Stellaris

[tgb]

I didn't think it would be, which is why I held off on starting a new game.

[Martok]

Holy shit....2 posts to post the contents of a patch!? Is that a first?

Four posts, actually.  :o  Heinlein is a huge update. 

I didn't think it would be, which is why I held off on starting a new game.

Same.  I've generally had a blast with Stellaris, but have largely made myself stay away the last couple months, as the mid/late game badly needs (among other things) an expansion planner, rally points, and improved sector AI/management tools -- all features that Heinlein provides.  8)  Can't wait to try it out! 

[OJsDad]

Tomorrow cannot come fast enough!!

[FarAway Sooner]

Good Lord, that is an impressive change log!  I guess I'll be waiting for the Steam Christmas sale, when I'm sure this one will be at least 10% off...     :-[

[OJsDad]

Just got the update DL from steam.

[mikeck]

Woohoo!! This patch and naval action on the same day...I'm feeling sick. Not sick enough that I can't play a game; just sick enough that I can't go to work tomorrow >:D

[Martok]

Dang it!  And I have to go to bed shortly (and then to work when I get up tonight).  :( 

[OJsDad]

I like the new expansion planner.  The one thing about it though, is that I don't see how to order a planet to be colonized from it.  You have to go out of it and then to the system. 

[OJsDad]

Oh, and monsters are a lot stronger.  I've seen amoeba over 800 combat strength. 

[mikeck]

Oh, and monsters are a lot stronger.  I've seen amoeba over 800 combat strength.

For the love of God, I don't understand why people put in space monsters! Why? Pirates? Yes, there could be future pirates. Aggressive organizations? Sure...there could be terrorism in the future.  But giant worms  that don't require any kind of gas for their metabolism, can stand temperature variations from 1000° to absolute zero,  can withstand a massive blast of radiation from nearby stars  and eat rocks? Hmmm.... Pretty sure we would've noticed one between Mars and Jupiter.  I'm not overreacting and saying it's an immersion killer not that big of a deal but I don't understand why everyone puts it in their games.

[ghostryder]

I've only got about 3 hours into it but my god for a DLC at 10 bucks it adds a ton of stuff noticable even from the start. The new human portraits are awesome--the GUI has been reworked, rally points are easy to understand and use, reworked colinization makes more sense, there's lots more starting options from the number of habital planets (percentage), Fallen empires, cluster starts or not...etc etc. and more music to boot!

Sadly a number of mods won't work or crash the game---I had to view the crash log to determine which ones I use that were causing it---found one that crashed the game during race creation when going to "city type". On the plus side a lot of mods still do work as well dispite the outdated message on the launch screen--but one will have to do a little a bit of fiddling to figure them out.

Things seem to have 'slowed' as far as beginning research, and I'm surrounded by space creatures pretty powerful---one even has a military base which has a strength of 8k----while my starting fleet even when up'd to 14 is a mere 400 strength. I kind of like the varied strengths. Before these were but a nusiance and now they seem to be a challenge...but as mentioned above realistically they make about as much sense as hampsters in space suits. I'm pretty burnt out on every 4x game going the space opera route--when will we ever get hard sci-fi stuff? Star Trek and Starwars might be fun movies but as far as science fiction goes they aren't far from looney Toons cartoons and really really really pull down a 4x game....it's ironic dev's go all out on tech trees, ship building, fleets or whatnot but when it comes to races we get popeye's spinach and canned oysters---hardly worthy of caring wether or not they like me or not or I like them....when I can't wait to mod them out.

When the first mods out of the box are race replacement mods you know beyond a doubt the devs totally failed on race and lore. Luckily Stellaris has about the best modding options of any game in the 4x gendre including distant Worlds so in this regard the title is #1 on my list---now let's see if the A.I. has any balls? Time will tell....but early impressions is this is a must have DLC.

[FarAway Sooner]

Ghost, you're not making my Christmas purchases any cheaper!   

[mikeck]

wait, you said $10 DLC...aren't we talking about the patch? What DLC?

"route--when will we ever get hard sci-fi stuff?"
Children of a Dead earth is out there. Not a 4x but as hard-sci fi as you can get

Edit: ahh...Leviathan awakes DLC I guess. I like the art but harder space monsters?? Meh

[ghostryder]

The DLC is much more than space creatures---this is midgame content--

"The Guardians (Paid Feature)
The Guardians, or Leviathans as they're also known, are space-dwelling beings of immense power. They vary a great deal in biology and composition: Some are enormous space creatures, some are technological remnants of ancient civilizations, and some are something far different altogether. How you find them also varies - some you may encounter in their home systems, jealously guarding their territory, others may be unleashed on the galaxy by exploring the wrong planet or star.

The chance of a particular Guardian being present in your game will depend on the size of your galaxy - a tiny galaxy might only have one or two, while a Huge galaxy might contain nearly all or even all of them if you explore far enough. Defeating them, or in some cases, helping them, will unlock rewards in the form of resources, empire-wide modifiers and unique technologies. Guardians vary in power, but are meant to be a serious challenge for a mid-game empire, so don't expect to be able to bring them down in the first decades of the game."

Full features
Guardians feature
Enclaves feature
War in Heaven feature
5 new portraits ('cuties')
20+ minutes of new music by Andreas Waldetoft

There are three types of Enclaves, each with their own range of interactions:
Traders allow you to exchange minerals for energy and vice versa.
Artists allow you to commission a piece of art that can be placed on one of your planets as a building, or become their patron to support more advanced works.
Curators allow you to purchase star charts, enlist their aid in furthering your research, or purchase information about the different Guardians and their weaknesses.

The war in heaven feature has to do with Fallen Empires. They might 'awaken" and war with each other, or awaken if you too ahead of tech, a crisis event happens...ect. You can join sides or try to stay nuetral etc

Basically a lot of content and play for the middle game---which the game needed badly.

Having gone a couple more hours...still miles away from midgame as I haven't even gotten terraforming tech yet I can't comment on midgame but the early game has certainly been spruced up and is far more interesting. The A.I. seems much more active as well, sending either trade deals for star charts, defensive packs and one thus far has thrown some insults and really hates my created ultra passive science based race I named Krogers...because i was too lazy to think up a good name fore them. Their diplomatic score is right now -258 and hostile but I outmatch them with a whopping 21 corevettes and I just got destroyers.

Prior to this if you were ahead strength wise you just never heard much from the A.I. and never ever was attacked. So early signs seems they've had some tweaks. I've been playing on normal spped so just 21 years in.....I'm not rushing as I like to relax a bit after a hard days work.

Off to bed now. Will post more over the weekend 

[Yooper]

Would love to hear more about the mid-game. I really enjoyed the opening of Stellaris, the expansion was done well, but once the borders solidified I really lost interest quick.

I'd love to get my inner space dictator vibe going again...