Paradox(the company) Games

[tribal kernel]

i want to get into cities

but the DLC

is overwhelming

[autumn owl]

Hmm. Quantum capapult in the system directly next to me, despite not choosing that origin

[jolly breach]

That's lucky.

[abstract hull]

useful

[autumn owl]

Jeez, I'm trying a Clone Army start and I am struggling. My pops grow so fast that I don't ahve enough economy to expand to provide them with houses and jobs

Ironic, considering that the game thinks my empire is a military commissariat

[jolly breach]

You can issue planetary decrees to stop Pop Assembly, thus preventing the rapid overcrowding from clones.

[humble belfry]

You can as well sell excess resources to get more minerals for making economy

Don't forget you need slaves or other pops so you can go beyond 5 planets

[spice idol]

Yeah, I'd never stop any form of pop growth, instead burn all your other resources for minerals so you can economy harder

[humble belfry]

Yep never slow it down. When not at war you don't need stockpiles so sell em to make economy go brrrrrrr

Keep em if you will go to war or might get declared on

[autumn owl]

New save, didn't like the clone army one. This time I spawned 4 jumps away from Sol and the humans

They are fanatical egalitarian, xenophiles. I think we'll get along very well

eeeee

[jolly breach]

This a demand from the Humans?

[autumn owl]

yeah

we just signed a non aggression pact tho LMAO

[jolly breach]

Very strange that an Egalitarian AI empire is proposing Restricted Voting, I thought they were hardcoded to always do the most permissive version of that vassalage rule.

[autumn owl]

maybe a mod is futzing with it

[jolly breach]

Maybe.

[autumn owl]

Anyway, I'm building some ships now bcuz I dont trust these people anymore

[jolly breach]

Build so many ships their relative military becomes Pathetic, and then vassalize them.

It's the only reasonable recourse.

[autumn owl]

Indeed

I haven't yet bothered to increase my fleet so I was running with the three default corvettes when they sent that

Now im building 17 more and upgrading the first ones

[jolly breach]

To be fair, the three default corvettes are enough for any early game pirates.

[autumn owl]

ye

[jolly breach]

So the efficient strat ends up being to only build more if you're expecting a proper war.

[autumn owl]

speaking of pirates I got two pirate ships seeking asylum into my military

bugger all fleet power

but eh

[jolly breach]

The only pirate event which gives ships of reasonable fleet power is the one that gives you a free Battleship at the end.

[autumn owl]

oh how the tides have turned

LMAO

[jolly breach]

And I notice their terms here are much nicer to them than the ones to you in their old proposal.

[autumn owl]

yup

oh well

[jolly breach]

Which Branch Office and Holding buildings are you building?

[autumn owl]

branch office is private research, and overlord holding is ministry of truth

[autumn owl]

@frank sandal I'm a megacorp trading empire, Psionic or Genetic Ascension?

ah shoot wrong ping

@jolly breach

[jolly breach]

I'd go Genetic, unless you're a Spiritualist Corp.

[autumn owl]

alrighty

[jolly breach]

Though really you should be going Synths, that's the best ascension for econ.

[autumn owl]

I'm material/egal/xenophile empire

ah

but synth takes more research

[jolly breach]

Sure, but it's way stronger for econ. You forgo food entirely, once you're done, meaning you can simply sell all the food you make, and the Robot Traits are more efficient and you can get more of them.

[autumn owl]

aaaahhhh fine i'll wait

[jolly breach]

If you want Genetic ascension, go for it. It's still very strong. It's just Synth is better for full economy.

[autumn owl]

btw, I have corvettes destroyers and cruisers unlocked now. What should my fleet comp look like in proportions of those?

Should I just eschew corvettes entirely now

[jolly breach]

I usually go with a ratio of 1:1:2:3:4, of Titan, Battleship, Cruiser, Destroyer, Corvette.

[autumn owl]

So one of the mods I'm using adds a galaxy generation option called Clusters, which makes 4 sections of the galaxy that are separated and have no hyperlane links between them

which is pretty cool

but the shape is a bit SUS

:/

like seriously, mod, why

couldn't it just be circles

[jolly breach]

"No hyperlane links between them"
shows image with a clear hyperlane link between two of the sections

[autumn owl]

shush

LIMITED hyperlane links then

[jolly breach]

Also, that shape is clearly a beyblade, not whatever you're thinking it is. :P

[autumn owl]

sure I'll accept that into my worldview

[jolly breach]

Also, I'm guessing the tiny empire with the whitish-grey border is the Humans, and you're the bigger one with the same colored borders?

[autumn owl]

I'm the one on the left with the white borders, and the humans are the ones with purple

there's a marauder in the middle of my territory

[jolly breach]

Ah. Fun.

[autumn owl]

yea

[jolly breach]

That many wormholes is scaring me a bit. I intentionally lower wormhole pair spawnrates in my galaxies because of how risky it can be having that backdoor.

[autumn owl]

heh

I went with 5x

I've basically hit the limit of my expansion save for the wormholes becuz of where the humans spawned

[jolly breach]

Eat the humans, then.

[autumn owl]

but I won't have anyone to trade with then

[jolly breach]

Sure, but you'll have more space to expand.

And more planets, which means more core economy, meaning stronger Trade Agreements when you finally meet other empires.

[autumn owl]

progress!

I found friends on the other end of the wormhole

and some exterminators but psshhh we can deal with em

[humble belfry]

My lad. We gotta play a game of stellaris together

[tribal kernel]

their adding a co-op mode

where multiple people can control 1 empire

[autumn owl]

yes

[autumn owl]

We definitely do

[jolly breach]

I mean, there is a command to tag into empires, or out into a generic spectator, so there's already a way to do that, if you're fine with not getting achievements.

What's your full list of mods, btw, @autumn owl ? So I can get them all and maybe host it, since I have all the DLCs.

[tribal kernel]

I think a hotseat game would work better

Or we all use the same seed/custom empires in a galaxy

And each do a run through and compare how it goes at end/middle point

Since there would be so many timezones to coordinate

Since timezones, it's already 3 with you, Tyson and para

[spice idol]

Me and para somehow make it work despite being 12 hours apart

[jolly breach]

Sure, but with Tyson and Me specifically, isn't it only an hour difference?

[humble belfry]

Yes

I'm mst

[sick kraken]

hi mst

I bob

[jolly breach]

Then not even an hour difference, literally same timezone.

[humble belfry]

Lol perfect

[autumn owl]

Synth tech just ain't rolling. Which ascension is second best for trade empires? I can unlock any of the other 3

cyborg, genetic, or psionic

[spice idol]

idk enough about cyborg to tell you about that, but with genetic, you can increase your pop growth, which will help any empire, although psionics is good simply because of all the tech options it gives, neither are particularly trade oriented though

I guess with psionics, when you eventually get a covenant, you can roll for the instrument of desire, since that gives gives extra resources from jobs, and lets you construct a building that gives happiness and trade value empirewide

[humble belfry]

I mean. Go with genetic and you can stack energy credit buff

[autumn owl]

I went with cyborg becuz y'all didn't say in time

[tribal kernel]

We said we'd be back

😛

wait no he's a robot not a cyborg shit

[autumn owl]

You goof

[humble belfry]

You can still energy credit max with that

Just gotta go full synth

[spice idol]

You can always max energy credits by getting a dyson sphere

[humble belfry]

Tru

[jolly breach]

Cyborg used to be the first half of synth before the Ascensions rework, genetic I'd say is the second best after Synth.

[autumn owl]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2915864425

Stellaris modders scare me

[abstract hull]

I’m not sure why. They make perfectly logical extremes

[gentle otter]

Be not afraid

[autumn owl]

hey wtf

why did my non-spiritualist empire have 55% starting pops as spiritualist

[humble belfry]

Don't ask just remove them

Like we normally do in stellaris

Slavery and purging is normal here

[autumn owl]

That's half of my empire's population tyson

I can't do that

[jolly breach]

Governing Ethics Shift Chance is the best way to fix this when faced with this version of the issue where you can't just purge/enslave.

[humble belfry]

Just yeah.

Go authortarian

[tribal kernel]

Now thats a quote

[humble belfry]

And enslave all spiritual until they aren't spiritual. They don't have political power that way

Kek no balls on thar quote

[tribal kernel]

Good ol Crimes against living species simulators paradox

[humble belfry]

Yes

War crimes Don't exist if the game encourages them

[tribal kernel]

Don't like your neighbour? make god regret ever putting them in the universe

[humble belfry]

Exactly. Don't like the neighbors just jovian pox bombard them until they don't exist. It's as easy as one two genocide

[jolly breach]

They do exist, you're just rewarded for doing them.

[humble belfry]

Oh right they are war checklists

Not crimes

[jolly breach]

The Geneva Suggestions.

[humble belfry]

The Geneva checklists

Factorio is Geneva suggestions

[spice idol]

That looks like how most empires look when my spiritualist megacorp commercialises their planets

[sick kraken]

Can megacorp spread their ethics with branch office?

[jolly breach]

Yes.

[spice idol]

I remember playing a multiplayer game at a spiritualist megacorp, and my fanatic materialist friend was very annoyed when he realised a large majority of their population was spiritualist

[sick kraken]

Is it need to be building specific or just the existence of branch office is suffice enough for the spreading?

[spice idol]

There's a special spiritualist building you can put on a planet which is 50% spiritualist ethics attraction

[sick kraken]

okay. thank for answering

[tribal kernel]

soooo

uhhh

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380030/Stellaris_Galactic_Paragons/

Steam

Stellaris: Galactic Paragons

The galactic council is vast and full of personality! Add Galactic Paragons to your empires and experience a new level of character and story as great leaders rise to positions of power and follow your lead to the stars. With exclusive additions to the all-new Council mechanic, leaders who you can shape to amplify the vision for your empire, new...

Release Date

May 9, 2023

▶ Play video

new major expansion in 2 weeks

[spice idol]

yeah, leader and internal politic overhaul

[abstract hull]

[gentle otter]

Paradox stop trying to take more of my money

[cyan acorn]

it will keep taking all of it

[gentle otter]

At least it’s a quality game with workshop support (I’m looking at you EA)

[gentle otter]

https://youtu.be/FMI6d3RsuTQ

[gentle otter]

Ughh does mod load order actually matter? The UI for it is horrible

Have to click and drag and do it slowly lest the UI get confused

And stop and restart every once in a while

I am definitely not supposed to be sorting through 100 mods for the ones I want

[spice idol]

UI order does matter sadly

[gentle otter]

Ugh

I love Stellaris, but my computer doesn’t

I guess I should uninstall it from my hard drive and install it on my solid state drive, but I just can’t be bothered

[jolly breach]

Yeah, load order matters a ton, at least when mods overlap in function.
If none of your mods overlap in function, the only thing that matters is any compatibility patches are loaded after both of the mods they make compatible.

[spice idol]

If you're modding it with hundreds of mods, yeah you should

[gentle otter]

I don’t have hundreds of mods enabled, they’re just downloaded so I have to sort through them all

A lot of them are super old

[gentle otter]

Does Steam let you move stuff or do I have to reinstall it with my terrible internet

[real isle]

Steam lets you move stuff

You just need a library location on both drives

[gentle otter]

That’s something at least

[jolly breach]

Within steam settings you can set up a new install location for Steam games, as long as you either have 2+ drives, or have a program to "spoof" a second drive on your only drive (I had to use one when installing the Tale of Two Wastelands mod, as it recommends not only a clean install, but one in a separate drive/subfolder from the standard install location a person uses for Steam).
From there, you can just move a game to there, and install other games on that new install location via a dropdown menu that appears in the first "page" of the install popup for future installs of games.

[gentle otter]

I just never made a note of the move button on the Steam storage menu

[gentle otter]

Moved it to my SSD and wow that it a lot faster

But the game crashed when it loaded the save

[jolly breach]

Was it modded?

If so, you need to copy over the mods to the same drive.

[gentle otter]

Ah

[jolly breach]

Steam only checks for mods within the same drive. If your mods for a game are in the steamapps folder of a different drive, they won't properly register.

[gentle otter]

Even if I downloaded them from the Steam workshop?

[jolly breach]

Yes. Because Steam only backsearches as far as the drive the .exe for the game is on. If the game's .exe is on the C:/ drive and the Workshop mods are on, say, the D:/ drive, it won't register the workshop mods existing properly.

[gentle otter]

Probably going to have to get out wiztree to figure out where the mod file is now

[jolly breach]

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content is the C:\ drive version of it, usually, and then the numbers of the next folders deep are the Store Page IDs of each game.

[gentle otter]

I found the Stellaris workshop folder on the drive I moved the exe to

[jolly breach]

Then it should've worked fine.

[gentle otter]

Ah but there’s another on the old one

Now that I can match the Store IDs

[jolly breach]

Try disabling and reenabling all the mods in the Stellaris Launcher, as well as deleting the folder in the old one.

[gentle otter]

I think it’ll work now, originally it said it was missing some descriptors for mods, but that error is gone now

There was one mod that didn’t move properly “IN04” and it’s the only one I didn’t recognize as one I wasn’t using

Might’ve been the patch that goes at the end of the load order and patches a bunch of errors

It’s stuck at 100%, I’m getting anxious

NO

Ah, that would do it

There was a bunch of mods I removed from the “playset” or whatever the launcher calls it for being for versions of the game that were too old, apparently moving the game made them all come back enabled

And they were all after the mod that’s supposed to be last in the mod order

It’s stuck at 100% again

It’s loading the save game

It worked

[real isle]

\o/

[autumn owl]

so what's anyone's thoughts on the new dlc?

[tribal kernel]

Looks interesting, haven't bought it

Turning the game more into crusader kings is welcome

[humble belfry]

It's actually made leaders indisposable

Sp you gotta be choosey with them now as they give good buffs for the empire

[jolly breach]

Sure, but what if they don't give the right buff?

What if I need +Production of Alloys, and instead I got +Production of Food as a Robot Empire?

[real isle]

Sell off the food for alloys

[humble belfry]

That's the point

Get good at looking g after each roll over of leader pool

[jolly breach]

They roll now, instead of sitting there uselessly till we buy them?

[autumn owl]

They rolled before. I have been inconvenienced several times by seeing a leader I can't afford and checking back to see they've been bumped off the list when I have the unity, in pre-paragons games

[jolly breach]

They've never rolled for me, unless I wait 50-100 in game years.

[spice idol]

This is n one of the first times where I didn't bother to buy the DLC immediately since I looked at the dev diaries and it didn't seem too interesting

[tribal kernel]

2 new stellaris games

[spice idol]

oh?

care to elaborate?

[tribal kernel]

Turn based "Stellaris Nexus" then either a stellaris spin off or built on the stellaris engine "Star Trek Infinite"

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1983990/Stellaris_Nexus/

Steam

Stellaris Nexus

Time is a valuable currency in our everyday lives and we all know how much time a really good 4X game can take to complete. What if you could have a 4X game that can be played in the time that it takes you to do the laundry?Stellaris Nexus is a multiplayer turn-based 4X clash for galactic dominance, played from start to finish in about an hour!C...

Release Date

To be announced

▶ Play video

[spice idol]

ah

[tribal kernel]

looks like a mix of Twilight Emperium and Slipways

[tribal kernel]

@jolly breach @autumn owl @spice idol @hard moon star trek infinite got more stuff today. It's literally just Stellaris 2

[autumn owl]

Ye I saw

[tribal kernel]

The ui is a bit different

But aside from that

It looks like sequel to stellaris

wonder if the stellaris Star Trek mods will be removed

or even funnier

the mods turn out to be better then the game

[jolly breach]

The Star Trek folks have always been one of the more relaxed groups when it comes to fan content.
Quite a number of episodes in TNG and DS9 era were actually ones where the basic plots were fan submitted ideas.

[tribal kernel]

The UI of it

just looks like stellaris UI

if it was designed well

and not the slapdash of 5 different UI's

STI

I'm excited for it though

looks like its going stellaris but more story focused

wonder if this is actually a stepping stone between stellaris 1 and 2

but man

its just a stellaris mod

I do hope this gives them time to actually plan things

instead of the slapdash of stellaris

they can go to the root and add and remove whatever to make it actually function

[jolly breach]

It looks vaguely like one of the UI overhaul mod uis.

[tribal kernel]

Man

i still need to buy Paragons and first contact

wonder if they'll do more licensed games though

it would be cool to get a proper like star wars version

[tribal kernel]

it looks streamlined

but who knows how much is changed

or how good it is

[gentle otter]

You forgot me

[tribal kernel]

Because knowing the quality of the ST:New horizons mod, its a highbar to reach

honestly i don't think we've had a situation like this in years

[hard moon]

I mean it's paradox so I usually expect the dlc to be broken and worse than equivalent mods in most ways.

Except the dlc does add features that mods can't do alone so you gotta get it anyway

[jolly breach]

There, there, pnad. I am sure Weegy didnt mean to forget to ping you.

[hard moon]

Totally intentional. Rude Weegy

[spice idol]

Seems exciting

[autumn owl]

I am raiding holy terra

[gentle otter]

I’m sleepy and the thread opened at the top and I was so confused

[autumn owl]

nyehehe

[autumn owl]

Did they ever add qol stuff to the first contact dlc's eager explorers civic? I remember the bootleg jump drives having problems with being micromanagy

[spice idol]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[jolly breach]

The micromanagement of the bootleg jump drives is the entire point.

You start with the ability to ignore Hyperlanes, your tradeoff is micromanagement hell.

[autumn owl]

these suns are mitosising

[abstract hull]

Fun

[hasty lion]

Alright, Paradox announced that it was publishing a Civ-like and...it looks a bit cheap: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268590/Millennia

Steam

Millennia

Create your own nation in Millennia, a historical turn-based 4X game that challenges your strategic prowess across 10,000 years of history, from the dawn of humanity to our possible futures. Set the course of history and experience different timelines in every playthrough as you write an epic story through your actions. Lead your people throug...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

[jolly breach]

It looks fine to me.

[autumn owl]

prikikki-ti

[jolly breach]

It's always the cute ones.

[abstract hull]

yeah. yeah I feel like that.

[hasty lion]

Guns return to AoW4: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2401830/Age_of_Wonders_4_Empires__Ashes/

Steam

Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes

Fuse magic and steel to create mighty weapons of war in the Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes expansion. Ravage the realms of the Godir with the brutal Reaver culture, and besiege cities with cannons and war machines. Seek a new kind of victory by unlocking the secrets of the Seals of Power to conquer the Astral Sea!Reaver CulturePush progress f...

Release Date

Nov 7, 2023

▶ Play video

https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/2401830/ss_fb19e3b246822fac24fd778ba7e57017daba5b42.jpg
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/2401830/ss_96c71ffac5c188986e5b099562b4ab52a5f9eab3.jpg

[autumn owl]

something doesnt add up

[gentle otter]

Hmmm

[spice idol]

Blackmail is quite peaceful I'll have you know

[real isle]

Look they do the crime, and you do the trades.

They profit from both

[gentle otter]

Every criminal enterprise needs a front

[autumn owl]

I can't even do commercial pact with them cuz they're crime syndicate

[spice idol]

You wouldn't want a commercial pact with them anyways, find a normal megacorp

either that or drag me into a game with you, I love playing megacorps :p

[autumn owl]

ha

I'm playing with some... questionable.. mods rn so

[tribal kernel]

HA

[autumn owl]

weegy knows :>

[tribal kernel]

Those mods

[tribal kernel]

Para needs jesus

[autumn owl]

nah

[gentle otter]

https://tenor.com/view/jesus-peeking-i-see-you-guilty-gif-25117299

[spice idol]

Wouldn't be my first rodeo

[tribal kernel]

Shroud also

needs jesus

[autumn owl]

Oh yea?

[spice idol]

To be fair for me, I did not pick the mods, I let friend pick mods

[tribal kernel]

ha

that was a mistake

also

HOW

How does one hornify a 4x game

[spice idol]

But when I constantly get the anime virus and my entire nation goes from my nice plant people to this, it can kinda get old

literally that character is one of the potential skins

and is probably the "best" one in terms of not showing things

so in terms of full hornifying, not exactly done that, but I wouldn't be far off

but also, why do you have those mods para...

[tribal kernel]

Now that

is a question none of us want to answer or get answers for

[spice idol]

at least with the mod above, that specific thing is one thing of many in the one mod

[abstract hull]

wait wait wait, the mod didn't have anime plant women? rediculous. thats an entire untapped market!

[spice idol]

It had anime robots though

and by anime robots, I mean anime face png slapped on top of bastion from overwatch

[abstract hull]

......................................

[autumn owl]

Well, I don't have those ones, exactly

[spice idol]

That doesn't fill me up with hope with that wording para

[autumn owl]

Ha

[tribal kernel]

IT shouldn't

[jolly breach]

I mean, there's quite a few horny mods for Stellaris on Loverslab... If you want to know the answer to how one hornyifies a 4x game, just look on there.

[hard moon]

I can immediatly think of a couple ways

Like not even difficult to come up with a small handful of things

[jolly breach]

To be fair, most of them are just "Species Packs" that have horny designs for the species portraits.

[hasty lion]

https://tenor.com/view/horny-on-main-horny-police-homp-gif-13274350

[autumn owl]

yes

[autumn owl]

most of those are crappy AI stuff, but there's one really good set of entirely hand drawn portraits that replaces every portrait in the vanilla game including non-player factions

like the shroud teachers and stuff

[autumn owl]

y'all see the DLC announcement?

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/3739734776483087455?l=english

we getting m y s t i c a l in here

[abstract hull]

Neat

[tribal kernel]

While interesting

I don't like it

It looks like reskinned dig sites

Rather then anything new

[jolly breach]

So you dislike the fact it's purely event chains and not actual new mechanics?

[tribal kernel]

Half of it

I dislike that it's new event chains separate from everything else

[abstract hull]

Islands of isolated content being the issue?

[jolly breach]

I mean, it says there's new Origins. We'll need to wait till they reveal those, to see what's going on with them. Lately a lot of the more noticeable changes outside of the obvious have been part of the Origins.

[tribal kernel]

Rather then giving a new mechanic, like digs did, or building on previous eventchains it's just digsites again but separate

Yeah isolated content that functionally is 1:1 to what we already have

And while I like the new origins and then being more impactful I just want more active content decisions

Rather then latent ones

Passive*

I'm surprised they released another dlc though

I think we've come to the end of Stellaris lifespan

Or nearing it

[jolly breach]

Stellaris has been designated one of their "forever games".

[tribal kernel]

So was vic2

[jolly breach]

It'll keep receiving DLC and updates until they change their mind and make a Stellaris 2.

[tribal kernel]

Which I think is already in dev/starting dev

Since infinity launched earlier this month

That really looks like a testbed of changing features

[jolly breach]

Stellaris spinoffs are. Far as I'm aware Stellaris 2 isn't even on the idea board yet.

[tribal kernel]

Maybe

I'm also disappointed that they didn't do more with rifts

Considering what a big deal it is in sci fi

Like it would have been cooler if it functioned as a more traditional map game in this ethereal board

Or shortcuts across the galaxy but technology is flipped/they require special transports

Idk just something more

[autumn owl]

Well, lemme put it this way: the custodian team has been hard at work making the free updates, the star trek spinoff was made by an outsourced team, and this new dlc is also being outsourced.

The stellaris primary Dev team has been unaccounted for, for a LONG time now, no news on what they're working on.

Infer from that what you will

[tribal kernel]

Could just be laid off

[autumn owl]

No news of layoffs afaik

They're working on something, odds are. Whether it's a bigger DLC or stellaris 2 /shrug

[autumn owl]

@tribal kernel @hard moon would either of you two wanna do multiplayer stellaris?

[tribal kernel]

Hmm

Probably around december

Don't have the time+energy to commit to a long-term thing during the School year

[autumn owl]

alright

[hard moon]

My kneejerk reaction is a dislike of Stellaris mp. Would be down though.

[autumn owl]

It'll just be casual the two of us

Wanna hop onto a VC and try it?

[tribal kernel]

They do have that co-op beta mode

[autumn owl]

they do also have that!

[tribal kernel]

Unsure how good it is though

[autumn owl]

from what I;ve seen fairly good

[hard moon]

Not tonight for sure. Pretty dang tired since I woke up at 5am for work. Gotta actually wake up tomorrow as well

[autumn owl]

ah ok

[autumn owl]

anti-piracy operation

boom

[jolly breach]

Based on the size of that Pirate ship, I'm assuming this was the special event chain piracy group rather than a regular old piracy spawn from forgetting to set a patrol route for your fleet?

[gentle otter]

https://tenor.com/view/you-guys-are-getting-paid-gif-20686662

[autumn owl]

@hard moon muuuurgs

game?

👀

[jolly breach]

Murgle is clearly dead.

[tribal kernel]

I'd be up for another game potentially

[autumn owl]

like, right now?

[tribal kernel]

45 minutes

[autumn owl]

sounds good

[tribal kernel]

gotta finish another assignment

[autumn owl]

yes good luck

@ me when ur free

[tribal kernel]

Aye

History of Argentiena wine is "fun"

but yeha, i'm up for a game if we can wake the beast(mrugle)

[hard moon]

I see wine!

[autumn owl]

MURGs

HE AWAKENS

[hard moon]

Don't really like wine though. Least none that I've tried. Would rather polish off my whiskey

[tribal kernel]

yarr

my prof was a dick

we had a midterm last week

and he doublebooked the class for a midterm+lecture immediately after

80% of the class left after the midterm and he just went "oh, yeah i'll just upload it online"

[hard moon]

Would have loved to have seen the look on his face

Also I am down to game. Just let me know what we're playing, not really feeling Stellaris right now.

[tribal kernel]

Ditto

... what games do we all share?

[jolly breach]

Depending on what mods Para wants, I'd maybe be up for a game of Stellaris.

[hard moon]

The 3 of us own FTL

[tribal kernel]

@autumn owl Montana Man is interested

That have MP

[jolly breach]

There is technically a mod for FTL that adds that.

It's super duper jank, though, I would not advise it.

[autumn owl]

AAA hang on in titanfall

[hard moon]

Dragons Dogma technically has multiplayer and we all have it :p

[autumn owl]

gonna be honest I kinda want specifically to play stellaris

[tribal kernel]

Thats fair

[hard moon]

Yeah fair but Stellaris smells like commitment which I am not feeling right now.

[tribal kernel]

Ditto

[autumn owl]

Aight

[tribal kernel]

I am ohso tempted to buy SWAT 4

Its a bad idea, but it sounds like a fun-bad idea

on the topic of MP stuff

[hard moon]

Yeah but it's on GoG. I'd have to log in and stuff

[tribal kernel]

Google autofill?

[hard moon]

Maybe? It's been a long long long time since I've even looked at GoG. Also it's not Steam.

[tribal kernel]

Yeah

too Old

GoG galaxy is geniunely great though

Its better then the paradox launcher

though

not a high bar

[autumn owl]

What mods do you want? I'm fine with pretty much anything

[jolly breach]

Honestly, just Gigastructural Engineering is fine. Mainly I just didn't want to have to install a bunch to match your potential desired mod list.

[autumn owl]

Just gigas and UI overhaul then?

[tribal kernel]

Quadrants is a must in MP

having that extra frame of reference is just amazing

[jolly breach]

Yeah. I do need to deal with a relative who's been staying over, though, so give me about 30 minutes to an hour for that, okay?

[tribal kernel]

ha

Hopefully a good relative

[autumn owl]

Sure

[jolly breach]

Yeah, they're a good relative. They're staying over simply to avoid having to pay for a hotel while they visit some other relatives in town who don't have room to house them.

[jolly breach]

Did you want to host, or do you want me to host since I have all the DLCs, @autumn owl ?

[autumn owl]

1 min

you should host I think

[jolly breach]

Let me get the game launched, then, and a lobby set up.

[autumn owl]

one more thing for the mods @jolly breach , could we add these two as well? So load order is

1 Gigastructures
2 UI overhaul
3 UI ascensions
4 tradtions UI
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1890399946
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2603031001

[jolly breach]

I suppose.

[autumn owl]

cheers

okay, voice chat?

[jolly breach]

You go ahead and design an empire while you wait, then, so you can quickly pick it, and I'll slap together one once I've set up the lobby.

[autumn owl]

aight

[jolly breach]

Okay.. Game crashed.

[autumn owl]

O.o

[jolly breach]

Stellaris hasn't ever crashed on me before, so that's worrying.

[autumn owl]

let's try again?

Also, voice chat?

[jolly breach]

I'll join vc if we can get into the game without a crash. If it crashes again, I'll have to do troubleshooting, which will mean delaying until I can get it to not crash.

[autumn owl]

right

lemme know when you're opening it up again

[jolly breach]

I'm launching now, will take a little bit though, the game likes to not respond for a second or two between each % while launching, but runs fine otherwise (barring that random crash I just had).

[autumn owl]

right

[abstract hull]

Well there go my plans to ask para to tide some darkness.

[autumn owl]

lol

[abstract hull]

Have fun now

[autumn owl]

u could join us winkwonk

[abstract hull]

I don’t OWN THE GAME

[autumn owl]

then buy it :>

[abstract hull]

Also I suck at RTS

[autumn owl]

pshhhh

[abstract hull]

I AM OUT OF DISPOSABLE INCOME!

[autumn owl]

MAKE SOME

[abstract hull]

Especially on the levels of a paradox game.

[jolly breach]

You only need the base game, since I'll be hosting.

[abstract hull]

I’m working on it.

[abstract hull]

I was out in general.

Wizard with a gun took the last of my monthly fun money

Unless I find something in a couch cushion, I’m bust.

[autumn owl]

fair and balanced.. yes...

[abstract hull]

something...... something feels off here.

so thats energy, consumer goods..... and some blue thing

[autumn owl]

unity

[abstract hull]

and for some reason I feel like that blue thing is.....

youre trading 710 energy a month

FOR UNITY?!

[autumn owl]

they're the ones trying to propose this

[abstract hull]

I mean..... that sounds like a good deal?

[autumn owl]

for them

I get bugger all from it

[abstract hull]

ah

hm

solution.

kill them for their arrogance.

[autumn owl]

kill?

perhaps

[abstract hull]

enslave.

make tributary.

something.

[autumn owl]

I need to figure out how to change my empire ethics so I can flip from xenophile to xenophobe

[abstract hull]

personally I like eating their planets out of existence.

[autumn owl]

and go exterminatus on these fools

[abstract hull]

you uhhhh...... dont.

at least I dont think you can?

hero would know

[autumn owl]

the AI does it fairly often, you get popups saying xyz empire has embraced abc ethic

[abstract hull]

huh

aight.

well good luck

if you do end up doing it, I reccomend the water titan, but I think thats DLC you dont have

[autumn owl]

i dont have aquatics

[jolly breach]

Please and Embrace the Xenophobe Faction.

[autumn owl]

how do I form a xenophobe faction

[abstract hull]

yeah thought so.

so instead just be lithovore and consume their planet.

you are a lithovore right?

[jolly breach]

When playing as any non-Gestalt empire, there is a Factions menu.

You don't form a Faction. You wait for the pops in your empire to form one for you.

[autumn owl]

no i DOWNT OWN LITHOVORE EITHER

[abstract hull]

WELL THEN WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE

not playing lithovores.

tisk tisk tisk.

[autumn owl]

these are my factions

[jolly breach]

The only Factions that can form are the ones of ethics matching existing ethics in your empire.
Buying slave pops who have Xenophobe ethic off the Galactic Market and freeing them is one way to potentially trigger a Xenophobe faction to form.

[autumn owl]

right

[jolly breach]

The freeing them step is important, btw.

They can't trigger the formation of a faction if they're enslaved.

[autumn owl]

currently there are only robots on the market

[abstract hull]

well then fracture and enslave a xenophobe faction.

[spice idol]

Look in the faction tab for the xenophobe faction, you'll get an option to flip given some conditions, you can hover over it to check

[autumn owl]

See above

[spice idol]

I just read it now yes

Another way to gain xenophobic pops is to do xenophobic actions, idk the specifics on that though

Normally at some point once you're big enough, you'll have every type of faction

[autumn owl]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3054536937
Found a great mod for the new DLC :P

oh ew just realized its ai

nvm

[gentle otter]

The pain

[autumn owl]

an unironically actual cool looking mod tho https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719075597&searchtext=darkspace

[autumn owl]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3022132203
And here's something that seems utterly insane

[gentle otter]

Wow

Those are some cool mods

How have I never heard of them before?

[tribal kernel]

Astral planes launches the 16th

[cyan acorn]

I was trying out a hive run with the devouring swarm stuff on and uhh, I think it's a little too good

only reason my resources or well atleast most are below 1k a month is due to the fact that I am colonizing multiple planets at once, that and also fixing the ones I "claimed"

[jolly breach]

All three of the "eternal no CB war with everyone" empire types (Devouring Swarm, Determined Exterminator, and Fanatic Purifier) are indeed "too good".

[cyan acorn]

How so?

[abstract hull]

to balance out the fact that the rest of the galaxy basically hates you on principle, they give you a load of bonuses.

which if you can win a few starter wars

you can snowball

hard.

[jolly breach]

Their no CB war thing lets them instantly take control of any system they capture, rather than needing to wait for the peace deal.

[cyan acorn]

Alright that's fair, the thing is, I kinda never met anyone till I already was stronger than most factions LOL

[abstract hull]

that too.

[jolly breach]

Non DS/DE/FP empires need to wait till they finish the Colossus Project, to get that benefit.

[cyan acorn]

I've noticed, only annoying thing is taking over the planets so far when declaring war with one person means 7 other factions go after me

[abstract hull]

welcome to lategame factions.

everyone is together, and they all hate you.

[cyan acorn]

I mean yea, it's not an issue really, just more of a hassle to have my ships go out to other systems to keep them safe instead of bombarding the planets I want to claim

[jolly breach]

Welcome to how the AI reacts to the player no matter what. To borrow from EU4, we can call it a "coalition". The more you expand, the more the AIs group together to combat you. Unlike EU4, though, the "coalitions" never dissolve.

[cyan acorn]

huh

If that's the case, then why does half of the other factions kinda just, mind their own business

infact the faction above me is waaaay stronger than me and it hasn't declared a single war towards me

[jolly breach]

If they're the ones on the opposite side of the galaxy from you, because they're too far away from you to need to worry at the moment.

As for that one that's above you, probably because you're, I assume, busy with other wars right now. AI tends not to declare on a DS/DE/FP Player with the "Contain Threat" CB they gain against such a player unless they're Defensive Pact'd with someone you just declared on, or you're not currently at war with anyone else. I rarely play those three myself, but when I do, I intentionally cheese this fact by declaring against someone small who I can box in, and never actually defeat them, and then make a few more to juggle around doing that with so that I never drop the "at war with someone" state due to war exhaustion auto-peace.

[cyan acorn]

so the strat is kill everyone this purple faction is allied with, and then box in a single system of theirs with one ship

[jolly breach]

Box in about 3, and juggle around being at war with them. Again, war exhaustion auto-peace.

You want full uptime on being at war with someone, but war exhaustion, once it gets high enough for a specific war, will auto-peace that war, so you need more than one tiny boxed in empire to juggle around to prevent the auto-peace from making you not be at war with anyone.

[cyan acorn]

fair fair

[spice idol]

There's also Driven Assimilators, although their bonus is in the fact of not having to deal with planets after taking them over, and just getting the full benefit after a small wait

[jolly breach]

Also the fact that DA get to do some limited actual diplomacy, whereas DS, DE, and FP only get that with same species portrait for FP, other machines for DE, and Same species portrait and hive minded for DS.

[light crest]

Beep boop the job mobile for Weegy is here

[hasty lion]

I'm sorry but WUT: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2729490/Stellaris_Expansion_Subscription/

Steam

Stellaris: Expansion Subscription

In order to enjoy the content included in the Expansion Subscription you will need to own the Stellaris base game.The Galaxy has never been so vast and full of wonders! The Stellaris Expansion Subscription is a great way to experience the ultimate Space Grand Strategy experience with unlimited access to all additional content.Explore the remnant...

Price

$9.99

[abstract hull]

its a subscription service

to enjoy stelaris

isntead of paying well over 100 dollars for all dlc

because all paradox does is release vaguely passable games, and then add the real content with DLC

and now someone at corporate realized, "hey some people just have the base game and a few explansions, what if we charged them monthly, to get all of them!"

[autumn owl]

Well.... Yeah, I can see people using that

if youre the type of person to go play stellaris for one campaign once every several months (such as me)

itd be neat

[hasty lion]

I guess, suppose I just see it as an excuse to contiue with the Paradox Model™️ now that their games seem to go through decade long development cycles now.

[abstract hull]

yeah

to me legitimately

this just feels predatory

I think quite honestly, they do too many split up DLCs

wait longer, bundle it together, sell it as packages

instead of fragmentary things for 10 to 20 dollars each

jesus christ

what the hell do you MEAN all stelaris DLC combined costs over THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS (before reduction due to bundle)

thats disgusting

legitimately

like thats actually just awful

I swear this entire model feels predatory as hell.

especially now with that subscription

[spice idol]

I was glad that there was a humble bundle for all the EU4 DLC (at the time the bundle released) for like £15 or smth like that

since without that, I would've never gotten any of those since I already spent all I was willing on Stellaris, and I do not have the most recent DLCs for stellaris

[tribal kernel]

They have the same sub for other games

[tribal kernel]

And yes it is

[tribal kernel]

Paradox's whole business model is predatory

the only reason they get away with it is they (often) make half-decent games

[jolly breach]

Also the fact that in Multiplayer, only the host needs all the DLCs.

[tribal kernel]

yeah

[jolly breach]

Do note that the ones that cost $20 are always the big ones that actually change up base gameplay fairly significantly (Utopia, MegaCorp, Federations, Overlord, etc.), while the ones priced at $15 add a bunch of additional mechanics (First Contact and Galactic Paragons), while all the rest at $10 merely add additional event chains or species portraits (the Story Packs excluding Galactic Paragons, and all the Species packs).

Also, it only costs over $300 now because of the "subscription" being counted as a DLC and costing $9.99. If you exclude that, then the DLCs in total only add up to $296.78, and really technically only $282.80, since if you get the Galaxy Edition Upgrade DLC you get both the eBook DLC and the soundtrack DLC in that, meaning you don't have to do the extra $6.99 payments for both of those two DLCs.

[abstract hull]

Ah.

That’s still basically 300 bucks

Also why are singular quest chains priced at 10.

That’s 5 at best.

[jolly breach]

The Story packs at $10 aren't singular quest chains. They're multiple.

All fitting a theme.

[abstract hull]

Ah

[spice idol]

Everyone knows Paradox's DLC model is kinda scummy, but we all live with it because they are doing the best games in that area, and also the fact that only the host requires it making it more accessible to others wanting to play with friends

[jolly breach]

Plus, compared to other companies, it's at least a more honest business model. Sure, it's scummy, but it could've been scummier.

[spice idol]

Yeah

although when this game releases, I'm sure if they actually have all the features you want in base game, it'll topple a lot of Paradox's games
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1858700/Grey_Eminence/

Steam

Grey Eminence

Spanning from 1356 to 1956, steer the fate of any country on Earth through six epic centuries of conflict. Diplomacy, economics, warfare and intrigue are all weapons in your arsenal to transform the world that was into the world that could be.Simulation on an Unrivaled ScaleA world of over 1,000,000 tiles, each with its own geography, population...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

I say when, since I put this on my wishlist years ago and I've seen like two bits of new news about it since

[tribal kernel]

hmm

i think its going to tackle too much

[spice idol]

I'm just excited someone that isn't Paradox is trying to make a game like this

From what little is revealed, it looks awesome, and they certainly ain't rushing

since I literally had to go "oh yeah, this exists" on multiple occasions

[tribal kernel]

yup, they need challengers

they have a monopoly on this genre

[spice idol]

It won't be coming any time soon though

Who'd have guessed making a game about the planet across 600ish years costs a lot of money

[abstract hull]

Oops

[spice idol]

That was in May 2023

But for that game, I do recall them making an entire post about making the game moddable, so even if it crashes and burns, it might do a minecraft and become the baseline modding game for grand strategy

[tribal kernel]

For me it's the scope that I don't think it's a real competitor

The big paradox games found what they wanted to be and offered exactly that

No fat in different eras

600 years is a lot of change post romans

Each paradox game though offere a slice of finely curated themes/era

Ck3 ends when feudalism falls out

Eu4 when modern states emerged, Victoria during industrial revolution

Hoi4 before Vietnam and the new world order

Going for just a chunk of history caters to all but specialized for none, allowing the depth in paradox games to be unchallenged

[jolly breach]

Even with the Road to 56 mod, HoI4 still ends just after real life Vietnam.

[tribal kernel]

Cause paradox are right bastards, but their smart bastards

They knew they needed to divy up the products rather then have them all in one to attract people

Stellaris during the growing years of space/early colonialism

Despite the fluff of the dlc, they understand the need of separation to keep each romp different from on another

Combining eu4 and vic into one game, while manageable is probably just going to be too unwieldy for most

[jolly breach]

Sure, they have some content for later space empiring, but that portion is fairly limited unless you start dipping into mods like Gigastructural Engineering.

[jolly breach]

Most megacampaigns go all the way from CK to Stellaris, these days.

[spice idol]

The jump to stellaris is always the least whelming

[tribal kernel]

It does look like a great game though shroud

I'm just skeptical it's got the right approach to dethrone paradox as someone needs to do

Not the point

The point is each era is divided with starkly different mechanics, goals and design philosophy

Yeah

It's got the longest time jump as well

1945 to 2200

[spice idol]

It's less "dethroning" and more "here's an option that isn't Paradox"

[tribal kernel]

I'm surprised that there isn't a game that fills that gap by paradox

Weve got terra Invicta though

[spice idol]

Arguably, the game doesn't even need to be better than the existing Paradox games, even if it's a bit worse, it'll still do what it needs to do

[tribal kernel]

Yeah

They just need competition

[spice idol]

exactly

[tribal kernel]

But yeah, I'd like to see a game based in 1945-2100/2200

That would be a fun game

And I'm looking forward to seeing the competition

Especially in space where they can get really creative

Like I'd love a small scale Stellaris, rts in a solar system with actual orbital mechanics

I'd encourage everyone to post alternatives If they find them

[spice idol]

That actually sounds awesome, have something start modern day-ish, and make it primarily a space race, more diplomatic gambits, controlling space, and getting bases set up in orbit, on the moon and other planets in the solar system

[tribal kernel]

I know right?

The way I think about it is you start on earth but have a timer(ecological collapse or something) that forces you either to work diplomatically with the nations or get the hell off earth

Shit if I knew how to code I'd make a simple version

Each year is broken into 4 turns, earth rotates every turn(along with other celestial objects) you'd pick a nation and have to either cooperate to save earth or move off earth through rockets to the moon

[tribal kernel]

Essentially dream game

[jolly breach]

So, Terra Invicta.

[tribal kernel]

The issue with terra Invicta is that... It's too much and not explained well

[spice idol]

The closest thing I've played to that effect would be Planetery Annihilation, and I do love that game

even if I'm not the biggest RTS fan

[tribal kernel]

More large scale like Stellaris would be best

Try terra formers shroud, it's similar to what we've been talking about, especially with the new dlc

[abstract hull]

I personally prefer Supreme Commander to PA, but PA is good

[tribal kernel]

Wrong link

Anyways yeah

I'd prefer a less rts and more political focused like stellaris

Where you control units

But most of it is focused on resource management

But yeah, that idea sounds rad. Im procrastinating and brainstorming it and what I came up with
-turned based, each year is broken into 4 then(3 months) and each planet rotates according to that system
-orbits are modelled to real standards, fuel system for ships so you've gotta plan when to launch stuff to minimize cost
-political focused as your base is on earth so you've gotta deal with earth wars and issues grounding it
-endgame is either take over earth or become completely independent

The beginning would be hampered/lead by three issues. Fuel costs/availability, climate change and fierce competition between stuff in earth orbit that you often have to shoot stuff down. Quickly defining who's your enemy and friend along with your goal, stay or get off Earth

Thoughts?

I know Ive said I'm sick of card games, but that would be the way it's played. Each round you draw a hand and play x amount of cards, with new cards being unlocked by reaching and controlling other planets(ie, if you get to mars and own all of it, you get cards that say "increase fuel production by 3" or such

As well as a decision thing and diplomacy, diplomacy working on cards. Play card that strengthens your mining supplies on mars pisses off your opponents on mars, but increases your strength with allies

Then a full decision thing that I have no idea, probably similar to Stellaris where it's a bunch of events chains that trigger and change the world

I've been playing a lot of slay the spire, almost like that system of relics and cards. Relics/buildings that you spend resources on that generate from cards and buildings/relics generate more resources to spend on events/stuff

Anyways that's my procrastination game pitch

Hit me with everything about it bad and bad and slightly decent

[humble belfry]

they ened to release that for eu4

its well over bloody 400 cad for ALL dlc which are arguablly required for gameplay

[abstract hull]

ened?

[spice idol]

I think "need"

[abstract hull]

ah

[tribal kernel]

Hate to break it to you, but it already does exist

[humble belfry]

Ah.... fuck. I mean I should get that tbh

[tribal kernel]

yeah 12 bucks a month

[tired scarab]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3192256710

Embed seems to be broken

After the End for CK3 is now out on the workshop!

Quite nice to see

[tired scarab]

Any opinions on Victoria 3?

It's on the Humble Choice if anyone is interested

[jolly breach]

It's Victoria 2, but for modern systems.

And Vicky 2 was good.

[tired scarab]

What's up with the mixed reviews? Some controversial changes or something?

Or is it still in the transitory period of a Paradox game? Where it doesn't have as much content than the previous game with all the DLC due to the process being restarted.

[jolly breach]

Yes to the latter.

[humble belfry]

Yes to that and issues with army and war. Uses a Frontline system that can sometimes Bork. Otherwise it's alright I've had fun with it for the 200ish hours I've thrown at it

[abstract hull]

Combat is borked to hell, but I’ve heard it’s got a great foundation.

[real isle]

Its got good foundations and they have gradually unborked the worst of the combat

its the paradox game for when you want to shout THE ECONOMY at people

[abstract hull]

Oh that’s good.

I like having unborked combat

[humble belfry]

New dlc is gonna drop and imo if you like to play paradox games well past launch buy all the dlc now while it's relatively few, we know how the paradox model works

[little fox]

New bot civ types coming in stellaris in early May. I'm kind of tired of playing always-gestalt conquest-o-bots, so it will be refreshing to give it a go.

[abstract hull]

Neat

[tired scarab]

Any news with Millenia?

Haven't really heard about it since the hype and the launch

[abstract hull]

Not that I’ve heard.

[tribal kernel]

patching and roadmap

not abandoned yet

like Infinite Frontiers

[jolly breach]

Simple, quiet updates, which is good news because it's a lack of news.

[abstract hull]

Mhm.

[cyan acorn]

I'm gonna start a fight with paradox and they won't like it, I thought they were gonna do a 90% sale but my dreams were shattered and I was violently woken up from them (I just want one dlc for Stellaris but they're so expensive)

[abstract hull]

[little fox]

I have cursed myself with stellaris, for planetary engineering calls to me. I must megastructure my planets. all of them, for the siren call is too strong.

[jolly breach]

But what about gigastructuring them?

[little fox]

why not both? make every "uninhabitable" planet into a megastructure of their own, then make all the ringworlds!

and if one of my former colonies is where a ringworld goes? just depopulate it and planet crack it.

[jolly breach]

Also making sure to then G.L.U.E the cracked planet so it becomes a Molten World, putting a Planetary Strip Mine on it, and then building a S.U.C.C over any Gas Giants.

Just to not waste any materials.

(I always do that on any systems I'm planning to build a Megastructure that deletes the planets.)

[little fox]

noooooo! the planetary engineering mod breaks dyson swarms!

they remove the mining station and you can't make a new one.

[jolly breach]

RIP.

[little fox]

welp. time to force a fusion grid.

nyeeh, the tech takes 43 months

[jolly breach]

"`"+"finish research"+"Enter Key". :P

[little fox]

nu. I've got planetary engineering and gigastructures. I'm already cheating enough.

[jolly breach]

What's a little bit of speeding up Research, when you already have the mod that makes the AI die even more (Gigastructures)? :P

(Seriously, with Gigastructures installed, the AI just gives up, it seems like, due to not being able to keep pace with even an average player.)

[gentle otter]

I kinda want to play Age of Wonders Planetfall

[little fox]

so I miiight have found a bug with my modded game. I, a machine intelligence, cannot assemble pops anymore. there's no pop portrait, and I "don't have pops that can be assembled" on any of my planets.

[jolly breach]

The game is merely seeking to challenge you, obviously.
Or you destroyed your Robot Assembly Plants.

[little fox]

nope. they're there. the modded ones from planetary engineering, too. think I'll try modifying my pops, see if that fixes it.

bah, probably an update today broke the save. as I said in the meme channel, this is why I don't Iron Man.

maaaaan, all my custom empires are broken. they're all humanoid prosperous unifications.

[little fox]

welp. time to hunt down which mod has committed high treason.

annnnd it's merger of rules again.

[autumn owl]

playing stellaris again, the caravaneers are my new best friends. Opened a reliquary, 2k alloys, played the slotmachine, 10k minerals

I am in year 9 of the run

oh and 1k energy creds

[spice idol]

No galatron, therefore they hate you

[autumn owl]

playing modded so no achievments anyway

[autumn owl]

My empire is addicted to the caravaneer casino

XD

[jolly breach]

Even so, no Galatron, so they hate you.

The Galatron is actually a solid relic, it's not desriable just for the achievement.

[little fox]

I'll just be over here, patiently waiting for the inevitable void worm infestation

[autumn owl]

The what

[jolly breach]

Void Worm infestation.

[autumn owl]

I reiterate

The WHAT

[jolly breach]

Have you not read up on the Space Fauna DLC that came out a bit ago?

[autumn owl]

Oh biogenesis? I don't have it XD

[jolly breach]

The one that lets you make a big ass museum of all the shit you find.

[autumn owl]

Oh that one I don't have either

[little fox]

Well then you're safe.
waits for the khan

[spice idol]

Yeah, paradox decided that having only one mid game crisis of the khan while having multiple end game crisis was probably not a good idea, so they made the void worm crisis

[jolly breach]

I mean, there's also technically the L-Gate crises as Mid-game ones.

[abstract hull]

the L-Gate isn't really a crisis

its more of a "hey do you want a nearly impenitrable series of systems?"

[spice idol]

The L-Gate is very much self inflicted, and can coincide with an actual mid-game crisis

like sure, if they opened on their own with no intervention and gray tempest flooded out, sure

[jolly breach]

In terms of the code, the Grey Goo one and the L-Drakes technically are crises, it's just that they can also coincide with another crisis such as the Khan.

[spice idol]

but no, you gotta open them yourself

[abstract hull]

fair enough

[little fox]

Really sucks when the ai goes "ooh, a box that says do not open, let's open it!"

[jolly breach]

In the AI's defense, their cheating allows them to see the L-Cluster's connections even before it opens, and thus the sheer strategic value of owning the L-Cluster.

The problem, is that they cannot see the potential threats because those are technically only spawned when the L-Cluster is opened, and as such, they don't have the mitigation to the systems value calculations of "really dangerous enemies present in systems" that keeps them out of the other Leviathans DLC systems.

So to the AI, the L-Cluster looks like free real estate that'll make them an extremely potent force in the galaxy thanks to the L-Gate connections, prior to being cracked open.

The AI is programmed to look for "chokepoint systems", which are systems with lots of connections on one direction, and not a lot on the other.

The entry system of the L-Cluster is a system that has upwards of like 16 potential entries from the main galaxy, and only 3 connections to other L-Cluster systems. So to the calculations for determining whether a system is a "chokepoint system", Terminal Egress gets so high a score that the AI gets a bit obsessed.

[abstract hull]

and instead of ever fixing this

Paradox just lets the AI go "oooooh shinyyyyyyyyyyyyy" and doom half the galaxy

[jolly breach]

To be fair, it makes for more interesting "storytelling", which is almost certainly why they never added specific exceptions for Terminal Egress.

[abstract hull]

Probably

[autumn owl]

And this the AI cracks open Pandora's box and gets roflstomped for it

[jolly breach]

Also, the AI technically isn't wrong about the sheer potential of Terminal Egress. It's just the AI is stupid and unable to properly take and hold Terminal Egress unless they get lucky and pop open the actually empty version of the L-Cluster.

Which doesn't happen often enough to be a reasonable thing to count on for players, so it especially doesn't help the AI.

If the AI were to more reliably be able to handle the Grey Tempest or L-Drakes, then they wouldn't be as stupid popping open the L-Gates the way they do.

Because their calculations are correct about the power of Terminal Egress. For proof, look at literally any player empire that takes the L-Cluster.

[abstract hull]

nearly impossible to stop them

the only issue

is GETTING it

[jolly breach]

Owning the L-Cluster is for the vanilla game, what installing Gigastructural Engineering is for a modded game.

The power spikes are similarly massive.

[little fox]

Mmm, mods. ACOT and GE together....

Let the AI players go nuts, give me a eeal challenge. sets the megastructuee outputs to 5x output 1/2 upkeep globally

[jolly breach]

And build costs to 10%.

[little fox]

Yup

Sixteen ringworlds and several star lifters later

[abstract hull]

and if you do BOTH. ohhohohooooohhhh.

[little fox]

On the subject of gigastructures, in vanilla the cybrex are best ancestors, because double ringworld, but with the mods, it's actually kinda bad. You can't build bigger rings around it.

[autumn owl]

oh no

[spice idol]

Wow, a size 25 gaia world, how lucky, you should colonise that immediately, nothing wrong will happen if you colonise that size 25 gaia world

[jolly breach]

If you have the head of a fellow named Zarqlan, then actually nothing will go wrong.

[little fox]

But hey, if you're a religious nation, free shrine world

[jolly breach]

Yeah. And declaring it a Holy World of your own makes the Religious FE slightly happy with you.

(And is also just efficient, since Gaia Worlds are guaranteed to give the best Holy World tier for the Holy World Bonuses.)

[autumn owl]

MOTHERFU--
I just bought two of these at full price, literally last night

psssht

I recently purchased a game that is now on sale. Can I refund the difference?
We are unable to refund the difference in price; however, you may request a refund for the initial purchase and repurchase the game at the current sale price. For refund eligibility, please review our Refund Policy. For detailed instructions on how to submit a refund request, please click here.

[little fox]

...oh right, stellaris with all DLC is expensive

[spice idol]

Yeah, you can just request a refund then rebuy it

[autumn owl]

hells. I played too much while waiting for the refund and it denied

anyways

gonna exploit the rest of the sale.. question is... 55nzd for the species packs i dont have + astral planes... or the Everything bundle to complete my collection for 82nzd

ah, no.. not everything. Doesnt include biogenesis

[autumn owl]

bruh

[abstract hull]

wow.

[autumn owl]

didnt even stick around for the first month of the game

[little fox]

okay that's got to be a new record

[autumn owl]

Now my fkin prime minister died

less than a year in

bruh

[abstract hull]

sweet jesus para

[autumn owl]

is this save just cursed?

[abstract hull]

probably

[little fox]

I think you leaders' code isn't working right. might have to toss the save and start over

you running any particular mods?

pffff, only dlc I'm missing is the Galaxy Edition upgrade. I bought most of those at full price, or as season passes, too. like a fool

[autumn owl]

I hired a commander cuz my first one became the new PM and they literally resigned before I could even move the fleet to a new system

maaan

[little fox]

yup. your "max age" code's borked

[autumn owl]

I just bought toxoids and was trying out Overtuned

I might have tuned it too much XD

[little fox]

ahhh, that'd do it.

I oddly enough haven't tried overtuned.

if you have "synthetic age" def try synthetic fertility, though. it's a complete inversion of several early game mechanics, just... be prepared to micromanage job fulfillment. a lot

[spice idol]

I was literally just thinking "only time I had leaders retire that fast was with overtuned when I tuned too much"

Because funnily enough, -100 years of lifespan at game start means your leaders that live less than 100 years die immediately

[autumn owl]

I spawned next to barbaric despoilers, so its time for war in year 24

[autumn owl]

Im really not sure what im doing wrong.. I cant seem to get the Achieve War Goals to ever be 'acceptable' despite the fact i have completely annihilated the enemy navy and am bombarding their only planet

[spice idol]

Once you own their only planet, you'll get +100 p sure

since occupation % directly correlates to a +

[jolly breach]

Yeah. Having control over every colonized planet of your foe will hardset the Surrender Inclination to 100.

Since at that point, they can't really claim that they're managing to resist your fleets.

[autumn owl]

I got it in the end.. i didnt wanna do that cuz they were a clone army origin and i still had a mod running that uncaps the ancient clonevats

so they had Stupid amounts of armies

the AI also uh.. built so many clonevats that they had... -20k housing, 100% crime, etc..

The poor fools

[spice idol]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-you-what-what-did-you-do-spongebob-meme-spongebob-squarepants-gif-19389913

[autumn owl]

wot

[spice idol]

Uncapping the thing that balances what is already one of the strongest origins in the game

[autumn owl]

huh

[spice idol]

Even with it capped, it's still insanely busted

[little fox]

laughs in planet cracker

[autumn owl]

well.. the AI has it, and they dont know what to do with it

[autumn owl]

i might need to if they get any more planets..

my poor framerate

[little fox]

Yeah, that's the other reason it's normally capped

[autumn owl]

is it feasible to remove the mod mid save?

[spice idol]

Do you like gambling?

if yes, try it

if no, do not

[autumn owl]

hmm

well.. its nearly 4am and i have to be awake in four hours

so im gonna stop

this game is too addictive

[little fox]

Yup. There's a reason the top positive review on steam opens with RUN

Can be summed up as "Game too addictive, flee while you can"

[autumn owl]

contributed my own review

[spice idol]

Decided to check what my review for stellaris was, and I noticed that I had 243 hours when I reviewed, compared to your 233 hours, so we both reviewed at similar times it seems

[autumn owl]

Heh

[spice idol]

I currently have 950 hours though, so that's pretty old

[autumn owl]

I've got some catching up to do

[spice idol]

What you need to catch up on is sleep

[autumn owl]

Ha

[tribal kernel]

i cannot in good faith give a good review

the DLC policy is just... too predatory

[spice idol]

yeah...

[little fox]

Yup, that's Paradox for ya

At least they don't take it away after a set time

I think I'd attempt a refund if they did

[autumn owl]

*sighs in destiny

I miss the good times I had in Destiny.. I don't really miss the game

[little fox]

What destiny did with the first part of the game made me straight up drop the idea of buying it.

[tribal kernel]

as it should

[autumn owl]

oh boy! time for the great khans

[little fox]

sure hope your fleet's up to snuff

[autumn owl]

Wellll

They're kinda far away so not my problem het

Yet

[autumn owl]

aahahahahhahah nope im not prepared

[little fox]

Ohhh nooooo

...okay if you have good engines, you can crap out dedicated afterburner carriers and eventually chip em to death with fighters while the carriers use said afterburners to run away

[autumn owl]

oh boy..

thats a lot of options

that seem pretty good

[little fox]

...okay, currently in crisis mode... highly recommend the escort or the battleship. Everyone will get pretty mad at you once the dark matter stuff really gets going, too, so that'll be fun

[autumn owl]

Battleship cuz thats gonna be possible a lot quicker

is this good year 70 econ?

[little fox]

Seems about right. You assimilating those bio pops yet?

[autumn owl]

umm

I forgot to build the synaptic lathe.. oops

also the food is catalytic processing

[little fox]

Ahhh, that'd do it.

Get maybe one more agri district to offset the food usage a bit

[autumn owl]

sobbing rn

[little fox]

Eesh, you either need the food production on the same planet as your catalytic forges, or more logistic/trade buildings

[autumn owl]

i only have three worlds

I had like none in my territory.. currently building a habitat

[little fox]

Mmm, now that's an issue

[autumn owl]

there are three tomb worlds in unclaimed systems nearby.. and thats it unless I wanna conquer ppl

[little fox]

Habs work, but terraforming tech may be a thing to dig up in the future

[autumn owl]

no i mean

there are no worlds

except barren, molten

the stuff you cant settle

[little fox]

I meant post-mega engineering

[autumn owl]

ah

[little fox]

Yeah, for now a hab or two should ease the strain a bit

[autumn owl]

hey wtf? this was full a second ago

[little fox]

Uhhh... that's not supposed to happen, all those workers just up and became civilians

[autumn owl]

i saved and reloaded and everything is full again

[little fox]

Unless... an AI player may have used espionage to kidnap your pops

[autumn owl]

nah it was a bug

[little fox]

Okay so just an auto-assign jobs bug. Much easier to handle

[autumn owl]

can you gimmie a rundown on how cosmogenesis works?

never done this stuff before

[autumn owl]

guys plz

[gentle otter]

But the Security Contractors!!!!

[spice idol]

Regulatory facilitation is good though

And if the khan is near you and you can't fight them, just surrender to them, the negatives aren't that bad compared to potentially dying

[autumn owl]

theyre... slowly getting closer

but im also slowing getting stronger

We're very much in a posturing phase while he cleans up the weaker nations around us

He seems to have a second fleet of about 65k that I might be able to take on

but doesnt seem to be amassing more

[jolly breach]

Food's almost always in a deficit, even in high skill player economies.

[jolly breach]

You shove people in the Lathe to make your science explode.

You keep doing that one event that lets you tweak the laws of physics a bit.

Eventually your people realize reality is too stable due to age, so they want to enter a new universe.

Build a ship called the Horizon Needle.

Put every colony's entire population except for a small part of the Homeworld (they stay behind in case everything goes to shit with the Horizon Needle) into the Needle, fly it into a black hole.

The black hole you choose dictates the specifics of the ending text you get, do NOT send it into Great Wound or the black hole created by any Dimensional Horror except for the Worm in Waiting (the Worm loves you, and always will).

[autumn owl]

unnnnderstood!

step one: build the lathe

[jolly breach]

Step 2: Explode Science.

[autumn owl]

15k alloys..

[jolly breach]

Step 3: Gamba.

Step 4: GTFO from bad gamba.

[autumn owl]

Umm

the great khan just got murdered by a concubine

I guess that solved itself

[autumn owl]

The lathe is eatin good tonight

woah baby

[little fox]

Yup, Lathe science go brrrrr

[jolly breach]

Though keep in mind the more people you shove into it, the faster it eats them.

[spice idol]

The more people you shove into it, the faster you science them

[jolly breach]

Technically you can actually get more science per pop with a lower amount. After enough, the eatspeed outpaces the internetworking boost.

[little fox]

Kinda, yeah... it certainly helps unlock those other science megas that cost significanly less to set up than it

[autumn owl]

Clearly I just need to eat more empires to feed it more pops

[jolly breach]

I mean, the biggest thing you want is a Science Nexus.
The Science Nexus' research multiplier applies to the Lathe.

[autumn owl]

Somehow still haven't rolled mega engineering

[tribal kernel]

have you done the prereqs?

[autumn owl]

Idk what are the prereqs

Game doesn't really tell you

[tribal kernel]

no clue, but the new system as of 4.0? i think was that a bunch of stuff(like mega-engineering) have pre-reqs now that drastically upgrade the roll chance

should have phrased it better of "are you aware of the pre-req system" that was recently added

[jolly breach]

Basically, the "pre reqs" system added in 4.0 made it so that doing certain things dramatically increases the chance to get rarer Techs in your rolls for new tech options, or just outright adds them as a permanent option.

Iirc, the one for Mega-engineering is to either have a Kilostructure (Dyson Swarm, Planetary Ring, that one that makes every single non-gas giant planet and asteroid in the system gain Space Mining Mineral value, and at the highest tier, Alloys as well), or to find a randomly spawned ruined Megastructure.

[little fox]

Prereqs for mega-engineering are Zero point reactors, Battleships, and Citadels

until you've researched those, it can't pop up

[autumn owl]

What is this emprie doign

Also my federation leader decided to declare war on an empire on the other side of the galaxy and we've been "at war" for like, a century without fighting a single battle

[autumn owl]

https://tenor.com/bq6bR.gif

[autumn owl]

I aint a friggin coward

oh fuck

maybe I am a coward

[spice idol]

When you're that diplomatically strong, a permanent seat means nothing, might as well go for the custodianship