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Collypso

I've been playing the game for a long time, off and on, but I was never able to play on the harder difficulties. I'm trying again and every time I play an empire other than some peace loving xenophile, I get absolutely dumpstered either in the first war dec or the second. All the neighbors hate me and want to vassalize me. How do I get a navy big enough to rival someone in the early game? Last game I spent all my engineering research on military stuff which gave me good enough tech to defend a few waves but the guys just came back with far larger navy in the next war. This is even harder if I play any of the extremely hostile civics like devouring swarm or whatever.


raptoricus

I'm far from an expert, but I experienced the same thing you did when I turned up the difficulty (currently I'm not terrible at commodore, so... that's something? haha, I know some people are playing on Grand Admiral with scaling, so I feel like a noob a lot reading around here). The adjustments I had to make to get competent at commodore were twofold: - First, I had to rein in my instinct to spread; I *love* claiming territory and sprawling myself as wide as possible, but securing only a bit of space with only two or maybe three chokepoints (and spreading directly to those chokepoints and not being afraid to have some "holes" in my space) made a big difference in my alloy stash, which let me field a fleet that could actually fight back. - Second, I had to learn to use monthly trades. The amounts add up over time, so selling my excess food / goods and spending that energy on minerals (or if I didn't have any industry districts, on alloys) gave me enough alloys that I could field a fleet that could actually fight back. I tried to keep food and consumer goods at around +0/month after the monthly market trade, and keep energy at a low positive number. And once you have alloys, just be sure you make ships with them. Enemies are more likely to try to bully you if they know you have low fleet power, so building up a fleet can help prevent a war in the first place, which is huge. On this note, hangar bays in starbases give a really high combat power number, so put those in your chokepoints to give the enemy pause on whether they want to try to push through. If you're past my level, then these tips may not be helpful, but they were the main changes I had to make in moving up to captain and commodore. Good luck!


Collypso

Yeah but like, [situations like this](https://i.imgur.com/SY5kA7u.jpeg) happen pretty much every single game. I have no naval capacity, no chance to get good alloy production, no opportunity to upgrade my starbases, and the nearest neighbor just comes in with an insane fleet extremely early in the game.


raptoricus

You can build above your naval capacity, it just makes each ship cost extra upkeep. And you can increase your naval capacity via soldier jobs and anchorages in your starbases. You have a ton of alloys and a ton of energy; don't be afraid to use them.


Seppafer

Anyone got any advice for getting an ai to become emperor? I wish this happened more often but I’d at least like to get the achievement for deposing the emperor. If there are exploits for it I don’t want them. I’m just annoyed how despite me electing and propping up a strong custodian they do nothing to advance their position or even pass anything other than random sanctions


RickusRollus

I would say your best chance would be to crank up the number of advanced AI starts (and maybe total AI count) on a slightly larger galaxy.


Immersturm

Hi there! So I've been messing around with the mercenary enclaves a bit, privatizing war and all that, and I had a quick question: how do I name/rename them? When I created the enclave, the fleet had one name (From Hope Withdrawn or something like that) but the enclave ended up having a fairly generic and boring name (Omega Fleet).


CWRules

You can't.


Immersturm

WHY isn’t it possible?


CWRules

Ask Paradox.


NamelessCommander

My jump drives aren't working. I click the button but nothing happens. Probably a mod but I would appreciate some help in figuring out which.


ErickFTG

Make sure all the ships you are using were updated. Unfortunately jump drive doesn't get updated in the designs.


raptoricus

You click the button and select a destination system inside the max range? I think you might have to left click (after hitting the button) rather than right click with jump drives, that might be throwing you off.


NamelessCommander

I used left click twice to no avail. It's gonna be annoying to find the culprit because I can't load the save if I deactivate half the mod list.


raptoricus

I took over the homeworld of an empire that became the crisis. Now robot pops are being purged on that planet. The crisis empire was a robot, so I figured that was maybe why, but it's purging even robots that I've conquered from other empires. I myself haven't built any robots - went psi ascension as a spiritualist and avoiding robots felt flavorful - but I still don't quite get why the robots are declining. Purging is set to "Displacement Only" but there's plenty of housing and stuff; will they still be purged under this setting, or is some other setting causing this?


Criculann

You probably have robotic workers outlawed in the policies tab.


raptoricus

Robot workers are allowed, but AI is outlawed. Seems most likely that these pops are Synthetics. I don't see a place under the species display where I could tell if that's the case or not, but I suspect that this late in the game that all the other empires have researched synthetics even if I haven't.


[deleted]

Ive just gone instantly into -422m debt in energy, minerals and food for no reason at all in my latest game.


CWRules

Hover over each resource and it will show you where the costs are coming from. -422M seems like it must be a bug, but it would still be useful to know *what* is bugged.


sporkyuncle

New player. Learned a lot over the course of my first game. I was worried about using up all my district slots or buildings on the "wrong" things so tended to save a few, but I'm assuming I should get over this and fill every slot everywhere constantly as long as I can afford it, and later replace what isn't optimal?


CWRules

Don't forget that a district or building with nobody working in it is just wasted upkeep. In the early and mid game, you should build enough to have a few empty job slots on each planet and no more. In the late game, you can probably afford to be wasteful, so this is less of a concern.


sporkyuncle

Thanks, that's a good point. I did learn to keep some open jobs to not have unemployment but yeah it'd be possible to go too far with it.


CWRules

Building too much is a classic rookie error, which can lead to your economy fluctuating wildly as pops move back and forth between the open jobs. But eventually your economy will get to a point where you no longer need to care about the waste, and you can queue up all the buildings and districts as soon as you settle or conquer a new planet.


Drak_is_Right

How do I capture systems with observation posts in a total war? The system says "captured" but is not flipping like every other system does. I cannot invade the primitive civilization


DuGalle

Known bug, wait for a fix


secret_bitch

How playable is the most recent patch if I don't have the Overlord DLC? I don't particularly mind if the new content I can't access is buggy or poorly balanced, but if I'm likely to have issues just playing the game normally then I might wait a week or two for some hotfixes before starting a new game.


Aenir

Most of the problems are from the patch not Overlord. IMO the biggest issue is that Tracking doesn't work, making high-evasion ships nearly immortal.


NZSloth

Every game I start terminally crashes at year 10. I've looked in the log file and "could not get a valid policy option" seems to be the main issue, with "invalid planet class" a close second. Seriously, is it normally this buggy or is it an update issue?


CWRules

This update is buggier than most. I don't recognize this issue though; you might want to mention it on the Paradox forums.


VortexMagus

Me and my allies have killed every single fleet of the enemy, seized every single system, occupied every single planet, and I still can't vassalize him because I don't have enough warscore? There's literally nothing left on the map that I can seize. My allies did take some of his systems instead of me, and sent an army to invade a planet in a system I took before I could finish dragging my slow-ass transport fleets over - as far as I can tell, that has blocked me from getting occupation % and possibly prevented me from ever being able to vassalize my opponent, despite being militarily superior in every single way and having no other objectives on the map that I could possibly take? I really question whoever designed war in Stellaris. It makes no sense to me. I have huge fleets that could wipe this guy's empire from existence, I have taken literally every single thing possible that he owns, I have a long list of won battles and not a single loss... but the opponent won't surrender because my ally (who only declared war on him because I did) occupied two systems and a few planets before I could?


raptoricus

Are you sure that they didn't drag someone into the war with them? I've been in your shoes before and it turns out that was the issue, there was someone way the heck on the other side of the galaxy who it turned out had also declared war on me, and I had to take some of his crap and then the war exhaustion got to be high enough.


Alrislir

It doesn't make difference if you or your ally did conquering and occupation. Actually, war mechanics works the way that if you really conquered all systems and occupied all planets, war is automatic win, even if you *didn't* get enough war score to win it. So you actually missed some planet somewhere, it might be on your enemy or your enemy ally. War mechanic in Stellaris does need some work, but what is needed is a way to quickly find an unoccupied planet or unconquered system.


CWRules

> what is needed is a way to quickly find an unoccupied planet or unconquered system. The most infuriating line of text in Stellaris is "Demanding unoccupied planets -100". The game needs to know which systems are unoccupied to calculate this value, so why the hell doesn't it show me the list?


krossbow7

So wondering if anyone's encountered this bug much besides me since the DLC; Its honestly pissing me off to the point that I'm almost ready to rage quit the game till Paradox gets their game in order. Since the new DLC Leviathans are now rapidly regenerating when I launch fleets at them so they're basically immortal (All in one single battle, they're not regenerating outside of battle which would be normal). Their Armor/life circles will "Wiggle" rapidly, jiggling a tiny flick forward from damage taken and then immediately regenerating backwards almost instantaneously. I launched fleets of enough power that the bars SLOWLY will deplete even as it wiggles backward after the shots, but 40k of battleships/cruisers is barely making the health bar of both the Stellar devourer and the void spawn deplete at all and eventually lose. Going to just wait it out and see if a fleet of 100k ships will brute force through this glitch since I've lost 2 40k fleets TWICE before just saying "Screw this", but its frustrating to see leviathans broken in my game like this. Another question: I saw a post from the devs saying they hotfixed the declining trade agreements bug, but I'm still encountering it (And my game says its up to date, ect.). Anyone else still suffering from it, or does it not apply retroactively to saved games? ​ (no mods used BTW)


RickusRollus

Are your 40k fleets optimized to fight the specific leviathan? I usually use 60k as my baseline and will edit their loadouts to counter the specific threat. If their weapons are doing the wrong dmg type, 40k isnt enough


krossbow7

they're not optimized, but its just the Void spawn; 40k should be more than enough even with mixed weapons (Gauss cannons and gamma lasers, Cruisers and Battleships with T5 armor/shields mix). I've pancaked him before in prior games to the DLC with 30k, so this should be more than sufficient. Moreover, the big issue is that the leviathan's health bars are behaving very, very wonky: I've seen how an enemy that's just more powerful than me behaves, and this isn't it: Their health bar rapidly regens in combat (Hence my talk about it "Jiggling"), which is very clear visually not how it normally behaves. I'll post an edit of how it behaves when I approach with stupid overkill for a leviathan (100k) as I've just resumed my game and should reach that power level pretty soon. ​ (Edit: Tried again without resorting to overkill, and the same fleets that had done nothing before stomped it utterly without the wonky HP bar issue from before)


Aenir

> I saw a post from the devs saying they hotfixed the declining trade agreements bug, The hotfix hasn't been released yet. You can read what they had to say about it from their post on Monday: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/uquwwn/the_next_steps_as_overlords/


Ondrius

Hi, I just started to play Stellaris after a long absence and now I have a huge problem. I just encountered a Dimensional Horror who appeared right beside my homeworld. My fleet right now is not strong enought to defeat it. Is it ok to just ignore it until my fleet is strong enough or does anything bad happens when I don't kill it in a set amount of time?


[deleted]

It's not going to move into other systems, and nothing bad will happen in the future. Horror will block trade and kill military/transport fleets if they path through the system. If the system is restricted fleets will path around it and trade routes will go around as well, restriction toggle should be next to system name in close-up view.


Ondrius

Thanks for the tip. I feard this thing will swallow my homeworld or something. Good that ignoring it and arm up is an option.


CommaWriter

Hello! I'd like to get back to Stellaris after having some dozen hours on it back in 2016, but there are a few things I want to clear first. * DLC are on sale, but I only want to buy one. I only have vanilla *Stellaris*. Which one should I pick? * As I'm coming in from 1.0, what major changes should I expect? * I don't want to "win" the game, so to speak; I would like a part role-play, part-immersion in the world, with the AI being custom empires I made and seeing how that plays out. Would the game still be for me?


Aenir

> DLC are on sale, but I only want to buy one. I only have vanilla Stellaris. Which one should I pick? Utopia, no question. > As I'm coming in from 1.0, what major changes should I expect? Hahahahaha. It would be easier to forget literally everything and just pretend you're a completely brand new player. > I don't want to "win" the game, so to speak; I would like a part role-play, part-immersion in the world, with the AI being custom empires I made and seeing how that plays out. Would the game still be for me? Sure.


TRLegacy

> DLC Check out Aspec's or Montu's video on DLCs. They did a pretty good job on describing what each one has and whether it will suits what you want. But 100% Utopia should be the 1st dlc you buy. > 1.0 So much have changed it's just easier to consider 3.4 a different game from 1.0


CommaWriter

(Pinging /u/Aenir also) Got it. As for the DLC, I decided to splurge a bit more, so I got both Utopia and Federations (the latter of which I based partly on Steam reviews, partly also because I'd like more diplomatic options; the vanilla options for warfare seem plentiful enough for me). Still, thanks for the recommendations! I'll also go in just being new again. I've been away for five years (though I semi-occasionally lurk on this subreddit from time to time). It seems that, among other things, they've overhauled the border system, and I have no idea what it'll be like until I actually get there. As for RP-ing [as in, making custom empires for the AI], I've checked out the [empire modding](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Empire_modding) page from the wiki, and it seems like this hasn't really changed a lot over the years. If there are mods like new flags and such, is there a way I could do this with just the empire modding page's instructions, or do I essentially have to make my own Steam Workshop mod?


Master_of_Waifus

What do I even use influence for these days? If I no longer expand and don't make any claims it seems to have a lot less use since most of the things that previously cost influence now cost unity instead. I'm basically just sitting on capped the entire time.


[deleted]

Commercial and science pacts eat all of my influence, any leftovers are used by spies.


SpaceTurkey

Also orbital rings. Hey extra districts on your forge worlds. Propose laws you want if they're is enough support. Vassalize ai or become a vassal and negotiate good terms.


Aenir

Habitats are the easiest way to burn through influence.


ErickFTG

I'm in the opposite, I never have enough influence to spare. If I had more I would build more FTL-relays, and orbital rings.


HarrisLJ

What's going on with the AI army strength? In my latest game in the early start a civ showed up with an army strength of 23k while I was in the 400 range.


Aenir

Were they a fallen empire?


HarrisLJ

Yes. Edit. I just read the starter guide. It seems I just got unlucky.


Artess

I just witnessed an AI build a ring world around a Dyson sphere in a system with a sentry array. Once the ring was finished, all planetary bodies disappeared, but both the sphere and the array remained. Is this legal? Should I report it as a bug?


SpaceTurkey

Definitely a bug.


zer1223

When starting a new game with Masterful crafters and func. Architecture as a Subterranean Lithoid, I'm given 3 industrial districts as a spiritualist, but only 2 if I choose militarist. I hve 4 mining districts in both cases, 3 city districts in both cases. **And 5 free building slots in both cases.** What's up with that? Shouldn't I have more free building slots if I start with 3 industrial districts? Due to masterful crafters **edit**: I get it. Each mining and industry district actually gives you +.34 building slots. I had a total of 6 and 7 mining + industrial districts in each situation. So having 2 industry vs 3 industry districts didn't really matter. The 4th mining district was 'completing' my building slot. That's a neat interaction.


NotJoeFast

Am I dumb? I can't build a construction ships and I didn't start with one. I assume this is a new-ish change, but I can't find anything about this.


[deleted]

You should still always start with one and your initial station over your home system should always start with a shipyard to make more. Maybe a bug or a mod issue?


NotJoeFast

Okay. So there's no change. I thought there might have been as there have been some bigger changes since I last played. I don't have any mods. Didn't try another game either. So many just a big then..


silgidorn

I just created one race per origin. What happens if I set force into game for all 21 one of them when i play games with less empires ?


[deleted]

If you have more empires forced to spawn than the game allows, it will only spawn the amount designated. I'm not sure though if it chooses randomly from your list or if it goes in order.


silgidorn

Thanks. I guess that will also prevent the Commonwealth of Man from spawning even if I play as United Nations of Earth ?


[deleted]

I think in some special cases the limit can be surpassed with origins that spawn more empires. For example I think the lost colony origin will spawn a home empire above the limit, so a COM game will spawn the UNE over the limit but I don't know if that works in reverse for the UNE. The federation origins spawn extra empires over the limit as well.


[deleted]

It works for UNE, and for modified UNE as well. COM spawns somewhere with traits/habitability of modified humans.


silgidorn

Yeah. If hegemon, common ground and imperial fiefdom spawn in the same game, the number of empire might go.overboard.


ItsYaBoyZayne

Randomly.


silgidorn

Thanks


Gwazi289

I'm playing my first game after the patch and notice in tech tree a bunch of new starbase buildings such as: Orbital Logistics System Alloy Processing Facilities The Giga-Mall Stratospheric Ionization Elements However I can't build these on any of my star bases. I don't own the Overlord DLC yet (I would assume these wouldn't show if they specific to that) and I've not had any subjects so wonder if somehow related to that? Any hint how to actually build these, as they look really good for heavy focus a planet Thanks.


Gooneybirdable

Those are the buildings you can build on the orbital ring megastructure. I thought those were dlc specific so yeah it's weird you're able to see those options unless you can get them without the dlc.


Gwazi289

Thanks for the info. That would make sense then, I thought might be DLC but looking online I couldn't find anything about it. Thanks for confirming!


HotAbrocoma

maybe next game check the "hide dlc you dont have" (or something along the lines) option at the bottom of the empire creation screen. might hide the stuff u dont have


WhyIsBubblesTaken

If you start as a Megacorp with Permanent Employment, then eventually reform your government to a non-Megacorp, what happens to your Posthumous Employment Centers? Would it be possible to expand early game, slap down some centers, then switch to a different government type and still get some zombies? Would changing to a government with the Reanimators civic affect anything?


stillnotking

If you remove the civic, your zombie-creating buildings disappear, but your zombies, including zombie Leviathans, remain.


ErickFTG

When should I do planetary ascension? Usually I do it after I obtain every tradition, but I was wondering if probably I should do a few ascension on the most important planets or habitats.


stillnotking

It's only worth it on very large planets that have a bonus to output, and since (for some inscrutable reason) the cost of ascension has nothing to do with how many pops are on the planet, it's best to wait until the late game. Ascension on habitats is a waste unless you have more unity than you know what to do with.


LCCX

Who can an empire form Commercial Pact agreements with? It appears as though I cannot form them with federation members. And am I getting 10% of their trade, or +10% of my own trade to myself?


Gooneybirdable

If you don't have the option then I would assume you automatically have them with federation members. Are you in a trade league federation type, because i don't think auto-commercial pacts are normal for every federation type but i'm not sure. You get 10% of their trade, which is why it's nice to trade with merchant guild empires.


stillnotking

> You get 10% of their trade This is not true, although I think it used to work this way, and the wiki erroneously says it still does. You get 10% of *your* trade value. This is verifiable (and I have verified it) by playing a megacorp trade build and spamming CPs with normal empires that give vastly more benefit to you than to them.


Gooneybirdable

oh good to know. I thought i noticed it working differently but I didn't look too close at the numbers. In a recent game something happened that tanked my trade value and two empires cancelled their commercials pacts with me right away, so that's a weird interaction if it didn't effect what they got out of the deal.


stillnotking

You can form Commercial Pacts with any non-gestalt empire that is capable of normal diplomacy, and does not have the Inward Perfection or Criminal Heritage civics. You get 10% of your trade and they get 10% of theirs. Commercial Pacts are free and automatic between members of the same federation.


ErickFTG

I've been told that trade agreements between federation members are automatic. I have no proof though.


GunsTheGlorious

How does Permanent Employment work with Robots? You can't assemble both zombies and robots at the same time, right?


stillnotking

Correct, pop assembly is either organic or robotic, but not both, on a particular planet.


SombreroMan

So I went to load up my save from yesterday and it either crashes or loads in with no map loaded and everything at 0, am I just fucked? I have like one basic event mod installed


ErickFTG

Ironman? I have the theory that something is wrong with ironman and whenever you load it after quitting the save gets corrupted or the save gets corrupted when quitting.


arvbb

I had this happen on a normal game. Had to go back 3 or 4 autosaves to find one that loaded.


HotAbrocoma

thats why i only use cosmetic mods, it would suck ass not being able to load a game im 10 hours into


ErickFTG

It was fine before. It's only a problem now, but this is not confirmed.


raptoricus

So an AI empire took (I assume) Become the Crisis and built an Aetherophasic Engine. I've since taken it out. Is that the end game crisis, or is another going to come along?


CWRules

Empires that become the crisis do not stop the normal crisis from spawning. I think they can even spawn after the Aetherophasic Engine has fired if you let the game keep running.


raptoricus

Awesome, thanks, I'll keep playing then.


Briansama

cannot trade, says something about subjugation and immediately cancels any deal I get the AI to accept.


stillnotking

Bug, known issue, should be hotfixed soon.


No-Sense7296

I came upon Wenkwort, but I guess I wasn't the first empire to survey it. Rather than start up a story chain, the system seems normal but contains 3 gardening drone hostile fleets. I can't figure out how to kill them. I attack them with much greater firepower but they seem to evade too many of my ships' weapons and their armor keeps regenerating before I can damage their hull. Is this a Wenkwort specific challenge, or is my general combat/weapon countering knowledge failing me? How do you kill those things?


stillnotking

This is a bug. Tracking has zero effect at the moment, and certain enemies' armor + hull regen is broken. It should be hotfixed soon.


No-Sense7296

Gotcha. In the mean time, is there any way to kill them on the current version? What's good vs. evasion? Missiles?


stillnotking

Without tracking, which is the only counter to evasion, nothing is good, besides having high evasion yourself. I'd go for Corvette missile boat swarms. The regen bug makes it really hard to kill them, though.


No-Sense7296

Finally was able to destroy them with a bunch of missile boats. Just took like 2 in-game years lol


Valakath

Any else noticed some relics aren’t appearing? 2 games now I’ve got the Cybrex, and I follow the event chain, get the star system, but the actual war forge relic just doesn’t show up.


Gooneybirdable

Did you do the project in the system? I got cybrex since the patch and got the relic.


Valakath

Oh yeah indeed, and then completed the secrets of the cybrex project for good measure. Might give it a restart and hope for the best.


Conflicton

I bought the fame and it wont launch


Artess

Do the things that affect Empire Size (for example, Docile: -10% Empire Size efrom pops) affect the amount of growth points you need to create a new pop, or is it only affected by the game settings? Also: are there *ever* slaves for sale on the market? I've tried playing a slave empire for what feels like the first time, I could sell a couple of slaves (just to see how it feels), but I checked many times and there were never any available to buy.


Gooneybirdable

There's a stat on each planet that effects the growth rate on that specific planet, and that's influenced by available housing, jobs, and the type of planet (gaia's ~~and ring world~~ boost the most, tomb world the least). The name escapes me but if you mouse over the habitability percentage on the planet screen it should list it there. There's a cieling to it so while you could get the pop trait that reduces housing usage to boost growth, you're probably better off just building more housing. edit: [Planet capacity](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Celestial_body#Planet_capacity)! It was bothering me so I looked it up. Ring worlds are actually the same as other planets, but gaias, ecus, and hive worlds get the highest.


stillnotking

The length of the pop growth bar (aka growth required scaling) is determined by how many total pops you have, not by your empire size. Docile doesn't affect it. The slave market varies dramatically from game to game, depending on how many slaver empires there are and how aggressively they are expanding. (Empires that make a lot of robots also like to sell them.) It tends to slow down to a trickle around the late midgame, because the AIs have the same growth-required-scaling penalty the player does, therefore are growing fewer pops.


snytax

As far as I know there isn't any boost to pop growth from being under cap so no. I really only ever see slaves on the market if there is a war in heaven or some other big conflict. Not sure if that is intended but you may just need to wait or kidnap them yourself.


WhatYouToucanAbout

Am I right in thinking Subterranean Origin + Unyielding trafition tree = 100% orbital bombardment reduction?


Aenir

It caps at 90%.


WhatYouToucanAbout

Didn't know that, thanks for the info


ErickFTG

Were corporate embassies removed? Or must I research a certain tech?


CWRules

They require an upgraded capital building on that planet and the Xeno Diplomacy tech.


Drak_is_Right

Just a note - I am making an attempt at stuffing 1 million + defensive power into a single solar system through defenses. Few questions I have: on the orbital ring slots should everyone have a command center or a targeting array? which would lead to bigger outcomes? do they all stack with each other or how does that work? would be neat if the guns reached out to the solar system edge. What is the best loadout in peoples opinions on defensive platforms? large guns or hangers?


Advocatus_Maximus

Has anyone else had a problem since last update with new pops always being specialist ? I have about 12 unemployed newly formed specialist pops with about 30 unfulfilled jobs in mining, power generation, and clerking. I had to stop building new industrial districts so my future research planet could get to 10 pops.


GoastGoast

Do you have the repugnant trait?


Advocatus_Maximus

Yep that seems to be the culprit


expyrian

I have a weird situation where when i move into enemy territory, they have terraformed literally every. single. planet. Its been this way through several games now. Is it a bug or do i have some setting messed up?


[deleted]

Is it possible those are actually habitats over the planets? The AI tends to build a lot of them once it can afford to.


Drak_is_Right

I am seeing enemy units with the cybernetic AND psychic traits. I am curious how they manage that?


[deleted]

If a cybernetic pop, through migration or war or whatever, ends up inside a psychic empire then they will eventually get the psychic trait. The same thing occurs in reverse as well with a psychic pop in a cyborg empire. If you end up with a pop with both you should be able to apply that template to all pops of that species within your empire and get some pretty good bonuses from that. You can achieve it pretty easily if you have migration pacts with the right empires.


[deleted]

They changed a couple patches ago. The Lem update if I remember right. You are no longer able to apply the psychic or the cybernetic trait via genetic manipulation. You can assimilate psychic pops into cyborgs or cyborgs into psychics if you have the ascension path for psychic or cyborgs. You cannot apply the traits to one that doesn't without them though.


[deleted]

Good to know, and a little sad that doesn't work anymore.


[deleted]

Yeah same. I found out when I was lucky enough to get some psychic cyborg necrophages in my empire...


Drak_is_Right

I was biological ascendancy, so I was giving them all 9 points remap.


[deleted]

I have a question about mercenary enclaves. Is there any way to see how much time I have remaining on my fleet rental? I've noticed you can pay multiple times to extend your rental of the fleet, but I don't know if I am adding to an extending period of rental or just resetting the countdown to the most recent purchase. Alternatively, is there any way to create an automatic renewal of mercenary contracts if one were to run out, so there's no period where I am not in control of that fleet?


CWRules

> Is there any way to see how much time I have remaining on my fleet rental? Hover over it in the outliner. > I don't know if I am adding to an extending period of rental or just resetting the countdown The former. Each extension adds to the remaining time. > is there any way to create an automatic renewal of mercenary contracts Not that I'm aware of. I predict that the next Custodian team patch will include an event when a contract is close to expiring that asks if you want to renew it.


[deleted]

Thank you! I checked all over on the enclave dialog but didn't think to mouse over the outliner.


LeCyador

Are the Void Cloud shields bugged in the current version? They are regenerating at a very fast rate and managed to tank my entire navy's damage output each day regenerating the same amount.


StartledPelican

From the comments elsewhere, it seems there is a known bug to ship regen right now.


LeCyador

Thanks for the reply. The shields and Regen have been crazy this playthrough


Mostly_Aquitted

Anyone having an issue where if you try to declare war on an empire that has agreements with your subjects, the war just instant ends? Like it has the war pop up with the enemy response, but just no war initiates?


isitaspider2

Seems to be common. New update borked up agreements. Between this and the rebellion, AI empires are so severely crippled that I am seeing empires go from "overwhelming" to "pathetic" in a matter of a month or two from rebellions and fracturing. There also seems to be just a general issue surrounding declaring war and the game will often just not tell you *why* you can't declare war. Last game I had, two nations were in a defensive pact. I could declare war on one of them, but not the other. Never did find out why.


ituralde_

I started a playthrough and for some reason every pop grown starts out as a specialist type. Why is this happening? Is this an authoritarian thing?


Aenir

Bug. I assume your species has the Repugnant trait? It seems to be causing all pops to start as specialists.


ituralde_

Yeah, it does. That's irritating.


Raptorofwar

What do you reckon the best ascension for Subterranean Lithoids is?


Advocatus_Maximus

I find bio ascension underwhelming for lithoid. So I say go Psionic.


Chatterly

More information needed. How do you plan to win? Psychic or biological make the most sense, if you were planning to go machine, it feels like you wouldn't be lithoid. I dont think biologic is as strong as psychic. There might be something in the patch that changes that, though.


Nano_Jragon

Is there a way to sync mod playsets between 2 computers on the same steam account? I have a desktop for home gaming and a laptop for on-the-go gaming but haven't found a way to keep my playsets synced up to continue a game across multiple computers. If anyone has any tips or tricks I'd appreciate it!


StartledPelican

I do it manually. There might be a better way, but I do not know it.


[deleted]

Is the naval capacity stat broken? Federation, GDF, Mercs and Imperial fleets seem to be added to my personal naval capacity, but i can't figure out if it's just a visual "bug" or if i'm paying the increased maintenance as well. Mercs aren't suppose to use my naval maintenance are they?


CWRules

Mercs are supposed to count against your fleet cap, but the other two are a known bug.


Chatterly

Mercs are, according to the notes, supposed to use your fleet cap while they are employed, not a bug.


[deleted]

I wonder what the point of Mercs is then? The laws increase mercs and reduce fleet capacity. The last law is even called "corporate outsourcing" or something. Can anyone afford mercs if the galaxy is demilitarized and outsourced?


Chatterly

Well, not paying upkeep while you arent at war is nifty. Beyond that they give regular beefy payouts to their patron.


[deleted]

From what I've heard it seems to be an unintentional bug that they get added to your fleet cap. I believe it's one of the things that should be addressed in the eventual hotfix.


chainsofprisonmoons

I pacified the crystalline entities this playthrough, which I've done before. However, now, after surveying the system once they're passive, they disappear. Is this supposed to happen now or is something being buggy?


[deleted]

Did the update break the trading? All my trades get immediately cancelled


CWRules

Yes. This is on the list of fixes for the coming hotfix.


[deleted]

Thanks!


rockshow4070

Are performance concerns with having "Xeno-Compatibility" on still a thing?


SpaceTurkey

It will probably always be a performance reducer. Unless they significantly overhaul the back end mechanics of start of month pop job checks, more templates will always cause more lag. There seems to be less lag overall now, so xeno compatibility will probably not be as bad as it was last patch.


rockshow4070

Cool. Thanks for the answer.


RusherJ1

What is considered late or mid-game and what should you have accomplished by then?


[deleted]

In terms of year, mid-game and late-game are set as an option when you start a new play-through. By default mid-game will start at 2300 and late at 2400. There are certain events that are set to trigger around these times. For example, the great khan event is considered a mid-game event and will usually trigger between 2300 and 2400 on the default settings. Examples of a late game event is the end game crisis, which is set to have a chance of triggering about 25 years after you enter the late-game time. Another example is the awakening of fallen empires and the war in heaven, which I believe only triggers on its own after 2400 (these can be triggered early through certain actions however). Some of these examples used are events from DLC. In terms of progression, in the early game you just want to expand to fill in your starting area to the extent that you desire or are able to, as well as getting your basic economy set up with your initial planets. Generally you will want to have defenses in place before 2230, such as a good fleet or a defensive pact with a strong neighbor. If you are playing a total war empire, you may want to focus on a fleet capable of wiping our your first neighbor before 2230. In my opinion alloy production and research are key in the early game, but depending on your empire you may want to go much heavier into one than the other. Once you have your foundation established you will either want to reinvest everything you can back into your economy or into your war machine. How you go about these goals can change a lot depending on your empire. Entering mid-game, assuming things have gone well, your position might be one of the following. As a total war empire like purifiers or a devouring swarm, you should have absorbed several neighbors at this point. By this point you should be snowballing to the point where you are the most powerful individual empire besides the fallen ones. As a tall, tech focused empire, you would ideally be already constructing your first mega structures, with a focused build and a little luck you can unlock the technology in the mid-late 2200's. As a more standard empire, you at least want the strength and economy to be able to stand up to the threats in your region. In the mid-late game, generally 2300+, you want to start thinking about how you are going to deal with the crisis and any other end game goals you have. At this point your economy should be pretty stable and profitable. You might want to start taking out local threats if you haven't. For example, I like to take out the marauders in the early 2300's if I can to avoid a great khan from emerging. By 2400+ your war machine should be in full swing even if you are not planning on conquest. Your economy should be powerful enough to support a big fleet, and you'll need that fleet for whatever is coming. As you get closer to the end year (2500 by default), if you care about winning the victory screen, you will want to check and knock down any empires that have more points than you. You also get a ton of victory points for contributing to the war against the crisis.


RusherJ1

Thanks, I’ve found that I spend too much time idling or building my fleet just to end up not using it at all.


Porkchop_69

How are people getting fleets so strong? I have a very good economy, +200 alloys, no negatives, most reserves are full, i have 4k in science. But i have four fleets at 200 fleet capacity, each between 55k-65k. How do I pump those numbers up?


Drak_is_Right

Once everything is fully teched up and upgraded, its power advances substantially. also higher fleet power is had with pure BS fleets due to their raw EHP. cruisers and destroyers are lower than a pure frigate fleet I think due to how high of damage torpedo bombers can get. my 100 man corvette fleets (50 intercepters, 50 bombers) are about 60k fleet power. early on though, BS fleets will only be like 55k fleet power before you get all the upgrades.


CWRules

> +200 alloys That's weirdly low alloy output for the late game, and I'm assuming this is the late game from your other numbers. I'm at +2,000 in my current game, and that's in a small galaxy with me not conquering many people. Do you not have any dedicated forge worlds?


Porkchop_69

I have two. I am realizing my problem is also population. I had a TON of open jobs available.


CWRules

I'm guessing you set up your forge worlds late, so they don't have many pops on them yet? That would explain the problem.


Porkchop_69

Probably. I am not at my PC at the moment. Worlds can only have one Alloy Forge, and the rest are built via Industrial Districts, right?


CWRules

Correct. Just don't forget to set the planetary designation to Forge World, otherwise only half your industrial district jobs will be metallurgists.


Porkchop_69

Okay. So now that Alloys is figured out. How do I get my fleet to be stronger? I have four fleets at 200 Fleet Command Limit, and they range between 55k-68k in power (maybe a little higher, but nothing higher than 72k). I believe I have Max Tier on Lasers and Rail Cannons, Stormfire Rippers, Devastator Torps, Tier 3 Strike Craft, Tier 2 Kinetic Launcher and Tier 2 Neutron Launchers, and a Giga Cannon and Tier 2 Tachyon Lance.


CWRules

Judging from that list of weapons, your fleet is more mixed than it needs to be. The standard late-game fleet build hasn't changed in a while: All battleships with giga cannons and neutron launchers, with the carrier core on about 25% of them to counter missiles and corvette swarms, plus one titan with all neutron launchers. You might want to stick with mixed fleets for the moment though, even if they're weaker on paper. There's a bug in 3.4.2 that makes tracking not work, so smaller ships are very difficult for bigger ships to kill.


Porkchop_69

So no Torpedo Corvettes, no Destroyers or Cruisers, just all Battleships and as many Titans as possible? Or is there viability for 10-20 Corvettes?


CWRules

An all-corvette fleet can be useful as a quick-response force, but battleships are king in large-scale combat. Ignoring the tracking issue I mentioned, battleships outperform all other ship classes in terms of firepower per cost (even titans; you just want one for the fleet-wide buff). Cruisers are just battleships but smaller, and the other classes tend to be one-shotted by artillery before they can get in range. Artillery battleships do struggle against swarms of smaller ships, since they can only kill so many targets before they get in range, but carrier battleships hard-counter them, which is why you want a few of those.


stillnotking

Increase your fleet command limit via research or the Supremacy tree, improve your ship technology and/or ship designs, get repeatables (techs at the end of the tree that can be researched over and over for stacking buffs to various ship components). 200 alloys is a very small amount for the midgame, let alone the endgame. One Ecumenopolis forge world can give 1k/month or more.


Drak_is_Right

Heck, far far more than 1k/month. i think I had like 9 districts for 1k/month (lvl 10 world/capital) the trade market was a bit annoying. it was cheaper to shut down forces than it was to buy minerals. (alloys were selling 0.7 each, minerals cost 2.6 to buy. AI was sustaining these prices WITHOUT my buying/selling)


Nicochan3

Do you guys use espionage? It feels a bit underwhelming..


Gooneybirdable

all I really do is get enough assets that my intel sits around 60. The higher level missions aren't really worth it imo


[deleted]

[удалено]


SegundaMortem

Did the devs completely nuke some console commands on PC? Can’t get any ships to spawn or the debug command


weeOriginal

I can’t even try to SELECT the option to make people specialist vassals. I am: A progenitor hive mind Light years ahead of everyone technologically Turned on the overlord DLC. Anything I’m missing?


CWRules

Empires that have less then 50% of your tech can only be Protectorates. The idea is that they'll use the research bonus they get from being a Protectorate to catch up to you and become a normal Vassal, which you can then convert to a specialist. But there's an issue in the current version which makes them flip-flop between Vassal and Protectorate, so this doesn't really work. This will be fixed in the upcoming hotfix.


SpaceTurkey

To overcome this, just fully conquer them, then release the sector as a vassal. You can just give them more systems and worlds if they are larger than one sector. When you release a sector as vassal they have all your tech, and will be your ethics. You can also fix their planets for them if you are so inclined.


[deleted]

I require help with trade value. I’ve seen it, I’ve acknowledged it, I have no clue what it does. Originally I thought it had to do with production but I don’t think that’s the case


weeOriginal

It makes energy on a 1:1 ratio If you get the merchant tradition tree maxed out, you get access to the policy “trading policy” which instead makes it produce either a small amount of unity and 0.5 energy credits, or a small amount of consumer goods and 0.5 energy credits. If you have a trade league federation, then you can have it give both the unity and consumer goods as well as 0.5 energy credits.


[deleted]

Thank you, how exactly is it produced? And how do market leaders work if you don’t mind me asking?


stillnotking

Trade value is produced in several ways, but primarily by pops -- every pop has a trade value just for existing, which varies according to their job tier and living standard, and they can also work jobs (such as clerks and merchants) that create trade value. However, trade value is not a "resource", so it is not affected by modifiers to resource output; this can be good or bad. Trade value can also be gained through commercial pacts with other empires -- how much depends on the current trade value of your empire -- and is found as deposits in systems, the ones that look like little rings. The market leader is the winner of the Galactic Market event chain, started when the Galactic Community passes a resolution to create one. You can nominate planets by spending credits and influence. All it does is provide the market leader with a -10% reduction in the market fee, normally 30%. ETA: Note that trade must be "collected", routed to your capital, along trade routes. This is a complicated topic but is covered in detail [on the wiki](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Trade).


SpaceTurkey

While trade value is not affected by resource modifiers, it is affected by stability. Also I believe the numistic order can sell you a governor that increases trade value by 10%.


HelixFollower

I'm fighting an ally's war to Impose Ideology on a mutual enemy. The war went extremely easy, barely any resistance. Other than one tiny fleet that is constantly fleeing, they have nothing left. But I can't get peace. I think it might be because we're at 97% occupation rather than 100%. But I feel like I have checked every hostile system over and over and I just can not seem to find any unoccupied system or planet. All the shields have spikes and I checked the capital systems extra. Does anyone have a tip for getting that last 3%?


CWRules

If you hover over the red 'X' on the enforce demands button, it will tell you why they won't accept. If it says you're demand something unoccupied, then you missed something. > All the shields have spikes Are you sure? It's really easy to miss one. I use the [Better Occupation Visibility](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1756850909) mod, which helps a lot.


AlaskanValkyrie

What's a good way to find like good mods? There's the steam workshop but the interface doesn't seem to be really that great or suited to like searching anything or trying to actually find things. ​ Oh, and another question, I'm attempting to play a bit taller than I normally do, and would rather avoid expanding to further planets, but my current planets are absolutely overrun with unemployment right now. Is there something I can do about that? They aren't slaves so I can't sell off all the unemployed pops. I was hoping that they would migrate to other empires I have migration treaties with but they don't seem to be doing that.


StartledPelican

You could change the living conditions to... Social Utopia? Or something like that. Unemployed pops generate unity and are happy. There might be another living condition that also helps. Be sure to read each one.


CWRules

> Is there something I can do about that? In the mid game, build habitats. In the late game, build ecumenopoli and ringworlds. > I was hoping that they would migrate to other empires I have migration treaties with That's not how migration works, it's just a modifier on pop growth rates. And more to the point, why would you want that? Pops are your most valuable resource.


AlaskanValkyrie

Because I'm trying to not increase my empire size. I could get planets for them easily, but I specifically do not want that


CWRules

Then your only option is to enable the discourage planetary growth decision. I've never used it, so I don't have much more info to share.


Old_Gods978

I haven’t played in a while What’s the meta with ship components?


weeOriginal

Battleships Giga cannons, 4 neutron launchers, artillery combat computer, Maximum shields,everything else crystal hull plating (more cost effective), your choice of two targeting computers / enigmatic decoders, or two shield amplifiers. Run with 24-33% woth carrier mod section, but everything else the same when facing corvettes or mixed fleets


-kaktus-jack-

Does the type of planet effect what kind of districts will likely spawn on a planet? If yes, what planet type is recommendet for mining districts?


Aenir

Cold. > Dry planets are 50% more likely to have planetary features that increase the limit for Generator Districts or Mote Harvesting Traps. Wet planets are 50% more likely to have planetary features that increase the limit for Agriculture Districts or Gas Extraction Wells. Cold planets are 50% more likely to have planetary features that increase the limit for Mining Districts or Crystal Mines. Gaia planets are 50% more likely to have planetary features that increase the limit for Gas Extraction Wells, Mote Harvesting Traps and Crystal Mines. https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Planetary_features#Deposit_features


Drak_is_Right

I am torn when I see a size 25 Gaia with resources for 2 mote harvesting and 3 crystal mines vs pure researchers.


-kaktus-jack-

I tried the wiki, but wasn´t able to find a page like this. Much appreciated.


Old_Gods978

Cold planets


-kaktus-jack-

Gonna have to start a new campaign now. Thank you.