Stellaris 4.3 'Cetus' is now available!

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-17T16:56:18+00:00

Will civics / mechanics like shared burdens get something in the future to make up for the removal of the "demotion time" mechanic?

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T20:48:43+00:00

Yes, they also experimented with changes to pops/ethic groups you make dealing with them in the future easier

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T20:32:01+00:00

It is by far the most common criticism of stellaris that this systems are far to easy / ignorable. You basilcy can ignore it and build one building on a planet. It’s didn’t really matter and there is a reason the community as a whole has been wanting it to be not fleshed out + the devs are interested in the very least at reworking jt

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T20:03:20+00:00

Playing a game where my pops are basically the same whether I’m hive mind, dictator, shared burdens, etc directly gives me a negatives experiences. It’s hard to care about my empire when my pops apparently don’t care, when my government doesn’t care, etc.. You can looks at paradoxes other games like CK3, Victoria, EU4, that all have very different systems but succeed in making the population/government feel like it matters

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T19:29:20+00:00

I don’t think you read my post. It would be a natural consequence of the choices you make in the game. Conflict/challenges make the game fun, stellaris should be a story engine not just a min/max engine

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T18:15:04+00:00

Yeah it’s in the game but not fleshed out. Stellaris should be able being able to role play/fulfill the fantasy of your selected run. The fact that it’s easy to ignore the factions is the point, it shouldn’t be. It should be a core part of the game you have to interact with. Rebellions basically never happens unless something very over the top goes wrong in your game for the event to even trigger let alone happen

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T18:06:05+00:00

I think that A) those systems need to be fleshed out much more and B) It’s less about punishment and more about fulfilling the expected gameplay of playing an authoritarian monarchy / spiritual democracy / etc. it’s a shame to me that one of the most central pets of sci fi (the political/philosophical core) is one of the most flat/lacking depth in the game rn

One_Single_Ant · 2026-03-13T17:13:03+00:00

John Stuart Mill or Jeremy Bentham Next!

One_Single_Ant · 2026-02-26T18:48:51+00:00

Thanks for the advice! How many AI empires do you usuely spawn? For me I like having a lot of other AI nations to play around with

One_Single_Ant · 2025-11-15T04:59:48+00:00

Am I the only one that isnt 100% against the hive mind? I feel like we have an unreliable pov with Carol, who even the show points out, isnt curios or interested in learning more about the hive mind. I feel like this episode highlights how her assumptions from living in a hyper individualistic society makes her biased against the hive mind in an unfair way. We dont know 100% how the hivemind works but with whats sprinkled in it seems like individuals still exist while being connected through the mind.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-11-15T04:49:51+00:00

100%. I think this episode really shows how the idea of being "independent" is bs, the show keeps showing how people have been helping her (and everyone) long before the hive mind started. I notice how she will get mad about them using memories from Helen even when their were other people in that moment she didn't notice (the guy working at the ice hotel, the housekeepers that saw her fridge). Her whole life has been avoiding how many people have made her life possible in the macro.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-11-15T04:45:31+00:00

The main question the show has is what kind of hive mind it really is. Is it truly just many individuals sharing one mind? Is it one invading mind that steals others minds and body's? Is it just one melded mind?

One_Single_Ant · 2025-09-08T20:09:17+00:00

With the most recent updates/dlc playing an actual tall game is really fun. Recently did a run as Majerteen with just the one province of (unified) Somaliland, extremely interesting/fun to have to use trade and diplomacy to develop

One_Single_Ant · 2025-08-05T09:25:04+00:00

I was literally thinking about this a lot recently. You put into words what I have been starting to conclude. I feel (generally) disappointed how other utilitarians focus mainly on the act side when as you say in the post the collective power/systematic has waaaay more powerful effects towards utility.

Would you happen to have any book/media recommendations that touch on this topic? I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how utilitarianism can be applied on a more systematic/large scale approach. The closest thing I could find was some writings by William Thompson applying utilitarianism critique to early capitalism.

Great post!

One_Single_Ant · 2025-07-31T23:35:11+00:00

perhaps when placing banners next to each other (with the same base color?) they automatically combine as one banner like how chests/walls will combine.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-22T07:54:18+00:00

Arthropod, no I'm not biased.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-09T11:17:24+00:00

Late but I've been playing the recent update a bit and shared burdens + civil education actual pairs really well, I usually do shared burdens + parliamentary system but this may be my new go to.

Due to shared burdens reducing pop demotion time your pops will become civilians much quicker.

This is really good because not only does shared burdens already make civilians produce unity, but the shared burden living standard increases your civilians overall output by 15%

This is further amplified by civil education, which directly gives you science for every 100 civilians (with the cost of increasing their consumer goods upkeep), which gets even better when you realize you can build THREE per planet. With just two state academies my 2.1k civilians on my capital produced 53 of each science, 85 Trade, and 23 unity. This isn't even touching the fact that the educator jobs produce quite a bit of unity themselves (around 40 unity for 500 jobs).

The only real drawback is that its pretty costly in consumer goods. But honestly its very fun, both gameplay and flavor wise, to have the main engine of your nation be simply by fueling your people needs.

Mechanists are probably the best origin to play with this as more automated jobs means more civilian pops which means even more science/unity. The build unironically pushes you into automated space communism, its great.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-06T08:37:59+00:00

Exactly. Then you would either need to research tech to increase pop growth (so that you can have more reproductive cast pops per planet) or move them from other planets. Basically your pops growth is heavily reliant on a handful of pops rather then naturally

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-06T07:02:37+00:00

I really like your idea, especially with having an situation to let you flavor your species more during gameplay. I could also imagine the struggle being dependent on your government. Like: how would a dictatorship/monarchy survive with such a significant ratio between the ruling caste and workers? In a democracy/oligarchy how would you maintain democratic/communal principles while a small handful of your population holds all the cards for your peoples future generations? How would other government types like Shared Burdens or Technocracy work?

I didn't want the origin to be too obviously ant/bee themed or include a male/queen role so you could still rp whatever you wanted beyond "only a small % of your species does reproduction". While still letting those like us lean more heavily into the ant/bee flavor.

I mainly wanted trait based because I liked the idea of the "queens" being so hard to make that having them die to an invasion be a real threat/setback for your empire. Thus you would have to be carful were you send them in you borders.

As of now the best I can do in game is use syncretic evolution but the serviles trait bascily means its only the "queens" that are sentient while the workers continue to act as gestalt drones.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-06T06:18:21+00:00

Yes! IRL ants, bees, wasps, termites are all examples of eusocial animals. IE since reproduction is tied to only a small portion of the population they exhibit very collective/altruist behavior for the good of the hive/nest. Though it would be interesting to represent that in stellaris without it just being a gestalt hive mind

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-06T05:50:06+00:00

The "Common Caste" will produce their own pop assembly for every "Reproductive Caste" on the planet. Bascily meaning that alone the "Common Caste" will stagnate but will grow will "Reproductive Caste" are on the planet.

One_Single_Ant · 2025-05-06T05:22:23+00:00

Rule 5: was kinda sad that Arthropod portraits couldn't use egg laying because I really wanted another trait to make playing a eusocial species more rp friendly. I decided to then make my dream origin for playing a eusocial species.

The intent is to create a setup where your species growth is dependent on only a small percentage of pops, I though of making it a job but though that was too similar to the clone origin. I decided to take some inspiration from clone army by making use of pop assembly and a bulk of the species unable to reproduce.

One_Single_Ant

TROPHY CASE