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Paradox Grand Strategy |OT| Conquering the World one DLC at a time
- Thread starter Uzzy
- Start date
I did my first WC with Ottomans. Mostly did it to see if I can do it. Wasn't that hard, but theres a lot of micromanagement involved and it's quiet tiresome so I'm looking forward to relaxing fun games again :D
Bet y'all wished your mothers were this hardcore.
Time to convert to Zoroastrianism.
The UI starts to look actually intuitive now. What is that magic Paradox!Bet y'all wished your mothers were this hardcore.
I've just gotten around to catching up on the last two Stellaris Dev Clash episodes, and holy crap these are amazing theater. The recap at the beginning of last week's episode was unlike anything I've seen in games before.
Christmas cometh early this year!
This will be the time for me to dive into Stellaris!
Ooh. Might buy from there if Steam or Humble don't have the same prices later.
Make sure to check out the complete-a-collection bundles when the Steam sale goes live. You can usually save an extra 5-10% or so.
That was announced ages ago, still no release date though.
Unlike Golden Century.
Identifying Immersion Packs: Accurate Results with Simple Tools.
Got Asturias. Now I just need to see if there is an achivement with it. 10/10 would buy
Ironman, achievement enabled run. Playing as King of Hungary, formed the empire of Carpathia, dubbed Blessed Carpathia. I went to check on the pope and he was a bear. All DLC enabled including Holy Fury. Really loving this expansion. UI scaling is great too. Game feels fresh.
It was 3-1 the dislike to like ratio earlier, not surprised people aren't happy. It looks like paradox barely did any research into Iberia and they've taken virtually no community feedback on numerous issues.
I expect a lot of disapproval's on steam on release.
#################################################################
######################### VERSION 2.2.0 ###########################
#################################################################
###################
# DESIGNERS' NOTE #
###################
Greetings!
Stellaris has (once again) undergone bold changes! In 2.2 the focus of the changes has been to rework how you develop planets and to deepen the game's economy. The purpose is to make the management of planets more fun and engaging.
Tiles are gone, and have been replaced with Districts, Buildings, and Jobs. You will now instead construct City Districts, Farming Districts, Mining Districts, and Generator Districts, as well as various Buildings with more specialized roles. Districts and buildings provide Jobs, and a job worked by a Pop will produce resources.
As a planet gains more Pops it will unlock more Building Slots. Buildings work similar to how they did before, but now most of them provide Jobs instead of producing resources directly.
2.2 also introduces a new Trade Route system. What you essentially want to do is to collect Trade Value (found in space and produced on planets) by upgrading a nearby starbase. You should then set up a Trade Route leading back to your home system. Trade Value is converted into usable resources when it reaches your Trade Capital.
We recommend you to take a look at the updated tutorial!
###################
# Megacorp Expansion Features
###################
# Megacorps
* Added the Megacorporation empire type, which features unique civics as well as the ability to become an economic powerhouse by spreading branch offices on the planets of other empires
# Ecumenopolis
* Added new ascension perk: Arcology Project, enabling the Decision to convert a planet to an City-World completely covered in urban sprawl
# Xeno-Compatibility
* Added new ascension perk: Xeno-Compatibility, which allows cross-breeding between species
# Universal Transactions
* Added new ascension perk: Universal Transactions, which makes it easier for Megacorporation empires to establish branch offices and commercial pacts
# Caravaneers
* Added the Caravaneers, nomadic space traders who will give unique offers in exchange for a variety of resources, and also offer games of chance in their home system
# New Civics
* Added new civic: Byzantine Bureaucracy, that reduces housing/amenities usage and allows for the construction of Bureaucratic Complex building that adds administrator jobs
* Added new civic: Merchant Guilds, that add a merchant job to capitol buildings, and merchants provide unity
* Added Shared Burden civic for all your luxury space communism needs, with a new prescripted empire using it, the Kilik Cooperative
# New Megastructures
* Added new Megastructures: the Matter Decompressor, Mega-Art Installation, Interstellar Assembly, and Strategic Coordination Center, including ruined versions you can discover
# Slave Market
* Added a galactic Slave Market so you can buy or sell slave Pops and robots (once the Galactic Market is established)
# New Voices and Music
* Added 3 new advisor voice sets as well as 16 minutes of new music (added to the soundtrack DLC as well)
# New Canon Empires
* Added new pre-scripted Empires using Megacorp mechanics, and changed the existing Chinorr to a Megacorp
# Achievements
* Added 10 new achievements
###################
# New Utopia Expansion Features
###################
# Hive Worlds
* Added new ascension perk: Hive Worlds, similar to Machine Worlds but for Hive Minds, which allows them to terraform planets into living planets on which only hive drones can live. Hive Worlds gain a bonus to resource output and are not limited by deposits in how many resource districts they can support
######################
# 2.2 'Le Guin' Free Features
######################
* Added Simplified Chinese localization
* Removed planet/habitat tile system, replaced with districts, jobs
* Pops and Pop Jobs now belong to a social class (Pop Category) that determines their luxury needs. Social classes are ranked, and Pops that belong to a higher social class will refuse to take jobs belonging to a lower class until they demote over time
* Added unemployment for pops without suitable jobs, which lowers planetary stability if their living standards are low
* Added planetary housing, usage of which depends on pop's social strata (rulers and specialists = a lot, slaves and menial labourers = a little)
* More dynamic pop growth system: populations can grow and decline based on their rights, living standards, immigration/emigration
* Added crime. Crime is generated by overcrowding and poor living conditions, and negatively affects planet stability. It can also generate events
* Added new and reworked planetary decisions and empire edicts
* Added new resource types (alloys, consumer goods, etc) which tie in to the economic simulation in many ways, diversifying the domestic activity of empires considerably
* Added the Internal Market, where resources can be converted into other resources at a cost
* Added the Galactic Market, in which all game resources can be bought and sold in open exchange between empires, with prices fluctuating based on supply and demand. This is formed when enough Empires are in contact with each other, replacing the Internal Market. Genocidal empires do not get access to the Galactic Market
* Added trade routes, where you can collect trade value from upgraded starbases and send it back to your trade capital to convert to wealth for your empire. Reworked piracy system to link in to this, and added a patrol order so your fleets can actively suppress piracy
* Added commercial pact diplomatic agreement, where the signatories gain trade value equal to 10% of the other party
* Added Administrative Cap based on owned systems, districts, and colonies. It is a soft cap that, when exceeded, applies scaling penalties to leader cost, edict cost, research speed, etc. This replaces the old system of static penalties based only on systems owned, and more accurately reflects the size and complexity of your empire. Administrative Cap can be increased with techs and ascension perks
* Introduced a new concept called Empire Cohesion. Empire Cohesion is increased by each owned system, and decreased by each external hyperlane connection and cut-off (non-owned) system inside your borders. If cohesion loss goes above cohesion gain, you will suffer penalties in the form of increased empire size and the corresponding costs it brings
* Added 9 new basic Mandates relating to your empire's internal economy
* Tweaked army display and ground combat screens, with improved army icons
* Reworked planetary bombardment to produce devastation, which damages housing, amenities, trade value, and pop growth. High devastation will ruin buildings and kill pops
* Reworked sectors to be automatically generated, removing the "mini-economies" and having them directly contribute to your empire stockpiles
* Reworked factions to always give an amount of influence based on their faction approval, rather than having a hard cutoff below which they would contribute nothing
* Reworked the Tradition Trees to synchronize with all the new systems
* Added Shared Burden civic for all your luxury space communism needs, with a new prescripted empire using it, the Kilik Cooperative
* Replaced authoritarian Caste System with Stratified Economy living standards: does not use slavery but has a similar effect (happy rulers, downtrodden masses). Authoritarians can still use species-wide slavery. Slaver guilds civic is now required to enslave own species
* Added alert messages for completing a Megastructure's intermediate upgrade steps
* Added a conclusion to the Strong Magnetic Field events
* Unity Ambitions are now a free feature, and no longer restricted to owners of Apocalypse
* Added new single star custom system options
* Created and implemented new SFX for Natural Wormholes which have been silent until now. No more.
* Since the Chinorr have become a Megacorporation, replaced them in non-Megacorp games with a new prescripted empire, the Glebsig Foundation
* Added technology Resort Worlds that unlocks the ability to designate a colony as a Resort World. This colony will be unable to have districts and most buildings built on it, but will increase amenities and immigration pull across the empire.
* Added tech for Penal Colony worlds which have high crime rates but decrease crime on other planets
* Added a tech for slaver empires to designate a world as a Thrall-World. Thrall-Worlds cannot support city districts or manufacturing/research buildings, but get vastly increased growth rate and access to special buildings and jobs for slaves
* Updated tutorial to explain the new systems
* Added the multiplayer observer mode from the 2.1.4 beta to the default game version
* Deploy Hunter-Killer Drones decision can now be toggled on and off
* Added a game setup setting for how many habitable worlds are guaranteed to spawn near your starting system
* Research Agreements are now diplomatic actions, rather than being part of trade deals
* End game victory conditions reworked into a score system, tallying up your total empire accomplishment based on size, population, military, tech, federations, and many other measures
* Added some new Colony events.
* Civilian ships are now constructed at starbase rather than planets
* Added pop selection view to colony ship construction in starbases
* Colony ships can now be built populated with any species which you have a migration treaty with
* Colony ships built via the expansion planner will be automatically constructed at the starbase nearest the target planet
* Planets have a decision to stop pop growth, although this comes with a penalty to stability for regular empires.
* Blockers now generally reduce the usable districts on a planet, while clearing them often unlocks additional district types.
* Clearing Blockers can now also give one time bonuses, i.e. clearing a slum grants a pop.
* The homeworld of the First League is now an Ecumenopolis
* Notifications dealing with the player's own empire are now marked with a golden yellow rim to distinguish them from those affecting only other empires
* Added 6 new corporate-themed empire flags
###################
# Balance
###################
* Improved distribution of space creatures and unique systems
* Leader Capacity has been removed from the game and replaced with energy credits upkeep for each leader
* Subterranean civilization famine event now uses food rather than energy
* Increased the delay between the Prethoryn Vanguard and the main swarm arriving
* You no longer get influence when another empire finishes first contact project before you do
* Teachings of Warriors event now only gives energy as reward for selling to a private collector
* Removed neighbor restrictions on rivals and most CBs
* No longer possible to pick Imperial Prerogative as first ascension perk
* Federation members now automatically have a commercial agreement with each other, but have to pay 15% of their energy credit income in federation taxes
* Federations are now always led by the most powerful member empire rather than having a rotating presidency (25% more power than leader is required to replace an existing president)
* Added a decision to curtail planetary growth through voluntary measures, available to empires that don't allow other forms of growth control. It reduces growth by 75% at the expense of increased pop upkeep
* Reworked relative empire power to be based on fleet power, economic power and tech power (in order of descending importance). Economic power is calculated as the amount of resources produced by the empire each month, multiplied by the base value of said resources, while tech power is calculated by the total cost of researched techs
* Added two new technologies for machine empires that improve pop assembly speed
* Nivlac pops now generally spawn in groups of 15
* Nivlac species trait effect on habitability and pop growth has been significantly reduced
* Added Cadet difficulty setting as an 'easy' level below Ensign, granting the player economic buffs
* Admirals no longer gain the Fleet Logistician trait from a random (MTTH) event
* Changed Forlorn Ruins modifier to be -5% happiness instead of -20%
* Drastically reduced the research cost for Entropic Recursion and Doctrine: Strange Loop, and removed their associated buildings
* Drastically reduced the Machine Uprising's starting fleets so they shouldn't immediately economically collapse
* Habitats now have a monthly alloy upkeep on their capital building
* Strong/Weak traits now have a small effect on worker output
* Culture shock is now a planet modifier rather than a pop modifier
* Assimilation now faster, and planetary culture shock will be removed if there is only hive/cyborg/machine pops on the planet, because free will is a painful illusion
* Xenophobes now get +10%/+20% pop growth instead of claim cost reduction (to balance for not having as much growth from migration, etc)
* Ascension perk Defender of the Galaxy now grants bonus damage against the Tempest too
* Ascension perk Galactic Contender also grants bonus damage vs the gate builders
* Yuht, Vultaum, and Irassian Home systems now have some additional resources
* Having an L-gate in your space increases the odds of rolling gateway tech if you don't have a regular gateway
* Spiritualist faction will no longer be unhappy about Tomb Worlds if you get Wormed
* Having Psionic pops in your empire allows for the possibility of rolling the Psionic theory tech if not otherwise possible
* Several existing civics have been adjusted to affect the new jobs system: Police State, Agrarian Idyll, Aristocratic Elite, Citizen Service, Exalted Priesthood and Technocracy
*Species trait Thrifty now increases Trade Value production, new trait Ingenious increases Energy Production
* Reduced cost of robo-modding a species
* Reduced the cost of bio-modding a species
* Databanks Uplinks tradition now increases research station output instead of unlocking assist research
* Assist Research is now available from the start of the game
* Ending a resource deal with a merchant enclave early now gives -5 opinion
* Distinguished Admiralty civic effect on admiral level cap reduced from 2 to 1. In addition, the effect on naval capacity has been replaced with ship fire rate
###################
# UI
###################
* Split the policies and edicts view into their own views
* You can now start the game with the "-console" argument and it will dump all console commands to the info.log file
* Added various info about target planets in the Resettlement dropdown list
* Colonization screens only show the list of species and will generate a ship from the closest shipyard
* Species are sorted in habitability order on the colonize "select species" window
* Expansion planner now shows scripted district in a moddable way instead of being hardcoded into energy, minerals, food
* The expansion planner now shows Rare Deposits
* Added navigation sidebar and moved all topbar menu items to it
* Reworked planet battle view to show frontline, reserved and disengaged armies separately
* Standardized colors for displaying cost and time
###################
# AI
###################
* AI now considers the potential resource gain against its system upkeep cost when deciding whether to build an outpost
* Adapted AI to new economy system
* Improved early game economy AI
* AI will now revoke claims it has on empires it wants to maintain a long-term alliance with
###################
# Modding
###################
* Added scriptable leader classes, old classes are now attributes for the new ones
* Added on_crossing_border on-action
* You can now set an arrival_effect on auto_move_to_target, this will fire that scripted effect on arrival
* Added "on_fleet_combat_joined_attacker" and "on_fleet_combat_joined_defender" on_action. Both are fired when fleet enter combat, scopes etc in the file "00_on_actions.txt"
* Added country_trade_fee modifier
* Replaced free_pop_slots trigger with free_housing trigger
* Updated the "if" trigger to work in the same way as the "if" effect: if { limit = {...} } else_if { limit = {...} } else { ... }
* Added define for default trade change
* Added MARKET_FLUCTUATION_EPSILON define to avoid useless calculations
* Added last_building_changed / last_district changed triggers
* Added on_system_lost and on_system_gained on-actions
* Create Species can now accept an event_target for the species class create_species = { class = event_target:caravaneer_fleet2_country.species }
* Most modifiers in the game now take custom_tooltip to print a custom desc
* Added perc_communications_with_playable trigger
* Added "country_immigration_pull_add," "country_immigration_pull_mult," "country_emigration_push_add" and "country_emigration_pull_mult" modifiers. They work like the planet modifiers of the same name, but at country level
* Added triggers "has_rival = <Target>" and "has_overlord=<Target>"
* Added is_half_species trigger
* Added create_half_species effect
* Added country-scoped variants of event pulses. Which countries get these is controlled in country type settings
* Added GetRulerName to localization script in Leader scope
* The "has_colonization_control" trigger now works like other species rights trigger: has_colonization_control = { value = no country =root }
* Added a "can_colonize_with_species" game rule
* It is now possible to directly script a civic as changing the empire's homeworld class, and this will be reflected properly in empire designer
* The number of district types shown in the expansion planner is now fully moddable through a Define ( EXPANSION_VIEW_NUM_DISTRICTS ) However, the gui files must also be changed to have that number of district buttons/icons
* Added set_market_leader effect
* Anomalies with a null_spawn_chance set that are set to only happen once for the country/game will now be blocked from being rolled again if they fail to pass the null spawn chance check, meaning that some anomalies can be made properly rare and not occur in every game
* Added the "diplomacy_economy" database where you can defines upkeep and production of resources for various types of diplomatic relations.
* Added remove_deposit effect
* Added is_deposit_type trigger
* Add define for resource base, min and max price on the market
* Add defines for constants in price change equation
* Buildings can now have a custom tooltip effect
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
* Fixed incorrect starbase Missile Battery description
* Restoring changes to Impossible Organism event to allow Nivlacs to be spawned on any planet, not just the capital
* Fixed Contact Report: Primitives event sometimes fetching the wrong text key
* Fixed incorrect pluralization for Gene Warrior armies
* Fixed a handful of Crystalline Entities not being affected by the Crystal Pacification project
* Fixed the Lokken Mechanists pre-scripted empire using the wrong ruler title
* Fixed a bunch of old sound files that had bad loops or other cruddiness
* Fixed literally unplayable localization bugs
* Removed references to a nonexistent special project in an event chain
* Fixed an edge case where paying off Marauders would cost you nothing
* Fixed "The Xvan Labs" special project spawning in too-distant systems
* Preventing Ketling planets subject to ongoing invasion, orbital bombardment and/or starbase construction from progressing to spacefaring Ketlings
* Fix crash at start when the outliner settings contain double entries
* Fixed Leviathans first contact report not firing in some cases
* Scavenger Bot and Tiyanki Matriarch systems are now flagged as hostile (and guardian) systems
* Fixed bug where upon re-election a ruler would not get a proper new mandate
* Fixed Crisis ambient audio continuing to loop after Crisis has been defeated
* Fixed an issue where Primitives would accumulate too many Ethics over time
* Removed arrow from peace messages since they were misleading
* Added localization that had been missing from Observation events that had been missing since 2015, good golly Miss Molly
* Pacifists are now blocked from Aggressive First Contact protocols, as charming as it was that they had a loophole in their ethical structure that permitted unlimited violence until polite first greetings had been exchanged
* Leviathan Death Notification message should now function
* Fixed the bug when in the MP Lobby create new empire tab was shown beneath custom empires
* Fixed the multiplayer "show players" mapmode being saved and reloaded in single player mode, resulting in all-grey maps
* Fixed tutorial making observer mode outline visible in single player
* Master Builders Ascension Perk no longer applies twice to Habitats
* Marauder fleets now actually show up in the Marauder Vengeance event, rather than merely threatening to do so
* Fixed a crash when deleting an empire led to having a corrupted empire design selected
* Create vassal button now checks properly if a vassal can actually be created
* Fixed multiple contact from same empire
* Fixed empires created by rebellion, being released as a vassal always showing up with grey map colour
* Fixed the "blue solution" sometimes not granting a trait
* The red/green/blue event now adds a custom free trait so as not to mess with trait points.
* There will now always be a minimum of one L-Gate system when playing with the Distant Stars Story Pack, regardless of galaxy size
* Fixed peace deal localization
* Fixed some loc references in post-war messages from Fallen Empires
* Fixed the Horizon Signal event chain sometimes resulting in Pops getting incompatible traits
* Fixed the Grateful Refugee pop modifier potentially stacking (modifier is now instead refreshed if the pop becomes a refugee again)
* Contact Report: Leviathans (story.8) should now fire for all leviathans (will now display a special desc for mechanical leviathans)
* Fixed an issue with terraforming in the Atomic Clock event
* Numerous other bugfixes and performance improvements
######################### VERSION 2.2.0 ###########################
#################################################################
###################
# DESIGNERS' NOTE #
###################
Greetings!
Stellaris has (once again) undergone bold changes! In 2.2 the focus of the changes has been to rework how you develop planets and to deepen the game's economy. The purpose is to make the management of planets more fun and engaging.
Tiles are gone, and have been replaced with Districts, Buildings, and Jobs. You will now instead construct City Districts, Farming Districts, Mining Districts, and Generator Districts, as well as various Buildings with more specialized roles. Districts and buildings provide Jobs, and a job worked by a Pop will produce resources.
As a planet gains more Pops it will unlock more Building Slots. Buildings work similar to how they did before, but now most of them provide Jobs instead of producing resources directly.
2.2 also introduces a new Trade Route system. What you essentially want to do is to collect Trade Value (found in space and produced on planets) by upgrading a nearby starbase. You should then set up a Trade Route leading back to your home system. Trade Value is converted into usable resources when it reaches your Trade Capital.
We recommend you to take a look at the updated tutorial!
###################
# Megacorp Expansion Features
###################
# Megacorps
* Added the Megacorporation empire type, which features unique civics as well as the ability to become an economic powerhouse by spreading branch offices on the planets of other empires
# Ecumenopolis
* Added new ascension perk: Arcology Project, enabling the Decision to convert a planet to an City-World completely covered in urban sprawl
# Xeno-Compatibility
* Added new ascension perk: Xeno-Compatibility, which allows cross-breeding between species
# Universal Transactions
* Added new ascension perk: Universal Transactions, which makes it easier for Megacorporation empires to establish branch offices and commercial pacts
# Caravaneers
* Added the Caravaneers, nomadic space traders who will give unique offers in exchange for a variety of resources, and also offer games of chance in their home system
# New Civics
* Added new civic: Byzantine Bureaucracy, that reduces housing/amenities usage and allows for the construction of Bureaucratic Complex building that adds administrator jobs
* Added new civic: Merchant Guilds, that add a merchant job to capitol buildings, and merchants provide unity
* Added Shared Burden civic for all your luxury space communism needs, with a new prescripted empire using it, the Kilik Cooperative
# New Megastructures
* Added new Megastructures: the Matter Decompressor, Mega-Art Installation, Interstellar Assembly, and Strategic Coordination Center, including ruined versions you can discover
# Slave Market
* Added a galactic Slave Market so you can buy or sell slave Pops and robots (once the Galactic Market is established)
# New Voices and Music
* Added 3 new advisor voice sets as well as 16 minutes of new music (added to the soundtrack DLC as well)
# New Canon Empires
* Added new pre-scripted Empires using Megacorp mechanics, and changed the existing Chinorr to a Megacorp
# Achievements
* Added 10 new achievements
###################
# New Utopia Expansion Features
###################
# Hive Worlds
* Added new ascension perk: Hive Worlds, similar to Machine Worlds but for Hive Minds, which allows them to terraform planets into living planets on which only hive drones can live. Hive Worlds gain a bonus to resource output and are not limited by deposits in how many resource districts they can support
######################
# 2.2 'Le Guin' Free Features
######################
* Added Simplified Chinese localization
* Removed planet/habitat tile system, replaced with districts, jobs
* Pops and Pop Jobs now belong to a social class (Pop Category) that determines their luxury needs. Social classes are ranked, and Pops that belong to a higher social class will refuse to take jobs belonging to a lower class until they demote over time
* Added unemployment for pops without suitable jobs, which lowers planetary stability if their living standards are low
* Added planetary housing, usage of which depends on pop's social strata (rulers and specialists = a lot, slaves and menial labourers = a little)
* More dynamic pop growth system: populations can grow and decline based on their rights, living standards, immigration/emigration
* Added crime. Crime is generated by overcrowding and poor living conditions, and negatively affects planet stability. It can also generate events
* Added new and reworked planetary decisions and empire edicts
* Added new resource types (alloys, consumer goods, etc) which tie in to the economic simulation in many ways, diversifying the domestic activity of empires considerably
* Added the Internal Market, where resources can be converted into other resources at a cost
* Added the Galactic Market, in which all game resources can be bought and sold in open exchange between empires, with prices fluctuating based on supply and demand. This is formed when enough Empires are in contact with each other, replacing the Internal Market. Genocidal empires do not get access to the Galactic Market
* Added trade routes, where you can collect trade value from upgraded starbases and send it back to your trade capital to convert to wealth for your empire. Reworked piracy system to link in to this, and added a patrol order so your fleets can actively suppress piracy
* Added commercial pact diplomatic agreement, where the signatories gain trade value equal to 10% of the other party
* Added Administrative Cap based on owned systems, districts, and colonies. It is a soft cap that, when exceeded, applies scaling penalties to leader cost, edict cost, research speed, etc. This replaces the old system of static penalties based only on systems owned, and more accurately reflects the size and complexity of your empire. Administrative Cap can be increased with techs and ascension perks
* Introduced a new concept called Empire Cohesion. Empire Cohesion is increased by each owned system, and decreased by each external hyperlane connection and cut-off (non-owned) system inside your borders. If cohesion loss goes above cohesion gain, you will suffer penalties in the form of increased empire size and the corresponding costs it brings
* Added 9 new basic Mandates relating to your empire's internal economy
* Tweaked army display and ground combat screens, with improved army icons
* Reworked planetary bombardment to produce devastation, which damages housing, amenities, trade value, and pop growth. High devastation will ruin buildings and kill pops
* Reworked sectors to be automatically generated, removing the "mini-economies" and having them directly contribute to your empire stockpiles
* Reworked factions to always give an amount of influence based on their faction approval, rather than having a hard cutoff below which they would contribute nothing
* Reworked the Tradition Trees to synchronize with all the new systems
* Added Shared Burden civic for all your luxury space communism needs, with a new prescripted empire using it, the Kilik Cooperative
* Replaced authoritarian Caste System with Stratified Economy living standards: does not use slavery but has a similar effect (happy rulers, downtrodden masses). Authoritarians can still use species-wide slavery. Slaver guilds civic is now required to enslave own species
* Added alert messages for completing a Megastructure's intermediate upgrade steps
* Added a conclusion to the Strong Magnetic Field events
* Unity Ambitions are now a free feature, and no longer restricted to owners of Apocalypse
* Added new single star custom system options
* Created and implemented new SFX for Natural Wormholes which have been silent until now. No more.
* Since the Chinorr have become a Megacorporation, replaced them in non-Megacorp games with a new prescripted empire, the Glebsig Foundation
* Added technology Resort Worlds that unlocks the ability to designate a colony as a Resort World. This colony will be unable to have districts and most buildings built on it, but will increase amenities and immigration pull across the empire.
* Added tech for Penal Colony worlds which have high crime rates but decrease crime on other planets
* Added a tech for slaver empires to designate a world as a Thrall-World. Thrall-Worlds cannot support city districts or manufacturing/research buildings, but get vastly increased growth rate and access to special buildings and jobs for slaves
* Updated tutorial to explain the new systems
* Added the multiplayer observer mode from the 2.1.4 beta to the default game version
* Deploy Hunter-Killer Drones decision can now be toggled on and off
* Added a game setup setting for how many habitable worlds are guaranteed to spawn near your starting system
* Research Agreements are now diplomatic actions, rather than being part of trade deals
* End game victory conditions reworked into a score system, tallying up your total empire accomplishment based on size, population, military, tech, federations, and many other measures
* Added some new Colony events.
* Civilian ships are now constructed at starbase rather than planets
* Added pop selection view to colony ship construction in starbases
* Colony ships can now be built populated with any species which you have a migration treaty with
* Colony ships built via the expansion planner will be automatically constructed at the starbase nearest the target planet
* Planets have a decision to stop pop growth, although this comes with a penalty to stability for regular empires.
* Blockers now generally reduce the usable districts on a planet, while clearing them often unlocks additional district types.
* Clearing Blockers can now also give one time bonuses, i.e. clearing a slum grants a pop.
* The homeworld of the First League is now an Ecumenopolis
* Notifications dealing with the player's own empire are now marked with a golden yellow rim to distinguish them from those affecting only other empires
* Added 6 new corporate-themed empire flags
###################
# Balance
###################
* Improved distribution of space creatures and unique systems
* Leader Capacity has been removed from the game and replaced with energy credits upkeep for each leader
* Subterranean civilization famine event now uses food rather than energy
* Increased the delay between the Prethoryn Vanguard and the main swarm arriving
* You no longer get influence when another empire finishes first contact project before you do
* Teachings of Warriors event now only gives energy as reward for selling to a private collector
* Removed neighbor restrictions on rivals and most CBs
* No longer possible to pick Imperial Prerogative as first ascension perk
* Federation members now automatically have a commercial agreement with each other, but have to pay 15% of their energy credit income in federation taxes
* Federations are now always led by the most powerful member empire rather than having a rotating presidency (25% more power than leader is required to replace an existing president)
* Added a decision to curtail planetary growth through voluntary measures, available to empires that don't allow other forms of growth control. It reduces growth by 75% at the expense of increased pop upkeep
* Reworked relative empire power to be based on fleet power, economic power and tech power (in order of descending importance). Economic power is calculated as the amount of resources produced by the empire each month, multiplied by the base value of said resources, while tech power is calculated by the total cost of researched techs
* Added two new technologies for machine empires that improve pop assembly speed
* Nivlac pops now generally spawn in groups of 15
* Nivlac species trait effect on habitability and pop growth has been significantly reduced
* Added Cadet difficulty setting as an 'easy' level below Ensign, granting the player economic buffs
* Admirals no longer gain the Fleet Logistician trait from a random (MTTH) event
* Changed Forlorn Ruins modifier to be -5% happiness instead of -20%
* Drastically reduced the research cost for Entropic Recursion and Doctrine: Strange Loop, and removed their associated buildings
* Drastically reduced the Machine Uprising's starting fleets so they shouldn't immediately economically collapse
* Habitats now have a monthly alloy upkeep on their capital building
* Strong/Weak traits now have a small effect on worker output
* Culture shock is now a planet modifier rather than a pop modifier
* Assimilation now faster, and planetary culture shock will be removed if there is only hive/cyborg/machine pops on the planet, because free will is a painful illusion
* Xenophobes now get +10%/+20% pop growth instead of claim cost reduction (to balance for not having as much growth from migration, etc)
* Ascension perk Defender of the Galaxy now grants bonus damage against the Tempest too
* Ascension perk Galactic Contender also grants bonus damage vs the gate builders
* Yuht, Vultaum, and Irassian Home systems now have some additional resources
* Having an L-gate in your space increases the odds of rolling gateway tech if you don't have a regular gateway
* Spiritualist faction will no longer be unhappy about Tomb Worlds if you get Wormed
* Having Psionic pops in your empire allows for the possibility of rolling the Psionic theory tech if not otherwise possible
* Several existing civics have been adjusted to affect the new jobs system: Police State, Agrarian Idyll, Aristocratic Elite, Citizen Service, Exalted Priesthood and Technocracy
*Species trait Thrifty now increases Trade Value production, new trait Ingenious increases Energy Production
* Reduced cost of robo-modding a species
* Reduced the cost of bio-modding a species
* Databanks Uplinks tradition now increases research station output instead of unlocking assist research
* Assist Research is now available from the start of the game
* Ending a resource deal with a merchant enclave early now gives -5 opinion
* Distinguished Admiralty civic effect on admiral level cap reduced from 2 to 1. In addition, the effect on naval capacity has been replaced with ship fire rate
###################
# UI
###################
* Split the policies and edicts view into their own views
* You can now start the game with the "-console" argument and it will dump all console commands to the info.log file
* Added various info about target planets in the Resettlement dropdown list
* Colonization screens only show the list of species and will generate a ship from the closest shipyard
* Species are sorted in habitability order on the colonize "select species" window
* Expansion planner now shows scripted district in a moddable way instead of being hardcoded into energy, minerals, food
* The expansion planner now shows Rare Deposits
* Added navigation sidebar and moved all topbar menu items to it
* Reworked planet battle view to show frontline, reserved and disengaged armies separately
* Standardized colors for displaying cost and time
###################
# AI
###################
* AI now considers the potential resource gain against its system upkeep cost when deciding whether to build an outpost
* Adapted AI to new economy system
* Improved early game economy AI
* AI will now revoke claims it has on empires it wants to maintain a long-term alliance with
###################
# Modding
###################
* Added scriptable leader classes, old classes are now attributes for the new ones
* Added on_crossing_border on-action
* You can now set an arrival_effect on auto_move_to_target, this will fire that scripted effect on arrival
* Added "on_fleet_combat_joined_attacker" and "on_fleet_combat_joined_defender" on_action. Both are fired when fleet enter combat, scopes etc in the file "00_on_actions.txt"
* Added country_trade_fee modifier
* Replaced free_pop_slots trigger with free_housing trigger
* Updated the "if" trigger to work in the same way as the "if" effect: if { limit = {...} } else_if { limit = {...} } else { ... }
* Added define for default trade change
* Added MARKET_FLUCTUATION_EPSILON define to avoid useless calculations
* Added last_building_changed / last_district changed triggers
* Added on_system_lost and on_system_gained on-actions
* Create Species can now accept an event_target for the species class create_species = { class = event_target:caravaneer_fleet2_country.species }
* Most modifiers in the game now take custom_tooltip to print a custom desc
* Added perc_communications_with_playable trigger
* Added "country_immigration_pull_add," "country_immigration_pull_mult," "country_emigration_push_add" and "country_emigration_pull_mult" modifiers. They work like the planet modifiers of the same name, but at country level
* Added triggers "has_rival = <Target>" and "has_overlord=<Target>"
* Added is_half_species trigger
* Added create_half_species effect
* Added country-scoped variants of event pulses. Which countries get these is controlled in country type settings
* Added GetRulerName to localization script in Leader scope
* The "has_colonization_control" trigger now works like other species rights trigger: has_colonization_control = { value = no country =root }
* Added a "can_colonize_with_species" game rule
* It is now possible to directly script a civic as changing the empire's homeworld class, and this will be reflected properly in empire designer
* The number of district types shown in the expansion planner is now fully moddable through a Define ( EXPANSION_VIEW_NUM_DISTRICTS ) However, the gui files must also be changed to have that number of district buttons/icons
* Added set_market_leader effect
* Anomalies with a null_spawn_chance set that are set to only happen once for the country/game will now be blocked from being rolled again if they fail to pass the null spawn chance check, meaning that some anomalies can be made properly rare and not occur in every game
* Added the "diplomacy_economy" database where you can defines upkeep and production of resources for various types of diplomatic relations.
* Added remove_deposit effect
* Added is_deposit_type trigger
* Add define for resource base, min and max price on the market
* Add defines for constants in price change equation
* Buildings can now have a custom tooltip effect
###################
# Bugfixes
###################
* Fixed incorrect starbase Missile Battery description
* Restoring changes to Impossible Organism event to allow Nivlacs to be spawned on any planet, not just the capital
* Fixed Contact Report: Primitives event sometimes fetching the wrong text key
* Fixed incorrect pluralization for Gene Warrior armies
* Fixed a handful of Crystalline Entities not being affected by the Crystal Pacification project
* Fixed the Lokken Mechanists pre-scripted empire using the wrong ruler title
* Fixed a bunch of old sound files that had bad loops or other cruddiness
* Fixed literally unplayable localization bugs
* Removed references to a nonexistent special project in an event chain
* Fixed an edge case where paying off Marauders would cost you nothing
* Fixed "The Xvan Labs" special project spawning in too-distant systems
* Preventing Ketling planets subject to ongoing invasion, orbital bombardment and/or starbase construction from progressing to spacefaring Ketlings
* Fix crash at start when the outliner settings contain double entries
* Fixed Leviathans first contact report not firing in some cases
* Scavenger Bot and Tiyanki Matriarch systems are now flagged as hostile (and guardian) systems
* Fixed bug where upon re-election a ruler would not get a proper new mandate
* Fixed Crisis ambient audio continuing to loop after Crisis has been defeated
* Fixed an issue where Primitives would accumulate too many Ethics over time
* Removed arrow from peace messages since they were misleading
* Added localization that had been missing from Observation events that had been missing since 2015, good golly Miss Molly
* Pacifists are now blocked from Aggressive First Contact protocols, as charming as it was that they had a loophole in their ethical structure that permitted unlimited violence until polite first greetings had been exchanged
* Leviathan Death Notification message should now function
* Fixed the bug when in the MP Lobby create new empire tab was shown beneath custom empires
* Fixed the multiplayer "show players" mapmode being saved and reloaded in single player mode, resulting in all-grey maps
* Fixed tutorial making observer mode outline visible in single player
* Master Builders Ascension Perk no longer applies twice to Habitats
* Marauder fleets now actually show up in the Marauder Vengeance event, rather than merely threatening to do so
* Fixed a crash when deleting an empire led to having a corrupted empire design selected
* Create vassal button now checks properly if a vassal can actually be created
* Fixed multiple contact from same empire
* Fixed empires created by rebellion, being released as a vassal always showing up with grey map colour
* Fixed the "blue solution" sometimes not granting a trait
* The red/green/blue event now adds a custom free trait so as not to mess with trait points.
* There will now always be a minimum of one L-Gate system when playing with the Distant Stars Story Pack, regardless of galaxy size
* Fixed peace deal localization
* Fixed some loc references in post-war messages from Fallen Empires
* Fixed the Horizon Signal event chain sometimes resulting in Pops getting incompatible traits
* Fixed the Grateful Refugee pop modifier potentially stacking (modifier is now instead refreshed if the pop becomes a refugee again)
* Contact Report: Leviathans (story.8) should now fire for all leviathans (will now display a special desc for mechanical leviathans)
* Fixed an issue with terraforming in the Atomic Clock event
* Numerous other bugfixes and performance improvements
Hive Worlds made it in!
Turn the Hunter-Killer Drones... off? I'm not sure I understand.
Patch notes mentioned an updated tutorial for Megacorp and the accompanying patch. This patch is an overhaul on a lot of base game mechanics so it'd be like jumping into the game for the first time anyway. If you haven't played many PDox GSGs before though, it will be data overload.
I think you'll be fine. The people who are really in for a weird time are those folks who play the game enough to know it well but somehow haven't been following any of this. That's gonna be a weird game to log into all of a sudden.
Got Holy Fury and played some CK2 again after a long break. My normal start is Asturias in Chalomagne and it seems that the starting position is much more stable with some free event troops, reconquista being decent and a more stable france (that doesnt go into gavelkind hell but kinda unites? at least on my 2 playthrough, both in which uncle karl failed to make the HRE but there werent 4 or 5 france 200 years into the game).
Still, I think I could speedrush my record for reconquista with the CB for reconquista being pretty good but just the starting position being much more stable with the looks of france actually getting catalonia, you being able to win the first war and much more terrain difficulties around spain that helps move around is nice. You also start with tons more terrain which is great!
I also discovered you could turn off defensive pacts. My first playthrough turned into a grind when i got morocco and was trying to push into north africa and ghana. EU4 treats it much better! Why would christians care about me wrecking infidels? Why would muslims care about me destroying tribes? ugg.
Started one again and it was nice, in 10 years I got the whole north! (got navarra to break that holy war CB for france and the muslim king died during a war against other frace for catalonia so I did a Reconquista CB for whole aragon. Thanks for the free catalonia worse Karl!)
Still, I think I could speedrush my record for reconquista with the CB for reconquista being pretty good but just the starting position being much more stable with the looks of france actually getting catalonia, you being able to win the first war and much more terrain difficulties around spain that helps move around is nice. You also start with tons more terrain which is great!
I also discovered you could turn off defensive pacts. My first playthrough turned into a grind when i got morocco and was trying to push into north africa and ghana. EU4 treats it much better! Why would christians care about me wrecking infidels? Why would muslims care about me destroying tribes? ugg.
Started one again and it was nice, in 10 years I got the whole north! (got navarra to break that holy war CB for france and the muslim king died during a war against other frace for catalonia so I did a Reconquista CB for whole aragon. Thanks for the free catalonia worse Karl!)
Reddit user 'republicofplay' accidentally broke review embargo for Stellaris Megacorp DLC. His post is a counter to the early preview hype and focuses on the negative. If anyone is interested, here's the original post on pastebin (OP removed and replaced post with an apology).
https://pastebin.com/dRhHB2R7
https://pastebin.com/dRhHB2R7
First off, I want to say I'm a big fan of Stellaris and have adored the game since I first played it. It's my favourite strategy game of the last 10 years. I'm lucky enough that PDX's PR company send me the DLC when it comes out to cover on YouTube/Twitch and I've just recently completed a campaign with it and wanted to share some of my issues and feedback.
Generally I'd like to say I like the new economy changes, the building system, the refinement process and the MegaCorp playstyle. I'm fairly indifferent to the jobs system, and I think late game micro is just as busy as ever in my opinion, maybe even more so, but with tougher choices rather than "mindless yellow icon clicks" etc.
But most of you know the good stuff, I'm going to talk about the bad stuff, and things that in my view need improvement.
AI issues.
I played all default settings. Admiral difficulty. Mid game at 2300, End game at 2400, Victory at 2500. Tech cost at x1.
100 years in, the galaxy was 70% covered. The biggest AI at this time had 56 systems, 14 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals and Food. Their biggest fleet was 1.9K strength. 7 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and 10 planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/g3584o5646221.png
200 years in, the galaxy was 95% covered. The same AI at this time had 78 systems, 21 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals, Food and consumer goods. Note they also didn't increase their storage cap. Their biggest fleet was now 2.1K strength. 14 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and 19 planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/oscshalz36221.png
300 years in, the galaxy was 95% covered. The same AI at this time had 76 systems, 20 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals, Food and consumer goods. Note they still didn't increase their storage cap. Their biggest fleet was now 26K strength. All 20 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and all planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/fxvr2iwt36221.png
I am by no means a great player, I'd say I'm average, maybe a bit more experienced but nothing crazy. I'm more of a role play guy than a min max person. I rarely look at stats or fleet comps or anything like that. I don't know all the events/techs in the game, I just play and choose freely as I go. This was by far one of the easiest and uneventful games I ever had. Wars had no fleets in them and were slow grinds of war exhaustion. 100 years in, I was the dominant military force and I just waited to build my tech/economy to fight fallen empires for something to do.
I'm not sure what the problem is. Despite having the resources, AI empires are not building things. They had alloy income, decent science, but were just not actually building things, letting their planets sit with nothing going on. I once saw a vassal of mine, just switching governors every 3 days in game. I gave them tonnes of resources to expand and they never did.
Performance issues.
I play the game every month in a multiplayer session on a small galaxy, so it's been quite a long time since I played single player on a big galaxy all the way to the end, but I do feel like this has run worse than any other update I've played. After 100years, the game was constantly hitching, and I felt I had to play on normal speed the entire time. There were also occasional massive spikes, halting the game for almost 10 seconds at times, and not on end of month events or wars or anything like that.
When Stellaris came out, I recorded a let's play of it, on my same PC and was able to record all the way to endgame without any terrible lag except in big battles. That same lag is now present for me even without wars.
My spec:i7 5930k CPU
GTX 980ti GPU
32GB RAM
Win 10
Sectors:
Sectors are now generated automatically around different colonies. You can choose to have them automate or not, and each sector is able to have a governor. Currently, sectors have averaged out to be around 6 to 7 systems in length.
Sectors are now displayed in the outliner, as categories for planets.
I never had an issue with my sectors or how they grew until I had a machine uprising. Pockets of my planets switched to the machines and I eventually took them back pretty quickly. However, this changed all the sectors and dramatically broke some. Sectors with just one system were generated, some systems weren't in a sector at all, and I couldn't apply governors to some sectors, clicking it would just do nothing.
Furthermore, on the outliner I had a bunch of blank sectors. Even sectors that actually had planets in them, were showing up as blank and I couldn't access my planets from the outliner.
Feedback:I think sectors should generate on galaxy creation as predefined clusters of systems/hyperlanes. I don't think they should ever change shape, and you should be able to contest them with other empires. It was cool in the beginning to have them laid out this way, but their dynamic assigning/reassigning and creation broke them, and wasn't necessary.
200yrs in. The game has generated sectors, but left some gaps. No big deal, outliner working correct.
300 years in. The rebellion occured and the outliner is filled with empty sectors. I can't delete or remove or grow them. There's also a lot of one system sectors and broken governors.
Trade:
Trade is showing from every star base rather than just trade starbases. Not sure if intentional or not. This creates a mess of lines moving all over the place when their trade value is 0 and they're not moving anything. It also seems to spawn pirates without any trade value on the route. Pirates also don't move system. The AI often just left pirates in their empires in stagnant systems.
Feedback:If a starbase isn't collecting anything, it shouldn't draw a route back to your capital. Piracy should build if left unhandled, and become more aggressive.
I only have three actual stations with trade hubs. Note the station Welguvis says it collects 0. The three Trade Stations I have are \"Gamma Draconis Complex\" and another one out east not shown here. Capital is \"Shine\"
Market:
The galactic market never had anyone use it apart from me, until the very end of the game. Or at least it seemed that way. I only saw fluctuations in the market toward the very end anyway. You use it once for some resource, and the resource becomes more expensive, and then eventually settles back to normal after some time, but it seemed even the base prices were too much for the AI to consider using it. The "Galactic Market" felt like it was just my own market.
Feedback: Encourage the AI to use it more if possible. Maybe buff their market fee to be lower so they use it. When a big war is on in the galaxy, the market should be tapped out, and people who aren't involved in the war, should be able to make good money selling resources to keep it going. If nobody uses it, it's basically just like the enclaves from before.
Megacorp only issues:
Branch Offices:
The outliner will fill with branch offices over time, and is a mess to go through them, it can be a list of over 30 planets around 100 years in. When viewing an empire from Galaxy View, it doesn't show you which ones have offices or not, so you have to click each planet to find out, but seeing as you can't click foreign planets from galaxy view, you have to zoom in, click, zoom out, click each time until you find a suitable world for a Branch Office.
Feedback: Categorize them by faction ownership in the outliner. Add a little symbol to the planet in galaxy view, so you know which ones you have gotten at a glance. Maybe even show the projected value so you don't have to click in at all.
Some of these have branch offices and some don't. You figure it out!
Slave Market
At around 100 years in, I put up about 4 pops for sale on the slave market. 80 years later 2 of them had sold. 100 years later I saw the AI put one pop up for sale. Which I bought.
Feedback: Encourage the AI to use it. Pops are an extremely valuable commodity in the new update. It's easy to make jobs and build buildings, but it takes time to grow pops to do the work. I would've loved to be able to buy some, or sell more when I had too much. It was a dead market.
100 years later and 3 of them still had not sold.
Caravaneers.
The slot machine Caravaneer is insane. You buy 28000 CC from them for around 8000 energy. Then you can play slots about 10 times. In 10 attempts you will easily get 30,000 energy or 30,000 minerals (sometimes both, sometimes both multiple times) and be able to afford buying more CC to play more slots. I did this on a stream to show how frequent it is. There's no limit on attempts. The odds are far far too high. The "loot box" system is also very rewarding, but actually has a limit, they run out eventually.
Feedback:
Make it more expensive to play. I'd say around 10,000 energy for 3 slots attempts. Make the rewards that actually earn you your money back at most a 5% chance, and potentially add other rewards that aren't just minerals and energy to add some flavour and force you to use the market maybe. A 0.5% chance of getting dark matter early or something would be pretty neat.
Anyways, that's my feedback and report on the update. As I said, I think this will end up being in a good place, and the game may be patched day 1 ahead of my press build, however I wasn't given any warning about these issues, so I have to report them.
Thanks for reading, I'll reply when I can to answer any questions.
Generally I'd like to say I like the new economy changes, the building system, the refinement process and the MegaCorp playstyle. I'm fairly indifferent to the jobs system, and I think late game micro is just as busy as ever in my opinion, maybe even more so, but with tougher choices rather than "mindless yellow icon clicks" etc.
But most of you know the good stuff, I'm going to talk about the bad stuff, and things that in my view need improvement.
AI issues.
I played all default settings. Admiral difficulty. Mid game at 2300, End game at 2400, Victory at 2500. Tech cost at x1.
100 years in, the galaxy was 70% covered. The biggest AI at this time had 56 systems, 14 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals and Food. Their biggest fleet was 1.9K strength. 7 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and 10 planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/g3584o5646221.png
200 years in, the galaxy was 95% covered. The same AI at this time had 78 systems, 21 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals, Food and consumer goods. Note they also didn't increase their storage cap. Their biggest fleet was now 2.1K strength. 14 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and 19 planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/oscshalz36221.png
300 years in, the galaxy was 95% covered. The same AI at this time had 76 systems, 20 planets, and all maxed out 10K resources for Energy, Minerals, Food and consumer goods. Note they still didn't increase their storage cap. Their biggest fleet was now 26K strength. All 20 of their planets had unemployment (lacked buildings for people to work) and all planets had nothing building on them.
https://i.redd.it/fxvr2iwt36221.png
I am by no means a great player, I'd say I'm average, maybe a bit more experienced but nothing crazy. I'm more of a role play guy than a min max person. I rarely look at stats or fleet comps or anything like that. I don't know all the events/techs in the game, I just play and choose freely as I go. This was by far one of the easiest and uneventful games I ever had. Wars had no fleets in them and were slow grinds of war exhaustion. 100 years in, I was the dominant military force and I just waited to build my tech/economy to fight fallen empires for something to do.
I'm not sure what the problem is. Despite having the resources, AI empires are not building things. They had alloy income, decent science, but were just not actually building things, letting their planets sit with nothing going on. I once saw a vassal of mine, just switching governors every 3 days in game. I gave them tonnes of resources to expand and they never did.
Performance issues.
I play the game every month in a multiplayer session on a small galaxy, so it's been quite a long time since I played single player on a big galaxy all the way to the end, but I do feel like this has run worse than any other update I've played. After 100years, the game was constantly hitching, and I felt I had to play on normal speed the entire time. There were also occasional massive spikes, halting the game for almost 10 seconds at times, and not on end of month events or wars or anything like that.
When Stellaris came out, I recorded a let's play of it, on my same PC and was able to record all the way to endgame without any terrible lag except in big battles. That same lag is now present for me even without wars.
My spec:i7 5930k CPU
GTX 980ti GPU
32GB RAM
Win 10
Sectors:
Sectors are now generated automatically around different colonies. You can choose to have them automate or not, and each sector is able to have a governor. Currently, sectors have averaged out to be around 6 to 7 systems in length.
Sectors are now displayed in the outliner, as categories for planets.
I never had an issue with my sectors or how they grew until I had a machine uprising. Pockets of my planets switched to the machines and I eventually took them back pretty quickly. However, this changed all the sectors and dramatically broke some. Sectors with just one system were generated, some systems weren't in a sector at all, and I couldn't apply governors to some sectors, clicking it would just do nothing.
Furthermore, on the outliner I had a bunch of blank sectors. Even sectors that actually had planets in them, were showing up as blank and I couldn't access my planets from the outliner.
Feedback:I think sectors should generate on galaxy creation as predefined clusters of systems/hyperlanes. I don't think they should ever change shape, and you should be able to contest them with other empires. It was cool in the beginning to have them laid out this way, but their dynamic assigning/reassigning and creation broke them, and wasn't necessary.
200yrs in. The game has generated sectors, but left some gaps. No big deal, outliner working correct.
300 years in. The rebellion occured and the outliner is filled with empty sectors. I can't delete or remove or grow them. There's also a lot of one system sectors and broken governors.
Trade:
Trade is showing from every star base rather than just trade starbases. Not sure if intentional or not. This creates a mess of lines moving all over the place when their trade value is 0 and they're not moving anything. It also seems to spawn pirates without any trade value on the route. Pirates also don't move system. The AI often just left pirates in their empires in stagnant systems.
Feedback:If a starbase isn't collecting anything, it shouldn't draw a route back to your capital. Piracy should build if left unhandled, and become more aggressive.
I only have three actual stations with trade hubs. Note the station Welguvis says it collects 0. The three Trade Stations I have are \"Gamma Draconis Complex\" and another one out east not shown here. Capital is \"Shine\"
Market:
The galactic market never had anyone use it apart from me, until the very end of the game. Or at least it seemed that way. I only saw fluctuations in the market toward the very end anyway. You use it once for some resource, and the resource becomes more expensive, and then eventually settles back to normal after some time, but it seemed even the base prices were too much for the AI to consider using it. The "Galactic Market" felt like it was just my own market.
Feedback: Encourage the AI to use it more if possible. Maybe buff their market fee to be lower so they use it. When a big war is on in the galaxy, the market should be tapped out, and people who aren't involved in the war, should be able to make good money selling resources to keep it going. If nobody uses it, it's basically just like the enclaves from before.
Megacorp only issues:
Branch Offices:
The outliner will fill with branch offices over time, and is a mess to go through them, it can be a list of over 30 planets around 100 years in. When viewing an empire from Galaxy View, it doesn't show you which ones have offices or not, so you have to click each planet to find out, but seeing as you can't click foreign planets from galaxy view, you have to zoom in, click, zoom out, click each time until you find a suitable world for a Branch Office.
Feedback: Categorize them by faction ownership in the outliner. Add a little symbol to the planet in galaxy view, so you know which ones you have gotten at a glance. Maybe even show the projected value so you don't have to click in at all.
Some of these have branch offices and some don't. You figure it out!
Slave Market
At around 100 years in, I put up about 4 pops for sale on the slave market. 80 years later 2 of them had sold. 100 years later I saw the AI put one pop up for sale. Which I bought.
Feedback: Encourage the AI to use it. Pops are an extremely valuable commodity in the new update. It's easy to make jobs and build buildings, but it takes time to grow pops to do the work. I would've loved to be able to buy some, or sell more when I had too much. It was a dead market.
100 years later and 3 of them still had not sold.
Caravaneers.
The slot machine Caravaneer is insane. You buy 28000 CC from them for around 8000 energy. Then you can play slots about 10 times. In 10 attempts you will easily get 30,000 energy or 30,000 minerals (sometimes both, sometimes both multiple times) and be able to afford buying more CC to play more slots. I did this on a stream to show how frequent it is. There's no limit on attempts. The odds are far far too high. The "loot box" system is also very rewarding, but actually has a limit, they run out eventually.
Feedback:
Make it more expensive to play. I'd say around 10,000 energy for 3 slots attempts. Make the rewards that actually earn you your money back at most a 5% chance, and potentially add other rewards that aren't just minerals and energy to add some flavour and force you to use the market maybe. A 0.5% chance of getting dark matter early or something would be pretty neat.
Anyways, that's my feedback and report on the update. As I said, I think this will end up being in a good place, and the game may be patched day 1 ahead of my press build, however I wasn't given any warning about these issues, so I have to report them.
Thanks for reading, I'll reply when I can to answer any questions.
The AI and performance bits sound like a bummer, I can only hope they're patching it ASAP.
And I, uh... didn't realise the slots/loot boxes were actually making it into the game. Thought it was some kind of joke, for some reason...
I'm still excited for the new stuff though. The changes are such a good foundation for the future, at the very least. (Though I am expecting far more than that, even in light of the negatives.)
And I, uh... didn't realise the slots/loot boxes were actually making it into the game. Thought it was some kind of joke, for some reason...
I'm still excited for the new stuff though. The changes are such a good foundation for the future, at the very least. (Though I am expecting far more than that, even in light of the negatives.)
Have the weirdest CK2 (AGOT) issue. I get unplayable slowdown when I switch to the particular character that I want to play; it runs just fine if I switch to any other character.
Edit: So it's clearly because the character is serving as castellan.
Edit: So it's clearly because the character is serving as castellan.
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Yeah so Stellaris: Megacorps is suuuuuuper buggy--they really rushed to meet this deadline. I played for like an hour, and even at the start there's enough little bugs and design oversights to make you want to wait for a patch. Also, the UI changes also need another pass because some of the info is suuuuuuuuuuuuper confusing the way it's presented. Once they work these rough edges out I think it'll be great; the revamped mechanics seem like a huge improvement even early on.
And man, I think I'll definitely have to go through the new tutorial to figure this stuff out... It's a lot.
And man, I think I'll definitely have to go through the new tutorial to figure this stuff out... It's a lot.
The ones I've seen are not anything major or gamebreaking, but it really grates on the experience. e.g. One of the first things I did was encounter the shift + c bug--when in empire creation, it opens up some sort of console... so typing up an elaborate history for your empire? Forget it.
(This was particularly irritating to me because the Zerg insert I was going to use starts with "C", so it'd be popping up constantly.)
There also feels like a lot of missing information in the UI, but I should really do the tutorial before complaining about that, I suppose. I haven't grasped the new stuff quite yet.
Like, super buggy is overstating things in the wake of games like Fallout 76... but compared to previous Stellaris releases it does feel kinda totally rushed.
So Paradox are due to release Golden Century next week, the expansion has been getting a lot of negative feedback so far, almost entirely from this expansion not adding enough for the Iberian nations (Portugal in particular).
So Paradox have announced that after next Golden Century patch launches they are also releasing a quick patch that is going to make free the transfer war province ability and the development buttons (these were previously locked to Art of War and Common Sense respectively). They've announced a couple other things to, you'll now be able to raid if you only buy Golden Century and there's another one they added too.
In short, they've finally taken some consumer feedback on the game, they've not fixed Golden Century but this is the right step.
So Paradox have announced that after next Golden Century patch launches they are also releasing a quick patch that is going to make free the transfer war province ability and the development buttons (these were previously locked to Art of War and Common Sense respectively). They've announced a couple other things to, you'll now be able to raid if you only buy Golden Century and there's another one they added too.
In short, they've finally taken some consumer feedback on the game, they've not fixed Golden Century but this is the right step.
Maybe they can give more provinces to Portugal than fucking Ireland.
The fact that when talking about new provinces for Portugal they start talking about "balance of powers" when:
a) They didnt care about that in the Russia nor the British Isles patch, that made them super powers or even more OP.
b) Portugal ends up half the time being fucked by the other nearby nations (hell Iberia pre patch is pretty much shit). Impossible to really play a tall game (More free real state for Castille I guess)
Also, not sure if they changed the Iberian Union event. Why is it still an event like that? Iberian Union, Burgundy Inheritance and Netherlands rebellion should be more dynamic (and in the first two less luck based).
The best buff to Spain was cheaper core in the Maghreb. I will leave it like that. Well actually the cannon stuff might be op but I still dont get where the fuck that came from in Spain. Spain was a major infantry and tactical innovator, not that much into non-siege artillery.
I'm not an expert, but grain of salt: the changes away from Tiles in general seem good (I'm doing a lot less micromanaging than I had to before), but unless I'm doing something horribly wrong machine empires seem absurdly weak- energy production is about ten times lower than it was at a similar point before the patch, even with trying to encourage energy 'jobs'. The AI also feels like it's back to square one after the last few patches brought them up to a modicum of competence, though raising the difficulty further might be able to solve that as a bandaid (I honestly forgot they added difficulties, it's been a while).
On the bright side, I'm paying attention to trade and special resources a lot more than I did before the patch and there's encouragement to specialise planets now, but might be worth waiting for a hotfix or two.
On the bright side, I'm paying attention to trade and special resources a lot more than I did before the patch and there's encouragement to specialise planets now, but might be worth waiting for a hotfix or two.