Hey, I think you should have an ability to load the text files of galaxies, cause I have a map I'd like to rework on that's from a month ago and broke when I tried changing it manually from the text file.

It would be fun to actually have to go Stealth. This mod is so simple to use and fun, you can make all sorts of interesting things. I could totally see a sort of maze-galaxy in my future which would be pretty funny. You did a great job!

Maybe you can sneak around the edge of the system? Or use stealth ships? Good luck
I leaning against ever including manual system placement in Paint a Galaxy, cause it could get a bit complicated/unintuitive on my end since the website has no way of knowing which DLCs and mods you're using, but at the very least I intend to write a guide for manually editing things like that. It's a pretty good "baby's first mod" project. (I want to clarify those maybe issues first.)

Again, if you or anyone else wants to try it out, reach out on Discord and I'll help walk you through the changes. No modding experience required. It'll help me figure out what to include in the eventual guide. One could even argue, the stupider you are, the better so I can make sure the guide is robust

Haha, I'm stupid as hell so I won't even try. But thanks. I'll just consider it a bonus challenge having to fight off a leviathan early on. Just figured I'd ask here.

Yep, what Shoarmadad said. The part I'm unsure about is if there's any special consideration with the order of systems in the static galaxy (eg could a system with no specified initializer be created first randomly using that dimensional horror initializer, and if so, what happens to the later system that did specify that same initializer). If anyone has experience with this, please share :)

@Terran you can do that by editing system initializers in the setup scenario file. It requires basic modding knowledge and a bit of your own time.

Fair. Well, thanks anyways. I'll just figure out a way to go around it. No worries. Cheers!

@Terran nothing built in, no. It's likely possible with manual editing, but I haven't tested and static maps can be finicky. If manual editing doesn't sound too scary, reach out on Discord and I can I'll offer guidance in exchange for you sharing the results :)

@Shoarmadad the app already saves your map. If you close the tab or window and reopen, it should still be there. If it's not, then it seems your browser is configured to aggressively "clean up" website data. Reach out on Discord and I can help figure that out

With the planned changes I mentioned, it will be possible to save several maps.

I really, REALLY like this mod. Super awesome, thank you so much. But is there any way to choose where Leviathans will spawn? I made a map featuring a lot of choke points and little self contained galaxies, only to learn that the Dimensional Horror spawned on my only exit/entrance, completely trapping me haha

The usecase would be that it would be possible to "work" on a galaxy for longer than you can realistically keep a tab open. But I don't precisely know how the program works, so thanks for the answer :)

@Shoarmadad short answer no. Galaxy txt files can do basically anything, but Paint a Galaxy cannot, so information would be lost during the import. In theory, I could import a txt file that was created with Paint a Galaxy, but that's still quite a bit of work. What's your usecase?

I'll note that I plan to add a concept of "projects" to Paint a Galaxy, so you can have multiple saved maps in the app instead of only 1. That should handle some of the situations people want to import.

Hey, I don't know if this was asked before already, but I'll ask it anyway. Would it be possible to import a galaxy text file into the editor?

@Natsu_Zirok one wornhole per system is a restriction from the Stellaris, not from Paint a Galaxy
I probably won't add a new gateway network. That's too much work for a feature most people won't use. At some point I'll write a guide for manually editing your txt file for advanced customization/integration.

True, the total counts.
It would also be nice to make it so that several wormholes lead to one system (Or make a separate mod with integration into PaG? Hmm), like L-Gates

@Natsu_Zirok as for you feature requests:
Symmetry tools are planned :)
"And add the meter of current stars, spawn points, nebulas, wormholes." can you elaborate what you mean? You just want to see the total counts?

@Natsu_Zirok that's my bad... should be fixed now for new downloads
You can redownload your map, or if you want to fix your already downloaded map, search for all instances of the text (without the quotes):

"} random_empire_init"

and replace it with (without the quotes):

"} initializer = random_empire_init"

I am sitting now and do not understand what is wrong.
It seems that the last update has broken Spawns and Preferred Spawns.
I just don't throw me in Preferred Spawn, and bots - to other points ...
And once my capital was in the same system as the drones with the strength of the fleet 2k
For the sake of interest, I checked whether the problem is in my mods - no, not in them.

Errors in log:
"Unexpected token: =, near line: 440" in file: "map/setup_scenarios/galaxy.txt" near line: 440
"Unexpected token: random_empire_init_01, near line: 440" in file: "map/setup_scenarios/galaxy.txt" near line: 440


Well, the request is to add a mirror for generating/adding stars and hyperlinia symmetrically
And add the meter of current stars, spawn points, nebulas, wormholes.
Please

thanks for the awesome mod!

Updated with fixes for most of the known bugs!
- Guaranteed habitable worlds now spawn
- Ratling event chain now fully spawns
- Advanced AI starts now spawn
- You can no longer start right next to special / hostile systems (requires new map download from web app)
- Duplicate materialist FEs no longer spawn (and hivemind FE can now spawn)
- Marauders now spawn with all 3 systems instead of just 1
- Precursor event chains now work

@Xin I have a to-do to investigate the underlying behavior more thoroughly. Potentially, I can change that so the max AI spawns equals the number of spawn points minus 1 (reserve one for the player). More research needed, so not putting anything in the description or discussion yet

I'd kiss you rn If I could. Thank you so much. I'd appreciate adding this to the mod description or as a discussion for new people

@Xin alternative, open up the txt file in a text editor. Near the top, you'll see a line:

num_empires = { min = 0 max = 27 } #limits player customization; AI empires don't account for all spawns, so we need to set the max lower than the number of spawn points

Edit the "27" in that line to "41". For a single player game, I think there's still enough of a "buffer" there.

@Xin the max number of AI empires determined by the number of spawn points on the map, but it will always be less (2/3). This is a work around for some bugs in static galaxies (empires that aren't counted as AI empires use those spawn points too, and there will be bugs if it runs out of spawn points to use).

If you want 35 AI empires, you need at least 53 spawn points. If you're just using the randomly generated spawn points, you need about 1800 stars for that, but you can use a smaller map if you manually add spawn points.

Hey! Love this, but just a little curiosity: How many amount of Stars do I need to spawn 35+ pre-made custom empires? I've made a custom map with 900 aprox stars, with 41 spawn slots. But in-game, I can only submit 27 empires max. Any way to know how many stars do I need to increase the maximum capacity?

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2475935823&searchtext=Star+Wars+Galaxy Here is the mod. It basically tries to recreate the star was galaxy map down to the details with the hyperspace lanes. I'm actually doing a personal project on trying to update it by either doing it myself or commissioning someone. This mod here could allow me to at least make something close.

I'm not familiar with that mod, but if I understand, then yes that's possible. There's no restriction on the length of manually placed hyperlanes

Ok thank you, So would it be possible to make something like the star wars galaxy with those large trade lanes like that Star Wars Galaxy 2 mod. I or maybe someone else could try to remake it.

@tredavidson yep, as Captain Bart said, that's already supported. Click on the map when you're in the stars or hyperlane step. It's theoretically possible to make the whole map by hand that way, but I would recommend automatically generating then manually tweaking the results

@tredavidson77 Look at tooltip under the hyperlanes.

Hey will tools be added to allow us to place stars and draw hyperlanes ourselves instead of having them autogenerated?

The source code is available here, but you'd need to build it yourself. There is not currently a pre-built download available.
https://github.com/oatmealproblem/paint-a-galaxy

Can it download this program for drawing and generating galaxys? In case it stops working on Github?

The web app now supports both random and custom nebulas.

Nebulas in Stellaris are all defined as circles, but you can fake non-circular nebulas by drawing multiple overlapping circles. The app detects this, and "hides" the name for all but the biggest nebula in each "group"

A few small updates:
- You can now set the name of the map before you download the txt file. This will make it easier to have mutliple painted galaxies
- I changed the instructions so you no longer need to create your own mod; instead you copy files into this mod's folder
- I moved the create your own mod instructions to a pinned discussion, and expanded them to include uploading to the workshop and making your mod public

You can now upload images in app. This lets, for example, use your favorite image editor to draw the shape of the galaxy, then use Paint a Galaxy to generate the stars, hyperlanes, and txt file. Or you can upload an image you download (eg an image of the milky way).

i already msg at you at the chat haha. dont worry also tahnks for adding it to the painted galaxy list.

@Akashugo please reach out in Steam chat (I accepted your friend request) or Discord, and I can try to help figure out what's going on. I'll also try to create a big galaxy myself this weekend

(wish i could edit comments) i mean: my modpack has a mod for more star names*

my modpack i usually use has a mod for more stars, i already had a mod for up to 15000 star galaxies even if i only used up 5000. i tried my painted galaxy shape when it was 5000 and it didnt work there. not 2000 too.

Added to "Known Issues"

@Akashugo I confirmed, vanilla Stellaris has only 60 something black hole names and 1700ish star names, so above that you need to use a mod that adds more star names.

@Napalmburner yes, this is for 4.0. If anyone wants to make a 3.14 version, I can provide guidance.

@Akashugo Stellaris might be running out of random star names, in which case you need a mod that adds more star names. All of your suggestions are in my todo list :) Nebulas are up next. You can already set a "preferred spawn" for the player by shift-clicking in the spawns step.

@Oatmeal Problem , i wanna contact you, maybe add you, about the galaxy sizes, it seems like it doenst work with 2000 stars. I wanted get my painted galaxy at 5000 but i end up doing it at 1500

I just did my first mod thanks to you. if u wanna check it later u welcome. hehe

I'd like to request some things for the website tool.

First, slightly larger brushes so I can create galaxy-sized circles. I love doing that; in fact, I've already done it in a mod thanks to your amazing tool, but it took more time than i really wanted to do it so.

Second, a way to get "guides" as vectors, where the mouse doesn't move from the line and you can create perfect circles and other shapes using them. Maybe predefined shaped brushes too?

It could also be a fixed grid, resizable so you can just click there with the mouse and get more "perfect" shapes.

For nebulas, it would be helpful to add support for nebulas so I could draw them too, using magenta as an example.

And if I may give you another idea: a way to edit the player's spawn position. I'd love to be able to start at the center of the galaxy, not gonna lie.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this. XD

probably dumb question but:

does this require the latest patch? can't see a game version requirement anywhere

magnificent

Information noted. I already have a great many plans for the wormholes.

You can now add custom wormholes!

This should be perfect for multi-galaxy / multi-cluster scenarios. Combined with customized spawn systems, you can make a map where everyone spawns in one cluster, and another is empty until empires discover the wormhole tech to get there

Heads up, I running a poll in #oatmeal-mods in the Stellaris Modding Den (link at the bottom of the mod description) to help prioritize what I should work on next!