Can we get larger galaxy sizes?

[Butlerian]

Yeah, I know the game already chugs a bit during endgame at the largest size, but with all the new empires and content and such that has been added, the option to have a larger galaxy would be nice, if only just so things dont seem so cluttered.

For all Spore's crimes - and they were legion - one of the things it did right that I've never really seen in any other game is that it had galaxies sooooooooo huge you were never even tempted to try and chart the whole thing because it was clearly a futile endeavour.

Spore was released in, what, 2008?

As an aside I agree with @happyscrub - I've never experienced lategame slowdown and don't know what all you people complaining that it kills your brand-new 100Tb RAM supercomputer to go beyond 2450 are talking about.

 

[Etrutian]

Multi-galaxy when?

 

[TheDungen]

Multi-galaxy when?

When the galaxy has the millions of stars it is suposed to have.

 

[Etrutian]

When the galaxy has the millions of stars it is suposed to have.

Could you imagine? You would need multiple levels of zoom just to parse out where a specific planet is. Papa Bless the players that manage to colonize and control 1-5% of the galaxy too; it would be a nightmare of forgetting where your homeworld is.

Multi-Galaxy (per SINS) worked out as a 'can only move to other galaxies via the center'. So players that took control of their galaxies could branch out to others and fortify their center. There were also wormholes. Its was an interesting late-game progression that made mid game 'galactic conquest' and progressed into 'universal conquest'.


With all that being said; We need more content in the galaxy we have before we try to expand on the 1k we already have. I only play Huge, and I stop when I run out of stuff that is interesting to do. This occurs about 20% into a galactic conquest. I think someone could argue that the game is optimized to medium map play for the sake of flavor.


'Why not just give the player a slider for it'
Sure, who knows when it will happen.

 

[TheDungen]

What I don't get is why they insist on having galaxies in games if they don't intend to have them nearly near galaxy sized, they could have star clusters or something.

 

[Butlerian]

What I don't get is why they insist on having galaxies in games if they don't intend to have them nearly near galaxy sized, they could have star clusters or something.

Because Stellaris is a game designed to scratch your sci-fi meme itch, not to scratch your I Am A Serious Man With A Serious Astronomy Degree itch.
And sci-fi memes are more predominantly on a galactic scale than on a your friendly neighbourhood star cluster scale.

 

[TheDungen]

Because Stellaris is a game designed to scratch your sci-fi meme itch, not to scratch your I Am A Serious Man With A Serious Astronomy Degree itch.
And sci-fi memes are more predominantly on a galactic scale than on a your friendly neighbourhood star cluster scale.

They are because people keeps using them contributing to public ignorance.

 

[Etrutian]

What I don't get is why they insist on having galaxies in games if they don't intend to have them nearly near galaxy sized, they could have star clusters or something.

I get what you mean; I reckon its an estimate of a galactic empire. Also, literally billions (see: Trillions) of stars is not a simple thing to do. On the flip side, having a player engaged with a star-system/cluster is not nearly as meaningful as a galactic conquest.

 

[navaluiki]

What I don't get is why they insist on having galaxies in games if they don't intend to have them nearly near galaxy sized, they could have star clusters or something.

Well, if you have a NASA supercomputer and can spend a century playing it would be a great option.
It's just a game, we should suspend our disbelief a bit. Besides, the problem would just be what the hell are exactly the hyperlanes, why they do exist and those questions. With these questions answered, having only 1000 stars reacheable in a galaxy might even be reasonable.

 

[shandou]

In a way Stellaris accruately depicts galactic empires. Even in a galaxy with billions of stars, the actual number star systems where there is anything of interest is extremely low (at least this is the assumption of astronomers). Stellaris simply does not display the featureless star systems. Of course in a real galaxy even those extremely low number of star systems would still be in the millions, but hey this is a video game with limitations and gameplay > scientific realism

That said, I am in support for the 2k-star-galaxy option being enabled in the base game (maybe with a warning text). It would allow more roleplay options, while - if set up correctly - wouldn't be such a performance hog. first off: you can make the ratio of habitable planets really low - that would help in performance and also make the game feel a bit more realistic, as well as you can simply start with 3-4 AI empires instead of 12 (or so) for further realism and performance or even start with you as the only spacefaring species in the galaxy. It would also allow for interesting gameplay: expand like hell, expansion forces sectors to be created, sectors then gain independence forming new empires etc etc. while new empires randomly popping up from primitive civilizations. Obviously not a challenge, but immersive nevertheless

 

[navaluiki]

Have the devs given any additional info about the hyperlines? Last time I checked they were very vague about it and let it to our imagination.

 

[The Kombinator]

Sarcasm warning. Don't read it unless you have some sense of humor.

Spoiler

I know, that some guys got the magical CPU with 9THz, and can play 10k. modded galaxy with 999fps, but for us normal people that's not the case.

For most of us lategame lagg is already difficult to bear with 1k. galaxy size. Not to mention, that it's a stacking thing. Bigger galaxy means slower gameplay by default since reaching the end of it takes MUCH more in-game time as well. Combined with the lowered speed, and you get a nice big waiting game. Hell on 600 galaxy sometimes i play a Town of Salem game while waiting for ships to get into position.

 

[Ashantai]

Alright folks, keep this on topic, away from insults and productive.

 

[The Kombinator]

In a way Stellaris accruately depicts galactic empires. Even in a galaxy with billions of stars, the actual number star systems where there is anything of interest is extremely low (at least this is the assumption of astronomers). Stellaris simply does not display the featureless star systems. Of course in a real galaxy even those extremely low number of star systems would still be in the millions, but hey this is a video game with limitations and gameplay > scientific realism

That said, I am in support for the 2k-star-galaxy option being enabled in the base game (maybe with a warning text). It would allow more roleplay options, while - if set up correctly - wouldn't be such a performance hog. first off: you can make the ratio of habitable planets really low - that would help in performance and also make the game feel a bit more realistic, as well as you can simply start with 3-4 AI empires instead of 12 (or so) for further realism and performance or even start with you as the only spacefaring species in the galaxy. It would also allow for interesting gameplay: expand like hell, expansion forces sectors to be created, sectors then gain independence forming new empires etc etc. while new empires randomly popping up from primitive civilizations. Obviously not a challenge, but immersive nevertheless

Well it would be nice to have a 0.1, and a 0.05 option for habitable planets. Even on small galaxy we got like 100+ habitable planet.

EDIT: with 0.25 ratio.

 

[Diettinger]

I am running a I7 8700K with 16GB and using a ssd. Just trying to build a 10000 star galaxy... it crashed out. I will try 5000 suns next.
The key thing is that really... it is just more stars and solar features so it just runs through the set-up matrix for longer. Creation not the problem.
All this extra space will make the distances between empires much longer... and likely cluster them into groups

 

[Tacticus101]

I generally find that increasing the number of empires whilst increasing the number of habitable planets gives the feel of a larger galaxy, one with all the empty systems taken out.

 

[klopkr]

The largest galaxy feels too small compared to other paradox titles like eu4 or ck2 when it comes to the number of play options.

The game can barely run with the largest empire size though.

I don't even know how you could solve that the way this game is set up.

 

[Diettinger]

So you wanted to know what a 5000 sun spiral galaxy looks like. This took only 5 minutes to create.
Note the dense outline of compressed stars around the border... one of which is my home sun!
Also... there is no way out of my home system...

 

[Diettinger]

This is 3000 stars with a radius of 700 and 20% core in the middle. I decreased the void in the middle but we still have a lot of starts squeezed into the border. I will keep going down...

 

[Diettinger]

It is odd, but the shapes of these galaxies tells me that they are not using a mathematical model for the galaxies other than a standard cartesian grid in three dimensions. There are better ways...