Stellaris way too unfair

[NeroGermanicus]

Hey there Stellaris community! I'm fairly new to the game and thought that game might be good. But now I've started over the fourth time already and I'm just frustrated by it. Why is the AI so horribly made? It doesn't matter which Ethos they have, they have all the same based on size. I'm tying to play a militarist Xenophobe but I don't get what I'm supposed to do, to actually have a better military than any AI empire. My research is slow, I can't even concentrate on military research because those stupid cards are randomly selected and no matter how much I go into resources and build ships by the time I have around 2.7 my enemy comes by with double the fleetsize crushing everything I have effortlesly. I even used cheats to study the AI empires and found out they literally just get everything gifted to them. They don't even have half the stations I do, their colonies aren't even fully developed but hey "Here have a 4k fleet to destroy your neighbor, dude." What is this nonsense? Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong here? Because Stellaris is unplayable for me right now, because as I said. I play like a madman trying to keep a stable economy and a big flleet and get almost nothing out of it. My research is slow. I can't colonize all my planets. I almost regret buying the game, seeing how unfair it is.

 

[Atro]

It's because it's Ai, it's basically a calculator, it knows the best methods for like everything

 

[Wizzington]

The AI does not, in fact, just get fleets gifted to them. At least not on any terms the player doesn't (it's possible through some events). It has to pay full cost for everything it builds.

 

[Atro]

But it does annoy me that the normal level Ai is this hard

 

[Avil]

Don't play xenophobe as your first start. Better start as charismatic xenophile, it'll make all your neighbors less likely to east your face first time they see you.

 

[Atro]

Nerf normal level Ai plz wiz

 

[Wizzington]

I don't want to make the normal level AI 'dumber'. For me, normal level means the AI plays at its full ability but does not get a bunch of resource buffs.

I've been considering adding a casual difficulty mode where the AI expands more slowly and puts less pressure on the player.

 

[Atro]

Please do

 

[Wizzington]

But yes, Xenophobe is not a great ethic to start your first game with. Try playing a more diplomatically inclined game and you'll have an easier time, at least until you get better at early game expansion and can outpace the AI.

 

[NeroGermanicus]

If I switch over with "play01" and similar I can clearly see that the AI has enormous resources. Literally out of the blue sky. They don't have food shortages, they don't have problems with energy and they got tons and tons of minerals for no reason. I was once able to actually defeat a small empire early in the game. The second the war was over, he suddenly colonized two planets, build multiple frontier posts and rebuild all the handful of stations he had. Oh and he completely rebuild his fleet in less then a year. What is fair on that?

 

[Wizzington]

If I switch over with "play01" and similar I can clearly see that the AI has enormous resources. Literally out of the blue sky. They don't have food shortages, they don't have problems with energy and they got tons and tons of minerals for no reason. I was once able to actually defeat a small empire early in the game. The second the war was over, he suddenly colonized two planets, build multiple frontier posts and rebuild all the handful of stations he had. Oh and he completely rebuild his fleet in less then a year. What is fair on that?

You are either misunderstanding what you're seeing or making this up. There is no 'AI gets tons and tons of minerals for no reason' code or event in the game.

I'm sorry guys, but no, the AI isn't just getting resources out of the blue. It's just better than you at some parts of managing its economy.

 

[Antediluvian Monster]

If it feels threatened or bottled the AI will dump lots of resources in fleet building and often go way over their force limits (a player can do this too). They do tend to sacrifice their economy on long term for that though.

 

[Wizzington]

If it feels threatened or bottled the AI will dump lots of resources in fleet building and often go way over their force limits (a player can do this too). They do tend to sacrifice their economy on long term for that though.

This is also correct. Try putting every single mineral you get towards ships and you, too, can get a fleet pretty fast. The AI also tends to stockpile more resources than the player and will free those stockpiles up for ship building if its fleet is destroyed.

 

[Avil]

If I switch over with "play01" and similar I can clearly see that the AI has enormous resources. Literally out of the blue sky. They don't have food shortages, they don't have problems with energy and they got tons and tons of minerals for no reason. I was once able to actually defeat a small empire early in the game. The second the war was over, he suddenly colonized two planets, build multiple frontier posts and rebuild all the handful of stations he had. Oh and he completely rebuild his fleet in less then a year. What is fair on that?

Are you sure you didn't bump your difficulty up? It feels like you're making things up.

 

[Atro]

It's because its a calculator, you can't beat an Ai at what it's basically made to do, or at least it's hard, so i think there does need to be an easier Ai setting so people can stand a better chance and not smash their key keyboard like I do

 

[GuildenSpur]

As others have said, choose another ethos to start with. Be the happy 'we love all other aliens' species, with some thrifty or industrious thrown in.
Expand fast and build up your fleets, mine like hell, put outposts on the juicy spots in space to claim the resources, build up some armies,
try to explore with 3 science vessels, and make research deals etc with neighbours so you can get a defensive treaty.
If you want more advice, maybe post a pic of your ingame situation.

 

[Atro]

Oops, didn't mean for that key

 

[Wizzington]

It's because its a calculator, you can't beat an Ai at what it's basically made to do, or at least it's hard, so i think there does need to be an easier Ai setting so people can stand a better chance and not smash their key keyboard like I do

A good player can easily outpace the AI. It's not *that* brilliant. It's probably better at managing its economy than most new players since 1.8, though.

 

[Atro]

I tend to go full democracy and make a big federation, then the Ai doesn't attack me, but I never get a good enough fleet no matter how hard I try, my best hope is just rushing them really early game

 

[Atro]

And I know that people disagree as they destroy the Ai easily, but some of us aren't as good when it comes to warfare, I prefer diplomacy, that's why I think there should be a more casual Ai for us plebs