Ever since playing SS13 I’ve slowly been starting to play what I feel like are the stereotypical games that a good chunk of SS13 play (though I did begin playing rimworld a few years before I found SS13).
My first real attempt has kind of floundered, though I feel like playing as the Federation of Earth I’ve fit what would probably happen. I ignored a war for so long that what could’ve been a few hit and run battles has turned into giving my rival 16 years to obtain a superior army to me. At the same time, my ally and other rivals have become consumed by one giant civilization that I’m considering voluntary subjectivating myself to so I can at least have the hope of assistance as my insectoid rival attempts to “improve” me
Already happened, played it for a few hours a year ago but I couldn’t get into it because of the controls/UI and I couldn’t will myself through the difficulty curve. Though it’s still on my radar, ever since I got into Unreal World I’ve gotten much better at getting keybindings memorized and finally being done with academia I might have more time to commit to pushing through the curve.
Fun fact my most successful attempt at CDDA was all due to a lucky find of a full suit of plate armor, I also became unlucky enough to encounter a zombie hulk and got crushed like a tin can after two days of finding the armor
i mod the hell out of my stellaris ever since i got bored of vanilla…
Stuff like better AI, Giving them more alloys and making them more agressive.
Also stuff like stellaris evolved and/or gigastructures
Gullis also is nice to add sometimes and like 50+ other mods hehe
Update, started a new empire and had much more success and fun. Up until I didn’t realize the empire that largely ignored me the whole time was massively powerful and realize that I do not have the most powerful navy in the known galaxy that I thought I did. More surprised that I was doing so well with being relatively squished between my neighbors, but was able to get get important enough systems to be very defensive. I only wish I had decided to change my policy away from pacifism so I could finally absorb the ass hole neighborhood empire next door.
I tried pretty hard to like Stellaris but in most empire builder games, I am extremely expansionist, and Stellaris punishes you pretty hard for that. Plus, of course, its a Paradox games which means 100 surface level DLCs that add just enough to the game for them to be important, but just expensive enough for it to be really annoying.
Yeah that’s so far my main complaint about the game, but I at least looked into what DLC’s to get for Stellaris before the sale ended. Though I’m Black Friday I’m going to be getting more because of how much basic stuff is locked behind DLC. Not sure how a game can almost proudly display a entirely empty espionage menu because you didn’t get the Nemesis DLC
Another update, after a previous empire fell due to not realizing a wormhole gave me access to another empire I was at war with, I understand the game decently now. Almost had my economy crash after integrating a vassal and had a anti-climatic crisis as one of the fallen kingdoms wiped everything except the home world, which I took care of and obtained a artifact. I have about 40 years left before it ends but I am very eager for black Friday to come around so I can get more DLC’s (just have Utopia and a few alien packs). Otherwise, I think this is the first game since Rimworld that has gotten me sucked this deep into the game I spent about my entire day off playing it.
Late game got really boring with having nothing else meaningful to research (the other empires actually left the fallen empires be and didn’t get into any fights to allow me to get their tech), and I currently wish I had more stuff to discover midgame after I got the bulk of expanding my empire done.
For DLCs, I’d recommend Distant Stars, Utopia and Apocalypse.
Distant Stars adds a new type of gateway around blackholes called “L-gates”, and a whole lot of exploration events.
Utopia adds Ascension paths (and maybe? ascension perks? I do not know). Unique ascension perks that allow you to change your empire drastically. and mega structures. a somewhat good source of late-game content. along with a whole bunch of other stuff like habitat stations and hiveminds (It is the prerequisite for the mod gigastructural engineering. which adds… a lot of mega structures. along with a few crises.)
And apocalypse. it isn’t that important out of the other two, all it adds are a new early-mid game hazard called marauders, along with a new ship class called the Titan. But the main thing about this DLC is its world-crackers. Colossus ships allow you to destroy your enemies’ worlds.
Yeah I got utopia and the plantoid and aquatic species pack. Keeping my eye on apocalypse and two other DLC’s, along with lithoid and necroid species packs
