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Soonmot posted:How do you play as a devouring swarm? This is my second attempt, the first was just to throw ships at enemies and hope to research the salvage. That failed. This time I grew my empire and built up a fleet while trying to research, but before I could hit battleships, I had two wars declared on me by a federation and an empire with defensive pacts. I know everything is changing next week, but still. Go super aggro, super early. The key is to catch your nearest neighbor after they found their first colony, BEFORE they get their starport up. Hit them with about 20 corvettes and a handful of troops, take that planet, then just don't lose it until warscore ticks up enough to force them to cede both of their planets. You'll snowball pretty hard from there with the pop growth bonuses and huge food surplus, plus you'll now have three planets when most AI empires are barely having two. If you're SUPER lucky your next nearest neighbor will have a slow start and you can do the same to them. Also if you find primitives you can do similar bad things to them without the war part.
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Feb 14, 2018 05:47
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Loel posted:Doing another playthrough, apparently I can get to 2240 without building a single combat ship or military base. Strange game Holy poo poo, hive minds and robits can have a malus to spy success chances that grows to a bonus with research as they learn how to disguise their alien clones/Terminators better. Have policy options to either retain control for some ongoing cost (-x/-x% of influence or unity per month per spy) or give them free will, which makes them free other than recruit cost and leader cap, but they have a chance of going rogue, possibly selling secrets or just loving off. Hell, FPs and their kin can't do diplomacy, but they can do this! They could also stir up xenophobic ethic attraction with their generals-as-commandos, potentially preventing or breaking up alliances. This is way too complicated for the game, but dammit I love the potential for shenanigans that opens up.
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Feb 14, 2018 06:01
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Previous games I was putting fortresses at every hyperlane entrance into my empire and closing the borders.
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Soonmot posted:How do you play as a devouring swarm? This is my second attempt, the first was just to throw ships at enemies and hope to research the salvage. That failed. This time I grew my empire and built up a fleet while trying to research, but before I could hit battleships, I had two wars declared on me by a federation and an empire with defensive pacts. I know everything is changing next week, but still. Everybody except other Hives hates you(-1000). They will naturally join up to try and kill you. Your people don't care about happiness, so planet quality isn't a thing you especially care about. This also means your people are going to be less productive than a fully-happy empire and will lack Influence(You've only got the basic +2 or +3). Your Paradise Dome grants 5% extra resource production, and grants Energy rather than Food. You get Adaptability rather than Diplomacy. Don't discount that tree. -food consumption, +Food, +Habitability, and +1 Minerals from Farms. You've got a large + to growth by being a Hive Mind by default. You can stack that with Harmony, and with other growths, like food. You've got a boost to Biology by being Devouring Swarm. You could stack that with Intelligent or Expertise Society or both. You've kinda got to play to your strength. Be aggressive, be growing whenever possible. Since Devouring Swarm already takes up one of your civics, the second one's really important. I've seen videoes of 30 corvettes actually being able to knock out a spaceport.
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Feb 14, 2018 06:27
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Bloodly posted:Your people don't care about happiness, so planet quality isn't a thing you especially care about. Quick warning: Low habitability reduces pop growth speed. By a lot.
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Feb 14, 2018 06:58
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Thanks for the tips!
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Feb 14, 2018 07:00
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https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/status/963713350235541507 Slave-shielding a world is like giving it a protective hug. Forever. 
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Feb 14, 2018 11:28
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If anyone's looking for something to do while waiting for Cherryh to drop, the CD key issue for SotS1 Complete Edition was fixed a couple of weeks ago, and as of this morning everyone with SotS + Naval Yard should has a copy of SotS1 Complete sitting in their Steam library. Because Paradox is awesome people.
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Feb 14, 2018 12:33
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Shadowlyger posted:Quick warning: Low habitability reduces pop growth speed. By a lot. Extremely adaptive rapid breeding is very much worth it for pop growth as THE SWARM.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:21
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I haven't looked at DS Hive Minds in a while. Do they get any exclusive benefits from number of pops or the resources worked by pops? How do they leverage pop growth into keeping their momentum going?
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Feb 14, 2018 16:31
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It's a bit annoying that your land troops aren't changed as well, when you genetically modify your pops.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:51
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THE BAR posted:It's a bit annoying that your land troops aren't changed as well, when you genetically modify your pops. That's a bug. Won't have time to fix it for 2.0, but will look into it.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:53
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Wiz posted:That's a bug. Won't have time to fix it for 2.0, but will look into it. Awesome. Awesome to the max.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:57
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Anticheese posted:https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/status/963713350235541507 Disappointed that it's not more or less just a death star.
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Feb 14, 2018 17:01
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Can you slave shield your own planet to protect yourself against the rest of the universe? I just want to live the Spathi lifestyle forever.
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Feb 14, 2018 17:10
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GunnerJ posted:Disappointed that it's not more or less just a death star. It's a heraldic death star.
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Feb 14, 2018 17:10
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IAmTheRad posted:Can you slave shield your own planet to protect yourself against the rest of the universe? That's gonna be a victory condition of mine. One planet strat, gaia world start. I 'win' when I put my world under a slave shield.
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Feb 14, 2018 17:14
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Anticheese posted:https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/status/963713350235541507 Is that the new Blorg motto?
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Feb 14, 2018 17:18
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Demiurge4 posted:That's gonna be a victory condition of mine. One planet strat, gaia world start. I 'win' when I put my world under a slave shield. I hope to encounter an alien race that does this, just so I can build a Dyson Sphere in its home system.
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Feb 14, 2018 18:06
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Anticheese posted:https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/status/963713350235541507 I thought the humanoid colossus was the one that looked like a big gun with the centrifugal ring around it. I guess that means that one is actually part of the mammalian ship set, then? VirtualStranger fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Feb 14, 2018 |
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Feb 14, 2018 18:16
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Are plants and humanoids going to get unique looking planet destroying ships, or will they just copy from another race
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Feb 14, 2018 18:23
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IAmTheRad posted:Are plants and humanoids going to get unique looking planet destroying ships, or will they just copy from another race Plantoid better look like a giant Venus Fly Trap
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Feb 14, 2018 18:30
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IAmTheRad posted:Are plants and humanoids going to get unique looking planet destroying ships, or will they just copy from another race Soup du Jour posted:Plantoid better look like a giant Venus Fly Trap
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Feb 14, 2018 18:36
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The Humanoid planet-destroyer is right there four posts up, so the plant jerks are getting one too
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Feb 14, 2018 18:39
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My hope is that since all empires start with all of the weapon techs, that option is replaced with 'planet killer tech' where you decide how your PK is going to destroy planets. Enigmatic black orb that leaves the planet barren afterwards? Low orbit atmospheric deprivation missiles? Devouring maw that uses the planet as raw materials? Plain old gently caress off laser? 
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Feb 14, 2018 19:28
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IAmTheRad posted:Can you slave shield your own planet to protect yourself against the rest of the universe?
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Feb 14, 2018 19:43
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I'm honestly embarrassed to post this, but I said in the Paradox thread that I was gonna write a spergy effortpost on how to fix tiles in Stellaris. So here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zhDiANnzfAvfX6jya4F3zgkxIhM6ipTp8s0-EiTaW0/ It borrows a bunch from Endless Space. I tried to come up with something that I think can work inside the confines of the game as it stands without ripping out the entire system. It's an overhaul, not a replacement, but something I think would streamline the planet interaction system a lot and make it more interesting than plopping 20 power plants down on a planet and calling it a day. Piss poor interface mockup at the end.
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Feb 14, 2018 19:49
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that actually looks pretty much identical to MoO3 instead of buildings they had Dominant Economic Activities per region
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Feb 14, 2018 20:00
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Demiurge4 posted:I'm honestly embarrassed to post this, but I said in the Paradox thread that I was gonna write a spergy effortpost on how to fix tiles in Stellaris. So here it is: Very similar to MoO3 and better than the current system. Although I'd keep the upgraded buildings, but make the upgrades automatic. Getting better mines starts a (free) upgrade process for all mines for example - basically there needs to be a certain amount of income ramp up for the lategame to work and better production buildings just make sense. Manually upgrading them is pain though, so that part can go.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:19
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DatonKallandor posted:Very similar to MoO3 and better than the current system. Although I'd keep the upgraded buildings, but make the upgrades automatic. Getting better mines starts a (free) upgrade process for all mines for example - basically there needs to be a certain amount of income ramp up for the lategame to work and better production buildings just make sense. Manually upgrading them is pain though, so that part can go. Ok I'm glad we're all more or less in agreement, this looks good. Wiz, the plan has been approved you can go for it.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:22
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Does anybody have a link to the first dev diary talking about the new update/expansion? I've read some of the recent ones but I'm still missing a lot of details.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:24
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PS MoO3 is actually pretty good with mods, if you like the look of the suggested tile thing and havent played MoO3 it'd be a good tideover til Apocalypse @THE loving MOON https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Developer_diaries
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Feb 14, 2018 20:29
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TheDeadlyShoe posted:PS MoO3 is actually pretty good with mods, if you like the look of the suggested tile thing and havent played MoO3 it'd be a good tideover til Apocalypse Awesome, just what I wanted. Thanks. 
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Feb 14, 2018 20:33
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Soonmot posted:How do you play as a devouring swarm? This is my second attempt, the first was just to throw ships at enemies and hope to research the salvage. That failed. This time I grew my empire and built up a fleet while trying to research, but before I could hit battleships, I had two wars declared on me by a federation and an empire with defensive pacts. I know everything is changing next week, but still. I started another Fanatic Purifier game again even after whining endlessly about it here and I actually had quite a bit of success this time. Early on, I sacrificed pretty much everything in order to get as big a fleet as possible as fast as possible. My science was hot garbage for a long time because I didn't build science labs or satellites, and I barely upgraded buildings, since every one of those would mean a corvette I didn't have. I eventually had a large enough fleet that they could take fights without losing very many ships, which left me more materials for building science and upgrading that fleet. For a long time I also only upgraded a single spaceport; it seemed better to spend the materials on ships instead. The timing for declaring my first war was tricky. When an AI is at war they start pumping out ships like crazy, which makes it dangerous to declare before you can roll over them, and if you wait too long they might enter a defensive pact that screws up everything. I'd reached a point where both my neighbors were weaker than I was, so I had to make a choice. I think I made the wrong one; as I warred with them the other neighbor started getting into pacts with their buddies that made things complicated later. I still won, though, giving me loads more production and fleet capacity. To exterminate the new species I processed them into food with my food cap set to maximum, getting me quickly to a 5000-apple safety net that I'd never have to worry about again. For later species I prompted for neutering, which is way more productive but needs tons of armies everywhere to keep rebellion down. Now I had to worry about my other neighbor, but they'd gotten into a web of pacts/alliances that I had to worry about, especially one to the superior-fleet birds to the east. However, after opening up the "Declare War" dialog with all involved parties, I found that if I declared war on a specific empire that the birds would be left out entirely, letting me focus solely on the two weaker empires. I did so immediately, and this is probably the biggest thing I'd learned: War is a diplomatic action, and it's a pretty strong one. The participants in a war are set at declaration, so if you can declare early, even if you don't really want to go full offensive right now, you can cut an empire off at the knees before they get into a dangerous alliance web/federation. Other empires can guarantee independence all they want; it won't matter if that empire's getting annihilated when your war is done. What's important is that I worked fast. Any time an empire had an inferior fleet to me I was essentially hovering over the wardec button. Weak empire starts getting chummy with one stronger than me? War on the little guy to keep a pact from forming. Weak empires start a federation? Declare war before any powerful members can join. One of my planets rebels and goes independent? Declare war instantly, before anyone guarantees their independence. It didn't matter if I was already in a war with someone else, I needed to be proactive to keep people separated. Right after my second war ended and my neighbors weakened significantly, the worst thing happened: a joint war on me by the eastern superior-fleet birds and the equivalent-fleet mushrooms far to the north. The mushrooms wanted to join their fleet to the birds', which would have given them a larger fleet than I could deal with, so I sent my fleet to the mushroom territory to take some planets ASAP. By doing this I forced the mushrooms to focus their fleet on retaking the planets, rather than joining the birds, so I could keep them separated. By a stroke of luck their AI bugged out after the first planet and they spent the rest of the war endlessly bombing one planet while all their armies hovered over the first, twiddling their thumbs for no reason. I think I would've won even without that, but it definitely made things easier to handle later. With the mushroom fleet preoccupied, I headed into bird territory to engage their fleet. This was risky as hell, since their fleet power was close to mine, but they were heavily missile-based and I had point defense, so I took the risk. It paid off, and their fleet was wiped out while mine was mostly unscathed, and from then on it was basically just cleanup (along with a simultaneous war later to wipe out my neighbors for good). Then the awakened empire event triggered again (have yet to see a different endgame), and I took a break. Dunno how I'll win against that, I'm only at ~50k fleet power. SO. That's a lot of text. Basically, I made a fleet as fast as I could by sacrificing my science/buildings, and then bullied my neighbors any time they were weaker than I was. I've spent almost the whole game in some kind of war in order to keep my target's alliances locked in place. I took the goon advice of building a Cruiser & PD Destroyer fleet, with battleships replacing cruisers when they're researched. I have no idea if any of this is universally good advice, but I figured I'd share it since I'm surprised how much better things went for me this time. I honestly got pretty lucky that pretty much everyone is missile-based, so my flak cannon destroyers stop everything dead in the water. It also helped that I switched to warp gate travel; it let me travel to multiple warfronts very quickly.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:53
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What's the goon consensus on ship builds and fleet compositions? I've been using kinetics on this playthrough, with a focus on bombers and cruiser/battleship carriers for said bombers. I only started playing within the last month or so, and haven't even won a game yet - I keep restarting and tinkering with this or that, or getting ADHD and spinning up gimmick races. So I haven't figured out stuff like "corvettes suck, spam picket destroyers and battleships" if that even is the meta. how is babby fleet comp formed????
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Feb 14, 2018 22:53
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Battleships, mix of kinetic and plasma, toss some PD and fighters in the mix too.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:04
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Numismancer posted:What's the goon consensus on ship builds and fleet compositions? I've been using kinetics on this playthrough, with a focus on bombers and cruiser/battleship carriers for said bombers. Bigger ships = better in like 90% of cases. Really small fleets (in terms of number of ships) can skew this, but generally if you roll into a fight with a core fleet of ships that are bigger than the enemy's core fleet of ships, you'll win. There are other considerations, too, like if you roll in with point defense and they're rocking missiles...you probably win. My endgame fleet comp is usually battleships + point defense destroyers in a 1:1 or 1.5:1 ratio. My weapons are usually a mix of kinetic and plasma.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:04
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The babbyest fleet to build is all Cruiser, medium mounts, Kinetic and Plasma mix, shield heavy. It works real well.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:07
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Keep in mind that in 2.0, ship builds might change.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:26
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What are people's favorite battleship builds? Spinal-mount weapon bows for BS, carrier core, ??? stern? When people say 'point defense destroyers', does that mean all point defense, or like artillery bow + PD stern? Do torpedoes have any place in the current meta, either on cruiser bows or with a smattering of corvettes?
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Feb 14, 2018 23:27
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IAmTheRad posted:Keep in mind that in 2.0, ship builds might change. Almost certainly they will Numismancer posted:What are people's favorite battleship builds? Spinal-mount weapon bows for BS, carrier core, ??? stern? On battleships, I typically run either Tachyon Lance + equal mix of highest-tier plasma/kinetic, or 2x Kinetic Artillery + 2:1 plasma/kinetic For point defense destroyers, it's the PD stern plus default bow whatever that is. Cruisers I tend to just go pure plasma. I'm not sure why or if it's good, but I love the way they look spewing green laser blobs everywhere.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:32
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