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Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,507
I'm using vanila. Either paradox would learn to make game, or well theirs games should be for free and moders would make a game from it.

>playing paradox games
>playing unmodded paradox games
>why you hate yourself

There's absolutely zero reason to play Stellaris without Glavius' AI, althrough I've heard DECAI is pretty good.

I can easily pretend AI is capable and don't abuse it. The problem is lack of features. All that massive simplification and streamlining. At the start your economy isn't in shambles and everything is prepared for fast expansion... Which makes early game feel the same.

You can't design crazy ships and then look how AI blew it up to pieces because of lack of ECCM or other funny small system your scientist didn't invent... Of course nothing prevents to use overpowered lasers instead of Macros Missile Massacre, as long as you didn't get admiral named H. Harrington.
 

thesheeep

Arcane
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There's absolutely zero reason to play Stellaris without Glavius' AI
There is. I don't use it because I like to role-play my civilizations and hate immersion breaking min-maxing.

And if you play like that the vanilla AI is perfectly capable of wiping you out.
Same here. I've never seen a reason to try and go for much min-maxing or highest challenge.
It's a great game for LARPing around in while having to manage your economy (which has gotten harder with 2.2, so that's nice). All of which can be quite fun and relaxing - I can always go for all kinds of exploits and challenges in EU4 if I feel like that (if you think it is easy, use MEIOU and try to form and survive as Ireland, then we can talk).
But that desire just never overcame me with Stellaris. Though I'd certainly take a more capable pop AI (those fuckers just switch jobs on a daily basis, wtf).
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
kRObLpL.png


I take it Megastructure Restoration is not actually needed to, like, restore megastructures.
 

Olinser

Savant
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
977
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Denial
I take it Megastructure Restoration is not actually needed to, like, restore megastructures.

Gateways are not actually considered Megastructures. Restoring/building Gateways are separate technologies not reliant on Megastructure tech or perk.

Also, when anybody restores or builds the first new Gateway in a galaxy, another random one in the galaxy is automatically reactivated as well. So if you're saying that yours just turned on, then its because another empire activated one for the first time and you just got lucky.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
No, I definitely activated mine. I must have researched the reactivation tech a few nights ago and forgotten it.

So that mystery is explained. The new mystery is why a system I conquered, on the edge of my empire with no trade route through it, has a trade value of 37 and is creating Piracy.
 

Space Satan

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
6,216
Location
Space Hell
DD megastructure rework
Hello everyone!

First of all, I’d like to follow up on last week’s dev diary by sharing some more things we’re trying out with Megastructures (and habitats!).

After all of that, we also have something new to talk about!

Let’s start from the beginning – which of course leads us to the Mega-Engineering technology itself.

As always, numbers may not be final and temporary things may be sighted.

Mega-Engineering
Mega-Engineering is still a rare technology, but will now be more likely to appear as you build more Habitats and Citadels. This means it is way more likely to appear if you are performing actions in the game that would lead you towards the route of building larger and more powerful structures.

Master Builders
The Master Builders ascension perk no longer unlocks mega-engineering or adds size to habitats, but instead increases the number of megastructures you can simultaneously build by +1. What about increased habitat size you ask? Well, keep on reading!

index.php


Habitats & Voidborne
Habitats are no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk but is rather a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology. Habitats now have a default of 80% habitability. We’re also experimenting with that some of the habitat’s districts will depend on which planet they are built over. In case you build one above a planet with mining deposits, this could happen:

index.php


index.php


Voidborne ascension perk now increases habitat size by +2 and increases Habitat habitability by 20%. This should mean it becomes more of a choice for specialization, rather than feeling it is a non-choice.

As a final note on habitats, it might be worthwhile to reiterate my thoughts that I eventually want to add different levels/sizes to habitats. It is however not something for the immediate future, but a little further down the road.

Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing.

index.php


Minor Artifacts
index.php

Some of you might recognize the icon for what was supposed to become arcane technology, that partially got into 2.2. It was something that I was personally working on, but that didn’t work out as I had imagined it, and that I didn’t get enough time to finish with other things taking priority.

In the next upcoming DLC, you will be able to come across Minor Artifacts. “Minor Artifacts” is a broad term that includes any smaller and nameless artifact left behind by ancient civilizations. They are never gained passively every month, but will rather have to be found.

What are they used for, I imagine you asking? Well, the basic functionality is that they can be consumed in so-called artifact actions. There are a bunch of different actions that can be performed by consuming Minor Artifacts, with varying effects for each.

Some of these actions will be locked behind a technology, which some may also recognize.

index.php


Arcane Deciphering allows you to consume Minor Artifacts for a random technology-related bonus.

index.php


------------

That’s it for this week! Happy Easter everyone! Next week we’ll be back again :)

P.S. Attaching an Easter present

 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,282
Location
Massachusettes
^ imagine the mouse movement

Well, look at the size of his mousepad... it's bigger than he is (probably)! That's crazy. Speaking of huge displays, are there any mods to make the UI have bigger fonts at 1920 X 1080 for a 43"+ TV screen? This game looks interesting but is quite unplayable to me because of the small fonts. My vision is not the best
 

Olinser

Savant
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
977
Location
Denial
No, I definitely activated mine. I must have researched the reactivation tech a few nights ago and forgotten it.

So that mystery is explained. The new mystery is why a system I conquered, on the edge of my empire with no trade route through it, has a trade value of 37 and is creating Piracy.

AI empire has a trade route running through it. If you have open borders they can go through your system. If you close borders to that AI it will go away.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
No, I definitely activated mine. I must have researched the reactivation tech a few nights ago and forgotten it.

So that mystery is explained. The new mystery is why a system I conquered, on the edge of my empire with no trade route through it, has a trade value of 37 and is creating Piracy.

AI empire has a trade route running through it. If you have open borders they can go through your system. If you close borders to that AI it will go away.

Interesting. So the trade value in a system is the total of all trade from all empires passing through that system?

Clicking on an enemy starbase, I do indeed see the alien trade route. Didn't know you could do that.

Guess that's what I get for cutting their empire in half. Trade from one half is going to the other, and I can't close the border due to the truce. I could let pirates eat his trade, but then they might start spawning fleets in my empire.

That could get really hairy with wormholes and gates, I suspect in many cases the shortest route back to an enemy capital could cut through my space....
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,507
^ imagine the mouse movement

Well, look at the size of his mousepad... it's bigger than he is (probably)! That's crazy. Speaking of huge displays, are there any mods to make the UI have bigger fonts at 1920 X 1080 for a 43"+ TV screen? This game looks interesting but is quite unplayable to me because of the small fonts. My vision is not the best
Sit closer to the screen. That helps. I use 1920x1080 and it's fine, and I use only 27'' monitor. Half meter distance from monitor.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
This trade thing is very confusing. I have a trade route running from the outer rim to the homeworld. It says it is 43 trade outgoing. I check all my routes. 100%, no piracy losses. Trade policy is increase wealth, so each trade point should turn into an energy. Under the energy summary at the very top left of the screen, it says energy produced from trade is a number. I disable the trade route from the outer rim system.

The number in the upper left for energy produced by trade goes down, but not by 43. It's more like 18.

I turn the route back on. Next month, the number in the upper left goes up - by 13.

I repeat this several months in a row. Each time, with 100% trade incoming and no piracy losses, the energy I get from trade is a lot less - like a third or a quarter, or even less - than the 43 value of the route I keep toggling on and off.

What could explain this?
 

Olinser

Savant
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
977
Location
Denial
This trade thing is very confusing. I have a trade route running from the outer rim to the homeworld. It says it is 43 trade outgoing. I check all my routes. 100%, no piracy losses. Trade policy is increase wealth, so each trade point should turn into an energy. Under the energy summary at the very top left of the screen, it says energy produced from trade is a number. I disable the trade route from the outer rim system.

The number in the upper left for energy produced by trade goes down, but not by 43. It's more like 18.

I turn the route back on. Next month, the number in the upper left goes up - by 13.

I repeat this several months in a row. Each time, with 100% trade incoming and no piracy losses, the energy I get from trade is a lot less - like a third or a quarter, or even less - than the 43 value of the route I keep toggling on and off.

What could explain this?

Check trade policy. There are multiple settings, and only 1 gives you straight energy, the others give you things like .25 consumer goods and energy.

So that number checks out. If it's a value of 43, and you went up by 13, that's .25, so your default trade policy is not pure energy.
 

thesheeep

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Same for me. It does work... somewhat, and you can muddle through, but the UI makes it damn near impossible to really tell what's going on.
That it doesn't show you exactly how much of what your current trade is earning you even in the trade route view is... not too practical.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
I am starting to wonder if I should scrap some of these conquered starbases.

Is this correct: If Starbase Alpha is in the same system as a planet, it collects the planet's trade and sends it on, where it can be attacked by pirates, but if there is no starbase there, the trade will be collected by Starbase Beta (with enough collection radius due to Trade Hubs) that is closer to the homeworld, thus allowing the exact same trade to get at least as far as Starbase Beta with no piracy risk?

If so it seems you should never have a starbase in the same system as a planet if you can avoid it, since it would be better to collect its trade from afar, from a starbase six jumps closer to the homeworld, and skip a bunch of piracy along the way.
 

thesheeep

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I am starting to wonder if I should scrap some of these conquered starbases.

Is this correct: If Starbase Alpha is in the same system as a planet, it collects the planet's trade and sends it on, where it can be attacked by pirates, but if there is no starbase there, the trade will be collected by Starbase Beta (with enough collection radius due to Trade Hubs) that is closer to the homeworld, thus allowing the exact same trade to get at least as far as Starbase Beta with no piracy risk?
Piracy risk depends on how much trade goes through a system. The higher the trade value, the higher the risk of piracy. A system without starbase has 2 defense by default (going by ST: New Horizons values, but I think they are usually vanilla), ships + starbases add more.
Anyway, piracy risk afaik depends only on the trade value going through a system. If the system is on a trade route. A system can have its trade value collected by a neighboring system's starbase, but not be on a trade route itself. In that case, I think the system is safe from piracy.

If so it seems you should never have a starbase in the same system as a planet if you can avoid it, since it would be better to collect its trade from afar, from a starbase six jumps closer to the homeworld, and skip a bunch of piracy along the way.
If you only care about trade, maybe.
I'd recommend always building a starbase in a system with colonized planets, as otherwise your planet will be pretty much undefended (and going for much police/soldiers is only useful in case of war, so pretty much wasted in peace time).
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,153
I am starting to wonder if I should scrap some of these conquered starbases.

Is this correct: If Starbase Alpha is in the same system as a planet, it collects the planet's trade and sends it on, where it can be attacked by pirates, but if there is no starbase there, the trade will be collected by Starbase Beta (with enough collection radius due to Trade Hubs) that is closer to the homeworld, thus allowing the exact same trade to get at least as far as Starbase Beta with no piracy risk?

If so it seems you should never have a starbase in the same system as a planet if you can avoid it, since it would be better to collect its trade from afar, from a starbase six jumps closer to the homeworld, and skip a bunch of piracy along the way.

If your homeworld has 6 trade modules then everything within six jumps gets collected with no possibility for piracy. Having a starbase in the outlying systems won't override this. You still want starbases in systems with planets so they can run Deep Space Black Sites. To defend from piracy build starbases with 6 hangar modules and space them out the same way you would collection starbases.

For the most part trade is a waste of time. Even if trade was collected 100% efficiently for free and with no downsides, it would still be better to run the other basic resource jobs rather than clerks because they are far more efficient. If you aren't actually trying to add trade with clerks then the resulting minuscule trade amount that comes from pure pops is easily police-able.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,153
Only barely. Pops generally consume between 1 and 2 amenities and they produce 2. Entertainers produce 10 amenities on top of 2 unity (2/3rds the unity of a dedicated culture worker job).
 

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