[Stellaris] Actual Universalis

I'm ready go tonight. There's a party, alright. We don't need the raisin for joy, oh yeah. Tick down to midnight.
User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Sat Sep 29, 2018 1:02 pm

Caitians are in there somewhere, but the Kzinti aren't. Which is weird 'cause I think those... bird people... from that other TAS episode are in, for some raisin. If the surrender specialists are the strategema dudes, they're in; if they're from that surrender-y race a la that dude Picard shared a cell with one time, then no

I also wonder if maybe there's no reference material for where all their homeworlds would go, or some could possibly be getting sorted as pre-warp civilizations. Or even with 1400 stars on the base map, there could just not be enough room to add every race from every quadrant without making a lot of concessions. Especially for Alpha/Beta races. They could probably go nuts for Gamma/Delta if they wanted.

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Sat Sep 29, 2018 1:11 pm

Yeah, maybe my Caitians got pre-warped like the Denobulans did. Yeah, I meant the cell guys. I mainly remember them from Birth of the Federation because they were always the easiest to roll in to your empire, regardless of which one you picked.

There's a bunch of mostly canon-sourced but not actually canon star charts out there, with a new edition of that coming out in October. And yeah, the focus would definitely be on shoring up the Gamma and Delta quadrants for sure in such a mod-mod.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Sat Sep 29, 2018 1:17 pm

Also, it's interesting that New Horizons went to the trouble of adding the non-canon Garidians from A Final Unity, maybe if only 'cause it opens the door for other races from old Trek games, like the effin' Chodak we saw in Echoes From The Past :pac

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Sun Sep 30, 2018 4:46 pm

Did You Know Gaming: The New Horizons mod is a nightmare of disorganized coding that makes it nigh impossible to add anything to. Which is a shame, as I kind of narrowed down who I wanted to add. I'll keep digging and see what I can do.

The Kzinti in the Alpha Quadrant. Can slow down a rampaging Sheliac or Deltan expansion.
The Kinshaya in the Beta Quadrant. They're a Trek EU race who annoy the Klingons a lot with raids.
The Chodak, Del's faves, have a ton of video game lore because they appeared in a bunch of them for some raisin. It seems they exist on "the other side" of the Romulans, so that's Beta Quadrant.

Gamma Quadrant is fricking hard as even the Trek EU just focuses on the Dominion to the neglect of nearly all else. But there's...

The Aresians, a bunch of warrior nerds who found an Orb and interpreted its visions of unity as visions of annexing and so now beat people up to unite them.
The Parada, from DS9. They're the dorks from the episode with the Evil Clone O'Brien. They're also in STO, apparently.
The Eunacians, from ECHOES FROM THE PAST! They're gaunt green-skins who apparently originated in the Gamma Quadrant so, in you go!

There's a bunch from the Delta Quadrant. To the point that I can't believe they put those one-episode bird head people from season 1 of Voyager. But that's the joy of community mods, everyone contributes their passion piece!

The Malon, the quadrant's illegal garbage dumping aliens.
The B'omarr, some caged faced doofuses who made Voyager fly around their territory because Seven freaked out at them.
The Devore, a bunch of Foreheads who hate telepaths.
The Hierarchy, weird bureaucratic lumps who turned up in a few late season Voyager episodes and some STO stuff.

Although adding new empires may be a no-go, changing the map is a comparative doddle.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:31 am

I'm surprised the Malon and Hierarchy aren't in already. Voyager was so full of one-shot aliens that even just appearing twice feels like an accomplishment.

I think the Dominion in New Horizons would benefit from having empire mechanics similar to the Federation, but more aggressive. If the Founders are playable, giving them an event path to create the Vorta and Jem'hadar, which then let you go around the quadrant bullying other powers into Dominion leadership, might be one way to go. DS9 didn't really make the exact political workings of the Dominion all that clear, but I got the impression folks like the Karemma and Dosi were semi-autonomous but still under Dominion subjugation to some extent. Stellaris vanilla vassal/coalition mechanics might already be enough to make this work?

Or like Star Control 2's Ur-Quan, the Dominion makes anyone useful a semi-autonomous "battle thrall" and anyone who isn't as useful or resists gets their homeworlds trapped under slave shields or wiped out.

Weyoun implies/boasts (perhaps twisting the truth a little) that the Dominion has been around for thousands of years, but who knows in what form, so.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Tue Oct 02, 2018 6:31 pm

https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/statu ... 3431691264

Can't wait to see where the big mods like New Horizons take new systems like these planetary decisions.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:10 pm

Random thought: the Husnock are probably too powerful for a race whose on-screen military prowess was an illusion cooked up by an elderly Real Doll enthusiast

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Wed Oct 03, 2018 2:41 am

A Trek EU novel has them painted as pretty strong. (This is actually one of the few fun ideas for a Trek novel, Starfleet sends the Titan to investigate the former Husnock space. Planets still have infrastructure, ships are just floating in space, etc.)

But the real raisin is because there's nothing near them on the Stellaris map so unless the Romulans and Klingons both expand east, which is not a guarantee, the Husnock have free reign to expand from the border with Delta Quadrant all the way to Alpha.

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:01 am

My cheapest tactic yet.

> Want to get Orion in the Federation.
> I vastly overpower them but can't cast Protectorate because they're Unfriendly (-1000 modifier)
> I ply them full of trade deals and relationship bonuses.
> Then I gift them all the systems they had claims on, which was really tanking the Opinion score.
> That gets them to like +2. Cast Protectorate, begin Federation incorporation immediately.
> Six years later, regain all the systems I signed over as well as Orion's original systems.

User avatar
Falcon Critical
Got Seniority
Posts: 4616

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Falcon Critical » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:42 am

Now THAT'S some hot space politics!

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:53 am

Jeez. Thankfully for you, there is no law to fit that crime.

In my Andorian game, it's nearing the middle of the 23rd century and the Federation still hasn't formed. The Tellarites lead a coalition - the 61 Cygni Alliance, or something - which includes Earth, Vulcan, Trill, Denobula, and after pulling a trick a little like Layfield's, the Orions - in their case, they fought a war against the Orions that forced 'em to adopt their governing ethics, then allied with 'em afterwards. But they've never moved beyond the vanilla Stellaris coalition thing and into the New Horizons UFP system.

Instead of cozying up to those dudes, I found myself partnering with the Acamarians. Together we've fought four major wars, two each against the Suliban (offensive) and Romulans (defensive) and we've won all of 'em. The Second Suliban-Acamar War was the end of the Suliban as an independent power, afterwards we split their space between us, Acamar taking the south and my Andorians taking the north. As a consequence, we both now border the massive Husnock to the east and the Klingons to the south. We're gonna have to be careful there.

The Romulans have declared on me twice, each time with claims on basically all my systems. Unfortunately for them, I've slowly whittled their space down with my own claims across both wars, adding significant territories along my northern frontier. Romulus itself is now directly on our border as a result. A third war could put their capital in danger and maybe knock them right out of their native spiral arm to their distant holdings near the galactic core.

The Romulans fight better than the Suliban, but they have an odd tendency to retreat very early. Sometimes they'll have a fleet besieging one of my starbases, but will bug-out the second one of my relief fleets arrives on the scene, not even bothering to put up a fight. In fleet-on-fleet engagements, they often pull out of combat the moment they lose a ship bigger than a patrol frigate. This is sorta true to form for the Romulans in canon, who rarely take fights unless they know they can win, but it does mean that I really have to put in extra effort to corner them or chase them down, otherwise it's a constant whack-a-mole game against multiple Romulan fleets. Could be that all Romulan admirals have the disengagement traits. 🤔

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:34 am

Oh yeah! Bajor is dead. I think they got shuffled into the pre-warp civilizations bin, then nuked themselves. Having never been able to push out there before the Cardassians, I don't know what a dead Bajor means for the wormhole discovery events, if those events are in New Horizons at all. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Last time I ran a game of New Horizons for that long it was before 2.0 and they didn't have the newer wormhole systems available yet, so

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:43 am

Hmm I wonder if the AI can form a Trek-style Federation at all. That might be tricky to code in, I dunno.

I got the Wormhole discovery in my game. It was lore accurate but by that time, everyone knew everyone on the map so it wasn't so thrilling.

The Federation's "no aggressive war" policy is such a pill for forming alliances.

I think the raisin why some of the factions got shuffled into my pre-warp bin is because I changed the default settings for the map. Maybe if I had kept it strictly default it would have been fine.

I have never been in a war in this playthrough. No one declares at me. Sad face.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:54 am

If there's a way to prevent the Alpha/Beta powers from contacting the Gamma/Delta folks, and vice-versa, before the 24th century, or whenever they make the right discoveries, that would be neat. I have no clue if that's even possible though.

...that said, I've noticed in my game that most of the galactic core is filled with generic pirates and other unfriendlies, whom the AI empires never bother clearing out on their own, so all those systems remain unexplored for ages. So maybe the non-wormhole routes in Gamma/Delta could be gated the same way.

Ideally, whoever gets to Bajor (or Bajor themselves) should get the wormhole discovery event chain, and it should be time-gated by tech research, like... some specific sensor tech, or whatever. Unless you can gate events to specific years, which you can probably do, judging from how the USS Franklin always seems to vanish at the same time if yer playing as United Earth.

An event chain for the Barzan wormhole could be fun too. More fun than that episode, probably. A United Earth/Federation player could also get a USS Voyager disappearance event chain that opens up the Delta quadrant.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:07 am

I denied the Acamarian's requests to start a war with the Klingons so many times I'm now at -400 opinion, they've ended our coalition, and now they're starting to make claims on my systems. :pac

Get smoked Acamar, you one-episode nobodies, I hope the Gatherers pull an NWO on all yer asses. I'm cozying up to the big 61 Cygni coalition now, hoping to join just as soon as they wrap up their foreverwar with the Tzenkethi, preferably before the Acamarians come after me. Maybe then the UFP events will finally fire?

Meanwhile, the Husnock have broken Lyridian space into a small peppering of little enclaves, so they're now touching tips with the Borg along the Beta/Delta border. The Romulans, unable to make any gains against my Andorians, have now started invading the Deltans and Saurians.

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Fri Oct 05, 2018 5:57 am

Delthazar wrote:
Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:07 am
I denied the Acamarian's requests to start a war with the Klingons so many times I'm now at -400 opinion, they've ended our coalition, and now they're starting to make claims on my systems. :pac
I had a similar problem with the Antedians and their hate-on for Cardassia until I realized if I just let the request hang, I'd still get the negative hit when it expired but not as many as voting no immediately every time they ask. (I also gave them a one-sided trade deal just to bump the numbers up).
Spoiler for 26th Century Galaxy Map :
Image

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:30 am

The Acamarians did eventually declare war and I took 'em to the woodshed, conquering about 3/4 of their space, pushing 'em off Acamar itself and all the way to the Orion Nebula region and Exile, the former Suliban home system. Serves 'em right. They're now getting stomped again by the Klingons... and the Son'a... and the distant Bolian/Deltan/Saurian coalition. Soon as the Klingons get around to invading Haven it'll all be over. Any year now. Boy are they in zero rush.

Annoyingly, I did lose one of my conquered Acamarian colonies to unrest, and despite holding claims on many outpost systems, a lot of 'em became unclaimed and unsurveyed when the war ended, which I don't really understand. In the time it took me to re-survey, the rebel Acamarian colony managed to get an outpost in one. Pfft.

The Romulans went to war with the Lyridians shortly after that, which triggered my defensive pact. Long story short, the Lyridians got some breathing room, taking a large chunk of the Romulan outposts near the galactic core, and I pushed my borders in even further, including taking Romulus and Romii. The Deltans & friends decided to declare on the Romulans themselves immediately afterwards. Again, once the AI can figure out how to handle its ground troops, this could be the end of the Romulan Star Empire, assuming they don't somehow hit war exhaustion first.

I am now the equivalent or better of every power in the galaxy except the Borg and the unaffected races. Of those, the Cytherians have "awoken," in vanilla Stellaris terms, but haven't moved on anyone yet.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:17 pm

Stellaris has a very good social media team

https://twitter.com/StellarisGame/statu ... 5749870594

so yeah, new expansion coming, and it'll be very corporate, for all yer Weyland-Yutani/Uxbridge-Shimoda LLC roleplaying ambitions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw50QvQ8-C4

big dev stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_dBjqTmts

big dev diary aboot how the megacorp stuff will work

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/in ... s.1125380/

big... headaches from the corpspeak

https://twitter.com/Martin_Anward/statu ... 2702193665

Anyway I'm hoping this whole thing will bring back fond memories of playing as Morgan in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdCB9yE9Hcc

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:25 pm

I really gotta get whatever DLC has these extra voice packs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s9vAFE2ESY

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:47 pm

New Horizons still hasn't updated for 2.2, but they're at least dropping a couple nuggets of info
The Ferengi, and a few other species, will indeed turn into megacorp if you have the DLC. At least, as soon as we release.
...unfortunately I don't have the Megacorp expansion so I won't be able to show this off. :pacdown

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:10 pm

New Horizons 2.2, what's up

Image

what's up is that I'm United Earth and I find myself in a position where the Federation formation probably won't happen. :pacdown

all 'cause the Vulcans and Andorians formed one coalition and the Tellarites and myself are in a different coalition, which splits the founding worlds 2-2; you need at least three (and maybe one alternate like the Denobulans as a fourth chair.) The Andorians were friendly at first, but have recently closed their borders and broken every deal. I don't think they like the Tellarites either. So this will make uniting the two coalitions and getting the Federation event a real pain, if it's even possible at all.

This always bones United Earth the worst because of space geography. Look at me there, landlocked directly in the middle of all those border blobs, with nowhere left to expand without overspending to get to the other side of someone else's space and probably tanking my Sprawl rating. The other three founding worlds all expanded really fast this time. Woof.

With this little space and therefore not a lot of resources and no Federation formed, I'm probably screwed if any of the crisis events fire in or near my territory. Saw the Doomsday Device vore United Earth alive the last time something like that happened. RIP.

User avatar
John Layfield
Make sure John Layfield looks strong!
Posts: 2568

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by John Layfield » Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:47 am

I like the font though, very Trek stellar cartography books.

User avatar
Delthazar
Why, helllooo!
Posts: 12001

Re: [Stellaris] Actual Universalis

Post by Delthazar » Tue Mar 05, 2019 6:44 pm

The console port of Stellaris is looking solid. I'm not 100% sure about some of the new console-specific UI choices, but that's gotta happen for gamepad support to work naturally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0cHKt5Mq-8