Empire Size?

[Gilmore]

I haven't played since October and decided to play Stellaris again, but they changed Empire Sprawl into Empire Size. Is there any way to get rid of the penalty now? Or are you basically forced to have a terrible economy if you don't want to have a research/society penalty?

[ScreamCon]

Yup. Revert to 3.2. 3.3 is still beta despite saying not so.

[HappySack]

Revert if you don't want to deal with change.

[Gilmore]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Revert if you don't want to deal with change.

I didn’t say I didn’t want to deal with change. I asked if there is any way to get rid of the penalty like before the update.

[jolle]

You can ignore empire size if you play wide. Expand and build more research labs and you'll be fine. The increase in research production on new planets easily offsets the penalty.

[Bumc]

There are several perks/techs that somewhat lower down empire size (reworked imperial prerogative for example), but otherwise yeah, ram more research planets, ram more unity planets and keep expanding.
Year 2310 full research + full ascension perks is doable still even if a bit harder.

[Meewec]

Originally posted by Gilmore:

Originally posted by HappySack:

Revert if you don't want to deal with change.

I didn’t say I didn’t want to deal with change. I asked if there is any way to get rid of the penalty like before the update.

just build more science/unity like we did for 4ish years before we got bueaucrats

[KilledJoy]

Originally posted by Gilmore:

I haven't played since October and decided to play Stellaris again, but they changed Empire Sprawl into Empire Size. Is there any way to get rid of the penalty now? Or are you basically forced to have a terrible economy if you don't want to have a research/society penalty?

Just mod it out like I did... I built a mod long ago to remove empire sprawl I nerfed it into oblivion and rebalanced it out.

[Ryika]

There is no way to fully mitigate empire size. You can reduce the amount of empire size that is generated through various perks, but in the end what you have to do is to produce more research (and unity, if you care about it) to outpace the penalty. Which is quite easy to do.

[Thus Zarathustra says nothing]

I think these game designer are making game more and more complex and increase the difficulties of returned players. The last time I player stellaris was november and i returned back found this game has been a brand new ♥♥♥♥ hole game.

[Of The Dead]

Originally posted by Gilmore:

Originally posted by HappySack:

Revert if you don't want to deal with change.

I didn’t say I didn’t want to deal with change. I asked if there is any way to get rid of the penalty like before the update.

Research Labs. Planets full of them. Not just one planet. But planet after planet after planet after planet. As many as you can that are not going to be used for unity buildings, cause you need many planets full of those too.

Everything else go for research speed. Discovery tradition tree first before you do any other tradition. Get Technological Ascendency. Get edicts that increase research speed, such as the nanite one, of course you will also need a supply of nanites. Any events that give research speed, always try to do those. Be Fanatic Materialist for an extra 10% research speed. Taking Technocracy civic can indirectly help. Any Scientist leaders with research speed such as Maniacal or Spark of Genius of Robot Assistant traits, but getting those are a lot harder now, since unity is not as free of use as energy credits were, so just hope that RNGesus blesses you.

And that is basically how you mitigate sprawl penalty.

[Elitewrecker PT]

^^ Almost like..... what was already done?! :o

[Delaradra]

Not sure if I would ever use this strategy. But according to DJ during the Dev Clash, creating vassals is a way to combat Empire Size.

Edit: Timestamp code doesn't seem to want to work in Steam. Go to: 1:32:24

https://youtu.be/atyDhUjJcag?t=1h32m24s

[mister_lobos]

all the pops you used to have be bureaucrats to keep empire sprawl in check, can now be generating research and or unity... so, the sprawl is not that much different, the penalty is a lot smaller then it used to be.

[adobo]

Just ignore it. Any planets that was previously for admin cap is now used for more research and unity.

[JustAnotherGamer]

Originally posted by Thus Zarathustra says nothing:

I think these game designer are making game more and more complex and increase the difficulties of returned players. The last time I player stellaris was november and i returned back found this game has been a brand new ♥♥♥♥ hole game.

Nah, it's not that. Way I see it, the timing of the Overlord expansion shows their thinking. Empire Size blows as it's uncontrollable, only way to be remotely managable is to grow without actually growing and hence Vassals. Empire Size is introduced to match up well with the new expansion which seems to be around getting specific things from your vassals (likely research or fleet size, or whatever) and hence in itself acts like mitigation against Empire Size. Even on peaceful empires, I'm now finding myself forced to obtain Vassals, just out oe necessity to deal with this, so they are becoming a much bigger deal.