![stellaris apocalypse stations stellaris apocalypse stations](https://www.macgamestore.com/images_screenshots/stellaris-apocalypse-64436.jpg)
When you know where enemy fleets could come from, because you can see the hyperlanes that connect the galaxy, you can prepare defences, station ships and build gargantuan floating citadels in strategic locations and chokepoints, knowing they’ll actually do some good. Here’s the rub: hyperlanes make wars better. Between the game settings and the tech tree, none of the diversity has been lost. Wormholes are still dotted around the map, they’re just static, and you can make a galaxy with such a dense web of hyperlanes that it will seem like you’re using warp. The gall! That’s not quite the case, however. It’s driven fans of warp and wormholes to leave seething condemnations on Steam, predictably, but I’ll confess that I also felt a slight twinge of discontentment when I discovered someone was taking something away from me.
![stellaris apocalypse stations stellaris apocalypse stations](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/W2dv7HAs9HIljBGkvWXUWw__opengraph_letterbox/img/Xh-RpsEUvyZxXLPmKQ8UVOFGmks=/fit-in/1200x630/filters:fill(auto):strip_icc()/pic3013340.jpg)
Rounding them off was hyperlane technology, which let fleets travel quickly from system to system, but only down predetermined routes. Wormholes made point-to-point travel possible, but only by constructing gateways that could be blown up by enemy fleets. Warp was the simplest, letting your ships travel in any direction, but not quickly. Old Stellaris featured a trinity of FTL types, each dramatically changing - at least until the mid-game - how ships moved and empires expanded. Stellaris 2.0 scales back one of the earliest and most important choices you’ll make all game: your FTL method.
#Stellaris apocalypse stations how to#
On that level it works marvelously but it can be bewildering when you’re just trying to figure out how to make an effective fleet, or when you want to plan a war that won’t leave you with a single planet to sit on to contemplate your mistakes. It's a strategy game, sure, but I'm less interested in winning than I am in telling the story of whatever species I've created. It's a multiverse of ideas, including everything from Xenomorphs to ringworlds, which is great from a roleplaying perspective, and that’s usually how I approach Stellaris. One of Stellaris' original selling points was that it presented a world liberally sprinkled with just about every sci-fi trope and technology imaginable.
#Stellaris apocalypse stations update#
The DLC isn't essential, but the free update completely revitalises Stellaris, and it takes big risks to do it. I should be a bit frustrated, but instead I'm hooked again. The xenophobic Imperium of Earth fell behind the rest of the galaxy and quickly found itself boxed in, the possessive but friendly Automata Matrix got squished in a war between Federations, and the slavers of the Saarlan Ravagers just weren't fun to play because they’re dicks. Though I've racked up hundreds of hours of galactic conquest over the last couple of years, I've had to start fresh and figure out how to run a stellar empire all over again.
![stellaris apocalypse stations stellaris apocalypse stations](https://www.gry-online.pl/galeria/filmy/640x360/95539083.jpg)
The Stellaris 2.0 update and the accompanying Apocalypse DLC have blown this 4X game to bits, along with my fleets as I've tried to wrap my head around the almost-new game built out of its chunks. I've made a lot of galaxies and star empires this last week, and I've thrown most of them in the bin.