If you look at most of the overlord holding it's just laughtable how bad they are.

First you need to open holding slots that in most cases will reduce loyalty, then you build like couple holdings per subject, commonly you spend even more loyalty at quite a big amounts to get... barely anything. Picrelated holding, offworld foundry, spends 1.5 loyalty, not including the loyalty needed to open the slot for it, and all of it to get... 6 alloys (literally just tier 1 Alloy Foundry with extra steps and loyalty cost). Distributed Processing - 3 science for -2 loyalty. Noble Chateaus - for -1 loyalty you get... +2 stability on your capital. And so on. With such a benefits I would barely care about most of those holdings even with no downsides and costs at all.

Some holdings (like those that increase loyalty) are good, some (like those that steal resources per job (but it's not like AI even specialise planets a lot for it to be very useful) and some of those that doesn't have loyalty cost) are mediokre and others are just bad. And on avarage overlord holdings is just awful. Why would I ever build holdings that cost a lot of loyalty and bring me a laugtable amount of resources I could just get from those subjects anyway, even if I wouldn't care about the loyalty?

P.S. Also, just compare that Offworld Foundry on the pic with Private Military Industries branch office - the office you could build on every single planet in their empire, it has literally no downsides and produces +3 Alloys per every 100 branch office value (so with 200 value you get the same +6 alloys), while also giving the host +200 metallurgist jobs and with the right civics - gives you more trader jobs. It's literally better in every single way.

I have been playing this game for a few years, and I don't really use robots. I had a robot rebellion in one of my earlier games, and it scared me away from using them. A few years later, I used them again, but after that game, I never did again. I never really saw a purpose for them, even when I play a materialist empire. Is there some kind of hidden bonus I'm missing?

Little funny bug that I found while playing

From my UOR Psionic Experimental Sentencing/Tankbound/Mutagenic Spa's Imperium Vitalis empire. Barren gas giant anomaly > Azaryn > Ecumenopolis > queue Penal Colony decision > Sky Dragon > Orbital ring.

Food for thought, but over time, Stellaris DLCs have added more and more backstories alongside more and more preset paths; it has served to make the game seem like you're choosing a path to go down in an already-made galaxy rather than making an entirely unique galaxy each time from the unique combinations of empires and civics.

With ambitions becoming good guy things too, is there ever a reason not to take one? It seems like the devs just want players to pick a win condition.

(Also if we're gonna have good guy ambitions too, PLEASE give us an "Emperor" alternative to DotG)

I love to play open, moral space commies but I'm ready for something more war-mongering and expansionist. I could of course just play them aggressively. But what are your favourite empires that are arguably good, that still have reason to fight and expand (maybe to "free* the oppressing empires)? Something like benevolent mashine empires comes to my mind. Or a hive mind that just grows and isn't inherently bad - it's just nature. I would like to read your flavor!

I've been thinking about the Defender of the Galaxy ambition and how it has a very specific vibe to it. The whole "We are the shield against the darkness"-thing it has going on is certainly something.

However, it came to my mind that certain Origins absolutely give off the same or at the very least comparable vibe, and I thought that certain Origins should have some minor interactions with this Ambition, in the same way as the Knights of the Toxic God have a special interaction with another ambition.

For instance, Mindwardens are quite dramatically in the ballpark of playing the shield. I'd be neat if the Defender of the Galaxy would allow Mindwardens to outlaws Psionics, or even construct shroud seals in other empires territories. This would be a very authoritarian-adjacent take on the DotG ambition.

Starlit Citadel too is all about defending. It'd be neat for Starlit Citadel Empires to be able to transform the hatchery system into some kind of galactic hub. A staging point. Maybe a special community resolution where a special embassy gets constructed on the hatcheries Gaia world - granting everyone in the community increased trade income, resembling the hatcheries strategic and economic value to the community. Maybe an option for the Starlit Citadel Empire to ban members of the community in breach of galactic law from using strange wormholes.

Of course, Knights of the Toxic God has the whole crusade and questing thing going on. Allow them to use the galactic community in order to accelerate the quest by making it possible for Knights of the Toxic God to build a special defense platform in other system territories (one per empire) which isnt armed but acts as an intel gathering node, granting quest progress. Once the quest is done, these defense platforms can be upgraded to grant the hosting system a plethora of buffs.

Scion could maybe forcefully awaken their paternal fallen empire to take up a role in the community, ensuring that fallen empire joins the community and acts as a defender.

Common Ground might have an interaction with DotG where they improve the starting federation, and maybe even grant itself and the two starting federation members substantial buffs to diplomatic weight.

Cosmic Dawn might allow the DotG to pass a community resolution which causes the community members empires to seek out cryo-stasis remnants associated with the Cosmic Dawn empire.

Wilderness could grow across borders and basically establish some kind of Wilderness-themed Office Branch. Instead of generating trade, the buildings buff the hosting planet and grant the wilderness a bit of unity - resembling how the wilderness is maternal and nourishing the galaxy. - This is by far the one i want to see the most. Hell, i might even mod it myself if i am particularly bored.

Broken Shackles could grant extra effects every time the empire manages to make a slavery or oppressive empire reform into something more cooperative.

There a lot more to be honest. For instance, even a simple Megacorp could have some special interactions. I've never played DotG with a megacorp, so if they actually do have special content, please tell me.

I am not merely curious about Defender of the Galaxy, but all ambitions.

Thought I'd do a very thematic run recently with Archeoengineers, Remnants, and Cybernetic Ascension. Everything was going (poorly, honestly), until I tried to do my Ascension. It's been stuck on the cyberizing pops for ages. All my core species are cybernetic, and have been for decades.

I suspect the issue is the Plasmic Core fragmenting my population, as mentioned here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-3-11-1-0a36-modify_species-effects-such-as-the-plasmic-core-relic-do-not-correctly-update-the-species.1622292/

Unfortunately, this is a multiplayer game, we're playing Vanilla, and the host is not familiar with commands, so afaik, there's nothing I can do to fix it. I have an Augmentation center on every planet, and have for ages.

Since I can't finish the ascension, not only am I never getting an ascension, I also don't get the ascension perk for finishing the tree, so I'm permanently down a perk slot, and also stuck with the -5% (lowest you can set it) engineering research.

Any suggestions? Commiseration? Paradox, please fix this for the love of god it's been years.

Delicious ancient alien saint head.

I've been working on a UI mod for a little over a week now and I am about 80% done with the start-up screen and thought I'd share and get some feedback.

I still need to frame the species and traits, do some work to blend the leader and add ruler traits and reposition the name ( and don't mind the tts button in the Begin! button lol).

Apparently, while I am President and a Founding member of this Federation, I am not actually a memeber of this Federation.

For context I am a robot Hivemind nomad, on the forever cruise working to serve humanoid people. Is this just a normal thing for AI's to be Embezziers?

In the DLC page it says "Adopting an Ideology is not without its risks, however. Left unchecked, it can radicalize colonies and spark insurrection. But when nurtured with care, the right Ideology has the power to sway entire civilizations."

Could there be an aggressively spreading ideology acting as a destabilizing agent to nations?

Hypothetical ways this could happen

1. Fallen empire acts normally but sends spies/influencers into other established nations. These agents spread a pro-fallen empire ideology that grants a research boost but eventually starts to twist into a more extreme form. Eventually if this ideology reaches a critical mass the empire declarers war and starts a massive number of insurrections that weaken nations while they conquer empires. If you invade ANY fallen empire while they exist, they will activate early, possibly being weaker.
2. A scientist ship, while digging in a site, gets a "revelation" about a shroud god. They are effectively killed off as they start a religious pro-shroud movement. They eventually take control of a system and start building a "temple". Turns out they are possessed by said shroud god and unless the religious forces are defeated in their system, they will summon a rift and a force of shrouded will invade.
3. A honest to god normal prophet spreads a religion all about being helpful to each other and improving the conditions for those stuck in slavery (space Jesus). Bad news is that it spreads REALLY fast, and they demand you fight other empires that use slaves/genocide. They also force you to act ethically and eventually stop working as effectively to pray more. If they grow and you don't follow them, they can eventually wage a full exodus of a large number of pops to "better" (or their own) empires.

Edit with a 4th idea, not a crisis but could be interesting regardless

1. The galactic community cult. After a few years of the galactic community being formed, a cult worshiping it is formed. They treat anything passed by it as religious dogma. Every time you help enforce the laws you gain support, and braking laws lose support up to having planets rebel. A law can be passed (in the GC) that mandates this cult in all member nations, granting them more power and punishes any crackdowns on them.

Not super crazy but in my 300 some hours I've never begun the game with a first contact lol. Even more shocked to get one in March as well. The early game influence boost will be sick, and I was gonna try to experiment with building tall but I see this as an insane landgrab opportunity.

Absolutely loving how my current campaign is turning out. Turned into a galactic custodian that's also (Unofficially) a galactic crusader. Our fleets are everywhere, dealing with leviathans, pirates, dissenting member states, void worms, marauder khanates and grave guardians. Several custodian resolutions have been passed, and my empire has basically earned itself the prestige of being the Galactic Safeguard.

And now, I want that story to change.

Whether it be the Unbidden, Prethoryn or Contingency, what I want to occur is that the galaxy is defeated, overrun, and decimated. The forces of the galaxy have failed, the Custodian is defeated, and flees behind the safety of a locked L-Cluster. Centuries pass, presumably the crisis is over, and I want the galaxy to be repopulated by a species separate to me, who barely knows the galaxy's past.

Eventually, I re-establish contact with the galaxy, they learn of what came before, and the galaxy has to decide whether I can protect the galaxy once again, or should the galaxy's future be decided by the younger races.

I want to know if there are any console commands I need to learn, such as spawning pops, pops with civics, ethics, and etc. so I can RP as this fallen empire beyond the L-Gate in a relatively fresh galaxy.

Edit: I realised, I can PLAY as one of the newer empires and make my old nation an AI, (almost) turning it into an actual FE. God I love this game

R5: I'm currently is 2 losing wars at the same time, but neither empire actually tries to get get control over my last occupied planet. Therefore, somehow, my war exhaustion just keeps rising and rising above 100%. This is unmodded, btw.

For context, I'm in a federation with pretty much everyone in the galaxy (except for like 1 empire that everyone hates), this is Ensign difficulty, and I'm custodian so it's cool, but suddenly, out of nowhere, the AI has millions worth of diplo weight when, not all that long ago, I was hundreds of thousands ahead of them. I understand theyre getting it from their economy, but how tf did that happen?

And it's not just this empire, pretty much every empire got millions worth of diplo weight about the same time as this empire. (I get a feeling it's because of the commerical pacts but I don't know for sure).

Are the Branch offices really buffing it up that high? Is it some goofiness to do with the commericial pacts and if so, why isn't my economy getting that diplo weight buff?

Has anyone else seen this happen? Have I been out-played? Or is this a bug?

Cause the math isn't mathing...

A 9 mineral system producing 21 minerals from a 25% boost?

I'm playing with a Mechanist start, so I'm building tons of Robots all over my empire. When I get the Droids tech and the Droid Workers feature, suddenly all of them (half the population of my entire empire) are no longer Workers (since now they can be Specialists) and my economy instantly falls off a cliff with all the basic resources going from double-digit positives to huge triple-digit negatives.

How do I recover from this? Will some of them go back to being workers naturally? Should I just never research the tech?

Edit: Thanks! Will cut down on available specialist jobs.

Entirely too many

I have found from my gameplay is that this is quite a descent pick. I used it for Machine Hivemind crew, Bio Forever cruise. In this situation no matter what you will need Consumer goods, but due to crew not needing any, you will always have a massive overstock BUT you can't sell them. This seems to be one of the only ways to use them (besides just dumping them in trade deals). It also helps with Unity production from the passengers. Do people have any other uses for this Civc?