Huh....I'm reading the first comment and I realize I may be a monster.
In Stellaris the moment I was able to I built a world destroyer and went around destroying planets in the nations that kept trying to vassalize my own (they kept demanding it). At this late point in the game my empire was as powerful if not more powerful than an awakened empire that had decided to play the galaxy's good guys, but when you're fighting a war on three fronts, one of whom is almost comparable in power to your own, it gets kind of hard to just focus on planet irradiation (I went with irradiation rather than planet cracking so my robot race would still be able to take those planets; in hindsight I think I would've preferred planet cracking) while an awakened empire is using their own planet 'destroyer' to lock your robots on their planet with no hope of escape.
I still managed to wipe out 90% of their population only to realize they'd expanded on their Southern border and my empire would not be able to protect the world destroyer to the few remaining planets. All the while I was basically grinning ear to ear with every successful planet eradication; meanwhile folks on reddit are having a crisis of conscience, lol.
My run with a robot race was monstrous, everything prior to the world destroying was also horrific, even though I really did try to be nice (but as it turns out, everyone will sour against you if you close your borders and forbid travel into and through your territory).
I've already come to terms with the fact that I am inevitably an awful, genocidal empire in every Stellaris game - managing all those diverse species is just a pain for a start.
That being said, I still think the coolest world-destroying mechanism is the impenetrable barrier. Something about not destroying a world, just.. encasing it in a permanent shield that can never be breached, feels like the humane and poetic side of terrible.
Huh....I'm reading the first comment and I realize I may be a monster.
In Stellaris the moment I was able to I built a world destroyer and went around destroying planets in the nations that kept trying to vassalize my own (they kept demanding it). At this late point in the game my empire was as powerful if not more powerful than an awakened empire that had decided to play the galaxy's good guys, but when you're fighting a war on three fronts, one of whom is almost comparable in power to your own, it gets kind of hard to just focus on planet irradiation (I went with irradiation rather than planet cracking so my robot race would still be able to take those planets; in hindsight I think I would've preferred planet cracking) while an awakened empire is using their own planet 'destroyer' to lock your robots on their planet with no hope of escape.
I still managed to wipe out 90% of their population only to realize they'd expanded on their Southern border and my empire would not be able to protect the world destroyer to the few remaining planets. All the while I was basically grinning ear to ear with every successful planet eradication; meanwhile folks on reddit are having a crisis of conscience, lol.
My run with a robot race was monstrous, everything prior to the world destroying was also horrific, even though I really did try to be nice (but as it turns out, everyone will sour against you if you close your borders and forbid travel into and through your territory).
I've already come to terms with the fact that I am inevitably an awful, genocidal empire in every Stellaris game - managing all those diverse species is just a pain for a start.
That being said, I still think the coolest world-destroying mechanism is the impenetrable barrier. Something about not destroying a world, just.. encasing it in a permanent shield that can never be breached, feels like the humane and poetic side of terrible.