Stellaris - Paradox Space Grand Strategy

[GoodRevrnd]

So Stellaris has really grabbed my attention. There have been a lot of storage 4x games recently that have outright failed in execution or have been lacking in critical features. I've been watching some gameplay videos and Stellaris from Paradox looks like it will hit it out of the park in execution. The game appears to roughly be space EU4 and is very reminiscent of Distant Worlds. DW has a much more sophisticated economy, but I think Stellaris has it best on most other features. Research is far more interesting, better ship design, GalCiv like planetary management, better leaders system, streamlining management to scale into the late game while not losing important detailed control early on, etc. Actual combat is the game's weakest part, but the grand strategy is so good I can overlook that, much like I did for DW. Game come out next month.

Summary:
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2016/03/stellaris-release-date-and-gameplay-footage/

Detailed videos:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-gameplay-videos-full-list.914030/

Endless Space 2 is the only other game really on my radar and for different reasons. Stellaris looks pretty special.

 

[wanderer27]

Yeah, this one's on my Radar, though I haven't dug into the details yet.

I hope they don't pull the pre-rendered Battles as they did in GC II (and III ?).
This would kill it as far as I'm concerned.


Very hush hush and sparse on details . . . DW2 is in development.
I know the the Engine will be different since .Net & XNA are essentially not supported any more.
Kind of doubting it will make it out this year, but I could be surprised.


.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Space battles are basically identical to DW--send your mob of ships at their's and they fight it out on the real time clock on the strategy layer.

 

[Genx87]

Game has been on my radar for months. It will be a day one purchase for me. Looks amazing! The maps will be crazy diverse. Up to 1000 stars in various galaxy designs.

 

[lupi]

Looks interesting. It's paradox though so I won't buy for at least 18 months so a majority of the onslaught of DLC will be released and I can just buy a 'mostly complete' version then.

 

[xantub]

Looks interesting. It's paradox though so I won't buy for at least 18 months so a majority of the onslaught of DLC will be released and I can just buy a 'mostly complete' version then.

You loss. Paradox games are complete at release, and each DLC just adds to it. I bought CK2 on day 1 and enjoyed it to no end for hundreds of hours before the first DLC, and each DLC just made the game better. Same with EU4, enjoyed it for hundreds of hours before any DLC was out.

I do recommend, if you're strapped for cash and not subject to hype, to wait to buy the game until the first DLC comes out (so you get it cheaper), and get the first DLC when the second DLC comes out. You'll save a lot of money in the long run if you stagger yourself one 'wave' as things typically go on sale when a new DLC is released. The hype though... hard to resist.

 

[Gunbuster]

Fingers crossed for Sword of the Stars game-play, and Sword of the Stars II level graphics.

(Still bitter about how badly they broke Sword II with bullshit game mechanics)

 

[Gerand]

Oh god SOTS2 was so sad. I'm super pumped about Stellaris though.

 

[local]

Fingers crossed for Sword of the Stars game-play, and Sword of the Stars II level graphics.

(Still bitter about how badly they broke Sword II with bullshit game mechanics)

This!!!

Oh god SOTS2 was so sad. I'm super pumped about Stellaris though.

And this! SOTS is still my favorite and SOTS2 is still my most dissapointing game ever. I love SOTS, I love Paradox and SOTS2 was released on my birthday. The combination of all three was a dream come true, then it was released and I wanted to choke someone. Cannot decide which was worse for me, the ME3 ending or SOTS2 at release.

As far as Stellaris is concerned though it looks like they ripped off enough of the good ideas in SOTS added a bit of Distant Worlds and put them in a single package with a large random element. Only thing I am missing is the SOTS1 style tactical battles and the civilian economy from DW but that is not even close to a deal breaker.

 

[xantub]

You can preorder it now, and it's only $40 which is surprisingly low for a game nowadays (of course, you'll probably get addicted and then pay for DLCs by throwing money at the screen).

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Even though there's a million of them, I feel like DW's races are a lot richer. I think Stellaris might have gone too far by making all racial traits and governments completely random. They probably should have had some generic restrictions and/or biases to each archetype while throwing in wildcard possibilities to mix it up. The fact that the archetypes have a favorability bonus to each other for just being the same archetype even though everything else is completely random feels a hair off to me.

 

[Genx87]

Live stream today.

https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

 

[norseamd]

Fingers crossed for Sword of the Stars game-play, and Sword of the Stars II level graphics.

(Still bitter about how badly they broke Sword II with bullshit game mechanics)

That is actually a very complicated subject.

What in particular did you not like about SOTS 2?

 

[norseamd]

So is this going to be made as a full price extended demo with all the interesting features getting offered only in expensive DLC released in massive numbers?

 

[norseamd]

As far as Stellaris is concerned though it looks like they ripped off enough of the good ideas in SOTS added a bit of Distant Worlds and put them in a single package with a large random element. Only thing I am missing is the SOTS1 style tactical battles and the civilian economy from DW but that is not even close to a deal breaker.

This is exactly what I was thinking since Paradox has refused to let SOTS 2 be expanded anymore, and thus much of what needs to be fixed or expanded in SOTS 2 after the basic fix patches is not going to ever come anymore because of decisions from Paradox. And now Paradox is releasing a new space 4X that they are conveniently never going to have to pay a developer for.

 

[Gunbuster]

What in particular did you not like about SOTS 2?

I just wanted to send a group of ships someplace, not designate it an exploration mission or get a doctorate in pretend space fleet logistics to join the fleet to a star base supply chain area and configure things for half an hour to be deemed worthy of sending a ship or ships to a new location.

 

[lupi]

So is this going to be made as a full price extended demo with all the interesting features getting offered only in expensive DLC released in massive numbers?

As someone may have said, it is paradox.

 

[norseamd]

I just wanted to send a group of ships someplace, not designate it an exploration mission or get a doctorate in pretend space fleet logistics to join the fleet to a star base supply chain area and configure things for half an hour to be deemed worthy of sending a ship or ships to a new location.

Actually once you take the time to learn the fleet mechanics, it is not that hard to actually use them.

 

[xantub]

So is this going to be made as a full price extended demo with all the interesting features getting offered only in expensive DLC released in massive numbers?

Paradox system is not like that, at all.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Paradox system is not like that, at all.

For all the DLC EUIV has, aren't only two or three of them actual expansions? Priced at $10-15 each, this doesn't seem entirely unreasonable. The Civs have 2 expansions each originally priced at $30, and you're absolutely mental if you did not buy them (although Warlords was pretty weak).

 

[xantub]

For all the DLC EUIV has, aren't only two or three of them actual expansions? Priced at $10-15 each, this doesn't seem entirely unreasonable. The Civs have 2 expansions each originally priced at $30, and you're absolutely mental if you did not buy them (although Warlords was pretty weak).

In the case of Paradox games, what you get at release are entire and complete games, totally enjoyable. I played and enjoyed more than a hundred hours in both CK2 and EU4 before their first expansions came out. DLCs usually add features, but they are not needed. The base game even gets improved frequently without needing to buy any expansion. Hell, if you play multiplayer you don't even need to have the same expansions as the other players, if you have no DLCs and the host has all the DLCs, then you will have all the DLCs for the duration of the multiplayer game. It really is a good system. But I do understand for a newcomer, seeing all those expansions may seem daunting.

 

[Genx87]

This is going to going to live on Mods as well. So expect player made mods to easily fill the role of DLC for this game. I saw a mod where somebody built a 5000 star galaxy. Im sure there will be mods for spaceship design\firepower, races, planets, ect ect.

 

[xantub]

This is going to going to live on Mods as well. So expect player made mods to easily fill the role of DLC for this game. I saw a mod where somebody built a 5000 star galaxy. Im sure there will be mods for spaceship design\firepower, races, planets, ect ect.

They also opened something so the actual 3d models can be modded as well, in Maya. I'm not a graphics guy so not sure what that means, but sounds cool. I'm thinking, since Paradox obviously doesn't have the rights, they can't add Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5 or anything known as ship designs, but since modders don't make money out of it, they can (like the modders who made the Game of Thrones mod for CK2).

 

[Genx87]

200 years of game play into 5 minutes. I cant wait for this to release in 4 days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sN6LQykAdM

 

[Rhezuss]

This seriously look amazing. Never played these kind of games for long cause of my lazyness, but this one seem to be worth the effort.

Might pre-order it...