Stellaris #MODJAM2020 Now Available on the Steam Workshop and Paradox Mods!

[methegrate]

I can't tell if this is a bug or WAD... Does anyone know if the Freebooter origin is supposed to disable population growth? My starting habitat is at 332% growth and unable to generate new pops.

The text doesn't say anything about this, but it would seem thematically appropriate for a race of pirates to need to capture and kidnap all their new members. (Although it doesn't seem to come with the raiding bombardment stance, which seems like an omission.)

 

[Ferrus Animus]

What I am curious about is how many of the story-based origins (A Second Dawn, Absolute Zero, Containment Failure, Lost Spawn, Paradigm Shift, Shielded, The Caretaker) have multiple paths or if they are one linear storyline.
Paradigm Shift has at least two options, depending on who is your patron.

 

[NHunter_rus]

What I am curious about is how many of the story-based origins (A Second Dawn, Absolute Zero, Containment Failure, Lost Spawn, Paradigm Shift, Shielded, The Caretaker) have multiple paths or if they are one linear storyline.

The Caretaker has 2 main paths:

Spoiler

1. You integrate it closer into your society and continue advancing together;
2. You break away from it and learn to stand on your own (learning along the way that not everything is what it seems and history lies sometimes).

There are also 4 random mid-game-ish event chains that aren't mutually-exclusive but there is still ~10% chance you will get none.

 

[Ferrus Animus]

The Caretaker has 2 main paths:

There are also 4 random mid-game-ish event chains that aren't mutually-exclusive but there is still ~10% chance you will get none.

Thank you

 

[Katsue]

I can't tell if this is a bug or WAD... Does anyone know if the Freebooter origin is supposed to disable population growth? My starting habitat is at 332% growth and unable to generate new pops.

The text doesn't say anything about this, but it would seem thematically appropriate for a race of pirates to need to capture and kidnap all their new members. (Although it doesn't seem to come with the raiding bombardment stance, which seems like an omission.)

Do you have the Glavius AI mod on? I had the same issue with another Modjam Mod, but when I disabled the AI mod the population growth came back.

 

[MrFreake_PDX]

I've opened a thread for reporting Mod Jam bugs: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/modjam2020-bug-reporting-thread.1449518/

 

[methegrate]

Do you have the Glavius AI mod on? I had the same issue with another Modjam Mod, but when I disabled the AI mod the population growth came back.

I'll check, thanks! This was just thematically appropriate enough that I could believe it was intentional but not well explained, so I figured I'd check here before I started flipping switches.

 

[Noctiluca]

D:
Too many origins to play for too short of a time

... but it's quite fun so far

 

[methegrate]

Do you have the Glavius AI mod on? I had the same issue with another Modjam Mod, but when I disabled the AI mod the population growth came back.

Thanks! That was exactly the problem.

 

[HiddenOcelot]

What I am curious about is how many of the story-based origins (A Second Dawn, Absolute Zero, Containment Failure, Lost Spawn, Paradigm Shift, Shielded, The Caretaker) have multiple paths or if they are one linear storyline.
Paradigm Shift has at least two options, depending on who is your patron.

For paradigm shift, I ran into an issue with one of the things, wonder if it happened to you. you can't trade with the empires, but it's asking me to give resources to them and idk how to do it lol. (edit: found out it did it automatically after the specified time frame, as long as you had the resources.)

 

[James Fire]

1. Factory Automation

The handling of automation with edicts and planetary features is functional, but feels rather clunky. It would've been much smoother if the origin instead modified districts to directly produce resources instead of providing jobs. But I suspect there was a limitation imposed on modders to not override any vanilla files and the UI currently doesn't support enough different types of districts, so the choice is understandable. I also have a nitpick about the origin description, which uses "less pops" when it should use "fewer pops".

As for the actual content of the origin, it's extremely powerful and borders on an economic hack. Your basic resources, CGs, and alloys all get produced by the automated factory, so you don't need any pops for them. This means that you can largely ignore habitability on any planet that isn't dedicated to research. It's highly effective to dedicate planets of your capital and guaranteed habitable planets as population centers churning out science while low hab planets are used to produce everything else. You can also turn a new colony into an economically important planet much faster. You're not limited by population growth, only by your ability to clear blockers and build factories. All that also makes it an ideal origin for xenophobic empires, especially Fanatic Purifiers.

What I like about this origin most is that it shakes up the order in which you pick your traditions. You'll want to pick Domination in place of Expansion because you don't need the population growth bonuses nearly as much, but you do benefit from cheaper blocker clearing from the Domination opener. You can then either switch to whatever you'd pick usually or you can finish it for the powerful finisher of +1 influence per month.

Overall I'd rate Automated Factory with a 3/5. It has some good ideas, but I find those would actually work better as a general gameplay mechanic than they do as an origin.

I like when one of the worst complaints that's levied against my origin is the fact that there is a LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE typo in it.

As for the rest;

Editing vanilla was no.

The Factory is indeed quite powerful, and quite fast at being built. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how I would actually fix that, cause making it take longer to be built would require entirely reworking the timing of the automation scripts, which would then impact it's ability to fix any issues caused by the automation not being smart enough. In short, the automation would need to be smarter in order to handle that before I consider making it take longer to build.

Shaking up tradition choice is a good thing, especially for an origin. I like that I was able to do that.

Yeah, the Factory definitely could/should be a general mechanic available to everyone, with this Origin simply starting you with relying on it already. Before I would even consider doing that though, would be fixing anything that comes up, and putting far more time and effort into the automation script so it scales better, and in general is smarter at handling it.

 

[nikkythegreat]

Please add the winning origins to the vanilla game as well.

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

I gotta say, I really appreciate the guys who added pre-made empires for their origins.

I have zero creativity when it comes to making empires. It's an incredibly minor detail, but it's hella convenient and a nice touch overall.

 

[methegrate]

I gotta say, I really appreciate the guys who added pre-made empires for their origins.

I have zero creativity when it comes to making empires. It's an incredibly minor detail, but it's hella convenient and a nice touch overall.

I also really like how many of these origins change the way you play the game. Personally that’s what I would like to see more out of origins as a whole, a system that really sets empires apart and changes their game mechanics and strategy.

 

[Beer Fiend]

Behind The Scenes and Freebooters are the most interesting origins.

 

[methegrate]

Behind The Scenes and Freebooters are the most interesting origins.

So far Freebooters is definitely my favorite although I haven't gotten to play all of the mods (not by a long shot). It actively feels like playing a unique civilization in a way that most origins and ethics don't, because my freebooter pirates follow rules that other civs don't. I'd like if raiding and other piratical practices kicked in before needing to take my second(!) ascension perk, but nit picking aside it's what I wish we had much more of in Stellaris.

 

[Dragatus]

5. Behind the Scenes

I'm not going to rate this origin at this point because frankly, I wasn't able to experience it. I did start a game with it, but my tiny galaxy was too peaceful and nobody went to war with anyone in the first century so it did nothing and I stopped playing because I still had a lot of origins to try out. My advice for anyone looking to play the origin would be to make their galaxy one size larger than what they normally play and maybe activate the Starnet AI mod. The only reason I haven't done that was because I'm trying to play through as many origins as possible before the voting ends.


6. The Caretaker

This is an excellent origin that blends narrative with new gameplay options. I was impressed by just how extensive the origin is too. It features new buildings, jobs, planetary decisions, ship computers, ascension perks, and even a new planetary specialization. I particularly enjoyed the Caretaker giving me feedback on the ascension perks I was picking. First the approval for taking One Vision and the new origin specific APs, then later anger when I picked Xeno-Compatibility and Engineered Evolution, and finally seething rage when I went for Evolutionary Mastery.

The origin works well for a variety of different empires, depending on how friendly you want to be with the Caretaker. Xenophopic isolationists that eschew ascension in favor of megastructures are the best match for happily living under the Caretaker's enlightened guidance, while other types of empires make for good rebellious children.

I have nothing truly bad to say about the origin. The biggest flaw I found was that I was annoyed by the Ward jobs as I deemed them pretty useless and they prevented me from noticing when my planets had enough pops for more useful jobs. I would appreciate it if Ward jobs were something you have to specifically enable, perhaps with a planetary decision, rather than being automatically there. I also found some missing localization. But that's really about it and I feel like I'm really nitpicking.

I wanted to stop rating the origins because after thinking about it I decided it's a bit presumptuous for me to do so and most of them would get the same "good" rating anyway, but this is definitely the best origin I've tried so far so I am still going to rate it as 5/5 (excellent).


7. Fleet Overlords

The origin was an interesting experience, but ended up being less fun than I anticipated. It's not that the origin is bad though. Instead it only exposed underlying problems with the base game. You essentially skip the exploration phase (because you have 3 federation buddies that explore the galaxy for you and can only ever control a single star system anyway), you don't have any planets to manage, and you always have a CB to force empires to join your federation. All this leaves you with nothing to do except gobble up the AI empires one by one. It's a bit of a challenge early on when your federation members only pay you 10% tax, but once you can increases taxes to 20% it become pretty much smooth sailing for the rest of the game. It's all kind of dull, really.

The problem with the origin is really a problem of the core game and how warfare isn't all that exciting by itself. The most succinct way of describing it that I can think of is that it instantly catapults you into the late mid-game, just without the micro to keep you busy. I don't have any advice for the author because frankly there is little the author can do to improve the situation by editing the origin. What would actually be needed to make the origin better is an overhaul of the entire warfare side of the game.

But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't play it. Quite the contrary! As I wrote at the very start it was an interesting experience and I would recommend playing the origin to anyone who wants to acquire a deeper understanding of Stellaris' game design and have discussions about the warfare system and how to improve it. And it's impressive how radically the author was able to change gameplay too.

 

[AlphaAsh]

The biggest flaw I found was that I was annoyed by the Ward jobs as I deemed them pretty useless and they prevented me from noticing when my planets had enough pops for more useful jobs. I would appreciate it if Ward jobs were something you have to specifically enable, perhaps with a planetary decision, rather than being automatically there. I also found some missing localization.

This is very useful feedback, thank you, and certainly something that'll be considered in post-vote updates.

edit - Removed redundant request, covered by bug thread.

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

So far Freebooters is definitely my favorite although I haven't gotten to play all of the mods (not by a long shot). It actively feels like playing a unique civilization in a way that most origins and ethics don't, because my freebooter pirates follow rules that other civs don't. I'd like if raiding and other piratical practices kicked in before needing to take my second(!) ascension perk, but nit picking aside it's what I wish we had much more of in Stellaris.

Agreed.

Freebooters is one of my favorites since the concept is cool (space pirates) and it significantly changes how I play the game. Out of all of them, I'd like to see this one in vanilla the most.

Caretakers was a good origin for the same reason. I felt like I was playing differently and there was a lot of content that kept me going into mid-game whereas a few of the other origins were "finished" by the time 2220-2230 rolled around. I enjoy origins that still impact my playstyle into the mid- and late-game.

 

[shubharora734]

I think the only thing I've found that's bugging me so far is that the upgraded Subterranean unique buildings have consumer goods upkeep when the origin is available to Hive Minds who can't produce consumer goods.