@@anotherlobster7294yeah kind of, I always play games with three fallen empires one of them is generally a robot that has multiple ringworlds and just outside their territory I usually find one or two ringworlds that can be claimed and repaired.
I still think Ringworld segments should come with Orbital Ring features built into them... i mean an orbital ring is literally a miniscule version of the ringworld. Imagine having 4 hangar bays, 3 secondary structures, and 50 defense platforms on each of 4 ringworld segments. It could singlehandedly defend a 10x crisis and it *should* have that kind of power.
They kind of do now, they give you the bonus of EVERY orbital ring building included. As long as you have the ground based version fully upgraded! Though, granted, the lack of defensive measures is annoying. I think I agree, it would fit with the Culture version of a ringworld
The Stellaris Evolved mod expands ringworlds quite significantly. With the right civics you unlock planetary decisions to specialize your ring segments drastically, including some districts which produce rare resources. Granted, the mod also expands ecumenopoli and adds an "environmentalist" alternative to the archeology project called eco-worlds which are also insane. So ringworlds still lose out.
there is one sliiiiight drawback to the matter decompressor i noticed in my current playthrough: if you build it on a black hole with dark matter production it will kill the dark matter production
hmm, my last game i demolished the station, then built the matter decompressor, and then my constructor that i've left on "auto build" went and built the station again so i got dark matter again, dunno if it's a bug or it's fixed if so, just keep that in mind
I'm with you! Only time I every really felt like I was -justified- in a Ringworld was a build where I was overflowing with pop assembly speeds. I want to say the I filled up four of them that game, but its been a while and it may just been an old-man-shouting -at clouds moment. Aside from that, I feel like all the other Ringworlds I've built end up being filled only by wasted potential and regrets. But I want them to work so badly!
If you use a mod that bans AI habitats and have migration treaties with a lot of other empires in the late game when all the planets in the galaxy are full there will be so many homeless/jobless pops that your ring worlds will completely fill up in a month or two. I’m up to 3 completely full ringworlds with some more on the way. Have 30k research atm
If that were possible I would build them in every system on my borders in the late game and just keep yeeting them out of my systems whenever they show up again. Would feel like playing a game of keep away with a toddler and that amuses me.
or like, you put a bunch of minerals and throw it at a fleet located within its range. eitheir have it be an onsta kill or a like 50% of the fleet is destroyed beyond a certain amount of fleet power. for balance
@@isuckatusernames4297 And a 50% chance to turn a planet with primitives on it into a tomb world and cause them to go extinct if it is within range. Maybe a chance for non-colonized planets in the area to be changed into a tomb world as well. Because flinging that much minerals at relativistic speeds in a general area might just hit a few unintended targets. And now the primitives are watching a big pile of minerals the size of Kazakhstan speeding at their planet and they are wondering what god they pissed off.
The sentry array in F tier is a bit rough: seeing all fleet movement in the galaxy (and granting the same thing to your allies) is still very, very valuable. Being able to track the movement of far away crisis fleets is always very useful to prevent attacks from unexpected angles. But the argument of the lag is, as ever, a very solid argument
I think the worst part about the sentry array is the fact that it disables the spawning of space fauna as a side effect of having no systems with low intel available for them to spawn in. I know it really doesn't matter but... it's like they go extinct.
It’s not that the sentry array is necessarily bad itself, it’s just that by the time you’re able to build it you will easily have max level sensors and so will really be seeing fleets that are of any kind of threat to yours. Sure seeing an empires fleet travel across their whole area is useful but realistically you only need to know where their forces are within a few jumps of yours. This listing is an about how objectively useful the mega structure is, it’s tearing them based on how useful they are as a megastructure. All of the alloys used for a sentry array could be used for significantly more helpful structures. Wanna know what’s a lot more helpful than knowing where your enemies fleets are? Being able to build or five fleets out of the alloys needed for the sentry array
@@kylepessell1350 The century array is good but it’s just that the resources are used on that would be significantly better spent on literally anything else. Hell, even just using the alloys needed to build a more ships would be more useful. Knowing where your enemies fleets are is useful and all but wanna know what’s better? 5 full size fleets, or a Dyson sphere, or hell even just building 20 habitats would be more productive
Usefulness of the sentry array ranges from: F tier with a low end PC on a tiny galaxy to S tier with a high end PC on a huge galaxy. Its usefulness increases with both PC performance and galaxy size
Strange side benefit of the Dyson sphere: it lets you go to town on the slave market, if other empires do that sort of thing. Currently filling out three Ecuminopolises (Ecuminopoli?), a ring world, and fifteen worlds in the L-cluster. In a play though that gave me a ruined mega shipyard. So yeah, that’s a lot of fun
I rarely had a playthrough where the AI put that many slaves were on the market to buy this way. But when there were, using synth ascension path to automatically assimilate them in more useful pops was very nifty. To be fair, I often ran Nihilistic Acquisition strats with it to just drain pops away instead, so there might have been a reason why the market was that empty. Sure, conquering is far more effective, but this way the pop pastures didn't deal with sprawl slowing growth down and I got a more managable set of systems I could optimise. With the Trade Algorithms trait in 3.6, that could still be a fun way to play.
Think you forgot to mention that the quantum catapult also requires a system with a pulsar or neutron star as well making it even more of a pain to build.
First time i used it i was at the end of a spiral galaxy without anyone 'behind me', and i wanted to strike at an enemy on the other side of the spiral. Technically right next to me, but no hyperlanes. Built a catapult, slowly figured out how to use it, and set up a Juggernaut led fleet of ships + science, construction, and army transport ships to quantum catapult an invasion directly into the heart of their empire. Bypass the bunch of other empires that disliked me. Yeah... they shotgunned across the galaxy and i lost about 40% of the fleet to landing in a trespass area, and the rest was just barely enough to build a beachhead in the 4 systems we ACTUALLY landed in. Then i got steamrolled since i didn't have enough DPS to keep attrition from fights away. The circle where you can 'land' is just waaaay too massive. I'd be fine with LESS potential, and much more consistency with it. Until then its just there, wasted.
@@Samuel034I use the catapult to explore places not connected with other systems via hyperlanes, but I was out of range of the system I wanted to visit. Luckily, destroying the Unbidden portal gave me an artifact which increases range and reduces the circle radius, which let me do what I wanted successfully. I'd say that the catapult is actually useful with this relic and I wish the cooldown between using them were shorter
16:25 I think the Strategic Coordination Center makes a lot more sense for players inclined to Pacifism or tallness, or both. Every time I build it my relative increase in Naval Capacity is yuuuge, whereas a player who has been conquering systems from the early mid game would see a much smaller relative increase.
@@TheTonts Or go the next step with the Nidavellir Hyperforge. Or both, since Gigastructures lets you do that because clearly you can't have enough post-scarcity
When it comes to finding a ruined megastructure, Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompressor definitely beat out the others. It negates all of the drawbacks of building them, (the cost, time, and needing to take an ascension perk), and they inherently are more effective the earlier you get them because of how much they allow you to snowball.
The pop growth and pop mechanical assembly colony designation on ring worlds definitely helps with the population problem, especially when it scales with the planetary ascension tier
You gave me an idea. With the clone origin an idea could be to move the clone vats there, buy slaves from the market and release the system as a vassal... Then turn them to a bulwark. Put them into your Alliance. Other than that. I don't know. Except for depopulating planets from enemies by moving pops to the ring and give them empty planets back. 🤔
@@MontuPlays For alloys, sure no doubt at all, for science tho the ringworld is much better. And the cost is not that different, mid-late game civs (specially with ecumenopolis) can transform minerals to alloys on a 1 to 1 ratio or better, so 20k min or 20k alloys is a comparable cost. Ecus only take 10 years, but you cannot speed them, you can get +150% megastructure build speed for the ringworld. Obviously ecumenopolis come online earlier due to not needing a previous mega but hey, once you have it i believe both world types are comparable for their respective specializations.
@@chusnacho4447 something else to consider however is that usually when you turn a planet into an ecumenopolis it’s already a heavily populated planet with lots of industry. When you build a ring world that you’re starting a colony from scratch even if you can move some pops over from your other worlds
I'd love to see you do gigastucture sometimes as well. Very good video Montu. I am always a fan of your top 10's if you are going heavy enough into megastructured however you are probably going to have 2 build slots and probably 3 when you get the ambition won't you? Lol I love Gigastructures fir this reason though I usual leave it at 1 at a time default unless I am doing heavy RP. I also play exclusively pve so that mat change things as well as an addendum, I would put matter decompressor as S tier myself it's usually the go to for me though with Gifastucttures I'm using a lot of star lifters as well
The problem is that it actually slows down your game heavly with lag and tbh by the time you get it, unless you find a ruined one, your technology will let you see the majority of the galaxy anyway. With envoys and communications and an eddict you can see more than half the galaxy the rest will be to far to matter most of the time anyway.
The main problem with it is that even by mid game you usually have all of the sensor tech unlocked. Once you can see any other ships that are within four jumps of your fleets being able to see them across the whole galaxy is just kind of redundant. Sure you’ll make sure you never get sneak attacked but even then your star base defenses should always be able to handle small sneaking fleets
The Catapult is something I have fun with if I take the origin, and thus plan an entire build with it in mind, but I have never actually built one from scratch.
@@novaseer I’m currently getting 12 influence a month in my current play through… for what the catapult costs, it’s still not worth it to me. Would rather spend my influence on habitats, a ring world, gateways, and espionage. The catapult doesn’t provide enough incentive for the cost. I already have jump drives and allies with gateways that allow me to traverse the galaxy.
My girlfriend watches me play Stellaris. I might be cheesy and build a Ring World then label each one as “Will” “You” “Marry” “Me” when I’m ready to propose 😂😂😂
I personally like the sentry array as just quality of life, but I also play on Xbox Series X so my specs are good and I haven’t experienced any possible changes in the most recent version of Stellaris but it’s overall value isn’t high in my opinion, it’s just nice to see everything
One thing I adore about ringworlds is the rp perspective for it. Building a ringworld means your empire is powerful af, so to demonstrate my power, I usually like to build ringworlds in system bordering my vassals and gifting them the rings
This honestly makes me curious as to how much the list will change if it was for ruined megastructures instead, as it becomes possible for something like 2 strategic coordination centers or 2 mega shipyards, which is extremely good.
Have you ever considered sheltering enough ai empires, so they build mega of their own? I did this last time and ended up with 14 megashipyards and more to conquer. ruined structures are good in midgame, but have nothing on yoinking sites or fully upgraded versions from your enemy.
One thing I will say in defense is that with the interdimensional warlock you can catapult fleets half-way across the galaxy with pinpoint accuracy. And that's its only redeeming quality. I mean I guess it's cool and stuff
It’s especially super useful if you keep it in the core of your empire because you can rapidly pump out torpedo Corvette swarms to deal with any threat that manages to slip past your borders.
I wish the catapult was better. Its such an awesome concept. I think if they had an upgrade path that increases the accuracy(less fleets=more accurate yeeting)with a higher upkeep and maybe a cooldown after its use. I built one not knowing what it did. I did find some very very minimal use for it. i used it to yeet my fleet to the further edge of my empire(didnt have gateways built there yet) when i was being attacked.
i am almost counting Gigastructural engineering as a base game asset at this point, i cant play without it as it gives quite a endgame and it does seem balanced surprisingly enough! i would love to see a tier list for that if you use that :)
The quantum catapult definitely needs a buff. It seemed stupid to me from the get go. maybe add a return function for the last fleet sent and increase to perfect accuracy at completion.
could also add an effect that if a fleet using jump drive from a quantum catapult system they don't get the penalty from jumping because the catapult is giving the fleet a boost
I feel like Dyson Spheres and Matter Decompressors don't get as much love as they should. Not that you aren't showing them love here. I find one of the biggest advantages of those two is the fact that they start producing useful amounts almost right away. A first stage Matter Decompressor is still giving 500 minerals a month. A second stage Dysons Sphere is giving 1000 energy credits a month. both of those are really good for fixing a slightly upset economy, or just giving a nice edge to doing creative things. And the best thing about doing either of those, is that after the 10 or 20 years, you go on to a different mega structure while still receiving the useful bonuses. You could say the same thing about the other multi tier megastructures, but the bonuses for most of them are not great until you hit the final tier. Basically, I think what I'm trying to say is that a Tier 1 Matter Decompressor and a Tier 2 Dysons Sphere are S tier, but the fully completed ones belong in the A Tier where you put them. Also, would you be willing to create a planetary buildings tier list? I find myself wondering if I am undervaluing certain buildings. Also, I really do not understand the hate the Gene Clinic receives.
If I remember correctly, the problem with the Gene Clinic is the fact that the population growth bonus is painfully low, It costs you 2 pops working in it, and takes like 30 years to give you 3 pops back, which gives you 1 pop profit, but you needed to sacrifice 2 pops working for 30 years to get that 1 extra pop, those 2 pops could have done a lot producing other stuff, so by the time the gene clinic becomes "worth it" you're talking about 50 years.
@@zoopa9988 I get that, but that isn't the only thing they do. They also provide amenities and habitability. None of those three things individually are worth it, but combined together seem pretty good. Yes its half the amenities of an entertainer, but the way I see it is that you are going to have to employ that entertainer anyways, you cant get around that, but then amenities are all its going to do. Two medical workers provides the same amenities as the one entertainer. but also provide the pop speed growth and the habitability, To put it another way, its really 1 medical worker providing 10 amenities just like an entertainer, and then 1 medical worker providing 5 habitability and 10% pop growth.
@@chris-zn7pq Haven't played Stellaris in a while so the gene clinic may have been altered slightly, but the pop growth is probs still the most important statistic, since they give as many amenities as 1 entertainer we could cut the problem I described in my earlier message by 50%, I think the problem remains the same, it now takes 25/30 years before you get profit instead of 50/60 years, it simply takes to long before you get any value out of it.
because megashipyard is more useful, you risk to be ganked by hostile empire, so being able to pop 50 warship in few months is very useful to win attrition war against hostile empire and you can use your station to increase your fleet capacity or build fortress, so around 2300 megashipyard is more useful when other empire want to try to invade you
I gotta say I agree with most of your assessments. I do think the Assembly is more useful than C tier, especially once you consider that many empires that focus on diplomacy will be neglecting their fleets to start off with (Though I guess that falls more into roleplay than actual strategy with the fleet diplo power modifier) What megastructure do you think the game would benefit from getting added in future DLC?
I think it would be great to get a defensive megastructure. Perhaps one that combines with smaller relay stations to prevent Jump drive jumping into the system. would be cool late game
@Montu just a note, you mention you can't build a Dyson Sphere or Matter Decompressor unless you've built another megastructure first. However, I believe you also get this option if you restore a ruined megastructure? If so, the new 3.6 Shattered Ring origin checks that box as soon as you restore a ring segment, does it not? Makes this much more attractive.
I watch almost all your new stuff even though I can't use most of it because I'm on console. Keep up the good work! (We still won't get overlord until I think mid 2023)
I am sad to say I agree with you about ring worlds. Most play throughs I still end up with them but that is via finding a ruined one or the slaughter of a fallen/awakened empire.
Don't think I can argue it should be placed higher, but one thing a ring world is great for is depopulating swathes of the galaxy. I tend to play wide in the early-mid game, then shrink down to a very dense, easily defensible core sector toward lategame. The excess territory becomes vassals, but most of the pops that were out there are going to get relocated and need somewhere to go. A newly built ring solves the problem nicely, for far less influence than habitat spam.
An unmentioned drawback of the Sensor Array is that tliyanki, drones, amoeba, etc stop spawning. If you're cordyceps this means building it shuts you down. Unless they removed that feature of having intel on a system in 3.6, which I don't recall seeing in the patch notes.
I think the Strat Coord Center should be in the S-tier. The amount of naval capacity you get from it is enough to field an entire extra fleet, and the speed boost means you're chasing down enemy fleets even without the 'exotic gases as fuel' edict.
I agree. Coordination center + extra shipyards is better than Mega Shipyard + more anchorages. Maybe late game it'd be better, but when you first get mega engineering, it's pretty meh; you won't be able to economically support constantly building!
because you also need mineral and energy to keep your fleet so it is debatable if strat coord is better than dyson sphere or matter decompressor, with both you can spare more space to build house or industry, it mean you need less a ecumenopolis if your normal planet can produce alloy and goodie you need
I'm not sure if they count, but would Hyper Relays and Gateways also be considered S tier megastructures? Couldn't imagine playing an empire that doesn't use them.
Tfw you find a ruined matter decompresor and an empire near you finds a ruined dyson sphere that you *aquire* and repair allowing you to become all powerfull at ludicrous speed
There are 5 main megastructures I build Matter compressor Dyson sphere Science Nexus Galactic Assembly Mega Shipyard The rest are kinda situational. You don't really need the Sentry array for instance, and ringworlds are basically kinda just there unless you pick a ringworld as your origin, or if you are unlucky with planets to colonize.
14:21 I’m not gonna lie, by the time I built my full dyson sphere in my most recent game, I was already producing well over 7000 with my population and still was barely cash positive with Capacity subsidies. No way would I switch my pops off generator jobs after building a dyson sphere because by the time I unlock it in a game, I tend to massively outperform it anyways, but I still always build it so I can get more things like a larger navy. Edit: I do think its a little weird to put the quantum catapult so low, I always try and keep one near my Mega Shipyard so I can instantly launch them into whatever war I’m fighting, instead of having to wait for them to fly over manually, or jumping 3-4 times once I get to the point I unlock jump drives, since the tech is so rare. Like, I’ve genuinely had entire games go by where no one got jump drives, and the quantum catapult was just the best way to counter things like the crisis, since there was literally no other way to go fast.
I have to agree on the ringwold asessemnt: The only time I've found them useful is if I found the Cybreh homeworld and then researched the secret of the Cybrex. I think they need an excumenopolis level growth and assembly speed improvement.
I personally think that Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompresssor need a little boost like "+5% of production of energy credits" to be as good as they shoud be regardless their cost.🙂 And the Ring World is basically to expansive and to long to construc... I think it suffur to much from the comparison with the Orbital Habitats and that Dev need to rebalence the equation.😢 There where a time where Ring World were OP, but for the moment they are outclass by Orbital Habitats. I think for exemple that it could be nice if we could build Ring World around Black Hole, Pulsar, and in system with more than 1 star.😃 And like other says, I also think that I could be nice if Ring World were also defense station, like a little Starbase.😄
I just want to point out that the Science Nexus should be caveated with that it is a vanity project if you're a Fanatic Materialist, because Fanatic Materialist is ridiculously OP and you will have researched almost all, if not all the tech tree by the time you can fully build a Nexus.
Thanks for the video, it's a good analysis with lots of comprehensible arguments. I personally disagree with your view that a mega shipyard outperforms the other mega structures (at least from a tier list view). My personal experience especially with "normal" biological empires is that I never have the alloy production to really make full use of this shipyard, at least not at the start of the endgame. And even if I had it, the energy production simply would not be enough to pay for the upkeep of additional fleets. 3-4 maxed out star bases (6 shipyards, a fleet academy, and a titan shipyard) perfectly fit my needs at least until the very late endgame where a mega shipyard may start to become useful. And you can build up the regular star bases along the way without having to wait for the mega structures research, and at a much cheaper price. My personal favourite is the strategic coordination center for the additional naval capacity and defensive platforms capacity or the science nexus as the first structure that unlocks dyson sphere and matter decompressor. Once I have built these 3, I might consider building a mega shipyard.
love this tier list, pretty much perfect to how i feel about the mega structures (though i dont have access to that catapult thingy) however for me personally there is one change i would make and that is switching round the ring world with the mega art installation one. reason behind this as a tall empire player, almost all my playthroughs i never get enough artifacts to finsh the sodding thing off and i personally alway push for the ring world so i can my one section forge, one section science, one section trade and final section farming. yes the building and getting these idiots to breed so i can fill the sodding thing up is a headache but personally for me the ringworld seems more practical.
Don’t insult the sentry array, it’s my favourite one (ish). It isn’t as useful as the blackhole drill or Dyson sphere but it is a nice thing to have as it allows you to see everything.
Totally agree with the Ringworld analysis. By the time you have it built it is pointless to move pops to it and never gets used to full potential. Edit - In current playthrough I just had ruined Interstellar assembly ...meh. Shattered ring ...ok. Then something I have never seen before ....ruined Dyson Sphere and I could rebuild it as soon as I had Mega Engineering. Fully functional for 4k Energy production as soon as I did the repair. Saves me an Ascension perk as well because I can do without the Matter Decompressor...or if I take that perk can I get 2 Dyson Spheres ?
The Dyson Sphere should be the very first megastructure built since the other ones would require immense amounts of power (not in a gameplay sense). It makes sense for a galactic empire to solve it's energy needs first before they start trying to mine black holes and yeeting fleets across the galaxy. Maybe with some reworks they could make this happen.
The Dyson Sphere should have at least 4 more stages as well with the final stages adding a 5% to the total energy credits for each stage done. Meaning that the 4 stage would be considered 'complete' but the last four adds 250 credits with a 5% total increase for each stage completed for an additional 1k EC and 20% total energy credit increase so the total output would be 6k energy credits monthly with an empire wide bonus of 10% at the eighth stage. Matter Decompressor can work similarly but with a final stage having 4000 minerals and 20% empire wide mining station production increase. Science Nexus needs at least 2 more stages with a 20% Research speed and for it to focus the entirety of the empires research from planets then boost the total combined amount by a further 40% with the Nexus not producing any flat science. That way planets still have some use and the Science Nexus actually starts following its name as being a Nexus. Can have enemy Empires steal research output through intel operations for a more dynamic play.
Imo rapid deployment in most of the galaxy easily trumps the inaccuracy of quantum catapults. Espescially if there are no gateways nearby, and if you're trying to cover enemy ground quickly I think the inaccuracy actually becomes a small benefit - granted it can be niche since you need moderate fleet sizes to not get ate by enemy fleets.
With the changes to planet occupation and if they were to add effects to make supply lanes a factor, I could see the catapult having value. You could send a fleet to disrupt their economy or break trade routes.
I'm mainly thinking of how long it takes, and the fact it requires another AP and one other fully upgraded mega to have been made, slowing its construction down quite a bit
@@MontuPlays I would argue though, that because unlike energy (Dyson Sphere), there's never a case where you have enough mineral income simply by existing (like trade can do for energy), and the vast number of jobs this frees (even a min-maxed build is topping out at 20-25 minerals per pop in late game, so this frees over 50 pops from mining jobs) makes it well worth S Tier, even before noting the much lower cost of upkeep compared to maxing out those jobs (no more volatile motes etc; means either fewer support jobs or less money in trades for strategics), as well as the financial security (revolts, automatic job migration, etc can't cause you to loose that). Given that you'll always want Wonders anyways (most of the good megastructures are in wonders), I don't think that's a huge cost either. The time commitment and time before you can start is a bit of a pain, but I don't think enough to knock it from S-Tier. In extreme cases, a Matter Decompressor can replace over 15% of my jobs, if I include not just direct, but indirect (mote plants, extra energy) jobs.
The catapult sounds deadly if you have a mega ship yard nearby. Just launch entire fleets to Harass your enemy’s flank while they bash themselves against your fortress worlds
I've been playing with mods for so long, that I legit was about to angry-type when you didn't mention the Neutronium Gigaforge. Completely slipped my mind that that's not part of the base game XD
In my last game, I managed to get my hands on 4 different megashipyards. I built one, one of the other empire (which I integrated) had a ruined one, a third empire built one and in the late game I started to spam 1 system single habitat vassals and one of them built a forth shipyard. That's 120 shipyards all running at 5 times speed. Even the 12k alloys I was producing from all my ecunemopolies weren't keeping up. That 25x scourge in 2410 never stood a chance.
I can just imagine the defensive glory of my capital system which, because of the Worm Who Waits, now has 17 inhabitable planets, all with defensive orbital rings. Unfortunately I don’t have the dlc so it’s just a fantasy.
When it comes to time and costs, the GIGAstructures are what annihilates you. For example, the titanic ringworld with an insane amount of capacity, or the one that covers the entire solar system, and for some reason the world image/art covers up the ships that pass through as a small bug. SOmetimes I feel like the "-5% megastructure construction time" never actually works.
I start playing this game again with all DLCs and my god, everything is so confusing. At the start, I found the research nexus in the system next to my home world and I was thrilled. I’m happy that is quite useful being at A tier.
I lucked up in my current run big time, i started out with the. Slingshot to the stars origin, found the ruined ship yard about 5 junps away and then got the first league precursor that had a ruined science Nexus. Its my current run throufh and isaved the file to the cloud so i can go back and play it again and again to relive my luck
A year or two ago I played a robot faction built a bunch of ring worlds and went around conquering everyone, then I put each species on a ring world segment and exterminated everyone outside the rings. Most as a sort of role play but it was fun.
I've not played Stellaris in a very long while and I've not heard of some of these structures, but the quantum catapult sounds perfect if you know where enemy fleet positions are As long as you have time to consolidate your own fleets you can set them up near someone's systems for an offensive, or alternatively set up a defensive position and wait for the enemy to come to you
The shipyard will be even better if the ever fix the damned fleet manager so that it reliably uses your build capacity, doesn't get choked with empty 1-ship fleets from a federation, etc.
In my opinion, Having a Dyson Sphere is a absolute must if your a machine empire, since Machine Empires soak up so much Energy Credits. And in tendon with the Mega Shipyard, you are going to be a massive threat to the entire galaxy
The only time I ever used to build a Sentry Array was when I had already found a ruined one. Having two gave you enough base intel to view the exact build of any ship in the game, even crisis ships and space fauna. These days I don't usually bother since cloaked science ships can scout nebulae ahead of my fleets, usually without being a sacrificial lamb.
I know it could be way too long, but would you consider doing something similar with the Gigastructure-Engineering mod? Maybe just the big ones but i at least would appreciate the insight
I've never had issues with maxed Sentry, so I would personally consider it at B. I usually start it first in single player when I'm not aiming for a Federation, and to look for any unclaimed archaeology sites, relic worlds and living Leviathans. More a personal preference, as I like to clean out the good things the ai didn't grab.
I would say ringworlds compliment ecumenopolis, especially if going tall. It allows you to largely forgo food, energy and research production on your planets in favour of alloys and minerals, whilst the ringworlds handle the other economic stuff. It is pretty niche and probably still not optimal (probably better to use habs), but it feels nice.
Rings are great for trade Empires and not bad overall as a substitute and consolidation of perk points where you don't need to build ecumenopolises to have better factories. While perhaps not quite as good being able to get the trade value especially if you find your first ring world (cybrex for example) to insanely high numbers like 1500 from 50 pops (all merchant districts plus I like to run some synthetic gas/chem/crystal) is pretty strong. Then excess pop from growth that becomes clerks gets moved to other segments. The bonus from research segment is also very nice. I think if you take the ascendant corporate civic it's probably worth ascending ringworld segments. You can get really big trade and research values there. With the trade federation policy you also tend to have stupid unity to do it with anyway. I've been running a spiritual/military/egalitarian clone army build with psionic ascension for the OP admirals, conquering primitives to populate. This with the massive trade so I can get 3 primary resources just from my ridiculously OP merchants that I can spam most effectively on Ring Worlds.
Honestly, the only situation I see a quantum catapult being useful is if a system you need to get to is too far for a jump drive and there's an empire with closed borders in the way. Even then, since a QC requires a neutron star, good luck finding one of *those* that *is* in range. Unless of course you find yeeting fleets around the galaxy fun, in which case yeet away, King/Queen
I would say the catapult is c tier if you have as a origin, but it's right next turn home system and once you complete the archeological site, you get the tech to repair and it only cost 2500 alloys and then 10,000 to upgrade to its max, I like it as it's come in pretty handy for me, and I've used a method I called shotgun deployment where I put a bunch fleets on it and jump them to an enemy system and start wrecking havoc fast then join them together to face their fleets, but if you don't have it as an origin than yeah its not quite as worth it to build it.
First Time I built the Mega Ship yard was pretty wild. Built a Juggernaut in less than 1400 days. Don't know if that was the reason but dang was it fast
the matter decompressor produces minerals not alloys, but it is extremely powerful, especially if you can also pull of a dyson sphere. you can switch your whole empire to basically specialists. Ultimately, if you can only get one megastructure, I also agree that the mega-shipyard is the strongest pick and usually the first one you would want up. The difference is game changing P.S. this channel literally opened my eyes to this game and Montu rules
Like the video, though you do mistakenly say that the Matter Decompressor gives you ALLOYS instead of Minerals. Might want to add something in captions or something like it to clarify. Picture says Minerals still, but some people like me really only listen to the video on a second screen and they might get confused.
I agree with the ring worlds, they are so underwhelming due to the amount of time and resources to build and then GROW pops that by the time it's working it's full capacity, your economy is so massive and you have most likely dominated the galaxy already. I think that to make ring worlds viable they have to either give ring worlds a significant pop growth bonus or shorten the amount of time to build it, or a bit of both.
the ringworld depends a little bit, if you are a slaverempire with a working slavemarket you can fill the rings pretty quickly. If not I agree with your ranking
I used to have 3 months a minute until my allied empire decided to build a sentry array and I slowed to 1 week a minute. It probably doesn't help that the majority of objects are thousands of corvettes.
The assembly used to be a mandatory build for me, i just don't need to worry about it now. If it gets a decent buff or extra bonuses related to federations or subjects it would go back to being more useful.
The feeling when you see an Ruined Megastructure but it's a Orbital Ring...
That's like hitting your toe on the edge of a table/sofa/chair...
Are they that common?
I cannot recall ever seeing one post-crisis.
Literally me every time I find the Cybrex homeworld
@@ZantineVonKauffen Cybrex are still among the best precursor. Especially if you aim to rush out Mega-Structures.
@@anotherlobster7294yeah kind of, I always play games with three fallen empires one of them is generally a robot that has multiple ringworlds and just outside their territory I usually find one or two ringworlds that can be claimed and repaired.
I still think Ringworld segments should come with Orbital Ring features built into them... i mean an orbital ring is literally a miniscule version of the ringworld. Imagine having 4 hangar bays, 3 secondary structures, and 50 defense platforms on each of 4 ringworld segments. It could singlehandedly defend a 10x crisis and it *should* have that kind of power.
They kind of do now, they give you the bonus of EVERY orbital ring building included. As long as you have the ground based version fully upgraded!
Though, granted, the lack of defensive measures is annoying. I think I agree, it would fit with the Culture version of a ringworld
The Stellaris Evolved mod expands ringworlds quite significantly. With the right civics you unlock planetary decisions to specialize your ring segments drastically, including some districts which produce rare resources.
Granted, the mod also expands ecumenopoli and adds an "environmentalist" alternative to the archeology project called eco-worlds which are also insane. So ringworlds still lose out.
Just imagining a fleet approaching a ring world and suddenly the outer rim of the ring activates its weapons and starts firing at the fleet
Honestly think planets should get hanger bays
Or, failing that, literally just give ring worlds a possible fortress designation. I was shocked when I discovered that you can't do that.
there is one sliiiiight drawback to the matter decompressor i noticed in my current playthrough: if you build it on a black hole with dark matter production it will kill the dark matter production
I learned that the hard way on the Great Wound.
RIP
oh god, i can't imagine the pain, big oof
hmm, my last game i demolished the station, then built the matter decompressor, and then my constructor that i've left on "auto build" went and built the station again so i got dark matter again, dunno if it's a bug or it's fixed if so, just keep that in mind
Yeah, that sucks, but ideally you find a black hole that only produces like 3 engineering.
Once you have some dark matter you can just buy more from the market.
My heart breaks for ring worlds, but you justified their place in C so well😭
They are quite funny when you are in year 2600 and you can Spam them out
@@pioxels1213 I'm on console and the most I've gotten was 7 so 28 worlds/segments but I couldn't fill most them with pops😂😂
I'm with you!
Only time I every really felt like I was -justified- in a Ringworld was a build where I was overflowing with pop assembly speeds. I want to say the I filled up four of them that game, but its been a while and it may just been an old-man-shouting -at clouds moment.
Aside from that, I feel like all the other Ringworlds I've built end up being filled only by wasted potential and regrets.
But I want them to work so badly!
You just gotta steal pops from other empires to fill it up.
If you use a mod that bans AI habitats and have migration treaties with a lot of other empires in the late game when all the planets in the galaxy are full there will be so many homeless/jobless pops that your ring worlds will completely fill up in a month or two. I’m up to 3 completely full ringworlds with some more on the way. Have 30k research atm
To bad you can't use the catapult as a weapon and yeet an invading fleet that goes into its system into a random spot in the galaxy.
That would pardon the pun catapult it into s tier just because of how amazing that would be
If that were possible I would build them in every system on my borders in the late game and just keep yeeting them out of my systems whenever they show up again. Would feel like playing a game of keep away with a toddler and that amuses me.
or like, you put a bunch of minerals and throw it at a fleet located within its range. eitheir have it be an onsta kill or a like 50% of the fleet is destroyed beyond a certain amount of fleet power. for balance
@@isuckatusernames4297 And a 50% chance to turn a planet with primitives on it into a tomb world and cause them to go extinct if it is within range. Maybe a chance for non-colonized planets in the area to be changed into a tomb world as well. Because flinging that much minerals at relativistic speeds in a general area might just hit a few unintended targets. And now the primitives are watching a big pile of minerals the size of Kazakhstan speeding at their planet and they are wondering what god they pissed off.
@@maiqtheliar789 at least the MIA reduction is cool
The sentry array in F tier is a bit rough: seeing all fleet movement in the galaxy (and granting the same thing to your allies) is still very, very valuable. Being able to track the movement of far away crisis fleets is always very useful to prevent attacks from unexpected angles. But the argument of the lag is, as ever, a very solid argument
I think the worst part about the sentry array is the fact that it disables the spawning of space fauna as a side effect of having no systems with low intel available for them to spawn in. I know it really doesn't matter but... it's like they go extinct.
It’s not that the sentry array is necessarily bad itself, it’s just that by the time you’re able to build it you will easily have max level sensors and so will really be seeing fleets that are of any kind of threat to yours. Sure seeing an empires fleet travel across their whole area is useful but realistically you only need to know where their forces are within a few jumps of yours. This listing is an about how objectively useful the mega structure is, it’s tearing them based on how useful they are as a megastructure. All of the alloys used for a sentry array could be used for significantly more helpful structures. Wanna know what’s a lot more helpful than knowing where your enemies fleets are? Being able to build or five fleets out of the alloys needed for the sentry array
@@kylepessell1350 The century array is good but it’s just that the resources are used on that would be significantly better spent on literally anything else. Hell, even just using the alloys needed to build a more ships would be more useful. Knowing where your enemies fleets are is useful and all but wanna know what’s better? 5 full size fleets, or a Dyson sphere, or hell even just building 20 habitats would be more productive
@@kylepessell1350 It's those 4G signals, man. Kills the wildlife!
Usefulness of the sentry array ranges from:
F tier with a low end PC on a tiny galaxy
to
S tier with a high end PC on a huge galaxy.
Its usefulness increases with both PC performance and galaxy size
Strange side benefit of the Dyson sphere: it lets you go to town on the slave market, if other empires do that sort of thing.
Currently filling out three Ecuminopolises (Ecuminopoli?), a ring world, and fifteen worlds in the L-cluster. In a play though that gave me a ruined mega shipyard. So yeah, that’s a lot of fun
Oh, thats a morbid, but very good point!
I rarely had a playthrough where the AI put that many slaves were on the market to buy this way. But when there were, using synth ascension path to automatically assimilate them in more useful pops was very nifty.
To be fair, I often ran Nihilistic Acquisition strats with it to just drain pops away instead, so there might have been a reason why the market was that empty. Sure, conquering is far more effective, but this way the pop pastures didn't deal with sprawl slowing growth down and I got a more managable set of systems I could optimise. With the Trade Algorithms trait in 3.6, that could still be a fun way to play.
while i generally hate having slaves in my empire i do love the slave market as its quick way of getting pops
@@DarkKnight52365 nothing saying they have to stay slaves
@@ryanrobins7526 thats why i never ban the market
Think you forgot to mention that the quantum catapult also requires a system with a pulsar or neutron star as well making it even more of a pain to build.
egg
First time i used it i was at the end of a spiral galaxy without anyone 'behind me', and i wanted to strike at an enemy on the other side of the spiral. Technically right next to me, but no hyperlanes. Built a catapult, slowly figured out how to use it, and set up a Juggernaut led fleet of ships + science, construction, and army transport ships to quantum catapult an invasion directly into the heart of their empire. Bypass the bunch of other empires that disliked me.
Yeah... they shotgunned across the galaxy and i lost about 40% of the fleet to landing in a trespass area, and the rest was just barely enough to build a beachhead in the 4 systems we ACTUALLY landed in. Then i got steamrolled since i didn't have enough DPS to keep attrition from fights away. The circle where you can 'land' is just waaaay too massive.
I'd be fine with LESS potential, and much more consistency with it. Until then its just there, wasted.
@@Samuel034I use the catapult to explore places not connected with other systems via hyperlanes, but I was out of range of the system I wanted to visit. Luckily, destroying the Unbidden portal gave me an artifact which increases range and reduces the circle radius, which let me do what I wanted successfully. I'd say that the catapult is actually useful with this relic and I wish the cooldown between using them were shorter
@@bluestrategist9aby540 I didn’t even know unbidden gave that relic.
@@Samuel034 maybe there is some random involved
16:25 I think the Strategic Coordination Center makes a lot more sense for players inclined to Pacifism or tallness, or both. Every time I build it my relative increase in Naval Capacity is yuuuge, whereas a player who has been conquering systems from the early mid game would see a much smaller relative increase.
Another reason to like it, of course, is the Thrawn reference.
Indeed, as someone who always plays tall (usually 4 or less colonies) I really like it, it feels like going from 500 capacity to 2000 capacity lol.
Slight error you missed: at 15:15 you said that the Matter Decompressor produces alloys instead of minerals
I wish it did
I wish it did damn that'd be great
@@bryantgodin That's what mods like Gigastructural Engineering and it's Neutronium Gigaforge is for :D
@@TheTonts Or go the next step with the Nidavellir Hyperforge. Or both, since Gigastructures lets you do that because clearly you can't have enough post-scarcity
@@teslaman9065 hey i need to build at least three more birch worlds
Sadly, ring worlds belong in the C tier, but finding Sanctuary changes that slightly.
And ruined ring worlds early can be good. They only need 10k alloys and no ascension perk!
I understand that doing so would take a lot of work, but I'd love it if your ship style also determined how your megastructures looked.
It does!
Yeah it does, the easiest way to tell apart is to use lithoid or necroid shipset
I never knew that!
@@cledon. it's a bit more obvious with toxoids and their dusty tan coloring
When it comes to finding a ruined megastructure, Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompressor definitely beat out the others. It negates all of the drawbacks of building them, (the cost, time, and needing to take an ascension perk), and they inherently are more effective the earlier you get them because of how much they allow you to snowball.
Ringworlds are very useful late game when all of your resource storage is full. Just throw down a Ringworld and fill it with silos
The pop growth and pop mechanical assembly colony designation on ring worlds definitely helps with the population problem, especially when it scales with the planetary ascension tier
It's good, but just not as good as a ecumenopolis
You gave me an idea. With the clone origin an idea could be to move the clone vats there, buy slaves from the market and release the system as a vassal... Then turn them to a bulwark. Put them into your Alliance.
Other than that. I don't know. Except for depopulating planets from enemies by moving pops to the ring and give them empty planets back. 🤔
@@MontuPlays For alloys, sure no doubt at all, for science tho the ringworld is much better. And the cost is not that different, mid-late game civs (specially with ecumenopolis) can transform minerals to alloys on a 1 to 1 ratio or better, so 20k min or 20k alloys is a comparable cost. Ecus only take 10 years, but you cannot speed them, you can get +150% megastructure build speed for the ringworld.
Obviously ecumenopolis come online earlier due to not needing a previous mega but hey, once you have it i believe both world types are comparable for their respective specializations.
@@chusnacho4447 something else to consider however is that usually when you turn a planet into an ecumenopolis it’s already a heavily populated planet with lots of industry. When you build a ring world that you’re starting a colony from scratch even if you can move some pops over from your other worlds
@@damonedrington3453 That is most certainly true
0:00 Intro
0:44 F Tier
• 1:05 Quantum Catapult
• 3:00 Sentry Array
4:38 C Tier
• 4:57 Interstellar Assembly
• 6:28 Ringworld
8:14 B Tier
• 8:33 Mega Art Installation
• 10:00 Strategic Coordination Center
12:15 A Tier
• 12:22 Science Nexus
• 13:22 Dyson Sphere
• 15:04 Matter Decompressor
16:28 S Tier
• 16:36 Megashipyard
18:21 Outro
I'd love to see you do gigastucture sometimes as well. Very good video Montu. I am always a fan of your top 10's if you are going heavy enough into megastructured however you are probably going to have 2 build slots and probably 3 when you get the ambition won't you? Lol I love Gigastructures fir this reason though I usual leave it at 1 at a time default unless I am doing heavy RP. I also play exclusively pve so that mat change things as well as an addendum, I would put matter decompressor as S tier myself it's usually the go to for me though with Gifastucttures I'm using a lot of star lifters as well
I would really like to see Montu do a gigas tier list with the giga crisis in mind. Especially considering how the Blokkats and the Kaiser work.
+1
I disagree with the Sentry Array being in the F tier, I find it extremely useful, especially when going the Determinded Exterminator route.
Hell yeah combine that with jump drive and you can completely demilitarize a nation in like two years
Though I use dust of the endless mod which let's you remove cool down so maybe that's inaccurate
It's probably only f tier because it can brick your game faster than xenocompatibility
The problem is that it actually slows down your game heavly with lag and tbh by the time you get it, unless you find a ruined one, your technology will let you see the majority of the galaxy anyway. With envoys and communications and an eddict you can see more than half the galaxy the rest will be to far to matter most of the time anyway.
The main problem with it is that even by mid game you usually have all of the sensor tech unlocked. Once you can see any other ships that are within four jumps of your fleets being able to see them across the whole galaxy is just kind of redundant. Sure you’ll make sure you never get sneak attacked but even then your star base defenses should always be able to handle small sneaking fleets
The Catapult is something I have fun with if I take the origin, and thus plan an entire build with it in mind, but I have never actually built one from scratch.
As an origin it can be fun, but it just comes too late fi you build it from scratch
That and the influence cost… for 300 influence I would rather build a ring world or two habitats.
@@Barghaest see the solution here is to just be the Custodian and thus get +5 monthly influence for free
@@novaseer I’m currently getting 12 influence a month in my current play through… for what the catapult costs, it’s still not worth it to me. Would rather spend my influence on habitats, a ring world, gateways, and espionage. The catapult doesn’t provide enough incentive for the cost. I already have jump drives and allies with gateways that allow me to traverse the galaxy.
My girlfriend watches me play Stellaris. I might be cheesy and build a Ring World then label each one as “Will” “You” “Marry” “Me” when I’m ready to propose 😂😂😂
Going to watch this as I iron my shirts. Always great timing and good content Montu!
haha I just did the exact same thing!
I personally like the sentry array as just quality of life, but I also play on Xbox Series X so my specs are good and I haven’t experienced any possible changes in the most recent version of Stellaris but it’s overall value isn’t high in my opinion, it’s just nice to see everything
One thing I adore about ringworlds is the rp perspective for it. Building a ringworld means your empire is powerful af, so to demonstrate my power, I usually like to build ringworlds in system bordering my vassals and gifting them the rings
Since you're a lizard: When you lose your tail, do you go to a retail shop? Thanks for another cool show.
This honestly makes me curious as to how much the list will change if it was for ruined megastructures instead, as it becomes possible for something like 2 strategic coordination centers or 2 mega shipyards, which is extremely good.
Have you ever considered sheltering enough ai empires, so they build mega of their own? I did this last time and ended up with 14 megashipyards and more to conquer. ruined structures are good in midgame, but have nothing on yoinking sites or fully upgraded versions from your enemy.
2sccs are excellent
I can’t imagine all the bonuses on an SCC stack, right?
Science nexus is B rank. By the time you unlock it, you'll have most, if not all, the non repeatable techs.
One thing I will say in defense is that with the interdimensional warlock you can catapult fleets half-way across the galaxy with pinpoint accuracy.
And that's its only redeeming quality.
I mean I guess it's cool and stuff
mega shipyard is my absolute favorite since it was added.
10/10 agree
It’s especially super useful if you keep it in the core of your empire because you can rapidly pump out torpedo Corvette swarms to deal with any threat that manages to slip past your borders.
The closest you can get to a star forge outside of mods
I feel like Montu is stealing ASPEC"s viewers 😂 you're always on it. Stay safe Monty ❤❤❤
I wish the catapult was better. Its such an awesome concept.
I think if they had an upgrade path that increases the accuracy(less fleets=more accurate yeeting)with a higher upkeep and maybe a cooldown after its use. I built one not knowing what it did. I did find some very very minimal use for it. i used it to yeet my fleet to the further edge of my empire(didnt have gateways built there yet) when i was being attacked.
The catapult is op, if you make your fleets smaller itll reduce the radius while you keep the firerate
i am almost counting Gigastructural engineering as a base game asset at this point, i cant play without it as it gives quite a endgame and it does seem balanced surprisingly enough! i would love to see a tier list for that if you use that :)
Yeah I also use it very frequently. I love the whole worldbuilding that was done for Flusion, Kaiser and all other modded factions
Gigastructures rebalance the game on so fundamental a level that it cannot count for people who play the base game
Balanced? Balancing on what? The corpses of every ai empire?/lh
shale the ai doesn't keep up past a certain point
The quantum catapult definitely needs a buff. It seemed stupid to me from the get go. maybe add a return function for the last fleet sent and increase to perfect accuracy at completion.
could also add an effect that if a fleet using jump drive from a quantum catapult system they don't get the penalty from jumping because the catapult is giving the fleet a boost
I feel like Dyson Spheres and Matter Decompressors don't get as much love as they should. Not that you aren't showing them love here. I find one of the biggest advantages of those two is the fact that they start producing useful amounts almost right away. A first stage Matter Decompressor is still giving 500 minerals a month. A second stage Dysons Sphere is giving 1000 energy credits a month. both of those are really good for fixing a slightly upset economy, or just giving a nice edge to doing creative things. And the best thing about doing either of those, is that after the 10 or 20 years, you go on to a different mega structure while still receiving the useful bonuses. You could say the same thing about the other multi tier megastructures, but the bonuses for most of them are not great until you hit the final tier. Basically, I think what I'm trying to say is that a Tier 1 Matter Decompressor and a Tier 2 Dysons Sphere are S tier, but the fully completed ones belong in the A Tier where you put them.
Also, would you be willing to create a planetary buildings tier list? I find myself wondering if I am undervaluing certain buildings. Also, I really do not understand the hate the Gene Clinic receives.
If I remember correctly, the problem with the Gene Clinic is the fact that the population growth bonus is painfully low, It costs you 2 pops working in it, and takes like 30 years to give you 3 pops back, which gives you 1 pop profit, but you needed to sacrifice 2 pops working for 30 years to get that 1 extra pop, those 2 pops could have done a lot producing other stuff, so by the time the gene clinic becomes "worth it" you're talking about 50 years.
@@zoopa9988 I get that, but that isn't the only thing they do. They also provide amenities and habitability. None of those three things individually are worth it, but combined together seem pretty good.
Yes its half the amenities of an entertainer, but the way I see it is that you are going to have to employ that entertainer anyways, you cant get around that, but then amenities are all its going to do. Two medical workers provides the same amenities as the one entertainer. but also provide the pop speed growth and the habitability,
To put it another way, its really 1 medical worker providing 10 amenities just like an entertainer, and then 1 medical worker providing 5 habitability and 10% pop growth.
@@chris-zn7pq Haven't played Stellaris in a while so the gene clinic may have been altered slightly, but the pop growth is probs still the most important statistic, since they give as many amenities as 1 entertainer we could cut the problem I described in my earlier message by 50%, I think the problem remains the same, it now takes 25/30 years before you get profit instead of 50/60 years, it simply takes to long before you get any value out of it.
because megashipyard is more useful, you risk to be ganked by hostile empire, so being able to pop 50 warship in few months is very useful to win attrition war against hostile empire
and you can use your station to increase your fleet capacity or build fortress, so around 2300 megashipyard is more useful when other empire want to try to invade you
I gotta say I agree with most of your assessments. I do think the Assembly is more useful than C tier, especially once you consider that many empires that focus on diplomacy will be neglecting their fleets to start off with (Though I guess that falls more into roleplay than actual strategy with the fleet diplo power modifier)
What megastructure do you think the game would benefit from getting added in future DLC?
I think it would be great to get a defensive megastructure. Perhaps one that combines with smaller relay stations to prevent Jump drive jumping into the system. would be cool late game
@@MontuPlays Gigastructural engineering kinda does that with the Maginot World
@Montu just a note, you mention you can't build a Dyson Sphere or Matter Decompressor unless you've built another megastructure first. However, I believe you also get this option if you restore a ruined megastructure? If so, the new 3.6 Shattered Ring origin checks that box as soon as you restore a ring segment, does it not? Makes this much more attractive.
Oh, yes. Built & restored are equivalent
I watch almost all your new stuff even though I can't use most of it because I'm on console. Keep up the good work! (We still won't get overlord until I think mid 2023)
Yeah barely any of this applies
I am sad to say I agree with you about ring worlds. Most play throughs I still end up with them but that is via finding a ruined one or the slaughter of a fallen/awakened empire.
Getting a ruined ringworld or stealign one from a fallen empire is great!
Don't think I can argue it should be placed higher, but one thing a ring world is great for is depopulating swathes of the galaxy. I tend to play wide in the early-mid game, then shrink down to a very dense, easily defensible core sector toward lategame. The excess territory becomes vassals, but most of the pops that were out there are going to get relocated and need somewhere to go. A newly built ring solves the problem nicely, for far less influence than habitat spam.
An unmentioned drawback of the Sensor Array is that tliyanki, drones, amoeba, etc stop spawning. If you're cordyceps this means building it shuts you down. Unless they removed that feature of having intel on a system in 3.6, which I don't recall seeing in the patch notes.
I think the Strat Coord Center should be in the S-tier. The amount of naval capacity you get from it is enough to field an entire extra fleet, and the speed boost means you're chasing down enemy fleets even without the 'exotic gases as fuel' edict.
I agree. Coordination center + extra shipyards is better than Mega Shipyard + more anchorages. Maybe late game it'd be better, but when you first get mega engineering, it's pretty meh; you won't be able to economically support constantly building!
because you also need mineral and energy to keep your fleet
so it is debatable if strat coord is better than dyson sphere or matter decompressor, with both you can spare more space to build house or industry, it mean you need less a ecumenopolis if your normal planet can produce alloy and goodie you need
I'm not sure if they count, but would Hyper Relays and Gateways also be considered S tier megastructures? Couldn't imagine playing an empire that doesn't use them.
Tfw you find a ruined matter decompresor and an empire near you finds a ruined dyson sphere that you *aquire* and repair allowing you to become all powerfull at ludicrous speed
There are 5 main megastructures I build
Matter compressor
Dyson sphere
Science Nexus
Galactic Assembly
Mega Shipyard
The rest are kinda situational. You don't really need the Sentry array for instance, and ringworlds are basically kinda just there unless you pick a ringworld as your origin, or if you are unlucky with planets to colonize.
I feel like the sentry array should give some special espionage operations and maybe a bonus to espionage skill
14:21 I’m not gonna lie, by the time I built my full dyson sphere in my most recent game, I was already producing well over 7000 with my population and still was barely cash positive with Capacity subsidies. No way would I switch my pops off generator jobs after building a dyson sphere because by the time I unlock it in a game, I tend to massively outperform it anyways, but I still always build it so I can get more things like a larger navy.
Edit: I do think its a little weird to put the quantum catapult so low, I always try and keep one near my Mega Shipyard so I can instantly launch them into whatever war I’m fighting, instead of having to wait for them to fly over manually, or jumping 3-4 times once I get to the point I unlock jump drives, since the tech is so rare. Like, I’ve genuinely had entire games go by where no one got jump drives, and the quantum catapult was just the best way to counter things like the crisis, since there was literally no other way to go fast.
I have to agree on the ringwold asessemnt: The only time I've found them useful is if I found the Cybreh homeworld and then researched the secret of the Cybrex. I think they need an excumenopolis level growth and assembly speed improvement.
I personally think that Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompresssor need a little boost like "+5% of production of energy credits" to be as good as they shoud be regardless their cost.🙂
And the Ring World is basically to expansive and to long to construc... I think it suffur to much from the comparison with the Orbital Habitats and that Dev need to rebalence the equation.😢 There where a time where Ring World were OP, but for the moment they are outclass by Orbital Habitats.
I think for exemple that it could be nice if we could build Ring World around Black Hole, Pulsar, and in system with more than 1 star.😃
And like other says, I also think that I could be nice if Ring World were also defense station, like a little Starbase.😄
I absolutely love the mega shipyard. Just yeeting fleets into existence
I would like so see a Tier list for the top 10 Mods. Great vid, keep up the good work.
Noted!
I just want to point out that the Science Nexus should be caveated with that it is a vanity project if you're a Fanatic Materialist, because Fanatic Materialist is ridiculously OP and you will have researched almost all, if not all the tech tree by the time you can fully build a Nexus.
Thanks for the video, it's a good analysis with lots of comprehensible arguments. I personally disagree with your view that a mega shipyard outperforms the other mega structures (at least from a tier list view). My personal experience especially with "normal" biological empires is that I never have the alloy production to really make full use of this shipyard, at least not at the start of the endgame. And even if I had it, the energy production simply would not be enough to pay for the upkeep of additional fleets. 3-4 maxed out star bases (6 shipyards, a fleet academy, and a titan shipyard) perfectly fit my needs at least until the very late endgame where a mega shipyard may start to become useful. And you can build up the regular star bases along the way without having to wait for the mega structures research, and at a much cheaper price. My personal favourite is the strategic coordination center for the additional naval capacity and defensive platforms capacity or the science nexus as the first structure that unlocks dyson sphere and matter decompressor. Once I have built these 3, I might consider building a mega shipyard.
Thank you for your wisdom once again. Your videos are awesome
Thanks for your support! I hope you enjoyed the video!
You did the sentry array dirty...just the galaxy view alone makes it awesome...
love this tier list, pretty much perfect to how i feel about the mega structures (though i dont have access to that catapult thingy) however for me personally there is one change i would make and that is switching round the ring world with the mega art installation one. reason behind this as a tall empire player, almost all my playthroughs i never get enough artifacts to finsh the sodding thing off and i personally alway push for the ring world so i can my one section forge, one section science, one section trade and final section farming. yes the building and getting these idiots to breed so i can fill the sodding thing up is a headache but personally for me the ringworld seems more practical.
The catapult also reduces MIA time so that might be the difference between winning a war and losing a war.
Don’t insult the sentry array, it’s my favourite one (ish). It isn’t as useful as the blackhole drill or Dyson sphere but it is a nice thing to have as it allows you to see everything.
Totally agree with the Ringworld analysis. By the time you have it built it is pointless to move pops to it and never gets used to full potential.
Edit - In current playthrough I just had ruined Interstellar assembly ...meh. Shattered ring ...ok. Then something I have never seen before ....ruined Dyson Sphere and I could rebuild it as soon as I had Mega Engineering. Fully functional for 4k Energy production as soon as I did the repair. Saves me an Ascension perk as well because I can do without the Matter Decompressor...or if I take that perk can I get 2 Dyson Spheres ?
Yes, you can. Repairing a ruined megastructure does not count against your 1 of each build limit
The Dyson Sphere should be the very first megastructure built since the other ones would require immense amounts of power (not in a gameplay sense). It makes sense for a galactic empire to solve it's energy needs first before they start trying to mine black holes and yeeting fleets across the galaxy. Maybe with some reworks they could make this happen.
The Dyson Sphere should have at least 4 more stages as well with the final stages adding a 5% to the total energy credits for each stage done. Meaning that the 4 stage would be considered 'complete' but the last four adds 250 credits with a 5% total increase for each stage completed for an additional 1k EC and 20% total energy credit increase so the total output would be 6k energy credits monthly with an empire wide bonus of 10% at the eighth stage.
Matter Decompressor can work similarly but with a final stage having 4000 minerals and 20% empire wide mining station production increase.
Science Nexus needs at least 2 more stages with a 20% Research speed and for it to focus the entirety of the empires research from planets then boost the total combined amount by a further 40% with the Nexus not producing any flat science. That way planets still have some use and the Science Nexus actually starts following its name as being a Nexus. Can have enemy Empires steal research output through intel operations for a more dynamic play.
Imo rapid deployment in most of the galaxy easily trumps the inaccuracy of quantum catapults. Espescially if there are no gateways nearby, and if you're trying to cover enemy ground quickly I think the inaccuracy actually becomes a small benefit - granted it can be niche since you need moderate fleet sizes to not get ate by enemy fleets.
Thanks for the rankings Montu!
Quantum catapult in F tier ma boi?
Hmm... I suppose I'll have to prove you wrong :)
Haha I would love to see that.
Please Regunes
That feeling when you take another empires MegaShipyard, and the bonuses stack together
With the changes to planet occupation and if they were to add effects to make supply lanes a factor, I could see the catapult having value. You could send a fleet to disrupt their economy or break trade routes.
I had a game where i managed to ger a ruined dyson sphere. My economy was unbreakable
If you capture a mega structure from another empire, do the bonused stack? Example, two strategic coordination centers
AFAIK, yes.
Great list overall! I'd personally put the Matter Decompressor in S tier, but I get the drawbacks of it.
I'm mainly thinking of how long it takes, and the fact it requires another AP and one other fully upgraded mega to have been made, slowing its construction down quite a bit
@@MontuPlays I would argue though, that because unlike energy (Dyson Sphere), there's never a case where you have enough mineral income simply by existing (like trade can do for energy), and the vast number of jobs this frees (even a min-maxed build is topping out at 20-25 minerals per pop in late game, so this frees over 50 pops from mining jobs) makes it well worth S Tier, even before noting the much lower cost of upkeep compared to maxing out those jobs (no more volatile motes etc; means either fewer support jobs or less money in trades for strategics), as well as the financial security (revolts, automatic job migration, etc can't cause you to loose that). Given that you'll always want Wonders anyways (most of the good megastructures are in wonders), I don't think that's a huge cost either. The time commitment and time before you can start is a bit of a pain, but I don't think enough to knock it from S-Tier.
In extreme cases, a Matter Decompressor can replace over 15% of my jobs, if I include not just direct, but indirect (mote plants, extra energy) jobs.
The catapult sounds deadly if you have a mega ship yard nearby. Just launch entire fleets to Harass your enemy’s flank while they bash themselves against your fortress worlds
Dyson sphere is basically a big increase to Naval Cap. One of the best ways to decrease micro
I've been playing with mods for so long, that I legit was about to angry-type when you didn't mention the Neutronium Gigaforge. Completely slipped my mind that that's not part of the base game XD
In my last game, I managed to get my hands on 4 different megashipyards. I built one, one of the other empire (which I integrated) had a ruined one, a third empire built one and in the late game I started to spam 1 system single habitat vassals and one of them built a forth shipyard. That's 120 shipyards all running at 5 times speed. Even the 12k alloys I was producing from all my ecunemopolies weren't keeping up. That 25x scourge in 2410 never stood a chance.
I can just imagine the defensive glory of my capital system which, because of the Worm Who Waits, now has 17 inhabitable planets, all with defensive orbital rings. Unfortunately I don’t have the dlc so it’s just a fantasy.
I just finished a game with the catapult, and once fully upgraded it was very accurate. The circle was so small it usually only covered one system.
Sounds overpowered at that point
You didn't notice it, and I don't see it on comments, but Dyson sphere get benefice from all your mining station bonus you accumulate during the game.
When it comes to time and costs, the GIGAstructures are what annihilates you. For example, the titanic ringworld with an insane amount of capacity, or the one that covers the entire solar system, and for some reason the world image/art covers up the ships that pass through as a small bug. SOmetimes I feel like the "-5% megastructure construction time" never actually works.
I start playing this game again with all DLCs and my god, everything is so confusing. At the start, I found the research nexus in the system next to my home world and I was thrilled. I’m happy that is quite useful being at A tier.
I lucked up in my current run big time, i started out with the. Slingshot to the stars origin, found the ruined ship yard about 5 junps away and then got the first league precursor that had a ruined science Nexus. Its my current run throufh and isaved the file to the cloud so i can go back and play it again and again to relive my luck
A year or two ago I played a robot faction built a bunch of ring worlds and went around conquering everyone, then I put each species on a ring world segment and exterminated everyone outside the rings. Most as a sort of role play but it was fun.
I've not played Stellaris in a very long while and I've not heard of some of these structures, but the quantum catapult sounds perfect if you know where enemy fleet positions are
As long as you have time to consolidate your own fleets you can set them up near someone's systems for an offensive, or alternatively set up a defensive position and wait for the enemy to come to you
The shipyard will be even better if the ever fix the damned fleet manager so that it reliably uses your build capacity, doesn't get choked with empty 1-ship fleets from a federation, etc.
Just so glad to see the shipyard still at S haha, always aim for my Kuat shipyards as fast as possible
I think the quantum catapult might have some use now with the nanoswarmer ships. Also ring worlds will be better with virtual ascension.
Was also thinking about Virtual making them so much better!
In my opinion, Having a Dyson Sphere is a absolute must if your a machine empire, since Machine Empires soak up so much Energy Credits. And in tendon with the Mega Shipyard, you are going to be a massive threat to the entire galaxy
The only time I ever used to build a Sentry Array was when I had already found a ruined one. Having two gave you enough base intel to view the exact build of any ship in the game, even crisis ships and space fauna.
These days I don't usually bother since cloaked science ships can scout nebulae ahead of my fleets, usually without being a sacrificial lamb.
I know it could be way too long, but would you consider doing something similar with the Gigastructure-Engineering mod? Maybe just the big ones but i at least would appreciate the insight
I've never had issues with maxed Sentry, so I would personally consider it at B. I usually start it first in single player when I'm not aiming for a Federation, and to look for any unclaimed archaeology sites, relic worlds and living Leviathans.
More a personal preference, as I like to clean out the good things the ai didn't grab.
I'd move ringworlds to B, because of their designation for Scientists providing bonus output, unlike all other planet types
Catapult sounds great and very useful. 🤔
I like filling ring worlds with abducted pops. 😁
I'd put strategic command center in A tier and matter decompressor in S.
I would say ringworlds compliment ecumenopolis, especially if going tall. It allows you to largely forgo food, energy and research production on your planets in favour of alloys and minerals, whilst the ringworlds handle the other economic stuff. It is pretty niche and probably still not optimal (probably better to use habs), but it feels nice.
Rings are great for trade Empires and not bad overall as a substitute and consolidation of perk points where you don't need to build ecumenopolises to have better factories. While perhaps not quite as good being able to get the trade value especially if you find your first ring world (cybrex for example) to insanely high numbers like 1500 from 50 pops (all merchant districts plus I like to run some synthetic gas/chem/crystal) is pretty strong. Then excess pop from growth that becomes clerks gets moved to other segments. The bonus from research segment is also very nice. I think if you take the ascendant corporate civic it's probably worth ascending ringworld segments. You can get really big trade and research values there. With the trade federation policy you also tend to have stupid unity to do it with anyway. I've been running a spiritual/military/egalitarian clone army build with psionic ascension for the OP admirals, conquering primitives to populate. This with the massive trade so I can get 3 primary resources just from my ridiculously OP merchants that I can spam most effectively on Ring Worlds.
Honestly, the only situation I see a quantum catapult being useful is if a system you need to get to is too far for a jump drive and there's an empire with closed borders in the way. Even then, since a QC requires a neutron star, good luck finding one of *those* that *is* in range.
Unless of course you find yeeting fleets around the galaxy fun, in which case yeet away, King/Queen
Missing a secret advantage of using the sensor array when combined with econompoli: Warm poptarts in mere seconds
I would say the catapult is c tier if you have as a origin, but it's right next turn home system and once you complete the archeological site, you get the tech to repair and it only cost 2500 alloys and then 10,000 to upgrade to its max, I like it as it's come in pretty handy for me, and I've used a method I called shotgun deployment where I put a bunch fleets on it and jump them to an enemy system and start wrecking havoc fast then join them together to face their fleets, but if you don't have it as an origin than yeah its not quite as worth it to build it.
First Time I built the Mega Ship yard was pretty wild. Built a Juggernaut in less than 1400 days. Don't know if that was the reason but dang was it fast
the matter decompressor produces minerals not alloys, but it is extremely powerful, especially if you can also pull of a dyson sphere. you can switch your whole empire to basically specialists. Ultimately, if you can only get one megastructure, I also agree that the mega-shipyard is the strongest pick and usually the first one you would want up. The difference is game changing
P.S. this channel literally opened my eyes to this game and Montu rules
Yeah that my mistake. The text on screen is correct and I do say minerals later. But that slip was missed for sure!
@@MontuPlays ❤️
Like the video, though you do mistakenly say that the Matter Decompressor gives you ALLOYS instead of Minerals. Might want to add something in captions or something like it to clarify. Picture says Minerals still, but some people like me really only listen to the video on a second screen and they might get confused.
I agree with the ring worlds, they are so underwhelming due to the amount of time and resources to build and then GROW pops that by the time it's working it's full capacity, your economy is so massive and you have most likely dominated the galaxy already. I think that to make ring worlds viable they have to either give ring worlds a significant pop growth bonus or shorten the amount of time to build it, or a bit of both.
the ringworld depends a little bit, if you are a slaverempire with a working slavemarket you can fill the rings pretty quickly. If not I agree with your ranking
I used to have 3 months a minute until my allied empire decided to build a sentry array and I slowed to 1 week a minute. It probably doesn't help that the majority of objects are thousands of corvettes.
The assembly used to be a mandatory build for me, i just don't need to worry about it now. If it gets a decent buff or extra bonuses related to federations or subjects it would go back to being more useful.