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Xenology : Traits Expansion Neo - Bio Module

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Xenology aims to make every species truly unique, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are natural leaders, and others yet are born inept and dimwitted. No two alien species are alike. Many traits will even generate special leaders with more specialized bonuses (or maluses), incentivizing the violent conquest or peaceful assimilation of alien races, adding their unique characteristics to your own. Alternatively, you may choose to preserve the purity of your empire to best benefit from the traits of one or very few species. Each trait describes a unique aspect of a species biology or psychology. There is no boring, linear tier system or confusion between societal tenets and biological attributes.

With the Neo rework, positive leader traits are now always guaranteed to spawn on all relevant leaders. This greatly improves both balance and AI performance. In addition, the player won't have to hire and fire a dozen leaders in hopes of generating the one they're looking for.

XTE : Neo is modular. All current traits are for biological species only, while a synthetic module will be ready in the following weeks (as of release day).

It's also worth noting that the Neo rework no longer alters any vanilla file, for improved compatibility. Unlike previous iterations of Xenology, there are no additional trait points or picks, and no increased cost of gene-modding (though traits worth more than 3 and less than -3 still require advanced gene-modding to add or remove after game start). There will be an optional add-on re-implementing at least some of these changes in the near future.


♦ 40 New species traits (biological and lithoid)
• 24 Positive traits
• 16 Negative traits
♦ 45 New leaders
• New unique leaders each require a certain species trait
• Leader generation usually guaranteed for relevant traits
• New leader traits do not take up a slot
♦ Synthetic module coming soon!


As stated in the description, Xenology no longer alters any vanilla file, and should be compatible with any mod. That said, some other overhaul mods may or may not play well with XTE in terms of balance, but that's best left to the player's discretion.


Where can I find the full list of traits and leaders?
Since the in-game traits selection menu leaves too little space to properly list each leader's effects, a list of traits has been added in the discussion board.

Does the AI use the new traits?
Absolutely! And now that their spawns are no longer randomized, positive leaders are much less dependent on the ai_weight modifiers. However, the AI is currently forbidden from creating a species with two particular negative traits, as it may have trouble managing an empire with such severe debuffs.

Why are positive traits so expensive?
Most positive traits now generate special leaders, who grant additional bonuses. The trait creation menu doesn't give you the full picture.

Why are negative traits so punishing?
This has always been one of Xenology's most controversial design aspects, but I stand by if for a couple of reasons:

♦ Negative traits are, by the very nature of this game, easy to deal with. Poor farmers? Don't use your pops as farmers, have robots plow the fields. Weak soldiers? Who cares, you plan on doing a pacifist run. The maluses are so insignificant in comparison to researchable bonuses, and the alternatives are so numerous, that it's excessively easy to circumvent the challenges imposed by most traits. Even the AI seems to be able to manage their pops to solve such issues.
♦ Traits are more valuable with Xenology. New positive traits mean new gameplay options, and trading easily circumventable maluses for easily exploitable bonuses would make for very poor balance. There is a reason why vanilla includes few negative traits. Xenology takes a different approach, but still aims to maintain a balanced and challenging gameplay.
♦ This is the most important reason, and it involves math: negative traits will give you 1 to 4 trait points to invest in positive ones. However, they will always cost a single trait pick, and there is absolutely no way to increase the number of picks in game. This means picks are invariably more valuable than points. This is a case of increasing returns: if the negative effects of traits were linearly correlated to their reward in points, it would almost always be more advantageous to take the larger debuff for 3 or 4 trait points, since all traits cost exactly one pick.

I'm open to decreasing or increasing the effect of any trait, if there is a consensus that it is unfair or broken. That said, negative traits will always be exponentially more potent as their reward in points increases. That much will not change.

Why can't I add Xenology traits to Syncretic Proles or Nerve-Stapled species?
Many traits are either dependent on leaders to apply their full effects, or, conversely, apply their debuffs upon leaders. Enabling it for proles would open the door to all manner of exploits and balance issues. I will certainly enable the option for a few traits in the future, however.

Is Xenology balanced?
Balance is always a top priority. That said, some traits might be over or underpowered, so feel free to point out any such problems. If there's a clear consensus, I'll likely change it in the next version.

Is Xenology bug-free?
It shouldn't cause crashes or conflicts, but I've had little time to test anything. There might be a few missing icons or effects in the initial release. Just like for balance issues, I invite you to report any bugs.

Why is Xenology now modular?
Quite simply, I wanted to update quickly after returning to Stellaris modding, without compromising on quality. In addition, this makes it possible to alter vanilla files in a separate, optional module, minimizing compatibility issues.

When will the Synthetics module be released?
Anyone who knows me is aware of my track record with release dates. That said, I'm aiming for a mid-March release at the moment.

Is it achievement-compatible?
No. Unfortunately, no mod altering the gameplay in any way is achievement-compatible.

Are you going to abandon this mod again?
Haha, no. Barring some unexpected event, Xenology will always remain up to date from now on, even if it stops getting new content.


Bear in mind, I can only promise the Synthetic module for now. Many of these might come only much later, or not at all.

♦ Synthetic module
♦ Rebalance module
♦ Super-traits module
♦ French translation
♦ Other translations


♦ Dr.Bright and Peter34 for extensively testing every iteration of Xenology thus far.
♦ Dr.LucasFocus for assisting me in early testing.
♦ Icons8 [icons8.com] for their huge collection of high quality icons.

Please be sure to leave a rating, and don't forget to comment if there's something I need to improve.

Enjoy!