STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[ulmont]

The entire districts mechanic is kind of a mystery to me. Is there some way of knowing what you should build and when there?

Ok.

1. NEVER BUILD A DISTRICT OR A BUILDING UNTIL YOU NEED IT.  Wait until you have an unemployed pop or at least are out of housing.  Paying maintenance on districts / buildings you don't need is how you go broke.

2. Always build what you need.  If you're negative on food / energy / etc., try to build a district or building that addresses the problem.  Think locally (planetary services or housing) first, then globally (minerals etc.).

3. If you don't have any immediate needs, (a) extra pop growth and (b) extra alloys are always great goals towards.  Pops are what work your districts, so the more the merrier, and alloys are what you build your warships with.

4. Don't worry about specialization unless you really want to.

[Zanza]

What story mods are you using? Might go for another save once I finally complete my current one.

I am currently running the following mods:

More events mod:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727000451

Fatal Foundations:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1607524900

Archeology Story Pack/Precursor Story Pack:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1993869579
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1999328266

A bit variety (Guilli's planets and technologies):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1793768254
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=865040033

UX (tiny outliner and tiny fleets):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610578060
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1629519297



I haven't tried it yet, but I consider this next:
Dynamic Political Events
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227620643


In general, I am looking for mods that "fit" into the general feel of the game and don't give completely overpowered shit to the player. Just some more variety in content.

[Zanza]

I try to specialize my planets early on, looking for one planet where I build most admin or research or alloy buildings so that I can later build the "booster" building for that type. Same for the basic resources, I usually focus on one or two instead of building all three on a planet. You also sometimes have bonus or malus modifiers on the planets which predetermines what you should or should not build.

If you want to simplify the economy to learn the game, play as robots or lithoids.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I haven't tried it yet, but I consider this next:
Dynamic Political Events
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227620643

I've been using that one for quite a while. Worth it I'd say. Adds some depth

[celedhring]

Okay, this has been fun.

As discussed, I declared war on the Fallen Empire and baited them into my massed fleet+fully armed and operational starbase. However, I misjudged the potency of their fleets, and when I forced them to retreat after destroying half their fleet, most of my ships were ashes. Then a war of attrition of sorts began as I rebuilt and tried to wittle down their remaining ships, but found myself going through my alloys stockpile way too quickly. In the end, however, I managed to bait them into a Quasar system - this negated their shields technology advantage and gave me the decisive victory I seeked. By that time, however, I was exhausted, and given that their home system was extremely well-defended, I decided for a status-quo peace that gave me half their territory while I licked my wounds and rebuilt.

However... a few years later... they have just awakened 

[Solmyr]

Heh, as a megacorp, I am making about 9K energy surplus per month. I can just buy anything I want.

[celedhring]

Unfun thing: waging war against somebody that has unlocked habitats and having to micromanage invading half a dozen planets in every system...

[Solmyr]

Yeah, AI just loves going crazy with habitats. Although, depending on your war goals, you don't need to occupy every little planet, just get some important ones and wait for their WE to reach 100% (after that you get autovictory in a couple of years).

[celedhring]

This was a war started by a Federation member and for some reason peace didn't trigger until the very last world was fully occupied and their occupation warscore reached 100%. I kept hovering over the percentage breakdown in order to get them to accept and I kept getting the "claiming unoccupied systems/planets" malus even though I had long occupied all claims, so I went nuts and just invaded all. I guess I must've missed something somewhere, but it was really unfun.

Fortunately the Synth endgame crisis arrived shortly afterwards, and fighting them has been really fun. About to invade their origin world and finish off the game. I won't win, because a Fallen Empire has Awakened and gone nuts during the crisis, but it's been a fun ride.

[Zanza]

So playing with Grand Admiral and scaling difficulty doesn't cut it. It is around 2300 in my game and all other empires are inferior or pathetic.

[ulmont]

So playing with Grand Admiral and scaling difficulty doesn't cut it. It is around 2300 in my game and all other empires are inferior or pathetic.

Scaling difficulty doesn't work well.  You get your economic advantages in the early game and snowball in a way the AI can't keep up with even with the increased benefits.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

So playing with Grand Admiral and scaling difficulty doesn't cut it. It is around 2300 in my game and all other empires are inferior or pathetic.

try to add dynamic difficulty mod, it might help

[Agelastus]

So, as a scion, I cannot control my borders and no-one can control their borders with me.

Not even the determined exterminators. Or the Xenophobic Fallen Empire.

Not sure if this is WAD - or if I'm a determined enough role-player not to try to take down the shields around those worlds...

[Zanza]

I started again with a random empire, medium galaxy, one guaranteed habitable planet, and Commodore difficulty. I got a fanatic militarist, materialistic empire.

I was lucky to get a good first emperor and I could claim a small Gaia world and two worlds inhabited by primitives, one of which was a relic world. All three world's closer to my eternal rival than to me. So quite lucky, else the game would have sucked.

Then I got the Cybrex precursors. Their relic, the Warforge, now creates 5000 alloys out of 10000 minerals and 150 influence. That basically was the game changer. When I fought a war, I lost quite a few ships. But unlike my enemy, I could rebuild thanks to the Warforge. The first battle was tense, about 15k vs 14k. But afterwards, I was stronger and eventually won.

Around 2310, I have two other empires in a federation and completed the Cybrex ring world. There is still one Lithoid megacorp that is stronger than I am, but friendly with me. A handful at equivalent, the rest inferior or pathetic.

I get the feeling that as a player, I get some more world's from events than the AI and I am much better at terraforming or building habitats. Their expansion seems to get stuck around 2250-75 and that's when you start to build an unstoppable advantage, which becomes overwhelming by 2325 or so.

[Agelastus]

So, as a scion, I cannot control my borders and no-one can control their borders with me.

Not even the determined exterminators. Or the Xenophobic Fallen Empire.

Not sure if this is WAD - or if I'm a determined enough role-player not to try to take down the shields around those worlds...

Also, it appears that a scion can submit to the Great Khan and instantaneously switch masters with no repercussions...rather an easy way to get out from under the thumb of your "benefactor".