1 more day!

Estimated release time is now back to 2:00 pm EST(per Steam). Also a bunch of people getting all kerfluffled about the fact that slave revolts didn't make it into the release version.

That's all I have right for hype-dampening duty. Neither bothers me.

Darn... I'm off tomorrow but I pick my girl up from school around 2:30.. was hoping to be playing during the day before she got home.

Is this going to be good solo?

Yeah I saw that about the slave revolts. It's such a small part of the game, kinda silly to have a fit over it. Especially when its something that will probably be added soon.

If you watch some of the livestreams/let's plays, it seems to play rather well solo. Can't really tell for sure till I get my hands on the game though.

I have nothing going on tomorrow until the Blues game.. so I hope to get at least a few hours in.

Will the game automatically download for me while I'm at work tomorrow?

Doubtful, unless your PC is smarter than mine! Consensus is back to noon EST now which is weird ... I don't think anyone really knows for sure.

cKnoor does a random empire stream:

Stellaris - Random Empire Start - Part 1 - YouTube

It won't download automatically, but with the phone app you can make it download when it becomes available. Leave Steam up on your PC and you can do it from your phone.

Ahh, so you just need a phone that is smarter than mine then(I'm a lifelong confirmed dumbphone user).

Holy crap there are some people that take this WAY too seriously. Have you seen the Steam thread about the release? Not everyone but there are some who sound like 2 year-olds throwing a temper tantrum.

Yeah it's like that pretty much everywhere. Not worth getting involved in it.

looking like 3 pm EST right now. does anybody have a key?

I think the older the internet gets, the worse the users get. People like to complain about everything.

Where do you get updates?

Thomkal probably bribed a developer ;). I don't have anything that doesn't still say noon EST roughly which is the usual steam time. I'm choosing to believe that because I like that time better than 3p.

This concerns me a little bit.

Stellaris Review - IGN

Looks to me like a mix of legitimate criticism with some things that just aren't true. Examples of the latter:

** No reason other than war to trade -- um, yes there is. Intelligence(star charts/sensor links), resources can be an important one but won't usually be, research agreements can really be helpful, etc. I don't agree based on what I've seen of gameplay that trade is a weak point. Espionage, on the other hand -- yes, that's not a feature.

** Regarding tech and abstracted combat -- this along with the sectors comments make me wonder whether the reviewer knows they are playing a Paradox game. There is a big difference between weapons systems as can be seen from the recorded battles that are already out there. Some of the people in the MP event talked about situations where they had superior numbers in a fleet but still lost. Previous Paradox games like HOI3 had even less combat info but you could still tell the difference when you advanced in something and it was still significant so ... just seems like they were expecting moo-style tactical combat and aggravated that they didn't get it or something.

Review did make some good points but most of the criticism I honestly think is off-base. Of course we'll all see for sure soon.

Another one.

Stellaris PC Review | GameWatcher

Stellaris Countdown

With livestream.

Sounds like a typical Paradox game that's going to require patches before it's great.

Just looked at one of the reviews - what's the difference between Stellaris MP and something like Eve Online? They look tremendously similar.

I just got an email from them with the extras you get from pre-ordering. There are some links there for where you can activate them. Check the keys link in your Paradox account for them. I do not have one for the game itself yet.

I've gotten nothing yet :(.

Question... How will multiplayer work in this game, is it live gameplay only or something along the lines of offline turn based?

I've been watching the paradox stream this morning and somebody just asked that very question. It's live gameplay, everybody online at once.

It's live only, at whatever speed is agreed upon(set by the host, I think).

well I've not played EVE online-does it let you control a empire or do you play as an individual player/ship?

game has been released. I do not have my key for the game yet

correct that-game is installing on Steam now.

So it's out now -- and the Stellaris forums appear to have crashed. At least from my end. I may have to wait a while before I can actually download it.

Edit: Spoke too soon, steam just updated and I'm downloading! Yay!! The hype train has reached it's destination.

Installing now!!! :)

Installing.

Installed. After a little flutter at the beginning when my download went to "63 days" it zipped along at top speed. Good that the Steam servers didnt get crushed like on some other releases.

download complete-see ya tomorrow :)

Loving the intro and opening exploration of the initial star system!

Shows as downloaded on the Steam app on my phone. :D

I'll check it out after hitting lessons tonight.

Should get a few hours in tonight. ;)

Stellaris Review | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A little more positive of a review. Seems to gel well with my expectations.

Happy space faring FOFC!

Man I am really digging the music in this game.

Any way to preload a game from not on that computer? I need to enter my GMG code and I can't find a simple way to do this through the steam web thingy.

Another glowing review...

https://explorminate.net/2016/05/09/stellaris-review/

my hero.

seriously, I have zero patience waiting for a game to download and this saved me that headache. using that app and see it ready and waiting for me and my arrival home is the best feeling a Monday at work can bring.

Me too! I'm not sure if it was coincidence or not, but I got some great thematic music when I colonized my first planet. Enjoying everything about the game so far.

Alright I'm in.

Good thing that GMG still has it for 25% off.

so played around with the pre-set "us" for a bit with the tutorial going to start to get a feel for the game. Explored a couple anomalies (the alien mural being the most interesting so far (and productive). Met my first species-a rat like group of scientists. Going to start a new game later with the race I want to create and start to explore some of the ethics and government options.

Damn i was patiently waiting for HOI IV as I'm more into WEII than space but all the good reviews finally made me to buy it, downloading now.

So right now I'm having fun with galaxy generation. Paradox was a bit coy with how big the random galaxies can go. Answer: pretty darn big. I started by doubling the huge size just to be silly, double all the empires and everything too. No problem. I doubled it again. Took a lot longer to generate but the game didn't complain. At an obscene 4k stars, I'm going to see how far I can go. Anything above about 1500(even with a reduced or eliminated galaxy core) is going to have a potential gameplay issue of increased star density since the galaxy can only go about 10% 'wider' and 'taller' than the default huge, but it appears there will be a rather insane upper limit on how big they can be.

Let's see how much I can abuse this ...

Started out a Earthlings with a Representative Democracy. Finished survey Sol and on to...