Stellaris

[Martok]

It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but I still thought it was kind of cool:  In celebration of Halloween, the devs created an official mod called "Stellaris Survival: Necroid Invasion". 


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857107311

The mod is "designed to be a Co-op Survival Multiplayer", but apparently also plays well in singleplayer mode.  It's only supposed to last 70 years, so it can be an interesting way to play a "quick" game of Stellaris. 

[ojsdad]

https://twitter.com/StellarisGame/status/1597544969530535937

[Anguille]

https://twitter.com/StellarisGame/status/1597544969530535937

Update not working on my gaming laptop....

[Barthheart]

That’s odd and annoying. It works fine for me. Have you gotten rid of any and all mods?

[Anguille]

That’s odd and annoying. It works fine for me. Have you gotten rid of any and all mods?

No. It seems the update creates a lot of problems with different configurations. I guess mine is due the my AMD graphic cards but not sure. Guess they didn't think beta testing was necessary for that update...

[Barthheart]

That’s odd and annoying. It works fine for me. Have you gotten rid of any and all mods?

No. It seems the update creates a lot of problems with different configurations. I guess mine is due the my AMD graphic cards but not sure. Guess they didn't think beta testing was necessary for that update...

Awe man that sucks.

[ojsdad]

That’s odd and annoying. It works fine for me. Have you gotten rid of any and all mods?

No. It seems the update creates a lot of problems with different configurations. I guess mine is due the my AMD graphic cards but not sure. Guess they didn't think beta testing was necessary for that update...

Actually they've been running an open beta for a month or two.

[Anguille]

That’s odd and annoying. It works fine for me. Have you gotten rid of any and all mods?

No. It seems the update creates a lot of problems with different configurations. I guess mine is due the my AMD graphic cards but not sure. Guess they didn't think beta testing was necessary for that update...

Actually they've been running an open beta for a month or two.

I know, I was kidding but this specific patch brings a lot of problems. I hope they can solve it soon.

[Martok]

so stoked for this: 


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2277860/Stellaris_First_Contact_Story_Pack/

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-282-announcing-first-contact.1564634/

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-283-the-vision-of-first-contact.1565311/




i was certain paradox was done making story packs for stellaris, so that alone has me excited -- story packs have always been my favorite kind of dlc on average.

however, the focus on pre-FTL civs, with related origins & event-chains, PLUS the introduction of cloaking tech (at long last!) just sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. and setting up minimar specialized industries as a "villain" for these new origins is fantastic; sounds like they'll be a blast to take down!

[Martok]

Dev Diary #295 - Armies, Sectors, Messages, and More

I know I haven't talked about dev diaries in a good while, but this one from last Thursday admittedly has me pretty pumped.  It has a lot of great stuff in it, with a focus on QoL features & improvements coming in next month's 3.8 "Gemini" update: revisions/improvements to building armies & bombardment mechanics, new options for controlling message spam, customizable F1-F10 keys, and a whole bunch of other goodies. 

By far, my personal favorite upcoming feature one that's virtually meaningless from a gameplay perspective: the return of the ability to customize sector borders!  Judging from the reactions of other folks (both in the Paradox forums and elsewhere), it's quite obvious that I'm not the only person who's way more excited about this than they should be.  (I'm guessing quite a few of us players are rather OCD... )  Players will remain constrained by the 4-hyperjump (from the sector capital) limit, but that's still a heck of a lot better than what we have now, which is essentially nothing.  Here's to the end -- or least massive reduction of -- unsightly internal border-gore!   




Perhaps even more intriguing, however, are the REDACTED areas in these screenshots: 






Combined with an additional REDACTED image from another screenshot teased on Discord, it makes me wonder if we're getting another DLC already -- one that's dropping alongside the 3.8 update next month.  If that's indeed the case, then I imagine they'll be announcing it fairly soon. 

[Steelie]

I picked Stellaris up again and have been playing the hell out of it for the last month. I had quite the learning curve since the game had changed so much since I last played it, but it's all I'm playing atm. I have all of the DLC's with the exception of Overlord, Toxoids and the new First Contact.

So my question for my fellow Stellaris travellers is this: Are these DLC's worth picking up?

Truthfully I have little interest in Toxoids, I'm unsure about First Contact so far, but Overlords keeps going into and out of my purchase basket. The reviews on it are so mixed!!! Some of the Overlord origins look really interesting, but a lot of folks say the vassal system is broken and the Mercenary Enclaves unbalance the game. So....thoughts? Any "must have"s here or am I good?

[Barthheart]

First contact and Overlord are definitely worth getting. Adds lots to the game.

I don’t have Toxoids as like you, I have no interest in them.

[Steelie]

Thanks, Barth. I just needed that gentle little shove   

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Sounds like they're giving back the control of sector borders to the player.  I'm happy to hear that.  I never understood why they took the feature away in the first place.

[Martok]

Yep, called it!  Looks like we're finally getting that leader-focused expansion a lot of folks have been requesting for years now.  Giggity!   



Stellaris Dev Diary #296 - Announcing Galactic Paragons


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380030/Stellaris_Galactic_Paragons/

Sounds like they're giving back the control of sector borders to the player.  I'm happy to hear that.  I never understood why they took the feature away in the first place.

Yeah, same.  I remember it upset a lot of folks at the time. 

But then, that was one of the changes made to the game when Martin Anward ("Wiz") was still game director, which by itself explains a lot.