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.
research psionics (which materialists can’t do)
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.
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Materialists should be purging the galaxy of silly spiritualist hippies anyway
I mean after the sentient robots take over they’ll do that regardless
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.
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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”.
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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.
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I feel like I need to inform everyone that you can in fact make sex robots once you research droids. That is all.
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I’ve been having an extremely hard time getting past the early game in stellaris, i always lose my first war
Hello please appreciate my science birds
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.
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On waypoint presents: Stellaris! this week:
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.
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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
The Wurm loves you
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Watching this weeks stream right now, but before I forget it, best Austin quote:
“Better free…and uh…a little sad.”
Just finished up the most recent stream.
Shame the way the war ended by the one empire getting a bunch of stuff when they did nothing. There’s a lot I really like about this game, but I wish aspects like that were better.
So, what are they going to do about the pirate fleet coming for them? My only thought is to hire the other pirates to hit hit their rivals.
Yeah, I actually like the claims system, but I dislike that there’s no real modular way of ending a war. It’s always all or nothing, which really frustrates me, especially when I’m willing to cede a little to broker peace. Some of the changes they’ve made seem to encourage less-warlike play, but being unable to manage peace terms seems to put that at a huge disadvantage.
I don’t think it would’ve nearly been as egregious had the allies in the war not also been awful slavers, although I think there should be a better effort-to-claim ratio, the Ztrakpor did worse than nothing and got over half of the Kessam empire.
I’m not familiar enough with the game, but could they have negated those claims if their ethics allowed them to claim systems in wars?
