Megastructures & Terraforming Ascended Stellaris
Megastructures & Terraforming Ascended Stellaris
Habitats should not be a late-game nicety. They should be a playstyle. MSTA is an overhaul in which Voidborn is a full-fledged alternative to planetary living, available early and with a unique progression that smoothly transitions into full-blown megastructures. Terraforming and Megastructure building into two mutually exclusive chains of Ascension Perks, creating distinct playstyles. You can either reshape planets to your will or abandon them to live in the sky, it’s your choice!
Megastructure Progression – Looking down on the planetbound
Each megastructure perk provides a 12% reduction to megastructure cost and building time, so if you can pick up all four you will truly create an empire of master engineers. The Megastructure chain is powerful, but the trade-off is that you shut yourself off from advanced terraforming.
Voidborn unlocks Habitats, only requires Destroyers and Defense Stations in terms of tech. Habitats are much cheaper and faster than in vanilla, but their buildings are expensive and initially less efficient than those on planets. They get better as you progress through the tech tree, but upgrade clicking has been reduced to a minimum thanks to a few special “output regulation” buildings.
Master Builders is the perk that unlocks the true potential of Habitats. It requires Fortress and Battleship tech, but allows you to build the highest-tier Habitat buildings and new empire uniques.
Mega-Engineering tech now appears far more often, especially for empires that emphasize space construction, and is slightly cheaper. A Megastructure strategy no longer requires you to count on luck of the draw nearly as much.
New Buildings for Habitats
Solar Power Hub A five-level habitat building which regulates the output of Solar Power Collectors, now ranging from 3-9. Advances with Power Plant tech. Upgrades your habitats to higher energy production with one click. Gains Unity from the appropriate Prosperity tradition.
Interdisciplinary Databanks Five-level habitat building, works the same way as Solar Power Hubs but for Laboratory Complexes. Your habitat labs will start out inefficient, but by upgrading this building they will match and then exceed those on planets.
Military Factory Three-level building that provides naval capacity based on spaceport tech. It’s expensive and energy-hungry and hab-focused empires will still have trouble with their actual production capacity with few spaceports.
Orbital Mineral Processor Empire Unique habitat building that gives +2 minerals to all Astro-mining Bays and +10% mineral output, allowing you to optimize one of your habitats for mineral production. Requires Master Builders.
Habitat Ecosystem Regulator Empire Unique habitat building that gives +2 food to all Agricultural Zones and +10% food output, allowing you to optimize one of your habitats for farming. Requires Master Builders.
Surprise building – A reason to build a habitat in a black hole system!
Terraforming Progression – Bend worlds to your whims
All terraforming techs beyond Terrestrial Sculpting are now gated behind ascension perks. Both perks in the terraforming chain give 10% to New Worlds research speed and a slight reduction to terraforming cost. You can’t pursue the chain if you chose Voidborn.
Mastery of Nature requires terraforming technology. It no longer gives all tile blocker techs, but it cuts tile blocker clearing cost by 50%, speeds up terraforming by 20% and unlocks Atmospheric Manipulation as a guaranteed research option.
World Shaper requires Mastery of Nature and Atmospheric Manipulation. It makes clearing tile blockers free, speeds up terraforming by another 80% and unlocks Climate Restoration and Gaia Creation as permanent research options.
Compatibility
Megastructures & Terraforming Ascended is compatible with mods that change megastructures other than habitats. Currently, it should be compatible with Utopia Expanded (to be confirmed).
Will not be compatible with anything that changes habitats, and probably not with things that overwrite vanilla ascension perks.
To-Do
Maximalist version that rebalances megastructures
Smoother transition into mega-engineering
Additional cool stuff for Terraforming
