Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JimboM12]

im trying to figure out how to become the menace to the galaxy that a true imperium should be but all taking that ascension does is unlock two total war casus belli and war goals. i want to have a flood of jingoistic humans and their loyal robotic servants sweep across the galaxy and bring all inferior species under the heel of humanity or face death. i want to make the terran empire from star trek, the sith empire from star wars, and the imperium of man from 40k so proud (barring the use of machines but unlike the iron men, these servants will progress no further than droids to keep them subservient).

digging the imperial shipset too, looks suitably imposing.

edit: dang, after losing to the scourge i reset my game, but i found out that the crisis bonuses is under its own tab near the traditions screen. i will find out and unleash humanity's true power.

[EuchreJack]

You need the combo that unlocks Fanatic Purifiers.  Or, counterintuitively, Inward Perfection with its 10% growth speed modifier.

[MrRoboto75]

I'm a little surprised the pop soft-cap wasn't a game setup slider.

[ventuswings]

Other things will take some getting used to, like having fewer building slots but building slots that are easier to unlock.  The empire wide population growth penalty is also really dumb, but I know it was put there for performance reasons so I'll wait until I get to the end game and see how it feels before I complain too much.

Yeah, I like new population graph system, but wish they removed empire-wide penalty and instead made individual planetary penalties much greater. Populating new colonies is much more of a pain after early game.

[LoSboccacc]

The planet S curve growth is fine but the empire wide limit completely removes late game unemployment, crowding and related unhappiness, making a whole bunch of building useless overnight and cutting away a lot of depth from a system that already barely had any

[Rolan7]

Other things will take some getting used to, like having fewer building slots but building slots that are easier to unlock.  The empire wide population growth penalty is also really dumb, but I know it was put there for performance reasons so I'll wait until I get to the end game and see how it feels before I complain too much.

Yeah, I like new population graph system, but wish they removed empire-wide penalty and instead made individual planetary penalties much greater. Populating new colonies is much more of a pain after early game.

Yeah I'm not sure what to think yet.  It's great that pops finally move themselves properly, but my typical midgame of spamming habitats has tanked my population growth.  Maaaybe that's a fine thing?  It should help end-game efficiency, and it makes building those habitats an option rather than a requirement for continued growth.  It's just weird seeing all those empty jobs and housing.

I'm currently at 512 growth required in 2352, which is almost 10 years per pop on many planets not suffering from overpopulation.  I'm a bit confused by that S-curve modifier to base growth.  43 pops on an 11 is boosted due to balance, but 19 pops on an 8 are "approaching planetary capacity".  The tooltip in that latter case says to build additional housing or clear blockers, but I have 19 free housing for the 19 pops (coincidence).  The planet in balance has 24 free housing for 43 pops.  How is "Planetary Capacity" calculated?  Is it based on free housing or not?

It's easy to be frustrated with the change and write it off as unrealistic - it obviously is - but I do think this might be better for end-game performance and micro.  Endgame overpopulation (particularly by spamming habitats) was powerful but frustrating.  Still, it's strange how growth gets "neutered" on a state-level.  Another reason to keep the AI empires around, perhaps, even as vassals (if you're trying to maximize the galaxy's strength in preparation for the crisis).

[Telgin]

I'm just getting to the midgame but I'm liking the empire wide penalty less and less the further this game goes.  It really makes new colonies feel pointless after early game, and I'm looking at 3+ years to grow first pop on a new ring world, or 10+ years for the first robotic pop.

There is a ton of similar complaining on their forums about it, and I really hope they tone it down or make it configurable.  There's no way they tested this in late game and thought it was fine.

I'll probably be modding it out, even if I lose achievements.

[EuchreJack]

There's no way they tested this in late game

Agreed! 

[MrRoboto75]

even if I lose achievements.

...you guys play ironman?

[Stench Guzman]

even if I lose achievements.

...you guys play ironman?

I always play Ironman unless I want to test something in the console.

Out of all of Paradox's games, Stellaris is the easiest for achievements because you have so much control over the game settings.  The only really tricky ones are the luck based ones, like the Galatron.

[Telgin]

even if I lose achievements.

...you guys play ironman?

Yeah, even in the rare event that I'm using mods I play ironman, mostly out of principle.  It's pretty rare that something happens I'd want to save scum anyway, and it helps keep me honest.

[IronyOwl]

even if I lose achievements.

...you guys play ironman?

I mod and console the hell out of ck2, but mostly play Stellaris straight and almost never want to undo or redo things, so there's no real downside to it.

Did screw up a recent game where I forgot vassals couldn't expand and therefore accepting a vassalization demand was an incredibly poor idea, but otherwise I don't even remember it's on until I'm quitting and there's no need to save.

[Bralbaard]

...you guys play ironman?

I've played iron man up to now, (with a ton of mods) but recent experiences are making me reconsider. In both my last games my main fleet was completely destroyed by a bug (indestructible pirate ship) in the middle of a war, and it hurts a lot not to be able to save scum in such cases. Other than that I have to agree with Telgin, ironman keeps you honest and makes victories feel more meaningful.

[forsaken1111]

In my current unmodded ironman run I have managed to defeat the unbidden, grey tempest, and an awakened empire all at the same time in 2445. Some jerk opened the l-gates in the middle of an unbidden invasion and then the fallen empire on my border awakened and attacked me. Nobody focus on the galaxy-threatening invasion of otherworldly beings, no no, attack me instead.

[MorleyDev]

The point of the empire pop penalty balance seems to be you have three choices come the mid-game: Conquest, Co-operation or Stagnation. You need to find external sources of pops or resources, rather than sitting in your corner and breeding pops. You can't just ignore the rest of the galaxy and expect to thrive.

I honestly like it. It makes Raiding for pops a viable strategy for xenophobes again, and adds new factors into the Tall-vs-Wide discussion rather than 'Always Wide because Bureaucrats remove the downsides of wide'. It also makes it easier for empires to recover from a territory loss by giving them a population boom to bring you back up to speed. Makes the power structure of the galaxy more dynamic and come-from-behind victories possible.

And you can take advantage of that and basically be the Reapers/Wraiths, cyclically raiding for pops, letting an empire rebuild, then starting a fresh harvest.

A significant change it strategy you need to do in 3.0 to maximize pop growth is build your city districts before you need them. A planets free capacity increases the population growth rate. No more sitting carefully trying to time the building with the pop appearing optimally: Build a planets infrastructure straight away. Even then, your non-core worlds population should probably aim to be around 40.

If you wanted to sweaty it, you could always make vassals, let them rapidly breed, then integrate them to take advantage of their rapid growth. Less sweaty is it makes a feudal-type empire more viable, creating vassals from your sectors rather than owning them yourself.

In short, I think the change is overall a good one but it does require you to completely relearn how to play with the new pop system. Old strategies simply will not work, and I think that there is a bit of people:
a) Trying the old ways of growth and being annoyed they don't work.
b) Being off-put by the AI doing a better job of keeping up with the player, making people feel like they're doing relatively worse than they actually are.

----

So, bets on the next DLC? I'm betting something to do with Primitive Civilizations. They're due a rework, and the current Enlightenment/Infiltration was already a proto-Archeology system so I can see it being updated to use that instead.