Fleets do fight in a better, more interesting and visually appealing fashion than at launch, but I cannot ascribe different tactical approaches before letting them lose. Managing sectors is still unrefined, in that if I’m unhappy with what the AI is doing I can’t override their decisions without spending 25 Influence to liberate a system from its control – the AI still seems to be rather dumb, which makes this worse. Diplomacy still feels frustrating when you’re unable to find any potential allies nearby for idealogical reasons, even if you have fantastic relations, and there still comes a point where I personally feel that military action is the only real way to progress and expand.
#STELLARIS NEW PATCH PATCH#
The 1.3 Heinlein patch adds to those changes and tweaks made previously, but there’s still those rough edges to some parts of the game.
![stellaris new patch stellaris new patch](https://assets.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2020/03/stellaris-federations-verdict-6.jpg)
Separate from the War in Heaven event, Fallen Empires can still awaken in a number of different situations. Federations can now now invite outside empires to be associated with them – a kind of non-aggression pact for all involved. Planet habitability isn’t based on a wheel of climates anymore, but instead on climate groupings. Ship building has been refined a little further, albeit by reclassifying and reorganising existing components, and these hull sizes now have specific roles in battle.
![stellaris new patch stellaris new patch](http://stellarismods.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/patch-guilli-ship-components-2B-ships-in-scaling-mod-1.jpg)
The changes are so big that older saves won’t work with the patched game, and that’s quite understandable. In typical Paradox fashion, it comes alongside a patch that makes a number of changes to the game for all players. My seeing the ‘War in Heaven’ event seems like it will have to wait until another time. The two Fallen Empires in my galaxy have, as yet, sat there like lions lazing in the sun, unable to find even the vaguest desire to fight each other. Once I figured out who they were, I eagerly clicked and threw energy credits at them to see what bounties they could offer me… Alas, I met them a good few decades after they could have offered a serious improvement to my empire’s rise, but I did get a rather clever new Scientist for my troubles and a couple of new research options. The same was true of the two Enclaves I found while waging wars with other empires.