1. I swore off Paradox because of their invasive software like launchers and DRM. Gog says the title is DRM free, but how much paradox crapware do I have to have to play? Launchers and other stuff like that.

2. Another reason I ditched paradox was preachy wokism. I don't want that in my games. Is there a lot of that in Stellaris?

3. If I buy, which DLCs are pretty much must haves?

I'd like to catch the current 75% off sale, so please answer quick, I don't know when it ends!

Thanks, I think I'll pass. I am not into paying a company for a product that then turns around and harvests data from me. That was why I banned paradox from my computer in the first place.

It's really *disappointing* to see Gog let them make their DRM mandatory for a title that people had already bought with the understanding that it was DRM free. If I had bought earlier I'd be very pissed at Gog for reneging on their promise.

As it is, I'm annoyed that they are still advertising this as DRM free when it manifestly isn't.

I've been playing Stellaris for a couple years already without ever installing GOG Galaxy nor the Paradox Launcher. I do not even have a Paradox account.

Keeping in mind that I only play single player, so I do not know if the multiplayer modes are DRM-free too.

----- None are really required to enjoy the game, the base game is more than enough by itself to have fun for several months.

If you really wish to extend it, I would advise starting with the "Story Pack" expansions first (especially Leviathans and Synthetic Dawn) and the Utopia expansion.

when it first came out you didn't need a Paradox account to play multi ... also badges matter to some people

the downside of not having Gog Galaxy is that you have to wait longer for off line patches + every other patch needs you to install the entire game again instead of just the few files Galaxy users have to grab

the current stage of multi in general is busted so only get Stellaris if you want a single player game and of course star ruler 2 is another great 4X game that runs stable on much older hardware ... also on Gog

I only want single player, and can live without achievements, but having to install paradox launcher is a non-starter for me. If I buy now, are the only versions available for download, including the non-galaxy one, ones that require the launcher? I saw something in another thread that makes me think that's the case. I get that people that downloaded a standalone years ago and are still playing 1.9 don't have problems, but I'm not sure that option is available to me as a new customer.

TIA

as a new customer you get the current build which you can download without Galaxy if you want to use the offline installers... I don't do it this way but vv221 says it works for him\ her

yes to get your hands on the very old builds like 1.9 you will need a Paradox account... Gog gives you a Paradox key when you buy but to use it you need to first make a Paradox account so you can link your version to download older builds

I decided to grab the base game and just see what I could do with it without running into DRM.

This is on windows (10).

I downloaded the 'backup' offline installer (3 files) and that installed fine. It wanted to install it under my Gog/Galaxy/Games directory so I let it. Then I went into Gog\Galaxy\Games\Stellaris and looked for what to launch.

My first try was a mistake. I ran 'launch stellaris' and it set up the stellaris launcher without asking me if it could. I was sleepy or I'd have known better. I killed it at the first opportunity.

Then I just clicked the stellaris.exe and that ran fine. I exited, looked for what programs had been installed, saw Stellaris Launcher on the list, uninstalled it.

The game still runs fine when double-clicking the stellaris.exe.

I suspect if I'd never clicked the launcher I'd not have had to uninstall anything and it all would have worked, but there's an outside chance the way I did it was necessary, so I wrote it up for all posteriors.

Now I gotta learn how to play.