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Autocomplete honestly is fine most of the time, especially if a 3k fleet is what is giving you the business. If you've got a lot of weapon techs then you can dive into trying to specialize your ships a bit. A generic fleet should have something to get through shields, armor, and some point defense for missiles/fighters. At a 3k fleet size, you probably don't have that many weapon techs though. I'd aim at getting the first point defense tech from the blue tech tree. If you're able to defeat any of the ancient mining robots, the mining laser is really good because it cuts through 100% of armor. If you can see the enemy fleet and inspect it, you can look at the enemy ship layout and see if they're heavy on certain attacks or defensive types. Make a good mix of ship sizes, and try to out-muscle the enemy. Even fleet strengths is a risky battle, so if possible lure them into a defense station and fight them when they jump into it (warp indicator). Remember you can make over fleet capacity if needed, though it'll be expensive.
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Jan 21, 2017 08:14
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So one thing you can do early in a game is send out your starting military ships to cruise past every system you can. Hopefully doing this will let you eventually find the science guys and/or the trade guys. The science guys let you trade energy for a +15% overall research boost and a 5-star solid research guy, the trader enclave lets you trade between energy/minerals at a 2-1 ratio. Aside from those, build more stations/upgrade buildings if you're not over your energy cap, and try to eke out more minerals/science. Outside of those you don't have much to do with pure energy, you can try to trade it to other people (probably not gonna work) or just build a bank and work on other stuff.
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Jan 22, 2017 10:12
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If you're playing hyperlanes or warp you can scout out a ton of the galaxy with a couple corvettes. The main positive of this is finding the science and trading enclaves, which are pretty big. As wormhole you have a much lower chance of finding them, since you'll need to build more warp stations. It is worth it to do that though, because the advantage of having either enclave is really huge (basically +15% research and an excellent 5-star scientist, and trading minerals/energy at a 2:1). I actually think enclaves are a bit too strong with the way they currently work. If they're inside the borders of an empire they should probably piggy-back relations to people outside that empire. Or some other method of propagating their contact out. In something like MoO where there is a galactic senate sort of thing you could spread it through that, or once a certain percentage/amount of territory is covered. The economy works out so much smoother when you have enclaves that they feel mandatory.
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Jan 25, 2017 09:24
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I've had some games where something has happened to drop me an extra 200 or whatever energy before. Never quite nailed it down, but I think it might have been a happiness issue, though it could have been something with migrating pops as well. This is outside of the increased cost when fleets are out of port. Terraforming feels like it is balanced around having at least 1 of the special resources for it. With both resources the cost feels completely fine, though the 10 year timer seems excessive. Honestly I'd rather drop the special resources and get a supplementary technology that reduces cost and time instead. Gene modding is a perfect "great in theory and staple of the genre" that is implemented in a terrible and wasteful fashion. The best use of it is really to take your primary specials and adapt them to other climates to get around having to take a bunch of time terraforming a planet. You can either do every climate or one per biome, but either way the time to gene mod 1 pop is insignificant. On the other hand, the time to gene mod an entire race you have is stupid, combined with the fact that you also suspend your research for the duration as well makes it a waste. If you want to be fiddly and micro-managing you could gene mod each pop on a planet to be optimal for the tile they're working. The cost is still stupid high but being able to basically pause your project and have partial benefits would give that a place in a situation where you can't really grow your empire right at the moment in other ways (though you need to turn migration off). Compare that to other games (moo2 is actually a great example here), where you tend to be able to get impactful or interesting additions to your race as part of the research itself. In stellaris you get the ability to pay the research cost at least once more to get at most a marginal benefit.
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Feb 6, 2017 08:58
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My take on terraforming is pretty much you're required to have at least 1 resource if you want to do more than basic terraforming. In fact, my preference is to really just either get 1 species for each wet/hot/cold biome, or gene mod my race out to go there. If you're gene modding though, terraforming is nearly obsolete, since you can just have every biome. The only time you'd want to terraform is to get a really good placement for your colony lander.
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Feb 9, 2017 19:56
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Coolguye posted:terraforming makes sense from an economic point of view regardless because it removes all blockers on the planet. many planets spawn with at least 6 blockers and larger planets can have as many as 15. at ~100 days apiece you are frequently looking at between 2 and 4 years just to clear off the planet - and since construction can't happen while clearing is going on, that time is simply lost to your pops planet side. not to mention the minerals you also expend clearing blockers. Unless you have a giant migration wave sweeping in to fill out your planet, you basically end up having to wait for 5 pops already, and after you build a frontier clinic nothing is really on the "vital" build list. Combine this with a single leader with improved tile clearing and you can easily clear the tiles off a planet before you're upgrading the main building. Even with an adaptive rapid breeder and the +food/growth influence booster I still can clear out the blockers without delaying the colony. I find that it is much more often I have a mineral surplus than an energy one, so paying a premium for energy spend isn't a fair trade at all. For reference the tile blocker clearing leader is a -25% cost/time, and each level a leader has is another -6%. So level 1 is only 69 days per tile, and gets down to 45 days once he gets to level 5. If you value your minerals at 2-1 per energy, a level 2 leader clears roughly 10 tiles for 1000 energy in 630 days. At level 5 that leader clears almost 15 tiles for 1000 energy in 675 days. Your trade-off on a 15-tile blocker planet with a level 2 leader and both terraforming gasses is 500 energy for 5 years of pop growth and 855 days of building other poo poo. I guess that was a lot of words to say that you don't tend to save money by terraforming, and you always lose building time and pop growth time. Your only real benefit is +hab, and it is probably the most expensive way to get it, but research wise one of the earliest and doesn't rely on luck to spawn aliens to absorb.
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Feb 9, 2017 23:13
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Here is the good thing about the gluten free fad though: people who actually suffer from celiac (ie the people who actually benefit) are much more able to get safe food and at better prices. View people following it as indirectly supporting sufferers of a real disease!
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Mar 4, 2017 10:30
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The UI for picking racial traits could use some reworking. It took me a long time to figure out that hovering over the red text on the left is where it says why your choices are invalid. Also does philosopher king actually do anything?
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Apr 8, 2017 22:33
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Here is another oversight on UI stuff. If you've got a caste system you can't set the living condition levels for when that population is slaves. Or something weird. If I take the "start with 2 races" thing I can get the slave's happiness up, but with just 1 race the slave mode has its own level that I can't change.
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Apr 8, 2017 23:24
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So I just noticed that the planetary capital building thing no longer gives food/mineral but now supplies energy/unity. Which means I've been kneecapping myself by still placing my colony in the old spot.
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Apr 9, 2017 09:11
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Bloodly posted:Each point of excess food when you're at full capacity is 0.05. 8 above cap=growth of 1.40 per month, 7 excess=1.35. The difference from before is it's across the empire rather than per planet. Agri-worlds are possible enough if you've got the energy to spare elsewhere. I guess it means specialisation is simply the best policy, presuming you've got the minerals to spend on doing so. And in wartime that also seems dangerous. But is it more dangerous than losing a more balanced planet where you followed the tiles? Pretty sure this is modified by the number of planets you have. For example I have 4 planets and +13 food and I'm at 1.15 growth for all planets. Edit: it might be based off of number of total pops you have actually. ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Apr 9, 2017 |
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Apr 9, 2017 10:46
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Mechanist looks worse on paper than it is. You start with robots and powered exoskeletons (+5% mins), and having 4 pops as robots means that you'll cap on food and grow your normal guys faster than other people. Your robots also get a 10% mineral gathering boost, which is a decent bonus. You don't need to be trying to pump out robots or anything to get a pretty nice start off of it.
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Apr 9, 2017 18:41
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Personally I've found early wars work out a ton better if you can lure the enemy fleet into a station. They can take a pretty decent pounding, letting you get an edge on the ship count. Depending on your income you can go over navel cap, and depending on civics/etc there are some +fleet options. Make sure you have an admiral, because even just the level of the guy gives you a bonus. In general a straight even fight is a bad idea, get yourself an edge (numbers, station) to get the steamroll going for you. Also don't go full synth if there is a holy fallen empire unless you're ready for a war. Then don't accept them demanding you grovel, because the fuckers are just going to declare war 2 days later anyways.
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Apr 10, 2017 00:52
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Strudel Man posted:I declared war within a month or two of seeing the guy. If he'd had the fleet hanging around, he wouldn't have had any energy, which he did. He certainly didn't have time to build it up in preparation. Was his fleet docked or undocked? I'm not sure how you were viewing his energy income, maybe there is something you're missing there. In general there are a lot of things you can do to boost your fleet cap, or have stockpiled resources, or whatever. Even if the AI does have a cheated cap increase, it can be beaten if you go about it smartly.
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Apr 10, 2017 02:50
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So far the only real bug I've had is that either you can suppress a faction away and then not be able to stop suppressing them, or something in the "turn into robots" bit blew up some factions I was suppressing. Either way I'm spending 2 influence per month to suppress two factions that aren't in my empire anymore and I can't find any way to stop. Also small bug, when you do the "flesh is weak" special project it'll convert curator scientists to cyborgs, which I think is unintended since the project to go full synth doesn't effect them at all. Sultan Tarquin: hover over where it says superior and it'll break down by fleet strength, naval cap, and tech. Tech gives a smaller advantage compared to a lot of other 4x games, so if your overall rating is better because of that it can be a dicey fight. Also check for defensive alliances, or in the war declaration screen check the bottom for a list of who will be in the war. Early game/setup tips I've found. Focus your civics on early game stuff if possible, because you can change your civics later on for 250 influence (in the f1 tab). Generally aim for staying energy neutral while you build up as much mineral production as you can. Research spots are a pretty big increase though, so grabbing those are a good call. If you're energy positive don't build energy mining stations but let your mineral bank build while you wait to find more mineral asteroids. Improved mines are pretty bad early on, but improved energy generators are good. Orbital solar panels are good as well. First traditions should probably be expansion or prosperity. If you take prosperity, private colony ship, and then unlock expansion you'll have a decent start. Unlocking prosperity reduces the cost of mining stations to 60 minerals which is a huge change, private colony ship lets you spend energy on a colony saving you those minerals, and unlocking expansion makes your colony start with 2 pop instead of 1. Also to the fleet cap question, there in ascenion perk for +200 fleet cap in addition to the other options.
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Apr 10, 2017 17:59
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Cool diplomacy request: I'd like to be able to ask someone to close their borders to another empire. If I could isolate people from some of their allies by getting third parties to just say "you can't come through" it'd be really handy. Edit: weird on your relations numbers. Mine for the holy guardians are -40 for materialistic fools and -60 for soulless machines.
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Apr 10, 2017 18:48
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Fellblade posted:Started a new game trying to go for the cool shroud stuff that's been mentioned, this time the same former race attacked me with double the fleet strength (I had 500, they had over 1k) despite me only spending money on ships since I discovered them. I was desperately trying to get a defensive pact with two other empires but no dice before the war. Even when focusing on other stuff remember you need a solid base to start off of. Going for cool shroud stuff shouldn't mean you're forsaking your mineral income, especially early game. If you're expecting a war despite that, you can try dropping a station by a planet you expect them to attack. Station+shipyard+your fleet should be able to handle an early attack unless you've been completely skimping (if you have the tech and are desperate throwing the sync defenses module on is another thing you can do).
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Apr 10, 2017 21:03
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So uh, found an interesting almost bug. The repeatable techs probably shouldn't be considered for the domination tree finisher effect (+30% research if your vassal has a tech you're researching). edit: not completely sure if this guy has just researched several levels yet, guess it could be possible. ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 22:01
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PittTheElder posted:
There are a lot of +unity things around that you probably didn't notice/build. Default you have a +2 building (can upgrade it to +6/+10%, empire unique +10/+10%), spiritualists have another building (temple +2 I think), empire unique +10, paradise dome +2, symbol of unity +2, visitor center +2, energy grid +2 with a perk, up to +3 on planetary capitals. It is also effected by stuff like happiness and leaders.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:52
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My synth playthrough I was out to 6 systems pretty fast and the first couple unlocks were fast, and even full on synth (at 4 unlocked) was around the time I could actually be ok with a fallen empire attacking me. I didn't have them unlocked by the time I was brawling with the other giant federation guy (but I was somewhat close), and I wasn't using several of the options (no visitors to synth city!).
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Apr 10, 2017 23:42
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Starting tip option: build the +2 unity altar and stick an extra food guy into. You'll build a new pop before running out of food, and if you go prosperity first you can recoup the mineral investment super fast (unlock takes under a year), and can be building a private colony ship by year 3.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:02
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I'm thinking there is room to build some sort of tall empire utilizing discovery/harmony and then branching into diplomacy.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:25
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Having some +level stuff seems pretty decent with an anomaly rushing setup. With a hive mind you can have level 4 anomaly at 0% fail chance after that first discovery tradition.
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Apr 11, 2017 04:26
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I can't seem to recall, but did homeworlds always have a size fluctuation between 16 and 20? That seems like something that would normally be static.
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Apr 11, 2017 14:41
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You need sentient AI from the blue tree.
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Apr 11, 2017 15:02
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Pretty sure a lot of the restriction is from an over-all strength perspective. Layering psionic/cyborg bonuses on hive minds would probably be a bit too good.
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Apr 11, 2017 15:28
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I've got an idea kicking around to do a diplomacy slaving setup, utilize the civic for +50% attraction and visitor centers (and probably the edict) to lure fresh slaves to a paradise style world before you force ship them to the mines.
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Apr 11, 2017 17:31
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I had a game go downhill when the unbidden spawned in the back of the federation that hated me, because they were big enough to win fights (though they didn't seem to be trying to close the portal), so they got those matter disintigrators and it slowly went downhill for me.
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Apr 11, 2017 18:08
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Clarification, fanatic xenophiles are opposed to slavery. Plain xenophiles are perfectly fine with it.
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Apr 11, 2017 19:21
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GlyphGryph posted:Is this a trick question? That doesn't make any sense at all. People love enslaving, caging, and otherwise dominating things they love - it means they can't leave! If you're worried about what the AI thinks, grab charismatic for 1 point, as it gives a +15 bonus. Along with your +20 xenophile you'll offset the -30 from slavery, and if there something like -5 from bombardment it'll offset that too.
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Apr 11, 2017 19:34
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This game just got really interesting, as there is an advanced start fanatical purifier that I just ran into about 20 years in. As to integrating hive mind stuff if you're a hive mind and have the right stuff you can do it. A check to see if you have the stuff to do it without murdering them all right away would be good though.
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Apr 11, 2017 23:27
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I'm of the opinion that mastery of nature is the best first pick. Not only do you now have to pay 0 for removing all tile blockers, but they're all researched so you have better tech options in society. I've been mucking around with starting tradition trees, and if you don't get totally gimped on starting systems prosperity is probably the best first few points (30 saved minerals per mining station, then if you have a lot of energy grab private colony ships), though rushing discovery for survey +tech bonus is probably viable in some setups. edit: fanatic xenophobe, especially if they're militarist, can have a pretty good bonus to fleet cap and fighting strength. Side benefits of more territory can give them more resources to be working with as well. With the bonus to influence from rivals he could be using edicts to boost poo poo as well! ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Apr 12, 2017 |
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Apr 12, 2017 20:34
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Oh I forgot another side benefit to taking the "gently caress blockers" perk: having a pile of extra techs researched makes the AI like research treaties better.
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Apr 12, 2017 20:39
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Technically the game I'm on where I went discovery ended up having prosperity first be a giant trap if I'd have taken it. I had 1 energy station available in my starting area of influence, while I had several science stations. I've also been lucky and gotten 200 minerals from anomolies, which let me actually afford my first colony in reasonable time.
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Apr 12, 2017 20:45
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If you want a solid unity hose build try out spiritualist+xenophobe+pacifist. You get +20% from pacifist, and can take civics giving you +30% and +1 from farms, and can build temples as well. You could follow splicer's starting build, but you don't need to go grab extra unity buildings from the various trees if you don't want to. edit: xenophobe also gives you a nice +15% boundary, while basic pacifist also gives you +2 core worlds. ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Apr 12, 2017 |
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Apr 12, 2017 21:27
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Nothing as annoying as having 2-3 of your starting ships sniped by aliens that are close enough to auto-engage them as they scout systems, followed by your home system having 1 resource to get me to restart a game. I'd love a slider or something to set how rich home systems are, or be otherwise set to have a decent minimum of poo poo spawned in them.
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Apr 12, 2017 21:56
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A band-aid to the band-aid would be to give them some amount of pops based on how many were on the planet that got auto-genocided. Or some sort of change letting an empire that has a world cleaned off through not-bombardment start building a new pop (leaving the planet at 0 pops with 1 building) so they don't lose the planet.
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Apr 12, 2017 22:50
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Nuclearmonkee posted:I just build a robot or use resettle, even if it's a full planet they don't all die instantly at the same time so you just have to come back and check on it as tiles start getting freed up. If it's of a different hab type then having them all die and go unusable is fine imo. Just sector them off until they are all made into burgs and while that's happening the huge food spike helps with your pop growth. I don't have any problem with building a robot or sending a migration or whatever, but the AI doesn't know how to handle it which leads to the situation the other guy was talking about : AI hive minds generation big swaths of desert instead of taking territory.
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Apr 12, 2017 23:00
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I think the sentry array is maybe the best, because full map vision is really nice if you don't have the game in the bag. Science nexus is a nice increase without a penalty like you'd get off a planet, but if you don't care about unity a hab is probably better. Dyson sphere is pretty meh, in my opinion. Compare it to a ringworld, which costs half as much for 4 gaia 25-pop sections. Dyson's advantage again is not requiring pops and not raising tech/unity costs, but at the point where you've gotten the tech and the cash to build them, you're probably not really worried about 4 more worlds. I'd like to see them rework the perks so you can get a weaker version of habitats/megastructures with the first perk, then master build lowers costs and allows complete structures. For habitats you could have weaker building from the base perk, and current ones from the upgraded one, for the megastructures only allow first or second stage (at a smaller cost). Add a new weaker version of the required tech like halfway down the tree.
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Apr 13, 2017 03:37
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:41 |
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No idea how they've gone about setting up sizes and blockers and stuff, I figure it'd be easier to change the basic habitat buildings to be weaker and new techs/perks or whatever unlock upgrades for them. Especially if there is any funny business you have to account for with the world breaker perk.
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Apr 13, 2017 04:17
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