Stellaris Mod Roundup – August ’17

See every monthly roundup: Stellaris Mod Roundups

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The purpose of these roundups is to cast a spotlight on some mods that have caught my attention over the past month or so.

You can find all of the mods featured in this month’s roundup and others in my Steam Workshop Collection “Odin Gaming Mod Roundup“.

This month sees a particular glut of megastructure enhancements and additions; these mods have a purple letter [M] next to them in the list below. A few of these mods also make Gaia worlds more interesting – these have a green letter [G] next to them – and others reduce late-game slog and/or micromanagement – these have a red letter [L] next to them.

List of features this month:

• ExBalance
  • Enhanced Ringworlds [M]
  • Enhanced Terraforming and Gaia Worlds [G]
  • Enhanced Tomb Worlds and Xeno-Archeology [G]
• Galactic Wonders [G]
• Gigastructural Engineering & More [M]
• Improved Megastructures [M]
• Legacy of the Sun
• Planet-Wide City [M]
• Potent Rebellions Expanded
• Star Forge [M]
• Stellaris Involved Policies [L]
• Ticking Warscore [L]
• War Sectors [L]

ExBalance

Author: ExNihil

Mod author ExNihil has a number of mods under the “ExBalance” title. Those that appeal to me most are listed here.

Enhanced Ringworlds

Workshop link

This mod adds some modifiers to ringworlds to make them feel a little more special; they have been constructed specifically for habitation, after all.

This mod should be compatible with all other mods and is save game compatible. (If you do add it to a save game, wait for one in-game month for modifiers to apply.)

Enhanced Terraforming and Gaia Worlds

Workshop link

With this mod, terraforming now removes most negative modifiers, adds a special positive modifier to indicate the optimised climate, and increases the number of tiles on the planet.

It also adds a special modifier to Gaia worlds to make them feel a little more special and to give you a reason to terraform up to Gaia even when you’re a mechanical race or have an empire filled with different types of species.

This mod is save game compatible.

Enhanced Tomb Worlds and Xeno-Archeology

Workshop link

This mods adds a couple of planetary modifiers specifically for Tomb worlds to give them more flavour. It also adds some interesting game mechanisms around a new strategic resource called “Archeological Remains” (which can only appear on Gaia worlds and Tomb worlds), which can be collected with a new building called the “Archeological Compound”.

This mod is partially save game compatible; the new planetary modifiers should appear within one in-game month, but the Archeological Remains resource is only added during galaxy generation, so you’ll need to start a new game to experience this aspect of the mod.

Galactic Wonders

Author: rocket2guns
Workshop link

This mod adds three galaxy-unique wonders that can only be built on Gaia worlds and only after researching the Mega-Structures rare technology.

The intention of this mod is to increase the importance of Gaia worlds and increase tensions between races; these wonders are really worth being fought over!

If used with Enhanced Terraforming and Gaia Worlds and Enhanced Tomb Worlds and Xeno-Archeology, Gaia worlds become much more attractive at all stages of the game.

Gigastructural Engineering & More

Author: Elowiny
Workshop link

Adds two new “gigastructures” (which are so-named as they adopt a scale greater even than megastructures) and three new science-based megastructures intended for the mid-game.

The new gigastructures require an additional “Gigastructural Constructs” ascension perk.

The new gigastructures are:

• The Matrioshka Brain, which adds huge research bonuses (up to 1500 in the final stage) plus unity and navy size bonuses.
• The Hawking Radiation and Accretion Emission Macro-Collector (HRAE-MC), which produces massive amounts of energy (up to 1750), physics research, dark matter, and reduces consumer goods cost.

Pairs well with the Improved Megastructures mod.

KNOWN ISSUES

I don’t normally bother with a known-issues section as practically all mods, like the games they’re based on, have a few known bugs. I generally don’t list mods that have issues serious enough to point out because they can interrupt gameplay.

However, this mod is awesome enough to warrant playing around the known issue: you must reload your save after completing one of the new mega/gigastructures to apply its modifiers.

This is a bit of a pain in the arse, but one doesn’t complete megastructures frequently enough for it to be a significant hindrance.

Improved Megastructures

Author: Red Aria
Workshop link

We’ve all been there; we’ve finally completed the Dyson Sphere and realise that its energy output is totally eclipsed by the half-dozen or so Habitats we’ve already filled with solar panels.

This mod changes that. It allows multiple megastructures to be constructed simultaneously (if you’ve got the resources, why not?), reduces build time, increases resource output of vanilla megastructures, and more.

Pairs well with the Gigastructural Engineering & More mod.

Legacy of the Sun

Author: Alex FRD
Workshop link

This inventive mod adds several Sol variations to replace the Sol system as we currently know and love it. The intention is to add some ambiguity to the time during which Stellaris is taking place; the clock says “year 2200”, but galactic civilisations might arise at any point during Earth’s history, right?

It therefore adds variations of Sol, past and future, along with some new custom empires to add more flavour to new systems.

Planet-Wide City

Author: Emperor Scorpio
Workshop link
Patreon link

Introduces two new megastructures:

• The Urban World, which increases energy, research, and influence production at the expense of other factors.
• The Hive World, which increase mineral production at the expense of other factors.

These have the same tech/perk requirements as Habitats to build

Potent Rebellions Expanded

Author: Caligula Caesar
Workshop link

This mod introduces changes to unrest and revolutions in Stellaris to make them a little more of a threat. Changes include:

• rebels have more resources;
• waves of unrest;
• revolts into bigger countries;
• state vulnerability causes unrest.

There are many more details in the Workshop description.

Star Forge

Author: Djohaal
Workshop link

Adds a new megastructure, the Star Forge, which allows you to produce minerals from a star at the cost of large amounts of energy.

This is purposefully balanced with the Improved Megastructures mod, so you might find the energy costs a little demanding without it.

If you like the look of this, also look at the Stellar Catalyst mod featured last month by the same modder.

Stellaris Involved Policies

Author: Djohaal
Workshop link

This mod adds a number of additional policies that let you tweak your empire’s economy by trading off various bonuses against happiness. This can help in war situations, for example, or to equilibrate late-game economies without micromanaging individual planets and buildings.

Ticking Warscore

Author: Barbariccia
Workshop link

A much-requested feature for Stellaris, this mod adds a ticking warscore for many wargoals. The warscore will tick up by a defined amount every month depending on what your goals were e.g. if you only wanted to annex a few planets, your warscore will begin ticking up once those planets are occupied.

This helps mitigate the sometimes tiring grind to acquire 100% warscore, even when you know victory is certain.

War Sectors

Author: MikeWe
Workshop link

The War Sectors mod adds a new focus for sectors, allowing them to automatically build ships for you. This takes away some of the late-game micromanagement of fleets, although it’s unlikely to give you a fleet composition that you believe to be ideal.

This mod is compatible with Realistic Ships, NSC, and SCX.