Stellaris: Paradoxian Space Stategy.

[Drasius]

You want science you don't want 40 planets, you want one.

One planet, a nice happy faction to feed you influence, grab as much space science as you can with frontier outposts, have four ships on auto survey w/ survey corps and one on assist research.

It's within the realm of possibility that you complete every non-repeatable tech in at least two branches within 50 years of game start (physics seems to require more science than the others).

For more balanced approach, three planets and seven habitats. Once you get the habs rebuild the planets as minerals only, one full energy hab, and the other habs all 2 energy/9 science.

Populate with synths with share the burden for maximum effect. Take Galactic Force Projection and you can have enough fleet to kill crises/AFEs to boot.

I was going for a galaxy conquering playthrough but with a tech focus early on (and it worked out quite well). Point is, you shouldn't be able to bank science due to survey corps with such little effort, so I'm glad it got changed.

Really? He stalks us here. Wow.

Anyways, I just had a slightly disappointing experience.

I found very early on that my next door neighbor was an ancient empire - the something-something watchers.

Slowly, I built my empire around theirs, until I surrounded them on all sides. Thinking 'this basically cannot end well'. If they ever decide to wake up and go to war - who but me?

Obviously, they eventually did. First, they decided to offer me my very one cage in their favourite zoo. I politely declined. Then, rumors of fleet movements and production increases.

I sent them a gift of some energy and minerals, hoping to buy a little time as I too ramped up my fleet production. To no avail, they declared war literally 10 seconds after politely thanking me for the gift.

Then ....... nothing. They eventually offered me peace without once leaving their systems =(

If they ever decided to wake up and go to war, then the other holy fallen empire (assuming you have them around) is usually the one that gets it unless you (or one of the AI) deliberately provokes them.

[Olinser]

Really? He stalks us here. Wow.

Anyways, I just had a slightly disappointing experience.

I found very early on that my next door neighbor was an ancient empire - the something-something watchers.

Slowly, I built my empire around theirs, until I surrounded them on all sides. Thinking 'this basically cannot end well'. If they ever decide to wake up and go to war - who but me?

Obviously, they eventually did. First, they decided to offer me my very one cage in their favourite zoo. I politely declined. Then, rumors of fleet movements and production increases.

I sent them a gift of some energy and minerals, hoping to buy a little time as I too ramped up my fleet production. To no avail, they declared war literally 10 seconds after politely thanking me for the gift.

Then ....... nothing. They eventually offered me peace without once leaving their systems =(

He doesn't stalk us here, he's sarcastically saying that its not a shock nobody has gotten back to you on this 'issue' because its A) not a bug and B) not posted on the Stellaris forums, where actual bug reports go

[Kaptin Keen]

If they ever decided to wake up and go to war, then the other holy fallen empire (assuming you have them around) is usually the one that gets it unless you (or one of the AI) deliberately provokes them.

All I did to provoke them was deny them the right to put my people in a zoo. And then there's the border friction thing - them being entirely surrounded by me.

My closest planet is in sensor range of their home world - since the latest upgrade. So now I know they have twice my fleet strength. I wonder if I can beat that?! oO

Edit: Aahhh no. No I can't =) Thankfully they remain eager to offer peace at every opportunity.

[Kaptin Keen]

This is propably another thing that cannot happen, so I must be wrong:

Every ten years, the Korinth Enforcers declare war on me, then wait a while, and ask for peace.

Last time they did this, I had their planets inside my sensor range, so I could see their fleets and power. Now, they are outside sensor range.

How is that possible? I've even researched 10% planet sensor range since then =)

[Narkis]

This is propably another thing that cannot happen, so I must be wrong:

Every ten years, the Korinth Enforcers declare war on me, then wait a while, and ask for peace.

Last time they did this, I had their planets inside my sensor range, so I could see their fleets and power. Now, they are outside sensor range.

How is that possible? I've even researched 10% planet sensor range since then =)

Well, Paradox games are kinda known for their bugs. Every single major update in all of their games break in weird and unexpected ways that they then proceed to patch. It's so typical that I can't understand why people refuse to believe you.

But you really should post these problems, including the Fallen's behavior, on the paradox forums. They're obviously unintended bugs, and none of us here can help with something like that.

[boomwolf]

Eeeer, best guess is that you ship sensors picked up the fleets before and now you got no ships in range.

[Kaptin Keen]

Eeeer, best guess is that you ship sensors picked up the fleets before and now you got no ships in range.

Not the ships. I was pretty sure I didn't have any ships in range - but not entirely. But now I've moved my fleets back into attack positions just outside their borders, since they declared war once again.

No, my sensor range decreased either for no reason at all, or some reason I'm plain unaware of.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Did you use to have an Observatory on one of the spaceports that was destroyed or replaced in the interim? That could cause what you're seeing.

[Kaptin Keen]

I had a trade agreement that gave me Zro. Aha! =)

[Kalmageddon]

A while back I posted about the Prethoryn Scourge failing to show up, then taking Sol and not doing anything for years.
I couldn't go and see what was going on because Sol was deep inside the borders of a rival empire, so I assumed the event was bugged and moved on.
Recently, that rival empire declared war on me and I proceeded to mop the floor with their fleet. While I was cleaning up and conquering planets to increase the warscore, I decided that since I was in their borders, it was the perfect occasion to take a look at what the Scourge was up to, so I sent one of my fleets to check them out.
This is when things started going downhill for the galaxy.
I could not have anticipated what I ended up finding there.
Basically, the Scourge had been amassing forces in one single system, not doing anything for whatever reason. When I arrived, the entirety of the system was covered in Scourge ships. I counted 15+ fleets of around 60k power and the system got an artifical satellite ring entirely made of Scourge colony ships. And this was just at first glance, I barely had the time to retreat before losing my entire 50k+ fleet.
It was like poking a wasp nest.
After I escaped, they sent their ships all around Sol, instantly conquering and infesting every system. In 5 months, the Scourge proceeded to cover more or less 20% of the Galaxy in the fastest blitzkrieg I have ever seen, absolutely devastating an Awakened Empire in the process.
Turns out that a Galaxy populated entirely of xenophobic militaristic empires that are constantly at war with me is not well prepared to deal with the Scourge. Because as soon as they had a sizeable fleet, they sent it against me and got devastated, making them an easy target for the Scourge. Right now, all AI's empires are fragmenting, turning into small 1 planet empires due to unrest, which I am proceeding to vassalize as soon as they spawn.
I have 6 planets pumping out battleships custom made to fight the scourge non-stop, completely draining my monthly mineral production. The resulting fleets are sent to the biggest bloodbath I've ever seen in this game, to a single system on the borders of the Awakened Empire, now in ruins, where the Scourge is sending fleet after fleet after fleet against me. It's brutal.
To add insult to injury, since before this ****storm hit I was sitting pretty I used all my available ascension perks to get the galaxy wonders and ringworlds techs, which of course now I can't use because the entirety of my resources are instantly drained just to keep the Scourge in check.
Unfortunately I can't be everywhere at once and the Scourge is slowly expanding in the territory of yet another rival empire, therefore increasing their production.
I think this is it, I don't see a way out of this, unless I can take them down by attrition, which honestly seems unlikely.

[Silverraptor]

the system got an artifical satellite ring entirely made of Scourge colony ships.

I got that ring in a game a while back. Turned it instead to a ring of carcasses.

[Kalmageddon]

I got that ring in a game a while back. Turned it instead to a ring of carcasses.

The fact that ****ing Hive Fleet Leviathan was waiting for me prevented me from doing the same, unfortunately.

[GloatingSwine]

I barely had the time to retreat before losing my entire 50k+ fleet.

I have determined the problem....

When the crisis happens try and get yourself up to about 150k minimum (if you haven't already).

I tend to find about 150-200 cruisers effectively stops crisis fleets, even if you have to mass combat them.

[Kalmageddon]

I have determined the problem....

When the crisis happens try and get yourself up to about 150k minimum (if you haven't already).

I tend to find about 150-200 cruisers effectively stops crisis fleets, even if you have to mass combat them.

Oh I had far more than that, but I had several fleets* of around 50k strength, one of which I used to scout what I assumed was going to be a single infested planet with no ships in sight, because otherwise how could the Scourge only exist there for so long? As I said, I was convinced the event was glitched. And it was. Just not in the way I was hoping for.

*I had to take a multiple fleet approach to the game partly because my territory is fairly big, more or less 1/4 of the galaxy, and also because as I mentioned, due to what I assume to be bad luck, my empire, my immediate neighbor and a bunch of uplifted one planet empires are the only non-xenophobic, non-militaristic factions in the entire map. Basically various hegemonic imperialist and religious zealots empires steamrolled their peaceful neighbours early game and turned the galaxy in a dog eat dog kind of situation. So my peaceful kingdom is constantly besieged from all sides, which means that using a single doomstack of ships would make it impossible to respond to threats.

[Avilan the Grey]

Any tips on videos to watch to really "get" this game? I haven't started it yet; I am hunting for a sale on Utopia.
But: Never got a grip on CKII until after watching Damo2896's let's play of it. He took his time and it was quite obvious what he was doing. Any similar easy to follow Let's Plays of this?

[GloatingSwine]

To be honest, they keep changing it so unless there was a recent video it's going to have some outdated info in it.

That said, this is not as complex as any other Paradox game by far, it's very much more a 4X/very slow RTS than it is a grand strategy.

The basic information for a new player:

1. At the start of the game, space resources are more important than planets. Survey everything around you and focus on building mining stations to get minerals. Only build energy when you would otherwise go into deficit.

2. Start with Kinetic weapons. They're just better at the start. Missiles are a trap do not use them ever. Do not even research missiles. The best thing to do with missiles is to scan debris for them but not complete the research so they stay out of the tech deck.

3. Blue and Orange science are more important than Green science. If you have the choice between science that boosts your economy and a shiny new gun, take the economy.

4. Use frontier outposts to expand your space and grab systems with lots of resources.

5. The best traditions to take early are Prosperity and Discovery.

6. The more planets you colonise, the more expensive your techs and traditions will be. Don't expand too quickly. On the other hand, the more spaceports you have the more ships you can support, so you do want to expand. I would suggest sitting on your first three planets for about 40 years, using frontier outposts to get science resources to tech up, concentrating on new factories, power plants, and spaceport levels for research, then start expanding with what should now be a decent size economy.

7. When you're picking species traits and starting civics, I find it best to go with ones that are good in the early game like Talented, Fast Breeders, and Enduring, over ones that come into their own later like Intelligent or Conservationist.

8. Pacifist is probably a poor ethic choice for a new player. Leave your war options open.

9. Don't bother building destroyers, they're rubbish.

[Kalmageddon]

9. Don't bother building destroyers, they're rubbish.

Are they though? I built a few of them early game and they survived until late game, getting constantly upgraded. And once you get the artillery component they can pack some serious firepower.
Of course, late game it's all about cruisers and battleships, but between destroyers and corvettes I'd much rather use destroyers.
Corvettes are just too squishy, even late game with powerful engines and the enigmatic encoder they die way too easy, mostly because they rush ahead outside of point defense cover and get destroyed by unavoidable weapons.
You could probably make them more viable by having fighter wings fly ahead to intercept incoming fire, but would it be worth it, just to use corvettes?

[GloatingSwine]

Are they though?

Yep. They only survive by accident because nothing prefers shooting them over other targets. They have under-curve utility slots which leaves them lacking in defence and no inherent defences other than an accident of target priority, so when they do get shot at they die far faster than you would otherwise expect.

However, that means that your other ships get focus fired more because you've built less of them because you built destroyers. Ideally you should only ever use one ship type because that makes enemy fire spread out the most. It should also be a ship that uses orbit behaviour, because then enemies will regularly switch target to the nearest ship as they mill around instead of focusing one down until it's dead.

Early game build corvettes, build them cheap and build loads of them. You don't have to care about missiles, missiles lose a hilarious proportion of their DPS to overkill, firing several more salvoes after there's already enough in the air to kill the lead ship in your formation. Sure, some corvettes will die, but that doesn't matter, they're cheap and fast to replace.

Late game build cruisers. Build them with heavy armour to make the most of their over-curve hitpoints, a kinetic battery/artillery to defeat shields and give them range and plasma to cut through the armour of everything else (as long as the target has over about 45% armour, plasma is the most efficient DPS).

[Silverraptor]

Any tips on videos to watch to really "get" this game? I haven't started it yet; I am hunting for a sale on Utopia.
But: Never got a grip on CKII until after watching Damo2896's let's play of it. He took his time and it was quite obvious what he was doing. Any similar easy to follow Let's Plays of this?

Posted this last page but I'll post it again here.



And here is his complete playlist.

He had a non-utopia video up as well before. Not sure where it is. You may need to hunt for it a bit on his channel.

[Avilan the Grey]

While I was waiting for a big backup of our NAS to be done... I created my Space!Soviet empire.

This will be my starting one. Probably not optimal but hey..!

[Silverraptor]

While I was waiting for a big backup of our NAS to be done... I created my Space!Soviet empire.

This will be my starting one. Probably not optimal but hey..!

Hey it's a start. Just have fun with it!

[Kaptin Keen]

I did something stupid - without realising it in advance. I built up my fleet capacity to max, then formed an alliance.

Turns out I'm now suddenly 20% over capacity.

Is there really no way to transfer ships to the federation fleet?

[factotum]

Ideally you should only ever use one ship type because that makes enemy fire spread out the most.

I thought they added a rock/paper/scissors element to the ship types a few patches back? e.g. corvettes are really good against battleships, that sort of thing?

[Silverraptor]

I thought they added a rock/paper/scissors element to the ship types a few patches back? e.g. corvettes are really good against battleships, that sort of thing?

Yes and no. Depends on the weapons mostly. Smaller weapons can track better, but lack the damage of bigger weapons. So large weapons tend to miss corvettes more often while Large weapons can do the damage necessary to take out battle ships and such.

[Drasius]

I thought they added a rock/paper/scissors element to the ship types a few patches back? e.g. corvettes are really good against battleships, that sort of thing?

From my limited experience, medium weapons have "enough" tracking to drop covettes at an acceptable rate while your CR/BB's just soak enough damage through regen and armour (since the small weapons on CC's don't pack enough punch to get through armour and/or regenerating shields). Basically, as long as you don't go All-Large-Guns-All-The-Time!, you're fine. Plus one ship with the firepower of 4 small ships will kill 4 small ships since the only HP that matters is the last one and the small ships lose damage as they get picked off, though there is some tracking shenanigans with their circling since guns only have a certain arc, but med weapons also have more range, so the big ships are firing earlier too.

Basically, CR master-race for the win.

[Vaz]

Early game though, there is a case for just avoiding any improvements to your Corvettes, and just running nude Level 1 Corvettes. Mineral for Mineral, you get more firepower from having more Corvettes.

[GloatingSwine]

I thought they added a rock/paper/scissors element to the ship types a few patches back? e.g. corvettes are really good against battleships, that sort of thing?

They've always intended that to be true, but it's never actually worked out that way.

Corvettes are really good against everything, with the caveat that you have to build thousands of them. At an equal mineral cost, absolutely no other ship design will beat the starting 3 railgun corvette. Everything else is strictly less mineral efficient.

Cruisers are the most efficient in terms of fleet capacity, they are the toughest ship design for their capacity (most ship factors scale up 1:2:4:8 as sizes increase, eg. a Corvette has 3 guns, destroyers have the equivalent of 6, cruisers 12, and battleships 24. However, cruisers get an extra 400HP, having 1600 instead of 1200. That means that anything that increases the value of hitpoints, like armour or HP bonus equipment, is more valuable on a cruiser than anything else. Cruisers can also reach the armour cap, making low-AP weapons less effective against them. As an example of how potent cruisers are it took an AI 21 battleships, 22 cruisers, 22 destroyers, 23 corvettes, and 65 fallen empire escorts to down one of my fleets of 50 cruisers. They were fully equipped with lances, matter disintegrators in all their slots, tier 6 power and shields, several levels of repeat tech, and even their cruisers are pushing 75% armour)

They had a 2:1 fleetpower advantage of absolute max tech and came out with less than a quarter of their force remaining. (and only the fallen empire's ships really turned the tide, without them it would have been about even fleetpower and a one sided slaughter.) Because I monobuilt highly effective cruisers

(I have three other fleets the same size and composition)

[Kalmageddon]

Welp. So much for the most epic game I've ever had in Stellaris.
Game crashes, without fail, at date 2460.8.1.
I've tried everything, from loading a previous save, to not doing specific actions, to validating files on Steam... Nothing.
Game's screwed. ****.

[Vaz]

What version of the game did you play? What mods were used (if any?). Can you pin point the event that's happening in 2480? If not, have you tried disabling the AI using console commands, and then re-enabling it post date?

[boomwolf]

Also-did you hit a crisis yet?

Because if not, maybe one is supposed to trigger, and that causes the crash due to mod issue (judging soley by year. 2480 seems like the right time.)