Stellaris

Might pick this up while it's on sale on steam. Opinions on whether the DLC is all worth it, since it gets pretty expensive with it all? Is like $27 for game + first 2, another 20 for megacorp, the rest are like 5 a piece and I dunno if I want to spend like $75.

zombiewizardhawk said:

Might pick this up while it's on sale on steam. Opinions on whether the DLC is all worth it, since it gets pretty expensive with it all? Is like $27 for game + first 2, another 20 for megacorp, the rest are like 5 a piece and I dunno if I want to spend like $75.

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The DLC are almost all worth it in some way or another, but they don't all add to each game. Like the robots one lets you play robots, but doesn't do much if you aren't. Utopia has some fun end-game stuff and Leviathans adds some entertaining mid-game space monsters.

I'd probably get base game first, play through a time or two, it should be obvious if you like it enough to get DLC at that point.

Welp, thought I was doing pretty decent in my first game, and then I finished the L-Gate research... I had barely any cruisers, mostly destroyers and corvettes (2 fleets about 10k and 7k power) and out pop some 28k npc armies to demolish me!

Next attempt should go better, hopefully!

zombiewizardhawk said:

Welp, thought I was doing pretty decent in my first game, and then I finished the L-Gate research... I had barely any cruisers, mostly destroyers and corvettes (2 fleets about 10k and 7k power) and out pop some 28k npc armies to demolish me!

Next attempt should go better, hopefully!

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I always hold off on the final L-gate step until I have a big old fleet to smash the invaders. They don't always pop up though, sometimes the other side of the L-gate is dead planets and no aliens.

Is there a way to have the game let me type in values for trade deals and stuff instead of having to click the + button 500 times?

zombiewizardhawk said:

Is there a way to have the game let me type in values for trade deals and stuff instead of having to click the + button 500 times?

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Hold down ctrl/alt, I believe.

Ah yeah, holding control makes it go by 10s instead of 1s, that's good enough to make it not suck for big numbers. Thanks!

Is there a good way to reduce Empire Sprawl?

Kharzette said:

Is there a good way to reduce Empire Sprawl?

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Raise your Administration score, but no. If you expand at any sort of rate beyond 'snail', you will have sprawl ramping up quickly. You have to be smart about balancing resources/research/unity buildings to counter it.

Kharzette said:

Is there a good way to reduce Empire Sprawl?

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Unless you are strictly going got a Tall playthrough, there really is no need to worry about the cap. The negatives don't outweigh positives.

I just started playing this game but I'm about to smash my computer because I cn'at fucking figure this out.
I build a ship (ex. corvette) and it just fucking disappears. it's not in mylist of ships , nor is it joining an existing fleet.
i've build close to 20 ships (using up the alloys) and same fucking thing.

nisser said:

I just started playing this game but I'm about to smash my computer because I cn'at fucking figure this out.
I build a ship (ex. corvette) and it just fucking disappears. it's not in mylist of ships , nor is it joining an existing fleet.
i've build close to 20 ships (using up the alloys) and same fucking thing.

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There's a couple ways to do it, you can build ships directly through a starbase with at least one shipyard. Just click on the starbase, then click on the shipyard tab and start queueing ships.

This method will create a new fleet with the first ship it finishes and insert additional ships in the queue into that fleet:




The second and more organized way to build ships is through the FLEET MANAGER interface.

Once a fleet is created via the above method, you can select the fleet on the map or in the selector on the right of the screen. Then in the data area of the fleet UI you can click on the FLEET MANAGER button to edit that fleet's composition:




The fleet manager lets you modify the composition of the fleet. You can add new designs and use the bottom area to modify how many types of each design will be included in that fleet. Once you're happy with the composition of the fleet, you just hit the REINFORCE FLEET button to start queuing production of ships that will automatically fly from the nearest shipyard and merge with the fleet at its current location:



The REINFORCE FLEET button is also available on the overview map when you click on each fleet... so when the fleet takes losses or if you add/edit the fleet composition, just click the reinforce button and new ships will be produced from the nearest shipyard and fly to that fleet.

But why is the ship disappearing? If it can't fit into the current fleets, wouldn't it start a new one on it's own?

nisser said:

But why is the ship disappearing? If it can't fit into the current fleets, wouldn't it start a new one on it's own?

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If the ship was built but the fleet is full because either the fleet composition was filled or the new ship would exceed that fleet's command limit, it would sit in the station it was built in or idle in whatever star it was in on the way to its destination fleet. If the fleet is full and you had MORE 12 ships in the queue, for example, all those ships will be produced and sit at the shipyard under new fleets yes.

There'll be a construction progress bar under each ship under production in the queue in either the fleet manager or the starbase shipyard queue. If you look at the starbase queue it will only show the progress bar for the ships under construction on each shipyard on that starbase (up to 6) but if you look at the fleet manager it will show all the ships under construction destined for that fleet everywhere in your empire.

If the fleet is deep in enemy space and the route from the shipyards to that fleet goes through occupied space or a leviathan or some kinda hostile presence, the new ships maybe getting destroyed en route though....but you can see that happening if so.

How do I take over a system exactly?
I'm guessing I have to invade the planet? I'm guessing I have to bombard it from space first but it just isn't working at all. Do I need a specific fleet?
And then whats the best way to invade a planet?

You need to claim it and then during war, bombard the planet and invade it with an army. Set bombardment to indiscrimate, if you dont care about their population dying. Check army status to see how strong their defence is. You can bomb it down to 0 and then invade with one army if you wait long enough.

It just isn't bombing though. I click on my fleet, use the bombard button and then click the planet but nothing happens. Is this because my police is selective?

there's so little information to guide you here and i'm an EU/CK/victoria veteran with literally many thousands of hours in the games.

Uhm, sounds weird. Normally you just right click the planet and your fleet goes to town. Did you check your bombardment policy in Policy tab?

Yeah, check your bombardment policy, and make sure you have it set to highest on the fleet itself, I believe.

nisser said:

It just isn't bombing though. I click on my fleet, use the bombard button and then click the planet but nothing happens. Is this because my police is selective?

there's so little information to guide you here and i'm an EU/CK/victoria veteran with literally many thousands of hours in the games.

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If you zoom in you should hear the actual surface bombardment if you're actually at war and your national policy allows for orbital bombardment. Bear in mind that unless you're one of the hivemind/fanatic/annihilator races, there are serious political repercussions for aggressive planetary bombardment. Some of your political factions might even take a big hit if your national policies enable it.

Also they released a 3rd-anniversary trailer to accompany a Steam sale a couple months, dont think it's been posted: