Difficulty Mod.

[jamezilla]

I used to be able to do fairly well when I'd play Stellaris, but when they updated it... months ago? I don't even remember at this point. Anyway when they did that, even the easiest mode became exponentially harder. I've seen all sorts of mods that let you tweak all sorts of advantages and disadvantages for yourself and the other species, but does anyone know of one that just makes easiest EASY again, WITHOUT having to fuss over a bunch of little stats?

[Orion Invictus]

The easiest mode gives you a ton of bonuses and handicaps the AI. Are you sure you're selecting the right difficulty?

[jamezilla]

Unless they changed it AGAIN. As I said, I haven't played in many months.

[Orion Invictus]

The lowest difficulty is "Civilian". Did you try that one?

[jamezilla]

I thought it was cadet.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by jamezilla:

I thought it was cadet.

Cadet is now the second lowest difficulty due to the AI improvements. Civilian (which, IIRC, was added recently) should be what you're looking for.

BTW, I didn't mention this, but the reason why I'm focusing on the difficulty settings is because I don't know of any mod that makes the game easier.

[jamezilla]

Sure, I understand. Thanks, I'll try it.

[Warfox]

Plenty of other settings can make the game easier as well. Scaling difficulty makes it so whatever bonuses the AI gets will happen later in the game. Can affect how random the placement is so you don't end up right next to a hostile enemy.

You can also improve your gameplay as well though. Try improving relations with neighbors to keep them from attacking you. Don't take too many agreements so you still have influence income for expanding. Try to balance your economy better, or failing that, try out some of the automation options they recently implemented for individual planets. Rural world designations are good for getting basic resources. Just make sure to allocate some of your income to the governors.

Play the game on a slower speed, and pause any time you need to think or read or make decisions. Don't play species with too many modifiers. Sometimes just having a single bonus and no penalties can be totally fine. Going with lots of traits is better when you know how to mitigate the negatives more. Turn off expansions until you understand the base game more. You can do it.

[jamezilla]

Thanks everybody, civilian seems to have done it. I also changed the AI scaling, I think it was, which seemed to help.