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How Long Are Your Games Usually?

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Harvey Gomez

Harvey Gomez

Second Lieutenant
26 Badges
Jul 14, 2022
177
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I know the title can be misleading. What I mean specifically is how long do you set your games to be? Do you stick with the default setting of a 300 year campaign? Do you shorten it to 100 years? Do you max it out to 1000+ years? What length or time do you usually give yourself to play a given game? How much time do you give yourself for the mid-game Crisis? How much time do you give yourself for the endgame Crisis?

I have played around with different game lengths and honestly don't see much difference mainly because I wind up quitting before or shortly after I reach the mid-game. For me, if it's not some issue with a game breaking bug then it's sheer boredom - I just lose interest and don't care what happens next - which may be a bug in and of itself - I am not qualified to make that call.

Even though I have given up on Stellaris for the time being I am still reading the tsunami of negative posts regarding 4.0 mostly to know that I am in good company with the majority of players who are at least as disappointed as I am in the latest update. I understand that there are millions of line of code that need to be read and re-read to make everything just right. I would rather that PDX make everything just right BEFORE unleashing these messes on their paying customers.

Thank you.
 
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These days the game corrupts the save around 2300 or I discover a game-breaking bug before then.

So I don't shorten the game myself, it's shortened automatically.
 
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I use the default settings. 2300 mid game, 2400 end game. I used to play to around 2375-2450 before I'd usually get bored and quit.

I've played a few games since 4.0 and am usually getting bored in at around 2300.
 
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I set the victory year to 2400 and the end game to 2300, but after I complete everything I set out to do in a campaign that's usually when I finish the game and that may vary greatly
 
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I typically shorten to 2275 mid-game, 2350 lategame and 2400 victory year with 0.5X research and tradition costs. Lately I have been trying more games with default settings.
 
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I usually use the default game length settings. Mostly because the few times I tried to start mid-game at 2250 and speed things up I got hit with mid-game events that I was profoundly not ready for (like the Voidwyrm Plague just ravaging my empire with multiple fleets as big as my largest).

A "me" issue more than a game issue, I tend to focus too heavy on tech and expansion early on and lag on fleet building which is needed to handle a lot of mid-game content as it's assumed you'll punch heavier than I have been. Might try to start setting mid-game to 2275 after 4.0 gets stable as I can probably guarantee I'll be ready by then but it depends on empire build.
 
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2300 - 2325 mid, 2400 - 2425 late. No victory year. My games typically last into the 2450s.

I like to play with high-powered mods that have lots of end game content. Think Gigastructural Engineering and Zenith of Fallen Empires.
With the release of 4.0 I'm playing vanilla for the first time in a long time.

Maybe I'll decrease mid and late game dates if I'm successful in using vassals to feed my economy. I haven't really done that in the past.
 
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I leave the mid and end game start at the default, but move the victory year to 2450. Once I defeat the end game crisis, I tend to want to wrap things up or end the game at that point.
 
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I appreciate the responses. Pre-4.0 I had been messing around with the 1000+ year game just for gits and shiggles. It had it moments but I lost patience. Post-4.0 I was thinking of going back to the default 300 year setting but with the state of 4.0 being what it is that plan is on indefinite hold.
 
2250-2275 midgame
2275-2325 lategame
(Depends on how broken is build I'm currently playing)
Drop the game because lags or I just because I'm bored in ~2300.
MP games are usually longer. The last one ended in 2368 due to OOS flood (patch 3.14 btw, I'm really afraid what is happening in 4.0).
I had some plans to make a longer run by playing as released vassal after finishing Cosmogenesis, but in 4.0 even 400 star galaxy is super laggy. I know that my PC specs are kinda garbage (i5-8300H), but I remember times when 800 star galaxy was playable even with worse processor.
 
I typically use the default 300 year setting.

I get annoyed switching councilors, and leader age doesn't scale with length (Why would it), so super-long games would require way too many leader switches for me to stay invested.

But I also want the leader lifespan traits to actually mean something, so I don't use shorter times.
 
Boy, it really does seem that I'm not part of the mainstream audience. I don't know if it's always been that way, or if things have shifted that way in the past 10 or 20 years. I like long play-throughs. Yes, I get bored and often abandon them, but often not. Maybe a 50 50 rate in that regard.

I set everything to be as long as I can make it. Tech goes to 5x for example, galaxy size is huge. I set the midgame year to 2400 and the late game year to 2600 (in an effort to accommodate the 5x tech which I feel works well, when you're not intentionally trying to mass-rush tech). I do indeed regularly get into the 2500's, and as mentioned, maybe 50% of the time make it into the end game years and finish off the game, either as a loss or a win.

My goals are usually less about painting the map, and more about trying to RP some sort of head-canon for the game. Often I'm trying to help keep smaller empires alive, and actually prevent someone from conquering everything, while not being the ultimate face-smasher of the galaxy myself. That sort of thing appeals to me in the various permutations and flavors you can try to do that. There's limits to it, and occasional exceptions for me of course, but that's how I tend to play.
 
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Walkaboutout said:
Boy, it really does seem that I'm not part of the mainstream audience. I don't know if it's always been that way, or if things have shifted that way in the past 10 or 20 years. I like long play-throughs. Yes, I get bored and often abandon them, but often not. Maybe a 50 50 rate in that regard.
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While not mainstream, it is common enough a playstyle that all 4X games have options to massive extend the length of a game. And there are communities that swear by it since it gives the most time to "feel" each tech level, as often in 4x games they end up balanced in such a way that entire eras of technology can go by in the duration of a single minor war. See: Civ issue of even a war that you "rush" can start in the medieval age, go through the renaissance, and ending in the industrial age.

It's not a "wrong" or "right" way to play, just different playstyles.
 
Walkaboutout said:
I set everything to be as long as I can make it. Tech goes to 5x for example, galaxy size is huge. I set the midgame year to 2400 and the late game year to 2600 (in an effort to accommodate the 5x tech which I feel works well, when you're not intentionally trying to mass-rush tech). I do indeed regularly get into the 2500's, and as mentioned, maybe 50% of the time make it into the end game years and finish off the game, either as a loss or a win.
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I do that a lot with other 4X games, particularly the historical simulator sort of ones, but with Stellaris it seems like either I snowball or an AI snowballs and the game tends to be resolved (or the resolution is obvious) well before I get near the end of most regular length games.

Again, a "me" problem as I've not played with the Tech or other Logarithmic sliders enough to make that sort of length/speed work better. If you have advice for a good overall slider set for a marathon length game like that I'd love to see it and give it a better try.
 
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BookHermit said:
I do that a lot with other 4X games, particularly the historical simulator sort of ones, but with Stellaris it seems like either I snowball or an AI snowballs and the game tends to be resolved (or the resolution is obvious) well before I get near the end of most regular length games.

Again, a "me" problem as I've not played with the Tech or other Logarithmic sliders enough to make that sort of length/speed work better. If you have advice for a good overall slider set for a marathon length game like that I'd love to see it and give it a better try.
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Yeah, I too like to do those long games with other games (Civ 5 mostly), but with Stellaris no. That's mainly because already in normal length games the end game lag gets horrible, and I don't want to endure it for any longer than I have to.
 
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