Stellaris (Crusader Kings in Space)

Having never really played a grand strategy game before i decided it was about time i gave stellaris a proper go. Started the ST mod last week but decided to restart vanilla to get a better sense of the game before going ahead with the mod at a later stage.

Most of it is fairly intuiative but the planets are a bit obtuse. Getting my head around them now so not too bad but was confused the first time,probably cause the ST mod had no tutorial.

The start i got last night put me right beside two superior empires,neither would entertain me for trade deals,pacts etc. Eventually they allied with each other and one declared war on me. I quickly surrendered:P

Didnt feel like i had any other options. Is fast expansion frowned upon by neighbours? Thats the only thing i can think of that would piss them off that i did. They had no issues other than wanting to humiliate me the game said:D

I wanted to get a good few systems under my control before consolidating but i may have went to far. Lucky the accpeted the surrender because one of their fleets probably could have done major damage to me.

It can also depend hugely on the civics and government types of the species and empires. I'm not sure on the specifics of the ST mod, but in the regular game materialists will always dislike spiritualists, xenophobes will always hate everyone that isn't the same species as them and so on.

And some government types are just straight up aggressive. If you're bordering some Hegemonic Imperialists, unless you have a strong military they're going to try and subjugate you pretty quickly. The three 'no-diplomacy' types, (Determined Exterminator machine intelligences, Devouring Swarm hive minds, and Fanatical Purifiers) want try to kill everyone, automatically having -1000 diplomacy score with everybody else. They'll never play nice, the best you can hope for is them seeing you as too powerful to murder/eat.

Add that to having close borders, it's definitely enough for people to go to war with you. Expanding quickly is possible, but I generally try and make sure I always have my navy as large as I can manage to deter warmongerers. Pretty much anyone not explicitly friendly with you will try and fight you if you have a weak navy.

Dytalus wrote: »

It can also depend hugely on the civics and government types of the species and empires. I'm not sure on the specifics of the ST mod, but in the regular game materialists will always dislike spiritualists, xenophobes will always hate everyone that isn't the same species as them and so on.

And some government types are just straight up aggressive. If you're bordering some Hegemonic Imperialists, unless you have a strong military they're going to try and subjugate you pretty quickly. The three 'no-diplomacy' types, (Determined Exterminator machine intelligences, Devouring Swarm hive minds, and Fanatical Purifiers) want try to kill everyone, automatically having -1000 diplomacy score with everybody else. They'll never play nice, the best you can hope for is them seeing you as too powerful to murder/eat.

Add that to having close borders, it's definitely enough for people to go to war with you. Expanding quickly is possible, but I generally try and make sure I always have my navy as large as I can manage to deter warmongerers. Pretty much anyone not explicitly friendly with you will try and fight you if you have a weak navy.

That makes sense,the race that attacked me were spiritualist and i have materialist as a trait. I made a custom version of humanity. Fanatical traits just seem to.....fanatical to me:P

Ive probably concentrated to much on expansion then. There were no contested systems between us when war started,i pulled back a system or two each time i met a race but eventually our borders were right alongside each other. Another race were the other side so was worried if i didnt expand enough id get boxed in and be trapped but in hindsight i can see why they would have seen it as aggressive on top of just thinking i was an ahole anyway:D


@Murray
They werent any type of ancient species i dont think. Just more eveolved than me im guessing. The description just said Superior in the contacts tab.

I may actually relinquish some systems thinking about it,try find the least startegic systems with the worst resources and dismantle the star bases. Be easier to consolidate a smaller area and hopefully have more resources to build a proper fleet. Ive still to really do any combat,ill have to figure out fleet managment a bit better.

I found bottleknecking helps where enemy empires can only advance through one system to reach you, that way you can simply use that planet or system for defensive purposes and only build weaponry. Keep a large fleet located there also. Use nearby state-based in other systems to focus on energy and research fleet capacity.

So ive progressed,31 systems,5 colonies,a half decent fleet and some decent research done.

Reckon im somewhere in the mid game. This time i was smarter,allied as quick as possible with races that appeared. Some cost a decent amount but ive found it boils down to trade deals when there revealed. Get their opinion of me up quick then pacts,research,communications etc seem to follow quickly. I thought it would be more complex. So of the 7 or so races i know about im allied with 2,good standing with 4,and theres 1 im about to go to war with. Ive got a very built up choke point though so reckon it should be ok and also defence pacts so will have races to back me up.

Now i feel ive got a better understanding of the game. This is a double edged sword,there plenty about the game im not sure i like. Too much micro management and theres a lot of small things that are annoying. Planet management is nessacery but feels like a chore. Combat seems to be just numbers based ie fleet strength. The game speed means ive constantly got leaders/researchers dying,new guys join at level one. And in general after a 3 hr play session im kinda wondering what i really accomplished,its such a slow burn

I know traditions help with this stuff but with some perks requiring 3/4 points in the tradtions to unlock its not all that helpful.

Ill keep plugging away here and there,try get to the end of the current game anyway. Have to see how i feel about it after that.

So the unbidden have appeared in the new game,my empire is a huge authoritarian one,have had a good rivalry with a horde race up to this point,we warred and I defo got the better of them but I think I took too much of their territory,was happy I could take the rest in another 10 years but then the unbiden turned up!

Now I find I dont have enough fleets to cover the spots where the unbiden/horde may try to attack and im trying to rely a bit on citadels. Luckily enough they spawned right beside the horde race so I'm going to bide my time a little while they get spanked by unbiden.

With edicts I have 4 fleets with a combined power of about 800k,I may just try bum rush the unbiden early before they get a proper foothold.

If i do though I may leave myself open to the hoarde who had also been building fleets for round 2 of our war.

There really is a lot to do at endgame,luckily I managed to get an unrepaired ring world off the horde so at least I can shove all those unemployed pops in there!!

If ye get bored of the main default game. The Star Wars and Star Trek total conversion mods are brilliant. Some serious effort went into these and are very professional.

I think the Star Trek one is the closest we will ever get to a second 'Birth of the Federation' game.