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Picked this up in the Steam sale having never played a paradox game before and there’s a bit of a learning curve... I’ve been playing on (I think) easy difficulty with the tutorial on - so far I’m really enjoying the exploration, event chains and the overall 4X-y feeling of it all, but I still don’t know what half the sections on the sidebar are for and the tutorial doesn’t do a great job of explaining them. I’m getting into what feels like the early mid-game - I’m getting hemmed in on nearly all sides by other empires and have limited room to expand further. I think overall I’m not loving up *too* badly, but there’s a few things I’d like to be put right on: The tutorial bot told me I should create a new sector but didn’t tell me *how* - after a bit of googling I found a bunch of angry redditors complaining that sectors don’t actually do much. Should I bother with this? How do I do trade? I’ve build trade hubs in a few systems (after I eventually realised they were a starbase upgrade and not some new thing I had to research), but I can’t really see whether I’m gaining anything from them? One of my more aggressive neighbours has started laying claim to some of my systems - will this have any effect or is he just posturing? (The victory report says we’re of roughly equal military strength). Tech Research seems to be really slow compared to other 4X games and it seems like the fastest way to make progress is to send out as many science ships as possible and hope you find an anomaly that drops a big research reward. (I’ve been building every research station I can but it feels like I’m barely keeping pace with increasing research requirements). Definitely enjoying things so far, but holy poo poo there are a lot of buttons to push.
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Jul 2, 2020 13:30
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Captain Invictus posted:
Thanks, I knew I was loving up trade somehow (I’d been building hubs in every system with the ring icon even though they were only one jump away). I’ll give those videos a watch later and check the mod out.
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Jul 2, 2020 14:49
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about trade
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Kaal posted:*effortpost* Dirk the Average posted:*effortpost* Thanks for both of these- appreciated. It feels like the challenge at this point in the game is in figuring out what’s going to be constraining you 3-4 years from now, since by the time you actually run low on alloys/administrative capacity/ influence it can take a while to actually fix it.
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Jul 2, 2020 20:53
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Think I’m starting to slowly get the hang of things. (Those tutorial videos have helped a lot though I’ve only watched the first couple so far - thanks to Captain Invictus for recommending those). I’m currently fighting a war with the second weakest of my neighbours and not quite clear how to end it. I’ve claimed all his inhabited worlds, occupied/partly occupied all of his systems, destroyed all his fleets and he’s now at 100% exhaustion. He won’t accept my war claims, but will accept a status quo resolution - I *think* this means I get to keep all the fully occupied systems but the partly occupied ones (his planets) revert back to him? If I want to eliminate him entirely do I have to raise armies and invade his planets? (Also a space worm has done some horrific things to my species, but that’s a whole different level of  )
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Jul 7, 2020 13:01
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Is the ‘colonise’ button on the planet screen (known to be) broken? I tried it out about 18 months ago and I swear it sent the colony ship to the wrong world. I assume pressing that button is supposed to queue a colony ship at a nearby starbase and send it to that world?
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Jul 13, 2020 09:11
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Thanks for confirming. Maybe the pathfinding just glitched out? This particular colony was a long distance away via hyperlanes. A few parts of the trade system I’m still struggling with. When I create a new starbase I have to manually add it to the trade network and select a destination, but... since all trade has to go to my capital surely my capital is the only valid destination to pick? Have I missed something or is this just extra busywork? I’m also having difficulty suppressing piracy. My fleet patrols only seem to suppress in the system they’re actually in, not along the entire route. Do I need to set up separate patrols per system? Last question (promise) - I never managed to unlock frigate hulls, even though I’ve now got a number of bigger ships. I was wondering if this was because I was gifted a few frigates during some early event chains - could the game think I already have frigates so doesn’t give them as a research option, or did I just get unlucky with the rng?
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Jul 13, 2020 11:30
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Libluini posted:
I’ve had it happen automatically sometimes as well. Maybe when you conquer a starbase it doesn’t automatically get added? That might have been it (there’s so much stuff in my space now I can’t quite remember whether I built that base or not)
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Jul 13, 2020 12:36
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I never had to do this, what the hell? Every new starbase just automatically links up to your trade network. The only way to break this is to move your capital (which for some reason breaks all your trade connections).
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QuarkJets posted:I never have to manually add trade stations unless they're freshly captured from an enemy or unless there's no valid route between the new starbase and my capital. Nominally you can just direct everything to your capital, but sometimes it makes sense to redirect to a closer station. Sometimes this can be used to minimize patrol lengths, due to how the hyperlanes are setup; imagine 2 starbases that are a distance of 2 from each other but a distance of 5 from the capital, forming a little triangle with no overlapping hyperlanes; the patrol route is shorter if you redirect one starbase to feed to the other. Or maybe you're trying to avoid pathing near a rival or through a wormhole/gateway that you may soon lose access to Thanks, that clears a lot up. One last thing on piracy - does the suppression value on my fleet need to be bigger than the current piracy in system to have any effect? Only I noticed just now when my corvette fleet was patrolling through Alpha centauri the piracy value was staying exactly where it was. The numbers were something like: trade value 532 , max piracy. -133, piracy effects -36 Current piracy -136 Total protection (starbases) 100 Total Suppression (fleet) 108 I can see that the protection from starbases is keeping piracy down by 100 below its max, but the suppression of 108 from my fleet doesn’t seem to be doing anything? Do I just need more corvettes?
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Jul 13, 2020 14:26
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PittTheElder posted:If the piracy effect is already negative, there's no piracy for your fleet to reduce. There’s definitely piracy since I’m losing trade to it! I just wrote it down as a negative since that’s how it’s displayed in the UI.
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Jul 13, 2020 15:30
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Yeah I can see I’ll probably have to build a bunch more starbases down that route in future, only issue is I’m running up against my my capacity limit so I need to think about which ones I need to rip down first. I think I might have expanded too far (currently holding a bit more than a quarter of the map, plus about to fight another war and absorb a vassal so will stretch me even further) but that’s what first play through are for.
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Jul 13, 2020 18:04
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Well that robot revolution was pretty intense.
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Jul 16, 2020 10:23
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I miss my administrative offices. I did love my Titan one-shotting the robot battleships though. That was awesome. DoctorTristan fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 11:23
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I guess I’ve got to the end of the tech tree now - every option is ‘more damage XII’ or ‘leaders live longer XX’. I take it there’s not much left to do other than sit tight and wait for the crisis to arrive? There’s a serious lack of content at this point (what I get for playing on easy I suppose). Seriously considering taking on one of the old empires or just going around cracking everyone’s homeworlds just to amuse myself.
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Jul 17, 2020 15:09
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There’s no path to ring worlds or Dyson Spheres other than the ascension perk, is there? Likewise does psionics always need two ascension perks to fully unlock?
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Jul 17, 2020 16:38
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Is there any way to change the planet killer weapon on a colossus, other than scrapping it and rebuilding?
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Jul 18, 2020 10:21
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binge crotching posted:Research a different weapon, change the ship template, upgrade your colossus to the new template. That did it, thanks. I thought I’d done that already but turns out I’d forgotten to save the new template. On a related note, are strike craft still broken (the bad kind of broken) in 2.7? I found a bunch of old posts that the combination of long travel time/ low damage/ bugs makes carrier battleships basically pointless, but wasn’t sure if that was still current. DoctorTristan fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jul 18, 2020 |
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Jul 18, 2020 17:18
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I ended up rolling with a mixture of carrier cruisers/battleships and torpedo corvettes. I kept the spinal mount weapons on the battleships as they’re just a bit too good to give up and threw in a few destroyers with a bit more point defence. May not have been the optimal build but it was a fun light show. I do find it quite frustrating how long it takes to refit/upgrade fleets - probably because I never put more than one shipyard slot in any given station. Is it worth putting extra shipyard slots in a few key stations to speed this up?
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Jul 20, 2020 08:08
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Will remember that for next playthrough, thanks. I think I’ve done my final fleet upgrade after kicking one of the fallen empires in the shins and stealing their dark matter tech so I’m over the pain anyway.
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Jul 20, 2020 10:21
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Finally finished my first run through a few days ago - the actual crisis ended up feeling quite underwhelming in the end but that’s what I get for playing on easy. I got the Prethoryn - I was expecting the other species they were supposedly fleeing from to show up in the final act, but in the end it was just those two waves that my fleets killed in a single engagement. I decided to go kick over the awakened fallen empire just because I was getting bored - they have a few buildings/ megastructures that were much more effective than anything I’d researched - are those exclusive to fallen empires? The actual end of the game was completely underwhelming though - I was expecting a fanfare or something but it was just a pop up window saying “hey, you win I guess”.
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Jul 28, 2020 12:47
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That reminds me - I genetically modified my whole species a few times but it didn’t always work completely. I’d apply a template to the whole species, but every few years I’d find a few pops appear without those modifications. What can cause this? Is it because they emigrated before the modification then returned after it?
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Jul 28, 2020 22:52
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Thanks, I guess I’ll just keep periodically eugenics-ing my pops then. I also ended up with some pops who were both cybernetic and psionic - was that due to my robot uprising or something else? (I went for the psionic ascension, never deliberately did anything cybernetic AFAIK).
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Jul 29, 2020 10:56
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Got it, thanks. Guess I have them to thank for my Psionic cybernetic manic physicist with his AI assistant - he was giving something like +240% to my research. Is it ever worth deliberately provoking a robot uprising for min-maxing reasons?
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Jul 29, 2020 15:24
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Lightning Knight posted:A robot uprising in your own nation? No, it can roll as robots with no unique civic or as determined exterminators and it results in a strong player spawning who will go to war with you and take your poo poo. I figured that was probably the case - just seemed a bit of a waste of the whole mechanic since it’s so easily avoided and most players will only ever trigger it once.
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Jul 29, 2020 16:05
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I should probably have paid attention to wormhole placement before deciding it was safe to insult the space mongols on the far side of the galaxy.
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Aug 8, 2020 14:48
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Other lessons learned: upgrade the station that’s guarding the wormhole, and my 90 evasion corvettes will still die to ‘autocannon go brrr’. In the end I lost about eight corvettes and an admiral who decided this was the ideal time to become lethargic.
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Aug 9, 2020 00:59
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What tricks are there to max out research as early as possible? So far I’m doing: * build as many labs as possible on a planet with a +research bonus * have a science shop in orbit assisting research * governor with a + research bonus * +research techs obviously * research subsidies edict (once I’ve explored most regions and can turn off map the stars) * swap scientists around to get the best speed bonus on current tech * research director when unlocked Anything I’m missing? So far I’m generating 950 research / month in 2300 - I assume that isn’t particularly impressive and real minmaxers are getting at least double that.
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Aug 11, 2020 10:24
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Gort posted:Optimal play in Stellaris is early takeover of a neighbour or neighbours, since the resources you can get from taking over an enemy homeworld dwarf what you can get from colonising. Another thing to note is that in the early game, tech advantages in warfare take a big backseat to just having more corvettes. Stupid question, but is it necessary to claim your victim’s systems before launching an all-out early war, or does the game gift you all of their territory once you’ve conquered all of their populated worlds?
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Aug 24, 2020 12:01
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Yami Fenrir posted:Any non-claimed systems without planets will have their starbases just completely vanish. Hardly the weirdest mechanic in this game. So is the optimal strategy to claim one system (or whatever else you have to do to get a cassis belli), charge in and invade all their planets, then retake their territory once they give up fighting/existing?
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Aug 24, 2020 13:20
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Does that also apply to the ‘early corvette rush for more pops’ strategy posted upthread? Claiming a significant amount of enemy territory in early game seems like it would be very expensive and slow influence-wise.
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Aug 24, 2020 13:35
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Yami Fenrir posted:No, for that you want the capital planet - that's where all the pops are. Splicer posted:After the very early game actually conquering an empire in one go is usually quite difficult, so you use the status quo peace to nibble away at your opponent until they turn into consumable rump state. Very early game though it's possible to clown an empire so hard that they outright surrender, giving you their delicious, delicious homeworld pops. Gort posted:Claim the populated systems and as much else as you have influence for. The non-populated systems are a bonus - it's nice to get them because it's cheaper than colonising them yourself, but I wouldn't hold off on conquering a homeworld for the non-populated systems in that empire. Thanks everyone. So it’s 1) Rush corvette fleet 2) claim claim claim 3)  4) 
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Aug 24, 2020 15:30
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Splicer posted:Star Wars has no tech trees, only ascensions It has only one event chain that repeats every 20 years or so
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Aug 24, 2020 19:00
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Is it just me or is the amount of influence you get from uplifting species completely insane? Enough for 3 habitats, or an entire constellation’s worth of claims. Is there ever any reason *not* to uplift?
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Aug 29, 2020 14:23
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Is it worth changing ethics to Spiritualist if I’m going with Psionic ascension? I’ve seen a few people comment that spiritualism and psionics synergise well, but I can’t really see how from the ingame tooltips? On that topic, am I correct that the only way to change governing ethics is to embrace a faction that has that ethic?
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Aug 30, 2020 15:48
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Schadenboner posted:*: Something coming after counting more than what came before seems to be the exact opposite of "precedence" but "overwrite" implies an operation that doesn't occur as the files don't actually interact: the later-loaded file is simply used rather that the earlier-loaded one). Postcedence? Supersede. (With apologies for double post)
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Aug 30, 2020 15:51
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Thanks. I haven’t actually tried out the non-Psi ascensions yet - I considered giving bio ascension a go this playthrough but then rolled psionic theory very early on, so  Though I got the Psi jump drive on my very first shroud interaction, so not complaining
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Aug 30, 2020 16:15
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Dirk the Average posted:Bio ascension is just stupidly powerful. It unlocks cloning vats, which are a building that gives 33% pop growth with no jobs. It also unlocks better species traits, like fertile, which gives 30% pop growth and 10% housing reduction, as well as a few other strong population traits. Thanks. I’m going to try bio ascension on my next play through - going to try recreating the Culture so sounds like the best thematic fit.
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Aug 30, 2020 18:40
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I really don’t see how adding a saving throw vs fuckup would make things more fun. There’s definitely a lack of.... something in many of the mid-game techs, whether you call that ‘immersion’, ‘sense of wonder’, or whatever. Terraforming a planet ought to feel like a major, epoch-defining achievement, and certainly more difficult to master than ‘learn to manage two additional starbases’.
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Sep 12, 2020 19:11
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Splicer posted:Everything should be interesting and involved the first time it happens in a run and then slowly drop off to routine the less of an impact it has. Colonizing your first planet should require attention and skill to get perfect; it's a monumental first step for your empire both narratively and mechanically. Colonizing your tenth planet should be press button and gently caress off, because nobody gives a poo poo at that point. Terraforming your first planet (or droid colonizing or signing your first migration pact or uplifting your first species) should require attention and skill to get perfect; it's again a massive narrative leap, nevermind the first step in doubling or more the living space available to your empire. Terraforming your tenth planet should be press button and gently caress off, because nobody gives a poo poo at that point. This is something stellaris consistently fails at. Nothing scales up properly, doing something when you have one of something takes the same effort as when you have 100 of it you're just getting 1% of the relative return on investment. Maybe not even that much - just paying a bit more attention to the details would have gone a long way. Even purely cosmetic things could have made the game that much more immersive, like showing some fireworks around your capital after achieving major milestones as your pops throw a huge party to celebrate, or having the appearance of your ships gradually become more hi-tech as you unlock new tech tiers, or have the cityscape background change to reflect the buildings and districts you’ve constructed. But then again that’s probably expecting too much from a game that didn’t even implement victory conditions.
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Sep 12, 2020 23:52
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Because I have no idea what I’m doing, I built a shitload of robots to get my pops up, unlocked sapient AI, then went psionic and shifted my ethics to spiritualist. Do I now need to purge all my robot pops to stave off a rebellion?
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Sep 18, 2020 11:23
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Black Pants posted:Go into your Policies and see what your AI stance is. If it's set to Servitude rather than Citizen Rights, you've got a chance of being Very hosed if you have droid+ robots around. To be honest, I'm not actually sure what the chance is though because I've only done slave synths once and I got a series of prompts that let me program out any chance of rebellion and everything was sweet after, so I don't know if you can always just do that. I changed it back to citizenship, so I think I should be okay (although those crazy loons destroyed my scientists’ AI assistants before I could stop them...). I didn’t realise any of the events leading up to the war let you program out any rebellion - I assume it’s the ‘nasty’ options where you shut down rebelling units that achieve that? Next up is to see what price I’m going to have to pay for thee pact I just made with the chaos gods...
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Sep 18, 2020 13:54
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