About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
... 300 years after Aziraal has been banished, a brother and sister are drawn into the conflict which has flared up between the Orcs and the free world. Kyra, the hero's younger sister, suddenly disappears in mysterious circumstances.
«...If my family really belongs to the chosen ones, why then have we always been as poor as church mice? I have never given much credence to all the old stories about a relict in our family's possession - one which supposedly bannedAziraal, the god of the Orcs - they say that only those ofmy bloodwere chosen to safeguard the secret.
'Tis nothing but nonsense methinks – however, my sister Kyra always listened eagerly to the stories of the old ones... but she vanished several months ago... »
To all intents and purposes you're an unscrupulous bounty hunter and mercenary - but the search for your sister takes you back to your roots.
At the beginning of your epic adventure, a mercenary task takes you to the far north - but you're also following up a mysterious lead at the same time - the first clue you've been given since Kyra's disappearance. You get a shock during a meeting with the delegates of a dark Brotherhood - your sister's kidnappers are indeed after your family's relict. Whether there's any truth in your family being chosen ones or not, the others obviously believe it - and if you ever want to see Kyra alive again, you'll have to act swiftly...
Previous Playtime
9 minutes
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
I remembered getting this on sale, but I couldn't remember how good a sale it was, so I went back and looked at my transaction history - 99 cents. That's how much I paid for this game. That should be fairly self-explanatory. When I see a 90% discount, I have to be actively talked out of jumping at it, regardless of what it is. Against a fairly-slick looking open-world rpg, I never had a chance.
Expectations and Prior Experience
The nine minutes I've spent with the game so far have almost all been devoted to getting the thing to start. I recall it had some pretty annoying 3rd-party DRM. That being said, that was a long time ago, and when I test-started it today, it worked just fine.
I don't really have much of an impression of Two Worlds. I remember seeing it on shelves when it came out for console and every time I did, I thought, "this looks like a game for people who want more Oblivion . . . except that Oblivion is already a game for people who want more Oblivion, so it just looks kind of pointless."
Which is not a very kind thought, to be sure. But it can't be denied, as much as I love open-world rpgs, this game never made a a very compelling pitch to me. It's possible that it's an underrated classic, but what I'm expecting is an aggressively average game, with no great highs or lows. I'm not basing that on anything other than my gut reaction to the screenshots and store description, though. What I'm seeing is a game that doesn't take any risks with the genre and relies on familiarity as a draw. I am, however, prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Stellaris - 20/20 hours
Okay, so that's 20 hours in two days. Yikes. (Especially when you consider that my "20 hours" are more like 22). I lost a lot of sleep playing Stellaris today. I just got to a point where I kept telling myself I'd quit after doing "just one more thing," but of course it's never just one.
I discovered that the end game is pretty slow, both in its pace and in the sense that it brought my computer to a crawl. As a result, I didn't really get to enjoy the inevitable point where you're a godlike advanced civilization, capable of striding the stars and reshaping the very stars themselves.
Or maybe I was just really tired and cranky when I go to that point. I mean, having to run the simulation at a slower speed than the absolute fastest isn't the end of the world. It may get a little uneventful when you're in a position of safety, at the center of an alliance that spans half the galaxy and so utterly unassailable that no one dares make a move against you, but even then things are only uneventful until they aren't (my imperialist ally ran out of targets to bully, but it seems like my democratic ally simply can't stop meddling with a particular region of space that's home to about four nations of the same species, all of which tend to drift away from democracy enough to make periodic interventions necessary).
I'm having trouble pinning down my overall opinion of Stellaris. I think a big part of it is that my perception of the game is colored b my knowledge of how other Paradox games evolve over time. They tend to get a lot of very influential DLC, some of which can change the entire complexion of the game (my most recent Crusader Kings II save file, the one where I tried to play the whole 800 years, fell victim to one of these DLCs). And that makes me wonder how future DLC will change Stellaris, and perhaps, more pertinently, how I want it to.
For example, the whole system of alliances and Federations could use a serious overhaul. As it stands now, being in a Federation has two main effects - it makes you a military powerhouse and it drags you into an endless series of wars. I can't help feeling that this betrays something about Stellaris' priorities that I don't really like - it is at heart a wargame, and though it gives you more room to roleplay than your typical strategy game, it still strongly favors the path of violent conquest.
I guess the game I really want to play is Stellaris after it has gotten a half-dozen expansions that make Federations more interesting, internal divisions more deadly, and uplifting aliens more complex and satisfying. Right now, it's like a butterfly in a cocoon. The early game was genuinely amazing, the mid-game was busy, if occasionally frustrating, and the late game simply didn't work. But there are a dozen obvious places to bolt on new mechanics that might help Stellaris deliver the promise of its epic scope.
Which means, unusually for a strategy game, I'm ready to move on. Oh, I could easily play it for another 60 hours, but since I know that expansions are inevitable, I can also afford to wait awhile. Besides, Stellaris was my 98th game and I'm really eager to get to the triple digits.
I discovered that the end game is pretty slow, both in its pace and in the sense that it brought my computer to a crawl. As a result, I didn't really get to enjoy the inevitable point where you're a godlike advanced civilization, capable of striding the stars and reshaping the very stars themselves.
Or maybe I was just really tired and cranky when I go to that point. I mean, having to run the simulation at a slower speed than the absolute fastest isn't the end of the world. It may get a little uneventful when you're in a position of safety, at the center of an alliance that spans half the galaxy and so utterly unassailable that no one dares make a move against you, but even then things are only uneventful until they aren't (my imperialist ally ran out of targets to bully, but it seems like my democratic ally simply can't stop meddling with a particular region of space that's home to about four nations of the same species, all of which tend to drift away from democracy enough to make periodic interventions necessary).
I'm having trouble pinning down my overall opinion of Stellaris. I think a big part of it is that my perception of the game is colored b my knowledge of how other Paradox games evolve over time. They tend to get a lot of very influential DLC, some of which can change the entire complexion of the game (my most recent Crusader Kings II save file, the one where I tried to play the whole 800 years, fell victim to one of these DLCs). And that makes me wonder how future DLC will change Stellaris, and perhaps, more pertinently, how I want it to.
For example, the whole system of alliances and Federations could use a serious overhaul. As it stands now, being in a Federation has two main effects - it makes you a military powerhouse and it drags you into an endless series of wars. I can't help feeling that this betrays something about Stellaris' priorities that I don't really like - it is at heart a wargame, and though it gives you more room to roleplay than your typical strategy game, it still strongly favors the path of violent conquest.
I guess the game I really want to play is Stellaris after it has gotten a half-dozen expansions that make Federations more interesting, internal divisions more deadly, and uplifting aliens more complex and satisfying. Right now, it's like a butterfly in a cocoon. The early game was genuinely amazing, the mid-game was busy, if occasionally frustrating, and the late game simply didn't work. But there are a dozen obvious places to bolt on new mechanics that might help Stellaris deliver the promise of its epic scope.
Which means, unusually for a strategy game, I'm ready to move on. Oh, I could easily play it for another 60 hours, but since I know that expansions are inevitable, I can also afford to wait awhile. Besides, Stellaris was my 98th game and I'm really eager to get to the triple digits.
Stellaris - 16/20 hours
Having moved into the mid-game, I find myself in an existential and moral crisis. I joined a federation, and I had high hopes that it would be like the Federation - an enlightened group of peaceful planets that seeks out contact with new civilization in order to advance the condition of sapient life throughout the galaxy. But it turns out that my new Federation isn't like that at all.
It started out fine. Our first two members were committed pacifists. And our third believed in democracy so much that they would only go to war to liberate the oppressed. But you need four civilizations to form a Federation and our fourth was a real snake in the grass.
Fanatic xenophiles, I assumed they would want to make friends with everyone they meet and thus were unlikely to start a war. However, they apparently love aliens so much that they want them all under their rule, because every time they get to be Federation president they start a new war of conquest. And because my fate is tied in with the rest of the federation's, if they lose a war, I may potentially lose a planet, so I have to do my best to win the wars they start. It's a far cry from what I intended when I set out to play a pacifist.
That being said, I love that Stellaris is the sort of game that has that kind of complexity and conflict. I haven't yet been bored by the mid-game, and there's still plenty of peaceful stuff for me to do, even amidst all this war, so I'm looking forward to moving on to the end-game, which I understand has a few surprises in store for me.
I'm definitely getting the feeling that this is a game that I'm going to play for more than 20 hours. I want to become one of the great elder civilizations of the galaxy and see the end of the tech tree, but that's probably still a long ways away. Normally, I'd probably start getting daunted by the scope of the future in front of me (see - the anticlimactic end to my Crusader Kings 2 game), but with space it feels different. It feels less like I'm running towards a goal and more like I'm just trying to see what happens next.
It started out fine. Our first two members were committed pacifists. And our third believed in democracy so much that they would only go to war to liberate the oppressed. But you need four civilizations to form a Federation and our fourth was a real snake in the grass.
Fanatic xenophiles, I assumed they would want to make friends with everyone they meet and thus were unlikely to start a war. However, they apparently love aliens so much that they want them all under their rule, because every time they get to be Federation president they start a new war of conquest. And because my fate is tied in with the rest of the federation's, if they lose a war, I may potentially lose a planet, so I have to do my best to win the wars they start. It's a far cry from what I intended when I set out to play a pacifist.
That being said, I love that Stellaris is the sort of game that has that kind of complexity and conflict. I haven't yet been bored by the mid-game, and there's still plenty of peaceful stuff for me to do, even amidst all this war, so I'm looking forward to moving on to the end-game, which I understand has a few surprises in store for me.
I'm definitely getting the feeling that this is a game that I'm going to play for more than 20 hours. I want to become one of the great elder civilizations of the galaxy and see the end of the tech tree, but that's probably still a long ways away. Normally, I'd probably start getting daunted by the scope of the future in front of me (see - the anticlimactic end to my Crusader Kings 2 game), but with space it feels different. It feels less like I'm running towards a goal and more like I'm just trying to see what happens next.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Stellaris - 7/20 hours
It was difficult to sit down and write this blog post. Every time I thought of something I wanted to say about Stellaris, I was reminded of something I wanted to do in my save file.
I think I'm nearing that subtle turning-point that most large-scale strategy games have where you stop thinking about the moment-to-moment tactics and start thinking about long-term strategy. It's the point where your economy shifts from "how will I get enough to survive" to "how do I use my surplus to win?"
It's a bittersweet moment. I'm becoming a major player in my corner of the galaxy, sitting at the center of an alliance between three wealthy pacifist states, technologically advanced, and beginning to experiment with the use of robotics to automate most of my civilization's most menial jobs (such as municipal government or the operation of tourist attractions). Yet the frontier is rapidly closing in front of me. I'm almost entirely hemmed in by my opponents and it's only a matter of time before my science ships have nowhere else to go.
I think I'll miss that part of the game, but as compensation, I really do enjoy micromanaging my colonies and I've still got a couple more habitable planets that I need to grab before the aliens do. I'm not sure what I'll do after that. And I mean that literally. Up until now, I've been playing the game a certain way, but what happens when that becomes impossible?
One of the things that excited me about this game enough to make it a day 1 purchase was the sheer breadth of its ambition. I'm looking forward to seeing if it can successfully change gears into a different kind of game. I'm hoping that it will intrigue me in a different, but equally compelling way as the early part of the game. I'm afraid that I'll wind up missing the heroic space-explorer phase so much that it sours me on the mid-game strategy.
I guess we'll see.
I think I'm nearing that subtle turning-point that most large-scale strategy games have where you stop thinking about the moment-to-moment tactics and start thinking about long-term strategy. It's the point where your economy shifts from "how will I get enough to survive" to "how do I use my surplus to win?"
It's a bittersweet moment. I'm becoming a major player in my corner of the galaxy, sitting at the center of an alliance between three wealthy pacifist states, technologically advanced, and beginning to experiment with the use of robotics to automate most of my civilization's most menial jobs (such as municipal government or the operation of tourist attractions). Yet the frontier is rapidly closing in front of me. I'm almost entirely hemmed in by my opponents and it's only a matter of time before my science ships have nowhere else to go.
I think I'll miss that part of the game, but as compensation, I really do enjoy micromanaging my colonies and I've still got a couple more habitable planets that I need to grab before the aliens do. I'm not sure what I'll do after that. And I mean that literally. Up until now, I've been playing the game a certain way, but what happens when that becomes impossible?
One of the things that excited me about this game enough to make it a day 1 purchase was the sheer breadth of its ambition. I'm looking forward to seeing if it can successfully change gears into a different kind of game. I'm hoping that it will intrigue me in a different, but equally compelling way as the early part of the game. I'm afraid that I'll wind up missing the heroic space-explorer phase so much that it sours me on the mid-game strategy.
I guess we'll see.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Stellaris - 2/20 hours
Stellaris gets off to a slow start. That's not a complaint, by the way. When I say "slow" I mean gloriously slow. You are a tiny speck in a gigantic galaxy. You send your science ship out to an adjacent star and it is so tentative, like dipping your toe in a pool to test its temperature. But you survive, and your ships gradually go farther and farther afield, finding a universe that is mostly empty, but with life in unexpected places.
I think I could play an entire game that was nothing but the early hours of Stellaris. I love finding and researching anomalies. They're nothing too spectacular, from a visual or gameplay perspective, but they are all interesting little glimpses into a wider, weirder world. I'm honestly considering running a huge map with minimal npcs just so I can explore as many stars as possible without having all these empires in the way.
As far as the strategic component of the game is concerned, these things are always tough to judge from the early game. Scientific research is based on resources you find around various planets and I kind of got hosed on my start for having the right resources nearby (I managed to ally with a nearby alien civilization and they are something like 12-15 technologies ahead of me), but I expect that as I get used to the game's mechanics, I'll be able to turn things around. I'm optimistic, though. There's a lot of complexity here, so much so that it would probably take dozens of hours just to work out a theory about the proper build order.
It's a little weird, playing a Paradox strategy game where you're not immediately thrust into a life-and-death power struggle with a dozen neighbors of varying degrees of hostility, but I kind of like it. In any other 4X game, if I met a rival empire less than an hour into the game which had a 300% tech lead on me, I would immediately restart, because it would only be a matter of time before they came after me. In Stellaris, these advanced aliens are Peaceful Traders whose ideology maps closely to my own, so they've become my best friends and protectors. Despite the symmetrical start, this is not a game that cares for balance, which is a breathtaking change of pace.
I don't know what will happen as I continue to expand and explore. I've only encountered one alien species so far, but there are dozens more out there. Eventually, the galaxy will become filled up and the nature of the game will shift to a more familiar cutthroat military and diplomacy rhythm. Will I be able to handle it? I don't know, but for now I'm enjoying the ride.
I think I could play an entire game that was nothing but the early hours of Stellaris. I love finding and researching anomalies. They're nothing too spectacular, from a visual or gameplay perspective, but they are all interesting little glimpses into a wider, weirder world. I'm honestly considering running a huge map with minimal npcs just so I can explore as many stars as possible without having all these empires in the way.
As far as the strategic component of the game is concerned, these things are always tough to judge from the early game. Scientific research is based on resources you find around various planets and I kind of got hosed on my start for having the right resources nearby (I managed to ally with a nearby alien civilization and they are something like 12-15 technologies ahead of me), but I expect that as I get used to the game's mechanics, I'll be able to turn things around. I'm optimistic, though. There's a lot of complexity here, so much so that it would probably take dozens of hours just to work out a theory about the proper build order.
It's a little weird, playing a Paradox strategy game where you're not immediately thrust into a life-and-death power struggle with a dozen neighbors of varying degrees of hostility, but I kind of like it. In any other 4X game, if I met a rival empire less than an hour into the game which had a 300% tech lead on me, I would immediately restart, because it would only be a matter of time before they came after me. In Stellaris, these advanced aliens are Peaceful Traders whose ideology maps closely to my own, so they've become my best friends and protectors. Despite the symmetrical start, this is not a game that cares for balance, which is a breathtaking change of pace.
I don't know what will happen as I continue to expand and explore. I've only encountered one alien species so far, but there are dozens more out there. Eventually, the galaxy will become filled up and the nature of the game will shift to a more familiar cutthroat military and diplomacy rhythm. Will I be able to handle it? I don't know, but for now I'm enjoying the ride.
Stellaris - Initial Thoughts
About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
Explore a vast galaxy full of wonder! Paradox Development Studio, makers of the Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis series presents Stellaris, an evolution of the grand strategy genre with space exploration at its core.
Featuring deep strategic gameplay, a rich and enormously diverse selection of alien races and emergent storytelling, Stellaris has engaging challenging gameplay that rewards interstellar exploration as you traverse, discover, interact and learn more about the multitude of species you will encounter during your travels.
Etch your name across the cosmos by forging a galactic empire; colonizing remote planets and integrating alien civilizations. Will you expand through war alone or walk the path of diplomacy to achieve your goals?
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
This should, in theory, be an easy one because I bought it less than an hour ago. But I guess it really is difficult to truly know oneself because now that it comes down to it, words escape me. I was hyped. A space strategy game from the people behind Crusader Kings II. Would this bring their characteristic attention to detail to a whole new frontier? The very thought is exciting.
But that doesn't explain why I bothered to buy it today. I have more than 80 games left to play. Stellaris will still be there in a couple of months. Hell, it will probably be better in a couple of months. Its launch bugs will be patched, there won't be competition from the other prepurchasers to slow down the download speed. There may even be an expansion pack and a sale.
It doesn't actually make sense to buy a game so early. So why did I do it?
I think it's because the release of an anticipated new game feels like an event. I like knowing that thousands of strangers are having the exact same experience at the exact same time. I like going on to message boards and talking knowledgeably about the latest thing and understanding what people mean when they do the same.
This is either extremely petty or profoundly meaningful. I can't decide which.
Expectations and Prior Experience
The closest thing I have to prior experience is watching the developers' stream on Twitch. I don't think I'm too spoiled for the bulk of the game because I missed a couple of the later ones and from what I could tell, this game looks almost as glacially paced as Crusader Kings II.
What I expect is a steep learning curve over a deep game and while the novelty of the whole thing will carry me a long way, I'm sure, I can foresee one potential speedbump. It may be that there will be a long period where I don't understand the game well enough to enjoy it. That happened to me with the other Paradox games I played. I didn't really get into Crusader Kings II until I'd played around a dozen short games where I barely knew what was going on. I still have a bit of ambivalence towards Europa Universallis IV.
I'm confident that once I clear the hump, I'm going to find that I love expanding and exploring and engaging in complex diplomatic maneuvers, but how big is the hump? How many frustrating newbie traps will I fall into before I figure things out?
That's just the price of complexity I suppose. To make a rich experience for experts, novices will have to deal with being in over their heads. I think I can accept that bargain.
Explore a vast galaxy full of wonder! Paradox Development Studio, makers of the Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis series presents Stellaris, an evolution of the grand strategy genre with space exploration at its core.
Featuring deep strategic gameplay, a rich and enormously diverse selection of alien races and emergent storytelling, Stellaris has engaging challenging gameplay that rewards interstellar exploration as you traverse, discover, interact and learn more about the multitude of species you will encounter during your travels.
Etch your name across the cosmos by forging a galactic empire; colonizing remote planets and integrating alien civilizations. Will you expand through war alone or walk the path of diplomacy to achieve your goals?
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
This should, in theory, be an easy one because I bought it less than an hour ago. But I guess it really is difficult to truly know oneself because now that it comes down to it, words escape me. I was hyped. A space strategy game from the people behind Crusader Kings II. Would this bring their characteristic attention to detail to a whole new frontier? The very thought is exciting.
But that doesn't explain why I bothered to buy it today. I have more than 80 games left to play. Stellaris will still be there in a couple of months. Hell, it will probably be better in a couple of months. Its launch bugs will be patched, there won't be competition from the other prepurchasers to slow down the download speed. There may even be an expansion pack and a sale.
It doesn't actually make sense to buy a game so early. So why did I do it?
I think it's because the release of an anticipated new game feels like an event. I like knowing that thousands of strangers are having the exact same experience at the exact same time. I like going on to message boards and talking knowledgeably about the latest thing and understanding what people mean when they do the same.
This is either extremely petty or profoundly meaningful. I can't decide which.
Expectations and Prior Experience
The closest thing I have to prior experience is watching the developers' stream on Twitch. I don't think I'm too spoiled for the bulk of the game because I missed a couple of the later ones and from what I could tell, this game looks almost as glacially paced as Crusader Kings II.
What I expect is a steep learning curve over a deep game and while the novelty of the whole thing will carry me a long way, I'm sure, I can foresee one potential speedbump. It may be that there will be a long period where I don't understand the game well enough to enjoy it. That happened to me with the other Paradox games I played. I didn't really get into Crusader Kings II until I'd played around a dozen short games where I barely knew what was going on. I still have a bit of ambivalence towards Europa Universallis IV.
I'm confident that once I clear the hump, I'm going to find that I love expanding and exploring and engaging in complex diplomatic maneuvers, but how big is the hump? How many frustrating newbie traps will I fall into before I figure things out?
That's just the price of complexity I suppose. To make a rich experience for experts, novices will have to deal with being in over their heads. I think I can accept that bargain.
The Last Federation - 20/20 hours
Given my strong desire to play a different game on the day of its release (today!), I wound up rushing through my last eight hours with The Last Federation. It was in the course of playing several games back-to-back that I discovered something quite disconcerting - this game is really easy.
I mean, if your aim is simply to wind up with all eight planets controlled by your Federation, winning is trivial. I discovered a fairly fool-proof way of winning (as far as I can tell) every time. I say "as far as I can tell," because the last game I tried this strategy on was my attempt at hard mode and I barely broke a sweat. I figure that, given the ease with which I won, I could probably get close to 100% victory on normal.
What you do is research technology for one of the three "good guy" races in order to earn money. Use this money to improve the relationship among them, then when it gets high enough, form the three-way "Alliance for Safety." At this point, they should have three planets and a significant tech advantage. So you improve the relationship between the Skylaxians and a fourth species (doesn't matter which) enough for them to be able to invite them into the Federation. Around this time, an anti-federation alliance will form, but since you have such a huge lead in tech, all your really have to do is bribe your guys to dogpile the ringleader. After that, it's just mop-up.
Once I figured out there was a winning formula, the game lost a significant amount of its appeal. However, just because I feel like I "solved" the standard game doesn't mean that it is completely out of ways to thwart me. I decided for my last game, I was going to get all eight species in a coalition no matter if I had to save-scum to within an inch of my life, and I have to tell you, even on easy, this particular goal is a huge pain in the ass.
What it comes down to is that there is a very fine line you have to walk between making a species (especially one of the aggressive ones) strong enough to survive, but not so strong that they don't casually take out a planet before you can assimilate them into the Federation. I'm not sure this is a challenge I particularly enjoy, but it did succeed in wiping the smug look of self-satisfaction from my face.
I also experimented with Observer mode for about an hour. I didn't really learn anything of note during that time, however. As far as I can tell, the inevitable result of the initial setup is that, minus the last Hydral's intervention, one of the aggressive species (either the bug-like Thoraxians or the brutal Burlust warlords) will swarm out from their home planet and take over the solar system. It really depends on whoever gets the momentum first. The "good" species are pretty much doomed due to their habit of rarely taking over planets and while the others can occasionally win some ground, they don't have the inherent combat buffs to make it to the top of the heap.
I guess that makes me feel less guilty about wiping out the aggressive species. It's either them or us.
All in all, I really like The Last Federation. It could probably use some more balance tuning - certain options are so powerful that they obviate the need to explore the game's nuances, but it offers an experience available in no other game. Playing a schemer and a peacemaker felt fundamentally different than your typical empire-building space strategy games and so if I happened to find an easy path to victory, it is nonetheless a path that I could only take while playing The Last Federation.
I mean, if your aim is simply to wind up with all eight planets controlled by your Federation, winning is trivial. I discovered a fairly fool-proof way of winning (as far as I can tell) every time. I say "as far as I can tell," because the last game I tried this strategy on was my attempt at hard mode and I barely broke a sweat. I figure that, given the ease with which I won, I could probably get close to 100% victory on normal.
What you do is research technology for one of the three "good guy" races in order to earn money. Use this money to improve the relationship among them, then when it gets high enough, form the three-way "Alliance for Safety." At this point, they should have three planets and a significant tech advantage. So you improve the relationship between the Skylaxians and a fourth species (doesn't matter which) enough for them to be able to invite them into the Federation. Around this time, an anti-federation alliance will form, but since you have such a huge lead in tech, all your really have to do is bribe your guys to dogpile the ringleader. After that, it's just mop-up.
Once I figured out there was a winning formula, the game lost a significant amount of its appeal. However, just because I feel like I "solved" the standard game doesn't mean that it is completely out of ways to thwart me. I decided for my last game, I was going to get all eight species in a coalition no matter if I had to save-scum to within an inch of my life, and I have to tell you, even on easy, this particular goal is a huge pain in the ass.
What it comes down to is that there is a very fine line you have to walk between making a species (especially one of the aggressive ones) strong enough to survive, but not so strong that they don't casually take out a planet before you can assimilate them into the Federation. I'm not sure this is a challenge I particularly enjoy, but it did succeed in wiping the smug look of self-satisfaction from my face.
I also experimented with Observer mode for about an hour. I didn't really learn anything of note during that time, however. As far as I can tell, the inevitable result of the initial setup is that, minus the last Hydral's intervention, one of the aggressive species (either the bug-like Thoraxians or the brutal Burlust warlords) will swarm out from their home planet and take over the solar system. It really depends on whoever gets the momentum first. The "good" species are pretty much doomed due to their habit of rarely taking over planets and while the others can occasionally win some ground, they don't have the inherent combat buffs to make it to the top of the heap.
I guess that makes me feel less guilty about wiping out the aggressive species. It's either them or us.
All in all, I really like The Last Federation. It could probably use some more balance tuning - certain options are so powerful that they obviate the need to explore the game's nuances, but it offers an experience available in no other game. Playing a schemer and a peacemaker felt fundamentally different than your typical empire-building space strategy games and so if I happened to find an easy path to victory, it is nonetheless a path that I could only take while playing The Last Federation.
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