Oh, also a slight balance tweak: Planets now preserve +1 more base deposit, as I noticed it really sucked when you only had blockers available!

Fixed a bug that meant the "guaranteed habitable" bonus worlds that spawn weren't getting unexplored deposits!

I fixed this by moving the setup event from "on_game_start" to "on_press_begin" so make sure you actually do that!

Unfortunately this will require a fresh galaxy to take effect, sorry about that.

@Mister
Sounds interesting! I don't know anything about the birch world though, sadly.

But yeah relics and FE worlds feel like they could have something!

NGL a submod or something that adds a mechanic similar to how you explore the ancient birch world in GSE would be keno. At the very least something like that for FE or Relic worlds.

@Nawrek
Hi! All my localisation files are in WP's library. A french translation would be awesome!

Hi ! I'd like to give you a French translation of your amazing mod, but aside of a "localisation" folder, i don't know exactly which files i've got to put into it to then translate it !

@TotalCarnage
No idea, I don't own the DLC sorry!

How does this work with the Wilderness? Since their pops are completely different?

I ended up giving it up doing it.. just way to many to change by hand, cross referencing the planet classes to make sure they get the right unexplored regions. If I were more patient I'd keep it up, but I was going nuts, having to take a break every hundred or so deposits changed

@God13
Yes the AI uses it!

it work on ai?

Hah that's a fun solution!

Ha! I just found another great use for this mod. I'm a bit into a game, not very far, only 8 years but since I play slow that's like 3 days of playing. One of the other deposits mods I have in the game is just annoying me, it's deposits spawn like crazy and some worlds only have it's deposits. Anyway, I decided I'm going to take it out, but as I said, some worlds have mostly only it's deposits and would be left with nothing. So I went ahead and switched all of it's 3924 deposits with unexplored ones. I'd rather have lots of unexplored anyway!

@Wayneofwilson
Sounds like it!

World exploration menu is offset where you can't even play the mod. Am I loading my mods in the wrong order?

@Daepapa
Ahhh nice catch! That's my mistake, will add it to the list for the next update! Sorry about that.

Update: sorry, didn't see the updated pop counts for each exploration in the changelog; the message in the UI when mousing over the clear blocker button still says "5 additional pops" instead of "500", so it would be nice to have this be adjusted and hopefully the counter works in the message too.

Hi, thanks for updating this mod to 4.0! I tried playing with it on 4.0.23 and the planetary exploration blocker is stuck at "Our next ground survey is being prepared" because 5 additional pops are required; I'm assuming this is a holdover from before the pop overhaul with 4.0? Even with hundreds of new pops on a new colony, the blocker's pop calculation never seems to be updated and is stuck on "we need 5 additional pops".

@Alizia
The planetary exploration blocker should appear on any planet you colonize.
@Nyyfandan
Yea! All this does, really, is shuffle some deposits.

This is compatible with Planetary Diversity? Incredible work

But I see all the "unexplored" blokers in grey and unable to interact

@Alizia
For now it's a blocker you clear in the planetary features section. Later it'll be a dedicated screen on "Planet View", too, and very easy to find.

Maybe a stupid question but... How can I explore ?
I mean the button or way to open the "Planetary Exploration Menu"

@Silver
It's the discord linked in this mods description - member of the stellaris modding den. Scroll up just a little. I have a channel in there called wp-mods.

forgot to mention Dangerous Wildlife too

i understand completely, i just made a folder with Planetary Features, New Worlds, Mysterious Worlds, and Army Attachments if you want me to send them, where can i find the Discord server you mentioned? also keep up the great work your mods are some of my favorites

@SilverVixen
I'll trickle the updates out over a week, maybe two. Probably PFE and DWE first, MW slightly after.

@SilverVixen
I am trying to explain that I WILL "post" it as an alternative for those that want it, hosted on the mods spreadsheet / gdrive. But I need someone to send me the current version in a .zip before I release this next 4.0 update (happening soon!) or it's not going to happen. I don't have a local copy on my end anymore! Message me in my channel on the modding discord or add me as a steam friend.

would it be possible to instead post it as an alternative mod for those that want it? also are you planning on updating all of your mods at this time or only a few for now?

I posted a quick update on "Planetary Features Expanded" a couple of days ago and now I'm doing it here:
I'm currently updating this for 4.x! The update will be pushed to steam soon. For anyone who wants to stick on StellarisPI (3.14, arguably the best version of the game) NOW is the time to save a local copy of this mod in a .zip. Because once steam pushes it, it'll be lost for good.

@Nikal
Ah yeah, fair enough!

All my mods are 3.14 for now. They all work perfectly together on that game version - nothing is updated.

I didn't uninstall it; just haven't played any since 3.12. :P

Trying out this new version of the game now, and the mod's page reads it's still at 3.14. Reading some comments there, I wasn't sure whether it works correctly or not.

@Nikal
What made you uninstall planetary features if you don't mind my asking? Something I can improve? Or just a 4.0 thing.

I used to use your Planetary Features mod, but this actually looks amazing. I love when creatives exploit this games' systems to create new dynamics. Might have to downgrade to 3.14 just to give it a spin. :)

@Lima
Honestly I noticed an extreme amount of rudeness too and it put me off their mods also. However they work quick and definitely will be patched for 4.0 long before me it must be said! Thanks for the compliment and I will get there, but only after PDX finishes tinkering with planet view over the summer and we see real performance gains in 4.x, so it'll be a while!

Looking forward to a 4.0 update. I used to use Planetary Diversity but their dev team are extremely rude and very unhelpful. I use Better planet view + It's extra build slots addons which PD is causing a CTD with it. I asked about it and they shrugged and didn't care. Hope your mod works when it updates :)

great, thanks! Yeah, an additional tab would also be sick, also adds an amazing amount of stuff that could be added/displayed even just by submods

@Sayshi
Heya! Yeah I suspect the pop scale changes affected this mod. It'll be improved when I eventually do a 4.0 update.

As for a dedicated button - check out my "Planet View" mod in my workshop. If you run both together you get your dedicated button! In a later edition I might make this UI panel an actual major tab on the bottom, too. I think that'd be awesome.

Again, thanks for this great mod and I hope you can make it even better in the future. Honestly kinda crazy that such a massive feature is a random mod and not an actual Paradox feature tho I think they would fuck it up somehow.

Not sure if this was already talked about but 4.0 seemingly broke further exploration due to the need of four new pops growing when 4.0 is calculating in hundreds of pops. As such, you can only explore each planet once and are mostly stuck with Size 25 planets with 2-3 slots for mining/farming/electricity - this essentially means you have to cheat each and every planet and makes the mod pretty unfun as each planet is pretty much soft locked. Still, great mod, I hope this gets fixed soon. Just dont play it on 4.0 for now.

On a different note, can you add an extra button for the Planetary Explanation? It being hidden in the planetary features as a seemingly random feature feels kinda low for such a great UI and idea. Maybe move it to planetary decisions, or, if at all possible, add an actual extra button (no idea if this is possible tho lol)

I wish that there was an updated version of it because I really don't like the At War series of mods, especially their implementation of planetary canons since they don't pose the kind of threat that they realistically should.

I want to be forced to engage a planet's defenses, losing ships in the process, just so that I can cover the transports landing armies on the planet's surface before disengaging my fleet. At War doesn't work like that. Although, I don't have First Contact and the mods that permit modding army transports are also out of date which puts a huge damper on the whole deal. Although I guess the Cloaking generators need some nerfs and a new "weapon" which just boosts your Detection needs to be added.

Anyway, I'm rambling, Defense Platforms for Strongholds and Fortress Specialized City Districts please! I'm begging you! It's too freaking cool to not do it!

@Gake
Yeah I remember that mod! I never used it personally but it looked cool.

Sorry, the abandoned mod I'm talking about below is called Orbital Defense Platforms, but it functions by adding a building which spawns defense platforms. My suggestion would be to add that functionality to Strongholds.

Yeah, I can definitely see the issue of complexity. So maybe the "tiles" are just a representation of battle and the armies just beeline Strongholds/Shield Generators to turn off the guns and shield generators. What if, to reduce management, the ground battle tactics are just Edicts or Policies? Like prioritize Strongholds, Shields, all military installations, urban centers, etc?

But I get what you're saying. Perfect shield generators, outside of the armies, would definitely put the emphasis on armies and it would be easier to implement than my grand idea of planetary guns able to intimidate battleship fleets... But there is another mod that implements planetary defense stations, but it's abandoned as far as I can tell. If all you could realistically implement was just the shield generator, strongholds that spawn planetary defense stations, and ownership of the planet able to flip the control it would honestly still be super fun.

@Gake
(Not sure why you commented on this mod page?)
But overall you're completely right, I think! Well.. your concept is a little more complicated than it needs to be.

But in general yes, a model where armies are better landed _first_ before effective bombardment can happen would give them a real home in the game. Generally speaking having armies disable planetary shield generators, which would exist by default, gets us the gameplay we're looking for.

The other issue is that many current players hate the current micro associated with army gameplay. This is actually an a different arena of discussion, really - transport fleets. But players muddy them and condemn all army gameplay at once. Which is a shame. Anyway, make transport fleets fun and frictionless and then the army-first model of planet conquering becomes very appealing. Bombardment in this world is usually about supporting invasions, with certain civics/fleet stances able to break the rules.

I've been thinking of something that would mesh really nicely with an "army view" of a planet's surface: you know that orbital guns mod? What if all Strongholds spawned "Defense Platforms" inside of the planet. Just land your forces, take over the strongholds thereby taking control of the defense platforms, and THEN you can bombard the planet into submission. Planetary Shield Generators also spawned a unique "Defense Platform" with an aura which provided those Stronghold's "Defense Platforms" with a metric ton of shielding and reduced all damage taken from Orbital Bombardment until either captured or destroyed. If the "Defense Platforms" were just REALLY POWERFUL it would completely shake up the game making armies matter again.

But it would be pretty cheesy if destroying the Defense Platforms destroyed the Stronghold thereby unemploying the pops that were once contributing to armies.

maybe for the army battle screen its more in deapth such as units being on the different continents and fighting on their continents

@tomtl
I had the exact same idea tbh! I think it's a cool army screen, too. Keep an eye out on my workshop for the next version of "Planet View". I'll be seeing what I can do.

please use your interface for a army battle mod with planet screen

Big YES PLEASE for updating MW/PFE/DWE trinity! These are the mods that actually make me care about planets in Stellaris, thanks for the awesome work WP!