Hi guys,
so I recently bought Stellaris, started my first game as the UNE and had an unlucky start (two fanatic xenophobe militarists right next to me, who obliterated my little noob-empire within a few hours). For my second game I created a fanatic materialist / collectivist empire, which worked out pretty nice unless I grew big enough to conquer a few planets without caring for the ethos of my newly aquired citizens (fanatic xenophobes who hated their alien overlords). As ethics divergence was a concept I haven't paid much attention to, I quickly ran into problems even purging and enslaving could not solve, so I decided to start a third game.
I'm currently playing as fanatic individualist / materialist Human (didn't want to change their traits for RP-reasons). I had a pretty good start, a few okay-ish planets to colonize and by now I integrated two vassals, have one left I'm going to integrate as soon as I have developed my latest colonies far enough that I can entrust a sector to take care of them. A small protectorate will hopefully be able to keep up with tech, so that I will be sometime able to vassalize and integrate them as well (in the first two wars I successfully liberated some planets and vassalized them, but after the third war, which set an end to the enemy empire, I had them out-teched so far that my only option was to take their remains as a protectorate).
So now I am at around 15 planets iirc, 1 vassal, 1 protectorate and a federation with 2 other empires, 25k flleet strengh and around 330 fleet capacity (which is not yet fully utilized). I'm around 105 years in, I think. I hope that info helps to estimate my current progress.
But now I have a few questions for you guys more experienced with the game, espacially the mid-game.
1. when presidency of the federation rotates, my allies get to control the fleet ... so far so good, but the fleet simlpy goes missing and reappears in their territory (because we are not direct neighbors). I have not found a way yet to bring the fleet into my territory when I am in charge. During a war I tried to fly the fleet through enemy territory, but as it uses hyperdrive (I myself use wormholes) and the only hyperlane they could use happend to pass through the lair of an ether drake, that did not work out. At least I could emergency-FTL, but the fleet reappeared in my allies system, not in mine...
tl;dr: is there any way I can bring back the federation fleet into my empire as long as I am not neighboring my allies? The AI just teleports the fleet into their system and I could not figure out a way to do the same.
2. again federations. Since I formed the federation, my allies seem to have stalled in development. They did not colonize a single planet since then and declined every planet I offered them as wargoals. They just sit there, getting surrounded and hardly contributing (though they seem to keep their fleet growing but still being no match for every empire around them). Despite me sending them thousends of energy credits and minerals they are so far behind by now that I'm considering leaving the federation and trying to find some new friends (by diplomacy or force). Did someone else experience this or did I just choose the wrong allies?
3. sectors ... yeah, I know sector discussion is quarantined, but I'm not going to rant about them, just ask for advice. I noticed that my sectors hardly build new structures, they seem to prioritize upgrading and rebuilding (if allowed) existing buildings. Furthermore I noticed that if I send them minerals, they tend to use up half of my development aid and just stockpile the other half instead of using it. Any advice on how to "motivate" the sectors to stop hoarding? Maybe there are some special governor traits or sector settings (currently energy focus, allowed to redevelop and respect tile resources) you would recommend?
4. I recently unlocked genetic modification and have one gene point to use. Should I wait for the second point from tech to make the xenos I integrated, conformists and adapt to my fanatic individualist ways (in order to lower their happiness penalties even further and thus increasing their efficiency? Right now I have a species in my empire which I infiltrated and assimilated. A few crop circles and UFO sightings during the observation made them fanatic xenophobes, fanatic spiritualists and a third fanatic ethos I do not recall right now (yes, 3 fanatic ethics ... is this normal for species who have been aggressivly observed for a few decades?). So I was thinking it would make sense to shift their ethics in order to make them nearly as happy as my joyful human pops (though I might achieve the same with edicts and buildings without wasting gene points). What would you do?
Maybe I will provide a savegame later as I am currently not at home.
Okay, I think that's enough for now ... I really enjoy Stellaris and was reading the forum for a while now. About time to participate
so I recently bought Stellaris, started my first game as the UNE and had an unlucky start (two fanatic xenophobe militarists right next to me, who obliterated my little noob-empire within a few hours). For my second game I created a fanatic materialist / collectivist empire, which worked out pretty nice unless I grew big enough to conquer a few planets without caring for the ethos of my newly aquired citizens (fanatic xenophobes who hated their alien overlords). As ethics divergence was a concept I haven't paid much attention to, I quickly ran into problems even purging and enslaving could not solve, so I decided to start a third game.
I'm currently playing as fanatic individualist / materialist Human (didn't want to change their traits for RP-reasons). I had a pretty good start, a few okay-ish planets to colonize and by now I integrated two vassals, have one left I'm going to integrate as soon as I have developed my latest colonies far enough that I can entrust a sector to take care of them. A small protectorate will hopefully be able to keep up with tech, so that I will be sometime able to vassalize and integrate them as well (in the first two wars I successfully liberated some planets and vassalized them, but after the third war, which set an end to the enemy empire, I had them out-teched so far that my only option was to take their remains as a protectorate).
So now I am at around 15 planets iirc, 1 vassal, 1 protectorate and a federation with 2 other empires, 25k flleet strengh and around 330 fleet capacity (which is not yet fully utilized). I'm around 105 years in, I think. I hope that info helps to estimate my current progress.
But now I have a few questions for you guys more experienced with the game, espacially the mid-game.
1. when presidency of the federation rotates, my allies get to control the fleet ... so far so good, but the fleet simlpy goes missing and reappears in their territory (because we are not direct neighbors). I have not found a way yet to bring the fleet into my territory when I am in charge. During a war I tried to fly the fleet through enemy territory, but as it uses hyperdrive (I myself use wormholes) and the only hyperlane they could use happend to pass through the lair of an ether drake, that did not work out. At least I could emergency-FTL, but the fleet reappeared in my allies system, not in mine...
tl;dr: is there any way I can bring back the federation fleet into my empire as long as I am not neighboring my allies? The AI just teleports the fleet into their system and I could not figure out a way to do the same.
2. again federations. Since I formed the federation, my allies seem to have stalled in development. They did not colonize a single planet since then and declined every planet I offered them as wargoals. They just sit there, getting surrounded and hardly contributing (though they seem to keep their fleet growing but still being no match for every empire around them). Despite me sending them thousends of energy credits and minerals they are so far behind by now that I'm considering leaving the federation and trying to find some new friends (by diplomacy or force). Did someone else experience this or did I just choose the wrong allies?
3. sectors ... yeah, I know sector discussion is quarantined, but I'm not going to rant about them, just ask for advice. I noticed that my sectors hardly build new structures, they seem to prioritize upgrading and rebuilding (if allowed) existing buildings. Furthermore I noticed that if I send them minerals, they tend to use up half of my development aid and just stockpile the other half instead of using it. Any advice on how to "motivate" the sectors to stop hoarding? Maybe there are some special governor traits or sector settings (currently energy focus, allowed to redevelop and respect tile resources) you would recommend?
4. I recently unlocked genetic modification and have one gene point to use. Should I wait for the second point from tech to make the xenos I integrated, conformists and adapt to my fanatic individualist ways (in order to lower their happiness penalties even further and thus increasing their efficiency? Right now I have a species in my empire which I infiltrated and assimilated. A few crop circles and UFO sightings during the observation made them fanatic xenophobes, fanatic spiritualists and a third fanatic ethos I do not recall right now (yes, 3 fanatic ethics ... is this normal for species who have been aggressivly observed for a few decades?). So I was thinking it would make sense to shift their ethics in order to make them nearly as happy as my joyful human pops (though I might achieve the same with edicts and buildings without wasting gene points). What would you do?
Maybe I will provide a savegame later as I am currently not at home.
Okay, I think that's enough for now ... I really enjoy Stellaris and was reading the forum for a while now. About time to participate
