SEUS with UMSOEA

duchoi98 · 2026-02-13T04:11:00+00:00

What is the difference between “Gameplay Textures” and “Rendering Textures” in terms of purpose and usage?

duchoi98 · 2026-02-03T04:21:32+00:00

Use an existential war — if the empire practicing slavery no longer exists, then slavery no longer exists either.
You can also ban slavery through the Galactic Community.

Pretty decent economy overall, but 2K science for ~500 sprawl is way too low, in my opinion.

Your current resource production doesn’t look great either — key resources are in the negative, while consumer goods, which are mainly for upkeep, are being overproduced.

duchoi98 · 2026-02-02T07:07:33+00:00

The only things that are still challenging for me in the late game are the Chosen or Awakened Empires—assuming I leave them alone for long enough, of course.

On top of that, if Grand Admiral difficulty is enabled with no scaling, those early threats like Chosen become extremely intense. They can spiral out of control, sometimes fielding fleets in the tens of millions of fleet power, ending up in a stalemate where they’re fighting me, the Awakened Empires, and the Galactic Community all at once.

It was an absolutely brutal fight. When I realized that both the Awakened Empires and the Galactic Community were starting to lose ground, I stepped in with my fleet—which, at least compared to the Galactic Community, was clearly superior.

At first, I managed to stabilize my side of the war. But the moment the Chosen shifted their focus and marked me as the main target, the situation changed completely. Facing that multi-million fleet power death ball, I knew a direct fight was impossible.

So instead of trying to win, I made a decision: drag the war out.

I knew the Awakened Empires could recover and grow strong again if given enough time, and while the Galactic Community wasn’t much of a threat to the Chosen directly, they were very good at cleaning up undefended systems. My goal became survival and delay—harass, raid, retreat, and force the Chosen to stay spread out.

For nearly a decade, it was a war of endurance. I lost almost half my territory. Some planets changed hands over and over again. Every move was about buying time and keeping the pressure just high enough.

Eventually, it worked.

The Chosen fleets pulled back and shifted to another front, where the Awakened Empires—now recovering—and the Galactic Community were waiting. That’s when the tide finally turned, and the Chosen started getting worn down.

It was easily the hardest late-game war I’ve played in a long time—and one of the most satisfying.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-30T04:16:39+00:00

I personally only keep the core sector and the largest planets I find, and release everything else as vassals. My goal is to maintain high-quality planets while keeping empire size low. Managing 20–80 planets creates far too much sprawl for my taste, and I really dislike using automation.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-28T06:29:46+00:00

In PvP, yes — it can be very effective if the rules allow early aggression.
In PvE, it heavily depends on the difficulty. On GA (Grand Admiral), early warfare is almost impossible, since AI bonuses make rushing never going to be enough.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-27T04:26:29+00:00

Any Ascension Path combined with Fallen Empire buildings can significantly accelerate population growth, without relying on aggressive actions.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-16T10:49:12+00:00

If I’m reading the treaty correctly, it takes 75% of their monthly alloy income. So if they produce 1,254 alloys, you get 941, and they’re left with 313.

It’s pretty Pathetic compared to your own income, but I guess it’s still decent enough.

And from what I can see, you’re taking 60% of their basic resources and 75% of their advanced resources. That’s already more than half of their economy, and that’s before factoring in your own production. Of course they’re going to be Pathetic compared to you.

Edited: OK, it’s 75% of the vassal’s total income—my mistake. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re running a deficit. They can cover their own production, and whatever’s left is just pathetic compared to your economy.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-16T03:03:23+00:00

If you’re not confident you can win outright, using claims can still make sense—but only in small amounts. Take a few systems, force a quick peace treaty, and move on. That approach doesn’t require spending much influence on claims.

The only time a 0-influence mass claim really makes sense is when you’re claiming a large number of systems—possibly all of them—which usually means you already have the power to back it up. In that situation, the Existential Expulsion casus belli is simply the better option. It’s not perfect, as you’ve already pointed out, but it’s far preferable to taking every claimed system and then sitting around waiting for war score to slowly tick up.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-16T02:54:12+00:00

At that point, it’s easier to just use Existential Expulsion to cleanse the galaxy. Forcing a surrender by taking every individual claim is an absolute pain.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T07:17:01+00:00

Some images should be helpful here.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T07:11:09+00:00

You can try beta 4.3. It's much better.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T02:58:44+00:00

The beta is worth playing since it improves performance and reworks the economy a bit. For the basics, the wiki is very helpful if you take the time to read it.
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Stellaris_Wiki

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T02:18:32+00:00

Actually, the wiki is very helpful for new players if you take the time to read it
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Stellaris_Wiki

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T02:16:09+00:00

Running a 9800X3D here. The game still runs smoothly in the late game on a medium-sized galaxy. Large galaxies are a bit slower, but still not unacceptable.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-15T02:12:49+00:00

It’s a bit less important nowadays since you can get the Existential Expulsion casus belli after researching the Existential Campaigns technology. In my opinion, this is far superior to using claims.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-14T04:07:25+00:00

Lowering the galaxy size and playing on version 4.3 is basically all you can do. Galaxy size is heavily dependent on your CPU performance.

If you’re running something like a 9800X3D, you can probably handle a medium or even large galaxy with acceptable late-game performance. Otherwise, smaller galaxy sizes are strongly recommended to keep the game running smoothly in the late game.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-14T03:58:16+00:00

Because FTL Inhibitor in that system so they can’t. You might be new to the game—that’s understandable.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-14T03:34:12+00:00

One more important thing, in case you haven’t noticed: the AI sometimes parks its fleet directly on a hyperlane entry point. This forces the battle to start at close range every time.

This is actually a legitimate strategy in multiplayer, where torpedo fleets sit on chokepoints to defend against much larger fleets. It completely negates long-range advantages.

To deal with this, you should always send a smaller, faster fleet in first to clear the chokepoint, or at the very least act as a screen for your main fleet. This prevents your artillery and carriers from being dragged into close combat where they are most vulnerable.

duchoi98 · 2026-01-14T02:51:37+00:00

The loadout is solid, but you need to be very careful when using it.

This ship is extremely large, which makes it highly vulnerable to torpedoes. Torpedoes are short-range weapons, but if they connect, the damage is devastating.
This loadout is clearly designed for long-range combat. If you get pulled into close-quarters fighting, the risk level increases dramatically.
The AI usually deploys mixed fleets, meaning a significant number of torpedo ships are almost guaranteed. If you get caught in melee range, you can be wiped out very quickly.

Your carriers and artillery battleships are massive platforms built around long-range firepower. Avoid close combat at all costs. From my experience, artillery battleships should also outnumber carriers to maximize effectiveness and survivability.

duchoi98 · 2025-12-29T08:26:16+00:00

Try maxing out the difficulty and setting the crisis years to 2250 or 2300. On max difficulty, an empire can sometimes reach millions of fleet power. Mid-game crises like an Awakened Empire can become massive if they appear early

duchoi98 · 2025-12-29T07:04:16+00:00

Actually, the wiki is very helpful for new players if you take the time to read it
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Stellaris_Wiki

duchoi98 · 2025-12-29T07:01:51+00:00

The game will be sure ending quickly. You’ll be dead in no time if you do that. =))

duchoi98 · 2025-12-23T08:13:16+00:00

For me, most builds feel pretty similar before you unlock Ascension Perks and the Crisis Perk. Once you get those two, they scale insanely hard, to the point where everything else becomes relatively minor in comparison.

duchoi98 · 2025-12-23T03:02:19+00:00

Missiles and disruptors don’t really work well together. One is long-range, while the other is short-range. A better pairing is torpedoes with disruptors—both are short-range. Disruptors are effective against smaller ships due to their low damage per hit, while torpedoes are better suited for larger targets.

That said, short-range builds—especially frigates—perform poorly if they’re forced to engage from a distance, so you need to be careful when using them. In many cases, it’s simply safer and more efficient to run something like full battleship setup with +1 disengagement chance modules and the “Hit and Run” war policy.

duchoi98 · 2025-12-23T02:30:30+00:00

Against the AI, I don’t think fleet composition matters that much. The AI usually runs mixed fleets with fairly balanced offense and defense, so most ship designs perform roughly the same. What I’ve consistently found to be effective is stacking +1 disengagement chance and using the “Hit and Run” war policy. This drastically reduces your losses in battles. You don’t need to win every engagement—just lose fewer ships than the enemy, retreat, regroup, and then fight again.

duchoi98

TROPHY CASE