# Stellaris - 4X/Grand Strategy Hybrid from Paradox **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 14, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001 "2016-03-14T18:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/221 "2017-05-11T15:29:58Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > Does anyone else have a galaxy full of peaceniks? My rather war-like game has become…pacifist. Everyone is a pacifist. There’s two large federations, another significant lone wolf, and a few scattered empires just waiting to be assimilated. I’ve been declaring liberation wars just to create more small assimilation targets, because NO ONE wants to fight. It’s become rather stale, and there’s no endgame crises in this run. As much as I love trying to reach the top of the tech tree, this game is starting to suck. Yes, it’s a known issue. An unfortunately typical problem with Paradox patches: breaking something when they improve other things. They will fix it, probably with a hotfix in the next week. And checking their forums, there is already a live public beta for 1.6.1. You can manually chose this version in the beta tab from the game in Steam. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/222 "2017-05-11T16:40:24Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Yes, it’s a known issue. An unfortunately typical problem with Paradox patches: breaking something when they improve other things. They will fix it, probably with a hotfix in the next week. > > And checking their forums, there is already a live public beta for 1.6.1. You can manually chose this version in the beta tab from the game in Steam. From everything I’ve read, I’m already in a live public beta. It’s not my first Paradox rodeo, this one bug caught me off guard when I realized who widespread the issue was last night. With how complex Paradox games are, and how understaffed their QA department seems to be, it’s understandable. Not game-breaking, just weird. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/223 "2017-05-11T18:34:43Z")
One of their QA guys posts on another forum, and said that there was a new build right before release that broke a bunch of things that were working when they tested it. Mostly I suspect that the marketing department is to blame; releasing Adams on the anniversary of the release of Stellaris is a marketing-type decision. And that kind of hard, arbitrary release date does have a history of screwing up the work of the people actually developing the game. > [@Pleonast](#): > > Yes, it’s a known issue. An unfortunately typical problem with Paradox patches: breaking something when they improve other things. They will fix it, probably with a hotfix in the next week. > > And checking their forums, there is already a live public beta for 1.6.1. You can manually chose this version in the beta tab from the game in Steam. The beta apparently has the fix. The list of fixes: > [@](#): > > - Fixed AI never declaring war > - Fixed egalitarian faction unhappiness wrongly being generated by having robot “slave” Pops > - Fixed issue with AI empires switching ethics far too frequently > - Fixed a bug allowing you to terraform planets you don’t own in contested space > - Fixed wrongly stacking “was enslaved” happiness modifiers > - Fixed graphical error with Ringworld skies > - Fixed issue with War in Heaven where total occupation would not equal 100% warscore, leading to neverending war > - Added back a couple of old diplomacy rooms and fixed black background on older ones > - Fixed not being able to construct spaceports around Ringworld sections > - Fixed wrong tooltip text on Armageddon bombardment stance > - Hive Minds can now properly use Full bombardment stance > - Fixed egalitarian faction issues appearing before you have any contact with alien empires and thus no ability to fulfil them > - Devouring Swarms now properly get -1000 opinion penalty due to being, well, Devouring Swarms > - Fixed a rare crash when planetary Pops are destroyed > - Fixed crash when rebels take over a planet and defect to another empire > - Fixed missing isolationist faction issue name > - Fixed numerous missing loc strings in languages other than English and Russian > - Can now properly rename civilian ships again > - Fixed missing animation for Armageddon bombardment > - Fixed event that was endlessly firing in the background, causing a performance hit > - Fixed an issue where Xenophobe fallen empire opinion penalty for frontier outposts was calculated strangely, leading to incorrect war declarations > - Fixed primitive enlightenment failing in the early game > - Fixed AI nonsensically replacing buildings in a wasteful way, disregarding tile resources ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/224 "2017-05-11T19:07:43Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Stellaris is the featured game in this month’s [Humble Monthly](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly). People who subscribe for $12 (you can cancel before next month) get Stellaris immediately and then another six games to be announced in early June. Thank you for this. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/225 "2017-05-18T01:24:04Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Thank you for this. I am having so much gun with this game. Does anyone know how to combine fleets? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/226 "2017-05-18T01:30:33Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > I am having so much gun with this game. Does anyone know how to combine fleets? Select two fleets and press “G”. There is a button on the UI, top left of the fleet window. Note, there’s new rules on combining fleets. You cannot combine fleets in FTL cooldown or undergoing upgrades. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/227 "2017-05-18T07:45:52Z")
Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/228 "2017-05-18T14:00:38Z")
The game is great right now, from my perspective. In my current game, I seem to be the only xenophile in my quadrant of the galaxy. That’ll make things “interesting” after I integrate all the xenophobes into my empire. I’m playing a xenophile, spiritual, militarist empire: enter into our communion of all species, or else. 🙂 > [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > Note, there’s new rules on combining fleets. You cannot combine fleets in FTL cooldown or undergoing upgrades. I think you can, in the sense that it becomes a queued action that won’t happen until the cooldown or upgrade completes. You can also merge fleets that are in different systems, and they’ll travel to make it so. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/229 "2017-05-18T14:19:14Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I think you can, in the sense that it becomes a queued action that won’t happen until the cooldown or upgrade completes. That has not been my experience. The UI button is completely grayed out when fleets cannot be grouped. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/230 "2017-05-19T13:32:15Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > That has not been my experience. The UI button is completely grayed out when fleets cannot be grouped. You are correct! It turns out I was selecting a bunch of fleets and shift-clicking to send them to the same star system. And then later doing the merge. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ It turns out xenophobes don’t like moving from their own planet when they’ve been “integrated” into a multi-species empire. They self-segregate. Although I notice a few dissident xenophile pops of the same species on their homeworld. Maybe they’ll eventually move out. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ On a relatively new colony of borderline habitability, the colonists found some old precursor terraforming equipment. I had the option of dismantling it for minerals or activating it. I pushed the shiny button, because who doesn’t want a better environment? It turns out these precursors were ammonia-based lifeforms. Wiped out everyone on the planet. :smack: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ On another new colony, several years after founding it, I got a call from a Fallen Empire, “hello, you settled on our sacred planet, prepare to die”. I immediately capitulated. No sense wasting effort on a doomed cause. They razed the colony, as promised. And then executed my empress. That wasn’t in the peace terms! :eek: There will be payback for that one. In two hundred years or so. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/231 "2017-05-19T13:48:24Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > On another new colony, several years after founding it, I got a call from a Fallen Empire, “hello, you settled on our sacred planet, prepare to die”. I immediately capitulated. No sense wasting effort on a doomed cause. They razed the colony, as promised. And then executed my empress. That wasn’t in the peace terms! :eek: > > There will be payback for that one. In two hundred years or so. 😛 I accidentally annoyed a FE, an isolationist, in my latest game. I honestly thought the two worlds were outside of his exclusion zone, but apparently not. So he declares war and I gather my entire fleet (about 40K at the time) and prepare to defend against his 77K. I did this not because I thought I could win, I wanted to destroy some of his ships to get the debris. It worked. I lost two planets but got some very nice technology. So decades later, I build up a 125K fleet and escort two colony ships up to the lost worlds and re-settle them. Then I contact the FE and send him an insult. Come at me Bro, see what happens. He attacks and gets utterly wiped out. At this point, I’ve essentially won. There’s nothing that can stop me from wiping everybody out. I have enough naval capacity to get enough fleet power to stop any crisis. The only thing that could really go wrong is if the Unbidden show up and I can’t hit them immediately but that’s not an interesting enough scenario to keep playing it out. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/232 "2017-05-19T14:02:58Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > On a relatively new colony of borderline habitability, the colonists found some old precursor terraforming equipment. I had the option of dismantling it for minerals or activating it. I pushed the shiny button, because who doesn’t want a better environment? It turns out these precursors were ammonia-based lifeforms. Wiped out everyone on the planet. :smack: That’s one of the events with several different possible result; some good, some bad, and one disastrous. You got the latter. Also, if you lack terraforming tech dismantling the equipment will unlock it for you. However it adds a permanent happiness penalty to the planet. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/233 "2017-05-19T23:23:15Z")
I feel like a cheater because I eliminated Pirates but they were really ruining my enjoyment of this otherwise awesome game. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/234 "2017-05-22T16:09:40Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > I feel like a cheater because I eliminated Pirates but they were really ruining my enjoyment of this otherwise awesome game. Pirates? They are super easy to deal with. even if you’r caught without a fleet, you might loose a few orbital stations, but they always give you time to build more ships before they attack again. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/235 "2017-05-22T19:19:51Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Stellaris is the featured game in this month’s [Humble Monthly](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly). People who subscribe for $12 (you can cancel before next month) get Stellaris immediately and then another six games to be announced in early June. Allow me to add my thanks. Signed up both myself and my son, we started a LAN game last night. So far, I am digging this game. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/236 "2017-05-22T20:23:27Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Pirates? They are super easy to deal with. even if you’r caught without a fleet, you might loose a few orbital stations, but they always give you time to build more ships before they attack again. This. I finally started keeping a fleet close to the limit, realizing the upkeep costs are not incredibly significant. Pirates are free tech once they pop up. Kill the fleet, trace back to the hideout, send in science ships for research. Has the fix-it patch come out yet? I got bored being the only aggressive species in the galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/237 "2017-05-22T20:49:33Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > This. I finally started keeping a fleet close to the limit, realizing the upkeep costs are not incredibly significant. Pirates are free tech once they pop up. Kill the fleet, trace back to the hideout, send in science ships for research. > > Has the fix-it patch come out yet? I got bored being the only aggressive species in the galaxy. 1.6.1 has fixed the no wars but there’s still some serious bugs. One issue is that the AI does not build very efficiently massively overbuilding food and power. The second serious issue it that AI terraforms planets a lot and irrationally. I’d suggest upping the difficulty level to give the AI an economy boost to balance things out. However, the game is pretty playable otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/238 "2017-05-22T23:21:52Z")
Ok…you guys are right. Pirate file reinserted. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/239 "2017-05-23T05:51:30Z")
In my latest game I had four anomilies in my home solar system. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001/240 "2017-05-23T13:43:33Z")
That’s always fun. In my latest, I’ve started at the very end of a spiral arm. Only hyperlanes are allowed, so I have mine own little corner. Time will tell if it’s stronghold to dominate the galaxy from, or box I’m trapped in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellaris-4x-grand-strategy-hybrid-from-paradox/749001.md?page=13)