Pop growth feels painfully slow in late game after coming from virtual and genetic ascensions playthroughs so a psionic one

>>2157242
Your perception is impressive in that blind gay mole kind of way. And no last I checked the game is still allround a heap of ass, bit worse than what it was pre 4.0 even.

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Does it still have that game flow where you discover some ancient ruins or something, research them, then get a quest marker at some random place on map and all of that is just generic story with some variables changed in the text? I don't understand how this game is supposed to be interesting after the first couple of playthroughs
>pic kinda related

>>2157357
Yes.

infernals wants and wishes?

>>2158261
Let me inhabit a planet that other species types can't. Toxoids should have done this with toxic worlds but instead you just terraform them into something else.
Hopefully the portraits don't look like ass. Everything after Toxoids has been very hit or miss.

>>2158261
Cancel it and fix the base game and the existing dlc.

>>2157242
i just noticed that waldetoft is back in shadows of the shroud

>>2158261
For them to get over their abject fear of the game having any amount of complexity or genuine choice outside of roleplaying.

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>>2157242
Somehow, the new updates have been even worse. Maybe fix your damn game before making me pay for it again. How expansive is Stellaris DLC now, 300 or 400 dollars? What a fucking waste for a game that runs terribly and plays worse than when the game first released.

is virtual still busted?

>>2158261
Demon women are must.

>>2159292
There are other kinds?

Two bugs I ran into in this new DLC:
Amy forever stuck in an invaded planet and disappear.
If you pick psionic ascension your councilors will gain psionic trait(for councilor) very late in the game, start at around 2350 and get the trait at 2430.

How does auto-modding work in Stellaris? Do traits stack?

>>2157242
It's been a while and endbringers is still potentially unwinnable because you can't destroy seals placed by the wardens. Learning that their idea of qa is leaving stellaris running all night didn't surprise me whatsoever.

The AI is still garbage, I ran a galaxy where I was an observer, and everything was bad.

Their planets were bad, and their ships were bad.
They should honestly have some end-game presets that are good.

Also I notice that you rarely get any unique empires, like any genocidal or special ones.

I've never had to fight off a crisis empire :{

>>2161770
I see genocide and special origin empires in every game I play though.
Then again my game is modded out the ass.

>>2162032
Fucking lucky, I never seen them, and the few times I do they're getting bullied by everyone.

I think the best I've ever seen a genocidal empire do was as my isolated toxic knights, they managed to have a quarter of the galaxy.

I wanna have some actual threats in my game.

Thoughts on gigastructures? I like the idea but I feel like things get too silly if you don't use the more restrictive settings.

>>2162891

I think some later games ones are underpowered, particularly stuff like ring worlds. Even good ones like, like Dyson Spheres, should be even stronger. The Dyson Sphere gives you a lot of power, but it should give you even MORE power than even the most energy producing planet could ever dream off. Another problem is that they are often as powerful based as the DLC they are in it. As a rule of thumb, the newer and more expensive the DLC, the more powerful the megastructure will be. At the end of the day, the main advantage of megastructures is that you don't have to employ pops to use them.

>>2162891

Good ones are stuff like Dyson Swarms and Dyson Spheres, Arc Furnaces, Orbital Rings, Matter Decompressor, Grand Archive, Hyper Relays, Gateways, and Crisis Buildings. Strategic Coordination Center, Ring World, and Science Nexus are OK. Then there is Quantum Catapult and Mega Shipyard. Finally, everything else: Mega Art Installation, Interstellar assembly, Sentry Array...

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>>2159299
Orc and troll women, of course.

>>2157242
What are the things that become fucked up since 4.0? I just recently bought Stellaris and have been having a blast with it.
Had my first win on Captain difficulty and hoping to go up even more.
Now I'm worried about buying any of the DLC. Perhaps a specific list of needed DLC or avoided DLC.
Also is the 4.0 release just bad for previous players or am I just not understanding what is bad about this game?

>>2157242
I need Evolved back.

>>2163286
This is paradox anon, you need the DLC for half the features of the game and then the further expansions of said features from other DLC. It's easy enough to just pirate the DLC and decide for yourself whether it's actually worth paying money for.
I consider the 4.0 changes to be absolutely positive, but like previous mechanic changes it caused some bad bug issues initially. Coming from someone who hated the initial big pop/tile overhaul years ago.

>>2163314
A bit disappointing about the DLC, just wish it was cheaper. I say that, but there are just so many DLC.
Negative reviews for change of mechanics is understandable, but if it didn't make the game worse, I don't see why the hate or the consider Fuck Up.

>>2163286

Must have:

Utopia: Megastructures and ascensions. If you don't have Utopia you aren't playing Stellaris.
Ancient Relics & Distant Stars: Makes the galaxy feel more alive.
Federation: More complex federation and UN.
Synthetic Dawn: Robots.
Galactic Paragons: Without it leaders and levelling up them is ass.
Machine Age - Biogenesis - Shadows of the Shroud: Gives extra depth to ascension mechanics and each gives a Player Crisis.
Apocalypse: Megaships and planet crackers. Marauders. Great Khan Mid-game Crisis.
Megacorp: Megacorps & Space Commies.


>Good

Leviathans: Space Monsters to kill and War in Heaven (Fallen Empires wars).
Overlord: Vassal mechanics & Orbital Ring. Mass Relays.
Nemesis: Become the Protector/Emperor of the Galaxy or Destroy the Galaxy Player Crisis.
Grand Archive: More stuff to explore. Specimens to capture and train. Midgame Crisis.
Astral Planes: More archelogical sites.
First Contact: Pre-FTL stuff.

>Good Species Pack:

Humanoids: Humanoid portraits, shipsets, and some broken civics.
Toxoids: Alien Mutants and possibly better written origin in Stellaris.
Aquatics: Water Aliens
Necroids: Space Parasites/Undead

>Undercooked Species Pack:

Plantoids: Just plants and some good traits.
Lithoids: Living Rocks, potentially the worst species pack.


>Garbage

Cosmic Storms

>>2163426
This is more like it. There were so many DLC to choose from that I didn't really care about doing more with the game. Enjoyable as a stand alone, but this is informative and helpful.

>>2157242
How come Cetana can't spawn if you imprison the animator of clay?

>>2163426
>Astral Planes
>good
>Machine Age - Biogenesis - Shadows of the Shroud
>must have
Damn must be retarded

I like cosmic storms.

>>2163913
You deserve lag correction.

What kind of settings do you normally use? Any recommendations for weird ones that turn out to be good?

>>2160404
>Do traits stack?
Here's an example: Agrarian and Farm Appendages can stack with each other. But Vocational Genomics(on farming job) and Agrarian will not stack with each other since they both the same trait.

I need help understand these unspecialized nexus districts on machine worlds.

Like they're just housing and that's it...?

Also you terraform a world and you have mining districts but if you remove them all then it becomes unspecialized and there's no way back? At least that was my experience with the Nanite worlds.

>>2163426

I would swap Astral Planes and Cosmic Storms but otherwise this is a good list.

>>2164144
Crisis' are really weak so best to play on 20-25 times crisis strength.

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>ai is so fucking dogshit half the gameplay is fixing their shitty non min maxed worlds

>>2164460
You build a district in that area and then you can specialize it. No, the button doesn't appear until construction is complete so you have to babysit the planet before doing anything with the district, why do you ask?

>>2163606
I think cause you need him to end the crisis so if you trap him it would never end

>>2164144
Less habitable worlds so the AI can't spam 50 colonies.

>>2165859
Doing a run with the opposite of this just for the hell of it. Minimum size galaxy, 5x habitable planets. Each of my sectors has about 10 colonies in it.

>>2165838
Isn't that only if you want to reprogram her?

I want to play Stellaris for the first time, and I want to experience it as it was in the long-ago time. What version should I play?

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the only thing I can say about Stellaris is that it is aggressively okay. like there is nothing about it that stands out it's the most 5/10 mediocre but kinda fun game I've played

>>2166066
if you want old ftl and tile system at it's peak then 1.9

>>2165945
That just sounds like it increases the already high micromanagement hell

>>2166120
That's what I play the game for. I've also done a run in a max size galaxy with no AI just so I can make a perfect empire with no competition. I love filling in spreadsheets.

>>2157242
>I at least expected some talk about the new Psionic Expansion.

I don't like how Stellaris does Psionics and I don't think I ever will, so this expansion was just more of the same bullshit. Skip.
Mind you, I fully realize "my idea" is untenable because I always though psionics should be an "Easter Egg". It shouldn't be a main gameplay feature, they shouldn't explain or advertise anything about it, it should be something you have to dig around and root for; methodically unlocking it through multiple play sessions, finding clues n' bits in archeology, genetics, spiritual pursuits, that kind of thing. Really make use of that "visual novel" gameplay.

That and there should be a Psionic Hive-Mind option to play as a god. Not a capitalized G, but just one of those Star Trek type lower deities with followers/worshippers replacing "drones".

>>2158261
>infernals wants and wishes?

This exact post: >>2158262
Infernals should be what Toxoids 'aught to have been in the fucking first place. The obligate, "species with such a noxious or foreign biochemistry that they can't co-exist with other organisms."
If Stellaris was COOL (they're not) they'd do that with Infernals AND realize they're retarded and change/upgrade Toxoids accordingly.

>>2157242

>>2166111
2.X > 1.X > 3.X >> 4.X
1.X gets bonus points for trying. 4.X just made the game worse.

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>>2163286
>>2163426
As a retarded new fag buying into that jew shit,
here's the 2 cents on my Discount DLCs. pack.

>GET STARTER PACK!
if you accidentally got core game on sale first
>GET UPGRADE BUNDLE
>https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33199/Stellaris_Upgrade_Bundle/
ALL those are essential, fill up your Starter Bundle with those ASAP
it's not even a game without them

>Ancient Relics & Galactic Paragons & Overlord
core gameplay the fucks intentionally left out, IMHO

>Apocalypse & Leviathans:
actually makes something happen in an otherwise sterile Galaxy

>First Contact
when you happen upon pre-FTL, it's really boring without
>Humanoids
Human supremacy, mammal ships look like ass

Don't have more, this shit was already stupidly expensive enough!
On sale of course.
I'll explain more if anybody cares.

>>2169115
>buying
Stopped reading there

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>>2169116
stfu brownfag

>>2169118
Don't you have a general on /vg/ to get laughed and B& in? lmao

>>2169119
don't like it when your shitty poo trojan doesn't infect somebody, huh

>>2168810
>1.X gets bonus points for trying
1.X>2.X just for the FTL variants
I don't even care about tiles

Been two years since I last played. So uhh....how's performance now?

>>2170276
About as bad as it's always been. Commit genocide for lag reduction.

>>2170051
>>2168810
Nah. 4.X is solid.

What's the most dystopian government in Stellaris?

>>2170322
Fanatic Xenophiles with a government dedicated to replacing it's own population with aliens.

>>2170322
Oppressive Autocracy gives more unhappiness than being literal lifestock.

>>2170276
Just as bad, but amazingly for different reasons.

when is the dev diary for the species pack coming out

Are Biogenesis and Shadows of the Shroud worth buying at the current price?

>>2170722
no dlc is worth buying, anon
creamapi is a thing

>>2170722
Are they good? Sure. Are they worth full price? Never. Pirating the DLC unless you have more money than sense (like me) is standard for paradox.

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>>2170276
they've finally figured out their retarded ship concept was lagging everything out
solution now, HoI4 CopyPasta
probably

>>2170722
from what I understand, both basically upgrade & flesh out Genetic & Psi ascendancy to the robot/cyborgnigger level

>>2170553
when they can finally figure yor mum's species

>>2170322
Democracy.

>>2157242
Bump

>>2157242
Just bought this.

How do I even learn? There's no Tutorial section. Am I just expected to wing it until it clicks?

>>2174586
I just got the game off of GOG like three days ago. You really don’t need the tutorial, at least from what I’ve experienced so far. There’s an optional advisor that can guide you through the systems whenever you start a new game, but I found it annoying and turned it off. Just check the wiki whenever you hit something you can’t understand from tooltips or intuition.

>>2174586
If you can't even find the tutorial that pops up as soon as you start a game you've already proven as too retarded to try and help

>>2174586
if you are playing as a gestalt, the ethic in the middle, it disables the tutorial for some reason, you then have re-enable it in the settings, under 'gameplay'

>Can no longer trade resources for senate favours
That's so gay, a cool mechanic of corruption/bribery removed, probably because of multiplayer balance only sweats ( <10% of player base) care about

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>>2174589
youtube tutorials and beginner tips
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFn2uu_m7ek
Basically did nothing but watch these for a couple of hours.
Make sure it's 4.x tutorials and tips, everything else is fucking useless.

Also we just joined at the worst possible time in their patch saga.
But after 8 years, at least somebody is still patching that shit.

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>>2174586
after working through the youtube vids,
the next retardation in Stelaris gameplay is the fucking SCIENCE LOTTERY!

>https://bloodstainedcrow.github.io/stellaris-tech-tree/phoenix-4.0.10/
there ya go

>>2170321
Thank you paracuck.

>>2175724
Do you hate Alpha centauri too?

>>2170321
>Nah.
>>>/reddit/

>>2176777
Nah.

>Azaryn gives you three free Gaia worlds
Oh, come on.

I shan't be managing more than five colonies.

>>2169115
Leave the fraking jews alone, you palpatinian dwamak.

Now, if a starting empire (no researched tech) were to invade Earths right now, would we have a chance?

>>2176749
smac has random research optional though

>>2177868
yeah you can turn it off if you're a bitch

>>2176832
You'd make a fine sector governor in my empire.

>>2170321
I'm still on 4.0.23.
not touching 4.1 before it's done

so which no whites only species mod are you guys using these days

>>2180811
>not physically deleting niggers from your HD
anon...

>>2162096
Get a mod that gives more tradition slots and ascension slots, eventually almost every AI will pick a crisis path.

>>2175724
I like the science cards because it keeps the absoulte worst of minmax tardery out.
When I was younger and getting into civ forums, learning that people would just beeline some specific techs for meta reasons and ignore things like the wheel and shit, I was disgusted.

>>2169115
Explain more. I care.

>finally play Stellaris new pop update today
>thought it was be going difficult due to the changes
>turns out its just more buttons and menus to do build shit
>100 pops equals to 1 pop in past updates but its just bigger number now
WTF is paradox doing with this game.

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>>2182145
Ah, ok.
>Megacorp
it's in must have but I intentionally postponed buying it
because I couldn't care less about space Jewmazon playstyle or slave trading
and every alien I meet uncontrollably infesting my worlds with their branch offices just pisses me off even more

Only thing really appealing are the City Worlds,
but choosing Remnant origin makes me the only one with those and I'm very happy about THAT.

Rest is as I already explained.
Tons of weird DLC ranking videos out there that pretty much all ignore the main Stellaris problem.

NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS,
if you don't have the fucking DLC for it.
Pretty sure I figured out the actual essential DLCs
Hope it helps, have fun.

>>2182944
>uncontrollably infesting my worlds with their branch offices
but they can only build offices if you have a commerce pact or they're a criminal heritage corp?
either way you always have a casus belli to kick them out

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looks like we are indeed getting habitable lava world

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>>2183307
oh, true
announcement just dropped

not a big fan,
they should've looked like Tholians from Trek instead of fucking D&D Orks, Demonoids

>>2157242
dropped it until they fix all the bugs. Still waiting

>>2157357
they tripled down on this as predicted

>>2182356
They did it to reduce computation costs and improve performance by making it the same type of data as resources. I do notice the impact.

>>2182356
Windowdressing. It's kinda their thing for the past ten years or so. God forbid they add some depth or remotely competitive AI to their games when dlc buying idiots fall for lots of shiny buttons in their stack modifiers, watch numbers go higher game formula.

>>2183496
what's funny is that they'll be able to do this for at least another 5 years. there is simply too much shit too click but they will keep adding more

>>2183533
Who's going to stop them? Best competition they currently have is slitherine or stardock or some single entry indie or indie adjacent and their games have their own issues with less marketing and significantly less brainwashed fans. I can't even blame paradox. Look at say hoi1/2. It's a basic ass boardgame in the same vein of earlier EUs all derived from Crown of the North. Then they make a more serious entry with Hoi3 and it sells like shit since most people don't want a serious game. Then they make 4 and it's panned for being feature barren, extremely shallow and focused on everything except muh history and muh actual ww2 narrative. It sold great and it's still selling dlc because you can turn off your brain and let automation fulfil your fantasy of notbrazillian mapuche anarchists fighting over the crucial eastern balkan front vs the eskimo-tibetan nazi block or some equally weird meme shit.

It is what it is anon.

UI overhaul dynamic is fucked up and doesn't let you pick a room in the city and room tab
finna KMS, why do the modders have to be just as ass as the devs

>>2159292
rip

>>2183469
suggest you pick up poker or roulette or just checkers
computer games are not for you then

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>>2183673
>finna KMS

>>2183979
fuck off johann
the balatro guy was able to make a bug-free game. why can't your billion-dollar studio do the same?

Question.
What's going on with Planetary Diversity author? Why doesn't he allow commentaries on steam workshop page or the use of his mods in modpacks?

>>2185701
Sounds like standard modder schizophrenia. Many such cases.

>Devouring swarm+Evolutionary Predators build+Bioships+Behemoth crisis+Cordyceptic drones
>You have tankier ships that regenerate quick as hell
>As you consume species you gain traits quicker than normal
>The more traits you get, the more HP your ships have which by extension regenerates quicker
>This passes onto your behemoth which gains comical values of HP and regen, and with mid-game selection of Cordyceptic drones the largest weapons of your behemoth gain fucktons more damage and ROF
Most based bio-build ever

>>2185701
yeah this is standard sometimes, modders just want their proprietary information that they're sharing to only be shared by them. Aurora 4x has a dev who has said if anyone mods his game with gameplay mods (cosmetic is fine), he'll stop releasing, which is funny.
>>2186052
It's not schizophrenia as much as they put a lot of work into the stuff, they don't want people making rip offs or stealing content in bad faith.

>>2187873
It is autism, but I'm trying to be nice, they are literally doing unpaid labor.

>>2157242
Is the game still broken or did they finally fix it?

>>2189147
That depends on what you mean by 'broken'.
There's always bugs because they just keep fucking around with the game. But you can play to 2500 and win without issues most of the time.
The new UI system is way the fuck better than how it used to be.

>>2189154
I heard the big 4.0 update fucked the game up big time and I haven't touched it since that update. Did they fix whatever they fucked up?

>>2189163
In a nutshell it completely changed how planets/districts/etc work, and a bunch of retards got salty that the retarded system was replaced by a slightly less retarded one.
Other than that, not really any major issues.
I guess there's some power creep going on, but that's Paradox DLC's in a nutshell.

The AI is so fucking stupid, I've been annoyed at how the evil/genocidal empires never pop in my, so I've tested it in observer.

Every single one of the genocidal empires I watched died before year 2250, because they can't build up even a basic economy or use their fleets well.

They also seem to wait to invade until the enemy has built up forces, I'm guessing that's because of the Intel update.

They should change it so early game Genocidal empires attack sooner

>>2164646
Can't make the AI too good or casual will cry about it

>>2189791
There's a lot of various starts that are rather powerful and can stomp genocidals even with their buffs.
Like the origin that starts you in a federation with a couple mini-empires. Individually you're all weak but together you'll have like 2x more fleet power than anybody else due to the federation fleet.

>>2190266
That's so fucking annoying, Genocidal's should be an early game menace, but every single time they die before midgame.

I just wanna fight off a crisis empire for once or something

>>2190276
It's weird that normal empries don't pick crisis paths. You'd think by starting with 24 fucking empires at least a couple would pick it. But apparently not???

>>2190283
crisis empires has to be either fan militarist or fan xenophobe AND has a hostile civic such as barbaric despoilers or is a gestalt AND has a hostile civic such as driven assimilator for machines or bodysnatcher for hives, additionally the empire must be independent
for cosmogenesis. i've no idea i've only seen an ai take it once

>>2190298
They should loosen the rules for crisis empires. Empires who don't form big federations should take crisis perks to get stronger.

I used to enjoy Stellaris, but after not playing for a year my last playthrough was so boring, it is just a reading and clicking simulator at this point.

And my first time fighting Cetana, the idea is nice but the execution so boring.

>>2190307
Cetana sucks dick and bugs out way more often than the other end-game crisis.
She's not even fun to fight, it's a simple 'you cannot fight her until you do all the quests' and even then, it's just a DPS-gated battle which means swarms of maulers or frigates because anything else gets 1 hit KO'd anyways.

>>2190298
My inner ideas guy says that AIs should become increasingly more eager to take paths like crisis, galactic emperor and otherwise more driven to conquer/unite the galaxy after the endgame crisis.
I like the idea of the galaxy going from a period of relative stability with power generally consolidated into a few blocs mediated by the galactic community, following that being shattered by the war in heaven and arrival of the crisis, and in the aftermath the resulting power vacuum and sense of 'there's far more dangerous shit out there than we thought, we can't afford to be complacent' drives most empires to seek to consolidate the galaxy one way or another. In theory it makes for a cool narrative and means that the game hasn't basically ended the moment the crisis is dealt with regardless of the prior geopolitical situation, but in practice it probably wouldn't be as fun as I imagine it though.

>>2190313
Even worse I was playing psionic, so Cetana just surrendered.
For the endgame crisis I do enjoy the prethoryn and the ai crisis.

Also it is lame that cetana just instakills a fallen empire

>>2190388
>Also it is lame that cetana just instakills a fallen empire
Oh lol she instakills ALL fallen empires. Actually she instakills AWAKENED empires as well.
It's bullshit.

>>2190384
It could be a function of the devastation of the galaxy, if the crisis is dealt quickly I can imagine the galaxy returning to the status quo instead of a large part of the galaxy is destroyed, the remaining empires turning very militaristic.

>>2190403
Yeah there's a lot of ways you could play around with the idea depending on the outcome of the crisis, the ethics of the major powers and so on. Maybe the pacifist empires start blobbing into a single big megafederation due to the renewed sense of comradery from succesfully uniting to off the crisis, maybe the militarists decide there can only be one and start beelining crisis paths. Really I just want the galaxy to feel more dynamic, which is the most dissapointing part of Stellaris right to me.

>>2190410
Instead of that prepare for a wall of text archeological sites version 2.0 or even worse cosmic storms.

It pisses me off, because this game had so much potential and the expansions are one step forward three steps backwards

>They still haven't fixed the Behemoth crisis path
It's the only crisis path that actively nerfs the player empire, they need to fix that shit.

>>2157242
Psionic feels really lame
>only 4 base patreons, whoms buffs range from okay to awful
>whisperer only aviable midgame but the buffs it gives you barely matter at this stage.
I'm also pissed that prisoner sequence research or whatever requires CRIMINALS over normal citizens, instead of doing the smart thing and make them create crime while being worked on by normal pops. Makes it feel clunkier than most modded civics. Outside of combining it with necrophage tankbound also feels like it was barely tested at all.

>>2157357
It's hilarious that they thought their writers were so hot shit that they sold entire DLCs that were just a bunch of "quest" text boxes and nothing else. But of course the retards ate it up

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>>2190487
I wonder if they playtested how much of a hit the free EoW aura surge ships does to performance...

>>2162891
One of those dumbass mods that just powercreeps the game well beyond what the developers intended.
Might as well just use console commands while you're at it.

>>2190537
>what the developers intended.
The developers change what they intend nearly every year.

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I HECKIGN LOVE MY HYBRID GRANDKIDS

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>>2190879
>the history of slugcats

>>2187693
I tried it but my behemoth ate almost every planet, so I got stuck in the situation.

>>2191008
Your final situation is based on your empire size.
Num your own planets.

>>2191016
Between 15 - 20.
I use to play with 0.25 habitable worlds.

Any mod for playing tall?
I don't like to manage more that 10 planets.

I haven't played this game in a year or so.
Did you still suffer over promotion if you build too many buildings? The thing where you end up with a bunch of specialists but no workers unless you manually go back and reorder everything

>>2191111
Yes, but you can limit the maximum number of jobs available.

>>2191111
Just stop building fucktons of research districts then?

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>>2190891
>>2190879

tried to make Hedonist Civic work with Instrument of Desire. It feels like picking chosen is a trap since you barely notice the difference and Auras dont get unlocked until you start the situation. Really disappointing. Also feels like for Tankbound to work you really need to either start as Necrophage or go Materialist. The only patreon they really benefit from is the Whisperer and for some retarded reason that one doesnt unlock until midgame

>>2191115
Thanks
>>2191120
That's annoying. PDX should just make systems that work

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I pirated an up to date stellaris and it FUCKING SUCKS JESUS CHRIST, it wasnt so bad 5 years ago. Apparently growth was decimated, ok fine, I can respect an exponential, but I cant snowball at all wtfffff. It's so grindy. How to make good again? Not fun (it was never fun), just good.

>>2192191
>but I cant snowball at all wtfffff
Cloning and bio ascension for pop growth.

>>2192191
>Apparently growth was decimated
it's an adjustable setting now you fucking retard
zip it all the way to minimize/remove the scaling and enjoy your space bangladesh
I know I do

>only 4 new species traits

>>2192191
Pretend bio psionics don't exist.

>>2193328
The new default setting for growth is at the maximum. That honestly shows they haven't figured it all out properly yet.

>Redesigns popgrowth
>Doesn't adjust AI to handle this
I sure love stumbling across AI planets with no forms of pop-growth-boosting buildings and only like 300 people on them, meaning they suffer massive pop-growth-debuffs.
They literally spread themselves too thin, which I find to be outrageous because they can nab pops from other empires.
How the fuck do my hivemind devouring swarm pops outnumber entire massive federations of species???

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>>2190879>>2190891

Has science gone too far?

>play as diplomatic hivemind
>ally some random weak empire
>peacefully vassalise them
>peacefully integrate them
>all their pops become undesireables to be exiled, eaten or gassed
first of all there really isn't a reason why a hive can't keep some individuals around even if they're not the most efficient use of space
secondly this incredibly swedish separation between species and empire just keeps yielding more and more retarded results just like this

>>2195657
Hive minds are barely given any attention by the devs, only recently have we been getting some neat DLC's and patches about them.
Basically lore-wise the hivemind planets are so inhospitable that regular people can't live there.
So there should be a civic which allows non-hive pops.

>>2195658
It's poorly thought out and implemented worse.
Regular xenophobe empires can just get a migration treaty and pick up some pops to colonise a planet their primary species can't even step foot on. And it's all OK because the aliens are all interchangeable economic units which are loyal to whoever collects their taxes, not to their species.
But my friendly wild hivemind simply cannot help itself and must expand to any planets it conquers, even if they're inhabited by a friendly and subservient species. There's no option to just send commands and collect taxes like the regular empires presumably do when they use bugmen to colonise a radioactive hellhole while the primary species is gaia preference.

>>2195664
xenophile*

>>2195657
>>2195658
I thought it was possible to integrate them into your hive if you had the proper tech?

>>2195739
You can assimilate non-hives into your hivemind but this is a non-peaceful mind-erasure.

>>2195787
>>2195739
it also takes tech you don't always have

They need to turn the space combat into an instance like Endless Space

>>2196142
or they could be like the ground battles, with visuals being just that, visuals
not sure how hard they are on the cpu though

>>2157242
In all honesty I want to get hybrids without the need to get exon-compatibility, that's 1. Can be made that they are rare (depending if your people are also xenophobes or xenophiles which would also affect how it all works) and only between species from the same group (AKA: humanoids with humanoids, fungoids with fungoids and so on).
2, I think planetary invasions should be heavily reworked and we should get a lot of new ground units + an army editor that works similarly to the ship editor. Stuff like tanks, air forces, mechs, landships, etc.
3. Would be fun to implement gigastructures into the game for real.

>>2196606
A lot of ascension perks should have origin-versions with twists.

>>2157242
>try out Instrument
>meh
>try out eater of worlds
>either a brutal -25% armor reduction or some retarded ship stealing mechanic
I'm really not enjoying what they did with Psyonic. Even the "world ender" origin feels really medicore and way too dependant on rng.
Psyonic wardens feels like a NPC faction modded to be playable with how clunky it feels.

>>2197657
How do I avoid attuning to eater?
>stop fighting wars
no

>>2157280
lol

>Playing on normal difficulty
>Somehow I have 100k+ fleets when even the largest federation fleet is barely pushing 40k
Why is the AI so fucking weaksauce? Even the huge leviathans are only about 30-50k worth.

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>people who thought fire cult was actually going to be good

>>2199364
>better kinetic artillery
Already sounds good to me.

>>2190879
the wrong kind of xenophilia
as a certified xenophile enjoyer, the proper way is to disable that shit and turn your capital into an ecumenopolis and invite all the friendly species to settle there
then you genemod the foreigners to maximize their innate abilities so they can meaningfully contribute to your empire of frens

>>2199829
>maximize their innate abilities so they can meaningfully contribute to your empire of frens
Second this. Livestock slavery is great.

My last playthrough I did psychic slaver elves. Most planets were 90% slaves, and since only the happiness of citizens count, were ecstatically happy.

Whacky game but waaay too much micro

>>2190487
When I last played (5years ago) the idea behind psionics was cheesing research cards to get it early for the power bump and then going on a universal bliztkrieg to knee cap everyone else.

>>2199829
It's weird that xenophillia is objectively the most powerful because you can basically just nab everyone's pops for your own purposes.
But I almost always just play devouring swarm, despite the limitations that has.

>>2199873
You could argue that's xenophilia as well.

>>2199796
thats from Galvanic Empire / Biometallic Cartel / Galvanic Synthesis, not Fire Cult

>>2170336
Oy vey!

So, when will this game have strategy?

>have played a bit but still have no idea what I'm doing
>glossed over new dlc stuff, sounds cool
>create criminal syndicate with secret societies and endbringers origin
>scenario imagined in my head: bring about galactic chaos with extreme jewery before sweeping up the remains with my doom cult
>get started on the archaeological site immediately to get ready
>economy on the brink of implosion due to origin debuffs intensifying + the ones you get from the dig site
>get psionic theory at the end
>maybe this will fix it
>oh god
>fuck fuck fuck
>aiiieeeeeeeee cycleman save me
>finish the psionics tree and start delving
>cycleman actually saves me
>delve a few more times
>cycleman unsaves me by telling me to go murder everyone NOW and tanking all my diplo relations
>neighbor claims on my systems start rolling in
>oh btw your systems will explode in a few months :)
well that was an interesting experience
maybe I should read up on what this shit does before mashing a retard build together next time

>>2201976
Who would've thought that making deals with literal warp-demons would maybe be a bad idea lmao.

>>2200288
Around the time stellaris 2 comes out and this looks good by comparison.

>>2201976
>make doom cult
>get doomed
pottery

>>2201976
Maybe you should think twice before pressing something marked with bold red letters warning you otherwise. Sounds like you had fun at least.

How the fuck do the hivemind fallen empire have a Sky Dragon, an Ether Drake, and a motherfucking Toxic God???

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Can't make a custom life-seeded/syncretic evolution origin to save my life. For some reason, the events I've made to fire the planet or species creation stuff doesn't work and I'm stuck with a gaia planet with no rural districts or no secondary species pop for the latter...

>>2203799
They should've made that Fallen Empire create a level 3 behemoth when they awaken.

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found this old post on my drive a while ago that sums up my thoughts nicely
absolutely nothing has changed since then

>>2189791
>Every single one of the genocidal empires I watched died before year 2250, because they can't build up even a basic economy or use their fleets well.

its worse than that, i dumped massive amounts of alloys and spawned pops on the fanatical purifier and devouring swarm empires to try and make the game more interesting and they still all either died early or did nothing the whole game. I had to tag switch to them and declare war on their neighbors for any of them to do anything even when they had a massive advantage over their neighbours

they always get assraped by slavers or do nothing all game

>>2207049
did you set ai aggressiveness to high? if not, thats your problem

>>2206739
>stellaris is a sandbox game
Yes we know, you fucking retard.
If you want to play a 'canon' round of Stellaris play as the default human empires and shit.
Canonically Stellaris is a simulation that repeats itself indefinitely with different factions.
All the elements are jokes, the "Hunters" chasing the Prethoryn are the developers, get it, they squish bugs?

>>2206739
Yeah stellaris is boring as shit, every time I give it a try I feel the same. Soulless fucking game.

>>2207081
yes, thats why they get assraped by their neighbors

>>2207770
Genocidals shouldn't be able to lose early wars, if anything early is when they're strongest.

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>>2206739
That's funny, I saved the same one. The more things change the more they stay the same.

>>2207843
Ironically megacorp gave me hope for the game when it came out. It didn't last.

>>2207790
The AI cannot properly fight a multiple front war unless it drastically overpowers its opponents. Genocidal combat buffs are strong but not strong enough to overcome that limitation.
Unless the genocidal manages to snowball early and to a crazy extent it's doomed to fall.

Stellaris, Endless Space 2 or Sins 2?

>>2208495
Even if it snowballs, it just didn’t get much out of conquest because in this game pops = power, and they wipe out pops by design. They would need to basically 5x the growth benefits from genocide to be viable.

>>2207934
think I will never buy this DLC
everything about it pisses me of except for the Corruscant planets

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>>2208539
start with ES2, Ultimate on sale is a steal
Sins 1 is better

stay. away. from. us.
we are doomed..

>>2208539
2000+ hours in stellaris here, do not buy stellaris.

>>2208973
>buying dlc
bro?

>>2207843
>>2206739
I feel giving Stellaris something like CK2 has, where you can roleplay your ruler and it has more immersive events as your ruler would help fix this. Otherwise you're just blobbing while occasionally giggling quietly at some funny circumstance you've contrived.

>>2208495
Non-Genocidals rarely make federations early on though.

>>2209964
correct, but they make defensive pacts real easy

>>2210009
Yeah that's true, sucks ass when they do that.
They should make genocidals better at managing pop-growth, devouring swarms should be able to get shitloads of pops quickly.

>>2209466
Then they would need a whole suite of lite RPG mechanics for roleplaying a character who might spend significant amounts of time out of power, since many empires will be democratic.

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>paradox still has not made playable fallen empire DLC yet
that shit will sell like golden hotcakes

>>2208986
>>2208982
W-what do you mean? Bad game? Bunch of bugs that devs don’t fix for years?

>>2210624
That's just cosmogenesis.
But what would you do as an FE anyways?

>>2210653
Make ridiculous demands of your lessers then punish them with humiliation wars when they refuse. Ruin the galaxy with a poorly timed war against your ancient rival. Job to cetana.

>>2210849
So do pretty much nothing for the majority of the game or cause an early war in heaven before ceasing to exist via synthqueen, great...

>>2210075
>roleplaying a character who might spend significant amounts of time out of power, since many empires will be democratic
That's just merchant republics with how fast doges drop dead. The max number of potential leaders employed dwarves the number of no-name courtiers in a single kingdom (and all its duchies/counts).

Which retard thought Cetana was remotely a fun Crisis to play against?
>Lol you can't attack her!
Nigger I have several million fleet power, why the fuck not!
>Just can't! Now go do her dumbass quests which bug out all the time and leave her invulnerable until she wins lol

>>2210876
Swedes

>>2210876
The idea was nice but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. There really does need to be an option for a sufficiently advanced empire to just brute force things..

>>2210927
She feels like some developers faggy special snowflake OC character they wanted to add in.
All the others feel pretty generic but that's sort of the point of Stellaris.
Prethoryn=Tyranids/zerg/etc
Unbidden=Dimensional horror invaders
Contingency=Terminator, Matrix, etc
Then Cetana shows up and has...DIALOGUE? You're not supposed to talk to the fucking crisis outside of some small lore snippets! You're SUPPOSED to blow them up!

>>2210927
It's absolutely horrible. Why is it only possible to attack her fleets and systems during an events early on? They are clearly not invulnerable if I can do that so it should be possible to fight her normally.
>>2210937
>She feels like some developers faggy special snowflake OC character
Especially with the retarded events to fuck you over if you have low opinions with her.

>>2157242
Is the game still increasingly shit and laggy the longer you play it?

>>2211016
>Game where more shit appears ingame as it progresses gets worse performance as game goes on
No shit?
But right now it lags far more than it has any right doing so, it goes to a crawl post 2350 or so

>>2211016
yes, but you can reduce the lag with genocide

>>2210937
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetan%C4%81
Worse, it's a buddhist larp + borg queen from star trek.

>>2211021
>>2211022
I haven't touched shitlaris in like a year but I'm not surprised.

>>2211034
It feels too much like a faggy OC, firstly it's fucking female despite being a robot.
As if that makes any sense.

>>2211038
What's wrong with sexy robots?

>>2211042
She isnt' sexy and her goal is retarded.
>Lol if everyone is literal gorillas, nobody will be upset! DURRRRRRRRRRRRR!

>>2211038
It does but I repeat: + borg queen from star trek.

>>2210876
A reaction to players jumping on every other crisis the instant they spawn and deleting them before they can do anything.

>>2211268
>you can't allow players to play the game how they want it
Fuck off

>>2211268
Maybe make the crisis enemies more powerful then? Not my fault your faggy Tyranid ripoffs get 1 salvo-killed by awakened empires.

>>2210876
I have never not had Cetanna bug out on me. I had to go manually disable her so that she'd stop killing x25 all crisis runs by just breaking. Probably the worst one I've seen is where all her fleets spawned in the same system and their pathing broke, so all the spawn-in raiding fleets and everything just sat in the same inaccessible system on a stack of like 200 million fleet power.

>Nom nomming the galaxy with behemoths
>90% of AI planets are in the stage of 'colonization' with no progress ever made
Is that why they're so fucking weak? What the fuck is going on?

>the Yuht are still fucking worthless.
At least it's possible to disable them now, but why the fuck are they even in the game? Even when they add new mechanics to the game like the specimen the Yuht still have terrible ones. It's like they are making them worthless on purpose.

Cetana also has no counter-faction that shows up to help the galaxy beat her.
So if your galaxy is full of drooling retard AI nations, you're fucked lmao.

>>2211396
They don't prioritize pop growth buildings and those are 100% essential now.

>>2211591
No no no, I don't mean just 'low pops' or anything like that.
The planets are not even colonized yet, they're stuck in an endless colonization phase.
That absolutely must be crippling AI factions.

>>2211597
That's obviously a bug. What mods are you using? I'd suspect a conflict of some sort is being fucky.

>>2211614
No mods, just plain 'ol vanilla.

>>2211571
The AI is literally just not coded to engage in any of Cetanna's mechanics whatsoever. It just completely ignores the existence of the crisis until the clock ticks out and dies. Just another reason it's among the worst additions to the game in recent memory

>>2211618
In that case I'd report it. Never seen that happen myself though, merely seen the colonies underdeveloped.

>>2211623
>Nuh uh! My special snowflake OC robo-girlboss shouldn't be affected by AI empires!
God it gets even worse.

>>2211623
What do you mean? I've seen the AI attack her convoys and bases all the time.

>>2211639
That could be the fleets literally stumbling across her shit.

>>2211623
>The AI is literally just not coded to engage in any of Cetanna's mechanics whatsoever
that explains a lot

>a decade has passed and the ai is still dogshit and the game is still laggy as fuck

>Get Toxoids pack
>Galaxy is full of toxic planets that nobody can fucking use
>Need a whole fucking ascension perk to use em
What a shit-tier addition.

Some species in the galaxy at 2400 have only like 20k fucking pops. How the fuck?
I have individual planets with that many.

>>2214123
Losing side of wars against a genocidal, didn't get to expand much in the first place, pre-ftl. Many reasons for it really.

>>2214542
I should've said 'most' not 'some'.
It looks like AI empires really fucking suck at using medical centres and cloning facilities.
Plus the retarded pop rework makes the noobtrap of not adding extra pops to newly colonized planets. You basically want to get the capital building up and running immediately.

>>2214726
What difficulty?
They do suck at it general but consider they get resettlement cost reductions on higher difficulties I would think they'd do better with it there.

>>2214758
The one where they don't get negatives or bonuses.

>>2214761
Ensign then? I'd really recommend at least commodore. The AI honestly needs that handicap. I'd prefer they be more intelligent sure, but as it is without it you just roll over them.

>>2214761
Bro... AI sucks at building their shit on boosted admiral let alone those levels.

>bio ascension
>get bugged event telling me that an AI empire unlocked psionic potential
>it uses my species name
>check if there are any pops of my species in other empires
>no
>ok weird bug
>a few years later I get psionic techs that should be locked behind the ascension path
Do they even have QA anymore?
>>2214758
>>2214805
The AI sucks on GA as well. Even if you play casually the AI is just incapable of building their planets properly so they will end up falling behind after a few years.

What decade do you typically ascend? Trying to fix my shite bio ascension build w/o using overtuned or any of the other meta picks

>>2216722
year 30-50 with traditions on x0.5

>Shitload of interesting anomalies/events are barred from Hiveminds
>They get a couple boring ones as a compromise
Devs fix your shit.

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>>2168810
Interesting. I've been learning the game on a 3.4.4 copy i had downloaded some time ago and never actually played. Been having fun learning the game but just spend a long time searching for why I didn't have the psionics tree in my game. Turns out I need 3.8. Might it be worth it to just jump to 4.1?

>>2217212
nta, the latest i'd recommend updating to 3.14, 4.x is garbage

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>>2217225
ty anon. please enjoy this short movie i found that mirrors my current stellaris game

>>2217233
so did a FE gift you a fleet or an ai offer an alliance?

Patch released, obligatory casual run through time. IDK what to play.

>>2217292
Life seeded pacifist plantoids with idyllic bloom/planetscrapers, but you choose the raiding ascension perk

>>2217292
>Implemented some slavery, presapient, and robot category fixes
Materialist slaver Necrophages, your second species with the nascent stage trait. Tell us if they work again, anon

>>2217292
A better game

>>2217384
>you will join our paradise whether you want to or not

>>2217292
Lustful Void run of large breasted, natural anal lube milk maids who steal slaves for breeding cows and bulls.

>>2217225
misspelled 1.9

>>2218379
yes, 1.9 was pretty garbage wasnt it?

>dude I wanna go back to before ships had retreat mechanics so wars were decided in a single fight between two doomstacks

>>2218465
Yep.

>>2217292
rogue servitor genesis architects, additionally must destroy any non organics in the galaxy and be voted into custodianship

>>2218465
But wars are still decided by doomstacks. The only difference is that it's now a game of whack-a-mole as well.

>>2218465
>destroy enemy fleet
>lol jk it's not actually destroyed go kill it five more times.

Did they fix the game yet? Last I checked they released the big patch and the hive mind DLC and they broke the game.

>>2218575
>defeat enemy fleet
>the survivors are now even weaker
>obviously defeat it again
>now even weaker
>repeat while taking their system
>this is somehow meant to fix doomstacks
I now Paradox devs don't know how to play their own games, but I really want to know what they thought when they added this. It changes nothing and makes wars more tedious.
>>2218598
No

>>2218606
>>2218575
It allows whoever is weaker a chance to regroup and fight back. You'd know that if you ever fought a war against someone stronger than you.
>>2218528
>can't win in a direct fight
>engage in guerilla tactics to delay and annoy the enemy instead
Why do you have a problem with that being a thing that can occur now?

>>2218606
it used to be better before neutron launchers were nerfed to be worse than useless, you could actually kill a fleet quickly and reliably, so the disengagement mechanics weren't as frustrating

>>2218651
Because guerilla tactics in this game just mean the winning side sends it's doomstack straight through to your capital and production centers and makes the war unwinnable for you while you backdoor his starbases, then get slowly chased down in an annoying and tedious game of whackamole because the war's conclusion is foregone but the stupid wargoals/exhaustion system forces you to keep bumping uglies for another 8 years.

They have never successfully made wars any less of a doomstack statblob check but have progressively made them the least fun and most annoying mechanic in this sci-fi wargame in a vain attempt to slow down the player's ability to snowball.

>>2218651
>engage in guerilla tactics to delay and annoy the enemy instead
Once you lose your capital early on, it's over. And later, it's if you lose a production planet or two. Good luck waging war without your alloy planet.

>>2218606
Hilariously I got over this by hastily making a spaceport in a nearby star system and then wearing down the enemy who was too retarded to fortify his own fleet.

>>2218606
>defeat enemy fleet
>the survivors are now even weaker
>obviously defeat it again
>now even weaker
>repeat while taking their system
>this is somehow meant to fix doomstacks
This is even worse against the AI, who seemingly never have reserves of resources ever.
Once you take out their fleet? It's gone for the next hundred fucking years.
At least a player can rebuild a whole fleet if they've been storing resources and have enough shipyards.