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[stabbymcstabstab]

I really wished they actually simulated those shipments, convoy raiding would be incredibly useful, and would make defensive structures and multiple fleets more worthwhile. I'm still rocking the deathball, since it make no sense not to.

[Sirus]

I'm right with you there. Maybe another update will add that sort of thing.

[Criptfeind]

It feels very strange that SoaSE is the only game(s) that seem to have gotten the idea mostly right

If I recall, sword of the stars also does pirates in a pretty reasonable way, they start to exist once you've got trade ships moving though your empire, and they only attack said trade ships.

[NullForceOmega]

What, you think the various planets in a civ have absolutely no trade with each other? Just because the game does not portray such a thing does not mean that there aren't transports filled with minerals, strategic resources, and (especially now with Banks) food throughout the civ. That stuff is probably quite valuable and people are going to try and get a hold of it - illegally if they must.

The vast, vast, vast majority of the time Stellaris' pirate event fires when you have less than three colonies, and from my experience usually before you have one. So where, precisely, is this 'trade' when there are no places for traders to go?

This is why it is stupid, because it doesn't have any justification, it is purely gamey and arbitrary.  It also gives the pirates technologies your empire probably doesn't have, how, exactly, if the techs aren't available for use, do these random pirates get them?

Criptfiend: Haven't played Sword of the Stars, I've heard a bunch of very conflicting things about it, so I've never bought it.  But that does sound like reasonable behavior for pirates.

[Greenbane]

What, you think the various planets in a civ have absolutely no trade with each other? Just because the game does not portray such a thing does not mean that there aren't transports filled with minerals, strategic resources, and (especially now with Banks) food throughout the civ. That stuff is probably quite valuable and people are going to try and get a hold of it - illegally if they must.

Of course civilian traffic exists in the background, but it's just not very interesting to have visible pirate fleets appear just to apply a system-wide malus to resource collection or whatever.

Visible civilians are necessary to provide a much needed layer of life to the galaxy, and make that kind of interaction more immersive. Planets could gradually produce freighters (its merchant fleet cap, say, regulated by the colony's size and buildings) which would travel between your colonies and to your trade partners, and periodically passenger transports to make migration physical instead of reliant of magical teleporting (at least until said technology becomes feasible).

And pirates would come around and attack/capture those ships, running away with resources and slaves unless fended off by local militaries. Hmm, it'd be cool if you could trade with these pirate factions, whether to desperately buy resources at their extortive prices or procure said slaves cheerful servants for your empire, for instance.

By the way, tangential note: Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity (and GalCiv2) are tier 1 rewards in the new Humble Bundle, so you can get it for a dollar.

[Sirus]

What, you think the various planets in a civ have absolutely no trade with each other? Just because the game does not portray such a thing does not mean that there aren't transports filled with minerals, strategic resources, and (especially now with Banks) food throughout the civ. That stuff is probably quite valuable and people are going to try and get a hold of it - illegally if they must.

The vast, vast, vast majority of the time Stellaris' pirate event fires when you have less than three colonies, and from my experience usually before you have one. So where, precisely, is this 'trade' when there are no places for traders to go?

This is why it is stupid, because it doesn't have any justification, it is purely gamey and arbitrary.

Criptfiend: Haven't played Sword of the Stars, I've heard a bunch of very conflicting things about it, so I've never bought it.  But that does sound like reasonable behavior for pirates.

Cargo runs from your mining stations to your colonies/homeworld. Supply runs in the opposite direction.

If you wish to complain about how the behavior of the event pirates (blowing up stations rather than blockade/raid them) makes no sense, well I won't argue with you there. The fact remains that unless you turtle to a ridiculous degree and basically forfeit all growth, there is always something going on that could be construed as "trade".

Pirates in this current iteration make very little sense from any standpoint. Piracy in general is something that makes a great deal of sense, and should be expanded upon - preferably along with expanding the impact and visibility of civilian trade.

[Draignean]

It feels very strange that SoaSE is the only game(s) that seem to have gotten the idea mostly right

If I recall, sword of the stars also does pirates in a pretty reasonable way, they start to exist once you've got trade ships moving though your empire, and they only attack said trade ships.

Well, in SOTS, all pirates are actually privateers. Commerce raiding is a tech that you unlock in order to fuck over everyone else's trade lines. With the exception of the random encounter slaver groups, it's all other empires screwing with one another. (AFAIK)

Criptfiend: Haven't played Sword of the Stars, I've heard a bunch of very conflicting things about it, so I've never bought it.  But that does sound like reasonable behavior for pirates.

SOTS I, with all expansion packs, is hands down the best 4x I've ever played in terms of fleet battles and combat tactics. The diplomacy is a bit on the lacking side, but massive interstellar war is a blast.

The pirate growth I was suggesting earlier would be a lot of fun to tie into the faction system as well. Give a nice penalty to having a massively disenfranchised faction that you don't/can't completely eliminate or suppress. For example, my fungal slaver empire is 55-65 with every faction except the Democracy party, who hover somewhere around 7-12. The 5 pops that adhere to that path really can't do shit, so I pretty much ignore them. Yet, if any one of my democratic border rivals were to fund those subversive elements under the table.... I'd be all for a system where the massively disenfranchised (even if they can't collectively create a lot of unrest) could be turned pirate by your rivals.

[NullForceOmega]

I agree with expanding civilian aspects of the game, probably not to the extent of Distant Worlds, as that caused massive slowdown of everything eventually, having those elements of trade in the game, instead of completely abstracted would go a long way to overcoming my irritation with the current pirate system, tho' it would still need to be adjusted so the priates behave more intelligently, the 'show up, blast everything' mode of operation needs to go away.  Pirates don't try to go toe-to-toe with nations, because they lose.

As for the argument about the resource stations, those are government facilities (currently), and from my standpoint that means patrolled routes.  Since the actual cargo vessels are abstracted away, then I have to assume that internal peacekeeping forces are also abstracted, as the game makes it very clear that I am managing my military fleets, not police forces.

Draignean: Thanks for the info on SotS, I may look into picking it up next time I have some disposable cash.

[Criptfeind]

Well, in SOTS, all pirates are actually privateers. Commerce raiding is a tech that you unlock in order to fuck over everyone else's trade lines. With the exception of the random encounter slaver groups, it's all other empires screwing with one another. (AFAIK)

Ah. I had not realized this. My favorite race (and the only ones I've played a game of "recently" was the hivers, and looking it up they don't get access to Commerce raiding, so I musta totally forgot.

[Shadowlord]

Sots 1's pirates felt a whole better to me than soase's, which seemed to just be there to attack players periodically for no apparent reason.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Sots 1's pirates felt a whole better to me than soase's, which seemed to just be there to attack players periodically for no apparent reason.

Well on soase I remember put up bounties on other players and the pirates would attack the one with the highest bounty so the had a reason.

[Descan]

Aye, thanks for the advice.  I admit I hadn't messed about as much with fleet stance as I should, and I'm definitely looking into some mods to buff up defensive stations somehow. Heaviest stations I have, deployed in an optimal pattern, don't really do a damn thing except discourage light raiders and transports.

Unless they've changed, default Fortresses are basically only good for Hyperlane-only maps, and on chokepoints with the Warp interdictor or whatever it's called - the thing that makes enemy fleets drop out right on top of the fortress. Otherwise they're too expensive for what you'll get out of them, since enemy fleets could just warp past that system or wormhole.

With hyperlanes and those fortresses, you can build said station in the chokepoints of your empire (especially if you're playing on Arm galaxies, since you can sometimes have only one system between star clusters) and when you go to war with an empire in that direction, you can station your fleet next to that fortress. So when the enemy fleet comes knocking, they're dumped right next to your entire armada and (assuming you're strong enough) you can make short work of them. (i.e. autocannons and other short range weapons that are really strong but can be a problem if you're starting an engagement across half the star system; if the enemy is dumped right next to you, range is no issue)

I've not done it so I'm not sure, but I think you may be able to get away with putting supplementary fortresses near enough that have the add-ons that lower enemy attack and defences, so that works too? But unless you have a way to guarantee the enemy is going to pass through a system, fortresses are too expensive for how little use you'd get out of them. You'd be better off building more ships - They're more expensive in terms of mineral-per-fleet-power, but you can actually do stuff with them. Move them around. Mobility is very useful.

[Paul]

So I got the new update, but couldn't play at all because every new game loading in would crash at the part where it loads map textures. No error message or anything, just drop to desktop.

Made sure my mods were disabled (they were). verified integrity of game files, deleted my stellaris user folder in the documents. No go. Deleted and reinstalled the game. Still same issue. Downgrading to older version worked no problem.

I finally figured it out. For some reason Stellaris won't load at all if you don't have audio. I don't have speakers on this system and I didn't bother to plug in my headset just to play Stellaris, so I had no audio. Instant crash to desktop, no error message. Plug in headphones, try again, works perfectly.

So if anyone else has this issue, check your audio. If you don't have a default audio device plugged in, the game does not work.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Somehow with Paradox's quality that doesn't surprise me in the least. But i gotta say it's no wonder they didn't catch it if they surprisingly did QA.

[Donuts]

That is a pretty niche bug, though.