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Stellaris: Paradox Grand Strategy in Space

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Was kind of hoping they'd play around with more mind fucky visuals for this stuff, like billions of the same person in shot touching the astral rift in a kaleidoscopic effect or something.

The black and white zone with what looks like letters floating around was something more like it at least.
 
Played it. In terms of the Custodian teams prior work, this feels solidly okay-ish.

I have explored 9 or so Rifts so far.
... I think the way the infinity root Astral rift is written the scientist in charge comes off as a pyromaniac.
(Not burning the roots got me a relic that lets me spawn a free leader that doesn't count against the cap.)

Also, the rift that sees you back to the Grunur bombardment of Baol, if you meet with the Grunur you get access to flametrooper armies that do 500% collateral damage. Someone on the writing team likes fire.

... also my galaxy in flames. I decided to deal with the Fanatic Purifiers on the far side of a wormhole, which let me capture an L gate.
My neighbor with which I had a defensive pact picked that time to have a Determined Exterminator pop up and all but wipe them out (I am waiting for them to be gone to take over territory, but details).
L gate had grey tempest, so that is happening.
And around all that time I got the Riftwalker origins Formless rift pop up so I have an unexplored wormhole in my home system with an advise to explore it with strong fleets.
It is past midgame and I border a marauder, the Materialist and Spiritualist FEs, I have a Chosen Emperor and a Chosen minister of defense.

... I may need to redesign my battleships to not use so much archaeotech, so I can actually use my alloy stockpile.
 
Jonen C said:
... I may need to redesign my battleships to not use so much archaeotech, so I can actually use my alloy stockpile
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Unfortunately, yeah. If their cost was more in line with that of the crystal, mote, and gas costs of the main modules, they be biable. The fact that they cost as much as 4 or 5 other modules' rare resources in minor artifacts? Makes them worthless. The sad being several of them are outright better modules ignoring cost. Hell, if you went 100% shield-armor? You have more of both coming out the other side. But it costs so much to do it theres zero point on anything that isnt a titan, juggernaut, or colossus.
 
Fanatic Purifier: Conquered.
Determined Exterminator: Deleted.
Marauders: Exterminated.
Grey Tempest: Neutralized.
Aberrant in the Galactic Core: Defeated.
Leviathans: Vanquished.

50 years to brace for All the Crisis, probably going to go for the Materialist Fallen Empire.

So talk I'm seeing about AP is that the release is a bit buggy - mostly in regards to leader consolidation (and yeah - RNG is harsh for getting usable traits, let alone good ones)...
I think I benefited a weird one.

I've gone for Galactic Wonders, Master Builders, Detox, Psionics, Archaeotech, Arcology project... and I don't recall what my first were, but I have not taken Colossus.
I think I somehow stole the FP's collosus project.
 
Galactic Consolidation in progress (Mopping up minor empires).

Number of rifts completed: 20+.
 
In one of the Astral rifts, you can encounter an alternate universe version of the Tutorial AI Vir.

It will not take no for an answer, will kidnap your scientist to advise them, and eventually they come back.

... they've added new voice lines to Vir, never would've known.

... and I ran into a bug wherein when you approach thirty explored astral rifts you'll suddenly not be able to access any of them.
 
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I'm curious as to what the End Crisis will be. We already have a Rogue AI in the form of the Contingency, and we've got rogue Von Neumann Swarms in the Grey Tempest. Maybe an expansion of that, but otherwise I'm at a bit of a loss
 
One theory is that it's going to be cybernetic-themed in some way. The existing official endgame crises all have some form of connection to one of the other three ascension path (Unbidden being from some realm related though not the same as the one psionics explores, Contingency being a machine intelligence, and Prethoryn being completely organic even to their ships), and cybernetic obviously fits within the theme of the expansion. A related theory is that the new player crisis and the new endgame crisis will be similar and based on some form of harvesting of pops - on the Steam page's screenshots, you can see what looks like the announcement trailer Matrix machine twice, once in blue and once in red.
 
That's precisely what they're doing here, by the forum post. You get gestalt machine intelligence empires if you have Machine Age or Synthetic Dawn, and Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascension if you have Machine Age or Utopia.
 
Carrnage said:
I wonder what happens if someone has this and doesnt have the machine empire dlc.
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Purchasing this DLC (they're calling it an expansion) will allow you to play a Machine Gestalt if you do not already own Synthetic Dawn.
So if you don't have Synthetic Dawn, this is an alternative way to get access to playing machines.
 
Azecreth said:
I'm curious as to what the End Crisis will be. We already have a Rogue AI in the form of the Contingency, and we've got rogue Von Neumann Swarms in the Grey Tempest. Maybe an expansion of that, but otherwise I'm at a bit of a loss
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM8OyBBoUhg&t=6s

Given the current lack of a Flood/Blight/Beast analogue I'd personally do something along those lines as a cybernetic all devouring space plague, a techno-organic infestation to make the stars scream as wE LivE.
 
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A Crisis that can take your own ships and use them against you would certainly be something

Sort of an overpowered Driven Assimilator analogue with automatic post-combat salvage?
 
Jonen C said:
Supposedly the new trailer is based on the new player crisis... so some kind of forcibly induct pops into the matrix/Brainiac, for great science, kind of deal.
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There's going to be both a new player crisis and a new NPC crisis. The only hint we have for the second one is that its an ancient power reawakening from a long sleep to reclaim what is theirs, which makes me think Necrons to the Contingency's Reapers; but I really want the Beast.
 
Honestly, the thing I want to see more than anything is the addition of unavoidable events on a galactic scale that force the player into a necron-like stasis state. Add a bunch of fallout shelter buildings and whatnot, so that you can survive the cataclysm and maybe a time-skip mechanic in the end-game phase so you're coming back effectively *as* the Necrons and you're forced to liberate your own tomb-worlds and vaults from the creatures around you.
 
That might work better as an Origin than a feature in the game itself.

The whole thing is made to usable in multiplayer after all, so a timeskip that kills or severely alters all other Empires in mid-game hardly works.
Better to have an Origin in which you have limited population and tech and recover both by finding and activating your Tomb Worlds and Vaults.
 
Todeswind said:
Honestly, the thing I want to see more than anything is the addition of unavoidable events on a galactic scale that force the player into a necron-like stasis state. Add a bunch of fallout shelter buildings and whatnot, so that you can survive the cataclysm and maybe a time-skip mechanic in the end-game phase so you're coming back effectively *as* the Necrons and you're forced to liberate your own tomb-worlds and vaults from the creatures around you.
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Completely mechanically unworkable especially as multiplayer and single player are meant to be mechanically identical. Also generally speaking, being forced to do exactly one thing in response to a random event absolutely sucks to play through, especially in a game you're supposed to do many, many runs in like Stellaris.
 
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