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[Mephansteras]

I will occasionally switch them around if there is a tech I really want quickly, but mostly I go for the generic boosts or failing that settle for specialties for their area. So Engineering gets Materials or Rocketry, and whatnot.

Switching only happens if I end up with two scientists with the same general focus that I have to have split to separate areas, which really doesn't happen often.

[BurnedToast]

My solution for scientists is to find a spark of genius scientist for each field and call it good. Trying to match specialty to specialty was indeed way too much work for too little benefit.

It's not worth it for optimizing research speed, but they have higher rolls for random tech in their field. Some techs are very hard to get without the right specialist doing research.

There's a list on the wiki if you're curious which techs are easier to get with specialists.

Edit: at least, I thought there was a list, but I can't seem to find it now so maybe not.

[Baffler]

My solution for scientists is to find a spark of genius scientist for each field and call it good. Trying to match specialty to specialty was indeed way too much work for too little benefit.

It's not worth it for optimizing research speed, but they have higher rolls for random tech in their field. Some techs are very hard to get without the right specialist doing research.

There's a list on the wiki if you're curious which techs are easier to get with specialists.

Edit: at least, I thought there was a list, but I can't seem to find it now so maybe not.

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it at least shows the things that affect probability of specific reasearches becoming available if you click the dice icon on the right side of its particular leaf. The short version is that pretty much every technology is weighted to appear more frequently if you have a specialist in that particular field working on researching that, but there are other factors in play, ethics being the major one. They're weighted by game time too, seemingly to make it harder to rush down the tech tree on one particular branch and to ensure you get a chance to research all the techs in one tier before moving on to the next.

Edit: and forgot the link too. This post was a mess.
https://bipedalshark.gitlab.io/stellaris-tech-tree/vanilla/

[Paul]

Each planet adds 5% research penalty, each system is 1%. Generally planets produce way more than 5x research of a system, so planets are pretty much always worth colonizing if you're expanding at all.

Absolute worst case scenario (Which basically won't happen) on a 12 tile world with zero bonus tiles and your species has absolutely zero bonuses to research or energy. You could put a capital, one adjacent energy plant, one non-adjacent, three adjacent food buildings, and two non-adjacent ones - plus 4 labs. Leaving you with a net of 0 energy, +1 food, and 12 research points. Even that impossibly bad planet would be about the same or better than 5 average systems (many of which don't generate research at all). Throw in some basic bonus tiles and you would be able to easily produce more than double that in science, which would be like having 5 systems with +5 research mines on them. Add in useful population bonuses from happiness or good traits and you could produce way more.

It's pretty much always worth it to colonize planets in the long run. Once you get a bit of pop on them and some tech under your belt they'll produce way more science than the penalty applies. I find my large empires out-research my small ones, unless I'm just expanding haphazardly and not developing my colonies.

[se5a]

I'm thinking about getting this...
Pros? Cons?
whats the combat like?
ship design? does it have that?

[Il Palazzo]

Pros: It has enough bells and whistles to make you sink about a hundred hours into it before you start getting bored.
Cons: It's not Jesus.

The combat is, like, mostly automatic. The player input comes at the strategy level and fleet design. Much like any other Paradox strategy.
It has a ship designer that feels meaningful enough to play with, but doesn't require micromanagement.

[LoSboccacc]

I'm thinking about getting this...
Pros? Cons?
whats the combat like?
ship design? does it have that?

gonna recycle my review here because after so many expansion is still relevant

4x that punishes you for expand, where extermination is boring, exploiting is barebone and exploration is repetitive - at least the exploration fluff is quite good, if you are playng a 4x to be reading piecemeal sci-fi instead of, you see, playing it.

Basically a good idea hampered by terrible ai and automation - witness your empire becoming a clickfest of manual orders and dead personnel replacing.

maybe one day they will iron all the issues, but skip for now unless you enjoy spending 50% of your clicks upgrading building.

[Hanzoku]

And a counter review...

that's absolutely not my experience at all. And I'm someone who ALWAYS plays wide, because I get bored with only one planet.

As others just above point out, expanding and colonizing planets is always beneficial, as fully colonized planets produce a ton of resources, research and unity.

Extermination can get boring in the late game, generally once you're the biggest blob on the block. There's still the late game crisis (which can be !!FUN!! for new players the first few times) to challenge you, and you can always go and poke the Fallen/Awakened Empire bears. But extermination gets boring in the late game in EVERY game in existence, because once no one can put up a fight against your tech and/or fleet size lead, a lot of the challenge fades.

AI is decent but not soulgrindingly difficult. Automation works well - you have a set number of planets that you personally control, and the rest you stick in one or two massive sectors. They'll have enough resource production to handle their internal needs and upgrades without your having to intervene.

I've never spent '50% of my clicks on upgrading buildings', I tend to spend them on sending my war fleets to wipe out another civilization for the lulz.

Basically it comes down to getting over the moderate learning curve and if this type of grand 4x strategy is your cup of tea or not.

[StagnantSoul]

The game's what you make of it. I have yet to have a playthrough I haven't enjoyed, because I do something new every time. I've put 202 hours into the game. Though, some of that was with me sleeping with it running overnight... They also just added a ton of fluff too.


I've played an assimilation robot nation protecting everyone from a hand designed determined exterminator before. That was very fun because I made it so I had to work on things he was.

I played a regular nation made of xenophiles that looked the same and had a similar name to a devouring swarm hivemind, a pod who broke free.

I even used the console commands to make myself an FE, and then just turn on observe and see what my pacifist xenophile AI does. Turns out, he conquered everyone.

Sure, you could do the same thing every game over and over until it becomes autonomous and you don't even see it. You can do that with any game. But make it fun, this game does have a "You win!" screen but it means nothing. Set your own goals.

[Mephansteras]

I would say get the base game on sale. It has enough to it without the DLC to give you a sense of whether or not you'll enjoy the game. If you like it, you can get whatever dlc appeals to you.

Personally, I enjoy it. It's good for getting stories out of. I would say that it is not a game that I feel the need to 'end' necessarily before quitting that run and starting a new one. Sometimes I do, but winning/losing isn't really the point for me. It's the fun of seeing what happens while the civ/universe is interesting. If it gets boring, I quit and do a new one. I have plenty of ideas for things to go for, so the game overall is always still fun even if a particular save might run out of steam.

[ZeroGravitas]

As others just above point out, expanding and colonizing planets is always beneficial, as fully colonized planets produce a ton of resources, research and unity.

It becomes beneficial, after lots and lots of time and clicks improving your planets.

To me, the issue is less that "colonizing planets is beneficial" or "you're punished for expanding" and more "clicking the buildings on the tiles is insanely boring"

AI is decent

all remaining credibility destroyed

I've never spent '50% of my clicks on upgrading buildings', I tend to spend them on sending my war fleets to wipe out another civilization for the lulz.

war doesn't take that many clicks. well, more than it used to, because of how occupation works. but if you don't think you're spending 50% of your clicks on upgrading buildings, you're not counting.

Basically it comes down to getting over the moderate learning curve and if this type of grand 4x strategy is your cup of tea or not.

nah, even if you like a grand 4x strategies by paradox generally, stellaris just isn't there yet. it's been poorly thought-out since the beginning, though the execution is slowly improving. maybe once they re-do planets and buildings we'll have something better.

ironic that everyone was being overly optimistic when they said "good game in 1-2 years" after release. seems like 3-5 is more realistic.

[Sartain]

I even used the console commands to make myself an FE, and then just turn on observe and see what my pacifist xenophile AI does. Turns out, he conquered everyone.

Well that's because that's all the AI does, other than federating, regardless of ethics. And only if they know they have the advantage of numbers.

I love Stellaris, but the AI is pretty useless.

[Paul]

Do you manually upgrade all your planets or something?

I just develop my core worlds and shove all the rest in a sector. If I want a specific layout, I queue up a level 1 of every building where I want it and turn tile redevelopment off. The sector AI handles the upgrades using the sector's minerals.

[umiman]

Do you manually upgrade all your planets or something?

I just develop my core worlds and shove all the rest in a sector. If I want a specific layout, I queue up a level 1 of every building where I want it and turn tile redevelopment off. The sector AI handles the upgrades using the sector's minerals.

Gotta get that awesome auto-upgrade mod.

[StagnantSoul]

Do you manually upgrade all your planets or something?

I just develop my core worlds and shove all the rest in a sector. If I want a specific layout, I queue up a level 1 of every building where I want it and turn tile redevelopment off. The sector AI handles the upgrades using the sector's minerals.

Gotta get that awesome auto-upgrade mod.

I actually forgot that wasn't a basegame feature. Oops.