Inside your main mod folder, create 4 folders. Name them "common", "gfx", "interface" and "localisation" (s, not z). Your mod files should look like this



Now to create the Origin itself. Inside the "common" folder, create the "governments" folder, and the "civics" folder inside of that.



Then, inside of the "civics" folder, open up your text editor of choice and create a .txt file. Name it whatever you want, the game will read it anyway.

Inside of it:

Footnote: last bit is outdated - to make a civic or origin completely unusuable by the AI, use `ai_playable = { always = no }` in place of the random weight.

Most of the code is the same as any old Civic, but as for the parts that are important:



You can kind of guess what these do. Keep an eye on "picture", this is where you will put your GFX_event_picture later on.


Also this will be the "effects" the origin shows. More in localisation section

In the "gfx" folder, create the folders "event_pictures", and "interface".



First we want a nice looking thumbnail for the origin. Inside the "event_pictures" folder, create the "origins" folder.



Using GIMP or literally any other program that can export .dds files, create the picture for the Origin and place it in the folder. The image should be 218x114 pixels in size.
Here's one i prepared earlier:


(hot tip: shift cmd E to export a file, make sure to select .dds or change the file extension to it)

After that is all done and good, we have to declare it using a .gfx file.

In your main mod folder, go to the "interface" folder and create a .gfx file inside of it.



Inside of it:


"name" should be the same as the GFX_event_picture in the Origins file
"texturefile" should refer to the actual .dds thumbnail image.
I'm not entirely sure what "alwaystransparent = yes" does, but it seems like it's required

Feel free to add as many spriteType declares in the spriteTypes list as you need.

In the "gfx/interface" folder, create the folder "icons", then "origins" inside of that.



With your IESOC (image editing software of choice), create the icon for the Origin. It should be 40x40px. Here is the base Origin icon, if you like: icon_blank[i.ibb.co]
Here's the one i prepared earlier:


Then just place that .dds image inside the folder.

This file needs to be named with l_english or l_otherlanguage to the end of the file name, and it needs to be a .yml file encoded in UFT-8-BOM.

Inside of it:


(If your software is unable to transfer file encodings for whatever reason it would be a good idea to copy a locales file from stellaris and rename and edit to your desire)

Remember, this is the BARE MINIMUM for creating an Origin. You'll have to add in any parts you want the Origin to do, like a civic. To check for an origin, use "has_origin", just like you'd use "has_civic", or "has_valid_civic"

Thank u for reading. If you have any thoughts or things i may have missed, comment below