Stellaris Season 5 - Mega Corp News Network (Ep 1) -NEW CAMPAIGN 

Hey guys! so the audio is a little off in this episode. My microhone's settings have changed for some reason. This will be corrected for EP 2. VOTES!!! Should we do this series live on Saturdays?! strawpoll.com/w9w86c63 Should we expand quickly or focus on developing a smaller territory. strawpoll.com/2e34zwh1 Have a fantastic day! :D

Unity is not Influence

I love the opportunities a 'mega-corporation' can open up. The series starts under the rule of a benevolent CEO who wishes to prosper humanity into the reaches of space, slowly gaining powerful weapons. Only for him to 'die mysteriously ' [or just natural causes] and have his subtly psychotic son take over the business and lead the followers down a more tyrannical path.

Why don't you try a spiral galaxy like the milky way? =D It's way better on the chokepoints!

Teadybear Commissioner of finical development: we must expand and colonize planets quickly so we have more consumers as well to acquire more resources to sell, we must also try to find new sentient life to sell our products too. If they don't buy they will be taken as resources and sold as products. Growth of Armco must be priority.

YUSS! Stellaris! ARMCO Mega Corp for Galactic control! Bert bad Mustache is my hero! :)

Shack, instead of using straw polls, why not just use the RU-vid "i" card in the upper right for your polls?

I personally really prefer the pre-recorded videos over live streams, because 95% of the time I won't be able to watch the stream live or have time to watch the full thing while live, and I do not have the time to watch a 2-4 hour stream video. The ~hour long videos are a good length to watch before I go to sleep at night. That's just my tuppence on the live vs pre-rec question. Edit: In the previously livestreamed series, I have only ever seen part of the first episode, as I haven't had the time to watch the full first episode and therefore haven't watched the next episodes as I have missed bits

So, when are the B1 lines rolling out? Roger-Roger

Part of the fun of live stream is us stopping you from making a horrible horrible decision!

So after seeing the votes and knowing how 2.0 works, it is incredibly easy to get territory you want. So instead going overboard grabbing territory or developing a small amount of territory, go for the middle ground.

I would recommend that you expand to only 15-20 strategically important and resource rich system, and turn your space into a fortress unassailable by any enemies, while building up tech at a rate far faster than any other empire, and eventually building megastructures and making neighbors vassals and tributaries

Also Shack, it would have been great to use the living systems mod, with the billboards and vessels zipping around, but the framerates makes it understandable

Love watching your videos/streams. Helping me with a 20 hour car ride from Connecticut to Florida

the idea for surviving mars and this series to have the same lore is intriguing, and i'd enjoy watching under that premise

You have made incredible progress in this short amount of time, We will be watching. OOC:Holy shit, got a name drop at 14:28. Neat

Service guarantees citizenship

Damn I'm really happy you exist. I love those Role Play Videos you make. Very well done.

Trade hubs can be built on Space stations. Trade hubs on stations within a habitated system allow you to built an offworld traiding company wich gives you more energy.

It would be great to have this series be steamed. Then the vods would be where the role-playing discussions would take place along with the discord discussions

Shack, you should build wide. that buff on the trading hub is pretty mental, but you can only build those in systems that have colonized worlds (or traders, but still).

Damn, this is totally awesome stuff!! Good job! I was expecting a normal playthrough but this is soooooo much better

Space traiding technology allows you to build the "off world traiding company" starbase building wich increases traiding hub efficiency.

Hey Shack Great video! I got Mass Effect vibes when you mentioned Cerberus , which is awesome since they have the different branches of power you mentioned. In terms of strategic build I’d say go for expanding and then building your worlds so they become somewhat of a fortress world.

The pirates kick in round about mid game, it has been added to make mid game spicier but its mostly annoying for everyone.

I'm a new sub, got into your Republic at war play though recently and really enjoy it. So it's my first seeing you play Stellaris and I absolutely love it the news presentation intro was great. Keep it up!

Be careful on expanding too fast as every system under your control slows both research time and unity gain (1% per system), every colony costs you a 20% time increase on unity and 10% on research, also, set the rights for your pops to Academic Privilege to increase happiness and research.

Nice, Saturday evening...with pizza, salat and Stellaris. What could be better? :D I like the new scenario. Keep up with the good work :)

I recommend that you don't leave any gaps in your territory, at least not near anything important, because in my experience the pirates always seem to spawn there. Although if you do find a place where pirates spawn, you might be able to not claim it and surround it with forces for the next time the pirates spawn. That might not work though.

I also like the idea to weave in Surviving Mars into this series. That's a really novel idea.

If I may offer some advice sir, being a mere design engineer. There are whispers of pirates in deep space that raid systems, may I recommend the design and construction of a point defense and hangar defense stations. They will greatly increase the odds of survival when the pirates choose to raid.

I think crossing the story between games would be really interesting!

(Research division) Use the materialism to your advantage and Discovery is the best one to go first btw, and you can research upgrades to upgrade the monuments and it will generate more unity

I would love to see a Surviving Mars tie-in. I would also like to see more of your Space Engineers props/scenarios/episodes used in the intro. Maybe do a brief outdo as well? I think that the edited intros are the best part of this series.

Outposts are to be built into every system that you want to control...

That idea you had for combining this game with Surviving Mars sounds like a cool idea to me.

Omg I've been waiting all day

Hello shack loving the streams have just caught up from season 1 of stellaris!!!! Your stream is awesome!!! Now to season 5 and to catch up to a stream i hope :)

You use INFLUENCE to secure systems, not UNITY. Claiming systems gets more expensive the farther it is from your BORDER, not your CORE.

these are definitely better streamed I think. It's just too important to have the community backing you with their ideas and opinions

A stronghold and fortress are like garrisons for ground defense armys

Something I found while playing was that getting chokepoints to your territory and putting defensive stations in them is very helpful

Shadow VBlood (Shadow Hunter) - "Sir's... I have reported that about an pirates threat from underground, but we could stop right now if we security and expect our border and don't leave a system without out a outpost for long, that is my report for now......", As Shadow VBlood walk backward and disappear into the shadow after he was dismissed by his leaders. (R.P Off) Hey there Cap. Shack... Myself have this version for long way while I do lots of mistakes, I want to help you...Here my first mistake: I left a system without a outpost for to long then sudden a fleet of powerful pirate appear and start to attack my in core systems, while my fleet is fight against off a other pirate from our core systems... So do not let a systems without out a outpost for to long alright. By the way... This Season of Stellaris for new system and new stuff add in this update

Excellent! Another narrated Stellaris campaign :) This shall help fill in the time waiting for the next Edge of the Empire episode! The Ai voice telling you things like 'Construction Project completed' reminds me of INTELLIGENCE from Team America. :D

So Armco is Weyland Yutain.

Love the little stories in every season

Hello for armco

First of all, love your content. Secondly, i miss the streams of stellaris, and if you push for expansion it costs less influence the closer you are to the edge of your empire.

do you use mods exept one for the armco symbol?

this is really cool and especially the intro shows your dedication and how much you are getting into it. me being an stellaris roleplayer aswell while i play. this scratches an itch ive had for too long. you got yourself a new subscriber!

Yeah i would like Saturday live

You'll of probably already figured this out, but influence costs for outposts increase in distance, From your borders! It's a mechanism to encourage players to not try claim jumping choice systems. As well, you want to avoid have unclaimed sectors next to your borders, it encourages pirate spawning (and the threat chance of such can be found by clicking your civ/empire's icon in the top left and looking left of the reform government button).

Shack, PLEASE don't stream this!! And the Star Trading tech means you can add a building to starbases with trading hubs to boost their output.

Love the "would you like to know more" part of the news in the beginning. Reminds me of Starship Troopers.

This is great. Keep up the good work. We will continue this, and we may have to meet sometime such as South of Nevada. It would be good to share our ideas & wares when it does happen.

"Problem Child" as a ship name is pretty awesome. It sounds like the name of a ship that keeps breaking down.

Nice introduction with W4sted!

go tall keep your space small and focus on development. (The more space you have the bigger debuff it has on your unity and research) SO go TTTAAALLLLL... pls

HELL YES! the intros are back, this is what made this so damn good. Best of luck out there CEO shack. Also: in b4 aldin dies

This is going to be so damn good!

GG part of The Economic Development Group of Armco limited. “Try the Armco food divisions new soilent breakfast flakes! Now with a new calcium crunch! *new from the Armcooooo foood division do dooo do bum bum* “

Ooooh, is that shady intro a sneak peek of things to come? Can we expect a Multiplayer Colab aspect in this new campaign? Also Shack, just a few things to keep in mind: 1. In Surviving Mars the planet isn't terraformed yet, its still just Martian terrain and domes. So don't feel like you need to wait until you get terraforming tech to do that Surviving Mars crossover series. It sounds awesome! 2. The farther a star is from your borders the more expensive the Outpost. A star directly adjacent to your borders is cheap, but a star 2 systems away from your frontier is twice as expensive. 3. Your planets can build civilian ships, but you need star-bases with shipyards to build military vessels. And there are new fleet templates now that are kind of tricky to get used to. Basically you create a fleet 'template', say, 5 Soldier class corvettes and name it Fleet 1. You then order the star-base to bring Fleet 1 to full strength by building those ships. If you upgrade the Soldier class design though, then Fleet 1 will tell you it needs to be replenished. That's a glitch. Just upgrade your ships to the newest design. 4. I look forward to watching the new series. I've always loved these videos. Keep making awesome content!

"Your deployment to FEMA should be finalized within the week, I've already discussed the matter with the Senator."

Expansion Cost ... if I understand it correctly, the Cost for an outpost is based on how far it is from your *border*, not how far it is from your core. The mechanic was specifically put in place to give this "grabbing chokepoints" a trade-off: you can do it, but it costs a lot of influence compared to expanding to the choke-points, picking up every system along the way.

Corporations rise and corporations fall, with the heads of Cerberus, Armco will devour all Been ready for your new series for some time Shack. I only hope this new galaxy is ready too

Up til now I only watched for the news style intro. It allows for a more streamlined overview of the game so far, allows for a more creative view on 4x games.

I’ve been watching your EAW vids for a long time, I’m ready to branch out now.

The way that outposts work is that the farther away you are from your border the more it will cost. This encourages people to expand in a more smooth way, and also helps a little with the border gore.

Combining Stellaris and Surviving Mars would be a good way for a lot of the patreons to take an active role in what you do.

Oooooooo.........mysterious subplots. I quite enjoy the intro! Edit: Doing the surviving mars thing could be really cool!

Much prefer the episode version than the streaming, less to watch at once when i miss a stream. Energon, the rarest and most efficient power source :) (34:40) Outposts cost zero upkeep, only the upfront construction cost.

Hey Shack, to fit into the whole "mega-corporation" thing you should design your ships like a real corporation would, cheap and easy to replace, until you get into Titans which should be the like the manifestations of ARMCO, big guns and a mini-mall on board.

This game reminds me of Starship Troopers is that symbol on your company reminds me of star Troopers what's fun can't wait to see you stream it have a great day.

CERBERUS Shack. I don't care what you say I am not working with terrorists. LOL Love the new direction. I would love to see more of these types with heavy story focus.

Yay season 5! Wait... "we're all about what can be gained for the company." Ok, Cap. looks like Armco is going to make Orwell proud, this is going to fun.

And so it begins again... 4:17 For some reason the Galaxy's shape reminds me of the Homestuck Spirograph.

Starbases in the center build military ships while the planetary bases build civilian ships. also the more jumps from the edge of your territory you build an outpost the more expensive it is, so keep it close and cheap unless absolutely necessary

I've probably mentioned this before, but a playthrough like this has a lot of RP potential. For instance, if you go with the Pre-recorded style, every time you read the results of the polls, you can say that "the shareholders have voted on X" on the next intro video. Or if you go the Livestream route, then you can simply call the Strawpole votes impromptu "board meetings on the future of the company". This way, even non-subscribers can feel like they're part of the story, and Armco will operate like a proper Oligarchy/Corporation.

when building outposts, make sure the system is bordering our territory or else it's cost will be higher than normal

If RU-vid doesn’t work out shack you might want to look at righting scripts because those intros are the best

Shack, some useful info: Outposts depends on how far away from your border. Auto-Explore is in the discovery section of the game The symbol you referred to at the start of the game refers to shipyard level. Suggestion: Build up to the nearest set of choke points ASAP as you will have to go to war to take control- make sure you get the planets otherwise you get essentially the Markie (spelling?) form DS9 If you really want to terraform mars early you could use console commands- I don’t think anyone could blame you as it would fit in nicely with the story. DONT FEDERATION: if an allied government goes to war they NEVER allow white truce and the game borks if you integrate the war leader.

Getting commissioned into the Armco military soon, can't wait!

I must binge to catch up, I've been away from RU-vid fora bit and missed the start, but I have so much advice, especially for the new updates and DLC, I'll catch up ASAP

Exploit in exploration: anomaly-acquired ships (raider frigate & sunken cruiser) have better hyperdrive, thruster, and sensor. So, they can "see" or explore nearby systems automatically, i.e. extended "vision." This allows them to travel into previously unknown systems, without first being explored or surveyed by a science ship. This is useful in early phase of exploration, in allowing one to prioritize which systems to survey first, and to check if danger exists in next system before sending in defenseless survey ship. Until, of course, after you search longer ranged sensors. This exploit is basically reverting back to corvette-exploration from pre-v2.

Jeff from resource management here. I'm gonna give it to you straight. WE NEED MORE VESPENE GAS!!!!!

I’m pretty sure the “Frogs” thing is a reference to a 60s tv show from West Germany called Raumpatrouille Orion. It was a German Star Trek, Very Good Actually, That was short lived , but as beloved in Germany as Star Trek was in the US. “Frogs” were an Alien Race that would show up like the Klingons and harass everyone. I saw it on RU-vid. Not sure if the episodes are still there. Some folks say it’s a Star Trek knockoff, but it was in development at the same time and Star Trek wouldn’t be shown in Germany for a few more years. I highly recommend it.

Shack you try to expand as fast as possible. This galaxy is rich with resources and if we don't claim those recourses now, someone else will later.

Hey shack keep in mind that taking over enemy planets are is a lot harder now. You need to have a considerably larger army strength than your opponent when invading

this is so awesome loved the intro

Oh fun I’m just getting into this series I play as a xenophile-spiritualist-militarist mining megacorporation. I called it the Galactech Corporation. Tip: build a lot of starbases with only trading stations in them! Combined with an offworld trading co each of those bad boys gives you upwards of 40 energy. Later you can build something that gives u 50 minerals per month for a 30 energy upkeep or something like that.

Hey shack a bit of advice as someone who has played a half game of this style of stellaris, you have a fleet limit and a ship limit, as well as a CB before war can be declared plus some traditions and ascension perks have been changed, and there is a star base limit now.

I remember the first run of 2.0 I did where I played as a mega corporation banking clan type empire, kind of like ArmCo in a way, but my starting system ended up being in a nebula and only had one hyper lane out of it, making my capital planet near impossible to capture because the enemy couldn't see inside the system and I filled the star base to the brim with as many weapons as possible. Fun times.

Captain Rex reporting in,ready to serve ARMCO!

Sir, I calculate 45.356% chance that intelligent life is nearby (That being 6-10 systems away) These aliens are ripe for profit. I'd recommend caution though,we do not know if these creatures are hostile. I will continue to monitor the situation. Don't worry sir, ARMCO's logistics/intelligence/strategy branch will not fail you. (I love these videos and I love this channel. This, community this, family that we've built is beautiful. Keep up the good work men and women of ARMCO, we will prevail!)

Alden is alive for one episode!The counter continues.

Yeeaaaa its back, i followed since the first season!!

Yes I would defiantly like to see this series be live on every Saturday Shack.

And on this day one Juan "Johnny" Rico went to Boot Camp to join the mobile infantry. Little did he know that his destiny lay far beyond the light of Sol.

I am honoured to be meeting with the Armco. My name is Specialist Hal, inter-departemental specialist. There are a few actions I can advise, for the future of our company. The first is that it would be imprudent to expand too far in "islands" after careful calculations, we have discovered that our lower level employees would start asking questions, if so many resources were to be diverted, it would cost an inordinate amount of resources, disproportional to the cost considering a slow expansion. Not to mention to cost of bureaucratic expansion. Also, Should we encounter other life forms it is ill-advised to spend resources creating a choke point we cannot hold, militarily or economically. Furthermore, the more empty space we leave in our corporate dominion, the greater the chance of pirates forming, we do after all have our own enemies here on Earth who would happily fund them to make our ventures unprofitable. after this, We would advise you to build a second science vessel and hire another lead scientist. though the cost is large, information on where the most valuable mining sectors are key to our success. And in a first contact scenario, it is useful to know where our competition would be so we can plan... around them. Space-stations definitely seem to be the main source of income until the colonies become fully operational. We advise you to spend any extra minerals not spent on expansion to upgrade them and put trading outposts, as well as to keep an eye out for any buildings we can put in the bottom slots that could seriously benefit us. Thank you for your time signing off, *wait, how do I close this thing. There!*

It doesn’t cost unity to expand it cost influence but you will need the unity anyway. It the unity perk tree thing focus on expansion as your main unlock. It makes space stations cheaper and once you finish it I advise getting the perk that lets your fleet get bigger.