[Poll] Defining early, mid and late game?

[Tim_Ward]

I was just wondering, how do you define the early, mid and late game? Would you say specific dates, or is it the advent of certain technologies, or certain game situations (i.e having 5 core worlds means the end of the early game, or the appearance of XL weapons marks the onset of the end game)

Answers on a postcard, etc

 

[KingKone]

I would say when you reach about 2 sectors then it's the start of the middle game till the end game crises which will be the end of the middle game and start of the end game.

 

[Twogs]

Number of sectors is a bad indicator. I had games where I never had more than 1.

 

[Alblaka]

Number of colonies, I would say.
Early game is the phase before you can ignore starports (aka, till ~destroyers/cruisers/8ish colonies).
Medium game is the phase where empire blobs/feds have started forming and fleets rech 5digit strengths.
Late game is when the victor is already established and just held back by truces and AFEs.

 

[praftd]

Early: Exploration/anomaly focus. First few colonies.
Mid: Fleet build up, core system filled out, expansion.
Late: Multiple sectors, multiple fleets.

 

[Kayden_II]

Early-Game: Begins at the Start of the Game and ends in the Case, that I've explored all Star-Systems and its Anomalies ! ...
Mid-Game: Begins with my first Colony, goes through the Stage, in Which all Galaxy-Territories are occupied (no Gaps !) and ends in the Case, that all colonizable Worlds are colonized ! ...
Late-Game: The Time before the Fallen Empires awake or before the Crisis begins or before I'm researching repeatable Technologies ! ...
End-Game: Yeah - Fallen-Empire-/Crisis-/Repeatable-Tech-Time ! ...

It overlaps (partly) ! ...

Or

Early-Game = (Typical) Exploration-Time !, Mid-Game = (Typical) Expansion-Time !, Late-Game = (Typical) Exploitation-Time ! and End-Game = (Typical) Extinction-Time ! ...

Or

Early-Game = Corvette-Time !, Mid-Game = Destroyer-Time !, Late-Game = Cruiser-Time ! and End-Game = Battleship-Time !

 

[Ambereyed]

I don't think there is a clear and easy to draw border between early and middle game. For me it's rather subtle - my early game ends when mineral income grows big enough to almost immediately satisfy my "everyday" needs (buildings, starport modules, filling the fleet cap gap, etc). In other words: it's a moment, when lack of minerals stops being the biggest bottleneck to empire development. In mid game main bottlenecks are energy, influence - or just time spend waiting until you can build another thing or until truce ends.
Described moment usually comes in my games after colonizing few neighbouring worlds, around 30 years in game (it can differ from player to player - depends on skill, luck and general playstyle). Overall it's time when rapid early colonization ends and you start to seriously develop gained colonies. New space mines and labs are build in the meanwhile, and further or less attractive planets are colonized. Fleet is also powerful enough to easily break through enemy spaceports, so conquering/vassalizing on bigger scale occurs.

End game is easier to describe, imvho. It starts when you have to face the biggest challenges - awakened FE and crisis.

 

[Nesjamag]

Early game: You can grow by colonizing, no wars required. You're playing versus empty space and occasional pirates.
Mid game: Pretty much all space is taken by empires. Expanding requires war or turning other empires into vassals. You're playing verses other empires now.
End game: Other empires are less relevant. You're playing versus crises and awakened empires.

 

[Coffee Fox]

Late game: When the lag starts.

 

[Alliegorical]

Early game: Crushing primitives
Mid game: Crushing other empires
Late game: Crushing fallen empires

 

[The Founder]

For me it is:
Early game: Where you colony rush/try to come out on top of your Neighbours.
Mid game: When you have contact with most of the Galaxy.
Late Game: Not so sure myself.

 

[xxaxx]

Early Game: initial exploration, anomalies and first colonies
Mid: upgrades to your planets, all the systems have mining/research stations, wars with weak neighbors because you're boxed in, fleet buildup
End: you're the superpower in your part of the galaxy, endgame crisis, wars with ascendancies, wars with other superpowers

 

[Arizal]

Early game : Exploration, colonisation.
Middle game : When empire border's touch themselves and the majority of the empires have no more room to grow other than war.
Late game : When the crisis occur, fallen empires awaken, going all the way to your victory (or destruction)

 

[scaper12123]

Early game is the initial colonization period when you're first spreading to other planets in competition with other nations. It's a race for whatever resources you can get and how much you get could possibly define the entire rest of the game for you.

Mid-game is the point where most open space is claimed and politics start coming into play. It's defined by an obscene number of alliances forming, usually between the aggressors and the pacifists (if you can call them that). Depending on the circumstances, the length of time Mid-game lasts can vary.

End-game begins the moment a fallen empire awakens. Technically it could also start upon a crisis appearing, but that only really counts if it's the preythorians. This is the point where you gotta go big or go home, push for one of the end goals or whatever else you want to do.

 

[AvalancheZ250]

Its different based on preferred playstyle. For me, these are the stages

Early game - Starts at the beginning and ends when you can build destroyers. This is because with destroyers you can engage in offensive wars as you can finally fight spaceports without getting decimated. This part of the game is mostly exploration and planning expansion routes.

Early mid game - Starts when you can build destroyers and ends when you can build cruisers. Destroyers allow you to effectively wage wars of aggression. Cruisers are your first "capital" ships, which means less death stacks and more combined arms. Mineral spending decreases as you run out of stuff to build, and energy per month costs soar. Rivalries are declared.

Early late game - Starts when you can build cruisers and ends when you can build battleships. Battleships complete the combined arms part of combat (close range + long range combos etc.) allowing for huge wars. Minerals are always in surplus, and energy per month teeter on going negative unless you have a lot of trade deals. Wars of expansion against empires in your way are declared. Federations are formed, and often get in your way.

Late game - Starts when you can build battleships. Empires are huge and bloated now, with multiple fleets. Smaller empires are irrelevant, and often vassals. Only a few, obvious powerhouses remain. You should concentrate on your victory conditions now. Post-Banks, this would be the stage you focus on gene-modding (for genetic evolution ascension perk), cybernetic implants (synthetic evolution ascension perk) or psionics (psionics evolution ascension perk). Federations, militarist empires, FE's/AFE's and end game crisis's are the problems you face in this part of the game. Wars are often finals ones, to ensure your dominance of the galaxy.

Endgame - When you control ringworlds and have Titans. You should be the strongest power in the galaxy, and all that remains is to finish the job. FE's/AFE's should all be defeated, crisis's should be neutralized and other empires should be much weaker than yours. All thats left is cleanup, then the victory screen.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

My impression has been that it's basically 50/100/100+ (or rather, 2200-2250/2251-2350/2351-2450+) Early/Mid/End.

Player milestones aren't really relevant, the AI tend to develop the same way throughout that timeline.

 

[stlemur]

Middle game : When empire border's touch themselves

Stellaris is a family game, there is no room for immoral hanky-panky like that!

 

[krios41]

Late game: When the lag starts.

i lold

 

[Foefaller]

Mid game starts when most of the borders, alliances and rivalries have "solidified" in your part of space. There may still be colonizable planets within reach, but for the most part you are done expanding your territory by new colonies; now any significant leaps in expansion now comes either directly through conquest or vicariously with vassals or a Federation.

Late game IMO starts with the Fallen Empires awakening and the Crisis starting; the new player that results in a complete upheaval of the earlier political paradigm.

 

[Qoff]

Early: You have few resources and most of your surroundings aren't explorated yet, Fallen Empires are overwelming.
Mid: You have good resources and a couple sectors, most of your surroundings are explorated, fallen empires are now "Superior".
Late: You can't expand without waging wars, there is major empires in the game and you can beat a Fallen Empire.