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

[Eldan]

What if there was a Endgame Crisis that wasn't military in nature? How might something like that work, in terms of an end-goal or obstacles? Just brainstorming, basically.

An AI crisis could always have been a bit more interesting. Instead of just taking over robot pops and ships, I'd really like to see an AI crashing your research databases, or your stock market.

[Grif]

I feel like planets fill up *way* faster the more species you have (that actually like the biome, of course).

Or in the rare case, you have pops that dont like the biomes immigrating too. (Or refugees. I can't tell.)

[druid91]

Is it just me, or does post 2.0 feel slower and buggier?

[GloatingSwine]

I haven't noticed any major speed change since 2.0.

2.2 is apparently considerably faster though due to one of the major loads being AI pop management which no longer exists.

[Martok]

Is it just me, or does post 2.0 feel slower and buggier?

It's not just you, no. In a lot of ways, 2.0 was a major step backward for the game.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Been playing again, came up with a few thoughts...

Voidborn is good if you want to get into megastructures as quickly and efficiently as possible, because you go for some ascendency, then Voidborn, then Master Builders, then finally into the megastructure construction as your 4th option. However, if you don't, then you don't qualify for Master Builders until after Megastructures, which has to be the 4th regardless because it requires three other ascendency perks first, meaning you can't just start building your Dyson Sphere or Ringworld or whatever as cheaply until after your next ascendency perk gain. Of course, Habitats are a bit of a nuisance to begin with, I've only recently discovered how efficient they aren't. So this time I'm skipping it all together, and just settling for being unable to build megastructures as rapidly until my fifth ascension slot.

I'm trying to stack tall instead of deep this run, so I only have three planets colonized, however both of my colonies have population caps over 20. I'm trying to keep down the incidental costs of tech and unity for now.

In other news, this is probably my first game where my neighbor doesn't immediately want to rip out my guts, and HIS neighbor is at least tolerably amused by me. I've already got a non-aggression pact with my neighbor, which seems pretty mutually beneficial. Unfortunately for him, I 'accidentally' expanded into his two choke points, meaning either he has to war with me or his other neighbor to go anywhere, preventing him from being a major long-term threat without at least warning me of his hostile nature by breaking the treaty with me or his other neighbor first.

I've run into an interesting FE. It has three systems with ringworlds set up. I'm a bit concerned because they were preserving biologicals from <Data Corrupted>, which makes me worry about the Ghost Signal as my long-term crisis event. Considering I'm playing as an AI race... this is troublesome. I am also absolutely salivating over the thought of those ringworlds belonging to me. Obviously, I don't have near the fleet strength or the tech to deal with them now, but there will come a day... oh yes, there WILL come a day. I still need megastructure ascendency to repair ringworlds, right?

I've also got a couple of enclaves in my territory, one artist troupe and one science.

The only really hostile fellows in 'town' are blocked by the FE, so a non-threat at the moment. They only have an equivelant fleet strength anyway, I'm not too concerned about them yet. They are adjacent to a fairly friendly race, and since they're xenophobic, I foresee a war breaking out in that region in the not too distant future.

Currently working on cruiser tech, my single fleet consists of ten destroyers in an 1L/3S configuration. No one yet has any missiles or hangar bays, so there's no need for PD. I haven't built up yet because I haven't really felt a need to and I'm a bit poor at the moment from trading with the various enclaves, so I don't really want to increase my maintenance costs to the point that I can't keep up. I probably could work it up to max fleet strength if I wanted to, but honestly it won't take me long if I have a sudden need to and I am focusing my efforts on other areas at the moment. It's not like any of these ships are still likely to be in commission in the end game anyway. Hoping to unlock Terraforming and Star Fortress tech soonish, although I'll definitely snap up Battleship construction if it pops up next.

It's not a shabby place to be at the moment. I'm working on slowly but surely surveying and claiming with a pair of science vessels and a pair of construction ships behind them.

[GloatingSwine]

I've been playing the New Horizons Star Trek mod.

I think it improves quite a lot over the base game, especially in fleets and in special mechanics like the Federation Council that lets you do diplomacy, change some special policies, and get special techs based on who your members are (other species have their own like the Obsidian Order or Tal'Shiar).

My super-late-game fleets in this mod have 5 ships in, and that uses 248 fleet cap.

That means each individual ship means way more.

It does tank performance though, with a 1400 star galaxy with about 60 empires scurrying around.

Spoiler: There have, however, been some unforseen outcomes...

Show

What could possibly go wrong?

[Kish]

Well, for one thing that could possibly go wrong, the picture in your spoiler box could not show up for the same reason your avatar isn't.

[tonberrian]

To be more precise - imgur no longer works on the Playground. We can't even for the most part tell that an imgur image has been posted - it's blank. You can see it, because caching. We can't.

[factotum]

To be more precise - imgur no longer works on the Playground. We can't even for the most part tell that an imgur image has been posted - it's blank. You can see it, because caching. We can't.

If you click reply on his post you can extract the Imgur link from the text and view it that way--bit awkward, true, but it works.

[Eldan]

So, who else is super excited for Megacorp? Playing a crime syndicate sounds delicious.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I'm excited to combine the crime syndicate and mega-church rules to play as a galaxy-spanning cult!

Edit: This is basically the Foundation series expansion, isn't it? I'm very excited.

[Eldan]

We already had a patch called Asimov, but yeah, I guess it is.

Why is this one called Le Guin anyway? I don't see anything that connects to any Le Guin novels I've read.

[factotum]

Was there anything linking to Asimov's work in the Asimov expansion? Pretty sure they're just using random SF author names.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

We already had a patch called Asimov, but yeah, I guess it is.

Why is this one called Le Guin anyway? I don't see anything that connects to any Le Guin novels I've read.

Have they been matching up names to content previously, or just going through the Sci-Fi touchstones?

[Eldan]

Have they been matching up names to content previously, or just going through the Sci-Fi touchstones?

Hmmm....

Heinlein - Leviathans. Free Features: auto-explore, rallying navies, expansion planner, strategic resources, revised ship types, sector governors. He doesn't deal much with large ship fleets or interplanetary bureaucracy, does he. Or giant space monsters, as far as I know. Something something Starship Troopers?

Banks - Utopia. Paid Feature: Megastructures, Ascencion Perks, Purging, Slavery. Free features: rights, privileges, refugees, changes to unity and traditions, consumer goods, etc. Seems to fit quite well. Megastructures and Ascencion are a very Culture thing.

Capek: Synthetic Dawn. Paid features: Machine Empires, machine revolts. Free features: refining robot workers, pre-sapient policies, vassals, purging. Capek was the first person to use the word "robot", formerly a serf, for a mechanical humanoid, in his play Rossum's Universal Robot.

Cherryh: Apocalypse. Paid Features: PLanet Destruction, Titans, Ion Cannons, nomadic marauders. Free: general war and border overhauls. She certainly wrote some very large-scale Sci-Fi, some of it concerned with wars, but I haven't read enough of it to really judge.

Niven: Distant Stars. Sealed off gateways, new anomalies, unique solar systems, new gargantuan creatures. Hmm. Mote in God's Eye is about first contact, he's also famous for Ringworld and Known Space... the Belter stuff doesn't really apply here, but I guess Ringworld does feature space archaeology, in a way.

So, that's two very obvious matches and a few unclear ones.

[Silverraptor]

Do we have a date when this is coming out?

[tonberrian]

Do we have a date when this is coming out?

No, not yet. Not for a while, though - it's something like 4 months on average between announcement and release for Paradox.

[houlio]

No, not yet. Not for a while, though - it's something like 4 months on average between announcement and release for Paradox.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was longer yet. They are redoing basically the entire economy of the game along with a lot of the stuff that are connected to it (i.e. traditions). It's on par with the scale of the changes in the 2.0 update. With all the bugs that came along with 2.0 and a lot of the bad press that update got initially (although a bunch is due to limiting the FTL systems), I could imagine the team really wanting to wait it out. I doubt the team is going to be pressured to pump it out given that Stellaris is possibly PDS' biggest hit.

Regardless, as soon as I heard that the Le Guin update was going to add in a Vic2-esque system of social stratification, I hit the "can't play current version because new update looks too good" phase of the patch cycle.

[Thinker]

I haven't played Stellaris since about 4 months after it came out. It didn't grab me the same way most other Paradox titles have (except HoI - couldn't get into those either). Do you think it will be too complex to jump back into without having read any of the patch notes between then and now?

[Eldan]

Currently, I wouldn't say it's actually much more complex than it was when it came out. Especially if you don't buy the DLCs. But it's more interesting. I mean, have a go, you'll see. Some stuff was actually simplified and there's less bookkeeping for some stuff.

[GloatingSwine]

Regardless, as soon as I heard that the Le Guin update was going to add in a Vic2-esque system of social stratification, I hit the "can't play current version because new update looks too good" phase of the patch cycle.

I've gotten to that point as well.

Partly because my last empire was surrounded by hostile advanced starts (I set all AI to advanced start, Grand Admiral/Scaling difficulty) and their giant federation keep declaring ideology wars on me (the third one just started). They're easy to win because all I have to do is swat their fleets down and wait for war exhaustion to status quo out as they don't make claims, but they have annoyingly large and persistent fleets and it's four on one (technically two but AI defensive pact partners aren't very useful).

So waiting for 2.2 so I can play a Fanatic Xenophile/Charismatic Megacorporation with Criminal Heritage and the Xeno-Compatibility perk.

Space Pimps.

[Thinker]

Currently, I wouldn't say it's actually much more complex than it was when it came out. Especially if you don't buy the DLCs. But it's more interesting. I mean, have a go, you'll see. Some stuff was actually simplified and there's less bookkeeping for some stuff.

Cool. Thanks.

[Kadesh]

What are everyone's Iron Man friendly mods please? Reinstalling for 2.2, not played since before the Hyperlane only FTL decision.

[GloatingSwine]

What are everyone's Iron Man friendly mods please? Reinstalling for 2.2, not played since before the Hyperlane only FTL decision.

The only mod I play is Star Trek: New Horizons. Which is basically the best Star Trek game and includes lots of things the base game could do with stealing (like the Federation mechanic if you're playing a UFP founder). (Actually that might be the solution to my ennui with my vanilla game. Play Borg.)

The popular ones among the non-total-conversion ones are New Ship Classes, Gigastructural Engineering, and More Events.

Can't speak to their quality or ability to integrate into the feel of the game though.

[Artanis]

I think that "48 Empire Colors Revival" is Ironman-compatible.

[Silverraptor]

My god, how did I not know about these guys before? This is great!

[Eldan]

They just showed up in my feed too. THey are pretty great.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Oh man, they do video now? I'm here for this!
Oh my god the voice acting is actually exquisite.

[Caelestion]

That is pretty impressive. :)