Stellaris - Paradox new sci-fi grand strategy game

[tindrli]

once you pass like 10 hours + you realise that apart from nice picture there is nothing that actually works and game should be reviewed 4/10 as it is now.

 

[Lone Wolf]

and game should be reviewed 4/10 as it is now.

Let's not be ridiculous.

 

[Jimmious]

and game should be reviewed 4/10 as it is now.

Let's not be ridiculous.

Indeed. The game is a 7-8 just due to bug-free release, slick interface, basic nice Paradox empire gameplay and solid (if basic)mechanics that will probably make it a good multiplayer experience.
Does it need improvements/expansions? You bet your ass it does. But as a first 4x step for Paradox it's pretty damn good

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

6 and that's generous.

 

[Whiran]

If you want to make the game even slower, go for it. Advanced start only sets how many fallen empires there are. The AI will still be shit. The way to go is to play this game online with real people.

Advanced AIs are empires that start with a tech buff and sometimes multiple planets.

Fallen Empires are spawned as a set number based on the size of the galaxy and they only spawn if they can find a sizeable empty space to do so in. Source: Paradox.

Personally, I enjoyed the game. I put in around 50 hours in and I'm happy with that. I played a multiplayer game and that was really interesting - then again that was when I knew nothing about the game and my human companion knew nothing about the game so it was all brand new.,

There are events in your empire that can happen based on technology and ethics. I had a few of those events happen in the game that I played out. One of the events happened because I colonized a low habitability planet - the colonizers there eventually morphed to like their environment. After that they started getting a little uppity about being the new generation of my primary race and being better than it. They even gene modified themselves to fix my negative traits and really were a better version of my starting race. Eventually tensions began to escalate there were strikes, riots, assassinations. It was rather entertaining to watch.

I am hoping that someone releases a few anomaly packs (that are balanced) since anomalies and events are the most interesting elements to the game for me.

If I was asked if the game was worth buying I'd say it is if you enjoy 4x games with the caveat that the game slows down in terms of interesting things to do after a few hours - you wind up doing a lot of repetitive but, then again, in most 4x games you end up with that problem. A few User Interface tweaks would help out so I'm hopeful that at some point that'll get patched in. And the workshop mods will probably help a fair bit as well once people figure out just what can be added to the game in terms of events and the like.

 

[Anthedon]

Looks like my first game will come to an end soon. There's a bug where the AI doesn't fight back against extra-galactic invasions. So The Unbidden are eating everyone.

In other news, Corvettes are OP: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/fleet-minmaxing-game-balance.930798/

 

[LizardWizard]

EU4 was not that barebone at launch

Wat

EU4 had 0 content and was terrible at launch, same as CK2. Stellaris is pretty much the same though I think I'll prefer it to Distant Worlds by 2018. DW is a pain in the ass for me as you either have to micro everything and make the game tedious or set it to auto in which case the game plays itself.

Gonna go back to Space Empires or mabe Star Ruler for a year or two.

EU the 4th vanilla was watching paint dry for 5 years and then feeding your vassal. Sometimes you even got to pop a mole random Pirate blockading you. Oh yes and the joys of manual exploration.

I have plenty of gripes with Stellaris, but it's a metric fuckton more fun than EU3/EU4 at launch and I can't really stop playing it. The 40k decorative mod is also already better than 98% of all EU4 mods.

Distant Worlds is weird and fun for a few hours until you realize the game is just a Gas Station simulator and nothing else matters.

 

[Mortmal]

Looks like my first game will come to an end soon. There's a bug where the AI doesn't fight back against extra-galactic invasions. So The Unbidden are eating everyone.

In other news, Corvettes are OP: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/fleet-minmaxing-game-balance.930798/

There's really not much to learn , only one strategy, in fact as someone else mentioned before you dont even need to upgrade the corvettes weapons.
The right thing to do with stellaris is to wait to get it on 5$ on humble bundle 2 years later , with many dlcs filling the gap. 6/10 and thats generous.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

EU4 was not that barebone at launch

Wat

EU4 had 0 content and was terrible at launch, same as CK2. Stellaris is pretty much the same though I think I'll prefer it to Distant Worlds by 2018. DW is a pain in the ass for me as you either have to micro everything and make the game tedious or set it to auto in which case the game plays itself.

Gonna go back to Space Empires or mabe Star Ruler for a year or two.

EU the 4th vanilla was watching paint dry for 5 years and then feeding your vassal. Sometimes you even got to pop a mole random Pirate blockading you. Oh yes and the joys of manual exploration.

I have plenty of gripes with Stellaris, but it's a metric fuckton more fun than EU3/EU4 at launch and I can't really stop playing it. The 40k decorative mod is also already better than 98% of all EU4 mods.

Distant Worlds is weird and fun for a few hours until you realize the game is just a Gas Station simulator and nothing else matters.

Conquest is the n1 thing for me and the current space and ground combat is just too simplistic, not to mention the AI is pr basic at the moment. Definitely need some expansions and patches to become enjoyable.

Fully agree with the rest though. As far as launch-day paradox releases go, this is the best so far. EU4 and CK2 were unplayable.

 

[Lone Wolf]

In other news, Corvettes are OP

That statement should be addended to include 'when equipped with Advanced Defense Computers and final tier engines'.

Should be fixed in the first substantive patch, I would think.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Who cares? Just build cruisers with 3small weapon slots or more.

The game is easy as it is, no need to cheese it.

 

[Mortmal]

Who cares? Just build cruisers with 3small weapon slots or more.

The game is easy as it is, no need to cheese it.

why build an expensive inneficient ship when you can d efficient ship corvettes with evasion. And thats talking about a game vs AI, would you use anything else than corvettes in a multiplayer game ?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Game is front loaded in terms of fun and interesting stuff to do, but gets old and boring very fast.

They should have done ck2 in space

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Who cares? Just build cruisers with 3small weapon slots or more.

The game is easy as it is, no need to cheese it.

why build an expensive inneficient ship when you can d efficient ship corvettes with evasion. And thats talking about a game vs AI, would you use anything else than corvettes in a multiplayer game ?

Who plays paradox multi when you can only run the game at 3 speed, lol.

And you build it because it looks cool. It's a single player game, why powergame and go for the meta when you can have fun? Not to mention you can easily mod a lot of things, like planet limit, starting techs, ai aggressiveness and difficulty modifiers, etc. Corvette evasion bonus can also be nullified by finding the correct file.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Who cares? Just build cruisers with 3small weapon slots or more.

The game is easy as it is, no need to cheese it.

I was just saying, generally.

Games, for me, are escapism. I don't get a sense of accomplishment from 'winning' at this stuff. As such, cheese tactics and I don't really cross paths, in most situations.

 

[Mortmal]

Who cares? Just build cruisers with 3small weapon slots or more.

The game is easy as it is, no need to cheese it.

why build an expensive inneficient ship when you can d efficient ship corvettes with evasion. And thats talking about a game vs AI, would you use anything else than corvettes in a multiplayer game ?

Who plays paradox multi when you can only run the game at 3 speed, lol.

And you build it because it looks cool. It's a single player game, why powergame and go for the meta when you can have fun? Not to mention you can easily mod a lot of things, like planet limit, starting techs, ai aggressiveness and difficulty modifiers, etc. Corvette evasion bonus can also be nullified by finding the correct file.

you can nullify them by building arc weapons battleships, but it takes ressources to upgrade starport and those ships while you do that when you can be on your merry way vassalizing everything in range with corvettes isntead.

 

[Average Manatee]

So far one of the common problem is that people ignore defenses completely. 1 or 2 defense platforms here and there but they are godlike for preparation, they lock invadinf fleets long enough fof you to intercept them etc.

It doesn't help that basic essential game mechanics like defense structures can be locked behind a research system that makes it random whether you have the option to get something.

 

[rvm1975]

Tech tree https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/4j1y0i/large_361_mb_stellaris_technology_tree/

 

[Quatlo]

Tech tree https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/4j1y0i/large_361_mb_stellaris_technology_tree/

Wow, and people said DW had linear tech trees...

 

[MoLAoS]

If you want to make the game even slower, go for it. Advanced start only sets how many fallen empires there are. The AI will still be shit. The way to go is to play this game online with real people.

This is not correct. Advanced starts have nothing to do with fallen empires. They make some aliens start with 3 or 4 planets and some other shit. I know this because I'm playing an 8 species game with no advanced starts and 3 fallen empires. Also I've seen it in game.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I will actually second MoLAoS to a degree. The AI does tend to wait FOREVER before actually declaring war and this can lul new players into a false sense of security. Especially since the AI makes alliances over time.

In one of my early games, I was focused almost exclusively on expanding my empire. I didn't think I needed much of a fleet. It was out of boredom that I finally attacked my neighbor. I was able to game one of my larger neighbors out of the bulk of their civilization in with - what I thought was a massive 7k fleet that I had built just of that purpose.

Unfortunately, after the war ended - stupid war score - they joined an alliance of something like 4 or 5 other empires who were none too pleased about my actions. And to make matters worse, some of them had really good missile tech that I had not researched an equally good defense for, so I had something like a 5k fleet take out my 7k fleet with ease.

I was so caught with my pants down that I reloaded. I built well over 12k worth of ships, I fortified my border with troops and a 4k defense station. Then I built two 4k defense stations in my home system where I knew they would ultimately strike there before making their way into the rest of my empire. I thought I was so well prepared.

And I was well prepared. For the first wave. The second wave came in probably over 40k worth of ships. It easily destroyed my defense platforms and took over my planet in seconds with a massive fleet of troop ships.

TL;DR: The AI waits and forms alliances. Build a ton of ships and defense stations or be prepared to die horribly in the mid to late game. That or at least form a lot of alliances and don't make your neighbors too mad.

edit: And built power plants. Build as many as you can. That was part of my problem. I had something like 200+ minerals a month, but not enough energy credits to build a sizable fleet. I was well over-budget on the few ships that I had.

Also, if you are going to invade, invade in the early game before anyone forms alliances.

 

[Beowulf]

Minerals are a trap. You need to focus on them at the beginning, but then you need to switch almost exclusively to credits and research.
Hell, with some sectors geared towrads mineral production you can even drop mines almost entirely, except for the best + minerals tiles.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yep. That's why the fallen empires are so powerful. They have planets full of power hubs, cranking out the energy credits. They make a juicy late-game target, but you need something like 70-90k worth of ships to effectively overwhelm their defenses.

 

[MoLAoS]

I usually end up going energy on the homeworld and then a second 25 tile energy planet just because energy is such a pain. I ALWAYS have way more minerals than I can feasibly use.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I usually end up going energy on the homeworld and then a second 25 tile energy planet just because energy is such a pain. I ALWAYS have way more minerals than I can feasibly use.

Yeah, the tutorial might ought to mention that building your mineral income past, say +100, is virtually useless. Energy credits are the real life blood of an empire. All those mineral mining stations are fine in the early game, but just drain credits in the mid game. Your entire goal after the early game should probably be to acquire credits and research while spending the credits on a massive fleet - especially since saving them is also useless thanks to the low storage cap.