/civ4xg/ - Strategy/4X General

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one more day, one more chance

Did Utopia save Stellaris

>>172825053
no

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Okay im really confused ..
Whats the difference between Utopia and Banks ?
Or did they just changed the name or what ?

>>172804992
Why clear jungle if they give bananas? He should clear the conifers.

>>172825613
Utopia is the DLC.
Banks is the patch.
They don't add the same stuff.
I want to destroy 2b's ass.

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>>172825613
Banks is the free patch that contains the factions rework and the new unity / traditions trees and everyone gets it as a free update.
Utopia has the ascension perks and megastructures.

>>172825613

Banks is free and Utopia costs £15, take a guess.

Tell me what scifi 4x games are better than Stellaris

because every single time someone posts something 'better' its either
1. Massively outdated
2. Has a huge flaw that makes the whole game a joke
3. Is as wide as a ocean and deep as a puddle
4. Is as deep as an ocean but you can dodge its depth because its poorly made and has abuse-able mechanics

>>172827356

U kidding me?
Aurora4x and Distant Worlds only need better UI (and port to C# in Aurora's case) to permanently btfo of Stellaris.

>>172827784
>Needs better UI

There you have it. Are there any games that are as slick as Stellaris but don't have dumbed down mechanics?

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I was browsing steam and found this new hot release, after the empire.

I'm shilling it in the hope someone buys it and tells if it's shit or not.

>>172828252
Looks like a millenual version of Endless Space.

But
>guild
>trade route
>pilgrimage
That's new. Early Access?

>>172827985
Ah - one of those "Have your cake and eat it, too" fellows, eh?
Yeah, we'd like one of those, too.
However, atm, all you've got is unplayable eye-candy & replayable 8-bit theatre: take your pick.
IMHO, one game can't do both - and I dare any studio to prove me otherwise.

>>172828314
No.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/493220

it's only 7 currencies too.

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>>172827985
>name me one game that is flawless or has no arbitrary flaws that made the game not ideal for me

Really nigguh, really ?
Aurora and DW trump Stellaris anyday, improved UI or not.

>>172828252
Really dig that artstyle.

>>172827784
Aurora and Distant worlds are GSG not 4x.

>>172828418
I tried lookin at the Steam reviews :
> First impressions after first game played:
>I haven't seen anything like this. I am confused about the amount of detail there is and what you can't see (at least I can't). I have a lot to learn before I can beat this game. And this is in a good way. I'm interested not bored.
Now I know what I stopped caring about Steam reviews.

>>172828521
Hence why I posted it here.

>>172828486

Wtf are you smoking?
4X = 4X
GSG is clean XXX.

>>172828653
Stop falling for that bait.

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>>172828621
>>172828521
>>172828252
>mfw there is a pirate version on PB

Thank you based jesus.

>>172828252
just hoist the black flag matey, new releases usually get some attention whether they're shit or not so it should be available

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>>172828252
>I'm starting to find it easier to change, remove and add features with After the Empire. Very little in it feels like it's an untouchable keystone, like so much did in The Viceroy. But the odd thing is, with all that feeling of freedom in design even at this late date, After the Empire is much closer to its original concept (and its original version!) than The Viceroy is to its original idea. The mechanics and features feel more like tools to reach the concept and the fun, not the point in of themselves. I hope this new perspective helps me to continue to move the mechanics and systems of The Viceroy closer to its concept and purpose, which is, in the end, to give people a series of meaningful choices.

I can almost guarantee it's good just from that snippet.

>>172828252
That looks too austic for me.
>you can get excommunicated
>blockaded
>got an embargo against you
>enlightenement and authority rating

>>172828874

Can't. Stop. Raeg. From. Breaking. Thru.

>>172829341
Your anger makes me stronger.

>>172831026

I know - and It. Just. Makes. Me. Even. More. Angry.

Srsly, tho - why are all gsg games such shit?

>>172831445
Because they focus on details and ignore what really requires fixing.
EU4 has some really nice factions mechanism where you have to not rely on your people so much, but the combat is still "BIGGER STACK BETTER" and the mana system is too simplistic compared to the rest.

Not that I mind the mana being simple, but I find it strange how I use the same ressources to research technology, attack natives, and develop provinces, while, on the other side, I have to compose with the cossacks getting agitated before I asked them too many favours.

>>172831445
>Srsly, tho - why are all gsg games such shit?
They aren't, not really. They just each aim for a niche and try to fill it. If none of those niches are to your taste youw won't like any of them. Stellaris is example at how paradox tried to avoide a niche and go mainstream and failed utterly. DW is an example of /gsg/ that's not focusing on a niche done right.

>>172831898
they really, really are

paradox has no sense of design, that's why all their games are total garbage regardless of what genre they go for

>>172831898
But DW could learn a bit from Paradox. Say what about you want about Paradox, at least if something doesn't work, you usually know why. In DW, if something doesn't work, well, you grow a moustache, put your overalls, and start doing some plumbing.

>>172831898
DW is not grand strategy

>>>/vg/gsg

>>172831950
>they really, really are
Opinions are like assholes indeed.

>>172832035
Do you mean bugs or inadequate feedback? To me both are more annoying and omnipresent in paradox games. Granted. by the time I got interested in DW, Universe was out, so I might have missed on the shitstorm if there was one.

>>172831898
>They aren't, not really.

Srsly:
EU is just an overgrown Risk
CK is an Incest simulator
Liquoria is ... well, name says all.
HoI is just overgrown Axis & Allies.

The main name of the game is Blobbing.
And - what's worse - it's not even fun Blobbing.

>DW is an example of /gsg/ that's not focusing on a niche done right.

And, again, DW is not XXX like gsg - it's a proper 4X.

>>172832148
it's time to go back to libbit, friend

>>172832307
>Srsly:
But that's the point isn't it? If you don't enjoy those particular niches and hate blobbing ofcourse you are gonna hate those games.

>And, again, DW is not XXX like gsg - it's a proper 4X.
Between this and that other lunatic it looks like /civ4xg/ is doing too much fighting monsters. Seriously, purity tests? Not real 4x, real 4x, gsg not gsg, Don't you see how silly that argument is? Yeah, everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes each and which is better, but come the fuck on, it's not a point you can ever prove one way or the other, why the fuck do people obsess over it so much.

>>172832531
>game is poorly designed and doesn't do what it's supposed to do
>I-it's just n-niche

nice damage control wiz

>>172832575
>doesn't do what it's supposed to do
That remains to be proven, tho. EU4 is vary straight forward about the fact that it's overgrown risk, and a lot of people enjoy it, otherwise paradox would be bankrupt. Similar with all those other games, just because you want the game to be more than what it is and/or have a different focus/organisation/structure, doesn't mean there aren't people who enjoy them.

Just to clarify, I don't play paradox games anymore, even those that I do enjoy on their merits, I've grown bored of, and their two latest releases are unforgivable shite in my book. But there are clearly enough folks who still buy all that dlc and folks who aren't bored of paradox's conventions.

Trying to push the narrative that all paradox games ever are shit on the other hand seems ludicruous to me simply because if they were so unilateraly bad, no one would give enough of a fuck to talk about them in the first place.

>>172832531
>Seriously, purity tests?

Yes.
And they're simple ones, too: Does it do the job or not?
I'm not talking about race purity, either:
If the game has Xplore, Xpand, Xploit & Xterminate elements - it's a 4X game.
If there's nothing to Xplore - it's a XXX (aka gsg) game.

And, tbqh I don't like gsg for the same reason I don't like Risk: it's too boring.
Now, if you'd tack on a proper battle system to any gsg, it'd be great - but currently, I don't see the appeal.

So, what about them is so appealing to you?

>>172832148
I mean the UI in general.
As much as I bitch about CKII or EU4, I can usually tell what's going on simply by reading the help.

With DW, I needed someone to explain me how resort stations really worked, and the "automated ship upgrade" just updates when new component are unlock, it didn't add hyperdrive engine to my civilians ships.

>>172832951
go back to kekkit

does ethics divergence guide pops in distant worlds specifically away from empire's ethics, or is it possible for deviants to randomly return to the official ethics?

>>172833302

top kek - now gtfo plebbitor

>>172833367
kys yourself

>>172833387

Awww - don't tell me: not even plebbit wants you.
Poor baby.
Here - have some cyanide.

>>172833036
I dunno, with CK2 and EU4 I had to read the wikis to figure a lot of parts out. And don't get me started on how much faggotry was involved in figuring out PU mechanics in EU4, which I was personally involved in.

On the other hand with DW I got everything I needed to know from the in game manual, only rarely having to resort to outside sources. It was intuitive for me, more or less.

Resort stations re an arcane bitch, yes, no argument there from me. Tho the game gives you basic ideas it's clearly inadequate info to utilise them fully. But upgrade system felt straight forward, maybe the order I resarched techs allowed it to bypass the issue you dealt with, or maybe I didn't pay enough attention to civies to notiece it, tho I could swear they did indeed use FTL, even managed to do so before I build first FTL scout in one of my earliest game.

That being said, DW UI is among it's weakest points to me. I don't think it's horrible and designed by aliens as, for example, Civ6's UI, but it was not at all a strong point and left much to be desired.

>>172833345
Unless they changed it, ED is random. Given that you have only 2-3 ethcs as a gov, you are much more likely to have it move away from gov than to gov, basic probability and all.

If you want to force it to move towards gov you have to make ED value into a negative number.

>Suck terribly at both endless legend and endless space games
Just what the hell am I even supposed to do? Im always overwhelmed by all the features and feel like unless I read a guide on what to build and research in early game I simply run out of resources and lose

>>172833780
I usually go for economy development choices in building and research and end up rekt by pirates and other empires because I've been neglecting the military.
That and I never got the combat system in ES

>>172833780
First, avoid endless space. As the joke goes one is an unfinished buggy mess that will never be fixed and the other is ES1.

Focus on EL, and pick ONE faction. Endless games are notorious for varying gameplay paradigms between factions, which is good, uless you are new at it.

Start with Wild Walkers or Vaulters. Former allows for quick expansion latter for rapid research. Both don't have mechanics that tiwst core 4x gameplay too too badly.

I prefer vaulters since they require less macro, which is good when you need to see what you are doing wrong.

What to do after that is hard to say w/o hearing more of what kinds of problems you are running into. The most generic piece of advice I can give you is watch a youtube vid of someone playing as your preferred faction, the second most generc one is worship production for it is the means by which you grow.

>>172824783
>cbg
Its been so long I don't know if I should

>>172833780
Expand more. The Endless series doesn't really do tall.

>>172832951
>If there's nothing to Xplore - it's a XXX (aka gsg) game.

That's the most retarded thing I've read in a while.

>>172834417
>That's the most retarded thing I've read in a while.

Wtf?
You mean we get a whole new (& different) map everytime we start a gsg game?
Man, I didn't even know!
Better try it out right now.

Oh wait - I just remembered: We don't.
So stfu & gtfo.

>>172833638
>I dunno, with CK2 and EU4 I had to read the wikis to figure a lot of parts out. And don't get me started on how much faggotry was involved in figuring out PU mechanics in EU4, which I was personally involved in.
Oh, right. I seem to have "forgotten" that point : the complete lack of tutorial in CKII and EU4.
Sure, the UI tells you why something can't work, but the explanation it gives you to begin with are limited.

As for the upgrade, maybe it's because I turned off automatons, but the UI still told me the upgrades were automated, so I never checked how the civilians ships were.
I dunno, each has its own flaws. Paradox requires you to learn by yourself but explain very well why, in that specific case, it doesn't work (except for that time where I couldn't buy my liberation because the game didn't told me my warden hated me), but Distant Worlds is better to explain the game as a whole.

But I love DW's musics.

>>172834629
>he doesn't know about the randomized new world
CASUAL

>>172837053

O rly?
Optional addon = entire game series, huh?

As I already said: stfu & gtfo.

>>172837053
I think EU4 should belong to us. /gsg/ doesn't want it and with the random map and custom empire features it's already more 4X than a lot of the stuff we talk about.

>>172837697
Stop chasing /gsg/ down the shit filled drain it now inhabits. If you want to discuss a paradox game here, just do it. That's what sane people do.

If noone's interested in discussion you will find out that quickly.

And there will always be lunatics that will screech you not to cause not PURE 4X!!! They are lunatics. They can be safely ignored and laughed at.

>>172837697
I'd rather not. Currently, /gsg/ and /civ4xg/ are pretending the others don't exist, it's fine.
If we start picking grand strategy games, /gsg/ will go full autist again and think we're stealing their games.
Let them in their cesspool.

>>172838521
>/gsg/ will go full autist again and think we're stealing their games
Oh no, what would we do. They would certainly take over and ruin the general!

Grow a spine.

>>172838729
what's stopping you from discussing whatever you want?

>>172839071
That was my point.The post I responded to argued against it.

>>172839179
well you don't have a right to demand that others talk about that shit with you.

Or more accurately you can demand all you want but that doesn't mean anyone will.

>>172838729
I won't keep you from talking about grand strategy games in this general. In fact, I did so myself several times.
I just don't want to have it in the OP, because I still remember the wanker spammer.

>>172839312
No where did I make any demands. Merely suggesting that just because /gsg/ exists its not a reason to do or not do anything as simple as mundane as discussing a game.

>>172839562
I get that, no one want's to deal with that shit and no one wants an intergeneral war, because ultimately it's a waste of everybody's time, but I stand by my point - if people feel like discussing it stopping them just to appease gsg is ludicrous.

>>172839179
>>172837697

So, what's interesting about EU4?

>>172827784
Neither of those games have MP

So well done you proved my point. Outdated as fuck.

>>172839754
I NEVER said we can't talk about grand games. Just that they shouldn't be the main focus of that thread. It's fine to bring them up to compare them to Stellaris or the others 4X.

>>172839882
The internal politic is way better than in Stellaris.

>>172839882
It's the best map painting game on the block, offering just enough complexity to keep it from being utterly brainless, just enough challenge to keep it from being a faceroll and just eneough fluff to keep it from becoming a chore.

Until you get tired of painting maps, than it becomes utterly tedious because no other part can carry the game.

>>172827356
Fun post. I wonder do you realise that every line in it applies to stelaris itself?
If you want a modern sci-fi 4x in space that is an overall good expirience I'd advice taking a look at Galciv2.

Any way to see the list of wars currently occuring in Stellaris?

>>172840782
dunno about list, but one of the political map overlays is helpful for that

I'd like to know if there's a way to see policies of other empires other than going to their worlds and checking out happiness factors of citizens. War declarations usually offer option to "end atrocities" but I seldom get to see what those actually are.

>>172840975
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=708752579&searchtext=map+modes

This has some policy map modes available.

>>172828252
It's only around 5 cuckbucks for me on steam so I bought it. It seems pretty cool, i can post a more autistic summation of it once i've played (and lost) more of it.

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>>172841460
>5 cuckbucks

>>172828252
Wish someone would do a playthrough of Stellar Monarch, it looks interesting but the screenshots don't tell you much about it

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>>172828252
>>172841460
Example screenshot.
>>172841698
£4.75

>>172842517
>Stellar Monarch
That steam trailer voice is absurdly amusing.

>>172828252
>religion
>in a science fiction game
Well that's new.

Looks like AI War, but...
WAIT A MINUTE, ARE THESE CIVILIZATIONS INSTEAD OF PLANETS? ARE THESE GALAXIES INSTEAD OF SOLAR SYSTEMS?

>>172842765
>GALAXIES INSTEAD OF SOLAR SYSTEMS
Nah, it appears someone got the memo on actual galaxy size and decided to use satrclusters (called territoriens ingame) as a basis for mapping instead of individual solar systems.

Which to me is no less amazing and far more believable.

>Try out Stellaris
>When I take over a planet, the inhabitants stay butt mad foreverly and I have to keep spending influence until I just become too big to maintain them anymore and rebellions break out
>Whenever I vassalize a nation, I don't really get any bigger or better so eventually the vassals get buttmad and I have to fight another rebellion
>The only way to actually expand is to first liberate a planet, then become its protectorate, then wait 50 years for it to become a vassal then integrate the vassal for an obscene influence cost

Does Utopia fix any of this?

>>172843564
>fix
sounds like standard paradox conquest mechanics to me desu

>>172843564
>being this bad

>>172843564
>not reeducating conquered nations

I have a question, I just got 1.4 and it says my core mod is outdated, but I started a new game and I can still make my sector +999, I assume it works fine anyway?

>>172844101
It may work while being outdated.
If this mod changes only one or two lines in one file you should be fine.

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>>172843564
>having xenos in your empire
>having vassals
this is where you went wrong

Can I RP in Stellaris or is minmaxing traits too OP?

>>172844207
I can only occupy one type of world. So I need them if I want to expand or I just sit around for seven thousand years until I can gene map my race.

who /excited for making hamburgers out of filthy xeno next week/
here?

>>172844847
>Your question was whether or not the game's dead.

No. No it was not.

>>172844935
Wrong tab.

>>172843545
So there's something between a solar system and a galaxy?

>>172845585
Star cluster and/or constellation is probably as close as you are gonna get if you want generic.

>>172845675
I thought constellations were totally subjective, like "these stars look like a frying pan!"

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heh

>>172846012
That might be the only fun thing I saw in Civ 6.

>>172845773
They mostly are. But they still require a decent amount of relative proximity to be relevant.

I'm not saying they are a good way to measure things, but there isn't a good way afaik. Star clusters are a bit more objective but suffer from much the same issues and aren't as cool, i.e no mystical meanings.

The logical way to split is Galaxy>System>Planet, but if you want to show scope or model an actual galaxy, you will quickly find out that it's essencialy a Sisyphean task to map it solar system for solar system.

It's one of the reasons some geeks have a hate boner for intergalactic travel in sci-fi - there is so much space in our backyard that going to other galaxy for most any reason is a ludicrous proposition.

>>172846216
Well, as far as space travel go, I mostly follow the popular trends that Spore used : planet<solar system<galaxy.

Took me a while to understand how fucking huge galaxies actually were and how insane intergalatic travel actually is.

I'll consider buying civ 6 under two conditions:
-workshop is released
-DLC bundle is released

Until till then, no chance I'm buying this unbalanced game with terrible AI.

>>172837697
World domination in EU4 is much harder than EU3 though. I don't really enjoy a strategy game unless I can map paint.

>>172846954
"Fuck you, faggot" - Firaxis, probably.

>>172846954
>Until till

>>172846216
clusters, arms, dust clouds, nebulae, even arbitrary sectors are all valid ways of deliminating areas of a galaxy

Are there any Stellaris mods that actually make it at least somewhat enjoyable and give you things to do? Or is there nothing out there that elevates it from being a game about endless waiting and micro?

>>172847365
Other than mods that add events and increase the amount of anomalies?

>>172847365
None so far. They all add a few things here and here, but what you want is a complete remake.

>>172847365
Stellaris is pretty much about imagination and roleplay. It´s what you make it to be. My warhammer 40k playthroughs will never get boring (especially with utopia adding many warhammer like things)

>>172846404
good tools for it is space engine, and to some extent elite dangerous

I'd also recommend seeing the powers of ten sequence of "Cosmic Voyage"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-lsyo28SU

>>172847330
Yes, and they are all largely arbitrary. Less so than constellations of course, but I addressed that. Besides, Arms are too big to be useful in delimination, nebulae and dust clouds are merely a movement hazard, not useful space with planetary-centric approach to civilisation that 99/100 works follow.


Don't get me wrong I'm not saying they are all equal, just pointing out that once you left Planet>System>Galaxy behind you are largely operating on arbitrary ground.

>>172847789
It's pretty much about roleplaying a construction ship.

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>>172847365
Just go to the workshop, sort by top rated all time and go through the pages grabbing anything that sounds interesting. I did that and it worked out fine.

>>172847890
our own space can fairly reasonably be said to be located within the orion nebulae, it is a useful measure

any kind of subdivision is useful, no matter how large or small

>>172822983
>[Adult Swim] pulled an April Fools and switched today episode of Samurai Jack Season 5 for the first episode of R&M.

>/cock/ is losing it's shit because they were waiting for the next episode and they hate R&M for autistic reasons.

You go to a restaurant and order a steak, because you love steak and want to treat yourself. Eventually, after a long wait, the server brings you a lobster. Now, while you also love lobster, it isn't what you ordered and you are understandably upset.

>>172847890
I remember DW using sectors, and it was good.

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>>172848085
Stop using food analogies.

>>172848209
You see someone eating a steak, and you tell him not to.

>>172848067
It is not unimportant, indeed. But when you are talking about games, especially with pseudorandom galaxy generation, you need generic.

Which is why that game has done away with pursuing accuracy, and callled it's primary divisions "territories", an absolutely nebulous and arbitrary term, which non the less gets the job done.

>>172848087
DW doesn't use sectors as unit of value, but as a coordinate tool, much the same as you would use sectors on any terrestrial map for quick narrowing down of the location.

Compare that to , say, states in US, where it's not merely geographical unit of persistant size, but a complex political entity.

>>172848736
I don't know shit about the states.
Except for a few trivia about texans being inbred, californians being haughty and obnoxious, and mexicans being poor.

>>172848874
On paper, US states are a bunch of city-state like entities working together. On paper.

>>172849046
Given it hasn't imploded yet, I'd say they're doing okay.

>>172848085
No, /co/ hates R&M for some reason since far before yesterday.
They say it's "le reddit meme 2 deep 4 u" humor.

>>172849191
What do they want? A show that caters to 4chan only?

How would that even look like? Would every character be green with a business suit and a "no picture available" on his face, even female ones?

>>172849408
back to kekkit

>>172849408
They're just being contrarian shits because it's popular.
4Chan has a long time history of making fun of hipsters while it's inhabited by the biggest fucking hipsters on the internet.

>>172849543
See? Why do you even think hating Reddit is such a gigantic meme in here?

>>172849690
For reddit, I actually went there, so I can understand why it's so hated.

Protip : it has everything to do with its karma-based content, and how quickly you're shut up if you speak against the majority.

>>172849191
>/co/ hates R&M for some reason
The same reason they hate every modern cartoon but have 100 threads about them?

>>172843564
You're supposed to integrate vassals, it takes 10 years before the option comes up but it adds their fleets and their planets/infrastructure to your empire.
>>The only way to actually expand is to first liberate a planet, then become its protectorate, then wait 50 years for it to become a vassal then integrate the vassal for an obscene influence cost
Maybe try not playing as a bunch of pacificist pussies and use an ethic that lets you conquer worlds outright?

>>172849963
Yeah basically.

>>172850073
No point. They dont have my ethos unless I liberate them and even when I integrate them they have 'recently conquered' for some reason so we circle right back around to the problem of rebellions

>>172850190
I would love to give you some advice but because I´m not a pacifist pussy I just genocide every fucking xeno is come across

>>172851532
I'm not a pacifist either. But being a slaving shitter means everyone already doesn't like me. If I start purging entire systems I'm going to be fighting a 1 v 5 war. Or get everyone federated up against me so I can't bully solitary nations

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>>172851532
lol edgy you're soooo cool xD

>>172850190
>'recently conquered' for some reason
Gee, I wonder what that could be...
Why don't you up your Influence production by researching Influence-related tech or using the Humiliation wargoal? There are a few broken systems in Stellaris (i.e. my necessarily large warfleets take upwards of 2 months to make a wormhole jump and are almost guaranteed to never encounter the enemy fleets that I order them to pursue because of how terribly the wormhole FTL system is in execution) but dealing with unruly factions isn't that difficult. You just need to generate enough Influence to suppress them, and there are plenty of ways to do that. You might also try using local planetary edicts like Reeducation Campaigns to bring them in line.
You should be focusing on Society research if you're having problems like this.

>>172847905
There's a triforce on that ship

>>172848085
Can you give me that in a sports analogy?

>>172854690
You train for swimming, and then you're told at the last moment that you'll have to wrestle a bear.

>>172854823
Can you give me that in a realpolitik analogy?

>>172854914
You go to vote for your favourite politician, but then you're told that you were actually voting for the one you wanted executed horribly.

>>172851839
Playing fanatical purifyers actually makes the game more challenging and there's actually stuff to do

>>172855005
Sounds like the electoral college.

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>Play Stellaris around launch
>I'm an asshole and everyone hates me
>BUT THEN UNBIDDEN
>Everyone starts joining federations with their assholes puckered
>I even join one just so I have a clear path to the unbidden invasion point
>My ships are literally the only ones to even attempt to fight the unbidden

Did they ever tweak the AI so they actually do something against the unbidden? It was an abstract feeling. I was expecting my old enemies to help me save the god damn universe.

>>172855445
They all gang up on them now

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>>172848209
I think food analogies are appropriate since we are talking about /cock/.

>>172855445
Unbidden and swarm are number 1 threats now. But if they spawn in corner of the map between some litle empires then your galaxy is probably fucked

>>172858379
Shit like this has gotten me more excited for Utopia than I should be.

>>172858379
Neat

>>172858379
It bothers me how it makes for great roleplay, but is still a minor detail.

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>>172860063
Yea like ultimately what is -50% election influence cost? It would be cool if there were events relating to it though, with factions that become aware of the shadow council and run a populist campaign to take back the country.

>>172860930
In the end, why should you care about the election at all? I've never been able to fulfill any of my electorial promises, so scientist, diplomat, general or whatever else, it made no difference.

hak?

Is Stellaris updated or they are building hype for an update?

>>172861028
Sometimes I get a guy who gives me cheaper building cost or +5% happiness.

>>172861028
>I've never been able to fulfill any of my electorial promises,
You must really suck at Stellaris.

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>>172861285
NIKALLA DUSAM! NIBLIR TO VASSU! HAK HAK HAK!"

There should be option to create a crusade during crises. Like big joined force controlled by player

>>172862998
AIs are supposed to be equal to player, so it'd be just like federations, but temporary and with some leader selection mechanism.

>>172861924
>>172861924
>Champion of the People: +10% happiness
>Deep Connections: +1 influence
>Warlike: -15% ship cost, -20% army cost
>Military Pioneer: -10% ship cost, -35% ship upgrade

Champion of the People + Warlike is OP, I'll do anything to keep a leader with that combo in power.

Anyone know where I can get a better look at the faction mechanics for Utopia?

That's easily my most interested feature for the new patch, and I kind of want to see it in action more.

>>172864284
Official starfish streams

Why don't you turn into the Prethoryn Scourge in the Genetic Ascension?

FOUR MORE DAYS

God I'm so restless and horny

>>172865789
Why don't you join the Prethoryn Scourge?

>tfw only 4 more days to play my geckos but I'm expected to handle responsibilities and shit this week
Why

>>172865789
Playing as hivemind is essentially the same thing

>>172861028
>why should you care about the election at all?
Something tells me you're not very good at Stellaris. Elections are one of the major advantages democratic factions have over autocratic ones. Fulfilling mandates is a very easy way to boost your influence which allows you to in turn spend your influence more more freely. Not only that, but if in an autocracy your leader has shit traits you're stuck with that until they die and have to pray the heir is better, but in a democracy you can choose the best traited leaders every time so your empire has effectively permanent happiness bonuses, influence bonuses, production bonuses, etc.

The only major drawback is that rigging elections costs influence, so reducing that by 50% helps considerably.

>>172867103
I'm a complete Republican, not a Democrat, and building five sciences stations in five years is impossible.

I'm downloading stellaris again but just realized that an expansion is coming out this week. Should I just wait until that's out to pick it up again?

>>172867245
Wut

>>172867245
You know that you can be a giant interstellar corporation, right? This joke doesn't really work, and it wouldn't be funny if it did.

>>172867793
Every time I played Stellaris, all the mandates I got were for building science stations. And even when building intensively, I never reached that mandate.

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>Utopia in 4 days but it doesn't matter since i can't play until my mods are updated

>>172867730
Yes
>>172867915
Are you joking?
It would be hard to be that incompetent

>>172868128
I just never find enough place to build research stations and I never think of keeping potential locations under my elbow.

>>172867245
>>172867915
In democracies, elections are every 10 years as are mandates.

Type of democracy determines what kinds of leaders can become rulers, a Military Republic lets admirals and generals be candidates and they can have Shipwright mandate which either requires building 12 ships or maintaining ship capacity at 75%.

>>172867103

Curious. I have never seen bad traits in one my autocratic leaders. Is it because I'm playing Despotic Hegemony, where everything is perfect?

>>172868267
>Military Republic lets admirals and generals be candidates
Haaa, that explains it all. I only had scientists as presidents. Or whatever is the title.

>>172868239
You can demolish the science bases and rebuild them as far as I know

>>172869040
You can? I think I tried that once, didn't count. But then again, I was doing a few things at once back then, so maybe I just forgot.

>>172869040
>>172869158
Destroying a base counts as -1, rebuilding it counts as +1. They thought of that loophole.

>>172869430
Fucking assholes. They should fix the game instead of making it unfun.

How much more competitive does the improved AI mod for distant worlds actually make the AI? Is it just improvements to their ship designs (in which case player gets same upgrades if they had those set to AI control)?

Will missiles get a buff in Banks/Utopia?

>>172870078
The patch notes are already out.
Go see for yourself.

>>172869561
>fix the game
>just not my exploit crutches

>>172870078

* Missile cooldown reduced from 2.0-3.0 to 0.2-2.5
* Missile armor penetration changed to 0/15/30%
* Missile speed increased from 5 to 6
* Missiles now deal +10% damage vs. shields
* Missile HP have been adjusted slightly
* Weapon windup does not get cancelled when losing target during windup

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>>172870803
>tfw you only run with missiles

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>>172870887
>mfw tier 3 point-defense systems against a low-tech missile empire

>>172870887
Would only take some picket ships to rek your ass

>>172871045
>tfw point defense and plasma against prethoryn

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Should I attempt to expand and infiltrate as many primitives as possible, or just advance at steady pace and conquer them as they reach the interstellar age?

>>172869040
You need to demolish them BEFORE you get the mandate though. If you demolish science bases while the mandate is active, the counter goes negative.

What you do is build them, and then demolish after finishing the mandate. Budget cuts or something. Isn't democracy great?

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>>172873210
Vassalize, integrate, purge.

>>172873210
I infiltrate early space age aliens, hope that atomic age aliens nuke each other, ignore lower tech aliens unless I'm really desperate for a colony in that location. Seems to be the least amount of work and the infiltration sidequests give me something to do.

>>172874267
that sounds kinda roundabout desu

>>172873210
Invade before they reach the space age and then purge them

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r8

Ah heck, I'm thinking about pirating Stellaris. I don't like pirating but I've bought games recently that I ended up never really playing. Either I'm losing interest in games in general or my interests are shifting and my pocketbook can't tolerate experimentation.

Is it as boring as EU4?

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>>172873210
invade the fucks by landing an army.
niggas should be glad their shitball got graced with your empire

>>172877651
wait until friday

big update coming up on thursday, shitty downloads usually filtered out by friday

>>172877651
Buy Stellaris but torrent all of the DLC until it's on sale.
It's what I did.

>>172876573
>missiles
>hyperspace
>lore talks about slaves yet have individualist ethics
6/10

>>172877651
Stellaris is worth a buy just so you keep getting all the free content updates without any hassle. Then you can pirate the DLC like everybody else does.

There should be strategic interstellar missiles.

>playing stellaris
>gettin' that "exterminate everyone" cheevo
>exploran
>wew 2k of crysals
>oh shit a shielded world, nice, gotta remember to come back here
[time passes]
>enable crystal scouting edict
>go back to all systems with crystals
>scan all the systems to survey them
[more time passes]
>begin purging xenos
>destroy the crystals
>select science ship
>context menu for shielded world only says "enter orbit"

Goddamnit I fucked up. There's no way to re-survey a planet or to open up the shielded world without surveying it to get the anomaly, is there?

>>172881701
Made them xenophobe instead, since that fits the lore better, also you're right mass drivers are superior.

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>>172882653
feels fuckin' shitty

It seems that the crystal survey edict is just so shitty since you lose out on the science experience and anomaly chance.

>>172860063

That's an incredible buff for democratic governments, all the versatility of a stable of leaders, but an incredible buff to cost effective "forcing" in case you need a specific buff for the next X years.

Of course it isn't the most powerful option, but I assure you someone's game will eventually be made or broke on that ability.

>>172884131

Adding one more thing.

Think about it like spending 1 ethic point for virtually any two bonuses you want; because a normal democracy, you could have the bonus you need... or more likely, you have to settle for the bonus they give you unless you want to spend colonies worth of influence.

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>>172876573
Nice prose skills dawg

I feel like a fucking caveman whenever I try to type out a bio for my empires

>>172876573
furfag/10

>>172885056
Practice makes perfect, I can only write half-decently because I took an English A-Level.

Do you know if the next update will being more colours to the species creator? I have no idea why paradox decided not to include yellow of all colours.

>>172885476
Do Furries even like birds?

>>172886734
Furries, scalies, anrthos Whatever you call it. Its all the same shit.

>>172886734
no, not mammals
maybe featherfuckers?

Is Heroes of Might and Magic series 4x? You go around countryside, gather resources and troops and build more troops.

>>172887064
Yes. But Age of Wonders is better

>>172887064
sounds more like a mix of pikmin and RTS to me

>>172887064
No.

>>172876573
If you ever try to publish anything, get an editor.

>>172887064
No diplomacy.

>>172887501
There is diplomacy. You can let the some troops flee or you can attack them. That's basic diplomacy.

>>172888487
I have fond memories of modding "diplomacy" in Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Bought Stellaris a while ago on steam, but don't want to pay for the DLCs.
Any way to crack them?

>10

>>172893582

Dumbass. Just wait for someone to crack them all after the next release.

>>172877651
>Is it as boring as EU4?
It is more boring than EUIV.
Remember all that time you have to spend in EUIV just sitting around waiting for your reserves to rebuild or the diplomatic situation to shift in your favour?
Imagine that, but with even fewer ways to influence the rest of the world while you wait, and a substantially less assertive AI that will never throw curveballs at you.

Stellaris is that. And also it has no fun historical.context for you to amuse yourself with in the meantime.

>>172895392
Next release of ? The next DLC?

>>172893582
>>172895392
>crack them
you literally just put the files in the right folder, no cracking required with dlc. Just find a torrent that has the dlc

>>172870803
This is still awful. The problem with missiles is that the autotargeting swarms each ship with 20 times the necessary damage because of the time delay between firing and hitting, then when the target explodes the 19 superfluous ship-killing damage just evaporates.
It makes your fleets 5% as effective as they otherwise would be.
A speed increase from 5 to 6 "helps", but it only makes the problem 20% less execrable, whereas it needs to be made 95% less execrable to bring them up to pairity with other weapons.

It fucking amazes me that this can have been a problem for so long but Paradox still fundamentally don't understand the problem.

>>172895676
Thanks.

>>172895676
The 'storytelling' that Paradox tries to do in Stellaris is pretty hamfisted and stops seeming like a 'story' the nth time you run into the Automated Dreadnought or whatever other ancient artifact. That being said, I enjoy the game. I have hundreds of hours in it. It's too slow for its own good. Things should be cheaper. And the wormhole FTL is practically impossible to use effectively late-game when you have large fleets.

>>172897054
You should be using jump drives late game

>>172899051
I am, when I'm able to. It doesn't change the fact that the wormholes make war very difficult. The jump drive techs are pretty conditional, i.e. you have to hope that you can survive a war with a Fallen Empire or take out a Leviathan that leaves the tech behind. While these things happen very often, the fact that it takes up to 3 months for a large fleet to transit through a wormhole makes it difficult and nigh impossible to engage enemy fleets effectively. I realize that it's classed as an 'advanced' FTL method but that doesn't change my criticism.

>>172897054
>The 'storytelling' that Paradox tries to do in Stellaris is pretty hamfisted and stops seeming like a 'story' the nth time you run into the Automated Dreadnought or whatever other ancient artifact.
Agreed.
I think it could be substantially improved if the bonuses you get from the storytelling were game-changing.
For example, in my first game I had the "Mass Extinction" questline. Not knowing where it would go, I literally declared wars specifically in order to gain access to the requisite planets, and you know what I got at the end?
80 influence.
Whereas if that quest had given me something GOOD, something to justify me diverting my resources away from generic colony blobbing and instead going into the eco-warfare business; well, that would have been "emergent storytelling". I dunno, give me the ability to terraform batren worlds or something, now I am extremely good at ecology.

> That being said, I enjoy the game. I have hundreds of hours in it.
I, too, suffer the cognitive dissonance of being keenly aware that it is a crappy game full of awful design while also being unable to play anything else.

>>172899860
Just build N wormhole generators per system and split your fleet up into N parts. Decreases your jump windup by a factor of N.

>>172900496
That requires far too much micromanagement and the energy cost of all those stations on top of a large fleet sounds like a great way to lose half my military capacity to an energy deficit.
>>172900372
>I, too, suffer the cognitive dissonance of being keenly aware that it is a crappy game full of awful design while also being unable to play anything else.
>tfw
I played Sins of a Solar Empire for a long time, then I discovered Stellaris and switched over because the grand strategy elements seemed to better simulate the way an interstellar civilization would operate, and the structure of the maps was much more rational. Sins was flawed, too, but it wasn't as ambitious as Stellaris, so it wasn't as noticeable.

>>172900496
I do the same, build a highway of multiple wormhole generators per jump while dividing my fleets into 300 shipsize fleets. (75 battleships or 20 battleships, 20 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 80 corvettes) which means the fleets "only" take 30 days to jump.

>>172901391
>"only"
This is the problem, no other FTL system is as slow as this. It makes it needlessly difficult to pursue enemy fleets and prolongs wars unnecessarily. It's artificial difficulty, and I don't think it's even intentional.

>>172901553
It's 5 days faster than a maximum distance warp 3 jump, hence why I limit myself to 300 unit fleets.

Sides, my pursuit fleet is 80 torpedo corvettes, that jumps in just 15 days.

>>172902163
Maybe I should just experiment with different forms of fleet organization.

Is there any way to make war worthwhile?

The massive penalties to happiness, the fact that most of the planets you capture are just gonna revolt, and the retarded warscore system makes it more of a headache than anything to conquer somebody even when I have the power to steamroll them

>>172901391
>>172902163
I am amazed you have to put this much planning into it. I don't think I've ever been above 30k fleet power before I got jump drives.
I just never run into your problem because I'm never stuck with wormholes for that long

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>>172824783
How do you handle sectors in Stellaris?

Supposedly the AI is retarded and sets robots to working power plants or something.

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>fighting awakened empire
>my 270k vs their 320k
>heavy losses but it's going to be a win thanks to my ship design
>half way into the battle two more 100k fleets of his warp in

How in the hell am I supposed to beat these fuckers? I own a third of the galaxy, but he's able to muster like 3x as many ships as me.

>>172903703
I use a mod that gets rid of those and manage that shit myself.

>>172903764
Distraction corvettes leading their splinter fleets on goose chases.

>>172902783
Purge their pops

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>>172903783
What's it called senpai?

>>172902783
>The massive penalties to happiness
Either don't play Pacifist, or run Social Welfare Programs so your happiness baseline is higher.
Or do what I do, and just don't give a fuck about happiness.

> the fact that most of the planets you capture are just gonna revolt
1) Put newly captured planets in your one megasector
2) Rest easy knowing that your 20 new angry pops will be drowned out by the 500 happy pops already in the sector
3) Never worry about revolts again
4) Remind yourself that even if there are revolts, at most you can only ever lose 1 planet to them

> retarded warscore system makes it more of a headache than anything to conquer somebody
Can't help you with that now, but it sounds like Banks will make this substantially less painful in 4 days

>>172903764
I've never had a fleet survive a war with an Awakened Empire. The War in Heaven has only happened for me once in my 900 hours of gametime. Earlier tonight they warped into my home system and took out my 165K fleet and 7 3.5k fortresses with a 175k fleet. Pissed me off.

>>172903703
Keep the systems with multiple planets for myself unless there's planets with 24+ slots, put the rest into sectors set to research

>>172903846
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682336292

>>172903846
There's like tons of them

>>172903863
If you put like 6 defence armies on the planets they'll always fail their revolts

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>>172903764
As a man who recently beat a 750k Awakened Empire using a 320k fleet, the answer is that you have to cheese the AI. There's no other way. And I've never used gamey exploits before in all my 20 years of being a vidya autist, so it hurts, but it is literally the only way. Fallen / Awakened empires get such cheaty-high buffs that you'll never catch up to them in fleet power by playing fair, so you have to fight dirty.

Here's what you do:

Fallen Empires tend to have huge snare space stations. Like, 12k or something. Split your fleet up into the smallest pieces that can take out those stations quickly with no trouble. I usually rule-of-thumb this to maybe double, so 24k on a 12k station.

Your strategy is hit-and-run. Don't even try to engage the FE fleet. If you get into battle, you're stack-killed before you can even retreat. Rather, your tactic is to blitz-occupy their worlds before they catch you. The snares work to your advantage here actually, as they tend to build the stations over the planet, so you can warp your fleet and your army in, use the snare to save yourself the time you would otherwise spend crossing the system, blow up any resistance to your armies, then run your fleet away without bombarding while your army lands. You want armies of 12× gene warriors here, as they have to do all the ground work with no orbital support because your fleets have to leave the system as soon as they fucking can.
You'll also need a LOT of armies. Assume you'll never be able to get an army off a planet, because you don't have time to wait for them to repair themselves before you'd need to use them again.

This tactic relies on the AI navy's bad decision tree logic. They will chase your tiny fleets around forever rather than countersieging your captured planets, and they will never split their fleets to go after several at once. So as long as you can avoid your cat-and-mouse fleet getting caught, your 10 OTHER fleets can be busily occupying worlds.

>>172904298
It's always yellow mana I'm low on though, throwing angry worlds in a sector is a lot cheaper than the upkeep of 6 defensive armies on every planet forever.

>>172905235
Don't know if that's gamey, sounds like insurgent fighting

>>172905449
6 defensive armies is 6 * 0.15 = 0.9 energy unit maintenance, you can't afford less than 1 energy unit per conquered world?

>>172905773
>you can't afford less than 1 energy unit per conquered world?
It's not that I literally can't afford it, it's that energy is usually the bottleneck preventing me from getting a bigger fleet, which is the only stat that actually matters in Stellaris.
If my choice is between 6 defensive armies and half a corvette, the corvette will always win.

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Should I side with the fanatics, fedora tippers or stay neutral?

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>>172907157

>Not going neutral
>ever

>>172905745
If it's a tactic that a human player could defeat with ease, and it only works because you're exploiting deficiencies in the AI's behaviour, I would say it's gamey.

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>>172907157
> bought Leviathans a week after release
> played 3 full-length games with it
> never seen War In Heaven

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>>172907157
I got to say the fallen empires shit is perhaps my favorite aspect of Stellaris

>Play any other 4x title
>Civ style City State system
>I can bully the city states or work with them it doesnt matter either way

>Play Stellaris
>Spawn in next to a fallen empire
>Tells me he doesn't think my people will survive and wants to take one of my pops
>Either lose happiness for a while or piss off a fallen empire
>I'm effectively the city state now
>Proceed to declare rivalry with him for those sweet influence gains

>>172907157

Join the Non-aligned League. Don't get alone unless you are the strongest or most insignificant empire on the map.

>>172909364
>>172909364
Agreed. Not to get pulled into another gs / 4x debate, but this is one of the distinguishing features I like: in gs you don't start with a blank-slate political situation. You start as a small fish in a big pond.

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>>172903764

Send over a billion soldier fleets and invade simultaneous systems while you lure their fleet away.

>>172910653
I'm actually the strongest non fallen empire faction in the galaxy by quite alot, I formed the League of Non Aligned Powers and we have more total military power than either awakened empire. They're also both as far away from me and each other as they could be on this map so most of the fighting will be nowhere near me. I'm hoping a crisis will start in the chaos.

>>172911197

>I'm hoping a crisis will start in the chaos

If it doesn't look like one will, just console it. The War in Heaven is essentially end-game anyway, I like to make the galaxy as much of a shitshow as possible during it.

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>>172913134
Only like two years into the war and the tyranids are coming

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>>172824783
Are federations worth it in Stellaris?

Would be interesting to create a League of Nations or some shit like that.

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>psilocybin
>magic mushroom psychic warriors
topkek

>>172913620

Ayyyyy.

How dangerous are they now?

HAK HAK HAK

>TFW you want to start a new game, but can't wait for Utopia/Banks.

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>still no Freespace shipsets for Stellaris

>>172913640
>Are federations worth it in Stellaris?
No.
The AI's diplomatic decisionmaking is retarded and once you join a federation they will never let you go on an offensive war ever again.
Furthermore, the combat AI is also a dumbass so they won't really help you if you're getting attacked either.

Although I did find out the other day that Federal fleets are upkeep free, which is actually a fucking excellent reason to go into a federation if the first two points weren't true.

>>172915110
I hav e been waiting for about 4 months

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Will the unbidden fight the prethoryn?

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I guess not

>>172919536
Please do not upload rape content on 4chan.

>>172919536
RIP in pieces, 5th dimensional cowboy

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You'll sign that galactic peace treaty and you'll like it.

>>172919536
Crises are so pathetically weak. I got excited the first time the Unbidden showed up but they ended up getting stomped by a coalition of the strongest empires and by the time I got my fleet in on the action there was nothing left to do but blow up the remaining dimensional anchors and scan the debris.

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>>172921689
The strongest empires are currently engaged into a massive war involving everyone but my league of non aligned powers and the remaining fallen empires. I took out the fanatics and made peace with the fedoras. Prethoryn are making decent progress though

>>172921689
My crises are kinda schizo.
Either the AI stomps them out within the year, or they wreck shit up and I have to devote my entire efforts towards taking them down.
(Or they bug out and fail entirely, which has happened to me every time I've seen the Prethoryans and the Machine Consciousness)

Is there any way to get horizon signal to play?

>>172924363
It has a certain probability of triggering every time a manned science ship enters a black hole system. So just set a movement loop to enter and exit one.

Also, do this within the next 4 days because they're changing it in the update to roll the dice only the FIRST time the science ship enters the black hole system.

>>172918716
>they will never let you go on an offensive war ever again.
am in federation for last 400 years and never had this problem.
My fed-bros are more than happy to join any liberation attempts and start their own ones as well. Recently we've unmade a decade of blobbing done by an awakened fedora empire in a single war.

>>172927007
>join any liberation attempts
That's what I mean. You have to liberate. You can't choose cede.
I guess Federations are therefore good if you're Pacifist and so can't liberate anyway...

>>172884131
But then they're not democratic anymore.

>>172928597
what do you mean they're not democratic
the people have the vote and elections, they're just open to taking advice from people who know what's going on.

I can't wait to conquer a fuckload of xenos and become stagnant and decadent especially when utopia is going to add consumer goods.

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>>172929065
>they're just open to taking advice from people who know what's going on.

>>172928597
It accurately portrays the illusion of choice plaguing current democracies

>>172929671
Isn't that more the shadow council trait?

>>172929671
*tips fedora*

>>172929791
>>172858379

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http://store.steampowered.com/app/474890

This seems promising

>>172930310
People say that "open world", "survival", "crafting" and "early access" are the four horsemen of a shitty game.

I think "ship designer" should be one too.

>>172930251
Ok my bad.

>>172930310
>>172930373
The problem is that in an RTS setting units will have ideal conditions for use so its easy to game the system once you identify those conditions and build for them. I guarantee you that the game will devolve into standard rock paper scissors units and will make starcraft 2 look deep by comparison.

>>172930373
>I think "ship designer" should be one too.
What makes you say that?

>>172931069
Because instead of having specialized units, you end up having a bunch of more generic units.
Let me take Sins of Solar Empire, for example. You have units that are specialized in long-range combat, in flacking, in orbital bombardement.

With that "make your own ship stuff", it's just a matter of learning what are the OP combinaison, and it saves the devs the trouble of balancing the game.
Endless Legend being the exception.

>>172930373
Most times the ship designer is the best part of those games though.
A game's quality is inversely correlated with its ship designer quality. Look at distant worlds, an amazing game, but with a ship designer that isn't the least bit fun to use.

>>172931258
At least you don't spend hours in DW. If I wanted to micromanage my ship, I would be playing FTL, not a strategy game.

>>172931253
I see your point, I too favour specialisation over ground zero design, tho I'm not as opposed to it as you are.

>>172931395
I just find it bothersome. It means taking a break from the game to completely revamp your designs, and once you're back to the game, you forgot what you were doing, and once you have ayyys licking your front door, you remember you were in the middle of a war.

>>172931310
I leave automated design on in DW because I can't be bothered to use the designer, it's not fun, and minmaxing makes the AI too easy. Still I appreciate designers that give you control of the important bits but don't go into full autism mode.

>>172931470
At least DW is headache free, you can just dump the component and your engineers do the rest.

I remember I hated Star Ruler, and apparently there's another game in the making where you have to take care of the vents and energy conducts too.

>>172931253
Endless Legend still has specializations, though they have flexibility within those specializations.

>>172931310
I agree.
I fucking loathe the ship designer and spend as little time as possible in it so I can get back to muh empire management.
And that's not even because the Stellaris ship designer is especially awful. It's just not a the sort of thing I'm interested in when I'm playing a grand strat.

I guess if ship design really was a force multiplier, where picking the right build drastically affected your chances against opponents, I might change my mind.
But in Stellaris at present the AI (with a couple of Crisis exceptions) always fields the same mix of ships which can always be best defeated by plasma + kinetic.

>>172931623
That's because you don't make your own unit in Endless Legend. You have a pre-written chassis and you just pick their weapons and armours.
You know, I don't mind micromanaging my units. But in a RPG, not in a strategy game.
Or a strategy game, but with a smaller scale.

>>172931629
Stellaris' is pretty simple too, the only issue is balancing energy output and energy input.
When I played Star Ruler, I would ALWAYS forget that I'm making battle ships, so I wouldn't put armor on them.
And Stellaris is broken anyway, you have almost no choice.

>>172931629
It doesn't help that the game doesn't reward combined arms and make it dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket. That is, it did but refit times were drastically refuced from launch. The most creativity involved in stellaris is minmaxing mineral costs with overall power. It's not like you need to design a cruiser so the autocannons have good firing arcs to shoot down strike craft and the rails can concentrate fire on a target with overlap, or you can't keep missiles near the drive core to prevent chain detonations.

>>172931916
I remember the same thing with Endless Space when it started. I loved missiles so I used them only, and I always got wrecked by lasers that back then were OP because versatile.

I for one like the ship designer in stellaris. Its a nice feature ad not too hard to understand.
Also there are quite some different ways to design ships.

>>172931987
Endless space was just a rock paper scissors battle.
>enemy uses missiles
>better dump all my armor and shields and load up on point defense.
I hate when games do this.

>>172932252
It has some very nice ideas on paper.
>you don't directly control ships, that's not your job, you're not an admiral
>instead you give them tactics to follow, hoping you can cancel the enemy's tactics
A shame that, yeah, it devolves into rock paper scissors. And that's only if you can actually use them tactics. When I played, I remember one of them being about intensifying fire, which meant that kinetic weapons dealt more damage. Since I was only using missiles, I never used it.

Hell, there are many, many games that were good on paper but ultimately failed because it translated poorly into gameplay.

>>172932454
ES2 is better on this front.
The tactics cards still need a little work though, they're falling into their ES1 traps with specific bonuses instead of general bonuses.

>>172931916
Firing arcs are actually in the game, it's just that the AI won't accommodate them as well as they are limited to ship components instead of the ship section.

>>172932654
>ES2 is better on this front.
Do tell. Because I have sore memories of the first one.
My last game had me spawning between two empires that immediately declared war on me.

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>>172932654
Last I checked, it was more general than specific.

>>172932712
One big change up with how tactics in ES2 works is how lanes and how ships move work.

In ES1, it was long-medium-short.

In ES2, it will only be that if the lane a flotilla is in is set to long while the the opposing flotilla is set to short. If both of you selected a tactic where the range for the middle lane is medium, the entire battle for that middle lane would be at medium.

These are determined by what tactic you and your opponent select.

>>172933284
?????
Sorry, didn't quite get that. Could you restart from the beginning.

>>172932712
projectiles double as point defense to shoot down missiles, defenses are only armor and shields. Early on you're really rewarded for using general purpose ships because your tactics will always be viable regardless of range. And while you can cheese hard as certain races with lasers or missiles, if your opponent has the defenses to counter them you'll get shut down hard. Firing arcs are also a huge thing.

As you get bigger fleets each fleet can be subdivided into a number of flotillas that all move based on the tactics you pick.
On the tactics though, there's a shields up card that boosts shield defense at the cost of energy damage, so meaningless if you aren't using shields and lasers but I've still picked it because of the range profile.

>>172933375
You know what nevermind, I'll check the wiki or something.

>>172933284
Must have been changed in the update. I didnt play much in the horatio update because the techs were still kind of fucked in the transition to the wheel.

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>3 days

>>172933883
time doesn't exist bro

>>172933993
Time only exists because we're counting it. If mankind didn't exist, time wouldn't exist either.

>>172827356
any of them.
Even numoo is better

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Just play a game of stellaris so you fuckers can appreciate the update, here's my current game.

>49 years, just ran into first FE which is isolationist and pissed

I'm thinking about buying Star Ruler, what's the difference between first one and the second beside graphics and UI?

>>172827356
>implying stellaris isnt all 4 of those things in the same game

>>172936207
First one is not forgiving but pretty vanilla as far as space games go. You can theorically build a ship as tall as a star.
Second one is more cartoony, and relies on planets synergies to progress.

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Does anyone know how to make a gender specific name mod for Stellaris? Couldn't find how to seperate male/female names.

>>172936567
Welcome to the Swedish future, where xhe has a name that goes both way.

>>172846216
4x games should move to a star system paradigm like what ES/SotS did, where the system is the basic unit on the map. MoO3 also had the idea of system level infrastrcuture. This allows the true scale of space to be shown realistically.
Individual planet management is meme as fuck

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>>172824783
How do I design overpowered ships in Stellaris?

Mine are complete garbage and I basically need to outnumber the enemy to even stand a chance against them.

>>172936207
first one is a map painter, second one has a really interesting economy