u/Silly_One_3149

Hi there. I'm sort of interested how people, both in mid and late game look onto Okkar modules.

I do like the idea of them being more different comparing to default modules/weapons, but most of them fall behind in their unique aspects (Okkar energy core generating 1 ULT point per second sounds nice on paper, but you still gain more ULT from any combat scenario, especially with crit builds).

Okkar flare is cool tho. Straight up better than colonial version (unless you go for Blightmonger version, even then it can be outperformed by crit/corrosion missile mix or crit-to-corrosion).

Hi there. This is a warning to the others and also a message to Rockfish (for the sole guy who still reads this sub):

Latest version v.1.4.48188 - Inferno (Legendary), when equipped, will cause FPS to drop over time during supra-light flight.

There is a mention of this bug fixed after WotA release, but seems so like any good (and dead) bug, this one has returned back to comfy habitat of ES2.

To test it - equip Inferno and take a in-system flight. The longer you fly, the faster FPS drops to a mere 2-3 FPS per light second.

P.s. The game also seems constantly resets Upscaler setting. I'm tired fist fighting this option. Even setting it main menu/relaunching saves it for long. Duh.

Hi there. Didn't really seen that much people bringing up deep lore examination about Everspace universe, so I'm going to push it in, mainly speculations about Okkar-Colonial war on basis of what we have in games & codex and Colonial structure outside of Cluster 34.

Colonial expansion and Okkar war efforts

From the game codex we learn up that war over Cluster 34 was heavily devastating on both sides and brought peace treaty. At the same time we meet physical examples of it's remains - mostly destroyed Colonial vessles, starbases and stations, which some of them became inhabitated by ex-colonial military personnel we know as Outlaws.

The thing about this is that we don't see much of Okkar devastation across systems unless we dive deep enough to Khaït nebula, where we can find massive graveyard of Colonial warships and Okkar frigates. This one location might be in fact the aftermath of codex image about Okkar-Colonial war. This pushes to the conclusion that Cluster 34, as it is, was either heavily cleared out from remains of Okkar wreckages or something more fitting and understandable - Cluster 34 wasn't under control of Okkar entirely. As secretive and inward-looking society they were vary of rapid Colonial expansion during early 3000 and retaliated on their border, pushing Colonials back from Khaït system, leading to creation of this battlefield.

Okkaran supremacy:

With our knowledge and visual representation we know that Okkar are more advanced than Colonials in technological matters, supposedly by extracting and using Viridium energy combined with Ancient technologies scattered across their systems which while considered venerated, also were reverse-engineered millenia years ago to settle other desert worlds and gain their edge in technological race to other species.

Lack of Okkaran ship debris in other systems also bolster two assumptions - Okkar fleets were working in hit-n-run tactics and their superior advantage comparing to Colonial fleets, possibly being capable to engage in lesser numbers. Their miniaturized wormhole and supralight technological edge allowed to stall Colonial efforts across Cluster by jumping to unprepared stations and fleets, causing devastation before main Colonial forces were able to react, then disengage back to Homeworlds, but a fair combat dictated by Colonials on their border was unpleasant and devastating to their forces.

Colonial ingenuity:

Where Colonial expansion forces were lacking, they were compensating with numeral advantage and unconventional means, with the latter improving the strengths of the former - cloning technology, bunker bots and robust production outside of Cluster allowed Colonials to rapidly expand and replace combat losses where Okkar forces would have suffered severely. After all - you don't need to train a new warrior caste from the birth to pilot a craft or man battery if you can clone him again and again while also transfering his memory to multiple other clones via Aetherna network. HIVE units were unique secretive development for Colonial fleets that improved cloned/non-clone personnel chances by providing rapid data and EW capabilities (our ES active abilities) during fights against technologically superior, yet strict-by-the-code enemy.

Combine that with economical superiority of rapidly expanding Sol presence we can see a machine prepared for war of attrition.

How things could've gone and why peace was negotiated:

Colonials waged war pretty succesfully despite having lots of losses - in the long run they would've simply outproduced Okkaran military economy with all the resources the could find within Cluster and already managed to conquier outside of it. By the speech from Dax we know that Colonial Command was all cheerful about victory to be seen soon. The Okkar were desperate as their borders were constantly pummeled with new armadas.

And that's where Palaemon comes at hand - Okkar forces decided to project force by unveiling some sort of ancient weaponry similar to Void Artillery we can use. In rapid blitz to Ceto system, where Colonial fortress world, possibly previous HQ was established during war. Usage of such weapon, combined with wormhole technology, caused panic and uncertainty in war efforts of Colonials - This is when Colonials sued for peace, as prolonging war efforts would've not only undermined their gains and leverage position, but also would have endangered systems outside Cluster 34 - even the Earth.

Colonial structure:

From in-game codexes there isn't much known about Colonial government structure and it's expansion outside of cluster, which is kinda ironic considering that we know way more about Okkar. But there are few interesting details to note - other species withing Colonial systems and evergrowing need for resources.

I suspect Colonial systems has a parliamentary precidency system with a thin topping of corporotocracy - Colonial systems might have been established hundred of years ago from Earth's United Nations and it's early colonies, began rapid expansion under rapid growth of corporational colonization efforts and is significantly depends on them. Grady & Brunt is a clear example of powerful corporation that probably has managed to lobby a peace terms for being sole extractor in Cluster 34. Despite being under Colonial rule, they have uncontested rights to exploit Cluster as they see fit and disregard their workers the same way dystopian megacorporation would do. Other corporations act as either civilian goods productors or as military contractors that were supplementing majority of Colonial war efforts - we see their advertisements and ship designs (light/medium/heavy) in ES2 that are more unified and streamlined for Colonial military use in ES1. I doubt government would share schematics and allow corporations to freely sell combat-capable vessels, unless those corporations were the productors of vessels we drive in first game.

About other species - Colonial codex mentions other species serving under them, either as part of systems or as independent forces. While the latter means there are other space-faring empires on a par with Colonial systems and are willing to cooperate similar way Okkar do post-war, the former mean that Colonial expansion has managed to subjugate multiple other species, possibly Horag and K'Nos (unsure about the latter, but the first are somewhat common across DMZ, with Elek keeping the temps of procreation).

All the text is just some mere observations and speculations, completely at will of Rockfish. Feel free to discuss more details and bring in your thoughts about galaxy outside the DMZ.

Gotta step in with a straight kick to the door - Embassies and Trust implementation we have right now were a serious decline of galactic dynamics.

Now let me roll in deeper: Modern Stellaris diplomacy is dynamic early on, yet it quickly rolls into permanent static galactic map a hundred or more years in future, mainly because on how small relationship maluses you could have and how easy it is to gain relations and become "friendly" with the rest of the galaxy, unless you play specific anti-diplomatic games (I.e. Genocidals/Inward perfectionists/Nemesis).

AI has simple diplomatic interactions: It sits idly and does it's terrible planet building/auto-designed fleet pumping as usual, sometimes sending envoys to improve relations with other empires it sees Neutral or worsen relations if it sees them easy to fight or have suspicious/wary attitude. The moment they cross relations for any more complex diplomatic action - they will automatically smash that button suggesting Embassies, Migration treaties, Research pacts, etc. Occasionally they will try to send Subjugation/Vassalization offers if you have Inferor/Overwhelming fleet power and will keep doing that indefinitely on cooldown (about decade). They will never try to force their will on empires with Cordial and higher relationship so you can easily be never attacked by any empire just by establishing an embassy and assigning a single envoy, unless they hate your bones and will permanently hurt relationship.

That's it. That's all the diplomacy AI has, and it's plain easy and abusable for Diplomacy tradition and Pacifists to abuse it and literally never use fleet the entire game (unless you fight non-diplomatic forces).

There are many things that need to change for AI diplomacy to be more dynamic than spamming your office phone with migration treaties, mainly a need to rework Trust, attitudes and relation maluses:

• Trust need to be removed from passive gain "resource pool" - currently if you are not Xenophobic, you have 70% chance to instantly gain Embassy proposal streak the moment GalCom establishes, which will quicly roll into positive relationship with everyone over years despite not acting at all - just because you have enought Trust accumulated over time. Instead of being passive gain/loss, Trust should be more static diplomatic resource you gain by multitude of actions (similar to Favors) to certain empire - be it significant trading deal each decade, intervention into defensive/offensive war (With 4.4 introducing this as option), special diplomatic events. Trust should be the gauge that allows your empires to cooperate into different agreements when earned enough - from trading agreement on the lowest levels, to migration treaties and federation establishment at maximum level (Currently 20 Trust is easy to obtain passively and is such a low gate that you get spammed with migration treaties. They really want to bomb your world with their migrants, duh). If no diplomatic actions were taken for a long time, you regularly conduct spying activities against empire or laid claims during war on systems allied empire wants your trust will decay.

• Embassies need a new place - instead of being "click-and-forget" Trust generation, embassies should be established on low-medium positive Trust levels, allowing to certain diplomatic events to trigger. Those diplomatic events have chance to both increase or decrease Trust, relationship and give potential bonuses like additional Unity/Research/Influence. This would make embassies more important part of cooperation, as would boost both empires and bring in more random repeatable events to mid/late game, where there's serious lack of them.

• Relationship should not be a stopping border for empires to impose their will - currently if you have Cordial or higher, any empire would never initiate an attack against you even if they laid claims on your space, want you vassalized, etc. Relationships should only decrease that chance, unless you manage to establish enough Trust and get "Protective" relationships, where other empire still would try to interfere into your defensive wars for your protection even if there is no active defence/independence pacts going on. On other hand they may try to force their will to vassalize you if their Ethics is Authoritarian during your defensive war. The only sure way to not be attacked is should be Independence/Defensive pacts which should be temporary, and Federation.

• Negative relationship maluses should be stronger - have anyone ever remembered about Border friction malus? It's pathetically weak, static malus that does not play any role - you may pretty much lock an empire within 4 systems and they will be "Okay" with you denying them from expansion for neccesary resources. This malus should become stronger over time, with malus growth being corresponding to difference from preferenced amount of systems (The less other empire has, the faster it will get annoyed by your large border, and vice versa - large empire won't be annoyed at all if you have less systems than them). Other maluses should be stronger to impose more possible negative reactions without diplomatic interventions - opposing ethics (it should grow with amount of population in both empires), projecting psionic aura onto materialists/non-psionic gestalts, having fleets within 2 systems from their border, etc. Negative relations should be a dangerous gauge a diplomatic player should watch for and ease up to not get into straight war and overcome to be friends, not a "Geneva suggestion" you collect only as genocidal fun-guy.

• Inter-Federation relationships should not be static boost - Almost always empires will never leave Federations, unless you bottom their reputation with espionage, because of sheer positive relation bonus they get. It's a permanent AI-circlejerk where they constantly improve relations and do nothing because half the time they can't vote to attack something. Inter-federational conflicts should exist besides "Seccesion" CB of Hegemony (Proposal: Impose Federal Law, Impose Federal Ethics) and Federations in general should become more "free" in terms of members deciding their own wars unless defensive (Then entire Federation will come to aid).

That's a short list, but there's more issues with the current diplomacy and relations between empires. Currently it goes into two ways right now:

1. You manage to befriend entire galaxy and everyone votes for your limitless custodianship despite being an isolationist except one pissed-off guy in the corner because he permanently tries to worse relations.
2. You manage to become enemy of entire galaxy by ignoring diplomacy as crisis/genocidal. The rest of the galaxy manages to form into federations with lots of volunteer vassals and decides to do nothing unless you attack.

P.s. Tiyanki should be exterminated. I call emergency vote on it.

Hi there definitely-not-clones! Can we agree we all love our annoying buddy Elek? What if he would turn into proper follower, rather than rare sight in random encounters?

Another ES2 playthrough kind of ignited my wish for a proper "not one fight-goodtoseeyabye" wingmen you could hire as semi-permanent company along your grind - there's so much allies you meet with unique gameplay bonuses that you rarely meet up with (unless you constantly harass Minokawa) that it's a shame we can't have one following us!

Just imagine a couple of new characters you can meet across systems in Station/Colony Bars, each with distinctive personalities and their ship preferences - from rugged mercenaries to driven explorers, traders and even politicans on the run. You do their entry quest after meeting, then you can hire them for some sum of materials and cash to fly along you.

Imagining their system, I would see them being semi-customizable pre-set ships that fulfill certain roles, fitted with additional shared skills and loyalty system expanding them:

• Fit their vessels - Argue with your wingman to install certain weapons and shields you have in your storage, fit them with some cool legendaries to boost their role.
• Shared skills - Wingmen have Loyalty system, where flying long enough together and doing certain actions in quests will raise their loyalty, unlocking further skill levels and unique bonuses. Some skills are for them only (Like +15% shield capacity for tank-roled wingman), some are shared with Adam (+20% minerals from mining).
• Loyalty gauge - As you spend enough time together, they will open up more in their specialty, filling deeper into their role and possibly opening up Loyalty missions that unlock their own Ultimate ability (Definitely not ME2 inspired!).
• Semi-permanent following - Wingmen you've met will travel across systems leaving signals if you need to find their aid. They will stay with you for a hour or two before embarking onto their personal business, with time together increasing as Loyalty increases. Give them some time and they will be available once again for hire.
• Cheeky reactions and one-liners - Enjoy wingmen reacting with unique personalities during combat and important missions. Even just for disengaging from combat at low health and upon your imminent death.

I've come up with a single wingman example for this case: Dylan "Rockbreaker" Kitch, a Colonial freelancer miner with mining-fitted Vindicator. A drunkard that has personal vendetta against pirates. He focuses on mining endeavors, boosting Adam's scanner range and mining yield, while in combat working as anti-armor tank, constantly trying to attract as much attention from enemies with drones and his armor-heavy bulwark.

Another one is Ryekla - Okkar ex-warrior who was on a trail to hunt Adam during Everspace 1 (Just how much Viridium crystal powerplants you've destroyed?) before crossing the line and becoming outcast at the end of ES2. Having nothing better to do, she will pledge her loyalty (and a spear) to you to restore her honor. As pilot, she has preference for rapid CQC with her Okkar Interceptor, always going for extreme close range and dealing high damage at the cost of constant disengagements to recharge. Her skills are all around straight fun combat and gaining "Dominance" combo buffs on quick kills.

^(Or, you know... Elek. Huh.)

Feel free to suggest more wingmen, and Rockfish, please! I will pledge my credit card and all 28 children I have across the DMZ just for you!

No words on Palaven can tell how much Stellaris would've benefitted by going away from generic soundtrack to situation aware music. Immersion levels would skyroket higher than 4.3 Hive AE fleet doomstacks!

Just imagine - having music fit for your ethics, changing certain instruments and choirs depending on what you see:

• You zoom into battle and intense, heroic or terrific drums play as C-beams cross the space between ships. The more equal forces are, the more tense music plays.
• Calm, logical piano/violin/synth ambience when you expand onto galactic map, somewhat reminding you era of Uncharted Worlds and Heleus.
• More mechanical, industrial sounds as you zoom closer to your ecumenopolis, a pride of alloy production, or calm choir near unity world. Even primitives get their primitive flutes.
• More omnious tonals and choirs if you pick a path of bad guy - becoming the crisis or Imperium will have additional perk by being a bad-ass owner of cool orchestra!

There are many games that benefitted well from adaptive/layered soundtrack, going from Portal and Spore to Helldivers, Baldur's Gate 3, Nebulous, Carrier Command 2, list goes on.

But in Stellaris we still stuck with calm, situation unaware soundtrack - your ships engage Contingency doomstack? - Enjoy your soft music like janitor cleaning in middle of gun figth, duh. It worsens even more by knowing that the game already could allow that - various stellar objects have their ambience scaling with distance from camera.

Paradox, please! I still have other 12 kids to trade for it!

P.s. Yeah, I know this would mean throwing half the music into the bin and making layered variations from scratch, but I believe in our small indie:tm: studio.

I'll be short - I might sell my soul and remain 37 kids to Paradox if they eventually release update to research tree that allows to ban certain tech from appearing in future draws at exponentially growing cost of unity and research data (And of course un-ban tech at the same cost).

The amount of times I growl and chew starfish plushie when Gravity snares/Vivarium tanks appear on my full mechanical ship empire are approaching numbers of pre-4.3 alloy productions.

Paradox, please!