Bought Utopia on launch day after having not played the game since at least October '16. This has probably been my longest running game since I bought Stellaris, as I usually get my ass kicked fairly comprehensively before even mid-game (I find it hard to gauge relative power between Empires, as opposed to CKII's numeric comparison). Overall I'm very pleased with the game, since I left; still annoyed achievements are broken though!
After an abortive first attempt at a Psionic playthrough (I was quickly sandwiched between two more vastly powerful Empires), I decided to have another go with a straight-out-of-the-box United Nations of Earth run through.
I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but I've emerged in something of a dominant position. My starting, hostile, neighbor(A) thankfully never declared war on me due to defensive pacts with two other smaller Empires(B, C) with similar, democratic ethics. I thought it was going to be a game-over when one of my allies invited me to join him in a war against another Empire(D) whose strength equaled ours combined. My wannabe doomstack was wiped out in the initial invasion and I panicked, thinking I was going to face a retaliatory invasion, but thankfully C managed to win the war soon after and my infrastructure was solid enough to quickly recoup my losses. B & C invited me to join their Federation, and soon after we declared a Liberation War on Empire A, whose territory was bigger than the entire Federation, but was also at war with Empire D. A quickly surrendered to D, losing almost half it's territory, before my Federation then won the war.
Now, I'm at something of a crossroads. Because I'm squeezed in on all sides by other Empires, I can't peacefully expand my Empire contiguously. A & D appear to be crippled, and woefully underpowered to face me; A has relative fleet power and capacity as pathetic, with a superior tech level. D has a rating of pathetic across the board. They're both ripe for the taking, but my hands are tied, of course, because I'm in a Federation. A & D never took any of my planets so I can't even launch a Liberation War. I'm strongly considering a winner-takes-all surprise attack because the other two members of the Federation, while they have a superior tech level, both have lower fleet power and naval capacity. (NB: Ally C has a Precursor homeworld in their territory, as an extra incentive...)
So I'm wondering: would it be best to leave the Federation in order to absorb hostiles A & D, before eventually doing the same to my former allies?
Also a few related/unrelated questions:
1. Are missiles still buggered? I recall reading a thread here that said they still are, so I swapped my starting tech for kinetic weapons.
2. I have two free ascension slots available because I can't decide which path to choose. Psionics is out of the question because my Empire is non-Spiritual, which leaves me with Synthetic or Biological. Biological seems a bit 'meh' in that it's just adding extra traits, and someone here said the tier 3 synthetic perk is actually worse than the preceding levels. Which one should I pick?
3. How to maximize/harmonize fleet build and energy?
My naval capacity is 400 (Out of boredom I picked the ascension perk that boosts naval capacity). I'm only using about 150 of that in a 28k sized fleet. When at peace, my energy income hovers around 80-100, but at war it can drop as low as 10. I build power plants wherever I can, power stations in orbit, and try to pick characters/traits/buildings/modules etc that lower upkeep, but it seems I'll never be able to go anywhere near my full capacity. How do I get more energy?
After an abortive first attempt at a Psionic playthrough (I was quickly sandwiched between two more vastly powerful Empires), I decided to have another go with a straight-out-of-the-box United Nations of Earth run through.
I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but I've emerged in something of a dominant position. My starting, hostile, neighbor(A) thankfully never declared war on me due to defensive pacts with two other smaller Empires(B, C) with similar, democratic ethics. I thought it was going to be a game-over when one of my allies invited me to join him in a war against another Empire(D) whose strength equaled ours combined. My wannabe doomstack was wiped out in the initial invasion and I panicked, thinking I was going to face a retaliatory invasion, but thankfully C managed to win the war soon after and my infrastructure was solid enough to quickly recoup my losses. B & C invited me to join their Federation, and soon after we declared a Liberation War on Empire A, whose territory was bigger than the entire Federation, but was also at war with Empire D. A quickly surrendered to D, losing almost half it's territory, before my Federation then won the war.
Now, I'm at something of a crossroads. Because I'm squeezed in on all sides by other Empires, I can't peacefully expand my Empire contiguously. A & D appear to be crippled, and woefully underpowered to face me; A has relative fleet power and capacity as pathetic, with a superior tech level. D has a rating of pathetic across the board. They're both ripe for the taking, but my hands are tied, of course, because I'm in a Federation. A & D never took any of my planets so I can't even launch a Liberation War. I'm strongly considering a winner-takes-all surprise attack because the other two members of the Federation, while they have a superior tech level, both have lower fleet power and naval capacity. (NB: Ally C has a Precursor homeworld in their territory, as an extra incentive...)
So I'm wondering: would it be best to leave the Federation in order to absorb hostiles A & D, before eventually doing the same to my former allies?
Also a few related/unrelated questions:
1. Are missiles still buggered? I recall reading a thread here that said they still are, so I swapped my starting tech for kinetic weapons.
2. I have two free ascension slots available because I can't decide which path to choose. Psionics is out of the question because my Empire is non-Spiritual, which leaves me with Synthetic or Biological. Biological seems a bit 'meh' in that it's just adding extra traits, and someone here said the tier 3 synthetic perk is actually worse than the preceding levels. Which one should I pick?
3. How to maximize/harmonize fleet build and energy?
My naval capacity is 400 (Out of boredom I picked the ascension perk that boosts naval capacity). I'm only using about 150 of that in a 28k sized fleet. When at peace, my energy income hovers around 80-100, but at war it can drop as low as 10. I build power plants wherever I can, power stations in orbit, and try to pick characters/traits/buildings/modules etc that lower upkeep, but it seems I'll never be able to go anywhere near my full capacity. How do I get more energy?