Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[Ravielsk]

the engine would grind to a halt because it's been coded by drunken monkeys.

Nah, its just too old. The Clausewitz engine is based on a code base that was meant to run on Windows 3.1 or even older and as such it cannot efficiently handle a game like Stellaris. Especially after the change in pop numbers in 2.2 it just cannot cope because its fundamentally a single core engine.
Just from my personal experience the way it handles multithreading is that one core is running at 90% while the other cores occasionally go to 1-2% load and even that only happens in these weird spikes were its mostly at 30% load only to then jump back to 90% and so on and so forth. It simply cannot handle this sort of a load but overhauling it for a single game is not a option and admitting they fucked up with 2.2... well its paradox so to that is even less of an option.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

yeah, i know it's not properly "the engine" at fault but the game specific code which checks every day for thousands of useless stuff which in the end bog down calculations for no difference or effect whatsoever, but "blame the engine" is much shorter.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

It doesn't help that xeno-compatiblity and gene modding is stupid.
The AI is obsessed with making hundreds of subspecies.

 

[Ravielsk]

yeah, i know it's not properly "the engine" at fault but the game specific code which checks every day for thousands of useless stuff which in the end bog down calculations for no difference or effect whatsoever, but "blame the engine" is much shorter.

Well, to be fair its both. PDX insists on processing pops as individual actors and as such it processes every stat, job, modifier and I dont know what else individually. In a game where the expected median is around 3000 pops for endgame per empire that would stress any engine but the clausewitz engine is especially crippled in this manner as it cannot realistically run on more than one core.

I have no idea why they have not remade the system to operate on a per planet basis several patches ago but I suspect that its either because they have no idea how to do that or are working under the assumption that some time in the future individual pops will again be relevant in some way. Either way its still PDX being incompetent.

 

[Ravielsk]

It doesn't help that xeno-compatiblity and gene modding is stupid.
The AI is obsessed with making hundreds of subspecies.

This is actually the core problem when it comes to performance. PDX does not want to address any of the actually problematic parts of the game. The AI having absolutely 0 restrain when it comes to gene modding and hybrids would bring down any engine on any CPU but for some reason creating a simple 3 per AI empire cap is just not an option because of reasons. Same with habitats, the AI will spam them like crazy the second it gets the technology and never fill them up. It will straight up build 3 or more in one system and never colonize them. Again a simple cap or a custom set of instructions to prevent this sort of behavior would go a long way to fix the problem. Instead PDX choose to rework the growth mechanic to A. punish you for having a lot of pops on one planet and B. to make pop growth progressively slower across the board. Problem is that the retards did not change anything else about the game so it still requires you to have thousands of pops for endgame but now instead being able to have them on like 20 planets you need to spread them out over 200 planets because that is the only way to avoid new penalties.

At this point I am confident that a random porn modder from loverslab would do a better job fixing the game than Paradox.

 

[Fedora Master]

What the fuck determines the initial names of the systems around you? It sure as shit isn't the name list you pick for your race.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

What the fuck determines the initial names of the systems around you? It sure as shit isn't the name list you pick for your race.

Unless you're playing the Sol or Deneb systems they're random. Just rename them if you want.

 

[Agesilaus]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

A good time with a lot of jank and some really, really odd design choices.
Its fun, but doesn't really have that much depth.

How do you get more than 10k research by late game?
I'm having trouble generating the pops needed to fill those slots. I have like 3-4 worlds dedicated to it, each world having a research bonus.

 

[Average Manatee]

How do you get more than 10k research by late game?
I'm having trouble generating the pops needed to fill those slots. I have like 3-4 worlds dedicated to it, each world having a research bonus.

- Synth Ascension (by far the strongest at production since robots get +30% everything baseline)
- Streamline everything else (minimize excess resources other than research/alloys/some minerals for buildings).
- Megastructures (dyson sphere/matter decompressor) let you take most of your pops off energy/minerals respectively. Ringworld lets you generate massive amounts of researcher jobs that you can throw huge amounts of pops on and not worry about habitability if they aren't synths. Also have your research vessels set to assist research on these.
- Eventually you'll be deep in repeatables that give theoretically infinite amounts of +xx% to basic resource production so you can scale pretty much forever off a very small amount of generator/mining worlds.
- Conquer more pops. There are two strategies: stack -cost for claims (rival, diplomatic stance, tech and other modifiers), then take only the populous worlds (e.g. just the homeworld early game). Then when they are weak enough by war 2/3 you can demand vassalization which when refused gives you a CB to vassalize the whole empire in a war. Otherwise the end game conquest strategy is to get a colossus which gives a CB to conquer everything. Best with Synth ascension of course so you can just assimilate them.
- Science Nexus and research assistance from the neutral empire things can help.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Honestly? A decent game, but with a lot of missed opportunities. It's still probably the best space RTS out there, even if they have dumbed down a lot of elements over the years.

When you get tired of it, look up some mods like the Star Wars mod, or the mod that turns your leaders into anime girls.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

I should try that. Late game it gets a little tedious having to manage 100+ useless worlds.

 

[Storyfag]

Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

In fact, shorten them by at least 50 years.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

I should try that. Late game it gets a little tedious having to manage 100+ useless worlds.

The other way to deal with that is sectors and vassalization.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

I should try that. Late game it gets a little tedious having to manage 100+ useless worlds.

The other way to deal with that is sectors and vassalization.

Can't always vassal and sector AI management is dumb. I found the best way to do it is keep all production and research on a few important worlds and use the rest as pop generators / rare resource exploitation. Which is kind of backwards and lame, imo.

 

[Storyfag]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

I should try that. Late game it gets a little tedious having to manage 100+ useless worlds.

The other way to deal with that is sectors and vassalization.

Can't always vassal and sector AI management is dumb. I found the best way to do it is keep all production and research on a few important worlds and use the rest as pop generators / rare resource exploitation. Which is kind of backwards and lame, imo.

Isnt it how colonies usually work irl?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Just bought Stellaris on sale and the major expansion packs. What am I in for?

Some advice: leave most of the default settings on, except maybe the type/size of galaxy. Definitely don't extend the lengths of each game phase.

And I always reduce habitable worlds to the lowest setting. Keeps the game from slowing down later and gets rid of a lot of micromanagement. I prefer my worlds to matter.

I should try that. Late game it gets a little tedious having to manage 100+ useless worlds.

The other way to deal with that is sectors and vassalization.

Can't always vassal and sector AI management is dumb. I found the best way to do it is keep all production and research on a few important worlds and use the rest as pop generators / rare resource exploitation. Which is kind of backwards and lame, imo.

Isnt it how colonies usually work irl?

Colonies usually grow over time to become states in their own right. They don't become breeding grounds for the main land.
People tend to migrate to colonies and create jobs, not the other way around.

 

[Space Satan]

Welcome back! We hope you’ve all had a wonderful few weeks.

Today we’ll start with some more information about the goals of the Unity Rework mentioned in Dev Diary 215 (and briefly in 234), some updates on how things have been going so far, and our plans going forward.

Please note: All values and screen captures shown here are still very much in development and subject to change.

Identified Problems and Design Goals

Currently in Stellaris, Unity is an extremely weak resource that can generally be ignored, and due to the current implementation of Admin Capacity, the Empire Sprawl mechanic is largely toothless - leading to wide tech rushing being an oppressively powerful strategy. Since Unity is currently very easily generated through incidental means and provides minimal benefits, Empires have little need to develop a Unity generation base, and Spiritualist ethics are unattractive.

Influence is currently used for many internal and external interactions, making it a valuable resource, but it sometimes feels too limiting.

Our basic design goals for the Unity Rework can be summarized as:

• Unity should be a meaningful resource that represents the willingness of your empire to band together for the betterment of society and their resilience towards negative change.
  • Unity should be more valuable than it is now, and empires focused on Unity generation should be interesting to play.
    • Spiritualist empires should have a satisfying niche to exploit and be able to feel that they are good at something.
    • The number of sources of incidental Unity from non-dedicated jobs should be reduced.
    • Empires that do not focus on Unity (but do not completely ignore it) should still be able to acquire their Ascension Perks by the late game.
  • Reward immersive decisions with Unity grants whenever possible.
  • Internal empire matters should generally utilize Unity.
    • Provide more ways to spend Unity.
    • Rebalance the way edicts work (again).
• Reduce the oppressive impact of tech rushing by reintroducing some rubber-banding mechanics.
• Make tall play more viable, preferring to balance tall vs. wide play in favor of distinctiveness, and emphasizing differences between hives, machines, megacorps, and normal empires. (This does not necessarily mean that tall Unity focused empires will be the equal of wide Research focused ones, but they should have some things that they are good at and be more competitive in general than they are now.)
• In the late game, Unity focused empires should have a benefit to look forward to similar to the repeatable technologies a Research focused empire would have.

In this iteration we have focused on some of these bullets more than others, but will continue to refine the systems over future Custodian releases.

So What Are We Doing?

All means of increasing Administrative Capacity have been removed. While there are ways to reduce the Empire Sprawl generated by various sources, and this will be used to help differentiate gameplay between different empire types, empires will no longer be able to completely mitigate sprawl penalties. Penalties and sprawl generation values have been significantly modified.

• The Capital designation, for instance, now also reduces Empire Sprawl generated by Pops on the planet.

Bureaucrats, Priests, Managers, Synapse Drones, and Coordinators will be the primary sources of Unity for various empire types. Culture Workers have been removed.

Autochthon Memorials (and similar buildings) now increase planetary Unity production and themselves produce Unity based on the number of Ascension Perks the Empire has taken. Being monuments, they no longer require workers.

These monuments are now planet-unique, and can be built by Spiritualist empires.

The Edicts Cap system has been removed. Toggled Edicts will have monthly Unity Upkeep which is modified by Empire Sprawl. Each empire has an Edicts Fund which subsidizes Edict Upkeep, reducing the amount you have to pay each month to maintain them. Things that previously increased Edict Capacity now generally increase the Edicts Fund, but some civics, techs, and ascension perks have received other thematic modifications.

As an example, some Bureaucratic technologies now modify the Edicts Fund.

The Imperial Cult will squander any excess Edicts Fund on icons of the God Emperor at the end of the month. No refunds!

Several systems that used to cost Influence are now paid in Unity.

• Planetary Decisions that were formerly paid in Influence. Prices have been adjusted.
• Resettlement of pops. Abandoning colonies still costs Influence.
• Manipulation of internal Factions. Factions themselves will now produce Unity instead of Influence.

Since Factions are no longer producing Influence, a small amount of Influence is now generated by your fleet, based on Power Projection - a comparison of your fleet size and Empire Sprawl.

Leaders now cost Unity to hire rather than Energy. They also have a small amount of Unity Upkeep. We understand that this increases the relative costs of choosing to hire several scientists at the start of the game for exploration purposes, or when “cycling” leader traits, as you are now choosing between Traditions and Leaders..

And then some empires go and break all the rules.

Most Megastructures now cost Unity rather than Influence, with the exception of any related to travel (such as Gateways) or that provide living space (such as Habitats and Ring Worlds).

Authority bonuses have (unsurprisingly) undergone some changes again, as several of them related to systems that no longer exist or operate differently now.

When Will This Happen?

Since these are pretty big changes that touch many game systems in so many ways, we’ve decided to put these changes up in a limited duration Open Beta on Steam for playtest and feedback. This will give us a chance to adjust values and modify some game interactions before the changes get pushed to live later on in the 3.3.x patch cycle, and we will continue improving on them in future Custodian releases.

We’ll provide more details on the specifics of how the Open Beta will be run in next week's dev diary.

What Else is Planned?

As noted earlier, we’d like Unity to also reflect the resilience of your empire to negative effects. A high Unity empire may be more resistant to negative effects deficits or possibly even have their pops rise up to help repel invaders, but these ideas are still in early development and will not be part of this Open Beta or release. They’ll likely be tied to the evolving Situations that we mentioned in Dev Diary 234 - we’ll talk about those more in the future once their designs are finalized.

Next week I’ll go into details regarding the Open Beta, go over a new system that is meant to provide “tall” and Unity focused empires some significant mid to late game benefits called Planetary Ascension Tiers, and share details on another little something from one of our Content Designers.

 

[Ravielsk]

Spoiler

Welcome back! We hope you’ve all had a wonderful few weeks.

Today we’ll start with some more information about the goals of the Unity Rework mentioned in Dev Diary 215 (and briefly in 234), some updates on how things have been going so far, and our plans going forward.

Please note: All values and screen captures shown here are still very much in development and subject to change.

Identified Problems and Design Goals

Currently in Stellaris, Unity is an extremely weak resource that can generally be ignored, and due to the current implementation of Admin Capacity, the Empire Sprawl mechanic is largely toothless - leading to wide tech rushing being an oppressively powerful strategy. Since Unity is currently very easily generated through incidental means and provides minimal benefits, Empires have little need to develop a Unity generation base, and Spiritualist ethics are unattractive.

Influence is currently used for many internal and external interactions, making it a valuable resource, but it sometimes feels too limiting.

Our basic design goals for the Unity Rework can be summarized as:

• Unity should be a meaningful resource that represents the willingness of your empire to band together for the betterment of society and their resilience towards negative change.
  • Unity should be more valuable than it is now, and empires focused on Unity generation should be interesting to play.
    • Spiritualist empires should have a satisfying niche to exploit and be able to feel that they are good at something.
    • The number of sources of incidental Unity from non-dedicated jobs should be reduced.
    • Empires that do not focus on Unity (but do not completely ignore it) should still be able to acquire their Ascension Perks by the late game.
  • Reward immersive decisions with Unity grants whenever possible.
  • Internal empire matters should generally utilize Unity.
    • Provide more ways to spend Unity.
    • Rebalance the way edicts work (again).
• Reduce the oppressive impact of tech rushing by reintroducing some rubber-banding mechanics.
• Make tall play more viable, preferring to balance tall vs. wide play in favor of distinctiveness, and emphasizing differences between hives, machines, megacorps, and normal empires. (This does not necessarily mean that tall Unity focused empires will be the equal of wide Research focused ones, but they should have some things that they are good at and be more competitive in general than they are now.)
• In the late game, Unity focused empires should have a benefit to look forward to similar to the repeatable technologies a Research focused empire would have.

In this iteration we have focused on some of these bullets more than others, but will continue to refine the systems over future Custodian releases.

So What Are We Doing?

All means of increasing Administrative Capacity have been removed. While there are ways to reduce the Empire Sprawl generated by various sources, and this will be used to help differentiate gameplay between different empire types, empires will no longer be able to completely mitigate sprawl penalties. Penalties and sprawl generation values have been significantly modified.

• The Capital designation, for instance, now also reduces Empire Sprawl generated by Pops on the planet.

Bureaucrats, Priests, Managers, Synapse Drones, and Coordinators will be the primary sources of Unity for various empire types. Culture Workers have been removed.

Autochthon Memorials (and similar buildings) now increase planetary Unity production and themselves produce Unity based on the number of Ascension Perks the Empire has taken. Being monuments, they no longer require workers.

These monuments are now planet-unique, and can be built by Spiritualist empires.

The Edicts Cap system has been removed. Toggled Edicts will have monthly Unity Upkeep which is modified by Empire Sprawl. Each empire has an Edicts Fund which subsidizes Edict Upkeep, reducing the amount you have to pay each month to maintain them. Things that previously increased Edict Capacity now generally increase the Edicts Fund, but some civics, techs, and ascension perks have received other thematic modifications.

As an example, some Bureaucratic technologies now modify the Edicts Fund.

The Imperial Cult will squander any excess Edicts Fund on icons of the God Emperor at the end of the month. No refunds!

Several systems that used to cost Influence are now paid in Unity.

• Planetary Decisions that were formerly paid in Influence. Prices have been adjusted.
• Resettlement of pops. Abandoning colonies still costs Influence.
• Manipulation of internal Factions. Factions themselves will now produce Unity instead of Influence.

Since Factions are no longer producing Influence, a small amount of Influence is now generated by your fleet, based on Power Projection - a comparison of your fleet size and Empire Sprawl.

Leaders now cost Unity to hire rather than Energy. They also have a small amount of Unity Upkeep. We understand that this increases the relative costs of choosing to hire several scientists at the start of the game for exploration purposes, or when “cycling” leader traits, as you are now choosing between Traditions and Leaders..

And then some empires go and break all the rules.

Most Megastructures now cost Unity rather than Influence, with the exception of any related to travel (such as Gateways) or that provide living space (such as Habitats and Ring Worlds).

Authority bonuses have (unsurprisingly) undergone some changes again, as several of them related to systems that no longer exist or operate differently now.

When Will This Happen?

Since these are pretty big changes that touch many game systems in so many ways, we’ve decided to put these changes up in a limited duration Open Beta on Steam for playtest and feedback. This will give us a chance to adjust values and modify some game interactions before the changes get pushed to live later on in the 3.3.x patch cycle, and we will continue improving on them in future Custodian releases.

We’ll provide more details on the specifics of how the Open Beta will be run in next week's dev diary.

What Else is Planned?

As noted earlier, we’d like Unity to also reflect the resilience of your empire to negative effects. A high Unity empire may be more resistant to negative effects deficits or possibly even have their pops rise up to help repel invaders, but these ideas are still in early development and will not be part of this Open Beta or release. They’ll likely be tied to the evolving Situations that we mentioned in Dev Diary 234 - we’ll talk about those more in the future once their designs are finalized.

Next week I’ll go into details regarding the Open Beta, go over a new system that is meant to provide “tall” and Unity focused empires some significant mid to late game benefits called Planetary Ascension Tiers, and share details on another little something from one of our Content Designers.

You know this is cool and all but again just serves to demonstrate how the team has no idea what they are doing. The problem with tech rushing exists because of the RNG nature of research. When I have to rely on RNGesus for a chance to research the tech I need then the only way to play is to stack scientists and rush tech because I cannot simply focus on the tech I need.
Same with fucking empire sprawl and influence. Making a big empire is not a optional playstyle it is a necessity forced upon you because there is no way to do literary anything in a system that is not under your control and since the influence cost for taking territory that is even 2 jump away from your border is so expensive that its basically a net loss even attempting it. I may not want to have 50 star systems in my empire but if I want to mine anything, excavate or just have a functional trade route I need to take that territory and take the increased sprawl. Just the sheer amount of alloys you need for endgame requires at least several hundred pops for just alloy production. Never mind the possibility that you play with on a lower setting for habitable worlds. So removing the ability to get rid of the sprawl penalties is just peak fucking retardation. That is like fixing a leaking swimming pool by pumping is several kilograms of jello, sure its not going to be leaking anymore but so are you not taking a swim in all that solidified jello.

 

[Storyfag]

Making a big empire is not a optional playstyle it is a necessity forced upon you

And also the only way to LARP those ravenous hives and driven assimilators. And proper Star Empires.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

stop reworking and start make it work =_=

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

You know this is cool and all but again just serves to demonstrate how the team has no idea what they are doing. The problem with tech rushing exists because of the RNG nature of research. When I have to rely on RNGesus for a chance to research the tech I need then the only way to play is to stack scientists and rush tech because I cannot simply focus on the tech I need.

You can ensure you get certain techs by researching wrecked hulls iirc, but that requires war with someone who has them. I see why they went this route: to keep people from simply picking the best build every time. Plus it lowers the chance someone is going to get ahead of everyone else in research just by turtling.

That said, I know how annoying it is to deal with, especially when these games are so typically long. It'd be nice if there were more weapon research trees to spice things up.

Same with fucking empire sprawl and influence. Making a big empire is not a optional playstyle it is a necessity forced upon you because there is no way to do literary anything in a system that is not under your control and since the influence cost for taking territory that is even 2 jump away from your border is so expensive that its basically a net loss even attempting it. I may not want to have 50 star systems in my empire but if I want to mine anything, excavate or just have a functional trade route I need to take that territory and take the increased sprawl. Just the sheer amount of alloys you need for endgame requires at least several hundred pops for just alloy production. Never mind the possibility that you play with on a lower setting for habitable worlds. So removing the ability to get rid of the sprawl penalties is just peak fucking retardation. That is like fixing a leaking swimming pool by pumping is several kilograms of jello, sure its not going to be leaking anymore but so are you not taking a swim in all that solidified jello.

Both are designed to limit your expansion. Influence stops you (and the AI) from explore-memeing through half the systems and growing too big too fast. Sprawl gives smaller empires the chance to catch up to the big ones - though it really isn't that big a deal, provided you up your administration level.

All these systems are frustrating at points, but I at least see why they're there and that they can be positive factors at times.

 

[Ravielsk]

I see why they went this route: to keep people from simply picking the best build every time.

Which only highlights what horrid designers they really are. You do not prevent people from taking the best build every time by making the bet build a matter of RNG, you do it by creating multiple equally viable builds. The PDX solution only means that one ahead is just the luckiest one of the bunch and nothing else.

It'd be nice if there were more weapon research trees to spice things up.

No, under the current system that would be literary the worst thing possible. Already following a specif tree is enough of a hassle, nevermind trying to get a specific tech. Bloating the tech list further would just make things worse.

Both are designed to limit your expansion. Influence stops you (and the AI) from explore-memeing through half the systems and growing too big too fast. Sprawl gives smaller empires the chance to catch up to the big ones - though it really isn't that big a deal, provided you up your administration level.

Considering that the average game of stellaris can go well over 30 hours a speed up would be very much welcome. In fact it would help the AI to actually function because in the current state of things it cannot effectively do anything because the influence and sprawl mechanics make growth a matter of long term planning. A system taken in 2447 must have been chosen for that in 2444 simply because of the limitations of influence and sprawl despite the value of an individual system being almost 0. The AI cannot effectively manage in this sort of environment and as a result always end up internally collapsing because it cannot plan that far ahead.

Also a catch up mechanic that punishes good play is not a catch up mechanic. Its just a punishment with a delay and a peak example of horrid game design.

All these systems are frustrating at points, but I at least see why they're there and that they can be positive factors at times.

No they are bad 100% of the time and had they been removed early on the game would have been better for it. Limitations and hindrances should come as a natural consequence of pro-active mechanics not as a separate meters that functionally are only there to halt the game at arbitrary points.