Stellaris Overlord Is Perfectly Balanced With No Exploits 

You can also BUY Stellaris Overlord here and support this channel: www.humblebundle.com/store/stellaris-overlord?partner=montuplays&charity=25618

Montu starting as a vasal: "None of you seems to understand. I am not locked in here with you. You are locked in here with me."

I played around with this and i discovered that the overlord subsidies acceptance isn't based on the percentage of resources they will subsidise but rather the amount of resources that will be AT THE POINT OF NEGOTIATION, this means that you can unemploy all your resource-producing pops and disband your mining stations, negotiate 45% subsidies easily and then afterwards return your economy to normal except they're still subsidising 45% of your current resource output.

Is it just me, or does Montu slowly transform into Spiffing Brit over the course of this video? Like even down to the title. It feels like a homage.

When i heard of imperial fiefdom and content creators were finding ways to deal with it i was wondering why no one showed the scholariom path which should have been the best path. Just tech up and 40-50 years into the game the overlord should collapse on itself and you are free

I'm just imagining the in-universe situation. Super smart species gets absorbed by aggressive not-as-smart empire and is bamboozled by their 'subject'. Every time the emperor calls for an envoy of his vassal to explain why it appears the imperial coffers are being drained dry, the envoy whips out a power point presentation which leaves the emperor with a headache but he's sure the empire is getting the better end of the deal. Hopefully.

A few other perfectly balanced things you could do as a vassal: 1. At the beginning of the game, offer a trade deal to your overlord giving them as much *loyalty* as you could, they will value it quite highly and trade back some pretty juicy resources. 150 loyalty can get you a deal of 60 minerals/month for 10 years. If your governing ethics are incompatible with your overlord (which seems to always be militarist, xenophile and materialist), your loyalty will continuously drop - offer them again periodically to extort more resources from your overlord. 2. At year 5 you will be able to negotiate changes to your vassal contract - where you would not be producing any strategics yet, and probably not a lot of advanced products. Change your deal to one where your overlord gives you subsidies in strategics and advanced resources (not applicable for Prospectorium), they will usually agree to a 15%/30% (rarely, even 45%) subsidy in advanced resources and an unconditional 45% for your strategics. Enjoy these gifts from your sugar daddy.

the *HOLY* Vhellet Empire: is Materialist Bruh

8:28 But...that's not how research agreements work, I thought. The "we can learn" numbers aren't raw research points, they refer to technologies. You can learn 34 physic techs, 50 society techs, and 36 engineering techs at the reduced cost because they know them and you don't.

This video is quite spiffing. But Overlord is a blast so far. Thanks for build videos

I heard “imperial thief” not “imperial fief” at the end, which I think sums it up well. I would like to see a take on the prospectorium start, namely in how you can increase your research stipend from your overlord to gain even more research than I think a scholarium could leach, and emerge from your vassalage with a territory filled with strategic resource deposits.

At minute 8-10, I think you misunderstood what those numbers mean. It's just the amount of technologies your overlord has and you don't have. He isn't giving you research for free, you only get the (30%?) boost to those technologies.

Yeah, Scholarium is so freaking crazy ... I had 6 systems, 2 planets and just stacked the Engineer research trait + research and specialist output civics, nabbed some Curator buffs, assisted research from a science ship, full stack base research labs on my capital and had renegotiated with my Overlord to have them pay more basic and advanced resources .... holy shit, I was finishing tier 4 and 5 engineering research in 14-21 months no sweat

A fun thing i did was start this way but as a mega corporation and basically had early free access to 5-6 planets at the start giving me loads of income and more research or free unity from them

Rogue servitor Shattered ring. "Look at what they need to do to mimic a fraction of our power."

Something that I like about your videos is that you explain/show everything in such a way that not only current players will understand it, but returning players and even new players learning the ropes as well. Thank you for your 'How to' and tier lists videos. I'm really excited about Overlord!

Unfortunately, this has been patched out. One scientist won’t even get you one favor. Plus, your overlord will break the research agreement really quickly. I was not able to get even one research done before they broke it.

10:55 "If there are still walls standing, then you haven't stolen enough." Montu Works for the IRS.

The research aggrement is actually not a science point boost, it's when you research those 100 or so tech, you get crazy speed bonus.

trading leaders to print resources, it like the diplo rework all over again

I can imagine the Montu lizard just holding a copy of The Art of the Deal in one hand, and red, glaring eyes as he's handed a vassalization contract

Unless they changed it, thats not how Research Agreements work - each party only gets a 25% bonus for technologies which the other party already has researched. There is no transfer of research points per se.

Oh God this is hilarious. I'm so excited to see what else you cover from this update. I'd really enjoy a video covering how best to use the newly upgraded automation system

You don't get extra research speed from an agreement. Those are the number of techs they can help you research.

Devs: release new update. Montu: creates vampire vassal Meta build Devs: ............

We've reached levels of balance that shouldn't even be possible!

ah yes, if being the child of a fallen empire wasnt enough, now you get to be the child of an empire at its prime

I was kinda chuckling when he said mega engineering in year 60 and just remembering Stefans Dyson rush by year 60ish. Cool build though!

Gets home. First notification comes through, *It's Montu* Let's gooooo

Imperial thiefdom perhaps

Looking forward to the video today. Vassal system guide soon? Galactic empire vassalization build? Cheers.

I've been trying out the new Mercenary Enclaves as a Megacorp, due to Naval Contractors and Private Military Companies providing +3 Enclave capacity. 80 Years into the game and I have to say, it seems to have a lot of potential. Can't wait for you to cover it.

Actually real life is full of examples like that. The soviets exported nuclear reactors and rockets into my country in the seventies, we sent the potatoes back. Absolutely insane, the idiots just loved us.

The Spiffing Montu plays again :DD

And Knuckles was a steam-age primitive civilization and then got half your Empire after rebelling.

Going for the Spiffing Brit approach I see. We will observe your career with great interest Montu

You can further abuse this by starting as a megacorp, the energy you get from the branches scale with the resources you are sucking from the overlord

Paradox: we made the ai better The a better ai:

It seems I've severely misunderstood the migration system lol. I always thought it let whole pops move around. So you might end up with sub-standard pops and a mix of ethics. If it just provides pop growth, that's insanely good, wow.

Another really good start with fiefdom is Megacorps because you can make mad stacks on your overlords starting worlds. Then once they shatter you can easily either gobble them up or subjugate them and continue to get mad profit off them. Add in some Mercenary enclaves and it's pretty amazing.

For a few ingame years this works, until the overlord decides to change you into a prospectorium and raise your taxes to insane amounts til all your resources are in the negatives.

The spiffing Brit would be proud, Montuwu.

I sat through an entire sonic commercial because I thought it was one of your opening bits(I listen through headphones at work) and then another sonic bit started playing and I had to do a double take 😂

Tbh I don't mind the leader trading Yes, it's cheap *for you*, but for your overlord it's literally something they could never get on their own, so it absolutely should be worth a lot of trade Also tbh, hiring a leader can be pretty damn expensive depending on timing and unity production

8:25 The research that displays on the research agreement is not the research you receive per month, but the number of technologies that they know that you do not. The research agreeement instead reduces the cost of these techs by a third, so it's better than a mere 30 science per month.

Going with the Free Haven Civic should improve pop growth even more? Another idea is to go with only negativ species options to super specialice later and profit from the better overloard pops early, which we should gain through the imigration treaty?

Yeah making research agreement with scientific vassals seems to me an oversight

When I started watching you I got big Spiffing Brit vibes haha

"I have become more powerful then any overlord. I'm more powerful then the Chancellor. I can over throw him and we can rule the galaxy together, make things the way we want them to be" - Montuwu

Spiffing and Montu turf war lets goooooooooooooooooooo!

Are we sure this origin aint called Imperial Thiefdom?

This is exactly what I thought would happen as soon as I saw scholarium get announced though I didn't think the leaders would be worth so much

I love the perfectly balanced videos👌

You *can* have mega engineering by 2250 with any tech rush build and cybrex precursors without any particular cheese, can't you? At the very least, I did this today with void dwellers and technocracy/meritocracy without any other exploits.

This is utterly absurd... thanks for this video, I realized in my last game that there is something amiss. I did not realize the extent of this exploit though.

By trading for negative loyalty its pretty doable to get insane modifiers on your terms negotiation deals, making it quite easy to completely strip them naked till they collapse.

Really wishing I had seen this video earlier, would have helped out my early play. But I've done quite well so far: I'm about to absorb my former overlord, and hope to eventually smooth out the local border gore by annexing everyone around me. A few things I have noticed about this origin: The name, species portrait, and some lesser aspects are randomized, but it is always a Holy Empire, the homeworld is named Aix, and it is a Gaia world, meaning the overlord has the Life-Seeded origin and pays a steep price for upkeep of their own colonies. This also makes it useful to take the ascension perk that allows you to terraform planets into Gaia worlds. Especially necessary if you want to absorb everyone in the empire, as they are likely to have various planet types and you want to minimize pop upkeep while being able to shift pops around without regard to species. Also, the geometry of the empire - you are always a few jumps away from Aix, while the other vassals are close to Aix. You have room to expand, they have limited directions and mostly facing away from you. (Though I ended up hemmed in by the galactic edge and neighbors to the north. Who have also volunteered to be our vassals...)

This sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to play around with. I know it's gonna get gutted pretty quick but I'm gonna have fun while this lasts.

When you do this build and then get the Zroni as your precursor. Even more overpowered.

You fool, I can FEEL Spiff vibrating with tea-fueled legal potency even from here! Your Sonic the Hedgehog references won't save us again!

i dont know how often it happens but when i played as a bulwark about 25 years into the game my overlord had a civil war and i became the overlord of the empire as a protectorate

Welp, time to start my game over. I found out on my own about sucking up to them and getting subsidies, but didn't know I could con them into a research agreement.

Spiffing Brit took over montus channel

The vassals breaking away after the death of the initial ruler of the overlord is more of a Timsplosion than a Mingsplosion.

Needs more Tea for perfection.

Just the fact that you can rely on your Overlord for protection as a tech empire is pretty powerful on its own.

and the capital planet of the overlord is a size 30 gaia world ^^ Nice addition tou yours future empire

Love the "Spiffiing Brit" title. xD

Hey Montu, any plans to make a dawi build with the whole new underground start?

What we have here is unity transformed into other resources. Meta speaking, it would take a strong relationship to trade value derived from one's social cohesion into literal capital spending of any value.

Need some Yorkshire Gold tea with this video...

I thought the new psionic rush was amazing. This is insane!!

You can now truly roleplay as Space Greece

Unless they've changed the way research agreements work, the numbers you see in the trade screen are the number of techs they have that you don't. These are the techs you get a 25%bonus to when teching them. You don't get one beaker per tech. So you are still paying more than you get beakerwise. But that's a small price to iay for all of the other free stuff you can get (until selling scientists gets either removed or hit with the nerf bat)

Wait, I thought the +25% on tech they own was the only thing you got from a research agreement, is this wrong?

There is a OP thing call take over the land when the Empire breaks apart and claim the throne

My first games as imperial fief, my overlord refused to give me any deal that would increase my loyalty no matter what i tried and then collapsed after 30yrs...

Amazing video

The migration treaty at the start of game does NOT always result in a massive increase to pop growth, it seems to be very hit or miss. Some starts I get it, some I do not. I think in some cases the AI does something else with those extra pops or maybe doesn't have unemployed pops.

I think I also saw someone using branch offices on the overlord.

Oh man now i can roleplay as space Israel... what was the name of that Mel Brooks film...

Hey! That’s spiffs job!

I think this got nerfed? When I do migration treaty I am not getting that huge pop growth bonus. Also my overlord is not a fallen empire :/

I mean the whole time we were learning about it i thought the vassles seemed to get the long end of the stick

Imperial fief, I just keep hearing imperial thief.

Some where, a leader in that holy empire "this research agreement is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, we need to build a wall"

LOL has anyone tried doing a mega corp civ with a overlord yet? normally it would take awhile to get a huge amount of energy credits but you can get 1.5k energy coming in within the 1st 5-10 years(depending on how much you expand, the less you expand the more you can get) with this overlord play through...there is no need for a commercial agreement with the overlord or the vassals, the overlord has a 70-75 pop capital so straight off the bat you have 220 energy just for setting up the trade office with them and there is not influence penalty for making trade offices on other worlds. keeping in mind you do not need to have a commercial agreement with the vassals and they are all very local so the distance modifier is very low as well and you can probably get even more but one of the vassals for my play through was another mega corp so there is one planet i could not set up a trade office on

They should set it up like immediate vs. monthly resources so that you can only trade leaders for leaders.

About to start I and I'm sure this won't be terrifying at all not at all

That's not how research agreements work. You don't get research from them. You only get a bonus to researching techs they have that you don't. The tooltip doesn't tell you how much research you get from them; it tells you how many of each tech type they have that you don't.

Also, the way that Research agreements work is not how you seem to think - research agreements give a 25% speed boost (additive) for techs that are known by the other party. There is no bonus to research income. You also can avoid using the favors at all by raising their opinion through favorable trades, which can also net you a trade agreement!

I just wanna know how you’re making that much unity I can’t break 15

Seems they fixed the scientist trading somewhat. Can still get a good bit of resources though Lucky for me I had a nice fleet by 2230 when the overlord died( really early ) but managed to snag their one of the other vassals systems and subjugated another Worked perfect to cuz the cybrex sites I needed were in their systems. Think it’s gonna turn into a become the crisis game for me

wait, that isn't the spiffing brit? no way

It's true that it is ideal condition, and this is very difficult to have such start with overlord.

First encounter with the word scholarly XD

Oh no! Montu has turned into The Spiffing Brit!

There needs to be a condition where the ai empire is slowly turning into a fallen empire so it starts at a point you can't conquer it but it also doesn't accept your scraps so early and just hand out late game homeless pops. If not maybe just a professional clause you can't accept these scientists to boost your research from the very start or move the shared research powers to later loyalty stages.

so far overlord is very fun and im so relieved that its not another nemisis situation

I’m not even gonna lie Im truly enjoying this expansion more than any of expansion. It was like they actually listened to their fans almost entirely