Playable Guardians

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Author: Crusader Vanguard

Last revision: 13 Dec, 2017 at 18:26 UTC (20)

File size: 78.6 MB

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Description:

This mod is the Playable Guardian feature that was originally developed and released in New Ship Classes & More now separated out to be it’s own standalone mod for Stellaris players who do not subscribe to New Ship Classes & More. The mod is designed around replaceable Guardians and additional changes/improvements around the Leviathan DLC to give the player a more enjoyable experiance with Guardians. I always thought it was odd no one decided to make Guardians playable, so I did.

Playable Guardians Standalone adds/alters/improves the following:

1. Playable Guardians – The main feature after which the mod is named, this mod adds 8 unique Playable Guardians to the game, including one specifically designed for Playable Guardians. The Playable Guardians are:
   1. Automated Dreadnought – Yes, you can get the original Dreadnought, but these Dreadnoughts are altered to have better stats, and while it may lack the weaponry bonuses, it comes with an alternative color scheme (see images above) and 2 XL Lances designed for them.
   2. Dimensional Horror – The Playable Guardian Dimensional Horror acts more as a station than a ship, however, it can spin to engage enemies from any direction with it’s "mouth" lance. While it cannot "move" normally, it can be moved to any colonized world in your empire (see images above).
   3. Enigmatic Fortress – The only "true" station Playable Guardian. The acquisition of the Enigmatic Fortress is unique in that you have to finish the vanilla Fortress event chain to unlock it.
   4. Ether Drake – Everyones favorite space dragon! Like the Automated Dreadnought, you can get a "baby" Drake if you wish, but that’s just sad. You want the enormous monstrosities that can blast their way through anything? Here you go! And to make it even better, Playable Guardians adds 13 different color options for your enjoyment! See the images above for a preview.
   5. Stellarite – Massive being of solar energy, the Stellarite is the one Guardian that more often fights traveling backwards that forwards. Don’t worry, even the it’s imfamous XL beam will be able to fire backwards.
   6. Technosphere – You might know this one better as The Infinity Machine, the massive sphere that does nothing but stare at a black hole. This Playable Guardian is unique in that it’s the only one you can aquire via peaceful means.
   7. Wraith – This is one hard Guardian to find: you have to scan the right pulsar then wait 40 years for it to even appear. Well, I’ve improved them with double the weaponry to make it worth your wait, plus that wait is only 5 years now, and they now come in 7 different colors.
   8. Carrack Pirate Galleon – A unique Guardian made exclusively for Playable Guardians, this oversized, overpowered monstrosity of Pirate power is the REAL Pirate Guardian. If you want to see it or learn why I made this Guardian for the mod, please see the previews. I don’t want to spoil too much here!
2. Player Controlled Guardian System Spawn Chances – Yes, I know. There are mods out there that allow you to have all the Guardians automatically spawn in. However, this is unique in that you can choose exactly the chance of each Guardian. Almost every Guardian’s spawn chances are included (except Enclaves and the new Carrack Galleon). You can set the spawn chances to: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. You can choose all spawn chances universally (all Guardians will spawn at the "universal" chance you choose) or customize individually: have 100% chance of the Ether Drake, 50% chance of the Automated Dreadnought, and 0% chance of Hive Asteroids. You have control.
3. Reworked Guardian Systems – Have you ever noticed the "Ether Drake" is considered a "Red Dragon", but everything is orange? Why? Not anymore. The Ether Drake system is now red: the Star is class "M" (red) and the Ether Drake itself is now a "true" feiry red. The "boring" systems like the Dimensional Horror’s or Technosphere’s are now more useful, having either extreme resources (Dimensional Horror black hole) or habitable planets (some have Gaia worlds – other’s have 3 separate habitable planets, one from each vanilla catagory). The Stellarite star is now as "small" as it should be. And so on.
4. Improved Guardian Weaponry & Scaling – Have you noticed that the vanilla Pirate Galleon has level 1 weaponry? Or the Technosphere just has a lot of Gamma lazers just thrown on? Not anymore. The Pirate Galleon has "real" weaponry, the Technosphere now has "Infinity Weaponry", all white lazers that are improvements upon gamma lazers. The now scaled up Ether Drake has weaponry that is now red like it’s scales. The Automated Dreadnought is now scaled 3x larger so "look at the size of that thing" means something. And so on.
5. Fixed Paradox Coding Errors That Caused Certain Guardians To Loose Weaponry – That’s right. Paradox incorrectly coded some of these Guardians, so that the Automated Dreadnought, Technosphere, Wraiths, & Pirate Galleon never had their full weaponry compliment to begin with!! In fact, the Wraiths have literally had their weaponry count cut in half, the Technosphere nearly half! Ever noticed some weapons don’t fire? Playable Guardians corrects this error, giving the Guardians the firepower they should have had from the start.
6. Console Commands For "Cheats" – For those looking for more than one Playable Guardian (see discussion threads for "why" I did this), I have a discussion thread listing console command for those willing to "cheat".

I’ve told you what this mod does, but I haven’t really told you how it works.

While 95% of this mod is new material, in order to get the best results, 3 vanilla files needed to be overwritten: Guardian section template, global design, & system initializer files.

Since I will not be able to update this mod to 2.0 (I’m also not sure I want to), this section is now unknown. If someone else takes up the work, they would have to tell you.