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Welcome to the long awaited Stellaris LP! What is Stellaris? You know those Paradox Interactive guys who made Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis IV? Well, in 2016, they took their strategy game knowledge into space. So instead of playing as a historical nation on Earth, you're playing a spacefaring empire starting in the year 2200 AD, exploring the mysteries of the galaxy and meeting alien empires. I know how popular Paradox's strategy games are in the LP community, and I hope not to disappoint. Who are we playing? The United Nations of Earth, except we're using mass drivers instead of the default race's missiles. Are you using mods? Nothing that changes the gameplay too much. Here's the mod list:
Will there be audience participation? Somewhat. At the end of each post, a few proposals will be introduced to vote upon. Ship design proposals may also be submitted when asked for. Don't make any facist, communist, or other authoritarian proposals; these will more likely than not get your representative recalled. UPDATES
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May 21, 2017 03:14
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Jan 1, 2200 It has been several years since the invention of the warp drive. The United Nations, the planet's ruling authority, has guided the planet out of the Great Plague that killed billions. Recovery is going well, with the population at 8 billion. Most of the working population are employed in energy production, mineral refining, and food production, with a small subset working on research. The UN has identified some areas of Earth that can potentially increase Earth's output, once the skeletons of dead cities are cleared out.  The UN has five warp-capable ships at the moment: The construction ship UNS Doolittle, the scientific survey ship UNS Gagarin captained by none other than Ludwig Dietrich, the "father of the warp drive", and the First Fleet, composed of three G-100 "Anaconda" class corvettes. Right now, the Gagarin is making a test run, surveying the Solar System. If any resources are found on any of the planets, moons, or asteroids, the Doolittle will be able to construct automated mining and research satellites.  In the close vicinity of Sol, there are several stars that have yet to be surveyed by mankind. The Alpha Centauri and Sirius systems are said to have habitable planets, but they will need to be surveyed before any colonization efforts can begin. While only science ships can survey planets, any ship can add stars to the UN's charts.  The current president is Dolores Muwanga, from Somalia. She has been said to be an excellent navigator of the planet's markets, and has proven to be quite the strong and healthy woman. This is her first ten-year term as President. However, she is just one branch of the UN's government. The General Assembly holds the legislative powers of the government, and private enterprise still rules the economy.  The UN's scientific research and development organization is divided into three departments, each headed by leaders in their respective scientific field. José María de la Cruz leads the Physics department. He is considered one of the foremost minds in modern computer science and theory. Societal and biological research is headed by Jolan Fehér, author of many papers on genetics. The Engineering department is led by Tatyana Zhivenkov, who has been rumored to master any new technology within mere weeks.  It's a big galaxy out there, and the new chapter of humanity is about to begin. GENERAL ASSEMBLY In this first assembly of the new century, several proposals will need to be voted on by the representatives. The first proposal is whether to focus resources on creating planetary production buildings, on mining and research satellites, on expanding the Fleet, or saving for colonization. The second proposal involves choosing the next star system for the Gagarin to survey next. The choices are Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Barnard's Star, Procyon, or Zac'zon.  Finally, we need to choose a project each for all three of our science departments to work on. Vote in replies. Danny Glands fucked around with this message at 03:41 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 03:15
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fair warning to anyone who wants to pick terraforming because it sounds cool: it costs too much to use until decades after the start. database uplinks is also a tech you don't use until much later in the game, since it requires your science ships to be parked over your inhabited planets instead of out surveying.
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May 21, 2017 03:23
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My only vote is that Tatyana gets to drive the science ship and we hire someone with a better perk to lead engineering.
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May 21, 2017 03:26
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Do we just vote in thread? Not sure how much you want to minmax but if you do... > Mining Satellites (not Research yet), though maybe hold off until you get Prosperity if you're playing with Utopia, with a colony soon after > Ideally should be running the fleet around split into 3 to scout for systems with habitable planets and survey there first Research wise: Improved Spaceport (Coilgun isn't important until we're at fleet cap, and we can get it from wreckage) Planetary Unification Field Modulation
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May 21, 2017 03:30
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Nanomechanics Planetary Unification Field Modulation Concentrate on building Orbital Mines. Early investment in mineral production is going to pay off in the long run.
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May 21, 2017 03:38
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alcaras posted:Do we just vote in thread? Agreeing with this post
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May 21, 2017 03:38
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alcaras posted:Research wise: This sounds good to me.
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May 21, 2017 04:15
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alcaras posted:Do we just vote in thread? I'll go with this.
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May 21, 2017 04:20
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sparkmaster posted:Nanomechanics My vote as well. And let's get those mining satellites up and running. I'm also voting to reassign Dr. Zhivenkov to a science vessel to try and get a scientist for Engineering with a research mod. And as far as where to survey next, I don't really care about the order so long as we survey the systems in our borders first because we can't build resource-collecting satellites outside our borders.
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May 21, 2017 04:39
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Tsk tsk the Milky Way isn't an elliptical galaxy! My immersion!  We should build a second science vessel ASAP so we can get more surveying and such done. Speaking of Surveying, Survey whichever system has the larger inhabitable planet first
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May 21, 2017 05:15
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sparkmaster posted:Nanomechanics As the thread appears to be going for minmaxing this is my vote (I like Stellaris but it's pretty sad that it has basically one optimal way to play the early game)
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May 21, 2017 06:17
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Since I'm not up-to-date with the game mechanics, is it at all possible to propose aesthetic changes, i.e. planet, ship names?
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May 21, 2017 07:25
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Samovar posted:Since I'm not up-to-date with the game mechanics, is it at all possible to propose aesthetic changes, i.e. planet, ship names? If it has a name, you can change it.
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May 21, 2017 11:51
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sparkmaster posted:Nanomechanics Also I'm pretty new to the game, will you be going into the explaining some of the strategies you do during the LP? An informative SS LP would be a great.
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May 21, 2017 13:14
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sparkmaster posted:Nanomechanics I concur with this post, with the addendum that space construction should be largely dependent on what we find out there (if there are any amazing tech sources that we discover, I recommend taking them - same with really good energy producing planets).
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May 21, 2017 14:19
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Get Planetary Unification so you can gain more influence and switch ethics/civics to fanatic purifiers sooner. EDIT: Danny Glands posted:Will there be audience participation? What does this mean? Are we not voting on things relating to, for instance, xeno relations and species rights? Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 15:25 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 15:11
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Weavered posted:Also I'm pretty new to the game, will you be going into the explaining some of the strategies you do during the LP? An informative SS LP would be a great. I've played Stellaris off and on since it came out. Here is my logic for my choices: Physics (Blue): None of these choices are really great. We probably won't be facing an energy crunch for some time, so that makes the solar panels and new power plant somewhat less than useful. However, the research assist is even less useful right now, considering our science ships will be out there surveying systems for the foreseeable future. None of the selections are vital or even that useful right now, but having that new power plant researched will do us more good than the other choices. Society (Green): Terraforming is useless to us right now. The cost is way, way too much (Thousands of energy) right now. Expanding our naval cap is also not very useful. It's highly unlikely we would need an expanded fleet in the near future. That leaves Planetary Unification. Influence is always good to have. In the immediate term, having lots of influence lets us build more frontier outposts, which let us claim areas of space without having to colonize. This is really useful for strategically restricting where other empires can colonize, and it lets us build mines and research outposts in rich systems that ordinarily would be outside our colonized boarders. Engineering (Gold): We don't need upgraded weapons just yet. We also don't need better starbases right now. Grabbing an upgraded research building right now will pay dividends down the road. It isn't ideal right now because our only bonused Engineering research tile is buried under an expensive (for us) tile blocker, but it's the best choice. In the early game there tends to be a massive mineral crunch. Everything we can do is dependent on how many minerals we have. Early investments into mineral production makes everything easier. It's going to be a while until we get another pop (and afford to bulldoze the slum) on our bonused tile. Then we have to build the mine, and with that we're not going to get all that much. The more minerals we get now, the more minerals we can reinvest in our surrounding systems to get more minerals. Other choices are not ideal. We shouldn't expand our planetary buildings because the tile clearing and construction of whatever building we decide will be very costly to us relative to our present income. Colonization is great, but very costly. It's 300ish minerals and a year to build a colony ship, then another year to actually bring a colony online. Then a few more years before it grows its first pop so we can get resources outside of the first tile we pick for our ship shelter. We don't need an expanded fleet because the liklihood of being involved in a war this early is very unlikely. tl:dr: construction of mining stations are the best move at this point. Research stations are also nice if we run out of mineral stations to build in our borders.
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May 21, 2017 17:46
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Get Planetary Unification so you can gain more influence and switch ethics/civics to fanatic purifiers sooner. I think they aren't a fan of genociding the blue people or allowing their workers to seize the means of production.
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May 21, 2017 17:49
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alcaras posted:Do we just vote in thread? This is a good set of things to research. Mining satellites as necessary, but if you aren't finding enough minerals definitely start working those tiles. Shugojin fucked around with this message at 22:07 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 21:07
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I say: Expand the Fleet Explore Barnard's Star Nanomechanis, Planetary Unification, Field Modulation
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May 21, 2017 21:26
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Planetary Development - We need resources and Earth needs to be cleaned up, whilst our population is given employment. We can kill all three birds with one stone. Alpha Centauri - It's our nearest stellar neighbor and our telescopes have determined the presence of a potentially habitable exoplanet. Nanomechanics; Planetary Unification; Field Modulation - All of these will help us establish a healthy planetary economy, no matter what we might find out among the stars.
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May 21, 2017 22:05
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Nanomechanics - eh, more research is good, the other options kinda suck and the sooner we get new set of cards to pick from the better. Planetary Unification - gimme that influence baby, you know I'm good for it. Also, it's cheap to research and the edict might have a purpose, somewhere down the line. Field Modulation - power plants II give +4 energy vs solar panels' +3 energy, and database uplinks provide no benefits for the next ... 30 or so years, as our science ships will be exploring, not assisting. Explore Alpha Centauri, it's nearby. Focus on mining stations, and as a secundary priority, build up our military to 6 ships total. double nine fucked around with this message at 22:23 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 22:20
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alcaras posted:Do we just vote in thread? I'm going with this.
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May 21, 2017 22:35
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Mining, mining, and also mining. Nothing is more important than minerals in the early game.
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May 21, 2017 23:56
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Hey, I dunno if this LP is meant for people familiar to the game or not, so feel free to ignore me, but you haven't explained that 4x4 grid on the very first screenshot.
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May 22, 2017 01:03
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Dancer posted:Hey, I dunno if this LP is meant for people familiar to the game or not, so feel free to ignore me, but you haven't explained that 4x4 grid on the very first screenshot. Those are the tiles and Danny Glands will probably explain how they work once the LP hits the point of actually building stuff on them
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May 22, 2017 01:06
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Anticheese posted:If it has a name, you can change it. In that case, I propose we change the name of our first scout ship to the Laika.
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May 22, 2017 03:13
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Voting: Improved Spaceport - Corvette yards Naval Capacity Solar Panels We have mass driver corvettes. Don't improve them, mass produce them (to 2.6x naval cap), run over whoever our first contact is and explain that they want to join the UN.
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May 22, 2017 06:36
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To folks that don't know Stellaris: The tech tree choices work by randomly drawing from the pool of available tech, so picking one thing now means the others may take a while to reroll. In this initial set, the choices we have from the deck are mostly a no-duh: Planetary Unification is great to have early because increasing Influence is very difficult. The 10% Naval Capacity or Terraforming and minerals won't help at this stage of the game. Field Modulation is the second obvious pick - more power early is good (although there will still be resource constraints). Solar Panels are only useful if we've already run out of room on the ground to build things, and Assist Research is pointless because we want the science ships out there exploring. Only Physics is the nonobvious pick. Coilguns aren't necessary at this stage in the game. That leaves the choice between the spaceport and the engineering - both could be useful to have early. I'll vote for the Improved Spaceport because in my games I almost never use Engineering facilities.
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May 22, 2017 09:09
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Orbital Energy Conversion, more energy is never a bad idea. Planetary Unification. Nanomechanics. Danny Glands posted:Will there be audience participation?
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May 22, 2017 09:13
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Despite the great plague bringing us together large parts of our planet is still outside of UN jurisdiction. We need an edict of Planetary Unification to ensure prosperity and strength for all of us here on Earth! We need methods of Orbital Energy Conversion to harness the energy of the sun and ensure we can properly drive whatever it is we want to build on the surface. How are we to accomplish this? Nanomechanics, son! As for ordering our ships, after the UNS Gagarin finishes the survey of the Sol system it needs to set out in a for a lack of better words circular pattern: Alpha Centauri -> Procyon -> Barnard's Star -> Sirius -> Zac'Zon. In the meantime one of our Anacondas will explore the inner systems of the Galaxy, with hope of finding good stars to bring under UN governing after the Gagarin finds valuable resources in them. The UNS Doolittle needs to be appreciated for the irony that it will in fact do a lot. It should start with having a focus on building stations for Mineral Mining and Research, building Energy Mining Stations only when our net-gain would become negative without them. The South Western Slums (tile 0,2) will need to be given a proper energy production station, so that the refugees within can be given proper jobs under UN jurisdiction and ensure loyalty and productivity. So say I, Governor Louis Baybranch! EDIT: Samovar posted:In that case, I propose we change the name of our first scout ship to the Laika. Galaga Galaxian posted:We should build a second science vessel ASAP so we can get more surveying and such done. Speaking of Surveying, Survey whichever system has the larger inhabitable planet first I also agree with these proposals! Luhood fucked around with this message at 10:17 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 10:42
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Dancer posted:Hey, I dunno if this LP is meant for people familiar to the game or not, so feel free to ignore me, but you haven't explained that 4x4 grid on the very first screenshot. Hope I'm not stepping on Danny's toes, but I'll cover the basics here. That's the surface of Earth, showing the population and what they can do. Each tile can be worked by one pop which is represented by the people. They can be freely dragged into different tiles if it's decided that someone's of more use somewhere else. Moving populations between planets is time consuming and expensive and may not even be allowed depending on the current policies the UNE has in place. At one the highest level of personal freedom, pops may move themselves because they decide another planet is a nicer place to live. At the other extreme, the only way they move is under government order, regardless of whether they want to or not. The icons under each tile represent a bonus to a certain type of activity in that tile. The red diamond is the icon for minerals. That's the Making Things resource. Buildings, ships, stations, all have a cost in minerals as well as a construction time. It's generally a good idea to have both a large mineral input and when possible a large reserve. The yellow lightning bolt in a circle is Energy, that's the Paying For Things resource. Pretty much everything you build will have a maintenance cost in energy. You don't need quite such a large monthly income of energy so long as you aren't running a prolonged deficit, but some tasks, such as terraforming, do have a large energy cost attached so a decent reserve is again a good idea. The green apple is food. Pretty self-explanatory, your pops eat food and will grow quicker if you have a surplus. If you have a deficit, pops start dying. The size of your food reserve is set by government policy, from small (200), through medium (1000) to large (2000). Surplus food will be stockpiled in the reserve for use against disaster. Once the reserve is full, surplus food goes to boost pop growth. So yes, if you change policy to a larger reserve you'll lose the growth bonus until the new reserve level is filled. The blue atom, green globe and orange cog represent science bonuses to physics, social and engineering respectively. More science points makes faster tech, and sometimes gets used in special project, which I imagine we'll be getting to shortly. Finally, the vortex looking symbol is Unity, representing your cultural progress. Unity can be used to unlock bonuses and special abilities. Again, we'll certainly be seeing more of that later. The black and yellow bordered tiles are currently obstructed and unworkable. We'll need to spend minerals, energy and time to clear them before we can set a pop to work on the tile and build them a facility to boost the bonus. Once we start colonising other worlds you'll also see some black and red bordered blockers, which means we'll need to research some tech before we can pay to clear blockers of that type. Edit: All that and I forgot to include my voting. Our resource focus should be on stations initially. Working a planet can pay more in the long run, but as others have pointed out, we need pops to grow and blockers to be cleared, which makes for a high initial cost. Get some mining stations up and maybe we can afford to get Earth up to speed. That said, I suggest we invest our initial minerals in a second science ship. The faster we get exploring the faster we can figure out where we want to go in terms of expansion and construction. Gagarin should investigate Alpha Centauri next so they can check out that habitable planet, and if we do get a second science ship we can send them straight away to Sirius to get a look at the other potential colony. For our research priorities, I'd like to see Nanomachines for engineering, on the basis that a better engineering lab will let us tech up faster, and the earlier we get better labs the more we'll benefit over time from snowballed research speeds. In terms of social science, Planetary Unification is the best choice available. We don't need to expand the fleet, we're a long way from being able to pay terraforming costs, and that extra monthly influence will undoubtedly prove useful toward furthering our political goals. Finally, for physics research I'd suggest Field Modulation. While none of the physics choices are vital this early in the game, it can't hurt to be able to ramp up our energy production and get a surplus going. Wyld Karde fucked around with this message at 13:21 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 11:49
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Okay, 24 hours before the Assembly closes. If you haven't voted but would like to, please do so.
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May 23, 2017 01:22
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sparkmaster posted:Nanomechanics this.
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May 23, 2017 02:24
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Improved Spaceport - Corvette yards Naval Capacity Solar Panels
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May 24, 2017 05:10
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Update on Thursday after finals.
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May 24, 2017 08:35
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I'm gonna be so boldfaced that I assist Danny in the vote-counting, mostly because it is Wednesday morning and I currently have nothing better to do. Without further ado: ----- Proposal 1 - Resource Management Planetary Improvements: 1 Vote Mister Adequate; Mining Satellites: 15 Votes alcaras; sparkmaster; Improbable Lobster; Junpei; queserasera; ModernMajorGeneral; Weavered; Lustful Man Hugs; Shugojin; double nine; VolticSurge; Aethernet; Luhood; Wyld Karde; TheGreatEvilKing; Research Satellites: (Split into its own section due to a majority of "Let's just Mine" votes) 0 Votes N/A Fleet Investments: 1 Vote 100YrsofAttitude; Colonization Saving: 0 Votes N/A Proposal 2 - UNS Gagarin Management Alpha Centauri 4 Votes Mister Adequate; double nine; Luhood; Wyld Karde; Sirius 0 Votes N/A Barnard's Star 1 Vote 100YrsofAttitude; Procyon 0 Votes N/A Zac'zon 0 Votes N/A Proposal 3 - Engineering Research Coilguns 0 Votes N/A Nanomechanics 12 Votes sparkmaster; queserasera; ModernMajorGeneral; Weavered; Lustful Man Hugs; 100YrsofAttitude; Mister Adequate; double nine; Poil; Luhood; Wyld Karde; TheGreatEvilKing; Improved Spaceports 9 Votes alcaras; Improbable Lobster; fermun; Junpei; Shugojin; VolticSurge; Anias; bewilderment; Mandalay; Proposal 4 - Society Research Planetary Unification 20 Votes alcaras; sparkmaster; Improbable Lobster; fermun; Junpei; queserasera; ModernMajorGeneral; Weavered; Lustful Man Hugs; Pittsburgh Lambic; Shugojin; 100YrsofAttitude; Mister Adequate; double nine; VolticSurge; bewilderment; Poil; Luhood; Wyld Karde; TheGreatEvilKing; Doctrine: Space Combat 2 Votes Anias; Mandalay; Terrestrial Sculpting 0 Votes N/A Proposal 5 - Physics Research Orbital Energy Conversion 4 Votes Anias; Poil; Luhood; Mandalay; Databank Uplinks 0 Votes N/A Field Modulation 17 Votes alcaras; sparkmaster; Improbable Lobster; fermun; Junpei; queserasera; ModernMajorGeneral; Weavered; Lustful Man Hugs; Shugojin; 100YrsofAttitude; Mister Adequate; double nine; VolticSurge; bewilderment; Wyld Karde; TheGreatEvilKing; Other Proposals Mzbundifund posted:My only vote is that Tatyana gets to drive the science ship and we hire someone with a better perk to lead engineering. Mzbundifund; queserasera; alcaras posted:> Ideally should be running the fleet around split into 3 to scout for systems with habitable planets and survey there first alcaras; Improbable Lobster; fermun; Junpei; Shugojin; VolticSurge; Luhood; Galaga Galaxian posted:We should build a second science vessel ASAP so we can get more surveying and such done. Galaga Galaxian; Wyld Karde; Luhood Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Get Planetary Unification so you can gain more influence and switch ethics/civics to fanatic purifiers sooner. Pittsburgh Lambic; Samovar posted:In that case, I propose we change the name of our first scout ship to the Laika. Samovar; Luhood Anias posted:We have mass driver corvettes. Don't improve them, mass produce them (to 2.6x naval cap), run over whoever our first contact is and explain that they want to join the UN. Anias; ----- As always, if you find any inconsistencies, mistakes or disagreements just shout!
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May 24, 2017 10:20
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I started playing Stellaris a few days ago, my game is a constant starvation of minerals. Waiting to hit 360 minerals to build some mines...and finally! Back to zero minerals for +4 mineral production and the wait continues. Fleets, buildings, upgrades, can't afford any of it. It makes for a boring game. I wish there was some marketplace function that let you trade energy for minerals. I have something like 4000 energy stored and practically no use for it at all.
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May 24, 2017 12:53
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raifield posted:I started playing Stellaris a few days ago, my game is a constant starvation of minerals. Waiting to hit 360 minerals to build some mines...and finally! Back to zero minerals for +4 mineral production and the wait continues. Fleets, buildings, upgrades, can't afford any of it. There is though? Most AIs are happy to trade resources and you can always trade with merchant guild stations if you have found any.
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May 24, 2017 13:01
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