Team Nessassity News - December Monthly Mod Report Episode 1 - Bursting The Bubble

Welcome! To the first of many Monthly Mod Reports (or, I guess, weekly? mod reports?) slated for December! As we close out the Year of Finishing things, Princess is determined to finish her most-procrastinated project of all time (and that's an achievement because the competition is vicious!)

✧ Elves of Stellaris

So! Let's see where we are with the Lhùren rework.

 To start with, we have made a LOT of changes to Aurlùnor Velande's starting conditions. As outlined in the previously announced rework draft, the Celestial Throne Origin has been rewritten practically from scratch.

The new narrative has the Lhùren emerge from the shield-world of Lhùmar after tens of thousands years of isolation. A terrible disaster of unknown provenance has damaged the Eternal Array - the unique Orbital Ring maintaining an impenetrable barrier around the planet.
Suddenly exposed to the greater galaxy, the ancient immortals are left to decide on their next course of action amidst societal upheaval and rapid degradation of the Array.

Right off the bat, you might notice that two things have changed about the Origin:

• Lhùmar now starts with an Orbital Ring, and a shield that encompasses both. Initially, the shield will be ruined, and the Orbital Ring itself practically unusable, but as you progress through the new Origin story, you will be able to address that in three different ways.

• The previously habitable worlds of Gilgezu and Helemar are... um... no longer quite so habitable. Instead, they will offer Excavations you will need to undertake in order to learn what happened to the Empire's former holdings. And perhaps they will also offer some clues regarding the current crisis.

After investigating both of the sites, you will be offered a choice on how to proceed. I won't spoil too much here, but the choices can be condensed down to three main routes:

• Route A: Return involves embracing the change of circumstances, abandoning the idea of restoring the shield completely, and refitting the Eternal Array to serve a different purpose. Going down this route will greatly boost the economy and allow you to discard the Inward Perfection civic, freeing the Lhùren to take a proactive (and if you desire, aggressive) stance as they reclaim their place in the galaxy that has long forgotten them.

• Route B: Reincarnation revolves around addressing the Eternal Array's degradation rather than restoring its shielding module. Successfully stabilising the megastructure allows the shield to continue operating, albeit at a much reduced capacity. Opting for this route mostly benefits Lhùmar itself, shoring up its defences against all external threats (including cosmic storms, espionage and preposterous ideas like "democracy").

• Route C: Retreat wasn't originally supposed to be an option... but... we know there are some amongst you who love a challenge, so this one may be for you! Completely repairing the Eternal Array and restoring the shield to its full impenetrable glory will carry the logical consequence of... once more cutting off Lhùmar from the rest of the galaxy. Whoever remains outside of the shield will be able to continue the game, but the planet, the Orbital Ring and all pops on it will no longer be playable. However, to make up for it, all remaining Lhùren in the galaxy will be able to enjoy an even stronger blessing of immortality, content that their side of the Pact will continue to be upheld for the foreseeable eternity.

And for now, this is it! Nessa is still working on the new shield graphics (when finished, we will have different VFX to portray the barrier's state) and the actual event text isn't written yet, but at least all the important parts are implemented and functional! Over the next couple of days, I'm hoping to finish this part, write all the descriptions and, yes, also fix all the long-standing typos, punctuation and grammar issues that have been haunting Lhùren content for ages. Let's not talk about how long ago most of them were reported >.>

AHEM!

Anyways, see you next week! >o<