Stellaris III: Shop at the Paradox Megacorp!

[Eldan]

My problem has not been with how powerful the endgame crises are, they are usually just fine to challenge my fleet. Sometimes even require me to ramp up my production. My problem has been how often they seem to get stuck and not do anything.

[Silverraptor]

So Aspec broke the game, yet again!

[InvisibleBison]

So Aspec broke the game, yet again!

Could you summarize what he's doing, for those of us who aren't curious enough to watch a 22 minute video?

[tonberrian]

Basically, Calamitious Birth lets you hit a planet with a rock that buries lithoids on it. You can stack enough modifiers to Blocker Removal cost to 0 and speed to -50%, so it's free except for time to remove the blocker that creates pops. Each meteor hit colonizes a planet with 1 pop, + 1 if you have the expansion tradition, +2 from blockers.

Move the pops off the planet. You can then colonize it again. You'll stack the habitability debuff on the planet, sure, but you'll get more buried lithoid blockers. More pops. Basically for about 3 years on one planet you get 4 pops, which is about 11.11 pop growth a month, which is really really fast, especially for lithoids. On the minus side however you can underflow habitability on your spawning world from stacking so many habitability debuffs. It's a cute trick.

[factotum]

Basically for about 3 years on one planet you get 4 pops, which is about 11.11 pop growth a month, which is really really fast, especially for lithoids.

It's not exactly "infinite free pops", is it? Hate clickbaity titles like that.

[Driderman]

It's not exactly "infinite free pops", is it? Hate clickbaity titles like that.

It is so long as you pay for them

[Silverraptor]

Annnnnd another exploit that's going to be patched soon...

[The Glyphstone]

Is this one actually infinite, if 'time' is included as a variable? Anything resource in Stellaris goes 'infinite' if you wait long enough and have a positive production rate.

[Artanis]

Is this one actually infinite, if 'time' is included as a variable? Anything resource in Stellaris goes 'infinite' if you wait long enough and have a positive production rate.

Sort of. The Spiffing Brit one is an exploit with the trading AI that doesn't give you infinite resources personally, but it does give you infinite economic power relative to the AIs by literally taking their entire economies for essentially nothing.

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like it involves Favors via diplomacy somehow?

[tonberrian]

Looks like it involves Favors via diplomacy somehow?

AI empires can't use favors. Like, apparently at all. So you can trade them away for significant boons without being impacted in the least. A second thing he's abusing is that ai empires evaluate trade deals solely based on the info in the deal itself - so if you pause, or do things really fast over a month, you can give them multiple deals that seem worthwhile to the ai individually but collectively tank their economy to nothing.

[Artanis]

Looks like it involves Favors via diplomacy somehow?

1- Pause game
2- Trade 10 favors to AI for monthly resources (namely Alloys in the video), plus whatever extras you can squeeze in.
3- Do not unpause the game. They AI is still calculating what they're willing to send based on the start of the month, which doesn't include the trade you just did. Send the trade again.
4- Keep it paused and send the trade a 3rd time.
5- Still paused! Send the trade a 4th time.
6- Unpause the game.

You've now given 40 favors that the AI can't use (and if they can, you can just invade them) in exchange for ~120% of their monthly alloys production, plus some extra food, minerals, etc.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, that's definitely a glitch. Even without the favors abuse, the problem with AI not processing simultaneous trades is an issue that needs patching.

[Narkis]

1- Pause game
2- Trade 10 favors to AI for monthly resources (namely Alloys in the video), plus whatever extras you can squeeze in.
3- Do not unpause the game. They AI is still calculating what they're willing to send based on the start of the month, which doesn't include the trade you just did. Send the trade again.
4- Keep it paused and send the trade a 3rd time.
5- Still paused! Send the trade a 4th time.
6- Unpause the game.

You've now given 40 favors that the AI can't use (and if they can, you can just invade them) in exchange for ~120% of their monthly alloys production, plus some extra food, minerals, etc.

Thanks for the explanation, that video was far too annoying to go through. And exploiting the AI's stupidity so you can rob them blind diplomatically has been around forever, in one form or another. Definitely not worth all the pomp. I'm sure they're gonna patch that one out soon too.

[Silverraptor]

So, habitats are being reworked. There is going to be habitat tiers!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Basically a nerf to Habitats, who were already... usually not a particularly strong option to begin with.

The new habitats are cheaper, but also smaller, only size 4 to start with. You've got three tiers, each with a tech to unlock them, and you upgrade through the tiers via a Decision. First tier is size 4, 2nd is 6 (so basically where we are now), and 3rd tier is size 8.

This is especially a nerf to anyone with the Void Dwellers origin, as it just cut your maximum size by a third until you get the advanced tech to build them up.

[The Glyphstone]

Isn't Void Dwellers one of the weakest origins already because of the massive Alloy cost for expansion?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Isn't Void Dwellers one of the weakest origins already because of the massive Alloy cost for expansion?

Well, since you have three of them, you triple your early population growth, but basically yea... once you cap that you're pretty screwed unless you've got a metric ton of alloys

[The_Snark]

This is especially a nerf to anyone with the Void Dwellers origin, as it just cut your maximum size by a third until you get the advanced tech to build them up.

It also cuts the initial cost of building new habitats, though, which might compensate. Hard to say until we see the numbers. (Edit - Void Dwellers also get automatic access to that tech, apparently, so you don't need to wait until it randomly comes up.)

I'm given to understand that Void Dwellers can actually be a fairly powerful origin, if you're good at optimizing your economy to get enough alloys to expand before filling up all your starting space. It's just that that's a non-trivial obstacle, especially since their economy doesn't work quite like a normal one.

[Narkis]

Basically a nerf to Habitats, who were already... usually not a particularly strong option to begin with.

The new habitats are cheaper, but also smaller, only size 4 to start with. You've got three tiers, each with a tech to unlock them, and you upgrade through the tiers via a Decision. First tier is size 4, 2nd is 6 (so basically where we are now), and 3rd tier is size 8.

This is especially a nerf to anyone with the Void Dwellers origin, as it just cut your maximum size by a third until you get the advanced tech to build them up.

I actually see it as a buff, unless the new, smaller habitats cost significantly more than 2/3 of what habitats cost now. They'll allow you to start expanding faster, and thus increasing your all-important pop-growth even more.

The Void Dweller penalty can also be nullified very easily if you can take over some primitives, conquer a neighbour, or even simply get a migration treaty going. And that leaves you with a normal empire that can build habitats from the beginning, which is pretty powerful.

[Rockphed]

For anybody who doesn't want to sit through a video, here is a link to the dev diary on habitat rework.

[Sian]

something kinda passed over is that Voidborne will be changed as well, giving them 2 free buildings (instead of Free Districts), and also unlocks the ability to build Housing on Habitats, which is one of the main bottlenecks

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm considering taking a break from Warframe to play this game again...How much has changed with the new DLCs and patches? How much relearning do I need to do (especially as I wasn't very good at the game in the first place)?

[InvisibleBison]

I'm considering taking a break from Warframe to play this game again...How much has changed with the new DLCs and patches? How much relearning do I need to do (especially as I wasn't very good at the game in the first place)?

Do you remember what version the game was on when you last played?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Whatever it was when Lithoids came out, I think? I don't remember...

[tonberrian]

Whatever it was when Lithoids came out, I think? I don't remember...

Luckily, not too much has changed since then. You're only one expansion behind. Without the dlc you've just got access to diplomats to make diplomacy work better and a rework of Empire Sprawl (penalties are harsher, but there's a job that gives more Admin cap and a building to provide it.

The DLC adds new modifiers for federations and makes a Galactic Community which can give certain modifiers out to everyone within it. There are some drawbacks though, and if you don't want either the benefits or the drawbacks you can leave. Or you can take it over a la Emperor Palpatine and make it so that only you decide what happens and screw everyone else.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've got the DLC, it's just that I haven't actually played the game with it installed, and while I do know the basics of gameplay, I'm terrible at wider strategy and planning ahead, since my understanding is you want to start preparing for the endgame and direction you wanna take things in from the word "Go!" especially in Ironman Mode.

[Caelestion]

That seems overly obsessive to me. You're there to have fun (presumably), not plan out 250 years of exacting gameplay before you've even started.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

That seems overly obsessive to me. You're there to have fun (presumably), not plan out 250 years of exacting gameplay before you've even started.

Well, yes, but I don't want to lose because I made a mistake 5 minutes in that results in me getting blindsided by something 30 minutes later.

I do wanna have fun, but having fun in this game requires a certain level of "know what the heck I'm doing." Yes, the wiki is there, but it's also very dense and hard for me to parse what's relevant when, and the alternative is delaying actually playing the game for more than a few hours to watch ASpec's video tutorials.

[Caelestion]

Well, yes, but I don't want to lose because I made a mistake 5 minutes in that results in me getting blindsided by something 30 minutes later.

If you lose only half an hour's play, that's just learning practice.

...the alternative is delaying actually playing the game for more than a few hours to watch ASpec's video tutorials.

Then, do that? Why the reluctance?