DESCRIPTION
Tired of mastering nature and thinking, all I got was two lousy districts? Well now you don't have to stop at flattening mountains and filling in the sea, you can create underground cities or even build islands in the sky. These new decisions are more expensive, but they will give you far more than just a district or two, they come with unique jobs, event chains, and planet modifiers. The goal is to flush out one of the best perks in the game with more choices, trade offs, and depth
Planet Decisions
Building a subterranean or floating city takes time. Starting a project takes upfront influence and energy, but mineral and alloy costs will be spread over the 5 years it takes to complete. Once you decree that a project will begin, an event screen allows you to choose what kind of sky island or subterranean city you have in mind. Each one offers both powerful bonuses and balancing maluses that will appear as a new planet modifier once construction is complete.
Mastery of Nature
If you have the ascension perk, Sky Islands and Subterranean cities grant an extra district each. The perk also lets you repeated the decisions for additional jobs and districts (up to 9), for higher costs and diminishing returns. You only get the first Subterranean and Sky modifiers per planet however. The vanilla Mastery of Nature decision now grants +10% habitability instead of districts, since you can get plenty from the mod.
Subterranean cities grant 1-3 districts based on larger planet sizes, with breakpoints at size 16, 20, and 24.They are slightly cheaper, but provide less jobs/pop. It is unlocked either by the ascension perk, or Mineral Isolation (Mining tech 3.) Sky Islands grant 1-3 districts based on smaller planet sizes with breakpoints at size 20, 16, and 12. (In lore this is due to lower gravity on smaller planets, but it is also a game balance mechanic) Sky Islands are unlocked by Anti-Gravity Engineering (Housing Tech 2) or the Mastery of Nature ascension perk.
Each decision has its own background and lore, and can trigger follow up event chains that may add additional bonuses or risks. The Subterranean Foundry event chain is the most extensive, with several possible outcomes. It is essentially a backend nerf to the over powered alloys modifier, so don’t worry if that seems too good to be true. It is. This is Fine.
Compatibility
Few vanilla files were harmed in the making of this mod. In theory that means it is compatible with everything. It may be installed mid save, the decisions will appear if you meet the requirements. If you have already taken Mastery of Nature the effect will change, but you will not loose any districts already built. Overwrites mastery_of_nature static modifier and event mega.200 (Lets you keep modifiers after an Ecumenopolis) If any mod uses clear_deposits, it will temporarily remove the District/Job deposits, but they should be restored within a month or so. If its feeling frisky, sometimes the AI might use these decisions itself.
Built in compatibility with Ecology Mod New jobs will produce pollution if enabled.
If you have Mastery of Districts you will not be able to build Sky Islands on planets that already have Low Orbit Urbanisation or Subterranean Cities if they already have Subterranean Urbanisation.
Future Plans
More event chains! Research labs have some events written that tie in to Technology Ascendant that I need to finish up. A new event chain for the refinery that may tie more in to Ecology mod. The Sky Estate also has an event chain in the works, but I’ve delayed posting this long enough, so those will come in time. Balance and feedback as always.
REQUIREMENTS
Stellaris
Full game
FORUM LINKS