Proposal for Space Nomads – Expanding on Dev Diary #364

[Shootingstar]

In the previous Dev Diary (#364 - Sights Unseen), Eladrin mentioned the following:

"Playable Nomads – Finding different ways of playing the game can be popular. Landless adventuring in Crusader Kings III, for example, makes me wonder what we could do with nomadic fleets in Stellaris. The key questions there end up being ‘why are they nomadic,’ and ‘how do they interact with more standard empires.’ Origins could also be opportunities to ‘table flip’ the normal economic or political models of Stellaris."

It’s great to see the Stellaris team already considering the concept of Space Nomads. Based on the ideas discussed in the Dev Diary, I’d like to offer a few suggestions.

1. Why Are They Nomadic?​

A civilization that doesn’t settle on planets is easy to imagine—they could originate from generation ships or have abandoned their homeworld for various reasons. While the why can be left to the player's headcanon, the more pressing question is: "Why don’t they settle?"

They could settle on exoplanets (Doomsday origin) or build habitats in resource-rich systems (Void Dwellers origin), but there needs to be a clear gameplay motivation for staying nomadic.

First Idea – Traditional Resource Scarcity Nomadism
Similar to Earth’s historical nomads, their civilization might be unable to exploit planetary or orbital resources efficiently in the long term. For example, a mechanic could be implemented where space stations gradually lose efficiency (up to -75% output) if the fleet remains in one system for too long.

Second Idea – Spiritual/Ideological Nomadism
Their civilization might revere nomadism as a spiritual, ideological or cultural tenet. Staying too long in one system could cause penalties (e.g., reduced happiness, stability, or resource output).

2. How Do They Interact with Standard Empires?​

Many existing Space Nomad mods struggle with implementing mobile, pop-sustaining structures, often relying on pseudo-pop systems. The first step would be developing a "Yurt system" (like in Crusader Kings III), whether as a single massive Ark Ship or a migratory fleet.

Key features of CK3’s nomadism:

• Their Economy is based on herds (rather than land holdings), allowing them to abandon territory without major consequences.
• Yurts require land to settle, but nomads can freely move to unoccupied land. If they want to settle in claimed territory, they must submit as subjects or invade.

Applying this to Stellaris:

• The Ark Ship must dock in a star system to function (conceptually, it draws energy from the star). While mobile, it suffers economic penalties or halted growth but can escape threats or use Emergency FTL.
• Nomads should have a "low-output but efficient" economy—lower production but also lower upkeep.
• When docked, the Ark Ship produces resources and harvests orbital deposits but cannot colonize planets. If system output declines (due to the proposed mechanic), the fleet must move on.
• Moving the Ark Ship requires a 1-month decision before departure.
• Nomads should require a special Ascension Perk to settle on planets permanently.

Interactions with Standard Empires:
If a nomad fleet occupies a system with planets after a war, possible resolutions could include:

• Forcing them into tributary/vassal status.
• Allowing them to "abduct" the population and leave.
• Creating a "pre-FTL" vassal that pays tribute.

A docked Ark Ship could be captured normally as a special habitat ("Deactivated Ark").
A destroyed fleeing Ark Ship could also become a "Deactivated Ark".
These Deactivated Arks can only be reactivated by a nomad empire.

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This proposal keeps nomads distinct from settled empires while ensuring engaging gameplay. Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

[one bacteria]

That sounds great! I've been looking forward to this feature for a long time. I really hope that people can move between planets and fleets, and that fleets can carry armies, and that armies can board ships or space stations to seize control.I have played many nomadic mods. I still hope there can be an official version. For effects like efficiency decay, it would be best if the modders could freely modify them. Try not to have something like the generation of cosmic storms be locked in the underlying code and thus difficult to use.