This is painful
I’ve started using the Starnet AI mod when I play. It’s way more challenging. So far, I have yet to survive beyond the mid game on any difficulty level over Captain.
My understanding of the situation is that Gamebear made a Stellaris knock-off on mobile. Paradox reached out to them and said “Want to make an actual Stellaris game instead?” so it wouldn’t be surprising to me to see a bunch of similarities. I’d also assume they’d just work off of the existing codebase, so the text string stuff doesn’t really surprise me (if sloppy).
The stolen artwork from Halo is what gets me, but that seems par for the course when you combine Mobile + China. Yuck.
Hong Kong, not China. That distinction has never been more prominent, though, of course, it might not be as great as it is perceived to be.
This being reskin is not the problem, them pretending it’s not is the problem. Lesser one than stolen assets, of course.
Given that the original was a Stellaris knockoff and this is a Stellaris mobile game by the same developer (and likely working off the same codebase), I don’t know what constitutes a reskin vs just being similar for obvious reasons.
I’m only having to wonder aloud instead of just looking at it myself because my interest in mobile games is zero. :D
GOG leaked a thing.
Not much of a surprise.
(The time on the picture is just someone’s play time)
Also a Lithoids race pack. Neither thing is a surprise. But as always, the devil is in the details.
More interesting diplomacy and internal politics would be nice. They really need to address performance. I guess we will know all about this stuff by the time I wake up tomorrow?
So it’s diplomacy.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. With the Stellaris: Federations expansion, players can extend their diplomatic dominion over the galaxy like never before. Use every trick in the book to gain an edge on friend and foe alike, with a host of new options to influence, manipulate, and dominate without firing a shot.
Features include:
Expanded Federations: With expanded diplomacy capabilities, players can build up the internal cohesion of their Federations and unlock powerful rewards for all members. Whether you join a Trade League, Martial Alliance, or Hegemony, membership can be extremely advantageous.
Galactic Community: Unite the space empires with a galactic senate that can vote on a wide range of resolutions to drive legislative agendas. For example, players can pass a resolution to increase commitments to collective defense or funnel profit towards wealthy elites. Members can also sanction those who defy the community, and enact a single galactic focus. Sway the senate to position yourself as a leader, trading favors and maneuvering, doing whatever it takes to gain influence among schemers.
Origins: Each empire has a story that shapes its path. Give your civilization deeper roots with the new system of Origins. By choosing an Origin, players can flesh out their empire’s background and alter its starting conditions. Whether it’s Void Dwellers who have abandoned their homeworld to live in perpetual orbit, or a society that worships and protects a powerful Tree of Life, you can lay the groundwork wisely for the seeds of your empire.
New constructions: Construct glorious new projects for your empire like the Juggernaut, a massive mobile starbase that provides a moveable repair base even in enemy territory, or the Mega Shipyard, a new megastructure that can churn out fleets with incredible speed. Offering both tactical advantages and a good dose of shock and/or awe, these are sure to be an asset to any space empire.
I’m cautiously optimistic?
I really wish they would do more with sector politics… so much potential…
I like the sounds of Origins, but hope it dynamically affects gameplay throughout the game, rather than just some condition that is quickly satisfied and forgotten early on.
Looks like the Lithoid species pack is more than just cosmetics and they will have their own mechanics. Less Plantoids, more Synthetic Dawn, maybe (although smaller in scope)?
The description makes it sound like they get some type of habitability bonuses and (more obviously) have no need of food. Might be neat.
EDIT: There we go.
Well, looks like I have to play a game as the molten vulva faced aliens. When they encountered alien life for the first time and realized they were the only species with lava filled sex organs instead of faces, they became Fanatic Purifiers to correct the universe’s mistake. I mean plus I think they would just be kind of generally angry on account of all the ever-lasting burning.
So any guesses on what new types of diplomatic actions/missions/events will be included? I’m hoping that they take a look at the diplomacy foundation and mechanics that they have right now and add to and refine that. Not that I don’t welcome the 4 new features mind you. But diplomacy has been one of this games weakest pillars especially compared to their other historical simulations. But yeah, I’m excited. Stellaris is such a guilty pleasure.
I’ve always felt it was kind of frustrating that their aren’t more diplomatic demand options. In EUIV if you are one of the worlds super powers, you can just demand territory from smaller countries and if they don’t give it to you, you can immediately declare war. And realistically, countries that have no hope of defeating you will generally give it up.
You also need to be able to force diplomacy on defeated factions more. The forced dissolution of an alliance would be particularly welcome.
But yea I am definitely hoping we get more diplomacy options and not just the same ones with 4 flavors of federations.
Looks like the Lithoids species pack is coming out today.
This one isn’t strictly cosmetic, as the Lithoids play by some different rules such as eating minerals instead of food. They also have very slow population growth but can colonize pretty much everywhere.
Per PDXCON, once the Origins come out they’ll be getting some interesting options as well. One example was the ability to colonize other planets by hurling asteroids at them, which sounds like fun.
Some preliminary info on the origins is starting to trickle out. Obviously, if you’d rather wait and find out later, that’s your prerogative (and I blurred the link out of consideration).
Some of these sound stupidly fun.
Glancing at the Lithoids pack on steam, wondering why it would possibly have such low review scores as the art looks fantastic. Turns out that one of the new civics had their society research stopped working during tier 2 because they lacked a critical pre-req.
I imagine it’s fixed already, but this is so deeply troubling to me. It really speaks about a development culture where the devs aren’t even playing their own game. There is no way anyone that just started up a new game with the marquis feature of the DLC and played for a few hours would miss that bug. It’s actually impossible to miss.
Oh, I’m sure that they started up games, and used console commands to make sure all the artwork was properly linked up and that the pops were fundamentally working. But not one person just started up a Lithoids game as a Terravore (they only added a handful of civics, no one was asking them to test 40 different starts) and played it long enough to finish the tier 2 society tech. That’s actually pretty depressing, on a lot of levels. You’d think someone on the design team would actually want to play a game with the new stuff they designed and see how it actually feels to play.
Well whatever the case may be, there is just something not fundamentally working right over there.