Stellaris 2.2.x 'Le Guin' and MegaCorp review

[Matcam89]

As someone who just owns the base game do you have any recommendations for which dlc to buy first?

[WhiplashVIII]

As someone who just owns the base game do you have any recommendations for which dlc to buy first?

I can't be of too much help there since I bought them all at the same time since they are on Steam sale at the moment. I did play the base game for a few hours and was hooked and bought all the DLC's lol... in a way, I kinda wish I worked through them, but it seems like it doesn't really matter in terms of order of progression. Someone please set me straight if that's not the case.

[TelperionST]

As someone who just owns the base game do you have any recommendations for which dlc to buy first?

You can check out all of the DLCs from here --> https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Downloadable_content

I would say grab Utopia first, because of Megastructures and Ascension Perks. Megastructures will give you something to work towards the end-game and Ascension Perks are just too good to pass on. I couldn't play the game without them anymore. Then, when you want to experience a different way to play the game grab Synthetic Dawn and start a game as a machine gestalt consciousness. Look for sales when you purchase DLC: they are rather expensive for the amount of content you get compared to the free updates.

I can't be of too much help there since I bought them all at the same time since they are on Steam sale at the moment. I did play the base game for a few hours and was hooked and bought all the DLC's lol... in a way, I kinda wish I worked through them, but it seems like it doesn't really matter in terms of order of progression. Someone please set me straight if that's not the case.

Like with all of the other Paradox games you can pick and choose what to buy. However, once the game has you hooked, you will probably want to buy all of them.

[Imnotanybody]

Personally, 2.2 ruined it for me, cause I love to micromanage some planets and let the ai manage others. I used to have 5-10 core planets I heavily microed and the rest I let the AI do the rest. But now I can't even control what constitutes a sector, the AI management is terrible forcing me to micro planets I don't care about. And the amount of planets I can actually keep up with is lowered because I tend to play gestalt consciousness and I hate going over my command limit. (I know it's inevitable, but I hate seeing those negatives.) Futhermore, we have wayy to many ascension perks but not enough spots to fill them. A game takes even longer now, but if I have to choose between getting that planet-killer I payed for (I own all the dlc, loved the game even with the 2.0 change, but 2.2 is the dealbreaker for me) or getting the op megastructure building again I'll be annoyed. It just feels like the devs made us do more work to maintain our society, when the fun of the game to me was always the warfare,expansion, and stories of friends and rivals made along the way, dealing with so much planets was only to feed into that. However now I feel that everything I loved to do is so nerfed that I can't truly enjoy the game I played. I really want to like the new update too, allowing me to rival people I don't border is great, allowing science trade to be diplomatic rather than trade is great. I got too bogged down to truly do the megacorp stuff, but it looks like a great way to deal with excess resources. I don't mind the split between alloys and minerals, though I feel that it's just harming my war machines that I love to play as. Maybe I just need to play more and accept the changes, but for now, I've turned my game back to 2.1 and been enjoying it that way. Perhaps with a few more fixes and some change in my playstyle I'll be able to truly appreciate everything 2.2 got right instead of the things it got wrong.

[TelperionST]

Personally, 2.2 ruined it for me, cause I love to micromanage some planets and let the ai manage others. <snip, snip> It just feels like the devs made us do more work to maintain our society, when the fun of the game to me was always the warfare,expansion, and stories of friends and rivals made along the way, dealing with so much planets was only to feed into that.

I definitely understand where you are coming from with the increased demand on time spent building and maintaining an empire. I have always loved the micromanagement parts of Stellaris, so giving even more attention and tools is a big draw for me. I'm the guy who will happily sit there for hours on end jumping between planets and staring at one planet overview tab after another. Constantly building new things or replacing old buildings / districts with new ones.

Right now I'm looking for a mod that will fix the lack of control over Worker, Specialist and Ruler pops, but hopefully there will also be an official patch soon.

[Sorain]

I definitely understand where you are coming from with the increased demand on time spent building and maintaining an empire. I have always loved the micromanagement parts of Stellaris, so giving even more attention and tools is a big draw for me. I'm the guy who will happily sit there for hours on end jumping between planets and staring at one planet overview tab after another. Constantly building new things or replacing old buildings / districts with new ones.

Right now I'm looking for a mod that will fix the lack of control over Worker, Specialist and Ruler pops, but hopefully there will also be an official patch soon.

I think the solution is to get the automation running again. There are those who love the details like yourself, and then those who mostly don't like Imnotanybody. I tend to fall into a mix of both. I like some micro, but when you own half the galaxy being able to get some functionality out of systems/planets without having to micro everything really does help. The sector situation requires fixing. Not having control over that and the AI management of them being borked hurts things a lot.