Stellaris - Paradox

[lothlann]

just wondering if you picked this up Diragi, i know you like paradox games, it looks interesting because its much larger scale then games like moo. Reading review people seem to compain the tech tree is really plain and the upgrades for like weapons don't do much. But they will come out with 100 dlc like they do with all there games and add stuff like that.

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[Diragi]

Ya, I ended up grabbing it.

On the upside Stellaris marries the 4x genre with the Paradox style very well. On the downside I think they they didn't want to make a EUIV in space so they didn't follow a lot of Europa's conventions (PDX is hoping to make Stellaris the most accessible game so far).

* The early game and exploration is pretty fun, late-game with crisises, fallen empires, etc seems pretty interesting. Mid-game is a little flat and the weakest part of the game aside of the previously mentioned lack of depth (like you can only be in one alliance, no espionage, etc).

* Technology I thought was one of the stronger points (in terms of replay-ability). When you pick what tech to research you have a choice of three that are randomly chosen from what's available to research; higher weights for essential techs, tech that synergies with your ethos, etc. You also get more options given to you once you tech up and you'll have non-random choices from salvaging drops from alien wrecks. It's not very clear in the game but the different weapons (energy/missile/projectile) and defences (hull armour/shields/point defences) all interact differently so I think there's a real min/max vs versatility choice to be made.

* Interesting faster than light (FTL) choices: warp, vs warp lanes, vs wormholes. All seem to have their proponents and detractors so that works well.

* Most of the reviews that gave it 9/10 were from people that made it out to Paradox's multiplayer event in London last week. Where as I think IGN only gave it a 7/10 -- criticism that this definitely is a great foundation, but just that, weighed more heavily on their final score than others apparently. And I think Stellaris as better as a MP game. I also feel like they rushed Stellaris out of the door ASAP because Master of Orion is in early access; tons of issues with MOO but it's being published by Wargaming so you know they will have a ton of money to market it.

* If you were to pick up just one PDX game in the next month I'd tip my hand to HoI4; I'm not entirely sold on the world tension mechanic in non-historical games and the pacing but from what I've seen it is a much more complete game.

[lothlann]

cool, i didnt even know they were working on it and i just saw it on steam and thought you might have picked it up, i might wait a while see if it goes on sale during their big summer sale, mind you 40 isnt bad for a game.

[Diragi]

Oh and they have lot of events / event-chains that refer to pop culture/sci-fi/current events. ie: people have across a pre-FTL earth and set-up an observation post and found out that most of humans were killed off in a nuclear war and the society fell back to an earlier tech age.

[Diragi]

Speaking of 4x looks like Firaxis is turning into the "new EA" ... though I guess they need to make some money after the disaster of Beyond Earth:

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edit:
"Development duties are in the hands of the team behind Civ V’s expansions, Gods & Kings and Brave New World, and when we spoke to designer Ed Beach and associate producer Sarah Darney last week to learn all the details, they told us that almost every system from the complete Civ V will be included in the sequel: trade routes, religious systems, archaeology…there’ll be no need to wait for expansions, it’s all in the base game."

Well shit, never mind.

[Diragi]

Not that anyone else seems to be all interested in these neckbeard games but it seems like end of June might be better time to pick up this game.

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We’ve been digesting and discussing your feedback and how to best go about improving the mid-game to make it more dynamic, both in the short and long run. Let’s start with our short term plans. When the game was released, we had already proceeded to fix a lot of issues. Together with some other pressing issues that have been reported, the plan is to release the 1.1 update - “Clarke” - near the end of May. We will try to cram as much as we can into this update, but the more fundamental stuff will have to wait until the next update (“Asimov”), which is scheduled for the end of June. The “Clarke” patch will mainly be a bug fix and GUI improvement update. Here are some of the highlights:

"CLARKE" HIGHLIGHTS

Fixes to the Ethic Divergence and Convergence issues. Currently, Pops tend to get more and more neutral (they lose Ethics, but rarely gain new ones.)
The End of Combat Summary. This screen looks bad and also doesn’t tell you what you need to know in order to revise your ship designs, etc.
Sector Management GUI: There are many issues with this, and we will try to get most of them fixed.
Diplomacy GUI issues. This includes the Diplomatic Pop-Ups when other empires contact you, but also more and better looking Notifications, and more informative tooltips on wars, etc.
AI improvements: Notably the Sector AI, but also plenty of other things. This kind of work is never "finished"...
Myriads of bug fixes and smaller GUI improvements.
Late game crises bugs. There were some nasty bugs in there, blocking certain subplots and various surprising developments.
EDIT: Remaining Performance Issues. We know about them; they might even be hotfixed before Clarke.
EDIT: Corvettes are too good.

"ASIMOV" HIGHLIGHTS (NOT SET IN STONE!)

Border Access Revision: Borders are now open to your ships by default, although empires can choose to Close their borders for another empire (lowering your relations, of course.)
Tributaries: New diplomatic status and corresponding war goals.
Joint Declarations of War: You can ask other empires to join you for a temporary alliance in a war against a specific target.
Defensive Pacts.
Harder to form and maintain proper Alliances.
More war goals: Humiliate, Open Borders, Make Tributary, etc.
Emancipation Faction. We had to cut this one at the last minute. Needs redesign.
Diplomatic Map Mode. Much requested!
Diplomatic Incidents: This is a whole class of new scripted events that causes more interaction with the other empires.

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