STELLARIS
I got Stellaris last week and instantly became addicted, the depth and immersion sucking me in like a black hole. After 60 hours over 6 days, a 1000 star galaxy was mine. Much of the game was excellent, but I'm here to share my experiences with some problems, and offer suggestions for improvement.
#1 "Fallen" Empires
I started out with this setting turned on, assuming it meant I'd have (extinct) ancient civilizations to explore, for story and research opportunities. As my people reached for the stars, they discovered these "Fallen" Empires were actually galactic superpowers. Without warning, hostile fleets (50k-100K in power) invaded while my empire was in its infancy, eradicating every last trace of my race...
There was no chance for negotiation and with an inferior fleet there was no hope of victory. The fallen empire wanted only one thing--total annihilation.
(A related issue--negotiation options, although limitations based on starting traits is a good concept, but in this situation I could do nothing but die.)
Are Fallen Empires always hostile? I didn't want to waste time figuring that out. My solution for this problem was to restart a new game with Fallen Empires turned off.
#2 War Goals (and altering them)
I like the war goal system as a concept, but in practice it has numerous problems. Some war goals I never considered because they were too costly, such as vassals--it's cheaper and simpler to take total control of their planets. I see no logic in that.
Also, why are we unable to change war goals? In the flow of time and in the ever-changing state of the galaxy, certain events can radically change you perspective and goals. (Why can't we change our mind about liberation and force our enemies to cede instead?) If you're invasion is fairing better than anticipated, with every planet invaded or blockaded, I should be able to force my demands for their entire empire. With the system as it is now, taking an empire piece by piece over the span of decades (because of the forced truce system--a related issue) can be frustrating and, again, I see no logic in that. The system is too limiting--I don't want the game to tell me I'm asking for too much, that is something for ME to decide.
The reality is: goals change! I wanted to be an astronaut as a child, but I changed my mind.
Also, I was unaware that there is a window of opportunity for setting war goals. I had an empire declare war on my, but I was busy with other matters and neglected to set demands. When I had prepared to answer the invaders in kind, my ability to set war goals was no longer available. I had to fight a war, gained nothing, and had to wait 10 years for the damn truce to end.
Can we also get more war goal options, such as forcing a trade agreement? Military power and intimidation can be very persuasive. This function can also be added to the trade window (do this, or else...) Let us make deals with more options or conditions or threats. Maybe we can force other empires to change their government type or policies and edicts (slavery)--wars have been fought for this before.
#3 Space Warfare, Fleet Management, Idle Ships, and Disobeying Direct Orders
Managing a galactic empire isn't always about sunshine and lollipops and rainbows. Sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty. The war itself can be stressful, but not nearly as stressful as managing your fleets. In war, one small mistake can result catastrophic loss of life, or give way to defeat. There are so many problems with fleet management I'm not sure where to begin.
I'll start at the strategic level. When looking at the map, some critical information is not displayed. On a massive star map, I can't always remember where systems/planets, space ports (and level), and armies are located exactly. The side interface and find feature don't help much.
(A related issue--the find feature only finds systems, not specific planets, or anything else of relevance)
We need more information on the map. Give us icons for space ports and armies (not just occupying armies) and the races in each system. I need to know which system is inhabited by which race, so when I'm trying to raise an army I don't have to click every planet in the entire galaxy to find which ones are inhabited by a certain race--a simple icon or just a word would alleviate this issue. I don't want to have to zoom in a search every time.
Don't say "control groups." Setting a certain asset to a button isn't enough--not when you have 100 worlds.
Simple fix--icon it.
Also at the strategic level, the process of merging/separating and setting rally points for fleets is buggy. When I'm at war, i need to effectively divide and conquer, or when the situation calls for it rally my fleet into an unstoppable force.
Sometimes my fleet disobeys direct orders to merge and I can't abide any acts of mutiny. Sometimes my fleets will go idle, and I can't tolerate any dereliction of duty. If ships were traveling toward a rally point, but the rally point is lost the ships become idle--the captain declares nap time when I need him in battle. I don't know why they cant just set reset course for the nearest rally point or fleet. My map becomes flooded with lost ships, waiting for me to re-issue orders.
We need the merge button to have a setting to auto-merge with all ships in system, or some way to set this to a default policy to an empire default. Which brings me to another issue--why do I always have to tell my fleets what my policies are whenever they are created or separated? Why can't we set empire-wide defaults so that every ship and every fleet will be on attack ready status or engage in full planetary bombardments without being having to be told?
The fleet management interface also gets flooded with ships in in transit to the fleets they're merging to. When you're producing ships at 16 different starports and they're all zipping this way and that way, I found myself wishing I could filter the list or there was some other function to make fleet management less of a pain. I'd like to see "filter by" options such as "idle ships", "ships in orbit", "fleets >10K", "fleets in enemy territory" or anything to make management easier by not flooding my display with idle, lost, or in transit "fleets" that are actually a single ship.
Also, on the subject to planetary bombardments, sometimes a system will have more than one planet, but three different fleets will all bomb the same planet instead of spreading out to bomb all the others in the system.
Space combat tactics are where I'd like the have more micro-management options, but ironically, that's where the game is lacking. The only option is retreat. I cant set behaviors for certain ship types or fleets, they simply engage and zoom toward the enemy full speed. You can't maneuver or split fleets mid combat.
Military stations have some issues as well. I'm grateful that these have a map icon, but require too much mico-management to set up. Construction ships can build mining and research stations and frontier outposts from the map view, but not military stations? There is also no option to set your sectors to a military/defensive posture--only economic variations. My sectors, no matter their resources, will not build military defense stations on their own.
Military stations also have too large of a dead-zone radius. I understand the "balancing" effect of this dead-zone, so that you can't stack too many fortresses together...but why? Isn't the balancing effect that they cost resources to maintain? It's space, by the way, (it isn't flat) with plenty of room to build whatever I want wherever I want. Nothing is stopping me from building 10 fortresses around a world except the game telling me to "be fair."
Well I have news for you--life isn't fair. Wars are fought by seizing advantages and exploiting weaknesses, stacking the odds in your favor or crippling the enemy so they don't stand a chance. Instead, my admirals are more concerned with fairness. "This world is too fortified, its defenses too tight. The enemy won't be able to break through easily, so we need to spread these stations out and give them a fighting chance." What?
While on the subject of military defense stations, I'd like to be able to move them. Why not? Really, what is stopping me from moving them? You might have built them at what was once a strategic location, but as your empire expanded or as the galactic map changed it is needed elsewhere. You could deconstruct and reconstruct, but that's a waste of time and resources, and subject to the problems described above.
Stellaris stations are strictly defensive in function. Can we get OFFENSIVE stations? Super-weapons?
#4 Armies, Attachments, (and varieties)
I have another strategic issue. Armies have an "attachment" feature, but to apply an attachment you need to go through an externally tedious process. You need the build the army, select each army individually (while still planet-side) and then manually click to add an attachment. When you're raising multiple armies across and entire galaxy, this feature is far too tedious to bother with, so despite the advantages I simply ignored it--I'm not wasting my time clicking individual every army.
The fix is simple. When building an army, just incorporate the attachment feature at the army creation stage, not after. Just click "build with attachment" or add another army type to the build option list. Simple.
Give armies the option to upgrade too. I'd like to see more done with them, like selecting weapon/armor types, or other features that can be added. Army policies and tactics would also be a great feature (set armies to liberate slave populations or auto purge). I want my troops to feel more real than little green circles. Speaking of armies, I talked about space defenses, but there are not enough options for planetary surface defenses.
Also, if the planet is full and still raising any army the "excess" troops automatically go into orbit.
(related issue--planets have a maximum troop limit? I understand this from a balancing point of view, but really, what's stopping me from building or landing a massive force on a planet? Why can't the balance simply be resource consumption, like food! If I want to devote a planet for the sole purpose of troop training and residence, I should be able to stack up one farms to feed them and everything is fine.)
The army feature as a whole is actually a fantastic feature and I'm happy that it's an important element of the game, but it is rather lackluster. I think more attachment types and greater varieties in the types of armies would be a nice feature. For example, I'd like to add tanks or giant robots or siege equipment. "Army" is very generic. Maybe we can add things in the attachment slot, add more attachment slots, and make the army system more dynamic. Massing troops and winning with numbers alone can get boring.
Also, invading one small force at a time, trickling them down in small numbers, is STUPID. Who does that? Idiots do--that's who. I'm not going to send my troops single-file toward a firing line. If I have 20 armies in orbit, I'm landing all god damn 20 of them to overwhelm the enemy, I don't give a damn about fighting fair.
If the defenders want a better chance, why not give them the option for anti-air so they can shoot down drop pods, or make the defense options more dynamic and intuitive? Move the military buildings to the army tab so that its all on one page (still occupying a slot on the surface cap) and give us more options. Let the empire build fortifications because if you leave structure slots to the AI they won't build shield generators or other military structures because there is no military setting for sectors.
#5 Rebel Scum
Rebel factions are impossible to eliminate. In 60 hours, I never quelled one rebellion despite my best efforts. I would adopt social welfare programs, information quarantine, propaganda broadcast, employ re-education campaigns, and even genetically modify species to become conformists, suppressed them and integrated them in the factions tab--I even had the strategic resource to pacify them--I did EVERYTHING I could.
There was no peaceful solution.
Factions remained a thorn in my side throughout my galactic conquest. This was a significant issue. All the time and resources I spent on this was a massive waste of time and resources.
Now, I had to do some research online--surely I was not doing something right. I had to figure out how to end a faction. I could get them down to 1 pop but they would always exist. The consensus I found was the purge them. Well, that was what I originally wanted to do at first, but because of my traits and government type purging was not an option.
(related issue--I am aware there are ways to change your government type and some policies, but even doing so, some options remain unavailable. I could never unlock the option to purge. So, why can't we change our policies to conflict with a trait or government type? It can happen in reality. Sometimes in certain situations, such as a rampant rebellion, actions must be taken that maybe unethical, maybe even a civil war, all against the laws the laws the empire has set. Why can't I change my policies to purge, albeit at some cost or penalty?)
Peace was not an option, but rather than purge shouldn't there be some alternative to genocide? Why can't I get the military to intervene? A rebellion can't be tolerated and must be quelled, and if they persist, that calls for more drastic measures. Why not a planetary edict like martial law to shut down rebellions, and/or an empire edict to strictly enforce compliance? Suppression should be the answer but in reality it isn't. We need more options.
#6 Diplomacy (or not)
I didn't deal much with diplomacy and trade not because I had no interest, but it was a rather barren feature. Sure, you could interact with species diplomatically, and there were some options, but I was shocked that forming an alliance or "federation" was a technology that had to be researched. What? That had me scratching my head. I never researched it.
Trade had so few options. I attempted a few resource and star chart exchanges, sometimes a research agreement (which I still don't understand how it works). There wasn't much there. Diplomacy needs many more options, especially since its a defining feature of the game.
We should be able to exchange researched technology through diplomacy. Again, it happens all the time in reality. This way, we have other options rather than watching the clock as the paint dries. This would encourage diplomacy and making friends. Instead of only political options like war and peace, and very limited trade, a whole new aspect of the game would open up. I would actually have incentive to stay on an empire's good side if they have tech I want and we could become better economic partners. Trading resources is bland. You could also trade slaves.
In the diplomacy window, it would be nice to make demands without going to war. Why not encourage a peaceful alternative? Instead of "war goals" why not "peace goals" as well? With systems recently acquired or conquered, instead of purging or integrating the population, I wish there was an option to deport them to the empire they belong to. The more options, the better.
#7 Parting Shots
For the most part, I enjoyed my experience with Stellaris, but I have a few more miscellaneous words on issues and improvements.
Adding (or removing) systems to a sector can be buggy. Sometimes I accidentally click the wrong system and take it out of the sector, costing influence. This mistake happened to me far too many times and I hate losing resource over a system being buggy (sometimes I had to click a few times.) If you click on a system, and it would be removed from a system, give us a warning first that says "are you sure you?"
(Side note: my sectors never produced influence, even though I saw it potentially could in the sectors tab. I'm not sure about this one, but It confused me.)
Another issue was that automatically surveying systems was a technology, not a default order. Why? Auto "assist research" should be an option too. Adding the same feature of auto-building to construction ships would eliminate some frustration. Planets need an auto-upgrade structure option--I hate forgetting about surface tiles and having to check for upgrades years after the upgrade was researched.
The science missions could be very dull. I lost interest in them very quickly. And I couldn't get my science ships to automatically investigate some missions so I just forgot about them and didn't care. I would like to see the science missions become more relevant and eventful, or exciting, or have some impact or result. As they are now, I lost interest. The chains never went anywhere meaningful. I would like the science missions to play a large role in the game, not as something tedious, but something fun. If the science missions remain as they are, I want an auto-disregard feature for all the alerts that keep popping up and stopping the game.
Also, can we get a faster setting than "fastest"? Later in the game, some things like research, teraforming, genetic-modification, and a great many things can take FOREVER. It was so incredibly boring to wait for stupid 10 year truces to end or watch the research bar.
Some things in Stellaris made me rethink the phase "slow as molasses" (I have newfound respect for how fast molasses moves.)
In six days, I conquered the galaxy, and on the seventh day, I rest...
I got Stellaris last week and instantly became addicted, the depth and immersion sucking me in like a black hole. After 60 hours over 6 days, a 1000 star galaxy was mine. Much of the game was excellent, but I'm here to share my experiences with some problems, and offer suggestions for improvement.
#1 "Fallen" Empires
I started out with this setting turned on, assuming it meant I'd have (extinct) ancient civilizations to explore, for story and research opportunities. As my people reached for the stars, they discovered these "Fallen" Empires were actually galactic superpowers. Without warning, hostile fleets (50k-100K in power) invaded while my empire was in its infancy, eradicating every last trace of my race...
There was no chance for negotiation and with an inferior fleet there was no hope of victory. The fallen empire wanted only one thing--total annihilation.
(A related issue--negotiation options, although limitations based on starting traits is a good concept, but in this situation I could do nothing but die.)
Are Fallen Empires always hostile? I didn't want to waste time figuring that out. My solution for this problem was to restart a new game with Fallen Empires turned off.
#2 War Goals (and altering them)
I like the war goal system as a concept, but in practice it has numerous problems. Some war goals I never considered because they were too costly, such as vassals--it's cheaper and simpler to take total control of their planets. I see no logic in that.
Also, why are we unable to change war goals? In the flow of time and in the ever-changing state of the galaxy, certain events can radically change you perspective and goals. (Why can't we change our mind about liberation and force our enemies to cede instead?) If you're invasion is fairing better than anticipated, with every planet invaded or blockaded, I should be able to force my demands for their entire empire. With the system as it is now, taking an empire piece by piece over the span of decades (because of the forced truce system--a related issue) can be frustrating and, again, I see no logic in that. The system is too limiting--I don't want the game to tell me I'm asking for too much, that is something for ME to decide.
The reality is: goals change! I wanted to be an astronaut as a child, but I changed my mind.
Also, I was unaware that there is a window of opportunity for setting war goals. I had an empire declare war on my, but I was busy with other matters and neglected to set demands. When I had prepared to answer the invaders in kind, my ability to set war goals was no longer available. I had to fight a war, gained nothing, and had to wait 10 years for the damn truce to end.
Can we also get more war goal options, such as forcing a trade agreement? Military power and intimidation can be very persuasive. This function can also be added to the trade window (do this, or else...) Let us make deals with more options or conditions or threats. Maybe we can force other empires to change their government type or policies and edicts (slavery)--wars have been fought for this before.
#3 Space Warfare, Fleet Management, Idle Ships, and Disobeying Direct Orders
Managing a galactic empire isn't always about sunshine and lollipops and rainbows. Sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty. The war itself can be stressful, but not nearly as stressful as managing your fleets. In war, one small mistake can result catastrophic loss of life, or give way to defeat. There are so many problems with fleet management I'm not sure where to begin.
I'll start at the strategic level. When looking at the map, some critical information is not displayed. On a massive star map, I can't always remember where systems/planets, space ports (and level), and armies are located exactly. The side interface and find feature don't help much.
(A related issue--the find feature only finds systems, not specific planets, or anything else of relevance)
We need more information on the map. Give us icons for space ports and armies (not just occupying armies) and the races in each system. I need to know which system is inhabited by which race, so when I'm trying to raise an army I don't have to click every planet in the entire galaxy to find which ones are inhabited by a certain race--a simple icon or just a word would alleviate this issue. I don't want to have to zoom in a search every time.
Don't say "control groups." Setting a certain asset to a button isn't enough--not when you have 100 worlds.
Simple fix--icon it.
Also at the strategic level, the process of merging/separating and setting rally points for fleets is buggy. When I'm at war, i need to effectively divide and conquer, or when the situation calls for it rally my fleet into an unstoppable force.
Sometimes my fleet disobeys direct orders to merge and I can't abide any acts of mutiny. Sometimes my fleets will go idle, and I can't tolerate any dereliction of duty. If ships were traveling toward a rally point, but the rally point is lost the ships become idle--the captain declares nap time when I need him in battle. I don't know why they cant just set reset course for the nearest rally point or fleet. My map becomes flooded with lost ships, waiting for me to re-issue orders.
We need the merge button to have a setting to auto-merge with all ships in system, or some way to set this to a default policy to an empire default. Which brings me to another issue--why do I always have to tell my fleets what my policies are whenever they are created or separated? Why can't we set empire-wide defaults so that every ship and every fleet will be on attack ready status or engage in full planetary bombardments without being having to be told?
The fleet management interface also gets flooded with ships in in transit to the fleets they're merging to. When you're producing ships at 16 different starports and they're all zipping this way and that way, I found myself wishing I could filter the list or there was some other function to make fleet management less of a pain. I'd like to see "filter by" options such as "idle ships", "ships in orbit", "fleets >10K", "fleets in enemy territory" or anything to make management easier by not flooding my display with idle, lost, or in transit "fleets" that are actually a single ship.
Also, on the subject to planetary bombardments, sometimes a system will have more than one planet, but three different fleets will all bomb the same planet instead of spreading out to bomb all the others in the system.
Space combat tactics are where I'd like the have more micro-management options, but ironically, that's where the game is lacking. The only option is retreat. I cant set behaviors for certain ship types or fleets, they simply engage and zoom toward the enemy full speed. You can't maneuver or split fleets mid combat.
Military stations have some issues as well. I'm grateful that these have a map icon, but require too much mico-management to set up. Construction ships can build mining and research stations and frontier outposts from the map view, but not military stations? There is also no option to set your sectors to a military/defensive posture--only economic variations. My sectors, no matter their resources, will not build military defense stations on their own.
Military stations also have too large of a dead-zone radius. I understand the "balancing" effect of this dead-zone, so that you can't stack too many fortresses together...but why? Isn't the balancing effect that they cost resources to maintain? It's space, by the way, (it isn't flat) with plenty of room to build whatever I want wherever I want. Nothing is stopping me from building 10 fortresses around a world except the game telling me to "be fair."
Well I have news for you--life isn't fair. Wars are fought by seizing advantages and exploiting weaknesses, stacking the odds in your favor or crippling the enemy so they don't stand a chance. Instead, my admirals are more concerned with fairness. "This world is too fortified, its defenses too tight. The enemy won't be able to break through easily, so we need to spread these stations out and give them a fighting chance." What?
While on the subject of military defense stations, I'd like to be able to move them. Why not? Really, what is stopping me from moving them? You might have built them at what was once a strategic location, but as your empire expanded or as the galactic map changed it is needed elsewhere. You could deconstruct and reconstruct, but that's a waste of time and resources, and subject to the problems described above.
Stellaris stations are strictly defensive in function. Can we get OFFENSIVE stations? Super-weapons?
#4 Armies, Attachments, (and varieties)
I have another strategic issue. Armies have an "attachment" feature, but to apply an attachment you need to go through an externally tedious process. You need the build the army, select each army individually (while still planet-side) and then manually click to add an attachment. When you're raising multiple armies across and entire galaxy, this feature is far too tedious to bother with, so despite the advantages I simply ignored it--I'm not wasting my time clicking individual every army.
The fix is simple. When building an army, just incorporate the attachment feature at the army creation stage, not after. Just click "build with attachment" or add another army type to the build option list. Simple.
Give armies the option to upgrade too. I'd like to see more done with them, like selecting weapon/armor types, or other features that can be added. Army policies and tactics would also be a great feature (set armies to liberate slave populations or auto purge). I want my troops to feel more real than little green circles. Speaking of armies, I talked about space defenses, but there are not enough options for planetary surface defenses.
Also, if the planet is full and still raising any army the "excess" troops automatically go into orbit.
(related issue--planets have a maximum troop limit? I understand this from a balancing point of view, but really, what's stopping me from building or landing a massive force on a planet? Why can't the balance simply be resource consumption, like food! If I want to devote a planet for the sole purpose of troop training and residence, I should be able to stack up one farms to feed them and everything is fine.)
The army feature as a whole is actually a fantastic feature and I'm happy that it's an important element of the game, but it is rather lackluster. I think more attachment types and greater varieties in the types of armies would be a nice feature. For example, I'd like to add tanks or giant robots or siege equipment. "Army" is very generic. Maybe we can add things in the attachment slot, add more attachment slots, and make the army system more dynamic. Massing troops and winning with numbers alone can get boring.
Also, invading one small force at a time, trickling them down in small numbers, is STUPID. Who does that? Idiots do--that's who. I'm not going to send my troops single-file toward a firing line. If I have 20 armies in orbit, I'm landing all god damn 20 of them to overwhelm the enemy, I don't give a damn about fighting fair.
If the defenders want a better chance, why not give them the option for anti-air so they can shoot down drop pods, or make the defense options more dynamic and intuitive? Move the military buildings to the army tab so that its all on one page (still occupying a slot on the surface cap) and give us more options. Let the empire build fortifications because if you leave structure slots to the AI they won't build shield generators or other military structures because there is no military setting for sectors.
#5 Rebel Scum
Rebel factions are impossible to eliminate. In 60 hours, I never quelled one rebellion despite my best efforts. I would adopt social welfare programs, information quarantine, propaganda broadcast, employ re-education campaigns, and even genetically modify species to become conformists, suppressed them and integrated them in the factions tab--I even had the strategic resource to pacify them--I did EVERYTHING I could.
There was no peaceful solution.
Factions remained a thorn in my side throughout my galactic conquest. This was a significant issue. All the time and resources I spent on this was a massive waste of time and resources.
Now, I had to do some research online--surely I was not doing something right. I had to figure out how to end a faction. I could get them down to 1 pop but they would always exist. The consensus I found was the purge them. Well, that was what I originally wanted to do at first, but because of my traits and government type purging was not an option.
(related issue--I am aware there are ways to change your government type and some policies, but even doing so, some options remain unavailable. I could never unlock the option to purge. So, why can't we change our policies to conflict with a trait or government type? It can happen in reality. Sometimes in certain situations, such as a rampant rebellion, actions must be taken that maybe unethical, maybe even a civil war, all against the laws the laws the empire has set. Why can't I change my policies to purge, albeit at some cost or penalty?)
Peace was not an option, but rather than purge shouldn't there be some alternative to genocide? Why can't I get the military to intervene? A rebellion can't be tolerated and must be quelled, and if they persist, that calls for more drastic measures. Why not a planetary edict like martial law to shut down rebellions, and/or an empire edict to strictly enforce compliance? Suppression should be the answer but in reality it isn't. We need more options.
#6 Diplomacy (or not)
I didn't deal much with diplomacy and trade not because I had no interest, but it was a rather barren feature. Sure, you could interact with species diplomatically, and there were some options, but I was shocked that forming an alliance or "federation" was a technology that had to be researched. What? That had me scratching my head. I never researched it.
Trade had so few options. I attempted a few resource and star chart exchanges, sometimes a research agreement (which I still don't understand how it works). There wasn't much there. Diplomacy needs many more options, especially since its a defining feature of the game.
We should be able to exchange researched technology through diplomacy. Again, it happens all the time in reality. This way, we have other options rather than watching the clock as the paint dries. This would encourage diplomacy and making friends. Instead of only political options like war and peace, and very limited trade, a whole new aspect of the game would open up. I would actually have incentive to stay on an empire's good side if they have tech I want and we could become better economic partners. Trading resources is bland. You could also trade slaves.
In the diplomacy window, it would be nice to make demands without going to war. Why not encourage a peaceful alternative? Instead of "war goals" why not "peace goals" as well? With systems recently acquired or conquered, instead of purging or integrating the population, I wish there was an option to deport them to the empire they belong to. The more options, the better.
#7 Parting Shots
For the most part, I enjoyed my experience with Stellaris, but I have a few more miscellaneous words on issues and improvements.
Adding (or removing) systems to a sector can be buggy. Sometimes I accidentally click the wrong system and take it out of the sector, costing influence. This mistake happened to me far too many times and I hate losing resource over a system being buggy (sometimes I had to click a few times.) If you click on a system, and it would be removed from a system, give us a warning first that says "are you sure you?"
(Side note: my sectors never produced influence, even though I saw it potentially could in the sectors tab. I'm not sure about this one, but It confused me.)
Another issue was that automatically surveying systems was a technology, not a default order. Why? Auto "assist research" should be an option too. Adding the same feature of auto-building to construction ships would eliminate some frustration. Planets need an auto-upgrade structure option--I hate forgetting about surface tiles and having to check for upgrades years after the upgrade was researched.
The science missions could be very dull. I lost interest in them very quickly. And I couldn't get my science ships to automatically investigate some missions so I just forgot about them and didn't care. I would like to see the science missions become more relevant and eventful, or exciting, or have some impact or result. As they are now, I lost interest. The chains never went anywhere meaningful. I would like the science missions to play a large role in the game, not as something tedious, but something fun. If the science missions remain as they are, I want an auto-disregard feature for all the alerts that keep popping up and stopping the game.
Also, can we get a faster setting than "fastest"? Later in the game, some things like research, teraforming, genetic-modification, and a great many things can take FOREVER. It was so incredibly boring to wait for stupid 10 year truces to end or watch the research bar.
Some things in Stellaris made me rethink the phase "slow as molasses" (I have newfound respect for how fast molasses moves.)
In six days, I conquered the galaxy, and on the seventh day, I rest...
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