Solaris

A Stellaris overhaul which aims to increase the game's accessibility to a wider audience, and reduce the game time to under 2 hours for more casual sessions. This mod touches almost all aspects of the game, though stays true to the core gameplay and 4X tropes.

Traditions

There are currently 7 traditions:

• Prosperity: Develop a few highly efficient high-density planets.
• Harmony: Colonise many low-maintenance worlds.
• Expansion: Increase the growth your empires borders through steady expansion.
• Unyielding: Secure galactic chokepoints and develop your borders from within.
• Discovery: Forward technological progress through anomalies and research bonuses.
• Supremacy: Form a formidable force with a small number of high-quality fleets.
• Domination: Overwhelm the enemy with a large number of cost-effective mobile fleets.

Ascension Perks

There are currently 6 ascension perks:

• Colossus Project: Unlocks the Colossus ship, which can be armed with planet-killer weapons.
• Elysium Project: Unlocks the Ringworld, a extremely high-density artificial world.
• Stellar Engine Project: Unlocks the Dyson Sphere, a powerful energy-producing structure.
• Unified Theory Project: Unlocks the Science Nexus, a powerful science-generating structure.
• World Shaper Project: Unlocks terraforming, the ability to transform planet types to improve habitability.
• Dimensional Rift Project: Unlocks wormhole travel, enabling instant travel between two systems that contain linked natural wormholes.

Warfare

Empires cannot be killed, and territory cannot be lost. You can only declare war to subjugate an empire. Do this by destroying the starbase in their capital system, or by convincing the enemy to surrender.

Subjects open borders and share 50% of their victory score with their overlord, and can no longer declare war or be declared war on.

When an empire declares war on an overlord, a subject is freed when the liberator moves their fleet into the subject's capital system. Additionally, all subjects are liberated when an overlord is subjugated themselves.

These events now trigger pop-ups for all players to emphasise the role of warfare in winning the game.

Planets

• The number of spawned planets has been reduced by half.
• Non-city districts no longer provide housing.
• Stability is greatly reduced, and either high-cost entertainment buildings or low-cost oppression buildings must be built. Ignoring stability will lead to a much higher frequency of crime events and system rebellions.

Technology

• Anomaly chances have been greatly reduced, and are only largely available through unlocking the Discovery tradition tree.
• The number of technologies has been greatly reduced, with an emphasis on only keeping meaningful technologies.

Ships

• Command limit is set to 40 and can only be increased through adopting the Domination tradition tree.
• There are only 3 ship types:
  • Corvettes: Cheap and mobile units.
  • Cruisers: General units which beat Corvettes in an even fight.
  • Battleships: Heavy and slow units, specialised in destroying starbases. Can be beaten by Corvettes in an even fight.
• There are only 3 upgradable components: lasers, armour, and jump drive.

Economy

• Rare resources have been removed.

Diplomacy

• The Galactic Community and Federations have been disabled.
• There are 11 diplomatic actions:
  • Establish Embassy
  • Offer Trade Deal
  • Open/close Borders
  • Build Spy Network
  • Declare War
  • Form Defensive Pact
  • Form Non-aggression Pact
  • Guarantee Independence
  • Form Commercial pact
  • Form Research agreement
  • Offer Migration Treaty