DESCRIPTION
Dynamic Research
Have you ever felt technology across the galaxy was too equal? No one rising to the top in a certain field, but lagging behind in others? Do you miss institutions from EU4? I know I do. 

This adds twelve breakthrough technologies, one for each specialization (particles, materials, biology, etc) that dramatically increase research speed in that field, along with other unique empire bonuses. They are incredibly rare, likely to originally spawn in a single empire across the course of the game. 

New Mechanics
Breakthroughs have a unique spread system, and depending on your relationship with your neighbors you are more or less likely to learn their secrets over time. The goal is that different parts of the galaxy may end up specializing in entirely different fields, with one empire far ahead in biology and society while in an opposite corner another empire is on the cutting edge in physics.

Each breakthrough is more likely to spawn under different ethics and traditions, with bonuses for specific ascension perks, and scientist skills, making it nearly impossible to spawn all of the breakthroughs yourself, and hopefully spreading different technology boosts across the galaxy. However, having a research pact with a neighbor who has a breakthrough will do far more for you than stacking all the perfect modifiers to spawn the technology yourself. Once a breakthrough appears, it will begin to spread. All neighboring empires will have dramatically increased chances of drawing that tech and friendly empires will get double the spread bonus. The Enigmatic Engineering perk however will block breakthrough spread.

Specialization
Over time, your empire will specialize depending on the technologies you choose. This happens because every breakthrough that you take in Engineering will slightly decrease your chances of drawing a breakthrough in the other fields Society and Physics, or visa versa. Hive and Machine empires ignore this specialization rule to balance out the fact that they do not have any ethics that can boost spawn chance of a specific breakthrough, and that they are less likely to have friendly neighbors to share tech with. Hives and Machines will generally have a slightly lower chance of spawning breakthroughs at the start of the game, but should catch up as other empires begin to acquire specialization maluses.

Breakthroughs do not appear in the tech pool as regular techs, instead they are added by an event that rolls your breakthrough chances when you complete any technology. A pop up with flavor text will appear when a breakthrough may be researched, giving you a chance to accept or decline that breakthrough. You can only have one breakthrough available at a time. When other empires discover breakthroughs, you will be notified and have a situation log entry that explains what the breakthrough does, what your chances of getting it are, and what you can do to improve them. There is also mapmode added that shows the number of breakthroughs each empire has.

Espionage can aid in acquiring breakthroughs known by your rivals. Having a scientist asset from a foreign empire with a breakthrough will multiply your chances of discovering it yourself.

Since the mod works by boosting research speed, you will complete the tech tree faster than in a usual game. To balance this, I usually play with the game start slider for tech/tradition cost at 1.25x or 1.5x.

Other Features

New Research Philosophy Policy. Steer your planetary research labs towards a particular field, hoping to get the breakthrough you want sooner, or perhaps, balancing out your research once you've made a few.

Compatibility

Few vanilla files were harmed in the making of this mod, so it is in theory compatible with nearly everything.

Since spread modifiers are tied heavily to ethics, leader traits, traditions, and ascension perks, any mod that adds those may change the balance of this mod. It will still work seamlessly, but breakthrough spread will likely be slower since empires and scientists will have modded traits that do not boost tech spread. 

The mod can be installed mid-save.

Translations of the mod are somewhat out of date, so currently English will display in all languages. If you would like to translate let me know and I will link and credit you below.

CHANGELOG
v7 - Released 2023-06-06
Updated for 3.8+
v6 - Released 2022-06-13
v5 - Released 2021-11-05
v4 - Released 2019-06-25
-Update for 2.3.1 -Repeatable jobs from technologies rebalanced
v3 - Released 2019-04-05
-Changed modifiers to work with 2.2.6 economic categories -Localisation fixes -Military Theory Breakthrough now gives you fancy traits
v2 - Released 2019-01-17
-Foundations wont be removed when converting to a Hive, Machine, or Ecumenopolis world. -Nanofabrication Breakthrough gives you a bonus +2 L-gate insights (if you have distant stars) -Statecraft breakthrough gives new buffs, all to diplomacy. Opinion, trade attractiveness, and a 1 time removal of all countries that rival you when you finish the event (they probably will re-rival you quickly, but you have a short window to try and get on their good side, if you want to)

REQUIREMENTS

Stellaris

Full game

FORUM LINKS