Stellaris

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Only two more days until release!! Looking forwards to playing a multiplayer campaign this summer with my brother :D

He's looking at playing a race based on Dwarves. Basically a lot of mineral production and engineering research.

I'm not sure what I'll play, but right now I'm thinking Spiritual + Militarist. I want a trait build that focuses on leader abilities. So probably faster XP gain, longer lifespans, +1 starting skill level. Government-wise, I want to play an Oligarchy. Probably Pacifist oligarchy or Spiritual oligarchy because they give bonuses to leaders.

I'm also tempted by the idea of playing Space Feudalism. :lol:

Despotic Empire or Military Junta
Collectivist, Militarist, Spiritualist
Agrarian
 
Reviews are out. Scores are ranging from a 6, on IGN, to 9's.

This review on Steam seems to summarize most reviewers' thoughts pretty well.
PROS:

Huge level of customization with 93 species, 15 government types, civilization ethics and civilization traits make for thousands of possible combinations of unique civilizations.
Game does an excellent job combining the RTS mechanics with the 4X style of gameplay by keeping the maneuverability and control of an RTS while also the depth of a 4X game.
Stellaris provides a massive amount of depth when it comes to potential diplomacy between players. Vassal states, alliances, federations all provide players with the building blocks to build up and break down each other’s empires.


CONS:

There is no tech tree rather you get 3 semi-random choices of technology which prevents a lot of long term strategy and planning from working.

Game suffers from pacing issues as once all the stars are explored there is a lot of waiting around for stuff to finish with nothing to do during times of peace.

Primary weapon and defense technologies are very generic, there are some cool weapons you can get from side quests but 75% of the part upgrades are the exact same thing but with slightly higher stats.
 
To be fair, IGN's one big critique is often the downfall of paradox games. Once you get to the point where you have a stable empire, you can run out of things to do in single player mode. It won't bother me because I love the other paradox games and get a strange satisfaction from managing to create and govern a stable empire.
 
@Rawls Agreed. Paradox tried to address the late-game slog by introducing new late-game features in Stellaris (federations and crisis), but I guess it wasn't enough. *shrugs*

btw, the thing I like about Paradox games is fulfilling goals that take literal centuries to accomplish. It's a sense of satisfaction I don't get from other strategy games. It's one thing to eliminate your rival in Civ V, it's quite another to wipe them from the map in a EU4. Especially when your rival used to be a world super-power.

Since when have IGN known anything about games? :rofl:
This is true. They're the idiots who complained that Pillars of Eternity "has a dated art-style." IGN can go !@#$ themselves for all I care.
 
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I got it last night and played a couple hours. So far it's very satisfying. Only complaint is lack of a hot key for zoom in / zoom out which is inconvenient for my laptop.

Ultimately went with humans called Sol Systems Alliance. Individualist / Materialist / Xenophile with an indirect democracy. Traits are industrious, sedentary and quick learners. I'm using worm holes & nukes. It's really fun. I think some sort of leadership training / individual story lines would be a great addition to the current gameplay.
 
My brother and I played for 3 hours yesterday. His empire has Militaristic / Materialist / Xenophobic with a Military Republic. Traits are Industrious, Intelligent, Repugnant, and Slow learners..
My empire is Militaristic / Fanatic Spiritualists with a Theocratic Oligarchy. My traits are Talented, Enduring, and Solitary.

We had a lot of fun. Took us forever to learn how to build buildings tho. And we're behind the AI empires. Fortunately, we spawned next to a Xenophile empire. So I think we'll make an easy ally ;)
 
I'm going to buy it but I must admit it's a bit expensive don't you think? The Galaxy Edition looks great but 52.99!? Is it really worth that much?
 
LOL! Day 2 and the Warhammer 40K mod is already up on Steam worskhop (albeit in a very early stage of development) ;) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=681481647

---------- Updated at 07:05 PM ----------

I'm going to buy it but I must admit it's a bit expensive don't you think? The Galaxy Edition looks great but 52.99!? Is it really worth that much?
It's still 25% off on Green Man Gaming. That's where I bought my copy. Paradox verified them as an authorized seller.

Otherwise, you can wait until Dec and buy it 50% off. It's up to you.

edit: http://www.greenmangaming.com/stellaris-titles/?gclid=CI3T9PzO0MwCFQgxaQodBRcIVg

edit 2: Also, I wouldn't buy the galaxy edition. Just buy the regular version ;)
 
LOL! Day 2 and the Warhammer 40K mod is already up on Steam worskhop (albeit in a very early stage of development) ;) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=681481647

---------- Updated at 07:05 PM ----------

It's still 25% off on Green Man Gaming. That's where I bought my copy. Paradox verified them as an authorized seller.

Otherwise, you can wait until Dec and buy it 50% off. It's up to you.

edit: http://www.greenmangaming.com/stellaris-titles/?gclid=CI3T9PzO0MwCFQgxaQodBRcIVg

edit 2: Also, I wouldn't buy the galaxy edition. Just buy the regular version ;)


What's wrong with the Galaxy edition?
 
^^ Are you sure? When I click on it it says it's 25% off with the code: SPACE25

---------- Updated at 07:17 PM ----------

What's wrong with the Galaxy edition?
It's more expensive. And the extra portraits will probably be available as DLC in 1 month.
 
I have played few hours yesterday, and so far I really like it (before I knew it was 2 am :) ). I am at early colonization stage, and I hope diplomacy and war will be just as interesting.
 
My brother and I got 10 hours or so into our multiplayer campaign before we encountered a bug and had to restart. So we did.

I forget who he is playing as now. But I'm playing as a Spiritualist / Collectivist / Militarist with Despotic Empire for a government. Collectivism has really good technologies that give bonuses to colonization and empire management, so I highly recommend it for a rapid expansion strategy.

I started a SP campaign as the Imperium of Man :p Spiritualist, Xenophobic, Militarist with Divine Mandate government. Traits are Industrious, Strong, and Decadent. The Industrious + Strong trait combo is really strong. I have tons of minerals! Another recommendation ;)
 
Stellaris Dev Diary #33 - The Maiden Voyage

Sounds promising, especially GUI and management improvements.
When you have large empire sometimes too much of the micromanagement is required. F.e. during large wars - dozens of appearing and disappearing fleets can be overwhelming. Fortunately, I have allies so I can concentrate on large fleets :)

Improved diplomacy also would be nice.
 
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I'm around 35 years into my first game. It's still really good at this point. The lack of more individual characters and diplomacy are the only elements that leave me somewhat disappointed so far. I'm in an alliance with two pacifist nations. But between the three of us we are much stronger than any of the other surrounding empires (who are all still soloing). Focusing on minerals is definitely a good starting strategy I have found. I add energy as needed. Once you get the economy up and running (around 40 minerals a month) focus on research for a while and then once you satisfied with both, drift in to a balanced approach. I currently have 7 planets with another colony ship on the way. And I'm expanding in one direction generally because my allies are in the other direction, and I still haven't found an empire the way I'm going. So I figure that expanding in that direction while I still can makes conflict unnecessary currently. There are a bunch of worlds within my boarder that I can colonize later. I'm just continuing to reach outwards so that I can make myself as big as possible before getting boxed in (which will have to happen eventually).
 
@Rawls Yup, focusing on minerals seems to be the best course of action to me too. Right now I have a whopping 279 minerals per month and a balance at energy. I'm focusing completely on research now. Granted, I think I started at a really good position in the galaxy. But I think the main reason I'm this strong now is that the AI seems to be really easily exploited in diplomacy. Especially my allies are easily swayed with some energy credits to give me minerals (which are immensely more important) and I was able to snatch some nice non-aggression and open civilian borders agreements with lots of my neighbors (the ones I do not plan to eat yet :) ) in the early game so that I could colonize really strategic systems. Right now it is insane how fast I can grow my mineral coffers and pump out nightmarish armadas (When I had a navy with combined strength of around 40K, the combined strength of my rival alliance had around 25K... If you add in my 3 allies, you'll get an example view) :D Especially with the focus on research, I easily became the ultimate super-power of the galaxy earlier than I would have liked.

I'll need to do more runs before I judge this properly (as my starting position might have been the actual advantage) but the game seems a little bit too easy for now. For now, I think that the game needs some AI improvements, both in diplomacy and in the world map.
 
My first SP campaign ended early when I got invaded by my neighbor due to my Xenophobic preference. Sadly, his fleet strength was superior to mine and I got ROLF stomped. Fortunately, the AI didn't conquer any of my planets because apparently they aren't very smart. So I managed to build a fleet big enough to take down a single spaceport and invaded his home-world. Then, a few years later, I built up another fleet and did it again to another one of his systems. At that point, he got invaded by another neighbor who, oddly enough, likes me more than him despite the fact that they're both Xenophiles (it's weird.... I know). This has given me hope of winning the war, but I think I'll stop my campaign for now and restart. Reason why is simple: the AI would've beaten me by now if it was better programmed. The war has been going on for 20 years and there is really no reason why they haven't trashed all my spaceports and besieged every planet. Apparently the AI is simply too dumb to so.

For my next campaign I think I'll go back to my original strategy I planned for my first playthrough. Fanatic Spiritualist, Militarist with a Theocratic Oligarchy government. For traits I'll prolly go Strong, Enduring, and possibly something else (maybe charismatic?)
 
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