Paradox on a roll!

[ghostryder]

I've been playing utopia all weekend. I really like it. Early game has some changes but the bulk of this DLC is to the endgame. I got as far as getting habitats -- they are about the easiest to get to-- your need to research battleship and Fortress techs and take voidborne in the ascention perk. They're not too good at producing food or minerals but they can churn out amazing credits and research. In my strategic line of thinking your better off grabbing this instead of Dyson Spheres as you get this early enough to make an impact and hust for 100 influence and 5000 minerals-- whereas Dyson sphears cost 300 influence and 210 thousand minerals--and take 55 years to complete. Habitats do need to be colonized and have 100 percent hability with 12 tiles--so doing the math cost vs energy output--and the fact your get them a lot earlier a full habitat can churn out just as many credits--or research for that mater.

Way down the research tree your need the megastructure tech for the rest- like ringworlds or Science Nexus etc-- and one has to wonder if the investment is worth it for the resource and time investment. Probably so if your boxed in and can't expand---a typical situation playing Star trek Horizons mod--but a regular game I think your be all ready in a win situation when you can finally build them. I ran 3 games side by side over the weekend and none of the three have progressed enough for the later structures.

I had to give Hive mind a try since it's totally new. If you don't want a lot of micro managment ala factions, diplomacy they're a good pick as no factions are ever created and a hivemind cannot live in any world of an alien nor any alien live in a hivemind world. This kinda mirrors the Borg I guess-complete assimalation- there won't be any diplomatic exchange for imigration for sure--but the downside is your gonna be hated by just about everyone the first conflict you have. When you conquer a planet ALL inhabitats are going to die---and you can't move a single pop on it until it's wiped out----in fact your need to send a colony ship to reinhabit it. Also concider this takes like 5 years or more to purge all the inhabitants---and that auto purging sure pisses off neighbors quickly.

Late game you can -through yet more acsention perks and research-be able to 'uplift' a species into hivemind--but this again is late game---and I haven't gotten that far. And it's a bit weird that Hiveminds can't use A.I. tech ala robots or sybernetics----totally opposite The Borg-- but I think there's already mods that change that.

My other race--science pacifist do go down that cybernetic line and I've already gotten to cybernetic implanting through an early perk-- allowing me to pretty much colonize anything as it raises your habitlity. But haven't fully converted to Terminator status yet. All 3 games are roughly 100 years in.

All in all this all adds a lot of flavor to whatever race you create. In fact this DLC really fills out the races in ways no other 4x game--including distant worlds--comes close to and all the massive changes--far too many to even go into here-adds up to the DLC that really tips the game into greatness.

Combat--and conquering--as typical 4x mainstay--is still a slow burn. you cannot steamroll to victory--an intentional design akin to all paradox games excluding HOI--is a realistic angle but also a bit less fun to those who were raised on Master of Orion. This makes win conditions as foggy as any paradox game and is a huge departure for your typical 4x space strategy game. Not since Emperor of the Fading Suns has any 4x game veered from the formula---and it is an individual matter of taste how much this impacts your enjoyment.

For me this places Stellaris at the top of the 4x space gendre ---there's just so much flavor in the races--they are not cardboard children with stats like every other 4x game on the planet---races have a depth and flavor no other 4x game comes close---and the overall atmosphere---especially with modded realistic races rather than cartoon hamsters in spacesuits that all 4x games suffer- and you got something really special here.

Modded with star trek horizons this turns into the best star trek game ever. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=688086068 I'm serious. and they made it Banks compatable already--but it yet uses or takes advantage of all the new systems.

Outside of that in regular games i just nuke all the silly races. birds-reptiles-cats---the quickest way is to just mod in the SMAC faction mod http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=687677693

This adds all the SMAC Vanilla and Alien Crossfire Factions as playable species for Stellaris, right from the main menu. Just go in and press 'edit' than save each one. then from the start menue your be able to set each to be used---all 18 if you want a large galaxy--and that way no default races will show up.

Overall I highly recommend Utopia if you liked the base game as it really fills in the hollow parts well. If you dislike it because of the veering away from instantly conquering planets as default 4x space games go then this ain't gonna change that as combat is pretty much what it is and hasn't changed much.

We still need spying and i'd sure love to see some expanded CK2 stuff come to the races. We do got caste systems and such but no real dynasty mechanics which I enjoy in CK2. I think we also need some mega fortress' for combat sake. Fortresses now are mere stop gates to give one time to get a fleet there instead of actual protection. Again some mods beef them up but this needs to be in by design.

but overall combat is about like Gal civ---it's prettier maybe but no more functional--perhaps a DLC in this area might make some difference but this DLC isn't about that.

[Emir Agic]

Wow, thank you for very detailed review.  O0

[ghostryder]

After playing a game focused on the Psionic Ascendancy I got to say it's been revamped to something I've never seen in a 4x game. The shroud. Your first experience with it will happen with a pop up--after that you have to wait like 1800 days (You can see the remaining cooldown on the government overview if you press F1. Just look at "Mustering Psionic Strength".) After that the Shroud is contacted just like any other alien race in the contact list. This ongoing mechanic really has some interesting options. Often times it's just timed boosts to things like research or ship firing rates--and a chance to get those same in negative affects- but also your way to get new Shields, Psi Jump Drives, and other miscellaneous benefits, including optional Pacts with the Demon-like inhabitants that dwell within the Shroud. You can also get
a psionic Avatar via a powerful ship, a psionic Avatar Land Army and allowing someone to becoming The Chosen One, which grants them Immortal and great bonuses or can backfire as they may die instantly or go on a psionically-enhanced rampage.

The most epic is The End of the cycle. If you agree with this God it will offer you massive boons in exchange for an undetermined cost. And the cost is quite epic.  After 50 years have passed, the crisis event will go in full effect. All of your planets will turn into uninhabitable shroud planets, almost all of your population will die, and everyone will receive a 1000 opinion malus for dooming them all. Each planet previously owned will spawn a Shroud Avatar, while your previous homeworld will summon The End, which has a massive scaling bonus based on how much population your Empire had. There is a chance that your empire will survive, but everything except technology will be reset, akin to a newly-formed Empire. This may be regarded as the most difficult crisis event to date, with the player empire having to survive both the Shroud Menace and the hostile remaining empires. Your be given an exile planet as the Eater of Worlds devours the galaxy---leaving your exile planet as the last target.

This epic crisis can be survived I suppose but not by me yet. But this is quite an event that even puts "The Orion master' form MOO to shame. Great fun!