[section_title title=”Gameplay”]
Gameplay
Case – BitFenix Shinobi XL
Motherboard – MSI Z87-MPOWER MAX
CPU – Intel i7 4770K
RAM – Kingston Beast Series 16GB 2133mhz DDR3
GPU – OcUK GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5
PSU – Corsair TX850 850W
CPU Cooler – Corsair Hydro Series H100i All-In-One
SSD – OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
HDD – Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Internal
Gameplay is pretty essential in a game of this magnitude, it must have the right balance so you can find things easy enough while manoeuvring units at the same time. If that’s too complicated, thankfully there is a pause button for units and you can pause them, do the other pieces of work, then work with the units after. This is the way I usually do things because I am just god awful with mini management so it seems development was thought through with people like me in mind. Stellaris, with how it is all set up and how it looks, genuinely reminds me of Sins of a Solar Empire, but obviously it looks tons better, and I actually find it plays better too, with the tutorial being a massive help.
People who work for you in the game can actually grow old and die which is a surprising thing to find out while playing, I also found it very reminiscent of Total War: Rome II. I’ve seen that Stellaris will have full mod support, which means modders will be able to let their imagination run wild. This opens up this game to become a sort of space strategy Skyrim kind of game, I’m sure we’ll see Star Trek, Star Wars, BattleStar Galactica mods and all kinds of other franchises in the coming months (Firefly, anyone?).
Diplomacy plays a big part in the game, and has been brought in from previous Paradox games too. Every AI will have a “relation” value, it will go higher depending on friendly actions, diplomatic agreements and ethics too.
The basic diplomatic actions are as follows; most cost influence to use.
- Creating an embassy to improve relations with an AI nation (embassies don’t matter in a multiplayer game if created between two human players)
- Sending an insult to reduce relations
- Offering alliances (a strong alliance with 4 or more participants may become a Federation)
- Offering trade agreements (trade agreements can include non-aggression pacts, map-sharing, resources, research access, border access, and migration between nations)
- Demanding a weaker AI enemy becomes your vassal
- Declaring war
- Declaring another nation your rival (resulting in both parties gaining Influence)