I've got another idea or 2 for the Daleks if that's OK:

1) Either an alternate empire start or an event involving the Emperor Dalek from The Parting of the Ways and his fanatical zealots; either with you starting as them after an alt-scenario conquest of Earth or an event as the Paradigm where you come across the Emperor and get him as an alternate leader (maybe it could even lead to a civil war where you have to choose between loyalty to the returned god-emperor and loyalty to the Paradigm and/or Davros?).

2) The Children of Davros as a rebel faction in reference to the civil war mentioned in the Doctor Who experience where some of Davros' Crucible Daleks survived and declared war on the Paradigm, who they believed to be false.

I understand if any or both of these ideas are too ambitious, but hopefully you like them!

A Time Lord Fallen Empire might be an idea to go with. Specifically the Post-Time War version since they're the most "fallen".

On the topic of Dalek Civil Wars, the Renegade vs Imperial Daleks is always a favourite of mine. Not sure how that could be done though.

Thanks for the ideas!

In the next patch I will implement a player-only alternative start for Cybermen (Cybus Industries). If there is no human player playing as them, they will be able to appear in the game via an event in their respective solar system. This mechanic could work well for other alternate starts such as God Emperor's Dalek Empire. I'll add the God Emperor to my to-do list :-) I think it could work as a Spiritualist Fanatic Purifier empire.

The Dalek Civil War is also one of my favourite plots from classic Doctor Who, but it will take time to implement. I'll try to add their portrait sets in the meantime.

Regarding the Time Lords, I also think they would work best for Stellaris as a Fallen Empire! Along with the Doctor's incarnations, I'd like to implement them in a future "1.0" patch.

Glad you like my idea for the God Emperor and I agree, a spiritualist fanatic purifier empire sounds like a perfect fit to me.

Also quick question in that regard; do you follow the theory that he's Dalek Prime (the same on who shot Davros in Genesis of the Daleks and the Emperor in The Evil of the Daleks among other things)? Just asking in case you're going to mention a little bit about who the God Emperor is in his empire's origin blurb.

thewanderingshaman: That's a great question, although one that's almost impossible to answer :-)

I think I'd leave the origin of the Dalek Emperor open, but the Dalek Prime theory could be included in the faction's introductory text.

Thanks for letting me know, but yeah, his origin is indeed almost impossible to determine, especially since the way media on the subject's been worded has implied that at least 3 Daleks could've become the Emperor; Dalek Prime, the Emperor of the Restoration and the Dalek Prime Strategist, the latter 2 being from the Time Lord Victorious multimedia series, and those are if the God Emperor wasn't a separate Dalek from any of these.

Including the Prime theory (and maybe 1 or 2 others) in the faction's intro text makes the most sense in that regard.

Thanks for the response! One more thing I noticed while playing is that Daleks can't seem to go into psionics since they're cybernetic.

It would be nice if they could bypass that since they're psychic in Dr Who.

That's a great point! The Daleks were the first faction implemented at a time when I was still undecided whether to edit the vanilla files or not. I guess it shouldn't be too hard to fix that now.

But there is a question as to how much of the Daleks' psychic abilities is biological and how much is enabled by their cybernetic implants. This is one reason why I originally chose cybernetics for them over psionics. Breaching the Shroud also doesn't strike me as something the Daleks would aspire to.

Alternatively, the Daleks could have their own tradition tree that would combine elements of psionics and cybernetics without becoming too overpowered - or maybe at least another ascension perk.

@thewanderingshaman: Thanks for the rundown! To be honest I only know Time Lord Victorious from secondary sources, though I absolutely consider it part of the canon & would like to include it into the mod.

I'll try to implement the Emperor and his faction in the next patch. My plan is to release 0.5 before the weekend.

No problem and I'm happy to help! I agree that TLV would likely be part of the canon, though the only thing I'd add is that the Daleks in it are, according to expanded media, from a divergent timeline where the Imperial Daleks won the war with the Renegades (I say divergent since all the new series Daleks lack the cybernetics inherent to Imperial Daleks), though of course with how messed up the timeline is, that doesn't rule out anything from it from being canon anyway.

Looking forward to seeing 0.5 in action and then seeing the Emperor's arrival after that!

Originally posted by ergotoxin:

That's a great point! The Daleks were the first faction implemented at a time when I was still undecided whether to edit the vanilla files or not. I guess it shouldn't be too hard to fix that now.

But there is a question as to how much of the Daleks' psychic abilities is biological and how much is enabled by their cybernetic implants. This is one reason why I originally chose cybernetics for them over psionics. Breaching the Shroud also doesn't strike me as something the Daleks would aspire to.

Alternatively, the Daleks could have their own tradition tree that would combine elements of psionics and cybernetics without becoming too overpowered - or maybe at least another ascension perk.

Hmm, maybe the ability to get psionics and psionic armies without the Shroud? I only recently came back to Stellaris so I forget the limits there, sorry. That aside, it's not completely unreasonable that the Daleks would seek the Shroud but they would definetly try to control it... but that's a bit of a difficult thing to mod. Maybe unique event lines but nothing too different? Idk, just spitballing.

Somehow it almost feels like the Imperial Daleks went down the Cybernetics ascension path, while the new series Daleks are much more interested in genetics ascension :-)

The more I think about it the more I'm inclined to modding a new tradition tree for the Daleks that would use elements of Psionics (and probably Necroids) without blocking other ascension paths. I'll see what I can do!

Originally posted by ergotoxin:

Somehow it almost feels like the Imperial Daleks went down the Cybernetics ascension path, while the new series Daleks are much more interested in genetics ascension :-)

The more I think about it the more I'm inclined to modding a new tradition tree for the Daleks that would use elements of Psionics (and probably Necroids) without blocking other ascension paths. I'll see what I can do!

Ooh, could be a fun idea for a future Renegade/Imperial split. Renegades are more traditional blobs in tanks compared to the extra cyberised and modified Imperials.

Excited to see how it goes either way!

Uploaded a new version of the mod with Dalek Emperor's faction. Let me know if you find any issues!

Also included Imperial and Renegade Dalek portrait sets - these will be used in the future for a possible Imperial/Renegade origins and events.

It looks good so far, though I can't help but notice that a lot of the factions' intro texts have lost their flavour (for example the Paradigm's intro text in the image on the workshop page has been seemingly made identical to that of the Empire remnants) and the Papal Mainframe seems to have disappeared entirely.

Sorry if all of this seems like a nitpick and I'm sorry for any hassle this may cause you.