I was looking at the Pacifist ethic, which I've never taken before because I thought it would hurt me in the inevitable fights. This is what the wiki says about it:

Empire : −15% Empire size from pops Planets : +5 Stability

Policies Principles

Edicts Can use the Peace Festivals edict X Cannot use Unrestricted Wars War Philosophy policy X Cannot use Aggressive Interference Pre-FTL Interference policy X Cannot engage in Indiscriminate Orbital Bombardment X Cannot use Aggressive First Contact Protocol policy

As a person who generally plays turtle and avoids wars because they screw with my technical ascendency sim, this looks like there are no downsides. Can that be right? Are there no hidden horrific events or war debuffs this doesn't cover? Does the Peace faction just kinda chill as long as I'm not starting any fights?

I think the new DLC brings some much needed features/qol, but there are still some things missing.

I wish there was an easy way to terraform into tomb worlds and leader trait pick automation.

Piped.video link, for the googly disinclined: https://piped.video/watch?v=vNGkPVD8kII

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3007302

> Steam News link > > Paradox Forums link

Hey guys,

So I've been an off and on player for several years now, some expansion always brings me back.... briefly.

Play styles . I can get down with a technocracy or the UNE, but they always feel like super easy plays. I'm never going to war alone, if at all. Migration and research treaties up the ass, ez mode. So I like being a war monger. Usually lean towards fanatic imperials, space Nazis, or machine exterminators.

I'm not trying to make it any ungodly difficulty. I'm only setting it to captain, and that's with the scaling set to late game.

My problem is the difficulties always seem to scale just fine until late game. Almost every play through, really close to end game date. I just start getting pummeled by fleets twice my size.

My most recent playthrough

Vanilla exterminators No advanced ai, no fallen empires Medium galaxy, 12 AI, captain, late game date 2550.

This was my best in a while. Only ended up losing after a few 100 years of constant war, some dude from the other side of the galaxy showed up in my territory with 2 fleets twice the size of mine. Not even my fully outfitted citadels with my entire fleet could withstand it. I realized in the diplomacy screen that I was being considered a galactic threat, despite never getting that ascension perk.

So my question is

#1 is a war like playthrough just really hard? #2 is this actually supposed to be easy and I just suck #3 is there some trick to war like playthroughs, some golden rule I'm missing?

Any help would be appreciated I really like the game, but I find it super lame when I play UNE or similar and no one goes to war with me for centuries at a time. I like space battles.

Thanks,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2606834

> Paradox Forums link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2350021

> Discussion on Paradox Forums

Had anybody had any luck paying as a Criminal heritage empire?

Doors anyone have any tips for making those branch offices stay?

I wanna see how many stellaris people are around tbh. The trait I like the most is probably the Titan of Industry mostly because it makes so many resources.

There are some useful tools in Stellaris that aren't exactly well advertised, that people might not know even when they've put in the hours!

Here's one: you can restrict a system so that your ships automatically path around it and not, say, directly into the leviathan. It's a button on the bottom of the screen in the system view.

As much for flavour as optimization how do you guys like to kit out your starter fleet?

Mine is an Egalitarian, Xenophile, Materialist Technocracy. My guys learned long ago, that it's best to plan ahead and live in harmony with nature and each other. They will terraform all their planets into Gaia worlds, welcome all who wish to be a part of their empire and grant equal rights and utopian abundance (Shared Burdens require Fanatic Egalitarian, too bad). I'm also thinking about vassalizing every other empire on beneficial terms, thus also making them part of my federation.

I'm enjoying the new council system immensely! Adds alot more worth to the leaders of my empire and I feel like it really embellishes the story making aspect. Though it's no longer really viable to spam a bunch of scientists at the beginning of the game, but I feel like going one or two leaders over the cap isn't too bad of a resource penalty in the long run. Thoughts?