Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
I enjoyed sharing the exploits of my stellaris game with you guys, but I feel self conscious about spamming the one and only channel we have in group chat. Since we aren't using Discord or something, I thought I'd use this ol' thing. Anyway, no more cats at the moment, but I usually have a stellaris game going and hopefully its interesting.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
Currently I'm 80 years into The Human Technocracy, a couple hours of gameplay.
I've taken Earth as my starting system again and built a highly egalitarian people with a focus on research and technology. Governance is technically oligarchic, we value equality, science, and merit.
I've wanted to use the Utopian Abundance living standard to good effect for a long time, it's very, very expensive to keep up with and since I usually have full employment of pops, it doesn't pay out more than say, social welfare or academic privilege. The main advantage with Utopian Abundance is that any unemployed pops produce some research points as well as some unity points (two separate advancement types) whereas at best other living standards give some unity. There is also a happiness factor and political power of the different pop types, but the main issue is, you increase the cost of each pop dramatically, and if they're working a job provided by a district or building, they don't do anything differently.
So the strategy I'm using in colony development is to make sure there's enough housing and amenities to keep everyone happy, and focus the job structures only on what's needed to advance the empire in other ways. On earth, I've got 16 unemployed pops, who produce 32 research, which is the same as that produced by the research labs the game started earth with, but *without* any additional upkeep for the jobs. The researchers use resources to generate research in addition to their personal upkeep.
I'm not too far out from being able to build orbital habitats, which with this living standard will be very valuable for research. Normally, for "standard" species and empire types, the habitats are a bit underwhelming, as they have a very limited number of districts they can build and very few buildings, but as long as I can keep the amenities high enough to avoid trouble, such as crime, I could have as many as 80 pops in the habitat, more likely 70, producing 140+ research, and later with a planetary supercomputer that'll get a percent increase.
In order to help make sure that as many people can be unemployed as possible, I've devoted more time and energy to making robots than I usually do. There were some new features added in the last couple updates that let you queue robot by template for production, which means you can design a robot template and build it from scratch, rather than the usual "easy way" of applying a template to a robot or species universally, or at least over a certain planet. So I'm building robots capable of most jobs better than humans, to the point that an Agribot Plus working a farm district produces an entire unit of food more than a human. This adds up quickly and comes at little cost.
Eventually, all humans except researchers will be unemployed, free from work demands and able to contribute to society as they individually see fit.
Another note, since Slavery is outlawed in the Fanatic Egalitarian Human Technocracy, I've enhanced our diversity and workforce by buying slaves from the galactic slave market, who are then immediately freed and provided with utopian abundance, as much as their weird little hearts desire.
We've also uplifted a couple species, one was the Roachoids (the game's name, not mine) we found thriving on a planet in the midst of a nuclear winter, and another we found being abused as slave labor on the market. They are both now as intelligent as we are and living among us.
I've taken Earth as my starting system again and built a highly egalitarian people with a focus on research and technology. Governance is technically oligarchic, we value equality, science, and merit.
I've wanted to use the Utopian Abundance living standard to good effect for a long time, it's very, very expensive to keep up with and since I usually have full employment of pops, it doesn't pay out more than say, social welfare or academic privilege. The main advantage with Utopian Abundance is that any unemployed pops produce some research points as well as some unity points (two separate advancement types) whereas at best other living standards give some unity. There is also a happiness factor and political power of the different pop types, but the main issue is, you increase the cost of each pop dramatically, and if they're working a job provided by a district or building, they don't do anything differently.
So the strategy I'm using in colony development is to make sure there's enough housing and amenities to keep everyone happy, and focus the job structures only on what's needed to advance the empire in other ways. On earth, I've got 16 unemployed pops, who produce 32 research, which is the same as that produced by the research labs the game started earth with, but *without* any additional upkeep for the jobs. The researchers use resources to generate research in addition to their personal upkeep.
I'm not too far out from being able to build orbital habitats, which with this living standard will be very valuable for research. Normally, for "standard" species and empire types, the habitats are a bit underwhelming, as they have a very limited number of districts they can build and very few buildings, but as long as I can keep the amenities high enough to avoid trouble, such as crime, I could have as many as 80 pops in the habitat, more likely 70, producing 140+ research, and later with a planetary supercomputer that'll get a percent increase.
In order to help make sure that as many people can be unemployed as possible, I've devoted more time and energy to making robots than I usually do. There were some new features added in the last couple updates that let you queue robot by template for production, which means you can design a robot template and build it from scratch, rather than the usual "easy way" of applying a template to a robot or species universally, or at least over a certain planet. So I'm building robots capable of most jobs better than humans, to the point that an Agribot Plus working a farm district produces an entire unit of food more than a human. This adds up quickly and comes at little cost.
Eventually, all humans except researchers will be unemployed, free from work demands and able to contribute to society as they individually see fit.
Another note, since Slavery is outlawed in the Fanatic Egalitarian Human Technocracy, I've enhanced our diversity and workforce by buying slaves from the galactic slave market, who are then immediately freed and provided with utopian abundance, as much as their weird little hearts desire.
We've also uplifted a couple species, one was the Roachoids (the game's name, not mine) we found thriving on a planet in the midst of a nuclear winter, and another we found being abused as slave labor on the market. They are both now as intelligent as we are and living among us.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
The Blorg are a bit of an easter egg in the game. They have hideously ugly fungoid appearance, and are Fanatic Xenophiles and Militarist, if you combine these ethics and appearance during empire creation, or if you create an AI empire like this, the Fanatic Befrienders tag comes up, along with a special AI personality.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
First we came to rely on robots, then we really became robots.
The Human Technocracy, propelled by its love of technology, science, and those handy robots, began their transformation by adopting cybernetics. This bold step was the first, but not the last. After decades of growing closer to our many robot assistants, and once we had upgraded them to Synths and lived alongside them as equals, then we truly became equals. We have initiated the process of transferring our consciousnesses into robot bodies. Once complete, we will live as immortals alongside those wonderful beings who carried us thus far.
However, we also have faced invasion and have lost some territory. Due to our obsession with technology, those alien empires that do not understand us and are instead in pursuit of some misguided spiritualism, even claiming "psionic powers" find us to be an abomination. One such alien species, the bizarre Ganvius Hive, a hive mind of living trees, has claimed some of our territory in war, and seeks to drive us out as they expand eternally.
We will have back our lost territory, and we will drive this verdant abomination from the stars for the safety of all Trans-Humans and all other species they would overgrow.
We have completed the assembly of a Colossus, a tremendous weapon capable of wiping out entire planets.
As scientists, we would not find the wholesale destruction of a planet acceptable, so we have developed the Neutron Sweep weapon to arm our Colossus with, so that if we MUST use the weapon, at least the planet is spared, if not the people.
While we would prefer to deploy our Xenomorph armies and take the planets more carefully, this is unlikely to be an option in most cases. The Ganvius Hive has spread like kudzu, and other threats bay at the door, unwilling to patiently wait for us to invade twenty some worlds.
Every few months, more refugees arrive from the far side of the galaxy, where the vile Prikki-Ti fanatically "purify" the galaxy, exterminating every race they come across. They too must be stopped, but the beastly trees have to burn first.
The Human Technocracy, propelled by its love of technology, science, and those handy robots, began their transformation by adopting cybernetics. This bold step was the first, but not the last. After decades of growing closer to our many robot assistants, and once we had upgraded them to Synths and lived alongside them as equals, then we truly became equals. We have initiated the process of transferring our consciousnesses into robot bodies. Once complete, we will live as immortals alongside those wonderful beings who carried us thus far.
However, we also have faced invasion and have lost some territory. Due to our obsession with technology, those alien empires that do not understand us and are instead in pursuit of some misguided spiritualism, even claiming "psionic powers" find us to be an abomination. One such alien species, the bizarre Ganvius Hive, a hive mind of living trees, has claimed some of our territory in war, and seeks to drive us out as they expand eternally.
We will have back our lost territory, and we will drive this verdant abomination from the stars for the safety of all Trans-Humans and all other species they would overgrow.
We have completed the assembly of a Colossus, a tremendous weapon capable of wiping out entire planets.
As scientists, we would not find the wholesale destruction of a planet acceptable, so we have developed the Neutron Sweep weapon to arm our Colossus with, so that if we MUST use the weapon, at least the planet is spared, if not the people.
While we would prefer to deploy our Xenomorph armies and take the planets more carefully, this is unlikely to be an option in most cases. The Ganvius Hive has spread like kudzu, and other threats bay at the door, unwilling to patiently wait for us to invade twenty some worlds.
Every few months, more refugees arrive from the far side of the galaxy, where the vile Prikki-Ti fanatically "purify" the galaxy, exterminating every race they come across. They too must be stopped, but the beastly trees have to burn first.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
So, I'm enjoying my technocrat game and will finish it, but I wanted to go ahead and see if you guys have interest in reading a play through with Driven Assimilators, a Devouring Swarm, or a Megacorporation next.
I'm pretty tempted to do a serious megacorp run, since last time I did it I just wound up eaten by a swarm of crazed moths.
Couple ways to do megacorps that are fundamentally different. If your corp originates in a criminal enterprise, the way you franchise and set up in other empires uses a totally different set of mechanics. As a standard megacorp, you set up buildings and branch offices on other worlds that generally help that world, and can include fun things like fast food franchises, so you could literally play as Taco Bell corp and eventually generate some or all of the food for your empire from this mechanic, there's about a dozen or so buildings and you get four per branch office, depending on planet population.
Crime syndicates do something different.
Driven Assimilators are a robotic hive mind that works a lot like the Borg. Devouring Swarm is a biological hive mind that works a lot like Zerg or Tyrannids. Its one of a couple options that lets you keep members of other races as livestock. I've not gone into that mechanic before, but I've seen some of the moving parts and have some ideas of how to do it in some interesting ways.
I'm probably going to go through all of these at some point, but if you guys find one particularly entertaining and have ideas or suggestions, even if you don't know the game, please do comment.
I'm pretty tempted to do a serious megacorp run, since last time I did it I just wound up eaten by a swarm of crazed moths.
Couple ways to do megacorps that are fundamentally different. If your corp originates in a criminal enterprise, the way you franchise and set up in other empires uses a totally different set of mechanics. As a standard megacorp, you set up buildings and branch offices on other worlds that generally help that world, and can include fun things like fast food franchises, so you could literally play as Taco Bell corp and eventually generate some or all of the food for your empire from this mechanic, there's about a dozen or so buildings and you get four per branch office, depending on planet population.
Crime syndicates do something different.
Driven Assimilators are a robotic hive mind that works a lot like the Borg. Devouring Swarm is a biological hive mind that works a lot like Zerg or Tyrannids. Its one of a couple options that lets you keep members of other races as livestock. I've not gone into that mechanic before, but I've seen some of the moving parts and have some ideas of how to do it in some interesting ways.
I'm probably going to go through all of these at some point, but if you guys find one particularly entertaining and have ideas or suggestions, even if you don't know the game, please do comment.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
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Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
And so here we are. While peace would have been possible for a time, when we found that the Ganvius Entity had been keeping sentient organic lifeforms as livestock and consuming them as food, we had NO choice but to wipe it out.
The war was longer than we had hoped, perhaps this is always the way of things, but we resolved to only use our Neutron Sweep Weapon when innocent lives were not at risk. The xenomorph battalions proved their worth, supplemented by our assault-bot warforms, and ultimately triumphed.
Shortly after the end of Ganvius, we put down the Prikki-Ti as well, who had been long at war with other species. While we accept all refugees, we wondered how many never made it to us, and were instead purged at the hands of that crazed species.
Our transformation to machine beings is complete, and the multitudes of alien species living with us have joined us in this bright future. We are all "post-human" now, a unified species as efficient as any machine, and as diverse as our imaginations can become. We manufacture food only as a trade good, relying on the energy output of our newly completed Dyson Sphere to satisfy our robotic needs.
But the spiritualist empires of the galaxy of consolidated power and formed a federation of sorts, bent on inflicting their insane spirituality and bogus psychic beliefs on us and anyone else bold enough to stand against them. We have precious few allies, and against the combined might of the spiritualist federation, our power may not stand.
More insidious, a horrible amalgam of corporation, government, and crime syndicate has targeted our bustling ecumenopoli with smugglers dens and all other sorts of scum and villainy. Even Earth and Mars have suffered gang wars and illicit trade. While a peace exists between our governments at the moment, our Prison Colony can only keep up with their relentless assaults for so long. It may come time soon to enforce our sovereignty against this criminal empire.
The war was longer than we had hoped, perhaps this is always the way of things, but we resolved to only use our Neutron Sweep Weapon when innocent lives were not at risk. The xenomorph battalions proved their worth, supplemented by our assault-bot warforms, and ultimately triumphed.
Shortly after the end of Ganvius, we put down the Prikki-Ti as well, who had been long at war with other species. While we accept all refugees, we wondered how many never made it to us, and were instead purged at the hands of that crazed species.
Our transformation to machine beings is complete, and the multitudes of alien species living with us have joined us in this bright future. We are all "post-human" now, a unified species as efficient as any machine, and as diverse as our imaginations can become. We manufacture food only as a trade good, relying on the energy output of our newly completed Dyson Sphere to satisfy our robotic needs.
But the spiritualist empires of the galaxy of consolidated power and formed a federation of sorts, bent on inflicting their insane spirituality and bogus psychic beliefs on us and anyone else bold enough to stand against them. We have precious few allies, and against the combined might of the spiritualist federation, our power may not stand.
More insidious, a horrible amalgam of corporation, government, and crime syndicate has targeted our bustling ecumenopoli with smugglers dens and all other sorts of scum and villainy. Even Earth and Mars have suffered gang wars and illicit trade. While a peace exists between our governments at the moment, our Prison Colony can only keep up with their relentless assaults for so long. It may come time soon to enforce our sovereignty against this criminal empire.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
So, I'm very happy with the effects of using the Utopian Abundance living standard combined with the synthetic ascension pathway. Since pops aren't consuming food, I'm redirecting development to consumer goods which is much easier to keep at the right levels using ecumenopoles.
However, we have far exceeded the output of our dyson sphere in energy consumption. With almost 2300 pops the empire is consuming 1600+ power just from them alone, as instead of eating food robots require power. Fortunately, we have such an excess of consumer goods production that we're able to sell a hundred units or so on the market and keep in the black. We get a decent amount of energy credits from trade, but particularly with the criminal syndicate undermining us, trade is unreliable. The Dyson Sphere is a critical part of our energy production solution, as it produces 1000 power, but we have exceeded its output now and need to supplement it, and we can only build one dyson sphere (apparently.)
So, there's the ring world. A few hundred years ago, just as we were stretching out into interstellar space and exploring the galaxy new, we found an ancient, ruined ring world left by a precursor species many millions of years ago. We restored one section and have been converting it into a mega-city, capable of housing several hundred pops, but the other three sections have remained un-restored, until now. While our megastructure engineers were formerly working full time on our dyson sphere, and then an interstellar assembly, they now turn their attention to the ancient ring world of Cybrex Alpha. While we have the technology and the means to create our own ring world, and will do so, using this world will save us decades.
Converting a ring world section to pure power output will supplement the production of our dyson sphere to the point that our power needs will be met for the time being. But we will convert all three remaining sections to power production, in the interest of preserving our empire into the future.
Then we will consider our mineral needs. We have a few worlds with rich enough mineral deposits to supply the empire for the time being, but the untapped potential we see in a Matter Decompresser, a megastructure that bores into a black hole and streams out a supply of minerals similar to the production of our dyson sphere. In many ways it is the opposite.
As for the science output of our population enjoying utopian plentitude, it is beyond my highest expectations. It is already four times that of any other empire I've seen at its peak, and will only continue to grow as we populate the cybrex alpha ringworld. Soon, our weapons and vessels will be nigh invulerable, our structures will pop into being as though summoned from beyond, and our people will live forever in a never ending peace, brought about through their own hard work, and that of the robots they live alongside.
However, we have far exceeded the output of our dyson sphere in energy consumption. With almost 2300 pops the empire is consuming 1600+ power just from them alone, as instead of eating food robots require power. Fortunately, we have such an excess of consumer goods production that we're able to sell a hundred units or so on the market and keep in the black. We get a decent amount of energy credits from trade, but particularly with the criminal syndicate undermining us, trade is unreliable. The Dyson Sphere is a critical part of our energy production solution, as it produces 1000 power, but we have exceeded its output now and need to supplement it, and we can only build one dyson sphere (apparently.)
So, there's the ring world. A few hundred years ago, just as we were stretching out into interstellar space and exploring the galaxy new, we found an ancient, ruined ring world left by a precursor species many millions of years ago. We restored one section and have been converting it into a mega-city, capable of housing several hundred pops, but the other three sections have remained un-restored, until now. While our megastructure engineers were formerly working full time on our dyson sphere, and then an interstellar assembly, they now turn their attention to the ancient ring world of Cybrex Alpha. While we have the technology and the means to create our own ring world, and will do so, using this world will save us decades.
Converting a ring world section to pure power output will supplement the production of our dyson sphere to the point that our power needs will be met for the time being. But we will convert all three remaining sections to power production, in the interest of preserving our empire into the future.
Then we will consider our mineral needs. We have a few worlds with rich enough mineral deposits to supply the empire for the time being, but the untapped potential we see in a Matter Decompresser, a megastructure that bores into a black hole and streams out a supply of minerals similar to the production of our dyson sphere. In many ways it is the opposite.
As for the science output of our population enjoying utopian plentitude, it is beyond my highest expectations. It is already four times that of any other empire I've seen at its peak, and will only continue to grow as we populate the cybrex alpha ringworld. Soon, our weapons and vessels will be nigh invulerable, our structures will pop into being as though summoned from beyond, and our people will live forever in a never ending peace, brought about through their own hard work, and that of the robots they live alongside.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
When we realized the ancient caretaker robot species we had encircled in our territory was actually malfunctioning dangerously, we moved quickly and took over their ancient ring worlds, only to find that their malfunction was billions of years old, and where we had hoped to find frozen specimens of races they had preserved, we instead found corpses, still frozen, and broken ring sections.
Once the morose task of clearing out the malfunctioning cryochambers was complete, we set about repairing the ring worlds. With Cybrex Alpha fully repaired and colonized, and the first stage of our matter decompressor providing a handsome supply of minerals, we directed some of our attentions to the three damaged ring worlds we had claimed from the caretakers. Preserving their enigmatic technologies and supplementing it with what we have, we now enjoy a surplus of energy equal to that of our dyson sphere, with vastly more expected soon as our populations transition to the ring worlds.
Our scientific achievements now include the physics defying dark matter technologies, and our fleets are equal to any in the galaxy. While the spiritualist federation still holds us as rivals, we have assembled gateways in each of our border systems, to allow the rapid deployment of our fleets wherever an incursion might take place.
We have broken away from the pack in development, and stand out as the most advanced race in the galaxy. Only the backwards superstitions of our former peers hold any threat for us now.
Once the morose task of clearing out the malfunctioning cryochambers was complete, we set about repairing the ring worlds. With Cybrex Alpha fully repaired and colonized, and the first stage of our matter decompressor providing a handsome supply of minerals, we directed some of our attentions to the three damaged ring worlds we had claimed from the caretakers. Preserving their enigmatic technologies and supplementing it with what we have, we now enjoy a surplus of energy equal to that of our dyson sphere, with vastly more expected soon as our populations transition to the ring worlds.
Our scientific achievements now include the physics defying dark matter technologies, and our fleets are equal to any in the galaxy. While the spiritualist federation still holds us as rivals, we have assembled gateways in each of our border systems, to allow the rapid deployment of our fleets wherever an incursion might take place.
We have broken away from the pack in development, and stand out as the most advanced race in the galaxy. Only the backwards superstitions of our former peers hold any threat for us now.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
I'm not really sure how to characterize just how much research I'm getting from the utopian abundance living standard.
On one planet, out of 24, I've got more research coming from unemployed pops than I do from the Science Nexus, a one per empire special research megastructure.
I've got 11k research coming out right now. I've never had more than 2k or 3k before.
On one planet, out of 24, I've got more research coming from unemployed pops than I do from the Science Nexus, a one per empire special research megastructure.
I've got 11k research coming out right now. I've never had more than 2k or 3k before.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
At the beginning of the year 2600, the Human Technocracy had pulled so far ahead of their rivals that there would no longer be any real competition from them. Victory, such as it was, had been achieved. Warring against the Technocracy would be suicide, as was amply demonstrated when the exterminating menace known as The Contingency threatened the galaxy, only to be swiftly rounded up by Technocracy fleets and their world destroying colossus, refitted with a World Cracker to deal with the menace of machine worlds.
Technology, the driving desire of the now robotic humans, had transcended conventional scales of development, and new advancements continued at a pace unsurpassed even by the Curators, and nothing was likely to change. Unlimited power, resources, and knowledge would mark the endless days of the Post-Human people.
So ends the story of the Human Technocracy.
Technology, the driving desire of the now robotic humans, had transcended conventional scales of development, and new advancements continued at a pace unsurpassed even by the Curators, and nothing was likely to change. Unlimited power, resources, and knowledge would mark the endless days of the Post-Human people.
So ends the story of the Human Technocracy.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
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Finally free of Orkhum, we now can raid the spoils that await beyond the stars. Led by the battle hardened Warlord Veldanur, we will seek out and find any life, riches, and knowledge in the galaxy and claim it as our own. Our captains, though new to the hyperlane network, are each and every one a seasoned Ork warrior, and they will take what they like from the stars.
WAAAAAGHHHH
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
So, it's been a while since I've done anything on Stellaris, and a big reason for that was the news about the content in the next major patch and DLC release.
Stellaris always releases both a general patch and DLC content at the same time, followed by updates and a few upgrades before going "dormant" again as the next one is made. They usually have one or two a year if memory serves. While this makes the game more expensive to jump into, it means years of content improvement without a monthly subscription fee. I find the DLC model of game maintenance acceptable, and the general patches are always free to all owners of the base game.
Ancient Relics is focused on the new archaeology system, in which ancient precursor sites are more involved multi stage excavations rather than single really really time consuming tasks. Along with this, it introduces Major and Minor artifacts, which have major and minor effects on game play, accordingly.
What really has stopped me in my tracks is actually something in the main patch, updates to the megastructure game mechanics. I had hoped for these changes to show up in the beta branch, but it seems that there was no beta this time around.
Currently, to build a ring world you need to spend almost half of your empire's Ascension Perks, which would be a highly valuable resource if so many of them weren't required to do just basic things. There are three Ascension Pathways that each require two or three perks of their own, Technological Ascendancy gives such a long lasting benefit that it is essentially non-negotiable, which means depending on the pathway you are wanting to do, you might have UP TO ONE Ascension perk to spend as you like, which will happen close to the end of the game, depending on what you do. You get 8 in total after you develop all 7 traditions and research the 8th.
So, they are moving a lot of the megastructure pathway out of ascension perks, which is great!
Also, currently, each segment of a ring world is its own "planet" essentially, 4 per completed ring world, and each with 50 districts. This means that in addition to the 10-20 years you spent building the ring world, it will take further decades to fully develop it and it can be a serious chore. They are also very expensive to maintain.
So, ring worlds are now getting a change to the way their districts work, in which each ring world segment gets 5 special districts, which are vastly more powerful than before, including percentage based upgrades. So a ring world with 5 farming segments produces more food than an old ring world with 50 farming districts, because each segment also gives a bonus percent to all food developed. This is good!
There's more coming in the patch, like specialized habitats, sector changes, frontier systems, and I could go on but basically this space should have more stellaris next week.
Stellaris always releases both a general patch and DLC content at the same time, followed by updates and a few upgrades before going "dormant" again as the next one is made. They usually have one or two a year if memory serves. While this makes the game more expensive to jump into, it means years of content improvement without a monthly subscription fee. I find the DLC model of game maintenance acceptable, and the general patches are always free to all owners of the base game.
Ancient Relics is focused on the new archaeology system, in which ancient precursor sites are more involved multi stage excavations rather than single really really time consuming tasks. Along with this, it introduces Major and Minor artifacts, which have major and minor effects on game play, accordingly.
What really has stopped me in my tracks is actually something in the main patch, updates to the megastructure game mechanics. I had hoped for these changes to show up in the beta branch, but it seems that there was no beta this time around.
Currently, to build a ring world you need to spend almost half of your empire's Ascension Perks, which would be a highly valuable resource if so many of them weren't required to do just basic things. There are three Ascension Pathways that each require two or three perks of their own, Technological Ascendancy gives such a long lasting benefit that it is essentially non-negotiable, which means depending on the pathway you are wanting to do, you might have UP TO ONE Ascension perk to spend as you like, which will happen close to the end of the game, depending on what you do. You get 8 in total after you develop all 7 traditions and research the 8th.
So, they are moving a lot of the megastructure pathway out of ascension perks, which is great!
Also, currently, each segment of a ring world is its own "planet" essentially, 4 per completed ring world, and each with 50 districts. This means that in addition to the 10-20 years you spent building the ring world, it will take further decades to fully develop it and it can be a serious chore. They are also very expensive to maintain.
So, ring worlds are now getting a change to the way their districts work, in which each ring world segment gets 5 special districts, which are vastly more powerful than before, including percentage based upgrades. So a ring world with 5 farming segments produces more food than an old ring world with 50 farming districts, because each segment also gives a bonus percent to all food developed. This is good!
There's more coming in the patch, like specialized habitats, sector changes, frontier systems, and I could go on but basically this space should have more stellaris next week.
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
Stardate 2336.10.07
President Valeria Vasquez made the following announcement:
"I have today given the order to commence restoration of the first section of the Cybrex Alpha Ring World. This artifact of a civilization long extinct has been a constant reminder, in the one hundred years since its discovery, that the future of our way of life can be even brighter than we ever dreamed, and that we face the same challenges that the hubris of the Cybrex led them to fail. For the generations of our people who followed the clues of the ancients through the galaxy to finally discover the Cybrex home system, and for the generations that followed who closely guarded our discovery, the ruined ring world has been the promise of the future, whose secrets we strove to understand. Knowing the challenges we would face in marshaling resources to undertake this monumental task, they laid the groundwork for us to succeed. They built alloy forges on a half dozen worlds, they built mining stations across federation space, and they built into us an appreciation of the courage of the Cybrex to build such a wonder, and their hubris which led them to lose it.
"In just ten short years the first phase of restoration will be complete, and our colonists will fulfill their dream, and in the generations to come, our people will too remember us as the Cybrex Alpha Ring becomes the new beating heart of our Federation, a place where people from all across the galaxy can find room to breathe, fulfilling work, and a bright future."
President Valeria Vasquez made the following announcement:
"I have today given the order to commence restoration of the first section of the Cybrex Alpha Ring World. This artifact of a civilization long extinct has been a constant reminder, in the one hundred years since its discovery, that the future of our way of life can be even brighter than we ever dreamed, and that we face the same challenges that the hubris of the Cybrex led them to fail. For the generations of our people who followed the clues of the ancients through the galaxy to finally discover the Cybrex home system, and for the generations that followed who closely guarded our discovery, the ruined ring world has been the promise of the future, whose secrets we strove to understand. Knowing the challenges we would face in marshaling resources to undertake this monumental task, they laid the groundwork for us to succeed. They built alloy forges on a half dozen worlds, they built mining stations across federation space, and they built into us an appreciation of the courage of the Cybrex to build such a wonder, and their hubris which led them to lose it.
"In just ten short years the first phase of restoration will be complete, and our colonists will fulfill their dream, and in the generations to come, our people will too remember us as the Cybrex Alpha Ring becomes the new beating heart of our Federation, a place where people from all across the galaxy can find room to breathe, fulfilling work, and a bright future."
Re: Stellaris: Logs, Blogs, Blorg
So far, the new Origins seem interesting. The shattered ring start is the one I've played so far and the one I was most interested in. It is, as I expected, very powerful. Unfortunately, you cannot fully restore it, which takes some of its allure away for me.
The galactic community and galactic senate are really interesting, and it took a long time for me to really understand them. I wound up in a default type federation early on and now more empires are joining it. I had been hoping to join a research cooperative or a trade federation or something to see how the new federation types worked. I *guess* I could leave it, but I'm probably going to start a new run with a different origin.
The various possible agendas in the galactic senate are really interesting, I'd like to try to push a specific agenda in a future run. I think I'll increase the number of empires and number of primitive empires (which eventually become normal empires if left alone) so the senate becomes a busier place.
Next run I'll set some ground rules for myself as well. I usually go the terraforming route and haven't much used ecological adaptation or the diversity of my empire to colonize worlds.
So, in this run, my empire The Benth Technocracy favored Ocean planets, and so we terraformed planets to that type for colonization. We changed the universe to suit ourselves. We could have genetically altered ourselves, or at least our colonists, to favor the planets we found instead. This isn't necessarily a less technologically difficult task or a less expensive one, but it can be approached in a couple different ways, and it generally costs something else, like the time and efforts of one of your research departments instead of energy credits. One of the downsides of terraforming is that you lose any special features that were present on the planet, which can slow progress as you struggle to obtain enough of the rare resources to advance or maintain higher level buildings and ships.
So the Benth Technocracy changed the universe to suit themselves. This was appropriate for their ethos. They were from a megastructure and sought to build megastructures, which is the epitome of changing the universe. Caging a star in a Dyson Sphere also consumes all the planetary bodies around that star. Most of the megastructures do this.
Changing ourselves to suit the universe is perhaps a more challenging road. I don't know that I would totally eschew megastructures on such a pathway, but it might be interesting to try. Without the power of a dyson sphere and the mineral output of a matter decompressor (a gravitic drill that harvests raw materials from a black hole) and the food output of Ring World Agricultural Segments, managing a highly advanced empire in a small amount of space is probably not possible.
So such an empire would be Wide rather than Tall.
And so that's what I'll work on with the next run. We will spread out and compartmentalize and change ourselves to suit the universe and each other.
The galactic community and galactic senate are really interesting, and it took a long time for me to really understand them. I wound up in a default type federation early on and now more empires are joining it. I had been hoping to join a research cooperative or a trade federation or something to see how the new federation types worked. I *guess* I could leave it, but I'm probably going to start a new run with a different origin.
The various possible agendas in the galactic senate are really interesting, I'd like to try to push a specific agenda in a future run. I think I'll increase the number of empires and number of primitive empires (which eventually become normal empires if left alone) so the senate becomes a busier place.
Next run I'll set some ground rules for myself as well. I usually go the terraforming route and haven't much used ecological adaptation or the diversity of my empire to colonize worlds.
So, in this run, my empire The Benth Technocracy favored Ocean planets, and so we terraformed planets to that type for colonization. We changed the universe to suit ourselves. We could have genetically altered ourselves, or at least our colonists, to favor the planets we found instead. This isn't necessarily a less technologically difficult task or a less expensive one, but it can be approached in a couple different ways, and it generally costs something else, like the time and efforts of one of your research departments instead of energy credits. One of the downsides of terraforming is that you lose any special features that were present on the planet, which can slow progress as you struggle to obtain enough of the rare resources to advance or maintain higher level buildings and ships.
So the Benth Technocracy changed the universe to suit themselves. This was appropriate for their ethos. They were from a megastructure and sought to build megastructures, which is the epitome of changing the universe. Caging a star in a Dyson Sphere also consumes all the planetary bodies around that star. Most of the megastructures do this.
Changing ourselves to suit the universe is perhaps a more challenging road. I don't know that I would totally eschew megastructures on such a pathway, but it might be interesting to try. Without the power of a dyson sphere and the mineral output of a matter decompressor (a gravitic drill that harvests raw materials from a black hole) and the food output of Ring World Agricultural Segments, managing a highly advanced empire in a small amount of space is probably not possible.
So such an empire would be Wide rather than Tall.
And so that's what I'll work on with the next run. We will spread out and compartmentalize and change ourselves to suit the universe and each other.