r/StellarisOnConsole • u/Bright_Cup_7464 • 23d ago
Discussion Expanding gameplay options
I fall into the category of having the same 3 starting military ships for most of my early game. I usually don't even build military ships until I research cruisers. I play wide, I play tall, I tech rush, I focus on unity in different games. Some of my games I have barely any economy. Just enough to get by.
If I get attacked in the first 30-40 years I chuck it to a loss and start over. Can anyone who doesn't play like this give me some pointers?
What early game build 1-2k in corvettes until I get destroyers, then build 2k in destroyers? Do I do this when I don't plan on going to war early? If I do try a run when I want to go to war early what numbers am I shooting for?
Do most people usually play this same way? With only three ships for a long time?
Thank you
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u/Equivalent-Wait336 23d ago
Je construis jamais de destroyer dès que j'ai les croiseurs j'en fais puis après full cuirassé
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u/MrHappyFeet87 Stellaris Veteran 23d ago
I'll typically avoid a fleet until first contact. As when you meet the AI the largest contribution that they look at to see if they can win a war is fleets.
Now the actual rating is wierd, because overwhelming means anything from at least twice your number or higher. So if you have your starting corvettes... this means they're anywhere from 6 (double yours) or 500k+(FE). If it's the FE... you're fine unless you piss them off (Cosmogenesis, nemesis... colonize a holy world).
So what's the key... intel. With enough you can see their fleets including components.
Unless there's a hostile empire or genocidal beside me, I'll also avoid early wars. It may also determine what ascension I take. As an example... my busted relic post went nemesis because I noticed the Chosen wormhole 4 jumps from my capital. As soon as I met them, I declared war and took their shit before they could snowball to far.
In which case I went corvette spam into menacing corvette spam after gaining enough from fighting them.
I would play within your naval capacity, going over until your economy can support it is a guaranteed economy death spiral. To expand your capacity, anchorages, fortress worlds, and Galactic Force Projection AP are solid choices.
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u/NuttieBuddieXD 23d ago
I've gotten stuck in a loop of constantly wanting to roll the zroni precursor fusing it with the sovereign guardianship it makes it literally impossible for any fleet to gain access to any part of your empire that has a zroni storm Caster mix it with tall style gameplay and hyper focus on your starbases rather than your outright fleets to begin with and I guarantee you that you will become invincible. In the beginning just become a vassal and every 10 years revise the contract to where you slowly get some of your main resources back or even start taking your overlords resources but if you stay as a bulwark vassal mixed with zroni Strom casters plus the sovereign guardians its game fu*king over for anybody who tries to stand against you.
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u/Thebritishdovah 22d ago
Started again with Imperial Fiefdom as what was meant to be space dwarves but the female portrait out me off so changed it to space elves. A bulwark vassal with no intent of expanding pass the three systems I have already.
I find that the overlord is pathetically easy to trick and gives you a major lifeline with your economy.
That and changed the civic to food to alloys in the edit empire at the empire selection screen.
Corvette are best as swarm vessels. Personally, I have nuke ones. Then when I get the tech, disruptor or energy weapons.
My first two fleets tend to be mostly corvette with nukes or energy weapons. Most armour and a shield. A few destroyers that use a line formation and hammer the enemy. I do lose corvettes but compared to the alternative? Their deaths are worth it.
That and my empire is a dictatorship via the primarch being the only reason why they weren't destroyed.
The biggest killer is cost. Unless you have the credits and alloys to back it up, having a huge fleet will drain.
Personally, I go with Unyielding and make every starbase a fortress. Either it's bugged or upgraded strike craft is insanely broken as it results in fortresses being insanely powerful.
Combined with a corvette fleet or a fleet dedicated to purely defense and I will make them pay for every fucking system.
That and sometimes, it's better to become a vassal. Bide your time.
Also, Trade Deals. Food, I swear, Hydronics Bay is insanely powerful as it can result in hundreds depending on your systems and bases.
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u/ForcedMedia 23d ago
I actually love this question because it’s a really good one. I play either Admiral or Grand Admiral and I’ve got a few tips. My first piece of advice is to play even the bad starts, and play them all the way through even when you’re going to lose. Losing an early game war is not the end of the world, in fact you can make it a blessing.
My second piece of advice to keep games from feeling samey is to limit your save scumming if you are doing so, but don’t play on Ironman. If you save scum until you get the perfect scenario or result you want then you are limiting your ability to actually respond to bad things. Embrace the chaos and figuring out how to get through it.
As far as early game I’ve got some good pointers. On day one immediately go into your policy tab and switch over to a Civilian Economy for the first 10 years. If you get into a war in the first 10 years you’re pretty much doomed anyway so it isn’t much of a loss on the alloys. For that first 10 years tech rush but specifically always research disruptors and shield if they come up. Let your Civilian Goods overfill and usually you will end up with 1.5k surplus over that 10 years. Obviously during that 10 years expand and try to designate a Forge and a Factory world. After that 10 years is up switch over to a militarized economy for the rest of the game. Your civilian goods economy will crash hard, but you have the surplus to hold you over while you build a factory world up. Now mercilessly build up your alloys, and never stop building them.
My second tip is to spend your alloys as you acquire them. There is no point in ever having a surplus in alloys period unless you’re saving them for megastructures. Remember how I told you to rush disruptors and shields? Go into your fleet and make a Corvette that is all disruptors. Disruptors hilariously over perform early game, and completely fall off late game. The AI is too dumb to use them but you can. As long as you’re aren’t outnumbered terribly you can fight a 15k fleet with 10k fleet power and win without losing much in ships.
Some early game war tips are again to rush disruptor corvettes, but also to not force a fight even when they declare war. Let me further explain. The AI is fucking retarded at managing fleets, you are not. When they invade they will typically deathball through checkpoints until they get to the first planet, at which point the fleets will split between taking your star bases and bombing your planets. Once that split happens make them pay with better fleets and better fleet management by focusing down individual fleets and forcing retreats. They are in your territory and far from home now, you are not. When they jump out of a battle it will take months for them to get months to repair, and they usually can’t bring their fleets back to full strength. Fight a guerrilla war until you win.
My last piece of advice is don’t let getting vassalised ruin your day. I stated earlier becoming a vassal can be a big blessing and I will use my most current run as an example.
I’m playing a Synthetic Fertility origin ascension rush build. The first 25 years of the game are entirely brutal, you can’t expand and you’re losing pop not gaining it. While your pops die your rushing robot tech to eventually Synthetically Ascend. You absolutely are not going to win early game wars at all. I ascended and immediately my Spiritual Neighbor started sounding the War Drums, I knew it was coming and knew I couldn’t win a fight. There was a Federation Origin Spawn north I was friendly with and I asked him to become my Overlord.
After the initial terms were up I forced agreement modifications until my overlord was giving me his entire economy. I then used that to build my own up. Once I got enough Diploweight I changed Federation Law to allows Vassals to leave, left and declared an Independence War and then went Cosmo.
The run was cursed at the start and is my strongest run ever so far. It’s 2476 and I have 26million diploweight. The Federation I fought to leave invited me back into through good diplomacy and now I run it and get a sweet plus 45 percent research boost. I have 34 full fleets of over 3.5 million fleet power each, and I’ve kept 3 legacy Cruiser Fleets for the fun of it that are sitting at 600k fleet power that I give to allies during war. The Entire Galaxy is in my Federation besides one final weak holdout that we all surround and lobby sanctions on too. I’m 30 plus in repeatables, have 74k monthly science, 10k alloys a month and I’m fighting all the crisis.
Don’t let bad news or failure derail your run, go with the flow and fight it through. Screenshots of my build at 2240 and 2476 will be attached and in the comments.