Stellaris III: Shop at the Paradox Megacorp!

[Silverraptor]

For the record, what we discussed:
Time: Afternoon European time, though it's pretty flexible I think.
Restrictions: Everyone must be able to join the player federation. No Fanatic Exterminators, obviously, but some of the new origins also forbid it.
Patch: There will be a beta patch out on the day of the DLC's release, fixing and rebalancing stuff. I don't think we reached a decision on whether we'll be using the beta patch or the main branch.

There will also be a test game to make sure everything works properly. Am I forgetting anything else?

Nope. That's pretty much it. And I am leaning towards the beta patch since I found out it is pretty much all but fixes last minute.

[Eldan]

European afternoons during the week, or on weekends? Because I work afternoons during the week, obviously. Also, where was this discussed? I joined this Root discord server, but saw no channels that seemed Stellaris-relevant.

[Narkis]

European afternoons during the week, or on weekends? Because I work afternoons during the week, obviously. Also, where was this discussed? I joined this Root discord server, but saw no channels that seemed Stellaris-relevant.

Silverraptor created a channel, space something. But it was voice chat so you won't see anything if you look for it after the fact.

We didn't talk about a specific day, but personally I don't have a problem with weekend.

[Driderman]

We didn't talk about a specific day, but personally I don't have a problem with weekend.

Um... We agreed on meeting in 40 minutes to prep for play...

[Narkis]

Um... We agreed on meeting in 40 minutes to prep for play...

Wait, I thought the meeting would be to talk specifics, not play today.

[Eldan]

Ah, well, if the meeting is at 4PM on a workday, I can't join the game anyway.

Have fun!

[Driderman]

Ah, well, if the meeting is at 4PM on a workday, I can't join the game anyway.

Have fun!

I guess Switzerland isn't in full lockdown mode just yet?

[Eldan]

Germany, currently.

We're on a sort of 2/3 lockdown mode? I work at a university, and students have been sent home, lectures, seminars and exams are cancelled and we're advised to work from home if possible, but our group almost exclusively does labwork, plus we have plants and animals to take care of daily, so that's not an option.

(Switzerland is in full lockdown, much more so than here. They even called in a few thousand army reserves to go help out in hospitals).

[Silverraptor]

Here's just an update, I'm planning on getting the proper game together at 8pm UTC, but I want to make sure everyone can meet up. Dragonus said he works Friday (tomorrow) until that time so I want to see if everyone is available to start playing then?

Also, in the root channel all things Stellaris have been discusses in the videogame discussion channel. Just tag me if you have any questions.

[Eldan]

So, that's... 8.5 hours after this post, if I'm counting that correctly? I should be able then. Are you continuing a previous game, or starting a new one?

[Silverraptor]

So, that's... 8.5 hours after this post, if I'm counting that correctly? I should be able then. Are you continuing a previous game, or starting a new one?

We started a new one. Probably got a couple of hours in before the internet throttle speed killed out game and dropped some of us. We decided to call it for today. Going to try for tomorrow or sunday for a reform.

[Driderman]

We started a new one. Probably got a couple of hours in before the internet throttle speed killed out game and dropped some of us. We decided to call it for today. Going to try for tomorrow or sunday for a reform.

I'm thinking we didn't get further into the game that if a Eldan (or someone else) wants to join we could restart? Maybe ask the rest of the group?

[Eldan]

I'm thinking we didn't get further into the game that if a Eldan (or someone else) wants to join we could restart? Maybe ask the rest of the group?

Nah, it's okay. I work Sunday anyway.

[Aotrs Commander]

Having a play for the first time since shortly after Megacorp (did a playthrough with as corp, then, didn't get big enough to have too much of the slow-doen problems).

Running as Determined Exterminator, first time playing properly as a machine empire, and allows me to mercilessly wipe out orgainics. Sadly missed the trick of spawning humans in the galaxy (since apparently you can't force spawn the default stuff, unless I missed something...), but whatever.

Found an enemy capital quite early on, so I swiped that, but stopped as it sky-rocketd my Empire Sprawl, so I left the rest of them alive and war exhausted out; played tall for a good while, dig a load of archeology, went in and knobbled that race again for keeps this time, and managled the federation ally they'd made, and having talled up now toi the point I'm nearly on repeatables (mid 2350s) and currently spamming Gateways around my territory and starting on megastructures.

Nice, relatively relaxing, minimal reloading (thank you, change to anomolies...).

And, since I have no quest-writing to do and RPGs are now off the table while the stupid insanity lasts, I can play away tomorrow as well.

[Dire Ferret]

Sadly missed the trick of spawning humans in the galaxy (since apparently you can't force spawn the default stuff, unless I missed something...), but whatever.

A quick way to do that is to edit the human empire and save a copy of it so it shows up in your custom empire list, then you can change the spawning option for it from the empire selection screen.

[Eldan]

There's also several versions of Earth that can be encountered as primitive civilizations. Off-hand, I remember Early Space Age Earth, Bronze Age Earth and Post-Apocalyptic Earth from my previous playthroughs.

[Aotrs Commander]

A quick way to do that is to edit the human empire and save a copy of it so it shows up in your custom empire list, then you can change the spawning option for it from the empire selection screen.

I vaguely recalled that as one way, but I wasn't sure whether the pregens could show up naturally or not.

There's also several versions of Earth that can be encountered as primitive civilizations. Off-hand, I remember Early Space Age Earth, Bronze Age Earth and Post-Apocalyptic Earth from my previous playthroughs.

That too.



Into repeatables now. It got very quiet, as I reached the point where I kind of have to get the Dyson Sphere up an running before I do anything else. I actually got as far as opoening the L-Gate and encountered the Grey Tempest for the first time. Didn't have a lot of trouble wiping their fleets out (especially with all of mine able to pop in at about 3.6k each, four of 'em) but ended up going back to pre-reload when a) my economy tanked totally and b) there were too many of 'em on their homeworld and I wasn't specifically set-up for the Tempest. (I mean, I had, like shields on stuff...)

That's one big issue with the machine empires. No market is a reet bugger (and there's only one other machine empire in the whole galazy and that's an FE I only just met as I geared the Sentry Array up). I have for most of the game been at or just barely below my mineral cap and just not been able to do anythng with it. No allies to send it to, no market to dump in on for sorely needed credits, and only now in the late-game, worlds up enough I have the cash and building space to support a massive alloy infrastructure (at about 1K alloys, and my minerals still haven't dipped). Energy has been the bottleneck the entire gam. (Though admin cap was early on, along with how LONG it takes to purge organics; when I go for the next round of genocide, I'm gonna staight up machine-world terraform the frackers, I think it'll be faster. But again, whaddaya need for that? Energy. So I'm kind stuck for a bit untl I can get the Dyson sphere at least partly online, so I can afford to launch my freakin' conquest fleets...

[Eldan]

If you just want to kill them all, you might consider building a colossus.

[Aotrs Commander]

If you just want to kill them all, you might consider building a colossus.

As they say, we're working on that...!

[Corvus]

After a while away from the game, I'm back and having fun with a friendly, diplomatic trader megacorp.

Fanatic xenophile/pacifist, who are thrifty/rapid breeders/sedentary/deviants, with free traders & PR specialist civics.

Start with 5 envoys, +55% trade value, increased branch value, diplomatic weight and stability and reduced empire sprawl from pops.

With all those envoys (plus a 6th from the diplomacy tradition), you can make friends with near anyone (or at least stop them attacking), make commerce pacts with near anyone, make huge amounts of trade and with a trade federation get extra benefits from all that trade.

[Eldan]

Last time I tried something similar, I spawned between some militaristic xenophoes, a machine empire and a swarm. Didn't go well.

[The Glyphstone]

Last time I tried something similar, I spawned between some militaristic xenophoes, a machine empire and a swarm. Didn't go well.

I'm sure you were delicious.

[Yuki Akuma]

There's also several versions of Earth that can be encountered as primitive civilizations. Off-hand, I remember Early Space Age Earth, Bronze Age Earth and Post-Apocalyptic Earth from my previous playthroughs.

There are six (or seven, depending on how you count) variations of Earth that can spawn in the game:

Late Medieval Age, based on Crusader Kings;

Machine Age, based on Hearts of Iron;

Early Space Age, based on... well, now. If they advance an age forward, they always become the UNE instead of a random empire type;

The United Nations of Earth, which can spawn either as a regular empire or as a Fallen Empire;

The Earth Custodianship, where humanity is pampered by a Rogue Servitor machine empire (requires Synthetic Dawn to be enabled);

And a Tomb World inhabited by pre-sapient cockroaches.

[tonberrian]

Suprisingly, you can get the Earth Custodianship and also humans as a fallen empire at the same time. I was very surprised when that happened.

[Narkis]

(Though admin cap was early on, along with how LONG it takes to purge organics; when I go for the next round of genocide, I'm gonna staight up machine-world terraform the frackers, I think it'll be faster.

Why do you want to kill them quickly? When I play a determined exterminator I always herd conquered pops to a single planet so they'll die more slowly and give me free unity for longer.

[Thufir]

Why do you want to kill them quickly? When I play a determined exterminator I always herd conquered pops to a single planet so they'll die more slowly and give me free unity for longer.

I'm guessing because undesirable pops still contribute to your empire sprawl and that becomes a problem.
Also, I don't know how much unity you get over time from purging (I've done a Determined Exterminator playthrough but I didn't pay any attention to biological pops once I'd conquered them), but in the new patch they made it so Exterminators get 100 unity per pop killed via machine world terraforming.

[The Glyphstone]

I've never seen humans as anything but the post apocalyptic tomb world.

[Sian]

Suprisingly, you can get the Earth Custodianship and also humans as a fallen empire at the same time. I was very surprised when that happened.

IIRC you can get all other than regular UNE with humans as Fallen Empires

---

That said, how do people feel about the Origins?

I've tried Calamitous Birth and Void Dwellers and both feel quite interesting ... Void Dwellers in Particular feels like it fits my play style a lot since it makes it a lot easier to naturally allocate enough researchers to carry you, via your capital habitat having Research districts

[Driderman]

That said, how do people feel about the Origins?

I've tried Calamitous Birth and Void Dwellers and both feel quite interesting ... Void Dwellers in Particular feels like it fits my play style a lot since it makes it a lot easier to naturally allocate enough researchers to carry you, via your capital habitat having Research districts

It's a bit of a mixed bag; The ones that give you new starting "planets" are narratively boring but can be mechanically powerful, or just difficult (like Void Dwellers); Shoulders of Giants is pretty awesome for the archeological quest chain it gives you (I managed to get it along with the Baol precusors which meant a dozen or more archeological sites in my home territory) but mechanically I guess it's mediocre; Scion is hit and miss (one game I got a level 7 admiral gifted to me and elected Consul by 2220, another game the Overlord game me 4000 alloys around 2245, a third game absolute silence for the first 50 years or so); Tree of Life is thematically cool but very boring and possibly makes being a hive mind even more boring than usual (I feel like Tree of Life should also be available for Fanatic Spiritualists) and the Federation ones are pretty powerful so long as your federation buddies go along with your ideas. Mechanist and Syncretic Evolution are the same as they've always been, but now at least you can have Syncretic and Slaver Guilds which seems both powerful and fitting.

[Corvus]

Last time I tried something similar, I spawned between some militaristic xenophobes, a machine empire and a swarm. Didn't go well.

The good news about having so many envoys at the start is that even those who would normally be antagonistic to you can rapidly be brought around to being friendly.

My fan xenophile/pacifists started next door to a miltant/xenophobe/spiritualist bandit kingdom. As I had no other use for the 5 envoys at first they all went to work and made them my friends - we have a defensive pact as well as migration and commercial treaties. The only reason they don't have associate status in my trade federation is that the other member, a fanatic materialist/xenophile, doesn't like them. Pity you can't use envoys to make other factions like each other.

I'm actually up to 8 envoys now. The only faction I've found that doesn't like me is a devouring hivemind, and only cause I rivalled them.

And ringworld origin (especially for megacorps) is ridiculously powerful.