Everything so far so good, 120/100 if I can play as a FE as well.

Originally posted by andy:

Everything so far so good, 120/100 if I can play as a FE as well.

Thats handled in the Zenith of Fallen Empires mod :) I posted a compatibility patch for the addon that upgrades FE buildings as well. Glad you're enjoying it!

Originally posted by Camdalf the White:

Originally posted by andy:

Everything so far so good, 120/100 if I can play as a FE as well.

Thats handled in the Zenith of Fallen Empires mod :) I posted a compatibility patch for the addon that upgrades FE buildings as well. Glad you're enjoying it!

I know, but ZoFE only allows you to play as an Ascended Empire. I like playing as a real FE with the government ethics and background. Like the one featured in Twink's mod. I am getting picky here but anyway, the mod is great!

Is there a way to force the game to spawn one of each available type of fallen empire before it starts filling the remaining slots with duplicate types? Would it be possible for the mod to impose that on the engine?

Originally posted by Fenris:

Is there a way to force the game to spawn one of each available type of fallen empire before it starts filling the remaining slots with duplicate types? Would it be possible for the mod to impose that on the engine?

As far as I know its random so you'd just have to use more FEs in your game, I usually play on large or huge, with 8-10 FEs, and 10-15 normal empires. I usually get almost all of the FEE empires to spawn, but a few of them won't spawn if humans are present, or if the Sol starting system is in use

Thanks. My problem is partly tied to running significantly more empires than that, so I would have less than 10 FE spawning regardless of settings and those would tend to not include a few I wanted. Fortunately, I was able to find out what variable to edit for reducing the minimum distance between empires, which works for my purposes too.

Originally posted by Fenris:

Thanks. My problem is partly tied to running significantly more empires than that, so I would have less than 10 FE spawning regardless of settings and those would tend to not include a few I wanted. Fortunately, I was able to find out what variable to edit for reducing the minimum distance between empires, which works for my purposes too.

out of curiosity, what did you edit it to? I can take a look to see if it works better, also the settings we edit work better if you set it to random spawning rather than clustered. It should spread pretty evenly if you do that

I'm using Epic Galaxy for generation settings, but the same would apply for editing the base game files for galaxy generation. I went into that mod's zip at \map\galaxy\base.txt and edited "min_sq_dist_between =" to a lower number while leaving "ideal_sq_dist_between =" at the existing value. I picked 5,000 for the minimum.

The net impact is that the engine tries to aim for the significantly larger number under the ideal variable, but the lower minimum variable allows it to cram empires closer to each other if it has to. That gives it more leeway to fit extra empires on the map.

Before I did this, I was running 3,000 systems, random, with ~40 empires and it would only spawn 1-6 FE as the galaxy generator found room, but there would be plenty of empty space on the map. With this fix, I can fit all 44 empires that I want to force load with advanced start, 10 FE, 3 marauder clans. A few end up as neighbors but most are still decently spaced out. There's probably room to finesse the specific minimum variable but I'm happy it worked on the first try. I just wish there was a way to select more than 3 maruader clans. I'd prefer to have 5-6 on the map, but setting the slide bar to let you pick higher than 3 never actually spawns more than 3 in the galaxy. Haven't learned what other variable or file is required.

Personally I prefer not to go over 3,000 systems due to map clutter. Ideally I wouldn't go over 40 empires but 44 is doable. Epic Galaxy imposed a default cap of 50 in their mod, the Stellaris engine crashes once somewhere around 60+ empires so that allows for primitives ascending as the game progresses.

I should also note that I am specifically designing my game around a personal custom faction of pseudo-FE 'reclaimers' with a overpowered start ringworld system, and an intent to only colonize in that first system, building tall with only outposts to plant flags everywhere else. That shapes my preference for a busier and higher threat galaxy setup to meet that increased power. Mechanically that setting did work for my needs.

I wonder what a Pacifist Fallen Empire would look like? How would that even work?

If you have ideas, I'm open to them, I've not found much of a way that doesn’t just have them boring, doing nothing, or basically the same as xenophobes with less war decs

Far be it from me to plagiarize someone else's idea and i won't, so they get the full credit they deserve.

A person by the name Feezec came up with this idea, again not my idea so they get full credit.

Ideas for Pacifist Fallen Empire
Wiz says a far distant future patch will add in Fallen Empires for the currently unused Ethics. Lets jump down his throat and guess what these new FEs will be like!

Pacifist Fallen Empires are Serene Cultivators.

These empires are self-appointed caretakers of the galaxy and its myriad lifeforms. Bear in mind that this is not the same thing as believing in the universal sancticity of sentient life. The star systems in and near Cultivator territory are teeming with Space Fauna, which breed and then migrate across the galaxy. Many of these space fauna are more unique, numerous, and powerful than normal. So while Pacifist FEs don't directly forbid you from colonizing nearby, doing so requires an expensive upfront investment in alien pest control. Plus, even if you successfully settle a planet, a giant herd of space cows can still periodically stampede through the system, eat all your stations, and drop space poop tile blockers on your new colony. Examples of Serene Cultivator Requests and Demands:

Find and return a Void Cloud that ran away from home. Bring it in alive and unharmed, the poor dear is probably scared out of its wits

Several star systems traditionally used as Space Amoebas breeding grounds have been colonized by lesser empires. If you are one of these empires, the Cultivators will politely request that you abandon those planets by either resettling or purging the offending pops. If you are not a filthy space polluter, you can earn browny points by using the abandon planet war goal against empires who are

A rare breed of Crystalline Entity has been spotted in a far off corner of the galaxy. Collect a specimen for the Cultivators to use as a breeding stud

We misplaced several boxes full of Psionic Titanic Xenomorph eggs a couple of millenia back. If you could go find those for us, that would be great

Stop smashing those vintage antique Mining Drones! They belong in a museum!

Demolish a percentage of your buildings, stations, and fleet capacity in order to prevent something they call "galactic warming". Probably fake.

Cultivators offer especially exotic rewards, such as tamed Space Amoeba with the fleet strength of a battleship, eternal youth genesplicing tech, nurgle-tier bioweapons, semi-sentient slave pops that have been specially bred/lobotimized for obedience and cuteness, giant Tiyanki that eat stars, and psi emitters that attract space fauna to attack a star system.

A person by the name SerialAngel had this idea, full credit et cetera.

So, it looks like this kind of Fallen Empire is hardest to properly implement. Maybe because people think Fallen Empires need to be frightening or at least disturbing.

But let us assume a different empire. Let's call them Manerean(TM). For them to kill an enemy in battle is considered both a dishonorable horrible act and a clear indicator that their weapons are not superior to those of fledgling civilizations.

In accordance with that mindset, their weapons are designed to disable, stun, immobilize, paralyze, hack into and shut down everything that causes harm, weather to Manerean, other civilizations, or even themselves.

Prisoners of these wars are taken to Neer (their home planet) and educated, enlightened and re-socialized using nonviolent methods. After a short prison term (up to a year) the subjects are released to their own civilization and given another chance. As many times as necessary.

Their pacifism briefly ends if someone manages to actually kill Manerean soldiers in battle.

A person by the name Verenti compared The Organians from Star Trek to a Pacifist Fallen Empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvDAHmQ1_tw

A Megacorp Fallen Empire should be Fanatic Pacifist that in the ultimate interest of irony enjoy profiteering off of other nations going to war. They have a home system consisting of 3 planets. One is a massive Industrial world (Ecumenopolis with half Industrial Districts, half Foundry Districts, with every building being dedicated to Resource Replicators) manned entirely by machines where consumer goods, alloys, and most manufactured goods are handled. Another would be an Agri-world for obvious reasons, again, handled entirely by machines, and their home planet would be an Ecumenopolis Fully dedicated to trade optimization (All buildings Clerks, all districts are residential districts, etc), and they have an almost completed Dyson Sphere in their home system, OR a completed one in their neighboring system surrounded by a mineral rich astroid field (combination of 9 and 11 mineral deposits for each asteroid).

The interesting thing though? Is they don't consider themselves fallen. They declare they are in a period of mass liquidation and waiting for a market upswing for themselves to come back to.

If nothing else, make all of these starting systems with multiple habitable planets, into terraforming cadidates to give that "developing" feeling to it.

If you're going to make their home system into a system start (I'd like it at least), make their home planet size 25, their moon size 12 (forge world/Ecumenopolis), and their Agri-world on the outer rim of their system (size 20).

Forgot to thank you by the way, I have some notes written for ideas of tasks, diplomatic actions, and the like, and your ideas line up with a lot of mine already, especially the planet/pop layout. Thinking of doing more than one and have one or the other spawn each game.

Still deciding on what to call fallen/awakened status for it though. I'm thinking something like Restructuring for fallen, and have their awakening be a sort of rebranding

Call them Restructuring Corporitist and Rebranded Racketeers in their awakened status. The key here is that they will never declare way. Instead, they will approach empires with offers of monthly trade deals of Alloys, Consumer Goods, and Technology, in exchange for monthly deals of energy, minerals and food. They will always, and exclusively, trade proccessed materials for unproccessed materials because they can no doubt produce the allows in bigger supply, with less resources.

Make their leader's title be "Robber Baron"

I was actually also thinking of them offering a ship for starting wars as well, like the caravan can sell you when they pass through. What I was thinking is like, offering you a contract, heres a ship, start a war with a neighbor in x years. If you agree to the terms, and go through with it, you get opinion bonus and they may send you more tasks, or other such rewards. If you agree and then decide not to go to war after receiving the ship, they could get another country that they have good relations with to attempt to collect on their debt by war deccing you. Maybe they give two ships to the collector coming after the player so that they have a slight advantage