Magnitus: [...] and the amount of content from all those accumulating DLCs seem increasingly daunting with the time that I have right now (and figuring out while DLCs I should incrementally add to ease into it seems like an even longer process) so I figure if I won't play for years, might as well wait for a really really good discount (and in the interim just play with the DLCs I have when I can).
That is the wrong way to think about it. Essentially, games like Stellaris und Europa Universalis (and to a lesser extent Age of Wonders 4) are games which are constantly worked on. That includes adding new systems but also sometimes fundamentally reworking whole concepts. We used to have planets with a maximum of 25 population (one for each tile). I didn't hate it but it wasn't my favorite concept either. I certainly would not want to go back. Even with the teething troubles of a fundamental rework, what we got was much better.
We are also getting a rework of the planetary economy in the free update which will come with the next expansion. The public beta is only available on Steam but I have high hopes for what I'm reading in the weekly dev diaries. It's less of a fundamental switch like from tiles to now and more a refinement, but one that requires a lot of changes in the internals.
They also seem to have learned a lot from last year. Machine Age was an absolutely brilliant expansion and that was a rather widely shared opinion. The other two expansions were a bit meh. Especially in comparison to Machine Age. Considering the scale of the rework that was happening back then, this starts to make more sense. I can also see aspects of how the storms might work better in the new planetary economy.
The two big expansions this year are both aiming to do for biological ascension and psionic ascension what Machine Age did for synthetic and cybernetic ascension. That is great news and the pre-announced feature list looks very promising. The season pass essentially means you buy the two big expansions and get the species pack for free. Species packs used to be just a bit of graphical stuff but the newer ones have massively raised the bar (and older species packs also got some features retrofitted).
When I look at the season pass, I see less than 4€ per month. Even if I sometimes have breaks, that is a cost I can justify for myself without problems. And if I decide at some point that I don't like it anymore I can just keep playing at whatever version I last believed in. Either because I compulsively archive installers here or because I download the installers of the version I want using my Paradox account. Which I only use for exactly that one use case, because I hate launchers as well but completely eliminating them is simple for both Stellaris and AoW4.
I like 4X and I have certainly developed a taste for grand strategy like in Stellaris. The ones I follow and play with interest all follow the constant development pattern like this. Stellaris. Age of Wonders 4. Old World. I have given other games in that direction a shot but none could convince me the way those other can.
I have said it before and I say it again: 4X and grand strategy are too big and too niche. I have yet to see an implementation which really convinced me which follows a different model.
Just don't think of it as waiting for a "finished" or "complete" game. If you absolutely need that, it will never be for you. This is very much journey before destination.
Also, except for a few weeks around Christmas and in the summer there is a weekly dev diary on the official forum (every thursday) which always explains something they are working on for the free patch or what's going to be in the next expansion. Follow that for a couple weeks for a feel what's happening.
