Wax on, wax off

Yeah, grab a concrete pillar from the concrete section, it’ll be with the walls. Build it, then either store it. When you build walls, place the concrete pillar, then place the wall as close to it as possible, they need to be almost touching. Once that’s done, select the concrete pillar, but make sure to hold the input button to multiselect. As long as you are controlling the pillar and not the wall, the wall behave like the concrete pillar and can sink into the ground, clip into other objects (occasionally)

This also works with scaffolding, but the concrete pillar is better

There are working vehicles — NCR has troop transports parked at Camp McCarran in NV. I’m pretty sure the only vehicular use in the Capitol Wasteland and Commonwealth are vertibirds though

If you haven’t invested much into gun skills, you can always switch to melee.

If you have, stick with it. You’ll get better as time goes on. Find a sensitivity that allows you to pivot quickly for quick reaction, but slow enough that you can stay on target making minor adjustments.

One trick for aim is to practice constantly throughout the game, not just on targets but also while moving throughout the map. Try to keep your gun pointed where you think an enemy or a creature could pop out at you. Check your corners and aim center mass or slightly above for the upper thorax on humans. Having your reticule on target before you see them compensates for slow reaction time

I was having trouble figuring out which border to attack and defend and I wound up doing this

On the East border (right side of the map), I set three full fleets down, one on each route into Haddam, and another patrolling between both systems. Once I declared war, I sent all three in to capture the east border and secure a choke point further in their territory

On the North border, I sent my strongest single fleet with a half strength support fleet in to beeline straight for their Capital system. It went completely unhitched, and they started chasing their tails trying to recapture the systems I took. I didn’t care about keeping those, I just wanted to secure their capital

On the West border (most entry points, closest to my home system) I had four fleets at full strength. This may seem backward, but this is where three wormholes are that lead into my territory. I had them patrolling between all three wormholes, and forced them into a decisive but costly battle. I lost about half my forces, but defeated most of their Navy here.

Once all was finished, I needed to rebuild. But now that I know how to handle their strategy against me, I think I’ll rebuild again and try to capitalize on their tendency to send everything they have at my West border while simultaneously securing more territory in the North and East.

Complexity is kinda my thing. I’m realizing this game has no such thing as downtime. No sitting staring at the screen waiting for things to happen, because this is time you could be using to improve functions amongst your colonies.

We’ll see. I’m still in the fight. Haddam lost their capital to me last night, and I’m building back up for another war campaign

Capitalism truly needs checks and balances itself. No reason why Jeff Bezos made $7.9 million/hr in 2023, increasing his total net worth by $65bn but only pays a 23% federal income tax rate. Lowest income American families pay 11% on income taxes, with the upper limit being 37% if your income exceeds ~$670,000 USD/yr

So why is Bezos paying taxes below the median? Because he has “Fuck you” money

I read somewhere (can’t verify how true this is) that when Archaeologists were studying William Shakespeare’s personal effects, they tested his tobacco pipe for substances and it tested positive for trace amounts of Psilocybin.

As much as I can’t verify this is true, I can’t deny my belief that it’s factual. Shakespeare just seems like the type of dude to be tripping shrooms and writing plays

Help! I’m stuck! No, not in the closet, stepbro. Down here, under the bed!

So I took your advice — I also figured out how to build gateways. Why I haven’t bothered doing that yet is beyond me

Thank you so much for taking the time out to inform me. I’m really loving this game, even if I’m currently a little bad at it

What’s a word like you doing in a bug like this? Do you come here often?

r/whoosh

That’s the study of bugs

That’s the study of your mother’s sister.

That’s the study of bugs words

Thank you. This is why I’m not an etymologist

Wow. Thank you for the great write-up. This is what I was looking for.

1. you are sitting on two million unity.

I have to produce a lot of unity because I outright ignore my factions. I haven’t reformed the government once except to change single policies at a time. It remains as a Militarized Democratic Admiralty board with a focus on Materialism and Egalitarianism. This, along with my propensity to assimilate Xenomorphs into my society as equals to Cevellians creates issues amongst the population, and high Unity income/stockpiling. I’m mainly using my stockpile to get planetary ascension levels at this point.

I also must confess, as a Civ player coming to Stellaris, I translated “Unity” as “Culture” and I almost always try to run a high culture nation to keep the people happy.

1. Next, you are running a big surplus on almost all your material. I see your total fleet is about half strength.

This is mainly because the screenshot was taken immediately after finishing the conquest of a Fallen Empire. It was a hard fight and I lost almost half my entire naval forces and a good third of my invasion force, but I needed to plunder their tech and they were Holy Guardians so in my ignorance I colonized a Gaia holy planet before even discovering them, which set their relations with me permanently to -400. I just got paranoid and started building up quickly, brought my total naval strength to ~95% capacity, and then Haddam got froggy and declared war right as I was mobilizing my Hiffnar invasion force. So basically, 2 back-to-back wars against a significantly stronger forces. After the conquest of Hiffnar, I rebuilt my entire Navy from the ground up (redesigned them based on what I’d learned from fighting + new tech) and now I’m about at ~75% capacity.

Everything else you’ve mentioned is news to me, except maybe the part about the AI poorly dealing with mass invasions. I figured this was the case, but I also didn’t know that jumping through wormholes activates the fleet debuff. This makes me feel much more confident in defending wormhole entrances.

Now for my questions..

How many shipyards do you recommend and where do you usually place them? I’m having a tough time figuring out how to balance shipyards, anchorages, trading hubs, and other starbase modules.

How does the trading route system work? I’ve built hubs to maximize system trade network output throughout my Empire’s space, but I keep seeing starbases that aren’t connected to my trading routes?

So if I’m getting stackable damage buffs, I’m basically at the end of the tech tree? I keep getting these, but occasionally a new technology will open up for me (recently acquired Psionics). How many of these buffs are there in total, or can they be infinitely acquired through the late-game?

I’ve found that my defense platforms are mostly ineffective against larger fleets. How do I make them as powerful as, say, a Fallen Empire’s whose single Citadel has ~65k military strength?

Oxford, UK was originally called Oxnaford which (I’m no etymologist so bear with me) basically breaks down to “Oxen” and “Fjord” and essentially just means “place where oxen cross the river”

Kinda what I was thinking. Use the wormhole that takes me within 6 systems of their home system and then jump drive straight in with a fleet and an invasion force. Luckily my attrition rose slowly enough during the Hiffnar war that I was able to bombard until it was asymmetrical and then sweep their ground forces, so my army is still mustered

I know. I hadn’t gotten to selling them when I took the SS. I’ve been selling energy credits for crystals (deficit) and using the other resources to recoup energy spent

This was taken immediately after my victory against the Hiffnar

Or a boathouse with enough supplies and rations to last until the zombies start decomposing.

And I don’t buy the whole “everyone turns into a murdering selfish evil psychopath”

I don’t either but I do believe that, given enough time, it all becomes Darwinism. You’ll have to stoop to the level of the murdering evil psychopaths at some point if you want to survive

I think you have the wrong subreddit. We don’t ask qu-

This is facts

Not a bad idea. How do you usually approach shipyards? I like having one on both borders of my territory that’s essentially a ship printer with 6 shipyards.

Especially after my second war with the Haddam. I’ve learned that it’s not about raw military power, but having the logistical support to replace and reinforce your navy throughout the entire conflict