Others have complained, I'll add my voice to it, so Paradox devs can hear it ant try to fix it.
I love Stellaris, I have more than 400 hours played in it, which is a lot by my standards (I'm a dad, can't play as much as I'd like to).
I loved some things that came out of LeGuin update (2.2). The economy is very challenging and makes you want to plan things, makes systems more strategic (strategic resources matter now!) and planets as well (if the enemy takes my forge worlds, I’m doomed!).
BUT
The micromanagement in the mid to late game is bothering me a lot.
This probably wouldn't be a complaint if I played a tall empire that never expanded or that had vassals. But once you try to play an empire that tries to conquer stuff (to get achievements, like the xenophobe or determined exterminator one) then you see the chinks in the system.
The planet / system ratio is something like 0.2. So in a 600 system galaxy (medium size) there would be something like 120 planets, before terraforming candidates and habitats enter the game.
Managing 120 planets (or even half of that) is a chore in the late game, when you should be worrying more about building big ass fleets to defeat crisis and fallen empires. And this happens especially if you play a genocidal empire or want to conquer the galaxy.
Sector supposedly should diminish the micro, but they don't. Because most sectors will form 2 jumps away from the first planet settled, this means that you'll be forced to deal with something around 60 sectors instead of 120 planets. This before sectorgore happens (as with a robot uprising or another empire attacking you in a total war, this could wreak your sectors completely). Also the sector AI doesn’t have its own resources, so I have to manually give each of them. It's very tiresome dealing with dozens of anything, from fleets to spacebases, but more so when a thing isn't finished. Fleets and bases are mostly finished after a certain point, you only have to click to update them (even less so with spacebases). Planets are never finished entirely, unless you accept the penalties from stopping population growth. Stopping growth is always suboptimal, you could use that growth to resettle your planet population to less sparsely populated planets.
On the other hand, if I had a 10-20 planet core sector and at most 10-20 sectors, then I could handle such micromanagement. For this to happen, sector size must increase AND sectors shouldn't be butchered when something comes, like a total war, robot uprising or crisis.
In the previous versions I had to deal with 10 planets at the same time. Once I was done with a planet I just put into a sector, told the AI to not do anything with it, and moved on. I understand why this is impossible now, but I want the level of micromanagement I had at that time in this new version of Stellaris.
So either the player should have the option to remake the sector in their own liking or the sectors should be predetermined (like de jure duchies / kingdoms / empires in Crusader Kings). And sectors should be much bigger than they are now, something like 4 systems away at least (they grow exponentially larger the more jumps you give them). A better way to give sectors income would also be good. I understand how others complained about the “tax” sectors used, but it didn’t bother me that much (I also liked the piggy bank, used a lot of it during crisis).
Maybe sectors should have a system-limit, to make players avoid having a one sector empire. 100 systems is my suggestion. That means lots of playstyles wouldn’t have to deal with sectors at all (the tall play style, for example). That’s OK. Paradox developers should ask why exactly there are sectors in the game. I think they exist to diminish the micromanagement and maybe to create some cool features (like civil wars) later. A player in a tall empire has the time to deal with all his planets. A player playing wide doesn’t, and that’s what sectors should be about.
I think the Stellaris developers should take the clue from one of the tips that appears in the Crusader Kings 2 loading screens: “If you find yourself overwhelmed with vassals you delegate. A small number of vassals is easier to manage than a larger number of vassals.” So a small number of sectors is easy to manage than a large number of sectors (or large number of planets).
I love Stellaris, I have more than 400 hours played in it, which is a lot by my standards (I'm a dad, can't play as much as I'd like to).
I loved some things that came out of LeGuin update (2.2). The economy is very challenging and makes you want to plan things, makes systems more strategic (strategic resources matter now!) and planets as well (if the enemy takes my forge worlds, I’m doomed!).
BUT
The micromanagement in the mid to late game is bothering me a lot.
This probably wouldn't be a complaint if I played a tall empire that never expanded or that had vassals. But once you try to play an empire that tries to conquer stuff (to get achievements, like the xenophobe or determined exterminator one) then you see the chinks in the system.
The planet / system ratio is something like 0.2. So in a 600 system galaxy (medium size) there would be something like 120 planets, before terraforming candidates and habitats enter the game.
Managing 120 planets (or even half of that) is a chore in the late game, when you should be worrying more about building big ass fleets to defeat crisis and fallen empires. And this happens especially if you play a genocidal empire or want to conquer the galaxy.
Sector supposedly should diminish the micro, but they don't. Because most sectors will form 2 jumps away from the first planet settled, this means that you'll be forced to deal with something around 60 sectors instead of 120 planets. This before sectorgore happens (as with a robot uprising or another empire attacking you in a total war, this could wreak your sectors completely). Also the sector AI doesn’t have its own resources, so I have to manually give each of them. It's very tiresome dealing with dozens of anything, from fleets to spacebases, but more so when a thing isn't finished. Fleets and bases are mostly finished after a certain point, you only have to click to update them (even less so with spacebases). Planets are never finished entirely, unless you accept the penalties from stopping population growth. Stopping growth is always suboptimal, you could use that growth to resettle your planet population to less sparsely populated planets.
On the other hand, if I had a 10-20 planet core sector and at most 10-20 sectors, then I could handle such micromanagement. For this to happen, sector size must increase AND sectors shouldn't be butchered when something comes, like a total war, robot uprising or crisis.
In the previous versions I had to deal with 10 planets at the same time. Once I was done with a planet I just put into a sector, told the AI to not do anything with it, and moved on. I understand why this is impossible now, but I want the level of micromanagement I had at that time in this new version of Stellaris.
So either the player should have the option to remake the sector in their own liking or the sectors should be predetermined (like de jure duchies / kingdoms / empires in Crusader Kings). And sectors should be much bigger than they are now, something like 4 systems away at least (they grow exponentially larger the more jumps you give them). A better way to give sectors income would also be good. I understand how others complained about the “tax” sectors used, but it didn’t bother me that much (I also liked the piggy bank, used a lot of it during crisis).
Maybe sectors should have a system-limit, to make players avoid having a one sector empire. 100 systems is my suggestion. That means lots of playstyles wouldn’t have to deal with sectors at all (the tall play style, for example). That’s OK. Paradox developers should ask why exactly there are sectors in the game. I think they exist to diminish the micromanagement and maybe to create some cool features (like civil wars) later. A player in a tall empire has the time to deal with all his planets. A player playing wide doesn’t, and that’s what sectors should be about.
I think the Stellaris developers should take the clue from one of the tips that appears in the Crusader Kings 2 loading screens: “If you find yourself overwhelmed with vassals you delegate. A small number of vassals is easier to manage than a larger number of vassals.” So a small number of sectors is easy to manage than a large number of sectors (or large number of planets).
A and by more than midgame I just use a world cracker on all the planets as the admin of the new sectors kills me will to play so i blow them up instead.
