Orbital Economy Overhaul

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Author: Easy Pete

Last revision: 4 Feb at 13:48 UTC (30)

File size: 12.65 MB

On Steam Workshop

Description:
THIS IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH GIGASTRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Added this to the top of the description to avoid further confusion. Kindly stop direct messaging me with complaints.

Description

This mod is an expansion of early and mid game economic options other than colonizing more planets and building the typical mining/research stations. The goal is to allow investment in non planet economies early and without overly effecting vanilla game balance. It achieves this by adding new early game production hectostructures (small megastructures), new kilostructures for mid game, a new set of civics, several new traditions, removing most megastructure build limits, and a suite of new starbase buildings. One of the main balancing features of this mod is that it uses trade as the primary upkeep for every megastructure in the game to limit players ability to infinitely scale production without penalty. This trade upkeep also scales with empire sprawl to create a penalty for super wide empires.

What this mod is not is a power fantasy simulator or a cheat mod that gives access to over powered tools. There is also no large expansion to end game; this mod mostly affects early and mid game. It is also not a player only mod. The AI will use the tools in this mod (albeit with limitations to prevent them from spamming structures illogically).

Please direct balancing feedback to my discord,

Documentation:

Full documentation can be found there:
https://discord.gg/CqAMhCRbUs

Features
New Mechanics
  • All megastructures now have their base upkeep changed to trade
  • Megastructures that had no upkeep have been given a reasonable trade upkeep
  • Empire Sprawl now has increased penalties
  • Megastructures no longer have a build limit

Hectostructures
  • Asteroid Mining Base
  • Orbital Hydroponics Station
  • Orbital Solar Array
  • Orbital Industrial Station

Kilostructures
  • Orbital Core Drill
  • Orbital Arcology Ring
  • Star Lifter
  • Matrioshka Brain

Starbase Buildings
  • System Agricultural Hub
  • Asteroid Mining Hangar
  • System Energy Depot
  • Hectostructure Supply Dock
  • Prospector Hub
  • Fleet Supply Yard
  • Metallurgy Annex
  • Workshop Annex
  • Chemical Plant
  • Gas Refinery
  • Translucer Lab

Ascension Perks
  • Capacity For Exceptionalism
  • Populist Prerogative
  • Civil Ascendancy
  • Rings of Power
  • Heliocentric Engineering

Civics
  • Orbital Pioneers (Regular)
  • Orbital Industrialists (Megacorp)
  • Null Gravity Protocols (Machine Intelligence)
  • Orbital Focus (Hivemind)

Tradition Trees
  • Construction Tradition
  • Computation Tradition
  • Extraction Tradition
  • Star Husbandry Tradition
  • Verticality Tradition

Quality of Life Changes

Full list in documentation.

  • Uninhabited Habitats can be destroyed via planetary decision
  • Dyson Swarms can be built in binary and trinary systems
  • Vanilla megastructures can coexist in the same solar system now.
  • Fixed vanilla game issue with ruined orbital rings incorrectly spawning restored rings.
  • Added edicts to toggle megastructures in the outliner

Vanilla Files Affected

Read the documentation for full list of specific vanilla overwrites and for explanations as to why a particular file is overwritten

  • Various vanilla megastructures
  • Several vanilla events
  • Several scripted triggers and effects
  • The megastructure view GUI

Credits

Credit to discord users DarkCrimson, Agent 9, Moros, and Paradox for large amounts of feedback and ideas that have greatly influenced this mod.

Credit to discord user Quollveth for giving me permission to use their shell world model: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691400632

Credit to Emperor Scorpio for giving me permission to use some of their planet textures: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1704586879

Discord:

Documentation and changelogs can be found there:
https://discord.gg/CqAMhCRbUs

FAQ:
Is this compatible with (insert mod name here)

If it is a non megastructure mod, probably. If it is a megastructure mod, it most likely will not be compatible. (Yes that includes being incompatible with Gigastructures)

Are you sure it’s not compatible with Gigastructures?

Yes, it is 100% incompatible. Your game will not horrifically crash, however features from both mods will not work correctly when used together. There is a lite version of this mod here that can be used with Gigastructures: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3561544156

Why did you make it incompatible with Gigastructures?

Because the mod is for myself and I wanted to do things without being restricted by the design choices of a mod I do not use.

Can you make a compatibility patch for (insert mod here)?

No, I only make patches for mods I actively use. Maintaining a patch for someone else’s work that may change without me knowing is tedious if I’m not using the mod regularly. If anyone wants to maintain a compatibility patch between this mod and another mod, I will be more than happy to help you with it.

Lite Version:

Stripped down version of the mod that should be compatible with most mods.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3561544156

Beta Branch:

Experimental testing branch of Orbital Economy Overhaul
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3479001707