I find that one of the game's main problems ( regardless of galaxy size ) is congestion. In late game when all the habitable worlds are taken and there is no open space left almost everything grinds to a halt. The game doesn't have enough in the way of empire management to keep things interesting. No real trade system ( which is something that needs serious attention and something that has a vast amount of potential ), Diplomacy is weak and that is usually one of PDX's strong points and as a whole the game plays too much like it's land based. We are supposed to be out there in the vast reaches of space but instead it feels like all the empires are stuffed into a cupboard fighting over the last cockroach. There should be massive distances between the empires that can only be crossed with highly advanced drives. Sure a couple of species may have evolved closer to each other but these should be the exception rather than the rule.
Preparations for an invasion into an enemies space should be something that isn't taken lightly because of the difficulties and distances involved. If the invasion goes ahead and is a success then keeping supply lines open or even maintaining governance over far away systems again becomes a major issue. Obviously this is something that cannot be addressed with one patch or DLC or even a full expansion and would need to be catered for from the ground up for Stellaris 2 maybe.
There are also the slowdowns to think of. These could be almost eliminated altogether by paradoxically ( see what I did there ) making the galaxy absolutely huge and splitting it into separate regions ( separate maps ) that load independently of each other. Of course this then throws up another problem of continuity. What is happening in the regions that are not loaded while you are flying around in whichever region happens to be loaded at the time and that is for brighter minds than mine to figure out. Cutting down on the blob nature of the games combat system would also alleviate the slowdowns. Make ships much more expensive and time consuming to build but make them tougher and more important in and of themselves. Losing a ship with all hands should be a major loss, not something you shrug your shoulders at and queue up another 20 to be built. The US for instance has a huge fleet if you count all the ships in service. They do not however roam the globe as one. They are split into many different fleets and task forces that perform duties independent of each other. In times of war these fleets are assigned where needed but you will never see one huge blob roaming the world's oceans. Combat needs to be slower and more strategic, which is again something for Stellaris 2 I would imagine.
Anyway I have gone off topic here so apologies for that to the OP.
Preparations for an invasion into an enemies space should be something that isn't taken lightly because of the difficulties and distances involved. If the invasion goes ahead and is a success then keeping supply lines open or even maintaining governance over far away systems again becomes a major issue. Obviously this is something that cannot be addressed with one patch or DLC or even a full expansion and would need to be catered for from the ground up for Stellaris 2 maybe.
There are also the slowdowns to think of. These could be almost eliminated altogether by paradoxically ( see what I did there ) making the galaxy absolutely huge and splitting it into separate regions ( separate maps ) that load independently of each other. Of course this then throws up another problem of continuity. What is happening in the regions that are not loaded while you are flying around in whichever region happens to be loaded at the time and that is for brighter minds than mine to figure out. Cutting down on the blob nature of the games combat system would also alleviate the slowdowns. Make ships much more expensive and time consuming to build but make them tougher and more important in and of themselves. Losing a ship with all hands should be a major loss, not something you shrug your shoulders at and queue up another 20 to be built. The US for instance has a huge fleet if you count all the ships in service. They do not however roam the globe as one. They are split into many different fleets and task forces that perform duties independent of each other. In times of war these fleets are assigned where needed but you will never see one huge blob roaming the world's oceans. Combat needs to be slower and more strategic, which is again something for Stellaris 2 I would imagine.
Anyway I have gone off topic here so apologies for that to the OP.
