It's a good day to be a space nerd, as Paradox Development Studio and Paradox Interactive have announced Stellaris: Ancient Relics.
This is a new Story Pack, that will allow you to sift through the rubble of ancient civilizations in Relic Worlds, to piece together exactly what happened to them and maybe come out of it with some fun new toys for your own civilization in the process. Check out the stylish teaser, which gives little away but still helps me get quite excited at the same time:
Direct Link
Features:
- Said Ancient Relics: Collect and acquire valuable relics in your adventures as rewards for overcoming major crises or after completing a dig at an archaeological site and solving the chapters. Each relic gives significant benefits to your empire to aid in your interstellar escapades.
- Those Who Came Before: Encounter clues about two extinct Precursor civilizations, the Baol and the Zroni, the former a sprawling hivemind of plantoids, the latter some of the most the most powerful psionics to have ever lived. Players can investigate these home systems to understand who they were and, more importantly, what one can learn from their demise.
- Relic Worlds: Once filled with teeming life, these Relic Worlds now lie dead, replete with desolate ruins and dormant mysteries. Players can excavate guaranteed archeological sites on these worlds to explore these remnants and bring to light powerful relics and artifacts.
- Dig In: Hit the dirt on a variety of enigmatic and alien worlds with more archeology sites available for your empire to study… or plunder. Each site begins a story with between one and six chapters to investigate. Retrace the history to discover artifacts and relics that can be boons to your empire.
- Matter of Artifacts: Learning from history is much more than parables and antiques, it can often be the key to understanding one’s own place in the galaxy. Utilizing archaeological research, discover Minor Artifacts, a new resource type which can help empower one’s empire.
No release date yet for Ancient Relics other than "soon".
I honestly love that they keep expanding their games like this, I'm not a huge fan of their other titles but Stellaris is great. Even without any of the expansions, Stellaris has come along very nicely since the initial release.
Don't own Stellaris? Good news for you then, as it along with other DLC is on sale on Humble Store. Stellaris itself currently has 75% off so it's a good deal. Otherwise it's also on GOG, Steam and the Paradox Store.
QuoteThen I have good news for you: Paradox's model fits you perfectly. Wait seven or eight years until development has stopped and buy the "complete edition" at 40€, giving you option C.
Never happened with EU or any other Paradox game.
QuoteThe base game offers more than enough content to keep you busy for dozens of hoursDozens, dozens! Dozens of hours of mostly waiting because there is little happening in the base game.
QuoteThat would royally piss off 99% of Paradox fans and that's a conservative estimate.
Except that the same critique comes from Paradox fanbase quite often.
QuoteAs someone who actually plays Stellaris: The price + DLC really doesn't concern me.
Thats nice that it doesn't concern YOU. But it might concern others. I paid $20 bucks for Civ 5 and played it 800 hours. Stellaris can never came close to this, especially when it came in half-released state and it seriously needed major revamp. And I don't care if other people spend $60 bucks for FPS that they play for 2 hours. Or $174 bucks for game that they play for dozens hours.
Quoting: ColomboQuoteThen I have good news for you: Paradox's model fits you perfectly. Wait seven or eight years until development has stopped and buy the "complete edition" at 40€, giving you option C.
Never happened with EU or any other Paradox game.
Ready for you:
https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/europa-universalis-iii-collection/
In a few years you will find the same for EU4 and CK2, once development has stopped.
Quoting: TeodosioQuoting: ColomboQuoteThen I have good news for you: Paradox's model fits you perfectly. Wait seven or eight years until development has stopped and buy the "complete edition" at 40€, giving you option C.
Never happened with EU or any other Paradox game.
Ready for you:
https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/europa-universalis-iii-collection/
In a few years you will find the same for EU4 and CK2, once development has stopped.
Thats EU3, thats before the new DLC policy. Tell me when it happens to EU4, HoI4 and Stellaris.
Quoting: ColomboThats nice that it doesn't concern YOU. But it might concern others. I paid $20 bucks for Civ 5 and played it 800 hours. Stellaris can never came close to this, especially when it came in half-released state and it seriously needed major revamp. And I don't care if other people spend $60 bucks for FPS that they play for 2 hours. Or $174 bucks for game that they play for dozens hours.Yes, I made it clear it didn't bother ME. I can do capitals too, see, fun right?
I have double the hours in Stellaris that I do in Civ V and I also have all the Civ V expansions.
They're extremely different games and I'm a self-confessed massive space nerd, so yeah I really don't have a problem with a favourite game getting long-term support and interesting expansions. Happy.
Half released state? No. It was a complete game, that could be finished and it was fun. I (and others) wanted a lot more from it, but it no way was it incomplete at release. This is what gets me, people trying to sow mistrust in situations like this, because it didn't do everything they wanted right away.
I have mixed feelings about Paradox's DLC schemes. Some of them have felt a little thinner than I'd like, or have had one really nice feature that's "DLC locked" amongst a bunch of stuff you don't really care about... but on the whole I'm pretty happy with most of it. I've had years of fun from their games, and a new DLC generally makes a new playthrough and a new story - and at an age where getting a few hours to myself is often a luxury, my #1 and #2 most played on Steam are both Paradox games (CK2 and Stellaris).
As others have said, the base game is very much worth your time on its own and if you do end up wanting more, these DLC are lovely options, especially as you can just pick the ones that provide the parts/themes you want more of (e.g. this one if you're a Stargate fan).
Quoting: Patola- Many updates completely changing the game rules; yes, I know, it is an improvement, but in practice I had to restart to enjoy it.Honestly, restarting is pretty much a game mechanic. Once you are the most powerful empire on the map, there is really nothing else left to do - the fun is in everything you do to get to that point :) I have high-triple-digits hours in Stellaris and never once "completed" a playthrough.
Quoting: callciferWell, there are one or two things. Once I'm powerful I like to build a few megastructures just to rub the other empires' noses in my superiority. But yeah, actually getting to the win is pretty dashed optional for me too.Quoting: Patola- Many updates completely changing the game rules; yes, I know, it is an improvement, but in practice I had to restart to enjoy it.Honestly, restarting is pretty much a game mechanic. Once you are the most powerful empire on the map, there is really nothing else left to do - the fun is in everything you do to get to that point :) I have high-triple-digits hours in Stellaris and never once "completed" a playthrough.
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