Not sure if unpopular opinion here, but while trying to catch up on the changes I seem to come across a lot of negativity and frustrated posts over the 2.x updates.
I wanted to give praise to the devs and share my thoughts on the game because I just completed my first game after 1.5 year break and thoroughly enjoyed all the changes.
Infrastructure & Economy Overhaul: 11/10
This seemed daunting at first, but thankfully I only just very recently played Victoria II (I know, REALLY late to that party) so the workforce/strata division didn't take me too long to grasp.
Critical Plus:
- Income/Expenditures/Upkeep were superbly balanced even by 2490 after defeating WIH & Unbidden I'm constantly using up my stockpile because there always feels like there's something to invest in. Le Guin avoided a lot of the pitfalls other games suffered when attempting to fix their economy:
(1) I always felt like I'm growing in power and investing in something useful, whereas other games feel like it is placing you on a treadmill by artificially bleeding your resources dry in the end game.
(2) I always feel like there are options I can take in resource planning to adjust my economy based on strategy, the situation, and available resources instead of being shoehorned to one solution.
Plus:
- Districts and blocker abstraction are much more sensible and brings back the feel true to Paradox's style of realistic simulation. While I didn't feel strongly against the old tile placement/adjacency format, it always felt like Stellaris had an identity crisis squeezing in a mini-puzzle which was mildly immersion breaking. (What do you mean on an ENTIRE planet you can't find more optimal use of that corner slotted planetary admin?!) That might be fitting for a new outsourced title Stellaris: Immortal, though. (coughs)
- There's just the right amount of abstraction that I truly feel like I'm managing an empire but without micromanaging. I COULD micromanage pop migration and job strata, but I never felt I'm required to do it. (I played Xenophilic Fanatic Materialist, with all refugees welcome, so YMMV)
Minus/Suggestions:
- I want to first emphasize that the expanded number of different resources types is a GOOD thing. However, I'm not a teenager anymore so I no longer have that geeky passion to have pen & paper on my desk calculating and tracking my gameplay. Often times I overshot or mismanage how much of each Strategic Resource building I need because I'm not micro-tracking all 17 or so of my planets. What I would like to see when mouse-overing the Strategic Resource income UI is to include a forecasted monthly income/shortfall once all queued buildings are complete.
- Trading with empires directly no longer feel like part of the gameplay once the Galactic Market is established. I wish to see that brought back in someway.
- Aside from Dyson sphere to enable practical use of Consumer-focus trade and Militarized economy, I still have not found any need for Galactic wonders, all of which simply feel like "win more" as they are not feasibly accessible. By the time I can complete anything after the Dyson sphere, there is no threat nor need for strategic center, that relationships boosting building, nor minerals since I've already moved to an alloy economy. The primary barrier is of course all wonders besides the Dyson sphere have massive energy upkeep that can't be sustained without the Dyson sphere, and partial completion don't sufficiently or outright don't produce return on investment that they're really just post-crisis luxury.
- I ended up not building habitats in this game. I never found the need to, never had the 200 influence to spare, and on paper I no longer see the benefit of using them. Theoretically, they seem great to offshore Forge-worlds/Industrial Worlds/Tech-worlds to, but the 3000 alloy and 200 influence drop make them highly unfeasible until you have a well established and specialized natural worlds - by that point you won't need them anymore and restructuring your economy costs more than its worth. Possible solution: Split Habitats into 2 stages with a functional first stage that costs only 50 influence and 1000 alloys, spending the remaining 150/2000 for stage 2. On the first stage, its more of an orbital station without a complete atmosphere, greatly reducing migration pull and restricted to 1st tier buildings. At least this way, you can have functional use out of it in early game and be able to off-shore some infrastructure groundwork.
Fleet & Starbases Overhaul : (9/10)
Critical Plus:
Choke points are actually a thing, defense platforms REALLY matters now, and are significant enough to handle random raids. There seems to be a lot of negativity about losing Warp drive but TBH before I last quit Stellaris most of my game settings locked out non-hyperlane travel anyway because splitting out corvettes for faster jump to play mouse catch/whackamole always a couple days behind the AI is not what I consider fun.
Doomstacks aren't strictly fully gone, but the Fleet Command mechanic was definitely an inspired idea to better manage that, combined with longer travel times means having to more strategically position your fleet around the choke points, while still giving you serviceable defense platforms as a buffer makes for much better gameplay.
Plus:
- Fleet manager & Reinforce really eliminated a lot of micromanagement to make the game go faster and allow me to focus in having fun.
- FTL speeds feel appropriate early game, and can be overcome by Gateway network.
Minuses:
- FTL can feel TOO slow in the midgame before financing your Gateway network in that it can take literal years to get anywhere to respond to a war or crisis. HOWEVER, I also don't want whackamole to be broughtback. I have a few half-baked ideas I'd like to throw out:
(1) Make comm jamming/hyperlane registrar a standalone core mechanic to Outpost/starbases. Have their range of effectiveness tied to the Starbase level (current system for outposts, +1 connected system for starbase, +2 fortress, +3 for citadel)
(2) Allow controller (not necessarily owner) to hack/destroy/rebuild the module for strategic influence over FTL in the system.
(3) Enable a feature in Starports at 100 Dark matter/Zro per use to system-wide lock hyperlanes/wormhole/gateway and emergency FTL while scrambling current attempts to enter FTL for 30 days, BUT also offer Battleships/Titans an AUX module to override THAT with 200 day cooldown.
This accomplishes several things: 1) Customizable hyperspace travel environment which you would usually set to fast travel in home territory peacetime but possibly slow way down during war time/rebellions, strategically control and configure hyperspace influence in enemy territories to snare them or bring in reinforcements. 2) All players are given a tool to prevent whackamole, but your high value units still have at least one chance to get out of it. 3) Create more use for Dark Matter/Zro.
- There's no diplomatic option to build a gateway for an ally like there used to be for building wormhole stations. Since Gateways require the territory controller's consent, much safer than the old wormhole stations and risk free. It's also for their benefit as I can gate to their rescue if needed.
- The AI can still use some improvement in protecting their own choke points/cores or dealing with players. I understand that game AI are usually relatively simple that you end up with too good or too dumb, but perhaps design them around already-established AI personalities can at least make it feel more organic and varied?
Gameplay & Running the Empire: (9/10)
Critical Plus:
- I find the Admin cap & Empire sprawl and all associated management/mechanisms to an inspired idea. Trade & Piracy rework was fanastic; I feel I have agency and control over managing my empire without RNG spawn BS. If a pirate actually spawns I know its due to my accepted risk or my own damn fault and I have visibility and options on how to address it (patrols, starbase hangers, rerouting trade routes, etc.)
Plus:
- I feel like i have a reason to be in a federation and create vassals, and regularly gift away systems while creating a buffer/subject economy for my own benefit. Despite traditionally being a map painter, I don't actually feel the need to expand too big to "feel" like winning. I picked the Feudal civic but it didn't really come to play
Minuses:
- Likewise, WIH's event trigger for Non-Aligned League is nonsense and something they don't seem to do in any other situation. When I accepted to be Non-Aligned League I thought I was responsibly prepared between having buffer vassals, well positioned chokepoints, no gateways, no wormholes, powerful fleets. However, instead of coming at me normally as the whole Fleet/Starbase overhaul would have you expect, they randomly selected a couple systems in my territory and outright steal ownership (not just controllership) each with their own 90k doomstack. It's one thing if they used Jump drive a few systems away, a threat I was prepared to deal with, its another for one-click of a button the event trigger arbitrarily spawn things and steal controllership over my empire. That does not make for fun gameplay, and I don't recall Awakened Empire ever behaving this way 1 year ago.
I wanted to give praise to the devs and share my thoughts on the game because I just completed my first game after 1.5 year break and thoroughly enjoyed all the changes.
Infrastructure & Economy Overhaul: 11/10
This seemed daunting at first, but thankfully I only just very recently played Victoria II (I know, REALLY late to that party) so the workforce/strata division didn't take me too long to grasp.
Critical Plus:
- Income/Expenditures/Upkeep were superbly balanced even by 2490 after defeating WIH & Unbidden I'm constantly using up my stockpile because there always feels like there's something to invest in. Le Guin avoided a lot of the pitfalls other games suffered when attempting to fix their economy:
(1) I always felt like I'm growing in power and investing in something useful, whereas other games feel like it is placing you on a treadmill by artificially bleeding your resources dry in the end game.
(2) I always feel like there are options I can take in resource planning to adjust my economy based on strategy, the situation, and available resources instead of being shoehorned to one solution.
Plus:
- Districts and blocker abstraction are much more sensible and brings back the feel true to Paradox's style of realistic simulation. While I didn't feel strongly against the old tile placement/adjacency format, it always felt like Stellaris had an identity crisis squeezing in a mini-puzzle which was mildly immersion breaking. (What do you mean on an ENTIRE planet you can't find more optimal use of that corner slotted planetary admin?!) That might be fitting for a new outsourced title Stellaris: Immortal, though. (coughs)
- There's just the right amount of abstraction that I truly feel like I'm managing an empire but without micromanaging. I COULD micromanage pop migration and job strata, but I never felt I'm required to do it. (I played Xenophilic Fanatic Materialist, with all refugees welcome, so YMMV)
Minus/Suggestions:
- I want to first emphasize that the expanded number of different resources types is a GOOD thing. However, I'm not a teenager anymore so I no longer have that geeky passion to have pen & paper on my desk calculating and tracking my gameplay. Often times I overshot or mismanage how much of each Strategic Resource building I need because I'm not micro-tracking all 17 or so of my planets. What I would like to see when mouse-overing the Strategic Resource income UI is to include a forecasted monthly income/shortfall once all queued buildings are complete.
- Trading with empires directly no longer feel like part of the gameplay once the Galactic Market is established. I wish to see that brought back in someway.
- Aside from Dyson sphere to enable practical use of Consumer-focus trade and Militarized economy, I still have not found any need for Galactic wonders, all of which simply feel like "win more" as they are not feasibly accessible. By the time I can complete anything after the Dyson sphere, there is no threat nor need for strategic center, that relationships boosting building, nor minerals since I've already moved to an alloy economy. The primary barrier is of course all wonders besides the Dyson sphere have massive energy upkeep that can't be sustained without the Dyson sphere, and partial completion don't sufficiently or outright don't produce return on investment that they're really just post-crisis luxury.
- I ended up not building habitats in this game. I never found the need to, never had the 200 influence to spare, and on paper I no longer see the benefit of using them. Theoretically, they seem great to offshore Forge-worlds/Industrial Worlds/Tech-worlds to, but the 3000 alloy and 200 influence drop make them highly unfeasible until you have a well established and specialized natural worlds - by that point you won't need them anymore and restructuring your economy costs more than its worth. Possible solution: Split Habitats into 2 stages with a functional first stage that costs only 50 influence and 1000 alloys, spending the remaining 150/2000 for stage 2. On the first stage, its more of an orbital station without a complete atmosphere, greatly reducing migration pull and restricted to 1st tier buildings. At least this way, you can have functional use out of it in early game and be able to off-shore some infrastructure groundwork.
Fleet & Starbases Overhaul : (9/10)
Critical Plus:
Choke points are actually a thing, defense platforms REALLY matters now, and are significant enough to handle random raids. There seems to be a lot of negativity about losing Warp drive but TBH before I last quit Stellaris most of my game settings locked out non-hyperlane travel anyway because splitting out corvettes for faster jump to play mouse catch/whackamole always a couple days behind the AI is not what I consider fun.
Doomstacks aren't strictly fully gone, but the Fleet Command mechanic was definitely an inspired idea to better manage that, combined with longer travel times means having to more strategically position your fleet around the choke points, while still giving you serviceable defense platforms as a buffer makes for much better gameplay.
Plus:
- Fleet manager & Reinforce really eliminated a lot of micromanagement to make the game go faster and allow me to focus in having fun.
- FTL speeds feel appropriate early game, and can be overcome by Gateway network.
Minuses:
- FTL can feel TOO slow in the midgame before financing your Gateway network in that it can take literal years to get anywhere to respond to a war or crisis. HOWEVER, I also don't want whackamole to be broughtback. I have a few half-baked ideas I'd like to throw out:
(1) Make comm jamming/hyperlane registrar a standalone core mechanic to Outpost/starbases. Have their range of effectiveness tied to the Starbase level (current system for outposts, +1 connected system for starbase, +2 fortress, +3 for citadel)
(2) Allow controller (not necessarily owner) to hack/destroy/rebuild the module for strategic influence over FTL in the system.
(3) Enable a feature in Starports at 100 Dark matter/Zro per use to system-wide lock hyperlanes/wormhole/gateway and emergency FTL while scrambling current attempts to enter FTL for 30 days, BUT also offer Battleships/Titans an AUX module to override THAT with 200 day cooldown.
This accomplishes several things: 1) Customizable hyperspace travel environment which you would usually set to fast travel in home territory peacetime but possibly slow way down during war time/rebellions, strategically control and configure hyperspace influence in enemy territories to snare them or bring in reinforcements. 2) All players are given a tool to prevent whackamole, but your high value units still have at least one chance to get out of it. 3) Create more use for Dark Matter/Zro.
- There's no diplomatic option to build a gateway for an ally like there used to be for building wormhole stations. Since Gateways require the territory controller's consent, much safer than the old wormhole stations and risk free. It's also for their benefit as I can gate to their rescue if needed.
- The AI can still use some improvement in protecting their own choke points/cores or dealing with players. I understand that game AI are usually relatively simple that you end up with too good or too dumb, but perhaps design them around already-established AI personalities can at least make it feel more organic and varied?
Gameplay & Running the Empire: (9/10)
Critical Plus:
- I find the Admin cap & Empire sprawl and all associated management/mechanisms to an inspired idea. Trade & Piracy rework was fanastic; I feel I have agency and control over managing my empire without RNG spawn BS. If a pirate actually spawns I know its due to my accepted risk or my own damn fault and I have visibility and options on how to address it (patrols, starbase hangers, rerouting trade routes, etc.)
Plus:
- I feel like i have a reason to be in a federation and create vassals, and regularly gift away systems while creating a buffer/subject economy for my own benefit. Despite traditionally being a map painter, I don't actually feel the need to expand too big to "feel" like winning. I picked the Feudal civic but it didn't really come to play
Minuses:
- I'm glad that the Federation AI has removed the demand to keep all parties at equal power, but I'm not sure what they're looking for anymore. They seem happy to agree to my wars most of the time but at random times seem to arbitrarily reject.
- I made the mistake of denying tribute to Marauders literally on the opposite side of the galaxy (on huge map setting to boot) as I figured he lacked the capability to reach me due to likely close borders and even if he did it would take a while. Lo' and behold they instant teleport into my territory, something Fallen Empires don't have the technology for, forcing me to pay double the tribute. This is both immersion breaking and not fun. I fully disapprove any form of deus ex machina that undermines responsible and logical deductive diplomacy decisions like this.- Likewise, WIH's event trigger for Non-Aligned League is nonsense and something they don't seem to do in any other situation. When I accepted to be Non-Aligned League I thought I was responsibly prepared between having buffer vassals, well positioned chokepoints, no gateways, no wormholes, powerful fleets. However, instead of coming at me normally as the whole Fleet/Starbase overhaul would have you expect, they randomly selected a couple systems in my territory and outright steal ownership (not just controllership) each with their own 90k doomstack. It's one thing if they used Jump drive a few systems away, a threat I was prepared to deal with, its another for one-click of a button the event trigger arbitrarily spawn things and steal controllership over my empire. That does not make for fun gameplay, and I don't recall Awakened Empire ever behaving this way 1 year ago.
.png){kind=avatar}
