Nemesis DLC hasn't gone on sale in forever; needs Aethero Engine enable/disable button

[Northstar1989]

Two things, really.

First of all, the Nemesis DLC hasn't had a decent sale in a very long time.

For someone disabled with Long Covid, and really, really struggling to make ends meet due to government messing with SSDI rules to hurt young people/ bogus exemptions to what jobs count towards the Work Credits added decades ago (I'm allowed to say this much, right? I'm trying to respect forum rules- just politely let me know if any of this is not permissible to discuss, mods. I mean the best...) this is an issue.

I cannot afford the base price of Nemesis ($10)- and am trying to build a YouTube channel off streaming this and other games (which, in the case of Stellaris, I'd been playing many years, and owned nearly all DLC for, before I became disabled...) to the point I can eventually get YouTube ad money off streaming... As, I am too sick to work and have no other realistic way to make ends meet, given my skills (I am not a programmer and suck with computers, suffer extreme Fatigue and cannot work more than a few hours each day even *without* the exertion of leaving home, have memory, focus, and mood issues due to the disease, etc.) this is an issue.

For those of us of limited means, occasionally having a deeper sale on older DLC would be helpful. We aren't likely to be able to buy them otherwise, and this brings PDX extra profits (as greater volumes of the DLC are sold: which has virtually zero marginal cost to sell extra units of vs. smaller numbers sold...)

Second, a thought on this DLC: one of the reasons I didn't buy the DLC when it first came out (and money wasn't as tight for me) is because Nemesis has the whole "destroy the galaxy" mechanic, which I have personally always strongly disliked. Given all the options to customize game rules and galaxy generation, it would be nice if there were a checkbox to toggle on/off the ability to build the device and destroy the galaxy (perhaps leaving on the device itself, just having it not "work" to destroy the galaxy if the game rule is set to disable it). I've never liked the thought of the game forcing me to play aggressively to prevent a literal doomsday device like this, and honestly, it makes very little scientific sense (Even less than most soft SciFi handwavey magic in the game...)


Please don't troll me for expressing these thoughts, other users. My personal situation is tough enough as is, without people attacking me for it (with zero empathy or understanding of the realities of my disease), and I'm aware that my views on the Aethero engine run against the mainstream (which is why I think it should be a Galaxy Gen option- set to allow the engine by default...)

 

[PAnZuRiEL]

Disabling the aetherophasic engine is equivalent to disabling the nemesis crisis altogether. Because the destruction of the galaxy is their win condition, you really can't have one without the other. That said, there are already many rules options for crises -- picking which one or how many, how strong it should be etc -- so maybe disabling the Galactic Nemesis perk as a game rule is fine.

Even without that though, you can easily control how likely it is to appear by pre-generating empires you want to play against and force-spawning them. Galactic Nemesis is invalid for xenophiles and pacifists, the AI will never select it if they're not either xenophobes, militarists or gestalt, and even if they are one of those three (and neither of the other two), they're still not all that likely to take it unless they're genocidal.

 

[passeris]

I can think of a way to stop the AI from ever building the Aetherophasic Engine, and it's totally free.

 

[Northstar1989]

Disabling the aetherophasic engine is equivalent to disabling the nemesis crisis altogether. Because the destruction of the galaxy is their win condition, you really can't have one without the other.

They still get buffs, and can win through standard conquest (with Menacing ships and Star Eaters), but yes.

The DLC includes a lot more than just the destruction of the galaxy. Notably, the Galactic Imperium and the spy/asset system.

 

[CrazyJ]

I can't do anything about your monetary issues, but I can offer some reassurance in one area.

Second, a thought on this DLC: one of the reasons I didn't buy the DLC when it first came out (and money wasn't as tight for me) is because Nemesis has the whole "destroy the galaxy" mechanic, which I have personally always strongly disliked. Given all the options to customize game rules and galaxy generation, it would be nice if there were a checkbox to toggle on/off the ability to build the device and destroy the galaxy (perhaps leaving on the device itself, just having it not "work" to destroy the galaxy if the game rule is set to disable it). I've never liked the thought of the game forcing me to play aggressively to prevent a literal doomsday device like this, and honestly, it makes very little scientific sense (Even less than most soft SciFi handwavey magic in the game...)

This is only really an issue if you play multiplayer or have really good ai mods, 4.0's ai is simply never able to get that far. If you play multiplayer then you can just make "No Crises" part of the house rules, or avoid sessions that don't ban it. If you do play with the sort of AI mods that give the crisis empire any actual chance at succeeding then I would assume you are fine with modding the engine out entirely.

The Ai will essentially never get far enough to even build the engine, let alone ignite it. It takes a competent human player more than a century to reach that point, an ai that can barely wipe it's own bum? Even before 4.0 I've very rarely seen it get to the level where whole galaxy is informed, and I've never actually seen it manage to start destroying stars.

I can essentially guarantee that if you have nemesis installed you will never have to scramble to stop the crisis empire in singleplayer.

 

[passeris]

I can't do anything about your monetary issues, but I can offer some reassurance in one area.

This is only really an issue if you play multiplayer or have really good ai mods, 4.0's ai is simply never able to get that far. If you play multiplayer then you can just make "No Crises" part of the house rules, or avoid sessions that don't ban it. If you do play with the sort of AI mods that give the crisis empire any actual chance at succeeding then I would assume you are fine with modding the engine out entirely.

The Ai will essentially never get far enough to even build the engine, let alone ignite it. It takes a competent human player more than a century to reach that point, an ai that can barely wipe it's own bum? Even before 4.0 I've very rarely seen it get to the level where whole galaxy is informed, and I've never actually seen it manage to start destroying stars.

I can essentially guarantee that if you have nemesis installed you will never have to scramble to stop the crisis empire in singleplayer.

I was shocked (and secretly delighted) to discover in my peaceful Inward Perfection playthrough (pre-4.0) that the XT-489 Eliminator had spawned at the other end of the galaxy and had started gobbling stars. Unfortunately, before my ships were able to reach them, the real crisis turned up and showed those kids how it's done.

 

[Troyen]

50% is the most Paradox DLC sales go now (older DLC used to go to 75% before the subscription was added). $10 is the 50% off price, base price is $20.

 

[Trigaea]

It might not be a bad idea for a "peaceful galaxy" toggle that disables Galactic Nemesis, Cosmogenesis, and genocidal empires.

I don't think every mechanic in the game needs its own toggle, though. I get that Stellaris is all about customization, but I think at a certain point people are asking for a level of customization that's more appropriate for mods.

 

[jedavis]

It might not be a bad idea for a "peaceful galaxy" toggle that disables Galactic Nemesis, Cosmogenesis, and genocidal empires.

I don't think every mechanic in the game needs its own toggle, though. I get that Stellaris is all about customization, but I think at a certain point people are asking for a level of customization that's more appropriate for mods.

I once made a mod to do basically that, setting the same boolean that gets set in Civilian difficulty to disable genocidals and a few other things (I think Nemesis and maybe Criminal Syndicates too). I think it might have been a one-line change.

 

[hart30]

50% is the most Paradox DLC sales go now (older DLC used to go to 75% before the subscription was added). $10 is the 50% off price, base price is $20.

Not really - it always has been up to 50% for dlc (the newer the dlc the less the discount). 75% only for the base games. Has nothing to do with subscription.

Sales usually happen after a new dlc releases or there is a major holiday ( for example christmas/easter).

Since the first contact dlc and aftercovid inflation explosion paradox had to increase their prizes. With the pre-first contact dlcs not having increased in prize. I can imagine that those now might not go down to 50% any longer having their prize increase that way.

 

[LayZboy]

You can get it on CD keys for £6.50

 

[Northstar1989]

50% is the most Paradox DLC sales go now (older DLC used to go to 75% before the subscription was added). $10 is the 50% off price, base price is $20.

To obtain full market saturation and maximize profits, that could/should change...

$10 is simply too much for someone worried about keeping a roof over their head because of being Disabled (and streaming Stellaris to YouTube because it's a popular game I don't mind streaming for many, many hours: and thus suitable to growing my channel towards making money...)

 

[Northstar1989]

You can get it on CD keys for £6.50

On CD keys???

 

[Drachasor]

On CD keys???

It's a website. It's only slightly cheaper than when it's on sale in USD though.

 

[Drachasor]

I do agree that how Paradox does DLC is ridiculous and probably costs them money and customers. A lot of people look at a game where the DLC list is huge and costs $200 even on sale and just skip it. Don't even think about trying it. And a lot won't ever subscribe for games (something I agree with). I don't even try most Paradox games because of the pricing, but there aren't a lot of games that have megastructures and are 4x space games, so it scratches an itch.

And older DLC should just get folded into the main game so that the systems can be more easily expanded on and worked into how everything works.