Playable Space Fauna

[oacianciolo]

I'm not much of a coder, but I've really enjoyed this game and have thought that a playable empire that can live in space rather than planets could open up vastly new play characteristics. Using already existing space fauna like the tiyanki or space amoebas, you could make their colonizable worlds be nebulas or certain types of star systems with nebulas providing food. They could coexist with AI empires if the player chose a more pacifistic species or may control parts of space like a normal empire otherwise. Instead of being able to construct ships, their population would be their ships and could grow instead of corvette/destroyer/cruiser/battleship and learn instead of upgrade.

 

[HFY]

What would space fauna do with normal habitable planets?

 

[tanny]

I've made the thoughts along the line of feeding the tiyanaki, but this is interesting indeed.

 

[oacianciolo]

What would space fauna do with normal habitable planets?

I'm not entirely sure. It could be something as simple as they are not habitable planets for your empire just like jovian planets are not considered habitable. Your habitable "planets" as far as an actual mechanism goes could be the star system itself. Buildings could be replaced with turning planetary bodies into useful resources, and maybe normally habitable planets allow for special buildings like the rules for habitats.
Similarly, I think Tiyana Vek is a good approximation for the typical colony (breeding grounds) for such an empire. The large gas giants at the center of the system are equivalent to the aforementioned "buildings." Upgrading the colony results in making the center molecular cloud larger and denser.
I don't know how starbases would translate into this empire.

 

[The5lacker]

So you want to be able to play without:

• Living on planets
• Having normal pops of any type
• Being able to engage in diplomacy with other empires
• Being able to build things
• Being able to use resources more complex than Food

And that seems... fun to you? Taking out basically every gameplay system and replacing it with "Vibing in space and hoping you don't get genocided"?

 

[oacianciolo]

So you want to be able to play without:

• Living on planets
• Having normal pops of any type
• Being able to engage in diplomacy with other empires
• Being able to build things
• Being able to use resources more complex than Food

And that seems... fun to you? Taking out basically every gameplay system and replacing it with "Vibing in space and hoping you don't get genocided"?

I had actually thought about this and I had kind of given up on the concept until I realized: in the normal game space fauna are basically the same sentience level as animals. I don't know if you've seen the last season of Star Trek Discovery, but the entity they encounter in the last few episodes is more what I'm picturing. Basically, imagine the tiyanki or space amoebas but just as sentient as normal playable empires. They could still inhabit "planets" just on a much larger scale. True, the population mechanics would be vastly different but after playing many games of stellaris it could be interesting to have this option. They could definitely engage in diplomacy/galactic community. They could build megastructures, maybe with some cool alternatives and/or additional options. And assuming the above qualities work, they would require resources other than food.

 

[The5lacker]

I had actually thought about this and I had kind of given up on the concept until I realized: in the normal game space fauna are basically the same sentience level as animals. I don't know if you've seen the last season of Star Trek Discovery, but the entity they encounter in the last few episodes is more what I'm picturing. Basically, imagine the tiyanki or space amoebas but just as sentient as normal playable empires. They could still inhabit "planets" just on a much larger scale. True, the population mechanics would be vastly different but after playing many games of stellaris it could be interesting to have this option. They could definitely engage in diplomacy/galactic community. They could build megastructures, maybe with some cool alternatives and/or additional options. And assuming the above qualities work, they would require resources other than food.

"It would work, so long as you reworked every single mechanic in the game around them."

I mean the same could be said of literally every idea anyone could possibly have.

 

[oacianciolo]

"It would work, so long as you reworked every single mechanic in the game around them."

I mean the same could be said of literally every idea anyone could possibly have.

A.) I don't even need to really understand coding to know that this is not true. The game could easily flow just the same, and it would not make that much of an impact on other playable empires. Besides, that's literally the point of a new mod is to change gameplay. Nemesis made empires become a crisis which totally changes gameplay. Synthetic dawn creates a new race of playable empires that require specific combos of origins and even an entirely new set of traits and ethics. This would change the game yes, but change is simply change. That's what I find fun about Stellaris is adapting my playstyle to new changes.
B.) This was literally just an idea, and I'm looking for suggestions and feedback, you should not feel like my idea threatens your gameplay, especially since its 100% never going to be actually developed.
C.) Why would you spend your time to put down someone else's idea, when you could simply choose to just ignore it? If this ever was actually developed into a mod or even a DLC you could simply not install it.

 

[Metallichydra]

C.) Why would you spend your time to put down someone else's idea, when you could simply choose to just ignore it? If this ever was actually developed into a mod or even a DLC you could simply not install it.

This is true for mods, but not DLC's
Usually, part of the DLC is added to the base game (Archeology sites from ancient relics for example)

 

[3ishop]

This is true for mods, but not DLC's
Usually, part of the DLC is added to the base game (Archeology sites from ancient relics for example)

and you rather want as many people to buy your DLC as possible to make it worth while to produce.