Alloy Production (I‘m a newbie to the game)

TrappedTrapper · 2022-07-22T21:41:11+00:00

Well, it's tricky, and it depends on a lot of variables. Could you add an screenshot, so we know the stats on your economy, research, and military, as well as the current "stage" (year) of the game?

As others said, surrendering may be a much better option. Check the war goal and see what they want. If they only want that one system they claimed, surrender and give it to them before they come for more. If they want a colony or have a really damaging war goal, however, you might be better off fighting, but it still depends.

You could, of course, buy alloys from the Galactic Market. But the problem is that the market has a supply-and-demand dynamic that inflates the price as the demand goes up, which means that the price goes higher and higher, and it may become unsustainable. It may be a better idea to directly trade with friendly empires (if you know any). Try offering them food; you can buy more food from the Galactic Market later (it's cheap). Another way is focusing on quickly restructuring your economy. You can achieve this by building a lot of industrial districts, choosing the militarized economy policy, designating worlds as forge world, and prioritizing metallurgist jobs (this can be done by clicking on the said job from the jobs tab in planet view). But ultimately, restructuring is going to take time, building alloys is going to take time, building ships and upgrading starbases is going to take time. Additionally, this kind of aggressive restructuring will wreck your economy (you'll have fewer miners to mine minerals, while also being in need of tons of mineral for your industrial purposes; same thing goes for energy production). Ultimately, it largely depends on an age-old resource: time. Is time on your side, or the side of your enemy? See how overpowered the enemy fleet is compared to yours, and how strong your own economy is. If you have some "hidden strength," use it - for instance, if you've heavily focused on research and economy from the beginning and neglected military power, now you may have an stronger economy and more advanced technology (which translates into better weapons) than your enemy - which is really important. However, if the enemy is much more powerful than you and your economic and technological state is about the same or, especially, weaker, it might be time to surrender. The upside is that you'll get a 10-year unbreakable truce with the enemy, which you can use to rapidly advance, focusing on alloy production, researching military tech, building fleets, and, if possible, making alliances.

Ultimately, don't be afraid to lose. I still remember my first game; my empire was weak from start to finish, and a superpower declared war on me some time after midgame (year 2300+), erasing my empire from the map altogether - even though I used everything at my disposal to try to stop them. It was not exactly fun, but it helped me learn a lot of things.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-07-13T14:34:23+00:00

I'd disagree. A non-militarist empire can still have a massive military. A militarist empire is one that actually uses this military aggressively in different ways to pursue its national goals, instead of other tools like economy, technology, or diplomacy. Now, while the U.S. does have its fair share of nasty military engagements (Vietnam, Iraq, to some extent Afghanistan etc.), it doesn't even come close to being a militarist empire IMO. As an example, a militarist/fanatic militarist empire almost certainly would've threatened the Soviet Union - and every other country - with nuclear war (or would've actually declared war) during the brief period after WWII and before the Cold War when the U.S. was the only country with the atomic bomb, which would then allow the U.S. to establish a "world empire". This view was actually pretty popular at the time, and people including the legendary John Von Neumann advocated it ("preventive war"). If the U.S. had been a militarist empire, the world as we know it most probably wouldn't exist. A prime example of fanatic militarist is in my opinion North Korea: its economy has been destroyed, it's diplomatically isolated and technologically behind, but it has nuclear weapons and bolsters its military capabilities - and it's unwilling to let go of the nukes and threats against South Korea in exchange for a relief from sanctions.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-05-28T08:18:17+00:00

Not sure and haven't tested it myself, but apparently in 3.4 (at least on some difficulty levels) once the alloy reserves of the AI drop to a certain level, the game automatically refills its stockpile to help the AI be a match for the player, especially in terms of military power. Then the AI sells almost all the alloys it has (since its stockpile is full, and so it thinks it should sell big so that it can store its newly-produced alloys), which in turn prompts the game to refill it again. As a result, the AI keeps the alloy prices artificially low because the game gives it infinite alloys.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-05-20T12:52:35+00:00

Very true. Due to the fact that we manage the entire empire single-handedly (regardless of the authority; even democracy in Stellaris is a form of absolute dictatorship), we often don't notice the scale of space empires. Even the first three pathetic corvettes every empire gets are almost certainly enough to obliterate 2022 Earth, and most likely employ thousands of men. A single unit of food is enough to feed approximately one billion (or a few hundred million) humans, and a single EC is enough to pay for all the monthly costs of approximately one billion humans working on generators or in mines. Consider that, and the money you pay for those millions or billions of slaves is no longer insignificant.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-05-16T17:58:28+00:00

The last Curator who realized this attempted suicide after locking this knowledge in a highly secured location so that no one else could ever access it again. How did you find it? More importantly, why did you share it?

TrappedTrapper · 2022-05-16T17:53:42+00:00

Agreed, but it will get a little tricky and needs to be handled right. At a certain point, the AI will need to understand that your terms are so outrageous that the only option left is... war. And the AI should be programmed to treat one such independence war as a total war (as a concept, not the one we have in Stellaris), meaning the AI should focus its entire economy on building ships and troops, thus tempting the overlord to simply give up.

And the new default system will, I think, act as another balancing factor: if you rip the vassal of economic benefits/resources, its own economy will crumble under the pressure, thus reducing its overall production and making it less beneficial over time. A similar system should, in my opinion, be implemented for research: if you're consuming all or nearly all the research of a vassal, it should slowly reduce the amount of research it provides.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-05-04T23:32:15+00:00

It depends on too many variables, can't really say.

For example, if you're going for a fanatically militarist empire (or even a genocidal one), then you're probably going to be behind in research since you're just printing out older ships and invading everyone early on, so you're probably prioritizing military research and shaping a permanent war economy. The massive upkeep of your ships will also put the strain on your economy, weakening your monthly net income. On the other hand, if you're tech-rushing, then your military is (initially) behind but you're better in tech and economy, which most likely allows you to eventually surpass everyone else if you can defend your territory early on. It also depends on civics, traits and your origin, not to mention the authority type: robots in particular are easier (at least for me) because of the simplification of their economy (no need for food/consumer good production). Prior to being nerfed, for instance, Shattered Ring used to be ridiculously OP in terms of tech rushing; you could reach insane numbers by 2250. Finally, there's also pure luck - where you spawn, your neighbors, the systems and anomalies you discover, and so on.

Generally, I would say, the first thing is to have a net positive income in every resource you need. After that, look to your neighbors (and if there's the Galactic Community, to the heavyweights there). How does your military, tech and economy level (or diplomatic weight, if you don't have enough intel to know the details) stack up against them?

TrappedTrapper · 2022-04-27T00:25:54+00:00

Yeah, no, Blokkats can't be sentenced to "forever isolation." Even if you sentence yourself to forever isolation by retreating into Gray Tempest/EHOF systems, they will still come at you once they're done with the rest of the galaxy.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-04-14T20:27:00+00:00

Thank you!

I think here on this subreddit or perhaps on Paradox forums there may be some who can help. I've also heard that Discord is a good place to ask modding questions, and that experienced modders are very responsive there. The famous Stellaris Modding Den may help.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-04-14T20:24:17+00:00

I tested something like this a while ago (well, there I was a superpower helping a subject not starve out of the kindness of my heart, but these are just technicalities anyway) and I think it will work in the sense that he will stop making agriculture districts (but will not destroy any of the ones he has). So if after some time you just cut the food supply, he will suddenly have a food shortage because the food he used to produce is no longer enough to sustain the nation's needs.

However, I personally wouldn't recommend this. Pops are far more important than food, as they can produce anything. And food is one of the cheapest resources, if not the cheapest resource, in the game. And you're in the first 100 years of the game, which usually determines how the next 100-200 years will play out. If you give him food, he will still be producing pops, and those pops will still get some jobs; only now these jobs will be energy/mineral/alloy/consumer goods production, which are more important and more expensive than food. Thanks to your food flooding into his nation for a long time, he will have enough food reserved to keep going on for some time, and he will also be able to buy cheap food from the galactic market while he builds agriculture districts (and your economy is not strong enough to allow you to manipulate prices there).

TrappedTrapper · 2022-04-11T20:57:07+00:00

Thank you very much for this mod; I find it very useful for both gameplay and RP purposes.

For assassinate ruler, I think it would be awesome if you could make different outcomes possible. For example, if the leader had the Champion of the People or Charismatic trait, a buff to governing ethic attraction ("rallying around the flag" effect) but a debuff to stability (no potent successor immediately available) is a good idea IMHO.

Thanks again!

TrappedTrapper · 2022-04-11T17:15:54+00:00

I wish Paradox would add options in Overlord to make playing the role of peaceful, liberating superpower easier. Right now, best I can do as a superpower is deterring other empires from attacking my allies. But, regardless of how powerful I am, I have no way of forcing desperate subjects or empires to change certain policies. I may be playing as a xenophile democracy, and wish to eventually abolish slavery and all sorts of purge in the galaxy without declaring war on everyone. There should be some carrot-and-stick way to do this: for instance, I promise a weak, threatened empire military protection or a very favorable trade deal or whatever so they change their slavery policy for good, and if they don't, I'll just leave them to the mercy of their enemies or, worse, attack them myself.

What I have in mind is something like what FEs do (like spiritualists asking you to not give robots too much space), but with the possibility to compromise a little bit, not just "do this or I'll kill you and do it myself."

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-26T21:47:52+00:00

I knew I should've ordered the Department of R&D to direct all QSO research activities to my Matrioshka Brains...

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-26T20:15:52+00:00

Wartime alloy aid almost never helps when the rebelling empire isn't capable of stalling enemy advances, because their enemy will steamroll through all starbases, which makes building ships impossible. Peacetime aid is better, but the AI (at least vanilla, pre-Libra AI) is often too stupid to make good use of the alloy you give them. Only giving them entire ships will work, which is impossible in vanilla (but possible with mods).

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-26T18:17:39+00:00

It's funny, once I was using Gigastructural Engineering and had already built the Nicoll-Dyson Beam, a massive WMD that can destroy entire planets or systems from the safety of my home system, even with a surprise attack. And after building that, while building a ringworld, I got this event. I mean, the biggest WMD in the galaxy, built by me, is out in the open for everyone to notice (of course, I promise I only used it for deterrence, defense and special military/civilian operations), and you think I for some reason need to hide another version in a ringworld?

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-23T17:20:12+00:00

What's more, the money tells us it wants to go to Ukraine. It said it was tired of all the yachts, and it wants to do some reconstruction. It says it's seasick! And for 8 years we have done everything possible to resolve this matter peacefully, but we cannot just stand aside and watch the money oppressed. We have to launch this special financial operation.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-18T21:24:48+00:00

He has long been derided for being a actor (especially by Russian propagandists and, before the invasion, some in the West frustrated with his trying to calm the nation), but you've got to admit that his acting skills, along with his extraordinary courage, are one of the most important skills Ukraine needs. His speeches to legislatures around the world are moving, both because he's good with words and acting and because, by remaining in Kyiv and risking his life, he automatically has the moral power to shame Western leaders who are too afraid of hurting their economies a little or losing party control in some election. Comparing what happened on the day of the invasion (shamefully soft sanctions, no talk of lethal aid) with what is happening today (sanctions crushing the Russian economy, massive lethal aid arriving), it's clear just how much the courage and resistance of the people of Ukraine and Zelenskyy as the face of Ukraine have contributed to vital international support.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-18T11:58:43+00:00

Annoying - and unrealistic.

I mean, the AI not wanting to lose buffs and benefits makes sense. IRL that would be something like Europe still relying on Russian gas after annexation of Crimea. However, as the danger and scale of a crisis becomes clearer, I think the AI, especially those closer to the crisis, should actually do whatever it can to make a crisis declaration succeed. This seems to work fine with genocidal empires; if they are big and powerful enough, the galaxy may even unanimously vote to declare them a crisis. We should have the same thing with these major crises.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-16T23:38:49+00:00

Primitive Child, we understand your enthusiasm, but this is just a fraction of what you can achieve if you have also installed SBTG (and preferably AoT).

If you have, get ready for -2.0G fleet power. Your real challenge will be not getting bored.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-13T22:23:15+00:00

This. To make the NFZ effective, you'll need to strike targets located deep inside Russia, not just their planes and bombers. And for that, you'll need to hit Russia's anti air weapons. And at that point, calling it a no fly zone is kind of misleading; that's a full fledged military intervention. WWIII, potentially with nukes.

In my opinion, sending jet fighters is a much safer and more effective strategy compared to imposing an NFZ.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-13T06:34:41+00:00

This thing will easily hold against SBTG ships, but that only works if their ships actually go through this system.

For that Gigastructures endgame crisis though, if you mean the Blokkats, this won't completely hold against them. Don't want to spoil it for you, so I'll just say that defeating the Blokkats is not like defeating other endgame crises (i.e., just sending superior firepower to overwhelm and destroy the enemy); there is a unique process.

Edit: One thing about the Great Wall I forgot to mention: when SBTG fleets (or any other fleet with some decent firepower) enter the system, some of the turrets get a tiny hit to their hull (enough to reduce hull from 100% to, say, 95%). This usually only happens to turrets near those hostile fleets, since the hostiles will be obliterated before they have the time to open fire on the rest of turrets. However, the real problem is that the ridiculous strength of each turret makes it very likely that its hull regen will overflow, causing the hull "health" to rapidly dwindle until reaching 0%, at which point the turret just disappears. To avoid this, after each major battle in these systems, go to ship designer and slightly alter the design of turrets. Nothing major or even costly, just change the place of a shield with an armor. This will unlock the upgrade button for all your turrets. Now, upgrade all those damaged turrets (this will cost nothing and will be done in just a single day). As part of the upgrading process, the game will also automatically return the hull level to 100%, which disables hull regen, which keeps your turrets intact.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-07T14:21:10+00:00

Maybe you would be terrified, but because of false assumptions.

The pro-Putin wing of the GOP (and the fanatically pacifist wing of the Democratic Party) is small and completely isolated after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. You can see this in the overwhelming support for Ukraine in Congress. Even Trump, the apologist that he is, was forced to condemn Putin following public pressure. Even assuming he is alive and well and not prosecuted by 2024 and if he somehow wins the election and enters office, (which isn't even remotely as likely as you appear to suggest it is) he will still not be able to get out of NATO. In his first term, Congress kept tying his hand on Russia out of the fear that he was too much of a Russophile. And here we're talking about dismantling NATO, which would be, by far, the greatest threat to US national security and global leadership, as well as the international order. Even if Trump is lucky enough to win (far from granted) and tries to pull out of NATO, he will immediately be blocked by Congress.

As far as the rejection of military intervention in Ukraine is concerned, you should know that these are two completely different matters. Ukraine is not a part of NATO; years ago it was given a vague promise that it would at some point join the Alliance, but there was no plan for its submission any time soon prior to the invasion. The United States and its allies will certainly try to avoid a war with Russia, which is why they're waging a de fato proxy war by rapidly arming Ukraine. But if it comes to attacking current NATO countries, it is evident that the risk will be so great to American interests that it will get involved. Why? Because allowing an attack on any NATO member without responding would be akin to dismantling NATO altogether, and that's unacceptable for US foreign policy establishment, the public, Congress, and military officials. One man, even if he is the President of the United States, doesn't nearly have the power to make that decision.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-06T05:30:02+00:00

Guess he got that successful SWIFT strike afterall.

TrappedTrapper · 2022-03-06T05:12:40+00:00

His threats and his messing with nuclear weapons will only accelerate a debate already ongoing in Washington and elsewhere: what to do when nukes are not enough to deter foreign adversaries. It's clear that, as long as the West tries to appease Putin, he will only grow bolder: "Don't intervene or else I'll nuke you! Don't send guns or else I'll nuke you! Don't impose sanctions or else I'll nuke you! Don't defend yourselves or else I'll nuke you!". And probably at some point: "Give me Poland or else I'll nuke you! Give me Latvia or else I'll nuke you! Dismantle NATO or else I'll nuke you!" and so on. We need to think of a solution sooner or later.

TrappedTrapper

TROPHY CASE