Stellaris

[Cralis]

The two drive technologies (warp drive and wormhole) HAVE been removed in total from the game. Their old functionality is not in place anymore. What is in the game now are natural wormholes (strictly fixed A-B links), gateways (artificial links that connect any active gateway to all other gateways. L-Gates are on their own network), and Jump Drives (which were in the game from the start, but have changed from a high-speed long-range warp drive to a special "Hop" drive that takes you directly from A to B, but gives your fleet a temporary malus once they've jumped for 100 days).

Oh I didn't mean that the later versions were identical.

Jump drives are the replacement for wormhole drives. And I thought Psi Drives (which I've never used) were like warp drives, but it looks like I'm actually wrong about that. And with the latest DLC, I think you can build gates.

As for why they got removed, it was the same reason most games only have one FTL system. They just couldn't balance it defensively with all three drive systems, simply because Warp and Wormhole drives allowed someone to just cut right past any crustal defenses and strike right at their home station.

Their reasoning that it's impossible to balance the drives is spurious: SOTS has not one, not two, not three... but five different drives. Ok ok, two of them were variations on the warp drives (which was a type of its own), but they actually put a lot of thought into balancing the drives with strengths and weaknesses and it worked brilliantly.

I think that the original drive implementations were one of the (fortunately) few things that they didn't really think through completely.

The truth is that they didn't really think out the implications of drive ranges versus empire size. And the wormhole drive was just broken as hell because it really had no limitations as long as there was a wormhole generator within jump range. I get that they didn't want to really balance the types and provide actual limitations, as well as not wanting interdiction systems for all three (well two, really), but that's how it's done. They just didn't do it.

And under the earlier rules you were restricted as to the type and strength of your defensive stations AND your orbital yards were their own weak little shipyard pinata. There was no reason NOT to go for a Jacksonian strike right to the homeworld and then mop things up at leisure. And after the first few times it happens, it's just not fun.

Exactly.

That said, I think the current implementation is just fine. Through 50% of the game it's a lot like Starfire but without warp points.

[Xveers]

Oh I didn't mean that the later versions were identical.

Jump drives are the replacement for wormhole drives. And I thought Psi Drives (which I've never used) were like warp drives, but it looks like I'm actually wrong about that. And with the latest DLC, I think you can build gates.

Psi Drives and Jump Drives were pretty much the same thing pre 2.0, just that Psi drives were a little lighter on the fitting requirements. And Wormhole drives never got a real "replacement" as far as mechanics goes. And yeah, you can build the normal gates with one of the later DLCs (just not the L-Gates, from another DLC )

I think that the original drive implementations were one of the (fortunately) few things that they didn't really think through completely.

The truth is that they didn't really think out the implications of drive ranges versus empire size. And the wormhole drive was just broken as hell because it really had no limitations as long as there was a wormhole generator within jump range. I get that they didn't want to really balance the types and provide actual limitations, as well as not wanting interdiction systems for all three (well two, really), but that's how it's done. They just didn't do it.

<snip>

That said, I think the current implementation is just fine. Through 50% of the game it's a lot like Starfire but without warp points.

I agree that the current implementation is fine. And that they botched the different drive systems pretty badly. Most people I know went to hyperlane only after a while just because it made for more interesting games. I think that if they had spent a (probably good) bit more time they could've figured out a way to make it work.

One thing I can say though is that I'm VERY much a fan of how they've been willing to do some serious surgery to make the game better. The FTL changes have been a part of it, and the upcoming changes to planetary populations (and a ton of other stuff that's tied in with it) promise to be just as much a gamechanger. Myself, I am looking forward to them with a ravenous hunger.

[PracticalM]

In regards to the three different drive types going to two. The issue was both balance and AI ability. There is an extensive development diary on the issue.

Both Jump and Psi Drives do the same thing (and they were there in the previous version as well) but now ships have a jump sickness so jumping into combat isn't a great thing.

[PracticalM]

Anyone have any comments on the latest update?

I think they made the game better but increased the micro management of jobs instead of tile constructions.
And the AI doesn't do smart things right now around building upgrades.

If anyone wants to play multiplayer my steam handle is practicalm.

[Whitecold]

In my opinion the micro of jobs is mostly people trying to micro than a requirement. After a first run in which I tanked the economy, I just built only as many job spaces as there were workers, and never touched the job screen.

There are/were some egregious bugs, white peace vassalization comes to mind, and the AI handles late game poorly. The population growth system is completely illogical, but both growth and AI can be fixed with a mod. Sadly disables achievements, though.

[Cralis]

Unfortunately I’ve been swamped with real-life and I haven’t even purchased the latest DLC yet. But some of my online gaming group has been playing it and they love it. I haven’t heard them talking about micromanaging the jobs yet, and I think the longest running game they have is in mid or late-mid game. A couple nights ago they were talking about the united marauders butting heads with a fallen empire...

[Xveers]

I'm still holding off on really getting into it. I've been hearing of a collection of annoying bugs (some really annoying ones related to peace deals in wars, apparently) and so I'm waiting for the Paradox crew to get back from vacation and push out some fixes. That being said, I think the changes they did were very well done overall and welcome. They just need to fix some of the more crippling bugs and help the AI better manage their economy. Not much point in them working on an AI when you were doing such a deep overhaul of the economic base, after all!