A Stellar Weekend and Giveaway! [Ended]

[Pylinaer]

And I was wondering what would come along that I could collaborate this giveaway with. And here it is!

Stellaris is on FREE WEEKEND!

So, why am I comboing with the free weekend? Well, One very lucky person, on Sunday at 3PM PDT, will get to continue their free weekend with a copy of the game! (Key supplied from Humble Bundle as plaintext).

Important Info!

• Giveaway ends on Sunday May 12th at or about 3PM PDT (2200 UTC).
• Winner will have 24 hours to reply to my message before it will be forfeited.
• If it is forfeited there will be ONE reroll.
• The game will NOT be refeatured in any giveaway if it goes unclaimed.

The Rules!

1. You Must have the Member Badge!
2. Be Nice!

How to enter!

1. Reply to this thread with a screenshot you took from the game and a short description of the screenshot!
2. No really, that’s it.

In case the key, for some ungodly reason, doesn’t work, there will not be compensation.

I reserve the right to change info if there are issues that need to be resolved.

[Rhyagelle]

Can I enter for a friend in my Holdfast regiment?

EDIT

Alrighty then, my entry will be for my friend!

I’ll share story through a small set of images through my first custom Martial Empire, which I spent—much I think to the annoyance of my friends—hours going over the biography (little did I know they’d never be able to see it).

*latest heir to Empress Ryel

Stellaris Journey

_A (almost) brief recount of some tales concerning these images lol if it has to be brief, I’ll edit it, just lemme know )

As you can see from some of these pics, my warfaring lizardfolk (who are notorious for hating democracies, yes, that’s right) were doing quite fine expanding at first. East, north or south, they ran some time without bumping into intelligent life. But when the Sholgari finally did? Well you can see by the overview map (I scored quickly for ya outside of our MP game):

it wasn’t very fun (there was a bit of land loss and negotiation at some point). Empire, Foundations, pirates, xenophobes, xenophiles, and those weirdos that just want to preserve you and get really mad when you refuse to sell them pops.

Well, eventually, my beloved Empress Ryel came across some democratic folk who weren’t too keen on the Sholgari expanding and started sending insults. I couldn’t stand for that, naturally. I sent my insults, made them a rival, told my friends what was up, made some claims and went to war. The Sholgari are a proud species after all, I couldn’t just let them continue to be. I didn’t account for their allies though (it delayed victory). Together with my friends, we took the first enemy down quickly, and swallowed up their land. It took a while, but I became richer for it. I was making so much in resources by now I was capping every month and was making tons of credits. It was crazy.

The peace didn’t last long. By 2300 we were in another war, this time, as a federation. lol

By then we had helped in two other minor scuffles, got scared by L-Gates (good god, stay away from them), I thought I awoke the Khan event, I found an alternate dimensional portal on my planet that led to a super rich version of itself that I started trading with, I got rekt by a creepy alien from a portal, the federation leader became uber rich and power that basically nothing could touch him, Earth kept making pacts and breaking them only to start wars it kept losing (to fanatics mind you) and that’s where we stopped.

I’m waiting to pick it up again with them, now. When we first started, it was me and one other person, and then it picked up like crazy. Now we rotate between 5-6 people playing Stellaris (or CK2) and it is a blast! Except that one time I accidentally surrendered to the Devourers…

[Pylinaer]

@Pylinaer

2. No, really, that’s it.

(yes)

[Koroth]

I don’t think the short description of a screenshot is a very good idea. I’m not sure what would be a good idea instead, but I do know that it alienates me from this giveaway in a sense. Plus there are people that skip story and just want to play the game regardless if the game is story driven or even an RPG styled game. It may even alienate others from entering the giveaway as well if they skip story and just go for the gameplay which I find to be a bit of a caveat in the way to enter. Plus giveaways are supposed to be fun and I feel that describing a screenshot doesn’t sound fun in the slightest. I like that you are doing a giveaway @Pylinaer but I for one feel that there could be something better than a description for a screenshot to enter for the giveaway. I’m opening the floor to other suggestions from others. If you don’t want to change it that’s perfectly fine. I am just trying to give you my feedback.

[YQMaoski]

Koroth, why does this alienate you from the giveaway? Pardon me for being unable to make the connection.

I think Pylinaer is doing something that’s totally sensible. He’s ensuring that the people who enter are those who try out the game during this free weekend and who have enjoyed it for the short time that it is available.

I have never played but from what I can see, the game feels and looks intimidating and I am not sure if I want to take the dive. So in turn, I would not be eligible to enter this giveaway should I decide to never head into the game.

That makes perfect sense to me. If I am too chicken to take a look at the game even when it’s totally free on Steam, why should I want to enter for the giveaway in the first place? It’s not likely that I would play it, and games activated in a library collecting dust doesn’t really do anyone any good.

So if you install the game and play for a bit, maybe have some fun for a couple hours, then you decide that this game is for you, then you are entering the giveaway for the right reasons.

Not to name any names, but there have been plenty of people who entered and won some dazzling prizes from these giveaways here on Chrono who have never even installed/launched a game. I recollect one individual purchasing a very expensive Chrono daily deal just to support the site and put the game into a giveaway, to have the winner not touch it to this day. That was many moons ago.

Let’s all put it into perspective here, Pylinaer doesn’t even have the game activated on his own account. His account has 151 games activated. I think he’s trying to find someone to play the game and enjoy it, not just a +1 in a library of too many other games. He might even enjoy it himself, but maybe because he wants to find someone who might like it even more. Playing for a couple of days during a free Steam weekend to get an impression of the game for yourself and then deciding to enter for a giveaway, what’s the problem with that?

Anyway, @Pylinaer, I think you are doing something good, so and to you, and thanks.

[Pylinaer]

@YQMaoski

lienate you from the giveaway?

If people are gone for Mother’s Day weekend or have a data cap they have to watch. That may present issues simply installing the game.

@Koroth

better than a description for a screenshot

My other idea was a paragraph on an unique Messier Object.

@YQMaoski

try out the game during this free weekend

Pretty much, yup. That was the idea.

@YQMaoski

His account has 151 games activated.

Not including uninstalled free to play games.

[Fraggles]

Thanks for doing this giveaway @Pylinaer and thanks for notifying me that this game is on a free weekend at the moment. I’ve been wanting to try it out since it’s release so I’ll be spending most of the weekend with it no doubt.

I appear to have run into some sort of bother though. I can’t seem to board this vessel no matter what I do. Read a few threads on this quest in particular tried everything suggested. Have a leader for the fleet in orbit doesn’t work, have an assault fleet in orbit doesn’t work, have a general for the assault fleet did nothing. Tried attacking again and nothing happens. I guess this quest is bugged… still, the thread I read was from 2016.

I did find another similar event elsewhere that required a construction ship, so I sent a construction ship and immediately upon it’s arrival the research button became active and the event was resolved.

Another thing I’m no quite understanding, before the fight Galathor’s Armada had military power of 111, Sulthnar’s fleet once it got it’s 3 ships in it also has 111. But repairing Galathor’s armada doesn’t restore it’s military power number. I can’t seem to find a way to get it back to 111.

I also made an early mistake of building a quick second research ship, figuring I wanted to be quick in scouting out systems which is usually a good idea in 4x games. Turns out they’re useless without a scientist and all my boffins were busy with other stuff.

[Lifedeather]

Thanks for the Giveaway Pylinaer. This game was on my steam wishlist for a while and I can finally experience it through free weekend :).

This is just me having no idea what’s going on and starting out :). I’m checking out some video guides as we speak, really excited to dive in. GL ALL

[Koroth]

You make a good point. Games do tend to collect dust in peoples collection. I’m used to more simple giveaways rather than playing the game and giving some kind of synopsis. I usually prefer simple ways for giveaways. It is a giveaway after all, but you make good points and it does seem to weed out those that just want a game for the sake of a free game rather than enjoying it and actually playing it. Alienate may have been the wrong word to use. I’m thankful that pylinaer is doing a giveaway so I just wanted to make that clear. I’m not trying to dismiss what they are doing. Anyone who does giveaways I am always thankful for. Not trying to cause trouble.

[Koroth]

@Pylinaer Thanks for the giveaway and I didn’t mean to dismiss you or your giveaway. I was just trying to give some feedback.

[AcornAvenger]

Not entering but thanks for the giveaway! I love the idea of the chance for “extending the free weekend”

[Kalotan]

Thanks for holding this giveaway, and for telling people about the free weekend. I myself will give the game a try tomorrow, and see if I like it enough to enter the giveaway.

[GDBringer]

Ok. So I stopped playing a Star Wars game to try this out. Stellaris looked so interesting so I at least wanted to play the free weekend for some hours.

Ironman! A Fungus species that thinks its an insect!

Hours Later:
Oh my gosh. Some things are not intuitive and has a bit of a learning curve. Lots of reading before I even start the game. Hopefully it will pay off.

Hours Later:
I declared war just for fun! I sent my fleet to attack a mining ship but they instead ran straight at the enemy station. Is there no “Stop attacking. Flee. Run Away. Stahp!” button? There is literally no way to disengage once they start fighting. So my first fleet better not die. I still haven’t figured out how exactly to win the war since I claimed their homeworld.

Now:

What is this? What does this mean? Ok, I know what it means. But unless there are 50 days in a month, then I guess I should give up on that.

Lots of confusion to go around. I’m sure a lot of people don’t try their first game in ironman. But at least it makes it much more interesting.

[Fraggles]

Nooo, @GDBringer don’t come in here with your luck and take this game as well. You couldn’t be sated with just taking every game from hivefleet’s giveaway? : )

There is a retreat option somewhere in the fighting window, but it’s greyed out most of the time because for some reason it takes a large number of days for the FTL engines to recharge after a jump and I guess they might as well fight to the death while waiting for that to happen. * shrug *

I’ve now put 10h into the game and have tried to expand far and fast in my game, trying to claim as much territory as I can. Almost entirely ignored my military, while also researching almost exclusively “increased research output” types of research topics, not sure if research is randomly generated or something and you can just keep on researching better research methods forever. Figured there’d be a handful of them good to do early but I’m not so sure anymore.

[GDBringer]

Lol! Ever since I won that 1.?% chance raffle, I’ve been strangely lucky! If I win this, I’ll go buy 10 lottery tickets.

I’ll look for the FTL option. Thanks. We both have problems finding relevant information on this game when everything is from 2016. I even found an alien black box. Opened it and the wiki said it gives a choice for a race bonus. Red=Super Strength, Green=Extremely Adaptive, Blue=Venerable. When I chose the blue pill for the Venerable trait, instead I got a new similar trait that isn’t in the wiki. Many things are out-dated.

[DontBeSilly]

Not participating ,but thank you very much for giveaway and also it’s a great idea i must admit

[Fraggles]

There’s my empire at the end of this weekend.
Rather early on I ran into some hostile crystalline creatures blocking my western passage in the north. Both system there had 3 fleets with about 3-500 fighting strength each, I figured I’d eventually deal with them, still don’t have the military power to do so.

Also ran into some in the middle southern path that ruined my day for a few years they were only a single fleet so I managed to take them out. This delayed my expansion into that part. This might have been good as I found myself wanting to rush down south ward along the eastern edge of my empire to compete with the expansion of the Ktaggian’s down there. I managed to beat them to one of the intersections but not the 2nd so they cut me off to expand further around the center of the galaxy.

My final standing as I uninstall this game, for now.

[Pylinaer]

There are 2 hours left. (forgot my own timezone for a bit lol)

[Pylinaer]

Now entries are closed. Roll will commence.

From Random.org:
Set 1: 2, 4, 1, 3

@discobot roll 1d4

[discobot]

4