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

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Yvonmukluk posted:

Oh.

OH.

I forgot there was a popup talking about a Crystalline Asteroid field...I thought it was talking about another system I'd been surveying at the time.

I should probably build a large fleet, shouldn't I?

Yeah, 2500 fleet power at minimum, and preferably more like 10-15K.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 00:19

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Another niche issue I ran into with the biological ascension- Xenophobe supremacy factions are very big on everybody in the empire being the same species as them, including subspecies. Attempting to compensate for Fanatic Purifiers being stuck on one planet type by creating a subspecies each for cold/dry/wet will cost you a whole lot of faction-happiness and influence. I couldn't even do anything about the 8 pops out of several hundred who self-modified to bring them back into line, because self-determination matters more than Racial Purity. :argh:

# ¿ Mar 4, 2018 03:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Nevets posted:

I was in that exact situation and avoided taking the habitability genemod tech until after I terraformed all my low habitability planets. I understand they treat them as a different species so you can't just genemod them back to the main template; but I don't remember if there are any restrictions on purging them?

It was some weeks ago in the previous version, but IIRC I couldn't purge them, since they were of my species, and I couldn't release their planet as a vassal because I was a Fanatic Purifier. I wound up editing the save to remove the "Self-Modified" trait, so I could genemod them back to purity. And I don't think they needed the habitability genemod; they just modified themselves to fit that planet.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2018 04:37

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Baronjutter posted:

Yep, break your pact, wait 10 years, demand vassalization, go to war.

Can't wait for a huge gutting/expansion of the diplomacy, federation, and subject/vassal system.

Yeah, and especially fixing the CBs associated with it. I'm currently trying to vassalize this one empire, and facing a -300+ malus to force a surrender because my other two vassals have claims on them, that will be taken if I do manage to occupy the entire empire. This is kinda why I liked the ability to press a separate peace in 1.X.

Also- I have a Marauder raiding fleet parked outside my borders, just parked there, not attacking. I've tried talking to the Marauders about them raiding somebody else, but they say they're busy. If I destroy this fleet, will they go to war with me, or will they just accept it as "the cost of doing business is that they don't always come back"?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 20:19

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Taear posted:

They absolutely don't care. You can even destroy everything they have in a system and they still don't care.
I don't like the Mauraders.

Good to hear, my fleets are on their way over.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 21:22

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

edit2: gently caress, that really sucks because I would have loved to have them but they will immediately get purged if I accept them into my empire and their species being set to undesirables cant be changed for two years

I think they might actually have had a chance, since it'd take at least 5 years to fully purge them, in which time you could change their species policy.

E: I found either a bug or a feature I hadn't realized had been added.

This planet has exactly two grown pops on it, including one hive-mind, but still has +60 unhappiness from unhappy slaves and +36 from unhappy pops.

darthbob88 fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Mar 25, 2018

# ¿ Mar 25, 2018 06:44

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Wafflecopper posted:

I just came back to this game after a long break since just after launch. I'm playing as a xenophobic militarist and I just had a new Archon elected. Turns out he's a xeno from a civ halfway round the galaxy for some reason and now all my pops are unhappy. I have no xeno pops in my empire and closed borders with everyone. How did he get in charge and is there some way I can get rid of him?

The usual way this sort of thing happens is that they're a leader of a faction and then get elected from there, but that raises the question of WTF your xenophobic civ is doing giving xenos full citizenship and letting them become leaders. Possibly they came from a shielded world or something?

# ¿ Mar 25, 2018 16:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Wafflecopper posted:

I haven't touched my policies and couldnt see anything about citizenship there anyway. Can my civ give xenos citizenship/eligibility on its own now? I seem to remember that being an option you could set yourself before. I don't even know what a shielded world is, but my only inhabited planets are my starting planet and three more previously uninhabited planets that I colonised myself.

Citizenship is set on a species-by-species basis, under the imaginatively-labeled Species menu. That's where you can declare that certain species of xeno shall live in service to the Emperor, while others shall be purged with fire and sword and barbecue sauce. As far as I'm aware, xenos in Xenophobic empires can't have citizenship or become leaders, so the only real option would be some kind of event, like opening a shielded world left behind by a fallen/awakened empire.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2018 17:07

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Descar posted:

I also wish we could build more then one megastructure at once.

Same. I can accept that sufficiently skilled labor is going to be a bit scarce, but I control most of the galaxy, you'd think that there would be enough people to build two whole Dyson spheres. Make it follow the same sort of scaling as Titans, 1 megastructure per 2-3-400 fleet power, or maybe 1 per 400 pops. Just something so I don't have to wait for one ringworld section to finish building before I start another.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2018 22:25

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

GotLag posted:

Does displacement ever just remove the pops? Or does it keep them forever if there's nowhere to take them as refugees? I swear it's been over 60 years since I conquered this world and declared its inhabitants as undesirables.

If there's no place else for them to go, they just disappear into the ether, traveling through deep space in search of some place to make a home. Following on that, it'd be cool if there was some sort of event for displaced refugees to colonize an available habitable planet and create a new homeland. Possibly as a disloyal vassal or something. And now that's my new plan for dealing with undesirables; settle a planet with them, release it as a vassal, and let them take my refugees.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2018 19:42

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Improbable Lobster posted:

A cannibalism civic that lets you selectively purge for food would be neat too

Finally, a better way to deal with unhappy factions than slavery.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2018 16:25

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Stupid question, but is anybody else able to use the Immature Ether Drake in a fleet? I have one, but it's refusing to merge with anything. Even if I go to the fleet designer and add a few ships to its fleet, they just refuse to merge and are left idle in space. I assume my only option is to have it follow another fleet?

# ¿ Apr 2, 2018 05:00

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Xerophyte posted:

This is intentionally disabled. It was mergable into fleet for a while, but one of the 2.0.2 patch notes is

Presumably because they're not exactly integrated into your command & control network; they're just loyal space puppies who beat up bad space people for you.

They're integrated enough I can tell them where to go, and create a fleet around them in the fleet manager. :argh:

Alright, looks like Combat Fleet 01 is getting a friend.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2018 06:36

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Ham Sandwiches posted:

Perhaps that's because the Lando system is not some dumb trump meme from last year

I have no idea if Heaven's Gate is meant to be a pun or not but it makes me think of the suicide cult with white sneakers every time I see it.

Apparently it is.

Arrath posted:

It's almost certainly this. Maybe there was a wormhole they were gunning for, too.

Wormholes have played serious havoc with pathfinding for my fleets in some cases.

"Upgrade the fleet, boss? Sure thing! Instead of going to the shipyard we're orbiting lets path 3 jumps, through a wormhole, then 6 more jumps to a shipyard on the other side of the galaxy!"

Or "Instead of going to the yard 3 jumps away, let's do 2 jumps to a wormhole across the galaxy, 2 more jumps to a gateway back across the galaxy, and then hop out at the yard there."

# ¿ Apr 5, 2018 19:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

NihilCredo posted:

Garfu, Jazerus, Lum: Thanks for the modlists!

Current (vanilla) game status: my moderately-rear end in a top hat spiritualist-imperialist space turtles have just conquered a whopping seven planets of my neighbouring moderately-rear end in a top hat spiritualist-imperialist space ferns.

The thematically fitting choice would be to turn them into a vassal nation, and I do have full Domination traditions. But I'd like to genemod them a bit first, and maybe rebuild / redevelop their planets while I'm at it. Problem is, all their planets are quite understandably at 100 unrest. Is there a way I can keep them from spamming revolts for a few years? Martial Law edicts aren't gonna cut it.

My usual method for reducing unrest is to just disperse their citizens to my other planets, but that costs energy. With a moderately skilled leader you can safely put 2 or 3 angry citizens on each of your planets, and fortresses can let you have 4 or 5. Of course, this also means you need a couple dozen planets to disperse angry people to, which might be an issue.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 17:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Gekkoh posted:

I've never killed it, nor attacked it.

You should get an event in your situation log about hacking it, eventually. It can lead to some cool stuff.

Edit: Missed the mod mention. Sorry, I'm tired. No idea if it's from the mod.

You're probably thinking of the Infinity Machine, which is vanilla.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2018 01:56

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Nessus posted:

Could strands of militant atheism be modeled as religious? More seriously if there was some kind of ideological package that could handily cover "religions" as well.

On the one hand, the entire point of atheism is materialism, that there is no higher divine power and religion is wrong. On the other hand, there's a reason people refer to the Singularity as Nerd Rapture.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 01:21

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Splicer posted:

The others should get megastructures too. The Yuht probably built a sentry array during their hunt, give them a ruined one. Put a gate in the First League Headquarters system and turn the planet into a functional machine world. The Irrassians built a lot of science stations, maybe they built a science nexus. The Vultaum... well, a disabled planet cracker would make the most sense, but probably not feasible.

Machine world is obviously only useful for machines, better to go with Gaia, or possibly Gaia-or-machine-depending-on-who-finds-it. Science nexus should go to Vultaum, IMO, since their whole deal was that they studied the world and decided that they were living in a sim. Irassians don't really scream anything other than social research from the remains of their society, so I'd give them a Dyson sphere just to round things out.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2018 22:22

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Splicer posted:

How do destroyed strike craft work? Do they just keep spawning indefinitely or can you "run out"?

They respawn at 1 per 8ish days, so you can run out temporarily.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 16:58

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

iospace posted:

For the devouring swarm, is purging them "eating" them, or do you need to have one of your pops on that planet to actually eat them?

You don't need to have any of your pops on the planet, you can just eat them from half the galaxy away. Of course, you should resettle them off that planet, because if you have more than three or four purged pops on a planet, you lose a lot of their output.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 22:37

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

StashAugustine posted:

Btw I had a game as a devouring swarm where I conquered a planet during a war and it tanked my food output because no one was working but apparently were still eating and weren't being turned into food. Is that a bug or something?

Possibly; the usual "bug" is that you start purging a given planet, but 10+ pops getting purged creates a lot of unrest which tanks output from that planet. You shouldn't actually lose food because of that.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2018 17:23

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Black Pants posted:

Raiding Bombardment is funny but more of an RP thing. Barbaric Despoiler civic gets it for free, and what it does is when you bombard with Raiding stance you do a little damage to their infrastructure but sometimes teleport their pops to one of your worlds.

It's kinda useful for slavers/purgers, since even if I don't take the planet, capturing a couple pops for food/energy/minerals can be very useful. One upside, though, is that it has a 0% chance to create a tile blocker, compared to 20% for selective/indiscriminate. Very useful for taking on FEs and planets you want to actually get some use out of rather than wait while it rebuilds.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2018 00:35

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Shibawanko posted:

Yeah I know, I don't want to lose the ability to customize my empire but some different kind of compromise must surely be possible. Maybe add a layer of biological traits that only apply to certain kinds of organisms, maybe have a few with small special traits, just anything to make it feel like the visuals are not just window dressing for a numbers game.

Yeah, going back to the Endless well, I'd be extremely OK with adding something like "The Humanoid portrait group comes with +5% habitability on all worlds and an event chain about humanoids, Plantoid get +10% of their energy income as food and events about being a plant", WTFever. Although obviously, this would all fall apart as soon as somebody noticed whichever portrait group got +minerals.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2018 22:47

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Fuligin posted:

I like this idea. Maybe add some unique ship modules unlocked by the ethos makeup of your fed

What, like "Fanatic Militarist as a weapons officer means you get +5% fire rate", "Spiritualist helmsman gives +5% evasion from zen navigation"? Cool, but questionable utility/viability.

# ¿ May 1, 2018 21:10

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

SniperWoreConverse posted:

You should get an asteroid belt with an ex planet modifier regardless of what you crack.

If you shield an uncolonized world do you get research out of it?

Can't shield uncolonized worlds; only the planet cracker works on empty worlds.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2018 21:28

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Ice Fist posted:

But aren't there only 4 total choices? Crack/Sweep/Bubble/Nanobot?

Five. There's also the God Ray.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2018 17:35

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

TalonDemonKing posted:

Is it true that bees ignore the laws of aviation as well?

To my knowledge, yes, bees do violate the laws of fixed-wing aviation.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2018 01:59

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

OwlFancier posted:

Authoritarian is the best voice by a mile.

Agreed, though xenophobe is also pretty cool. That extremely snooty/British tone, that speaks of somebody who knows the difference between animals and people, and on which side the people he's talking to lie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H91JK1bDw9A

# ¿ Sep 21, 2018 05:09

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

GunnerJ posted:

The whole idea of tech prereqs for perks is weird tbh.

At the same time, though, I don't think you should be able to build enormous space habitats/rings/sensoria without the technology to build enormous things in space, or to manipulate genes without the tech for gene manipulation.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2018 21:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Miles Vorkosigan posted:

Can megacorps not build branch offices in their subsidiaries or am I missing something?

Not in my experience. You can only build branch offices in empires that a) are part of your federation, or b) have a commercial pact with you, which requires they be independent. Honestly, if they just remove that requirement, I'd be happy; of course I should be able to trade with my subjects, and possibly even other people's subjects.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 04:26

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

ZypherIM posted:

You probably can't do that because it'd be easy as gently caress to abuse. Take over a guy with 6 systems? Spin each one off into a vassal with your ethos and build 6 branch offices.

Or just colonize a bunch of poo poo and spin them off as vassals. On the other hand, commercial pacts cost influence, which is enough to dissuade me from making all the pacts all the time.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2018 04:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Tarquinn posted:

Don't know what that means yet, but I'll find out. Thanks!

I expect you know most of this already, but- Megacorporations can build branch offices on the planets of any empire they a) have a commercial pact with, b) are the overlord of, or c) are in a federation with. One of the buildings you can construct in a branch office is the Mercenary Liaison Office, which gives you +10 naval capacity per building. If you combine that with Naval Contractors and Franchising maybe, you can be extremely effective militarily and still have enough people willing to let you build branch offices on their planets.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 00:10

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

CapnAndy posted:

Now I want to make a fungoid devouring swarm with cordyceps, set their homeworld to Earth, and name them the Clicker Empire.

Actually y�know what, I�m gonna.

The free fleets you can get with Cordyceptic Reanimation Facilities are neat, but in the long run they seem to be a burden. If I use the space amoebae in fleets with regular ships, the amoebae slow down the whole fleet and I really like my strategic mobility. If I use them by themselves, they're still slow and also kinda weak. The only thing they have going for them is that they're free, which I acknowledge is extremely useful in the early game, and means I can use them for mopping up minor outposts while my main fleets beeline for the important stuff.

CapnAndy posted:

Be a Devouring Swarm and eat one measly civilization into extinction, I guess?

I honestly don't know, I've never had it happen to me before.

Yeah, that's what happened to me as well. I ate an empire or two, and got declared a crisis. It's a bit of a problem, because being forced into war like this is messing with my economy, but I just set up a couple bastions at chokepoints in the north of my empire, then marched south and around the galaxy until they stopped being a problem.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2023 21:16

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