TLDR: Titanic Lifeforms can take over your colonies, be prepared if you anger them.
I have returned to Stellaris after a pretty long hiatus, patiently waiting for 1.5 now. I am playing a few games in the meantime, and it reminded me why I both love and hate the game sometimes.
In my latest games, I have found two planets to colonize, fairly close to my home system. One had more tiles, the ideal habitat, and the Low Gravity modifier, seemed ideal for an early expansion. The other one, which was in the same system, was smaller, only 60% habiltability, but plenty of resources and less tile blockers, and the Titanic Life modifier, so I went with that one as my first colony. I still had fond memories of my Titanic Beast armies, and the extra Society research is always useful.
Sure enough, I get the special project involving the study of the titanic lifeforms. Being a Xenophile empire, I chose the third option, to study them carefully in order to find a way to coexist peacefully, which is the most expensive, but safest route(to my knowledge). So, I put my Society research on halt and pump everything I can into this project, even activating the Society Research Grants policy(something I rarely do in my games), to finish as fast as possible. As soon as it was done, things started to rapidly go downhill.
Somehow, my scientists and researches messed up and I angered the giant aliens, because next thing I know, there are 3 Titanic Beast attacking my near non-existent planetary fortifications. I did have some assault armies ready on my capital, but they couldn't make it in time to stop the invasion. Now my beautiful colony is under the control of 3 angry titans. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if I hadn't already built a space stations, which is now also, somehow, under the control of the titans. It took out the nearby research station, then just stood there defiantly. Still relatively early in the game, and not focusing on military power that much, I stood no chance against a 1k space station, even with a maxed out fleet. At first I though, sure, it has a higher power than my fleet, but it's just one station, I can probably destroy it before it wipes my fleet out. Nope. I came close, but it just wasn't enough, and it can repair itself faster than I can throw new ships at it, so I either have enough to bring it down in one go, or I am just wasting my time. I wish I knew that when I tried the second time. I had better tech, destroyers to compliment my corvettes, bigger fleet, and the fleet was closer to the station's power, but I still just barely lost. At that point I was just, screw it, let's just land my armies and kill the titans, the station doesn't seem to fire on the transport ships, so why keep throwing my navy at it? Well, I forgot that garrisons were still a thing, so the already super powerful Titanic Beasts were taking 90% less damage from my armies. I quickly retreated before I lost all my troops, but the damage was already done. So, I need to bombard the fortifications before I can safely land my armies, but I can't really do that until I take care of that stupid Space Station. The cherry on top is the faction that formed on the colony due to the unhappy pops that live in fear of the titans. They want the planet to become an independent empire, but I can't grant that, because the planet is occupied, and no way I am wasting Influence on the suppression, I don't get anything from the planet anyway, so they can just go ahead and strike and riot, the titans won't care, and neither will I.
Did I mention I was on Ironman Mode, so there was no turning back to fix my mistake? I got so focused on trying to solve this problem, that I pretty much neglected proper exploration and expansion, colonizing other planets, and so on. Not to mention all the minerals I lost in the process. Right now I am torn between completely abandoning the game and just continuing and dealing with this later, because otherwise I had a pretty good start. I have two nearby empires who will have my back if my douchy expansionist neighbour tries to take advantage of my internal struggle and another empire who I signed a peace treaty with. I already have 5 out of 6 precursor artifacts, which is the luckiest I got in some time and completed most of the early game special projects. The only thing that really stops me from going is the embarrassment, thinking about all the resources I wasted on this stupid planet and the catching up I have to do.
At least next time I know to have armies ready to deal with the angry titans if things go awry, or the very least, dismantle the space station if it looks like the titans are winning. Yes, I tried doing that after the occupation, the options is there, but nothing happens once I click the confirmation. I can just imagine the 3 titans sitting there in my modern fortifications, somehow controlling the space station remotely, laughing at me, the stupid puny alien, who just wanted to make friends with them. Next time, I am rolling a xenophobe, militaristic empire.
I have returned to Stellaris after a pretty long hiatus, patiently waiting for 1.5 now. I am playing a few games in the meantime, and it reminded me why I both love and hate the game sometimes.
In my latest games, I have found two planets to colonize, fairly close to my home system. One had more tiles, the ideal habitat, and the Low Gravity modifier, seemed ideal for an early expansion. The other one, which was in the same system, was smaller, only 60% habiltability, but plenty of resources and less tile blockers, and the Titanic Life modifier, so I went with that one as my first colony. I still had fond memories of my Titanic Beast armies, and the extra Society research is always useful.
Sure enough, I get the special project involving the study of the titanic lifeforms. Being a Xenophile empire, I chose the third option, to study them carefully in order to find a way to coexist peacefully, which is the most expensive, but safest route(to my knowledge). So, I put my Society research on halt and pump everything I can into this project, even activating the Society Research Grants policy(something I rarely do in my games), to finish as fast as possible. As soon as it was done, things started to rapidly go downhill.
Somehow, my scientists and researches messed up and I angered the giant aliens, because next thing I know, there are 3 Titanic Beast attacking my near non-existent planetary fortifications. I did have some assault armies ready on my capital, but they couldn't make it in time to stop the invasion. Now my beautiful colony is under the control of 3 angry titans. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if I hadn't already built a space stations, which is now also, somehow, under the control of the titans. It took out the nearby research station, then just stood there defiantly. Still relatively early in the game, and not focusing on military power that much, I stood no chance against a 1k space station, even with a maxed out fleet. At first I though, sure, it has a higher power than my fleet, but it's just one station, I can probably destroy it before it wipes my fleet out. Nope. I came close, but it just wasn't enough, and it can repair itself faster than I can throw new ships at it, so I either have enough to bring it down in one go, or I am just wasting my time. I wish I knew that when I tried the second time. I had better tech, destroyers to compliment my corvettes, bigger fleet, and the fleet was closer to the station's power, but I still just barely lost. At that point I was just, screw it, let's just land my armies and kill the titans, the station doesn't seem to fire on the transport ships, so why keep throwing my navy at it? Well, I forgot that garrisons were still a thing, so the already super powerful Titanic Beasts were taking 90% less damage from my armies. I quickly retreated before I lost all my troops, but the damage was already done. So, I need to bombard the fortifications before I can safely land my armies, but I can't really do that until I take care of that stupid Space Station. The cherry on top is the faction that formed on the colony due to the unhappy pops that live in fear of the titans. They want the planet to become an independent empire, but I can't grant that, because the planet is occupied, and no way I am wasting Influence on the suppression, I don't get anything from the planet anyway, so they can just go ahead and strike and riot, the titans won't care, and neither will I.
Did I mention I was on Ironman Mode, so there was no turning back to fix my mistake? I got so focused on trying to solve this problem, that I pretty much neglected proper exploration and expansion, colonizing other planets, and so on. Not to mention all the minerals I lost in the process. Right now I am torn between completely abandoning the game and just continuing and dealing with this later, because otherwise I had a pretty good start. I have two nearby empires who will have my back if my douchy expansionist neighbour tries to take advantage of my internal struggle and another empire who I signed a peace treaty with. I already have 5 out of 6 precursor artifacts, which is the luckiest I got in some time and completed most of the early game special projects. The only thing that really stops me from going is the embarrassment, thinking about all the resources I wasted on this stupid planet and the catching up I have to do.
At least next time I know to have armies ready to deal with the angry titans if things go awry, or the very least, dismantle the space station if it looks like the titans are winning. Yes, I tried doing that after the occupation, the options is there, but nothing happens once I click the confirmation. I can just imagine the 3 titans sitting there in my modern fortifications, somehow controlling the space station remotely, laughing at me, the stupid puny alien, who just wanted to make friends with them. Next time, I am rolling a xenophobe, militaristic empire.
