Motherships rather than Planets

[Sytn]

Let me just start by saying I realize there are a lot of bigger issues to be dealt with in the short and long term for Stellaris and I feel they need to be addressed first, but this is just an idea that floated by I wanted to raise in the one in a billion chance it leads to being made, maybe for an expansion. Now thats out of the way...

Rather than having planets a faction could construct motherships that behaved like a planet in that it provided tiles that could be worked to produce resources, but it was a spaceship, able to move and travel across the galaxy freely.

You could have multiple sizes (6, 12, 25 tiles) that would obviously provide no natural resources to be exploited, but would have the advantage of being able to move and defend itself (being both a planet and a space station).

From this point you could add in a whole bunch of potential features to make motherships stand out. I think a big one that would be needed to promote moving between systems rather than just staying in a single system with your motherships would be that could harvest worlds (maybe to pay off that massive energy debt such a mothership would have), draining its resources and eventually destroying the world (obviously no one wants a whole galaxy turned into a barren wasteland, this would be a very very slow process and have its own dangers and risks).

Hell it could even be a new endgame disaster where an Independence Day like race (no rewards for realizing I just finished watching the new movie) arrive in the galaxy moving from planet to planet consuming them.

Thats all really, wanted to throw the idea out. I feel like it would really add in a dynamic and fun to play/play against race that would work within the game fairly well.

 

[Cri11e]

Sounds like a really cool suggestion! When it comes to the planet resource part I've mentioned something similiar to space creatures. That I'd like if there was super huge ones that traveled around devouring all pops of the planets they pass through.

But motherships sounds like a really good and dynamic idea. Reminds me alittle of those travling space species that was implemented not to long ago.

 

[Purussaurus]

I imagine that species would have a background different from other species. They would have been forced to leave the home world for some reason, even without FTL. So they built one or more ships and lived in space. Over the millennia, yet limited to own star system, they have adapted to live in the artificial environment and any other planet has low habitability for them.

The technologies they use, would be available for other empire, but would be rare and expensive (and reciprocally for them with respect to colonisation technologies). That is, the differences between them and the planetary empires would basically initial technologies and traits.

 

[Dalinski]

Another question would be, how would they deal with mining and research stations? Seeing as they're owned by influence.

Maybe these sort of resources can be "strip mined" as well.

I'd like to see your end game being .....we need another Galaxy .... lol

 

[Dalinski]

I'd buy DLC in an instant with this idea.

I'd prefer if there were differing levels and ways of handling it though.

A Pacifist way, diplomatically open borders and renting space and using renewable resources. But all populations are tied to starships and the majority have no reason to settle for cultural, spiritual or evolutionary reasons.

A Conquering way, that conquers peoples and enslaves them into feeding the motherships, perhaps the food source are the conquered species themselves.

An Extortionist way, where everything is destroyed, species and buildings, and resources are strip mined so they are depleted over time and planets become barren (they have too otherwise there is no incentive to move on). Effectively you will eventually destroy yourselves unless you find another galaxy.....or perhaps find "enlightenment"

I'd like to see multiple mother-ship methods.
1) Starting with a single 16 size one sounds reasonable and being able to create more
2) perhaps a fleet of ships could do the same job. Growing tiles with the fleet size.
3) an option to go for a SINGLE mothership that grows tiles over time beyond 25 tiles. Or perhaps can create a new section after you reach 25. (You could be trying to out-do your population growth each new game).