A better Alien Zoo/Wildlife Center System definitly sounds like a very nice idea. I always wished the game had more depth to that. Something like you have the goal to find new non sapient lifeforms and species, and acquire knowdledge about them, and collect some for a gigantic intergalactic zoo (which may give energy/trade value etc. ). On the other hand, there could be a different approach, because similar to in real life, animals are not really supposed to live in closed cages - so maybe some antagonizing sides, actual widlife recreation areas, people disliking it, riots of animal right activists etc.

Another thing as addition to this mod. "Wildlife" on not habitable planets / stars / the void. They would need to be made via planet modifiers / anomalies. Like entities living in stars, black holes, on asteroids, in the void etc. Idk. how the recruiting would work, or what they could add but would be very cool, to have some entities there too, even the word "wildlife" sounds a bit wrong for those not so liveable habitats.

@Hanno
Glad you think similarly! I remember reading that one of the Pdox patches about six months ago made the xeno zoo building even worse than non-deposit-dependant equivelants which is just so sad to me! I remember my early play-troughs of the game finding the aliens pets and being really excited about it.

I think doing something truly meaningful with the alien zoo would require a much broader approach, having a proper system of some kind to hook it into, and for that reason I doubt I'll make it to be honest - Unless I get zapped by eureka lightning. In the meantime, I'm pretty content with just some tiny number tweaks if anything.

As for other forms of creatures on weird planets, like the Stellarite devourer, I suppose there is lore potential for it!

One thing that I found a little tricky on this was real vs fantasy. I have a few wacky creatures in here (like 2-3) but generally I tried to keep the organisms believable, and if they ARE weird/wacky they are in the rare slot. Fun thoughts!

Just making a note, on the topic of a dedicated "Alien Pets Expanded" mod: There is a cut resource in the game files for "Alien Test Subjects". I really love the idea that xenophobes in that mod get to dissect the wildlife and probe it for some kind of benefit, while reviving another cut feature while I'm at it.

That sounds phenomenal, looking forward to it

The other day I wrote down some ideas for the "non-army" approach to Wildlife, maybe that gives you some more ideas, most of them could just be a Tech or Module for acutall stations ships etc.:

Wildlife Collection Ships:
Specialized science ships equipped with advanced scanning technology for locating and collecting presapient wildlife.

Wildlife Preservation Stations:
Buildable stations in orbit around planets with presapient life. Equipped with habitat facilities to safely store and study wildlife.

Zoological Research Labs:
Specialized research labs for studying and understanding the behavior and biology of collected presapient wildlife species.

Preservation Policies:
Policies dictating how your empire interacts with presapient life (conservation, exploitation, etc.).
=> affecting diplomatic relations with other empires based on your treatment of presapient species

Wildlife Recreation Areas:
Buildable on habitable planets, allowing your population to interact with and appreciate collected presapient species => happiness bonus and income from tourism?

Mega Zoo / Mega Aquarium / Intergalacitc Zoo :
Potential for megastructures or megabuildings on planets.

Repopulation Projects:
Initiatives to reintroduce wildlife to suitable planets.

Galactic Zoo Conventions:
Events or diplomatic initiatives where empires can come together to share knowledge, showcase their presapient collections, and discuss conservation effort => don't really know any useful effects for that / maybe one can buy other wildlife for zoos etc?

Crisis Events:
Zoonotic disease outbreak related to wildlife.
Eco-Terrorist Attacks (Idk but would be funny)

Sorry, this might be the wrong discussion (could also move this to feedback) :))

hey so, when you say you want icons for the army types do you just not have the tools/skills to make them or do you not know how to implement them? because I've been working for a little bit on some art for mods and would be happy to provide icons for you! Add me as a friend if you're interested and we can talk!

@Ninjafrog
Oh hell yeah I'll add you!

between various development path options
at least for the wild mod I see three
-plants
-robots
-"psionic"

floors
Let's see, it wouldn't be so strange if some kind of mega forest, ent, or something similar to ydrassil were developed, although it is most likely that it will only slightly complement all the types of planets with more diversity of enemies than they may seem, although It wouldn't hurt to maybe add a kind of self-healing feature and have a certain amount of life, that is if they are slow in making them.

robots
Considering that the mining group exists, why not create the drone colonizing group?
that there are three possible classes
rusty or scrap drones: old droids that for some reason continue to function despite their condition, forgotten by their civilization of origin or attempts to conquer the galaxy by a steam civilization
drones (normal or standard): created relatively recently, they are standard robots that try to "colonize" a planet but their creators apparently did not know how to do it (possibility of increasing numbers and building barricades [walls of materials with a lot of life just to distract] and maybe defensive constructions)
Gigantum-MAC-1245 (I couldn't think of anything better, but it's a hypothetical boss): a giant war robot that for some reason was stranded on the planet even though it is at rest, it can be seen that it can destroy entire cities in a short time.
I can think of three variants of this, one that is simply very strong, one that in its presence increases the production or number of robots on the planet and the third that if you have a lot of technology, that removes the soldiers' improvements, and The third is a species that debuffs your soldiers by hacking them, making them extremely weak.
characteristics: tendencies to expand or increase the number of soldiers on the planet and a small possibility of something similar to awakening (basically if you leave it for a long time they will receive a great improvement)

psionic
Isn't the veil supposed to exist, where there are a lot of emotions, thoughts and so on? It is simple that there are planets that have a gap to this one where some horror or an angel comes out

Some simple things can appear: devils, psionic creatures, ghosts, zombies, entities and perhaps some lovedcratian horrors (if I don't really have a very specific idea here, honestly)
characteristics: instead of attacking life, they will attack morale with massive damage, the general damage would be particularly low, almost zero (these beings I am referring to), if the conditions are met your defeated soldiers can be corrupted, and also make it a alternative route for the psychic plane, extremely difficult.

Sorry if it is not completely understood, use a translator.

Makes sense! Good ideas!

and beasts of rare elements could also be feasible, that is, if a species has grown together with usable materials, it is possible that they have integrated it into their being, only appearing in areas that have the capacity to have those mines, or collectors.

volatile specks
With a theme of explosives, which basically explode or at least leave memories when you die
boomers, basically balloons full of explosives, little life, but terrifying damage
apparently docile beings that would remind you of sweet balloons, but if they are provoked you will regret it.

exotic gases
They are gases or use, basically a lot of evasion and damage tolerance but extremely annoying
cumunculus: cloud-like beings born from exotics, capable of mitigating a lot of damage but doing very little damage as well

rare crystals
resistant and peaceful they rarely attack
basically golems
Yes, with the previous publication I ran out of inspiration xd

Idk if you already did, but you should integrate this with your "army attachments" mod! that could change it so that animals become auxilliaries or attachments, so you can have added tyrannosaurs to your assault armies. (love this whole series and the attachments btw!)

@ASulkyDragon
There is a slight intergration between the two mods, yes! If you have any dangerous wildlife AND are running the attachments mod, it gives you the "Xeno Cavalry" attachment back. It's generic (there aren't 44 versions of it) but it's pretty easy to imagine that we're riding on the monsters we found in attachments too :D

I come inspired

Biological materials (rare resources)
Permafrost milk (from winter animals)
Honey (insects)
Eggs (birds)
Dragon blood/ancient-primordial blood (boses)
Oil from the depths (marine)
Imitation of dune xd (worms)

Food Perks
hypothetical examples
Glutton (general)
-5 food
+5% army life
(Increases the chances of food perks coming out)

VORAZOUS (hive mind exclusive)
-20 food
+10 army life
(Allows the possibility of food perks coming out, if changed in such a way that they only need a large consumption to obtain them instead of maintenance)

Honey lover l
-5 Honey
+5 years of life
Real honey lover ll
-15 Honey
+15 years of life
+5% commercial value
+5% army health

Milkman l
-5 permafrost milk
+10% army health
-"Don't you listen to your mother that milk strengthens the bones?"

Chocofrost ll
-15 permafrost milk
+15% army health
+10% armor

-"after being processed and maximizing the potential of the frost milk, it tasted like everyone wanted, chocomilk"

Perks injection/experiment
hypothetical examples
Bathed in dragon blood
-500 dragon blood
+10 years of life
Army
+10% army damage
+10% health Army
Fleet
+10 accuracy

dragon ll heart eater
-5000 dragon blood
+30 years of life
Army
+15% army damage
+15% health Army
Fleet
+15 accuracy
Possibility of death of the leader

Bathed in honey l
-300 honey
+15 years of life
+10% Population growth

Queenbee ll
+20 years of life
+20% Population growth
For every 20 population, 1 farmer


Dummies
+ 1 xp for each month army
Birds of prey
Using our knowledge and eggs we are able to make an opponent for our soldiers (a wild attack generated)
Virtual combat
+10 xp for each month army
formal combat

Decision
Gremchik
Replaces payers with goblin being extremely good at doing so
1000 credits
-10 happiness
+10 crime

There is only the emotional support pet? And the other beings?
hypothetical example
Worm pet
+20% deposit speed
+0.25 minerals per worker
And can exchange with food instead of credits
It looks a bit like a meme

Fun ideas for sure! I will think about some of this with the final part "Alien Pets Expanded"

Alien pets should have species accidentally become invasive…if they’re legal in your empire lol