This is the mod I was looking for, to be a real universe shaper empire, this is great, thank so much for this mod

@tzverg Thank you very much, this is now included with the update just bumped.

l_russian

counterpoint?
i can now build the augur?
very weird, but i'll take it XD

Just loaded up my game to check, and im currently unable to build the Augur as a meatship user
though ofc, my metalship friend in the same game can still build theirs

Provisionally I think Biological Shipset empires can build the Augur now, albeit at a pure alloy cost for the hull because I am not breaking backwards compatibility on something I can't check myself right now. If somebody with the DLC can check and report back I'd appreciate it.

I did go back and make sure adding the toggle didn't break building the ship in old Stellaris, so for the moment we remain backwards compatible AND able to let the meatship people build Augurs.

@Daltem I was afraid that might turn up as an issue but wasn't sure. Sigh.

I don't have BioGenesis yet so it'll take a bit for me to figure out what I'm supposed to do here (i.e. I'll need to trawl through the files and see how Science/Construction Ships get handled in that system since any exceptions for them are what I'll want to emulate).

If you choose the Biological Shipset, you cant build the Augur, as presumably there isn't a Biological Augur

Please help, i didn't realise this until a Purifier was on my doorstop, and i cant cut them off XD

Version bumped since all appears to be in order. The event window is popping up when the Augur fires but that may just be base game default settings since Paradox has been poking at that stuff.

As Inny has justifiably stepped down from updating The Merger of Rules, I have removed the bit about it from the description. Everybody should be eternally grateful to Inny for having maintained so much for so long and it's going to be interesting seeing if people step up or at least take compatibility stuff into our own hands. For my part this adds "compatibility toggle option" to the list of things for the eventual initial configuration menu this mod will get when I'm energetic enough to implement it.

Everything appears to still be in order in 4.0, although I am poking at one thing before I'll officially bump the compatibility number.

this is definitely my favorite mod. i love trolling the AI

Is it possible to remove wormholes with this mod?

@Ahveka Taqe They don't. On top of it potentially being that kind of resource nightmare, I have zero inclination to learn enough to make it work.

The reason the "Nevermind" button is on top of windows is to make it the default choice so just in case it somehow manages to fire it (which could happen if, say, someone is using the play command to swap while it's firing), it'll still pick to do nothing about it. The AI are straight up told to never bother researching the unlock techs (big huge 0 weight for AI priority), and if they still get their hands on one they just fly it around like it's another military ship.

Quick question... Do ai empires know how to use this? They keep spamming Sentry Arrays (a mod I have installed allows this) when you only need one. My buddy is on the fence about us playing with this mod because he doesn't want ai to litter the galaxy with way too many hyperlanes.

@Willem @Vauthil oh. this explains a lot, i'm a bit dumb. Thanks for the kind and patient responses, love the mod btw!

Oh my goodness ... it didn't warn me and I feel like I'm totally blind! Yep, I'm missing the DLC, so I'll go ahead and pick it up. Thank you!

@Namid Do you have the Apocalypse DLC and have it enabled? This mod requires it because it uses Colossus ship code and will not let you research or build anything without it. That's the only conceivable thing that should be blocking console-learning the technology (and the Workshop should have a purple bar above the Subscribe button warning you it needs DLC and show it on the right side if you don't have it because of that). Otherwise, the download's just outright borked and you may need to verify the game files through Steam.

So, I tried to force the research and it just keeps saying it cannot be researched - both with the command you gave me and the debug menu. This mod is at the bottom of my load order, only with "Overflow Prevention", "Real Space Triggers Compatibility Patch", "! Better Performance & Utilities", "!BERG - Building Merger", "!!!Universal Resource Patch [2.4+]", "!!Universal Modifier Patch (3.14.*)", and "! The Merger of Rules 3.14" below it (the list is in order).

Any ideas?

Edit: I put the mod at the bottom of my mod list, but still having the same issue.

@Namid If you console (`) it and do "research_technology tech_htm_01" you should get the initial technology and be able to build the Augur immediately.

Getting it to show up naturally is boosted in a lot of ways. Firstly, the initial tech shows up 2x as often after 2230, and gets additional 2x boosts at 2240 and 2250. There's an additional 2x boost if anybody in your council has Particle Expertise, Field Manipulation Expertise, Spark of Genius, Hyper Focus, or is a Curator. Even though it isn't technically rare it also gets the boost from Tech Ascendancy, and also has a 1.5x boost if you've finished Discovery. A Scholarium also gets a 1.5x boost.

And finally, it's a Tier 4 tech, so (unless you have a mod changing the science tier requirement) you need to have researched 5 other Tier 3 techs besides Subspace Sensors before it'll ever show up.

Sorry to pop in again... hi~ So, I've had Subspace Sensors for a WHILE now and haven't come across any of the techs. Is there a way to somehow double check they are there, but I'm just super unlucky?

@Frantastic Yeah, as Willem noted, the Augur is like a science or construction ship and isn't able to be designed. It will automatically field-upgrade its components as you advance technologies like those as well, although it may periodically and temporarily show the upgrade icon but not let you do it since those upgrades appear to happen on the yearly tick.

The Augur's a specialist vessel that doesn't really benefit from micromanaging its loadout. It has no aux slots for any of that functionality, its valid reactors are limited to two versions that are still only 1/3rd what a Colossus weapon needs, and the niche of letting people go all-armor or all-shields (the only real choice you can make if it were still designable) isn't worth the support burden of people somehow dislodging the W slot beam and thinking it's broken.

@Frantastic You cannot design the Augur, it'll get automatically upgraded as you get new components.

Hey, new issue. Techs are coming up and I'm able to build the Augur, but can't make a design for it. "Open Designer" button on the ship inspect is greyed out and uninteractable. Maybe an NSC compat issue?

I really appreciate the in-depth answer! Very much so~ You did remind me of the Maginot fields!

New systems made by the Augur can be jumped to; it would take something like the Maginot fields from Gigastructures or other jump-suppressors to stop that as the L-Cluster and Cohesive Space natively do (there's some other stuff out there, and if you take a look at the Merger of Rules which makes many of them work in concert you can see what they are).

I've contemplated making jump-sealing a system a function of the Augur but just haven't gotten around to it. Partially because the AI (outside of outliers like the Blokkats) is just really bad at ever using non-conventional drives or connection methods, so it never came up as something for me to bother implementing.

So with this mod alone as it is currently, no, you can't prevent someone jumping. That's currently outside the scope it handles.

Oh, I totally misspoke, so the misunderstanding is on my part! What I meant to say is... can you, in the new generated systems outside the galaxy, jump-drive to them? It is a vanilla tech (although late, but crisis tend to have the tech) that allows you to bypass hyperlanes altogether. The point of me asking is, wondering if I can truly isolate myself from everyone, if needed / wanted.

@Namid
I don't know if jump drives are a vanilla tech or not, I play with so many extra tech mods I've honestly forgotten what the vanilla techs are.
But if it is in or is a part of the vanilla tech tree, you should be able to look up the exact tech id code for jump drives and enter it in the console commands bar at the very beginning of your game to receive the ability to use those jump drives.
Hope this helps with your additional question.

Thank you so much for the reply! One more quick question - would you be able to start jump drives? I'm guessing not, but thought I'd ask. However, even if my goal can't be achieved in the way I imagine it - yes, this mod sounds awesome!

@Namid
Yes you can in a way, go to the edge of the your galaxy or generate a path there with the Augers & then use Augers to both create as many systems you want outside the the main galaxy's hyperlanes and then have an Auger cut of access to this new extra cluster until you want to reconnect it again.
This is one way to use the Augers in this mod, but there are plenty more ways to use them which you can find out as you experiment with it.

Just thought I'd pop in to ask (and forgive me if this is an annoying question), but I'm trying a way to generate new systems outside the galaxy and being able to control access to it. I was wondering if this mod has that potential?

So far I've "sort of" made it work with the EHOF and creating two gateways - though the only way to stop movement is to dismantle one of the gateways. I know one way is through L-Gate mods, but I'm very hesitant to get that DLC with all the bad reviews of L-Gates. I hope I explained what I'm trying to do clearly! <3

@Vauthil
Yeah, I did deactivate it and my game still crashed, thus it's other people's and their mods that are broken somewhere. So I'm just going to stop playing the game for the next week or two and allow everyone else to fix their stuff so I can play.

@Commander Ashfield Oh yes, the Unofficial Patch touches so much stuff that it's a mod that's very serious about which version of Stellaris it works with and lists it in the title. That should definitely be disabled until Ariphaos has had time to update it (a task I do not envy one bit).

@Vauthil
Found out their isn't anything wrong with your mod after you bumped the version,
The fault is with several other peoples mods going haywire.

@Vauthil
After I paired up all the UI Mods I have working together and just going through the process of elimination.
I found that the mod: ~~Ariphaos Unofficial Patch (3.13) (That's been constantly updated to this point)
Is the cause of my crashes while using all my selected mods (Your mod included) together.

I've just uploaded a version with a backwards-compatible (back to 3.8.1, yes) change to component templates that may ease a problem with ship templates causing CTD at the start screen that's arisen in 3.14.1. If anybody has crashes with this mod and only this mod at startup after updating, please let me know.

@Commander Ashfield

THAT is bizarre if the only change was refreshing it. It's literally been the same exact everything for over a year, the only thing that changed when I version bumped is the header the launcher reads for version compatibility.

There's still one thing I'm looking to try as a backwards-compatible tweak anyway, but it's good that at least solo we are launching.

@Commander Ashfield

I do have the new DLC (only one I don't own is Astral Planes), but I did just try this with the new DLC disabled from the launcher and I could still run it all just fine. I also looked into the CTD from ship components stuff other mods are having a problem with and I shouldn't have that problem because of how I set mine up (the problem for them seems to be with components locked behind the same tech as the chassis, which isn't how mine work).

Still, thanks for confirming it's something multiple people are having an issue with so I can keep digging.

@Vauthil
After correctly playing on the mod playlist with only your mod that you version bumped, it didn't crash after hitting new game, however when I went to use your mod with my other ones it crashed upon hitting new game. So something somewhere isn't liking each other.

@Vauthil
This slipped my mind but might help you locate the error.
I don't own the new dlc but I am on the latest update and it crashes upon hitting new game.
So maybe there's a problem for those don't own the latest dlc but are on the latest update.

So to try it out will require another unsub and resub?

@Commander Ashfield That's okay, I'll look at what's changed in the ship required components (which I've seen some other mod authors mention needing to fix on theirs) and see if I can even do a placebo fix to placate the system there.

Yeah, resubbing for long-time users shouldn't really affect anything; it's been over a year since anything's changed in the guts of the mod, I've just been reuploading to bump the header version since the version uploaded for Stellaris 3.8.1 (and I was too lazy to even bother with that for 3.13.x).

I've tested this for 3.14.1 in isolation and with the usual hodgepodge of big tech mods that already updated (and even a couple that haven't yet). Starting up the game, starting a new game, learning the techs, building the ship, shooting the beam, selecting all the different functions all worked as normal.

A fun quirk of the Workshop is I have to always use my local copy, though, so I version bumped just now just in case for folks willing to try it out.

Ok, to confirm, I loaded only your mod with nothing else and it crashes when hitting new game.
Sorry I don't have any other information to assist you in finding the error causing this to happen.

I'm crashing as well after hitting new game with this mod along with other mods.
Resubscribed to the mod didn't fix anything.
I don't know about modding to help you understand what is broken on our end.
But these problems will constantly occur as long as Paradox keeps pumping out constant dlc and updates while not giving the modding community a break in between.
Also, a added note, I always start a new game after every major dlc update and it crashes after hitting new game, don't know if its directly tied to your mod, but I'm going to create a new mod playlist with just your mod and see if it happens again.

Yeah, trying this in a merge with a bunch of mods and still no crashing for me and all functions work (although the change in UI Overhaul button sizes has made the selection menu a bit less optimal than before with that loaded). I'm definitely interested in input from anybody on where this could be crashing (only lead I can think of is the changes in the required component system, but I'd think it'd be crashing for me if it were that straightforward), but it's working for me even with a veritable fiesta of other stuff in the mix.

@Wyrd1

What's crashing for you? Startup or something later?

Just checking because testing with this mod and only this mod in Circinus 3.14.1 (modified checksum 9069 -- anything else means something else is in there), I was able to load in, learn the techs, build the Augur, and perform every function on a new save without issue. So I want to pinpoint where/if something's going on on the mod's end.

I know it's pretty standard to go "well hrm unsub resub maybe something iffy" but the mod itself hasn't changed anything but version number compatibility since Oct 3, 2023 so that shouldn't do anything.

@vauthil Heads up! This seems to be breaking my Grand Archive update. Turning off all mods but this one crashes.

@ToxicCannabis did you fr just pull a "nvm fixed it" tell us what the mod was

so, first off, absolutely love the mod. its been a must have from day ONE. i haven't really had any complaints about it, feels VERY strong but it should be, perhaps the energy cost is a bit low but otherwise this is a mod that opens up SO many neat tactics and ideas. its also very stable for something like this, at least from my experience. no idea what dark god you made a pact with to achieve that but i hope the price wasn't too high lol. the only thing i would actually request is the ability to make supermassive black holes, as mods are starting to come out that play with them and it would be neat to be able to make them. anywho, hope your day is going well, and thank you for all your hard work.

Version bump, for which Steam has to download a blip so your game doesn't scream that this may stop working. This version continues to be compatible back to 3.8.1, the last time something in the game actually changed up how it works.