Outsider in Stellaris.

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

I'm trying to pour all my modding time into finishing off something else, so I haven't really worked on this again yet.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Despite where I should be spending my time(and honestly I have put a decent amount of time in the other stuff) I tackled the problems of hair and empire names today.

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Hair will probably remain as a single style until I go mad and automate the filtering I've done, which... isn't impossible, and is an Interesting Problem, so it'll probably happen eventually. But I'm feeling good enough about the state as it is now that I might first figure out how the Stellaris workshop uploader works and post the current version.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =744437027

Still lots of room for the mod to be improved and expanded, but I figured I'd stop sitting on it finally.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Mackus
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Mackus »

Nice.
You might want to take a look at one of elves mods.
They often have ears, new clothes, new hairstyles.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

I've checked out the main elf mod I'm aware of, and I'm planning on asking for permission to use their portraits for a base. Their hair and clothes appear to all be recolors of the default styles, which is something I think I can do at least as well myself in future versions. I should be able to set it up so that leaders have at least vaguely caste appropriate uniform colors, too.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Rekov
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Rekov »

You're welcome to use my mod if you think it will help.

Since I could be anyone on here, I also posted a comment to this effect on the mod.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Most kind, Rekov, thank you. Once I get in other hair styles that show the ears I'll likely swap in recolors of your portraits in the same update. Credit will be included of course.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

I dug into automated hair color filtering today, along with making use of the elf portraits.

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Image
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I ought to be able to update the workshop mod tomorrow.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

Rekov
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Rekov »

Feel free to borrow the hair from that mod as well. I masked them out sliiiightly more so that they don't jut over the top of the ear like your example red hair does there.

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Ach, I hadn't noticed that issue until you pointed it out. Do you happen to have masked versions of the original color selection? I've got, if I remeber correctly off the top of my head, 36 bulk generated color options per hair style. Using yours as a base would mean redoing my hunt for good color shift values.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

Rekov
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Rekov »

It's the alpha channel that's the issue, so all you have to do is drop these in the alpha channels for their respective styles. I didn't do style_01 because the ears aren't visible anyways.
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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Thank you very much for the help Rekov. I just put out an update with the hair and ears, 36 colors per style. If you want to take any of those colors for your own ends Rekov, you're welcome to them.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

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Siber
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Siber »

Quick note, it looks like the stellaris mod uploader didn't update my mod, instead it uploaded an entirely new mod. So, gonna have to figure out how to fix that.

EDIT: Fixed.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Diodri
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Diodri »

I know this thread is a little old, but I didn't think making a new topic just to say, "Hey look at my Empire" was all that necessary.

...

Hey! Look at my Empire!

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All in all, things had been going quite well. I, of course, am the green empire, the Loroi Union. There's a few speckles in my territory, those are primitive worlds that became protectorates under my control. Everything you see in purple are the 7 other nations I'm currently in a federation with (making 8 including me). To my immediate left is, funnily enough, The United Nations of Earth.

The maroon territories located below are independent, and largely just been a nuisance.

We basically control 1/3 of the galaxy in terms of size. And I thought, thought that I was pretty much the top dog in terms of fleet strength. Then the Netraxian Reconquerors (orange) awoke, and started annexing everything along their border. They are currently engaged in a war of extermination against us, and have just recently crushed our combined fleets.

Currently I'm waiting for the other maroon empire sandwiched between my territory and the Netraxian's to shrink enough for me to vassalize them, to cut off the enemy advance.

Thanks to Siber and Rekov and their efforts. It's added some great flavor to this game, which would have probably grown stale otherwise.

And I guess while I'm here, any tactical advice anyone?

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Eluvatar
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Eluvatar »

Until you can beat their fleet, fight defensively. With appropriate efforts it should be possible to liberate worlds after they've occupied them. Eventually they should get tired of the war and make peace.

Defensive fortresses with bonus/malus auras may help, particularly if your fleet is only a little weaker than theirs. If your fleet is at all comparable, prefer engaging in a well-fortified system. Otherwise, fortresses only buy time.

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Razor One
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Razor One »

Fallen Empires tend to be paper tigers, even when they're reawakened. As long as you kit out your ships to a build that counters their inherent advantages, your fleets should be able to punch well above their weight.

My advice:

Fallen Empires tend to utilise ships with long range, loads of fighters, and lots of shields and armour.
  • You can neutralise enemy fighters by using your own fighters and flak batteries to shred them.
    You can negate shields and armour by using Plasma weaponry, which ties in to the next bit.
    You should try to engage the enemy at point blank range to negate their range advantage.
The first two points you can manage by juggling around the modules you install on your ships. The last one can be a bit harder to pull off. If you can't negate their range advantage, the best bet is to kit out your battleships with Giga-Cannons, since they tend to outrange Plasma lances, and hope to high hell that you can last long enough to start pummeling them with your plasma cannons.

Strategically, fortifying home and pushing them into a disadvantageous situation is a good move, but ideally you should be fighting offensively. Send in a deep strike fleet and trash his space ports, never lingering long enough to be intercepted. This will have a twofold advantage for you. For one, it forces the enemy to divert fleets to intercept your deep strikers, and it'll reduce his ability to replace losses while pushing him into a defensive posture. The AI tends to fortify up in the middle of a system, which means you're almost always never far from wrecking any nearby spaceports and then immediately legging it for the next target.

Once you've wrecked his production capacity, any losses he takes are crippling. Keep smashing anything he rebuilds.

Beyond that, hopefully you have a decent stockpile of minerals from which you can recover your losses and continue to grind him down. Utilise multiple worlds for parallel production and rally them into a giant doomfleet and try to aim for a battle where you can crush his forces decisively. Occupy outlying worlds in a hit and run fashion as best you can, try not to worry about holding ground; the aim is to take ground faster than the AI can retake it and force him into capitulation.

All up, you need to have at least two fleets, preferably more. The primary fleet is your main concentration of forces. For Fallen or Awakened Empires, around 100k+ Fleet power is needed, preferably with an experienced admiral. Don't worry too much if that number drops when you kit them out with flak weapons. Their damage is low, but completely neutralising enemy fighters means your ships will last longer to punch back. The primary fleet is intended to take the enemy's doomfleets head on and, if not win, maul him badly enough to wish he'd never set foot in that system.

The secondary fleet has the job of deep strikes and harassment as outlined above. Remove his ability to produce replacements, capture distant settlements to force his attention elsewhere, and generally be such a nuisance that he has to draw off a disproportionate force to stop it from wreaking havoc on his home turf. Recommend around 20 - 50k fleet power, though it can be as low as 5 - 10k if it accomplishes the task at hand.

Beyond that, know where the enemy will come and go. Most fallen empires have Psi-Jump Drives, but will generally hit your nearest colonies to their territories. Arrange fortress flowers in your vulnerable colonies, at least three of them, and send your fleet down on his head when he pokes his doomfleet into your territory. The more densely your fortify the system, the more time his fleet will waste demolishing your forts over wrecking your fleets when in combat. Remember to customise your forts for maximum durability; their role is to slow his ass down and they are eminently expendable at the end of the day.

If you have to go over fleet limits in order to defeat him, then so be it. You'll lose those ships soon enough, and it's preferable to lose out on maintenance penalties and wreck his fleet than to have a good economy with no ships to protect it when he wrecks you, then takes your clay because you couldn't hold him off.

Do not rely on the AI for anything other than being incompetent. Awakened Empires gain significant bonuses (Cheats) to help them wreck both you and them. If you have the awakened empire on the backfoot, then make sure to keep them there by declaring war early and often. Take from them everything they have and crush them into the dustbin of history where they belong. The earlier you do this, the better, provided you have the fleet and technology to do so.

If you don't have battleships or the technology I've mentioned at this point in the game, GG.
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Diodri
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Diodri »

Hey guys thanks for the tips, there's a few things there for me to consider, but i'm afraid their fleet strength is far to great for anything offensive. My current fleet strength is 60K, and I go into negative power when away from the docks. If all of my allies and myself were in the same system we would make about 200 - 250K, while the Fallen Empire is 300K. As you know, allies do not tend to stay grouped for long. Some will follow me into battle though.

Right now my best hope is that they hold off on an aggressive war for a few more years, or attack someone other than me, while I get my tech up, (just got giga-cannon II actually) and then try and lure them into a system with high ally presence. Combine that with a station to redirect them into a bunch of defense stations, using the shield and fire rate debuffs, and I just got the +15% armor resource which I didn't have during the first battle. I'm hoping something like that can cripple their fleet.

If that doesn't work need to go for the war of attrition. One larger fleet to retake planets, and 100 fleets of 500 strength to go and destroy every mining station they have.

That's the current thinking, any way.

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Razor One
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Re: Outsider in Stellaris.

Post by Razor One »

Unless you have a stupidly overpowered economy, you're always going to go into the negatives when you undock your fleets for war.

The best way to forgo a war is to actually prepare for one. Max out your fleet strength ASAP and fortify your colony worlds; don't bother fortifying anything else other than critical resources as the AI's Psi Jump Drive will make defense in depth an impossible strategy. Keep your fleets docked at all times; don't bother with patrols, and maintain a good stockpile of resources, preferably capped, so you can ride out the war. If you run out of energy or minerals partway through, you're SOL.

Maxing out your fleet strength is imperative to preventing war. The AI will take one look at how close to your fleet cap you are and they will declare war if you don't have much of a fleet to defend with. Strong fleets tend to deter war.
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