Is 'NEMESIS' a good DLC worth the price ?

[Jǫrmungandr]

Is the 'Nemesis' DLC still lacking in diplomacy/spying options and mechinics ? I see a huge portion of reviews are negative, but I know the devs have been very consistently dedicated to updating this game and keep it alive throughout the probably 7-8 years since its first release. So maybe they've improved this DLC by now ?

I return to play the game after a couple years' absence, and I like the idea of spying and scheming, but it has to be meaningful and some depth to it. I also keep reading that the POP growth system in the game is broken by this update.. Any thruth to that ? If so, how ?

[Elitewrecker PT]

The content in nemesis hasn't been extensively retouched yet.

Pop growth was slowed down with the accompanying patch, but you can cancel those changes via customization sliders when creating a new game.

[Druitt]

Nemesis is "Become the Crisis" and fleshing out espionage. Diplomacy options are mainly in Federation and Overlord.

I, too, have more and more realized that the reviews don't tell half the story. For example, MegaCorp gets bad reviews that mention that you get a bunch of other MegaCorps that spawn, making it hard to play. But if you look through the patch notes you see that they've cut the odds of other Megacorps spawning significantly (by 50% in one patch), so that criticism is not as valid as it was.

Anyhow, Nemesis is fun so far. (My first game with it.) Without Nemesis, you get the basic option to install a spymaster and then their spy ring continually gathers information and infiltrates more, up to a limit.

Nemesis adds about 10 operations you can do. Each operation costs infiltration points, and then you have to build them back up. And each operation is fairly tame, ranging from increasing your infiltration (gather Information, gain an asset) up to spawning a rebel fleet in the other empire or sabotaging (one module of) a starbase. You can steal technology which gives you 33% research on a technology they have that you don't.

So not game-changing, but it definitely adds useful options. And there's also an Espionage path that boosts some stats further. So in general you can be stronger at espionage and hence know at least a bit more about your opponents than with the base espionage.

Plus, this playthrough I'm a dictatorship and having lots of envoys as diplomats would be a little weird, but lots of spymasters makes a lot of sense. So far, I have zero favors in the galactic community (though you can extort them through espionage) but I have spy rings in the next several empires below me and I'm going to try the rebel fleet option on my main opponent soon. We'll see if that makes a difference. (Also going to hire two mercenary fleets to soften them up in the lead-up to the expiration of the truce from the end of our previous war.

Anyhow, Nemesis only had a 20% discount in the winter sale (versus 50% for most everything else and none for Overlord), so consider that if it matters.