Updated version will have a few issues in 3.14. specifically, it will at least not be able to detect psionic pops. I can upload a previous version later today for compatibility.

do you think the updated version will still work on 3.14?

Updated for 4.0!

The mod loader is raging on about "made for another version of the game (3.14.*)" so people might think it's outdated FYI

AI should handle it just fine. The actual AI decision-making is not altered by this mod, save for the fact that materialists now have more possible conditions where it's even an option. I haven't looked at Startech's changes to the ai weighting for psionic theory, but any changes it makes would have a minor conflict with this mod, in that one would overwrite the other. I can look into a patch if there's concern.

How does AI (with or without startech) handle this mod?

Now updated for 3.10 Pyxis! Not much changed here, save for adding the shroud teacher leader, as in base gamne.

Updated for 3.8 and Galactic Paragons! Should work with the council system now, and covers the various versions of the traits it has before, as well as a new one that i think is associated with psionic pyramid paragon guy.

Do we know what's causing it? No we don't. Do we know that something is causing it? Yes we do.
And that's how any kind of science starts.

It's the same with experiences themselves. Every single kind of report is worth it's own conclusion.

But the most important part of all of it is that NDEs make our lack of understanding of life quite evident. They don't prove much of anything, except for one thing – they prove that we don't have the full picture.

Unexpectedly wholesome answer, what a rarity!, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Ah, but you do not need cherry-picking to make a conclusion from inconsistent data.
You just make an “inconsistent” conclusion.

Here's the thing. The so called “NDEs” are themselves already an inconsistency in another phenomenon, namely – death.

Normally dead is dead, yet some times, as has been recorded multiple times already, dead come back to life. Not even talking about so called “clinical deaths”. There are rare cases of people “snapping out of it” days after being declared dead.

Also, Tentatively updated for 3.7

Now, my thought process for this mod was more along the lines of the MKULTRA program, or at least a more competently run version of it. They approached notions of ESP and similar powers with testing and experimentation. Now, unfortunately they were poorly managed and approached the question with too many assumptions and too little rigor, but the notion was there. I believe that, when confronted with more objective supernatural phenomena, things that can be tested and observed independently, that scientific examination would be a natural and productive avenue of exploration. I mean, quantum mechanical phenomena were

On the other hand, from a more theistic angle, we can't make any conclusions as to what thresholds might apply between a near-enough-death to experience the afterlife, vs one that is only enough to experience blank unconsciousness or dreams. And the manner of NDE also adds factors to it, both in terms of where the "Dead-enough" line might fall and in terms of potential biochemical effects upon the brain which could distort or induce any experiences.
The gist of what i'm getting at is that, while i believe those materialsts who profess that NDEs are "impossible" or "lies" are making unfounded claims, those who dismiss the phenomena as insufficiently scientific have a fair basis.

Different people report wildly different phenomena, from visions of an afterlife, to out of body experiences, to nothing at all. There's just not enough consistent data, nor enough documentation of any other influencing factors on that data, to make any sort of conclusion without cherry-picking. And the second issue is that there's no protocol to actually engage in testing that is both ethical (can't go around almost killing people and asking what they experienced) and rigorous (controlling for factors such as manner of near-death, health status prior to NDE, and personal psychological biases like belief). Because of that, it's impossible to heavily improve upon the data available. The possibility that people's NDEs could simply be dream-like phenomena influenced by the individuals' own beliefs, expectations, or fears can't be eliminated.

@Reianor
An interesting and thoroughly more philosophical discussion than I expected to have in the comments section of a mod.
To start with, let me clarify that, on the whole, I agree with your point. Proper skepticism should not take absence of evidence as evidence of absence. And strict Atheism requires at least equal levels of "faith" to maintain its convictions as any theistic belief, given that there is no more conclusive evidence against deism than there is for it. Agnosticism does a much better job of representing "proper" materialism.

That said, regarding the dismissal of what i'll collectively refer to as "Near Death Experiences" or NDEs, i do believe dismissal holds some validity. The problem is basically twofold. First there's the issue of consistency. While there are some rough trends in NDEs, there's little true consistency between experiences.

How are they making that conclusion? Why are they making that conclusion?
They have zero knowledge of what "the returned" have actually experienced and done zero attempts to study it (not that it's particularly possible, but still). So how are they making a "that's impossible" conclusion if they have zero data?

That's what I find so disappointing about IRL materialism. It's even less sceptical than faith. At least church's believers doesn't pretend that they have a proof for their beliefs.

Sorry about the rant. That's an easily triggered sore spot for me.

"What would a materialist do in response to encountering extrasensory abilities? Analyze the $#!~ out of them! "

Dude, you're too reasonable for real life. It's what they should be doing, yes.

IRL though, instead of looking for an actual explanation for things they can't wrap their heads around they reach for the closes semi-plausible "nope it's just their imagination" excuse, or some such and call it done.

Take the idea of afterlife for example. There have been recorded cases of people coming back to life preaching of afterlife and haven. Materialistic instant-conclusion - those are lies and delusions.

Minor update to make this compatible with 3.3 Libra

Thanks

Sorry folks, I had some stuff going on in meatspace that kept me from tackling Stellaris stuff for a while, including going back to a full time job. But with Lem out, it's time i got back on top of it and got stuff fixed. Fortunately, i don't think this mod needs much, if anything, but i can at least get that outdated mod warning off y'all's backs!

I like your thinking!

"Updated" for 3.0.1. By which i mean i changed the compatible version number.

Yep, still working! Thankfully it's a simple enough change to be pretty much patch-proof.

I have little reason to assume that this doesn't work anymore, but I'd just like to make sure.

Does this mod still work?

Thank you very much!

This is super immersive!!! I din'son't like to use that word so much, it's usually overused in the modding community, but this definitely is! Thank you so much!

Thanks!

JR Took a while to get around to it, but your suggestion has been implemented!

Could you add a condition for your researcher to have the Psychic trait? I occasionally have one of my scientists get the trait during a modded event.

After a long time languishing, this mod is now updated to be compatible with 2.7.* game versions!

Is it still works in 2.5?

Not compatible with Glavius but since you pointed to the file fixing it was very easy. Also, as a suggestion, curators should give the same base mult 2 as maniacal, modded that in for myself. Thanks for your mod :)

Still verifying, but i beleive this mod will still function fine with 2.2. I'll update as soon as i'm sure!

Not exactly. Base-game, Materialists have 0% chance of rolling psionics UNLESS their society scientist has the Expertise: Psionics trait, with which they have a small chance. This mod expands that small chance to Curator scientists and Maniacal scientists, both of which are easier to find and more likely to be chosen for research. It doesn;t otherwise change the odds. Non-spiritualists still have small odds of rolling the tech.

What does this mod specificaly change? Does it remove the weight modifier that makes it nearly impossible for non-spiritualists to get Psionics?

@wildwiredweasel
Baseline, you'd need to mod the Policies file. steamapps\common\Stellaris\common\policies\00_policies.txt. That's where the option for AI citizenship is blocked out for spiritualists. It's under "artificial_intelligence_policy."
If you also want to make the faction okay with it, you'd also need to mod \common\pop_faction_types\00_Traditionalist.txt and do something about the first 3 Demands.

So, how would I go about creating a mod that allowed spiritualists to grant full citizenship to robots, and not have the stupid ass belief that robots can't have souls? I'd have to change at least the faction data, I know that, but what other files would I need to edit?

Unless drastic changes are made as to -how- you access various aspect of the game from the various content files in Stellaris no mods will ever run out of date.

So, no mods that I know of have ever actually needed to update their out-of-date mods because no mods have so far gone out of date for the simple reason that such a change to how you access files have not been made.

In fact it is extremely rare that such changes are made after a release because not only does it affect what you're trying to redo it will most likely have to be done to the -entire- code meaning lots of resources spent on something that probably wouldn't do much.

Anyhow, thanks for a great mod, now I don't have to redo the bloody government to get myself some neat materialists!

No problem, and hmmm, alright. I'll give it a shot and see what happens, seeif there's any incompatibilities with what I'm using.

New Ship classes, right? Should be compatible, as far as i can tell. Sorry for the delay. You caught me on vacation.

Is this compatible with NSC?