Stellaris of yore

[Azhcristokos]

I was looking over the patch notes for the new beta patch (World Shaper finally not harmful, YAY) and it caused me to reminisce about what Stellaris was like in the past....specifically some of the old stuff I am so glad got axed or fixed. Do any of you remember...

...when infiltrated primitives got a happiness penalty? (bug at launch)
...when pops just kind of stopped having beliefs? (bug at launch)
...when closed borders were standard, so the exploration phase ended in like ten years? (launch)
...when warscore meant in the late-game you needed to occupy half the galaxy to take a few border planets? (1.4)
...when stone age primitives were tile blockers? (pre-1.5)
...when ethics divergence was absolutely insane? (1.4)
...when your people were happy to be enslaved? (Collectivist pre-1.5)
...when they added alpine and savanna worlds but a bug stopped the galaxy from actually generating any more of them? (1.2...?)
...when 1.6 was released as a bug-fixing patch but itself caused a bunch of bugs like the AI never declaring war under any circumstances?
...when food was still local and migration was insane so 20 pops would instantly drop on a new colony, immediately resulting in mass starvation and rioting?

 

[Saviour of Galaxy]

I was looking over the patch notes for the new beta patch (World Shaper finally not harmful, YAY) and it caused me to reminisce about what Stellaris was like in the past....specifically some of the old stuff I am so glad got axed or fixed. Do any of you remember...

...when infiltrated primitives got a happiness penalty? (bug at launch)
...when pops just kind of stopped having beliefs? (bug at launch)
...when closed borders were standard, so the exploration phase ended in like ten years? (launch)
...when warscore meant in the late-game you needed to occupy half the galaxy to take a few border planets? (1.4)
...when stone age primitives were tile blockers? (pre-1.5)
...when ethics divergence was absolutely insane? (1.4)
...when your people were happy to be enslaved? (Collectivist pre-1.5)
...when they added alpine and savanna worlds but a bug stopped the galaxy from actually generating any more of them? (1.2...?)
...when 1.6 was released as a bug-fixing patch but itself caused a bunch of bugs like the AI never declaring war under any circumstances?
...when food was still local and migration was insane so 20 pops would instantly drop on a new colony, immediately resulting in mass starvation and rioting?

I also remember:
...when AI was unable to declare wars.
...when you could trap your armies on taken planet you had no tech to colonize (launch)
...when AI built robots in the middle of old AI rebelion crisis (launch)
...when there were embasies that auto-improved relations. (launch)
...when you could arm your ship in whatever you could. (launch)
...when you were inventing new regimes. (launch)
...when imperial regime had limited number of ships with more weapon slots. (launch)
...when you could be punished by Fallen Empires by absolutely everything, including too loud singing (launch)
...when galactic crisis were laughably weak, but some people still whined that they are too strong XD.

edit: ...and dont forget about the greatest exploit ever: vasalizing fallen empires.

 

[Rezca]

I also remember:
...when AI was unable to declare wars.
...when you could trap your armies on taken planet you had no tech to colonize (launch)
...when AI built robots in the middle of old AI rebelion crisis (launch)
...when there were embasies that auto-improved relations. (launch)
...when you could arm your ship in whatever you could. (launch)
...when you were inventing new regimes. (launch)
...when imperial regime had limited number of ships with more weapon slots. (launch)
...when you could be punished by Fallen Empires by absolutely everything, including too loud singing (launch)
...when galactic crisis were laughably weak, but some people still whined that they are too strong XD.

edit: ...and dont forget about the greatest exploit ever: vasalizing fallen empires.

I think I recall some planets (Tomb Worlds only?) that had tile blockers that gave adjacency bonuses too.


I never got the chance to vassalize a Fallen Empire, must have been cool to do!

 

[Awakezzz]

...when strike craft were good?



oh wait....

 

[SpectralShade]

I remember

-when your starting species controlled your initial weapons researched instead of everyone being the same

-when your starting species determined how you would move around in the galaxy instead of everyone being the same

-when sector management meant drawing sectors so a sector received enough resources by itself so you didn't have to feed it all the time

-when dealing with the scourge meant that I was setting up a 'scorched earth' zone of dead planets between me and the scourge before starting to worry about trying to actually beat them

-when battleships had auras without that ability (a ship with an aura) being locked behind paid DLC

-when I could actually play as a species that had authority to control peoples live ruthlessly and order them as I pleased (drag and drop) instead of having to hope the right people want to take a certain job

-when the AI sucked less and actually felt like a threat sometimes

-when upgrading your fleet was a good idea rather than just throw them in the grinder and build new

-when I played xenophile fanatic egalitarian without stunting my own species

-when playing democracies didn't make you feel like you were gimping yourself

I could go on, but it is making me depressed.

 

[RagingMonkey]

I remember

-when your starting species controlled your initial weapons researched instead of everyone being the same

-when your starting species determined how you would move around in the galaxy instead of everyone being the same

-when sector management meant drawing sectors so a sector received enough resources by itself so you didn't have to feed it all the time

-when dealing with the scourge meant that I was setting up a 'scorched earth' zone of dead planets between me and the scourge before starting to worry about trying to actually beat them

-when battleships had auras without that ability (a ship with an aura) being locked behind paid DLC

-when I could actually play as a species that had authority to control peoples live ruthlessly and order them as I pleased (drag and drop) instead of having to hope the right people want to take a certain job

-when the AI sucked less and actually felt like a threat sometimes

-when upgrading your fleet was a good idea rather than just throw them in the grinder and build new

-when I played xenophile fanatic egalitarian without stunting my own species

-when playing democracies didn't make you feel like you were gimping yourself

I could go on, but it is making me depressed.

Ah yes, different starting weapons, SUCH a defining choice.... doing away with that has saved researching 2 pointless techs earlyish.

Not everyone spawns with exactly the same policies now though, depending on ethics and civics you have pre-generated border policy, war policy, species rights, economy setups etc.

You mean sectors that have always been a bit shite?

You can still resettle pops, you can also prioritise the growth of certain species on planet too.

AI has never been dramatically better than now, stop.

Considering the extra cost of Alloys as an individual resource, grinding through fleets isn't a great idea.

Democracies don't really gimp you though.... you can pivot with changing your leader to get a leader with traits that suit what focus you'll be taking for the next decade. I certainly find it useful.

I could go on, but it just looks like you're intently staring through rose tinted glasses to pursue your own agenda and misrepresent the current state of the game.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Embassies! You could open these on other empires' capitals for a relationship boost. That was before the Trust mechanic was implemented.

 

[FonVegen]

I remember the dreaded fleets of battleships with six mounted tachyon lances, or the fleets made up of only destroyers mounting one of those each.

 

[Wolfgang I]

I remember blockade warscore and that you could end wars incredible fast by sending 20x20k fleets in. You might lose one fleet against the enemy doomstack but it was irrelevant.

I actually played a full game with 1.6 and it was way more difficult than the current setup. War declaration only means that you benefit from a defensive bonuses like a less unhappy pacifist faction in the current version. The AI did not declare wars in that game but it fielded decent fleets(well at least on insane I never tried anything else). The AI empires in that game closed the Unbidden portal by sending multiple 200k-300k doomstacks there before I was able to get my fleets to the portal(with psi-jump drive...).

The AI was decent at the mechanics pre 2.0 at least if you played on insane with warp only. It was more or less the same AI but the game was much simpler, not choke point mechanics which the AI can't use and with +100% resource output not even the AI was able to wreck its economy completely unlike now. Well unless it hit the starvation bug before it was patched which advanced start empires usually did not.

I remember the dreaded fleets of battleships with six mounted tachyon lances, or the fleets made up of only destroyers mounting one of those each.

I got lances from an event during my first game. I was surprised how easy to game was because my lance destroyers annihilated the AI fleets. Boy did I suffer during my 2nd game.

 

[Etrutian]

I just remember going BB's only with tachyon lasers for days. Then situating fleets to cut off FE escape. Good times.