Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Sedisp
Jun 20, 2012


I really like the game and I thought the thread title was really funny.

I think everyone would like the game better if they were like me and kind of bad at the game so the ai seems better. Also roleplay any and all empires and decisions at all times.

Its also possible that my brain is broke.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Flakey
Apr 30, 2009

There's no need to speak. You must only concentrate and recall all your past life. When a man thinks of the past, he becomes kinder.
Hey thread, many years ago a screenshot of a bug was posted here, which I haven't been able to find since. It was a shot of a leader standing in the leader room, but the layers were messed up so it looked like it was peeking in through the window. If anyone could help me find it that'd be much appreciated!

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Flakey posted:

Hey thread, many years ago a screenshot of a bug was posted here, which I haven't been able to find since. It was a shot of a leader standing in the leader room, but the layers were messed up so it looked like it was peeking in through the window. If anyone could help me find it that'd be much appreciated!

I can retain the phrase "Shy Molluscoid" but not... uh... man I can't even remember what I'm forgetting anymore

Flakey
Apr 30, 2009

There's no need to speak. You must only concentrate and recall all your past life. When a man thinks of the past, he becomes kinder.
Thanks a lot, you are the best.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸
Ding

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

PittTheElder posted:

Is it just me, or at 180 Influence, is Map the Stars not worth it at all?

e: oh god that was with a 20% discount

Just think of it as the game encouraging you to spend some early alloys on fleet strength.


So when your first neighbor is a hyper aggressive jerk who kicks off a pre-contact war asap and has 20+ corvettes on the way you might have a chance.

Serephina
Nov 8, 2005

恐竜戦隊
ジュウレンジャー

ZypherIM posted:

So when your first neighbor is a hyper aggressive jerk who kicks off a pre-contact war asap and has 20+ corvettes on the way you might have a chance.

Let's be honest; there's zero chance of holding off a proper rush if your neighbor finds you first. I was playing a game with barbarian despoilers and was musing over its use cases vs NilAq since they're basically identical, and what I came up with was "what if someone wants you dead, long long before a single tradition tree can fill out? Scary stuff; in RTS terms the home ground advantage is minuscule and you're basically toast if someone has your fleet power + 400.

wilderthanmild
Jun 21, 2010

Posting shit



Grimey Drawer
So I destroyed the marauders in my current game. I got a rare technology afterwards. I save scummed out of curiosity to see if tech is preset at that point. I didn't attack the marauders, since I was just concerned with the tech thing I was testing. Well apparently the great Khan was about to show up, so good thing I decided to attack them I guess.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Mods are still being updated for me so I'm not sure when I can actually embrace the Dick. I do wish steam would say which mod was updated rather than just "workshop content".

Sedisp posted:

I think everyone would like the game better if they were like me and kind of bad at the game so the ai seems better. Also roleplay any and all empires and decisions at all times.

Its also possible that my brain is broke.
Same.

Also same.

HopperUK
Apr 29, 2007

Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?

Sedisp posted:

I really like the game and I thought the thread title was really funny.

I think everyone would like the game better if they were like me and kind of bad at the game so the ai seems better. Also roleplay any and all empires and decisions at all times.

Its also possible that my brain is broke.

I hope I never find out what I'm doing so I can keep enjoying the game the stupid amount I am at the moment.

Jabarto
Apr 7, 2007

I could do with your...assistance.
This "roleplay vs. roll-play" crap is getting really old. I roleplay all of my custom civilizations AND try my best to devise good strategies (even against the AI) because nothing about either of those goals contradicts the other. Deliberately handicapping yourself is not roleplaying and roleplaying is not diminished by wanting improvements to the game mechanics.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Hmm. I mean, the 'Best' thing is full Meritocracy/Technocracy. Supposedly Spiritualist is terrible and worthless. I still play Spiritualist. There's no shame in playing full science either. Or somewhere inbetween.

No one especially wants to be crushed underfoot, but you also want to have something to deal with. But then you look at Pacifist, which is a real problem.

Flakey
Apr 30, 2009

There's no need to speak. You must only concentrate and recall all your past life. When a man thinks of the past, he becomes kinder.

Poil posted:

Mods are still being updated for me so I'm not sure when I can actually embrace the Dick. I do wish steam would say which mod was updated rather than just "workshop content".

You can sort your subscribed mods by "date last updated" in the Workshop.

Horace Kinch
Aug 15, 2007

Bloodly posted:

Hmm. I mean, the 'Best' thing is full Meritocracy/Technocracy. Supposedly Spiritualist is terrible and worthless. I still play Spiritualist. There's no shame in playing full science either. Or somewhere inbetween.

No one especially wants to be crushed underfoot, but you also want to have something to deal with. But then you look at Pacifist, which is a real problem.

I really don't understand the spiritualist hate. Going Psionic being a given, Ccomplain about the shroud, whatever, but making your pops literally better at everything and being able to tear through the ascension trees faster than most is pretty far from useless imo.

Tarnop
Nov 25, 2013

Pull me out

I'm a couple pages late for random AI empire chat, but I was wondering: can you force pre-defined empires to spawn instead of randoms? Either the ones that ship with the game or a set I build for myself? If I could have the same guys show up a few games in a row so I could remember my former allies or enemies that would help give the AI a bit more personality even if it's just what I project onto them

SoggyBobcat
Oct 2, 2013

You can force spawn player-created empires, but not the presets, strangely enough. Though you can just create copies of the presets if you want them - click the edit button, and then immediately save.

PittTheElder
Feb 13, 2012

:geno: Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

Has anybody else noticed a huge increase in the number of Criminal Syndicates running around the galaxy? Despite not having any in my custom empire list, I've had at least three in both the post patch games I've played.

Tarnop
Nov 25, 2013

Pull me out

SoggyBobcat posted:

You can force spawn player-created empires, but not the presets, strangely enough. Though you can just create copies of the presets if you want them - click the edit button, and then immediately save.

Awesome, I'll give that a try. Thank you!

Staltran
Jan 3, 2013

Fallen Rib

And Tyler Too! posted:

I really don't understand the spiritualist hate. Going Psionic being a given, Ccomplain about the shroud, whatever, but making your pops literally better at everything and being able to tear through the ascension trees faster than most is pretty far from useless imo.

Why is going psionic a given? Spiritualists can go bio ascension just fine (and it's certainly preferable to psionics), and used to be able to go synth ascension too though the faction would get upset. Now though I think if you do that you end up with your primary species enslaved, which might lead to further weird behavior. The bonuses from spiritualist are pretty weak—unity is far less important than research, the edict cost modifier is pretty poo poo now that most edicts last until cancelled, and holotheatres are better than temples (which also makes the spiritualist edict worthless). Plus you get saddled with the spiritualist faction's demands, and can't give AI citizen rights period even if you're fine with the faction hating you. The last bit means you either need to avoid sapient combat computers (and synths), take Flesh is Weak, or not have robots to avoid a 50% chance of AI rebellion.

So the bonuses are weak and the policy downsides are much bigger than with most ethics. Spiritualist is probably either the weakest or second weakest ethic, depending on how much you value the diplo bonuses and envoys from xenophile.

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Staltran posted:

Why is going psionic a given? Spiritualists can go bio ascension just fine (and it's certainly preferable to psionics), and used to be able to go synth ascension too though the faction would get upset. Now though I think if you do that you end up with your primary species enslaved, which might lead to further weird behavior. The bonuses from spiritualist are pretty weak—unity is far less important than research, the edict cost modifier is pretty poo poo now that most edicts last until cancelled, and holotheatres are better than temples (which also makes the spiritualist edict worthless). Plus you get saddled with the spiritualist faction's demands, and can't give AI citizen rights period even if you're fine with the faction hating you. The last bit means you either need to avoid sapient combat computers (and synths), take Flesh is Weak, or not have robots to avoid a 50% chance of AI rebellion.

So the bonuses are weak and the policy downsides are much bigger than with most ethics. Spiritualist is probably either the weakest or second weakest ethic, depending on how much you value the diplo bonuses and envoys from xenophile.

Early on the benefits from unity trees tend to be larger than the benefit from tech, edict costs (I don't remember offhand 100%) should effect stuff like the rare resource buffs and definitely effects campaigns, and you don't have to halt your research to upgrade all your pops to get your benefits. Psionics has always been really strong mid-game, and if you leverage that fact its great.

You also now get spying bonuses, which are pretty handy for giving vision all over your enemies.

Most of the shroud negatives aren't that bad (mostly tend to zero out bonuses you've accrued), but a good benefit roll can be a huge edge that the other paths just don't have. The various tech possibilities are also a strong advantage, and you do get quite a few research bonuses so its not like you should realistically be falling that behind in tech.


I think the other paths are better at the path of "early game war victory" -> "large enough posture that you don't get attacked" -> "dev/tech up to late game", but if you're planning on continuing to fight I think psionics is honestly the better and it definitely requires a lot less to get full benefits out of it.

Dee Ehm
Apr 10, 2014


Cleared out the L-cluster and all I got was a lousy single nanite mine. Honestly the gray tempest did more good for me being around: it cleared out a bunch of space for me to steal, devastated a neighbor to the point that they accepted protectorate status, and sent wave after wave of refugees to my colonies. All in all though things are looking good. My capital is the crown jewel of the galaxy and home of the galactic market, I have three ecumenopoli, I've built a Science Nexus and an Interstellar Assembly, currently working on my Sentry Array and my Dyson Sphere.

Like 120 hours of play in and this is the first time ever I'm going to make it to the crisis, I have no idea if I'm prepared for it or not. We'll see what happens. There's also a massive machine empire and a devouring swarm shaping up to be my main rivals as we get to the galactic endgame.

By the way, that ironic event-spawned faction is still there, at 0% happiness with me, and nearly half of my pops are members. It's absolutely awful.

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

PittTheElder posted:

Has anybody else noticed a huge increase in the number of Criminal Syndicates running around the galaxy? Despite not having any in my custom empire list, I've had at least three in both the post patch games I've played.

I've seen a few. I've also noted that they're a lot more effective at spamming branch offices on all my fave worlds now, forcing me to run regular Beat Up The Mob campaigns.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

I freaking love this game even vanilla and I love playing it co-op with friends 3-4 hours at a time over the span of a few months for a single game because it's fun to make silly empires and hang out.

Staltran
Jan 3, 2013

Fallen Rib

Dee Ehm posted:



Cleared out the L-cluster and all I got was a lousy single nanite mine. Honestly the gray tempest did more good for me being around: it cleared out a bunch of space for me to steal, devastated a neighbor to the point that they accepted protectorate status, and sent wave after wave of refugees to my colonies. All in all though things are looking good. My capital is the crown jewel of the galaxy and home of the galactic market, I have three ecumenopoli, I've built a Science Nexus and an Interstellar Assembly, currently working on my Sentry Array and my Dyson Sphere.

If you got the Gray Tempest there should be a dozen or so Nanite Worlds in the L-Cluster that turn into terraforming candidates once the Tempest is gone.

Deuce
Jun 18, 2004
Mile High Club
How do I actually destroy Contingency worlds? They captured several of my planets. I've bombed them out. No population left, one converted to a tomb world because I used Armageddon bombing. The starbase is mine... but the system wont recapture. The planet is still labeled "Contingency World"

Dee Ehm
Apr 10, 2014

Staltran posted:

If you got the Gray Tempest there should be a dozen or so Nanite Worlds in the L-Cluster that turn into terraforming candidates once the Tempest is gone.

Ah thanks. I missed that. Just seemed totally empty to me.

Kinda gonna be hard to make use of it though. At 900 pops any new colonies are going to be... difficult to get off the ground.

caedwalla
Nov 1, 2007

the eye has it
In my current large map Captain with default settings game the AI feels super, super bugged. It's 2430ish and for the past two hundred years almost every AI empire's economy (and therefore fleet power) has been in complete shambles for no apparent reason. I have the sentry megastructure and there's precisely one starting AI with more than about 30k fleet power I integrated a vassal around a hundred years ago that had unimproved resources in a huge percentage of their systems, and all of their planets had the Bureaucratic planet specialization. The same thing happened when I integrated another a few decades later. Neither ever had more than 10k fleet power while vassalized.

Same game around 2410 the xenophobic fallen empire woke up, threatened to conquer everyone, and then did absolutely nothing for several years until I declared war on them. They ended up conquering a few random AI systems before the war ended status quo due to war exhaustion.

This doesn't seem to be the typical experience this patch but has anyone experienced similar?

Deuce
Jun 18, 2004
Mile High Club
How do I actually push the big red button? I wonder if something sequence broke because my "be the crisis" situation log entry is gone.

I had a fallen empire wake up, in the middle of a galaxy-wide war between the four remaining empires. Declared a crisis for that empire, which meant the 2v2 was now 2v2vFE, and just a couple years into this brawl the Contingency began. I finally fended off the Contingency, but my "be the crisis" entry is gone. I have Star Eaters and have maxed out my supply of Dark Matter.

...WHERES THE BIG RED BUTTON? I WAS PROMISED A BUTTON!

edit: oh, in the middle of the chaos I didn't realize it spawned a thingy on my homeworld. Derp.

Dee Ehm
Apr 10, 2014


Isn't 2406 like, extremely early for the galactic crisis to start hitting? There's no way I can deal with this fleet, they're like five times the size of the grey tempest. And it spawns right square in the middle of my sphere of influence, of course. Most of the AI are completely useless save for the machine empire and the devourers.

I was hoping for at least another decade to finish colonizing the L-cluster.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Dee Ehm posted:



Isn't 2406 like, extremely early for the galactic crisis to start hitting? There's no way I can deal with this fleet, they're like five times the size of the grey tempest. And it spawns right square in the middle of my sphere of influence, of course. Most of the AI are completely useless save for the machine empire and the devourers.

I was hoping for at least another decade to finish colonizing the L-cluster.
New crisis rules mean they can spawn early if it looks like you're having too easy a time of it.

pmchem
Jan 22, 2010


Splicer posted:

New crisis rules mean they can spawn early if it looks like you're having too easy a time of it.

which when coupled with reports like this...

caedwalla posted:

In my current large map Captain with default settings game the AI feels super, super bugged. It's 2430ish and for the past two hundred years almost every AI empire's economy (and therefore fleet power) has been in complete shambles for no apparent reason. I have the sentry megastructure and there's precisely one starting AI with more than about 30k fleet power I integrated a vassal around a hundred years ago that had unimproved resources in a huge percentage of their systems, and all of their planets had the Bureaucratic planet specialization. The same thing happened when I integrated another a few decades later. Neither ever had more than 10k fleet power while vassalized.

means I guess a lot more people are gonna be seeing an early crisis!

feller
Jul 5, 2006


I had the crisis spawn early right after I had been declared on by a FE. That was a heck of a thing. Not sure I'll survive but the game's still been a lot of fun.

Deuce
Jun 18, 2004
Mile High Club
Observing a game for a bit and watching an empire sit there with all three technology lines not being managed by a scientist leader.

Energy reserves hovering around 1000 with -9 per month, which might explain the refusal to hire more scientists.

pmchem
Jan 22, 2010


Deuce posted:

Observing a game for a bit and watching an empire sit there with all three technology lines not being managed by a scientist leader.

Energy reserves hovering around 1000 with -9 per month, which might explain the refusal to hire more scientists.

send the save along, I guess: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/stellaris-bug-reports.941/

Mr. Crow
May 22, 2008

Snap City mayor for life

HelloSailorSign posted:

I freaking love this game even vanilla and I love playing it co-op with friends 3-4 hours at a time over the span of a few months for a single game because it's fun to make silly empires and hang out.

Big agree :hfive:

ShadowHawk
Jun 25, 2000

CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER
Stellaris reminds me of my job as a site reliability engineer in many ways: most of the bugs aren't in programming, but in a bunch of configuration files.

Just about everything having to do with events, the AI, and game balance come down to config files in this game. Which means there's huge potential impact from user mods by people who don't even have to program.

Dee Ehm
Apr 10, 2014


Well okay never mind then galactic crisis averted. :v:

Recently awakened xenophile empire just zerg rushed the Unbidden and smashed them with a million fleet power from the word go.

EDIT: War in heaven triggered shortly afterwards. :shepface:

Dee Ehm fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Apr 25, 2021

a fatguy baldspot
Aug 29, 2018

Is there someway to get both synthetic and psychic Ascension’s?

Beef Hardcheese
Jan 21, 2003

HOW ABOUT I LASH YOUR SHIT


Dee Ehm posted:



Well okay never mind then galactic crisis averted. :v:

Recently awakened xenophile empire just zerg rushed the Unbidden and smashed them with a million fleet power from the word go.

EDIT: War in heaven triggered shortly afterwards. :shepface:

The most recent two times I've gotten to the Crisis it was the Unbidden, and it played out the same way. First time they spawned in a small cluster of systems that no one had ever managed to explore (let alone colonize) because it was bottlenecked by an FE on one end and a Dimensional Horror on the other. I didn't have the sensor range to see exactly what was happening, but it never left that patch of space and eventually the FE woke up and flattened them. The second game, they spawned on the far side of the galaxy and seemed to be shaping up to be a threat, until they went through the wormhole that led to an FE's backyard. They poked their nose in, the FE woke up, went back through the wormhole, and flattened them.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Horace Kinch
Aug 15, 2007

Deuce posted:

How do I actually destroy Contingency worlds? They captured several of my planets. I've bombed them out. No population left, one converted to a tomb world because I used Armageddon bombing. The starbase is mine... but the system wont recapture. The planet is still labeled "Contingency World"

Once devastation hits 50% the world should blow up, if that isn't happening there may be some mod fuckery.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply