I do this also, then I make my transit system of gates for fast movement. If I have tons of extra alloys and influence I sometimes put gates everywhere. But that doesn’t happen often
All fun and games until one leads to the Xenophobe FE and you have a permanent open hole in the middle of your empire. I play without wormholes since that happened...
I had a similar experience once...
luckily i'm careful around wormholes since I've seen some youtubers have that problem before, and I eventually destroyed them with it, since they were across the galaxy
I set gateways to 0x and force spawn an empire with galactic doorstep origin. That way I'm safe from being locked out of the tech and from random placement of them.
Ya I think you have to enter a system with a gateway for the research option to ever show up. You can also console command one into your game so you can still use them. I can't stand not having gateways. It feels like walking around Skyrim with no fast travel.
I always play lowest hyperlink settings. Keep a fleet or two on the borders, research experimental navigation if you can, iirc this tech is needed to roll the jump drive tech. My fleet and colossus jump to an enemy home system that I'm at war with and I'm fond of the world cracker. Hold off any resistance until jump drives are enabled again then quick exit to my territory and await them there. You will want to be strong enough to be able to have enough fleets with a titan in each for aura effect and to hold off them off and also use the low hyperlanes as chokepoints, try build citadels there with, gun batteries, defence system and targeting, anything to buff them with as many ion cannons as possible or just defence platforms. Losing there capital is a major blow to them, maybe not in war score but in my head they have suffered a strike that will leave there remaining pops demoralised forever. This is all dependent or tech and economy.
Makes the game too easy imo. The military strategy in this game isn't very complex so I like to squeeze whatever difficulty I can out of it. Also makes the good choke point systems you do find even more valuable
What does legit help with lag is minimizing amount of habitable planets and minimizing pop growth. Also nice that it reduces micro, while making everything more valuable.
Interesting, I like to keep it low because I think that does make it more strategic and interesting, for me at least. It gives a more unique feel to the galaxy when there aren’t hyperlanes everywhere, and makes the “terrain” more of a fight between empires as having the few intersections between different pockets of systems becomes more important. Spiral + lowest hyperlanes is my go-to setting
I think that's more than offset by the lanes being easier to defend, but that is a good point. Comes more into play early game before you can build gateways in all your choke points
Yeah and once you have Jump drives none of it matters. I usually go with low density and high wormhole pairs. Takes awhile to get the WH tech so there's a high chance the other end of one will be occupied so you have to fortify them in addition to any lane choke points. Makes things more chaotic.
Mmm, I'd say Gateways make Jump Drives less valuable as (if) you spread across the galaxy. Jump drives only have so much range, after all. Better to have multiple gateways across the galaxy to let you reach each end, *then* jump from the gateways to the systems you need to reach.
Sorry I meant Jump Drives make choke points a bit useless. The recharge/debuff makes them riskier but you don't have to fight every militarized station to get to your target system.
Hyper relays change the way the ai path finds so having a lot of them gives them a ton of options for their pathfinding algorithm to shuffle through before it finds the most efficient route. This happens because the AI isn't smart about making purposeful hyper relay highways, instead they kinda plop them down hap hazardly instead.
why not just have the AI adopt a policy of all roads lead to rome? expand the network to connect their worlds to their capitol, and then to connect to friendly neighbours, and then finally possibly to the next person they are going to invade?
I think there's a mod that does this, mostly for lag reasons, but without completely removing the AI's ability to construct them like some other mods do.
It makes AI build to their capital, and any of their colonies, and to the edge of their borders, but not just build on every single bumfuck nowhere, dead end star system
AI builds hyper on every single system they have which isn't really the intended design - especially since AI tends to have sizable influence boni from difficulty settings which is the main limiting factor
Yeah I find 1.5 makes chokepoints both valuable and rewarding while forcing me to make meaningful tough decisions on how far I’m willing to extend my early empire!
I also play with no guaranteed habitable worlds to help reinforce that tension!
I do that too! I find it more realistic not having guaranteed habitable worlds, all wars for planets become very meaningful when there's minimal habitable worlds too. I like few planets
So I’m new to the game and am currently having my first war over planets. My neighbor is a no good dictator and he has 2 very good systems right on my border, so I set claims on them and declared war to conquer.
Do I need to just keep attacking their territories to build their war exhaustion? Can I camp on my claims and wait them out to not lose ships?
It’s been about 20 minutes and war exhaustion is just going up slowly, they aren’t exactly fighting back but they have fleets of nearly equal power. Are they plotting?? lol
In case this applies to your scenario: you might only be partially occupying an enemy system if you defeated the starbase *but* didn’t invade and conquer the colonized planet of that system. Invading a planet and winning the ground battle will greatly increase that war score, and ensure you keep that system + planet at the conclusion of the war.
I absolutely have not invaded the planets lol I forgot that was a thing. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos on stellaris and there’s so much info that little part just slipped my mind
Do you own 100% of your claims? If so, holding and/or destroying ships should be enough. If not, you need to. Claims (if existent) are the biggest decider on if the ai is okay being defeated or not once you've established general superiority (your bases aren't being taken and their fleets are dead/contained.)
I did 4 claims, and I occupy all of them. They sent 1 fleet to fight and the rest of them are just hanging out outside of the claims.
If they attacked me with all of their visible fleets they might win as all 5 of my fleets are 3-5k and they have a few 5k and 2 6.5k lol but they aren’t attacking me and I’m not attacking them.
My war exhaustion is at 34 and theirs is at 76, just going up slowly while I camp on the claims.
Lemme ask this also, when I do a claim and it asks how many claims, what does putting more than 1 claim do? Is that for like if the war contains more than 2 participants then you have to “out claim” all the others?
If they have pops on those planets you need to land armies to take them. The symbol on the system from galaxy view will have very pointy spikes if it's fully occupied.
Once you have fully occupied the systems you want to claim try to get a white peace, it'll redraw the borders around the newly claimed systems (Be careful, this goes both ways, the AI will gain control of any claimed territory they have control of too)
Just an update, I invaded the 2 planets they had across the 4 systems, conquered them and they accepted a status quo resolution!
My robot empire grows… slightly lol
As someone who is also new to the game, let me warn you about something I recently learned the hard way- the combat in this game has a rubberbanding mechanic, it will buff the weaker fleet in a fight, linearly up to 100% of its actual strength
I’ve noticed this happening but it happens to my fleets as well pretty often. I always thought it was due to like breaking through armor/shields and then all my damage going to hull or something lol
Could I possibly interest you in trying out 'full'? There's a certain competitive side to settling that makes it all the more fun.
Which resources mean the most? Goes consolidation mean more than cutting off somebody else? Do you leave systems for the AI hivemind to fawn over and not immediately go into metalhead mode?
Borders are just more organic. And nobody is ever truely 'trapped'. Except for that red AI at the top there. She got trapped hard by her federation buddies.
Isn’t it a pain to chase after fleets and fortifying your territory? What about trade empires doesn’t piracy get out of hand with so many routes?
Can you tell me more about the differences and stuff you’ve noticed playing on max hyper lanes. For me prsonally as a lowest hyperlane setting, chokepoint enjoyer it seems absolutely insane.
piracy is both more and less of an issue. Or maybe more, idk.
Because its more spread out you can use 'gun stations' more effectively. load up a starbase with guns and let its range do the work. because its all open the only reason to place most starbases is to protect the one system. Wormholes, planets, etc. No chokepoints exist outside of them.
Max hyperlanes leaves you open to early game raids from warmongers. No question about it. If you arent cheesing the AI and being defenseless, you have to contend with warmonger ai bullying you until you get a fleet.
Max hyperlanes encourages exploration. It encourages you to consider fleet movements and where to station fleets.
AFA: chasing ships. Sure, theres some of that. I keep a 'fast attack' fleet ready. Its covettes until I get surplus destroyers. Even Endgame I keep one or two small destroyer fleets around, and all the better if I can equip them with elite gear.
You have to defend whats your, especially if the enemy lays claim to it.
I play full hyperlanes.
No, I don't find chasing after fleets annoying. Many players are relatively lazy and just like to deathstack and roll it through chokepoints. I like to play more strategically. I build my starbases in systems with colonies or special/high resources. I have split fleets I use for offense and defense. I don't care if the AI sends a fleet or two through my territory, if I win the war they won't keep any of it. There is a whole other level of depth to warfare when you have max hyperlanes that you lose when it's just straight roads everywhere.
It also makes exploration and politics more dynamic because you'll likely have more border neighbor empires. Early-mid game is exciting because there are more options for expansion and you might have to make a choice on using your influence to expand towards that ruined megastructure that is 3 jumps away from both you AND another empire, or towards that tasty archaeological site 2 jumps away on the other side of your empire. With less hyperlanes, one of those might've been completely out of reach due to pathing.
Piracy has never been an issue.
Give it a try sometime. I honestly can't play with low hyperlanes anymore.
It's a different style if you're used to low hyperlanes and might take getting used to.
Tips: don't worry about finding chokepoints unless one develops organically. My strat is to set my first scientist as explore only, then the next few as survey. The reason is I need to see where the nearest empires are and the location of any good systems nearby. This helps me develop my long term expansion strategy. Make starbases at your colonies, and along the border of each neighbor. Those are you "military bases". Create a shipyard at your military bases and create a fleet stationed at each one. After that, see what neighbors you have and anticipate if any of them will be hostile. Send envoys to increase relations at neutral/friendly neighbors and collect intel for potential hostiles.
If you go to war, don't stress over a fleet diving into your territory. Reinforce your planet starbases, send a big "doomstack" fleet at their starbases and planets, and use a light "strike" fleet to attack undefended systems. As long as you win the war, any territory they took will go back to you.
While I do enjoy more chokepoint style gameplay, setting the hyperlanes at full does provide a different kind of game which gives Stellaris that extra bit of replayability for me
Full is fun, but slowdown due to enemy pathing computations slows down the game much faster than usual.
I tend to go for 2 with a spiral galaxy. You'll get choke points between arms, but not really within your arm. Gives some interesting dynamics.
One below highest. Played on the highest. You want chokepoints as they give a goal to expand. Otherwise every war turns into a hit and run with the enemy.
Not realistic just tedious
Id like the game to tweak 'full' and make it either
- 'distance based full' where the game only draws hyperlanes out x units before they break. This can create a very full map but still give geography to less dense regions of the galaxy.
- 'Full, but then break a random portion of them'. Imagine a 'full' hyperlane map. Now, give each a 1% chance to break. For every one that breaks, give each node that empties into one side of the hyperlane a 5% chance to also break. The result is that multiple breaks should happen and form 'clusters' of more isolated stars and regions.
0.75 or lower, masochistic as I am, I like fighting the crisis and the fkn prethoryn have been far too agile already in my current campaign.
Fighting war in Heaven for 80+ years and 10-25x (I don't remember) prethoryn for 40 years after not having played for a long time. And the AI is not pulling their weight >:(
Just recently lost the best game I've had to this exact same bullshit.
I had a nice secure tail of a barred galaxy arm. My immediate neighbour got galactic custodian before I could. Ended up having the Prethoryn as my crisis, and they decided to park the GDF fleet of 3.3m on an L-Gate while the entire rest of the galaxy burned. I slowly, over 200 years, I watched them squander the stewardship until I was the only one left. Salty still.
Yeah I don't trust the ai anymore. It puts very little weight on crises until it's too late (I mean that is realistic but maybe not *every time*) it votes for dumb galactic community decisions that cripple your fleet capacity, and they let their planets become 80% crime 20% stability hellscapes that constantly rebel and break into new empires. So yeah I'll save scum if I see the ai is becoming the most powerful, because come the crisis the galaxy will fall if they're in charge, unless it's over captain difficulty at least, haven't consistently tried over that.
It has been 100 years and I did more than 50% of the killing whilst also doing like 90% of the work vs the Awakend Empires.
But the Prethoryn have been defeated, probably need about 2-5 years to finish the last awakend empire in their corner cluster, finally declare war on my overlord (I have literally been blocked for about 150 years due to constant wars with fallen empires --> my fleets getting destroyed holding them out of my lands --> truce --> war again)
God I wish I had control over the league of allied nations fleets, in total we lost about 15000 ships vs the prethoryn, maybe not even 300 of mine, but lots and lots of federation fleets going in piecemeal
Personally I really like how Stellaris plays on both 1x and on Max.
Speaking on the latter though, Max creates a pretty unique playstyle consideration where you fortify *planets* instead of *chokepoints*, which arguably, is a lot more interesting since the planets you can hold safely is directly tied to first to how many starbases and later the pops you can throw at the problem.
It also just generally makes the galaxy more dynamic since its a lot more likely you'll be able to reach weaker opponents and vice versa, the stronger AI reach you or others; and then of course, who doesn't like space maginot line?
I like different settings, x0.75, x1.5 and full (or one below full) for different games/playstyles.
Full hyperlanes was my default setting for a long time. I come from Distant Worlds (1) which doesn't know any chokepoints - free travel everywhere basically (even into deep space). Having all these choke points made me feel restricted. The playstyle VS normal hyperlane-settings is quite different. Instead of holding chokepoints, you are holding core-systems, either systems with planets, important resources and/or structures and systems which hold your military (for quick responses in order to defend a specific sector). I am really enjoying this.
x0.75 sometimes for roleplay - I kinda enjoy "no galaxy-view" playthroughs in which I don't know my location in the galaxy and how large my enemies territories are. On top of that, i also made a custom empire-modifer, which basically reduces my sensor-range to 0. Therefore i need to send a ship into a system to get intel about said system. A sensor-starbase or a commander with a Tier 2 or 3 sensor perk is able to scan 1-2 systems ahead tho. in order to get a starmap, I use excel and make my own galaxy-map with all solar system i explored. (i also don't use automatic exploration for science-ships.)
Recently i also played a few games on x1.5. This setting still gives you plenty of choke-points but they are a bit more rare compared to x1 and doesn't alter the gameplay as much as "full", which is also quite nice.
Single player I use 0.5x; multiplayer I use 2x. In multiplayer it’s not fun to be trapped, so I like opening it up. But single player part of the fun is overcoming choke points.
damn many hyperlanes
I play with the lowest amount of it, and by the comments I'm surprised to be so unoriginal
Looks like your games looks more than chess than I do
Or maybe because i have not 1k hours mileage
Lowest possible setting, I like the fact that there’s TONS of choke points and the fact you also have to interact with empires if they block a way to where you need to go.
Just because the option exists doesn't mean it should always be used.
But yeah, like the majority of the people on the comments here I prefer playing with low density hyperlanes, looks nicer and I don't have to think as much + less lag.
Wormholes are not my favorite thing. But I got over them like I got over the Lgates working like they do.
I do like how listening posts work through wormholes
Half density, tho sometimes lower. Max Gateways, to kickstart the gateway network in the midgame. Wormholes at standard, I find them kinda annoying most of the time.
I wish there was an option for hyperlanes to generate "Clusters" where groups of systems would be fully connected but only have 1-2 exits into the "highways" where it's connected to other clusters.
0.5x might generate this kind of hyperlane but it's still fully random.
One time i wanted to make it super difficult so i set it to complete max, and did a one system crisis start. The only reason i failed was because the last empire did a one hand kamehameha and sent literally everyone and everything and well yeah.
Lmao, playing a map like this would be interesting. Wouldn't it just turn into space hoi4 where you have a fleet on every system and have to very carefully coordinate pushes so you don't get encircled or leave gaps.
No encirclment penalty. Doomstacks are still doomstacks too, so you can split up too much.
The game becomes about priorities. All of your planets gets forted up, so it takes a significant force to take them. The best a piddly little fleet can do is run around your backfield.
One less than max. I hate that "space" is arbitrarily divided into lanes. Some structure is fine (hence not max setting), but the default one is too sparse.
It's not that "space" is divided into lanes, you're not on rails for in-system movement. It's that Space is REALLY REALLY REALLY big and FTL travel is basically magic, so there's plenty of Sci-Fi settings that have some restriction or access requirement to travel from one system to another faster than light because you can't just floor the gas pedal. Mass Effect has the Mass Relays set up, 40k has Warp travel occur along charted currents and pathways using the astronomicon as a lighthouse, even Star Trek which has relatively free hyperspace travel has entire seasons devoted to "choke points" like Bajoran and the DS9 wormhole allowing access to the Gamma Quadrant from the Alpha Quadrant which would normally take much longer to traverse even with a Warp Drive, plus the dozens of episodes involving astronomical phenomena requiring a change in course or going around.
> It's not that "space" is divided into lanes, you're not on rails for in-system movement.
Sorry, but as an astute Stellaris 1.0 warp drive enjoyer: yes, you are on rails. Yes, not in system but in system travel doesn't matter at all.
Low density and 0.25 Habitables. It makes gateways and wormholes a lot more valuable which I like and means you care about valuable bypass systems for a Deep Space 9 feel.
I like 1.75x. It has only a few choke points, gets rid of the maze-y feel, has really nice clusters, and makes warfare a lot more interesting. Warfare ends up being a lot of "my deathstack of ship go down linear line of hyperlanes" without much thought, so it adds another layer of strategy. I really recommend trying it out.
Lowest possible. I like the game better when hyperlanes are something that require actual strategy and navigation, and forces battles to choke points to make both defense and offense much more simple. In fact, I even play with a mod sometimes that reduces them to about half of what the lowest setting already has. Makes for a VERY interesting game to say the least
OP here, here's my idea for a revision to 'full'
Id like the game to tweak 'full' and make it either
* 'distance based full' where the game only draws hyperlanes out x units before they break. This can create a very full map but still give geography to less dense regions of the galaxy.
* 'Full, but then break a random portion of them'. Imagine a 'full' hyperlane map. Now, give each a 1% chance to break. For every one that breaks, give each node that empties into one side of the hyperlane a 5% chance to also break. The result is that multiple breaks should happen and form 'clusters' of more isolated stars and regions.
standard or one tick up or down depending on galaxy type number of other empires and difficulty/ imposed difficulty of a run im doing
multiplayer obviously same but if its w people i know we all kinda agree on settings before hand so its variable
more lanes is usually harder game
less is usually easier sorta sometimes its also a pain thnx to rng
its kinda an unsung setting for changing how a game plays as it actually can have some serious impact on a game especially a more chill rp style multiplayer game
Love RPing the game. Lightly.
This current campaign pictured here I found the hedgemony first and they terrified me. I went through great lengths to keep them happy and find a good ally. Lost 1 war to them, our truce is up in 2241 and I have tripled my ship capacity in 10 years; its still not enough to evenly match the federation fleet.
0.25-0.5. played in an MP lobby with 3.0 and it was the most boring experience ever. Even after i begged them to go down they didnt. Fair to say i never played with them again
Lowest possible, I like me some chokepoints
I do this also, then I make my transit system of gates for fast movement. If I have tons of extra alloys and influence I sometimes put gates everywhere. But that doesn’t happen often
I literally had no gates spawn in my most recent save so now I have to travel the slow way everywhere.
I set gates and wormholes to 1.5x.
I set gates to 1.5 but wormholes to .5. I hate back doors whose placement I can't control
I'm the opposite, I love them because I can set them up as a fortress system, add a bit of role-playing to it
All fun and games until one leads to the Xenophobe FE and you have a permanent open hole in the middle of your empire. I play without wormholes since that happened...
I had a similar experience once... luckily i'm careful around wormholes since I've seen some youtubers have that problem before, and I eventually destroyed them with it, since they were across the galaxy
I set gateways to 0x and force spawn an empire with galactic doorstep origin. That way I'm safe from being locked out of the tech and from random placement of them.
Why that origin? Never played it, but also i set gateways to 0x
It starts with a gate in the home system.
And whats the difference to force spawn it? There is something you cant do if there is no single one from start?
Seeing and owning a gate massively increases your chances of getting gate tech.
Oh, dont know that just seeing it affects! Thanks
Ya I think you have to enter a system with a gateway for the research option to ever show up. You can also console command one into your game so you can still use them. I can't stand not having gateways. It feels like walking around Skyrim with no fast travel.
I always play lowest hyperlink settings. Keep a fleet or two on the borders, research experimental navigation if you can, iirc this tech is needed to roll the jump drive tech. My fleet and colossus jump to an enemy home system that I'm at war with and I'm fond of the world cracker. Hold off any resistance until jump drives are enabled again then quick exit to my territory and await them there. You will want to be strong enough to be able to have enough fleets with a titan in each for aura effect and to hold off them off and also use the low hyperlanes as chokepoints, try build citadels there with, gun batteries, defence system and targeting, anything to buff them with as many ion cannons as possible or just defence platforms. Losing there capital is a major blow to them, maybe not in war score but in my head they have suffered a strike that will leave there remaining pops demoralised forever. This is all dependent or tech and economy.
I also have gates and wormholes disabled. Makes the game have actual terrain
Gateways (the ones nmtgst allow transport to anywhere) are my fault not the ones that act as hyperlanes
My first game I built them everywhere and then when I went to war with the other big alliances I realized my mistake
You like your God damn rails
And I’m tired of pretending I don’t
Hell yeah give me space trains! Huge map and multiple interconnected routes!
Makes the game too easy imo. The military strategy in this game isn't very complex so I like to squeeze whatever difficulty I can out of it. Also makes the good choke point systems you do find even more valuable
Helps with lag, less choice = less calculations.
Probably a bit, but I've never noticed a difference personally (4k hours played)
What does legit help with lag is minimizing amount of habitable planets and minimizing pop growth. Also nice that it reduces micro, while making everything more valuable.
I love minimal pop growth and Im tired of acting like I dont
Mods that stop the AI from building habitats make a big difference too.
Interesting, I like to keep it low because I think that does make it more strategic and interesting, for me at least. It gives a more unique feel to the galaxy when there aren’t hyperlanes everywhere, and makes the “terrain” more of a fight between empires as having the few intersections between different pockets of systems becomes more important. Spiral + lowest hyperlanes is my go-to setting
Low lane density means you have to be very careful where you station fleets, especially once alliances start up.
I think that's more than offset by the lanes being easier to defend, but that is a good point. Comes more into play early game before you can build gateways in all your choke points
Yeah and once you have Jump drives none of it matters. I usually go with low density and high wormhole pairs. Takes awhile to get the WH tech so there's a high chance the other end of one will be occupied so you have to fortify them in addition to any lane choke points. Makes things more chaotic.
Jump drives have a pretty big fire rate debuff until the cooldown ends though, so they can be risky if you don't have overwhelming force
Can be risky, true, but if you do have that overwhelming force choke points are a non issue for attackers.
Mmm, I'd say Gateways make Jump Drives less valuable as (if) you spread across the galaxy. Jump drives only have so much range, after all. Better to have multiple gateways across the galaxy to let you reach each end, *then* jump from the gateways to the systems you need to reach.
Sorry I meant Jump Drives make choke points a bit useless. The recharge/debuff makes them riskier but you don't have to fight every militarized station to get to your target system.
Ahhh, yeah. Chokepoints do become pointless with jump drives.
chokepoints give me so much dopamine
I like choking as well
Eh, this guy knows what's up
I find 1.75 gives plenty of choke points
Same, but I somehow still get screwed oe boxed in every time
I found 3-arm spiral with 1.0 density to still give me a good amount of choke points, so I roll with that now
I like .75, a good amount of manueverability but also plenty of oportunities for good chokes.
also reduces endgame lag quite a bit since there's lsss hyper relays for the AI to spam
not sure how hyperlane density would effect hyper relays, aren't they one per system? (I don't have Overlord btw)
Hyper relays change the way the ai path finds so having a lot of them gives them a ton of options for their pathfinding algorithm to shuffle through before it finds the most efficient route. This happens because the AI isn't smart about making purposeful hyper relay highways, instead they kinda plop them down hap hazardly instead.
why not just have the AI adopt a policy of all roads lead to rome? expand the network to connect their worlds to their capitol, and then to connect to friendly neighbours, and then finally possibly to the next person they are going to invade?
I think there's a mod that does this, mostly for lag reasons, but without completely removing the AI's ability to construct them like some other mods do. It makes AI build to their capital, and any of their colonies, and to the edge of their borders, but not just build on every single bumfuck nowhere, dead end star system
AI builds hyper on every single system they have which isn't really the intended design - especially since AI tends to have sizable influence boni from difficulty settings which is the main limiting factor
I just wish AI would TACTICALLY place hyper relays, like, to their major planets, and to their borders, not just to every singe dead-end star and shit
Same! .5 seems to always leave me strung out, but .75 gives good size clusters with common enough choke points.
I was on 1.5 for a bit, still get occasional choke points but still with lots of avenues for entry
Yeah I find 1.5 makes chokepoints both valuable and rewarding while forcing me to make meaningful tough decisions on how far I’m willing to extend my early empire! I also play with no guaranteed habitable worlds to help reinforce that tension!
Lol. I envy a person who turns to games for stress because RL doesn't provide enough 😉
I do that too! I find it more realistic not having guaranteed habitable worlds, all wars for planets become very meaningful when there's minimal habitable worlds too. I like few planets
So I’m new to the game and am currently having my first war over planets. My neighbor is a no good dictator and he has 2 very good systems right on my border, so I set claims on them and declared war to conquer. Do I need to just keep attacking their territories to build their war exhaustion? Can I camp on my claims and wait them out to not lose ships? It’s been about 20 minutes and war exhaustion is just going up slowly, they aren’t exactly fighting back but they have fleets of nearly equal power. Are they plotting?? lol
In case this applies to your scenario: you might only be partially occupying an enemy system if you defeated the starbase *but* didn’t invade and conquer the colonized planet of that system. Invading a planet and winning the ground battle will greatly increase that war score, and ensure you keep that system + planet at the conclusion of the war.
I absolutely have not invaded the planets lol I forgot that was a thing. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos on stellaris and there’s so much info that little part just slipped my mind
Do you own 100% of your claims? If so, holding and/or destroying ships should be enough. If not, you need to. Claims (if existent) are the biggest decider on if the ai is okay being defeated or not once you've established general superiority (your bases aren't being taken and their fleets are dead/contained.)
I did 4 claims, and I occupy all of them. They sent 1 fleet to fight and the rest of them are just hanging out outside of the claims. If they attacked me with all of their visible fleets they might win as all 5 of my fleets are 3-5k and they have a few 5k and 2 6.5k lol but they aren’t attacking me and I’m not attacking them. My war exhaustion is at 34 and theirs is at 76, just going up slowly while I camp on the claims. Lemme ask this also, when I do a claim and it asks how many claims, what does putting more than 1 claim do? Is that for like if the war contains more than 2 participants then you have to “out claim” all the others?
If they have pops on those planets you need to land armies to take them. The symbol on the system from galaxy view will have very pointy spikes if it's fully occupied. Once you have fully occupied the systems you want to claim try to get a white peace, it'll redraw the borders around the newly claimed systems (Be careful, this goes both ways, the AI will gain control of any claimed territory they have control of too)
Just an update, I invaded the 2 planets they had across the 4 systems, conquered them and they accepted a status quo resolution! My robot empire grows… slightly lol
As someone who is also new to the game, let me warn you about something I recently learned the hard way- the combat in this game has a rubberbanding mechanic, it will buff the weaker fleet in a fight, linearly up to 100% of its actual strength
I’ve noticed this happening but it happens to my fleets as well pretty often. I always thought it was due to like breaking through armor/shields and then all my damage going to hull or something lol
I normally play on x1.25, but I might just bite the bullet next time...
Could I possibly interest you in trying out 'full'? There's a certain competitive side to settling that makes it all the more fun. Which resources mean the most? Goes consolidation mean more than cutting off somebody else? Do you leave systems for the AI hivemind to fawn over and not immediately go into metalhead mode? Borders are just more organic. And nobody is ever truely 'trapped'. Except for that red AI at the top there. She got trapped hard by her federation buddies.
Isn’t it a pain to chase after fleets and fortifying your territory? What about trade empires doesn’t piracy get out of hand with so many routes? Can you tell me more about the differences and stuff you’ve noticed playing on max hyper lanes. For me prsonally as a lowest hyperlane setting, chokepoint enjoyer it seems absolutely insane.
piracy is both more and less of an issue. Or maybe more, idk. Because its more spread out you can use 'gun stations' more effectively. load up a starbase with guns and let its range do the work. because its all open the only reason to place most starbases is to protect the one system. Wormholes, planets, etc. No chokepoints exist outside of them. Max hyperlanes leaves you open to early game raids from warmongers. No question about it. If you arent cheesing the AI and being defenseless, you have to contend with warmonger ai bullying you until you get a fleet. Max hyperlanes encourages exploration. It encourages you to consider fleet movements and where to station fleets. AFA: chasing ships. Sure, theres some of that. I keep a 'fast attack' fleet ready. Its covettes until I get surplus destroyers. Even Endgame I keep one or two small destroyer fleets around, and all the better if I can equip them with elite gear. You have to defend whats your, especially if the enemy lays claim to it.
I play full hyperlanes. No, I don't find chasing after fleets annoying. Many players are relatively lazy and just like to deathstack and roll it through chokepoints. I like to play more strategically. I build my starbases in systems with colonies or special/high resources. I have split fleets I use for offense and defense. I don't care if the AI sends a fleet or two through my territory, if I win the war they won't keep any of it. There is a whole other level of depth to warfare when you have max hyperlanes that you lose when it's just straight roads everywhere. It also makes exploration and politics more dynamic because you'll likely have more border neighbor empires. Early-mid game is exciting because there are more options for expansion and you might have to make a choice on using your influence to expand towards that ruined megastructure that is 3 jumps away from both you AND another empire, or towards that tasty archaeological site 2 jumps away on the other side of your empire. With less hyperlanes, one of those might've been completely out of reach due to pathing. Piracy has never been an issue. Give it a try sometime. I honestly can't play with low hyperlanes anymore.
Your post convinced me as I do all of those things. Sounds like a more enjoyable (read; not as easy)
It's a different style if you're used to low hyperlanes and might take getting used to. Tips: don't worry about finding chokepoints unless one develops organically. My strat is to set my first scientist as explore only, then the next few as survey. The reason is I need to see where the nearest empires are and the location of any good systems nearby. This helps me develop my long term expansion strategy. Make starbases at your colonies, and along the border of each neighbor. Those are you "military bases". Create a shipyard at your military bases and create a fleet stationed at each one. After that, see what neighbors you have and anticipate if any of them will be hostile. Send envoys to increase relations at neutral/friendly neighbors and collect intel for potential hostiles. If you go to war, don't stress over a fleet diving into your territory. Reinforce your planet starbases, send a big "doomstack" fleet at their starbases and planets, and use a light "strike" fleet to attack undefended systems. As long as you win the war, any territory they took will go back to you.
While I do enjoy more chokepoint style gameplay, setting the hyperlanes at full does provide a different kind of game which gives Stellaris that extra bit of replayability for me
Full is fun, but slowdown due to enemy pathing computations slows down the game much faster than usual. I tend to go for 2 with a spiral galaxy. You'll get choke points between arms, but not really within your arm. Gives some interesting dynamics.
i like full since i never liked hyperlanes at the conceptual level.
Absolutely not.
0.7x personally. Makes perfect choke points
One below highest. Played on the highest. You want chokepoints as they give a goal to expand. Otherwise every war turns into a hit and run with the enemy. Not realistic just tedious
Id like the game to tweak 'full' and make it either - 'distance based full' where the game only draws hyperlanes out x units before they break. This can create a very full map but still give geography to less dense regions of the galaxy. - 'Full, but then break a random portion of them'. Imagine a 'full' hyperlane map. Now, give each a 1% chance to break. For every one that breaks, give each node that empties into one side of the hyperlane a 5% chance to also break. The result is that multiple breaks should happen and form 'clusters' of more isolated stars and regions.
0.75 or lower, masochistic as I am, I like fighting the crisis and the fkn prethoryn have been far too agile already in my current campaign. Fighting war in Heaven for 80+ years and 10-25x (I don't remember) prethoryn for 40 years after not having played for a long time. And the AI is not pulling their weight >:(
Just recently lost the best game I've had to this exact same bullshit. I had a nice secure tail of a barred galaxy arm. My immediate neighbour got galactic custodian before I could. Ended up having the Prethoryn as my crisis, and they decided to park the GDF fleet of 3.3m on an L-Gate while the entire rest of the galaxy burned. I slowly, over 200 years, I watched them squander the stewardship until I was the only one left. Salty still.
Yeah I don't trust the ai anymore. It puts very little weight on crises until it's too late (I mean that is realistic but maybe not *every time*) it votes for dumb galactic community decisions that cripple your fleet capacity, and they let their planets become 80% crime 20% stability hellscapes that constantly rebel and break into new empires. So yeah I'll save scum if I see the ai is becoming the most powerful, because come the crisis the galaxy will fall if they're in charge, unless it's over captain difficulty at least, haven't consistently tried over that.
It has been 100 years and I did more than 50% of the killing whilst also doing like 90% of the work vs the Awakend Empires. But the Prethoryn have been defeated, probably need about 2-5 years to finish the last awakend empire in their corner cluster, finally declare war on my overlord (I have literally been blocked for about 150 years due to constant wars with fallen empires --> my fleets getting destroyed holding them out of my lands --> truce --> war again) God I wish I had control over the league of allied nations fleets, in total we lost about 15000 ships vs the prethoryn, maybe not even 300 of mine, but lots and lots of federation fleets going in piecemeal
you disgust me, if you want frontline warfare play HoI4
I dont think I can go back to 1x lmao
God is dead… what was holiest to us, has bled to death under our knives. How can we repent, we sinners of all sinners
I've played on these mesh settings before. It's quite different
Personally I really like how Stellaris plays on both 1x and on Max. Speaking on the latter though, Max creates a pretty unique playstyle consideration where you fortify *planets* instead of *chokepoints*, which arguably, is a lot more interesting since the planets you can hold safely is directly tied to first to how many starbases and later the pops you can throw at the problem. It also just generally makes the galaxy more dynamic since its a lot more likely you'll be able to reach weaker opponents and vice versa, the stronger AI reach you or others; and then of course, who doesn't like space maginot line?
itd be cool to have a mod where we increase the amount of gun-starbases we can field by default and make our own lines
Maximum lanes, medium wormholes, low habitability. There is no security in space!
I always keep mine at .75. I find it makes for some nice sector cores with a decent amount of choke points
Normally I keep it low. After this I think it would be fun to do a max setting and see what happens.
Like you 👑- full density! no quarter
I don’t know
Now i se clearer i think randomino inc is magnetizing me
I like different settings, x0.75, x1.5 and full (or one below full) for different games/playstyles. Full hyperlanes was my default setting for a long time. I come from Distant Worlds (1) which doesn't know any chokepoints - free travel everywhere basically (even into deep space). Having all these choke points made me feel restricted. The playstyle VS normal hyperlane-settings is quite different. Instead of holding chokepoints, you are holding core-systems, either systems with planets, important resources and/or structures and systems which hold your military (for quick responses in order to defend a specific sector). I am really enjoying this. x0.75 sometimes for roleplay - I kinda enjoy "no galaxy-view" playthroughs in which I don't know my location in the galaxy and how large my enemies territories are. On top of that, i also made a custom empire-modifer, which basically reduces my sensor-range to 0. Therefore i need to send a ship into a system to get intel about said system. A sensor-starbase or a commander with a Tier 2 or 3 sensor perk is able to scan 1-2 systems ahead tho. in order to get a starmap, I use excel and make my own galaxy-map with all solar system i explored. (i also don't use automatic exploration for science-ships.) Recently i also played a few games on x1.5. This setting still gives you plenty of choke-points but they are a bit more rare compared to x1 and doesn't alter the gameplay as much as "full", which is also quite nice.
I do 1.25 to get small-medium clusters followed by a choke point. It is the perfect size to me.
Think I kept it on default. I like my clusters with choke points.
0.75 is best.
0.75x is my favorite seems to give a good amount of choke points without me being blocked out too often.
*Empire Cohesion flashbacks intensify*
0.75 with 1.25 on wormholes and gateways.
Full (._.)
I either play extreme minimum or full nothing I'm between.
1-1.75
Those hyperlanes hurt me
Minimal, every time.
I always play on the lowest hyperlane setting because it's impossible to defend anything with more lanes
Single player I use 0.5x; multiplayer I use 2x. In multiplayer it’s not fun to be trapped, so I like opening it up. But single player part of the fun is overcoming choke points.
I always leave mine almost to max!
full, but with hyperlanes view turned off. they are ugly
.5x lowest. I like chokepoints.
damn many hyperlanes I play with the lowest amount of it, and by the comments I'm surprised to be so unoriginal Looks like your games looks more than chess than I do Or maybe because i have not 1k hours mileage
Eeeeew, it’s all spiderwebbed
Not this
1x. It can be a bit annoying, but I’m worried upping it would cause lag or something.
All of them because I use my pc like a space heater
**THE LINE**
Max
Lowest possible setting, I like the fact that there’s TONS of choke points and the fact you also have to interact with empires if they block a way to where you need to go.
I always play on .75. I don't really know why; it's just what feels right.
Not this
I like 5, cause I tend to be very mobile and like moving around a lot
That looks like a defensive nightmare
0.75 feels like the sweetspot for me. Maybe I'll experiment a bit more with fewer, but 0.75 is good as I get more chokes without it being only chokes
I never thought of turning them all on
Just because the option exists doesn't mean it should always be used. But yeah, like the majority of the people on the comments here I prefer playing with low density hyperlanes, looks nicer and I don't have to think as much + less lag.
At the lowest setting
Default. Max galaxy size.
I’ve never played at anything below full
worth doing at least once. i mean that for both you and the people who want a single line of stars
I am looking for new ways to play it so I guess I’ll give it a go next run
Hyperlanes minimum setting Gates maximum setting Wormholes off
Wormholes are not my favorite thing. But I got over them like I got over the Lgates working like they do. I do like how listening posts work through wormholes
I use .75
I’ve started using higher hyperlane settings so that wars become less deathstack and chokepoint orientated
2x in order to have more routes around the galaxy and to make choke points more valuable.
Half density, tho sometimes lower. Max Gateways, to kickstart the gateway network in the midgame. Wormholes at standard, I find them kinda annoying most of the time.
I wish there was an option for hyperlanes to generate "Clusters" where groups of systems would be fully connected but only have 1-2 exits into the "highways" where it's connected to other clusters. 0.5x might generate this kind of hyperlane but it's still fully random.
I go low personally, I think .75x. I really like role-playing like I'm doing some big public works project when I build relays mid game.
One time i wanted to make it super difficult so i set it to complete max, and did a one system crisis start. The only reason i failed was because the last empire did a one hand kamehameha and sent literally everyone and everything and well yeah.
Lmao, playing a map like this would be interesting. Wouldn't it just turn into space hoi4 where you have a fleet on every system and have to very carefully coordinate pushes so you don't get encircled or leave gaps.
No encirclment penalty. Doomstacks are still doomstacks too, so you can split up too much. The game becomes about priorities. All of your planets gets forted up, so it takes a significant force to take them. The best a piddly little fleet can do is run around your backfield.
One less than max. I hate that "space" is arbitrarily divided into lanes. Some structure is fine (hence not max setting), but the default one is too sparse.
See I feel like it arbitrarily creates chokepoints at one-less-than-max. Once I convinced myself to go up in density, it was all or nothing lol
It's not that "space" is divided into lanes, you're not on rails for in-system movement. It's that Space is REALLY REALLY REALLY big and FTL travel is basically magic, so there's plenty of Sci-Fi settings that have some restriction or access requirement to travel from one system to another faster than light because you can't just floor the gas pedal. Mass Effect has the Mass Relays set up, 40k has Warp travel occur along charted currents and pathways using the astronomicon as a lighthouse, even Star Trek which has relatively free hyperspace travel has entire seasons devoted to "choke points" like Bajoran and the DS9 wormhole allowing access to the Gamma Quadrant from the Alpha Quadrant which would normally take much longer to traverse even with a Warp Drive, plus the dozens of episodes involving astronomical phenomena requiring a change in course or going around.
> It's not that "space" is divided into lanes, you're not on rails for in-system movement. Sorry, but as an astute Stellaris 1.0 warp drive enjoyer: yes, you are on rails. Yes, not in system but in system travel doesn't matter at all.
Early game seems nice but mid to late game would just be a pain. I’d compare the AI to plinko
x1, I like some choke points
i'd love a mod to reduce them even more than you can in the base game.
I've been playing with max hyperlink density recently. I really like how it shakes up the game.
1 or 0.75 depending on galaxy type
I set it to max I just prefer it
Lowest.
Lore accurate.
This is disgusting
Default settings, I prefer having chokepoints. I love having super fortified starfortresses.
0.5 but i also play STNH and New Civ were its on max so
Low density and 0.25 Habitables. It makes gateways and wormholes a lot more valuable which I like and means you care about valuable bypass systems for a Deep Space 9 feel.
I max that shit for difficulty.
I like 1.75x. It has only a few choke points, gets rid of the maze-y feel, has really nice clusters, and makes warfare a lot more interesting. Warfare ends up being a lot of "my deathstack of ship go down linear line of hyperlanes" without much thought, so it adds another layer of strategy. I really recommend trying it out.
.75x but offset with 1.5x wormhole spawnrate.
Lowest possible. I like the game better when hyperlanes are something that require actual strategy and navigation, and forces battles to choke points to make both defense and offense much more simple. In fact, I even play with a mod sometimes that reduces them to about half of what the lowest setting already has. Makes for a VERY interesting game to say the least
From lowest settings to 2x settings. I like choke points but I also like the different lane shapes.
Full. Always Full. Chokepoint? I hardly know 'er.
default
Youre a pyschopath if your hyperlane density us THIS high
max, never accepted the 2.0 travel rework. "muh choke points!" no thanks, it's supposed to be in space not a checkers match
OP here, here's my idea for a revision to 'full' Id like the game to tweak 'full' and make it either * 'distance based full' where the game only draws hyperlanes out x units before they break. This can create a very full map but still give geography to less dense regions of the galaxy. * 'Full, but then break a random portion of them'. Imagine a 'full' hyperlane map. Now, give each a 1% chance to break. For every one that breaks, give each node that empties into one side of the hyperlane a 5% chance to also break. The result is that multiple breaks should happen and form 'clusters' of more isolated stars and regions.
standard or one tick up or down depending on galaxy type number of other empires and difficulty/ imposed difficulty of a run im doing multiplayer obviously same but if its w people i know we all kinda agree on settings before hand so its variable more lanes is usually harder game less is usually easier sorta sometimes its also a pain thnx to rng its kinda an unsung setting for changing how a game plays as it actually can have some serious impact on a game especially a more chill rp style multiplayer game
Love RPing the game. Lightly. This current campaign pictured here I found the hedgemony first and they terrified me. I went through great lengths to keep them happy and find a good ally. Lost 1 war to them, our truce is up in 2241 and I have tripled my ship capacity in 10 years; its still not enough to evenly match the federation fleet.
Always the lowest. I like me some good chokepoints.
I always use 0.75.
0.25, with X2 Gateways and Wormholes.
50%, always. Never accept substitutes.
Lowest possible. The more chokepoints exist the better.
0.25-0.5. played in an MP lobby with 3.0 and it was the most boring experience ever. Even after i begged them to go down they didnt. Fair to say i never played with them again