Paradox Grand Strat meets Sci-Fi 4X; Boners Explode

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Thu May 05, 2016 7:23 pm #174131

Bottom post of the previous page:

If you haven't joined SPESS FRIENDS already, do so! We'll probably be communicating through that group and maybe TS when we setup our game to play. Your one stop shop for backstabbing and secret plots with other players.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SpessFriends

Venticular · Post by **Venticular** » Thu May 05, 2016 7:40 pm #174138

fuck
i'm out
can't do anymore

maybe a later date tho
in a few months probably

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Thu May 05, 2016 8:56 pm #174175

Dang.

I tried watching Quill play but once again he spent fucking forever talking about a bunch of races he made and the fluff behind them rather than just playing the fucking game and explaining as we go.
I don't understand how someone can talk so much so fast and say fucking nothing.
How does anyone watch this guy what the fuck?

He's talking way too fast and glossing over too many things to be a tutorial yet he's stopping to pontificate on every.single.fucking.thing he mouses over anyway.

Jef Major is like my gold standard for autism LP's. He's normally a pretty relaxed dude, he knows a lot about the games he plays but rarely pretends to be an expert and openly admits every time he fucks something up. When something is really critical to the gameplay he's showing he'll explain it, but for the most part he rarely stops to explain how something works...just what it does if what he's showing you hinges on using it. He knows how to fast-forward through garbage to get to the interesting bits. I can watch Jef for hours and wonder where the time went.

30 minutes with Quill and I have to get up and take a walk around my house. I need a fucking aspirin.

ThatSlyFox · Post by **ThatSlyFox** » Fri May 06, 2016 12:10 am #174248

What times are we planning on playing?

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:12 am #174279

Let's just throw out some numbers and get objections to them as we go.

Let's start with like 4pm EST.

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Fri May 06, 2016 5:28 am #174300

An0n3 wrote:Let's just throw out some numbers and get objections to them as we go.

Let's start with like 4pm EST.

Not a problem with me...

Out of curiosity: I HAVEN'T watched a bunch of streams but I did watch the first blorg stream. They had PLANT as a race thing. Was that implemented or was that just a dev placeholder.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 5:50 am #174302

None of the gameplay footage I've seen anywhere has shown plants as playable yet.

The LP I'm watching right now (Marbozir's) didn't even have the Plant placeholder.

Steelpoint · Post by **Steelpoint** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:02 am #174303

Plants as a group (no images) were seen in one video but they were later confirmed to not be part of the first release.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/in ... nt.920347/

Steelpoint · Post by **Steelpoint** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:17 am #174305

Earlier on we were wondering how a pacifist empire would handle a war against a more militarist empire. Looking around I found out how pacifist empires can even out the score.

The game has a concept of a 'war economy'. These are policies you can pass at any time, there are several ranks of a war economy. Essentially if your losing a way (via war score) you gain a boost to military production, but if your winning you start to lose military production efficiency.

You can see them here: http://www.stellariswiki.com/Policies

Essentially if your a fanatic pacifist, and your losing a war, you'll gain a 60% boost to your military production, give or take.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:44 am #174307

Neat. I see a lot of policies and implications of how not just going Militaristic/Collectivist/Xenophobe allday errday will have benefits.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:50 am #174310

I just read through that page, and through another page, and then another page, and I can already see the glorious reptilian master race take shape.

Why is reading about games more fun than playing them?

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:53 am #174311

The Noot Utopia will proudly feature a cosmopolitan way of life integrating pops and peacefully coexisting with our synthetic peoples.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:53 am #174312

0/10 not Nanotrasen enough

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:55 am #174313

I'm a peaceful man who is friends with everyone and beloved by all.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:57 am #174315

I'd say something very mean, but I don't know what admin to compare you to right now.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 6:58 am #174316

Whoever is most well liked and known for their serenity.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:02 am #174317

HG, then.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:14 am #174321

Ah yes the much loved HugGuy.

Incomptinence · Fri May 06, 2016 7:36 am

So that policy screen is exactly what the Memnites wanted to see.

Looks like being materialist and xenophobic sorta cancels out and they only care about cybernetic citizens as much as a non materialist pop would which is a piddle modifier.
Plus side if they get uppity my guys still don't give a shit if I blow the borgs. Triple decker cake of rogue AIs ruling nazi science guys fucking with xenos.

Might switch to smart because specialising in minerals or food as a slaver race is sorta against the point. Oh and maybe specialise in social tech because hey becoming compleat genetic experiments look fun and I can retool sub pops to specialise in each tech resource if I get balls deep into it anyway!

Also I think I can engineer the perfect slave army/ mineral harvesters given time.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:39 am #174326

I think I can afford to swap my "Weak" negative trait over something that would negatively affect native pop growth or pop movement.

The reasoning being my traits set me up perfectly for adopting and integrating natives and citizens from other people's empires. I should be able to wring free pops out of my neighbors and such so having a negative affect on my own native pop growth wont matter for shit. When I also get bonuses to making transplants happy and giving transplants more rights there's no reason not to leverage the fuck out of them.

It's like free slavery that people are happy to sign themselves up for!

Incomptinence · Fri May 06, 2016 7:48 am

Yeah already thought about that. One of the best reasons to be xenophobic really.

Besides my new genetic modification focus offers a solution to noots:
[youtube]QAoONl2P8fw[/youtube]

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Fri May 06, 2016 10:50 am #174352

An0n3 wrote:
Le Happy Penguin Merchant.png

More like

Spoiler:

>tfw you're literally becoming turians

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Fri May 06, 2016 11:04 am #174358

An0n3 wrote:I think I can afford to swap my "Weak" negative trait over something that would negatively affect native pop growth or pop movement.

The reasoning being my traits set me up perfectly for adopting and integrating natives and citizens from other people's empires. I should be able to wring free pops out of my neighbors and such so having a negative affect on my own native pop growth wont matter for shit. When I also get bonuses to making transplants happy and giving transplants more rights there's no reason not to leverage the fuck out of them.

It's like free slavery that people are happy to sign themselves up for!

Le Happy Penguin Merchant.png

I think I have all my bases covered.

http://kaisersly.github.io/stellaris_ra ... ts=4,14,27

Don't worry. Friend Mute's Empire is wise and benevolent and not at all murderous. There are no communists, mutants, traitors, or secret societies in Mute's Empire. Technology is more advanced than it has ever been in the history of civilization. There is nothing of note outside of Mute's empire and all its citizens are completely happy to live inside it and never leave. Happiness is mandatory. Unhappiness is treason. Treason is punishable by death.

Citizens who become aware of trouble are asked to report it to Mute, who will dispatch friendly neighborhood Troubleshooters to deal with the trouble. The existence of trouble is impossible due to Mute's omniscience. Claiming that Mute cannot prevent or eliminate all trouble is treason. Treason is punishable by death.

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Fri May 06, 2016 11:31 am #174363

is your empire also going to feature neo-confucian doctrines with a large sprinkle of sass?

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Fri May 06, 2016 12:26 pm #174367

Ricotez wrote:is your empire also going to feature neo-confucian doctrines with a large sprinkle of sass?

as long as its not ero

[youtube]hGaxuWR4W_Y[/youtube]

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:06 pm #174397

If that's how you want to play it check out collectivism and the policy that lets you eliminate your own pops whenever they displease you.

Ikarrus · Post by **Ikarrus** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:14 pm #174399

You sure you guys aren't overhyping this?

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:24 pm #174401

It looks like it has that combination of Paradox grand strat comfy-ness and crazy original narratives. There's no single thing about it that is super exciting, it's just a lot of good ideas and good stuff coming together to make a whole package that is appealing.

I betcha a lot of people will end up having complaints about the combat being too simple. I'm not the kind of player who likes to micromanage his armies on the battlefield in games like this, but even I can recognize that it looks like you just send big blobs of units at eachother and hope your outfitting + numbers beats their outfitting + numbers. I imagine people will complain bout it in the same way they complained about Endless Space's combat (which I really liked). Then again CK2 wasn't really a tactical warfare simulator either and everyone loves that so maybe not.

I think there's a lot of good reasons to be optimistic and excited that we've seen on streams and now some of these LP's. Shit looks pretty compelling.

[youtube]1sN6LQykAdM[/youtube]

Watch the Ikarzuri in the south.
Can you see what happens?

Spoiler:

Skorvold · Post by **Skorvold** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:42 pm #174405

Damn, that was spooky. They finished off the Ikarzuri FAST. Fuck, the AI is going to fuck us up through sheer incompetence via researching dangerous tech and fucking themselves up.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:50 pm #174407

Yeah the video is a great PSA about how badly shit gets fucked when you mess around with dangerous techs and aren't equipped to actually handle that shit.

There's a handy feature when researching certain things that shows the failure %. Please keep an eye on this.

Ikarrus · Post by **Ikarrus** » Fri May 06, 2016 4:22 pm #174415

I've found it hard to get into Grand Strategy games like CK or EU, but I'm a sucker for 4X games, especially space 4X games, so I'll probably pick this game up. It might even be a good springboard for me to get into their other games.

I probably won't have the time to play with you guys unless it's on a Saturday.

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Fri May 06, 2016 8:02 pm #174475

Whats this Unbidden faction from the video?

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Fri May 06, 2016 8:05 pm #174477

eldritch monsters that you can accidentally let into this universe if you mess around too much with experimental jump drives and tear a rift into reality

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat May 07, 2016 8:52 am #174643

Giantbomb Quicklook is up

[youtube]8LmX5TElLns[/youtube]

Pretty standard stuff. I mention it because of what Austin demonstrates at the very end of the video.
Jump to like 1:29:00 when he talks to dividing stuff up into sectors.

You can undermine and manipulate political factions in your empire by dividing them up and distilling them into different groups by changing the sectors they're in. He solves (maybe only temporarily) a problem with a rebel faction by isolating the system they call home and ripping it out of the sector and placing it into a new dummy sector with new systems who don't have any political ties to the rebels.

You can fucking gerrymander in Stellaris. Holy shit.

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Sat May 07, 2016 9:43 am #174654

this game is made for a true american hero

god bless the neo-geopolitical landscape system.

Steelpoint · Post by **Steelpoint** » Sat May 07, 2016 9:57 am #174656

I read you can use Robots to colonize planets, I don't know if that's true but if it is when you can litter all those useless planets around you with a bunch of dumb robots.

Base Robots only give you a benefit to mineral production, they suck at anything else. So instead you can kick them down into the mine shafts.

Steelpoint · Post by **Steelpoint** » Sat May 07, 2016 11:35 am #174669

4pm EST would be about 5am for me. I have a appointment early in the morning on Tuesday next week, which is likely when the game will be out for me.

tedward1337 wrote:Whats this Unbidden faction from the video?

Minor spoilers but this info has been on the Dev Diaries for a while.

Right now we know of three confirmed end game "disaster" events, these are meant as a end game situation that can unite the galaxy against a major threat, these three are...

AI Revolt: Depending on how many sentient Synthetic Robots have been created by Empires it is possible for many of the Synths to rebel and form their own empire. Made horribly worse by the fact that Synths are simply better at nearly everything than a organic lifeform, as their mining and research rates are through the damn roof. Some Synths may not rebel if the Empire they are living in has treated them well (giving them rights as citizens, not enslaving them, letting them vote, etc).
Extra-Galactic Invasion: A highly hostile invasion force from outside the Galaxy can invade your home Galaxy, appearing at the outer edges of the Galaxy. These unique beings are the called the 'Prethoryn Scourge', a species using entirely organic components, such as their ships.
Inter-Dimensional Invasion: If you abuse the usage of highly experimental 'Jump Drives' enough you may accidently tear a hole into another Dimension, thus spawning the 'Unbidden', a race of pure energy beings that will also conquer the galaxy.

Spoiler:

Incomptinence · Sat May 07, 2016 12:00 pm

I'm not sure synths are innately better at everything once sentient.

They have traits too I wonder if you custom build the more advanced ones.

Absolutely monstrous habitability modifiers though holding the line isn't enough fuckers can populate everything and will probably build tall as fuck.

Steelpoint · Post by **Steelpoint** » Sat May 07, 2016 12:03 pm #174673

Well at the very least their unique Government type gives them insane advantages, from the wiki.

-50% army upkeep
-50% ship upkeep
-30% ship cost
-50% upgrade cost
-20% building cost
+30% research speed

Incomptinence · Sat May 07, 2016 12:06 pm

Well the gov not the pops is the menace I suppose.

Thing about that all AI time lapse is basically the AI doesn't get that the menace requires a devils bargain enormous alliance to put down they just form alliances in response to conquests at which point it is already snowballing and said alliance is probably not big enough to let people on the other side of the galaxy chip in. The diplomatic relations system probably holds them back, which players can just ignore.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat May 07, 2016 12:27 pm #174677

Steelpoint wrote:4pm EST would be about 5am for me. I have a appointment early in the morning on Tuesday next week, which is likely when the game will be out for me.

tedward1337 wrote:Whats this Unbidden faction from the video?
Minor spoilers but this info has been on the Dev Diaries for a while.

Right now we know of three confirmed end game "disaster" events, these are meant as a end game situation that can unite the galaxy against a major threat, these three are...

AI Revolt: Depending on how many sentient Synthetic Robots have been created by Empires it is possible for many of the Synths to rebel and form their own empire. Made horribly worse by the fact that Synths are simply better at nearly everything than a organic lifeform, as their mining and research rates are through the damn roof. Some Synths may not rebel if the Empire they are living in has treated them well (giving them rights as citizens, not enslaving them, letting them vote, etc).

Extra-Galactic Invasion: A highly hostile invasion force from outside the Galaxy can invade your home Galaxy, appearing at the outer edges of the Galaxy. These unique beings are the called the 'Prethoryn Scourge', a species using entirely organic components, such as their ships.

Inter-Dimensional Invasion: If you abuse the usage of highly experimental 'Jump Drives' enough you may accidently tear a hole into another Dimension, thus spawning the 'Unbidden', a race of pure energy beings that will also conquer the galaxy.

Spoiler:

So we either get RUR, Reapers, or Shivans.
Grand.

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Sat May 07, 2016 4:12 pm #174699

I have one concern: because of my timezone I cannot stay as long as everyone else, what does this mean for my empire? Does the AI take over while I'm not there? Or does it mean that we have to stop whenever I'm going to bed? Because if that's the case, the sessions aren't going to last very long.

Skorvold · Post by **Skorvold** » Sat May 07, 2016 4:13 pm #174701

The AI can take over for you, I believe.

Skorvold · Post by **Skorvold** » Sat May 07, 2016 6:26 pm #174721

Does the nomadic trait increase the speed at which I colonize worlds, or just the relocation of pops?
Also, let's get a recap of every one that is playing.

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Sat May 07, 2016 9:14 pm #174738

Skorvold wrote:Does the nomadic trait increase the speed at which I colonize worlds, or just the relocation of pops?
Also, let's get a recap of every one that is playing.

Relocation of pops.

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Sat May 07, 2016 9:57 pm #174750

Im in, looking forward to this with everyone.

Incomptinence · Sat May 07, 2016 10:06 pm

Nomadic will help send pop growth from filled established worlds to colonies I think as well as faster forced relocation and pops just jiggling around trying to be happy if you let them.

Yeah the AI can take over for you then you can take over it again as well as any non crisis/fallen empire. Basically if any of us dies out we can then slip into an AI like a skin suit. There was a point in the multiplayer stream where a woman had to take over her own rebels because she stuffed up and they won, new boss same as the old boss. Game does not end when you win so you can have an eternal post game wrecking your own empire then controlling one of the usurpers.

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Sat May 07, 2016 10:35 pm #174756

Incomptinence wrote:Nomadic will help send pop growth from filled established worlds to colonies I think as well as faster forced relocation and pops just jiggling around trying to be happy if you let them.

Yeah the AI can take over for you then you can take over it again as well as any non crisis/fallen empire. Basically if any of us dies out we can then slip into an AI like a skin suit. There was a point in the multiplayer stream where a woman had to take over her own rebels because she stuffed up and they won, new boss same as the old boss. Game does not end when you win so you can have an eternal post game wrecking your own empire then controlling one of the usurpers.

So how long are our sessions going to be?

starmute · Post by **starmute** » Sat May 07, 2016 10:42 pm #174759

An0n3 wrote:Let's just throw out some numbers and get objections to them as we go.

Let's start with like 4pm EST.

On tuesday or monday btw?

I don't think its out at that time on monday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/c ... stellaris/

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat May 07, 2016 10:51 pm #174763

starmute wrote:
An0n3 wrote:Let's just throw out some numbers and get objections to them as we go.

Let's start with like 4pm EST.

On tuesday or monday btw?

I don't think its out at that time on monday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/c ... stellaris/

It'll be out by that time on Monday.

"It will be released sometime during the afternoon/evening CEST on the 9th (early morning in the US, late evening in Asia/Oceania)." -BjornB, Paradox Community Manager

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sat May 07, 2016 11:10 pm

This game is looking cool, I somehow missed it up to this point. Would love to cause the end of the galaxy.