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

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

I played a really awesome game of stellaris 2.0 after some false starts for like 12 hours straight yesterday. I was on the edge of my seat from literally 2200 to 2380 fighting one menace after another. It was maybe the most fun I had playing a paradox game in years. Some general thoughts that I am drilling down into points for efficiency:

1) Adding mineral upkeep for fleets, nerfing their speed, and making stations viable, adds enormous strategic depth to your decision making. In the early-to-mid game there is now a real and important choice to make between 'war-footing' and 'peace-footing.' Do you risk a small fleet for early boost to economic infrastructure? Or do you build a big fleet to dissuade your enemies and to take more territory? Then there is the geographical complexity added by the speed nerf and the station buff. If you are sandwiched between two enemies: Do you create static defenses at viable chokepoints? Do you split your fleet to help hold these chokepoints? Or are there too many hyperlanes? Should you instead focus on a single fleet and hope to win one war before fighting another? These choices were all real and important and well-balanced in my game and it greatly owned. I felt very much like an empire with enormous countervailing commitments and pressures and limited resources to deal with them -- which is how I should feel and never have until now. When these changes are well tuned and working properly Stellaris is a game with real legs rather than a game you can imagine you might like in the future.

2) But this strategic depth is not always apparent on default map settings. AI empires grow too slowly. They will grab 5 or 6 planets and stop territorial expansion. Normal aggression AI is too peaceful. They still bungle invasions more often than not. This is exacerbated by high war exhaustion which makes war gains for AI very small. The galaxy too often becomes a big NAP-fest. A good player on normal will expand to 10 or 15 planets and invade one or two AIs and become the most powerful empire in the galaxy by 2280.

3) This can be somewhat fixed atm with the right map settings and game modifications, which will constrain the player, and make the AIs viable mid-game threats, without giving too many bullshit bonuses. Best map settings are: max number of ais, high aggression, hard difficulty, normal size, and a few more ais with advanced starts. High aggression was recently changed to create almost all slavers, exterminators, and imperialists, and it is real good. Then the following modifications to hard difficulty in static_modifiers to make it less bullshit: remove the bonus to fleet cap, remove the bonus to damage, remove the bonus to research, keep the bonus to resources (~25%). Then the following mods: Glavius' Ultimate AI Megamod; ReducedWarExhaustion.

4) My great game was as follows. I was sandwiched between two assholes. I defense pact'd with a third. I managed to fight both to a stalemate while marauders were running through my territory destroying all my infrastructure. Then a driven exterminator gobbled up one of the assholes as well as another. I took advantage of the chaos to take some territory. But now the driven exterminators were the greatest power in the region and everyone was scared shitless. Then I join with two other militant spiritualists in a three-front war against the exterminators (killer robots) and split the territory three ways. Now I am in a cold war--it is 3380--with one of the original assholes and one of the spiritualists (huge border friction malus). I can take one enemy easily at this point. But if the spiritualists team up--one hates me, one is ambivalent--I will be in big trouble. Soon there will be an end game crisis. In my territory there is a forgotten empire to the south who can only go through me. There is also another forgotten empire to the north who has a wormhole straight between the FE and myself. I am hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

Guilliman posted:

I'm keeping an eye on comments like this It's hard to get balance right. Overall with my mod resources are a bit more abundant throughout the galaxy. My last update doubled or trippled the habitability malus from negative modifiers, so some planets end up being a bit harder to colonise. This to somewhat compensate for the resources in the galaxy.

I like your mod a whole lot. The extra depth it gives to planets is fantastic and feels like an organic part of the game. But you should remove almost all the bonuses you hand out to asteroid mineral resources (this from your revision on feb 24 if you have made any subsequent changes). They absolutely destroy the resource curve. I also have mixed feelings about the positive bonuses you hand out to planets terraformed through environmental engineering. There should maybe be a chance for both negative and positive.

Zane fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Feb 26, 2018

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 20:41

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:24

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

larger galaxies increase crisis strength as well

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 17:28

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

you're probably losing a few more ships as a proportion of your total. if you manage to occupy a few planets your exhaustion will turn around. and with status quo peace you'll be able to keep them regardless of who gets to 100% first.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 05:04

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

really queer Christmas posted:

Took two planets, didn�t get any exhaustion for it. I mean, I�m gonna win, so I�m not complaining. But there�s no way it�s not a bug.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple screwy things going on with the war exhaustion formulas tbh. I remember looking at a couple of my battle results and scratching my head over the past few days -- to say nothing about passive war exhaustion. sometimes the separate battle reports don't work properly either.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 05:46

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

I thought AI personality spawn was newly tied to the high aggression setting but I suppose not. I actually kind of like the more numerous aggressive personalities. Another slider Wiz!

Zane fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Mar 4, 2018

# ¿ Mar 4, 2018 18:36

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

I usually specialize in either engineering or physics labs each game. it isn't totally ideal--you need all the weapons to be perfectly prepared against the end-game crises--but it is otherwise a helpful way to trim a couple techs since research stations do enough for the neglected branch. it is usually just as good to have a better weapon from one of the branches than a few more options from both.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 05:02

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

high aggressive. I also jack up the number of ais because they simply don't expand fast enough. with max ais you are far more blocked in. default number of advance starts. I also play on hard difficulty but somewhat soften the ai bonuses in common/static_modifiers. with all of those changes the game is pretty challenging and fun up through mid-2300 which is a great improvement.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 06:56

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

use the 'random' distribution map setting. also get the no clustered start mod.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 07:01

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Ms Adequate posted:

Speaking of difficulty, is it possible to change the difficulty mid-game? Via save file editing or something perhaps?

editing save files is tricky. but you can change the universal modifiers of the current difficulty you're playing on through the defines file or whatever it is (not on my computer atm).

# ¿ Apr 1, 2018 18:32

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Trip report from 2.1: Seems OK. The new hyperlane clusters are interesting. I'll probably like them more at 1.25 linkages. One unintended consequence is how this nerfs border friction since there can only be border friction along hyperline connections. This encourages NAP hugfests which are already too frequent and which I hate. I modded friction to 30 instead of 10. But in a lot of cases there is still only one connection between empires and i may need to mod it higher for my satisfaction.

# ¿ May 26, 2018 21:24

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Nordick posted:

I'm getting a bug where newly contacted empires often trigger the "new contact" event several times. And it gives me influence for each time. It's a bit silly.

Yah me too. I'm still not sure if it's a mod? I wasn't quite able to isolate it. I updated a couple of mods and I had less of this problem afterwards.

# ¿ May 26, 2018 22:21

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Enhanced AI has been updated for 2.1 and it's Good.

# ¿ May 31, 2018 16:56

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

the biggest problem with separate army units atm is that the ai still can't really coordinate them. it really hampers their long-term strategic danger and competitiveness. there was an old mod that let fleets do the invading but i don't think it's around any longer.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 19:31

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

OwlFancier posted:

It's a four book series about a big manchild mary suing his way

so a hero on a hero quest?

OwlFancier posted:

except for the fourth book which is about him having a midlife crisis having married the much more interesting protagonist of the second book

the fourth book is an interesting subversion of genre fantasy that only a master like le guin can properly carry off and that only someone who's read more than genre fantasy can understand. what happens after the hero saves the world? what happens when he's old and powerless and has lost the main source of his identity? what kind of story is possible to write under these new conditions? how can the hero happily and substantively replace heroic values with non-heroic values? what do these values consist in? le guin develops a sort of second level meta-fictional narrative of the development of literature itself from the heroic epic to the novel in this way. all this within a fantasy series! it's an incredible accomplishment.

OwlFancier posted:

The books would have been much better if the protagonist of the second book had done her original plan and gone on to have her own series, instead of the goon from the first book showing up and her falling head over heels for his teenage goth phase charms. I guess in that sense it's kind of impressive in a kind of meta sense, like there's this roving metafictional mary sue protagonist going around spoiling three potentially interesting books in the same setting by showing up and hogging all the screen time. I could almost kind of go for this as a theme, books in other genres or settings that start out normal and then Ged shows up and ruins them.

fantasy hero protagonists 'hog screentime' and 'get the girl' because that's what they're supposed to do. it's intrinsic to the structure of the genre. then le guin subverts this genre structure in the fourth book. she has a high understanding of the history of genre and form. she's also a great stylist. none of your criticisms actually rise to the level of apprehending these accomplishments -- let alone engaging with them.

i'm not as familiar with her sci-fi but it's also very good. you'd expect her, as a popular woman writer of genre fiction from the 1970s, to be nothing more than a transparent feminist allegorist. but she's actually far better and cleverer and more expansive than this.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2018 21:08

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

OwlFancier posted:

I would say I find all of that decidedly less interesting or appealing than just, like, a fantasy book where the heroes aren't just given everything on a plate and actually have to work to achieve stuff.

Like it's possible to write books about people who are interesting and likeable and relatable, rather than writing deliberately bad characters and then another book that is "oh but I know they are bad ho ho ho very clever" especially if you're expecting people to sit through four books for it. Joseph Campbell already wrote a book about metafictional narrative development or whatever and it was only one book long.

If you're going to write that many words with characters in them you should at least give them some interesting characterization beyond having one of them spout ice cream koans all the time and the other drop any semblance of competence and individuality the moment the first one shows up.

the first book is all about the price ged pays for his own youthful hubris. maturity comes through accepting the negative 'shadow' of his own personality. the second book again sees all ged's supposed powers fall short of his goals. victory only comes through working together with tenar, his new female co-protagonist. this is again a coming together of basic dualities: of male and female, light and dark. the 'ice cream koans' are not pseudo-intellectual gibberish. each book very deliberately allegorizes certain metaphysical principles in taoist philosopy. the characters are worldly (particular) instantiations of these general principles.

edit: my point is that your criticisms just don't make contact with what le guin is trying to do.

Zane fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Aug 9, 2018

# ¿ Aug 9, 2018 22:40

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Conskill posted:

The reflection on the reader and the context you interpret sci-fi in is something I have mixed feelings on. I've actually sat here for a quite a few minutes trying to collect my thoughts to no avail, so please forgive me if this isn't 100% on point. We can deconstruct Stellaris in the same way that we can deconstruct anything because everything is politics and so forth. Fair enough. But we're kind of swirling around an argument that's been here a few times: are aliens in Stellaris written to be more than funny-looking humans? What interests me in sci-fi is seeing how far writers can go with defining what is alien and what is different from us, while still necessarily chained to the culture they were born and conditioned into. Honestly, it strikes me as wasted thematic potential to use a modern hermeneutic on the Blorg, or vilify the Worm-that-Waits, or map human assumptions respecting the nature of the sapient starfish that finally relinquished control to their robot servitors.

stellaris is inevitably a forward projection of our own presentist assumptions about organized historical societies from the past. there are degrees to which a writer can imaginatively (and valuably) abstract themselves from their own historical context. but it's impossible for that abstraction to ever be fully achieved--too much of our baked in 'common sense' about how nature works, how societies work, what is important, etc., is from a particular moment in space and time. moreover: that common sense is the context that gives us the motivation to do things, imagine things, in the first place. how would you know what questions to ask about the past or the future if you had no guiding assumptions, values, circumstances, to initially kick off from?

there's no reason, for instance, to assume the hypothetical interaction between future alien races will resemble something very close to eighteenth century great power politics. but that's what stellaris implicitly assumes for a number of reasons.

quote:

I get what you mean here. When I'm playing Stellaris I'm not critically deconstructing it. I don't sit down to play as a rogue servitor and spend the whole game thinking "hmm, what an apt metaphor for the patriarchy".

patriarchy, in very broad historical terms, and for all its faults, had a clearly identifiable social-economic function. it was part of the pre-modern agricultural division of labour. biotrophies, by contrast, serve no conventionally functional purpose at all. this is actually one of the rare cases where an imaginative abstraction from the present has almost entirely succeeded. we have no historically established 'common sense' about whether a 'biotrophy society' would be ethically good or bad. no historical society has ever done such a thing: so we actually have to begin with the opening premises and think abstractly about it.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2018 17:06

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

there should really be an orz/arilou category of regular/fallen empire. super-dimensional beings who might want to uplift you, might want to eat you. and they don't make any sense when you try to discern their motives.

Zane fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Sep 29, 2018

# ¿ Sep 29, 2018 19:15

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Hot Dog Day #82 posted:

So I had this problem last night and it persists today.

Stellaris is reporting that my "Checksum" has been modified, which it hasn't done before the LeGuin update. This buisness about the checksum is patently untrue since I just unsubscribed to all of the workshop mods and did a clean uninstall/reinstall. I have steam set to "keep me automatically up to date" and I have opted out of all beta patches - I also deleted everything in the "documents" folder just to be on the safe side.

When I launch for the first time it "still" says my checksum has been messed around with.

Help me somethingawful goons, you're my only hope.

you have old files from previous versions that aren't being removed properly by steam. you must MANUALLY DELETE the entire stellaris folder from your steam directory. then reinstall. only this will solve the problem.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 23:57

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Baronjutter posted:

It seems refugees, migrants, and general growth system totally ignores habitability. Due to the auto-balancing demographics system and the total lack of care for environment my planets are all getting crippled with 30% hab species angrily growing and sucking up all the goods and amenities.

And since pops don't actually move, it's all an overly-abstracted pressure system, these 30% hab pops will never go away because the planet as a whole has to be in decline before anyone will move out.

i don't quite understand the mechanics. but a lot of this isn't true. i have an empire full of migrants in the mid-2300s and they have gradually self-sorted onto the planets they most like.

Zane fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Dec 8, 2018

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 00:17

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

amenities are basically your main source of happiness.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 00:32

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Ms Adequate posted:

Also, and touching on your screename here, I'm hoping someone comes out with a Hypersperg mod that requires you to set up Anno-esque production chains 16 resources long before you can build the good poo poo.

lmao this will be hilarious

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 03:54

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

How are u posted:

Ok so some stupid criminal corporation has established offices on some of my planets, and now they're raising crime to huge degrees! I'm rivaling them and have closed borders, I don't want them in my territory! How the heck do I stop this poo poo?

build police districts (whatever they're called). you'll eventually turf them out if you have enough of them.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 05:53

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Noir89 posted:

Have anyone else tried to hand sectors over to the AI? I tried with a few of mine but it seems it doesn't do....anything? I have given it over 10k stockpiles and set it to Balanced.

They do well enough in my experience. They tend to build a balanced proportion of research, manufacturing, resources. But they don't seem to upgrade -- which may be the problem you're having? This sort of makes sense given how swingy the economy can be. But it definitely increases micromanagement.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 01:39

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Captain Oblivious posted:

Where does the tech to actually USE Volatile Mote Extractors come from? I have a rare deposit on a planet, but no notion of how to even begin to take advantage.

the extraction techs are pretty late in the tree. they are typically subsequent to: 1) the first tier of upgrade buildings that require them; and 2) a 'synthetic' tech that converts minerals into the equivalent resource.

more generally: the 2.2 research trajectory feels like it has a very different tempo. for the first 100 years research is much slower. then you hit a breakpoint with research facilities at around 2300 and zoom through dozens of techs.

Zane fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Dec 9, 2018

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 02:45

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Electro-Boogie Jack posted:

I like the new system a lot, but three hours into my first game and keep finding this to be the case. I want to start specializing my planets, but before I can build a new flux capacitor factory I see that this planet is running low on amenities, so I build an amenity whatsit and the next few pops work there. Then I get back to the planet later but there aren't any building slots open for a new flux capacitor factory, and it's starting to run low on housing, so fine, here comes a city district. Which is great but now by the time that fills up and I've got a new slot something else is running low, and decades later when I finally have no pressing needs AND an open slot, it turns out I only get 4 flux capacitors a month, which isn't really a meaningful increase. I'd love to build another factory so I could get 8/month, I guess, but now amenities are low again, or the science building on some other planet is hogging all the consumer goods and now I need more of those instead, or...

Maybe as the game progresses more pops and planets and tech will help, but so far it seems like each new working pop produces only 1% more than they consume, which doesn't leave you with a lot of room to pursue your goals.

Also not a huge fan of requiring rare resources not just for the construction of advanced buildings but their upkeep as well. Maybe I just have to abandon my space juche ideals, though.

my intuition is that it is safer and more efficient to ensure high surpluses in primary goods (minerals and energy) than it is to play fast and loose with them and to have to make up for unexpected shortfalls on the market later on. this means a healthy privileging of resource extractors over factories. this, in turn, means many fully developed resource planets actually keep their passive 'rural' specialization, even after they have four or five upgraded factories on them.

i do nonetheless tend to develop specialized manufacturing planets.. but for early game this is more for organizational purposes than it is for mechanical benefits. the 'flux capacitor' factory i think you're referring to is probably ultimately worth stacking up for.. i think it's a 15% total bonus to all factory-related production?

the one early game planet specialization that pays off very early is research--ideally on a world with low resources--because research assist is now a base ability.

Zane fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 9, 2018

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 05:28

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

How are u posted:

It seems that taking syncretic evolution ultimately ends up as a bad choice, because there's no way to eventually uplift your special slaves and you end up with hundreds and hundreds of pops who are forbidden from working anything but the lowest level jobs. Then they pile up in massive unemployment and cause crime!

poo poo!

it is extremely cumbersome to manage xenophobe-based slavery as compared to authoritarian-based slavery (my latest game). i don't think there's a natural mechanism that balances the reproduction of specialists vs. workers. the best way to manage this yourself is to use the population control policy to impose forced reproduction of your 'master' race on each planet at certain points.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 05:44

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Zurai posted:

I plan to do the same sort of thing for the other upgradable production buildings, then tweak the numbers until it feels right to me. Is this something which other people would be interested in using once I have it in a state that I wouldn't be ashamed of others seeing it?

the changes you've mentioned seem good, or at least interesting, to play around with. one thing that also annoys me are how mineral -> special resource conversion factories can't be upgraded. probably too much to ask for to get this fixed but another thing to think about.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 23:31

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Xenaero posted:

How do ya'll build your patrols? It seems safe for a long time to just have a couple corvettes patrol between routes, doesn't this completely trivialize piracy?

building weapon buildings on your stations is more efficient. each weapon building extends the protection range of the station by one system (this mechanic is easy to miss). you want to use actual fleet patrols for systems outside the protection umbrella of your stations.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2018 04:48

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Mazz posted:

Partly self-promotion, but for those situations mentioned where a planet has good modifiers and few districts, or you can�t fill out a resource planet properly are almost entirely the reason I made this mod. The two buildings add a districts worth of jobs for a not insignificant but not overbearing upkeep cost. Gives you a little bit more flexibility + growth potential.

thanks for this

# ¿ Dec 11, 2018 20:48

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

the 'line' fleet tactic doesn't seem to be working -- or at least not in quite the same way. all ship classes seem to use 'swarm' instead.

Zane fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Dec 12, 2018

# ¿ Dec 12, 2018 23:04

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Mazz posted:

I hate to say it, but I think I�m reverting to 2.1 for now. 2.2 has an interesting base but after 2-3 playthroughs I�m losing interest pretty fast even though i still want to �play� Stellaris. There�s definitely a sense of plate spinning micro throughout the entire game for my min/max play style that just sucks all the fun out for me. I like being orderly and efficient with my planets/pops/sectors (it�s why I play ME so much) and right now that takes so much work it�s not actually enjoyable. I have hope y�all can smooth it out with some time and have faith you can.

i've had a lot of the same issues. but if you settle upon a couple rules of thumb for your planet builds, familiarize yourself with the hotkeys, establish new procedural memory, it gets better, and even keeps you occupied through what otherwise used to be long drags of dead time. the usability and robustness of the ui does need a lot of improvement for sure though.

the biggest problem imo is still that the ai isn't always quite good enough to consistently push you which is usually what keeps things interesting.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 05:15

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Hungry posted:

Nearly 2400 and I'm realising the manual resettlement mechanic is uh ... bad. I don't think it's bad in itself, but it's more of a symptom of the underlying pop growth issue.

So I've finally got some planets that are 'done' - production buildings and housing and amenities are in balance, nothing more to build, population is at a perfect number - except I need to keep checking them every 1-2 ticks to see if they've bred any new pops, so I can shuffle those pops off to growing planets and stuff them into habitats, which I'm now spamming around every planet.

Sure, I could press the "stop making new drones" button, but why would you ever want that? Pops are literally the most important resource. I'd be trading off less micro for a worse economy. I'm building a ringworld now so I can instantly shift 100 excess population off my homeworld and do whatever I want with it.

edit: Thinking about it for a few more minutes, what I want right now to reduce micro is a button/slider which says "When this planet has pops in excess of X, send elsewhere automatically" for every planet/habitat.

when you halt pop growth on one planet the growth gets partially converted into a global emigration growth bonus for all the other planets. I think.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 19:36

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

Anno posted:

Underrepresented pops definitely have higher chances of growing, but only to a point. I�ve only played fanatic Xenophile, signing as many immigration treaties as I can, and my species always remains the most popular by quite a margin. The others just become a decent chunk of your empire instead of just a sliver.

to follow up on this: preferred planet category (that is: habitability rating) significantly influences what kind of species grow where. if you want to preserve your founding species without removing immigration, then terraform planets to their preferred category, and use population controls on any other specie within the same category.

Zane fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Dec 14, 2018

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 19:00

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

This is not my experience at all. I had a Tropical race and an Arctic race and both grew rapidly on the other planet type all the time and I was paying out the rear end to relocate them all the time. If anything, habitability should have much greater weighting on whether a pop will grow on a planet or not. If I had left thsoe pops where they were or been Egalitarian and thus unable to move them my economy would have gone to poo poo because of the consumer goods demand.

to reconcile our experiences: it works more like a kind of threshold of anywhere from 40-60% being guaranteed habitable species with the rest more up in the air. it's a clearer phenomenon if you have 5+ allowed species all with different preferred planet categories.

Zane fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Dec 14, 2018

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 19:33

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

dead comedy forums posted:

So, I have been playing a bit and one thing that is confusing me is how to plan around districts and buildings, and how one should actually put the pops to work on those. Say, for a planet like Earth at the start (UNE test save for new content forever or bust), its all around balanced, but probably I should go for a cosmopolitan center there once I have a couple of planets to work towards resource gathering, correct?

Then how I distribute pops in terms of work? Like, should I build districts as unemployment appears and pops come around? Should I prioritize districts instead of buildings, or vice-versa?

your capital is always a good 'all-rounder.' it gets bonuses to.. i think amenities and stability? which apply globally to all economic activity. you can basically turn your capital into anything. since you have more pop slots open earlier on your capital however you do want to specialize it. I always go for research and use a science vessel to assist for an early concentration bonus. but there's no intrinsic reason to do this.

you should always have a good cushion of primary goods (minerals, energy, food) over secondary goods (consumer goods, alloys). also housing needless to say. in that broad sense your districts are your top priority. build only what you have the pops to employ. my first few buildings are almost always robot factory and gene clinic.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 21:11

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

yeah, in my experience small excesses of unhoused and unemployed pops don't naturally emigrate. a lot of the routine strategy of late game development, as far as i can tell--especially when your economy is otherwise balanced--revolves around building luxury housing (eventually upgraded pleasure domes) and commercial districts to get as much value out of your planets as as possible. commercial districts provide a lot of jobs.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 21:58

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

if you're annoyed with sectors try this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1587222189

# ¿ Dec 15, 2018 22:50

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

you do eventually hit a job ceiling before a pop ceiling on many planets. you build commercial zones when your districts are full and you don't want any more consumer goods or alloys or special resources but do want to increase energy (otherwise you build research labs).

Zane fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Dec 16, 2018

# ¿ Dec 16, 2018 06:18

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

the space gypsy/goblin caravaners are good people. their deals are worth it imo even if they steal things sometimes. edit: xenophobe empires get angry if you make deals with them but i think it's bugged atm so that you gain influence instead of lose it

Zane fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Dec 16, 2018

# ¿ Dec 16, 2018 23:06

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:24

Zane: Nov 14, 2007

there's a nice mod, 'dynamic difficulty' that can massage some of these problems https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590362799

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 21:38

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