Galactic Pacification for Dummies
Lecture the Eighth: 2270-2280
Welcome, Class
Today's lecture is mostly concerned with internal development and the long anticipated war with the Chosen.
But first, a few words about optimization.
Minor Relics, Optimized
You may have heard that premature optimization is the root of all evil, and though the Hell-lords of Tar-Ruthal might disagree, there is a great deal of truth to it. There is a lot to be said for focusing on strategy and overarching principles, and it is so very easy to get so caught up in optimization of details that one loses sight of bigger issues.
But while premature optimization might be bad, just-in-time optimization can help a lot. Consider the case of the minor relics.
So far I have done what I expect most students would do in the same circumstances, expending minor relics on celebrating diversity, proclaiming religious revelations, selling them when funds are tight, using them for management insight peaceful applications for increased XP gain, and finally arcane deciphering.
What I have not done is exhibit them in museums. It is fiddly micromanagement, it is somewhat expensive, and one thing with the other, it is easy to overlook.
It is also +20% priest output for 100 minor relics, and while that might be a weak effect in most empire builds, it is a strong effect for the priesthood tech build when applied to a planet with many priests.
2270: Exhibit Artifacts in Museums on Home After All
So my strategy of not excavating most archaeological sites until I had surveyed most of the universe and scientist levels were high, such that excavations were rapid? Good so far as it went, but it meant I only got a significant minor relic income late and case can be made that having somebody excavate sites two or three decades earlier, creating a strong minor relic income to use for museum exhibitions on the best worlds, would have been as good or perhaps even better strategy.
I am not sure it is, but it might have been.
Whatever the case might be, it is definitely time to start doing so now. From this day forward I'll prioritize spending minor relics on boosting the priest output on all worlds with a high number of priests.
2271.05.23: Rogue Scientist Retrieved
The rogue scientist on Briscoll 3 has been retrieved and sent for psychiatric evaluation, but not without unfortunate collateral damage. Fortunately he didn't manage to force-advance them past the machine age, so they will have time to get over his loss, and in decades to come, perhaps centuries, when they finally take to the stars he'll be nothing but a dim memory.
2271: A surgical operation, they promised...
2271.07.01: Dissidence on the Rise: Enough is Enough
The First Ascendant has had enough! Protests have turned violent and are no longer restricted to fringe elements, and this will not do. Equally worrying, large parts of the population are in general agreement that the imperial government is acting with too heavy a hand and, she concedes, they might have a point. While some of the protesters are bad actors encouraged by her political enemies, most are likely misguided and amenable to reason.
Perhaps the new empire
is too restrictive of personal freedoms, and the better way it to act with a light hand restraining the protests while working on enacting constitutional freedoms meeting some of the protester's demands to de-escalate and restore order.
2271: Undaunted After All is Naive After All
2271: But not Stupid After All. It worked!
2272.03.09: Federation level 4, new laws
Time to change succession type to strongest. I set the succession power such that the strongest military will be chosen, but in a certain sense it does not matter. United After All will always be stronger in ALL of the metrics than any of the vassals. Choosing leader by fleet power is solely for convenience in the simulation, since it means that the federation panel shows all members' fleet power sorted, giving me a quick and easily accessibly overview of the military available to Joyful Union After All can muster.
2272: Federation Laws
2272.04.12: Arcology Preparations
With work on turning Home After All and Rubricator into ecumenopolises proceeding apace, it is past time to begin clearing Fen Habbanis' blockers and restoring Jasmak, the size 30 relic world.
2272: Fen Habbanis has 11 blockers to clear
2272: Jasmak is ready for conversion
2272.05.11: Burden of Leadership, Dodged
I get worrying news that the First Ascendant is overburdened and acquires a negative trait.
2272: Nooo, she's Undaunted, Not Fearful!
Fortunately, I can ignore this as it is the result of a PEBKAC in the computer sciences department.
Uniquely, a Luminary is a person so perfect that regardless of circumstances she can only have one negative trait. Since Undaunted After All is naive this outcome is impossible.
Whomever handled writing the Luminary events in the situation didn't know this, hence this event, while whomever handled granting new traits to a Luminary did, hence the outcome of the event being disregarded.
2273.01.08: Nominating the Custodian (Guess who)
Since I am primarily spending influence on foreign politics this decade, it is time to get serious. More than half of the community consists of the members of Joyful Union After all so it is past time to claim official leadership to guide the rest of the community.
2273: Vote United After All for a Better Tomorrow
2273.07.01: Dacha, the Planet Storage
Finally we uncover the secrets of the missing planets in the Helito system – a remote hyperlane leading to Dacha, a system with an astonishing six inhabited gaia worlds.
2273: Dacha is a Most Unusual System
Early reports indicate that the three planets circling the central star are probably native to the system, while the two planets circling Dacha C are likely to be the missing planets from Helito, while the huge size 25 planet circling Dacha B is from somewhere else entirely. The planets are inhabited by pre-FTL civilizations.
Just what happened here?
2273.12.09: Wormhole Exploration
Having finally reached a force level deemed sufficient to hold off a Chosen attack if not, perhaps, sufficient to winning a swift victorious war, I decided late this year that it was time to start exploring wormholes in accordance with the priority list presented at the start of the last lecture while continuing to build up forces.
The first three targets were in the galactic south-east in systems under my control and within easy reach of my fleets. If these wormholes did not lead to the Chosen, hopefully they would provide helpful shortcuts to more distant parts of the galaxy.
I have placed the hunter fleet, which is by far the strongest force available to me, near the wormhole closest to my capital and most of the rest of my fleet near the second wormhole in Bora Baba. A third significant fleet of corvettes currently in the process of being upgraded is stationed further to the galactic west in the old Fellnoll territories. The third wormhole is in Aesir is a long way from any valuable systems so a connection there would give me a long time to summon forces from the other locations.
However, already the second wormhole explored, in Bora Baba, turned out to be the right one.
2273: The Chosen: Equal Opportunity Haters
Thus begins the first war for United After All against an alien civilization, and it could have happened against more deserving guys.
2273: 154.9k Fleet power converging on Bora Baba
2273: 95.8k Fleet power Defending
So, the good news is that in terms of estimated fleet power in the simulation I outnumber them by three to two.
The bad news is that apart from the Hunter Fleet, the Boggwoss Squadron of modernized corvettes, and, eventually, the modernized Lurggam Squadron, most of the fleets will underperform significantly, being comprised of old corvette designs from a variety of empires bought from the Tinkerers as well as the low-tech Fellnoll and Rak-Rak fleets.
While I would probably win a battle on the offensive pitting all of mine against all of theirs, casualties would be significant and if things went wrong this might result in a battle of attrition, which I would win, but adding several years to campaign. An alternative would be to take point and wait for my vassal's fleets to arrive, but that too would take a long time.
All taken together, it is clear that I should finish modernizing the Lurggam Squadron while beginning a considerable construction program of modern corvettes and frigates. The existing forces will guard against a Chosen attack in Bora Baba supported by the Desperate Measures Unity Ambition.
Give it a year or two, and if the Chosen hasn't ventured into the Bora Baba killing zone by then, it will be time to take the fight to the enemy.
2274.06.23: Skrand, The Lost Paragon
I finally repair the “First Talon”, the mysterious space hulk encountered at the Seginus Gateway, and its commander, Skrand Sharpbeak, offers his services on the unassailable grounds that he, his ship, and his crew were stuck in the gateway for millennia and they have no place to call home.
2274: Repairs done
2274: Welcome, Skrand Sharpbeak!
Skrand has the Shield of the Empire destiny trait (+45% evasion, +45% fire rate, and +300 shield hit points in friendly systems), Carrier Focus, and a Commanding Presence.
Loath as he is to be parted from his crew, he accepts my order to don a teleportation bracelet and then teleport straight across the galaxy to take control of the Boggwoss Squadron of Modernized corvettes, that immediately boast a wildly inflated fleet power of 75k due to its high evasion.
Do not trust such numbers – excepting weak enemies that lack significant tracking, the squadron did not increase its survivability and destructive potential four-fold because Skrand took over. More powerful, yes. Four-fold as the fleet power would suggest, no.
2274.12.04: Gifts of the Shroud: Psionic Shield
Every since the Alarians embraced psionics, training to produce small psionic barriers for personal protection against falls, accidents, or assault has become popular, but nobody could figure out how to produce shields on a larger scale.
2274: Until Now
2274.12.04: Unstudious Conclusion Level 10, Ends Anomaly Investigations
With only 65 anomalies remaining to be investigated, Unstudious Conclusion reaches level 10. Having raised all scientists except for one council-candidate to level 8, I decide she has earned a rest.
2274: I Know Your Destiny
To explore astral rifts instead. She is so skilled that the odds of failure are practically non-existent, but even if she should die while exploring, her fellow scholar Neon Bellevue is now also a Vibrant Storyteller. So long as I only lose one of them, the other will be able to continue the job of levelling the next batch of scientists.
I certainly could continue investigating anomalies now instead, since higher levels for Terrified Slash on the Council or Unwavering After All governing Jasmak would provide a marginal benefit, but in the circumstances I deem it more valuable to leave them for a later generation of leaders... or for when the huge amounts of stored science accumulated during the chained investigations that last years have finally been exhausted.
2275.01.02: Excellent Scientist Recruit
As if to challenge my determination, the simulation presents me with an excellent recruit just days later.
Irrepressible Legeteuse is an Alarian scientists working in the Rak-Rak Libararian dependency, a Scholarium trained investigator with a bent for bureaucracy. An ideal replacement for my final explorer scientist.
2275: A Change of Legeteuse: Welcome, Irrepressible. Goodbye, Half-hearted.
I decide not to compromise. As a planetary governor in the capital sector he most likely wouldn't provide better benefits than Keides After All's
system governor benefits until he reached level 8, and I don't have any significant research planets
outside the capital sector currently. So rather than expend many of the finite supply of anomaly investigations on helping him now, when I don't have a great use for what he could provide, I will let him work as a normal trainee for a decade or two first unless I come across several more great scientist candidates in the interim.
2275.02.05: Psionic Shield Research Begun
Three months on from discovering the basics of making ship-sized psionic shields I complete the current society tech and begin researching psionic shields.
2275: 15 months? Psionic research goes brrrrr...
2275.02.17: Megamine Rockworms
Megamine, the planet in the Soyun system I am preparing as a gift for Wholesale Redemption, just got better courtesy of an astral rift, from which I liberated a hive of rockworms.
2275: Rockworms are an Invasive Species
2275: Ambush in Ereba
The time has come. A few months past my gathered fleets blazed through Ithome's gate and into Ereba.
Led by Skrand Sharpbeak in the Boggwoss squadron of 110 modernized corvettes, which the simulation wildly overestimates as 75.4k fleetpower due to extreme evasion, supported by many smaller forces around 9k, and two significant frigate forces, this is a formidable force the Chosen cannot possibly defeat without the aid of fixed system defenses.
Registering the danger, the Chosen fleets withdraw to their capital system, there to make their stand.
And then... A miracle occurred. All the frigates withdrew from the system, for reasons the Chosen could only speculate about, but whatever the reason, the serious weakening of my presence in Ereba presented them with a unique opportunity for defeating the Alarian fleets in detail before the frigates I foolishly detached from the front make their return. Perhaps not a good chance, but the best they were likely to get. So they seized upon it in desperation.
2275: The Rush for Ereba
In their haste they failed to hold formation and one detachment of the fleet got ahead of the rest, but even as the fleet's command to notice of the swarms of corvettes, destroyers, and a few cruisers prepared to fight them right at the hyperlane exit, they remained ignorant of the greater threat.
2275: The Ambush
The 220 frigates of the hunter fleet, hiding in cloak even as the battle raged around them, awaiting the arrival of the main force of the Chosen.
2275: Torpedo surprise!
The Chosen inflicted serious damage to many ships before the ambush was sprung, but most of them managed to withdraw from combat. Once the main body of the Chosen fleet was committed, the hunter fleet sprang the ambush and the battle was swiftly won. The tattered remnants of the Chosen fleet escaped into hyperspace making for their capital system.
That left just the mopping up of their worlds with the assault troops already pouring in through Ithome's Gate and sending the bulk of the fleet to the Chosen's capital system to lie in wait to destroy their ravaged fleet when it finally arrived.
2276.01.01: Housekeeping on Conquered Worlds
The Chosen had three space habitats in Ithome's Gate and three gaia worlds in its capital system, Aspharelle, of size 18, 25, and 30. The habitats have fallen and their better defended core worlds await, but even as the Charynoi, for so the Chosen name themselves, are rounded up for identification and mandatory sensitivity classes to better assimilate them, I discern an abomination on the Abundance habitat. This will sot stand.
2276: Purge the Gene Clinic! It is an Abomination unto the Composer of Strands
2276.01.08: Home After All Encased
A glorious day has arisen. Where once the world boasted forests, fields, and lakes, oceans, wide plains, and mountains, with animals roaming the wilds and natives cursing the traffic congestion, only highly specialized mass produced buildings remain, covering the surface with the occasional carefully managed park as part of the integrated ecosystem.
In the governor's palace Keides plans a vast expansion of the planet's manufacturing facilities, and throughout the planet serenity prevails as the wild animals are now alll in zoos where they belong, the natives are in their offices with convenient access to cafes and every luxury of modern civilization, and the Luminary is on her throne.
Only the simulation's land-textures need to be updated now, but that can wait.
2276: Alarians Triumphant!
2276.03.30: Rogue Scientist Redux
It would appear that the rogue scientist had managed to conceal his major efforts. The Alarians thought that with his retrieval they would have plenty of time to deal with the Briscoll problem.
They were wrong. The pre-ftl natives have with commendable speed advanced from the machine age to the early space age in a mere 5 years and have just blow up the observation post with a nuclear missile, despite its cloaking being impenetrable to them, despite the strength of its hull and armour. All hands lost. An inquiry will be held to determine how they managed this feat.
Meanwhile, the Briscoll III government, the Czymian Society, demands their holy saviour returned.
2276: Always gimme, gimme, gimme
The cat is well and truly out of the bag, so what do I do?
They are a pre-ftl – even if they demand I give up the system, there is not much I can do if I refuse. But I am working with the mostly peaceful Alarians, and running roughshod over a lesser species might not – if we depart the classroom and assume this a real setting – sit well with them. Even if I could convince the First Ascendant of the necessity, if this really something to make an issue of?
The rogue scientist has been debriefed and is currently in therapy. Returning him would in a certain sense be exiling him, much to his pleasure and, possibly, the natives of Briscoll III, and given even a small amount of goodwill gained from our magnanimous gesture, now that we are in communications our competent diplomatic corps can surely leverage that to our long-term advantage. They should have no problem talking around the ramblings of the rogue scientist now we have his full updated psychological profile on hand.
2276: Sure, We'll Leave You Alone
2276: Soonest Done
2276: Soonest Mended
He really should have emphasized the Luminary's uncanny ability of turning foes into friends wishing to be subjugated rather than painting Alarians as demons to be avoided, if he had wanted his mad little experiment to stand a chance.
2276.07.21: Glimpses of the Abyss
In more worrying news than the drama playing out on Briscoll III, the horrific inverse mass on Lastus Prime has destabilized. This warrants further investigation.
2276: Stop screaming!
2277.01.22: Tragedy!
Unusual After All, the Second Ascendant, lies dead, having fallen out of a 4th floor window at night, landing in a swimming pool that was unfortunately drained as part of its conversion into an open-air tennis court, just prior to it being filled with cement in the morning.
The coroner is unwilling to commit himself to either falling damage, smashing, drowning, or suffocation in cement as the cause of death, but he is pretty sure that what they finally managed to excavate from the cement block was alive when it hit the floor of the pool based on a surveillance recording of his scream during the fall.
2276: His End was also Unusual After All
Everything points to natural causes, but the First Ascendant is blinded by her grief and gradually convinces herself despite the lack of evidence that this is murder most foul.
As weeks pass with neither accident nor murder proven, she orders her second child and heir to return to the capital to head up a task force dedicated to hunting down the killers.
While Unusual After All was well liked by the public, his sister is rather less so. Frightfully intelligent and one of the growing number of Alarians who have managed to adopt and be adopted by a brain slug, with a pale beauty that is the very image of her mother in her youth, her temperament could not be more different.
A precocious child turned tyrannical adult, she has pursued a career in the military where her acid barbs and tendency to treat opponents as enemies to be crushed is, if not welcome, then more tolerated than in society as a whole.
But for the task of hunting down the murderers of her brother none could be better suited. Her adult name was well chosen, and no obstacle will bar her way, for she is, and always will be,
Unstoppable After All.
2276: Meet Unstoppable After All
2277.03.21: Negotiations with Reformists
Unfortunately the hunt stirs the still warm ashes of discontent, threatening to reignite the reformist cause, and that is a distraction the First Ascendant cannot afford during this critical period.
Blinded with grief she may be, but always a political animal and wise beyond measure. With every emotion urging her to crush the reformist cause once and for all, every stray thought insisting that the reformists are beyond the murder of her son, she will still not act against the law.
Because unless she finds evidence that they are linked, she will treat the murder and reformist agitation as separate problems. The second perhaps inflamed by the necessary ruthlessness of the hunt for his murderer, but nevertheless a problem of its own.
Yes, yes... She's a simulated person, but were she real, she would be like that. Such people are few and far between, but they exist, and they are scary in their righteousness.
2277: So, let's talk about constitutional guarantees
2277.10.04: The Chosen Unchosen
The final bastion of the Chosen, their homeworld Scion, a size 30 gaia world, falls, and the Chosen are no more.
2277: End of the Chosen
The Charynoi as in an existential crisis, wondering both how the Chosen people could be conquered and why they have not been killed, having serious problems understanding the concept of peaceful coexistence with anybody else, but that is as nothing to the shock of being split up in groups of 6 or 12 POPs, transported to different worlds, and then being put into therapy for assimilation.
On more than thirty different worlds, bewildered Charynoi ask themselves the fundamental question,
”what did I do to deserve this?”
The one extremely distant system to the galactic south-west that is part of the Chosen cluster is only accessible by jump drive. I've got that, so I could go visit, but I know it can be very expensive to build an outpost in isolated systems so I am leaving it alone for now.
2277.11.01: Curious Mechanism Extracted from Rift
That will prove handy.
2277: The Continuum
2278.01.01: Custodian of the Galactic Community
About time. I can now hurry up the galactic council, using emergency measures every now and then to save up to 720 days of downtime when the council is not in session due to being on the council, and ending every session 720 days early should I so desire. This means that the turnaround time of 6 years between each completed resolution is reduced to 4 years in general and 2 years when I can order a proposal passed as an emergency measure.
Assuming I have enough influence, that is.
2278: United After All Proclaimed Custodian
2278.02.20: Disabling the Dreadnought
Returning from the Chosen War, the hunter fleet disables the Automated Dreadnought. It is planned to repair it some time as a trophy ship, but there's no hurry. Why is there no hurry? I am not at war and don't need the fleet power inflating numbers.
2278: Eat Hot Torpedoes
Moreover, and this is a long shot, there is a chance of gaining access to PSI jump drives during shroud visits, and if I repair the Dreadnought after that it will be fitted with them, whereas if I repair it without that tech it will always be limited to a normal jump drive even if I later gain psi jump drives. This is truly a minor concern since I intend the Dreadnought mostly as a trophy ship rather than a combatant, but even so.
2278.06.01: Rubricator encased
Yet another great day for United After All as the once-rat-invested warren is paved over.
2278: Rubricator Restored to Ancient Glory
2278.08.04: Negotiations Conclude
More than a year has passed, Unstoppable After All has found no evidence of murder, and Undaunted After All has had time to grieve.
With regards to the reformist issue, reformist demands have proven to be mild. During negotiations they presented their demands before even listening to the official statement, defying the Luminary to oppose them, and she surprised them by accepting since she found their demands just – and less than she had been willing to concede.
2278: At a Crossroads
In the end a deteriorating situation that could have spilled over into civil war was avoided by reasonable behaviour on both parts. Most reformists remained loyal to the Luminary and were satisfied with the fundament of her rule if not all the details, and they trusted her word during the negotiations on the basis of the compromise of 2271.
The outcome of the crisis is that the government is strengthened, the workers have slightly more political power, and that most people are happier with the way the empire works.
Surprising, isn't it? Now, it must be said that had I
not showed restraint in 2271 or had the empire been oppressive, the outcome of negotiations like these conducted from a position of weakness would have been rather different. In those cases it would have been better NOT to engage in negotiations on their terms but to enact a total crackdown, arresting all the reformist leaders, and THEN negotiating with them from a position of strength.
But since United After All is a pleasant place to live and the Luminary has proven herself reasonable and worthy of their devotion, time and time again over the last eight decades, the reasonable approach was also the wise one and much bloodshed and division dangerous to the long term stability of the empire was avoided.
2279.02.27: Who Watches the Watchers?
The pre-ftl natives of the Dacha system have contacted our observation post!
2279: Hello, Said the Habinte
2279: Habinte Hyperlane Distribution Network
2279.12.27: The Mad Matriarch
While the Tithyanki space cows are generally peaceful unless threatened, an especially large one discovered in the galactic south-west is not. Skrand Sharpbeak, who feels a need for action to make up for being stuck in stasis for millennia, has been ordered to bring an end to this ancient menace.
2279: Approaching the Matriarch
2280.01.01: Threshold to the Void
There is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that our efforts at containing the destabilized horrific inverse mass on Lastus Prime have failed, and that it is time to jettison it before everything goes to hell in a handbasket. The prices for off-planet transportation increase by the day, but the priest-administrators are confident they can still win this one.
2280: Too Late?
2280.01.01: Custodian Powers Engaged
720 days since the council began voting on the Administrative Insights resolution means...
2280: Democracy in Action
...that it is time to pass it by Custodian fiat, 78231 to 1907 diplomatic weight, at the bargain price of 190 influence, and to propose Greater than Ourselves for 200 influence.
It has been an expensive decade handling the Galactic Community, but worth it as my own priorities start to dominate.
Year 2280, the Fruits of Diplomacy
2280: Vassals Economy is doing great
The biggest economical change since 2270 is that science output has increased by about 40%, alloy output by 60%, and unity output has doubled to an impressive 14634 unity/mth. Diplomatic Networking is now a mere 0.5% of the unity output and pretty much irrelevant, while research stations are still hanging in there making up 4.1% society, 5.7% physics, and 6.4% engineering.
2280: The Czymian's of Briscoll III already love us
2280: 342 months to level 5
No problems here. Both domestic and foreign policy are doing their part.
Year 2280, Planetary Development
The greatest changes here are to the two ecumenopolises, Home After All and Rubricator, and three under construction, Jasmak Prime (832 days), Efoll Prime (2453 days), and Fen Habbanis (3593 days, started only 7 days before this save-point.)
2280: Home After All is always building arcologies
I have been currently running Home After All with a factory capital designation for some time to stabilize consumer goods while building ecclesiastical arcologies, but most of the time I run it with the empire capital designation that helps all jobs, and that is also the long term plan. It is supported by an orbital ring improving consumer goods and unity production.
2280: Rubricator ditto
Rubricator is also producing ecclesiastical arcologies, but will switch to foundry arcologies in a few years. It is supported by an orbital ring improving alloys and unity production.
2280: Scion: The Word for World is City
Another planet of interest is the Chosen's capital,
Scion, a size 30 gaia world with lots of city and industrial districts I am planning to pave over and make into an ecumenopolis.
Year 2280, State of the Empire
2280: First Ascendant and Empire
2280: Traditions are done, and no changes to ascendancy perks since 2270
2280: I am FINALLY researching mega-engineering
2280: Last Researched Technologies shows a military bent
2280: Edicts, unity ambitions, and policies, oh my
2280: Council, Arms Open. At Tanagra
The Research Ratio
Ratio_particles = 4938*(1+183%)/(1+146%) = 5681
Ratio_militarytheory = 4932*(1+163%)/(1+146%) = 5273
Ratio_voidcraft = 2506*(1+160%)/(1+146%) = 2649
Comparing to the 2270 ratios of 4004, 3396, and 2007, physics has seen an increase of 41.9%, society by 55.2%, and engineering 32.0%, primarily through pop-growth and the addition of the Charynoi population, but the exhibiting of museum artefacts increasing the output of all priests on my highly populated worlds is a smaller but still significant factor.
The 2280Save File
Can be downloaded from
this Dropbox link for those who want to look at the situation or play around from this point.
Note that it required 3.11.3 to play. Now that 3.12 has been released, you will have to set Stellaris to use the 3.11.3 branch to do so.
---
Author's note:
I performed a bit of save-file editing for the heir, Unstoppable After All. Stellaris thought is was a great idea for her to be a fiery redhead admiral with few looks in common with her blonde mother and a questionable dress sense. I disagreed.
2280: No. Just no. She is only arguably in uniform.
You can do it for any leader in the game following this procedure.
- Open the .sav main savefile within the save's compressed archive in a text editor (I recommend Notepad++ if you are on Windows)
- Find the leader whose portrait you want to change in the file
- Within the leader's data block, insert a design block referring to the species art files, setting portrait, texture, attachment, and clothes to the variant you want
- Save the file within the archive
I used the portrait picker for rulers in empire-creation from main menu to find the portrait I wanted, which was the 10th female admiral picture in the militarium Stellar Legions set, which means it has texture 9. (Since the first has texture 0).
As this portrait pack doesn't use attachments or clothes but only whole textures, the attachment and clothes variables must be set to 0.
Then I checked the portrait nomenclature for another of my militarium admiral leaders in the save game to see how an admiral leader was referenced, and based on that I added the following to Unstoppable's data block.
Code:
design={
portrait="sl_militarium_admiral_female_01"
texture=9
attachment=0
clothes=0
}
And that's it. From that day forward she became, if not the spitting image of her mother, at least somebody who could credibly be believed to be a descendant. And better dressed.
