Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

The Cheshire Cat: Jun 10, 2008; Fun Shoe

Libluini posted:

See, that is what I meant: Regardless of how often I said that's wrong, I was just ignored. It's flat out wrong that there is no strategic defense with warp. I mean, I easily defended my own strategic strongholds and had no trouble defeating AIs using warp.

The trick is simply to realize that fleets moving around are completely worthless if you can strike the enemy where it hurts. I won most of my warp wars either by letting the enemy smash into my central planets and my waiting fleets, or by smashing into theirs after they moved all their fleets away.

I get it, having choke points to defend is really psychologically soothing, but you don't really need them after you realize the enemy doesn't have them, either.

My own theory is that some people just can't adapt to how different warp and hyperspace played, and because they couldn't deal with it, they thought "I can't be wrong, the game is wrong!"

But this basically means there is absolutely no "texture" to the layout of space. The only systems that matter at the ones with the big planets in them. The rest is just a bunch of bullshit that exists as filler. Choke points create value in a system that might not have any inhabitable planets at all.

It's not that winning wars against warp AI was "too hard". It's that the existence of warp meant that there was only one axis of value in territory and it's "how many resources are there", which is just less strategically interesting.

The Cheshire Cat fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Oct 21, 2020

# ? Oct 21, 2020 18:38

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# ? May 25, 2024 15:57

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

No mechanic is good in a vacuum, it's entirely down to its implementation and context within the game. Multi-method travel is a cool idea, but the mechanics did not work within the context of the game as nothing was properly designed around ANY of the travel methods. Going hyper-only allowed the team to kind of sort of almost make that one method workable for the mechanics and AI.

The all time greatest 4X, MOO 1, used warp but had a very tight fuel-range mechanic that make the geography of space still incredibly important. Front lines still existed, fortified choke point planets existed as well. Sure the enemy could probe deep into your territory if they had the range, but you'd see them coming and could pull ships off your front line to meet them there faster than they could arrive. That is of course depending on your detection range, your own engine speed vs theirs which presents all sorts of tactics being valid depending on the situation. A single new fuel or engine tech could totally change the balance of power in a war or how its being fought rather than yet another minor +10% bonus to something. The entire game was designed around a warp based travel method and they had an AI that was shockingly competent at using it. Stellaris had none of this with any travel method. Like just about everything to do with this game, it's full of good ideas that were never thought out, poorly implemented, and then covered with multiple layers of duct tape over the years in desperate attempts to get them functioning properly.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 18:49

Horace Kinch: Aug 15, 2007

I didn't play stellaris until hyperlanes were a thing and after recently doing the parallel universe anomaly and seeing this thread's discussion of warp drives I just realized my alternate-reality counterparts are from an older version of stellaris. :haw:

# ? Oct 21, 2020 19:39

PittTheElder: Feb 13, 2012; Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

There's also a Collectivist-Individualist joke event that I think is making fun of this thread in particular.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 20:00

Schadenboner: Aug 15, 2011; by Shine

Don't the robot techs literally do a "Do you have stairs in your house?" riff?

# ? Oct 21, 2020 20:09

Leal: Oct 2, 2009

Hearing all about these old methods of transport, the grid system for planets, gives me the same feeling of 1.0 FF14. And much like that, I wish there was a way to play it myself :v:

# ? Oct 21, 2020 21:30

fuck off Batman: Oct 14, 2013; Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah!

Leal posted:

Hearing all about these old methods of transport, the grid system for planets, gives me the same feeling of 1.0 FF14. And much like that, I wish there was a way to play it myself

Can't you just go in Stellaris steam options, beta version and choose version 1.91, the last before all the changes? I've never tried it for Stellaris, but other pdx games allow you this option.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 21:38

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

Baronjutter posted:

The all time greatest 4X, MOO 1, used warp but had a very tight fuel-range mechanic that make the geography of space still incredibly important. Front lines still existed, fortified choke point planets existed as well. Sure the enemy could probe deep into your territory if they had the range, but you'd see them coming and could pull ships off your front line to meet them there faster than they could arrive. That is of course depending on your detection range, your own engine speed vs theirs which presents all sorts of tactics being valid depending on the situation. A single new fuel or engine tech could totally change the balance of power in a war or how its being fought rather than yet another minor +10% bonus to something. The entire game was designed around a warp based travel method and they had an AI that was shockingly competent at using it. Stellaris had none of this with any travel method. Like just about everything to do with this game, it's full of good ideas that were never thought out, poorly implemented, and then covered with multiple layers of duct tape over the years in desperate attempts to get them functioning properly.

Same for SotS, both warp and hyperlanes had a fuel limit. It's one of the reasons they were competitive. Warp was more flexible in that you had complete freedom of movement, but Hyperlanes was more flexible in that you had a higher sphere of influence. Hyperlanes just being faster doesn't give the same level of benefit.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 22:54

Mr. Merdle: Oct 17, 2007; THE GREAT MANBABY SUCCESSOR

I just finished another playthrough with my militaristic technological space elves, and Stellaris is still fun but the glaring flaws and bugs prevent me from recommending it to anyone. It's frustrating because it really is fun to see different species and nations interact, and watch the Galaxy evolve over time. But because of the bugs and a horrible AI, that there never feels like an overarching purpose to taking advantage of all the systems they've implemented.

I think it's super cool to strategically develop my star bases, from anchorages and trade hubs that help ships move through the empire to large scale shipyards tied together with gateways to frontier bastions and fortress habitats.

It's awesome to turn planets into ecumenopoli and then build matter decompressors and Dyson spheres to provide the empire with the alloys and ships it needs.

It's incredibly satisfying to see my economy spike after completing our evolution into synthetics.

But all of these cool functions are for nothing because of all the functional bugs and glitches, and an AI that simply will never be able to keep up.

Hopefully, if there is a sequel, they'll take a lot of these great ideas they've incorporated for empires and strategic options, and create an AI that can really use them all.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 23:01

PittTheElder: Feb 13, 2012; Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

Distant Worlds 2 when?

# ? Oct 22, 2020 02:22

Serephina: Nov 8, 2005; 恐竜戦隊
ジュウレンジャー

Stellaris is far too popular of a Paradox product to have a sequel yet, there's about one or two hundred dollars worth of DLC to be had beforehand. I'm not joking.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 02:33

Schadenboner: Aug 15, 2011; by Shine

Serephina posted:

Stellaris is far too popular of a Paradox product to have a sequel yet, there's about one or two hundred dollars worth of DLC to be had beforehand. I'm not joking.

Why do you post words you know will hurt us?

# ? Oct 22, 2020 02:38

Automated Posting: Jan 12, 2013

Is there anyone else using the Traditions+ mod in here that can let me know if the Finisher Effects on their tradition trees are working? Because mine don't seem to be, but I've got no clue if it's a conflict on my end or a problem with the mod.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 03:11

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Automated Posting posted:

Is there anyone else using the Traditions+ mod in here that can let me know if the Finisher Effects on their tradition trees are working? Because mine don't seem to be, but I've got no clue if it's a conflict on my end or a problem with the mod.

Discovery's finisher was always bugged for me. The admin cap increase definitely worked though.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 03:46

Electro-Boogie Jack: Nov 22, 2006; bagger mcguirk sent me.

The Cheshire Cat posted:

it's not like it's any less complex than other 4X games; it's basically on par with civ.

I think that the rest of your point - that as a sandbox game Stellaris really calls out for more depth than average - is right, but I don't know about this. I think Stellaris is severely lacking for depth in basically every mechanic, even compared to Civ or other Paradox titles. In Civ (at least in Civ 4) you could ask your neighbors for open borders, and you could ask them to declare war on another nation and (IIRC) to make peace with someone they're at war with. This is basic stuff, and Stellaris doesn't have it. Even back in Alpha Centauri you could ask other civs to change their votes in the planetary council, instead of this weird system of favors.

After playing CK3 I keep looking at the vassalage system, too. You have a bunch of vassals and you need to keep them happy or they'll rebel, and their contractual obligations have a bunch of different dimensions. They probably need to fiddle with the numbers a bit more to make it better, but it's just miles ahead of Stellaris, where someone either is or isn't a vassal. That's it- no options for what that status entails, no question of making more pressing demands on smaller ones or having to ease up on larger ones, and no possibility of vassal empires declaring independence, because the AI won't ever do it.

I'd also argue that combat, despite all of the fiddly little parts you can use, is actually less complex because it lies entirely in the rock paper scissors of these components, with little consideration of terrain and no real possibilities for tactics or functional differences in fleets.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 04:56

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Don't worry guys, the patch today will fix everything!

# ? Oct 22, 2020 09:14

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

And Tyler Too! posted:

I didn't play stellaris until hyperlanes were a thing and after recently doing the parallel universe anomaly and seeing this thread's discussion of warp drives I just realized my alternate-reality counterparts are from an older version of stellaris.

Apart from the beasts, which never existed.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 09:32

Schadenboner: Aug 15, 2011; by Shine

Bloodly posted:

Apart from the beasts, which never existed.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 12:00

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

Gort posted:

Don't worry guys, the patch today will fix everything!

Speaking of:

https://twitter.com/StellarisGame/status/1319232549592403968

eta: If nothing else some of the modding stuff rules

quote:

* ideal_planet_class trigger now works in pop and species scope, and also accepts a planet scope as the right hand side argument.

GunnerJ fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Oct 22, 2020

# ? Oct 22, 2020 12:27

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Just gonna repost the patch notes here

quote:

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.8.0 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Necroids Species Pack Features
###################

* Added a new Necroid pre-scripted Empire.
* Added a new Phenotype with 16 new portraits (15 normal + 1 robot) of spooky scary Jeffoids Necroids.
* Added a new City Set and room backdrop for Necroids.
* Added a new dark and eerie Ship set.
* Added a new Advisor Voice.
* Added three new Civics: Death Cult, Reanimated Armies and Memorialist.
* Added Necrophage, a new Origin.

######################
# 2.8.0 "Butler" Features
######################

* Added new Gestalt Governor Leader Traits: Amplifier and Mindfulness - both increase Administrative Capacity in relevant Pop Jobs.
* Systems spawned during the game (e.g. precursor ones) will now usually have two hyperlanes instead of one.
* Added a new experimental DirectX11 support launch command (�-dx11�). (Check dev diary 181 for more information)

######################
# Balance
######################

* Gestalt empires can no longer build the Hyperlane Registrar starbase building as they have no use for it.
* The Oracle's admin bonus now grants +10% more admin cap instead of just +20.
* Observation Post Indoctrination events now have a 540 day cooldown before they can fire again.
* Terraforming Candidate is now a bit more common in the early game.
* Terminal Orbit anomaly's reward has been buffed slightly.
* You can now only resettle your primary species away from planets with culture shock.

######################
# Stability & Performance
######################

* Greatly improved startup and load times. (Check dev diary 181 for more information)
* Optimised the refugees system to perform fewer duplicate checks.
* Fixed an OOS related to armies created from Pops.
* Fixed an OOS happening if someone is hotjoining while a country is marked for destruction.
* Fixed an OOS with planet modifiers related to species crossbreeding.
* Fixed an OOS with Federation Fleet Capacity.
* Fixed a source of false positive OOS.
* Fixed a CTD when transferring a save file during hotjoin.
* Fixed a CTD that might happen when the outliner is updating certain elements when borders are updating.
* Fixed a CTD when planets are removed and have active construction.
* Fix CTD in Colonize window after dismantling shipyard.
* Disabled AlienFX/LightFX since it has been reported to have issues and might cause a CTD/freeze when starting the game (at 30% loading).
* Added a "hardoos" option that adds extra checksums to make it easier to catch causes for OOS.
* Fixed an OOS when you find a precursor civ. event and an observer is present at game start
* Tick time optimization (more efficient parallelisation (game go vroom vroom)).

######################
# UI
######################

* Fixed some Settings UIs having overrunning text in some non-english languages.
* Fixed overlapping text in Empire Modifiers tab in some non-english languages.
* The Curators' "goodbye" option is now always placed at the bottom of the option list.
* Envoys can't be reassigned to the same location.

######################
# AI
######################

* The AI is more willing to lower federation centralization if they are the federation president. They now care if Cohesion and Monthly Cohesion are negative.
* Crisis AI will now be more likely to seek honorable alternatives to doomstacks (i.e. it will split its fleet up a bit more).
* AI will now refill starbase modules and buildings if they are destroyed.
* AI now handles FTL inhibitors better, new fleets will now try to assign each fleet to the closest most valuable objective.
* AI should now handle Colossi correctly again. Fear will keep the local systems in line.
* AI empires with the Void Dwellers origin are now more likely to choose the Voidborne ascension perk.
* AI in Mercantile stance is now less likely to close borders.
* AI now builds branch offices where it can rather than trying again and again to go on a world where there's already a branch office.
* Fleet AI should not abort orders for defensive fleets like merging.
* Fixed Fleet AI getting stuck in a regroup loop if some fleets cannot reach the system for regrouping.
* Make sure AI fleets stop when issued orders to merge.

######################
# Modding
######################

* You can now use [ ] localisation commands in building descriptions.
* Added trigger num_assigned_jobs = { job = <key>/unemployed value > 2 }.
* Added is_ambient_object_type trigger.
* It is now possible to use scope variables in the create_message effect.
* ideal_planet_class trigger now works in pop and species scope, and also accepts a planet scope as the right hand side argument.
* Added remove_starbase_building and remove_starbase_module effects.
* Added change_colony_foundation_date = <number of days> effect.
* Trigger has_available_jobs now works.
* Added set_ship_prefix effect for country scope.
* Added set_adjective effect for country scope.
* change_government now has a cooldown = yes/no toggle (default is yes).
* Added effect set_government_cooldown = integer/default/no.
* added the missing settings to the get_galaxy_setup_value effect.
** Here's the new, up to date, list:
*** num_empires, num_advanced_empires, num_fallen_empires, num_marauder_empires, mid_game_year, end_game_year, victory_year, num_guaranteed_colonies, num_gateways, num_wormhole_pairs, num_hyperlanes, habitable_worlds_scale, primitive_worlds_scale, crisis_strength_scale, tech_costs_scale.
* Added set_origin effect, but note, it'll usually not be useful to use this as effects executed during galaxy generation will not be rerun.
* last_created_system now works.
* Added defines SPAWN_SYSTEM_BUFFER_DISTANCE and SPAWN_SYSTEM_ATTEMPTS, in case you want to try funky things with the spawn_system effect.
* set_location now works on juggernauts.
* Added on_colony_10_year_pulse on_action
* any_ambient_object and any_system_ambient_object scopes now no longer cause false positives in the error log.
* on_colony_5_year_pulse now works on the capital too.
* abort_trigger, on_fail and on_cancel in special projects now all use the same scopes.

######################
# Bugfixes
######################

* Fixed so that Zroni Precursor Arc Sites cannot be "hijacked" by another Empire.
* Multiple Curator Scientist cannot be purchased any longer.
* Added checks to see if the host has the appropriate DLCs for the slave market-oriented Resolutions.
* Added missing Loc when proposal for forming Federations failed.
* Fixed leviathans.1018 tooltip not showing actual results of the event.
* The UNE now spawns as intended when playing as the Commonwealth of Man.
* Fixed missing localisation in event �The Oracle�.
* Slave Market Resolutions are now properly locked without Megacorp DLC.
* Restoring megastructures will now only cause the rubble from their ruined variants to be cleared, rather than all ambient objects in the system (including system effects e.g. nebulas...)
* Droids can now take Colonist jobs.
* Subjects can no longer create vassals.
* Pox Bombardment no longer kills machine units.
* Fixed a case where the Slave Riots event could happen twice on the same day.
* Fixed being able to build from (mega) shipyards that are not owned.
* Added missing localisation keys for resolution_passed_diplomatic_weight and resolution_failed_diplomatic_weight empire modifiers.
* Hid Zroni and Shoulders of Giants arc sites from countries ineligible for completing them (thus hiding unlocalised anti-stealing flags).
* Added missing descriptions to Evermore planetary modifiers.
* The AI attitude of country A to B now depends on A's opinion of B rather than B's of A. This fixes Fallen Empires never declaring war.
* Surveyor relic can no longer find new resource deposits on Ring Worlds or Habitats.
* The Floating Value event text no longer mixes up the planet and ship names.
* Corrected Russian translation of Galactic Contender ascension perk.
* Fixed minor localization issue in the Senate Floor tutorial window.
* Changes to a progress-tracking variable in Joint Operation: Genius Caeli are now hidden from the arc site panel.
* Fixed various typos and duplications in the species name files.
* A Quiet Stroll event now has different text for Synthetic empires.
* Tree of Life deposits are now properly cleared when the planet changes owner.
* Shielded Planet special projects now use the correct planet name.
* Removed duplications in Tiyanki ship names.
* System graphical effects are now removed when the final Contingency planet is destroyed.
* VLUUR's space storm will no longer manifest in nebula systems.
* Fixed minor tooltip issue in Atomic Countdown event.
* Shortened and rewrote overlapping Vault of Acquisitions technology description.
* Fixed completed construction items for reinforcements not being removed properly from the fleet manager.
* Fixed research costs for Special Projects "Investigate the Loop Temple" and "Study the Messenger connection".
* The correct event description should now always be shown in �Finding the Truth�.
* Adjusted the tooltips for the Improve and Harm Relations diplomatic actions.
* Observation Posts are now cleared if all primitives have been killed by orbital bombardment.
* Removed duplicate entry in Alpha Hub technology.
* Mining Drones no longer display the Rare Crystal icon in the Jobs interface.
* Changed Miner and Technician building icons to be more consistent with other jobs.
* Fixed issue where some Spiritualist responses weren't always displayed in first contact situations.
* Removed duplicate cohesion effect from tooltip in federation fleet contribution laws.
* Fixed transparency on room backgrounds from Federations.
* Gestalts can no longer get the debris_gasgiant_category_temp anomaly at all - which is as it should be.
* Unity should now always spawn as a continental planet when playing the UNE.
* Fixed a bug where Star-Crossed Lovers could take refuge in the Mutaagan Trading Guild.
* Gestalts that conquer a regular empire's starbase will no longer have Trading Hubs and Offworld Trading Companies there.
* Fixed some cases of species growing on planets disappearing and reappearing every other month.
* Fixed Species rights showing as in breach of galactic law when they�re not.
* You can no longer get random tomb world events on tomb worlds created through armageddon bombardment and other similar causes. Also, you can now only get each of them once.
* Event Primordial Soup no longer wrongly assumes that Terminator machines think organic life worthy of interest.
* Space fauna resolutions can no longer be proposed if they're already active.
* Made sure clearing the blocker creates the correct species.
* Added in breach icons and warnings in confirm dialog for policies that would cause breach of galactic law.
* Fixed a case where the sector AI would spam luxury residences to deal with low amenities if there aren't workers available to work as Entertainers.
* Fixed a bug where special projects to investigate space fauna would sometimes lose the targets they were meant to investigate, become "Investigate <blank>", and do nothing on completion.
* Fixed a bug where the project to investigate Enclaves would talk about the system rather than the country.
* Having comms established with you by enclaves no longer gives you influence.
* The wrecked caravan ship ambient object is now removed by completing the project to research it.
* Enslaving the species in the Underground Vault now shows the correct species will be enslaved.
* Fixed some issues with special resources in the Hive Confluence building.
* Added missing Army Names if the name list is picked for a Machine Intelligence empire.
* Scions can now control their border access.
* Fixed cases where sometimes the Galactic Market would take a while to allow buying and selling of special resources.
* Gaia Worlds may no longer spawn with the 'poor quality minerals' planet modifier.
* If you manage to create a species that is both psionic or cybernetic and erudite, the resulting leaders will now get both the cybernetic/psionic and the erudite traits.
* Using modify_species to change the species of a country will now also target pops on colony ships. This fixes various gene modifications through events excluding colony ships.
* Pops are now more likely to be maintenance drones if the planet lacks amenities.
* Fixed some spaghetti script in the First Contact for Fallen Empires event, closing several loopholes where you could see Fallen Empires without them establishing contact with you.
* Fixed a case where the event for Fallen Empires requesting the long-dead species you kept in stasis would fire twice.
* Rewards for completing the Technosphere chain now take into account Gestalts (who cannot get Sapient AI tech).
* Nu-Baol Life-Seeding now no longer removes Baol Homeworld planetary features.
* Upgraded versions of planet-unique buildings now correctly specify that their number is capped per planet and keep their special background frame.
* Fixed flags not being set correctly on building upgrades (which led to AI spamming upgrades it shouldn't have).
* Fixed number of pacts not being visible in diplomacy windows at game start, as well as a potential OOS.
* Fixed a case where Awakened Marauders would conquer a planet with less than 5 pops, kill all those pops and then spawn 12 pops on the planet (which, having been rendered uninhabited, no longer counts as a colony).
* Fixed the tooltip for utterly failing the Enigmatic Cache uplift chain.
* It is now possible for your ruler to be randomly given the trait Charismatic during their rule.
* Events leading up to the spawning of a Relic Rails dig site may no longer fire multiple times.
* Made sure that the relevant Fallen Empires actually exist in order for the Resolutions to be available.
* Various fixes to the Golden Rule challenge for federation leadership, particularly addressing scenarios in which the event may not fire at the end of a presidential term.
* Do not ping pong fleet groups that are on mission but the leader has jumped to the next system.
* The tooltip for purchasing L-Gate insights from Curator Orders is now slightly more precise about the time it'll take them to identify each new clue.
* Resolved late-game pirate fleets losing their scripted event targets.
* The Yuhtaan system's star and planets are now correctly called "Yuhtaan" rather than "Yuthaan".
* Fixed a stray "?" in the Blue Lotus Project event
* The governor offered by the Nuumistic Order is now of the correct species
* Opening the Alien Box will now change your dominant species rather than just modifying your pops and leaders. It will also now modify subspecies of the main species.
* Forced a trait upon the event-created species that stops them from counting as Bio-Trophies.
* Tooltips in the diplomacy screen regarding the other empire's federation is now more consistent.
* Machine empires with the Resource Consolidation origin can now correctly adopt the Rogue Servitor civic when GC Resolution "A Defined Purpose" is passed (though they will be reset to the default origin in the process)
* Fixed some cases where empires would be created during the game with random and inappropriate origins e.g. Doomsday. create_country now creates countries with Prosperous Unification by default.
* Implemented an option trigger to stop an unnecessary/irrational option in an event.
* Players will no longer receive alerts about war goals they cannot set anymore.
* Fixed a case where marauder diadochi could spawn without any planets, breaking various things.
* Fixed issues with space monsters sometimes being uncontactable.
* Event experience reward is now assigned to the correct leader (scientist).
* Systems spawned during the game e.g. precursor systems will now no longer spawn on top of other systems unless there really is no space for them elsewhere.
* Fixed cases where you'd get refugees from a country you had no communications with.
* Stopped certain arc sites from disappearing from the situation log after completion.
* Fixed possible error with event-spawned Wormhole.
* In the subterranean nation chain, if you get an invasion by them after attempting a preemptive strike, the invasion will now work.
* Event "God of Death" no longer has an eyeball-popping tooltip.
* Fixed confusing tooltip mentioning rivaling members when inviting to federation.
* The conclusion to the Rage Virus event chain will no longer give invalid technologies for Gestalts
* Fixed a case where multiple arc sites would spawn on one colony; also, the Sentinels will no longer spawn as soon as you fulfill the conditions, but are now a bit more random.
* New auto-generated ship designs now have auto-upgrade checked by default
* Fortress proclamation actually increases defense build speed now.
* Fixed misspelled VO ID.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 12:49

Torrannor: Apr 27, 2013; ---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

I do love this little gem:

quote:

AI should now handle Colossi correctly again. Fear will keep the local systems in line.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 12:52

Yami Fenrir: Jan 25, 2015; Is it I that is insane... or the rest of the world?

I love how the patch notes just offhandedly mention that AI Megacorps were basically mostly nonfunctional because they didn't even check if there was a branch office on the planet already and just repeatedly tried to open branch offices on planets that already had them.

Probably the entire time since release, I bet?

# ? Oct 22, 2020 12:57

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

These two are pretty big for me:

quote:

* Fixed Fleet AI getting stuck in a regroup loop if some fleets cannot reach the system for regrouping.
* Pops are now more likely to be maintenance drones if the planet lacks amenities.

Looping fleets were a huge problem for the AI and amenities completely tanking when you played a hivemind was just annoying.

I was disappointed to see nothing for pop growth, resettlement micromanagement and sector AI, but:

quote:

In addition to what you have seen in the patch notes, we have also been working on some stuff that was deemed too risky, or didn�t finish in time, for it to be released together with 2.8. We intend to deploy some of these changes together with a beta patch sometime in the near future.

We also have some other larger changes that will not be released until the next big update, but we will start talking about some of those changes very soon.

and

So it's possible changes to pop growth, resettlement micromanagement and sector AI will be in a beta branch.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 13:01

Schadenboner: Aug 15, 2011; by Shine

Gort posted:

These two are pretty big for me:

Looping fleets were a huge problem for the AI and amenities completely tanking when you played a hivemind was just annoying.

I was disappointed to see nothing for pop growth, resettlement micromanagement and sector AI, but:

and

So it's possible changes to pop growth, resettlement micromanagement and sector AI will be in a beta branch.

What are you talking about, the community's top complaints are the lack of civics which add Society Research?

# ? Oct 22, 2020 13:02

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Bloodly posted:

Apart from the beasts, which never existed.

My understanding was that the �warp beasts� are meant to be the Unbidden. It fits given that Jump Drive proliferation is one of the triggers that bias towards that crisis, and one of the other outcomes of that event is that the portal effectively goes straight into the Shroud itself.

I can�t really think of anything else in the game that fits the description, except maybe for the Dimensional Horror.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 14:44

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

Gort posted:

* Systems spawned during the game (e.g. precursor ones) will now usually have two hyperlanes instead of one.

Huh. Neat.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 14:59

Ak Gara: Jul 29, 2005; That's just the way he rolls.

Why the gently caress do games keep insisting on having their own launcher?
The whole point of Steam was so we didn't have to do that poo poo.

Thought I'd try the game again since I last played (2.2?) but I can't because of it's stupid loving launcher.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 14:59

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Ak Gara posted:

Why the gently caress do games keep insisting on having their own launcher?
The whole point of Steam was so we didn't have to do that poo poo.

Thought I'd try the game again since I last played (2.2?) but I can't because of it's stupid loving launcher.

How does the launcher stop you playing?

Edit: Looks like the launcher's bypassable, just run stellaris.exe, which for me is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris

Gort fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Oct 22, 2020

# ? Oct 22, 2020 15:02

Tigey: Apr 6, 2015

Gort posted:

How does the launcher stop you playing?

Edit: Looks like the launcher's bypassable, just run stellaris.exe, which for me is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris

Yup, I do that all the time, and feels much quicker. Only downside is the inability to change what mods you have currently loaded.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 15:47

Beefeater1980: Sep 12, 2008; My God, it's full of Horatios!

Kaal posted:

Yeah the SotS system did a great job of asymmetricality but I think a big part of that was that each race was defined. It'd be tricky to balance that system if you could pick and choose traits.

�The universe is healing itself, Dominus. Shall we wound it again?�

That game had the best fluff.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 16:31

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

The launcher is good for mods at least (even though it's not particularly good at it) since you can toggle and move around those before launching the game.

I'm really looking forward for the game go vroom vroom. :toot:

# ? Oct 22, 2020 16:45

Mr. Merdle: Oct 17, 2007; THE GREAT MANBABY SUCCESSOR

* Fleet AI should not abort orders for defensive fleets like merging

So does this mean that I'll stop getting 60 one-ship fleets after I cue up reinforcements?

Mr. Merdle fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Oct 22, 2020

# ? Oct 22, 2020 17:00

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Lil Peeler posted:

* Fleet AI should not abort orders for defensive fleets like merging

So does this mean that I'll stop getting 60 one-ship fleets after I cue up reinforcements?

I don't think so

# ? Oct 22, 2020 17:50

Fhqwhgads: Jul 18, 2003; I AM THE ONLY ONE IN THIS GAME WHO GETS LAID

Edit: NM I'm dumb with mod loading.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 19:38

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

I'm in the middle of a difficult game where my territory is stretched and squashed and I only found three decent world, and then I was rushing to wall off a nearby aggressive xenophobe when I found not one but two gaia worlds! I've never actually colonized a gaia world before.

And both were holy worlds.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 02:09

uber_stoat: Jan 21, 2001; Pillbug

i'm going to be strong and good and i will not buy this new dlc. my will is my own!

# ? Oct 23, 2020 02:15

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Dick Trauma posted:

I'm in the middle of a difficult game where my territory is stretched and squashed and I only found three decent world, and then I was rushing to wall off a nearby aggressive xenophobe when I found not one but two gaia worlds! I've never actually colonized a gaia world before.

And both were holy worlds.

rip lol

# ? Oct 23, 2020 02:24

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

I didn't know what a holy world was and actually colonized one, and had a second ship on the way when I found out I was going to get squashed like a bug. Had to blow up the colony I'd started.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 03:43

Yami Fenrir: Jan 25, 2015; Is it I that is insane... or the rest of the world?

Dick Trauma posted:

I didn't know what a holy world was and actually colonized one, and had a second ship on the way when I found out I was going to get squashed like a bug. Had to blow up the colony I'd started.

Doesn't it tell you that colonizing will anger the Fallen Empire when you hover over the modifier these days? :V

# ? Oct 23, 2020 05:36

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# ? May 25, 2024 15:57

Leal: Oct 2, 2009

The winning option is to build a planet cracker and blow up their holy worlds. Now no one can have it

# ? Oct 23, 2020 05:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Stellaris: a second Astral Planes has hit the game

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