I always start off being nice until some leader insults me for no reason.
More blood for the blood god 🤷♂️
My Stellaris empires always end up starting more like the vulcans with a focus on science and mostly peaceful exploration, and end up a society of soul-crushing academia that will compromise their own sanity, values and safety for any chance at powerful or dangerous knowledge, ruling over a collection of random protectorates that they maintain for little reason other than diplomatic influence and to have someone to lord their vastly supervisor tech over.
So you become the brotherhood of steel
Maybe? I'm not really familiar enough with them to know
Not really. The Brotherhood hordes tech but doesn't really innovate and they're basically Fallout Nazis after 4.
They were already pretty fashy but 4 sealed the deal, with an assassination of the few characters keeping them as kind-of-the-good-guys between the entries and the rise of their own Hitler type that, fortunately, a lot of players who missed the political commentary will kill for his sweet coat.
So, you play with the Federation Humans?
Far less friendly, aliens in my empires tend to get marginalized to basic resource planets and banned from growing their population because my primary species is more optimized for research output. Also my most common ascension path is bio-ascension, which federation humans would find very illegal since it's primarily genetic augmentation.
I start out ad the Ferengi but end up being the joint Ferengi Klingon Empire
What happens when I try to play Stellaris:
I am straight up the Dominion. I have to really keep at raising the cap for my army because I'm going to be pumping out attack vessels non-stop to overwhelm the galaxy with forces.
Although I also like the Ferenghi method of just buying everyone.
It's too bad I just have the base game cuz I'd love to try doing what I did back in Spore and just blow up every planet that isn't mine.
When I play Stellaris: 
I really wanted to love the game when I tried it but really felt I didn't know what was going on or how to do anything even even though I did the tutorial and everything. The theme is so cool and really appeals to me, maybe I should try again someday
The same publishing company (but different development studio) recently released a simplified, licensed Star Trek game built on the Stellaris Engine.
It’s a little rough around the edges right now but it’s an official Star Trek title and it’s much easier to get into than Stellaris, and it’s currently on sale for $20
I should really try this game again. I'm just so bad at it :(
A solid strategy is to build as many research stations as possible and grab everything that increases reswarch speed when its there. If you do it right you'll start fielding your first battleships while others are still outfitting their first destroyers.
Star Trek memes and shitposts
Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
