Has anyone bought Stellaris?

[Qwixt]

I like the little ships circling around *pew* *pew*

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: JW

One things of note. I've spent a lot of time on the Steam forums recently, not posting anything, just reading. For lack of a better, more descriptive word, there are a lot of immature people on those forums. Having to sort through the "The game is broken because this empire took my colony and destroyed my fleet" posts, followed by all the replies and arguments, gets tedious, even though there are a lot of good things posted there. This forum is so much more, well, mature.

Yeah, there a lot of them. I don't hang out in Paradox's forum much. Had a fight with them few years back with the moderator and few users.

[sanderz]

For those of you that don't visit the Paradox forums here's a link to the first post release Dev Diary where they talk about future plans (bug fixes and free content patches in May/June with DLC further down the road) - well worth a read if you have the game

Stellaris post realease Dev Diary

[Lucian]

I've had Stellaris for one day and I've been playing it to death. The exploration and the story chains are amazing, but I still like the precise control you get in Distant Worlds better. Still, Stellaris has been a great, fun game so far which can only improve with the inevitable deluge of Paradox DLC which is sure to come.

[Rising-Sun]

Wish the teams that made Stellaris and Distant Worlds work together, it would have been a kick ass game.

[JWW]

To change the subject a moment, I think I'm in love with your profile picture or whatever they call them here.

Little spaceships circling each other. Give me the option to turn them off and just follow the battle screen. I bet that would help my marginal computer when the battles get bigger. So far I've only defeated a small fleet of -- well, that might be a spoiler, so nevermind, since it is one of the early game story lines -- ships with my equally small fleet.

[balto]

40 hours in already. Stellaris is awesome and runs perfect. I want to specifically comment that you are pretty much restricted to the number of planets and outposts due to INFLUENCE. This is a good thing because it stops the spamming of planets, and makes you think, etc.., The way to manage this is with Sectors. Sectors is presently not working correctly. That is not a deal breaker until late game (if you survive). Paradox (which is the best gaming company in the world) is on it and will be fixing that very soon.

I am not going to say this is better than DW, but I think it will be very very soon with Paradox expansions which are coming. So get onboard and buy it.., and prepare to lose a lot of sleep because this one is VERY addictive.

Beginner tip - do not fight any small time hostiles (red ships) for a long time. They stay in their systems and they will not seek you out. Set military to PASSIVE and non military to Evade and you will be fine when you stumble upon them, just run. There are also random creatures wondering around, leave them alone and do not panic.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: balto

40 hours in already. Stellaris is awesome and runs perfect. I want to specifically comment that you are pretty much restricted to the number of planets and outposts due to INFLUENCE. This is a good thing because it stops the spamming of planets, and makes you think, etc.., The way to manage this is with Sectors. Sectors is presently not working correctly. That is not a deal breaker until late game (if you survive). Paradox (which is the best gaming company in the world) is on it and will be fixing that very soon.

I am not going to say this is better than DW, but I think it will be very very soon with Paradox expansions which are coming. So get onboard and buy it.., and prepare to lose a lot of sleep because this one is VERY addictive.

Beginner tip - do not fight any small time hostiles (red ships) for a long time. They stay in their systems and they will not seek you out. Set military to PASSIVE and non military to Evade and you will be fine when you stumble upon them, just run. There are also random creatures wondering around, leave them alone and do not panic.

You can leave them alone, but if you destroy them, you may get wreckages so you can salvage it and even get research from it. Or research that species to gain something useful, but that take time though.

[JamesM]

Looks good but I never really enjoy RTS games, I always feel that I never have true control particularly later in the game when you have to control large empires. The only RTS game I enjoy is Distant World. The trouble is that the new Master of Orion is not looking that good at present

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: jamesm

Looks good but I never really enjoy RTS games, I always feel that I never have true control particularly later in the game when you have to control large empires. The only RTS game I enjoy is Distant World. The trouble is that the new Master of Orion is not looking that good at present

You can slow down the time frame and for Master of Orion, it was a major disappointment. I didn't like it much either.

[JWW]

ORIGINAL: jamesm

Looks good but I never really enjoy RTS games, I always feel that I never have true control particularly later in the game when you have to control large empires. The only RTS game I enjoy is Distant World. The trouble is that the new Master of Orion is not looking that good at present

I tend to prefer turn-based games, but there are some RTS games I really enjoy. DWU is one. I just have to remember to slow down and pause often. When I start to feeling pressured, I realize I am running the game too fast for the situation. So just slow the game down and pause as often and long as you need to to keep the situation under control. I have to give myself that advice several times a game though.

[aaatoysandmore]

Right off the bat it reminded me of "Distant Worlds" on steroids. Pretty graphics, same similar type solar system (can you make different ones like Distant Worlds?). Same real time battles (which I don't care for most of the time).

I put it on the wishlist for the discount it will soon have because ALL Paradox games go 1/2 price or less in a few weeks to couple months now. You're just wasting cash if you buy early.

I didn't see a tech template in the video what is teching up like? Same as Distant Worlds you pick something and in so many turns or time you discover it? Never have liked that kind of teching up. It should be a surprise when you tech up. You should just be able to pick a catagory but no sure thing on when it will be researched or what you'll get. Kinda like the old Alpha Centauri blind teching up.

Don't mind waiting, I got too many games now I haven't played. I noticed GalCiv III is onsale on Steam also.

[JWW]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

Right off the bat it reminded me of "Distant Worlds" on steroids. Pretty graphics, same similar type solar system (can you make different ones like Distant Worlds?). Same real time battles (which I don't care for most of the time).

I put it on the wishlist for the discount it will soon have because ALL Paradox games go 1/2 price or less in a few weeks to couple months now. You're just wasting cash if you buy early.

I didn't see a tech template in the video what is teching up like? Same as Distant Worlds you pick something and in so many turns or time you discover it? Never have liked that kind of teching up. It should be a surprise when you tech up. You should just be able to pick a catagory but no sure thing on when it will be researched or what you'll get. Kinda like the old Alpha Centauri blind teching up.

Don't mind waiting, I got too many games now I haven't played. I noticed GalCiv III is onsale on Steam also.

There is no tech tree, at least not one in game and not one I've seen published anywhere. There are three research areas: physics, engineering, society. You pick from three choices in each category. The other two choices go away and appear apparently at some later random point. Available choices are influenced by things like the character you pick to head up research in that area, and race, and other things I"m not sure about. So you know what you will get and when you will get it, but you are not sure what it will lead to. You can't just go down the chart and find Death Star (I don't think Stellaris has death stars, but who knows.) and figure out what you need to research and go there. And if you pass something up, you don't know when you will get a chance to research it again. So the system is close to what you describe.

BTW, there is a big sale on Galactic Civ III that started today. I picked it up. I liked GC II a lot. I tried GC III but got a refund. There was a problem that made my computer run hot like crazy even though it was well within specs. Others complained about that, too. But the latest patch appears to have addressed some of those problems. So I picked it up on sale and it is not making my computer sound like a vacuum cleaner.

[Qwixt]

ORIGINAL: JW


BTW, there is a big sale on Galactic Civ III that started today. I picked it up. I liked GC II a lot. I tried GC III but got a refund. There was a problem that made my computer run hot like crazy even though it was well within specs. Others complained about that, too. But the latest patch appears to have addressed some of those problems. So I picked it up on sale and it is not making my computer sound like a vacuum cleaner.

Not to start an argument, but heat control is on your end. It's a hardware problem.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

Right off the bat it reminded me of "Distant Worlds" on steroids. Pretty graphics, same similar type solar system (can you make different ones like Distant Worlds?). Same real time battles (which I don't care for most of the time).

I put it on the wishlist for the discount it will soon have because ALL Paradox games go 1/2 price or less in a few weeks to couple months now. You're just wasting cash if you buy early.

I didn't see a tech template in the video what is teching up like? Same as Distant Worlds you pick something and in so many turns or time you discover it? Never have liked that kind of teching up. It should be a surprise when you tech up. You should just be able to pick a catagory but no sure thing on when it will be researched or what you'll get. Kinda like the old Alpha Centauri blind teching up.

Don't mind waiting, I got too many games now I haven't played. I noticed GalCiv III is onsale on Steam also.

That old Alpha Centauri was a great game back then and still good, just needed to be updated with better graphics, etcs. I always like playing those alien or sixth manifold.

Galactic Civilization III is okay, you will get bored playing it at some point.

Looking forward to Distant Worlds II, if they ever get it going.

[JWW]

ORIGINAL: Qwixt

ORIGINAL: JW


BTW, there is a big sale on Galactic Civ III that started today. I picked it up. I liked GC II a lot. I tried GC III but got a refund. There was a problem that made my computer run hot like crazy even though it was well within specs. Others complained about that, too. But the latest patch appears to have addressed some of those problems. So I picked it up on sale and it is not making my computer sound like a vacuum cleaner.

Not to start an argument, but heat control is on your end. It's a hardware problem.

I understand your general point, however, many people with new, up to spec computers reported similar problems with the game as well as other problems. I was already aware of the problems but decided to try the game with Steam's liberal refund policy. From the second I started it, my fans cranked up faster than they have run with anything else I've done on the computer, and ran continuously, the only time they've ever really run fast with this computer. Other people were reporting the same thing. Stardock provided a long list of things for people to do to improve game performance including pre-set settings files that could be placed in the game files to help people. Then this week's patch, 7.1, provided these changes:

Performance improvements

Optimized animation system to better handle larger numbers of fleets
Removed the old logging functions to reduce memory and CPU usage
Fixed a memory leak related to the shipyards and other graphics that mostly impacted larger maps.
Removed some redundant game checks that were slowing down the frame rate in some circumstances.
General improvements to make the game cleanup more stable and to prevent hard-to-reproduce crashes.

At this point and considering the sale, I decided to try the game again Using the same low settings I was using when I first purchased the game and got it refunded, the patched game with all the DLCs runs just fine on my computer that struggled with it a couple of months ago.

So I would say that perhaps this is a case of Stardock realizing something was going on with some up to spec computers, even if it was likely a small percentage of them, and fixing whatever was going on.

But I do realize with all the different computer configs, that a company just can't make a game that will work great on every computer.

But consider I'm playing several games that are above specs for my computer, like Stellaris, without anything near the tornado produced when I started GC III a couple of months ago.

I should add this is not a knock on Stardock and GC III. I loved GC II and imagine I will enjoy GC III as much. And Stardock is always very responsive with attacking problems.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: RisingSun
Looking forward to Distant Worlds II, if they ever get it going.

Believe me, we are getting it going. [8D]

[aaatoysandmore]

They are ripping Stellaris a new one on the Steam forums. I guess like all Paradox games it just ain't finished yet.

Oh and just like on the Paradox forums they are deleting posts and closing them. They only let you see what they want you to see.

[JWW]

Stellaris. I am continuing my first game. Gee, I don't know how people are able to complete an entire game in just 4 hours or so, at least based on some of the things I have read on the Steam and Paradox forums. I've played about 4 hours now and I just colonized my 4th planet and have bumped up against an empire that doesn't like me. We are rivals, which has a technical meaning in the game. I continue to like the game. It is interesting and has a different way of approaching some things. I had something very interesting happen to one of my science ships that I won't explain here that was, well, like I said, very interesting. But I haven't gotten to some of the things that are frustrating some people. I'm playing with a full tutorial on -- which is more like an extensive advisor -- and it just told me I should consider creating a sector. Well, sectors is one of the things people are complaining the most about. So I guess soon I will find out about sectors. Sectors. You can only manage 5 planets directly. After that you have to create sectors that are semi-autonomous for your other planets. I do like the game though. And they do have an improvement plan they have explained. It will be a DLC cow, as some have pointed out.

I am continuing my parallel game of DWU and at this point I still think I like DWU better.

As for GC III, I played about an hour, and I'm honestly wondering if maybe I like GC II better. Not a great loss if I go that way, since the entire GC III works is on sale for a big discount right now on Steam. I had read lots of reviews saying it is not really a big improvement over GC II. So I'm not saying the game is bad. I'm just saying it is a lot like GC II, and GC II seems to have a better feel to it.

Last night I went on about a six-hour gaming spree, which I rarely do these days, split between the three games. But then I'm a high school teacher, and our last day with students before summer was yesterday.

[solops]

I've got all of them - DW, GC1-2-and 3, Stellaris and Polaris Sector. Right now, Polaris Sector is my favorite with DW a very close second. Stellaris is unfinished and flawed. I imagine that time and money will eventually make it a really good game, but it will not be the same kind of game DW and PS are. And, apologies to those who love them, I find all of the GalCiv games painfully tedious and boring. The last, GC3, is the worst of the lot, but with better graphics!