Stellaris Improvement Ideas. What would you like to see added, returned to, or taken from the game? All ideas welcome!

[Grand Poo-Bah de Canadiannaise]

I posted this comment in the comments section of Stellaris Dev Diary 366. It is comment 295 I think. I didn't plan it to be this long, lol, it just sorta came out of me like a healthily pent up ball of rage. A couple of people said I should post this in the discussions. And I agree. There's a lot of content here.
I'm eager to see what other people think, agree, disagree, AND WHY, (cuz it's nice to share and explain idea. You might convince me, or someone. Or vice versa.) And I'm eager to hear other ideas! (Example: I was just thinking last night of yet another idea)

I was a long time player of Stellaris. From initial launch to well into 3.0. A little while after that I fell off.

I'm glad to hear performance is being addressed. I typically would use mods that add diversity and flavour that I personally feel should've been included into any good sci fi (Planetary Diversity. Check it out. It's rad.)

A big loss for Stellaris I feel was the wondrous, yet tragic, transition to 2.0: the loss of warp, and artificial wormhole creation, as means of FTL. I understand this was for AI issues, as any player could indefinitely evade hostile fleets by jumping around to any adjacent star system, and the hyperlane FTL (somewhat) prevents this. I for one really would love to see these critical technological differences brought back.

That said, if there were more critical differences in technologies I feel it would give the game a lot more diversity and potential different play styles.
What I mean by critical differences in technologies would be the foundational technology types that are available to your species' and culture's start, and would dictate the majority of your tech tree/web. As such, some technologies of a different foundation/type would prove more difficult for your scientists to wrap their heads around whether it be by starting research from scratch, or reverse engineering via salvaging wreckages or stealing technology. Some technology types would prove to be more, or less, effective when pitted against others. Similar to how some weapon types are stronger or weaker against certain armour types.

A list of other changes I'd like to see.

1) Foremost: stop creating terrible DLCs that rob your fans and customers of cash and time alike... I'm really wondering about Paradox. I hope these changes described above (and hopefully MANY more will prove you guys are turning a new leaf... you had such a gem of a game here...)

2) Biochemical Diversity. Not all life is carbon based. I don't believe anyone should have to reach out to mods for this.

3) Planetary Diversity. Gatekeeper did a fantastic job with their mods. This kind of material should be vanilla.

4) Nebula Diversity (and more Galactic and Stellar System "terrain" and "weather") Nebulae should not all provide the same buffs or debuffs. Variation here could provide interesting grounds for exploration, science, war, resources. Perhaps some are rich in energy, or minerals. Some are havens to life. Others deathbeds. Etc.

5) Touching on 'terrain and weather' a mix of hard and soft sci fi could play nicely in here. Some stars do have frequent CMEs (coronal mass ejections) would can prove dangerous to modern tech (in the 1800s a large CME blew out telegraph boxes around the world. Blazing Northern Lights were seen as far south as Central America. Some people woke up and thought it was morning because it was so bright. Google Carrington Event. PS if it happened today, we'd be ****ed. Royally. Be afraid. Or don't. And play Stellaris.)
Storms occurring more or less frequently depending of galaxy location, star type, age, etc, and even being able to provoke them with advanced tech would be savvy.
6) Starting Diversity. At least the option for. I don't know when it happened exactly, but I personally enjoyed it more when your home system wasn't always guaranteed the same meagre start, with 1 and only 1 habitable world. I loved the excitement of a habitable moon or neighbouring planet to colonize. (Perhaps that could be guaranteed by an Origin type as well!)

7) Ability to Select the Absence/Denial of:
7.1) Species profiles. Personally I find it very disruptive to immersion when I find a primitive world and the species appears to be augmented by cybernetics, and they're supposedly just learning how to use fire...! (Eyes necroids and toxiods). Better yet, have the option to select these profiles to be absent from primitive worlds at certain points of development.
7.2) Unique Star Systems. Blending the above point with star systems: I don't want to have HUMANS in EVERY galaxy I make. Sometimes I wanna generate a ring or elliptical galaxy far far from the milky way where there are no familiar stars, and no humans anywhere!
7.3) Preset Empires. Some are pretty cool, but like the UN with Earth and the CM and Deneb, I'd like the option to make these guys and other preset empires to sit out.

8) Ability to have more than 1 custom created empire of the same star type force spawn. Example: If I create a custom empire, and they have a close trinary star system as their homeworld, if i create another custom empire with the same type of home star-system, and I choose both to force-spawn, only one, ONLY one will EVER spawn... grr...

9) More Galaxy Maps.
Simple enough. We have a few more finally. But I'd like more types, and variations of the present types. What about multiple galaxies? I think it'd be fun to play a small, closed in galactic neighbourhood of a few dwarf galaxies. They could very tight together so traversing between them is easy in one option. In an other option, they could be spread out so only a couple of star systems connect them, creating strategic choke points!

10) Accessible Galactic Cores.
Title. I find it funny that the galactic cores have no star systems, when it should be the most densely packed region of the galaxy ripe with star systems, possibly the oldest of the lot, ripe with mysterious and resource rich dead systems of black holes and neutron stars. (And no, it's not only a giant black hole that eats everything in the center... though it would be cool if for some galaxies there was a GIANT blackhole, as is the case in many real life galaxies!)

11)More anomalies! (with short and long chain events)
One of my favourite parts of this game was the discovery of strange, and ancient remains of long dead civilizations, etc, etc.
11.1) And more options that can change the course of events! Pretty well all of the event chains seemed linear to me. It'd be great to have many more that branch off into a tree of different options.

12) Internal Affairs.
A major lacking I've always felt from Stellaris is the static and safeness of your own government and culture. I believe your citizens, or drones, for various reasons and goals, should not always agree with your agendas.
12.1) Democratic agendas. This exists, but is currently weak. Upon election time you should be able to select from a large and comprehensive list of goals you wish your currently elected leader to tout, which will increase or decrease their electoral chances. The populace (and factions) should have their own desires and goals they want met. When election campaign time comes you can view other candidates electoral goals (not change them) and adjust your own current leaders accordingly. This way you can try to align your goals with what the public wants, and if elected, fulfill them, furthering the chance of this leader being elected again. If you make promises not aligned, but not against, public wants, you get some bonuses in approval, unity, cohesion, etc, but not as much. If you make promises completely contrary to what the majority wants, and some how still get elected, you consolidate some power among the few who are following you, if any, and receive influence bonuses, approval from those who follow, but this leads you closer down the road to Authoritarianism. This isn't completely comprehensive, but you get the idea. I hope.
12.2) Gestalt Empires deal with similar but different needs of the drones and consciousness depending on the type of gestalt. Devouring Swarms should hunger for war and consumption, perhaps suffering penalties for now doing so, leading to 'deviancy disease' *see 12.32 (techs and civics could be developed to 'fast' before the feast) Driven Assimilators should crave technological development, exploration and anomaly discoveries and research, etc.
12.3) Cohesion, Pirates, Rebellion, Deviancy.
Cohesion was a short lived concept that I think still can play an excellent role in Stellaris.
Every nation (or Organism) needs to maintain cohesion within its ranks lest things start to fall about. If amenities are not being met on colony worlds, people will create a black market, which will spur on piracy. If piracy gets bad enough, you may have worlds or stations wanting to secede from you. If you have a terribly maintained over bloated navy that is not maintained properly, say post war, your ships might just start getting covertly stolen, or outright hijacked by pirate-rebels. (I'm kind of thinking of The Expanse... watch it. = epic)
12.31) Civil war is something I always wanted to see in Stellaris. Never did. It'd be great to sow seeds of doubt in another nation who was your ideological nemesis, and then feed and weaponize their rebels, who then conveniently want to join your nation when they break away from their tyrants... or maybe they turn on you too...
12.32) Gestalts. Some have said that piracy and rebellion is something that wouldn't happen in gestalts, and that would give them an unfair advantage. Well, what if it was like a disease? All things get sick, or break down. A gestalt machine consciousness that extends its reach too far may not be able to properly keep track of all things, and find deviancy within it's own drones, who, cluster together consciously in order to cope, who then become their own singularity. And then want to be free of you. Furthermore, not fulfilling gestalt desires (equivalent of government agendas. See above 12.1 and 12.2) could lead to increasing deviancy. Very similar things could happen with their organic counterparts.

13) More colonizable planets. Floating stations on gas giants. Asteroid bases, etc. With that, more life filled gas giants.

14) More space fauna. Not all danerous. Some like plankton, some gigantic. Some prove to be resources, some like difficult terrain. (plankton gummy up the ftl drives)

(below not in original post:)
15) Internal Faction Diversity
I always thought it was a little silly, naive and bland that factions don't have infighting. For example, I think xenophiles would have different opinions on terraforming. Some might be okay with, others would say only it's okay to only terraform dead worlds, as it would be wrong to completely rework the biosphere of an alien world just to please you and your kind. Some might go as extreme to say that terraforming is wrong, even on dead worlds because of whatever microbes that live there. Perhaps some xenophilic-spiritualists would feel similar thoughts, but because it's like disturbing a graveyard. Let dead aliens lie.
The possibilities are endless. Subfaction groups could make alliances with each other, or even other factions in order to hold sway in your government when making demands for government goals and agendas.

16) Empire Cultures.
This is another one that could have a lot potential. In essence, look at an "empire" (though that's not really the appropriate word. Empire by definition connotes conquest. What if you want to play a species/culture/whatever that doesn't wage war for self interest?) like the UN. It's a myriad of different smaller governments governing over their respective culture(s). I feel this should be reflected in the game with possible varying bonuses and possible drawbacks. A nation like the UN would benefit from a very wide range of perspectives, traditions, and experiences when considering options and taking action. They might move slower, even bicker, but they may be more insightful and considerate. On the flip side, a melting pot of an authoritarian government might be the hallmark of efficiency and progress. More apt to make mistakes, but durable.
And it wouldn't have to be that democratic govs always are more multicultural, and authoritarians melting pots. This was just an example
This could expand into colonization. Perhaps some colonies would hail predominantly from certain culture(s) of your homeworld, advancing and developing the culture, making it and it's ways and values more influential in the overall of your empire/nation.
This idea is definitely less polished than some of the others, but I believe there's a lot of potential. Thoughts?

I think that's all I got for now... I wonder if anyone's gonna read this!? Maybe it'll make a difference. If anyone does read this. Please give me your thoughts.

[steven1mac]

1500-2000 star map officially supported, perhaps with a disclaimer saying it will run poorly, but have all unique worlds and events present in it.

[HappySack]

More boobies.