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[Paul]

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but Humble Bundle has Stellaris and a bunch of the expansions in a bundle. For $15 you get all the big expansions except the newest stuff. Even on a really good steam sale it would be 3 times that to get everything.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stellaris-discovery-bundle

[MrRoboto75]

massive dick update incoming

[Telgin]

I gave a sensible snerk at the patch's official name, but I am looking forward to some of the changes.  The game has lots of room to improve still, but this is a good direction.

[EuchreJack]

Because that's not the kind of game it is. Lamenting that Stellaris could be a different kind of game is pointless, because it will never be another kind of game. Mod it to be closer to what you want or play something else.

This line of argument is pretty unconvincing when you stop for a moment and consider that this particular point doesn't need to be either-or.

And no, "mod it or quit" isn't the only reasonable response. Game design doesn't occur in a vacuum - audience input matters. In fact, I'm 100% certain that's why Stellaris is 4x and not Grand Strategy - they considered what the majority of consumers of scifi games (vs. historical games) favors. Given that its current state is almost certainly a result of paying attention to player interests, saying "players need to take the game as it is or go play something else" is, well, silly.

Plus, there are a lot of options for improvement, that are frankly quite easy to be added*.  They could autoplay the first 100 years or so, then let the player pick an empire.  They could create a static start where the map is mostly/partially settled.  These could be offered in addition to the existing game.  It could even be one of those DLCs that make them all that money!

*If they could figure out how to do it with all their other titles, and if some mods can fudge it, then the devs should be able to figure it out within the timeframe of all the other DLCs.

Note, I'm guilty of using the "mod it or leave it" arguments in the past, so I certainly understand the mentality. I guess I just expected more from Paradox. I'd still bet they'll implement a DLC that'll fix my complaints in the future, that is sort of their business model.  But if enough people want it, they'll release it sooner.

[IronyOwl]

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but Humble Bundle has Stellaris and a bunch of the expansions in a bundle. For $15 you get all the big expansions except the newest stuff. Even on a really good steam sale it would be 3 times that to get everything.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stellaris-discovery-bundle

Ooh, neat.

...I now have spare gift codes for Stellaris, Utopia, Plantoid, and Leviathans. Anyone want, or know a better place I should offer at?

[Lordinquisitor]

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but Humble Bundle has Stellaris and a bunch of the expansions in a bundle. For $15 you get all the big expansions except the newest stuff. Even on a really good steam sale it would be 3 times that to get everything.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stellaris-discovery-bundle

Thank you!

Without you mentioning this, iīd probably have missed it. Now i was finally able to acquire a reasonable amount of content at a price suitable for me.

Now i donīt have to choose between between piracy or playing not at all/only a stripped down version of the game anymore.

[SOLDIER First]

This line of argument is pretty unconvincing when you stop for a moment and consider that this particular point doesn't need to be either-or.

And no, "mod it or quit" isn't the only reasonable response. Game design doesn't occur in a vacuum - audience input matters. In fact, I'm 100% certain that's why Stellaris is 4x and not Grand Strategy - they considered what the majority of consumers of scifi games (vs. historical games) favors. Given that its current state is almost certainly a result of paying attention to player interests, saying "players need to take the game as it is or go play something else" is, well, silly.

The original point I responded to was "I don't want [what Stellaris is], I want [a different kind of game]" when Stellaris will only ever be the kind of game that it is. If you want your sedan to be a convertible, rip off the roof or buy a new car.

The fact that Paradox takes user feedback into account is irrelevant when user feedback will not be enough to completely change what kind of game Stellaris is. It might have grand strategy elements, but it is first and foremost a 4X game. This will not change. Mod it or quit.

[edit] I just noticed the new update name. This is the greatest patch ever conceived for any video game.

[E. Albright]

No, what you responded to was an expressed desire for static starts. That's not "a different kind of game" - it's an advanced start and/or a fixed map. Both of those are familiar to people who play 4x games even if only some 4x games offer them and it's quite misleading to attempt to portray it as belonging to a different genre. You can argue it would take the eXplore out of 4x, but given that Civ has offered the static map from the first game (and IIRC advanced scenarios from the second), it's absurd to declare static maps are incompatible with 4x games. Further, an enormous amount of Stellaris gameplay outside the early game consists of playing with full or mostly-full galaxies. Paradox could unquestionably add an option to use a static default occupied galaxy (or a randomized fully-settled-galaxy start option) without "completely chang[ing] what kind of game Stellaris is". "Mod it or quit" remains an unconvincing argument that requires us to fundamentally misunderstand what was being pined for above, as well as what is and is not 4x.

[EuchreJack]

Is there any point in continuing this discussion?  I think we've all made our points, we disagree, and we're not really being constructive at this point.

There is enough anger outside, let's retain our chill. 

[forsaken1111]

You could always sorta kludge it by starting a game and using the mature_galaxy command to run it forward 100 years or so, save that out and now you have a static start. Just start it up and tag switch to whichever empire you like

[Telgin]

3.0.1 and Nemesis were released today: Patch Notes

[Great Order]

Well, I've discovered something rather stupid.

The vassalise wargoal no longer vassalises captured planets if you white peace out (Or in my case, your war exhaustion ticks up and even though you occupy everything of theirs they refuse to surrender because their allies still have a handful of systems and they force white peace on you. No, not salty at all about that stupid goddamn mechanic that prevents wars of near continual attrition). Instead, nothing happens. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

[forsaken1111]

That is almost certainly a bug as the change is not listed in the patch notes, be sure to report it please

[Broseph Stalin]

I'm weird about that one. For the Vassalize war goal white peace is often worse than directly losing. Maybe if the system handled it better, like it made surrendering before white peace could be forced more attractive or something, it would work but it's always seemed weird that the AI prefers to give up 99% of it's territory to live in a one planet system penned in by a hostile power than be subordinate and pay some taxes.

[Telgin]

I saw a comment on Paradox's forums that almost every major patch breaks vassalization and other aspects of war goals / CBs so I wouldn't be surprised if they did break it again.

So far I haven't gotten into any wars in 3.0 yet, but I do really like almost all of the changes so far.

1. First contact is a lot better overall.  It's more fleshed out to begin with, but it also now takes up your envoys' time instead of scientists, meaning you don't have to spend 6+ months of society research on every encounter now.  I always avoided the projects before and just waited for the other empires to contact me because I didn't want to lose the time.  Now you don't have to.

2. Projects and archaeology sites now give way more research as rewards.  This is great because it means that the previously very steep initial research costs are essentially halved during the early game since you have so much stored research sitting around, making the tech costs feel a little more natural in progression.

3. Industrial districts are very nice.  I don't know about most play styles, but it makes the game so much less frustrating when playing as a life seeded empire early on, who normally have ridiculous consumer goods requirements due to 0% habitability everywhere.  Now you don't have to wait for a building slot to unlock to make more, and it also makes it easy to maintain alloy production early on for the same reason.  Life seeded is a challenge origin so it's not a great metric to measure by, but I expect it makes things easier for everyone early on.

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.