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Stellaris Zero

NEWS: The mod's being rebuilt for Stellaris 2.1. Well not this mod exactly, but a new mod under the same name built in the same spirit with more radical changes. If it looks like it'll pull through (fingers crossed) then the ModDB page should see some activity soon. Ignore the last edit saying the project was dead. Workarounds have been found :D


Stellaris Zero is a standalone mechanics overhaul for 1.4, with an emphasis on internal management. The mod redesigns some of the systems that felt under-utilized or lacking to me. Mainly, the faction and government systems.

The mod follows a less-is-more design philosophy, where improving upon existing content is prioritized over pilling more stuff on top. The idea being that mechanical cohesion, not content, is what improves the games depth.

Main Features:

All the vanilla government types have been removed and replaced with just a few new ones. 4/5 of the new government types (democracies, empires, corporations and pirates) each have their own unique mechanics that define them. Democracies must juggle various political parties, while pirates have to raid to survive.

Rebels have been completely overhauled. Peaceful demonstration can turn into empire wide revolution if you are not careful. Civil wars are now major galactic events that can lead to massive wars if foreign empires choose to intervene.

Playable pirate nations that act as safe-havens for criminals all across the galaxy and make their profits by raiding and looting.

A heresy system, where pops can reject the established beliefs of spiritualist empires.

Pops can escape their empire as refugees, seeking asylum elsewhere. This part of the mod is being implemented into vanilla in 1.5, dang!

Some under-the-hood changes that let pops spread their ethics and let minority species propagate, even late in the game.

A bunch tweaks and bugfixes, most of which I've long forgotten about. And some vanilla systems revised to make them interact with each other in new ways.



SZ is built as a >standalone< experience. An overhaul of vanilla to show how much depth could be added with little more thought put into focusing the games mechanics to work in unison with each other, which I feel they currently do not. This involved revising many vanilla systems, which is MUCH easier to do if I just overwrite vanilla files.

Point is, this project would not have been feasible had I worked to maintain compatibility with other mods. Graphics mods are fine, but most other mods are not. You can try them, but if your game runs into some weird issues later down the line then don't say I didn't warn you!