Do you find that there are more pirates/aliens at the end of spiral arms?
Not really, since there are fewer stars at the ends. Maybe in some games, if no empire’s borders reach the end, then pirates/monsters can lurk.
Verdict: trapped in a box. The next empire over was a fanatic spiritualist fallen empire, which basically cuts me off from the rest of the galaxy. Got to love the cruelties of the RNG.
I’ve found some weird bugs. Some transport ships got grouped into an unnamed fleet not in the galaxy. Completely inaccessible, yet still counting against the army cap. And after I went Psionic Transcendence, some pops still stayed normal. I worked-around both editing the savegame.
May I ask how long a typical game lasts? It seems like s large game might last hundreds of hours. And there is much dead time. I bring a book for the long slow periods. Still enjoying it though.
Anywhere from a couple hours to hundreds of hours. I typically have several games I switch between. Stellaris’ save system makes it easy, with the saves grouped by “game”. I’ll play each one off-and-on either I’m until I’m either bored with it or an update breaks the save. (Or the empire dies a glorious death. 
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The indeterminacy of the end is the best part of sandbox games. (I play the same way with other Paradox games, The Sims, and MMOs.) You play until it’s not fun and then try something different. Replay with a different setup or mod the game for different behavior.
Thank you. Excellent advice because i get stuck into a single way of play…human…large galaxy …fewer civs. Cant wait for the weekend.
I have made contact with the Penis People…they are hard but friendly.
Yeah, I’ve never been able to think of them as anything other than Penis People either.
Just a reminder to anyone who got the game through the Humble Monthly bundle that the other June bundle games were unlocked and to cancel your subscription unless you intend to keep subscribed.
Plague Inc and Shoppe Keep were included…fun little games.
I finally got this game and played it all weekend. Really enjoying it – I love the variety of findings and events when exploring the galaxy. So far interactions with other empires have been pretty mundane – I actually found observing and eventually elevating the “less advanced” species I’ve found to be more fun. It’s quite satisfying to elevate them from the dark ages, then make them a protectorate, and then fully integrate them as citizens into my empire.
I love that the galaxies are really big – exploration has always been my favorite part of these kinds of games. Next game I may do a huge galaxy with only 1 or 2 other races!
One question – what are “fallen empires”? Are those just other empires that are particularly powerful? I don’t think I’ve come across one yet, at least not very clearly.
Basically they’re civilizations that established themselves ages ago. They’re technologically superior and possess massively powerful fleets at the start of the game - 40k or so. The will kick your ships out of their region, close borders and basically tell you get off the lawn. It is possible that they’ll wake up and reassert themselves in the galaxy or even go to war with another fallen empire (think Vorlonsvs. Shadows from B5).
There are four kinds iirc. Look at their description. If they are xenophobes and isolationist they will not allow you to colonize around them. Never colonize a planet that had a name…Pristine Jewel for example because they will attack you. Even if you give it back they will execute your leader to shame you. Another FE is much friendlier. They might ask for a pop but they will occasionally offer gifts of their own.
The Stellaris reddit is very helpful as the game is very deep. Make sure you have the correct fleet composition before you take one on.
Thanks! Do they control large areas, or just a single system?
They tend to not be too large 4-5 systems maybe but I’m sure it depends. I’d say a mid game empires will cover more space.
Which, at least in the last version that I played, was actually very helpful as a democratic society, because you get a new leader and new set of objectives, so you could get more bonus influence.
iiandyiii…if you like discovery use your initial 3 corvettes to explore your immediate area; especially looking for habitable planets.
Or, click the ~ and type observe to see the planets and empires in your galaxy.
I’ll try that next time. Though I think the ~ cheating would take the fun out of the exploration.
It does. But playing close to a fanatical purifier empire (slavers and genocides) really isn’t fun, for me at least. Take them out as soon as possible.