War never changes…
Aggressive/expansive empires make claims and pursue them … if the balance of forces is the right one according to the programmed AI logic to assess that. Before 2.0, and still now, I find that logic to be erring on the side of being very conservative. With the Aggressive AI trait on, the AI seems to be more willing to start wars at more chancey odds (like 2 to 1 in fleet power).
I always play with the Aggressive AI setting on… otherwise it gets very boring.
Making sure that you have some crazy hyper aggressive races in the mix also ensures that things will get thrilling. As you add Awakened Empires, mid game crises (like Huns in Space with Fricking Laser Beams, Skynet) and pirates, I think you can get a very tough game.
As commented several times in this thread, in Stellaris the fun factor depends a lot on initializing the galaxy to suit your tastes. Having presets for the galaxy and general game settings would go a long way to guide players towards the experiences matching their expectations.
My games thus far have had pretty violent galaxies, but there’s definitely aspects of RNG in what galaxy makeup you get. I will say this, though: if you’re playing pacifist or xenophile (or especially a combo) your odds of having a quiet game go way up unless you run into fanatic purifiers and the like, especially if you are playing on normal aggressiveness. There’s a separate slider for that in the game setup if you want to up it.
As for RNG, I was playing a game of fanatic xenophiles and I was already involved in a couple big wars by midgame. Not me directly, but the federation I created. There’s an unruly neighbor in our neighborhood and he’s been very aggressively expanding into another non-federation member’s territory. We just recently fought a war to impose ideology on him but it ended in a stalemate, now he’s back to expanding like crazy so I’m sure there’ll be another round.
In terms of DLC, a lot of them have had content in the midgame because that area was definitely the softest. Leviathans added war in heaven, Apocalypse has those goddamn Marauders that I love to hate, etc.
I actually like that the AI doesn’t just force artificial wars for the sake of drama/action in the game. If you end up being peaceful and surround yourself with allies, you won’t be at war, and that’s how it should be. If you want more action, play a more aggressive/xenophobe race.
That’s how I feel as well, Scott. It’s always frustrated me in other strategy games where I play the Gandhi (figuratively or literally) and seems to make no difference in whether even longtime allies storm my territory.
I can see how it can throw people off, but I like it. Like you said, if you want to tuck yourself into a corner and be nice to have a quiet game you can do so, until the crises hit. That’s also where things like Marauders add a wrinkle, as those jerks raid everyone’s territory. There’s always playing a more aggressive game yourself, upping the aggressiveness setting, or changing the galaxy setup to heat things up if desired.
When do they hit? I’d actually like to see something like this so I can wrap the game up and try a more aggressive setup!
Also, I just want to highlight that if eschewing war leads to a quiet game, that just shows how little there is to do in this game beyond war. This is less of a failing than it was when war was an intolerable game of doomstacks crossed with Benny Hill, but it’s still a failing.
I am playing Xenophile Egalitarian Spiritualist, and no wars to speak of so far (at least near me). It’s extra fun that the Marauders actually carve a path through my space when they want to get at someone else. Ugh. Plus I’ve had some pirate problems because of my “wall off this sector of the galaxy” approach to expansion.
I do have a fanatic purifier next door, and another slaver next door as well. So far they haven’t wanted to attack since I had good alliances. Maybe I should play with the aggression slider.
I’ve long said that they need to slow down strategic movement to address the doomstack issue. I got so much pushback for that on the Paradox forums, but now they’ve done it and it’s maybe working a bit too well? Having to transit systems is such a big change in strategic mobility. Very painful when you have a long strung out empire like mine. The increased fleet maintenance cost is also a big one. I’d like to have a bunch of nodal fleets but I can’t afford them! Star bases are so much cheaper to support because they don’t drain your minerals.
Overall the game is feeling a bit slow though. Maybe I should try a smaller map with more habitable planets? I’ve still got so much space to fill in, and so many things need minerals. The drone optimizations edict was very worth in in this regard.
There is a “late game” slider that controls the earliest year they could show up. I think it saves your previous choice, so you should be able to see it if you start a new one. I think the default is 2400.
I had it at the default settings, so I’ll see what the year is. Maybe I can at least see one game through.
Try sending your delicate Butterfly hippies to orbital black sites. It worked for me!
Tell me about it, I just had a 12k fleet of Space Mongols carve right through my core worlds. Pretty horrific timing as well, because my federation is currently engaged in another war with a nearby aggressor so my energy reserves are plummeting.
I deliberately avoided taking a bunch of territory on a throughline from Marauder territory. It hurts, but I can’t afford that kind of chaos.
Have you guys had pirates wait to pounce till you’re in a war? It messes me up every time, but I love it because it makes perfect sense.
So I have been fortunate enough not to have their path track through an inhabited system yet, but there are a couple of sweet worlds that I’ve claimed near them. What happens when the Marauders path through an inhabited system? Do they steal population there?
Not that I’ve noticed, but I’m not sure. Thus far they seem content to blow up a few thousand minerals worth of my space stations as they move on to whom I presume is their main target (ironically, it’s the guy I’m currently at war with. That could get interesting, haha).
Yes. Pirates are like the snotty little brother of those Marauders. Death to them all!
Okay, maybe not death, my peaceful snails don’t really roll that way. But maybe outreach programs and education opportunities or something to them all!
I’m going to see if I can find out. That fleet did indeed head to my enemy, and they’re currently bombarding his homeworld:
EDIT: As far as I could tell, he was content to bombard the hell out of the planet and blow up a bunch of buildings.
One thing that is interesting to me is how sublight speed now dominates strategic movement. Now you really want fast ships. Corvettes are significantly faster than destroyers and cruisers, which are significantly faster than battleships and titans. So an all-corvette fleet would be a good fit for a pirate-response or raiding fleet, I guess? It makes strategic mobility war plan very nice.
The war plans are cool in general. I like them quite a bit.
Yes! I’m just starting to use an all-corvette fleet to raid enemy territory and seize all the undefended systems after my main battlefleet punched through the Maginot Line the xenos had constructed. I’m only up to cruisers tech-wise, but the corvettes feel significantly more nimble than my main fleet. I imagine it’s even more stark once I’m rolling battleships and titans.
I think I’m going to start building a corvette pirate rapid response force in my games going forward. With the Fleet Manager it mitigates one of my biggest annoyances with corvettes, which is the tedium of replacing losses every engagement.
I’m experimenting with playing “tall” as a charismatic research specialist so I’m tucked away in only 2 systems at the edge of the galaxy and right next to a friendly neighbor that I have a constant research treaty with. My survey ships have explored about half of the galaxy at this point and I’m now in contact with 5 races including a fallen empire.
It’s been very peaceful so far and there have been no wars. What’s interesting is that every empire expanded to grab between 5-15 systems early in the game and now they’re just sitting there, not expanding their borders at all, even though they could. Most of the map I’ve explored is just huge swaths of unclaimed systems.
Since the game has been so peaceful, it’s lead me to try to explore the diplomatic options and, to my surprise, there aren’t any to speak of. Diplomacy seems to be about at the same level as it is in AoW3, which is surprising to me. I’m one that played the game at launch but then put it aside until now, waiting for Paradox to fix it. I seem to remember that there was more to diplomacy at launch so I’m assuming that they ripped a lot of that out because it had problems. I guess their plan is to address it all down the road in yet another DLC.
In any case, I like the changes they’ve made an awful lot and this is now my go to space 4X.