Paradox Interactive Announces Astral Planes, New Expansion for Stellaris

[GFreeman]

Today, Paradox Interactive announced Astral Planes, a new narrative-focused expansion for its sci-fi strategy game Stellaris, coming later this year on PC. Thanks to new reality-breaking technologies and systems, in Astral Planes players will explore alternative dimensions and encounter creatures and phenomena in numerous parallel worlds. They will chart their own path through the unknown in self-contained and fully branching narratives, adding new depth and agency to player choices.

Navigate wonders and dangers through the different features included in Astral Planes:
NEW CORE SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Unlock new Technologies, Actions, and Relics to manipulate space and interact with the galaxy in unexpected ways. Explore new realms filled with mysteries and opportunities.



ALTERNATIVE PLANES TO EXPLORE
Traverse the Astral Planes to discover a wide variety of unique sites, each with properties and phenomena beyond the mundane. Come face to face with fascinating and terrifying creatures, uncover long buried secrets, or choose to explore the true nature of your past with the Riftworld Origin.

BRANCHING NARRATIVES
For the first time in Stellaris, navigate in widely branching narratives through a dedicated interface, specifically designed to maximize the effects of player choice. The Astral Planes are full of surprises, and hard choices will be necessary to reach your desired outcome. Make the right decision for your empire and chart a course that fits your play style.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[FiRe]

This is like a never ending cashgrab now, similar to Cities: Skylines. Release Stellaris 2 with an up-to-date game engine ;D

 

[Vayra86]

Yeah, no. Stellaris started off well, and post 2.0 when the game was actually in a pretty good state (but still with its problems, like doom stack-victory being the norm), the game's updates started to degrade the actual game. Change for the sake of change, and not always for the better, plus, why the f*ck should I want to re-learn the same mechanics every time? There have been so many times I wanted to just jump into this game for a good long evening of 4X, and I found myself being an utter noob again between all the changes they made. They made the game a job and I hate it. Never again.

 

[Nostras]

Honestly I don't really mind new DLC. Don't like it don't buy it. You can't argue that this is cut content or something.

The main issues with DLC is the minefield it introduces with mods.
Installing modpacks or manually cooking something together is always a massive pain if you miss important mods.

If only performance wasn't dreadful starting mid-game... Maybe I shouldn't use 200 mods...

 

[leezhiran]

Yeah, no. Stellaris started off well, and post 2.0 when the game was actually in a pretty good state (but still with its problems, like doom stack-victory being the norm), the game's updates started to degrade the actual game. Change for the sake of change, and not always for the better, plus, why the f*ck should I want to re-learn the same mechanics every time? There have been so many times I wanted to just jump into this game for a good long evening of 4X, and I found myself being an utter noob again between all the changes they made. They made the game a job and I hate it. Never again.

It‘s so frustrating that EVERY time the game updated, they will nerf your favorite build from last version you spend hours to discover.

 

[Frick]

Yeah, no. Stellaris started off well, and post 2.0 when the game was actually in a pretty good state (but still with its problems, like doom stack-victory being the norm), the game's updates started to degrade the actual game. Change for the sake of change, and not always for the better, plus, why the f*ck should I want to re-learn the same mechanics every time? There have been so many times I wanted to just jump into this game for a good long evening of 4X, and I found myself being an utter noob again between all the changes they made. They made the game a job and I hate it. Never again.

This is a two sided thing. Change can be good for long time players (look at CK2's evolution), but yeah if you don't play for years the game will be very different even if you don't buy the DLCs. That said, I very rarely play Stellaris and I generally feel like I can just start to play. It will probably not be a very optimized game, but then I'm supremely uninterested in that kind of thing. EU4 is much worse in that regard.

For me the 2.0 rework sort of killed the game anyway tbh. I see why they did it, but boy did it get more boring. I blame the min-maxers.

This is like a never ending cashgrab now, similar to Cities: Skylines. Release Stellaris 2 with an up-to-date game engine ;D

The good thing with this DLC model is that you don't have to buy them if you're not into them.

 

[ratirt]

I have the game but I didnt play much. I wanted to give it a go after a long time during evenings. I wonder how would it go for me. I dont remember much from the previous gameplays of mine. I would have to relearn it anyway. The game itself seemed nice so I got it but I might be wrong now

 

[Vayra86]

This is a two sided thing. Change can be good for long time players (look at CK2's evolution), but yeah if you don't play for years the game will be very different even if you don't buy the DLCs. That said, I very rarely play Stellaris and I generally feel like I can just start to play. It will probably not be a very optimized game, but then I'm supremely uninterested in that kind of thing. EU4 is much worse in that regard.

For me the 2.0 rework sort of killed the game anyway tbh. I see why they did it, but boy did it get more boring. I blame the min-maxers.



The good thing with this DLC model is that you don't have to buy them if you're not into them.

You're right it is. And I get what you're saying too about 2.0. It became more of a Civ in space; I just happen to like civ

If only they had kept the original core game... and just expanded upon it with those feature DLCs. Megastructures, etc. Those were all fine to me, I also have nearly all of them.

 

[ratirt]

You're right it is. And I get what you're saying too about 2.0. It became more of a Civ in space; I just happen to like civ

If only they had kept the original core game... and just expanded upon it with those feature DLCs. Megastructures, etc. Those were all fine to me, I also have nearly all of them.

I love Civ. I might actually give it a go sooner than I though. Or is there something I should know before I do? Has it gone bad recently?

 

[Frick]

I love Civ. I might actually give it a go sooner than I though. Or is there something I should know before I do? Has it gone bad recently?

Nah, if anything it's better. It's more mechanically sound than it was on release, but personally I also find it more boring. Every DLC comes with bugs (they also release big updates for the base game alongside DLCs). Give it a go when on sale, and GOG has a generous refund policy.

 

[Vayra86]

I love Civ. I might actually give it a go sooner than I though. Or is there something I should know before I do? Has it gone bad recently?

Nope. If you go in fresh I reckon you'll have a blast. Stellaris is still a very feature rich 4X that does a lot right.

 

[ratirt]

Nah, if anything it's better. It's more mechanically sound than it was on release, but personally I also find it more boring. Every DLC comes with bugs (they also release big updates for the base game alongside DLCs). Give it a go when on sale, and GOG has a generous refund policy.

I already have the game to be fair. Bought it long time ago. Maybe it would need an update though. I might give it a try but I will need to buy a PC desk first. I have not touched my PC since 2 months now. 24h a day is not enough.

Nope. If you go in fresh I reckon you'll have a blast. Stellaris is still a very feature rich 4X that does a lot right.

That is good to hear. I need to check it out, I played briefly for few hours but 2 years or something ago.