[2023] Mod Highlights #2 - More nasty slimy ugly aliens to fear

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

by MrFreake_PDX

Hello Stellaris Community!

During this year’s summer vacation in Stockholm, we’re doing something a little different: each week we will be highlighting a selection of the fantastic mods made by our modding community. As some of you may know, unless you own one of the most popular mods, or submit something brand new to the workshop, getting discovered on the workshop is.. difficult. We hope to help out some of our modding community, and highlight some of those mods that might not otherwise be seen.

In this week’s Mod Highlights, we have a selection of mods that will add more unique species and give you more abilities for existing species in your galaxies.

Apparently we’re not the only ones who have seen calls for gaseous/energy based species, as our first mod clearly shows:

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Unofficial Electroids Species​ By Exakan



The mod adds everything a new species pack can offer - origins, civics, traits, perks, and more. It adds a new playable species of energy beings called "Electroids". They live in the orbit of stars or black holes and many features are built around energy.

Features:
- New colony type: "Aurora" habitats are the homes of Electroids - pure energy spheres!
=> Each star class where the Aurora is being built adds different bonuses and districts to the colony.
- 5 Origins: You live in the orbit of stars, black holes or a distant star cluster.
- 10 Civics: From playing the Unbidden, to eating stars and more!
- 11 Traits: Add unique bonuses & pop production.
- 2 Perks: A new colossus with an own mechanic & a trait ascension.
- 3 Shipsets: All 3 Unbidden shipsets are usable (blue, orange, green).
- 1 Fallen Empire (Electroids): They are neutral but can be very strong if attacked.
=> FE is called the "Realm of Nova".

Inspiration
I always wanted an energy species in Stellaris, so I used ~2.5 weeks of my available time to design & create my own pack instead of just dreaming about it. I remember it was so much fun to create this one, I plan another species pack very soon!








Get the Unofficial Electroids Species!​

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This next mod is for those of you who really believe that unit just doesn’t have a soul.

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Organic Zealots​ By Corsairmarks



Are you looking to end the pernicious threat of artificial intelligence? Maybe play the inverse of Determined Exterminators, or the slightly friendlier cousins of Fanatic Purifiers? Look no further, this is the mod for you! Play as the Organic Zealots who seek to outlaw and curtain development of cybernetics, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Should they encounter an abominable Machine Intelligence, or should the worst come to pass and an organic empire synthetically "ascend..." - that's what the Anti-Thinking Machine war goal is for. Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of an organic mind.

This mod adds a lot of gameplay content, but unfortunately needs to get heavily involved in altering built-in gameplay from Stellaris in order to add restrictions. It has a reasonable chance of conflicting with other mods focused on the same areas, but is supported by The Merger of Rules and has built-in support for Vassals Expanded and Reworked (FunEFork) (one agreement term value that is affected by both mods) and Forgotten History (playable with the Banished Threat origin).

Features:
* New homicidal civic Organic Zealots - friendly to organic empires, but hostile to robotic empires (the inverse of Determined Exterminators) with two council seat options
* Fully implements all features of being homicidal:
* Has a special Total War (Anti-Thinking Machine) against robotic empires
* No need to claim the territories of the foul machines
* Opinion modifiers impacted by empire ethics and ascension choices
* Diplomatic actions are restricted appropriately against robotic empires
* Purge robotic Pops to create Unity and Alloys
* Policy option restrictions similar to other homicidal empire types
* New Casus Belli/Wargoal (Force Policy/Outlaw AI) to force organic empires to outlaw robotics - the casus belli could be reused by others who want to add custom wargoals to force other kinds of policies
* New building Clone Birth-Labs (and corresponding job) available for regular (non-gestalt) empires to gain a small amount of organic Pop assembly
* New assimilation type Expurgatory Transfiguration to remove cybernetics
* Restricts Organic Zealots from researching AI-related technologies or selecting AI-related ascension perks/traditions
* Replacement technologies for Organic Zealots, including accessing a special leader trait instead of being able to research Positronic AI
* Special option for Organic Zealots to Sunder the Disconnected Contingency Core in order to create a powerful monument on their capital planet, or keep at a unity penalty in order to build more megastructure
* Works with all other mods by corsairmarks, including additional gameplay interactions

Inspiration
I was inspired to create this mod by player suggestions on the Stellaris Modding Den Discord. The idea of not-fully-homicidal empires intrigued me, and there was a good example to follow because Determined Exterminators get along with (most) other machine empires.

It was a lot of fun to write, so this mod includes overrides of almost all built-in Stellaris events that deal with artificial intelligence or cybernetics, in order to add additional story text or options for Organic Zealots. I carefully verify these events for changes with every official patch to Stellaris so that players can continue to purge robots without worrying about missing features from the base game. Clone Birth-Labs are an homage to novels written by C.J. Cherryh, and are to compensate for Spiritualists and Organic Zealots generally wanting to avoid robotics.





Get Organic Zealots!​

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For those of you on the other side of the robot debate, we have our next mod which adds a ton of new content for our mechanical “friends”.

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Machine & Robot Expansion​ By XVCV



A few years ago, I made my first big mod for Machine Intelligence and Synthetic Ascended Empires. This mod is a rework of that. Thank you for your interest in my mod and this Mod Highlight! Have a nice day. :)

Features:
- 2 Custom GUIs for adding & removing Traits for the Ruler & Leaders
- 1 Ascension Perk for Unique Planet Classes for Popless Resources Production
- 1 Ascension Perk for Abyss (a Modified Version of the 'Shroud' in Vanilla) Access for Machine & Synth Empires
- 1 Ascension Perk for gaining & becoming a Biological & Mechanical Hybrid Species (which can have some of Biological and Mechanical Species Traits together, and has Food Pop Upkeep that is adjustable using a Policy)
- 2 Ascension Perks for adding & removing Gestalt Consciousness Ethics (i.e., Machine Intelligence <-> Synthetic Ascended Empire)
- 1 Ascension Perk for Determined Exterminators for triggering Machine Uprising against Another Empire via an Espionage Operation
- 1 Ascension Perk for Rogue Servitors for providing more various Pop Jobs for Bio-trophies
- 1 Ascension Perk for becoming a Determined Exterminator or Driven Assimilator or Rogue Servitor (or a Standard Machine)
- 2 Origins for starting as a Synthetic (Ascended) Empire (One for Normal Synth Start, Another with a Unique Homeworld)
- 1 Civic for starting with a Situation that slowly gains Progresses by Player Actions (i.e., Player adopts a Tradition, declares a War, surveys Stars, etc...) and gains Buffs for Resources Production
- 1 Civic for Machine Empires to form a Trade Route and send Trade Ships for earning Resources (with a Policy to determine the Type of the Resources) based on the Opponent's Trade Value or Monthly Energy Credit Production (for Gestalts)
- 1 Civic for Machine Empires to utilize Consumer Goods for better Unity Creation
and more!

Inspiration
I enjoy playing as machines or synths in Stellaris, but I feel that machines, in particular, lack content. For example, gestalts 'usually' cannot access 'Trade Value', 'Shroud', 'Factions', 'Consumer Goods' (as well as 'Foods' for standard machines), etc.

I believe this is due to an attempt to give them different play styles compared to non-gestalts. However, I think this should be achieved by providing more unique content for them, not by reducing it. Therefore, I decided to add this content myself.

That's how I started modding this game of my life. And now that was four years ago, considering that the original mod (Unofficial Machine & Synthetic Empire DLC) was released on June 6, 2019. Wow, time DOES fly so fast!






Get Machine & Robot Expansion!​

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Our final mod asks the question, why not play with your food?

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"Agrarian" Idyll for Lithoids​ By corsairmarks



Lithoids can pick the Agrarian Idyll civic, but the benefits are still applied to farming districts. This mod creates a swapped Agrarian Idyll just for lithoids - now your miners will generate amenities instead of farmers! This mod also features English localisation for these effects.

Features
* Lithoids have a special civic swap for Agrarian Idyll, named Lithorian Idyll
* Miners (and miner-related) jobs to generate amenities instead of farmers
* Mining Districts grant bonus housing instead of Farming Districts
* Interacts with Origin: Subterranean for more stacking bonuses
* Swapped councilor seat that boosts mining instead of farming
* A new technology that mirrors Agrarian Utopias, instead further improving housing from Mining Districts
* Both versions of Agrarian Idyll gain partial bonus building slots from rural (Mining, Farming, and Generator) districts
* Both versions of Agrarian Idyll begin the game with more of their "preferred" rural district instead of City Districts
* Built-in support for Planetary Diversity
* Fully compatible with all other mods by corsairmarks

Inspiration
I wanted Lithoids to benefit more directly from Agrarian Idyll, which is already a very flavorful civic. Stellaris has evolved since the mod was originally published, making the mod more and more compatibility-friendly with other mods over time.



Get "Agrarian" Idyll for Lithoids!​

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CAN I USE THEM ALL AT THE SAME TIME?!​
Some of these mods are not compatible with one another. We’ve put together a (sort of) tested compatibility patch that will (hopefully) let these mods be run together. This patch will not be maintained past the current version, and if anyone wants to maintain it moving forward, please let me know in the mod comments.

Get the Compatibility Patch!

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That’s it for this week, be sure to check out Mod Highlights again next week, where we'll learn to love our neighbors!