Stellaris

[Tryhard]

Anyone playing? I've played a decent amount of EU4 and CK2 and still suck at them but have tried this since it came out recently. Like, last week or something.

It feels a little... simplistic, so far. I like the game, and it is certainly easier to get into comparatively to the above two, but at the same time I've got two saves of both a slaver and researcher races in the midgame and it does seem like I am just waiting for expansion or to occasionally get in a few wars with other races that aren't very powerful from what I can see. Though from what I am to understand, both EU4 and CK2 which I got into pretty late were a lot less refined before the amount of patches and DLC they got, so I hope the same happens for Stellaris, because I want a 4X space game like it. I never played Master of Orion and never got into Sins of a Solar Empire. It does look great aesthetically, though.

Fallen Empires are kinda bullshit though. I spawned right next to one.

Well, anyway, would suggest this for a research-focused play which I've had the most success with. Having much more research puts you so far ahead of every standard AI.

Fanatic Materialist (obvious research bonuses), either Collectivist or Pacifist.

I picked Collectivist because I have the choice of doing some slavery/purging and it wasn't a diplomatic run so I expected to get into some wars. It also helps with the "Encourage Free Thought" policy edict (I think having access to this as Collectivist is a bug) that gives +10% research speed but also +15% ethics divergence as there is a building and edict that reduces ethics divergence, you don't need to use them but they're nice to have and you can only purge as a Collectivist which is very nice if you do get into wars. Mmm, genocide. Otherwise Pacifist is fine and has happiness benefits. You can't go Spiritualist because it's opposite to Materalist, and I wouldn't suggest in my opinion xenophobe/phile because their bonuses are minor. Wouldn't recommend Individualist either because you can't use slaves and can't use the Despotic Hegemony government. Militarist I'm not sure about, but could work.

Despotic Hegemony government (+5% research speed, +10% survey speed). Science Directorate is an alternative.

And then for traits I went Intelligent (again, obvious research benefits), Natural Engineers (combat technology is great to have as early as possible though social is more immediately useful. Once again, if you go pacifist I would take Natural Sociologists instead), and Sedentary for the balancing out. If you want to use gene modification later to modify another bad trait, then Weak is a decent other one to take.

Worth noting that technology development is scaled on population, so it might actually be detrimental to expand rapidly instead of slowly building labs and such.

Essentially, I'm a space nation of callous scientist birds.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Tryhard

[Rapier]

The second mammal from right to left looks like he had his jimmies unrustled

You mean that game where I've started 10 runs with 10 different races and I didn't even get past the beginning because it is just so fun to create new species? Oh, yeah.

I love how it is so intuitive compared to the other Paradox games, which are complex and also incomprehensible clusterfucks (until you dedicate yourself to learning them). It is simple to learn without being an actual simplistic game on its mechanics. I also like the flavor added into the game, and it is always fun to start a new game with new ethics just to see which kind of new dialogue and research will be available (spiritualists have psyonic warriors, for example).

Speaking about ethics, I think that some of them need to be changed slightly. For example, the Militaristic one gives a good bonus for armies, war happiness and rival influence gain. I expected something like a ship attack bonus or a bonus for fleet capacity, instead of a relatively useful army-only bonus (and they're only useful if you are being successful on space battles / defending your planet, but on that case being a tough sitting duck is not that great an advantage), a war happiness bonus that doesn't help much, and a decent influence gain bonus. Spiritualist grants a happiness bonus and iirc a slavery tolerance bonus, which aren't that great, especially when compared to its opposite trait, Materialist. Those are the ones that I've thought about.

Other than that, I'll have to agree that it feels kind of barebones, although I'm liking it a lot as it is. I expect great things from it as expansion packs come.

[Tryhard]

It's still good. But it'll be fantastic in a year or two. Paradox always seem to do a good job with that.

I have played a bunch of early games, and initial expansion is definitely great. But I haven't really pushed through the midgame, which they have admitted isn't fleshed out.

Spiritualist is interesting but it really only benefits from the 5/10% happiness - and I believe a Spiritualist resolution to examining one of the unclaimed aliens gives another +5%. It's mostly for stacking, probably with pacifist and happiness buildings/techs/traits/government, to get 90% happiness on colonies which gives a flat +20% production which is great. You need to be Spiritualist to have the Divine Mandate government which increases slavery tolerance, but it doesn't itself.

Collectivist is generally great along with Materalist but I'm confused why it gives slavery tolerance - shouldn't that be more Militarist than an ethic based on group identity? Other than it being the supposed 'opposite' of Individualism.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Tryhard

[Rapier]

It gives slavery tolerance because the individual is seen merely as a part of the whole, an end to the society (thus justifying slavery for the greater good), whereas individualism sees the individual as its own end, allowing no "greater good" to justify racial atrocities. I guess Militarism could also apply (see fascism and nazism), but it's got a lot of effects stacked already.

Also, I don't see anything much about individualism as an ethos. The energy credit is rather nice, but... well, that's it, compared to the collectivist bonuses of less food consumed (thus, less need for hydroponics farms, which leads to less energy use) and slavery tolerance (which is good for the workforce iirc). The slavery intolerance might as well be a cosmetic factor and the ethics divergence is actually a negative thing...

Edited May 17, 2016 by Rapier

[Tryhard]

This guy did a pretty good write up of what the ethics are and do, even outside stated bonuses:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/beginners-guide-to-ethics-traits-and-governments.926557/

Edited May 17, 2016 by Tryhard

[Magical CC]

A so-so game that will inevitably get better with more dlc. For now, this game failed to satisfy my sci-fi spirit with its lack of innovative. I want to be the Tyranid Hivemind or Arachnid Gog Bug, not some lame ass Earth-ish types of government. Also, no mechanical race? Everything has to rely on carbon and water to survive even in the space game where you can create whatever you want? Paradox relied too much on their experience with EU4 and CKII to make this game making it a sci-fi game in name only. I want to infect everything! I want to consume the galaxy! I want to turn every living thing into machine! I want to wipe out planet with my super cannon! I want to corrupt humanity and open the gate to my dimension!

My rating is 6/10 for vanilla version. If you want a tamed, lack of ambition game that pretends to be something it's not then this is the game you want. And my rating for it in the future is 8/10 with 200 dollars worth of dlc.

I refunded this game after playing it for nearly 2 hours. I got bored after the first hour or so.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Magical CC