Hi everyone,


It is my pleasure to present to you The Zenith of Fallen Empires 2.0, a mod which aims to deliver the experience of being a Fallen/Awakened Empire, which is normally non-playable and not optimized for the player. While there are other mods which provide aspects of being a Fallen Empire (building of Fallen Ships, buildings, cool weapons, special subjects and so on), this mod is designed as a complete, integrated experience which imagines the journey and the rise of your spacefaring empire to the pinnacle of civilization – what the Fallen Empires once were.


Since the release of ZoFE 1.0, the comments I have received and the support I was given have been amazing and I received a great deal of good feedback. With the release of the 2.0 ‘Cherryh’ update, I believe the time is right for a rework of this mod too. It is not an easy task and not a decision I take lightly, but I believe the new changes will make for a greater experience overall and really bring this epic journey to life.


If ZoFE 1.0 was focused on cool and gratifying space battles imagined between various Fallen Empires in their prime, I would like to think that ZoFE 2.0 places greater emphasis on giving players the tools and options to tell their personal story of ascension. While I definitely got better at modding throughout the development of ZoFE 1.0, many of the features planned for ZoFE 2.0 simply isn’t possible under the previous system. This is also why a redesign is required to address the need for new ways to deliver engaging stories.


The first obvious change you will see is that Galactic Ascendancy is now an Ascension Perk, instead of being the tech which you need to become an Ascended Empire. When ZoFE 1.0 was conceptualised/worked on, Utopia hasn’t been released yet, nor the unity/traditions system. Now, in order to become an Ascended Empire, you will need several late-game vanilla techs which unlocks an Ascension Perk for you to take. I believe becoming an Ascended Empire unlocks new gameplay features and belongs with an Ascension Perk. Rather than being purely technology based, now this incorporates the traditions system. The explanatory power of the Ascension Perk also allows the player to find out exactly what they need to Ascend, rather than waiting for a few critical techs to show up.


This redesign follows a shift in philosophy – becoming an Ascended Empire should no longer be when there is no more tech to research, but it should be the beginning of a new journey. In ZoFE 1.0, you gradually acquired more powerful weapons and buildings, and FE ships, before finally becoming an Ascended Empire. While that method places great importance in the pre-ascension journey, it doesn’t make being an Ascended Empire particularly exciting. Moreover, you cannot make default AIs build FE ships while they have yet to Ascend, without overwriting vanilla file and causing massive incompatibility. All things considered, this is not a design decision to take lightly but one that has to be made for the betterment of this mod.


Upon becoming an Ascended Empire, a player will be given multiple options to choose a path for their empire, which grants a third, locked civic. These are some powerful civics which may give a great boon, or enhance a particular type of playstyle. As Stellaris and this mod develop, more civic options may be added. Changing civics in this way really allow me to make each Ascended Empire somewhat unique in terms of what they are really good at, and I may be able to use these to create more interesting and dynamic events later on.


Beyond the civics, you will notice that Fallen Empire Ships are researched individually after acquiring the Ascension Perk, so it feels like a continuous development in ship-building technology as you grapple with and master the Dark Matter energy source. This also keeps the journey post ascension more exciting as you unlock your new shiny battlecruisers.


I have made some UI improvements for the fallen ships, as all of them were one-section beasts with tons of slots, making it difficult to actually see the ship in designer. In most cases, these sections are redesigned but faithful to the number of slots available to vanilla Fallen Ships.


Regarding the issue of Apocalypse compatibility regarding the Titan, it is my belief that people without Apocalypse should still be able to enjoy content that was found in ZoFE 1.0 that PDX has decided to make a DLC on, and so I have brought back the Fallen Empire Titan as is. They are more powerful than the normal Titan class ships in the Apocalypse DLC, but will be without aura and will be subject to the same empire-wide limit. (But not exclusive to one another. You were able to build 3 Apocalypse Titans max, and you will be able to build 3 Fallen Titans max. In total you can have up to 6 titans.)


In line with my story-focus of ZoFE 2.0, it will now be delivered in several add-on component mods which enable players to mix-and-match with other mods at will. ZoFE 1.0 was one big package and not everyone agrees with what constitutes as a Fallen Empire experience. Therefore the only solution is to divide up the content and sell them all as DLCs for $20.00 create multiple add-on components which expands upon the core journey, and players can choose whether they like that or not. I understand that many people want the whole package and for convenience at the mod launcher screen, but I am trying to make this work for as many people as possible and I hope an extra scroll and click here and there isn’t too much to ask.


Finally, if you really enjoy the mod or want to give some feedback, please get in touch. As I restore/redesign content from ZoFE 1.0 there is still some room for change and plans are always in flux. If you have some modding skills yourself and would like to create an add-on component mod to expand upon the story of Ascended Empires, feel free to contact me and discuss ideas/logistics. This modular structure really is designed to be flexible so other mods can add to/override game or mod features, as well as requiring certain component mods to unlock extra features. As for compatibility, I shall have to restrict work on that due to limited time, but I will create a Compatibility thread explaining (to the best of my ability) what issues might arise and how a compatibility patch could address those problems, and if someone has the time, they can use this knowledge and create a patch. In addition, I will also create a playlist for all the ZoFE 2.0 add-on mods and other compatible mods which I deem, in conjunction, provide the ultimate Fallen Empire experience. Stayed tuned for that if this interests you.


In the mean time, please enjoy The Zenith of Fallen Empires 2.0.