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

[Silverraptor]

Just thought I'd share a strategy I developed in case anyone hasn't thought of this. So you know how you'll often encounter a world you want to colonize, but the ideal spot location is blocked by a tile blocker? Well, if you have the technology to remove that specific tile blocker (Achieved by colonizing any planet with that tile blocker will randomly spawn in technology research selection), a strategy would be to land your reassembled ship shelter anywhere on the planet (yes anywhere) then you remove the tile blocker, and then when it's done, you dismantle you reassembled ship shelter and rebuild it in your new ideal location. And then you proceed with the colony as normal. Found it to be waaaay cheaper then terraforming to get that ideal location.

[Olinser]

Just thought I'd share a strategy I developed in case anyone hasn't thought of this. So you know how you'll often encounter a world you want to colonize, but the ideal spot location is blocked by a tile blocker? Well, if you have the technology to remove that specific tile blocker (Achieved by colonizing any planet with that tile blocker will randomly spawn in technology research selection), a strategy would be to land your reassembled ship shelter anywhere on the planet (yes anywhere) then you remove the tile blocker, and then when it's done, you dismantle you reassembled ship shelter and rebuild it in your new ideal location. And then you proceed with the colony as normal. Found it to be waaaay cheaper then terraforming to get that ideal location.

I mean, yes, you can do it, but its pretty rare that a tile has sufficient resources of multiple types that you'd be willing to do that. Basically only 2/2 energy/mineral or higher would it be worth it.

[tonberrian]

Just thought I'd share a strategy I developed in case anyone hasn't thought of this. So you know how you'll often encounter a world you want to colonize, but the ideal spot location is blocked by a tile blocker? Well, if you have the technology to remove that specific tile blocker (Achieved by colonizing any planet with that tile blocker will randomly spawn in technology research selection), a strategy would be to land your reassembled ship shelter anywhere on the planet (yes anywhere) then you remove the tile blocker, and then when it's done, you dismantle you reassembled ship shelter and rebuild it in your new ideal location. And then you proceed with the colony as normal. Found it to be waaaay cheaper then terraforming to get that ideal location.

You don't even need to rebuild the shelter. Just wait until you have 5 pops, dismantle the shelter, then build the colony administration or whatever directly.

[Silverraptor]

I mean, yes, you can do it, but its pretty rare that a tile has sufficient resources of multiple types that you'd be willing to do that. Basically only 2/2 energy/mineral or higher would it be worth it.

I did try to emphasize 'ideal location' enough. But yeah, that's a good point to add on what to look for for adjacency bonus.

You don't even need to rebuild the shelter. Just wait until you have 5 pops, dismantle the shelter, then build the colony administration or whatever directly.

You could do that too.

[tonberrian]

Okay I have officially had it with the lackluster influence gain of mechanical empires. It accrues so slowly, and I can only have two edicts running to have enough to expand even the slightest bit!

[Silverraptor]

Okay I have officially had it with the lackluster influence gain of mechanical empires. It accrues so slowly, and I can only have two edicts running to have enough to expand even the slightest bit!

Is there a machine empire trait you can pick for extra influence? Also, maximizing the Expansion Civic allows for frontier outposts to be cheaper if you're building a lot of those. Also, since you are machines, the whole galaxy will likely hate you by default, so pick a few of the best rivals you want.

[Olinser]

Is there a machine empire trait you can pick for extra influence? Also, maximizing the Expansion Civic allows for frontier outposts to be cheaper if you're building a lot of those. Also, since you are machines, the whole galaxy will likely hate you by default, so pick a few of the best rivals you want.

Yes, but it requires you to keep organics as 'trophies', getting the max of +2 influence at 40% of your population consisting of organics.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of being machines.

[Sian]

Edicts is a trap until you're at the point where you stopped expanding.

That said, I've (only just) discovered a very strong way to start a Exterminator ... build an offensive army and invade a primitive world ... they'll give tons of Energy, meaning that you can skimp on power plants and energy node mining stations to pay for your colonization efforts. By the time you've purged them you should have a strong'ish headstart in number of colonies since you're able to just about completely ignore the energy costs of spamming Colony ships (... there's still the Influence cost but eh)

[boomwolf]

Problem is, it only works if you actually run into primitives early. I've had plenty of games where I simply didn't run into any until deep into the midgame

[GloatingSwine]

I mean, yes, you can do it, but its pretty rare that a tile has sufficient resources of multiple types that you'd be willing to do that. Basically only 2/2 energy/mineral or higher would it be worth it.

It's more about the adjacency bonuses than the tile itself. I regularly move my capital after colonisation.

You don't even need to rebuild the shelter. Just wait until you have 5 pops, dismantle the shelter, then build the colony administration or whatever directly.

OTOH, the shelter is free.

I also have stopped building any basic mines/power plants. You still have to pay full price to upgrade them to tier 1 and mines especially take 30 months to pay off. Just put the pops on good tiles with only the unity monument built on the planet and spend time clearing blockers until you hit 5 pops and have the administration.

(Despite nerfs I still take Mastery of Nature first, it strips the techs out of the social deck meaning you are more likely to roll the ones you actually want)

[Guancyto]

Yes, but it requires you to keep organics as 'trophies', getting the max of +2 influence at 40% of your population consisting of organics.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of being machines.

Rogue Servitors are easily my favorite kind type of robit empire. Assimilators have a slew of problems (many of which are helpfully being fixed in 1.81, which you can opt into the beta for. By the way I would consider that patch/beta 100% required if you're going to play an Ascended Synthetic empire, because it fixes a hueg issue with them and the Contingency endgame crisis), Exterminators are fun but a little one-note. Generic machine empires (that is, ones without any of those three civics) are, well, too generic.

Servitors, on the other hand, have a tougher time conquering enemies but in exchange you get to swim in an unending sea of Unity not dependent on conquest, you get to actually engage in diplomacy (with a big bonus to diplomacy with Materialist empires, to boot), you get to keep organics as pets and you get a bonus to influence and all your resource outputs depending on how many organic pets you have. (Mostly the bonus makes up for the fact that a certain percentage of your population is doing nothing but watching Netflix all day.)

The organics don't actually contribute anything besides Unity and making your robots happier to have someone to take care of, though. It's still as machine as they come.

[Olinser]

It's more about the adjacency bonuses than the tile itself. I regularly move my capital after colonisation.



OTOH, the shelter is free.

I also have stopped building any basic mines/power plants. You still have to pay full price to upgrade them to tier 1 and mines especially take 30 months to pay off. Just put the pops on good tiles with only the unity monument built on the planet and spend time clearing blockers until you hit 5 pops and have the administration.

(Despite nerfs I still take Mastery of Nature first, it strips the techs out of the social deck meaning you are more likely to roll the ones you actually want)

I build first 2 buildings Unity monument and Gene Clinic. In the mid game I may build basic research stations because the Shelter version isn't actually different from the 5 pop version.

[Sian]

Problem is, it only works if you actually run into primitives early. I've had plenty of games where I simply didn't run into any until deep into the midgame

Well, obviously ... but with decent exploration (remember, you don't have to hold back because of incoming pirates), you should be able to either conclusively discover an primitive planet or find out that one such doesn't exist, within the time it takes you to get your first tradition

[GloatingSwine]

You can actually control the number of primitives that spawn now too.

OTOH there actually is a good reason to hold off exploring as any of the nasty boys, if they haven't met you they can't form defensive pacts against you.

(In my current game I did, in fact, early invade some primitives. Not just for the energy which is hilarious but because they were early space age and there was another size 23 in their system that I wanted)

I've just about reached economic hard takeoff point, getting about +180 minerals 30 years in with 7 planets and two mid colonise. I have met only two empires, one is a fallen empire and one is on the other side of the galaxy (the actual other side, as far away as it's possible to be, god knows how I count as having met them)

(Also the Techarus gave us some "firmware updates" which turned out to be a particularly addictive strain of candy crush or something which reduced robot productivity by 20% for 10 years).

I build first 2 buildings Unity monument and Gene Clinic. In the mid game I may build basic research stations because the Shelter version isn't actually different from the 5 pop version.

Yeah, basic science labs are buildable straight off, so as long as you're not hurting for minerals/energy you can drop those straight away.

[Olinser]

Well they didn't come close to fixing the won/lost battle ludicrous calculations unfortunately.

I mean seriously. In what world do you kill a Fallen Empire fortress with 36k fleet power, lose only 2 corvettes worth a total of 250 fleet power, and get tagged as LOSING the battle.

[GloatingSwine]

Well they didn't come close to fixing the won/lost battle ludicrous calculations unfortunately.

I mean seriously. In what world do you kill a Fallen Empire fortress with 36k fleet power, lose only 2 corvettes worth a total of 250 fleet power, and get tagged as LOSING the battle.

IIRC static installations don't count for warscore because they were too easy to farm.

[Aotrs Commander]

In case you might have missed it, 1.8.1 is out as an opt-in beta patch, with fair list of bug fixes.

I think I must tip my hat to them most for fixing traits and species classes so that custom modded species portraits and such will work again. While it's not even an issue I personally have a stake in, I did see threads on it and that they implemented a fix in under a week for a modding issue is commendable.

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah. 1.8.1 also has big buffs for the nasty boys and machine worlds which go up to 25% bonus production.

Yes, but it requires you to keep organics as 'trophies', getting the max of +2 influence at 40% of your population consisting of organics.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of being machines.

Bio trophies also make unity though, which makes servitors the number one unity rusher.

[Sian]

Bio trophies also make unity though, which makes servitors the number one unity rusher.

I can't help but think if FanPacifist/Xenophobe with Agrarian Idyll/Inward Perfection (with Communal) might not be the fastest still

[Silverraptor]

I have a question with chemical bliss. Is there any use for it? What I mean is, has anyone found anything that you can use it for?

[Grim Portent]

I have a question with chemical bliss. Is there any use for it? What I mean is, has anyone found anything that you can use it for?

It's a way to pacify rebellious pops that were just integrated into the empire through war as far as I can tell. No one else you need a big happiness boost on at the cost of production.

[Olinser]

I have a question with chemical bliss. Is there any use for it? What I mean is, has anyone found anything that you can use it for?

Its useful for the first 10 years of conquering a species until the Recently Conquered negative happiness is gone. Change it to Chemical Bliss, change it back when the debuff disappears. Most of the time you're getting pretty negligible production from recently conquered planets due to the extreme negative happiness anyway.

It can also be useful when Purging a population so they are less likely to actually rebel before you get rid of them.

[Silverraptor]

It's a way to pacify rebellious pops that were just integrated into the empire through war as far as I can tell. No one else you need a big happiness boost on at the cost of production.

Its useful for the first 10 years of conquering a species until the Recently Conquered negative happiness is gone. Change it to Chemical Bliss, change it back when the debuff disappears. Most of the time you're getting pretty negligible production from recently conquered planets due to the extreme negative happiness anyway.

It can also be useful when Purging a population so they are less likely to actually rebel before you get rid of them.

Ah, thank you very much. Now I just need to play a race that are not fanatical purifiers or one of the machine races.

[GloatingSwine]

I can't help but think if FanPacifist/Xenophobe with Agrarian Idyll/Inward Perfection (with Communal) might not be the fastest still

Okay, in 1.8 where symbols of unity aren't planet capped that's true, but they're supposed to be one per planet (and are in 1.8.1).

Bio Trophies are the only unity producer that isn't capped per planet. That's what makes them so good at it.

[tonberrian]

The Assist Research unity perk is really nice, though somethings lying between the tooltip for the perk and the tooltip for what's actually happening. Still, 10-20 unity per leader sent to work on it is nothing to sneeze at.

[Driderman]

So I just had an idea for a new empire I'd like to play, focused on Syncretic Evolution and Agrarian Idyll. Turns out, these two civics are apparently mutually exclusive, for whatever reason.
Also bummed to realise that you can't actually exchange your syncretic pals' Strong trait for the Very Strong if you have the points for it. At Empire creation at least.

These both seemed like pretty arbitrary limitations, anybody happen to know of any logic behind it?

[Sian]

So I just had an idea for a new empire I'd like to play, focused on Syncretic Evolution and Agrarian Idyll. Turns out, these two civics are apparently mutually exclusive, for whatever reason.
Also bummed to realise that you can't actually exchange your syncretic pals' Strong trait for the Very Strong if you have the points for it. At Empire creation at least.

These both seemed like pretty arbitrary limitations, anybody happen to know of any logic behind it?

Agrarian Idyll is about the race never really having urbanized
Syncretic Evolution is usually the primary race working close together, often in (proto-)urbanized cities, while the servile's are working in the fields and mines.

as for the second one, I'm guessing limitations in how to set the trait system up so people wouldn't be able to 'cheese' out of picking (very) strong since it's a relatively poopy trait for its cost, due to the limited worth of +Army damage

[GloatingSwine]

Man, there's nothing quite like a big ol' space battle.

I was just minding my own business conquering some dirty meatbag sympathising other robots, and the big federation in the galaxy decided to take a chance and stick their oar in, sending roughly 45k of combined power to invade a world on my borders.

Of course, I wasn't going to let that stand, and so began the battle of Bridge in 2314 between on my side 50 cruisers, and on the enemy side 24 battleships, 30 cruisers, 52 destroyers, 78 corvettes, and 3 escorts (evidently someone's been cosying up to the fallen empires).

After a brutal several month long engagement, my fleet limped away with 5 cruisers remaining, having destroyed all but two ships of the enemy fleet.

Maybe someone should have told them my ship build time got buffed. Now I'm in a defensive war I can roll out a new cruiser in 59 days.

[Silverraptor]

Man, there's nothing quite like a big ol' space battle.

I was just minding my own business conquering some dirty meatbag sympathising other robots, and the big federation in the galaxy decided to take a chance and stick their oar in, sending roughly 45k of combined power to invade a world on my borders.

Of course, I wasn't going to let that stand, and so began the battle of Bridge in 2314 between on my side 50 cruisers, and on the enemy side 24 battleships, 30 cruisers, 52 destroyers, 78 corvettes, and 3 escorts (evidently someone's been cosying up to the fallen empires).

After a brutal several month long engagement, my fleet limped away with 5 cruisers remaining, having destroyed all but two ships of the enemy fleet.

Maybe someone should have told them my ship build time got buffed. Now I'm in a defensive war I can roll out a new cruiser in 59 days.

Nice! What kind of empire faction are you running currently?

[GloatingSwine]

Nice! What kind of empire faction are you running currently?

Determined Exterminators. I'm using the 1.8.1 beta where they're pretty heavily buffed though.

Also, machine empires, for when you really want to micro everything forever.