Diplomatic/Pacifist way to win Stellaris?

[happyninja42]

Ok so I've been playing Stellaris for a bit, and while I find it very similar to Sins of a Solar Empire, I'm still puzzled by a few things. Like what is the point of being a pacifist nation in that game?

As far as I've been able to tell, there are only 2 ways to win, both of which require conquering to do. I don't know how you can control 40% of the colonizable worlds on the map, without killing to do so.

I don't see many options diplomatically, but I'm guessing perhaps I have to unlock them with research? The problem is the random nature of the research, makes it hard to start out that way. I kept seeing this research option to create a federation, which I guess was the start to that tree? I didn't bother with it, because by the time it had popped up, I had been building so much into military stuff it seemed pointless.

So is there a way to play the political game with Stellaris? If so, how does one start it? Surface structures to build that foster this type of victory, research types that work along that line, etc.

Help? I'm somewhat bored with the military approach, as it literally is just throwing numbers at each other and seeing who has the bigger numbers.

 

[ryan_cs]

I'm guessing pacifist is for challenge or roleplaying, the game's really built more for roleplaying than anything else. Ethos like pacifist also set the AI of empires, for example if they're xenophile and pacifist they will probably become federetion builders and are more likely to accept an alliance.

Last time I checked the diplomacy's kinda barebones, but this was at launch and things might have changed since then. There's no way to win without going to war, you can't research anything, and there's also no type of cultural victory like in Civ.

 

[happyninja42]

But you can research Federation, which I assume means all of the planets in that federation would work towards the "control 40% of the planets" objective? I mean, other than that, what is the point of making a federation?

 

[Drathnoxis]

But you can research Federation, which I assume means all of the planets in that federation would work towards the "control 40% of the planets" objective? I mean, other than that, what is the point of making a federation?

The point of federations are to make it so bloody tedious to conquer planets that the invading aliens will give up on their plans of galactic domination and go home. One small bite every 10 years, due to the bureaucratic and arbitrary rules of space warfare? Can't think of a better way to achieve a peaceful galaxy.

 

[happyninja42]

But you can research Federation, which I assume means all of the planets in that federation would work towards the "control 40% of the planets" objective? I mean, other than that, what is the point of making a federation?

As of version 1.0.3, they dont, but I almost guarantee that there's a mod that fixes it.

Huh, might have to look into that then. As I'd like to try and roleplay a pacifist society, which I was doing, but ran into the annoyance of the mechanics not letting me actually win because of my pacifist ways. Kind of beside the point to play Fanatical Pacifist, and then have to build a giant death fleet to scour the galaxy. Might as well just go warlike and be done with it.

 

[meiam]

Stellaris still feel like it's two expansion away from greatness, but right now its so barebone.

They need to completely overhaul both the combat system and the diplomacy system because right now it gets super boring after 3-4 hours

 

[happyninja42]

Stellaris still feel like it's two expansion away from greatness, but right now its so barebone.

They need to completely overhaul both the combat system and the diplomacy system because right now it gets super boring after 3-4 hours

Yeah, I find the combat in Sins of a Solar Empire more interesting, because in those, you at least have some special abilities on your ships that you can manually trigger to help the battle. With Stellaris, it's just toss your fleet at their fleet, and see who had the better numbers. Given the distance you usually watch the fight at, it literally becomes a "my numbers are bigger than your numbers" fight, as all you can see is the numerical strength of your fleet. xD

Haven't really done anything with the diplomacy stuff, as it seems sort of...not really there. Maybe this will be different if I could build a Federation, but since I can't control what type of direction my research takes, I'm at the mercy of the random research generator, and I haven't seen the Federation option pop up for the past 2 days of playing. Which sucks, as now that I actually WANT it, I can't get it to show up. But before, it wouldn't go away.

 

[Joccaren]

ATM, no diplomatic victory, and diplomacy options are very barebones. As is a lot of the game.

Heinlein patch is coming in October, and that should alleviate some of the problems. For one, Federation Victory will now be a thing. It also adds a lot more events that will add some level of diplomatic play around Fallen Empires, though its still not an expansion of the Diplomacy systems.

Mods are great for fixing any problems you have though. I would wait for the patch first though, as all previous saves won't work with the new patch [Though you can use a "Beta" 1.2 patch rather than download the 1.3 Heinlein update]. It'll still have a long way to go to be a truly great game, but it should be much more playable after the next patch.