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Author Topic: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE  (Read 1748056 times)

Telgin

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8475 on: March 18, 2020, 11:46:40 pm »

I had a little time to poke around with the update today, and I really like the new UI for showing relations between empires.  The envoy system is more interesting than I expected too, and let me become friends with a neighboring empire with slightly opposed ethics where before that would have probably led to a spiral of negative opinion modifiers with no easy way to save it.  Signed a defensive pact with them soon after and planned to try to form a federation as soon as I unlocked the tradition so I could test that out.

And then... I encountered some militarist aliens to the south who I could not convince to like me with my envoy, and then they declared war on my defensive pact allies.  We got dragged into a war I was utterly unprepared for and could not win.

Then my economy tanked so hard on consumer goods I literally could not buy enough to stay afloat, so I conceded.

I probably should have switched away from utopian abundance living standards, but kind of planned to restart anyway since I got hemmed in and had a small empire.  I will say that I really like the changes to empire sprawl too, and it'll be interesting to see if the job and building slot tax of maintaining administrative capacity has a noticeable impact on how I plan my economy.  It at least looks like you won't need the admin building on every planet to keep up, but it was only 50 years into the game so that may change, especially once you start getting ecumenopoleis and ring worlds.
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Greiger

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8476 on: March 19, 2020, 01:31:37 am »

I also played with the game a bit. playing voidborne militarist xenophiles.  Highest tech in the galaxy and one of the bigger battle fleets.   Everyone is friendly.  Even the goddamn hive mind likes me. There's one unknown empire somewhere galactic north that is fighting the ais that started as a federation also to the north of me, but I have not seen any unknown ships in their territory so I assume the federation are smashing them into the dirt.  I didn't even get any neutral space monsters in my territory. 

I'm hoping that I'll get research to fix that gateway I have so I can fly off somewhere else and find someone to kill that does not love me.  Its like I'm a homicidal lizard Bob Ross. Except instead of paint I murder, and I have nothing to murder, because I only murder people who don't love me, and the lizard afro is too adorable to not love.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2020, 01:35:11 am by Greiger »
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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8477 on: March 19, 2020, 09:01:45 am »

Also note that empire cohesion is once again no longer a thing. So while you'll pay a steep influence price up-front to make a disconnected Swiss cheese empire, that's the start and end of the penalties for doing so.
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Iceblaster

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8478 on: March 19, 2020, 09:11:34 am »

That sucks. Was it removed because the player was the only one affected? Because if so, then yeah I guess. But I did like at least the idea behinid it, that being less swiss cheese.

3d space when paradox

Broseph Stalin

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8479 on: March 19, 2020, 12:29:45 pm »

I'm debating sneezing at work so I can stay home and play the new dlc.

Chiefwaffles

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8480 on: March 19, 2020, 04:09:44 pm »

While I still think the game is moving in the right direction, jesus christ can they take a bit more methodical approach to design please? Every single update involves a significant change/overhaul to sectors&territory it's just surreal at this point.
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IronyOwl

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8481 on: March 19, 2020, 04:48:05 pm »

I think I prefer the drunken lurching to apathetic shrugs or entombing the problems in bandaids, but yeah it's pretty clear at this point that they've never had any idea what they're doing.
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Kanil

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8482 on: March 19, 2020, 05:32:52 pm »

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to them overhauling population growth in an upcoming patch, because it's been completely broken and unbalanced ever since they overhauled it in a previous patch.
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

Telgin

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8483 on: March 19, 2020, 06:02:28 pm »

Agreed.  At the very least I'd like to see them remove the mechanic where population ratios balance out over time by meaning high population species stop reproducing the moment you get a new species in your empire.

Every single update involves a significant change/overhaul to sectors&territory it's just surreal at this point.

Wait, did they change something this time?  Or do you means just removing the cohesion mechanic?
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MrRoboto75

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8484 on: March 19, 2020, 07:12:25 pm »

I remember it being wonky my first game.  I rolled syncretic (master and servant races).  At some point I got the mystery box event/anomaly, and picked the one that gives extra habitability.  The box only gave it to the master race, and not the servant race.  So after a while the master race ended up massively outnumbering the servants.
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Rolan7

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8485 on: March 20, 2020, 02:56:26 am »

Dang, apparently you can't set population controls by species - on your main species :P  Of course I'm still playing xenophiles who I don't think can do it anyway.  "Our empire values xeno species too highly."  I'm surprised Fanatic Egalitarians can even enable population controls as policy, I know it makes the faction upset.

It's 2373 and things have gone well.  The The Federation has 6 member states including the United Nations of Earth.  At this penultimate level, and with several conflicting ethos, there's a significant cohesion drain.  1 envoy from each state is enough to counteract that though.  I have to send more envoys whenever we gain (or lose) a member due to the one-time hits, but that's very temporary.  The rest of the time my envoys are dealing with the Galactic Community, hehe...

Short history:  The UNE regained contact with the Commonwealth of Man and, thanks to diplomacy and "not being filthy xenos", had a peaceful relationship.  Eventually the UNE federated with a pair of militarist empires, one of which was xenophile too!  That one eventually adopted egalitarianism, becoming Democratic Crusaders.  They were very annoyed when we invited an authoritarian trade league in, but were outvoted.  (Neat trick - to get these Peaceful Traders to join, I had to set my war policy to defensive.  Ten years later I changed it back.  They're not even pacifists, and often vote in support of subjugation wars... silly birds).

Sadly the Commonwealth of Man wanted nothing to do with this, and even refused association status.  Some nearby *barbaric despoilers* were far more cooperative, though they had misgivings about being more than associates.  Suddenly "honorbound warriors" cut a swath through the Commonwealth, taking territory right up to Deneb itself!  This was obviously unacceptable, but what could we do?

Oh right, unrestricted warfare...  I claimed and retook the territory for Humanity (And Pals).  Huzzah!
...and then since the Commonwealth clearly couldn't survive on its own, probably due to their unenlightened bigotry, I "offered" them vassalage.  Then "insisted".  This ended up taking two wars by accident.  The Commonwealth of Man was now merely Deneb, while their other colony was a much more agreeable new "state" with a forgettable name.  (I later vassalized the aggressor xenos as well, mostly to save them from the barbarians)

To bring this back to new mechanics, all these new mini-states were both a curse and a blessing.  Each absorption caused The Federation a cohesion hit, but they each had their own envoy pools and were willing to contribute, so it worked out long-term.  Even with all the diverse ethics.  Until eventually the barbaric despoilers, to my surprise, seemed ready to sign up as The Federation members!  The only thing was that they couldn't abide the Commonwealth-splinter on Rixin.  The xenophobic Commonwealth itself?  Perfectly fine, but those other ones, no way.

Turns out that just as you can bring vassals into a federation without a vote (aside from a general policy toggle which may have started active) you can also absorb them.  I don't generally do that to vassals, but... 2 years of bureaucracy later, the barbaric despoilers happily joined us... I'm not questioning it!  The The Federation now controlled a bit more than half the galaxy.  And our greatest threat was a fairly nice empire of Federation Builders on the other side of the core, an advanced start which formed a powerful federation but seemed completely uninterested in war, even on neighboring states.  I can respect that!

So I screwed around with economics for about a hundred years.  I can't believe I picked the Xeno-Compatibility perk *and* evolution ascension... probably should have gone psionic, ugh.  All the rainbow demographic circles are nice though, and hybrids are literally better.  But long story short it was a prosperous golden age.

Except I kept seeing half-humans on the slave market  >:(
I bought a *lot* of slaves with my stupidly strong economy, but I'm pretty sure they were derpily migrating away.  To my authoritarian federation partner.  IT KEEPS HAPPENING and this time it was my fault for voting for open borders in The Federation.  No, I couldn't fix this with immigration controls.  Even if I could rescue every human-hybrid, what good would that do?  I needed to save *everyone*.

As you see, two of those nations are already violating guidelines.  A previous bill outlawed *chattel* slavery, and basic subsistence or stratified economies.  In other words they could still have their slaves, if they paid them a living wage and had them work domestically.

Apparently that's not agreeable to them, so let's see if they're willing to implement universal social welfare~  That's right, decent conditions aren't decent enough once this passes.  *Academic Privilege* isn't nice either (it's pretty stratified TBH).  And no slavery of any kind now, duhh.

How am I pulling this off, though?  Mostly pops and tech.  Those scores are more valuable in my galactic community because we've passed bills which encourage research and civil rights.  Along with environmental bills which weaken the economic lobby, and warcrime legislation which apparently weaken the threat of military force.

also I gave that trade union, the biggest opponent who stands to lose their entire slave-based economy on this, 340 dark matter for 10 favors.  They cost 25 influence each to cash in, but each one seemed to counteract 10% of their vote.  I hope the dark matter keeps them cold at night!  Slaver fu-
heh, I almost forgot they're in my Federation.  Doesn't really matter though - from what I've read, this is going to screw over the entire galaxy XD  Just kinda amusing that they're *not even upset with me*, we're in the top "excellent" relations tier.

At this stage they *can* give all their pops Social Welfare (yep, even authoritarians!) if they don't like the sanctions.  Sanctions I will be ramping up.  They don't even have the slavery civic so they don't have to reform, just stop enslaving xenos by species.  It's the next and final stage that's actually unreasonable, requiring Utopian Abundance  :D  Or Shared Burdens heh, or mandatory pampering.  Oooooor, and I guess this would *technically* work without requiring an ethics shift - Chemical Bliss :P

*fondly regards rainbow demographic pies as the galaxy falls apart*

Fakedit: The war I'm in is actually thanks to those barbaric despoilers - they wanted to pillage the other Federation for no reason and everyone voted yes.  Probably... to get more slaves.  Their worlds are covered in ruins and I have to wonder if it's from me buying my dunkass pops back en masse.
my federation is awful
they deserve whatever crisis puts this doomed galaxy out of its misery

Edit:
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I will die on this singularity!
« Last Edit: March 20, 2020, 03:09:40 am by Rolan7 »
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Blastbeard

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8486 on: March 20, 2020, 09:40:10 am »

A word of advice for anyone looking to try out the Remnants origin: turn your volume down, Relic Worlds are loud and obnoxious. They give off a constant droning sound if you zoom in too far, and god help you if you click on one while wearing headphones. I mean god damn, these things are loud enough to drown out VIR, and that mofo can talk. Were Relic Worlds always this loud?

Speaking of everyone's favorite assistant, the voice actor isn't sounding too good. He sounds sick in the voice clip about empire sprawl. Hope they're alright.
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Rolan7

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8487 on: March 20, 2020, 11:27:07 am »

So my sleep antics were just barely successful in outlawing all slavery and mandating social welfare.  Result: the galactic community shrugged and started repealing the sanction laws, which were already pretty mild.  So they're almost all in violation, but they seem okay with that.  I probably overplayed my hand  :-\

I should have built up the authority of the galactic community first by helping the sanction laws stack up.  But I kinda did my best, the process is just very slow.  I don't think we wasted many sessions on failed votes, and it's already 2379.  Guess the midgame crisis hasn't fired yet though (unless you count me lel) so there's still time.
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Cruxador

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8488 on: March 20, 2020, 12:33:27 pm »

Do people appreciate reading little story times? I'll divulge mine in anticipation that some do.

I normally play xenophobic spiritualists with an imperial government. Since this is the diplomacy update, I chose to play xenophiles instead, and to go egalitarian and democracy for the sake of additional variety. Since the game does the thing it does, there's only one other xenophile in the whole galaxy, too far away to be diplomatically relevant, but it's fine since my diplo bonuses and envoys let me do most of what I want.
I begin doing the usual game start stuff, and right off the bat, a bit spiritualist faction forms for no apparent reason. Luckily, they're easy to keep happy. They required me to ban robots, but that's worth it since by this point I haven't unlocked them anyway, so it's worth it for the influence, which is harshly gating my expansion rate. I go through the usual early game of exploring and claiming systems. One of the first things that happens, of narrative relevance, is that I get a big Zro archaeology chain which I won't spoil, but it's long enough that it's a recurring theme through this arc of the game, and I get invested in it. I'd say more except this is hand-made content and I suspect there's pretty limited variation. Anyway, it eventually ends and together with a psychic ocean thing, jump starts me into psi stuff and gives me things that enhance the psionic ascension a bit. I decide to follow the emerging narrative that the game made. Through normal shroud events, one of my scientists becomes the chosen one. Cool, I figure. A scientist with some nice bonuses and immortality will be perfect for dealing with the high level anomalies I've left lying around.
Then I get an event that, if I choose the option, makes him god-emperor and gives me new government/civics to match. Since the game has been going that way anyway, I follow the narrative. It seems I've returned to the "right" way to play. Only difference from usual is that now my god emperor is immortal and really is as close to divine as I think it's possible to get in this game.

And that's where I left it last night.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: Stellaris: Paradox Interactive IN SPACE
« Reply #8489 on: March 20, 2020, 12:53:12 pm »

For the EMPEROR
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