Stellaris

Stellaris

A Cradle at the End of Time - Total Overhaul and Origin
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
Elidien  [developer] 8 Jan, 2023 @ 7:10pm
Post yer opinions / suggestions here.
Just any opinion about the experience using the mod. Its likely to a be weird and slow game stuck on one planet with little to do until you can start terraforming and what not.

Mod is very much not finished but is still "functional" in its most basic conceit of being a post-Aetherophasic Engine galaxy.

The current thing I am fence-sitting on is the normal anomalies being generated. Initially everything part of the initial purge would have flags disabling anomalies yet I worried that would be a bit *too* dull even with due consideration to the scenario presented.

There is some lore being cooked up that may draw me to one particular side of the fence or the other but for now, one can find a subset of events that can still trigger. I am not yet sure of the total breadth of content that is working.

Note: Currently, the vanilla precursor dig sites are disabled as I was preparing to have my own, longer chain concerning the origin in their place.
Last edited by Elidien; 9 Jan, 2023 @ 9:48am
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Showing 1-15 of 60 comments
Ann 9 Jan, 2023 @ 12:51am 
honestly, tho it would involve a LOT of work, i would disable the anomalies and put custom ones in their place. however until such time as you can get around to doing that i would leave them on to at least give the player something to do. another thing is i would give the shattered planets a higher resource deposit chance. as it stands its not really worth expanding out except to get to dig sites, and even then its not that rewarding. all in all it just needs more stuff to keep player enjoyment early on and i think a unique story/ event quest would do the trick. get players invested in the mystery. maybe have some of the events end with a world getting seeded with a civilization that can be uplifted or something. there is so much you can do and ways you can take this that im super hyped to see where this goes. keep up the good work mate, im going to watch this with intense interest!
Cosmosyn 9 Jan, 2023 @ 1:09am 
I have had a similar mod idea in my head for a while, and ultimately I think after midterms I'd like to (at least try my hand, I've barely modded this game) make a submod/fork, if you wouldn't mind. I have my own ideas in mind that don't really go along with such a scripted narrative focus, though I would be excited to see what you turn this mod into.

Anyways,I think a good place to start would be to have a decision that you can enact once per cracked planet, which adds a chance to add a resource deposit, with the potential deposits and their chances being roughly equivalent to vanilla (Energy = Minerals > Research > Alloys > Strategic Resources). The decision could potentially even spawn anomalies, or if you're really lucky, archaeological sites.
minecon2 9 Jan, 2023 @ 1:46am 
Considering that making this mod actually worthwile to play means depending on some pretty big mods, I'd considering looking in there (like discord) to find out if they can't offer some help. Especially Gigas, who already support certain mods that add or alter the main mod. I really want to see this become something incredible, the premise alone is so interesting and could become incredibly engaging. A little bit of an overhaul mod without actually changing too much!
The biggest problem you're facing here the most is keeping everything engaging without simply adding back in random empires. Maybe a post-apocalypse empire that took refuge in the L-cluster? Precursors that were severaly weakened but still managed to survive? New, exotic life that managed to survive the galaxy's destruction or came to be later on? Maybe shroud worlds weren't affected because of their weird state and can have cool events or anomolies connected to them. This has so much potential!
Elidien  [developer] 9 Jan, 2023 @ 4:52am 
I definitely don't mind if you want to make your own fork @Cosmosyn. And I do like that idea of a decision to potentially find various resources on cracked planets. It my own game trying it all out there is definitely a lack of resources that even with the Precursor Traits version of the origin may be too difficult to overcome in time for late-game crises.

@Perigo I did have plans for a large set of at least custom dig sites and associated anomalies that would go into what the galactic scene was like before the Engine was fired (who did it, who tried to stop it, how your species survived, etc). I do also have plans of a way to life seed the galaxy yourself though I could do uplifting other survivors as well.

@Minecon2 It was intentional to truly be alone in a dead galaxy and its definitely a slow burn, RP game because there is indeed not a whole lot of challenge to be engaged with. That being said, better integration with Gigas is wanted as the origin/scenario does indeed rely on those mods heavily so it is on the plan.

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My current vision of when one can start life-seeding is shortly after already being able to put planets back together and reignite stars. The mod was originally for my own personal RP run of "The Last Precursor" that seeds life on planets they rebuild, and ends up having to defend them from the various endgame crises, whether the primitives know what is happening in the galaxy around them or not at at that moment.
Rage000 9 Jan, 2023 @ 10:57am 
perhaps some of those bygone species can be cloned/recreated based off events that allow for the discovery of DNA or electronic data. The event grants DNA with a research project that creates a single species pop on your home planet, that will then grow over time
Last edited by Rage000; 9 Jan, 2023 @ 10:58am
samsockeater 10 Jan, 2023 @ 7:51am 
immediate idea upon reading the description was a variant of the decaying birch world origin but more crewed, a very highly developed birch world with hundreds of insula/insulae that just barely survived the enigne firing

maybe needing to complete a series of projects before being able to start investigating/repairing the birch
Ro 10 Jan, 2023 @ 12:07pm 
An origin selectable for custom AI empires to spawn them on a habitat world would be a nice option.
Journeyman Prime 10 Jan, 2023 @ 6:12pm 
Some random time that your civ enters the Shroud they might be "greeted" by a gestalt Shroud Entity that calls themselves "The Endless." They discover at some point that "The Endless" is the product of the civilization that "ascended" and destroyed their galaxy. That civ is essentially a pantheon of individual Shroud entities that more or less work as a single will, with some potential for divergence. Your civilization can opt to pursue vengeance against the Endless somehow, perhaps by allying with one of the other Shroud Entities and building a prison (megastructure) for the Endless that will hold them for all eternity, or they can ally with the Endless to try and follow their path (non-Crisis Ascension storyline perhaps? maybe? Dunno, no ideas lol)or just spurn the Endless and focus on reversing the damage they caused and becoming true Galactic Lifebringers who perfectly meld genetic engineering and Shroud Mastery.

Based this off of my first time Becoming the Crisis, with the civ I played giving me the idea for "The Endless." I suppose you could replace "The Endless" with "The gods" if you wanted it to be less specific and more general in feel, but the idea is the same: a civ that succeeded in becoming the Crisis being confronted by the survivors of that apocalypse.
Elidien  [developer] 10 Jan, 2023 @ 7:44pm 
@Journeyman Prime I am actually vibing with the 2nd shroud entity idea. It already has some alignment with my initial idea of a shroud entity sacrificing a significant amount of its energy to protect the cradle system, manifesting in part as the Sapphire Veil nebula.
Sidewinder Fang 11 Jan, 2023 @ 3:14am 
A version of the origin for gestalts would be nice, though I can understand how it might require some modifications to work mechanically and thematically, or possibly not fit in with your overall vision.
Elidien  [developer] 11 Jan, 2023 @ 6:43am 
To be honest it was initially an arbitrary choice as a mod for myself, gestalts not being my personal style. I don't there is anything inherently opposed to gestalts about it. Would need some different traits for the precursor version.
CTH2004 11 Jan, 2023 @ 8:56am 
Here's an idea to partially how your species was spared, and it could be merged with the "Sacrified" idea quoted below:
Originally posted by Elidien:
@Journeyman Prime I am actually vibing with the 2nd shroud entity idea. It already has some alignment with my initial idea of a shroud entity sacrificing a significant amount of its energy to protect the cradle system, manifesting in part as the Sapphire Veil nebula.

Basicly, what if all the systems in the nebula are cut off, isolated, so there are no hyper-lanes to the rest of the galaxy, even if you spawn in the center, you just get isolated.

Now, 2 planets in those systems are habitible, and maybe even a guarenteed primitive? However, after 1 year, a dig site apears, called "passage to the stars". After excavating it, "wormhole stabilization" becomes availiable, and your starting system gets a wormhole connected to a random system!

So, that explains why your planet was spared. You are cut off from the galaxy! You could, of course, choose to not have primatives and such, and rather have those as black holes. The idea there is that whatever protected you did it while the star-eater was headed for your planet, and the "subspace shockwaves" forced it to do an emergency FTL, and by the time it came back, your system was isolated (As well as a few others)!

Just a thought there!
williamestep23 12 Jan, 2023 @ 8:59am 
Originally posted by minecon2:
Considering that making this mod actually worthwile to play means depending on some pretty big mods, I'd considering looking in there (like discord) to find out if they can't offer some help. Especially Gigas, who already support certain mods that add or alter the main mod. I really want to see this become something incredible, the premise alone is so interesting and could become incredibly engaging. A little bit of an overhaul mod without actually changing too much!
The biggest problem you're facing here the most is keeping everything engaging without simply adding back in random empires. Maybe a post-apocalypse empire that took refuge in the L-cluster? Precursors that were severaly weakened but still managed to survive? New, exotic life that managed to survive the galaxy's destruction or came to be later on? Maybe shroud worlds weren't affected because of their weird state and can have cool events or anomolies connected to them. This has so much potential!

I edited a bit of the mod to allow precursors and enclaves to survive, it doesn't necessarily fit the lore but it definitely helped.
williamestep23 12 Jan, 2023 @ 9:01am 
Originally posted by Elidien:
To be honest it was initially an arbitrary choice as a mod for myself, gestalts not being my personal style. I don't there is anything inherently opposed to gestalts about it. Would need some different traits for the precursor version.
I think rogue servitors could adapt well to a sort of life seeder empire
williamestep23 12 Jan, 2023 @ 9:03am 
l does the L-cluster survive the engine firing normally?
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