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Bloodly posted:There's a build out that allows very high starting ranks for your leaders. This is taking Talented(+1), Meritoracy civic(+1), then fitting in Polytechnic Education(+1) from Exploration. Alternatively you might take the +2 to Admirals in Supremacy. 5 admirals, and level 3 to all else. You don't think much of levels but 20-25%(level 4/5) extra fire rate might be a tipping point. Focusing builds in general gives a decisive advantage in my experience, as the mechanics are interconnected enough that specializing in one area gives you advantages across the board. The leader skill build currently has great short-term bonuses. The coming patch will remove them for longer term bonuses. Agrarian idyllic/inward perfection for max unity can net you super early telepaths. You also expand surprisingly well, as you can bait lots of defensive wars with cleansing, and since the galaxy will hate you, you can transition to full-time exterminators once you finish building unity. Max influence builds gives good expansion options and sweet sweet edicts. If nothing else, max mineral builds are always safe options. Always take the ascension that makes blocker clearing free first. Saves you a lot of research time and money.
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Aug 28, 2017 15:32
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BurntCornMuffin posted:Always take the ascension that makes blocker clearing free first. Saves you a lot of research time and money. Its taken me a while to realize this, but this is definitely the best advice for a first Ascension pick. Insofar as the border expansion one will never net you enough resources from new mining stations to balance out the cost of clearing tiles, and the research boost one is weak on it's own and questionable in the face of dozen Sociology techs you'd never need to research anyway if you just took Master of Nature. Thematically, Master of Nature can fit with almost any type of empire you want to play, and especially for one you want to build superstructures with later on. It's really almost too good of first pick with no good competition unless you're a masochist who wants more core systems.
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Aug 28, 2017 15:53
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Are sabotage species still viable/funny? Watching everyone you ever started a migration treaty with shatter in revolt made for great comedy back in the day.
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Aug 28, 2017 16:04
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The Bramble posted:Its taken me a while to realize this, but this is definitely the best advice for a first Ascension pick. Insofar as the border expansion one will never net you enough resources from new mining stations to balance out the cost of clearing tiles, and the research boost one is weak on it's own and questionable in the face of dozen Sociology techs you'd never need to research anyway if you just took Master of Nature. Thematically, Master of Nature can fit with almost any type of empire you want to play, and especially for one you want to build superstructures with later on. It's really almost too good of first pick with no good competition unless you're a masochist who wants more core systems. Mastery of Nature is so good I'm convinced it's going to be nerfed. 
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Aug 28, 2017 16:34
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The Bramble posted:Its taken me a while to realize this, but this is definitely the best advice for a first Ascension pick. Insofar as the border expansion one will never net you enough resources from new mining stations to balance out the cost of clearing tiles, and the research boost one is weak on it's own and questionable in the face of dozen Sociology techs you'd never need to research anyway if you just took Master of Nature. Thematically, Master of Nature can fit with almost any type of empire you want to play, and especially for one you want to build superstructures with later on. It's really almost too good of first pick with no good competition unless you're a masochist who wants more core systems.
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Aug 28, 2017 16:52
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Thanks for the excellent advice gents. I don't have any DLC yet, but I've got Utopia and Lethivs on the wishlist
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Aug 28, 2017 16:55
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Fintilgin posted:Mastery of Nature is so good I'm convinced it's going to be nerfed. It really is the absolute best. If the cost to remove blockers wasn't so drat high (both in minerals+energy & research) it wouldn't be such an easy choice, but as it is there is no other perk worth taking first over it.
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Aug 28, 2017 17:14
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Blockers should cost no tech to remove, there should be fewer removal techs, and the tech should reduce the cost to 33 or 25 percent, because they're absolutely ridiculous at the moment. Mastery would still be good but not as amazing as it is now.
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Aug 28, 2017 17:31
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kaffo posted:A few questions: Military stations are garbage, do not build any, and do not let your sectors build any either. Any amount of minerals you could spend on stations is better spent on just building more ships. The exception to that is Fallen Empire military stations, those are pretty boss and will mess you up good. But this is primarily a function of being able to be built with Tachyon Lances, meaning they can engage at a range where your fleet can't shoot back; since you can't build that, just ignore them. Aside from that, the key to winning at Stellaris is minerals. Get as many as you can, and do this by expanding as fast as possible. Terraform every planet into an ideal class, and settle everything. You'll tank your Unity generation and Research Rates, it's still plainly superior to any other approach. The valuable techs can be stolen from your enemies in the form of debris anyway. Only reason not to is if you want to forgo strength in favor of more Unity, which is fun but not as strong. The Bramble posted:Its taken me a while to realize this, but this is definitely the best advice for a first Ascension pick. Insofar as the border expansion one will never net you enough resources from new mining stations to balance out the cost of clearing tiles, and the research boost one is weak on it's own and questionable in the face of dozen Sociology techs you'd never need to research anyway if you just took Master of Nature. Thematically, Master of Nature can fit with almost any type of empire you want to play, and especially for one you want to build superstructures with later on. It's really almost too good of first pick with no good competition unless you're a masochist who wants more core systems. The supremacy of Mastery of Nature has been long been position, but lately I've actually been souring on it a little, because I've found Terraforming to be much stronger overall. If you're only ever colonizing one of the three classes of planets, that really cuts down the number of techs you get to skip; might still be worth it just based on tile blocking cost though, I haven't really worked it through.
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Aug 28, 2017 17:38
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Regardless of your other considerations on it, everyone should be able to admit that Alphamod's changes to the ascension perks makes all of them viable, rather than just MoN, and does it without nerfing MoN.
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Aug 28, 2017 17:47
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BurntCornMuffin posted:Agrarian idyllic/inward perfection for max unity can net you super early telepaths
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Aug 28, 2017 18:25
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Military stations are actually good in hyperlanes only games.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:29
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Ephemeron posted:How do I get those (assuming an unmodded game)? Most of the advice on psionic stuff is either outdated or along the lines of "have a curator scientist discover two specific anomalies and get a particular event, then sacrifice a red rooster at dawn, and boom, easy psionic theory". I think they're referring to the psionic Ascension path.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:41
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Ephemeron posted:How do I get those (assuming an unmodded game)? Most of the advice on psionic stuff is either outdated or along the lines of "have a curator scientist discover two specific anomalies and get a particular event, then sacrifice a red rooster at dawn, and boom, easy psionic theory". For the civics: Inward Perfection requires you be Pacifist and Xenophobe, Agrarian Idyll requires Pacifist and not-Authoritarian. Actually just playing a run with those civics in multiplayer right now, I opened Spiritualist/Xenophobe/Pacifist. Then by pure coincidence I got the Shrine to the Old gods event, and took that opportunity to shift out of Pacifism once I had three civic trees completed, because gently caress Pacifism. With regards to Psionic techs, it's a bit of a luck of the draw thing, but the wiki breaks down the multipliers for drawing Psionic Theory: 5x more likely if the scientist is Maniacal. 2x for Fan. Spiritualist. Scaling multiplier for Psionic Specialty scientist based on skill level, but it's real rare to have one before Psi Theory. Psionic Theory is also a Tier 2 tech, so you need at least eight Tier 1 Society techs researched before it can be drawn at all, and of course the game doesn't tell you what the tech tiers are, so you have to look them all up. Once you have Psi Theory, the Telepathy tech becomes permanently available right after you take the first Psionic Acension Perk. Honestly the game really should have a tech tree, even if the techs and their effects are hidden until you're one level away or something. Especially more casual players would have no idea why they're not seeing certain techs.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:45
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turn off the TV posted:Military stations are actually good in hyperlanes only games. I love hyperlane restricted games of Stellaris, the map becomes a much more important tactical layer with choke points and something resembling fronts. Problem is even if you restrict the FTL to hyperlanes the Fallen Empires can still use their jumpdrives and jump/psi-drives will start to show up late game as usual which totally screws everything up. This is my only major complaint with unmodded Stellaris, I want FTL restrictions to actually restrict FTL for the whole game.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:56
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PittTheElder posted:For the civics: Inward Perfection requires you be Pacifist and Xenophobe, Agrarian Idyll requires Pacifist and not-Authoritarian. Actually just playing a run with those civics in multiplayer right now, I opened Spiritualist/Xenophobe/Pacifist. Then by pure coincidence I got the Shrine to the Old gods event, and took that opportunity to shift out of Pacifism once I had three civic trees completed, because gently caress Pacifism. Honestly, if you have xphobe, just cleanse whoever wardecs you and you'll have all the wars you could ever want. It's less pacifist and more purge-ifist. "No, guys, we really are a peaceful people! We only committed genocide against those aliens because they attacked us first. What do you mean you're going to kill us for our crimes? We only want to be left alone! Fine, we'll genocide you too, but remember, it's only in self-defense." BurntCornMuffin fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Aug 28, 2017 |
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Aug 28, 2017 18:58
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Yeah that works alright, but you have to sit around all day waiting for people to war-dec you, which means you only ever fight people at their strongest and you can't abuse truces like crazy.
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Aug 28, 2017 19:42
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Space Skeleton posted:I love hyperlane restricted games of Stellaris, the map becomes a much more important tactical layer with choke points and something resembling fronts. Just lure the AI fleet into chasing one of your hyperlane fleets. The top-tier hyperlane drive's winddown+windup time is shorter than the jump drive's windup time, so a jump drive fleet that's set to chase a hyperlane fleet will never catch it as long as it keeps moving. The hyperlane fleet will jump to the next system before the jump drive fleet can start its jump, and then the jump drive fleet's jump timer will reset because it's now trying to jump to a different system, which means the hyperlane fleet can jump to the next system before the jump drive fleet can start its next jump, and so on. The only way for the jump drive fleet to catch the hyperlane fleet is to anticipate the target's route and target the next system the hyperlane fleet will jump to.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:08
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Space Skeleton posted:I love hyperlane restricted games of Stellaris, the map becomes a much more important tactical layer with choke points and something resembling fronts. Yeah, I only play hyperlanes restricted with the 'true hyperlane' mod. I consider this the way the game was meant to be played, and if Paradox disagrees, they're wrong.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:29
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Fintilgin posted:Yeah, I only play hyperlanes restricted with the 'true hyperlane' mod. I consider this the way the game was meant to be played, and if Paradox disagrees, they're wrong. Wiz stated on the stream that his favorite way to play is lanes only, and that an ftl rework is in the future.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:41
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Hyperlanes only is the only way to play. Space terrain matters.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:51
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Hyper lanes also feel best as far as the three normal drive types go. Jump drives are obviously awesome for when you need to move halfway across the galaxy, but since they aren't a starter type they don't count.
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Aug 28, 2017 21:08
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Someone ages ago posted an idea about having warp gates as map features, which could be neat. Or make them a frontier outpost-like improvement that drains a ton of influence and/or energy. If they were a more limited, strategic way of travel alongside hyperlanes instead of replacing them it could be interesting.
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Aug 28, 2017 21:17
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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misguided rage posted:Someone ages ago posted an idea about having warp gates as map features, which could be neat. Or make them a frontier outpost-like improvement that drains a ton of influence and/or energy. If they were a more limited, strategic way of travel alongside hyperlanes instead of replacing them it could be interesting. Double the warp gate range and make it a megastructure.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:24
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Playing Ofaloaf's "quite good" Victoria 3 mod as the neo-Papacy (max spiritualist/xenophobe) and welp. I guess I kind of have to rival them, don't I.
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Aug 29, 2017 01:24
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Lum_ posted:Playing Ofaloaf's "quite good" Victoria 3 mod as the neo-Papacy (max spiritualist/xenophobe) and welp. 
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Aug 29, 2017 01:32
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Fintilgin posted:Yeah, I only play hyperlanes restricted with the 'true hyperlane' mod. I consider this the way the game was meant to be played, and if Paradox disagrees, they're wrong. You'll never take me from my Wormholes even with the extra expense and fiddlyness.
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Aug 29, 2017 02:12
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Bloodly posted:You'll never take me from my Wormholes even with the extra expense and fiddlyness. wormholes are cheaper long term because your ships don't have to pay for engines
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Aug 29, 2017 14:36
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Fintilgin posted:Mastery of Nature is so good I'm convinced it's going to be nerfed. Just get a mod that un-nerfs it. Really, just get a mod that gives you it from the start, so you can make actual interesting choices with your first ascension perk. Same with auto-exploration. Who likes manual exploration anyway?
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Aug 29, 2017 14:45
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IMO in the early game it's worth manually exploring and then a combo of manual/auto. By mid I like to be on auto. E: mostly because the early game is when it's worth fiddling around and being optimal as you can. The rewards from it are proportionally greater and might snowball. Once you get to a point it just doesn't matter and I start sectoring and autoexploring. Also every single game I try to snag the precursor but have only accomplished it twice. Once the cybrex were pretty far down the arm, but it was empty so it was kinda cool to send far colonies. (I've never been able to get the actual living metal from any source for some reason). The second time I'm preeety sure the game generated a new system very close to my homeworld with the big worm guys. That was a neat one, but I think I would have surveyed that system because it was within two warps from earth. 3 other times I finished the chain and either never got a message where the homeworld was or it was already grabbed by someone else instantaneously. SniperWoreConverse fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Aug 29, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2017 14:47
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MoN is going to be nerfed slightly in the next patch by it no longer removing all the resource requirements for tile unblockers, merely most of them. It's probably a good idea, as having a single pick that dominated early play isn't a sign of balance. World Shaper is an excellent replacement for non-Xenophile empires if you luck out on terraforming tech early, especially if you take Prosperity first.
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Aug 29, 2017 14:49
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Aethernet posted:MoN is going to be nerfed slightly in the next patch by it no longer removing all the resource requirements for tile unblockers, merely most of them. It's probably a good idea, as having a single pick that dominated early play isn't a sign of balance. World Shaper is an excellent replacement for non-Xenophile empires if you luck out on terraforming tech early, especially if you take Prosperity first. Sucks. I'd rather see them buff the other picks.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:02
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SniperWoreConverse posted:IMO in the early game it's worth manually exploring and then a combo of manual/auto. By mid I like to be on auto. Not to drag up the whole same old argument again but I still think min/maxing should be an option and not necessary busywork. SniperWoreConverse posted:Also every single game I try to snag the precursor but have only accomplished it twice. Once the cybrex were pretty far down the arm, but it was empty so it was kinda cool to send far colonies. (I've never been able to get the actual living metal from any source for some reason). The second time I'm preeety sure the game generated a new system very close to my homeworld with the big worm guys. That was a neat one, but I think I would have surveyed that system because it was within two warps from earth. 3 other times I finished the chain and either never got a message where the homeworld was or it was already grabbed by someone else instantaneously. This is one thing that's annoyed me though in some playthroughs; why in a single player game are anomalies a one shot thing? I get that maybe if you take too long it makes some sense that you might not be first to discover the to secret home base of a long dead civilisation and miss out on salvage or whatever but things like strange atmospheres/lifeforms/gateways to hell, shouldn't disappear because some space slugs you've never met have seen them before you. Anyone know of a mod that fixes this?
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Aug 29, 2017 15:18
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Aethernet posted:MoN is going to be nerfed slightly in the next patch by it no longer removing all the resource requirements for tile unblockers, merely most of them. It's probably a good idea, as having a single pick that dominated early play isn't a sign of balance. World Shaper is an excellent replacement for non-Xenophile empires if you luck out on terraforming tech early, especially if you take Prosperity first. Well, the problem isn't really that MoN was particularly good, it's that most of the other picks are either not that good, gated behind requirements that put them off-limits for your first perk, or don't front-load their benefits nearly as much as MoN is. As an Ascension perk, MoN is fairly middling, but as a first Ascension perk, it's head-and-shoulders above "slightly more border range", "slightly faster tech", or "halved terraforming time".
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Aug 29, 2017 15:23
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Fintilgin posted:Sucks. I'd rather see them buff the other picks. The problem with buffing all the other options is then Unity becomes alot more valuable for your second / third / etc. ascension unlock. Right now a Unity focused empire gets one big boost by hitting Master of Nature earlier than other empires, but if the other picks were just as good they would keep getting those huge boosts into mid-late game compared to non-Unity focused empires.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:25
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Nevets posted:The problem with buffing all the other options is then Unity becomes alot more valuable for your second / third / etc. ascension unlock. Right now a Unity focused empire gets one big boost by hitting Master of Nature earlier than other empires, but if the other picks were just as good they would keep getting those huge boosts into mid-late game compared to non-Unity focused empires. It's not just that. Stellaris is a game about compounding modifiers, and buffing perks for those modifiers means reducing them elsewhere, otherwise you get mad stacking effects. The science one is nice to have, but if you're playing a science-focused race stacking it with the bonus from the Discovery tree, you're going to be rolling in RP. The weakest one is probably borders, as while you can stack +border it has less direct economic effects.
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Aug 29, 2017 16:50
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It has a wonderful diplomatic effect though by turning your empire into the equivalent of an immensely fat person on a plane.
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Aug 29, 2017 17:35
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OwlFancier posted:It has a wonderful diplomatic effect though by turning your empire into the equivalent of an immensely fat person on a plane. This mental image alone makes me want to do it.
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Aug 29, 2017 17:40
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It's not even that much of a mental image, your empire literally grows huge billowing rolls of border push and kind of engulfs anything nearby. It's great if a neighbor has a close by colony because there'll be this tiny peninsula of their territory sticking into an ocean of your colour. It only gets better if you're using a mod that adds other ways to boost border push, like the planet modifier pack that gives you a change for 200% borders on a planet.
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Aug 29, 2017 17:50
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Aethernet posted:It's not just that. Stellaris is a game about compounding modifiers, and buffing perks for those modifiers means reducing them elsewhere, otherwise you get mad stacking effects. The science one is nice to have, but if you're playing a science-focused race stacking it with the bonus from the Discovery tree, you're going to be rolling in RP. The weakest one is probably borders, as while you can stack +border it has less direct economic effects. Alphamod's Interstellar Dominion gives you two extra rivalries. How cool is that? You grab it and immediately get to tell two more sections of the galaxy to go gently caress themselves. It's active player engagement in the benefits they just received. e: OwlFancier posted:It has a wonderful diplomatic effect though by turning your empire into the equivalent of an immensely fat person on a plane. Splicer fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Aug 30, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2017 18:00
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