Stellaris - New Sci-Fi Grand Strategy by Paradox

[Musthavename]

Paradox's DLC have been more akin to "mini-expansions" with some cosmetics on the side (unit packs, music packs, etc...). I've generally ignored the latter, which I don't care about in any game. I don't mind the model so much here as it keeps the game fresh for quite a long time, but Paradox do have a knack of messing with things that are perfectly fine to the point where your game is often ruined if you take the patches and don't take the DLC. EU4 for example I thought had a sweet spot just after Art of War came out, with El Dorado not doing much and Cossacks really messing with the game.

Still, after finally seeing some gameplay for Stellaris, I'm definetly excited.

[DaVinci]

Well, finally a Pdox Grand Strategy game, which sets not on a historical realism background, so i personally won't have any issues with "crazy" (complete ahistorical) campaign outcomes, which i have always with EU, CK etc..

[Candy_Licker]

Well, finally a Pdox Grand Strategy game, which sets not on a historical realism background, so i personally won't have any issues with "crazy" (complete ahistorical) campaign outcomes, which i have always with EU, CK etc..

Well, I find the ahistorical, crazy outcomes are often part of the fun.

The big question for me is: how challenging can the game be now that all empires start symmetrical?

I guess this game will be great in MP, especially if they've really managed to make it stable.

[eXistenZ]

Paradox's DLC have been more akin to "mini-expansions" with some cosmetics on the side (unit packs, music packs, etc...). I've generally ignored the latter, which I don't care about in any game. I don't mind the model so much here as it keeps the game fresh for quite a long time, but Paradox do have a knack of messing with things that are perfectly fine to the point where your game is often ruined if you take the patches and don't take the DLC. EU4 for example I thought had a sweet spot just after Art of War came out, with El Dorado not doing much and Cossacks really messing with the game.

Still, after finally seeing some gameplay for Stellaris, I'm definetly excited.

Even without cosmetics or music dlc, this game will easily set you back €150, which is the equal of two newly released AAA-games with season pass. And not only that, even in sales the discounts are far lower compared to other companies. While the latest faction dlc for attila and the latest expansion for endless legend were -66% in the autmun sale, horse lords (which came out two months sooner compard to both) was only -33%. It actually wasnt even on sale in the winter steam sale

The steam rating for the latest expansions also tells a lot. CK2, EU4 and cities skylines have around 90% positive reviews on steam. Their latest expansions (conclave, cossacks and snowfall) have a 45-55% positive reviews. TYou dont need to be able to code complex games to interpret that. CK2 has been a broken mess for over a year and a half, even with dlc.


I give stellaris one good year, maybe 18 months. After that, they gonna burn and overload it.


If you want a space 4X with vision, wait for Endless Space 2. Amplitude have shown with Endless Legend they make great 4X games which are both familiar and new, and their dlc/expansion policy is actually feels like it's thought out well and done to improve the game. Not to squeeze out another €15 wile again changing half the mechanics from the game

[Musthavename]

That was half my point exactly, that Paradox eventually mess the game up. As mentioned, optimal EU4 for me was basically Art of War / El Dorado. I won't be buying Mare Nostrum, whilst I've bought every other main DLC basically on release. The one good thing about Paradox games is that I can roll back to earlier patches, and it's likely if I feel like playing EU4 I'll be sticking with 1.15.

You do also point out my single biggest complaint with this model though and DLC in general. It doesn't come down in price like it should. Heck, buying EU4 out of sale is £35 with no expansions. That's madness for a 2.5 year old game. Conquest of Paradise the very first DLC is £10. Really at this point, the base game should permanently be a lot cheaper (e.g. £20) and the early DLCs should also have massive price drops permanently. There should also be a combo-pack of sorts that bundles the base game with all but the most recent couple of DLCs. Right now the only thing EU4 has in terms of a bundle only includes 3 of the main DLC packs and is mostly unit pack fluff, and comes in at £76, which I can't believe anyone buys. It's a daft situation that I'd recommend Paradox games highly, but I wouldn't actually recommend buying EU4 outside of a sale as most of the main DLC packs are almost obligatory.

The whole "DLC not coming down in price" carries over into so many other games though. It used to be the case that games that were a few years old just generally came down in price, but it's rare I ever see DLC come down with it.

[eXistenZ]

isnt the last point what I also demonstrated? I bought attila charlemagne last month for -50% on steam, 3 months after release. If you look at isthereanydeal and the history of horse lords, it only hit -50% in february. thats eight months after release, or almost three times as long.

The latest expansion for endless legend, shadows, was released in september and hit -66% 3 months later. And amplitude isnt that massive a studio.

Even the first expansion for tropico 5 (which is known for its poor dlc practices) hit the -50% mark earlier, at 6 months after release.

Paradox is just being the worst pupil in the class, and not doing anything about it

[Rhapture]

After many of the videos on youtube and twitch this game looks really good. Anyone here looking for more MP players?

[Candy_Licker]

After many of the videos on youtube and twitch this game looks really good. Anyone here looking for more MP players?

MP really looks interesting, but I don't know if I already get it on release. Budget is tight, and I would try out SP first anyways. I watched some of the Multiplayer event stream, and the performance looked pretty concerning...

[IlluminatiRex]

I was excited after reading about it all that time ago, and now the gameplay has sold me.

Come on Monday!

[Mangalore]

MP really looks interesting, but I don't know if I already get it on release. Budget is tight, and I would try out SP first anyways. I watched some of the Multiplayer event stream, and the performance looked pretty concerning...

For MP? Maybe. Although it was a session with ~20 players with coordinated agreements to have a few huge battles and it seemed mainly the graphics engine couldn't handle it anymore. Still, hopefully some optimization in the works. They had a few desyncs the second day.

[Caelifer_1991]

Regarding Stellaris vs Endless Space 2, I agree with all the above points, and fully plan on playing both of them If I did have to choose just one though, I admit I probably would go for Endless Space 2 however.

[Candy_Licker]

For MP? Maybe. Although it was a session with ~20 players with coordinated agreements to have a few huge battles and it seemed mainly the graphics engine couldn't handle it anymore. Still, hopefully some optimization in the works. They had a few desyncs the second day.

German Magazine Gamestar also reports performance issues with a i7-6700K with 16 GB RAM, Geforce GTX 970 and an SSD, especially in large galaxies. Apparently this isn't only in MP, but a general problem in mid/lategame.

Pdox claims they're tackling this currenty: (quote from reddit)

I just wanted to spike this early. We did find some issues that caused the performance hitches in mid-late game and we have some fixes currently undergoing QA. We'll get them out to you ASAP.
Don't worry, we don't see hitching and locks as working as intended.
Edit: I should also elaborate that this isn't really related to computer spec in anyway, even those with a beast of a machine can experience this (me included!)

[Mangalore]

German Magazine Gamestar also reports performance issues with a i7-6700K with 16 GB RAM, Geforce GTX 970 and an SSD, especially in large galaxies. Apparently this isn't only in MP, but a general problem in mid/lategame.

Pdox claims they're tackling this currenty: (quote from reddit)

I just wanted to spike this early. We did find some issues that caused the performance hitches in mid-late game and we have some fixes currently undergoing QA. We'll get them out to you ASAP.
Don't worry, we don't see hitching and locks as working as intended.
Edit: I should also elaborate that this isn't really related to computer spec in anyway, even those with a beast of a machine can experience this (me included!)

Ah, interesting. I mainly based my impression on their play throughs where I found only the MP event showed severe slowdowns in the huge battles.

[Mike Louis]

Spent the last two days getting my feet wet with Stellaris (I preordered the Galaxy Edition), and I found that the game runs very smoothly on my laptop (Asus Windows 10 64 bit OS with 2.10 GHz CPU, Intel i3 Core, and 6 GB RAM). The game has a good vanilla foundation on which expansion dlcs can be built upon that provides both horizontal and vertical depth to the game.

[Mangalore]

Spent the last two days getting my feet wet with Stellaris (I preordered the Galaxy Edition), and I found that the game runs very smoothly on my laptop (Asus Windows 10 64 bit OS with 2.10 GHz CPU, Intel i3 Core, and 6 GB RAM). The game has a good vanilla foundation on which expansion dlcs can be built upon that provides both horizontal and vertical depth to the game.

Let's say I'm very sleepy at work and the Terran Compact has a long way to go etching its mark on the galaxy between Ancient empires and sprawling empires. War is looming on the horizon. Numbers are on my side, tech and imperial power are not but those imperialist swine nearly destroyed a neighbor to the extent I had to annex the rump to protect them.

[Wulfburk]

Game is awesome. THe imperium of mankind expands at a steady pace now (too slowly for my taste tho). I dont know if it feels good or bad after all these purges i have been making. It certainly feels strange though

[The Holy Pilgrim]

Completely addicted. 38 hours logged in.

Genetically modified my own race to be intelligent. The intelligent ones rose up and formed their own federation.

This game is great.

[DenniZ]

Truely awesome game!
Still running my first grand campaign with the Military Dictatorship of Man Really nice and the galaxy is really huge and I'm only playing with 600 stars right now.
Really love the researching of new technologies after analyzing my opponents space debris and gaining their tech. Nice touch. Also tweaking the defense platform and making a design fitting for the opponent thats attacking is really nice to do. Not a single downside so far. Loving it.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

Which FTL Method are you guys liking the most?

For me, I think it's Wormholes, but I'm having a love-hate relationship with Wormholes, right now.

Pros: Super fast travel. Can get from one end of my empire to the other in a week. Surprise Ambushes!!!

Cons: Limited range (had some wars where the enemy's capital was JUST outside of my range). Very difficult to chase enemies with different forms of FTL (they just keep squeaking by me!)

[Musthavename]

I've only picked wormholes so far. They seemed the most interesting. Only thing was early game I didn't realise I can build wormhole stations outside my own space so I did almost no early game exploring. Catching fleets is easy enough - you just wait at your own wormhole station, wait for them to begin to move, then move to wherever they're going to. If you want to improve your travel time, split your fleet in two and wait at different wormhole stations.

Hyperlanes look interesting but I've seen an instance of someone where they only had access to about 8 or so systems before the only hyperlane out was through a Xenophobic Fallen Empire - which is basically an immediate game over.