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HiKaizer: Feb 2, 2012; Yes!
I finally understand everything there is to know about axes!

They'll make you dismantle that outpost as a war goal almost certainly, so I probably wouldn't bother.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:29

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# ? May 13, 2024 00:06

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Descar posted:

I feel like going wide is always the more fun option, as you get to explore and expand more..
They shouldn't limit going wide just because going tall is basically limiting yourself.
Earlier Habitats, or more/other types like underground/atmoshere/underwater habitats or smaller dyson spheres could make going tall better and making use of each star system to the maxmium.

anyway, im 103 years into the game, with 155 colonies and need 70+ months for each tradition, and i make 3.950 unity each month.
technology is the same, i had to beat FE's with Coilguns (tier II) even with PCS!

Searching debris is only way to advance myself, and it probably a lot more OP then PCS itself.
Strength through numbers is the fun way.

Game is really fun, but the UI and Sectors needs looking into.

What I was saying is I feel like going wide is already the best option.

You get a larger navy, and yeah, tall empires can take that one ascension perk to help equalize, but:

You get tons of spaceports to build/rebuild that navy very quickly, and:

You get the mineral and energy income to actually support that navy.

Also, there is no singular 'fun way'.

E: Besides, if you want to break the game balance and just run roughshod over the game, there're mods that remove the tech penalty.

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Apr 21, 2017

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:32

Pyromancer: Apr 29, 2011; This man must look upon the fire, smell of it, warm his hands by it, stare into its heart

Bloodly posted:

Or maybe only the crazy people here wanted to actively eat other aliens.

Then again, it took a while to actually find the 'rights' page for even my home species. It's under Demographics.

That's passively eating other aliens - actively eating other aliens is setting them to undesireables and "processing" option under purge. And that one is pretty good - gets rid of other species and accelerates your growth at the same time.
Slavery options are pretty uninspired compared to purges.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:34

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

I think the horizon signal bugged out on me.

I got the messenger, the research of which ended up giving a retrovirus to make my people smarter. I got the temple appearing on my homeworld. And after that...nothing, for like 100+ years now. I thought it might have to happen after the syzygy admiral finally died, but despite a brief popup when they did, nothing.

Something else is supposed to follow, right?

I also only got one fallen empire interaction in a century and a half, when they asked for a scientist. Even though the xenophiles liked me at +75, I never heard a peep from them. How do you get gifts?

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:37

Gadzuko: Feb 14, 2005

I really hope the next feature update includes better pop management options. Need to be able to restrict pops to certain tile types or something. Also the ability to purge individual pops needs to come back. An option to kick a pop out of your empire and purge it if nobody will take it as a refugee would be nice. I guess you can sort of do this with the core world race restriction options.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:40

TjyvTompa: Jun 1, 2001; im gay

Strudel Man posted:

I think the horizon signal bugged out on me.

I got the messenger, the research of which ended up giving a retrovirus to make my people smarter. I got the temple appearing on my homeworld. And after that...nothing, for like 100+ years now. I thought it might have to happen after the syzygy admiral finally died, but despite a brief popup when they did, nothing.

Something else is supposed to follow, right?

I also only got one fallen empire interaction in a century and a half, when they asked for a scientist. Even though the xenophiles liked me at +75, I never heard a peep from them. How do you get gifts?

I got a question out of the blue where they asked for a scientist which I gave to them, about a year later I got a gift. Didn't have to do anything, never interacted with them before or after.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:51

King Doom: Dec 1, 2004; I am on the Internet.

Strudel Man posted:

God. I know it doesn't necessarily have to be the most competitive option, but that's just laughable.

My current annoyance is people in my joyous, cybernetic empire to migrate FROM planets to which they're perfectly suited TO planets of opposing type just because they now have 50% habitability there. :|

I've said this a fair few times before but loving hell there needs to be a check that wont let pops migrate to planets where they will be less happy. 100% happiness on this continental world, welp, better pack up and move to that alpine planet where I'll get 40%!

Strudel Man posted:

I think the horizon signal bugged out on me.

I got the messenger, the research of which ended up giving a retrovirus to make my people smarter. I got the temple appearing on my homeworld. And after that...nothing, for like 100+ years now. I thought it might have to happen after the syzygy admiral finally died, but despite a brief popup when they did, nothing.

Something else is supposed to follow, right?

I also only got one fallen empire interaction in a century and a half, when they asked for a scientist. Even though the xenophiles liked me at +75, I never heard a peep from them. How do you get gifts?

I don't think it's been fixed officially, but there's a chunk of the horion chain that is flat out broken - there's fixes in the workshop.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 08:56

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Chomp8645 posted:

This doesn't sound like a good fix. With this you MUST grab it early or it's not worth getting ever. Although I grant you that's still better than it being a MUST PICK in every game.

The whole idea behind PCS is stupid and it should be thrown out wholesale. Replace it with a boost to research stations and/or observation stations and/or frontier outposts. Sensible and thematic.

A nerfed PCS would work much better if it was also retroactive. A lot of the traditions are like that, where if you've already done a bunch of (thing) the now actually traditional tradition isn't worth picking up. The increased anomaly find chance one is similar, in that it's more useful the less exploring you've already done. It actually disincentivises early exploration. The Discovery and Prosperity unlocks reward people who have a bunch of unexploited mining and research stations a hell of a lot more than empires who are already pushing their respective "traditional" values to the limit.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 09:06

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

King Doom posted:

I've said this a fair few times before but loving hell there needs to be a check that wont let pops migrate to planets where they will be less happy. 100% happiness on this continental world, welp, better pack up and move to that alpine planet where I'll get 40%!

Theoretically, there is! It's in defines and everything!

code:

MIN_HAPPINESS_DIFF_FOR_MIGRATION 	= 0.1		# Only if the difference in happiness is greater than this will a pop migrate

But it clearly doesn't work. Also, pops will stick around in barely-habitable planets forever, instead of migrating to places for which they're better suited.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 09:10

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

King Doom posted:

I've said this a fair few times before but loving hell there needs to be a check that wont let pops migrate to planets where they will be less happy. 100% happiness on this continental world, welp, better pack up and move to that alpine planet where I'll get 40%!

A little less happy is fine, because I do want people to go to new planets that don't have all the boosters stacked yet, but yeah if it's going to drop by more than a quarter stay home. Similarly if you're going to go up by two fifths or more by moving get the hell out of there.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 09:12

Guilliman: Apr 5, 2017; Animal went forth into the future and made worlds in his own image. And it was wild.

Seriously happy with the progress of my modifer mod.

The game really needs it's own mini events like this to spice up the early game exploration. (with unique event art please...)

First few years of gameplay feel less boring this way.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 10:17

MarquiseMindfang: Jan 6, 2013; vriska (vriska)

Strudel Man posted:

My current annoyance is people in my joyous, cybernetic empire to migrate FROM planets to which they're perfectly suited TO planets of opposing type just because they now have 50% habitability there. :|

The very first thing I do every single game is go to Species Rights and turn on Migration Controls.

Sure do love pops moving from the upgraded buildings of the homeworld to bare tiles on a newly colonised planet.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 11:01

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

prometheusbound2 posted:

So I'm having a lot of fun with this game and have a good hang of getting a decent sized empire with happy population and a buzzing economy.

BUT:

I am hopeless at the fleet design thing. I've multiple games where I happily peacefully expand until some xenophobic empire declares war on me. Our fleet strength is the same, and my 6-7k fleet goes against their 5k fleet-and is completely wiped out, with almost no casualties on the other end. I've googled fleet design guides, but they seem inconsistent. Do I go with torpedo corvettes? Big ships with kinetic artillery? Big ships with plasma throwers?? Whatever I try I seem to get wiped out.

With the 1.5 patch, is there a definitive reliable guide to fleet design?

Combat is complete unfun garbage in this game. If you can, bait the enemy next to a star port using a defense platform with the subspace snare and fight them with its help. Torpedo corvettes are pretty good and cheap replaceable armor. Consider stacking shields and shield rechargers on cruisers or battleships.

If you have a save to load up and look at, are you failing to punch through the enemy shields? Damage being spread out can be frustrating when you are fighting regenerating shields. You may want to consider plasma in that case.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 11:51

GotLag: Jul 17, 2005; 食べちゃダメだよ

Baronjutter posted:

What game file determines the minimum distance military stations can be from each other? I want to drop it down so you can actually build little clusters and maybe make stations useful.\

The closest I could find it
MILITARY_STATION_DISTANCE = 40.0 # Distance from planet to where military station should be built

But that looks more like it's telling the AI where to build stations, rather than setting the range more stations can be built.

Is it this in ship sizes?
@build_block_radius_none = 0
@build_block_radius_tiny = 10
@build_block_radius_small = 70
@build_block_radius_medium = 90
@build_block_radius_large = 110

Also poo poo, yeah that must be it, but the ship power plant mod I like modifies this. I remember someone else was mentioning this exact thing like a week ago. Where does steam even store workshop mods and why it is all obfuscated behind a million serial numbers? is there an easier way to find a specific mod, copy the guts out and make my own mod mod?

Workshop mods are in:
Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\281990\[workshop id]\[modname].zip

Local mods are in:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod\[modname]\

Use a program like 7zip to extract the zips, as the Windows unzipper seems to choke on the descriptor.mod file. Rename descriptor.mod to [modname].mod and move it to the \mod\ folder.
You'll also need to edit the contents, and change the line archive="[modname].zip" to path="mod/[modname]" - note the difference in folder and file extension.

GotLag fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Apr 21, 2017

# ? Apr 21, 2017 11:53

A Tartan Tory: Mar 26, 2010; You call that a shotgun?!

MarquiseMindfang posted:

The very first thing I do every single game is go to Species Rights and turn on Migration Controls.

Sure do love pops moving from the upgraded buildings of the homeworld to bare tiles on a newly colonised planet.

It can actually be pretty good after you have 5 or 10 planets, because they each send a pop making you get an instant planetary capital/administration.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 12:54

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Hey Paradox, just in case you're planning to do a music pack DLC for Stellaris like the Sabaton thing with HoIIV and EUIV, please make a deal with Keldian. Space metal, yo.

You can thank me for this brilliant idea later.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:02

A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

Mister Adequate posted:

The last star I need to analyze for The Star Search Project is a black hole. Currently occupied by the Dimensional Horror.

Rayjenkins what flag pack is that background from? I love it (Also nice krogans)

It was the flag pack that was needed for the awful utopia mod. Phone posting right now so I can't look up the name, but check there.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:02

Sandweed: Sep 7, 2006; All your friends are me.

What is the end of Cybrex chain?

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:13

A Tartan Tory: Mar 26, 2010; You call that a shotgun?!

Friends, let me tell you about the glory of a +114% fire rate modifier combined with stormfire autocannons. Some of these stacking modifier test games are hilarious.

Fanatic Purifier: +33%
Militarist: +10%
Rank 5 Admiral: +25%
Aggressive Admiral: 8%
Distinguished Admiralty: 8%
Supremacy Finisher: +15%
Cyborg Admiral: +15%

All pretty easy to get, just need to figure out a way to get him to become the Chosen One...or find an Ether Drake.

Sandweed posted:

What is the end of Cybrex chain?

You find a ruined Ringworld which they retreated to after realising how stupid their crusade against organic life was...only to be murdered by said organic life they pissed off 200,000 years later. It's considered the best chain to finish due to giving you access to living metal and the engineering of a ruined ringworld.

A Tartan Tory fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Apr 21, 2017

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:15

GunnerJ: Aug 1, 2005; Do you think this is funny?

Would a decent fix for the micro headaches with slaves be to make it so that none of them give any penalties to tiles, but this is compensated for by making them more ornery and rebellious? So you don't have to worry about tile micro, but so that slaves are not totally broken compared to any free labor, it's a bigger risk.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:14

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Mister Adequate posted:

Rayjenkins what flag pack is that background from? I love it (Also nice krogans)

Rayjenkins posted:

It was the flag pack that was needed for the awful utopia mod. Phone posting right now so I can't look up the name, but check there.

Actually that's a different pack now. The flag pack requirement was due to one of my species, but the pack hadn't been updated in ages so I changed the flag to one from another pack, which is the one now listed in AU's requirements. But now the old pack has been updated too, so you can just get both without being pestered by the outdated mods error.

Namely, the pack Rayjenkins' flag is from is FlagBackground Plus. It's not included in the preview pictures but I just checked in-game with only this pack enabled and it's there.

Unrelated, this one is another v. good pack.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:21

Sethex: Jun 2, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

Strudel Man posted:

So I thought at first the spiral-feed power hubs were something you could spam with escalating happiness penalties, but I guess they simply replace regular power hubs, perform no better, give a happiness penalty and provide no unity if you have the power hub unity tradition? Why exactly would I use them?

They work on habitats

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:27

A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

Nordick posted:

Actually that's a different pack now. The flag pack requirement was due to one of my species, but the pack hadn't been updated in ages so I changed the flag to one from another pack, which is the one now listed in AU's requirements. But now the old pack has been updated too, so you can just get both without being pestered by the outdated mods error.

Namely, the pack Rayjenkins' flag is from is FlagBackground Plus. It's not included in the preview pictures but I just checked in-game with only this pack enabled and it's there.

Unrelated, this one is another v. good pack.

Oh, thanks for the info. I didn't realize the flag pack for AU had changed. I should check and see if I'm subscribed to the new Flag pack, but the game hasn't complained about not having mods or having incomplete species.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:33

Sethex: Jun 2, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

King Doom posted:

I don't think it's been fixed officially, but there's a chunk of the horion chain that is flat out broken - there's fixes in the workshop.

My horizon signal event ended up loving with my techno sphere event chain. Apparently the sphere and the worm are communicating with eachother. The sphere is trying to resurrect it's founder race from the creation of a new universe from a black hole? But yeah the horizon event has gone dormant for a really long time. I finished it once and it turned my entire race into militant tomb world preference materialists an also changed every celestial body in my starting system into a colonizable tomb world. Very strange event.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:37

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Rayjenkins posted:

Oh, thanks for the info. I didn't realize the flag pack for AU had changed. I should check and see if I'm subscribed to the new Flag pack, but the game hasn't complained about not having mods or having incomplete species.

Yeah it won't give any errors. If you don't have the flag pack used by some species then all it does is give the flag a solid black background, so it's not a huge deal in any case.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:39

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

I don't think I've finished a single quest chain. As soon as I research Automated Exploration (lol) I am as hands off as possible.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 14:47

A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

I like the concept of fanatical purifiers on paper, but I wish I could have more "exotic" interactions for war, like Armageddon bombardment converting a planet into a tomb world if you bombard it long enough. Doesn't seem too far-fetched if they're going to allow us to terraform inhabited planets in 1.6. I'm sure I'm not the first guy to think of this and they probably already considered something like this internally anyways, so there's probably good reasoning behind why they wouldn't do this.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 15:16

Xae: Jan 19, 2005

Fanatical Purifiers should get a Terrorforming device that kills the inhabitants of a planet while rapidly teraforming it.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 15:25

Meme Poker Party: Sep 1, 2006; by Azathoth

Sandweed posted:

What is the end of Cybrex chain?

Like all precursor chains the finale involves a 3rd party science vessel swooping in approximately five milliseconds after the system is identified.

The end, no moral.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 15:49

King Doom: Dec 1, 2004; I am on the Internet.

King Doom fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Apr 21, 2017

# ? Apr 21, 2017 15:52

Uldor: Feb 23, 2009; Gear... Fourth!

King Doom posted:

Edit: Is it just me that can't see the screenshot in this post?

I cannot either, but shows up if I go the direct page, weird

# ? Apr 21, 2017 15:59

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

King Doom posted:

Edit: Is it just me that can't see the screenshot in this post?

You posted the album url instead of the image url

You monster :allears:

what was the result?

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:02

A Tartan Tory: Mar 26, 2010; You call that a shotgun?!

Behold, Mick Jagger, scourge of the galaxy!

Yes, this is a default name

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:03

Dallan Invictus: Oct 11, 2007; The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes, look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

King Doom posted:

You asked about that earlier, but that must be a from a mod, that text doesn't show up in the localisation directory from vanilla (which explains why nobody else saw it).

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:05

King Doom: Dec 1, 2004; I am on the Internet.

Splicer posted:

You monster what was the result?

Well, if I build a science station on the leftovers I can get two whole engineering research points!

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:05

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

Gadzuko posted:

Caste system is far better than just enslaving an entire race unless you want to micromanage their tile placement and growth for your entire empire.

If you're asking about domestic servitude vs. chattel slavery, then no. Battle thralls maybe, if you want to use a strong race for your armies, but domestic servitude is pretty terrible.

Caste system lets them join factions though which can be annoying

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:10

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

Xenophage slaves should boost research via vivisection hth

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:13

nessin: Feb 7, 2010

I know there was already a post by someone about how missles are weird at the moment, but for the love of god don't go missiles. I just got totally wrecked in a way that makes no sense.

My fleet, Corvettes with a few Destroyers. T3 Missiles, T3 Shields, T2 Armor, first combat role upgrade, T2 thrusters.

AI Fleet, Destroyer with a few Corvettes. T1 Missiles, T1 Shields, no armor, no other upgrades.

Thanks to the fact that he was using more destroyers with PD we had an even number of missile mounts between the two fleets. While he had a lot more PD mine was better with tech and thus according to the battle report I shot down more than twice as many missiles as he did. He had more health across his fleet but it wasn't a huge difference thanks to my shield and armor bonus. Fleet power was in his favor by around 50 points, 600 to 650. End result? Despite apparently taking down far more missiles with PD he crushed me. I might as well have not even fought. I don't remember exactly how many I killed by he was down to just under 400 fleet power to my 0.

# ? Apr 21, 2017 16:18