Stellaris, 4X strategy game

[Moritz Norman]

Fun game. Just can't tear myself away from Elite enough to dive in more than casually.

Creating the Empire from the Elite Universe and then the Shofixti from Star Control 2 was fun, though.

 

[thieving.weasel]

I put... way too many hours into Stellaris when I first got it...i think it is really well done... just wish there was a tiny bit more paradox depth in intelligence and trading

 

[Riedquat]

Well, my game finally ended, with my reptilians ending up being enslaved on their own homeworlds..

Two galactic superpowers emerged and unfortunatley I was swallowed up by one of them, he was my neighbour from the start but I really didnt notice him gaining territory so quickly!

It was really interesting watching the political landscape change as empires allied to protect themselves against mutual threats whilst the superpowers and their vassals slugged it out in the middle.

 

[deathcoy]

Paradox did a reasonably good job on Stellaris. Although theres a couple of missing features like intel, trading and espionage but they probably add them in DLCs later.

I hope Paradox would revive Sword of the Stars franchise in the future.

 

[Atreiden]

How is this game compared to other Paradox grand strategy games? I have sunk way to much time in to the EU series. Is it comparable or a completely different beast?

 

[Cosmo]

Stellaris has a new update.

[video=youtube;Bl5IjvPvSPs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl5IjvPvSPs[/video]

 

[Hellhawk666]

Just bought the package on Steam (discounted at the moment) and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Stellaris shares a lot with GalCiv, MOO, SoaSE etc. but has its own take which is just a little different. Multiplayer is good, and real-time play a nice change from the usual turn-based approach. I like the interface a lot - it took moments to get to grips with it, but there is a lot of hidden complexity. Decisions have far-reaching ramifications, and the dynamics seem well designed. The overall look and atmosphere is good too - it seems a tad less cartoonish than most of these space 4x games. I played GalCiv for a while after getting used to Stellaris, and while GalCiv is very well designed, I actually prefer Stellaris now. I also appreciate that ship design/upgrade can be totally automated and ignored if you like.

The only thing I thought was clumsy is the switch from micro-management to automated sectors. It's a clever way to handle snowballing micromanagement, but feels too black-and-white. It would be better if there was the facility to choose from a wide range of settings that could be left manual or switched to automatic depending on the individual player's preference. As it is it feels like the one feature that was not quite fully developed by the time release day rolled around.

Also, if you have the game but have not yet tried the Star Trek New Horizons mod from the workshop the DO download it. Very, very well done mod.

PS - An Elite Dangerous mod for this game would be awesome

 

[Jenner]

Just bought the package on Steam (discounted at the moment) and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Stellaris shares a lot with GalCiv, MOO, SoaSE etc. but has its own take which is just a little different. Multiplayer is good, and real-time play a nice change from the usual turn-based approach. I like the interface a lot - it took moments to get to grips with it, but there is a lot of hidden complexity. Decisions have far-reaching ramifications, and the dynamics seem well designed. The overall look and atmosphere is good too - it seems a tad less cartoonish than most of these space 4x games. I played GalCiv for a while after getting used to Stellaris, and while GalCiv is very well designed, I actually prefer Stellaris now. I also appreciate that ship design/upgrade can be totally automated and ignored if you like.

The only thing I thought was clumsy is the switch from micro-management to automated sectors. It's a clever way to handle snowballing micromanagement, but feels too black-and-white. It would be better if there was the facility to choose from a wide range of settings that could be left manual or switched to automatic depending on the individual player's preference. As it is it feels like the one feature that was not quite fully developed by the time release day rolled around.

Also, if you have the game but have not yet tried the Star Trek New Horizons mod from the workshop the DO download it. Very, very well done mod.

PS - An Elite Dangerous mod for this game would be awesome

Yeah, I like Stellaris a lot, although I have yet to bring myself to get past the mid-game grind in any of my play-throughs. It's weird...on the one hand Stellaris is one of my favorite 4xes of all time, but on the other it's such a grind late-game. I really wish they would have concentrated more in that area, and included more victory conditions, etc.

I picked up HOI4 during the Steam sale a few days ago and sunk a bunch of time into that, too, but I think Stellaris is still my favorite recent Paradox release. Maybe I'll have to pick up some of the DLC. I think they said they'd be reducing the price of those after the Steam sale, too.

 

[Talarin]

Stellaris: Synthetic Dawn is about to be released.

For those of you who wish to be the Borg...

 

[1500]

Stellaris really is a good game, but man the end game just grinds on and on. I normally just end up giving up because it is not worth it, its not hard it just take way too long. One game I had taken out all the Fallen Empires, but I was still looking at 10s of hours to clean up the map with not a single empire able to pose any type of threat, even the Fallen Empires were a cake walk.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I am eyeing with this since ages, but after having burnt with the excess complexity of Europa Universalis (I have simply no time to master it), I feel like it would be a waste of money.

 

[Jenner]

I found the perfect Steallaris mod for me.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Picked it up on a nice sale few days ago, but wasn't in a mood to play yet. I assume it's one of those games that will take nice long evening to get into. Or maybe few evenings

 

[Ian Skippy]

I am eyeing with this since ages, but after having burnt with the excess complexity of Europa Universalis (I have simply no time to master it), I feel like it would be a waste of money.

IMHO, Stellaris sits between EU and Civ, complexity wise. Its not 100% pick up and go as with civ, but it isnt nearly as absurdly complex as EU.

 

[Vasious]

I found the perfect Steallaris mod for me.

https://i.imgur.com/Wokr1fA.jpg

Embrace Xenophobic and become xenophages

 

[Nerwan]

IMHO, Stellaris sits between EU and Civ, complexity wise. Its not 100% pick up and go as with civ, but it isnt nearly as absurdly complex as EU.

Interesting, I just bought Stellaris and EU this weekend because of the Steam sale. I haven't played EU yet but I'm loving Stellaris at the moment and I'm finding it fairly similar to Civ in terms of complexity.. In some respects it's actually a bit simpler. It's possible to be quite strategic in Civ with combat and terrain etc, while using the different strengths of different units. Perhaps I haven't fully explored combat in Stellaris yet but it seems to be a lot more streamlined and you essentially just assemble a navy of customised ships and then attack the opposing navy. The one with the higher strength and best combination of ship designs vs the opponent wins. Where it's more complicated is in all the little bonuses that you get from factions, leaders and the like. I haven't got my head around optimising those yet and I'm also completely unsure about which order to do the technologies in.. I miss the tree view that Civ has.

 

[Vasious]

Interesting, I just bought Stellaris and EU this weekend because of the Steam sale. I haven't played EU yet but I'm loving Stellaris at the moment and I'm finding it fairly similar to Civ in terms of complexity.. In some respects it's actually a bit simpler. It's possible to be quite strategic in Civ with combat and terrain etc, while using the different strengths of different units. Perhaps I haven't fully explored combat in Stellaris yet but it seems to be a lot more streamlined and you essentially just assemble a navy of customised ships and then attack the opposing navy. The one with the higher strength and best combination of ship designs vs the opponent wins. Where it's more complicated is in all the little bonuses that you get from factions, leaders and the like. I haven't got my head around optimising those yet and I'm also completely unsure about which order to do the technologies in.. I miss the tree view that Civ has.

There is not a tech tree per se in Stellar is

Your tech options you get are drawn from all the techs you meet the requirements for with different weightings based on things like the traits of the scientists

So having a Military theory scientist will see Army and Fleet doctrine techs more likely to be drawn.

There are four levels of tech no counting repeatable so you do need a certain number of techs of one level before another level is unlocked.

Similarly you won't draw techs unless you meet other requirements so you won't drawn tile blocker removal techs for tile blockers that don't appear on planets you have colonised.

 

[Caramel Clown]

About to start my first game. Decided not to go with one of the premade empires, and created my own. Any thoughts on my trait choices? Anyway, wish me luck. One day molluscoids will rule the galaxy

Spoiler

 

[Nerwan]

There is not a tech tree per se in Stellar is

Your tech options you get are drawn from all the techs you meet the requirements for with different weightings based on things like the traits of the scientists

So having a Military theory scientist will see Army and Fleet doctrine techs more likely to be drawn.

There are four levels of tech no counting repeatable so you do need a certain number of techs of one level before another level is unlocked.

Similarly you won't draw techs unless you meet other requirements so you won't drawn tile blocker removal techs for tile blockers that don't appear on planets you have colonised.

Ah righ! Thanks for clearing that up. I'll look more closely at what kind of scientists I'm recruiting.

 

[Riedquat]

About to start my first game. Decided not to go with one of the premade empires, and created my own. Any thoughts on my trait choices? Anyway, wish me luck. One day molluscoids will rule the galaxy

no advice on traits, but for the game itself:

Trust no one.
Be more aggressive!.