In an effort to be a more regular writer about things I enjoy and hopefully get back to creating things that are enjoyed by others I’m going to try to write more regularly about my current special interest, Stellaris. This is a me talking about some of the fun empires I’ve had through the years.

The Dick Slugs have a more provocative name then they deserve. Like many of the empires I currently play I don’t think I finished a game so much as had it trail off slowly leaving some memories and the idea that I had somehow wronged myself. The Dick Slug build was the perfect compliment to early Stellaris where:

• Expansion and Exploration was the most exciting part of the game.
• There was no “mid-game” crisis or other interactions unless you, as the player, initiated them.
• The numbers going up was the only thing.
• The limited interactions you had with other empires gave you nothing to do unless you roleplayed a game completely.

My solution was to design an empire that didn’t interact and didn’t need anyone. I combined the wonders of Inward Perfection with Agrarian Idyllic to just grow, build, and expand. To make the numbers go up. Selecting Inward Perfection requires a strong degree of xenophobia and pacifism but instead of making conflict you just don’t interact with the other empires. I liked using them as measuring sticks but Stellaris has historically been short on providing pressure on your empire. Inward Perfection gives some bonuses to compensate for the lack of research agreements, rivalry bonuses, and alliances that can sometimes help against a genocidal manic.

Remember When?

When I returned in late 3.whatever.1 that I was surprised that you could declare war in an inward perfection empire. This build was conceived during a time when that was impossible. If my memory serves what was even more exciting was how the build interacted with the game system.

A long long time ago, in many galaxies far far away, making up an empire in Stellaris was easy. You had three main choices such as travel, planet type, and weapon. Travel was the most interesting as you could use hyperlanes, jump drives, or conventional travel to move between the stars. If you’re a current player hyperlanes are what everyone uses and they were faster but more limited for expansion. Weapon choices weren’t interesting and the planet choice survives to this day.

The most interesting system and one that was a big part of my strategy was how you moved between the stars. Conventional travel allowed you to move between any adjacent system. Jump drives required you to charge up but could slingshot you forward for expansion. This was combined with a “Blob” system that rewarded xenophobes with larger blobs that pushed out These days, only one of those choices survives in the form of hyperlanes. While it makes the game better and more playable and allows extra resources to go to moving pops between jobs it is less thematic. Dick Slugs need to get out and claim as much land as quickly as possible and push those borders out. Some of the most exciting gameplay was being about to select +10% weight and push out those bubbles and slowly claim systems that you shouldn’t have had.

Things have really changed since the Dick Slugs were a main empire I played as. You didn’t have voidworms. You didn’t lose a science ship to a Discovery was much more limited. Planets required a bit more micro in setting up your buildings on a 4*4 grid. Cutholoids didn’t take a science ship away from you.

What was different was that inward perfection with agrarian idyllic was a pretty unique combination. I’m not even sure that you had origins. I know you didn’t have a hive mind the first time I played this empire. We didn’t have subterranean or anglers or many “unchangeable” civics like inward perfection so choosing it at the start really feel like a commitment. Another thing was that this was a POWERFUL build for min-maxers that allowed you to stack multiple bonuses to get huge amounts of resources. Did we even have unity?

Roleplay Fun

In my mind the key components of this build were the slugs, the combination of a commitment to pacifism and xenophobia, and not building cities. This was an extremely wide build that focused on the two best parts of the game, exploring and expanding. Once that was done you literally didn’t have anything to do but see the numbers go up. Once or twice you would get into a war when somebody wanted to fight you but your ability to outproduce them and the general lethargy of the Stellaris AI kept you from being in real trouble.

Going wide has always been an issue in Stellaris and playing it like an Anno game doesn’t play to the strengths in the 4.0 version. However, earlier versions of the game let you you set up buildings on a grid platform and rearranging them was actually fun and something to do as your population continued to slowly expand. The inward perfection also allowed you to manage the horrible sector system and just say “build me minerals” or “make energy” so you could focus on your specific planets. There would also be some specific events that would give you some racial variation that were a lot of fun. However, after playing a few games the Dick Slugs don’t hit like they use to and there are better options for a big floppy and wide empire using inward perfection.