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

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Wolfechu posted:

Started my first game played for an hour, realised I'd forgot to pick species traits. Welp, time for a restart.

Once you get genetic engineering you can add them in then!

I'm about an hour in, my home planet has rebelled and half my leaders have drug problems. 5/5 would forget to build food again.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 21:20

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 07:53

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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The Locator posted:

Hello Stellaris thread. I'm interested in this game, and it's on sale on Steam, but I'm sort of confused by the 'versions' that are available and on sale. There are several versions:

Stellaris - $15.99
Stellaris Nova Edition - $19.99
Stellaris Galaxy Edition - $27.99
Stellaris Digital Anniversary Edition (bundle) - $31.46 (Includes Stellaris, Plantoids, Leviathans, Utopia).

The OP says that Utopia is a must-have DLC and Leviathans is really good, so I'm leaning towards that last one, but the problem is that Steam doesn't actually say what the difference is between the first three options. What's in Nova & Galaxy that's not in the basic $15.99 edition. Does anyone know?

In addition I suppose I need to get the new Apocalypse DLC for $20 making this a $50 game, which isn't a showstopper, but it's not super cheap!

So just looking for advice on which of those first four options I guess, since I don't really know what's in option 2 & 3! Hopefully someone here does.

Thanks!

Nova Edition gets you a neat spider portrait and you can listen to the game's music outside the game.
Galaxy gets you that and a book and some wallpapers.
Other than the spider portrait there's no in-game difference, and you can upgrade to spider edition later.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 21:41

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

I really don't understand why outposts should impact unity or research. I can see starbases, sure, but the interstellar equivalent of a flag shouldn't have a negative impact on research or how unified everyone feels. Especially since the outpost is actually increasing coherence when it's between two other systems.

Plus my borders.

More outposts = more resources + greater map control = better empire = more outposts. Runaway positive feedback loops like this tend to negatively impact anything that's not primarily a skirmish based rts/tbs. In Stellaris the implemented negative feedback is that the things that get you more stuff (Planets and systems mean resources) negatively impact the things that make your stuff good (Unity and research buffs).

And yeah I know you meant in-game. That's because having more systems make your existing systems feel less special and they get antsy.

It would be neat if the unity cost was affected by connectedness though, so one little outpost in the middle of nowhere increases unity costs more than a completely surrounded one. Like, each system counts as 1 + (% of border that touches another empire or the cold blackness of space). So filling in an empty spot on your empire is effectively "free" because your +1 from the new surrounded system is cancelled out by the reduced exposure on the adjacent ones.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 18:01

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Eiba posted:

I saved them.

I didn't get there in time and another empire killed them all and now my empire has a negative modifier to them because they're FILTHY MURDERERS

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 11:59

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Grand Fromage posted:

Yeah, I never cluster. Four fallen empires all together in the south, all of us normies in the northeastern half, the western third is entirely empty.

Be neat if set ups like this triggered a Niven Slaver's style spite weapon event chain.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 15:20

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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DatonKallandor posted:

Props to the art team for the disengages too, all those little ships BSGing out during the fight looks awesome.

I've always felt the actual death animations could be a bit more explodey.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 15:26

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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GreyjoyBastard posted:

a foreign empire managed to accidentally rescue them for me

and got a placeholder_name diplo boost to my opinion of them for it

too bad I'm Fanatical Purifiers, and also I'm not an ai

Kill them last. Or first. Which ever seems most merciful.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 16:08

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Hunt11 posted:

So how do you get the game to acknowledge that ships in your fleet count towards the ships in your fleet template?

Upgrade your ships to actually match the ships in the template.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 16:42

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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BlackJosh posted:

So, why the heck was the decision made to not make the tutorial/VI advisor for hive minds and machine collectives? Just getting back into this game after like a year, getting the DLCs, was very excited to play as one of the synthetic races after reading up on them... but I'm just clunking around because everything is new and I've got no idea what to do anymore. Things are a lot different since the last time I played, but it seems like the only way to get a handle on it is to play as a race I don't really want to right now just to figure it out, and even then it'll be a race that doesn't work like the gestalt intelligence ones do? Maybe I'm dumb and I'm missing something but I don't get the decision to remove the tutorials completely from a whole group of newer mechanic races, especially when a new DLC gets released that'll be bringing some people back that haven't played in awhile. Is the best way to get back into this game if you want to play as machines just to gut through it?

Be neat if the hive mind tutorial was just you mumbling to yourself constantly and/or grumbling about the interface.
"Hmm I should build some mining stations. I pick this builder unit and... *pauses until user clicks it* then I send it to... here? Ugh, things were easier when I was just a planet."

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 20:47

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Roadie posted:

I wish they'd revisit how Gestalt Consciousness/Hive Mind/Machine Intelligence works. I want the option of playing friendly xenophile hive minds that invite other species to live with them for companionship's sake (think like Rogue Servitor but less patronizing) as well as non-collective-consciousness robots who get into robo-slapfights about what to do with the rest of the universe.

Could keep them as they are by default but add an "adaptive/accommodating" civic that turns emigration pacts etc. back on.

Demiurge4 posted:

Game could really use derelict habitats on top of the mega structures.

Yes please. I'd love it if they ranged from "all busted up, need to fix it" to "full of the degenerate pre-sentient descendents of the tomb world it's orbiting"

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 10:25

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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VirtualStranger posted:

One thing about Hive Minds and Machine Empires is that separating their species traits and their civics doesn't really make a lot of sense. Collective consciousnesses don't really have a "government" or "society", the specific way in which they function and organize themselves is determined entirely by their biology (for hives) or their design (for robots)

For them, their species traits and their civics should really be the exact same thing.

Species is their species, civics is their overall personality. It's the difference between me deciding to spend more time socialising and changing my individual cells to run on chlorine instead of oxygen.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 10:30

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Yes dathaks that is a nice gas giant. I especially like the view of my goddamned homeworld.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 17:26

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Gyshall posted:

I hate how my field scientists roll worthless science specializations that don't help for surveying or whatever.

I felt the same, but became enlightened when I realised that the only survey trait worth a slot after late game is the increased anomaly find chance, otherwise surveying's main purpose is to speed-level your stable of +15% research speed tech tree gamers.

Also the anomaly find chance boosters need to go away until rerolls exist.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 17:37

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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DatonKallandor posted:

Marauders could do with some sort of bidding mechanic, because there's no indicator for players when they are "done" raiding and be bought again, so the AI just insta-rebuys them, every time.

My territory is the only route between two bunches of marauders and a third guy who is apparently really pissing someone off.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 18:25

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Back Hack posted:

That's dumb, especially dumb consider my fleet is made up mostly smaller ships specifically meant to counter fleets made up of larger ships. It shouldn't be my defeat because I lost 10 corvettes to his 2 battleships and 4 cruisers, it should be his defeat because I made him quit the field, otherwise all I have to do is cheese the system by equipping long range weapon on everything retreat from every battle once I kill something.

E: What is really bad, is that I'm only take minimum losses, yet it always counts as a major defeat.

It's fleet count not individual ships. 8 corvettes lost is the same as one battleship lost.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 10:09

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Anticheese posted:

Four-armed spiral with 0.75 lane connectivity seems to be the map mode of choice for generating choke points and constellations. I tend to run with higher primitives and maxed FEs.

1.0 on normal size 4 spiral seems to work good for me. I generally end up with a couple of solid chokepoints (or starless walls) in three directions and one deceptively open looking flank that actually has two or three stars that snip everything else off.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 13:40

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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VirtualStranger posted:

What exactly is the difference between "Armour/Shield Damage" and "Armour/Shield Penetration"?

The first increases damage to armour/shields. The second allows the listed percentage of its damage to ignore armour/shields and deal directly to the next layer down.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 18:17

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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How did I not notice we got a bunch of new name lists???

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 21:16

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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appropriatemetaphor posted:

I've got all these cool chokepoints and no one will attack me

Playing pacifist so can't attack.

How 2 pacifist, or, how I fixed my energy generation problem.
1) spawn right next to a fanatic purifier.
2) make friends with the militarist science buddy on the other side of them.
3) invest in the Supremacy tree.
3) gently caress up the FP. Seriously mess them up. Wreck those jerks right and proper.
4) white peace out with all your new energy and debris research.
5) leave a tiny farm full of angry bird men to continue clowning on every 10 years or so.
6) oh wait my pacifist pops are angry. All three of them. I'll deal with that later.
7) wait didn't I see something about a pulsar countdown somewhere OH poo poo

Splicer fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Feb 27, 2018

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 09:19

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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OwlFancier posted:

I was meaning 90% evasion as the max final evasion chance, I think if you really go all out on stacking evasion and build your entire civ around it to that point, you're allowed to get a pretty crazy modifier.

90% before means they're going to cap out fairly early with the new afterburners and computers and you're never going to get very good dodge rates on a lot of weapons. I'd rather just get lategame weapons with better tracking than cap out how good they can do against quite a lot of weapons early on.

Think of it as freeing up your late game auxiliary slots!

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 13:25

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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I'm not getting where the taking planets takes ages thing is coming from. Bomb the planet for a bit to take out the non-fortress armies, dump width + buffer armies on it, wait, move on.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 13:53

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Does war exhaustion persist at all after wars, or does Plantwar III not connect to Bugwar V in the public consciousness?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 14:22

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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It looks like pirates are weighted based on how surrounded a territory is. An single system donut hole will frequently spawn pirates, as will a buffer system between two empires.

It'd be good if the game tracked where pirates were spawning and you got some new dialogue if they spawned in the same space too many times.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 14:56

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Both maybe? Have them get bigger but more infrequent as time goes on.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 15:06

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Does your opponent hitting 100% war exhaustion impact your war score at all?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 15:41

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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GotLag posted:

Oh yeah it also removes all the restrictions on simultaneous construction, as well as allowing multiple per empire (except for sentry arrays, you only get one of those).

My main problem with megastructures is how much time and effort you have to sink to even be able to build them. You have to have researched top-level starbases and reactors and then wait for a rare tech to drop (or blow an ascension perk on master builders to just make the tech appear), and ringworlds cost two perks (voidborne and ring of life) in addition to megastructures. I don't have time to look up the numbers but what's the earliest you can get ringworlds, your fifth ascension perk?

Yeah, it's like, I get they're for galactic dick waving, but by the time you've finished getting them up there's no-one left to wave your dick at. I think they'd be fine if they kept their current cost and build time, but you actually started building them way earlier and they tended to finish building at around the time you can currently start building them.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 00:14

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

How do you flick them on/off? Just moving Pops?

Click on them and click "disable" I presume.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 00:17

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Hiring Marauders is the opposite day version of the espionage options I've been wanting.

*They're effectively an AI only mechanic.

*All they do is blow up your poo poo.

*There's no build up to them blowing up your poo poo, they just say "we're coming to blow up your poo poo" and then blow up your poo poo.

*There's no counter to them blowing up your poo poo other than blowing up their poo poo harder.

Somewhere on Wiz's desk is a monkey's paw perfectly oriented to give me, personally, the finger.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 12:43

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Aethernet posted:

I would be amazed if Thursday's dev diary didn't include some proposals for reworking the bidding system to humans have a chance to actually bid.

I'd be (temporarily) satisfied if it just triggered the same "We're coming to blow up your poo poo, pay us not to" that spontaneous raiding does.

Heck, let me pay an annual protection racket fee so they can't pick me as a target and they'll not blow up my stuff on the way past to other people and I'll upgrade to "happy".

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 12:53

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Randarkman posted:

Doesn't repugnant affect other specie's happiness if they are on the same planet? Opposite of charismatic really. Or at least that's kind of what I think "other species owner happiness" means.

I don't think I'm going to hit them with solitary, though it would make them more of a problem. Really the aim here is to make an empire that exports its population to other empires, and in those empires they are just these troublesome fuckers who want slaves, deviate from governing ethics and creep everyone the gently caress out. It doesn't matter that much if their own empire is a shithole as well, though I might make them authoritarian and see if they still end up as a Migratory Flock that way.

Well, drat. But yeah, having these guys in your empire making everyone else more xenophobic is also fun.

Nah, keep decadent kind of an rear end in a top hat trait. It's funnier if they're not actually bad people, just a bunch of birds pissing everyone off with the never ending cacophony of political poo poo throwing that their society considers polite conversation.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 13:01

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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The Bramble posted:

Minerals are the key bottleneck in the early game and you should prioritize getting more of them when you decide to expand. The 75 influence per starbase cost will naturally slow down your expansion, so strategically pick systems with great mineral resources.

Try to have 6 Corvettes or so by end of the 10th year when the pirates come.

Slaves and caste systems are thematic and fun, but require a good amount of micromanagement and don't really give much better results than an empire where everyone is equal and have high happiness. If you're learning the game, be an egalitarian.

My first moves when starting a new game are: pause - pick research (generally grabbing the advanced labs if available. Planetary Unification is a first pick from Society if available) - build a monument in an empty tile - build a mineral mine with your constructor - send science ship in direction you most want to expand based on geography - unpause.

Expansion and Discovery are both solid traditions to pick up early.

As soon as I have 200 energy, I build another science ship and hire a scientist and send him exploring in a different direction than the first one.

Those are my general starting tips, if you have more specific questions people are happy to help.

You forgot "Turn on Map the Stars"

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 17:41

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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SkySteak posted:

So are the complaints in a Apocalypse actually worthwhile or are people just whining, given that the rating is currently lingering at 65%? Is it just the new changes or is there actually some severe issues with the game currently?

I have a few very specific complaints in a sea of holy poo poo this is a good game made better by a great patch.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 18:33

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Did the pirate frequency get turned down post hotfix or did I suddenly git gud at borders? I started a new game and I've only had one pirate spawn in ~50 years.

Also, didn't spawn beside a marauder this time. Not being constantly hammered by pirates and raids is like playing a completely different game. I have minerals! I can build and upgrade starbases! I can build defence platforms even!

# ¿ Mar 1, 2018 01:05

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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bitterandtwisted posted:

I went with the evolutionary master ascension perk and it gave me 3 trait points, but no new spaces for traits and I can't remove existing ones. Can I do anything with these points?

Check your Society research, you should have a Genetic Resequencing technology option. Researching it will give you the ability to remove "good" traits.

Gort posted:

I always found it weird that you can't remove "beneficial" traits, especially when "beneficial" includes stuff like "Servile - you're a mindless brute who just listens to what your master tells you".

Not being able to upgrade traits is the big kicker. Makes Enduring a trap pick, and Adaptable and Strong just that little bit annoying.

Splicer fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Mar 1, 2018

# ¿ Mar 1, 2018 10:47

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Dongattack posted:

Hm, with the new ascension perk in the beta that gives 2 levels to leaders my machine leaders can reach level 10 with a government reform and some machine template fuckery. That's 10% more research, 15% more firerate and 10% more resource production across the board. I'm gonna try that, it sounds pretty powerful.

As someone who loves me some leader traits I was super happy to see this. It's a perk just for me!

Has anyone been getting your debris not spawning sometimes? It used to happen, but it seems to be happening a lot more now. I killed some amoebas for nothing

# ¿ Mar 1, 2018 20:34

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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appropriatemetaphor posted:

Liking the change to the standardizing tech. Skipped all of them before because who cares about build speed? I never have enough minerals that that becomes a factor. But hey, cheaper ships? I'll take it.

Yeah saw that in my current playthrough and immediately grabbed it when I saw the extra line.

Does anyone else think it's a little harsh that deploying an outpost non-adjacent to your empire costs as much influence as doing it one by one would? Half I'd be fine with, but since I'm going to backfill eventually anyway explicitly double paying seems a little over the top.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 02:19

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Roadie posted:

Stellaris 4.2.0: Infidel Weed, Uncouth Swishing

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 09:32

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Please Wiz, PLEASE let me not murder space amoeba.

There's a big expanse of space amoebas where I need to be, but if I go near them murder happens. I need laser pheromones or something so they become my friends.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 10:46

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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Is there any way to grab a copy of a cloud ironman save? This happened:

Note: I don't have jump drives.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 19:01

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 07:53

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
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ulmont posted:

I'm not sure I see the problem.

Ussaldon and Monboth don't have a lane connecting them. Also if I let it run the jump from Ussaldon's end point rapidly shifts between Monboth and Siluj.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 19:58

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

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