Stellaris (Crusader Kings in Space)

The_Valeyard

Learned something new!


If negotiating with another race and you get -1000. It usually means they want something specific.

VinLieger

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Learned something new!


If negotiating with another race and you get -1000. It usually means they want something specific.

Really?

I thought I tested this and couldnt find something that moved the number so I just assumed anything that triggered it meant it was a deal breaker

The_Valeyard

VinLieger wrote: »

Really?

I thought I tested this and couldnt find something that moved the number so I just assumed anything that triggered it meant it was a deal breaker

Working for me in 6 out of 10 negotiate thinge

Dave_The_Sheep

Is there any way to figure out what it is they want without trial and error?

The_Valeyard

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Is there any way to figure out what it is they want without trial and error?

Seems not. Asking this in the forums also. Some users have found if you hover the mouse over the portrait/logo a demand or 'wish' from them will appear. The times they just have zero interest in you (fallen empires)

ShooterSF

Ok I have 2 problems with sectors. 1: Why doesn't my colony ship show up on my ship list if built there and 2: Why can't I decide where my strategic resources go? I get to with my minerals and energy credits...

Dave_The_Sheep

Mid-End game in my first big one. I control about a quarter to a third of the galaxy between myself and my vassals and I'm allied with another third. Flying ahead with science now, fleets around the 20K mark. Nearly got into trouble with a stagnant acended Empire but managed to keep them happy enough to not declare war. I know there's some crisis to come in the endgame, wondering if I'm in any shape to deal with it.

While I'm really enjoying this game, there are plenty of things for Paradox to improve upon and add with DLC/content packs. It's very easy to abuse the diplomacy options (selling minerals) to make loads of cash, while there are lots of UI issues that could do with a polish/redesign. Rally points would be a welcome addition too, as would trade ships/routes.

Does anyone know if your borders from planets overtake a Frontier station, do you still have to pay Influence upkeep on that station - or do you have to manually destroy them?

Zillah

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

It's very easy to abuse the diplomacy options (selling minerals) to make loads of cash

In my game and any screenshot I've seen people have been glutted on minerals and in negative income for money. I was able to keep my bloated fleet up and running by periodically selling off (probably literal) mountains of minerals to anyone who would entertain my offers.

Looks like the resources might need some tweaking.

I also found that my income would happily swing from + or - 50 seemingly randomly - my guess is governors changing their pop arrangements? I'd also like to be able to tax sectors separately for resources. High money and low minerals, for example. I settled for setting it all high and then throwing resources at the sectors if they ever looked low. It reached a point, however, where they didn't need anything and were, in fact, stockpiling huge amounts of resources that I think I can never extract from them?

The_Valeyard

Zillah wrote: »

In my game and any screenshot I've seen people have been glutted on minerals and in negative income for money. I was able to keep my bloated fleet up and running by periodically selling off (probably literal) mountains of minerals to anyone who would entertain my offers.

Looks like the resources might need some tweaking.

I also found that my income would happily swing from + or - 50 seemingly randomly - my guess is governors changing their pop arrangements? I'd also like to be able to tax sectors separately for resources. High money and low minerals, for example. I settled for setting it all high and then throwing resources at the sectors if they ever looked low. It reached a point, however, where they didn't need anything and were, in fact, stockpiling huge amounts of resources that I think I can never extract from them?

Had this problem also.


Also finding midgame I cannot build large K fleets anymore and brings me negative energy.


Also...... need advice.....

I recently conquered my vassal race who rebelled (stabbed me in the back)
I won the war and conquered their empire.
One world keeps getting popular faction of separatists and blowing up buildings. No matter what I do, bribe leaders, suppress media, they keep going. Any advice???

If I purge this world, will this affect the other world's nearby?

Dave_The_Sheep

If you do purge worlds, make sure you have one of your own on the world first. If you purge the lot, apparently the colony is abandoned unless you've one pop left.

The_Valeyard

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

If you do purge worlds, make sure you have one of your own on the world first. If you purge the lot, apparently the colony is abandoned unless you've one pop left.

Good idea, I'm thinking (to keep the peace) prevent alien breeding and migrate my species to that world.

VinLieger

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Good idea, I'm thinking (to keep the peace) prevent alien breeding and migrate my species to that world.

For the rebellious world I had in an empire I took over I filled all the empty plots with robots and then just kept suppressing media and using the integration option, eventually the faction disappeared.

For the mineral stuff with sectors ive been noticing the up and down thing with energy credits so i think im gonna switch one planet to have no mineral and all energy to try and keep a more stable balance. Ive also been keeping my sectors at 75% stuff passed on to me and then any extra I have I just manually pass on back to them.

Currently I have a stable enough fleet as regards energy while in orbit with 2 12k stacks and 1 2k stack from an empire i integrated with a different hyperdrive engine.

Zillah

One horrible GUI thing I just remembered: splitting fleets. If you have a large fleet you want to reorganise it's completely ridiculous how much you have to scroll up and down that horrible menu to find ships. It's about a tenth as user-friendly as it should be.

The_Valeyard

Heres one:


The Just Force Federation declared war on me.

Select my war goals, yet can only choose to protectorate of each of the empires or conquer three planets as war goals.

At least 30 planets are missing from the list that they own. And five are within immediate fleet strike and troop drop distance!!

JD1763

What fleet setups and ship configurations are people running?

I've seen a lot of posts about just going corvettes and destroyers with no real value in investing in battleships or cruisers. Some also mentioned going missile heavy as the AI can't cope with the spam and won't equip enough point defence to counter it.

Have to admit in my last game I struggled against an equivalent tech/fleet neighbour who just wiped my fleets every engagement no matter what I did.

The_Valeyard

JD1763 wrote: »

What fleet setups and ship configurations are people running?

I've seen a lot of posts about just going corvettes and destroyers with no real value in investing in battleships or cruisers. Some also mentioned going missile heavy as the AI can't cope with the spam and won't equip enough point defence to counter it.

Have to admit in my last game I struggled against an equivalent tech/fleet neighbour who just wiped my fleets every engagement no matter what I did.

I want with laser and just constantly upgrade beam speed and damage.

VinLieger

I've got a mix in my cruisers and battleships, but with destroyers and corvettes I generally focus for 2-3 different designs

Zillah

I struggle to understand why bigger isn't better. Surely corvettes die much faster, in which case your damage output begins dropping immediately. Whereas with larger ships they don't lose effectiveness (I think) until they explode.

This has always been the principle in these games, and it is actually a little annoying, because it usually left no reason to do anything in the end game but move fleets of dreadnoughts around.

JD1763

Its due to the evasion statistic - smaller vessels are much harder to hit than larger ones. So while a battleship is easy to hit for everything, larger vessels will have a tough time hitting destroyers and corvettes. There's a good post on Reddit explaining the mechanics. Its like tracking in Eve or the way Eve models missile damage (at least when I played it 10 years ago).

I actually prefer it as it makes sense that fast moving small vessels are harder for larger weapons to strike. But there is also a bug where you can get corvettes evasion to 105% with research and admiral abilities. Next patch is expected to nerf them though.

Currently running a 52k fleet - mix of aura battleships with lances and hangars. Missile cruisers and carriers. Then laser destroyers and a mixed corvette fleet of torp boats, laser boats and point defence boats. So far its wiping everything with maybe 1-2k losses each fight. My game has basically turned into vassalise an opponent, integrate them and then move on to the next one. There's one empire that's equivalent to me and about three times my size but its only a matter of time.

I'm kind of seeing what people mean about the mid to late game tailing off. I'm basically in a cycle of declare war on each neighbour in turn and upgrade research and ships. All my planets except my home world are assigned to sectors and contributing maximum income and resources to fund my fleet and war effort. that early game struggle of building my empire is kind of gone and even the crisis event was boring. I think they need to work on the late game a lot more to preserve the level of engagement of the early game.

Nody

Zillah wrote: »

I struggle to understand why bigger isn't better. Surely corvettes die much faster, in which case your damage output begins dropping immediately. Whereas with larger ships they don't lose effectiveness (I think) until they explode.

Calculate cost per damage; you might find that five corvettes generates a higher damage output over one battleship (never played CS or this but this has been an issue in other games) at the same cost.

TheChrisD

It's a weird trade-off. Smaller ships with their better evasion and sublight speed in theory can dodge a load more shots; but the larger the ship the more natural armour it also starts with, allowing it to better tank shots (although armour itself could do with being buffed to be more of a DT than a DR).

I suppose one of the big factors in what feels like a current lack of balance is that medium and large modules are exactly double the cost/power/etc. of the previous size, so sometimes you can be better off with four small guns rather than a giant gun. Although the increased range from large guns can also be of some use. Plus you're not exactly going to be able to mount the biggest weaponry (which I think they're changing to be a special XL slot) on the tiny ships.

If anything I've found the biggest single challenge in any game to be taking on a Fallen Empire simply due to the massively better tech they have and their surprisingly large fleets despite their size. Took one on recently that only had two systems - albeit one with one of those ring world setups - and found them to have over 110k in fleets. So I was then scurrying around trying to pump out more kinetic arty battleships cos his weapons just tore through me.

Speaking of weapons, I think they need another pass-through. Kinetic weapons just seem a little underpowered when you compare that they never get any shield or armour penetration; whereas all the energy weapons have one or both of those stats along with the same base damage/cost/power etc.

The_Valeyard

I researched 'expand borders +10' about six times. My empire now stretches the entire galaxy reducing most AI empires to smaller 'pockets n circles' within my space???

VinLieger

I kinda unexpectedly bounced out of this once overwatch came out, gonna try make time to jump in and test the new Clarke patch see what's changed, also loving they are naming the patches after Sci Fi authors, next patch is called Asimov

TheChrisD

VinLieger wrote: »

gonna try make time to jump in and test the new Clarke patch see what's changed

Very little, really. A little bit of rebalancing and QoL improvements, but you're not going to feel anything majorly different until Asimov itself; but going by the initial dev diaries, the 1.3 Heinlein update will definitely change the game in a good way with hopefully better mechanics for fleet formations and military focus for subjects/allies.

VinLieger

Started up a new game, Going for the insectoid slave happy hive mind kinda thing, only issue is my starting area is SUPER cramped, just saw a mod there that stops this happening so may start again using or I could just play my race and go super militaristic and enslave them all.......

VinLieger

Great list of the current best mods available here https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/06/17/best-stellaris-mods/

I'd recommend expanded war demands and more events ones, the civilian trade also gives some life to the galaxy.

VinLieger

So im a bit frustrated with the game right now. I put about 30 hours into my most recent game and ran into a wall against the Unbidden invaders.

I had a total fleet of 150 strength split into 6 seperate fleets I was using to go through their space and claim it back to reduce their reinforcement rate.

I had also destroyed all of their constructor ships to help stop their space growing again.

I made my final assault on the wormhole with my full 150 split into 2 groups coming at it from 2 different directions. The wormhole was regularly spawning stacks of 42k which I could take down with ease due to my fleet being specifically built for long range sniping that was beyond their fleets range.

This is where the first problem arises. Theres no way to get your fleets to stay at the same spot while attacking something, they constantly move towards what they are attacking and when that thing is an unending wave it means they close their range so the other fleets can begin attacking them. There is no way to control or stop this happening other than abandoning the system with the retreat button.

Now this wouldnt be an issue as I was melting their fleets but then as I got closer to the wormhole the spawn rate increased so there was 42k fleets spawning every 10-15 seconds and I just couldnt take them down fast enough. There is no apparent reason for this to happen that I could see as all of their constructors were dead and I had taken down at least half their owned space.

Ive no problem with an uphill battle where I need to throw everything at it and still might fail but when your winning and have done enough to finish a fight and the game suddenly decides to change the rules that's just bullsh1t.

Basically until they fix the fleet combat and the unbalanced and rule changing abilities of the invaders i wont be going back to it. Also the victory conditions which have been widely criticised need a serious looking at.

Doodleking

Plantoid Species Pack will start arriving On August, 4

The_Valeyard

Going to bed now

Been playing the Star Trek Horizons MOD since 8pm.

Very addictive.

Playing as The Dominion, managed to get all Gamma races under my control either as vassals then integration. Anyone who refused, I sent in the Jem Hadar and purged the planet. Came into contact with the alpha and delta powers, was doing well, then the Borg invaded and now I'm trying to regroup and form a grand alliance.

pixelburp

Being somewhat lazy here so forgive me if this was already answered: I've always been curious to try one of Paradoxes game but found their reputatedly bad UI and learning curve a big turn off. Does Stellaris do anything to cure this? The game looks pretty awesome but I'm totally leery about investing hours just to get to grips with some byzantine interface