Expansion expansions (updates for current DLC's and Story packs)

[Spaceception]

It feels really premature asking for this, considering the next update/DLC is just days away, but with so much potential in the current DLC's, I'd like to see another pass on them to give them some fresh content, or incorporate some of the new mechanics in general to the base game.

Leviathan's

Give artificial Leviathan's Archeology sites and/or precursor chains. And possibly Relic worlds in the case of systems that has a habitable planet(s), like the Automated Dreadnaught system. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...tificial-leviathans-precursor-chains.1175789/
Give space-based Leviathan's waste/remains to find for special resources. And allow study to find out more about these creatures. Major Leviathan's like the Ether Drake should have Archeology sites so you can study extinct civilizations that attempted to kill it in the past. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/leviathan-waste-and-remains.1177927/
Space ecologies
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...re-space-based-aliens-void-ecologies.1204279/
EDIT: Rework Enclaves to make them more interesting. I had an idea for internal "Enclaves" to form within your Empire (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...titutions-your-own-personal-enclaves.1238300/), but it may make current Enclaves severely outdated. You could even take some of these ideas for the Enclaves if you wanted.

Utopia

Give broken megastructures Archeology sites and relics (Goes to the Cybrex ringworld in the base game too) (Great idea by @Jastebro) https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ke-broken-megastructures-excavatable.1177916/
Expand/Revamp Hive minds and civics. Pretty general one a lot of people have been asking for. But here's a good one by @Methone https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hive-mind-ideas.1158097/ And possibly a Hive Mind FE too.
@Tech Noir Synth also made a very extensive list/suggestion. This honestly should have been here since I started this thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/huge-list-of-hivemind-suggestions.1173511/ - Some progress in 2.6!

Synthetic Dawn

Expand/Revamp civics
New portraits
New voice advisor?
Some of this idea probably goes in the base game but it can be expanded in the DLC - Fixing AI uprisings, and making them a mid-game threat, rather than a late-game threat. This involves making the robot techs cheaper. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/robots-and-ai-rebellions.1153307/

Apocalypse

While the base mechanic of this could be in the main game, fleet exercises between empires would be cool to have. In the base game, this could be between you, and empires in a federation or defensive pact. Then this would give your Admiral's XP. In Apocalypse, this could be expanded to any friendly empires, and letting your Admiral's get new traits as well from time to time.
Then you could have humanitarian work, the base function may be in the game, or it could be exclusive to the DLC. Either way, you could have fleets going in to other empires after a war to help rebuild, with food/consumer goods upkeep. This could boost trust and relations between you, and other empires can offer it as well. Credit where credit's due from @Big Dead One https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-exercises-and-humanitarian-missions.1161308/
Finally, this may be in the base game outright, but the ability to join in the middle of wars to help an empire reach their wargoals. Instead of having to declare war at the start with them, or declare a separate war.

Distant Stars

Tie in some of the Anomalies into the Archeology system instead.
A Relic world or two (Maybe in that system only connected to a Wormhole)
Give the scrapper bot a precursor chain, and perhaps a new artificial Leviathan with that as well.
Arkship event chains
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/arkship-event-chains.1161945/ - Kind of in the 2.6 update in the form of "Lost colony"!

Megacorp

Pretty recent one, but maybe more civics for Megacorps. This rework, in particular (from @Martydi), is something I'd like to see. With a ship market screen to rent or buy ships, and possibly the ability to upgrade (or at least trade in for a price) their ships if you buy them. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/private-military-companies.1184179/

Ancient Relics

(Now I really feel needy...)
Civic that allows you to start on a Relic world. You either evolved on the planet from the remains, or are what's left of the civilization after rising back into space. You have unique Archeological chains to go through, not just on your homeworld, but in nearby systems as well, so you can uncover your history. There can also be the chance to find another Empire like yours which has the same origins. Plus, special communications/events with Fallen Empires, as you make contact again. And special CB's if another Empire gets a Relic that your Empire used to have. - In the 2.6 update as Remnants!
This could fit well into the Ancient Relics storypack, or be the first base game mid-game crisis, but regardless, an "Ancient God's" crisis: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ancient-gods-new-mid-game-crisis.1174414/
More impactful digsite after-effects: starting with "The Echoes inside"
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ppurtunity-for-a-crisis-of-some-sort.1237496/

And there's not just this. I'm sure there are many more ideas that could be added, but I feel some future update that focuses on updating DLC's rather than adding a new one would be very welcome

 

[Spaceception]

Edited with some ideas for Apocalypse/Megacorp.

 

[Spaceception]

Added ideas for space ecologies (Leviathan's), Arkship events (Distant stars would fit I feel), and The Echoes Inside (Ancient Relics obviously)

And I really like the Ancient Gods as a part of Ancient Relics, because it would mean every storypack (and Apocalypse) gets (or is attached to in Synthetic Dawn's case) a mid-game crisis level event, which is a cool theme to hold.

 

[Spaceception]

With Lithoids just being announced with new mechanics, can other unique species types get this treatment? I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks it'd be interesting for plantoids to have the ability for photosynthesis, and even a new terraformable world type for them. I'd definitely get the species packs if they went beyond just portraits. So I hope Lithoids is just the start.

 

[Martydi]

Overall I support the initiative to put out more updates to DLC stuff. There are some comments I'd like to make.

Give artificial Leviathan's Archeology sites

Maybe normal events, propably with a special project, that get turned into archaeology sites with relics when you also own the Ancient Relics expansion? While there are relics in the base game so adding them to leviathans is not an issue, archaeology sites are a DLC feature.

Archeology sites

Same as before. Some special project would be good, possibly with a relic, but dig sites are Ancient Relics feature.

Expand/Revamp Hive minds and civics

Yas

humanitarian work

That would possibly fit a bit more to Federations update, but I can see why it would make sense in Apocalypse.

Tie in some of the Anomalies into the Archeology system instead.

Again, archaeology is DLC exclusive feature. Maybe make some event chains generate as either dig sites or regular anomalies depending on owned DLCs.

Civic that allows you to start on a Relic world

If there is a way to somehow get food for this specific world, I'm all for this addition.

 

[Spaceception]

Maybe normal events, propably with a special project, that get turned into archaeology sites with relics when you also own the Ancient Relics expansion?

Is that possible? Or needed? The archeology system itself was moddable without Ancient relics, so I don't see any reason why you can't retroactively give unique dig-sites for certain DLC's. But if your idea works better, then okay I'd just like these things to be more fleshed out in general. There's plenty of story material to work with.

If there is a way to somehow get food for this specific world, I'm all for this addition.

One Origin discussed today was a Relic world start, so they figured something out. On that note, they did the same with a partial Ringworld start in regards to minerals.

 

[G S Palmer]

Again, archaeology is DLC exclusive feature.

No, it's not. The specific dig sites added by Ancient Relics are, but the system is in the base game, and more dig sites will probably be added in future DLC.

 

[Martydi]

Is that possible? Or needed?

I'm just throwing ideas around. I have no idea whether its possible or not.

The archeology system itself was moddable without Ancient relics, so I don't see any reason why you can't retroactively give unique dig-sites for certain DLC's.

I know, my concerns were more with the fact that without mods dig sites are only with Ancient Relics, and Paradox might want to keep it that way. Although now that I think about it, curator enclave was added to Distant Stars despite being only available in Leviathans at first, so something currently DLC exclusive being added independently to some other DLC is certainly not impossible.

 

[LorenLuke]

Apocalypse

While the base mechanic of this could be in the main game, fleet exercises between empires would be cool to have. In the base game, this could be between you, and empires in a federation or defensive pact. Then this would give your Admiral's XP. In Apocalypse, this could be expanded to any friendly empires, and letting your Admiral's get new traits as well from time to time.
Then you could have humanitarian work, the base function may be in the game, or it could be exclusive to the DLC. Either way, you could have fleets going in to other empires after a war to help rebuild, with food/consumer goods upkeep. This could boost trust and relations between you, and other empires can offer it as well. Credit where credit's due from @Big Dead One https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-exercises-and-humanitarian-missions.1161308/
Finally, this may be in the base game outright, but the ability to join in the middle of wars to help an empire reach their wargoals. Instead of having to declare war at the start with them, or declare a separate war.

One of the issues that I always had with Apocalypse is that the Colossi always felt more like a victory lap than a game changer. The obvious analogy that everyone makes is to that of the Death Star and the reign of indomitable terror it could bring, but that was largely because of the fact that it was (save for a singular exhaust port) completely invulnerable. Even without the thousands and thousands of point defense, it was basically an uncrackable nut. Colossi aren't invulnerable (and for relatively decent reason), but they don't even have a paltry point defense, instead requiring a fleet around them to defend. They take literal months to prepare for firing, and an *actual* month to go from start to end of effect (even the trailer doesn't take but a few seconds). Simply put, they're not war-turning weapons, nor are they scary.
Superweapons, however, have long been a staple of strategy games, the nuclear missiles of Civ, Command and Conquer, Starcraft, and Supreme Commander. Even as they get more exotic such as the 'particle cannon' from Generals, the mind-controlling 'Deliverance Engine' of SoaSE: Rebellion, or the various Experimentals SC has to offer, ultimately they serve the same purpose- a timer (visible or implied) tied to the near certainty of a Very Bad Thing™ happening.
The timer (or the announcement of it built) creates an impetus for action to either destroy or defend against this thing. Colossi provide no such thing, as they do not function as a warship. A fleet with a colossus is as dangerous to your defenses as a fleet without. And even still, the slow lumbering vessel needs a minimum of 4 months to effect any sort of actual damage, and that's excluding intersystem and intrasystem travel time to the unfortunate planet.
I say that the colossus needs to be given teeth, speed, or both. Make it formidable on its own (25k fleet power). Make there be a research project that creates a unit that's fast (corvette fast, even) and able to destroy (or somehow cause a Very Bad Thing™ to happen to) a planet, but have the unit it produces be single use, and vulnerable to any fleet over 5k. Something that actually feels like it's worth the investment of the Colossus, and for the announcement to be less of a 'great, now they have another CB' moment and much more of a pants soiling 'I want everyone to this system last week' moment.