Interstellar Incorporated – A Civilian Space Odyssey v0.2.3 – LE GUIN 2.2.4 COMPATIBLE (alpha)

Welcome to Interstellar Incorporated – A Civilian Space Odyssey. This mod is all about bringing Stellaris more to life, mostly through the inclusion of civilian and corporate fleets, but in a way that actually drives your empire’s economy – nothing about this mod is purely visual, it is all functional.

The mod is very feature incomplete – current version is an alpha, at best. Now that Stellaris v2.2 is out, there’s a lot I want to start working on (though as with any big new update, it remains to be seen what, exactly, will be possible to implement). What’s already been implemented should be playable, though EXPECT BUGS, possibly save breaking ones, if you choose to play in the current IN DEVELOPMENT state. Feel free to subscribe if you are interested in the direction of the mod and want to keep an eye on progress, or if you’d like to play it, help report bugs, or even make suggestions!

• Well, first of all, should now be compatible with Stellaris v2.2 Le Guin. This means that, instead of just minerals, all minable resources should now be transported by freight ships – minerals, alloys, rare crystals, right down to zro and dark matter.
• Freighter logic has been completely rewritten. Previously, every mining station had one assigned freighter fleet, which would endlessly make trips back and forth between the station and the closest colony. Now, on a semiannual basis, mining stations will spawn a freighter fleet, which will transport their resources to THAT SYSTEM’s starbase, and then despawn. Similarly, the system’s starbase will semiannually send out a fleet with its system’s resources to the nearest colony. This should 1) make the timeliness/reliability of your income from your mining stations better and more predictable and 2) reduce the number of fleets in the air at any one time.
• Migration ships have been deactivated. 2.2 significantly changes how migration works, and I’m not sure how best to implement ships handling it in the new system yet…

• Civilian freighter ships will spawn to shuttle mined resources from mining stations back to colonies – you don’t automatically get the goods until they’re delivered
• Colonies spawn autonomous miners which will mine bodies that don’t have mining stations built around them

• A LIVING ECONOMY:
• Planets have their own local resource supply stockpiles, from which ships and buildings are built from – not from an empire-wide total, with no need to transport anything
• Thus, civilian ships will also autonomously transport resources between colonies, taking into account surpluses at one colony and shortages at others. This will include things like food.
• Interempire trade will also be pursued along the same lines. Traders from other empires may arrive to trade and supply necessary resources at colonies.
• Slaver ships, in the same vein as above – countries who participate in the slave trade will have slaver ships transporting the "merchandise."
• 2.2 is going to expand the number of resources in the game, which will greatly increase the interestingness of this mod, since there will be many more goods that need to be supplied to different colonies, but I may also eventually revamp the resource system myself as well.
• Expanded piracy. Obviously, all of these trade supply lines make your empire’s economy and pops more vulnerable. Pirates will be more unpredictable, and will seek to attack vulnerable targets, potentially interrupting those all-important supply lines. Of course, this is a viable tactic for enemy empires to pursue as well. Some pirates may even disguise themselves as civilian ships until the time is right.
• Neutral criminal elements, for example smugglers and neutral slave traders, may also bolster your economy… But may increase the strength of pirates as well. Probably will be tied into the crime function in 2.2 – colonies with higher crime levels spawn these kinds of ships more.
• Neutral traders spawned from trader enclaves
• Corporations, which will be factions in your empire, who will build their own mining stations, and, based on an empire law which determines corporate freedom, may field their own defensive fleets to protect their ships from piracy, and may even lay claim to whole systems outright. Of course, they will also owe a portion of their incomes as tax. Corporations may even build corporate headquarters on planets, and… stuff.
• Energy-producing buildings are still required on planets to run local buildings, but that’s it. Your INCOME will be based on tax rates, levied on all of the above described economic activity of your empire.
• Migration ships that transport migrants to their new homes
• Very long term plan, probably – versions of all above described civilian ships for every graphical culture. I would have to learn to model first!

If this interests you, join me, and together we will embark… on a civilian space odyssey.

With 2.2 now live, there are a lot more opportunities for what I can start working on. What do you most want to see out of the mod? Leave a comment below.

Two big things for me: plugging the holes of what civilian ships should do when hostiles show up. If a colony is under siege, for example, civilian ships can’t send deposit resources there. Should they just hold off entirely? Or try to reroute around to the next closest colony? There’s a lot of stuff like that that needs to be figured out, and I’m not sure yet all of the best solutions, so feel free to weigh in.

And secondly, I want to start working on colonies themselves having local stockpiles, with their deficits having to be addressed by shipments out of the surpluses of other colonies.

A dev version for this mod is available here if you’re even more interested in helping test the mod and seeing what’s being worked on.

• The troop transport’s model is currently being overwritten by the civilian ship’s freighter model
• Civilian ships have incomplete logic for what to do when hostiles are around
• A crash has been reported where if you activate the mod, play a while, then deactivate it, the next time you wipe out an empire it will crash the game

Buttjunkie’s EG – Basic Map Icons
I really recommend using Basic Map Icons, as with the large number of civilian ships that can be flying around at any one given time, the fleet UI bars can be pretty obtrusive. This reduces their size and makes for a better visual experience.

I overwrite only the following vanilla files/scripts:

• game_rules: can_take_hostile_actions

Mods which add resources are not incompatible, this mod simply won’t interact with the new resources. Mods which remove resources may be incompatible. I know some people would like to see this mod interact with new resources – I’m currently working on a tool to make exactly that possible.

[discord.gg]
Big thanks to everyone in the Stellaris Modding Den for the help they’ve provided. Feel free to join me in channel #interstellar_incorporated for bug reports, suggestions, development discussion, etc.