Stellaris

J

johncgalloway

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Hey guys


Anyone playing this with some tips etc?

I find Stellaris nearly impossible to figure out. I think in terms of actual "warfare" it is more realistic, as the mechanics in MoO II did allow you a more straight forward way of building up massively strong fleets, whereas Stellaris has a lot of behind the scenes type of work you need to know how to do properly.

Admittedly my previous 4x favourite would be MoO II, which is just the best 4x game evah!


Of course MoO was turn based as opposed to Stellaris which is pause-able real time. So I guess that is also part of the difference.


Any of your thoughts, tips or tricks would be appreciated.


Thanks!


J
 
Get in a few games with other people. It took multiple playthroughs and many disasters while friends guided me....

Would you like to join one of our games?
 
Welcome to Grand Strategy Games!

The only way to learn is to just climb in and play, fail, learn, improve. They've massively revamped the game with the 2.0 patch, but it does feel simpler and better than the previous iteration. There was a pretty cool guide on YT for beginners and the new patch. When I get home I'll see if I can find it and link it here.

If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer, otherwise try the Stellaris subreddit.

P.S. You might love EU4 as well, aside from the seemingly insurmountable amount of DLC to buy. It looks worse but plays better, and is probably 10x more complex.
 
I started playing it about a month back and am hooked. Seriously good game with a lot of depth. What I found helped was watching some useful youtube tip video's and even a lets play series or two.
Youtubers I would recommend are ASpec, Stefan Annon, and I think it was Darth Horak or something like that. Just be sure to only watch stuff posted since 2.0 as the game is very different after that patch.

So far what seems to work best for me is to expand fast to secure territory. Always try keep your fleet near the fleet cap, otherwise it invites aggression. Read up some trait guides but heading down the galactic wonders route seems popular and strong due to habitats boosting your empire production a lot and the wonders being both productive and fun.
You can successfully play with default ship designs but I had one of the hardest end game crises pop up in my first game (Ghost signal) and I was losing horribly for a long time until I learned how to redesign my fleet so maximise on their weaknesses and defend against their weapons. So read up on that.

Otherwise learn and have fun. There are so many things to learn in this game and different ways to play it. I would have liked a few more victory conditions though as war of conquest can be slow and I don't like federations. Hence the late game can be a bit of a grind. I think it is faster though if you have the apocalypse expansion as once you build the mega ship I think you no longer have to claim systems before conquering them so its a lot faster. You can also just blow up all the habitable worlds of other empires to get to 40% and victory.

I am still doing lots wrong but one huge breakthrough I had was more specific starbase builds. I used to have them all rather generic. I watched a good video showing how to specialise them. In particular build ones over planets and in systems with independent stations and go mad with trading hubs and offworld trading company to get massive early energy. I was struggling a lot for resources before I figured that one out. Top up with deep space black site for even more of a planetary boost and a hydroponic bay so that you can focus your planets more on stuff more useful than food. Then build some key bastions that are all defence at choke points, one or two ship yard only bases to build your fleets, and some anchorage stations with naval logistics offices etc to boost your fleet cap. Specialising them really seemed to boost my game, especially getting all that energy and food out of them. Independent artist troupe's or curators have a building you can get on the starbase if you get opinion a little higher with them. Get it and then make those your shipyard or anchorage stations. Try get as much pop as possible and lots of planets as the more pop the more starbases you can support and the more research you generate to offset the penalties for expansion.

At start get a second science ship going early and trigger map the stars as early as possible to get those anomalies. Look for scientists that have a better chance to find anomalies too. They can provide big boosts.

For ascension path Machine is about the simplest. Bio is OK, Psyonic is the most complex and random. I have tried all 3 now in the 3 games I have played and am not sure which one I prefer. I think you could also pick none and just focus on others but it is worth creating a spreadsheet with all of the picks and what the full bonus's are with some comments on strengths and some reading on each on reddit. The one gives you 80 fleet cap for instance but if you take grasp the voide giving you 5 starbases they could give you far more than that via anchorages. So it is worth planning your path. Don't feel you have to pick an ascension perk as soon as it is available. It may be worth waiting a bit for something better that requires a tech like voidbourne.
 
Grand Strategy Games are not for the faint of heart.

My first exposure to the genre was Hearts of Iron II (same guys make Stellaris). I chose Germany...Right in the middle of the mess and the first few playthroughs went as you'd expect; ran out of resources, jammed my transport capacity, depleted my manpower and eventually couldn't contain the Soviets.

Come to think of it, those first few playthroughs were historically accurate from Germany's perspective...
 
My boyfriend started playing that game and I didn't see him for like 3 days. He was hooked immediately. I don't know if he's still playing though
 
Akasha said:
lol yeah, he played it for about a month non-stop. I think he's beaten most of it though so he stopped
Click to expand...

I doubt that he's "beaten most" of the game after only a month - that's the beauty of GSGs. Although, Stellaris doesn't quite have the depth of EU4.

I have over 700 hours in EU4, and I'm still considered new to it. It is just too time-consuming. One day I will get The Three Mountains achievement... one day.
 
thestaggy said:
Grand Strategy Games are not for the faint of heart.

My first exposure to the genre was Hearts of Iron II (same guys make Stellaris). I chose Germany...Right in the middle of the mess and the first few playthroughs went as you'd expect; ran out of resources, jammed my transport capacity, depleted my manpower and eventually couldn't contain the Soviets.

Come to think of it, those first few playthroughs were historically accurate from Germany's perspective...
Click to expand...

Mine was the first HOI which I had to import from the UK IIRC. If you want hardcore GSG then check out Gary Grigsby's games over at matrixgames.com. Check out the manual :love:

[video=youtube;opnv3YpjYPE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opnv3YpjYPE&t=143s[/video]
 
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