Tips for a balanced & fun pre-made universe?

[Georilla]

I've had enough for now of all the random created empires I encounter in the galaxy with random generated games, most of the time it just annoys me at one point or another. I want to have more direction in what is spawned, more balanced and diverse empires to encounter at the start.

What would you suggest for a somewhat balanced and diverse universe? While taking in to account I prefer to play on a 1000 stars start. Specifically I am referring to the right amount of empire types filling the universe.

A) How many starting empires on a 1000 stars map?

B) With your answer of A as starting point, how would you fill out the pre-made empires?
For example: xx starting AI empires, how many of those (or none of some) are:

• Barbaric Despoilers
• Fanatic Purifiers
• Megacorps
• (criminal) Megacorps
  
• Driven Assimilator
• Determined Exterminator
• Ravenous Hive
• Democratic egalitarian
• Authoritarian xenophobe
• Isolationist
  
• etc. etc.

Basically looking for a universe which isn't lopsided to favoring one type of empire and direction, but one where things are probably more interesting in the long run. Where there is relative incentive for war for those wanting it, relatively enough empires looking to form a federation, relatively enough empires who don't give a shit about the rest, etc.

 

[Dream State]

The number of Empire you would want depend mostly of how wide you want Empire to be. I've done some calculation and if you play with the maximum amount of FE, you should play with this amount of Empire :
Size 200 400 600 800 1000
Crowded 5 11 17 23 30
Narrow 4 9 14 20 25
Normal 3 8 12 17 22
Sparse 2 6 10 13 17
Very Sparse 2 5 8 11 14
Then, i personnaly use pre-made empire, i've create 60 custom ones (with some lore) since it will give each game a new flavour with this repartition of Ethics :
Militarist 14
Fanatic Militarist 5
Xenophobe 7
Fanatic Xenophobe 6
Egalitarian 9
Fanatic Egalitarian 4
Materialist 11
Fanatic Materialist 5
Pacifist 10
Fanatic Pacifist 4
Xenophile 10
Fanatic Xenophile 3
Authoritarian 11
Fanatic Authoritarian 3
Spiritualist 10
Fanatic Spiritualist 4
Gestalt 10
The key is to always have variety and logic with the empire that AI will play to make every coherent and interesting, allowing various play style.

 

[Georilla]

....
The key is to always have variety and logic with the empire that AI will play to make every coherent and interesting, allowing various play style.

I see you've done your research, very nice feedback. I prefer a "normal" universe, not too crowded, not too sparse. Out of curiosity, I am intrigued by your 60 custom ones. For inspiration, or own usage. Would you be willing to share those?

 

[Dream State]

I've put them in a PDF. I'm very sorry that my english is basic, so the description may not be in a very accurate grammar (since it's for my group of player, they don't mind and i wasn't planning on sharing this). Hope this will help you
EDIT : i can add the .txt file use by the game to add them if you are interested.

 

[Georilla]

I've put them in a PDF. I'm very sorry that my english is basic, so the description may not be in a very accurate grammar (since it's for my group of player, they don't mind and i wasn't planning on sharing this). Hope this will help you
EDIT : i can add the .txt file use by the game to add them if you are interested.

Thanks. No problem, the effort is what counts. The .txt file would be helpful too

 

[Dream State]

And the user_empire_designs.txt to put in C:\Users\sebastien\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris without the "PACK" in the name file.

 

[TheBromgrev]

I do the following for when I am not achievement hunting or want a random game:

• Edit then save all the default ones
• Change the Earth-based rogue servitor to a different system and builder species
• Add in a metalhead (militarist, materialist, xenophobe with strong and industrialist traits)
• Add the Iferyx back in
• Add a devouring swarm (I switch between one of my own making focused on growth and the Splendid Swarm from the stream for the lulz)

That gives me 24 opponents on a size 1,000 map, with max FE and raiders. I find that provides a good spread of empire types that typically are evenly spaced around the map, and enough starting room to not bump into another empire until around 30 years into the game. I've seen some interesting things in the latest beta branch using that setup.

For example, over the weekend I was playing as the Blorg, with the Commonwealth to my northern border and Xanid to my east. Due to a common threat, I entered a defensive pact with the CoM, and over time they asked for a migration treaty. At first, Blorg would migrate to CoM, end up getting enslaved then sold on the slave market where I would buy them up. Later, they went Xenophile and started making half-human half-blorgs.

 

[TheRealRemus]

And the user_empire_designs.txt to put in C:\Users\sebastien\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris without the "PACK" in the name file.

can I add this to my Files so that I have your empires?

 

[Dream State]

Yes, of course you can. If you already have custom empires, just copy cut this file in the end of your user_empire_designs.txt

 

[Drinko]

Get some nice empires like a mechanist, explorers and federation builders. They can team up and become a threat together.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

If you want to be sure to have a game with varied AI nations you should manually design and force-spawn them. I usually do, and i have 20 or so custom empires so i can force-spawn whatever combination of ethics/governments/civics i want to see in a game.

As for number of AIs, i usually go toward the maximum allowed for the map size, as a personal preference. As someone else said, it entirely depends on how wide you want the empires in the game.

I also prefere not to micromanage too many planets so i set habitable planets to 0.25. Since low planets means less pop and thus less unity/research, i usually set technology/tradition cost at 0.75.

I've seen that hyperlane connections are a bit scarce at 1.0 so i set them at 1.25: clusters and chokepoints are still there, but INSIDE the various clusters there are more sensible connections. I've seen that it leads to an enjoyable amount of strategical positions and sensible logistic.

I usually set no more than 2 Fallen Empires: only 1 means no War in Heaven; more than 2 should be set only in big maps.

Max a couple Marauders too, but i prefere only 1, it makes the Khan etc more unique.

 

[TheRealRemus]

just googled war of heaven, it Sounds fun why would you Not want it to happen?

Yes, of course you can. If you already have custom empires, just copy cut this file in the end of your user_empire_designs.txt

thank you verry much I havent played that much thus I have only a few custom empires which I played in the past.

 

[Fyras]

I full heartly support the motion of creating your own AI species. After a few games you are going to have a "history" with them. I'm still in dread of my Elarian Democratic Crusaders after several ideology wars in different playthroughs. Man, those birds have character and freaking hard beaks.

 

[Dream State]

I full heartly support the motion of creating your own AI species. After a few games you are going to have a "history" with them. I'm still in dread of my Elarian Democratic Crusaders after several ideology wars in different playthroughs. Man, those birds have character and freaking hard beaks.

I could not agree more, after 2-3 games, you not gonna look at them the same way

 

[Strangedane]

Always remember to have strong industrious butterflies.

Egalitarian, Militaristic, not xenophobe.
Democratic of course, so they'll be crusaders.

 

[Georilla]

I could not agree more, after 2-3 games, you not gonna look at them the same way

Agreed. When Stellaris was first released, I was excited by the possibilities of endless randomization of empires. Until after a few games I realised quickly it is all rather bland and pointless for immersion. Endless Space (1&2) strongest point is the fact that it has such deep lore and playstyles unique to the empires. In Stellaris games are more fun if you paint the world in your roleplay vision.