Why NOBODY Wants To Play Stellaris Multiplayer

Why NOBODY Wants To Play Stellaris Multiplayer
NOBODY Wants To Play Stellaris Multiplayer, but WHY? This Video will answer your question on WHY Stellaris Multiplayer is DEAD in this Video Essay
My Patreon: / strategiser
Edited by ‪@harinion‬, Main Channel ‪@Strategiser‬
Stellaris Competitive PvP Servers:
1. PvP
/ discord (Weekend Stellaris Club/WSC)
/ discord (ISS PvP Server)
2. Stellaris Roleplay Servers:
discordapp.com... (Stellaris France Server)
/ discord (Paradox Roleplay)
/ discord (SCM - Stellaris Community Multiplayer Roleplay)
And, also a Tribute to the Old Servers that went away with Time:
Kris from LegendsUnited
Yanik from Stellaris Prime
(There are many MANY more, too many to count)
Thank you, as PILLARS OF THE COMMUNITY for making it ALL happen!
#stellaris #multiplayer #stellarismultiplayer

[@Strategiser2]

This video is a Re-Upload because of a completely RANDOM Age-Restriction and Demonetization on the previous one means the video will likely perform worse, so please support me here if possible www.patreon.com/Strategiser if you can't, then Liking the Video works too

[@silopante]

Re-Watching and Re-Liking.

[@truebloodbleed1454]

ayo strat if you whant some trash watch time stop makeing rewatchable content like grd dam

[@ximbabwe0228]

My species' lifespan is too short to reach the age limit

[@SlayXemnas]

Me playing Multiplayer: "I play as an religious MegaCorp to spread the word of faith in the whole galaxy." The people I play with: "Beep boop tech good, exterminate flesh."

[@Strategiser2]

100% what happens when RP is not enforced lmao

[@spode2091]

@@Strategiser2 I mean some empires based on tech are fine but everyone? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING more variety in empires is good

[@trolly4233]

It’s so good I fell into a techrush meta before even understanding what metas were. It was my 2nd game ever and decided to try out materialist militarist technocracy and try and shoot for synth ascension before the holy guardians find me and obliterate me. I obliterated the holy guardians. I was pretty happy that day… until the contingency came along

[@ryanauger853]

This happens to me even when I convince someone totally new to play the game. Almost everyone instantly chooses to play as the robots empire. Then any experience player picks robots because they are meta. And I’m over here playing as a Megacorp because i just wanted to exploit their planets for profit while providing those same planets with some jobs lol.

[@kngretro2823]

Aye man i'd be down to play with you and do some RP stuff

[@t2hk_]

I dont play multiplayer because I'm rather new and would prefer to play with like-minded people instead of those who want to obliterate each other within the first 3 seconds

[@Strategiser2]

RP Multiplayer is less stressful, you should probably try that

[@t2hk_]

@@Strategiser2 Yeah I should try that but I'm not exactly sure what to look for 😂 always worried that my idea of a RP is a little less aggressive than somebody else's

[@Preaplanes]

I don't play multiplayer because I'm trash and I have the patience of a 12 year old Fortnite player and the APM of an alcoholic sloth.

[@warbrain1053]

​@@t2hk_either being in a chill server or just ask around in stellaris mp servers

[@Cirkle97]

I get that, I have been playing since 2016 on and off. I have played multi-player twice with a close friend and both times we tried to take over the galaxy together but then failed at fighting all the fallen empires. Good times and never felt like I had to get it all right to have a perfect build. I dont even do that still because if I wanted to meta game then I would take away the fun of role-playing the Geth from Mass Effect or something else I've done.

[@风小小-n2p]

It is easy to spend 60 dollars to buy a game but it is hard to ask someone to play a game with you for 8+ hours

[@Ronald98]

​@NoCharNameRealist thing i have ever read.

[@Guidoge]

for me i have like 7 others i play with

[@randomSaltyUser]

100%, grand strats are such a niche, and almost everyone i know that would be worth playing with can handle like 6 hours max. I got one buddy willing to go 12+, but good luck finding someone like that more than once or twice.

[@paprus5972]

The thing with starting MP is that in singleplayer, you’re used to RPing, while in multiplayer, you have to be PERFECTLY optimal. Unless RP is enforced, and in that case you’ll have a fun time

[@sovietunion7643]

you can't play stellaris without RP, thats the fun. maybe i want to be an fanatic religious 1984 state that makes friends with a space time worm that lives in a black hole. i love that stuff.

[@TacPhoenix]

@@sovietunion7643 exactly. I'll even set up single player games specifically for a certain type of rp.

[@Limrasson]

I think it might be that most strategy games have a clear "win the game" objective, so you cannot RP and be good at the same time.

[@paprus5972]

@@Limrasson Stellaris doesn't really have that. There's conquest, but Fanatic Purifiers and such are perfect to rp as and win. It's just that people want to roleplay as other things with other people.

[@Limrasson]

@@paprus5972 Yeah, what I wanted to convey is that there are win conditions, right? So you are either 100% geared towards one or lose. For civilizations you don't necessarily need to "dominate" to be succesfull and more of then than not when I would roleplay I wouldn't necessarily be the "top dog" as it requires to give up some other elements. Quick example, in ARK I've climbed the PvP multiplayer not by doing PvP, but by being a pearl diver who is brutally honest. I don't play Stellaris, but I imagine if you try to play multiplayer like that it's not very likely to be viable.

[@gisten7818]

I think its because Stellaris has such a good singleplayer experience most people wont make the jump. Most people wont go through the effort of finding a group of people to play with, scheduling a time to play with them, plus im sure alot of people don't want to play without that pause button. I would highly recommend people to push Stellaris with their main friend group, even if you don't think they would like it. I convinced / taught a bunch of my friends to play and we have a blast playing together.

[@redeye4516]

Yeah, the pause button is needed to not sweat your ass off micromanaging your planets (because I don't trust full automation). Thankfully I just play with my friend and we can each hit the pause button or fuck with the speed of time whenever we need to. If I were to organize with a larger server I think I'd need to make a rule where every interval of at least a few years we pause the game and allow ourselves to unfuck the planets we've been neglecting for one reason or another.

[@Baja-B]

nah its awful MP, unless everyone decides to not attack each other.

[@legitplayin6977]

@@Baja-BIt’s awful in SP too, don’t do it to your friends

[@ryanp.2235]

I'm a dude who has 1000+ hours on Stellaris, and let me tell you, it was like around the 600 mark that I even figured out that there WAS a multiplayer mode. I've only played it one time with some friends since learning about it. The power to RP and do cool things on your own in the game is just so defining that I never feel the urge to limit myself for a multiplayer game.

[@tjsmiley]

It took you around 600 hours to figure out Stellaris offered a multiplayer mode? This has to be a lie, it’s one of the first things you see when you boot the game up.

[@ryanp.2235]

@Tj Smiley I understand what you're saying, I probably saw it every time I played. I didn't REGISTER it existed though. If I did see it, it was of so little importance that it wasn't retained.

[@CorpseOfTheTrenches]

Yeah I'm nearly 600 hours in (520 hours now) and I've only played one single multiplayer game, with a friend who had no experience, and was mostly doing dumb stuff the entire time. Like naming his empire things I can not say without being executed, but that's like every friend group chat. I almost never liked multiplayer, in general, because of the competition and repetitive anger/sadness caused by it. Take shooter games as an example, no real big point, just run around and shoot anyone else... and that is what makes it feel kind of empty to me. Even in stellaris games, it seems like most people want to punch each other in the face to get that sweet sweet victory that barely matters in the long run except for making you feel accomplished in a way. Sorry if there are run-on sentences, and I also apologize for saying this a year late. I love co-op and singleplayer games, but competitive stuff makes me stress out.

[@LNIGO]

​@@ryanp.2235 You have no idea how common that is in single player promoted games

[@Ep3o]

Sucks that it got age restricted :( such a good video. Watching it all the way through again ❤

[@hydrax7131]

What a champ, supporting the community always :D

[@Strategiser2]

thank you, dad ❤

[@Ep3o]

@@Strategiser2 any time, son

[@MorganSaph]

These small KZbinrs are wholesome.

[@pendragon.-.]

probably was those gigachad photos

[@jam8539]

i think the real problem has always been how imbalanced stellaris is. the builds you can do are imbalanced, you have to pick the right traits you have to pick the right civics. Your starting location is imbalanced, there are people who will spawn with mega structures, with more planets, with more resources on these planets, you might start next to someone while someone else starts far away and safe. looking at every other paradox game you dont have this problem, you know where you start, you know how strong you are, diplomacy and stratedgy are key to the early, game in stellaris you cant even do diplomacy

[@filletmignon5221]

It’s like civilization 6 optimal faction optimal paths to go through except civ6 is not nearly as unbalanced

[@pendragon.-.]

Yeah at the end who wins is the luckier one

[@DoanDeland]

Like life. The enjoyment comes from that variance and challenge.

[@wolfpack95805]

Imbalance is only a noticeable issue if you're going into the game focused on victory. That the game doesn't stop once you hit the arbitrary victory year is a sign that winning shouldn't be the focus. We could all just have fun with the process of creating with the tools you have, but some people need a game they can "win" because they hate losing. I know I go into an existential panic when I've done something wrong where the Contingency is able to cut a path right through my beautiful empire. And even then I only got drawn to the game for discovery and creation

[@Tempus62]

With my first stepdad we reconnected couple years back, and I got him hooked on Stellaris like really bad(he was super big into CIV). And we've been bonding more as we started doing our own private multiplayer campaign. Next session we'll be on our 13th session. It has honestly been some of the most fun I've had. One of the things I told him we wont do PvP because as i told him candidly "Why turn the game into a single player game if i take him out, the galaxy is already freaking huge enough to deal with(medium galaxy). It's been interesting playing the game to at a 95% unpause state and honestly didn't think I could actually do to, we played on slow, then had to increase to normal when the game got into its mid game year. I recommend to at least try it with like minded people, it really is doable if you understand the fundamentals. Only trade off it becomes dangerous trying to read events so thats the one trade if you haven't atleast seen most of the games content before.

[@thedeadrer1]

And that's why we have an agreement to pause when there is a new event that we've never seen before

[@badpiggies988]

Based stepdad

[@Ramschat]

I think the problem is that multiplayer is only fun if you're winning, because losing is such a frustrating experience in this game. The best multiplayer games can be fun even if you end up losing, stellaris isn't like that. Unless you roleplay with friends, that is. The process of losing all your precious fleets and then your planets is just pure pain without silver linings.

[@talthecrusader9650]

My first MP game I was robots (but nice robots). It was fun. However, every game I always struggle with overpopulation...

[@battlesheep2552]

The only time I did MP I did comp stomps with friends. That was fun

[@FurArmoredBear]

Me in stellaris in multiplayer games with friends and no pvp. I get upset when we are not losing! The galaxy must burn!!!! And there must be Chaos!!! Latelty i disabled gateways and fighting a cross the galaxy becomes alot more fun. You might have the alloys but reinforcing your depleted fleets wil take years. We do have the l gates but they rarely open as we left it to the ai. In our current game the L cluster opened in 2460

[@FurArmoredBear]

Me in stellaris in multiplayer games with friends and no pvp. I get upset when we are not losing! The galaxy must burn!!!! And there must be Chaos!!! Latelty i disabled gateways and fighting a cross the galaxy becomes alot more fun. You might have the alloys but reinforcing your depleted fleets wil take years. We do have the l gates but they rarely open as we left it to the ai. In our current game the L cluster opened in 2460

[@Ramschat]

@@FurArmoredBear I prefer it when there's a chance of losing to keep things exciting, but not so punishing that once you lose a war, everyone gangs up on you to devour what remains of you. That sort of pragmatic opportunism leads to hopeless death-spirals

[@Marqan]

I play Stellaris either for the in-game stories, or to RP a certain kind of empire. Neither is too viable in multiplayer. Even if you agree on some rules, your opponent might have a better RP build, or they find better stuff than you, and then your playthrough is cut in half. What I would enjoy in multiplayer would be an in-depth combat system, including intricate system on both strategic and tactical level, maybe even action. But after years we're not even close to that, just look at how much time they needed to try and balance weapons. Plus why would I want to match my skills with others, if the starting conditions and the whole playthrough is completely different? So ye, Stellaris PvP just doesn't make sense to me from a gameplay experience perspective, or a PvP perspective. But that's just me, I'm gald to see you guys having fun in it.

[@duskworker8469]

lmao people claiming they want to RP but wooont play multiiplayer because theyre afraid someone will have a better build. hahahaha isnt that a meta consideration? i roleplay in hoi4 while playing as optimal as possible (winning a racial annihilation war is the rp goal for your faction obviously) as countries i know i have little shot of winning with but i try my best.. the story and the staggering odds makes it fun. youre the worst kind of guy who would leave within 3 days of the war and ruin everyones fun because he isnt strictly "winning" at the RP game......hhahahahahaha you are the sole reason your RP is not viable

[@jazzman7842]

Bruh

[@CorporateG0th]

Honestly using Stellaris' engine for competitive MP is like ripping a circuit board out of a PC to use as a chessboard. It's not designed for that but sure you could do it, technically, kinda, if you're willing to make some sacrifices.

[@inslava]

Stellaris pvp is not "against other players", you all come there and coexist. People not gonna conquer neighbor, then snowball and pick everyone. It's about diplomacy, trade, alliances made and broken. Only small fraction of players get fully eaten usually, with few others roleplaying as subjects (I been there, real fun)

[@jazzman7842]

@@inslava this is not universally true, but it can be

[@The_Man_in_Dark_Purple]

I usually only play multiplayer with IRL friends (if we all want) as we prefer the RP style of play and feel comfortable in familiar company. In addition, it is difficult for me to imagine how to play one session with random people - because sessions in Stellaris usually last for too long. With friends we can play one session for days (usually we end when defeat the endgame crisis or before it gets too boring). Than we meet again at the appointed time every day to continue, and we can always reschedule if someone could not come or drop it for another time if someone unexpectedly needs to leave. Coordinating such nuances with strangers for me looks very uncomfortable and complicated.

[@oddtomato1049]

I do play multiplayer, but I only host. I started with public roleplay lobbies and was so impressed by how it went that after a short while I started making my own. Taking after one of my first roleplay experiences; I refused to ever enforce any 'game rules' because I was upset with how they protected certain playstyles. I enforce casual but serious roleplaying games and that's it. And with some basic marketing like colouring the tags, using the name of the server to tell the players how long they will be waiting in the lobby, and creating a Discord server specifically to tell other roleplayers when a game starts I generally get large and relatively friendly lobbies quickly without having to wait an hour... (Half the wait times comes from me not being able to pick an empire anyways.) I can't go back to playing with rules, it's anarchy all the way.

[@orokinchi]

Replying to this nearly year-old comment because I’m curious: what would you define as a “serious roleplay” lobby and how does it operate? What are the expected “customs” when playing in one? When I hear the word “roleplay” I shudder a bit because that implies communicating with other players which I would simply explode into a million pieces if I had to do. Is it just another term for PvE? Thank you in advance

[@oddtomato1049]

@@orokinchi Most roleplay games I've done were a mix of PvE and PvP. Serious roleplay for me means that you dedicate yourself to your empire and avoid breaking characters, it also means sometimes making dumb decisions because that's what your leader or culture would do. You do have to speak with a lot of people, I have to hype up the chat before the game to bait them into social interactions, because Stellaris players are uncomfortably quiet. For me the only customs are that you dedicate yourself to your empire, even if it means being a jerk to everyone else. I don't believe in 30 year peace. PvE is entirely different than roleplay, though once made a unique PvE mode where all the players have to unite against an insanely powerful total war empire that quickly becomes the crisis.

[@In.Gy.]

Thank you, Seal man. You gave me the courage I needed to never try MP ever.

[@mr.admr1016]

I once entered as a peaceful trading mega corp, and got killed in 2230 by a fleet of 20k while I was only at 3-4k, I played once more after that with a more optimized empire, still, the same thing happened. Never played with any big server again. the problem is, people like to minmax to death while i LOVE RP's and just don't have fun at all when I need to optimize every single click to beat some 4000 hour sweat that does nothing but play this game all day

[@VenomGamingCenter]

Exactly this, sweaty tryhards effectively gatekeep multiplayer, then wonder why no one plays it.

[@mr.admr1016]

@@VenomGamingCenter and then they have the audacity to call me trash. Like bro your Stellaris hours are double my total steam hours lol what do you expect.

[@moekitsune]

​@@mr.admr1016 Unless I missed something hes agreeing with you lol

[@mr.admr1016]

@@moekitsune yeah, he was.. I guess my tone made it seem like It was directed at him I was talking about the annoying players

[@damonedrington3453]

My problem isn’t even sitting for so long, or having to focus more on optimization than fun, but the fact that there’s no pause button bothers me so much, especially at the beginning when a whole month can pass in a few seconds

[@Tbone-the-1nfinite]

This might be the only game that can *actually* compare to the depth of Eve Online. One of the coolest games I've ever played.

[@B3RyL]

I don't find competitive multiplayer fun because I think reading about the meta and then trying your best to apply it as quickly as possible in order to get the admiration of the people who just tried to do the exact same thing is just not creative enough for me. I'm glad Paradox is shaking up the meta with recent patches, but there's still a long way to go before we get to a situation when more than three builds and a couple of playstyles are viable for any given patch. It's just too limiting for me. And I know there's RP servers, but all it takes is one asshole to ruin your entire evening (whether it's the host or another player), and it happens all too often, and I'd like to avoid that. In the mean time, I have more than 30 custom made empires in my roster that I've played from start to finish in SP (plus many, many more that I tried but abandoned), and I typically play until year 2500 or 2600 on a huge galaxy. I could never get bored of that, especially since they release new stuff to try out every few months.

[@trolly4233]

All my people watching this while playing a round of singleplayer as a tech rusher, hello, I know your there, and I have come to say that just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s bad

[@desuordie4856]

Basically I just want to do fun RP. But the known unknowns of the Stellaris Meta makes me terrified of stepping into MP. Optimising your planet output is hard enough but then ship design just kills me.

[@chrisxd146]

The one consistent thing about multiplayer is that your opponents have already optimized the fun out of the game. There is almost always a meta that, if you don't follow one yourself, will result in either an instant game over or a slow death. The beauty of SP is that you can learn the game without getting steamrolled on year 50, and you can go with ridiculous/unoptimized RP builds and still win. In my opinion, the ability to mess around and still come out on top is what makes any game fun, but especially in Stellaris' case since you're given an insane amount of tools to build your empire the way you always envisioned.

[@Phoenix-ik7bm]

I have over 7k hours in stellaris and 99% of that is in single player. On top of that the only times I really had a lot of fun in multiplayer is when playing with new players so I can show them the ropes. That's honestly my favorite thing to do in any game I'm experienced with teaching new players how to play.

[@hccdgvvfccdgn993]

Seems like a lot of KZbiners are getting ad restrictions this week. Yt is doing something weird

[@SpudgunOfficial]

Sounds exactly the same as Victoria 2 multiplayer except people do play Victoria 2 multiplayer

[@Strategiser2]

WOW, I have never felt so insulted by something so true

[@xCr0nus]

Stellaris is intrinsically designed as a single player game. Multiplayer is an afterthought.

[@nimb321]

Oh how I loathe competitive multiplayer... not because I play it, but because the devs are forced to balance the game in order to prevent cheese builds, which in turn absolutely mames, eviscerates and massacres singleplayer. Basically: you have a good game, PvP jackasses turn it into an hooligan moshpit then scream bloody murder because of bAlaNcE and in the end devs carpet-nerf everything into the ground leaving everybody with a *worse* game including the people who only wanted the good singleplayer-game it was originally intended to be. Nice job guys. You ruined it for everybody.

[@cadenfinch4813]

WE STAN STANLEY! I miss Stanley. But he’s had a good go of things.

[@EricTheRedWiseman]

MPed before with someone but we kept getting steamrolled by the AI on their settings so i hosted and extended the end game to max as well as the mid game years. Tech progress was set to 0.75% and we ended up dragging the game out too long, we never to finish. Another session, my settings as host, we had four empires with Apocalypse origins all self destruct at once leaving just us which confused the hell out us because it was a one in a thousand chance of that hapening.

[@gallendugall8913]

The real question is, "Why is the entire game f*ed over to appeal to multiplayer when that is such a tiny segment?" Seriously, why? The devs are obsessed with "multiplayer balancing" which ruins the single player experience.

[@HolysMoly]

>2 hours of lobby sim go by >finally get in a game >host dies 10 years in >host D/Cs from discord >game ends feels bad man

[@AIRGEDOK]

personally i hate the MP community of Stellaris because it ruined the game so many perfectly balanced parts of the game are ruined because they are unbalanced in MP. And when the asshat who took over Stellaris took all the starting FTL drives in 1.9 and removed them for MP balance I was like FU. Mp should be a dedicated DLC that allows for specific Balancing issues in MP and everyone else is left alone.

[@fatwe1992]

I used to be the host for my group back in the day when apocalypse/distant stars was the newest dlc. I had all the dlc packs other than humanoid which didn't matter at the time since back then it was just a picture pack. We were all pretty shit at the game but we had no restrictions. Fight or make friends with whoever you want whenever you want, the only rule we had was no pregame teaming (you had to wait to find each other in game before deciding to team up) and man was it a blast you had my friend making a civilization based off of the Geico gecko (he was super hyped for megacorps) I had a friend who was going assimilator (we usually killed him pretty early since if you didn't kill him hed be overpowered in 4 decades) and I was playing as the glorious Imperium of Man (imperial cult, distinguished admiral's with fanatical spiritualist) max out the difficulty and there ya go. Multiplayer Stellaris is something else, I would heavily suggest giving it a shot if you haven't already. Like Endless Space 2, the risk of desync is constant, but if you get lucky and get a real stable connection, you might be able to play the game in one sitting! Glhf out there and remember, if you see someone abusing the meta, there is nothing wrong with forming a nonaggression pact with those around you and tag teaming the meta slave into the galactic dust!

[@seanphelps4057]

Only at 1:40, but I'd play with you Strat.

[@rendemonender]

1) Difficulties to find someone to play with you 2) No rules and difficulties with pause button. We will spend too much time because of pauses (what will be either too boring or difficult someone who will be ok with that, my first point) or play headlong

[@PossibleTango]

Only reason I don't play large games in paradox games is that you're in the lobby just as long you play the game.

[@Tiki832]

It's less that those playing singleplayer just want to relax and RP casually.... it's more we're playing the game with 15+ significant change making mods that massively rebalance and shift the challenge of the game and ramp up AI bonuses so that the AI can actually ramp itself up and pose a legitimate threat. If you're still playing Vanilla Singleplayer Stellaris, I'd say you've yet to really touch on experiencing Singleplayer Stellaris and what it can be like with the right AI bonuses and mod combinations.

[@chiseledcanary9656]

I don't think I've ever actually played the same empire more than twice in my hundreds of hours of Stellaris

[@DeffoSpaniel]

Sadly this happens to almost every Paradox game. Desync, terrible lobbies, rehosts, checksum errors, lag... it makes it guaranteed that you can't play with strangers unless you join a Discord server and show up for an event

[@veteraniu]

Hopefully this one won't have to be reupladed. KZbin and it's system is infuriating sometimes

[@Strategiser2]

🙏

[@akuladoctor7355]

Back in the start it was very popular for a time. Until thanks to me the entire community got knowledge of an exploit, that allowed to basically "win". It basically meant, that you could build any number of ships for the cost of the no component version. Which means a "small" 30% cheaper in early game, and up to 90% in lategame. After basically forcing the entire community, that isn't roleplay had to use it the dev. team decided, that it is too harmful to multiplayer to ignore it.

[@matteorossi1172]

This was a banger video sorry for the age restriction!

[@icyknightmare4592]

I play a little bit of MP with some people I know from a discord for a different game, but in general I'll never be able to think of Stellaris as a 'real' MP game. Obviously, that's entirely subjective, but here are my reasons: 1. Stellaris is a kind of sandbox game that I find is best with a LOT of mods, much like Skyrim. Organizing huge load orders between more than 2-3 people is a giant mess, if you can even get them to agree on the list at all. And playing without mods just feels like a lesser experience. 2. The game is not balanced. IMO Stellaris is not fit for purpose as a competitive game, and trying to force it to be one is just going to be a source of endless frustration. 3. Too many rules in most lobbies / communities that feel arbitrary. Stuff like what's on screen at 6:24 and 6:27 make it feel more like an exercise in legal compliance than a game.

[@gressorialNanites]

I don't play multiplayer because I used to be a League player. I don't play anything in multiplayer.

[@Zefn4r]

And then, here I am, with my Custom Maps shenanigans :D Good content man.

[@ladion7285]

Dude the end made me almost cry qwq What a nice vid! Good story, points and editing. Realy enjoyed it!

[@MrErdem95]

There is no historical aim for role playing. Just a randomly generated map with civs. It feels extremely like AoE2. Good players stomp bad players. The only difference is stellaris MP lasts around 10+ hours so nobody wants to spend 10 hours only to get stomped. There is no future for Stellaris MP unfortunately. Odds are stacked against it.

[@alley4978]

I think meta killed half of fun for me. I'm no longer doing things for sake of RP or wanting to, but for sake of better and optimized numbers. I will try to force myself stop playing meta and enjoy RP one again.(thank god I'm getting tired of min-maxing as it will help) I believe the end result will be still optimizing numbers, but sacrificing some of it for RP sake.

[@TheLurker1647]

It's really weird to me that people would play Stellaris, or other games of the genre, as competitive multiplayer games. To me, it's all about roleplaying and crafting a neat little story for myself, something that has to evolve over hundreds of hours of play. Trying to min/max and optimize to "beat" other people sounds like the opposite of fun to me. I've had games of Stellaris where I didn't even have any wars. I'm glad other people are having fun, but I just scratch my head in confusion trying to understand why they would enjoy doing what they do.

[@shieldphaser]

The core issue with stellaris multiplayer is that a good build and a fun build are two entirely different things. It's just a genuinely bad experience when people are good at it and playing it to win, which is true for a lot of strategy games but moreso than usual in this one. To get fun multiplayer in most strategy games, you want bad players doing stupid stuff because that lets you do dumb stuff too, not good players trying to curbstomp each other.

[@Gary_The_Man76]

Bro, i try but it's hard, they should make a botton to start creating a new server with everyone that clicks it

[@UltraSuperDuperFreak]

I dont play same reason i dont play any other 4x multiplayer ..takes WAY to long to complete one game. And i absolutely hate playing Stellaris on higest speed sitting and with no pause. Which is kinda creating first reason haha. Plus it is nice to be able to just leave when ever i want and continue aswell. Yes AI is kinda too silly even at it higest setting. But i still enjoy single player alot. 3906 hours played as of this comment. My most played game on Steam. 1544 is secound

[@Strategiser2]

4k hours 0_0 that's...a LOT

[@UltraSuperDuperFreak]

@@Strategiser2 Yea i guess. Going to be a few hundred more hours soon when new DLC comes.. Freaking stealth ! GEH ..i almost cant breath hahaha

[@noneofyourbusiness4133]

@@Strategiser2I’ve got 18,000 hours.

[@UltraSuperDuperFreak]

@@noneofyourbusiness4133 18.000 is 750 full days ... so even if you "only" played 12 hours a day, it would take 1500 days which in return it 4.16 year to do. Which means you must have started late 2018 and play 12 hour each day to hit 18000 hours . Stellaris is from may 2016., which is 7 years soon minus 2 month. So its 2496 days (59904 hours) old aproximately. So since release you need to play 7 hour each day for 7 years minimum with not a single break to hit 17.472 hours. (7x2496=17.472 ) and you need abit more to hit 18.000. 7.2 hours per day is more precise (7.2x2496=17971) Okay im proberly not the best at math ... but IF i have done it right .. then i dont beleave you (unless you let it run while afk/sleeping) :P

[@aldraw]

your passion for stellaris really shines in thhis video thanks for sharing. i see the game in a new light.

[@sgt.bonkers8706]

Ok, about halfway through, I've been told: - playerbase for mp in the low hundreds - playerbase, outside of niche rp discords, consists of metagaming rush builds or the ones getting rushed by them. - horrible, game breaking technical difficulties - devs have all but abandoned the mp portion of their game, requiring mods to become at least playable. - balance for mp simply doesn't exist, and a few nerdy cooks all brewing up their own soup (mods), with all of them being "the best" according to who you ask... And NOW we come to the "bad" parts of mp!? Horrible AI aside, I stick with sp.

[@TheEmolano]

I only ever played co-op multiplayer lol. Usually it goes like this: I build a really massive army that can demolish the AI but can barelly keep it afloat due to bad economic management, one friend builds the second bigger army but can actually sustain it, the rest of the friends get too behind they are demolished by the IA if we are too far to help. BTW the unfun part still there, we can't play at speed 3 because someone always fall behind, and even at slower ones eventually it will just happen. Last game 2 friends lost entire fleets because of this and quit.

[@k.m.6265]

Dude your editing us so good. That raiders of the lost ark part has me dying

[@neoagustus]

I play multiplayer every week with my friends, it's a blast trying to survive in this game.

[@aquicklad972]

I'm back for the Algorithm, gave you an upvote, and watched it all way through again

[@drLouis91]

My friend group dabbled in Stellaris multiplayer for a little bit. We never did PvP, probably because, as has been mentioned in the video/comment section, we like making RP empires. I think the big reason we stopped playing, besides just drifting towards other games, was how difficult it started getting to make our checksums to match. We never play Paradox games vanilla, and somehow, when they rolled out the new launcher, it just got exponentially harder to get everyone on the same checksum in a group of 4+ people.

[@ShepardCZ]

I will watch this again, so that the alghorhitm pumps it up again, don't worry. He reuploaded? Pump it!

[@FalandraAoC]

I only played Multiplayer once in a RP focused lobby, that was really fun because I love RP in MMORPGs already but having it here with other empires reacting to your decisions was a really nice change to single player matches. Besides that I never played random games, I'm too bad for it and most people play it like some kind of death match mode where everyone is a meta-slave. That's absolutely unfun for me.

[@alex_perseval]

I remember one session I attended on PDXCon. I was really into the stellaris at that time, but never played real multi-player game. So the experience was pretty fresh. So I decided to play as peaceful megacorp. Well, reality hit me real fast. So basically lobby consisted of 3 lithoids in one federation (obviously, as lithoids just came out) and 5 or 6 machines. Basically leaving me only organic specie. And 15 years into the game and driven assimilator declared war against me. My empire was devasted, and with one colony planet remaining, I became vassal. Kinda in an unplayable state. It was before vassal agreement and all that jazz. So next thing - I was integrated. So the sad truth was - play mp only with friends and pray for close spawn or play meta. I decided that I'd better play singleplayer with favorite mods or try to host light role play sessions with my friends...

[@billylee3095]

What i learn playing Stellaris or other paradox games on multi. 1. ONLY VANILLA - no mods less crash + most ppl know how to play with vanilla, mods do much much stuff where half ppl of them don't play with mods and really struggle with playing mods. 2. Simple rules can safe your game like rule about 20-30 years of peace but also 1-3 guys always they will ruin the gameplay. 3. mostly ppl playing with really easy AI. Much ppl strugle vs Admiral or grand admiral and im talking about 1.0 and 2.0 version when AI was much much easier to beat. SO no AI in game, bcs for someone are easy pray, for others is fucking hell. And no chance for PF and exterminators 4. BEST is role playing - pure pvp i just meh (my very very personal touch) 5. Robots still OP since they drop in game 6. like 70-85% games are never finished without even chosen MVP, best players etc :< I played in a really golden age of multiplayer for Stellaris where finding a match, people to play with was not a problem. There were even 3 discords then, not counting the official one

[@medical-cyanide1526]

I’d say roughly about half of my play time in stellaris is MP and SP Admittedly in those MP games it’s mostly just with the same friend group, and they for the most part are decent folk but they admittedly have a bit of a commitment issue and in all of the time that they have played stellaris I think they have made roughly 100 different games/empires but have played maybe 5 of them to completion, if they they they are going to loose they just quit, but more often then not they just get bored, which is fair, I can understand liking the early game as there is definitely much more to do. But in my experience what I’d argue is the largest issue with stellaris MP is mods, an absolutely integral part of the game that is partially responsible for why it’s existed for so long. But trying to play stellaris MP with mods is an absolute headache due to how archaic the launcher is, as to my understanding you absolutely have to have the exact same game version (IE your mods have to be 100% the same and in the same order I think) and while that alone isn’t necessarily an issue as you could always just play with a small mod list to try and make things easier that won’t always help as sometimes despite having literally everything be in the exact same load order, do a little dance and do a sacrifice to the old ones sometimes your game version is different for no clear reason. Sometimes verifying your files, unsubscribing and resubscribing to all of your mods, and or beating your machine to a pulp can work, sometimes that still doesn’t work. And yes we have tried that third party launcher I forget the name of and it worked for a bit, but even then that bugged out.

[@f1fanatic241]

Omni man bursting in the building to look at the computer with stellaris information was hilarious. Great editing on this one

[@BumblebeeXrocks]

My group of 3-5 only plays multiplayer privately because we like a certain selection of mods - which keep breaking. x_x It's a bit of a nightmare just coordinating time with each other, never mind with strangers on a discord. Also, unless you have exactly the same mods in exactly the same order, you cannot see modded servers. Odds are you're only seeing a fraction of the number of multiplayer games actually active at any given time because of that.

[@adryld25]

Idk there's a lot of RNG in Stellaris. I've never played multiplayer but if it works some worlds or events can change a game instantly like rubricator spawn which gives insane science or ez ECU rush. Or just finding relic worlds or even just the way the technology works there's just too much RNG. I've had games where I could not roll my pre-ascension tech for ever literally took till 2300. Another game with same build I had a ruined ring world one jump from capital and neutron star nearby for catapult AND I got 2 relics in a 10 system cluster. Blade of the huntress + crystal that gives energy (i was running a trade build, i didn't have enough capacity to hold all that energy like 100k on activation relatively early) and I had all 4 ascension techs unlocked early as well. Game just wasn't made to be balanced i think. They would have to revamp half the game for a small amount of ppl. Probably not worth the amount of work specially since ppl like new content more than balance patches.

[@MkadinA01]

This is giving me flashbacks to the last RTS I played competitively online C&C 3 Tiberium Wars. There werent many of us but we kept playing it almost up until they ended the live service.

[@Apollondb]

The biggest problem with MP is that you can't micromanage your fleets in combat. Stellaris with the sins of a solar empire battle mechanic would be awesome. In Sins of a solar empire, you actually need to think about your fleet composition, because your capital ships and your titan have different abilities. Fleet positions also matter a lot more. In Stellaris, you build up your economy for hours, use 2-3 different compositions for your cruisers and when you get into a fight, you can't do anything and watch the fleet power drop. Doesn't matter if you have 1k or 1m fleet power. You don't even need to think about your fleet composition. You will just mass spam the meta ship builds and thats it. The fight is the same. That's all you get in MP. In SP, you can roleplay much better and it's fun. MP just drains you, because nothing really important happens for a few hours before you have the 2-3 important fights who will decide the fate of the galaxy. MP is just boring af.

[@ilikecrabs1]

Haha wow. I checked the description and i remember playing with Kris. Absolute legend of consistency. Weird how much of an impact a few key hosts have for this entire community

[@firekin5624]

Still gonna watch this start to finish. YT is just unfair for no reason.

[@konfuchie357]

I am blown away by the video edits you make while voicing a great script. Where do you even get the ideas for so many owesome memes and gifs and how do you remember or find a fitting one must be a true craft.

[@GaiaGoddessOfTheEarth]

trying to play with my friend with mods turns into two days of figuring out why our game versions are desynced and having to copy over certain files of his to get it to finally work despite having the same exact version and mod list.

[@kyosukearashi3523]

Talk about ship design, I find out the L slot(kinetic artillery) is the best slot against unbidden in this version. The "battleship finally learn they have to run away" and "attack angle of L slot didn't work on battleship" make this happen, the L slot battleship can easily trolling unbidden. On the another hand, while fighting the starbase, the X slot battleship will fire only 1~2 shot of there X slot weapon and than never use them again cause the fire angle, and they just keep turning around the unbidden protal gate……

[@gimme88]

ive only ever done about 3 multiplayer games. after hours in the lobby, the games featured people demanding changes to the galaxy size, planets, number of AI, difficulty, etc instead of the base rules of the lobby that they joined. players also unexpectedly freak out and rage quit, some disconnect, others do exploits, a lot of players play as hive minds and ringworlds. i enjoy single player more and have over 4600 hours in solo mode. i can do what i want in single player and have a game like i want it. also in single i can use the mods i want.

[@Baras70]

when you started speaking about incredible host, i already know it would be Jstanley name RIP. Mod Drama, toxic behavior and robot not really that much fun to play in game right now dealed the final blow certainly RIP.

[@scorbiot]

I wonder how all the players in a lobby blindly picking one origin, one trait and one civic to be banned would affect the gameplay. Some people would focus on banning the meta builds, but some others would rather focus on counters to their unorthodox builds. Also, I think you forgot one important factor: single player is available whenever I want it and lasts however long I want it to, while multi player match is a commitment.

[@Predator20357]

My group essentially does RP Multiplayer and it’s rather fun, in fact I think I played more Multiplayer than Single Player

[@Bjulce]

You tricked me, in the chad host section, that you are talking about KT. we had some other dedicated hosts who hosted nearly daily for 3+months. The_Mule back in the day, KT, Dragon, Boris. all those chads deserves a thanks!

[@Strategiser2]

unfortunately, i'm not an old fart that have played this game for more than 9 years, i'm only a plebian 3 year andy alright?

[@Bjulce]

@@Strategiser2 well then, pay tax!

[@Slowpoke3x]

yea Dragon is a good friend and i remember Boris, don't like Kitty though

[@alixritter9851]

I once jumped into a random multiplayer game....the grey tempest was released early and everyone was panicking. It was like that meme walking through the door into the room on fire

[@richard1493]

I only play multiplayer with friends. We gang up and use our combined Big Brains™ to conquer the galaxy, it’s a great time. I couldn’t imagine playing multiplayer with strangers.

[@pyrobarbu6173]

I'm currently doing my first mp game with my best friend, we are in a federation and we act as one empire, no competition just us against the whole galaxy.

[@pedrokotii2417]

It's back!

[@Preaplanes]

I must begrudgingly say that that was an excellent choice of music. His Theme, huh? Now I'm sad.

[@Maadhawk]

For those who become truly skilled at something that can be competitive with others, sometimes you have to throw a game and let your friends win so they can have some fun of their own. At least with those who don't have an obsessive drive to get better and compete on their own. Those friends you don't throw the occasional game against. They will actually feel insulted if you do. (The obsessively driven friends that is.) Alternatively, let your casual friends team up with you and carry them. Just don't carry so hard that you leave them feeling useless, unless they like that. In the end, it is a balancing act. Just like everything else in life.

[@SomeKrieger]

I’m sorta new but I’m content with just playing in the sandbox with the AIs. They’re smart and stupid while also being terrifying in combat most of the time. Like my first session I played the Maweer Caretakers and I ended up becoming allied with a Xenophobic Isolationist empire and a Theocracy. Then in my current session I’m playing as a Homebrew Empire called the Qui’Vax Inanis Ambula, an empire of Template 12 Plantoids who evolved on a arctic world in a trinary system run by a Xenophilic, Expansionist, Dictator ship of fanatic militarists. And so far I’ve pissed off the entire galaxy, subjugated 3, uplifted 2, and made friends with a xenophobic, isolationist, feudal, theocracy who five minutes into the session subjugated an entire hive mind. In short, I love this game. I just hate the slow down.

[@TheDartFrog]

I only ever play Stellaris in MP.. but I play with friends, not with randoms, so we're just goofing around and having laughs - it's amazing in MP that way

[@ceratosaurusproductions7611]

The Halo: Reach soundtrack at the beginning unironically fit so well with the video and made it so damn good.

[@unolimpico6451]

Is someone playing Xbox console edition? I would like to make a chill and nice game, not just everyone being warmongers and killing each other

[@brandongehrke8943]

Stanley is a real one, my introduction to multiplayer was was in a game hosted by him and, even though I sucked big time, I had an amazing time.

[@tommysuter4053]

I play with moded (usually around 7) with friends every now and then. Usually when a major update hits me and my friends will play stellaris for probably a couple months or more at a time then.

[@roach590]

Multiplayer is really fun if you can find a good community to play with

[@pabloruansabino3933]

That was amazing dude! This is easy one of the best contend of stellaris at all! Greetings from Brazil!

[@xenxander]

I only played Master of Orion 3, mulitlpayer one time. We had to ensure we all had the exact same mods installed and even after that nightmare.. our game didn't last due to someone lagging out (we only had three of us) and the other guy saying it wasn't worth playing with only me and two AI (as fodder and barriers as is tradition)

[@ectior]

I’m here just to support the re-upload

[@Valanaria]

Huh didn't think it was that bad. I played multiplayer only twice in my stellaris years, both just random public lobbies. The other got desync pretty fast, but the other was a really fun casual lobby where some even roleplayed on their own. The host played with me for 6 hours straight before having to leave.

[@joshuawilson8804]

I've started Multiplayer, but I'm only playing with a friend who also likes to RP. We've had a lot of fun, we would like to include more players... but, we honestly just want more RP for a galactic community not the metagaming.

[@isvuswright4882]

I've played the game for over a thousand hours, and I don't think more than 5 of those were multiplayer. No, it wasn't because of metagaming or because anyone was toxic, because I only played it with my close friends just to avoid those problems. The primary reason for my lack of multiplayer playtime is because I just don't have that many close friends who like the game, and even when I do, conflicting schedules make it almost impossible to play more than one session. It's a real shame because I think stellaris multiplayer with a bunch of people who aren't playing to win and don't have six times as much experience as I do would be really fun.

[@grafeugenius]

so you have to reupload huh? what did you need to remove? am too smoothbrain

[@Strategiser2]

i have no idea as the Age-Restriction didn't come with a Timestamp, but i had to remove a clip of the guy spilling alcohol on his crotch and also replace a word that the Auto-Subtitler tripped on

[@lasagnakob9908]

Ngl, I feel like the reason that most people don't play multiplayer grand strategy games is _because_ of the fact the game enables meta exploitation, when the whole other reason it gets played at all is for role playing, not power tripping on a galactic conquest as soon as possible for a win. Oh yeah, de-sync is also a problem with all of their modern games. Every time I went to play multiplayer with a friend on HoI4 the game would de-sync because one of us happened to have poor internet and we could never break the 1936 start date.