STELLARIS: New Paradox Game in SPAAAACE

[Zanza]

As pop growth was the only thing that mattered in the previous versions, it was obviously necessary to reduce it. This empire wide growth nerf might be overdoing it though. Have not played enough to say myself. If it really makes the mid game worse, that's a big issue as the mid game was already problematically boring before.

[crazy canuck]

I don't mind the pop growth mechanic.  Definitely requires a different approach to how you develop planets and the focus of keeping growth capacity as high as possible.  That means that empire sprawl become a much bigger issue (building sectors that increase housing increases sprawl).  So the folks who want to paint the map as quickly as possible are going to encounter large penalties if they try to do both.

[Habbaku]

Any of y'all interested in MP?

My group has been doing campaign sessions once a week and should be done over the next couple of weeks. There's definitely interest in firing up another one. We play evenings EST, typically somewhere around 7-10PM, though a weekend afternoon has been most convenient here and there. We're pretty flexible on schedules lining up.

[Syt]

Had a reasonably fun run as spiritual care bear empire. By the 2300s I was eclipsing all empires (except two fallen empires) in every metric. I got dragged into a few small wars, but nothing too hazardous. Things were getting a bit tedious in terms of managing the empire, so I went psionic and reached into the shroud the start the End of the Cycle. With the huge bonuses you get I expanded my military massively, became Galactic Custodian and went to war simultaneously against the Khans who were rising up and an evil empire who had become the crisis, kicking both their butts all over the place.

When the day of reckoning came and my empire was wiped for the glory of the shroud, my surviving folks were exiled to a fringe planet guarded by the Tiyanki Matriarch. Gee, thanks, I guess no ships for me. And I was still galactic custodian, and the war against the crisis empire was still on. Err, ok? (The war eventually ended with the empire crushed)

The Reckoning entity, meanwhile started devouring a hive mind empire. However the Fallen Empires were going full War in Heaven, and when the Reckoning ran into one FE's fleet it was squashed easily. Oops. So now I sit here on my overcrowded rock (refugees form the wars kept flocking to my world, though I have no idea how they bypass the Tiyanki), watching one FE crush another while constantly running out of consumer goods (my other productions are fine; I researched tons of repeatable bonuses for minerals and energy).

All in all, the End of the Cycle was a tad anticlimactic.

[mongers]

Had a reasonably fun run as spiritual care bear empire. By the 2300s I was eclipsing all empires (except two fallen empires) in every metric. I got dragged into a few small wars, but nothing too hazardous. Things were getting a bit tedious in terms of managing the empire, so I went psionic and reached into the shroud the start the End of the Cycle. With the huge bonuses you get I expanded my military massively, became Galactic Custodian and went to war simultaneously against the Khans who were rising up and an evil empire who had become the crisis, kicking both their butts all over the place.

When the day of reckoning came and my empire was wiped for the glory of the shroud, my surviving folks were exiled to a fringe planet guarded by the Tiyanki Matriarch. Gee, thanks, I guess no ships for me. And I was still galactic custodian, and the war against the crisis empire was still on. Err, ok? (The war eventually ended with the empire crushed)

The Reckoning entity, meanwhile started devouring a hive mind empire. However the Fallen Empires were going full War in Heaven, and when the Reckoning ran into one FE's fleet it was squashed easily. Oops. So now I sit here on my overcrowded rock (refugees form the wars kept flocking to my world, though I have no idea how they bypass the Tiyanki), watching one FE crush another while constantly running out of consumer goods (my other productions are fine; I researched tons of repeatable bonuses for minerals and energy).

All in all, the End of the Cycle was a tad anticlimactic.

I understood none of that, but it sounds like an amusingly epic game.
Thanks for the AAR.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Sounds cool. I normally get locked into decade long wars having to wipe every single space station and then play wack-a-mole doing it again because of their constructors. 

Or jst get pounded to rubble by the fallen empire.

[Syt]

Well, I kept watching the galaxy in my case to see how things unfolded. The one Fallen Empire crushed the other one. Then the Unbidden and their other transdimensional friends showed up, devastating about half the galaxy. Eventually they should up on my planet, killed the Tiyanki and then my people.

[Josquius]

So ascending doesn't end /win the game?

[Zanza]

So ascending doesn't end /win the game?

No. There is only two real victory conditions - either you have most points at the endyear or you build a device that basically ends the galaxy (part of Nemesis DLC). Ascension is something you do in almost every game.

[Zanza]

I recently had a fun game as necrophages (from the Necroids DLC). I have a couple of difficulty mods, especially one that adds scaling on top of the level you start with. So the AI stays competitive much longer (by cheating) which increases my enjoyment.

In that game I eventually found an archelogical digsite on a shielded planet (I think). Anyway, the digsite eventually resolves and I free some human fanatical purifiers. It was already in midgame, so I easily steamrolled them.

Their continental preference meant that they could not live on my normal planets (arctic) as slaves. So being a necrophage, I purged them with the special necrophage purge type (which basically transfers them into your main species - but with all the usual bad opinion modifiers you get for a genocide).

The game can be a lot of fun whether you play nice and friendly or whether you play pure evil. I think it makes for good roleplaying and creates fun story lines.

[Syt]

In my game I discovered that one Gaia planet that is phase shifted or something and keeps popping in and out of existance (which means it takes FOREVER to research the anomaly). It stabilized it, and wanted to colonize it. Only, I accidentally misclicked and colonized the ice planet in the same system (my race HATED cold). So I decided to roll with it. My race was fanatic spiritual, so they designated the Gaia planet a consecrated world, and I covered the other planet in temples as site of pilgrimage.

[crazy canuck]

I have been meaning to try the necrophage faction.  Glad you had fun with it 

@Sty, that's a great way to play it. 

[Zanza]

Paradox announced that the Stellaris team was enlarged and one team will only work on fixing issues with existing content while the other team creates new content.

The "fix" team is supposed to release a free update every three month, expansions will take longer.

The Lem Update planned features:
- Buffing the Backlog: We're reviewing some old DLC to revitalize them with some new content. Humanoids Species Pack and Plantoids Species Packs will now feature some new gameplay features. By the way, did anyone say Necrophage Hive Minds?
- Selectable Traditions Trees: You will no longer be locked to the same 7 tradition trees, but you will instead have 7 slots that can be filled with a tradition tree of your choice. The number of tradition trees will be expanded, and previous tradition-tree swaps will be broken out into their own trees (Adaptability will no longer be a swap of Diplomacy for example). Some new tradition trees will also be added to existing DLCs.
- Balance Pass: We will be doing a balance pass on some existing gameplay systems and features.
- And more..!: Quality of life improvements, bug fixes, AI improvements...

Sounds like a good approach.

[Syt]

 

Sounds a bit similar to CK3 where they said they want to do fewer but larger expansions.

[garbon]

Sounds a bit similar to CK3 where they said they want to do fewer but larger expansions.

But then they went an unveiled throne room dlc...