Stellaris - To Serve Man - The Something Awful Forums

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Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 04:24

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:52

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

MadJackal posted:

I had the corvette steal thing happen to me too. I tried multiple reloads to test if this was a fluke, but the corvette's ALWAYS got credit for the kill. So I declared war on them and murdered the corvettes.

Because I'm the hero, damnit.

What was the bonus from doing so?

I just accepted it and declared war on the rest of the Galaxy instead.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 05:41

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Hive mind with genetic tinkering is incredibly powerful. You can modify species at a planetary level so that their actual bonuses no longer matter. Combine it with planetary specialization and you maximize your efficiency. For example every mineral planet can be populated by industrious very strong workers, every energy planet with thrifty workers, and every research planet with erudite workers (specialized for whatever research that planet generates). And then every one of them can also be conservative and ultra fast breeding.

It requires some micro but it's pretty powerful.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 12:11

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Cyrano4747 posted:

I've been playing that giant Star Trek mod recently and holy poo poo I am LOVING the way it's handling ships. The short version is that they massively jacked up the fleet cap cost of each type as well as cranking up the mineral cost of building them. Tier 1 poo poo ships take 2 cap and cost ~250 minerals, for example.

The end result is that fleets feel much more like a group of ships that you actually care about rather than a stack of disposable commodities that you really only end up paying attention to the annual cost of replacing attrition.

Does anyone know of a a mod that does something similar for the base game?

That seems cool as hell and I'll definitely give that a try.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 16:15

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

MarquiseMindfang posted:

Growth rate and no manual growing are the only real advantages. You edge a 5% in mineral production with Industrious Very Strong Proles at +35% conpared to Share the Burden synths' 30%, Earthbound Thrifty equals them in Energy at 30%, and Erudite Natural (Science) workers equal out too at 35% since Synth Governors give 5% as well. All the while the Synths are 10% happier, have 15% more Fleet Capacity, are immortal, have perfect habitability out of the box, do more damage with their ships, research faster, and cost 25% less Consumer Goods and Energy to maintain. I do like to give my to-be-synthed races Fast Breeders though, just to help them propagate before they're converted.

I also think Hive Minds in general are significantly underpowered. Their compensation for not being able to join Factions is a single Influence point, but you can get a lot more than just one point from Factions. And Inwards Perfection totally eclipses their Unity gain. I was expecting their civics to be a lot more powerful to make up for all their restrictions.

I don't think it's as cut and dry as you state. Habitability doesn't matter since I can tailor the species to whatever planet they're currently living on. I have 8 trait points to play with which means I can be as flexible as necessary. One thing you missed was that the uplifted species traits can't be modified or added, which seems a bit silly and might be worth modding, but you're also tossing in edicts and policies which disrupts things a bit.

So avoiding edicts and focusing just on traits you can modify, here's the differences:

Minerals: Industrious + Very Strong + Nerve Stapled = +30% vs +20% for Synths, Genemodding
Food: Agrarian + Nerve Stapled = +25% vs Irrelevant for Synths, Synths
Energy: Thrifty = +15% vs +20% for Synths (Minus the additional cost of running synths), Bust
Research: Erudite + Natural Scientist = +35% vs +20% (plus 5% Research Speed), Genemodding
Happiness: Nerve Stapling / Hivemind = Irrelevant vs +10% for Synths, Genemodding
Habitability: Custom Planet vs 200% for Synths, Bust

Plus I can make them all fertile to have a 30% growth rate before converting them to whatever task I want.

The synth empire is definitely powerful, but the flexibility of genemodding is pretty awesome.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 16:33

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

MarquiseMindfang posted:

This is all true, but the chief difference I wanted to point out by bringing Share the Burden into it is that for synth empires, it affects Energy and Sciences output too and makes them directly competitive with optimal genemods. It's a bonus inherent to synthetics, so I felt it should be included. Granted, gene mod empires can build synths too and make use of it, but if you're running synths in any way and not using StB something is direly wrong.

But you've convinced me to give gene modding another go.

I agree that it's relevant. Nerve stapled genemodded super slaves would also provide the benefit to energy.

FWIW you've made me want to try a synth run at some point. That's the best part about this game, it's not like we can't try everything!

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:28

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Is there a bug with spiritualist factions where they won't acknowledge that my Holy Tribunal is sufficiently religious? I still have the "Secular State" malus and I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 04:04

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

TacMan posted:

I think you specifically need a spiritualist government civic to avoid a secular state penalty.

I tossed on Exalted Priests and they still said the state was secular. I suspect everything has to be spiritual, so gently caress em.

Also the Star Trek mod is a lot of fun. Ships are invaluable; I have destroyers that cost 1100 minerals and take up 11 fleet capacity.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 05:10

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Strudel Man posted:

The demand is fulfilled by being one of

code:

					has_government = gov_theocratic_monarchy
					has_government = gov_theocratic_dictatorship
					has_government = gov_theocratic_oligarchy
					has_government = gov_theocratic_republic
					has_government = gov_celestial_empire
					has_government = gov_divine_empire
					has_government = gov_holy_tribunal
					has_government = gov_celestial_empire

supposedly, so it looks like holy tribunal should indeed work?

Yeah, I guess it's a bug. Oh well. The militant faction of my Klingon Empire is happy and that's all that matters. :black101:

Mister Adequate posted:

One of the most impressive things about that mod is that it has dramatically rebalanced ship strength and costs, and done so successfully.

Yeah it's pretty incredible. It makes piracy in the early game really loving scary since ships take so long to construct, and every single one of your ships is valuable and important. On top of that the ships are far more customizable and the combination of hardpoints makes the various technology choices very meaningful. When a single destroyer costs more than a cruiser does in the vanilla game it really changes things (and for the better).

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 14:17

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Nordick posted:

This sounds really drat good and definitely my jam, the problem is I can't bring myself to care about Star Trek. Here's hoping some other mod comes around that does the same to ships but without a specific universe setting (Or at least a setting I like).

Just think of it as a galaxy with a bunch of humanoids with weird poo poo glued to their heads and you'll be fine. I'd say it's worth trying out, although I do agree that the inability to create your own Empire is annoying.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 18:35

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

A Tartan Tory posted:

Does anyone know if you can build habitats on the non-colonisable sections of ringworlds?

I believe you can. I just took over a Fallen Empire and there were a ton of viable spaces to put habitats around the ringworld.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 18:36

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Baronjutter posted:

loving yes

Hopefully that will include the option to terraform planets that you don't actually own.

Terrorforming, if you will.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 20:25

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Reading Wiz's update it sounds like we'll have to wait until Card or Herbert for a major change to warfare.

EDIT: This person from Reddit seems to care quite a bit about armies.

Beer4TheBeerGod fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Apr 20, 2017

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 12:43

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

A Tartan Tory posted:

Ok so the pop growth mechanic does not work the way I think it does, if you manage to stack -100% growth time you grow a pop every single month on a planet.

Yeah.

The way I did it was Fertile (-30%), fanatic spiritualist edict (-20%), genome mapping (-10%), New Life (-10%), New Generation (-10%), Consecrated World (-10%), Frontier Hospital (-10%).

Edit: The makes the whole habitat +10 energy mid-late game strategy even more insane.

Looks like nine women really can make a baby in one month.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 14:02

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Make Frontier Outposts give a 5% research bonus.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 23:18

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

The best part about Stellaris and paying attention to stuff like Wiz's updates is getting enough enthusiasm to come back with each update. Paradox really has a great model here.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2018 18:08

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

binge crotching posted:

Holy poo poo, this is going to be amazing when playing a purifier. Are you also going to have one the other way, to turn excess minerals into energy?

Giant burn pile.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 03:13

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

OP was last updated a year ago. What mods do people recommend?

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 03:30

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Wow dealing with synthetic variants can quickly become a giant mess.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 07:53

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Are sectors still terrible? The level of micromanagement for this machine empire is... unpleasant.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 17:05

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Why are small planets not worth colonizing?

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 21:07

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

I have a bunch of multi-planet systems so I enjoy filling them out. It's a shame that Unity doesn't work on systems instead of planets.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 21:23

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Galaga Galaxian posted:

An early 80s Sci-Fi/Chris Foss/Peter Elson/etc style shipset would be pretty awesome, yeah.

Wiz I would totally buy this.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2018 03:17

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

What's the point of having all these trait points if I don't have enough picks to use them?

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 03:11

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

imweasel09 posted:

If you get the robomodding ascenion perk it's super easy to have a bunch of points that you can't actually use on all of your models because you're maxed on picks.

That'e exactly what happened with me. I ended up getting an expanded trait mod so I had more slots.

To be honest the whole robomodding thing seems poorly implemented. Your ideal approach seems to be to quickly specialize your drones for the three resources, and then maintain those chains as you get more traits. It ends up being a pain, and in the end you can't take full advantage of the trait system since you don't have enough slots. I would prefer to see something a bit less clunky. Ultimately it's all a flat bonus anyway, so maybe change it from robomodding to specific technologies that give the same traits.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 05:37

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Leaders are really weird for a machine empire since they don't die. I feel compelled to hire and fire a bunch of scientists until I get the good ones like Spark of Genius.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 15:03

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Truga posted:

Yeah, you want 2 light bulbs, and then 3rd one can be whatever since you'll hire a curator for that spot soon.

Is the Curator better than a Level 8 Light Bulb?

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 18:07

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

ConfusedUs posted:

I'll probably go for whatever's between those and is roughly equivalent to today's hyperlane networks.

I might go minimum.

Also I really hope we start to get endgame crises that come from the center of the Galaxy instead of outside.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 18:08

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

AriadneThread posted:

galactic core explosion

That would be cool. A non-combat challenge, like needing to relocate singularities into the galactic core.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 19:22

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

canepazzo posted:

Some more cool poo poo on twitter:

https://twitter.com/Moah3/status/953249258152525825
https://twitter.com/Moah3/status/953261334086504449

I wonder if you can have Machine Empire Galactic Despoilers. Raid other planets to bring them home and turn them into batteries.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 16:37

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Wiz posted:

You can't use that civic, but there's another way to unlock pop raiding as a machine empire.

Awesome. Thanks for making such a solid game.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 19:48

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

What perks and traditions do people like for Machine Empires?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 05:37

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

I'd love it if the game gave me the ability to disassemble all these relic frigates with ultra-badass equipment.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2018 20:17

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Psychotic Weasel posted:

I know several other games that give you a choice if using your kickass new prize immediately or allowing you to strip it for a research bonus, always struck me as weird you couldn't do that in Stellaris.

If you send it out alone to get blown part by an enemy you may get lucky and can salvage a bit of it later.

I think it would be great if the story dynamically determined the technology and you could either get a salvage bonus on a random system one level above what you already have or get a ship with maxed out tech like it currently does.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2018 20:28

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Is that a mod? If so where do I get it?

# ¿ Jan 20, 2018 20:19

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Wow people really hate it when you commit genocide.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 04:40

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

Is livestock only a Hivemind option? It seems so much handier than genociding the alien, and you can end up with a pretty rich and varied diet.

Other species seemed fairly nonplussed about the idea of being used as batteries. It's not my fault that the Fallen Empire wouldn't be turned into a vassal!

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 13:42

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

The Bramble posted:

She's gonna power walk away from you when she finds out you get sexually aroused from turning the fox-aliens into "domestic servants" every time you find them.

Make sure you have compatible ethics or you're going to have a bad time.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 16:37

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Aethernet posted:

Nah, he should find out who she dislikes and punch them in the face. As a bonus, this will also make him more influential*!

*'imprisonable'

He doesn't have to actually assault her rivals, just agree with everything she says about those bitches.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 16:49

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:52

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

What's a good strategy for doing Rogue Servitors?

# ¿ Jan 25, 2018 02:39

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