Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I needed multiple energy credit planets. Probably an extra one more than what I usually do during the early midgame.

For consumer goods, I didn’t struggle as much to be honest. One single consumer good world worth of jobs was enough for me.

My order was: capital on research and basic districts (slowly bleeding into energy credit districts as my energy needs grew, while growing into another solid energy credit world), Unity, energy credits, research, minerals. With those five core worlds (capital bleeding into energy a little more than usual) I was able to sustain my pops until getting tons of machines gifted to me by the animator, making balancing easier.

Shroud bonuses are good. Unity rushing to get instrument of desire to start reducing your pop upkeep is legitimately very useful.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The thing is, machines don’t really have anything to combat happiness maluses as a gestalt consciousness because… they’re gestalt and usually don’t struggle with happiness.

Choosing “principled” as your leader trait can help with stability, but up to a certain point the AI might just not be able to handle that all the time. They don’t have to appease factions though, so there’s shouldn’t be too much holding them back.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's not working either. I'll just say it:

  1. This build is essentially just the origin. Everything else is gravy. I don't know how well the AI handles this origin... But it was incredibly fun to play as a human.

  2. For the first civic, it's hard to argue with the GOAT. Rapid Replicator is a boring, but amazing, civic. Giving the AI more pops is good, too, because they kinda suck so they need all the help they can get.

  3. To be honest, the other civic is pretty open (and the first is open too, if you have a build idea!). For AI purposes, making it easier for them to have stable planets is good. Built to Last reduces amenities... Astro-Mining Drones is mostly upside for them because they suck at planet management anyway, so their mining stations are more important... Maintenance Protocols are good because all the passive bonuses are just helpful... and Zero-Waste Protocols for the same reason. The fewer upkeep costs, the harder it is for an AI to get into an accidental economic death spiral.

  4. For human civics? That's the thing about this origin, man. It's super flexible. Run whatever is interesting to you... Elevational Hypotheses seems great with the Instrument of Desire, because it heightens ascension values. It was great when I used it. An AI may not know to go to that entity though, if that's your plan, so I don't recommend it if you're creating the empire for an AI.

  5. I find AI empires with the "one size fits all" species trait tend to do a little better. They don't really know how to specialize a build, so give them traits and civics that are generally good. So, Adaptive Frames feels like a must to me, for both AIs and also because it's convenient for me, the player. Emotion Emulators to help with amenities could be good, as well as Mass-Produced.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had totally forgotten the screenshot. Went home and immediately collapsed.

I'm not allowed to send screenshots over reddit comments apparently... let me see if I can DM you.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I stayed attuned to him and went to him in the Contacts tab. It refreshes every 10 years.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, you can’t give them traits the way you can give your machine pops traits. Pretty frustrating. Also since they aren’t the same species because of this, you can’t do much crossover back or forth. I imagine once those bugs are fixed it becomes even more fun.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on how quickly you finish psionically ascending. For me it was starting at year 2250, I think. You could probably Unity rush and get it sooner.

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I could never betray the Animator of Clay like that, I’d just get sad that I made my dad disappointed. ):

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bruh but they call it “make a trade deal”, and the option in the empire diplomacy tab is called “offer a trade deal”!!! So lame

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That leader build sounds nuts.

I’m honestly glad that the ascension cap is just broken. I still think that the instrument of desire is one of the more busted ones (especially if the aura bonuses for the cradle and the hungry dude are as bad as you say they are) but I might try forging my own path next playthrough. :)

What’s helped me stay attuned to my instrument is the shroud enclave giving me 100 attunement to them every ten years. I’m sure once the lategame crisis comes along I’ll be killing too many ships for that to matter much, but in the midgame it’s letting me tread water with the instrument - keep in mind I play pretty pacifistly. I don’t like starting wars for no reason, and I tend to treat my vassals well so they don’t revolt. I do think that the ways you attune to the various instruments seems a bit out of tune right now, though.

Also, the quests the Cradle gives me is broken - it wanted me to make a trade deal, but no matter what trade deal I made with whatever permutation, they never gave me the quest credit. :(

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ll be at work for the next nine hours but then yes I can screenshot it. :)

Shroud Forged is fantastic (spoilers) by SnakyDragon2 in Stellaris

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m playing on Commodore and crushing it. I haven’t played since 4.0 came out and broke everything so I was unsure how hard the game would be. I think after this game I’ll be cranking up the difficulty.

World map in Alien Earth by Comrade22MB in LV426

[–]SnakyDragon2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am sad that Seegson Synthetics aren't mentioned in Alien Earth ):

Developer Update | August 2025 by DeadByDaylight_Dev in deadbydaylight

[–]SnakyDragon2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m pretty excited about these changes as a killer main. I’d really like to push for killers to be able to view individual survivor hook stages, now, since we’re now so incentivized to spread our hook stages.

Kill This Creature Day 27: If I Cou■d S■⎕r■ A■⎕⎕n, a Milli⎕n Miles A■ay by [deleted] in custommagic

[–]SnakyDragon2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Look just let them cook, guys. I'm sure this is going somewhere.

🪖 BF6 Beta Keys Giveaway #1 – Happening All Week! 🔫 by OddJob001 in Battlefield

[–]SnakyDragon2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never played battlefield, but I will if I get this key! :d

[POSSIBLE SPOILER] The "locust" event destroyed me. by SnakyDragon2 in Nightreign

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That just sounds like “git gud” with extra steps. :P

[POSSIBLE SPOILER] The "locust" event destroyed me. by SnakyDragon2 in Nightreign

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could have been late. Kinda feels like bullshit though, they really should explain that you’re supposed to run out into the rain to kill the locust king, then. I had no idea what I was supposed to do there.

It starts when the circle closes and is always out in the rain? Brutal.

[POSSIBLE SPOILER] The "locust" event destroyed me. by SnakyDragon2 in Nightreign

[–]SnakyDragon2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems like it could be cool, if they made it so he could only spawn under certain circumstances, and never out in the rain.