[MOD]Mass Effect Races' Home Systems

[gerishnakov]

Hi all I've started modding in the home star systems for Mass Effect's main races.

The Asari, Salarian, Turian, Volus, and Rachni home systems have been completed so far, and the mod also includes a balanced Sol system.

As part of creating these systems, I've modded a custom planet modifier - High Pressure - for use on the Volus homewold, which I can confirm is 100% working in the game. It will spawn just like any other planet modifier with this mod enabled, even if you don't use the custom star systems. The mod includes a change to the game_event file that allows planet modifiers to spawn in starting systems, which has allowed me to include those appropriate to particular races' planets - it also incorprates the fix preventing more than one Sol system from spawning.

You can find the mod on the Workshop by clicking here

 

[gerishnakov]

The mod now includes the Turian home system!

 

[gerishnakov]

Now includes the Volus home system!

 

[poopchute]

I'm working on a similar mod, to add races and systems based on Mass Effect into Stellaris. If you are interested in working together, if you want to focus on things like planet modifiers, habitability, etc, I would work on just laying out systems. Let me know if you're interested; my mod is at: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=695493727

Otherwise, if you want to continue on your own, I recommend either adding in neighbor systems or adding in the following to the bottom of each initializer:

    neighbor_system = {
        distance = { min = 10 max = @distance }       
        initializer = "neighbor_t1"
    }
    neighbor_system = {
        distance = { min = 10 max = @distance }       
        initializer = "neighbor_t1_first_colony"
    }

This ensures the player always has two colonizable planets nearby, which can have a major effect on balance. The AI players in particular seem to get stunted quite easily if one has like 4 colonizable planets nearby and the next one beside it has none for quite some distance.

Personally, I think the planet modifiers should have a much larger effect on habitability than biome; you can have high gravity worlds that are hard to colonize for anyone but elcor, dextrose-amino-acid based life on planets that are suitable for Turians and Quarians only, etc. For the Volus, it is not just high pressure, but also their biome is ammonia based life.

 

[gerishnakov]

I'm not particularly concerned with balance to be honest. In my own games I actually play with a custom mod that prevents the scripted colonisable planets from spawning in neighbouring systems, which I find makes for more interesting gameplay.

If you're looking to do a mod adding both the races and their systems, you might want to check out the Mass Effect total conversion mods that I believe are still in the works. I only started this mod for my own use, but I thought others might want to use the systems as well.

 

[poopchute]

I'm not particularly concerned with balance to be honest. In my own games I actually play with a custom mod that prevents the scripted colonisable planets from spawning in neighbouring systems, which I find makes for more interesting gameplay.

If you're looking to do a mod adding both the races and their systems, you might want to check out the Mass Effect total conversion mods that I believe are still in the works. I only started this mod for my own use, but I thought others might want to use the systems as well.

As far as I can see, the Total Conversion type mods are going for static galaxy; the big one to recreate the timelines and events from the canon, and the other to create an alternate timeline from the Protheans. I want to continue to have the randomized galaxies, maintain the normal balance and replayability of Stellaris, but with the races and systems from Mass Effect.