I have recently started playing Stellaris again and was having a lot of fun. The exploration and sense of discovery was greatly improved by the Leviathans expansion and it's very fun to explore and build up your empire now.
My greatest issue with this game though is war. I almost tread having to go to war for something because it just doesn't feel as fun. Playing through the game some more I realized this was mostly due to the bussieness of the galaxy map. It just plastered all over with so many Icons that it's near impossible to guess the state of a war and the various fights between fleets at a glance. This makes fighting wars more tedious and leads to players easily missing some vital information that could ahve saved their fleets. This is something that is almost instantly done in Europa Universalis 4, Crusader Kings 2 and Hearts of Iron 4. You can almost instantly see how both the war and the fights between individual units are progressing. You can't in Stellaris. So I have a few suggestions that might improve that.
1. Stripe conquered regions of space
In all other paradox games you can instantly tell which parts of an enemy are conquered because their land is striped with your color. In Stellaris you only get a small little Icon of your flag next to conquered systems. Striping in the conquered regions of space the each of those conquered sectors is responsible for would make it much easier to see on a glance how the war is progressing.
2. Differentiate fleets more.
Currently all fleets have the same Icon, which is terrible. There is a vast difference between having a defenseless fleet like a Transport, a science ship or a constructor versus having an actual fleet in a system. And turning the same symbol 90 degrees helps if you are looking at it for a longer time, but at a glance it's pretty hard to differentiate the two.
3. Gimme numbers.
There's a vast difference between a 100 power point fleet and a vast 10000 pp fleet. But at a glance on the galaxy map you can't see a difference, you have to hover over the symbol to see it. Just display the number of power points next to the fleet symbol.
4. War-mapmode.
This is basically the culmination of the above suggestions. I get that some of the interface changes might look bad when you are at peace just building up your empire. So you can just put the changes, like numbers and striped conquered space in a special mapmode made for waging war. Additionally I suggest to use the space around a systems name differently for this mapmode in the following ways:
- Put all friendly fleets in a system to the left of the system name (With power point number)
- Put all hostile fleets in a system to the right of the system name (Again with power point number)
- When a fight between fleets happens, move the symbols of all engaged fleets to the top of the system name. Take their power point numbers with them and display them with a "vs." against each other. Additionally this could incorporate the battle progress bar above the PP friendly vs PP hostile part of the Interface. It would also help to put a red outline around the system name, so that you can instantly tell that a fight is going on in that system.
- Move all non-combat vessels, including transports, to the bottom of the system name, unless they are engaged in combat. With a more distinct symbol for transports you should still be able to easily distinguish them from the other civilian ships.
These changes should make it possible to instantly see how your friendly fleets stand against any hostile fleets in each system and inform you whether or not you need to intervene and go to the system-view.
- Last but not least: Display the movement of any discovered incoming enemy fleets on the galaxy map. I don't want to read the alarms every second to check wether the enemy is going to an important system or not.
My greatest issue with this game though is war. I almost tread having to go to war for something because it just doesn't feel as fun. Playing through the game some more I realized this was mostly due to the bussieness of the galaxy map. It just plastered all over with so many Icons that it's near impossible to guess the state of a war and the various fights between fleets at a glance. This makes fighting wars more tedious and leads to players easily missing some vital information that could ahve saved their fleets. This is something that is almost instantly done in Europa Universalis 4, Crusader Kings 2 and Hearts of Iron 4. You can almost instantly see how both the war and the fights between individual units are progressing. You can't in Stellaris. So I have a few suggestions that might improve that.
1. Stripe conquered regions of space
In all other paradox games you can instantly tell which parts of an enemy are conquered because their land is striped with your color. In Stellaris you only get a small little Icon of your flag next to conquered systems. Striping in the conquered regions of space the each of those conquered sectors is responsible for would make it much easier to see on a glance how the war is progressing.
2. Differentiate fleets more.
Currently all fleets have the same Icon, which is terrible. There is a vast difference between having a defenseless fleet like a Transport, a science ship or a constructor versus having an actual fleet in a system. And turning the same symbol 90 degrees helps if you are looking at it for a longer time, but at a glance it's pretty hard to differentiate the two.
3. Gimme numbers.
There's a vast difference between a 100 power point fleet and a vast 10000 pp fleet. But at a glance on the galaxy map you can't see a difference, you have to hover over the symbol to see it. Just display the number of power points next to the fleet symbol.
4. War-mapmode.
This is basically the culmination of the above suggestions. I get that some of the interface changes might look bad when you are at peace just building up your empire. So you can just put the changes, like numbers and striped conquered space in a special mapmode made for waging war. Additionally I suggest to use the space around a systems name differently for this mapmode in the following ways:
- Put all friendly fleets in a system to the left of the system name (With power point number)
- Put all hostile fleets in a system to the right of the system name (Again with power point number)
- When a fight between fleets happens, move the symbols of all engaged fleets to the top of the system name. Take their power point numbers with them and display them with a "vs." against each other. Additionally this could incorporate the battle progress bar above the PP friendly vs PP hostile part of the Interface. It would also help to put a red outline around the system name, so that you can instantly tell that a fight is going on in that system.
- Move all non-combat vessels, including transports, to the bottom of the system name, unless they are engaged in combat. With a more distinct symbol for transports you should still be able to easily distinguish them from the other civilian ships.
These changes should make it possible to instantly see how your friendly fleets stand against any hostile fleets in each system and inform you whether or not you need to intervene and go to the system-view.
- Last but not least: Display the movement of any discovered incoming enemy fleets on the galaxy map. I don't want to read the alarms every second to check wether the enemy is going to an important system or not.
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