Stellaris is my first GSG as well and I’ve had a ton of fun with it.
The key for me to keep it from ever seeming overwhelming or like a chore is to remember that there are a lot of things you can choose not to focus on, and don’t feel bad if you have absolutely no interest in actually achieving victory. I play it much the same way I play Civ V, which is to start a new game, revel in the sense of discovery and action in the first third, and then often just move on when things start to settle down and turn into micro-management (which can still be very satisfying in its own right, just starts to wear on me a bit). Stellaris’ super in-depth empire creation makes it so that even a few tweaks to an empire’s traits and preferences results in a fundamentally different experience, so it’s exciting to experiment and start new games frequently.
So this thread popping back up reminded me that 2.0 came out and I went to check it out and realized that they have now removed the ability to pick starting weapon and space travel tech
That’s kind of a real bummer as I felt like the space travel tech selection was one of the most interesting choices in creating a race.
Yea, that is a bit of a bummer. At the same time I can see where they were going from a balance/overall strategy perspective. FWIW, the other methods of space travel can still be researched later if I’m not mistaken? I haven’t gotten that far in 2.0 but I think I remember the devs mention that.
Besides that, I’m really enjoying the changes made to stations and system claims so far. Midway into a multiplayer game with a friend, it’s already saved my butt in allowing me to construct a seriously formidable defensive system at a chokepoint against would-be invaders. My entire fleet had been eaten by a dimensional horror not long ago, so without that I’d be toast…
you can research different travel tech later. fwiw I always thought lanes was the most interesting choice anyway since it gives the galaxy a sense of geography… I think they defaulted to that so when rebuilding combat they didn’t have to try and balance it for 3 different movement options
I think the game is better for it. Now choke points are more of a thing and where you build citadels can be very important. Hopefully they work on diplomacy next.
I agreed with you on it being an interesting choice until I played a bunch of games under the old system, then I always picked wormhole every time, since it’s objectively the best choice from a gameplay perspective, if only because it sends you down the path to getting jump drives without having to research psionics (which materialists can’t do) or scanning debris from a fallen empire ship. It’s also just much faster than the others, and building out a wormhole network wasn’t too hard. It’s true that I could have just gone for the others for roleplaying purposes, but the imbalance was just so huge.
Materialists absolutely can get psionics (it’s just a bit random/unlikely) and you don’t need psionics for Jump drives anyway? Psi Jump and Jump are different techs.
I need to try out 2.0. I’m super into the changes they’ve made, but I’m currently in the early 18th century in EUIV right now as the Scots-Canadian Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere
You need to randomly get a scientist with the Psionics Expertise trait and then pray that the random rolls come up with psionic tech while they’re in society research. So yes, they technically can get it but it’s really hard.
This is correct. I did look up how Jump drive used to be unlocked, and it’s true that you could get the tech option to show up without womholes, it was far less likely for it to do so. They did change this at some point.
Regardless, wormholes were still a much faster way to travel than the other two options even without the easier research of jump drives. It was an interesting choice from a narrative perspective but not an interesting choice from a tactical perspective.
It’s good to hear that these changes are helping with balance, I guess I just always played Stellaris more for the world building aspect then gameplay though. Not to say that I don’t like the gameplay just more that I liked the idea of really customizing all these different alien civilizations and then seeing how they played out against each other.
So I’ve been playing since launch but, like in most PDX games, Ive always console cheated the hell out of it in order to basically make it a sandbox game instead of a real challenge, and also because I Am Very Bad At Video Gamesm This weekend though, I played my first MP game with my brother and some of his friends and found that, to my surprise, I was actually doing very well playing legitimately. We only got a few hundred years in but I was leading the Galaxy in research and fleet power and I believe this will be the start of a new, cheat-free future for me.
Ok, with the discovery of the Planet of the Bojaks in yesterdays Waypoint stream, I have to ask have they read The Culture? They need to think “What would Special Circumstances do”.
Continuing to enjoy the waypoint stream of this, as we watch mankind ascend to the stars as their best possible selves, then be confronted by a galaxy of the assholes we thought we left behind.
This week the humans finally get serious about fighting some slavery on a galactic scale and ramp up their war machine.
The economy continues to plummet as leadership chooses to focus on robots and the fleet.
Giant whimsical space orb is discovered orbiting a black hole and rewards the humans with designs for better robot brains. Some trepidation in the leadership about robot sentience. Elsewhere, ancient alien fart machine is unearthed.
edit: would making a dedicated thread for the stellaris streams be a good idea? could just keep using this one.
I’ve really been enjoying Stellaris but I also find that I am having to learn how to play it well constantly. I have difficulty with war budgets and managing diplomacy. I think I’ll try to play around with other playstyles.
War!
The human campaign against slavery continues as the Slaver Space Bird fleet is easily overwhelmed. Invading a planet proves far more complicated but a Kaiju (giant godzilla monsters) strike force is mobilized and pacifies the resistance easily.
Some debate in the leadership over innocent lives lost in this campaign.
Vegetable Space Vikings smell blood in the water and pillage undefended human colonies. Eventually a large ransom is paid, and they return to their territories, but not before kidnapping a large number of citizens. They will be avenged.
In a feat of Littlefinger-esque money magic, the economy has recovered but funds remain low. Food supplies also in the red due to crops ravaged and farmers stolen by space vikings.
Really want to get into this game whenever it’s on sale again, I’ve just really enjoyed the streams of it and the stories that emerge from the random factions.
It’s gonna be my first foray into any of these kinds of games, glad to hear that this one’s got a pretty in depth tutorial.
There should soon come a new version with a easy mode were the AI dosn’t gets any bonus.
Some tips
Some starts are harder than others. Starting near a purifier race and no potential allies is brutal
Set advance Ai to zero in a new game
If you are starting a war, be sure to a have large amount of minerals and energy on hand. And remember the fleet limit is soft you can go over it. Sometimes it’s smart to do that, but watch your energy and minerals
Check what your opponents haves on their ships.
Don’t get to far behind an potential enemy in fleet strength, If you do, look for an useful empire for a potential defensive pact
Federation are boring right now. It’s more a help for the AI, so it don’t get easily gets overrun by human players
Humans players better tactile understanding, seems to me, to be the reason that it gets easier the further you are in the game.
That is why the game has endgame crisis…
Forget about victory conditions. Set your own goals or play till it get boring. Mods are fun then
