Stellaris II: I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Fungus Hivemind Overlords

[factotum]

Eh? How on earth can you have a size 55 planet?

I notice 2.0.5 has dropped--presumably this fixes the major problems with 2.0.4?

[tonberrian]

Eh? How on earth can you have a size 55 planet?

I notice 2.0.5 has dropped--presumably this fixes the major problems with 2.0.4?

Non-habitable planets can have sizes greater than 25. If for some reason that planet becomes habitable afterwards, like the terraform anomaly or, apparently, embracing the worm, the planet caps out at 25 tiles.

[factotum]

Non-habitable planets can have sizes greater than 25. If for some reason that planet becomes habitable afterwards, like the terraform anomaly or, apparently, embracing the worm, the planet caps out at 25 tiles.

But Tomb Worlds *are* habitable, providing you have the right perks? And GloatingSwine's screenshot definitely shows that size 55 planet having 100% habitability.

[Sian]

you're missing the point

the thing that happened there was that the Worm transformed a Deceptively small Gas Giant into a Tomb World, which is then habitable

[factotum]

But you said that the planet would be capped at 25 tiles if it became habitable, and that's clearly not the case here?

[Adrastos42]

But you said that the planet would be capped at 25 tiles if it became habitable, and that's clearly not the case here?

Only 25 tiles max are visible and usable regardless of how many the planet actually has, is what I think is being said here.

[Sian]

The size is shown as 55 but the game doesn’t know how to handle anything over 25 tiles and would neither show more nor be able to use more

[factotum]

Only 25 tiles max are visible and usable regardless of how many the planet actually has, is what I think is being said here.

Thank you! That makes sense, then, in that case.

[Silverraptor]

I recently finished my 2.0 playthrough of my Stellaris campaign. Finally got there in the end! Now just need to finish uploading the videos.

[Sian]

Distant stars are going to drop May 22th

[Aotrs Commander]

Distant stars are going to drop May 22th

Oh, great. Thats sooner than I expected.

Of course, that means the ACTUAL release date (for y'know, when they fix all the large bugs they introduce with it - it's not that I don't trust you PDX, but out of all your games, Stellaris has suffered from this pretty often!) is probably a couple of weeks away.

So MAYBE I might actually try playing a game, instead of waiting for "no, the next patch is going to be So Much Better, Let's Wait."

'Cos the last game I played for more than a cursory nosey was, like... 1.5...?



Seem to spend my life waiting for patches at the moment...

Waiting for War for the Overworld to patch the first expansion campaign that's bugged out with the newest one (though to be fair, managed that and the remastered campaign fine, and the scenarios and such are perfectly fine!), Obsidian to fix NPC relations, since the last patch didn't do it (and am pretty sure I might end up re-starting, though it has been 21 hours...!), waiting for Stellaris to be Dead Good, waiting for Hearts of Iron IV's next patch (since that's supposed to be naval and by all accounts the naval game is pants right now)...!



Gonna be an expensive week, actually. I was intending to pick up Apocalypse in the next sale (at release, I was hip-deep in Witcher 3, so there didn't seem a rush, especiall with the aforementioned bugs...!), so might as well pre-orderDistant stars while i'm at it - and there's a book coming out later in the week i want, and the next volume of Naruto DVD coming out so I'mma get all the ones up to that, to...!

[Sian]

While I don't deny that there is bugs in Paradox games (they are in just about any game in existence, which is logical if you start comparing the number of Q/A hours vs. Player hours ... and at least Paradox are good at releasing hotfixes, specially for anything remotely egregious), IMHO they vastly exaggerated and usually only relevant if you go out of your way, pushing the game to the extreme.

I've never sat around waiting for the patches being hotfixed a handful of times (... which is not to say that I haven't held onto a previous patch to complete my current game), and I've never encountered any bug of Paradox's that was so severe that I couldn't play

[Aotrs Commander]

While I don't deny that there is bugs in Paradox games (they are in just about any game in existence, which is logical if you start comparing the number of Q/A hours vs. Player hours ... and at least Paradox are good at releasing hotfixes, specially for anything remotely egregious), IMHO they vastly exaggerated and usually only relevant if you go out of your way, pushing the game to the extreme.

I've never sat around waiting for the patches being hotfixed a handful of times (... which is not to say that I haven't held onto a previous patch to complete my current game), and I've never encountered any bug of Paradox's that was so severe that I couldn't play

Stellaris' 1.6 which meant the AI couldn't declare war?

Granted, that has been, I think, the worst and they hot fixed within a couple of days, but...

I have found, in general, that Stellaris has had more of the unfortunate release bugs than CK2 or EUIV (though there have been a couple of those releases where it was "nope, wait for patch" and with Stellaris, often the new things I have wanted to play (Hive minds, then machine empires) have been... Considered poor to start with (or buggy) and I've waited for the balancing patch... At which point, the next DLC has been annouced and then it's been "you know what? That looks amazing, wait for that DLC." And then wait for the patch (because 2.0 issues (and Witcher 3) and then Distant Stars...

It was more of a jibe, though, than a complaint. Games this complex aren't easy to get big-free (like everything else, you can pretty much garentee you won't find the problems until out in the wild where you have orders of magnitude more runs), so it's expected in the main... Just they have dropped the ball once or twice with Stellaris with stuff they REALLY should have caught (the aforementioned 1.6), and for that, some good natured ribbing is fitting punishment.

[boomwolf]

You guys are silly.

Stellaris expansions are not released with bugs.
Bugs are released with Stellaris expansions.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So... tried out the new patch. Created myself a robotic race, but didn't pick any of the three AI specific traditions, going instead for Overclockers (+1 Leader cap and bonus xp gain on immortal leaders sounds like a good deal) and a few other things. The basic robots are Bulky, Miner, and Energy. This is getting set up for future upgrades.

Then within three jumps of my home system is the home system of a Fanatical Purifier... Fortunately, at the moment, it seems like there is only one way to get to my space from his, and I own my end of the chokepoint already. Looks like it's time to build up an early Starbase to keep him off my arse while I build up...

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay, the Contingency are ridiculous.

600 stars-galaxy, in bottom difficulty, whatever default crisis strength. 2456, ghost signal spawns. Well into repeatables (like IV to V).

I have just under 680 naval capacity, and up to over 700 when they arrive. I have gateways and L-gate basically EVERYWHERE, so at least my fleets don't have too far to jump - virtually nothing is more than a couple of stars away.

Naturally two hubs spawn more-or-less right on my borders, one not to far away and the last, at least, is in the middle of the fanatic purifiers.

Small comfort, because I am the only galactic power of note, since I just wiped the Fallen Empire in one go. Everyone else in the galaxy is Pathetic, so I can't rely on them other than to be a speedbump.

I am a synthetic ascended empire, which means I'm immediately screwed, because the 50% of the population that didn't use to be organic (the ones that, y'know, do all the resources) are immediately at -70%, and as soon as my fleets leave port (three 65-70k fleets plus a forth still building and a bit spare) my mineral income tanks to about 10% of what it was. (From 1.1k to 143). I only have a couple of hundred influence to spare to drain my sectors mineral stores. My three fleets get completely obliterated trying to attack any hub worlds. They seem to just about manage to handle the 78k fleets that come out, but this ain't good.

From the wiki it looks like I am screwed, as for some stupid reason, only machine empires get to block the ghost signal AND they get less of a penalty. (So is this crisis designed to SPECFICICALLY screw materialists up (and if so, why do the other crises not specifically screw other ethics up?)

My fleets are... Not optimised for fighting the Contingency (as I took a general apporoach). If I go back to the point they ghost signal event came out, I might maybe be able to re-equip them feasibly in time.

Does this mean I have to down grade ALL my combat computers from AI? (That probably doesn't show up on the fleet strength and from the wiki, is probably murdering me.) The suggestions appear to be dump armour for shields and hit points, arc emitter battleships and torpedo corvette swarms seem to be the suggestions - anyone want to expand on that?



And given how I abandoned the machine uprising as being ridiculous (no chance of winning at all, without me deliberately sabotaging my empire - and probably not even then), apparently this playthrough is running the gamut of the sublime to ridiuculous...

[Silverraptor]

You want to downgrade all Combat computers from AI to Advanced. You want to focus shield strength and anti-shield strength.

[Madcrafter]

Yeah downgrade your computers and try to focus on one machine world to lessen the signal strength.

Also you should take a look at the actual ships they're fielding; IIRC when I went against them after the patch they had changed a bit so that armour wasn't a complete waste. In the end I think I settled on carrier battleship monofleets, since they seemed the most effective of the things I tried, but I doubt it's very efficient, especially if resource production is low.

[Silverraptor]

You really need to focus on destroying the sterilization hubs. Those are the planets that generate more contingency fleets, so the more you take out, the weaker the signal becomes and the fewer the fleets that spawn. If you need further help, you can watch my playthrough. I pretty much single handedly provide the only meaningful galactic challenge to the Contingency. If it would help give you an idea.

[Name_Here]

I morphed my fleets around weapons that ignore shields and armor. So arc emitters and disrupters in as many numbers as you can. Then focus on defeating the ones on your borders and retaking any planets they manage to snag during your build up.

Then when you have the force crack open the sterilization center and then the next one will be easier and the one after that easier still

[boomwolf]

Just wondering
Anyone else ran into a system with no hyperlane connections at all that cannot be jumped into?

Because I'm struggling to figure out what's the deal there.

[factotum]

Just wondering
Anyone else ran into a system with no hyperlane connections at all that cannot be jumped into?

Because I'm struggling to figure out what's the deal there.

Could that be one of those new things added by the L-gate stuff in Distant Worlds? I'm not far enough into my 2.1 game to know--I think I'm something like 2/7 for the L-gate questline.

[peacenlove]

Just wondering
Anyone else ran into a system with no hyperlane connections at all that cannot be jumped into?

Because I'm struggling to figure out what's the deal there.

There is a system with a Psionic entity Leviathan that is accessible only via a natural wormhole. Didn't fight him yet.
This is only in Distant worlds story pack IIRC.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, I hopped back to the first point of the ghost signal and prepared, now more ready for what was coming.

After some trouble due to the ship designer combat computer display bug (I ended up refitting my ships three times before I googled and found the issue)...

O...kay. Stripping out the armour on all my ships for Infused Crystal Plating, dropping all of the auxillary targeting computers and switching everything to either kinetic artillery, disrupters and a few missiles uppedmy fleet power from about 65k-70k to 90-100k. That... Was a bit of a boost. Made more difference than I thought. (I mean, I didn't think my fleets were that badly designed, but...!)

This time, two fleets took the first hub with a fair bit of expediency, since it was only one jump away from where I'd stationed my fleets in my vassal's system ready. I imagine being able to fire twice as fast probably had a lot to do with it.

With the sensible building of More Starbases (ten of 'em) and basically having them build anchourages then logistics centres, then upgraade, then anchourages, I also managed to keep my fleet cap above the limit. And economy not tanked too badly this time (probably because of that).



Edit: After about three hours and thirty-odd years, the Contingency were defeated. Once I had the right set-up, it was much easier (though my economy not being in the toilet helped with reinforcements).

The last bit of the Contigency (bar the homeworld) in the fanatic purifer space ate a good half of their territory. Which I have, of course, dashed through with y constructiob ships to grab the last choke point and ensure they don't get it back! Thanks, Contingency!

[Silverraptor]

If you prepare for it properly so you can stand on your own against the contingency, it does make a good galactic eraser. Essentially doing your work for you.

[factotum]

Stellaris is so much about cheesing your ship builds to counter whatever your enemy is going to throw at you. I sometimes think they should massively increase the time it takes to refit your fleets, because you can often redesign your ships to counter your current attackers and have them ready to go before they've managed to take more than a couple of your systems...seems a bit cheaty, almost.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If you prepare for it properly so you can stand on your own against the contingency, it does make a good galactic eraser. Essentially doing your work for you.

Your Let's Play series is a good example of that. "Okay, now that we've taken that one machine world down, let's go take out these other jerks while they're busy with their end of the Contingency"

[Silverraptor]

Your Let's Play series is a good example of that. "Okay, now that we've taken that one machine world down, let's go take out these other jerks while they're busy with their end of the Contingency"

Hey! I took out 3 machine worlds by myself! If the rest of the galaxy really cared, they could have atleast sprung together and taken out the last one in that time!

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, a bit of clear-up and done. Domination victory 2 3/4 f the way through the ring world. I elected to just finish the Ringworld for the sake of arguement, then called it quits. Not really, I felt, much point in curb-stomping the few pitiful powers left for the sake of map-painting.

This, my third proper game, marls the first time I have technically "won." I abandoned my first game when the Swarm arrived and were far beyond what it was worht playing to handle, my second I called quits after beating the unbidden (and I was, like, but halfway through the number of planets required for a domination victory and I'd modded my core systems to the point I didn't have sectors - this was pre the much welcomed ability to build in your sectors, also known as the "I don't care too much now once I've put the basics down.)

Probably a good fifty odd-hours, I reckon. Definitely Stellaris is much shorter than EUIV, CK2 or Vicky 2.

Still, BIG positive - with the new anomaly system, I, for rare occasion, felt no need to have to be reloading a lot, which made this easily the most faff-free PDX game. The bad events mostly come from you chosing the "wrong" path on events, and i'm fine with that - and what stress there was (the Contingency) was the sort of thing that you cna deal with with planning around.

Still disappointed the machine uprising was so lame...

Still, means that when I play again as a machine empire determined exterminator, it'll be all new!

(After that I reckons maybe a game when one plays tall, with maxed primatives and large numbers of habitable worlds, where one sits sfae in ones borders and tries to make as many little nations as possible ans set them at each other's throats for kicks and giggles... But that might be a good 'un to save for the next expansion.)

[factotum]

Probably a good fifty odd-hours, I reckon. Definitely Stellaris is much shorter than EUIV, CK2 or Vicky 2.

I've got more than 200 hours in it and I've only played three major games in Stellaris...guess I probably just play a lot slower than you?