Everything Trying To Kill You! - The Crisis Ideas Thread

[Ulti8]

PLACE TO BRAINSTORM GALACTIC CRISIS IDEAS
I have created a thread for everyone to throw in their ideas on to how to bring more DOOM into the game for players to hopelessly prepare their inevitable demise over.

CRISIS LIST (What is already in the game)
-Trans-galactic invasion by Not!Tyranids
-Hyperspace energy Cthulhu invasion from another dimension
-Huge robot uprising
-Fallen empires waking up and starting a huge war, dragging everyone else in with them.
-Something to do with social tech
-Something to do with an ancient ring-worlds secrets.

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Here are some of my ideas to start off: (Note: These would probably require mechanics that may not already be present in the game. These are just brainstorming ideas)

-Galactic plague: caused by researching bio-weapons or releasing some ancient stockpile of it accidentally (may be the ring-world crisis if we are assuming it is based on halo). This crisis would probably require the galaxy to be interconnected enough for the plague to spread.

-Catastrophic over-extension: The opposite of the other crisis', instead of being caused by researching a dangerous technology, catastrophic over-extension would be caused by a civilisation reaching a certain size without researching important "New Worlds" and "Computing" technologies, making running such an empire almost impossible logistically speaking. Like the ring-world, can be triggered mid-game, through nations being way too expansionist rather than curious. Think of it like the over-extension of the Roman empire, Mongolian empire or Alexander's empire. Would trigger a societal collapse-style crisis with economic turmoil and unrest everywhere, would be styled somewhat after the "Lost Mandate" of China in Europa Universalis.

-Transhuman/Eugenics War: Genetically engineered pops reach a certain percentage of the population and/or a certain level of superiority through technological advancement (genetically engineered super-beings with superior brains, longer life, designer babies, etc) causing a huge divide between them and the non-modified pops. Can be triggered by either the transhumans (Star Trek Eugenics war style) or by the non-transhumans (Gundam Seed style), either way launching into a apocalyptic "super civil war". The player gets an event to decide which side to go with and has to fight themselves. (As transhumans would likely have bigger future benefits, I would say there should be bonuses for picking your non-modified pops, such as them starting with much more when the crisis happens thus making them the less dangerous pick to survive).


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LIST OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM (Edits for other peoples ideas)

-Nanobot plague (Grey Goo Apocalypse)
-Galactic diplomacy breakdown
-Fallen Empire civil war
-Fallen empire "ascend to another plane of existence" causing tech scramble/war.
-Hyperlane collapse
-Gamma ray bursts from galactic core
-Rogue black hole
-Genetic Engineering Degradation/Population Crisis
-Nano Virus (Anti-technology)
-Alternative Trans-Galactic Invasion: von Neumann Berserker
-Alternative Trans-Galactic Invasion: Extragalactic Despotic Empire
-Alternative Trans-Galactic Invasion: Star-eating force of nature
-Rogue fleet of doom (Sins of a Solar Empire)
-Psionic Catastrophe (Over concentration of psionics in galaxy)
-Super-predator anomaly/catastrophic primitive uplifting
-Infectious and destructive memeplexes (Sociological disaster)
-Psionic Galactic Conqueror (The Mule from the Foundation Series)
-"Peak Oil" style resource crisis
-Invasion of cat-eared neko girls (<------ Was listed, lol)
-Black Sun-like Fallen Empire superweapon fired through hyperlanes to exterminate all alien life
-Halo Array Superweapon
-Reverse extra-dimensional invasion (Invading energy being dimension)
-Galactic-scale wave of separatism (Revolutionary wave/World revolution-style)
-Radiological storms caused by Fallen Empire technology
-Time War
-Alternative Trans-Galactic Invasion: Interventionist peacekeeping trans-galactic space police
-Biological Hacking Plague (Bio-engineered WMD via bio-hacking a species, attacks all nations with pops of that species)
-Nova Pulse (Trans-galactic pulses causing stars to start shooting solar flares and shedding outer shells)
-Avatar-style planets with collective consciousness rebels (Localised mini-crisis)
-Sudden evolution of primitive species gains tech rapidly and goes on rampage (Similar to above super-predator anomaly)
-A certain type of vital technology breaks down/runs out galaxy-wide (Similar to "Peak oil" style resource crisis idea above)
-Dune-scenario, a single planet with a ridiculously valuable strategic resource starts a galaxy-wide conflict to get possession of the single planet with said resource.
-Powerful psychic starts galaxy-wide religious movement (Similar mechanically to Mule-idea above)
-Cold War scenario, enough super weapons are developed by all sides that warfare will result in a galactic-apocalypse.
-Crystalline Communities Revenge: The Crystalline species that lives in the galactic core gets pissed that all its children keep getting killed, invades the galaxy outwards
-Hyperspace Flux (similar to Hyperspace collapse idea)
-Planetary Shift (Planets change planet-type due to being forced by some gravitational force, localised crisis)
-von neuman berserkers, space zombie parasites and apex killer (Super-predator), all stated above
-Giant space monsters that feed on colonies (May already exist with Not!Tyranids)
-A single gigantic monster entity invades the galaxy
-Supernova chain-reaction
-Repellent Void
-Galactic overmind (Psionics disaster, creation of galaxy-wide hivemind borg)
-Sudden rapid decay of stars in galaxy
-Alternative FTL disasters
-A hole in reality creates a gate to a mirror-universe dimension where the gate-opener is invaded by the ethos and government reversed (evil/good) twin of themselves.
-Trans-galactic invasion alternative: Invasion of infiltrators, sabotage galaxy then invade
-Antaran-style invasion of angry precursors from pocket-dimension
-Galactic genestealer-style cult of disguised hybrid monsters (May combine with infiltrators above)
-Ancient super-machine that starts converting people into androids

 

[Ramiel]

The plague's a nice idea, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's already something in the game like that. Pretty sure there's more crises already in than we know of.

The other two don't really fit the late-game Crisis mechanic though. Both of them sound like issues and conflicts which arise naturally out of the pops and factions mechanics, even if they end up as massive empire-wide civil wars. Besides, they're both focused on a single nation/empire, while Crises are galaxy-wide threats to everyone.

 

[praftd]

Nanobot plague.

 

[Ulti8]

The plague's a nice idea, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's already something in the game like that. Pretty sure there's more crises already in than we know of.

The other two don't really fit the late-game Crisis mechanic though. Both of them sound like issues and conflicts which arise naturally out of the pops and factions mechanics, even if they end up as massive empire-wide civil wars. Besides, they're both focused on a single nation/empire, while Crises are galaxy-wide threats to everyone.

True. Still, I think they would be awesome catastrophic internal events.

 

[Ramiel]

Oh I concur, and that's exactly the sort of thing I'm excited to see grow organically out of the factions system.

 

[Mitchz95]

A total breakdown of galactic diplomacy. You can still deal and trade with other empires to a small degree, but there are no formal alliances or declarations of war: everyone's on their own, and nobody will hesitate to stomp on your empire if it means a slightly better deal for themselves.

A collapse of the hyperlane network, perhaps triggered by a Fallen Empire or in response to another endgame crisis. This would be fine for warp and wormhole empires, but if there are any big superpower empires that relied on the network, they'll have a lot of trouble holding things together. Their collapse will also create huge power vacuums.

A Fallen Empire, or several of them at once, ascend to a higher plane of existence and leave all of their worlds and technology behind. Suddenly you've got a galaxy-wide war on your hands as dozens of empires try to lay claim to their former territory. Whoever wins will have a huge technological advantage over the others.

Some kind of natural disaster, such as a radiation burst from the galactic core or a rogue black hole that wreaks havoc as it passes through the galaxy.

A Fallen Empire civil war, which devastates all systems in the region and perhaps even blows up a few planets outright. If you share a border with them ... oh boy.

 

[Ulti8]

How would the total breakdown of galactic diplomacy happen? I figure for the normal war/alliance mechanics to disappear (Though I would suggest in this situation a temporary lock), something absolutely horrible would have to happen.

I would also think the hyperlane collapse would only be temporary or cause fluctuations rather than being turned off, mostly because I don't think players can change their FTL type.

 

[Vasious]

Following the caveat
(Note: These would probably require mechanics that may not already be present in the game. These are just brainstorming ideas)

Something to do with Nanites? assuming there is some or a series of tech that result in them being integrated everywhere
Maybe a Nano virus spreads out throughout space rendering technology non functional.
The nanites were supposed to maintain and repair the technology but a single error in their coding, what when unnoticed for too long propagates and they instead, "fix" the technology into a non functional state, as well as spreading into machines everywhere well beyond the boards of the originator Empire
Rather than the "machine uprising" this just destroys fleets and installations on the planets, and prevents their construction until a way to remove/de-activate the self replicating nanites is developed.
As a consequence of Faster than light travel becomes impossible, Empires collapse into OSM - One system minors - Creating a fractured Worlds like scenario - where as FTL travel is redevopled once the nanites are purged, via tech research and projects, the scramble to re-forge Empires begins

Overreliance on cloning/gene manipulation/life extension techs destroys the Genetic integrity of the species using them, and you get a negative growth rate, as normal reproduction and cloning both fails. leads to depopulation of the Empire and new or different species inheriting the state institutions.
Bonus if the NPCs realises this and the opportunists might open up migration to take over you empire from within settling your now depopulated worlds with their citizens as a prelude to a "liberation of my species" war

-Trans-galactic invasion by Not!Tyranids
Alternatives or additional options to Not!Tyranids could include
A von Neumann Berserker - it only takes one to be left unchecked
Extra-Galactic empire scout force in FTL Generation ships looking to Establish a beach head and a mega project to build a trans-galactic gate to bring in more setters/reinforcements. A more regular enemy with Several Super battleships ala the oversized military station of the despotic Empire
Something that eats stars so rather than being an invading force, like the Not!Tyranids, this just destroys whole systems after draining the life out of the star. It is unaware of the Space faring races, it might not even have any sentience beyond move and feed, move and feed. Defeated by Brute force ? Maybe if the wave after wave after wave of ships. Poisoning enough stars? Got to research how to and seed the stars in the creatures path, either way those stars will be lost. Can it be driven from the galaxy some other way using a Psionic Beacon? How many stars will be destroyed by the time a solution is found?

 

[Fonz]

*sees title* Australia is a galactic crisis now?

Anyway, one that's really nice would be say the SoaSE one, where a super powerful alien fleet that doesn't belong to anyone and you can't communicate with starts to attack every single empire, destroying their fleets and bombing their worlds into tomb worlds. Maybe something so strong even one single fallen empire can't deal with it alone.

 

[Dessic]

Nanobot plague.

Not exactly a pague, per se, but an invasion of microscopic machines that manipulate matter at the atomic level, and programmed for self-replication. They basically turn all the matter of a planet into more machines, which then fly to other planets, which eat planets to make more robots, etc. A "Grey Goo" scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

Stopping it could involve trying to 'hack' the machines or create new ones to make the process work in reverse--machines programmed to find other machines and turn into inert matter.

 

[Dauntasa]

The number of sentient beings in the galaxy reaching a point where their combined unconscious psionic emissions start to break physics in ways that only continue to get worse as the population of the galaxy increases.

 

[Ulti8]

Another crisis: Super-predator anomaly.

Exploring a habitable planet causes the discovery of a species of primitives that are highly intelligent super-predators. Something like the Yahg mixed with the Krogan from Mass Effect, this turns into a galactic crisis if they are able to steal your technology and get into space, instantly expanding in all directions and declaring war on everyone. They are basically fanatical xenophobes/militarists on steroids and are incapable of making allies and have free casus belli's and work similar to the Golden Horde in EU where they are constantly at war with all their neighbours until destroyed.

Could also be styled as a "primitive unlifting gone horrible wrong", or horribly right if it was an attempt to weaponise them.

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Ah, I got another one...

"Psionic Galactic Conqueror": Basically The Mule from the Foundation Series, an ultimate god-like psionic with the power to brainwash (or just mentally manipulate) a huge number of people and is on a crusade to conquer the entire galaxy by it/him/her-self. Would be born in a nation that puts too much emphasis on psionics. Would have warning events similar to the birth of the anti-christ/the omen in Ck2.

 

[Daetrin]

Infectious destructive memeplexes. Accelerates ethos divergence to hilarious levels - on the order of a point of drift per in-game month for each pop in a random direction.

 

[Niels.p]

something akin to a oil crisis? All FTL spaceships now require a newly generated scarce resource. Every nation has to use these scarce resources for moving ships FTL until they figured out an alternative fuel resource. communications are still possible but military, construction, science ships and migrating 1 pop costs 1 fuel resource per ship.

Its solved by investing tech points on a universal tech. All nations could invest into it and its universally expected that everybody does his share based on its size. Get diplo opinion bonus if you invested a lot into it, get a negative opinion impact if you did less than your expected share.
or be an ass grab by grabbing all unclaimed resources and use those resources for war since neighbours are weaker now
or profit from it by trading it away for huge sums of money and minerals.

 

[mocoman2001]

A worm hole splits the fabric of space and time, and an invasion of adorable neko girls and boys flood throw, cuddling and snuggling every world to death.

Not exactly a pague, per se, but an invasion of microscopic machines that manipulate matter at the atomic level, and programmed for self-replication. They basically turn all the matter of a planet into more machines, which then fly to other planets, which eat planets to make more robots, etc. A "Grey Goo" scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

Stopping it could involve trying to 'hack' the machines or create new ones to make the process work in reverse--machines programmed to find other machines and turn into inert matter.

I was originally going to suggest a micro machine crises like this, but you beat me to it, so I went to my second best idea.

 

[Plague109]

Perhaps fallen empires could construct a large super weapon with the intent to wipe out all other life in the galaxy. I know thus far fallen empires have been discussed as being passive and rather uninterested in the goings-on of "lesser" empires. However a type of fallen empire which is extremely xenophobic may see the extermination of all other life in the galaxy as their end goal. They would be hostile to neighbors and at some point in the game would be able to begin construction of this super weapon.

The weapon may work similar to the way Black Sun in the Supreme Commander franchise works by firing some sort of high energy beam through hyper lanes, destroying planets or making them uninhabitable. Obviously this weapon would not achieve ultimate victory in a single shot. Instead the weapon would be able to eliminate maybe 3 to 6 systems per firing.

The completion of this weapon would unite neighboring empires against the fallen empire and spur them into an all out war before the fallen empire may fire the weapon. If those neighboring empires fail all other empires may get a call to arms in the hopes of succeeding where these lesser nations had failed.

Another idea, and game reference, would be a weapon which is separated into a number of parts in order to fire properly. The rings from the HALO franchise come to mind in that each single halo is powerful, but all of them firing together eliminates all life. These weapon parts, likely to be separated into several orbital stations, would need to be built throughout the galaxy giving lesser empires a chance to retaliate.

I know this event is similar to the "fallen empires awakening" event which has already been discussed, but instead of them going on a crusade with their fleets this event would see them building a weapon which would require other nations to be the aggressors and make incursions into the fallen empire's space. To the best of my knowledge an event like this does not currently exist, or at least has not been announced to exist, in the game currently though I may have missed it.

 

[Vasious]

A worm hole splits the fabric of space and time, and an invasion of adorable neko girls and boys flood throw, cuddling and snuggling every world to death.
.

Only if we can send them, screaming, in their multitudes, to the hallowed halls of Hades, by flinging them into a black holes from whence nothing returns

 

[Dauntasa]

Might be hard to implement, but it'd be interesting to have the whole "Extradimensional invaders" thing from another perspective.

As in: a bunch of aliens from another dimension start breaking things in our dimension by using it for their Warp Travel and you have to invade their dimension through the weakpoints left behind by their ships in order to get them to cut it out. -

 

[Murmeldjuret]

A call for every planet to achieve self-determination, increasing independence calls everywhere.

Radiological storm emanating from derelict FE tech. You have to sen scientists to find out how to stop it.

 

[mrinku]

The Blorg arrive. Or is that the social crisis?

"Rogue Black Hole" seems a bit puny for a Galactic Crisis. Given that each rogue black hole would only affect one solar system in the span of a Stellaris game, that's more of a super-sized "asteroid heading towards your planet".

How about "Time Travel Crisis"? The great Time War that starts a million years into the future spills back to the current era...

Edit: I only just noticed that Time War was in the OP