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

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

^ DONG TEAMWORK

Dongattack posted:

I feel like i read in a dev diary or something that we got the ability to increase the "size" of planets in this expansion, did i dream that up? I'm sitting here looking at some not ideal prospects of 12-16 size planets and if i can increase their size later i should probably colonize some of them.

It's possible but it increases more size the smaller the planet is, so your size 16 will benefit less than the size 12

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 20:54

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 09:06

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

This patch is so insanely good. The pirate rework and marauders and war and disengaging and and and :gizz:

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 08:22

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I had a starbase and a small fleet stop a much more threatening fleet and all I lost was a few defense platforms and a couple ships. Definitely did the job!

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 08:32

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Note to self: 1.75x wormholes and gateways in a medium galaxy is way too many

# ¿ Feb 23, 2018 20:32

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Splicer posted:

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

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=692492543

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 20:19

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

In my current game*, I had 3 planets for maybe 60 years before I started getting more planets. In the old patch, I would have 10-20 by now (2x hab)

* which is my 2nd of this patch because I restarted once G's planet modifier mod was updated, also I got wrecked due to bad habits.

Beefeater1980 posted:

This patch has fixed the mid-game pacing problems as far as I’m concerned. For me, games now go through a few good phases:

EARLY GAME
* explore explore
* get your first 3 or so colonies
* land grab for high value systems
* (optionally) early game war
* build up booming economy

MID GAME
* gently caress around with whichever neighbour you don’t like
* fill in pirate systems
* figure out where to locate fleet bases for rapid response and defence bases (this is fun)
* figure out how to design your fleets
* deal with that one rogue faction that hates everything your empire stands for
* plan for the end game
* pick core ascendancy route
* get the last precursor artefact from archaeology (somehow I NEVER get this during the initial phase)

LATE GAME
* big projects (gene splicing, going robot, stellar engineering)
* leviathans
* optimising output
* crises

There’s always something to be doing, and it’s always something new. Really fun now.

This post is exactly right

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 04:22

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Just a workaround but if you pause fast enough after your scientist dies, the new one will continue carrying out previous missions without having to reclick everything.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 20:32

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Beta patch chat: I wish there was a Marauder Aggression Level slider. I know some people didn't like it when Marauders wrecked your empire on the way to their actual target, but I thought that was cool. They seem a lot less deadly to me this way. So far the patch is great, minus unity feeling a bit too fast.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2018 04:40

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Zoomed in on my Colossus with the raging fire of an orange star in the background, watching it protect the known universe from stone age xenophobic geckos while Luck from Halo 3's soundtrack plays in the background

e: I don't know how to get rid of the tags

3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Mar 6, 2018

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 02:52

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

ConfusedUs posted:

CTRL + F9 disables the UI but I'm not sure if it hides all the little tags or not.

That worked perfectly. Thanks!

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 04:25

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Did I accidentally commit genocide by shielding a hive mind planet? :iiam:

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 09:54

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I always zoom into battles and go super slow mo if it is sufficiently large enough. I have a few pretty mods that enhance the experience though. Also weed, I guess.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2018 19:45

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

+4 star bases seems most useful in higher density non-spiral galaxies, but, in that case, wouldn't +6 or +8 make waaaay more sense?

# ¿ Mar 7, 2018 23:53

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

We need more ethics based perks. Where's the Xeno love???

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 00:28

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Horizon Signal trip report:
I traded my best Scientist and a science ship for some research points .

Sorry, sometimes you don't hit jackpot, buddy.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 00:59

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Pylons posted:

They're bugged right now, yeah, they fly off the map in big battles, but also they're just *bad*. Or at least extremely underwhelming compared to any other sections they compete with. I honestly think they need to rework the way combat is entirely to make them worth using, but that's probably unlikely. As it is right now, battles take place over such a small distance that there's not much point to using them over more torpedo corvettes. The only real value they have is in forcing your opponent to have some flak to counter them, and IMO, that's just not worth it.

It's really stupid my dang Galactica-class ships will make it to gun range before the first wave of strikecraft.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 01:36

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Tried to Galactica hot drop on top of a Sterilization Hub to destroy it since that particular zone was big enough where most of hte fleets were several lanes away. Managed to destroy the 300k defenders with heavy losses and begin bombardment. New fleet spawns and wipes me out. :eng99:

Jazerus posted:

there should be a little more going on than that but it is hard to see at times without zooming in really far.

1. the swarm is the center of the messy brawl. anything set to swarm goes here unless there aren't enough opposing swarm ships to stop them from advancing.

2. the picket is hard to distinguish sometimes but they are set back slightly from the swarm. they weave back and forth horizontally in a covering pattern, and if they're equipped with PD they attempt to intercept missiles or strike craft aimed at the line and artillery. if your swarm falters, the picket will start getting swarmed.

3. the line is generally pretty easy to see. these ships hang back well behind the picket and snipe into the swarm, or at the opposing picket and line.

4. the artillery is just the line but even further back.

to get these behaviors working completely as intended, it's important that your weapon range matches the role range. ships will close to the range of their shortest-range weapon basically always.

so, the swarm can mount anything, though the actual stat bonuses indicate that this is a role intended for small-only kinetic + energy corvettes, and also this is the type of ship you want to have in there anyway so that your swarm can actually hold back the enemy swarm through sheer numbers while trying to hollow out the enemy swarm directly. the picket can also mount anything and is kind of the jack-of-all-trades position, personally this is where i put missile corvettes, and also strike craft + PD cruisers when i bother to use those. the line is intended for the usual range of medium weapons; this means that, for example, if you use a destroyer with 2 medium weapons and a small weapon, your small weapon selection is actually restricted to the long-range smalls (standard lasers & guns usually) if you want it to act as part of the line, which is a good place for destroyers. the artillery has the same range-matching issue for cruisers, but with large & medium weapons instead, while artillery battleships can mount all large weapons and thus hang way back.

it's pretty complicated and the formations do fall apart during battle as one side or the other gains the advantage in the swarm. also, if you jump in right on top of the other fleet or they jump in right on top of you, all of this goes out the window and it's just a huge swarm from the start

This is really good and should be in the OP. Explains combat roles and weapon slot relationships perfectly.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 07:14

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I've never actually beaten the Contingency before. If you haven't yet (or not in Apocalypse), spoilers ahead:

First, tailored ending depending on how you did the job. I shielded the other four and received two messages about shielding and the other two instances gave me a dialogue about destroying the machine world. That led me to believe I wouldn't see anything so this was a cool surprise.

Second, I didn't know this happened..I'll miss them, friendly guys.

Guess who was one of my neighbors!

Yup! That's three ruined ring worlds to add to my current collection of four of my own plus the Cybrex Alpha one I restored.

This game is way into 2500. Next time I will drop the crisis slider a little earlier so I don't have to spend as much time watching streams while waiting for time to pass. All in all, I thought this was the best end game experience to date even if the Multiple Crisis mod failed to trigger any additional ones, although technically there is still time. The combat changes make fighting these guys not only possible if you're not well equipped (if you join a Federation), but it is also fun if you're in a position to go solo. I just happened to be massive so was able to handle them myself, thanks to a fortuitous wormhole that led to unclaimed space that hooked me up with free planets early in the game. Even with five 200 ship fleets, I still had to fall back and regroup a bunch of times. I ended up having to doom stack to attack each Hub but could get away with stalling actions with a lone fleet versus a Contingency fleet, especially when the crisis first triggered because I was in the middle of two wars:
1) A border war with the idiot militarist FE whose planets I ended up shielding over maybe 100 years (ALL OF THEM) because they kept declaring war as soon as the truce was up.
2) a war with against a Federation member whom I was ~~liberating~~ spreading freedom to because the jerks didn't like my vassal..actually, that one is my fault. The vassal used to be half of that empire. :downs:

Anyway, the game is so much better now. Just gotta fiddle with the timings a bit to fill in that end game gap.

Side note, if you're worried about late game lag, do NOT build the Sensor Array unless you are zoomed out all the time. It was super helpful for sure but drat did it get a lot slower than normal whenever I had to zoom in even a little bit.

Gay Horney posted:

How strong is the Great Khan? I have 40k or so fleet power and getting into my systems involves going through two Citadels. Can I stand up to him? Never made it this far into a game.

Great Khan fleets will basically attack into anything so just hang out by the stations until he shows up. 40k should be plenty.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 10:05

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Bholder posted:

How did you beat up the contingency fleets?

I was able to muster up enough fleet power to beat up their random patrolling fleets, but there's no way I can go after their defences around their home planets.

I guess the main difference is that you had a full federation and the federation fleet alone can double your fleet size, meanwhile the only help I get is a wayward FE that leaves once it destroys a couple of fleets then moves to the other end of the galaxy.

I was thinking about cheesing it with corvette spam but I'm not sure if it would be effective.

I wasn't actually in that Federation, but it's mere existence helped slow the Contingency. However, the Federation didn't form right away so the beginning of the crisis was brutal. I lost two vassals.

I was also lucky that none of the Hubs spawned in my borders. I had to suffer the destruction of my fleets multiple times trying to figure out a strategy. The first destroyed Hub was done by assaults right through all their fleets before they dispersed but before the Federation formed. It was easier to destroy a Hub when the Contingency got large enough so the fleets supporting expansion were too far to hyperlane back in time. I then used the jump drive to bypass the frontline and attack the Hub. The first time I did this and got totally wrecked when a new robbit fleet happened to spawn but my second attempt on another Hub worked perfectly. A blocking force would be helpful here if there's a single choke like one of the Hubs had.

Basically if you have the space and time, wait until the Contingency is too large to respond to threats to the Hub, then hit it directly. The defense fleet does not regenerate nor respawn nor do the the offensive fleets have jump drives. You can keep throwing ships at the system to wear it down if you can't mass up 400k.

May Space-God save your soul if the Hubs are in your borders though...

e: On the last system that spawns: The space forts are a lot weaker than they appear. No need to do anything fancy there. The fleets are waaaay more threatening.

3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Mar 8, 2018

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 17:33

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Auto survey should get a mid game upgrade to look for more anomalies. Call the tech "To Infinity and Beyond!"

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 18:36

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Aethernet posted:

The Great Khan arose on my border. I had no hope of stopping him as it was reasonably early on, so I signed up as a Satrapy to avoid losing too much of my space. While I fought my new energy deficit, the AI Custodian Matrix sent all its fleets after the Great Khan, pretty much wrecking his day.

I'm not sure it's supposed to do that.

FE AI will occasionally do a "do not engage in offensive wars for 20 years" thing and wreck your poo poo if you violate protocol. Maybe the Khan triggered that?

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 21:45

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Heh, the first planet new I colonized after I beat the Contigency won me the game. :toot:

e: I hit "Continue" to fight a war and got subspace echoes instead

3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Mar 9, 2018

# ¿ Mar 9, 2018 02:52

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

LordMune posted:

A fix for the error log spam is making its way down the pipe, by the by. It should work retroactively, so saves with the issue will be safe to use.

Five by five!!!!!! Stop triggering me

# ¿ Mar 9, 2018 16:12

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Cannot wait to start a new game using the scaling difficulty

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 19:39

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Hit and Run Doctrine with tons of destroyers and corvettes is the best loving thing when you score some Living Metal

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 19:04

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I like having the afterburners if I can, but yeah regenerative hulls rule too

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 19:20

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

best 12 pop world ever

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 04:30

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I used 3x habitable planets and that seems excessive with this new update. o.o

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 03:16

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

I hate the new sector system

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 03:29

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

Magil Zeal posted:

Yeah I have to say I'm not too fond of having one sector that has like 4-5 planets and then four that are 1-3 planets.

Imagine the clusterfuck with 3x habitability on huge. I think I'm going to start a new game with less planets until Wiz comes to his senses and lets us rearrange them like we used to be able to.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 05:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 09:06

3 DONG HORSE: May 22, 2008; I'd like to thank Satan for everything he's done for this organization

This is the only game I play where I can legally spread freedom so I actually like having a slave market..it gives me targets.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2019 20:24

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