We really should be able to chose our Precursors

[Kalemenos]

Precursors have a huge impact on the whole game. Go research crazy with the Vultaum? Make the galaxy all gaia worlds with the Baol? Lots of alloy and fleets and battles with Cybrex? Each is a huge shift in strategy or game play style. If I can chose my empire, I should be able to chose my Precursor... or even have the option of randomization for those who like it that way.

I'm capable of starting 50 games, and immediately throw them out, because it's not the Precursor I'm in the mood for for that game. (And, curiously, easily 3/4 are zroni, and I strongly dislike the Psi run-through. Weird.)

Reading the discussions, it seems mods are the source of all evils, so I'm not inclined to use them... furthermore, there is version compatibility and... have you seen the innavigable ocean of mods? Enough to dishearten the bravest.

It really should be a game feature.

[Cerodil]

Unfortunately Paradox seems to be against this. You used to be able to know which precursor you would get based on where you spawned in the galaxy but they removed that and made it completely random after people started exploiting it. I do know that the precursor you get is slightly influenced based on the types of planets you survey but I doubt you could use that to get the one you want.

Originally posted by Kalemenos:

easily 3/4 are zroni,

It's completely random, for me most games are Irassian and Grunur/Baol, I almost never get Zroni.

[Knight Of Acedia]

to my knowledge the only influence you get to have is if you survey ONLY habitable planets practically guaranteeing zroni or avoiding surveying habitables guaranteeing not-zroni. I'm perfectly fine with it being randomized but it'd be nice if it took into account what kind of empire you're playing at least a little.

The amount of times my empire has gotten a precursor that does absolutely nothing for it is absurd, combine that with the possibility of it ruining your defense by spawning on your borders and providing enemy empires a way past your chokepoint and it becomes actually harmful to pursue the precursor.

of course it seems such problems have been mitigated with updates somewhat recently but vanilla still doesn't treat the precursors with the respect they deserve.

[Kalemenos]

Originally posted by Cerodil:

Unfortunately Paradox seems to be against this.

Curious. Do you know whether there is a reason why?

Originally posted by Cerodil:

I almost never get Zroni.

I wish I could pack them there zroni up and ship them to you, I'm up to my nostrils, as they say in Spain, in them!

Originally posted by Knight Of Acedia:

....doesn't treat the precursors with the respect they deserve.

That's for sure!

[Geoff]

Originally posted by Kalemenos:

Reading the discussions, it seems mods are the source of all evils, so I'm not inclined to use them... furthermore, there is version compatibility and... have you seen the innavigable ocean of mods? Enough to dishearten the bravest.

The people who yell at everyone to turn off their mods always do that before it's even established whether a player is using mods. In a healthier forum (and occasionally when this one is in decent shape), players with mods will help each other identify inconsistencies between each other's sets. But the grousing about mods without evidence will continue unabated and makes the place fairly unwelcoming to anyone who does need some help and does play with mods. "Nuke all the customizations to your play experience" is dumb and lazy advice in any context.

So, y'know... big talk from someone who doesn't use mods. But, it's your call whether to use them or not. If you're not going to use them, please don't let it be deterrence from the bad faith advice given about them around here.

EDIT: I haven't verified this and I don't want to quit out of my current game to do so. But if this works or is confirmed not to work anymore, I'd be curious to know: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/dl6llq/psa_how_to_easily_choose_your_precursor_even_in/

[Cerodil]

Originally posted by Geoff:

EDIT: I haven't verified this and I don't want to quit out of my current game to do so. But if this works or is confirmed not to work anymore, I'd be curious to know: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/dl6llq/psa_how_to_easily_choose_your_precursor_even_in/

This was fixed a long time ago, loading or starting an ironman game now disables the debug mode.

[Geoff]

Originally posted by Cerodil:

This was fixed a long time ago, loading or starting an ironman game now disables the debug mode.

OK, but I don't get the sense Kalemenos is an ironman player. Does debugtooltip give you the information you need to shape your precursor chain? If you're not in Iron Man? Cuz if so, that might be a mod-free solution to Kalaeenos' problem.

[Cerodil]

Originally posted by Kalemenos:

Originally posted by Cerodil:

Unfortunately Paradox seems to be against this.

Curious. Do you know whether there is a reason why?

No idea why exactly. If I had to guess it's because they want the precursors to function like any other event, archaeology site, astral rift etc... either you get X event or you don't.

[Cerodil]

Originally posted by Geoff:

OK, but I don't get the sense Kalemenos is an ironman player. Does debugtooltip give you the information you need to shape your precursor chain? If you're not in Iron Man? Cuz if so, that might be a mod-free solution to Kalaeenos' problem.

Sorry I forgot what the thread was about, I was replying solely to the link you sent, it was about using debug mode in ironman games. It works perfectly fine in regular games.

[Cerodil]

Did a bit of quick testing with the debug mode on and it does give the correct precursor that the link Geoff sent says. However it's still rng whether or not you actually get an event/anomaly that triggers the event.

[Geoff]

Originally posted by Cerodil:

Sorry I forgot what the thread was about, I was replying solely to the link you sent, it was about using debug mode in ironman games. It works perfectly fine in regular games.

That sounds like it might be easier than 50 scrub starts. And it might explain why he keeps getting zroni - perhaps he's inadvertently amplifying his own odds by making a consistent sequence of choices that's maximizing them.

[Cerodil]

Originally posted by Geoff:

That sounds like it might be easier than 50 scrub starts. And it might explain why he keeps getting zroni - perhaps he's inadvertently amplifying his own odds by making a consistent sequence of choices that's maximizing them.

It seems that it still work roughly the same way it used too. Each precursor is clumped up in a section of the galaxy but their placements are random. One game might have all the Yuht systems in the north and Baol in the south while next game the Cybrex and First League are sharing the north.

So it's still completely random which one you'll get but the debug mode can be used to target systems for a particular precursor but the one you want might not be near you at all.

[Kalemenos]

Originally posted by Geoff:

EDIT: I haven't verified this and I don't want to quit out of my current game to do so. But if this works or is confirmed not to work anymore, I'd be curious to know: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/dl6llq/psa_how_to_easily_choose_your_precursor_even_in/

VERY interesting, I'll try this, but I'm in a game too.

Originally posted by Cerodil:

Did a bit of quick testing with the debug mode on and it does give the correct precursor that the link Geoff sent says. However it's still rng whether or not you actually get an event/anomaly that triggers the event.

Good point. I'll have to start a game and run it for a bit to test it, and I certainly will.

Originally posted by Geoff:

OK, but I don't get the sense Kalemenos is an ironman player.

Certainly not! It sounds terrifying. I don't even know what it means. I just putts around the game and have fun as I like.

These are great non-mod leads, thanks everyone!

[Kalemenos]

Originally posted by Geoff:

I haven't verified this and I don't want to quit out of my current game to do so. But if this works or is confirmed not to work anymore, I'd be curious to know: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/dl6llq/psa_how_to_easily_choose_your_precursor_even_in/

Well, I've been trying every combination, and nope, doesn't work. It was quite a discovery to me to realize that you can open console commands even at the menu level.

I attempted running it at the game menu (where you have the choice to start new, load, etc.), and at every subsequent level with all the combinations I could think of. Nope. Just "unknown command."

Originally posted by Cerodil:

Did a bit of quick testing with the debug mode on and it does give the correct precursor that the link Geoff sent says.

It seems you managed it, and I can't. To force Baol, for example, I just open console command and type "precursor_baol_1." Am I typing it wrong, or is there some other word that should be there?

[Cerodil]

Originally posted by Kalemenos:

It seems you managed it, and I can't. To force Baol, for example, I just open console command and type "precursor_baol_1." Am I typing it wrong, or is there some other word that should be there?

Ignore the menu stuff, that post is out of date and you don't need to do that. It's correct about labeling the precursors though so it's not useless.

Load up a non-ironman game then open the console and type "debugtooltip" then hit "enter." Now go to the galaxy map and hover you mouse over a star you'll see an extended tool tip showing some tags the game uses for that star. Included in that are the precursor tags, if that system can trigger it. Not all systems can trigger a precursor and even those that have the tag are not guaranteed to trigger one.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3305449627

Here you can see the console open, it says "debugtooltips on" but the command is singular "debugtooltip" could be your issue. Regardless you can see one of the tags of the star I moused over has "precursor_2" which is Yuht and if I trigger a precursor while surveying that system I'll get Yuht.

[Kalemenos]

Oh, ok, I get that now, thanks! But still one can't chose via console command the precursor he winds up with. It seems it is a "location" thing, and the only way to control which precursor one gets would be to specify where exactly in the galaxy one spawns at the very start of the game.