Sean’s Race Creation (Master of Orion Style) – 1.6

Have you ever felt like the race creation options in Stellaris were a bit limited? I did, especially coming from the expansive race creation systems in previous 4x games like Master of Orion 2.

I decided to fix the issue by opening up the Ethics and Civics choices a bit to allow more diversity without massively shifting game balance. I also increased the number and kinds of traits available using the old Master of Orion 2 race picks template (16 new traits!).

Here is most of what my mod does (all of these changes affect the AI as well):

Ethos Points = 4 (Vanilla 3)
Civics Points = 3 (Vanilla 2)
Trait Points = 4 (Vanilla 2)
Trait Picks = 8 (Vanilla 4)

cost = 4
-50% food requirement for pops
-10% output for minerals (they eat them)
+5% environmental tolerance

cost = 2
-25% food requirement for pops
-5% output for minerals (they need fertilizer)
+5% nutritional value (a healthy dietary choice for xenos that enjoying eating sentients)

cost = -2
-5% environmental tolerance
+10% food requirement for pops
-5% army morale attack damage

cost = -4
-5% environmental tolerance
+20% food requirement for pops
+5% army morale attack damage

(replaces the vanilla Resilient trait)
cost = 1
+100% garrison health
+50% fortification health

(new effect matches original description better)
cost = 1
+25% army health

cost = 2
+50% army health

cost = 4
+30% output for food

cost = 4
+30% output for energy

cost = 4
+30% output for minerals

cost = -2
-15% output for food

cost = -2
-15% output for energy

cost = -2
-15% output for minerals

cost = -2
-15% output for all research

cost = -1
-15% output for engineering

cost = -1
-15% output for physics

cost = -1
-15% output for society

I have tested this mod out a bit, but still need feedback from the community as regards to balance. Let me know your thoughts.

This mod overwrites the entire 00_species_traits.txt, since so many of the dependencies of the traits intertwine. Will not work with any other mods that mess with this file.

-New icons for all of the additional traits, those should be coming soon.
-A set of Unity altering traits???
-"Creative" and "Uncreative" traits that affect # of research options
-Ship Offense traits (+/- % Fire Rate) buffs and penalties
-Ship Defense traits (+/- % Evasion) buffs and penalties
-Intrigue traits to give empire permanent boosts or penalty to intrigue generation
-"Warlord" civic: permanent civic that would increase troop production speed and morale
-"Cybernetic" civic: a permanent civic would give empire the relevant ascension perk
-"Psychic" civic: a permanent civic that would give empire the relevant ascension perk

If anybody knows a workaround for any of these issues, please fill me in.

I tried to add an "Aquatic" trait and similar traits but these traits wouldn’t even show up in race creation for some reason…

##trait_hydrophile = {
## cost = 1
## opposites = { "trait_cryophile" "trait_thermophile" }
## icon = "gfx/interface/icons/traits/trait_hydrophile.dds"
## modifier = {
## pc_tropical_habitability = 0.1
## pc_ocean_habitability = 0.15
## pc_continental_habitability = 0.1
## pc_desert_habitability = -0.05
## pc_arid_habitability = -0.05
## pc_savannah_habitability = -0.05
## pc_arctic_habitability = -0.05
## pc_tundra_habitability = -0.05
## pc_alpine_habitability = -0.05
## }
##}

I tried to get a Delicate (-25% army health) trait to work, but the game engine doesn’t seem to want to apply negative modifiers to army health. The trait was listed in race creation, but the modifier didn’t show up, and once in game there was no penalty to army health 😛

##trait_delicate = {
## cost = -1
## opposites = { "trait_resilient" trait_very_resilient" }
## icon = "gfx/interface/icons/traits/trait_delicate.dds"
## modifier = {
## army_health = -0.25
## }
##}