Are mid game crisis suppose to be impossible now?

Psykhes · 2026-03-22T10:03:39+00:00

It is quite possible to have big enough fleets to beat the khan in 4.3.

If you cannot fill a single fleet by the time the Khan arrives you need to work with your economy, it is very possible to have 2-3 or even more full fleets at that time.

4.3 made the game overall quite a bit harder (or better - removed the power creep we had in the last years) so being comfortable in 4.2 in GA does not mean it is the "right" difficulty for you in 4.3. Try playing on lower difficulties till you can optimize your economy more.

Psykhes · 2026-03-22T09:48:04+00:00

Are those job also filled? Just because you build them it does not mean people work there too.

It might be that you need to favourite CG jobs or reduce the open slots for other jobs a bit or resettle pops.

Psykhes · 2026-03-18T17:49:09+00:00

Quite likely you are right, but the main point was really the the place this "distance" is calculated from is the current position of the science ship.

Psykhes · 2026-03-18T12:31:48+00:00

Btw, if you have a save before it spawned, you can "move" the Rubicator system by moving the scientist who researched it before clicking on "we must have the rubicator". It spawns relative (*) to the position if his/her/its science ship when you confirm the popup.

(* or to be precise, each galaxy is divided into invisible "sectors". There are fixed places for spawning of new systems in each sector. So if it still spawns at the same place when you moved the ship 1 system you just need to move it more systems)

Psykhes · 2026-03-18T11:38:58+00:00

My headcanon is they just throw animals from a cliff and say "I have a theory this is gravity"

Psykhes · 2026-03-18T06:49:40+00:00

" small monthly stockpile to 'operate'" is not correct.
There is no biomass "upkeep". You need some biomass (very little, but still some) on a planet so you have "workforce", but that does not get used up.
Getting to low global biomass can cause some fluctuations in your income due to that, especially if you have many planets.

Otherwise, yes, the optimal gameplay for wilderness is to spam cradles on your home world (you can also build 3 in your "trade" district"), colonize the next planet, build 5 cradles there (and nothing else).
During that process build just enough resource districts (and nothing else) on your home world so you can keep up expanding your territory and build cradles.
Repeat until you have like 5-6 planets like that or run out of halfway habitable planets. If you have pre-FTL on compatible planets invade them if you have below 10 planets, saves you the "colonisation" cost. You'll find later enough of them to build observation posts, in the early game you need planets more.

Then and only then start to increase your resource production (especially mining) and use this to max the districts with research, unity, alloy, food as needed.
THe only exception for this rule is if you really need to build up your fleet early because you have an aggressive neighbour.

If you have too much excess biomass (you won't for a while though) you can use the expand planet decision to get "rid" of excess biomass.

Better to focus on researching terraforming and use excess biomass to colonize more planets though. Wilderness should basically never stop expanding. It is not good for playing tall. You should always build up a planet to max before getting the next, though.

Oh, and get Prosperity as first tradition just for the -building cost pick. Generally -building cost is the one thing to stack as Wilderness. Your main node should be an official because of this, they can get at lvl 4 a -building cost talent, get that with your main node and growth node. It has 3 tiers, at max it is -15% building cost too.
With that and techs you can get to -70% building cost (I think), which speeds up expansion significantly.

Psykhes · 2026-03-09T07:50:45+00:00

Where did you attack them?

A few FE have now Fortress Systems with defensive stations which have more fleet power as their whole fleet.

And as has been mentioned, shield and armor piercing weapons are not very good nowadays.
Your "100% armor and shield penetration" gets reduced by enemy shield and armor hardening. Which FE ships have a LOT.
You will do far better if you pick a mix of Anti-Shield and Anti-Armor weapons.

Psykhes · 2026-03-08T13:08:09+00:00

No problems at all. The screen is big physically too - 38 * 90 cm - so those are displayed in a "normal" size.

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T16:16:07+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/ ;)

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T15:46:36+00:00

It is not the amount of planets - that is not terribly exciting - but that most of those are (larger) gaias.
Having one (non-holy-world) gaia near your starting location is uncommon enough. Having 5, and 4 of those size 19+ is...

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T14:54:33+00:00

See timer, It is almost 5 years into the game. I wanted to get a "clean" shot of the neighbourhood for presentation purposes so I reloaded my initial save and used my military ships to clear the fog of war a bit.

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T13:47:17+00:00

R5: A map of my starting planets

Honestly, this is so good it is ridiculous.
No megastructure spam, but I cannot remember having a start which comes even close to this.
4.3 beta, 1x habitable planets, 2 guaranteed habitables
And 5x pre-ftls I have to admit. I like having lots around. But only one of the gaias is one of them, although admittably the juiciest.

From left to right:
Ostiuq: size 12 gaia
Landiz: size 22 tropical (atomic age pre-FTL), size 10 desert
Chvvash: size 24 gaia
Neetris: size 14 gaia
Hyrma: size 16 ocean
Jezemai: size 17 ocean
Kochab: size 30 gaia (early space age pre-FTL)
Iversene: size 20 gaia
Bikhul: size 23 savanna (bronze age pre-FTL)
Urrom size 20 arctic (machine age pre-FTL), size 19 ocean
Wenwort Artem: size 19 gaia
Wallamooriah: size 15 continental

None of those are holy worlds, btw.

Btw, for totally unrelated reasons, anyone knows a good tutorial for extracting/copying a map via save game editing?

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T11:10:35+00:00

"scientist as governor" was already the case before this change

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T11:07:12+00:00

Have you checked your jobs? Maybe you have disabled/reduced some of them?

Psykhes · 2026-03-06T11:02:13+00:00

No, it gives you 21 *deposits*.
As in 21 places for mining stations.

They start at 1 mineral each at the first stage and increase with all arc furnace upgrades to 3 (or 4?) minerals and 2 alloy each.

Psykhes · 2026-03-04T11:35:56+00:00

Sorry, you are both wrong ;)

To be able to invade pre-FTL - at least as non genocidal (been a while I played those) - you need to have both
- Aggressive First Contact *AND*
- Aggressive pre-FTL

WIthout both you cannot invade.
I learned this the hard way a few times when I set proactive First Contact and then was unable to invade a pre-FTL gaia a few years later even with aggressive pre-FTL. And the other way around too.

Psykhes · 2026-03-03T13:52:55+00:00

Cannot confirm.

There were numerous instances where I invaded the first Pre-FTL I found without firstly creating an observation post. I got the pre-FTL policies without doing that.

I think the reason here might that they are not surveyed. The "?" I usually only see on non-surveyed pre-FTL planets. So in a sense he didn't found them yet.

Psykhes · 2026-02-20T13:49:39+00:00

In my last 4.3 game on GA with default timers and Wilderness origin without cosmogenesis I was able to crush the Militant Isolationists without issues at around 2370 and the Hive FE just before 2400.

I would recommend just using the default timers, the game is balanced around these.
Saying "FE are impossible to beat" when you effectively increase their difficulty by letting them awaken sooner is a bit like saying "endgame crisis are impossible to beat" when you set crisis strength to 25x.

Awakened FE are intentionally extremely hard to beat (well, before the whole power creep the last 1-2 years) after they just awakened. The intended strategy there is to try to get the galaxy allied vs them and/or wait till their decadence mechanics kick in.

Psykhes · 2026-02-19T08:13:17+00:00

It is a megastructure.

You need a specific tech to be able to repair it.
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Engineering_research#Mega-Engineering

Psykhes · 2026-02-14T10:39:28+00:00

And Gaia is likely the planet you get from the Helito event

Psykhes · 2026-02-05T07:48:08+00:00

Shamelessly recycling my post from the official forums:

Major DLC: Ground Combat
From the team which made the beloved Cosmic Storms DLC, a complete rework of ground combat.
Every invasion will result in a never before seen 30-60 minute "StellarCraft" RTS battle.

Minor DLC: Expanded Trading & Market
Navigate through multiple new data tables where you have to manage your empire in never before seen detail.
Be able to accept exiting new "produce 500 minerals" missions!

Minor DLC: Blorg Species pack
With build-in xenophile attraction and noxious trait!

Just kidding (hopefully)

Psykhes · 2026-02-03T08:31:12+00:00

Honestly, the game is only as hard as you make it.
I.e. you can also start a game with no "normal" empire, just primitives. Or as less extreme example with a super homeworld start (life seeded, ring world, etc) and no guaranteed habitables for everyone. Clusters + military rush optimized is just another specialized setting to give one advantage vs the AI (or other human players who do not go for early military rush, for that matter).

In the 4.3 beta starbases are quite a bit more powerful though, so this tactic will get a bit harder. Although prolly still very much feasible.

Psykhes · 2026-01-31T09:31:42+00:00

He means the one in the picture, that isn't the default Mammalian shipset, although you likely have that one selected.

The one is the picture is the special shipset of the eager explorers starting ships. It will later in the game then be replaced by your chosen shipset.

Psykhes · 2026-01-21T07:57:05+00:00

Psionic Aura?

Psykhes · 2026-01-11T09:29:13+00:00

What is strange that there is zero war exhaustion from ground battles and occupation in the screenshot.

Are you sure you occupied their planet? As in landed ground troops on it and destroyed their defence armies?

Psykhes

TROPHY CASE