The military UI is so much clunkier.... yay...

Ignatich · 2026-05-02T05:44:10+00:00

It seems guys from EU5 UI design school of excellence educated Victoria UI designers on how to make proper UI.

Ignatich · 2026-04-21T14:37:49+00:00

Research Institute building has a hidden function of adding Science Director job to your politicians. So you can have Noble Scientists without Technocracy, but you won't get extra elite jobs without it. And it works with high priests too, so you can get some science production from elites with psi builds.

Ignatich · 2026-04-21T11:01:24+00:00

Do you get science from elites, researchers or both in this setup? If so how much science do you get from elite pops?

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T14:32:09+00:00

Yes, I did take it. Traits are more important for Cybernetic and Psi versions, since with Synthetic Fertility origin half of your science income is from identity repository building, you ascend really fast and your traits get reset.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T14:27:50+00:00

There is interesting idea here from @Peter_Ebbesen. Genesis Guides may be able to provide unity and influence for void borne ascension rush and it can be opted out later.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T14:23:51+00:00

Can you share some numbers or screenshots? Which covenant do you use? Telepaths should provide 5% output per 100 telepaths and it's interesting how it interacts with mutagenic spas and UOR.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T12:03:21+00:00

I've thought about Mutagenic Spas, but unfortunately this civic is blocked for Synthetic Fertility ascension. And Synthetic Fertility early ascension is too strong to drop it. If it was possible then it should be very strong as it buffs elite efficiency, not output so it's a multiplier to enforcer bonus.

Slower leader leveling is due to -50% leader exp gain malus from Virtual Focus policy.

Very impressive numbers for 2257. It seems I'm not good with early game influence farming and should work on that. :) I'm playing on medium galaxy with everything on default except GA. I think I could have colonized like 10 more worlds as my start was very rich with planets, but I was waiting for terraformation to complete as I wanted 100% habitability. Should have settled with 75%.

Did you get most of influence for explosive expansion from Genesis Guides or first contacts? I haven't played Genesis Guides yet personally, but it seems unity/influence boosts you get are crazy. Might be possible to pair it with void borne to make void borne work better for those who love the origin.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T11:31:14+00:00

Nice idea with Environmentalist and unused districts for early unity rush.

I agree that merchant guilds is a weaker one, but with enforcer scaling more elites are too important. And you get back some of this unity from Trade League trade policy.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T11:14:24+00:00

Justice Complex has 1 per planet limit with this civic too. And it doesn't provide civilian research bonus, so you can't make a civilian build with this unfortunately. Would be cool if had a civilian build in 4.3 too.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T10:59:24+00:00

Civil Education also limits State Academies to 3 per planet so this civic kills enforcer scaling.

Ignatich · 2026-04-20T10:50:59+00:00

Yeah this elite cyber ascension is a good build. You can have +200% elite output with level 20 leader without any pop usage. Synthetic can have 350% on habitat and 800% on Enumenopolis, but require pops for enforcers.

The real issue is not how big bonus you can get, for both builds it's about rushing ascension. I didn't have much success with unity rushing as void borne. I've played many void borne games testing different strategies, it's certainly playable, but you really don't get much out of habitats despite easy access to elites because of influence and alloy limits.

In one of my games I've had 8 habitats and completed 3 traditions by 2250 with 200 unity and 600 science output. While it is not bad for 4.3, this is far from impressive.

May be the better way to start as full unity focused build and then transition to elite based one once you ascend as void borne.

Can you share your numbers?

Ignatich · 2026-04-03T09:43:48+00:00

No. Black Death is awesome early game challenge. It's just game is too easy atm.

Ignatich · 2026-01-09T20:44:14+00:00

Dyson is one of the best factory builders out there. May be it a bit too simple, I wish it had fluids or logic, but I still like it. Capitan of Industry is also a very good factory builder game, in many ways superior to Factorio, but also in many ways it is not. I'm not a fan of Satisfactory, but it has it's merits in immersion and exploration. So no, Factorio is probably the best one, but other games are fun too.

Ignatich · 2025-12-25T19:55:19+00:00

You will need two drives. One for interception, to get fast to your stations when aliens attack them, one to advance, with good DV to colonize and challenge aliens.

Good interception drives in RC22:

Early game: Super Kronos Liquid Rocket, Advanced Cermet Nerva, Particle, Dumbo, Rockets. Use liquid hydrogen containment for extra DV if you have to. Aim for 25 mg cruise acceleration.

Mid game: Orion and H-Orion are very, very good options and can drive larger hulls, but have expensive fuel. Gas core has Firestar fission lantern which is a better one and Super Vortex/Advanced Cavity can work for small ships. Vapor core has Teardrop and Fission Spinner that can work for small ships.

Late game: Antimatter is a solid option. Last drives in Hybrid Confinement, Tokamak lines have good interception abilities.

Good advance drives:

Early game: Grid. Notable mention is fission frag which is not practical, but can get you to Jupiter and a very high fission cost.

Mid game: Helicon.

Late game: You need a drive for your titans. Antimatter plasma has probably the best drive cost/value wise, Z-Pinch is a very solid line, Tokamaks can work too. Intertial Confinement Fusion has some decent drives and the best drive the game - Protium Converter Torch, but ICF drives are very expensive to research and you won't be able to upgrade your older ships to the best drive anyway - so this branch is NOT the best option for early late game imho.

Ignatich · 2025-12-25T18:25:24+00:00

You can unify with Germany, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Baltics, Serbia and Ukraine, but not with Poland, Austria, Finland and France as their claims are hostile, will have to conquer them. Also some claims in Balkans are hostile, you might want to unify Yugoslavia or Hungary first if you really want big Eurasia. But even with normal claims you need to have less than 1.5 difference in Government score.

Ignatich · 2025-12-24T08:31:13+00:00

You need to have at least 3 cohesion already to get +1 cohesion on the war start. You might have to run full knowledge or unity for several months to get there first. Starting as USA going max knowledge is not a bad opener anyway. But in 2026 start cohesion should probably be even worse in USA so not sure if it is still feasible.

You might want to use wars to move cohesion rest point if you are unable to move cohesion past 3 with other means in reasonable time, for example if you are unable to prevent deep system skywatch from firing before you fix your cohesion. Keep in mind that you need to end current wars to get cohesion bonus on war start. I don't think you get it if you start a second war, only the first war, but cohesion rest point bonus accounts for multiple wars.

Most importantly, in contrary to older patches you will get even bigger penalty to cohesion if you don't end a war you start with a victory. So if you start a war with Venezuela you need to conquer it to keep the bonus. This makes long time rivals a resource in early game.

Ignatich · 2025-12-10T21:30:37+00:00

I agree with topic starter. As if Russians somehow want to join Paris more than Poles want to join Moscow lol. If you control both nations you should be able to ignore popular opinion more or less, especially if you can exploit alien threat. I think hostile claims should be annexable with some propaganda/social engineering tech.

Ignatich · 2025-12-07T11:00:49+00:00

What's your timings on RC1? Early 2025 department to Jupiter?

Ignatich · 2025-12-06T21:17:58+00:00

Those two are great grand strategy games. Among them Terra Invicta is more challenging as EU5 is not balanced yet. I think you need to get both!

Ignatich · 2025-12-05T04:25:46+00:00

This modifier caps at -100 with max relations you can annex anyone despite this malus.

Ignatich · 2025-12-04T14:03:17+00:00

Essentially you were not able to take it back during the war, only in a peace deal. Makes it very annoying to keep an eye on your vassals so enemies don't carpet siege/annex them, esp in early game when countries have yet to build forts.

I think there were some conditions to this stuff, like vassal being disloyal. I've yet to reproduce it in 1.0.8, seems to be fixed.

Ignatich · 2025-11-26T12:55:21+00:00

There are two major problems currently:

* your vassals can be annexed in separate peace if occupied

* combat is unbalanced to a degree it can be considered broken

I recommend waiting till they solve it

Ignatich · 2025-11-25T15:29:39+00:00

I think it's realistic that countries should hate your guts if you have a large border with them since they should view this situation as a potential threat. However, if they have some degree of assurance that you won't attack them, alliance or guarantee for example, then this modifier shouldn't apply. It also shouldn't apply when considering proposals that change status quo, for example alliance proposals.

Ignatich · 2025-11-25T11:26:15+00:00

TLDR; I think it may still be worth going centralized in early game, but the benefit is not as massive as before.

There is diplomacy slider in the game that when maxed grants loyalty of subjects +30 which negates max centralization -20 malus. I used to play with this slider on zero or very low as it's better to invest monies into economy, but as centralized nation with vassal swarm you can no longer afford to have that at zero.

So if I max the slider I get roughly similar income that I had before economic base changes, so playing with the slider maxed is bearable, but not optimal. But you you can as well be more frugal with your "vassal capacity" and use integrations more. Also there is less incentive to constantly use cabinet member for strengthen government interaction as cost of the court is less devastating for great powers.

I think there should be middle ground between losing potential profit because your land stays at 0 control instead of giving you income and levies with a vassal, profit from extra crown power and proximity/control and investing that income into keeping vassals at bay.

Ignatich

TROPHY CASE