What scifi trope is left untapped?

[imvdm]

What else is left to work as expansion material? The only thing I can think of is specific religion/cult.

 

[HFY]

Internal Politics

 

[Bankipriel]

Advanced and dangerous AI, maybe? That's a pretty big staple of sci-fi, and we have yet to see any dangerous AI in the game, so I think that would be a really great candidate for the next big thing to be added.

Joking aside, the Traditions could use an expansion & exclusivity, and I would also be in favor of some kind of "defining institutions" which could then be spiritual, or not, and would allow for the introduction of religions while also adding something that could be used regardless of which ethics an empire holds.

I would also love to see some kind of sector-wide/industrial/economic mechanics that make use of the thousands of uninhabitable planets we all go to war over that are currently worthless.

 

[malakhglitch]

I would search it out for you, but tvtropes has a disconcerting time dilation event.

 

[Dakios]

An expansion to the army/ground force side would be appreciated instead of the current "my numbers are bigger than yours" approach.

 

[MathyM]

What about the droid attack on the wookies?

 

[Bezborg]

I just wish they made fast space travel more expensive and special, not mundane. I wish Gateways were an incredibly valuable asset. Hyperlanes be damned.

I wouldn’t mind a 50 times smaller galaxy with less (reachable) systems, and that it’s very hard to expand, at least for half the game. Oh well, dreams for a different Stellaris 2

 

[TSBasilisk]

Death Worlds - Hostile environment to all species, including machines, hostile fauna, hostile flora, etc. Armies trained here are extra strong and they tend to produce some valuable resources, but pop growth is a problem.

 

[Bankipriel]

Death Worlds - Hostile environment to all species, including machines, hostile fauna, hostile flora, etc. Armies trained here are extra strong and they tend to produce some valuable resources, but pop growth is a problem.

You should check out Giulli's Planetary Modifiers Mod. It adds "Deathworld" as a challenge origin, somewhat along the lines of your suggestion.

Also, IMHO, it's the single greatest mod out there for Stellaris. It adds a *LOT*, not the least of which is Relic Wars, a dozen or so unique Relics that can all be fought over (and because the game has the code for this around the virtually non-existant Galatron), AI empires actually fight over them. I would say about 1/2 the wars in any given game I play are "Wars of Power", being fought over Precursor Relics. Empires that normally only have Total War can also be fought exclusively for any relic without Total War, *or* upon defeating an empire, you claim all their relics. It makes for a very lively galaxy.

 

[klopkr]

I think cultures are the big thing missing.

I guess you could argue every planet has it's own culture but it definitely doesn't show in game.

A few others I can think of:

• Supernovas (system explosion)
• Expanding stars
• Aquatic species

 

[Iosue Yu]

A lot!

1. Songstress - someone, usually an attractive woman, who can sing and bring peace because all xenoi love hearing her
2. Creation myth, common seeding - a precursor civilisation seeding the whole galaxy with different species, so all species only have adopted different environments with evolution and should have a common proto ancestor and are xeno-compatible
3. Humanoid war machines
4. Anything using beam / light sabre / sword / blade
5. Young military conscripts... and even younger children enlisted for killing because "a new generation has more potential"
6. Secret supersoldier enhancement programmes and their cruel treatments to participants, and said participants becoming a hero in the future and hate those programmes back then
7. Psionic Ascension that really ascends to an upper being, like Human Instrumentality Project, that the whole species turns into a radient giant (So that it finally parallels to Synth Ascension)
8. Big Brother government with AI, a combination of Police State and Shadow Council but with a focus of a Quantum Computing Unit where all data about everyone are processed and accessed by the government
9. Dimensional manipulations, weapons, travels... and of course the cool "Dimensional Submarine"
10. Stealth systems of any kind
11. Some god particles that can be used as both a power source and shot directly as a beam and will jam all other primitive communications, creating a thick fog of war
12. Latent power manifesting in certain individuals. And then the government tries to create their own version of artificial manifestation of the same powers. Inhuman experiments (an extension of 5 and 6). And then the participants get some superpowers themselves but with severe side-effects. But individual civilians may be born naturally with the powers but the government prefers artificial ones because they are more willing and obeying.

 

[Thecarlocarlone]

1. Stealth systems of any kind

Making scout ships, now that intel is a thing

 

[Mastikator]

Cloaking device on ships is a big one.

 

[mammonmachine]

I guess one or two of these might be in events that I can't recall.

• Shape-shifters/changelings
• Species ultraspecialised to certain job functions
• Ion weaponry
• Planetary defense nets
• Time travel (worm excepted)
• Evacuations and smuggling under blockades.
• Space tourism
• Underground railroads/people smuggling

 

[mammonmachine]

I just wish they made fast space travel more expensive and special, not mundane. I wish Gateways were an incredibly valuable asset. Hyperlanes be damned.

I think they should lean into the L-gate aesthetic, and make it so Gateways can only be constructed in orbit of a black hole. At the very least they should require dark matter to build and maintain.

 

[Ikael]

There is a lot to draw from:


- Subterranean and aquatic species
- Flying alien species!
- An ambitious general breaking up with your government and starting his own empire (aka, "internal politics")
- Planets having wildly different cultures and never seen before societies, like in Ursula's works
- Big brother and A Brave new world dystopias (chemical bliss is a missing opportunity, methinks)
- Something akin to the Culture, meaning civilizations that are able to destroy their enemies from within without firing a single shot
- Special resources that make the entire universe fight for them, a la spice in Dune
- Talking about Dune, religions having influence over alien societies is a big trope yet to be exploited
- Pilgrimage towards sacred planets (ah, Hyperion, what a lovely series)
- Stealth ships, hidden forbidden planets, invisible aliens amongst us... you get the concept
- Orders of noble space knights complete with their own psi powers and lightsabers
- Biologic spaceships
- Parasitic hiveminds
- Symbiotic, "benevolent" hiveminds
- Big robots fighting gigantic monsters
- Species ascending into a higher plane of existence, complete with their bodies exploding into a tang-like orange liquid
- The last alien of its kind, having incredible physical capabilities and wearing a ridiculous cape
- Epic ground battles and boarding actions
- Technologies that for some reason, only one species is able to come with due to the unique way their mind works
- A regular society evolving into a hivemind via machine-brain interfaces
- Social unrest and new social divisions caused by technological advances such as biological immortality or cybernetic augmentation

And I am missing a lot of them, I bet.

 

[Ralpakin]

Epic Civil Wars on a Galactic scale. Underground rebellion against the Empire.

 

[CMDR_HERNE]

Death Worlds - Hostile environment to all species, including machines, hostile fauna, hostile flora, etc. Armies trained here are extra strong and they tend to produce some valuable resources, but pop growth is a problem.

Extremophiles say Hi (well they probably would also say come on over it's lovely...)

 

[riadach]

Probability engine.

 

[Obeliskkai]

For me the big thing is Living Starships as Babylon 5 had.

Perhaps it could be a perk for the biological ascension path, growing your own ships which have a bonus to hull regeneration.

And as the other two paths would need something, energy based vessels with heavy shields (like the unbidden) for Psionics.

And if cybernetic, your ships count as POPs as a machine citizen of any shape is still a citizen.