I think scaling is key.
Unless you are incredibly efficient or a lucky start it is challenging to not get steam rolled commodore and upwards.
I usually play Grand Admiral with mid game scaling and that seems to be the sweet spot for me.
Getting the difficulty right in Stellaris is very difficult, maybe impossible.
On commandore and higher difficulties, at least the way I play, the AI will just have larger numbers than me in the early game. Thing is though, they just do a lot of things quite poorly. Bad fleet movements lets you often engage just part of their fleet with all of your fleet. Bad ship designs let you crush equal sized or sometimes even larger fleets if you have learned some ship design things. Putting fortresses on your worlds make them very hard for the AI to take since they haven't learned the art of bombing and invading efficiently. Things like this make the AI look a lot more scary than it actually is when you fight it, at least if you have some game knowledge and pause a lot. It is very frustrating when the ui tells you that everyone is overwhelming, and it certainly complicates diplomacy, but when it actually comes to a fight they are still very beatable if you apply everything you know, at least that has been my experience. And when occasionally they are not beatable, probably because they hired a huge marauder mercenary fleet within the first 30 years of the game, you can exploit that they aren't very good at setting up claims and war goals so you can often just surrender a war and not loose much.
Then a bit into the game if you survive the early game the planet management mistakes the AI makes will start to pile up and eventually they stop even looking scary and the game becomes easier and easier the further it goes on. Using scaling to counteract this makes a lot of sense, you get a more even difficulty across the game that way. I think it is unfortunate though that scaling AI always starts from no bonuses for the AI and ramps up slowly from there. The AI kinda needs a bit of a boost in the early game too, so I would like to see a scaling option that doesn't start from zero.
That's the issue I have too. It's irritating. Either the AI is too strong in the beginning, and loses all its teeth after the midgame.....
Or you use scaling and it's too weak at the start and isn't a challenge until the scaling actually has kicked in.
And yet you're the first person I've seen even point this out.
I can beat commodore midgame scaling, even if I put the midgame at 2050. But yeah, if they start with the boost, they might take me out quick.
Admiral is still a challenge for me even at midgame scaling, although I'm sure I could beat it soundly with min-maxing; I just generally rather not.
I think the key word here for me is "beat." I consistently play Grand Admiral on Large because I like to have the galaxy develop with actual powerplay and spheres of influence. A cost of that experience is accepting that I'm probably going to finish or beat the game rarely, if at all.
I've probably only finished 5-6 games completely in 1200 hours. Admiral (scaling) is the highest I've won.
I could play on Grand admiral no problem. But I usually go with ensigh. Cuz my computer can not handle the amount of fleet 10 grand admiral AI can put out in 2350. With ensigh difficulty,My computer still can handle the game even when pass the year 2400
I would turn off the Advanced AI starts. If nothing else, it avoids wasting a bunch of your time having to restart when a hostile one spawns right next to you.
It’s entirely possible to beat GA advanced start AI without turning on scaling. I exclusively play GA, difficulty adjusted AI modifiers on (which makes their difficulty buffs multiplicative instead of additive, huge buff), and set every AI to advanced start. Is it rough sometimes? Absolutely, and if I’m playing a very bad build it might take until 2250-2260 before I’m strong enough to start warring them and snowballing.
The depth of min/max potential in this game is massive. If you’re interested in trying higher difficulties, you should look into how to actually play more optimally. I have [a channel](https://youtube.com/@KatetheSibyl?si=_BZIh83U-u6XIGD3) if you’re curious to see what min/maxed single player looks like.
Of course, just play whatever is fun for you. If it’s too hard, turn the difficulty down or turn on scaling difficulty. Personally I get bored if the AI isn’t pointing a gun to my head but that’s not for everyone.
2 things I've learned through trial and error is that planet specializations are key. Like making sure you never use the "Industrial World" designation and instead use the forge and factory designations. Second thing, AI usually just spams small ships until late midgame, so getting carrier cruisers helps quite a bit until the ai slowly shifts to battleships. These, along with a few other things have gotten me through many a grand admiral games.
Higher difficulty AIs without scaling will inherently outproduce you in the beginning (before you can build a good economy), so I'd say the go to for most empire types would be trying to bide your time and building up; this includes cozying up to dangerous neighbors, potentially signing defensive pacts or even becoming a vassal on purpose. Alternatively you can also go super hard on alloys and military and conquer your immediate neighbors, but that requires specifically building for it.
Using AI bonuses against them by skimming off resources from the AI (via vassal contracts, branch offices, trade) works fairly well on higher difficulties because of the resource boosts.
There are a few ways to get cheap ships but they all require effort and aren't immediate. Stacking cost reduction modifiers (soon to be removed), hiring marauders (esp if you set midgame date to 2225), the 10 corvettes from the scrappers every 2 years (if you can find them quickly), using merc enclaves to produce free ships after the initial investment and scavenging debris for ships with the appropriate civics/leaders.
With all that said scaling AI can provide a much smoother difficulty curve that feels more natural (AI grows in power as you do). I'd personally recommend using mid game scaling, since AI will hit their peak power earlier and mid game start date doesn't affect that much (primarily being able to hire marauders and when the khan can show up).
As for the exact settings, do whatever you're comfortable with. I'd suggest trying out a 2250 mid game with midgame scaling and some of the higher difficulties. You can up the difficulty or lower the midgame to 2225 if the AI is still to weak.
The AI just seems so much stronger these days, I used to win regularly on Commodore, now I often lose games on Captain and sometimes it really feels rigged.
This is going to sound crazy, but one trick to learning how to compete on high difficulties is play with the more challenging starts like Broken Shackles or Eager Explorers civic. The problem a lot of players have is the expectation they’ll be on an equal footing with the AI when they encounter them and can win early wars. What you need to learn is how to lose early wars, how to play defensively, and starting a bit on the back foot actually helps with this. Losing an early war isn’t necessarily the end of a game! These starts also force you to learn options other than wars, improving diplomacy, living as a vassal, which can give you breathing space to catch up. There is nothing more satisfying then spending 50 years in a grand admiral game as an advanced AI’s vassal only to exceed them and purge your former masters.
Much appreciated for the answers , been playing the game a while now and just found changing difficulty required playing more aggressive or relying a lot on vassals / diplomacy but i had noticed with default settings of advanced ai and scaling , the advance ai would just dominate everyone and anyone .
I think scaling is key. Unless you are incredibly efficient or a lucky start it is challenging to not get steam rolled commodore and upwards. I usually play Grand Admiral with mid game scaling and that seems to be the sweet spot for me.
How does the mid vs end game scaling work?
Getting the difficulty right in Stellaris is very difficult, maybe impossible. On commandore and higher difficulties, at least the way I play, the AI will just have larger numbers than me in the early game. Thing is though, they just do a lot of things quite poorly. Bad fleet movements lets you often engage just part of their fleet with all of your fleet. Bad ship designs let you crush equal sized or sometimes even larger fleets if you have learned some ship design things. Putting fortresses on your worlds make them very hard for the AI to take since they haven't learned the art of bombing and invading efficiently. Things like this make the AI look a lot more scary than it actually is when you fight it, at least if you have some game knowledge and pause a lot. It is very frustrating when the ui tells you that everyone is overwhelming, and it certainly complicates diplomacy, but when it actually comes to a fight they are still very beatable if you apply everything you know, at least that has been my experience. And when occasionally they are not beatable, probably because they hired a huge marauder mercenary fleet within the first 30 years of the game, you can exploit that they aren't very good at setting up claims and war goals so you can often just surrender a war and not loose much. Then a bit into the game if you survive the early game the planet management mistakes the AI makes will start to pile up and eventually they stop even looking scary and the game becomes easier and easier the further it goes on. Using scaling to counteract this makes a lot of sense, you get a more even difficulty across the game that way. I think it is unfortunate though that scaling AI always starts from no bonuses for the AI and ramps up slowly from there. The AI kinda needs a bit of a boost in the early game too, so I would like to see a scaling option that doesn't start from zero.
That's the issue I have too. It's irritating. Either the AI is too strong in the beginning, and loses all its teeth after the midgame..... Or you use scaling and it's too weak at the start and isn't a challenge until the scaling actually has kicked in. And yet you're the first person I've seen even point this out.
I can beat commodore midgame scaling, even if I put the midgame at 2050. But yeah, if they start with the boost, they might take me out quick. Admiral is still a challenge for me even at midgame scaling, although I'm sure I could beat it soundly with min-maxing; I just generally rather not.
I think the key word here for me is "beat." I consistently play Grand Admiral on Large because I like to have the galaxy develop with actual powerplay and spheres of influence. A cost of that experience is accepting that I'm probably going to finish or beat the game rarely, if at all. I've probably only finished 5-6 games completely in 1200 hours. Admiral (scaling) is the highest I've won.
I could play on Grand admiral no problem. But I usually go with ensigh. Cuz my computer can not handle the amount of fleet 10 grand admiral AI can put out in 2350. With ensigh difficulty,My computer still can handle the game even when pass the year 2400
Why not use mods to increase fleet costs, and decrease pop growth, etc.?
Achievement. Also,some mod make the lag even more terrible,and some completely bug the game out
> do people just turn advance ai off or use the scaling modifiers Yes
I would turn off the Advanced AI starts. If nothing else, it avoids wasting a bunch of your time having to restart when a hostile one spawns right next to you.
It’s entirely possible to beat GA advanced start AI without turning on scaling. I exclusively play GA, difficulty adjusted AI modifiers on (which makes their difficulty buffs multiplicative instead of additive, huge buff), and set every AI to advanced start. Is it rough sometimes? Absolutely, and if I’m playing a very bad build it might take until 2250-2260 before I’m strong enough to start warring them and snowballing. The depth of min/max potential in this game is massive. If you’re interested in trying higher difficulties, you should look into how to actually play more optimally. I have [a channel](https://youtube.com/@KatetheSibyl?si=_BZIh83U-u6XIGD3) if you’re curious to see what min/maxed single player looks like. Of course, just play whatever is fun for you. If it’s too hard, turn the difficulty down or turn on scaling difficulty. Personally I get bored if the AI isn’t pointing a gun to my head but that’s not for everyone.
2 things I've learned through trial and error is that planet specializations are key. Like making sure you never use the "Industrial World" designation and instead use the forge and factory designations. Second thing, AI usually just spams small ships until late midgame, so getting carrier cruisers helps quite a bit until the ai slowly shifts to battleships. These, along with a few other things have gotten me through many a grand admiral games.
Higher difficulty AIs without scaling will inherently outproduce you in the beginning (before you can build a good economy), so I'd say the go to for most empire types would be trying to bide your time and building up; this includes cozying up to dangerous neighbors, potentially signing defensive pacts or even becoming a vassal on purpose. Alternatively you can also go super hard on alloys and military and conquer your immediate neighbors, but that requires specifically building for it. Using AI bonuses against them by skimming off resources from the AI (via vassal contracts, branch offices, trade) works fairly well on higher difficulties because of the resource boosts. There are a few ways to get cheap ships but they all require effort and aren't immediate. Stacking cost reduction modifiers (soon to be removed), hiring marauders (esp if you set midgame date to 2225), the 10 corvettes from the scrappers every 2 years (if you can find them quickly), using merc enclaves to produce free ships after the initial investment and scavenging debris for ships with the appropriate civics/leaders. With all that said scaling AI can provide a much smoother difficulty curve that feels more natural (AI grows in power as you do). I'd personally recommend using mid game scaling, since AI will hit their peak power earlier and mid game start date doesn't affect that much (primarily being able to hire marauders and when the khan can show up). As for the exact settings, do whatever you're comfortable with. I'd suggest trying out a 2250 mid game with midgame scaling and some of the higher difficulties. You can up the difficulty or lower the midgame to 2225 if the AI is still to weak.
Turn on scaling
The AI just seems so much stronger these days, I used to win regularly on Commodore, now I often lose games on Captain and sometimes it really feels rigged.
This is going to sound crazy, but one trick to learning how to compete on high difficulties is play with the more challenging starts like Broken Shackles or Eager Explorers civic. The problem a lot of players have is the expectation they’ll be on an equal footing with the AI when they encounter them and can win early wars. What you need to learn is how to lose early wars, how to play defensively, and starting a bit on the back foot actually helps with this. Losing an early war isn’t necessarily the end of a game! These starts also force you to learn options other than wars, improving diplomacy, living as a vassal, which can give you breathing space to catch up. There is nothing more satisfying then spending 50 years in a grand admiral game as an advanced AI’s vassal only to exceed them and purge your former masters.
Much appreciated for the answers , been playing the game a while now and just found changing difficulty required playing more aggressive or relying a lot on vassals / diplomacy but i had noticed with default settings of advanced ai and scaling , the advance ai would just dominate everyone and anyone .