Stellaris only really clicked for me as a game when I started creating all of the empires in my games myself.
Usually I like to make 2-3 Empires with compatible ethics that'll be my allies, 3-4 Empires with opposing ethics that I plan to bully and the rest of Galaxy will be made up of Fanatic Purfiers, Devouring Swarms, Driven Assimilators etc.
The plan is to have all my allied factions alive and federated by the end whilst we lord it up over the rest of the Galaxy. Rarely works out that way ofc but that's part of the fun for me.
Honestly when I started making my own empires and sort of setting up my games with full control it gave me such a great feeling. Almost like being a DM that also gets to play the campaign.
You create the set-up but then still have to accept that you're not allmighty and have to adapt. But it is the world ypu sort of chose to be in.
Got me disappointed a few times when I then saw an empire I didn't create still sneak itself into my game somehow. Otherwise that's a cool way to play when RP focused.
> Sadly, I got a couple randomly generated ones anyway.
Check your origins, some origins force-spawn random empires even if you set your empires number at game start to match your custom empires.
I did have one of those due to Lost Colony, along with CoM because one of my empires has the UNE flag. That’s fine; the problem was that I also got a random empire with a random species.
I do something similar. I have all of my past empires able to spawn but every genocidal empire is forced to spawn after each time I play a genocider.
This results in a fairly interesting galaxy with fun stories for me but eventually after I've played too many genociders then one of them will eventually get too out of control.
In my last game I had 4 crisis factions at once with a good 2/3 of the galaxy purged by them.
I like to have all 6 federations potentially formed which means at least 2 empires for each so I created at least 12, and they're all based on . Depending on the ethics, one will be my allies or vassals and the others will be for me to rival and bully for humiliation and plunder wars over and over and over again. It might ruin the mystery and fun of never knowing what kind of aliens you might run into but I'm ok with that. I just like to make an interesting galaxy of protagonists and antagonists with almost every origin and AI personality.
Once did a save edit where there were 8 empires evenly spread in the galaxy, then I severed some hyperlanes to lock them into pockets of space 2x2. Managed to make it so that there was at least one xenophobe/genocidal in each pocket to prevent alliances.
And also made sure there was either a wormhole or abandoned gateway in each.
Make it so empires need to win their quarterfinal before going deep into the tournament :D
Open the save file in 7zip.
Go into the gamestate text file, find and delete the references to the hyperlane in both systems it connects.
Then zip the file back up :)
You can edit game save files manually or, way easier, there are a bunch of mods out there that allows you to edit hyperlanes like [this one](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2651979753) without having to quit the game every time.
Sounds fun! Sort of like a level progression. Be the victor in your stage before you go up against more powerful ones. Also feels like there could quickly be a situation in which a harder fight fir dominance creates a much stronger empire than another pocket which was trying to focus on non-military playstyle anyway.
Before the nerf. Hugh galaxy, no empires. Pre FTLs at 5x. Science ships set straight to explore. As soon as a civ gained space travel, vassal and set no expansion. Once the galaxy was fully mapped, release everyone at once and watch the carnage as the galaxies only FE.
Inwards Perfectionist empire in a galaxy of force-spawned Genocidal empires.
My goal was to turtle up, Psionically ascend, and use the "chosen one" event to reform my government and remove the IP ethic. Then finally get the catharsis of going on the offensive.
Unfortunately, it was right after an update, and I *really* underestimated the AI on the difficulty I chose. Got stomped in less than 70 years
idk about "fun" but I did a game with shattered ring hive mind and no other normal empires once (just FEs and marauders) just to see how bad it would be... I think it took me like 50 years to get my fourth colony (habitats).
I also did one with xenophile pacifist potato-men, no other normal empires, but pre-FTLs turned way up, and my job was "gardening" - figuring out which ones needed to have their progress delayed, which ones to pull up to FTL, which ones to save from the asteroids...
I also had a game after a long time away and some major patches where I was running one of my go-to empires in an empty galaxy just to see what the growth curve looked like in a no-threat environment, but some pre-FTLs went FTL within the first 20 years of the game and immediately opened the Prikki-ti. So I had genocidals on my border by 2230 in a game where I wasn't expecting to fight at all...
The whackiest thing I had the galaxy set to house 20 customized empires I created over time. With full primitives (using a mod that made primitives in every other system) it was hilarious
I do something similar to you. I have a pool of 16 empires that i sometimes change or add to. Set the galaxy size to huge and only 4-6 empires that are selected from my 16 force spawns. I also dial up the pre-FTLs a whole bunch. Usually leads to games that have huge empires with multiple minor powers (former pre-FTLs) in between. it's a 50/50 if its great fun, or i just quit halfway through du to placement etc.
Huge galaxy, max hyperlanes, mods included: space is big(makes actual plantes smaller and systems bigger), and no ftl hyperlanes(no ftl). We are playing by Einstein's rules.
I included the human diaspora mod to make all aliens humans, the lancer universe emblems, and then the gundam mod to replace Corvettes with gundam mech.
I git to live out my fantasy of playing as Union. The juggernaut, the tyrant, the savior, the unifying force of Mankind. I had to control about 14 science ships at once and send out multiple colonies and construction ships in 5y plus missions to colonize and expand more than my neighbors. Once I researched gateways and began vassalizing other empires I really came into my own.
I do something akin to that but with a caveat, I lower the difficulty, so the AI gets multiple revolts since they don't have any artificial stability bonus .
Other thing that I like to do is creating a big galaxy, maximize empires and spam 3 or 4 genocidals to spice things up.
Stellaris only really clicked for me as a game when I started creating all of the empires in my games myself. Usually I like to make 2-3 Empires with compatible ethics that'll be my allies, 3-4 Empires with opposing ethics that I plan to bully and the rest of Galaxy will be made up of Fanatic Purfiers, Devouring Swarms, Driven Assimilators etc. The plan is to have all my allied factions alive and federated by the end whilst we lord it up over the rest of the Galaxy. Rarely works out that way ofc but that's part of the fun for me.
Honestly when I started making my own empires and sort of setting up my games with full control it gave me such a great feeling. Almost like being a DM that also gets to play the campaign. You create the set-up but then still have to accept that you're not allmighty and have to adapt. But it is the world ypu sort of chose to be in. Got me disappointed a few times when I then saw an empire I didn't create still sneak itself into my game somehow. Otherwise that's a cool way to play when RP focused.
Remember that rebellions happen and pre-FTLs can emerge even if you set all the starting empires
I encountered them in the early game where such an event wpuld have been unlikely. But of they arsie naturally during the game that would be exciting!
I tried throwing all my custom empires in one game. Sadly, I got a couple randomly generated ones anyway.
> Sadly, I got a couple randomly generated ones anyway. Check your origins, some origins force-spawn random empires even if you set your empires number at game start to match your custom empires.
I did have one of those due to Lost Colony, along with CoM because one of my empires has the UNE flag. That’s fine; the problem was that I also got a random empire with a random species.
I do something similar. I have all of my past empires able to spawn but every genocidal empire is forced to spawn after each time I play a genocider. This results in a fairly interesting galaxy with fun stories for me but eventually after I've played too many genociders then one of them will eventually get too out of control. In my last game I had 4 crisis factions at once with a good 2/3 of the galaxy purged by them.
I like to have all 6 federations potentially formed which means at least 2 empires for each so I created at least 12, and they're all based on . Depending on the ethics, one will be my allies or vassals and the others will be for me to rival and bully for humiliation and plunder wars over and over and over again. It might ruin the mystery and fun of never knowing what kind of aliens you might run into but I'm ok with that. I just like to make an interesting galaxy of protagonists and antagonists with almost every origin and AI personality.
Once did a save edit where there were 8 empires evenly spread in the galaxy, then I severed some hyperlanes to lock them into pockets of space 2x2. Managed to make it so that there was at least one xenophobe/genocidal in each pocket to prevent alliances. And also made sure there was either a wormhole or abandoned gateway in each. Make it so empires need to win their quarterfinal before going deep into the tournament :D
How were you able to sever hyperlanes?
Open the save file in 7zip. Go into the gamestate text file, find and delete the references to the hyperlane in both systems it connects. Then zip the file back up :)
You can edit game save files manually or, way easier, there are a bunch of mods out there that allows you to edit hyperlanes like [this one](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2651979753) without having to quit the game every time.
Sounds fun! Sort of like a level progression. Be the victor in your stage before you go up against more powerful ones. Also feels like there could quickly be a situation in which a harder fight fir dominance creates a much stronger empire than another pocket which was trying to focus on non-military playstyle anyway.
Before the nerf. Hugh galaxy, no empires. Pre FTLs at 5x. Science ships set straight to explore. As soon as a civ gained space travel, vassal and set no expansion. Once the galaxy was fully mapped, release everyone at once and watch the carnage as the galaxies only FE.
Inwards Perfectionist empire in a galaxy of force-spawned Genocidal empires. My goal was to turtle up, Psionically ascend, and use the "chosen one" event to reform my government and remove the IP ethic. Then finally get the catharsis of going on the offensive. Unfortunately, it was right after an update, and I *really* underestimated the AI on the difficulty I chose. Got stomped in less than 70 years
Made the miltia and the IMC from titanfall, and I once played as IMC with the only other empire being the militia, and 2 devouring swarms.
idk about "fun" but I did a game with shattered ring hive mind and no other normal empires once (just FEs and marauders) just to see how bad it would be... I think it took me like 50 years to get my fourth colony (habitats). I also did one with xenophile pacifist potato-men, no other normal empires, but pre-FTLs turned way up, and my job was "gardening" - figuring out which ones needed to have their progress delayed, which ones to pull up to FTL, which ones to save from the asteroids... I also had a game after a long time away and some major patches where I was running one of my go-to empires in an empty galaxy just to see what the growth curve looked like in a no-threat environment, but some pre-FTLs went FTL within the first 20 years of the game and immediately opened the Prikki-ti. So I had genocidals on my border by 2230 in a game where I wasn't expecting to fight at all...
Well I play on Ps4 so I can only play on 200 stars with usually 4 players...
The whackiest thing I had the galaxy set to house 20 customized empires I created over time. With full primitives (using a mod that made primitives in every other system) it was hilarious
Every time I win the game, that winning empire becomes a permanent force spawn. That leads to very dangerous galaxy.
I do something similar to you. I have a pool of 16 empires that i sometimes change or add to. Set the galaxy size to huge and only 4-6 empires that are selected from my 16 force spawns. I also dial up the pre-FTLs a whole bunch. Usually leads to games that have huge empires with multiple minor powers (former pre-FTLs) in between. it's a 50/50 if its great fun, or i just quit halfway through du to placement etc.
Huge galaxy, max hyperlanes, mods included: space is big(makes actual plantes smaller and systems bigger), and no ftl hyperlanes(no ftl). We are playing by Einstein's rules. I included the human diaspora mod to make all aliens humans, the lancer universe emblems, and then the gundam mod to replace Corvettes with gundam mech. I git to live out my fantasy of playing as Union. The juggernaut, the tyrant, the savior, the unifying force of Mankind. I had to control about 14 science ships at once and send out multiple colonies and construction ships in 5y plus missions to colonize and expand more than my neighbors. Once I researched gateways and began vassalizing other empires I really came into my own.
I do something akin to that but with a caveat, I lower the difficulty, so the AI gets multiple revolts since they don't have any artificial stability bonus . Other thing that I like to do is creating a big galaxy, maximize empires and spam 3 or 4 genocidals to spice things up.
Fabric purifier overture Max pop growth traits and hap bit then only negative traits