STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[Zanza]

You can check isthereanydeal.com to see where you get a discount.

[Solmyr]

So I just had a rather interesting game as United Nations of Earth (one of the default human empires). Here's a mini-AAR.

I was expecting to pretty much be an egalitarian xenophile democracy. I started by expanding, meeting some neighbours, and starting a federation with a couple of like-minded ones (a friendly megacorporation and a pacifist democracy). Another neighbour was a xenophobic totalitarian empire, which gave me trouble early on, attacking me several times. There was also a rogue servitor machine intelligence nearby, which started friendly but gradually relations broke down. However, I managed to beat them, vassalizing the former and destroying the latter. As time progressed, I found myself being Space USA, spreading freedom and democracy by force of arms. I got another member for my federation, this one a spiritual theocracy, and fought against the xenophobic humans of the Commonwealth of Man and their allies, a military dictatorship (whom I also later vassalized). A big test was defeating a militarist fallen empire near my borders, which I did in the course of two wars.

However, what was really interesting was the internal ethical shift of my civilization. The UNE starts as fanatic egalitarian and xenophile, and with my open borders and free migration, they became a home for all species of the galaxy. Early on, the humans discovered the signs of the Zroni precursors (the ancient psionic race), and after a lengthy search, found the Zroni homeworld and discovered psionics. I decided that this was a sign from the powers that be, and took the psionic ascension path. All humans eventually became psionic, and in what was know as The Great Awakening (in the first half of the 25th century), they also assimilated all the other species in their empire, giving them psionic powers. By this time, the spiritualist faction was by far the strongest, demanding more conservative values.

The multiracial psionic state faced its ultimate test after the year 2450, when disasters struck in quick succession. First there was a rebellion by our robotic servants (I had earlier built quite many of them, and they even received equal rights at some point, but with spiritualist ethics ascendant, I thought that it'd be more in-character to remove the rights of synthetics and try to dismantle them again). The synths took many of our best planets, and while our fleets crushed theirs in the void of space, retaking the planets took more time, during which they were scoured of many buildings and biological populations. My economy took a huge hit because of all this. Moreover, just as the war against the rebel AI was winding down, the Prethoryn Scourge invaded the galaxy. It first appeared in the space of one of my vassals (the aforementioned xenophobic totalitarians), and quickly infested their planets. Luckily that vassal was at the other end of a bottlenecked hyperlane connection that was otherwise separated from the rest of the galaxy, so the Prethoryn could not spread from there except via that one connection. My fleets scrambled to meet them, but the first engagement proved harsh as despite inflicting heavy casualties, most of my navy was beaten and forced to retreat. I had to sell off most of my resources to buy enough alloys to reinforce my fleets. Fortunately, the Prethoryn advanced into my systems fairly slowly (not to mention that the only path they could take was a long and winding one), so I had time to recover.

It was at this point that our civilization experienced a sort of enlightenment. Some time during the AI rebellion, the governor of Earth, Andrea Deville, was blessed by the Shroud as the psionic Chosen One, becoming very powerful and immortal. When it seemed that the Prethoryn would overrun us, the people turned to her for salvation. With popular support, she was crowned our immortal God-Empress. Thus the United Nations of Earth became a divine empire administered by aristocratic elite and imperial cult. All hail God-Empress Andrea!

[Syt]

Thanks, Solmyr, great AAR. 

[Zanza]

Sounds like a great game!

[celedhring]

I'm at 2420, praying for the endgame crisis to come and give some life to my game. I decided to fight off boredom by starting a 3-front war against a nearby federation, which I beat quite easily. Everybody but the fallen empires is "Pathetic" to me, and since after my last war I've gained borders with 2 FEs, I'm wondering about starting a war against one of them.

My culture is militaristic and authoritarian, but not expansionist or xenophobic, so I'm roleplaying it as a bunch of assholes that solve everything via gunship diplomacy. I haven't expanded that much, although my expansionist faction is gaining traction and I'm trying to please them. My main rival is a federation of democratic nations that owns half the galaxy, and I'm now set on destroying them (which honestly I could do with an arm tied to my back). Me = the bad guy 

I'm starting to have some "AI/robots doing weird things" events, so I expect a robot revolution soon.

[Zanza]

What difficulty level do you guys play?

[celedhring]

I play on Captain, so I guess I could still increase it on my next playthrough. I had a bid of a tough time at the beginning, since I fell behind in tech quite quickly, but once I unlocked +admin capacity buildings and brought empire sprawl under control, it was smooth sailing. There doesn't seem to be much of a penalty to expanding (I have a multitude of factions and races, but they don't seem to create much trouble?), and the AI manages its fleets terribly.

[Solmyr]

Played this last one on Captain, so the AI got some bonuses. Mostly difficulty level matters in the early game, where you have to survive any hostile neighbours. AI economies tend to be wrecks normally, so they can use the bonuses.

[Zanza]

I wonder if I should play Grand Admiral with Scaling on. That gives the AI few or no bonus early (when they sometimes overpower me when playing Commodore or Admiral difficulty) and huge bonus at the end of game. Hmm.

[Zanza]

AI fleet management was improved with 2.6. They concentrate their fleets more now.

[Solmyr]

I was thinking of trying scaling difficulty as well, once I get used to playing again. 

[celedhring]

AI fleet management was improved with 2.6. They concentrate their fleets more now.

Still find myself chasing a lot of minifleets after I break their initial stacks.

But yeah, the game is way more challenging at the beginning that at the end (note: I have always got bored before I face an endgame crisis). So trying scaling difficulty might be a good idea.

[Solmyr]

To continue on my AAR a bit (I'm still playing that game since I have a couple of achievements lined up). Our empire is now authoritarian, xenophile, and spiritual. So we are basically a hippie version of the Imperium of Man - we don't hate the xenos, we invite them into our society and assimilate them into our psionic consciousness. However, spiritualists don't like robots, so our God-Empress gave the order to outlaw robotic workers. Now imagine being a sentient synthetic enjoying equal rights with your organic fellow citizens, when suddenly your ruler decides that you are not a person, and you and your fellow synths are removed from all jobs, shut down, and dismantled for scrap. Damn, you can do some pretty horrifying shit in this game if you think about it...

[Josquius]

I've never came across the evil humans in game

[Solmyr]

I've never came across the evil humans in game

I think the two default human empire always spawn together, so if you get the UN of Earth, you'll also get Commonwealth of Man, and vice versa. As for humans in general, I think it's 50% chance for Sol system to spawn in any given game. After that, it's random whether the humans will be pre-spacefaring, dead in nuclear war, regular empire or fallen empire.