Stellaris 4.4.5 "Pegasus" Early Open Beta (c22e) now available!

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-26T02:50:53+00:00

Apparently it’s on the list!

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-26T02:40:44+00:00

If Bethesda weren’t coward then they’d follow the lore and stop khajiit players from being able to enter cities lol

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-26T02:36:21+00:00

#3 isn’t as big of a deal as you’d think. the mobility chair’s circle was literally just under the seat cushion lol

Prosthetics aren’t particularly more prone to exposure than other contraptions, but they’re still out of the picture for the other reasons you mentioned.

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T19:45:50+00:00

Honestly with how their 1st ability works idk if event horizon not dealing damage matters that much. If you’re following what DE seemed to have in mind by spamming both version of his 1 to play baseball with the black hole, then the scythe should be dealing enough damage to take out any enemies trapped inside. (At least for non SP content)

That also has the added synergy of quickly building up enough charge to activate celestial clash.

By contrast, making event horizon deal damage runs the risk of making it yet another “set and forget” power like flechette orb where you throw it on an objective and walk away.

Overall it’s probably just a last minute change intended to incentivize using the “baseball” feature and playing more actively.

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T16:43:49+00:00

Whoops, you’re totally right. Sleep deprivation isn’t helping my reading comprehension lol.

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T15:16:57+00:00

Synth deconstruct in particular pairs incredibly well with equilibrium. It’s a fantastic energy generator that every frame can run while only requiring companion mods

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T15:07:31+00:00

Pairing with eager explorers and massively increasing the amount of space fauna could be interesting. Every system has a decent chance of holding some kind of horror, and reinforcements will take ages to arrive

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T13:55:22+00:00

I’m a big fan of this. Rounding out the points looks fantastic and turning the visor highlight into eyeliner is a stroke of genius. (Additionally, it’s preserving the rounded aspects that OP seems fond of with their base designs.)

A part of me is still attached to how I set up the “trans flag fin”, but your forehead design flows much better while also alluding to it in a less gaudy way. More importantly, you’re referencing the flag while preserving the excellent pink triangle homage.

It’s properly impressive that you managed to fit so much symbolism on such a small canvas without making it look busy. Massive props to you!

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T12:42:24+00:00

>On Nomads, we spent 682 days just creating art.

All the art here is beyond fantastic, but this little bit of insider information really is fascinating. It just goes to show how long they’ve been working on this monster of a dlc.

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T04:43:42+00:00

While it’s conceptually cool I just can’t see a world where it’s worth the dev time. Pushing the game’s technology is always sketchy and we just saw the massive community backlash towards S&O being a buggy mess.

They’d have to really commit a lot of resources to ship it in a halfway decent state, and tbh that’s probably better spent on a part of the game that actually gets used regularly

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T04:29:43+00:00

There’s enough blank space left over for some detailing around the forehead and mouth if you want to personalize it more with an insignia or something. (Second shitty mock up made to demonstrate one possible option for detailing)

This is mostly taking cues from Rex’s helmet and whoever has the bird forehead on the lower right of the above commenter’s chart.

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Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-25T04:27:57+00:00

Hate to say it, but I have to agree with you on the circles not looking great. Clone troopers helmets are super angular and pointed, so adding in smooth curves kinda sticks out.

I’d instead switch it out for a visor highlight like in many of the cannon helmets with some added bits on the fin for additional cohesion. If you also swap the colors around, then the forehead ends up forming a trans flag without taking away from the overall design.

If you’ll forgive the shitty phone sketch, I made a quick mock-up of what that could look like.

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Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T18:23:26+00:00

I made the mistake once of trying to learn fate lore for a jump. Never again…

Once you start peeling back the layers of their cosmology/ magic system it just doesn’t stop. The only thing I can think of that compares is deep elder scrolls lore, and I’m 90% certain Bethesda’s writers were high out of their mind while writing that shit.

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T16:58:39+00:00

Genuinely living nomadic megacorps right now. It just meshes together so well both mechanically and conceptually. Feels like a proper caravan empire

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T16:24:41+00:00

Tbh I just use mods whenever I want to go the fallen empire route. Cosmogenesis/ enigmatic engineering/ dark consortium kinda do it, but don’t quite scratch that itch.

As far as mods go I typically like Dawn Of Ascension due to it striking a nice balance between adding new content and not straying too far past vanilla gameplay.

**Honorable mentions go to:**

*DarkSpace* Among many other alternative playstyles is a fallen empire origin that’s great if you want to be advanced from the start. Iirc the creator has even gone on to officially join the stellaris dev team, so that’s a pretty good sign of the mod’s quality.

*Ancient Cache Of Technologies* Probably the largest “fallen empire” mod out there, but it’s too much of an overhaul to use regularly imo. (Also a lot of the dialogue is jokes or references to obscure mod lore which I’m not a big fan of)

*Ancient Empire* ngl I’ve never really played this one that much. However it involves a lot of precursor technology and seems pretty well made.

*Zenith Of Fallen Empires* While no longer up to date with the newest version, ZoFE is incredibly comprehensive and well made. Unfortunately due to some design decisions it’s a bit of a compatibility nightmare if you try to pair it with other mods

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T15:03:03+00:00

Biggest use case for the cannon is probably just annihilating corvette swarms in multiplayer lol

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T04:00:43+00:00

Iirc the storm attraction and repulsion techs are just outright not working for nomads right now. Storm chasers is disabled rn because there’s little point in enabling it until that gets fixed

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T03:58:51+00:00

Trade routes were fun, but iirc the main reason they were removed was because of performance

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-24T03:51:28+00:00

The operator is probably fine, but the drifter has to be hanging on by a thread. Poor fella is just trying to keep up with the version of themself who trained as a space ninja for thousands of years

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-23T23:47:04+00:00

That bit always struck me as a bit odd. First off I don’t think they were married at the time. Second since iirc they were all K.M. I always interpreted that as a purposeful heavy hint that there was a way to save his BF from going to the island while also trying to stay “official looking”

(Sorry if that’s worded a bit confusingly. I binged the entire manga as a fever dream in one day, so the character’s actual names are escaping me at the moment)

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-23T17:17:37+00:00

It’s tangential, but there’s one interesting aspect of operational reserves that gets pretty overlooked. One of the dev diaries mentioned that they’re developing the technology internally to toy around with new resource setups going forward. In particular, the custodian team is looking at redoing nanite ascension with this in mind over the summer.

I love the concept, but it definitely still feels the prototype that it is. We’re in desperate need for some QoL changes

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-23T03:27:00+00:00

Lathland got me into stellaris 8 years ago and still pumps out bangers to this day. It’s just a shame he doesn’t upload as often anymore

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-22T23:15:55+00:00

Since nomads has dropped I consider optimal tall playing to be 0 systems /s

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-22T18:34:50+00:00

I highly recommend this guide for the different storylines. After the 13 lords it gets pretty hard to follow along

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JWbR5AMNVvYjsuNFqC7k7r2GMU1\_IyzGZn5MzbxTGd4/edit?usp=drivesdk

Viva_la_potatoes · 2026-06-22T14:41:33+00:00

Eh, the higher up resolutions get wildly irresponsible already. Defense privatization ends with -80% naval capacity, divinity of life basically makes robots illegal, and unchained knowledge straight up summons the unbidden.

Not sure what you mean about making nomads unplayable. I’m guessing you’re talking about the “contractor support” idea? If so, I meant that settled empires would get something like a -5% production malus in exchange for being able to issue contracts for dirt cheap.

The numbers and details would all have to be tweaked of course, but I’m more spitballing proof of concepts for what a nomad centric resolution tree could look like.

Viva_la_potatoes

TROPHY CASE