Stellaris currently starts all players in a relatively secure position on their homeworlds - a small fleet of ships, positive economic growth, no immediate threats. Some of the best experiences I've had with other Paradox titles involved playing as countries that faced serious problems (and had interesting opportunities) almost immediately at the beginning of the game, though. I think it could be more challenging and exciting if the player could take the helm in the middle of a serious crisis threatening their entire species's existence. And it could define the character of their societies better if this crisis is what forged their ethos - for example, if you're playing fanatical xenophobes, what if you started the game in the middle of a revolution against the alien overlords who took over your planet before it had discovered FTL travel? It'd explain why your people hate aliens so much if all they've known from them is slavery and oppression for centuries, and it'd give you the opportunity to turn the tables right at the start (or fail, and be reduced to a vassal of an alien empire...)
What I'd like to do is script several series of game events to play out different crisis starts based on the player's ethos, that would provide exciting, differentiated beginnings to each game. However, I've never modded a Paradox game before - I'm confident I can pick it up given some time, but if there are experienced modders who has some passion for this idea who want to work with me on it (or just take the idea and run with it themselves, there could be ten different mods like this and they could all be good additions to the Steam Workshop) then I'd be happy to work with them. Or anyone really; we can all learn together. I'd also like to hear some ideas and incorporate them into the mod - there are a lot of obvious classic sci fi tropes to run with, here, but I think it'd be amazing to create some good original stories this way as well.
Some of the scenarios I'm thinking of are:
Xenophobes - think the War of the Worlds, three centuries later. Ideally I could get a random alien empire to spawn on a world in or near the player's starting system and a state of war would exist from day one - the player would have conquering them as a goal and they would have vassalizing the player as a goal. Perhaps some additional events that could result in destroying their spaceport? And a further event chain with additional consequences for each possible outcome of the war - win, lose, white peace.
Individualists - think the classic 'space colony rebels against tyrannical home planet government' American Revolution allegory. Again, you'd start at war with another empire, but this one would be of the same race as you in another system, and you'd have the goal of liberating them while they'd seek to vassalize you. They'd be a little more powerful to start with, though, so forcing them to accept white peace would be the more realistic goal.
Xenophiles - here I'm thinking something kind of like (the first part of) Childhood's End, beneficent aliens once arrived to help you in your time of need, and now that your home planet is again suffering from a crisis you must seek help once more from friends among the stars. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do with this one but I want the crisis to solved somehow by taking in xeno migrants. Or maybe their former benefactors lost their homeworld and you have to find space for their (tile blocker) refugee camps until they integrate by event and spawn as pops? The antagonists would be the xenophobic elements of your own people.
Collectivists - here I'm thinking that the planet's biosphere has been driven to the brink of exhaustion by corrupt megacorporations and as the game begins you've just overthrown them (and they fled into FTL..), but your homeworld is badly damaged by centuries of mismanagement and life is cheap. You've been given 1984 levels of absolute power to deal with the crisis but you have political rivals who are eager to stab you in the back.
Materialists - your people's former deities were recently revealed to be Sufficiently Advanced alien observers in disguise, engaging in unethical sociological and biological research. Your once quite religious species is still having a mass existential crisis over it, while various other ongoing crises that were once met with only prayer demand special research projects.
Militarists - Most planets are united under a single superstate at your level of development, but yours is not, and your empire still has significant opposition from a coalition of regional powers and rogue states on your homeworld. The cold war you're engaged in involves a variety of proxy wars, covert operations, and a high tech arms race.
Pacifists - Like the militarists, your homeworld is not fully unified, but your empire is an international coalition effort held together by diplomacy rather than a single state. Rather than solving the problem through combat, you need to bring your world back from the brink of total war. Making alliances with powerful alien races to help you enforce the peace at home is also important.
Spiritualists - For centuries your church has been simultaneous with state on your homeworld, but true faith now eludes most of the population, and a multitude of heresies are flourishing, causing wild changes in the ethics of your pops. There are several points of contention in the doctrine that can be resolved through discovering and researching projects among the stars.
It's going to take a lot of work to flesh everything out and balance it all properly. I was thinking of trying to put together a single scenario to start with, so I'm adding a poll for which one people want to see first. I'd also really appreciate if anyone could tell me if I mentioned wanting to put in anything that's currently impossible for mods. Thanks for reading!
What I'd like to do is script several series of game events to play out different crisis starts based on the player's ethos, that would provide exciting, differentiated beginnings to each game. However, I've never modded a Paradox game before - I'm confident I can pick it up given some time, but if there are experienced modders who has some passion for this idea who want to work with me on it (or just take the idea and run with it themselves, there could be ten different mods like this and they could all be good additions to the Steam Workshop) then I'd be happy to work with them. Or anyone really; we can all learn together. I'd also like to hear some ideas and incorporate them into the mod - there are a lot of obvious classic sci fi tropes to run with, here, but I think it'd be amazing to create some good original stories this way as well.
Some of the scenarios I'm thinking of are:
Xenophobes - think the War of the Worlds, three centuries later. Ideally I could get a random alien empire to spawn on a world in or near the player's starting system and a state of war would exist from day one - the player would have conquering them as a goal and they would have vassalizing the player as a goal. Perhaps some additional events that could result in destroying their spaceport? And a further event chain with additional consequences for each possible outcome of the war - win, lose, white peace.
Individualists - think the classic 'space colony rebels against tyrannical home planet government' American Revolution allegory. Again, you'd start at war with another empire, but this one would be of the same race as you in another system, and you'd have the goal of liberating them while they'd seek to vassalize you. They'd be a little more powerful to start with, though, so forcing them to accept white peace would be the more realistic goal.
Xenophiles - here I'm thinking something kind of like (the first part of) Childhood's End, beneficent aliens once arrived to help you in your time of need, and now that your home planet is again suffering from a crisis you must seek help once more from friends among the stars. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do with this one but I want the crisis to solved somehow by taking in xeno migrants. Or maybe their former benefactors lost their homeworld and you have to find space for their (tile blocker) refugee camps until they integrate by event and spawn as pops? The antagonists would be the xenophobic elements of your own people.
Collectivists - here I'm thinking that the planet's biosphere has been driven to the brink of exhaustion by corrupt megacorporations and as the game begins you've just overthrown them (and they fled into FTL..), but your homeworld is badly damaged by centuries of mismanagement and life is cheap. You've been given 1984 levels of absolute power to deal with the crisis but you have political rivals who are eager to stab you in the back.
Materialists - your people's former deities were recently revealed to be Sufficiently Advanced alien observers in disguise, engaging in unethical sociological and biological research. Your once quite religious species is still having a mass existential crisis over it, while various other ongoing crises that were once met with only prayer demand special research projects.
Militarists - Most planets are united under a single superstate at your level of development, but yours is not, and your empire still has significant opposition from a coalition of regional powers and rogue states on your homeworld. The cold war you're engaged in involves a variety of proxy wars, covert operations, and a high tech arms race.
Pacifists - Like the militarists, your homeworld is not fully unified, but your empire is an international coalition effort held together by diplomacy rather than a single state. Rather than solving the problem through combat, you need to bring your world back from the brink of total war. Making alliances with powerful alien races to help you enforce the peace at home is also important.
Spiritualists - For centuries your church has been simultaneous with state on your homeworld, but true faith now eludes most of the population, and a multitude of heresies are flourishing, causing wild changes in the ethics of your pops. There are several points of contention in the doctrine that can be resolved through discovering and researching projects among the stars.
It's going to take a lot of work to flesh everything out and balance it all properly. I was thinking of trying to put together a single scenario to start with, so I'm adding a poll for which one people want to see first. I'd also really appreciate if anyone could tell me if I mentioned wanting to put in anything that's currently impossible for mods. Thanks for reading!
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