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OFFICIAL Stellaris (Review)

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Introduction

Stellaris is a new breed of 4X space strategy by Paradox Interactive, labelled as a new breath of fresh air in an otherwise heavily cloned genre. The game sets itself closer to the likes of Master of Orion than some of the latest titles like Civilisation or Endless Space, and crams in masses of content supported by some very simplistic basic mechanics. Stellaris aims to make those week long skirmishes easy to approach, tossing aside overcomplicated resource management, instead focusing heavily on sheer species development and your inevitable ownership of the galaxy. The whole game is played purely through a single customisable skirmish mode, so there's no real campaign mode per se.

To read the full review, go to: http://www.nextpowerup.com/articles/stellaris-review/
To read the performance analysis, go to: http://www.nextpowerup.com/articles/stellaris-performance-analysis/

See below for the video review summary.

 
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Nice work bud:toast:

Appreciate your taking the time to look at this one.
 
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W1zzard

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Great game, I wanted to take a quick look at 11pm and went to bed at 6 am ..
 
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I do indeed. Early Access and not looking to pleasant at the moment.
i havent looked at it yet but i dont have big expectations from wargaming so i am not surpriced
 

Frick

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Have you played a Paradox game before?

Also, a very, very important question: how's the performance, especially with time sped up? And above all, how many cores does it use? They've never ever made a game multithreaded and their games are in serious need to be multithreaded.
 
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Have you played a Paradox game before?

Also, a very, very important question: how's the performance, especially with time sped up? And above all, how many cores does it use? They've never ever made a game multithreaded and their games are in serious need to be multithreaded.

From what I gather the game can use up to 4 threads, but no more. On 1080p it only just saturated two cores even when speeding up time. Overall performance is great, it has a tiny footprint, with CPU usage being the big deciding factor.
 

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Thx Rcoon. Was hoping to see a good review, hope to get a chance this weekend to peruse it. I'm still solid in BDO at this point, but this might provide some distraction.
 

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From what I gather the game can use up to 4 threads, but no more. On 1080p it only just saturated two cores even when speeding up time. Overall performance is great, it has a tiny footprint, with CPU usage being the big deciding factor.

A huge improvement then, their Clausewitz engine only ever used one.

I might even find money to buy this, I'm a huge sucker for EU/CK.
 

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Hmm...I'm not familiar with Paradox games but this one sure seems appealing after your review @RCoon! I might hold out and see what future patches and DLC bring...gaming time has kind of gone by the wayside with work, nice weather and motorcycles. :D
 
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I'd almost recommend holding off until the first DLC.

PDox fixes games via DLC and does a damn good job of it. Stellaris as is can be fun and bring a lot of enjoyment but it has a few glaring holes that will hopefully be filled soon.
 

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Great game although kinda lacking in mid-game content, if you're the passive kind of guy. If you are very aggressive and hostile, it can be exciting though.

Great end-game, great early game, already enjoyable and gonna even be more enjoyable when patches and DLCs come out. Few minor issues with the game, such as UI and AI issues but nonetheless a fun experience.

this is my review of the game as well
 

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PDox fixes games via DLC and does a damn good job of it.

The last couple of EUIV DLCs have been quite lacking though.
 
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My experience with the game thus far has been mixed.
I've enjoyed slowly building up my own chunk of the galaxy, picking off smaller races as I expanded.

Later in the game when I tried to tackle my first significantly large empire, I was overrun with dozens of small skirmishes and counter-attacks that quickly became a logistical nightmare. The only worthwhile defense seems to be with a fleet, and if you have yours deployed elsewhere you'll be overrun. Micro-managing your own defenses has been a huge pain in the a$$ for me so far. I might be missing a key tech or tactic, but enemy ships seem to blink in and out of my territory at will and I constantly have to chase them down. If I ignore them they will invade a world or several, so I feel that's a perilous option to be avoided at all costs. Defense fortresses and planetary defenses seem to be pretty much worthless.

Diplomacy is more trouble than it's worth. Make a good enough friend to be worthwhile and you'll spend most of your time and resources cleaning up the messes that they endlessly seem to stick their nose (or other appendage) into.
 
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Great game, I wanted to take a quick look at 11pm and went to bed at 6 am ..

That's been the summary of my past week :laugh: They don't even let me click 'one more turn' it just NEVER ENDS

Game has SO MUCH to do. Mid game can turn stale if you play too passively, but if you have the knowledge not to play passively and keep expanding, you're bound to find heaps of things to do. Slowly turtling ahead = boredom, much more fun to expand rigorously, you can always add more sectors anyway so the drawback of management is mitigated by sector management. I tend to keep my core planets very close to my capital planet, so the micromanaging is restricted to whatever I start with.

About warfare and territory defense:
- use sectors and use separate 'sectors on your borders' that have a military focus. Or use constructors yourself to build Military stations near planets. Well teched, a military station can amount up to 3K in combat strength. No way small skirmishes will destroy them. They work very well with regenerative hulls + fighter squadrons (Amoeba if you have them, they are OP) for that purpose.

- get your hands on strong ground troops. They might be more important than fleets, especially mid game. Robots or Psi warriors, although the latter is better on offense

- use sectors in the inner regions that focus on research, and position your fleet(s) strategically so they can jump to whatever border region is under a larger attack

Micromanaging really comes down to managing sectors well. This is an art form, almost, because well balanced sectors have sufficient income from mining stations (Not the planets themselves!) which allows them to focus all planetary spaces towards whatever you want to develop. Sectors also apply governor bonuses to all planets within, abuse that like mad.

In addition, sectors that build their own military stations do not have the rather high upkeep cost on your monthly tab, but their own. You can really seed lots of stations that way without crippling your war machine.
 
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The performance can get really bad late game atleast on the largest size and with 20 or more nations like i am playing it
 
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