Stellaris: Paradoxian Space Stategy.

[Siosilvar]

Be careful what you wish for. EU's Comet events have something like six different courses of action to choose from

I think it's five, isn't it? And they want to add more, but that would require rewriting the entire event system.

[Grif]

I think it's five, isn't it? And they want to add more, but that would require rewriting the entire event system.

Six now, last I checked. (as of patch 1.16)

[Leecros]

I think it's five, isn't it? And they want to add more, but that would require rewriting the entire event system.

If it means adding to their running joke with the Comet Sighted getting a new option with each major DLC.. I'm sure they will do whatever it takes...

[IthilanorStPete]

Be careful what you wish for. EU's Comet events have something like six different courses of action to choose from

Thank God we live in such enlightened times. Comet Sighted in Stellaris would probably be some sort of instant win, extrapolating the change from EU to Vicky.

[tonberrian]

Thank God we live in such enlightened times. Comet Sighted in Stellaris would probably be some sort of instant win, extrapolating the change from EU to Vicky.

It isn't. It is in the game, it seems to give different choices (and bonuses) based on your ethics.

[IthilanorStPete]

It isn't. It is in the game, it seems to give different choices (and bonuses) based on your ethics.

Ah, ok. I'm content with them continuing the running gag.

[Driderman]

It isn't. It is in the game, it seems to give different choices (and bonuses) based on your ethics.

Yeah, Spiritualists see it as a sign of their divine right, Materialists (I think it its) don't give a ****, etc.

[Trekkin]

I was bummed enough by only ever seeing the comet as Fanatic Materialists to go ack-grep the event down in the files. It's in country_events_2.

Empires without any Fanatic ethics, along with Fanatic Xenophiles and Fanatic Pacifists, get an Influence reward (of 40).

Fanatic Xenophobes and Fanatic Collectivists get -15% Happiness for 180 days.

Everyone else gets +15% Happiness for 360 Days, except for Fanatic Materialists, who get exactly nothing.

[Aotrs Commander]

Six now, last I checked. (as of patch 1.16)

Seven, it appears from the wiki, though two of those are mutually exclusive.

And now I understand WHY there are so many.

[GloatingSwine]

In non-comet related news, the Happy Space Penguins are becoming restive. They clearly see that everyone else is less happy (or else they wouldn't come and fill up our planets every time we sign a migration agreement), and will soon be acting to spread the happiness, whether people want it or not.

My ship designs are nearing max tech, with only Tachyon Lances and class 5 thrusters really left to get*, sociology techs are just down to the repeating ones now, and I have 8x 9k fleet elements.

But first, there is a particularly grumpy fallen empire to the north that need to learn about happiness, still Superior fleets to me though, so need to fill in some of the interstitial planets to get more pop and maybe get about 50% more fleet strength, 12x fleet elements working it two or three clumps should do the trick. (Need to be able to intercept around 6 17k fleets to take on an FE)

Once they've fallen, the happiness crusade will be ready to begin.


* I probably won't be building Cheese Corvettes.

[Spacewolf]

So is there anyway to force the game to start you in an empty section of space I'd prefer to have abit more of an exploration phase before first contact (Especially if the game is going to keep putting me between 3 empires one of which is overwhelming in every way and a zealot.) the way the game does it currently kind of defeats sense of scale.

[Cikomyr]

Just make a Large galaxy and minimum AI.

...i might actually try out that

[GloatingSwine]

So is there anyway to force the game to start you in an empty section of space I'd prefer to have abit more of an exploration phase before first contact (Especially if the game is going to keep putting me between 3 empires one of which is overwhelming in every way and a zealot.) the way the game does it currently kind of defeats sense of scale.

Reduce the number of starting AI.

My current game is on a Huge galaxy and started with only 10 species (me + 9 AI).

Blobs in this game be huge.

I was worried the AI would be passive and small, but they aren't, they've blobbed huge, I'm far from the biggest blob (though I've got the best tech and biggest fleets).

(Only real sticking point is that basically everyone spawned peaceful, so there's been relatively little drama.)

[Spacewolf]

I normally go for Large 4 arm spiral with 5 starts and it seems like it's lying to me about that since there is always atleast 2 factions within 3-4 jumps of my home world.

[GloatingSwine]

I normally go for Large 4 arm spiral with 5 starts and it seems like it's lying to me about that since there is always atleast 2 factions within 3-4 jumps of my home world.

I think there are preset "starting" planets, and if they don't roll a proper species they'll have a pre-space one on.

So it's possible that even with relatively few starts you could have close neighbours, but if you start on a spiral galaxy you'll probably find the other arms were clear (use wormholes so you can get straight to them)

[Siosilvar]

You're probably just unlucky. I've started five or six Large and Huge galaxies with at least the default number of empires and always felt I had enough room to expand except on ring galaxies. Once I even had too much room to expand, there could've easily been 3 empires near me but I think the Fallen Empires force a 1-empire clear space and I got lucky on the slot next to me.

[factotum]

I normally go for Large 4 arm spiral with 5 starts and it seems like it's lying to me about that since there is always atleast 2 factions within 3-4 jumps of my home world.

I have a game started in a four-arm large galaxy with the regular number of starters, and I've so far yet to encounter another race along the arm I started on, even after having explored at least a quarter circle. There are loads of empires across on the next arm over, though!

[GloatingSwine]

Blob hard then, grab all that space, bring spacefreedom to the spaceoil.


I had the Unbidden appear in my game.

It was unfortunate for them, I was gunning up to fight a Fallen Empire and they appeared in the middle of my space, so by the time the second fleet had entered through their dimensional rift I had 3x 36k doomstacks coming to sort the problem out, and the only thing that really delayed my saving of the galaxy from extradimensional invaders was the fact that I was getting about 2fps with all those ships in system.

The Fallen Empire has told me I am on notice now though after I slightly accidentally on purpose provoked them, so my fleets are holding station on their borders waiting for kickoff and I am building psionic armies to invade their ringworlds.

[DigoDragon]

after I slightly accidentally on purpose provoked them

Hey, such accidents happen. All the time. Like clockwork.

so my fleets are holding station on their borders waiting for kickoff

What I like about GalCiv2 is that you cannot do that without annoying your neighbor. They will notice the arms race on the border and tell you so. :D

It's a great tactic if you want to goad an opponent into striking first.

[Artanis]

What I like about GalCiv2 is that you cannot do that without annoying your neighbor. They will notice the arms race on the border and tell you so. :D

It's a great tactic if you want to goad an opponent into striking first.

They even mock you if you're playing on the easier difficulties when you do it.

"I know what you're doing. You're building up those fleets to attack me and think I don't notice. Well, I do notice, and the only reason I'm not stopping you is because this difficulty setting doesn't let me."

[DigoDragon]

They even mock you if you're playing on the easier difficulties when you do it.

"I know what you're doing. You're building up those fleets to attack me and think I don't notice. Well, I do notice, and the only reason I'm not stopping you is because this difficulty setting doesn't let me."

YES. This is the mark of a great dev team. XD

[Astrella]

Hi all,

Do you think I'd enjoy Stelaris? I've played Gal Civ 2 and the Space Empires series before and I like space and games with stuff to discover / explore.

[Silfir]

I bounced completely off of GalCiv 2, but I'm enjoying Stellaris. You might get the opposite result.

[Spacewolf]

One thing I really like in this game is observation platforms, I've gone to war twice in my current game over keeping hyperspace lane access to planets I've had them on. It's abit of a shame you cant interact with the civs beyond afew basic events though, I want to set myself up as a god on the Iron age planets, kidnap some of the artists from the renaissance planets and show them the wonders of the galaxy to see what they do, not sure what I would do for the Atomic age planets but I'm sure there is something.

On a slightly related note can Neolithic age cultures ever become a true civ because there is a planet in my territory with Strong Gravity, Giant inhabitants and Neolithic age culture whose inhabitants I want to uplift but don't know how. (Infact I haven't seen any options relating to uplifting since I did the research.)

[GloatingSwine]

I want to set myself up as a god on the Iron age planets

This is an event chain which can actually happen.

One of your scientists can go rogue and proclaim himself a god to the locals, Goa'uld style, and you have various choices about how to resolve it, up to having to send troops to the planet to sort him out (or they dismiss him and nothing happens).

Also the infiltration option has a chance of spawning X-Com to fight you off.


I'm not sure if the stone age guys can become a civ (the primitive ones can into space on their own and become real sides), the interactions for them all happen if you colonise the planet.



Fallen empire has now fallen, and I have two ringworld full of stroppy snake people who hate everyone and need reeducation. Deploy the orbital mind control lasers.

[factotum]

(Infact I haven't seen any options relating to uplifting since I did the research.)

Somebody earlier in the thread said you have to settle the world with the species you want to uplift, and the Uplift option will then become available in the Species tab in Contacts.

[Grif]

On a slightly related note can Neolithic age cultures ever become a true civ because there is a planet in my territory with Strong Gravity, Giant inhabitants and Neolithic age culture whose inhabitants I want to uplift but don't know how. (Infact I haven't seen any options relating to uplifting since I did the research.)

I have heard these stone age cultures will eventually advance via event, but right now, they sit at that awkward phase between pre-sentient and civilized primitives. Which is annoying because for those with policies that forbid active interaction, their planets are just automatically locked off without a chance to colonise or even interact via observation station.

EDIT: In other news, my intelligent hyper-research focused space reptiles experiment is doing well. I managed to outpace most of my contemporary empires in terms of tech, and the fact that I looted level V weapons, shields and reactors off Sanctuary helped a lot as well. Certainly looking to be a steam-roll again, but I'm curious to see if I can deal with crisises.

[Narkis]

On a slightly related note can Neolithic age cultures ever become a true civ because there is a planet in my territory with Strong Gravity, Giant inhabitants and Neolithic age culture whose inhabitants I want to uplift but don't know how. (Infact I haven't seen any options relating to uplifting since I did the research.)

I don't believe they can progress on their own. Or at least it's so slow that I haven't seen it yet. But if you colonize the planet normaly you'll get options on what to do with the primitives.

Hi all,

Do you think I'd enjoy Stelaris? I've played Gal Civ 2 and the Space Empires series before and I like space and games with stuff to discover / explore.

GalCiv 2 is my favorite space 4x game of all time. SE4 is in the top 5. Stellaris has issues, but I love it. I fully expect it to take the top spot in a few months, once the problems have been fixed and its mechanics have been fleshed out with DLC.

[Trekkin]

Hi all,

Do you think I'd enjoy Stelaris? I've played Gal Civ 2 and the Space Empires series before and I like space and games with stuff to discover / explore.

Having played both GalCiv 2 and SEIV/V to death, I'm not sure.

Stellaris is presently on the shallow end of 4X in my opinion, especially when compared to Space Empires (or Aurora). That's good in a lot of ways, since there's only four tiers of buildings to upgrade through instead of a hundred and just generally a lot less clicking, but planetary development and ship design feel much more restricted. There just aren't enough slots.

There's no equivalent to the Stellar Manipulation tech tree, either. The best Stellaris gets is rather anemic terraforming; there's no building ringworlds or imploding stars or assembling planets from scratch.

GalCiv is somewhat closer, but the way they tell their stories feels different. GalCiv always felt like it had one story that you played through from different perspectives. The Unified Planets and the morality system in particular felt sort of like playing an RPG with an interstellar empire as my character. Stellaris doesn't have that sense of an overarching embedded narrative; there's you, whoever you're interacting with, and a stream of semi-random events, but no sense that, say, X are "the bad guys". With a few non-playable and extraordinary exceptions, anyway.

I definitely like Stellaris' exploration mechanics a lot more than either of them, though. It has definite echoes of Star Trek, in that you aren't just mapping territory but also exploring the unknown in a very episodic-feeling way. I feel like they strike a good balance between reactive and proactive events, enough so that I don't mind all the early-game first-contact things delaying my Society research.

So there's my $0.02.

[Astrella]

Well both the society aspects and the event chains seems very interesting to me. Planetary development and ship design not being super detailed is a bit less of a downside I think for me personally cause those aren't really the aspects I find the most interesting in 4X games. The other game I'm currently looking at is Distant Worlds, but the ship graphics for that one are sorta putting me off.