I took a break from Stellaris to play through the Mass Effect trilogy recently, and it occurred to me that one of the reasons the Stellaris galaxy feels disjointed is that the events and lore are all in separate, unconnected bins. Essentially you have five "groups" where lore events comes from: 1) anomalies/archeological sites from "unknown" alien civilizations, 2) Precursors, 3) Fallen Empires/Marauders, 4) Leviathans, and 5) Crises. But these are all unconnected to each other, so each anomaly/archeological site/event is entirely unrelated to anything else. As a result, there doesn't feel like a coherent "back-story" to the galaxy as you explore it. Instead, it feels like everything is a one-off.
Upon galaxy creation, each FE should have a "zone" around them designated as places they influenced; there should also be other such zones filling in the rest of the map representing other recently extinct empires. Within each zone, some large proportion of anomalies and archeological sites should be linked to that FE/ancient empire. Alien mural? Drawn by some of the FE? Race track? Related to an ancient sport by the FE? A determined exterminator empire? The FE created them in a science accident gone wrong. Ruined science nexus? The FE might have built that at the zenith of their power. Zarqlan's tomb? Maybe he was a member of the FE species, or of a subject empire they conquered. Likewise, the origins of the enclaves should somehow be connected to these empires.
Now at the locations where the different zones converge/overlap, you might seed anomalies related to conflicts: ruined shipyards, planets with titanic life bred to be engines of war, etc. At the locations where these overlap with the Marauders, you can have anomalies related to how the Mauraders were driven off their original homeworlds (and perhaps have those homeworlds as colonizable or tomb worlds).
Now, repeat this process again with the Precursors: define zones where they existed, and then seed anomalies related to each Precursor in those zones. Have those anomalies be linked to the precursor somehow. Like maybe the Awakened species was fighting the Precursors. Or the Leviathans you find there are related to the Precursors (maybe they built the Engimatic Fortress?) Then because these overlap with the later FEs/extinct aliens, you're going to have some regions where both are referenced. Perhaps the FE/aliens too studied the ruins of the Precusors? Maybe some events could be related to both of them.
The Crises are a little trickier, but it would be interesting to hint that the Precursors, or FEs/extinct aliens interacted with them in some way. The Contingency is perhaps the easiest, as its already established that they were already in place - so maybe they are responsible for the extinction of some of the aliens, or maybe they were beaten back by an FE? You can have more tomb worlds near sterilization hubs, maybe. The Extradimensional Aliens might be hinted towards by references to jump drive tech, and perhaps references to beings from other dimensions in the ruins? The Prethoryn I suppose wouldn't have any hints, because they are newly arrived to our galaxy. I suppose one might also imagine that some of these extinct aliens might have been destroyed by the end of the cycle - and there can be events for that.
In terms of what would actually need to be done to the event text, you'd probably need to insert places where the original name of the civilization responsible is included (as a variable), and in some cases, the species type (for instance the mummified reptilian pilot event). In terms of interactions, the FEs should probably respond if you interact with some of "their" ruins - maybe they are grateful that you return some lost artifact, or unhappy that you are looting the tombs of their ancestors. They might target certain worlds if they reawaken. And perhaps this might provide a springboard for why they would become guardians of the galaxy: maybe they too fought the contingency long ago.
The hope here is that when you come across anomalies or archeological sites, they will form a consistent "lore" for that particular playthrough. Each piece will feel like part of a coherent narrative, rather than being completely detached from every other thing you find in the galaxy...
Upon galaxy creation, each FE should have a "zone" around them designated as places they influenced; there should also be other such zones filling in the rest of the map representing other recently extinct empires. Within each zone, some large proportion of anomalies and archeological sites should be linked to that FE/ancient empire. Alien mural? Drawn by some of the FE? Race track? Related to an ancient sport by the FE? A determined exterminator empire? The FE created them in a science accident gone wrong. Ruined science nexus? The FE might have built that at the zenith of their power. Zarqlan's tomb? Maybe he was a member of the FE species, or of a subject empire they conquered. Likewise, the origins of the enclaves should somehow be connected to these empires.
Now at the locations where the different zones converge/overlap, you might seed anomalies related to conflicts: ruined shipyards, planets with titanic life bred to be engines of war, etc. At the locations where these overlap with the Marauders, you can have anomalies related to how the Mauraders were driven off their original homeworlds (and perhaps have those homeworlds as colonizable or tomb worlds).
Now, repeat this process again with the Precursors: define zones where they existed, and then seed anomalies related to each Precursor in those zones. Have those anomalies be linked to the precursor somehow. Like maybe the Awakened species was fighting the Precursors. Or the Leviathans you find there are related to the Precursors (maybe they built the Engimatic Fortress?) Then because these overlap with the later FEs/extinct aliens, you're going to have some regions where both are referenced. Perhaps the FE/aliens too studied the ruins of the Precusors? Maybe some events could be related to both of them.
The Crises are a little trickier, but it would be interesting to hint that the Precursors, or FEs/extinct aliens interacted with them in some way. The Contingency is perhaps the easiest, as its already established that they were already in place - so maybe they are responsible for the extinction of some of the aliens, or maybe they were beaten back by an FE? You can have more tomb worlds near sterilization hubs, maybe. The Extradimensional Aliens might be hinted towards by references to jump drive tech, and perhaps references to beings from other dimensions in the ruins? The Prethoryn I suppose wouldn't have any hints, because they are newly arrived to our galaxy. I suppose one might also imagine that some of these extinct aliens might have been destroyed by the end of the cycle - and there can be events for that.
In terms of what would actually need to be done to the event text, you'd probably need to insert places where the original name of the civilization responsible is included (as a variable), and in some cases, the species type (for instance the mummified reptilian pilot event). In terms of interactions, the FEs should probably respond if you interact with some of "their" ruins - maybe they are grateful that you return some lost artifact, or unhappy that you are looting the tombs of their ancestors. They might target certain worlds if they reawaken. And perhaps this might provide a springboard for why they would become guardians of the galaxy: maybe they too fought the contingency long ago.
The hope here is that when you come across anomalies or archeological sites, they will form a consistent "lore" for that particular playthrough. Each piece will feel like part of a coherent narrative, rather than being completely detached from every other thing you find in the galaxy...
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