So, I've finished my first game with 1.5 Utopia and I would like to share some thoughts and suggestions.
First of all I'd like to thank developers for the work they've done with this patch and DLC - Stellaris is becoming a good game! Not very good game, there are some issues that should be addressed (like warfare overall), but this is a discussion for another thread.
I would like to talk with you regarding speed of the game and tech progress.
Right now we have a game that is basically done in 150 years from game start. In 2200 we just barely make our first steps into galaxy, and by 2350 we have a HUGE empire, nearly all (or sometimes all) scientific marvels that are possible in this game are available to us.
And that is a problem. I don't know, maybe it's my experience, but by that time I've got an ability to construct those tasty Dyson Spheres or mega-scientific stations I was bathing in energy and nearly all techs were developed by my huge empire, I dominated like 25-30% habitable worlds in a galaxy - and I would like to mention that I had only 2 (two!) wars during my game - I was playing more or less peacefully.
At some point things are just going out of control in mid-late game. Non-stop colonization, non-stop terraforming (cost for terraforming worlds was around 100 creds for me, lol), every tech requires only 11-12 months to develop... Things are happening really, really fast and it feels like a lot of things in game don't matter at all by this point - game just plays itself. I would just briefly state that warfare is same - either you steamroll an enemy or enemy steamrolls you, but again, I don't want to talk about warfare system.
I'm just wondering - this short scope of game (in timeline terms just ~150 years that game is basically already finished) - is it deliberate or it's just a temporary thing until there will be more content to fill this game?
What do you think? I don't have a solution right now to this problem - but ideally I would like to hear a feedback from devs - are they ok that everything happens so quickly? It just... feels strange that just in 150 or at most 200 years you can go from 1 planet to total galaxy domination. After all it is just 2 human lifetimes.
And again - tech development feels very fast, really fast. Your engineers developed new armor and new guns for your ships, you barely have time time create a decent fleet - and then, bam, it is already obsolete when you've finished construction as it takes just a year to develop new tech. It feels like playing Civ5 on Quick - by the time your musketeer reaches enemy lines they already have tanks.
Maybe tech costs should be increased dramatically, like by 50% or even 100%? Or there should be more powerful mitigating factors to continued and fast expansion... Cause really there is a point in a game when everything is just spiraling exponentially. It is a bad situation, cause I, personally at some point don't even care about all those nice things like Dyson Sphere or other choices (like welfare or anything that just gives +10% or +15% mod to anything in game). Cause is there really a difference between +1000 minerals per month or +1100 minerals per month when you always have maximum stockpile, maximum fleet capacity...
And again, I would like to repeat myself. All of this happens in just 15-20 years. At some point you are closely monitoring your resources, struggle to maintain balance between colonisation, building, managing pops and fleets. 15-20 years later... BAM! You can just sit and watch as game starts playing itself and at this time you stop caring about what happens on screen.
First of all I'd like to thank developers for the work they've done with this patch and DLC - Stellaris is becoming a good game! Not very good game, there are some issues that should be addressed (like warfare overall), but this is a discussion for another thread.
I would like to talk with you regarding speed of the game and tech progress.
Right now we have a game that is basically done in 150 years from game start. In 2200 we just barely make our first steps into galaxy, and by 2350 we have a HUGE empire, nearly all (or sometimes all) scientific marvels that are possible in this game are available to us.
And that is a problem. I don't know, maybe it's my experience, but by that time I've got an ability to construct those tasty Dyson Spheres or mega-scientific stations I was bathing in energy and nearly all techs were developed by my huge empire, I dominated like 25-30% habitable worlds in a galaxy - and I would like to mention that I had only 2 (two!) wars during my game - I was playing more or less peacefully.
At some point things are just going out of control in mid-late game. Non-stop colonization, non-stop terraforming (cost for terraforming worlds was around 100 creds for me, lol), every tech requires only 11-12 months to develop... Things are happening really, really fast and it feels like a lot of things in game don't matter at all by this point - game just plays itself. I would just briefly state that warfare is same - either you steamroll an enemy or enemy steamrolls you, but again, I don't want to talk about warfare system.
I'm just wondering - this short scope of game (in timeline terms just ~150 years that game is basically already finished) - is it deliberate or it's just a temporary thing until there will be more content to fill this game?
What do you think? I don't have a solution right now to this problem - but ideally I would like to hear a feedback from devs - are they ok that everything happens so quickly? It just... feels strange that just in 150 or at most 200 years you can go from 1 planet to total galaxy domination. After all it is just 2 human lifetimes.
And again - tech development feels very fast, really fast. Your engineers developed new armor and new guns for your ships, you barely have time time create a decent fleet - and then, bam, it is already obsolete when you've finished construction as it takes just a year to develop new tech. It feels like playing Civ5 on Quick - by the time your musketeer reaches enemy lines they already have tanks.
Maybe tech costs should be increased dramatically, like by 50% or even 100%? Or there should be more powerful mitigating factors to continued and fast expansion... Cause really there is a point in a game when everything is just spiraling exponentially. It is a bad situation, cause I, personally at some point don't even care about all those nice things like Dyson Sphere or other choices (like welfare or anything that just gives +10% or +15% mod to anything in game). Cause is there really a difference between +1000 minerals per month or +1100 minerals per month when you always have maximum stockpile, maximum fleet capacity...
And again, I would like to repeat myself. All of this happens in just 15-20 years. At some point you are closely monitoring your resources, struggle to maintain balance between colonisation, building, managing pops and fleets. 15-20 years later... BAM! You can just sit and watch as game starts playing itself and at this time you stop caring about what happens on screen.
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