The Others - a story of The Nomads in a galaxy far, far away

[Tom D.]

Hello and welcome to my 5th AAR in general already but my very first AAR for Stellaris. And immediately such a ‘strange’ one too, or at least that’s probably what you might think if you read the title. It is probably a concept I think that has not been done before. I said in my last EU4 AAR that my next AAR would be in EU4 again and as the Elysian Empire with the Third Odyssey mod. But recently, an idea I had for Stellaris for quite some time, popped up again and before I realised I was modding the game and started writing an AAR. So here it is!

Just a bit of background for those who might not know: the Nomads in Stellaris are an AI entity that might spawn in the galaxy I think around 25 years after the game has started (though not 100% certain on that number) and they basically are half tourists/half wanderers going from one galaxy to the other. Once they spawn, they will go along a determined path, and if they cross a player (I don’t think it works for AI) events may fire where the player can get different requests and rewards, for example some cruisers. After that though, they disappear to never return again. Ever since I got Stellaris, one year ago and definitely when I got the 3 DLC I’ll be playing with some months thereafter – Leviathans, Utopia and Synthetic Dawn - I was fascinated by AI entities like enclaves and in this case the Nomads. I thought it would be a cool idea to tell the story of a galaxy viewed by these Nomads, basically creating a partial observer game and partial storytelling. The Nomads though are without tagswitching not playable for a player, and it required some modding to actually get them to work somewhat. This will therefore be a heavily console use-modded AAR, not to strengthen myself but for the story and the AAR itself, as I cannot for example build more ships myself and just in general, these entities are just not made to be played. Nonetheless I hope to bring an interesting and above all enjoying story to read to you all.

Here are some details for those who are interested in the specifics of the galaxy generator:

Also a list of mods used, for those interested:

Visual/graphic mods:
- Color coded pop status icons
- Dark UI
- Dark UI - Alternate Icons
- EG* - Cinematic System UI & Camera
- EG* - No Exhaust Trails
- Real Machine Worlds
- Reduce Aura Graphics
- Epic Explosions

Other mods:
- Glavius's Compatible AI mod
- Crisis Manager - End-Game Edition
- my own modifications to make the Nomads somewhat playable

 

[stnylan]

This is a really neat concept.

 

[BioHunter21]

Definitely sounds cool! subbed

 

[hjarg]

Will be following this one with interest.

 

[SibCDC]

As always, I will follow your AAR with great interest.

 

[Nikolai]

Sounds quite interesting.

 

[ngppgn]

Subbed, gotta love some quarian-esque storytelling.

Edit: so you can console-switch to the nomads and play them as a "landless" (starless?) empire? Interesting.

 

[Tom D.]

This is a really neat concept.

Definitely sounds cool! subbed

Will be following this one with interest.

As always, I will follow your AAR with great interest.

Sounds quite interesting.

Glad to be able to have you all on board again, I knew it would be a concept that would spark some interest .

Subbed, gotta love some quarian-esque storytelling.

Edit: so you can console-switch to the nomads and play them as a "landless" (starless?) empire? Interesting.

Now that I looked it up it is indeed quite resembling to the Quarians. And yes, there are AI entities that do no require colonies/planets/starbases to exist, there's a bunch of code allowing that. You can for example also tag into the Dragon, Infinity Machine, void clouds and the other voidborne creatures, even the Shroud! Although the last one probably does nothing if you tagswitch to it, it's not necessarily because you can tag to it you can decently play as them. But I can definitely advise to just do stupid stuff as the Stellarite Devourer, moving from one system to another and burning their planets down .

 

[Ol' Johnny]

I like the look of this. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Tom D.]

Chapter 1: The Arrival

Spoiler: Some music to set the tone

*BAM*

*BAM* *BAM*

A ship leaves hyperspace, followed by another and after that another one, followed by another 20 though different ships this time which left hyperspace one after another, until all ships entered the star system, on the far edge of the galaxy. There was no sign of life on the fleet. Inside the fleet, however, were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of cryopots containing an alien species unknown to the galaxy. The species were frozen in an unconscious state as to preserve them for their eventual arrival. That arrival had now come.

“SEARCHING FOR LOCATION. LOCATION FOUND. LOCATION = DESTINATION TARGET. GOAL COMPLETED. ACTIVATE PROTOCOL RELEASING ALIEN SPECIES ONBOARD. SHUTTING DOWN CAPTAIN AI IN 3, 2, 1, …”

As the onboard AI turned itself off, the process to heat up the bodies of the thousands of bodies in the cryopods began. Slowly, the bodies regained their colour and the doors to the pods were automatically opened. First there was one awakened alien in the ship, then there were 2, 3, until hundreds and thousands of them were crawling all over the fleet. Confused, barely able to walk after laying down for centuries. Well, was it actually, how long had they been here? It was definitely a long time ago they had last been awake. Slowly but surely they started to regain their consciousness. Slowly but surely the reason for their departure dawned back upon them. Some of them wept, either sad or happy as to what had happened whilst others were cheering and glad to be able to see their friends and families again after such a long time. Well, at least, in reality it was a long time, but for them it didn’t feel like centuries had passed. But when the cheers died down and reality kicked in, fear replaced joy. They were stranded, on the outskirts of an unknown galaxy. What it contained or what its dangers are, are unknown. They were lost. They were without a home. They had become voidborne. Exiles. With the AI deactivated and no structure or organization at all chaos would soon erupt. Until one of them was brave enough to step up and address the entirety of the fleet:

“Attention, attention: I do not know whether to be happy or sad. This surely is a big moment for all of us. We were gone for a long time. Lost. Travelling. Not knowing what was happening or what actually happened, in all those time we spent in those pods. But today, we are free, free at last!”

The aliens cheered and for a moment forgot the trouble they were in. When the people stopped cheering, he continued:

“We may be here because we had been exiled after the Norman invasion we failed to fend off, or failed to see what was going to hit us. We may have been defeated back then, but remember who we were and who we STILL are: Ancient Keepers of Knowledge, superior to all other species in the galaxy where we lived for eons! We are free again, but not safe. We have to organise ourselves, we have supplies for a year, but we have to start growing food, we need to get our industries back up, we need to become a self-sustaining fleet. Whatever there is out there in the void, whether hostile or not, we will have to defend ourselves. We will fight if we have to, but we must avoid hostilities unless provoked. We have to discover this galaxy, where we will probably be staying in for quite a while. We must explore, find other lifeforms, engage in diplomacy, ensure we live on, ensure we survive. This all requires good leadership. Therefore I want to lay forth my own experience as an ex-politician as perfect candidate to lead this fleet to its new purpose. I ask for your goodwill to allow me to take the lead of our species, so that we can take care of the day-to-day necessities and until we have build up a new way of government and administration. Give me 10 years to lead this fleet back to the greatness we once held and then we can hold elections in 10 years to see if I did well.“

The population, not knowing how to react, reluctantly agreed. They were glad someone was willing to take the risk and burden to organise a society of hundreds of thousands from scratch. At least someone had to do it. It was clear though that power had to be separated though: therefore there would be a President leading the ‘country’, who was going to build the administration and government whilst on the other hand an Admiral, responsible for the day-to-day needs of the Fleet and taking command of the fleet as travelled through the galaxy. These two responsibilities would often collide in the future, but that was not thought of at the moment, but for the short term it would work fine as long as both were willing to cooperate. For now, day-to-day survival took utmost priority. As people were getting to work, the fleet started moving again, ready to discover a vast and unknown galaxy.

They were the Vool. Ready for a second chance. Ready for a new chapter in their history.

 

[stnylan]

Oh marvellous! I starting laughing with a big grin on my face. This is a really brilliant catch.

 

[Nikolai]

Hahahaha... Smiles. Smiles everywhere. Genious!

 

[hjarg]

Still arrogant bastards, as i see
Wonder how they will manage with democracy.

 

[Tom D.]

Oh marvellous! I starting laughing with a big grin on my face. This is a really brilliant catch.

Hahahaha... Smiles. Smiles everywhere. Genious!

I already thought it would be a nice reference to put into the AAR, I'm glad you two like it!

Still arrogant bastards, as i see
Wonder how they will manage with democracy.

Well, if this was IRL it would probably be quite difficult, literally having to build a society out of scratch and 'prisoned' on a fleet in an unknown galaxy... It's not going to be simple, definitely knowing how the Vool are .

For those who might not get the reference I made, the Vool are a species which featured in @hjarg 's AAR and who were displaced, put on ships and sent out of the galaxy in his universe. As I really enjoyed his AAR, I thought it would be a great way to honour his great work by letting the Vool be the Nomads who enter the galaxy here in my universe. If you want some background story, definitely read his AAR - if you just want to read the exodus of the Vool, here's where you have to look .

 

[ngppgn]

Interesting that the lore of this aar is kinda built on top of anorher's, that seems quite innovative (though I don't dwell on this sector of AARland much so maybe it's common). Bottom line: many quedtions about world-building and setting will will to be postpobed until I read the other AAR.

One question (or rather, point of interest) I will put orward though: I wonder what makes it preferable to this species being nomadic rather than trying to to settle in some planet in the new galaxy.

Meanwhile, the suggestion of playing as the Devourer sounds quite funny!. If there is a script command to switch tags, then there's huge potential for roleplsying-based mods there.

Edit: the anarchist side of me greatly distrust someone who cryo-awakes and first thing starts ordering people around.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

I'll be taking a look at those other Vool AARs, then. I look forward to it.

 

[Tom D.]

Interesting that the lore of this aar is kinda built on top of anorher's, that seems quite innovative (though I don't dwell on this sector of AARland much so maybe it's common). Bottom line: many quedtions about world-building and setting will will to be postpobed until I read the other AAR.

One question (or rather, point of interest) I will put orward though: I wonder what makes it preferable to this species being nomadic rather than trying to to settle in some planet in the new galaxy.

Meanwhile, the suggestion of playing as the Devourer sounds quite funny!. If there is a script command to switch tags, then there's huge potential for roleplsying-based mods there.

Edit: the anarchist side of me greatly distrust someone who cryo-awakes and first thing starts ordering people around.

I'm not an expert on Stellaris AARs either but I don't think that building on another AAR's lore is something that's done often, maybe it hasn't even been done before, not sure but it could be.

Well, in general, there are 2 main points why the Vool would not settle planets:

1. The Vool are not the species anymore they were when they left centuries ago. Even if for them it didn't feel like a long time because they were frozen all this time, they are lost and literally without any organisation or structure whatsoever. The only thing they have is their fleet, and all they've been doing this whole time was travelling. So I think it makes sense that they'd rather stay on their fleet, their safehaven for now, and explore the galaxy, discover what's there and go on from there. Also, it's not because they won't be seeking shelter on planets that they can't seek shelter on other entities. Do know that I have a plan for them and that they won't be staying on their fleet forever, that's for sure.

2. It's a story about the Nomads, whether Vool or not, and if they would immediately go find a good planet to settle down and build their empire from there, I'd basically be doing a standard empire run but severely handicapped, which is not what this AAR is intending to do. Even if it's heavily modded/use of console, I want to bring a story but with a different perspective and different point of view.

I definitely understand the question, @SibCDC basically asked me the same yesterday so you're definitely not the only one wondering.

As for the tagswitching, it's very simple: just open console, type "tag XX" with XX being the number of each AI entity (00 is the empire you as a player start with), the following numbers are the other, standard AI empires, then the Fallen Empires, then the voidborne and more special entities like void clouds, pirates, the Shroud, Stellarite Devourer, etc. It's just trial and error to see what empire has what number, if you want to spawn the Nomads for example, as they're the last entitity spawned they'll be at the back of the row, so for example "tag 40", but the number depends on how many entities you allow for in the galaxy generator. I definitely think it has potential for roleplaying and stuff, I initially thought of the Enclaves to use for some sort of observer games but at least as the Nomads I have way more options because I can move (that's quite a lot compared to a static Enclave) and I see myself having a pretty important role in the future, but more on that later as I find the time to play and write it all down .

Your anarchist 'antenna' might not be broken, it's definitely something to watch out, definitely as the Vool are not used to democracy (at least I think in hjarg's AAR they were not democratic, I actually think all Fallen Empires are autocratic, right?) and with the early divide between the President and the Admiral... things will be interesting for sure (not to mention it's an ex-politician, never trust the politicians ).

I'll be taking a look at those other Vool AARs, then. I look forward to it.

Great to have you on board to, I hope it'll be interesting for you!

Btw, did nobody notice my error in the beginning of the OP, this is not my 4th AAR in general but my 5th - I'm not a noob anymore in AARs you know, because surely you're still a noob with only 4 on your account, right ?

 

[stnylan]

I seem to recall a couple of past cases when one person's AAR has linked to another's, 2003/4-ish. But it is very rare, and nothing quite like this .

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Well it's nice to see something new!

 

[Tom D.]

I seem to recall a couple of past cases when one person's AAR has linked to another's, 2003/4-ish. But it is very rare, and nothing quite like this .

Yeah I didn't look into it specifically but I already thought it was something rare.

Well it's nice to see something new!

Always glad to see someone likes my attempt to do something new, thanks.

All: I updated the OP to include the mods I'm using, they're mostly visual/graphics mods I had left over from other runs, I thought it wouldn't harm to keep them on.