I've played with this expansion for seventy hours in the past week and I can confidently say that it's one of the best ones they've added to the game. It's got a lot of depth, and a lot of the stuff people are talking about (Vassal Contracts) actually have mechanics to mitigate the main problems people have.

A good example is that people mention the vassals being very very unhappy with most of the terms you can force upon them. It annoyed me for a while before I noticed that holdings- the buildings you can now build inside of your subjects empire- can mitigate this. Ex- A building that lets you station soldiers on their capitol world will "Encourage" loyalty and offset the negative modifiers from making extortionate demands.

The tools for political kniving have imrpoved significantly, as well. I now feel that it's wholly possible to play stellaris without ever once feeling like you're obligated to start map painting. Society building and storytelling have always been a strength of this game, and now it's got even more.

I've played with this expansion for seventy hours in the past week and I can confidently say that it's one of the best ones they've added to the game. It's got a lot of depth, and a lot of the stuff people are talking about (Vassal Contracts) actually have mechanics to mitigate the main problems people have. A good example is that people mention the vassals being very very unhappy with most of the terms you can force upon them. It annoyed me for a while before I noticed that holdings- the buildings you can now build inside of your subjects empire- can mitigate this. Ex- A building that lets you station soldiers on their capitol world will "Encourage" loyalty and offset the negative modifiers from making extortionate demands. The tools for political kniving have imrpoved significantly, as well. I now feel that it's wholly possible to play stellaris without ever once feeling like you're obligated to start map painting. Society building and storytelling have always been a strength of this game, and now it's got even more.