Is this game as hard to get into as CK3 or is it easier for plebs like myself?

[Rådjursguden]

Really like the idea of these games that has depth in them and that you can sink 100+ hours in. But when I got CK3 i really felt lost, it felt like i had to watch videos and search up tutorials to even start a game.
Is this the same difficutly or is it easier to get into as a new player who never really played games like these?

[Whoopsiedaisy]

It's actually harder. CK3 is the most accessible of Paradox games.

[HyperKnight]

Imo CK3 is harder than Stellaris because of more randomness and limitation laws.
In Stellaris, when you plan something it usually goes as planned, no sh!t like your ruler dying of cancer on the verge of founding a kingdom and the whole painstackingly gathered holdings fragmenting again due to the sh!t law you are unable to change due to other sh!t laws. In Stellaris, you can freely pick whatever laws you like.

[Rådjursguden]

Ohh okey, I might have to watch some playthrough's of it and see how the difficulty looks. Thanks for the answers. :)

[Kapika96]

eh, it's harder in some ways. CK3 is definitely very newbie friendly in a lot of ways. Stellaris has the benefit of basically starting from scratch though. You're a new empire, you start small and you don't have to worry about the existing power structure. There may be older more established empires in the galaxy, although they're optional, but unlike CK3 it'll be awhile until you even meet them, let alone have any meaningful interaction with them. In many ways Stellaris is more balanced than CK3 due to that.

[Gralzeim]

Stellaris is a lot more accessible than CK3. Plus its UI is just a lot better.

Also it uses a font that's far easier on the eyes (when I gave CK3 a whirl I ended up using a mod that replaced its font with the Stellaris font, which helped a lot. Though I didn't end up sticking with the game anyway because it's a mess compared to Stellaris).

[Rådjursguden]

Originally posted by Kapika96:

eh, it's harder in some ways. CK3 is definitely very newbie friendly in a lot of ways. Stellaris has the benefit of basically starting from scratch though. You're a new empire, you start small and you don't have to worry about the existing power structure. There may be older more established empires in the galaxy, although they're optional, but unlike CK3 it'll be awhile until you even meet them, let alone have any meaningful interaction with them. In many ways Stellaris is more balanced than CK3 due to that.

Yeah I think that's why CK3 had me kinda overwhelmed when i had to start in an already established country, but I think i'll try stellaris out. It looks like a lot of fun if you can get past the initial difficulty.

Originally posted by Gralzeim:

Stellaris is a lot more accessible than CK3. Plus its UI is just a lot better.

Also it uses a font that's far easier on the eyes (when I gave CK3 a whirl I ended up using a mod that replaced its font with the Stellaris font, which helped a lot. Though I didn't end up sticking with the game anyway because it's a mess compared to Stellaris).

Yeah I can see that. I'll give the game a try. :)

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Rådjursguden:

Is this game as hard to get into as CK3 or is it easier for plebs like myself?

I couldn't get into any of the other Paradox grandstrategy games. Stellaris worked for me, however, because the start is a 4x game and you are slowly and progressively introduced to the Grand Strategy aspects.

Unlike Crusader Kings, where you are thrown into the deep end and are expected to already be a full fledged member of the diplomatic game... Stellaris has you be the founder of the democratic systems, which emerge slowly and progressively in the game, giving you enough time to learn each individual part of the system before the next layer gets added on top.

[Celine Dijon]

Same as the comment above me, never been able to fully understand any other paradox game. This one was much easier to grasp by all means, at least for me.

[ScreamCon]

Stellaris is easy because the years roll out and for the most part the science looks difficult, but really everything is either based on waiting for the next mineral, energy credit etc to build, boost from science, or grow with growed pop.

This is the same reason Stellaris's multiplayer with random players is shotty, the game has a slow pace and stretches over a respectable amount of time.

[Nothing But Seals]

My recommendation for getting into Stellaris is run your first game on easy, ai almost never declares war so you can build up a little peaceful utopia and learn how to manage planets and resources which is the important part of the game. after that is can be a cakewalk.

[rikkitikki]

I was a huge CK2 fan for years which I thought was hard but whose difficulty rolled out at a good gradual pace for my liking. Dunno how CK3 compares. Meanwhile, those same years I kept getting turned off of Stellaris because I could never understand the finer points of the game and got bored with just never ending wars and planet grabbing. But now I am finally getting some grasp of the more subtle complexities (which seem better and more developed in 3.0) but I have to admit it is still taking an effort and a lot of tutorial videos to learn!

I echo the above suggestion about game settings when starting out. Play at least one or two full games at Cadet level, and on Small or Smallest map size. This will allow to experience the many complex layers through endgame without getting crushed so that later when you take on the tougher levels you can plan for all the upcoming challenges better from the get-go.

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

It took me about 40 hours or so to get a very basic grasp I'd say? That plus a lot of YouTube videos.

However once you get used to the UI and the mechanics, it's just a matter of learning the flow of the game and how to start doing stuff the proper way.

One of the issues I ran into is that guides are made for different versions. So you ought to make sure whatever you're reading is for the current version.

[ScreamCon]

The most difficult part... at least for me is getting myself to sit down for a decent period playing stellaris. Once you've played a lot you understand how to balance your empire against the ai so to speak, but it gets easy to get bored unless you have a building strategy that keeps your mind euphorically moving.

Its all too easy for me to look over at my steam games and see a game like fallout 4 and move to that cause the action went down.

This is as there's no surprises, at least... not as many.
Not saying stellaris is stale, lots of interesting stuff happening. I think its worth the cost. Just a problem I'm trying to overcome at 2k hour played.

I think it might be time for me to move towards role playing build designs rather than min maxing for learning/victory purposes.