ARTICLE - Stellaris 1.5.1 (Banks/Utopia)

Stellaris 1.5.1 (Banks/Utopia) (Utopia expansion)

Paradox Interactive, Paradox Development Studios

Howdy, everyone! I am excited to present to you my very first published game article, covering Stellaris! Hope you enjoy!

My fleet as it moves across the sector.
Beautiful, isn't it?

Stellaris is a game of galactic conquest and political roughhousing set on a massive scale of 600 or more stars in a single RTS experience. The player is placed in control of a fledgling space empire, with a single planet and the bare minimum of resources, and aims to take the entire galaxy as their own. Around the player, there are a host of other empires, all vying for control, and a plethora of Star Trek-style encounters.

The game has mixed roots, with one foot in the classic 4Xs of old, and the other foot in the more modern RTS genre. For fans of Paradox’s other games, such as Hearts of Iron, the formula they use will be familiar, as the game shares many of the features and quirks of their other games. From the RTS, Stellaris takes real-time play, unit creation, and combat, while from the 4X genre Stellaris takes complex politics, grand scale, and, of course, the four “X”es of 4X.

Most features of the game, however, are really there to build more on the 4X side of the game, focusing on the macro, rather than the micro. The game benefits in a number of ways from this focus on the macro scale, specifically with the Ethics and Diplomacy systems. The Ethics system in particular is very interesting, in that it influences many facets of the game, including both diplomacy and conquest. Basically, both your empire and your empire’s pops will have ethics which may or may not line up with each other. The player’s empire ethics basically provide buffs to the empire as a whole, but can also influence diplomacy, as empires that have opposing ethics will inevitably declare war on each other, as well as have negative general opinions of each other (restricting any further diplomacy, such as open borders and trade). When it comes to the players pops, pops will join factions in your empire based on what their ethics are, each faction having it’s own goals and agendas. If a player fails to fulfill a faction’s agenda, the pops belonging to the faction will grow unhappy and riot, or even begin an insurrection. This one mechanic alone is quite powerful, and many of the other mechanics bolster this mechanic, including the new Tradition system, which grants late-game buffs for your empire (which can support the buffs already given by your chosen Ethics), and several of the other customization features, including Species Traits, which grant buffs to members of your empire’s inhabitants. The player finds themselves trying to maximise their Ethics with these other systems, choosing Traditions that aid their Militarism, or picking Species Traits that synergise with their Authoritarianism (such as the “Decadent” trait).

Of course, all games have their flaws, and Stellaris is no exception. Stellaris’ combat really is somewhat lackluster, with it mostly revolving around either catching your opponent’s fleets while their numbers are down, or building your own fleets in a rock-paper-scissors fashion, designing ships that counter the enemy’s shield-heavy ships or missile dependant ones. This can quickly make warfare somewhat droning, with the player often participating in, on the receiving end or not, guerilla warfare tactics, which bog down the combat even further. In addition to this, there really is no way to control one’s ships on the micro level, with the player only being able to move their ships in blobs from system to system. At least the fireworks are pretty. Outside of this, some of the customization for the player’s empires is somewhat limited in the vanilla game, with only 6 ship styles to choose from, limited humanoid portraits, and a measly color palette (the latter complaint is at least easy to fix with mods).

In the end, Stellaris does a good job at delivering an experience in commanding a galactic empire on the large scale, but delivers less for those searching for micromanaged space campaigning. The customization for the game (which I really did not touch much on) makes the game incredibly immersive, and I find often that I will be roleplaying to a degree, putting myself in the shoes of a slaving despot, or a knowledgeable dean of space schools. Really, much of anything is within the player’s grasp. The diplomacy and empire management is a joy, with the player finding themselves quickly dancing around the entanglement of alliances and treaties while still trying to provide for their current colonies and acquire new ones. In my eyes, Stellaris has made its place, and then some, in the 4X space classics.

Thanks for reading my article! I am hoping to make a bit of a hobby out of this, and plan to post once a week, on a regular schedule. If all goes well, I’ll be talking to you next week! Feel free to leave your comments!

See ya!

Joey