Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; Can't post for 5 hours!

Is there any way to see what techs are included in a research treaty? I can never tell if I'm getting any benefit until I pick a tech to research then mouse over the speed to see if the +25% research treaty bonus is there. It would be nice if research-treaty bonus techs were marked or flagged in some way. I thought they used to have a different border colour or something.

# ? Mar 21, 2018 22:43

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# ? May 14, 2024 20:19

Hungry: Jul 14, 2006

I'm on year 2425 of my first game of Stellaris, and I feel like I'm missing something fundamental about the game.

I've barely had any wars with other empires, and expanded very wide (I was the only one with access to most of the galactic north, and I moved to block the others from expanding into it so I could fill it up). I finally had one of the two Fallen Empires awaken - with like 150k fleet power and completely steamroll me, which is what I expected since I've never played before. But when I went back and checked myself against the other AI empires, I was by far the most powerful, I'd choked them all off.

When I looked this up online I see people talking about having 100k+ fleet power by the 2400s, or having income of 1000 minerals/month, and I'm completely lost. I had almost no major speed bumps to my unlimited expansion but I was on 40k fleet power and about 200 minerals/month. Is this a min-maxing thing? Do I need to be doing something really weird and unintuitive with what I build on planets?

# ? Mar 22, 2018 00:06

Goatse James Bond: Mar 28, 2010; If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead

Xerophyte posted:

So, apparently your hired scientists have now learned now clone themselves.

Not sure the duplication is periodic or on renewing the research aid treaty. They don't seem to take up any new leader slots either. I had a 4th one out in a science vessel for a while.

Also, first game I bothered to take to a legit ironman win. Haven't really played since before Utopia, sure seems easier to hit domination now. Probably helped that I played Ensign or whatever the way-too-easy no bonuses difficulty was. Won in the 2360s, didn't even have time to get any of the formal crises. I did sort of manufacture my own in 2350 by having my fanatic materialist space penguins leave the shackles of the flesh behind and ascend to a pure and synthetic form ... while bordering a spiritualist fallen empire. The spiritualists did not appreciate my choices. I managed to barely eek out the tech to get the 33% FE damage ascension perk before they declared, which let my fleets wear theirs down. They neutron purged 6 of my worlds before I inflicted enough casualties for them to call it quits.

I was just rubbing my hands in glee at putting all their juicy tech and silly sacred gaia worlds to better uses when the game announced domination.

Other bugs observed:
- Going cybernetic when you've gene modded some of your pops for specific climates and the like doesn't work right. Everyone just reverts to the baseline type with cybernetic, so my sand penguins suddenly got a hankering for the arctic. For now you should either toy with genetic improvements or the embrace the immortal purity of the machine, I guess.
- This might have been me fudging the controls, but I got jump drive in the Big FE War and figured I'd use it to jump an aid fleet from my core shipyards to the front. I didn't realize there was a little tiny circle for the range, so I tried jumping to the distant front, which somehow got two of my other fleets lost in space for a few months instead.
- The ensign AIs had a lot of trouble dealing with their own pirates. A few empires seemingly got their entire navies wrecked, repeatedly, and never recovered.

I'd have kept playing mechano-space-penguins at least long enough to gloat over the corpse of the silly theists.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 00:20

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

Hungry posted:

I'm on year 2425 of my first game of Stellaris, and I feel like I'm missing something fundamental about the game.

I've barely had any wars with other empires, and expanded very wide (I was the only one with access to most of the galactic north, and I moved to block the others from expanding into it so I could fill it up). I finally had one of the two Fallen Empires awaken - with like 150k fleet power and completely steamroll me, which is what I expected since I've never played before. But when I went back and checked myself against the other AI empires, I was by far the most powerful, I'd choked them all off.

When I looked this up online I see people talking about having 100k+ fleet power by the 2400s, or having income of 1000 minerals/month, and I'm completely lost. I had almost no major speed bumps to my unlimited expansion but I was on 40k fleet power and about 200 minerals/month. Is this a min-maxing thing? Do I need to be doing something really weird and unintuitive with what I build on planets?

There are a lot of ways you can go about improving your outputs. Racial traits, empire edicts, multiple species, genemodding, traditions/perks, how you're building planets. A combination of stuff can get you to +100% mineral tile production without anything too crazy, and having a couple planets worth of tiles pumping out minerals can add up quickly. Fleet power is a combo of naval cap, designs, and empire modifiers, it is possible that you're not dropping some anchorage star bases and/or have lower power designs.

You might have also just had a slow early game compared to others, where more experienced expansions and tech choices let them grow a lot faster (like your 2400 is where they were at 2300 or some such). Economy in games like this is always snowbally, where a slightly stronger early game can end up with a much stronger late game.

What tradition tree did you start with, what were your first like 2-3 ascension perks, and what was your race setup?

# ? Mar 22, 2018 00:41

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

Ask me any and all questions about UI customization via PM

Why are War Doctrines something you get from finishing an ascension tree?

I always forget about the drat thing until the next fleet battle I'm in, where I go "why are all of my ships blowing up instead of disengaging" before abruptly remembering and seeing oh, the stupid thing has defaulted to No Retreat.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 00:44

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Hungry posted:

I'm on year 2425 of my first game of Stellaris, and I feel like I'm missing something fundamental about the game.

I've barely had any wars with other empires, and expanded very wide (I was the only one with access to most of the galactic north, and I moved to block the others from expanding into it so I could fill it up). I finally had one of the two Fallen Empires awaken - with like 150k fleet power and completely steamroll me, which is what I expected since I've never played before. But when I went back and checked myself against the other AI empires, I was by far the most powerful, I'd choked them all off.

When I looked this up online I see people talking about having 100k+ fleet power by the 2400s, or having income of 1000 minerals/month, and I'm completely lost. I had almost no major speed bumps to my unlimited expansion but I was on 40k fleet power and about 200 minerals/month. Is this a min-maxing thing? Do I need to be doing something really weird and unintuitive with what I build on planets?

how much did you colonize? the amount of space that you claim is key in the early game, but later on planets are the main source of your production. people who consistently have extremely powerful economies by 2400 are leveraging all of the available advantages to do so; fairly frequent wars and habitat-building tend to be key, as well as getting your ascension path ASAP. your species starting traits are usually an important source of a boost to either minerals, energy, or research, and additional species that you conquer/uplift/enlighten/accept as refugees also often come with specialized production traits. genemodding can help you with this too, of course.

also, one thing that is actually unintuitive is that unclaimed space can be more expensive to claim than another empire's space; 67 influence for a starbase is a lot more than you'll pay for a claim on a rival's border system. it's best to set up your galaxy at the start to have maximum AIs and fallen empires so that there are no huge swathes of space for you to trap off, because doing so is an irresistible temptation that is ultimately boring and sub-par.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 01:40

Soonmot: Dec 19, 2002; Entrapta fucking loves robots; Grimey Drawer

Huh, sectors don't own their space stations, or is that a bug. I'm a devouring swarm and just ate a couple planets that put me over my planet and starbase cap, so I sectored it out aaaaaand... still over the starbase cap! Do I have to wait until the war is over, even though I gain ownership of those systems automatically?

# ? Mar 22, 2018 01:45

Xerophyte: Mar 17, 2008; This space intentionally left blank

Soonmot posted:

Huh, sectors don't own their space stations, or is that a bug. I'm a devouring swarm and just ate a couple planets that put me over my planet and starbase cap, so I sectored it out aaaaaand... still over the starbase cap! Do I have to wait until the war is over, even though I gain ownership of those systems automatically?

No, sectors don't own star bases. By design: the cap is closer to 50 stations late game, to compare with maybe 4-6 core systems. You either have to eat the penalty for going over the limit or downgrade some upgraded bases that are superfluous to requirements back down to outposts.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 01:49

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

Soonmot posted:

Huh, sectors don't own their space stations, or is that a bug. I'm a devouring swarm and just ate a couple planets that put me over my planet and starbase cap, so I sectored it out aaaaaand... still over the starbase cap! Do I have to wait until the war is over, even though I gain ownership of those systems automatically?

Devouring Swarm wars should give you instant control of the systems, so you're free to downgrade the starbases at your leisure. (you may need to wait for them to repair enough to become active after blowing them up for control, I dunno)

E: And yeah, like ^^^ says, that's by design. Strategic choices!

Arrath fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Mar 22, 2018

# ? Mar 22, 2018 01:50

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

Also devouring swarms have nothing to spend energy on (can't trade, empire edicts are food based), when I play one I'm constantly energy capping so taking a hit for a while when absorbing new territory has never been a big deal.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 01:56

Caf: May 21, 2004; I'm King James! The Lion King!

Is there any way to look up past battle reports after they disappear?

I just lost a fight where I outnumbered the enemy fleet like 2:1 (including the same mix of ship sizes) and had a tech advantage. Apparently my destroyers and cruisers did no damage at all, literally zero points. How does that happen?

# ? Mar 22, 2018 02:40

AtomikKrab: Jul 17, 2010; Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

I am trying to figure out how to murder corvette spam without using corvettes.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 04:08

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

AtomikKrab posted:

I am trying to figure out how to murder corvette spam without using corvettes.

Use corvettes.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 04:35

AtomikKrab: Jul 17, 2010; Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

Nuclearmonkee posted:

Use corvettes.

Yes Yes, but surely there must be something else that murders corvettes adequately as well.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 04:45

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

AtomikKrab posted:

Yes Yes, but surely there must be something else that murders corvettes adequately as well.

Better corvettes.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 05:06

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

You'll want small mounts and high acc/tracking weapons. The chance to hit is basically [self.accuracy]-[enemy.evasion - self.tracking], with the second part not being able to go below 0 (so if you have more tracking than enemy's evasion you don't get any bonus).

So look at the enemy corvettes, see what their evasion is, aim to get enough tracking to counter that if possible. You get some from weapon, some from sensors, picket computer. Small weapons have way better tracking (lasers are [50][30][5] for small/med/large).

If you have auxiliary fire control tech you can slap +5 accuracy into your Aux slots.

Small lasers on cruisers can hit 80% accuracy against 90% evasion corvettes, and medium lasers 60% with tier 2 tech.
Autocannons (small slot only) are even better against high evasion targets (75 base tracking, 5 from level 2 sensors, 10 from picket computer = 90, negative all evasion), and with aux fire control you'd be sitting at 95% accuracy.
Disrupters are good as well, with 10% better accuracy and tracking over lasers at small size, and 10% accuracy and 5% tracking at medium size.
Missiles are at 100 acc and 25 tracking, so 60% with my tier 2 tech + fire control, equal to medium lasers.

If you have to use large slots, cloud lightning is the best by far (100 acc, 30 track compared to 90/5 for the next best), though maybe if you math out the later tier techs they'd be better even after the accuracy penalty (not sure where the inflection point is, but needs to make up for 35% less accuracy).

Theoretically strike craft should work well (100 acc, 60-70 tracking, ignore shields, tends to also have small gun mounts on hanger sections), but I haven't messed with them and others have reported them sucking.

I can't find anything for if there is a max accuracy or not.

When you look at slot conversions, you get the same number of weapons no matter if you do corvettes, destroyers, or cruisers. Cruisers get you a second aux slot, which gets you another +5 hit. Going up on sizes gets you more hull per command point, and from corvette->cruiser you get twice as many armor/shield slots at medium size instead of small. So I think cruisers with missile slots (6 small mounts, 3 missile mounts) and double aux fire control would be your best bet.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 05:21

Captain Oblivious: Oct 12, 2007; I'm not like other posters

AtomikKrab posted:

I am trying to figure out how to murder corvette spam without using corvettes.

Cruisers fitted for maximizing small mount quantity, fitted with autocannons or disruptors and aux fire control will eat many times their weight in corvettes.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 05:26

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

AtomikKrab posted:

Yes Yes, but surely there must be something else that murders corvettes adequately as well.

They may not be totally effective, but cruisers bristling with autocannons and some targeting computers sure look cool.

E: oh, beaten.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 05:30

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

TipsyMcStagger posted:

What are you using in the utility slots

I like to go 1 Shield, 1 Armor, 1 Hull plating. Someone was just posting about how having more Hull means more opportunity to jump out. If I don't have any Hull stuff I slap a second armor on there.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 05:31

AtomikKrab: Jul 17, 2010; Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

ZypherIM posted:

You'll want small mounts and high acc/tracking weapons. The chance to hit is basically [self.accuracy]-[enemy.evasion - self.tracking], with the second part not being able to go below 0 (so if you have more tracking than enemy's evasion you don't get any bonus).

So look at the enemy corvettes, see what their evasion is, aim to get enough tracking to counter that if possible. You get some from weapon, some from sensors, picket computer. Small weapons have way better tracking (lasers are [50][30][5] for small/med/large).

If you have auxiliary fire control tech you can slap +5 accuracy into your Aux slots.

Small lasers on cruisers can hit 80% accuracy against 90% evasion corvettes, and medium lasers 60% with tier 2 tech.
Autocannons (small slot only) are even better against high evasion targets (75 base tracking, 5 from level 2 sensors, 10 from picket computer = 90, negative all evasion), and with aux fire control you'd be sitting at 95% accuracy.
Disrupters are good as well, with 10% better accuracy and tracking over lasers at small size, and 10% accuracy and 5% tracking at medium size.
Missiles are at 100 acc and 25 tracking, so 60% with my tier 2 tech + fire control, equal to medium lasers.

If you have to use large slots, cloud lightning is the best by far (100 acc, 30 track compared to 90/5 for the next best), though maybe if you math out the later tier techs they'd be better even after the accuracy penalty (not sure where the inflection point is, but needs to make up for 35% less accuracy).

Theoretically strike craft should work well (100 acc, 60-70 tracking, ignore shields, tends to also have small gun mounts on hanger sections), but I haven't messed with them and others have reported them sucking.

I can't find anything for if there is a max accuracy or not.

When you look at slot conversions, you get the same number of weapons no matter if you do corvettes, destroyers, or cruisers. Cruisers get you a second aux slot, which gets you another +5 hit. Going up on sizes gets you more hull per command point, and from corvette->cruiser you get twice as many armor/shield slots at medium size instead of small. So I think cruisers with missile slots (6 small mounts, 3 missile mounts) and double aux fire control would be your best bet.

I was actually thinking that + using swarm missiles as they have the fastest firing rate of the missiles. Was also thinking of L slot destroyers early as I found that void clouds tended to eat corvettes pretty well.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 06:53

ZypherIM: Nov 8, 2010; "I want to see what she's in love with."

Destroyers don't really have an advantage over corvettes to be honest. You have the same number of slots, and while cloud lightning is good compared to level 1 tech, later techs kind of blow it out of the water. The advantage cruisers get is going from 1 aux slot to 2, and having better armor slots. Going for destroyers over corvettes halves your base evasion rate, so chances are their tracking is completely countering your destroyer's evasion, so the corvette ends up having better effective hp.

Cloud lightning is a bit of an odd-ball, because it has good accuracy and tracking and ignores shields/armor, but the actual damage is a bit low. Stacking it up on destroyers isn't terrible, especially when fleet sizes get larger so you alpha strike a respectable number of enemy ships. Again the issue is you want to go cruiser+ so you get that second aux slot. In terms of anti-corvette slots, a cruise trades a medium for 2 small slots compared to 2 destroyers (better against 'vettes), and if you go battleship you can turn ALL your slots into large slots for even more cloud lightning (instead of medium slots).

Swarm missiles have better tracking than normal missiles and fire faster, but I think they're a bit lower damage over time. However, with low amounts of HP on corvettes they are probably a better option than normal missiles, though high end tech stuff I'm not sure if the level 2 swarm missiles are better than top level normal missiles.

Cruiser with picket computer, 2x +hit aux slot, autocannons and swarm missiles is probably your best bet against pure corvette swarm. If they're missile corvettes maybe some mix of max-PD destroyers (they get the most PD per fleet cap of any hull size).

# ? Mar 22, 2018 09:00

Aethernet: Jan 28, 2009; This is the Captain...

Our glorious political masters have, in their wisdom, decided to form an alliance with a rag-tag bunch of freedom fighters right when the Federation has us at a tactical disadvantage. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in the Feds firing on our vessels...

Damn you Huxley!; Grimey Drawer

Has anyone tried the new scaling difficulty yet? Going to start a new game and wondering whether to go for that or a higher setting.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 09:22

Staltran: Jan 3, 2013; Fallen Rib

Isn�t it still bugged so it gives the AIs full bonuses at the start of the game, and the bonuses fall off over time? I.e. the exact opposite of what it�s supposed to do.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 11:32

Psychotic Weasel: Jun 24, 2004; Bang! You're dead.

Some new fixes coming down the line for the 2.0.2 beta patch - most notably a change that will help the AI avoid the starvation death spiral by altering how food is produced.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-109-2-0-post-release-support-part-2.1082789/

We'll see if it has any impact. And if the changes are save compatible because I am getting tired of constantly starting new games.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 13:36

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

Psychotic Weasel posted:

Some new fixes coming down the line for the 2.0.2 beta patch - most notably a change that will help the AI avoid the starvation death spiral by altering how food is produced.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-109-2-0-post-release-support-part-2.1082789/

We'll see if it has any impact. And if the changes are save compatible because I am getting tired of constantly starting new games.

God I hope that they are save compatible I have a great game going right now. Thanks for posting that.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:02

Gadzuko: Feb 14, 2005

Psychotic Weasel posted:

Some new fixes coming down the line for the 2.0.2 beta patch - most notably a change that will help the AI avoid the starvation death spiral by altering how food is produced.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-109-2-0-post-release-support-part-2.1082789/

We'll see if it has any impact. And if the changes are save compatible because I am getting tired of constantly starting new games.

Wow, being able to trade food for minerals at enclaves is going to be a big change. That makes the adaptability tree even stronger than it already was. Plus separate rights for subspecies!

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:14

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

Great changes.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:43

Guildencrantz: May 1, 2012; IM ONE OF THE GOOD ONES

Does anyone else have non-awakened FE's inexplicably turning expansionist? Specifically against genocidal empires. I had one completely annex both a devouring swarm and some determined exterminators. Both were big, successful empires, so now the FE occupies like a quarter of the galaxy and they haven't even woken up yet. I mean, I appreciate having a real end boss, but this doesn't seem like intended behavior.

(Could be caused by a mod, maybe Glavius or Enhanced AI?)

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:44

ulmont: Sep 15, 2010; IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Guildencrantz posted:

Does anyone else have non-awakened FE's inexplicably turning expansionist? Specifically against genocidal empires.

Side effect of the total war effects for those guys. FE declared their usual war, empire ultimately hit the surrender button. Paradox said WAD but I suspect it's just low on the priority list.

EDIT: found the bug report thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-fallen-empire-conquering-systems.1079398/

ulmont fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Mar 22, 2018

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:47

AG3: Feb 4, 2004; Ask me about spending hundreds of dollars on Mass Effect 2 emoticons and Avatars.; Oven Wrangler

Guildencrantz posted:

Does anyone else have non-awakened FE's inexplicably turning expansionist? Specifically against genocidal empires. I had one completely annex both a devouring swarm and some determined exterminators. Both were big, successful empires, so now the FE occupies like a quarter of the galaxy and they haven't even woken up yet. I mean, I appreciate having a real end boss, but this doesn't seem like intended behavior.

(Could be caused by a mod, maybe Glavius or Enhanced AI?)

I've something similar happen if they start fighting the Khan's marauders. They keep the system if it has colonies, otherwise they just blow up the starbase. At least that's what the fallen machine empire in my game did. That wasn't annexation though, just keeping territory with colonies.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:47

Captain Oblivious: Oct 12, 2007; I'm not like other posters

Guildencrantz posted:

Does anyone else have non-awakened FE's inexplicably turning expansionist? Specifically against genocidal empires. I had one completely annex both a devouring swarm and some determined exterminators. Both were big, successful empires, so now the FE occupies like a quarter of the galaxy and they haven't even woken up yet. I mean, I appreciate having a real end boss, but this doesn't seem like intended behavior.

(Could be caused by a mod, maybe Glavius or Enhanced AI?)

Usually what causes this is that the devourer/purifier got too big for their britches and used their total war CB on the FE, which then meant that the FE auto annexed all their poo poo when they proceeded to beat said devourer like a red headed step glorboth.

Swing at the king you best not miss.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 14:53

The Chad Jihad: Feb 24, 2007

Honestly I didn't mind that ais could become failed states, but it was happening way too often

# ? Mar 22, 2018 15:01

Kly: Aug 8, 2003

how do you change message settings in this game? i want the game to auto pause when I get notification of an anomaly being found or finding enemy fleets like you can in ck2 and eu4

# ? Mar 22, 2018 15:15

Guildencrantz: May 1, 2012; IM ONE OF THE GOOD ONES

Captain Oblivious posted:

Usually what causes this is that the devourer/purifier got too big for their britches and used their total war CB on the FE, which then meant that the FE auto annexed all their poo poo when they proceeded to beat said devourer like a red headed step glorboth.

Swing at the king you best not miss.

No, it was definitely the FE declaring on them.

The answer that they pissed them off and got a regular war seems likely, but it was a materialist FE, I'm pretty sure those never declare punishment wars. Maybe it is one of the mods loving with AI behavior that forgot to add an exception for FE's.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 15:17

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

I put a new level 1 governor in charge of my core sector and within a week or two they had gained a level and become a substance abuser.

Come on, it can't be that bad.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:02

TipsyMcStagger: Apr 13, 2013; This isn't where
I parked my car...

What tree do you guys usually go with first?

ZypherIM posted:

You'll want small mounts and high acc/tracking weapons. The chance to hit is basically [self.accuracy]-[enemy.evasion - self.tracking], with the second part not being able to go below 0 (so if you have more tracking than enemy's evasion you don't get any bonus).

So look at the enemy corvettes, see what their evasion is, aim to get enough tracking to counter that if possible. You get some from weapon, some from sensors, picket computer. Small weapons have way better tracking (lasers are [50][30][5] for small/med/large).

If you have auxiliary fire control tech you can slap +5 accuracy into your Aux slots.

Small lasers on cruisers can hit 80% accuracy against 90% evasion corvettes, and medium lasers 60% with tier 2 tech.
Autocannons (small slot only) are even better against high evasion targets (75 base tracking, 5 from level 2 sensors, 10 from picket computer = 90, negative all evasion), and with aux fire control you'd be sitting at 95% accuracy.
Disrupters are good as well, with 10% better accuracy and tracking over lasers at small size, and 10% accuracy and 5% tracking at medium size.
Missiles are at 100 acc and 25 tracking, so 60% with my tier 2 tech + fire control, equal to medium lasers.

If you have to use large slots, cloud lightning is the best by far (100 acc, 30 track compared to 90/5 for the next best), though maybe if you math out the later tier techs they'd be better even after the accuracy penalty (not sure where the inflection point is, but needs to make up for 35% less accuracy).

Theoretically strike craft should work well (100 acc, 60-70 tracking, ignore shields, tends to also have small gun mounts on hanger sections), but I haven't messed with them and others have reported them sucking.

I can't find anything for if there is a max accuracy or not.

When you look at slot conversions, you get the same number of weapons no matter if you do corvettes, destroyers, or cruisers. Cruisers get you a second aux slot, which gets you another +5 hit. Going up on sizes gets you more hull per command point, and from corvette->cruiser you get twice as many armor/shield slots at medium size instead of small. So I think cruisers with missile slots (6 small mounts, 3 missile mounts) and double aux fire control would be your best bet.

ZypherIM posted:

Destroyers don't really have an advantage over corvettes to be honest. You have the same number of slots, and while cloud lightning is good compared to level 1 tech, later techs kind of blow it out of the water. The advantage cruisers get is going from 1 aux slot to 2, and having better armor slots. Going for destroyers over corvettes halves your base evasion rate, so chances are their tracking is completely countering your destroyer's evasion, so the corvette ends up having better effective hp.

Cloud lightning is a bit of an odd-ball, because it has good accuracy and tracking and ignores shields/armor, but the actual damage is a bit low. Stacking it up on destroyers isn't terrible, especially when fleet sizes get larger so you alpha strike a respectable number of enemy ships. Again the issue is you want to go cruiser+ so you get that second aux slot. In terms of anti-corvette slots, a cruise trades a medium for 2 small slots compared to 2 destroyers (better against 'vettes), and if you go battleship you can turn ALL your slots into large slots for even more cloud lightning (instead of medium slots).

Swarm missiles have better tracking than normal missiles and fire faster, but I think they're a bit lower damage over time. However, with low amounts of HP on corvettes they are probably a better option than normal missiles, though high end tech stuff I'm not sure if the level 2 swarm missiles are better than top level normal missiles.

Cruiser with picket computer, 2x +hit aux slot, autocannons and swarm missiles is probably your best bet against pure corvette swarm. If they're missile corvettes maybe some mix of max-PD destroyers (they get the most PD per fleet cap of any hull size).

These were good posts. Currently I'm using a missile doctrine on my fleets where I use corvettes and cruisers (It's still early, no battleships yet) and have them both fitted with anti-matter missiles and small lasers.

It's been crazy effective in my game but i don't play online so that's probably why.

TipsyMcStagger fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Mar 22, 2018

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:12

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; Can't post for 5 hours!

TipsyMcStagger posted:

What tree do you guys usually go with first?

I like to open with paradise domes because if I see a single pop in my empire ever not at 100% happiness I get a twitch and very upset.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:17

ulmont: Sep 15, 2010; IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Guildencrantz posted:

No, it was definitely the FE declaring on them.

The answer that they pissed them off and got a regular war seems likely, but it was a materialist FE, I'm pretty sure those never declare punishment wars. Maybe it is one of the mods loving with AI behavior that forgot to add an exception for FE's.

It happens in vanilla. It's a side effect of the exterminator/devourer/purifier total war mechanics.

Tremnei @ Paradox posted:

Hi it's actually not a bug this is what the Total War war option is meant to do,
even in this situation.

It sure as hell looks like a bug though so I expect it will be changed eventually.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:23

Nicodemus Dumps: Jan 9, 2006; Just chillin' in the sink

I don't think I ever don't start with discovery, even when I'm not playing a tech-oriented empire. The increased anomaly discovery chance as you scan the systems that will make up your early territory is excellent very early and almost worthless later on.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:23

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# ? May 14, 2024 20:19

Dallan Invictus: Oct 11, 2007; 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.

Yeah, even though Planetary Survey Corps is gone the fact that anomaly chance is really only useful at the start means that Discovery is basically the perfect opening tree unless you're trying some sort of rush strategy.

# ? Mar 22, 2018 16:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

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