma say to the frog?

Something racist, probably.

GunnerJ posted:

I was skeptical of gestalt empires in general until I played Rogue Servitors.

What kinda traits would you pick?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:44

Nightgull: Jan 22, 2018; TOTALLY NOT A CONSERVATIVE
or a fucking nazi

Could've sworn I saw someone in here post a screenshot of a Crusader Kingdom government type that was something like Imperial / Warrior Culture / Nationalistic Zeal. But I can't get that name to appear. Was it a mod?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:45

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Nightgull posted:

Could've sworn I saw someone in here post a screenshot of a Crusader Kingdom government type that was something like Imperial / Warrior Culture / Nationalistic Zeal. But I can't get that name to appear. Was it a mod?

It was either a mod, or a grubbin from a previous patch. I added that species (Great Sylva Empire) to the modpack, and it wouldn't load. I recreated it by hand, and it was fine but would never come up as Crusader Kingdom.

Here is the post so maybe MShadowy could shed some light.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:49

TalonDemonKing: May 4, 2011

Is it just me or is there no real purpose to having more than 1 governor, 1 general, and 1 admiral? One governor takes care of all your core systems, 1 general for your attacking army, and 1 admiral for your 1 fleet (I never seem to any more capacity than my fleet size that wouldn't be a smidge of corvets or something useless.)

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:54

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Having governors with +Mineral% or +EC% for your sectors is generally a good idea, and unless you're playing like 0.5x hyperlane density how are you defending a late-game empire with one fleet?

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:56

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

Nalesh posted:

What kinda traits would you pick?

Nothing particularly optimal.

Didn't write out the fluff, but the idea is that these little hobbit looking guys went ahead and built fully automated luxury gay space communism and then the part of the automation responsible for defending them became self aware due to space paranoia.

I don't actually know why I chose the bio-trophy traits I did but they're really bad from a minmax perspective. Since your bio-trophies are for pumping unity, only Communal is any good (happiness affects their yield). You also need to move them around a lot and would probably like them to grow into empty tiles too so, bad calls there on Sedentary and Slow Breeders. Traditional is an obvious good pick here.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 21:56

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

Sanity check: In 2.0, a multi planet system still counts as a single colonized system, even if you settle all three planets, correct?

Got the In Limbo robots to settle on one of my planets in a system with 2 other planets, and I want to also settle another robot on the other side of the galaxy. Playing Ironman so I can't save and verify before hand.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:00

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

That game was actually kind of hilarious at one point and kinda shows off that 2.0 basically works pretty drat well. I had the UN on one side and some democratic crusaders on the other. Neither of them really liked me (Uncanny) but the DCs really hated me for "oppressing" my wards with unlimited pleasure dome cocaine and video games. I couldn't fight both, so the defense grid AI realized it needed a facelift to engage in diplomacy: robomodded Uncanny away and then got the UN to like me enough to not have to worry about them. Then built a bunch of defensive hell fortress starports at key chokepoints into DC space with a buffer of intentionally unkilled space monsters. When we eventually do go to war, the defensive line is so good that they sent fleets all the way around the galaxy and through UN space to hassle me. I had to get the UN off my back, but I couldn't exactly make them allies unfortunately.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:03

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

Nightgull posted:

Could've sworn I saw someone in here post a screenshot of a Crusader Kingdom government type that was something like Imperial / Warrior Culture / Nationalistic Zeal. But I can't get that name to appear. Was it a mod?

It's this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901988941

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:08

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

~~Despite having some ISSUES~~ I went ahead and updated Awful Apocalypse: Friends Like These with a bonkers FIFTEEN new empires. ~~Lords and Ladies currently will not load for reasons I cannot figure out so really its only 14 species but it's not like I'm charging you money here, c'mon.~~

As usual, if you have a custom species and want it thrown into a giant pack with no attribution, give me a screenshot and a pastebin of the info from your user_empire_designs.txt. If you're stuck on which Ethics to choose, consider a combo that hasn't been taken yet: Goon Species Ethics

The mod is fixed thanks to my idiocy and Reveilled's help. There was a duplicate listing within the text file that I didn't notice.

Admiral Joeslop fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Mar 4, 2018

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:08

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Had a horrible war with a fallen empire that had vast fleets of xenomorph assault troops and decided to land them on their planets. So every planet I was taking had like 2000 ground power. Bombing for years brought it down to about 1400 only, it was way too ineffective. The solution? Wave after wave of robot troops. Had to throw about 30 assault troops at the planets before their defenders were worn down enough for a final ground invasion.

Something needs a bit of balance here. We can't build defending troops but we can station vast invasion forces and it can make invasions nearly impossible.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:10

TGLT: Aug 14, 2009

Gyshall posted:

Sanity check: In 2.0, a multi planet system still counts as a single colonized system, even if you settle all three planets, correct?

Got the In Limbo robots to settle on one of my planets in a system with 2 other planets, and I want to also settle another robot on the other side of the galaxy. Playing Ironman so I can't save and verify before hand.

For core sector control yes, it only matters the number of inhabited systems you directly control regardless of how many inhabited planets or habitats are in that system. Sci/unity scaling is planetary, direct control is system...ary.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:13

Tomn: Aug 23, 2007; And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

TalonDemonKing posted:

Is it just me or is there no real purpose to having more than 1 governor, 1 general, and 1 admiral? One governor takes care of all your core systems, 1 general for your attacking army, and 1 admiral for your 1 fleet (I never seem to any more capacity than my fleet size that wouldn't be a smidge of corvets or something useless.)

The key is that you don't HAVE to build every fleet up to its full command limit - doing so is likely overkill and reduces flexibility since you only have the one roving hammer while your enemies stream past you with weaker fleets to gently caress up your rear areas.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:27

BurntCornMuffin: Jan 9, 2009

Hot Dog Day #82 posted:

So is it easier to build tall in 2.0? I know that having a �life seeded� start is a thing now, which sounds interesting, and I�m sure play well with droids or the what have you. I�ve always found smaller �taller� civilizations more engaging than wide ones, for whatever reason, and up until this patch it has been a bit frustrating to get one off the ground.

It is, yet it isn't. The game punishes you for expanding faster than you can effectively hold with pirates, so you really do want to stick with a slow, controlled, "tall" style expansion until you reach your goal. Once you do that, do whatever teching or building you want to do.

After that though, you'll want to expand explosively once your tech/econ hits a certain tipping point in order to stay competitive.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:29

The Deleter: May 22, 2010

So I'm working on a thing. It's essentially Rogue Servitors but as xenophiles and you can be the Collector dude from Marvel. Put Howard the Duck in a glass case and have your people stare at him. I have other ideas around this civic but I want it to essentially be a way to do something cool with being a Xenophile. Still some kinks to work out as I've only got a core concept and an icon in the game that does nothing.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:04

Fellblade: Apr 28, 2009

The Deleter posted:

So I'm working on a thing. It's essentially Rogue Servitors but as xenophiles and you can be the Collector dude from Marvel. Put Howard the Duck in a glass case and have your people stare at him. I have other ideas around this civic but I want it to essentially be a way to do something cool with being a Xenophile. Still some kinks to work out as I've only got a core concept and an icon in the game that does nothing.

This sounds totally great, basically you get to be the fallen empire that collects pops.

# ? Mar 4, 2018 22:37

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