I agree, it does sound like a very different game, which is why I was surprised by @AK_Icebear feeling like there weren’t any real gameplay changes.
I think the amount of content they are announcing for the expansion is pretty reasonable. The amount of content they are doing for the free update is completely unreasonable, in a good way.
Any release date announced yet?
Not yet, I would expect we’ll get one within a few weeks. They don’t tend to open up pre-orders until they have a pretty good internal target that they feel they can probably hit.
I’d really be happy if they sped the game up a bit. Late games become too laggy.
Supposedly some of the ways they’ve restructured planet management reduces the AI overhead in the late game.
Okay, the new MegaCorps sound like a lot of fun to me. Especially cool that you can play as a criminal syndicate as an option!
I think it will be interesting to play a Megacorp, since I haven’t really tried a tall game and they should be ideal for that. On the other hand, there are a lot of other builds I’d like to try out once 2.2 ships. It’s going to be tough deciding.
I think I probably won’t start with a Megacorp, but still get the expansion for the other features.
I think this could convince me to fire up Stellaris again:
I don’t think this is the creator of the mod, I remember seeing it a bit ago but I don’t see the “Total Plushy Conversion” pack yet, I only see a few name+trait mods.
I’m not sure what I’m going to start with but those Megacorps sound like fun to me. I always enjoy non-military methods of expansion so this sounds right up my alley. Then when they mentioned crime syndicates and mega churches (or a combination of both) in the diary? Sold!
Supposedly??? I need a better firm, “Yeah, we did it.”
Ecumenopolis and Megastructures
Dev diaries seem like they’re starting to wind down. Hoping to get my hands on this before Christmas! I’m going to go with… December 13th as my release date guess.
I am hopeful they will make it before Christmas as well. So many strategies to try out here.
This really is a great, if imperfect, game. I booted it up for my yearly addiction.
Started two new races, both of which I’ve had a blast with.
One was a nation of robots whose goal was to purify the galaxy. I like how a lot of the tedium was stripped out of them, and I doubly enjoyed conquering worlds and purging the populace to replace with robots.
The second was a civilization of fanatical plants that only lived on Gaia planets and hates outsiders but loves wars. This group has been REALLY fun, and obviously the limited planet’s has limited my empire size which has helped science output. More importantly I have had a TON of events in my universe, and have received a ton of science as a result. I can tell I’m already going to win this game, but it has been fun defeating my neighbors and enslaving their populations.
The changes they’ve made are great. I love the revised hyperlane system. That gives a great sense of character to the galaxy as you expand and rush for chokepoints. But limited wormholes provide interesting decisions, along with the experimental sublight movement.
Game still suffers from the late game breakdown, of course… but the early and mid-game are really worth it.
I’ve enjoyed it, but I haven’t played in several months. I found tending to the economy to be too much of a chore, and then of course all of the economic changes loomed on the horizon.
Speaking of looming changes:
Not sure if I should trust those guys…
Man, loot boxes and microtransactions even in grand strategy games now, what is the world coming to? ;)
They kinda forgot to mention that the point is that the Caraveneers offer much better deals than the market, and also that you don’t have to take the deal instantly.
Source: DLC announcement video, I think. If not, the first stream after that.
The dev diary seemed something quickly thrown together to cover the fact they weren’t ready to reveal details on the Slave Market, heh. Further indication to me that they’re heading towards release (not that the slave market was under construction, the fact that they’re running out of material for dev diaries).
My fanatical, xenophobic plant empire was starting to roll through the galaxy when two fallen empires decided they were going to war with one another. I decide to try and stay neutral, along with about 2/3 of the galaxy. Everyone else picks a side.
Unfortunately both fallen empires are in or next to my borders. I’ve won two battles (lost many many others), but my fleets are decimated and my federation is getting picked apart from the rear.
I’ve brought my entire empire back to it’s home systems, which are covered in Tomb planets (my species was Gaia only, but I embraced an event chain that turned all my planets to tombs). 80% of my outlying empire has been left to the fallen empires while i frantically try and consolidate my forces into a fleet of about 120k power. The fallen empires are moving slowly at least, and many of the planets are well fortified, so perhaps their ground forces will have less success.
Trying to finish up Citadel research so I can maybe field some Titans.
Trying to stay neutral is going to prove a costly mistake.
Depressing watching my empire get crushed after so many hours - but kudos to Paradox for spicing up the late-game
Awesome! Keep us posted on what happens in your last stand.