Thanks for the mod! It was fun while it lasted.

I really hope you change your mind and come back this :(

Fair enough (even though I do not understand why a person would keep playing if you are basically steam rolling and playing the clean up game), but I do believe that giving a stagnant modifier would slowly put you back on track with your neighbors when it comes to technology, while perhaps give you some benefits like happiness, unrest, Trade Attractvness, etc (you know just minor things). I also use Glav's mod, Enhanced AI, Core Game: Buildings, etc. in order to try to make this game a challenge lol. Like you said though: the AI is the core problem of this <.<. Anyways do keep me updated if you plan on making more mods which increase the challenge of the game! I love this and the espionage mod!

@MightNight: Personally, I wouldn't like any sort of stagnancy effect because it punishes empires that get too far ahead and this mod is intended to only help empires that are far behind. The root of the problem is the AI's decision making although snaking for chokepoints to deny enemy (mainly the AI) expansions and getting little to no punishment for it also seems to be a large problem. Hopefully, the new upcoming economy rework should also come with better expansion AI so I recommend looking into AI mods for now.

Any plans on adding some sort of stagnancy effect if you greatly outpace your allies? Honestly if it wasn't for this mod I would be bored out of my mind with this game since I play on Grand Admiral, High Aggressivness, Multiple Crisis, etc. I would love to have a competitive gameplay experience throughout the whole game and not just at the beginning and the end. Thank you for this mod and I look forward to more content :)

Excellent idea. Thanks for the mod

The mod has been "overhauled", hopefully for the better. If it was for the worse, then I will simply use the regular patched version I have as a countermeasure.

@^kxa: I'm most likely going to overhaul the conditions anyway since there are situations such as the stuff you said and maybe more (being ahead in tech but researching a lot of low-value tech comes to mind) and that I now have more modding experience. Having the cooldown at game start is still good to have regardless.

I'd suggest to start the game with at least the 12.5y cooldown.
I've just started a new game, found another empire about 5 years in and got the -costs buff for ships at year 8. In that case it's hard imbalanced and has hardly anything to do with "catching" up.
It's just abusable in this very early situation.
Also with the AI currently spaming (and not properly using) naval capacity I would either remove the factor or link it with fleetpower. I'm usualy Superior or Overwhelming in Fleetpower and Research if I reach the lategame, but still at best equal in Capacity.

Overall a great idea and I really felt the impact on my economy in the last playthrough when I got significantly ahead, cause the ship upkeep really slowed me down.

@Twinty: Yes, although they should have been dead before then. The mod is mainly for empires that are struggling but at least have some chance of coming back if they're given a little push. Regardless, I haven't touched this mod in a long while so I may make some changes to how empires are considered irrelevant now that I have more modding experience.

I didn't try the mod yet, however i see a problem here.
Wouldn't player empires crush those irrelevant neighbors as soon as they realize that they are stealing their shit?

This is definitely a mod I'll give a try. As Dabbie said, seems like a good way to also boost the AI when they fall behind, which, unlike player, they seem to have a hard time ever catching up at times. A better way than getting a forceful difficulty scaling mod which I've wanted to avoid.

It also just seems to make it more appealing playing against harder AI, so that you always have a better chance to catch up if you fall behind by being unlucky!

nice, thanks for your reaction.

@Dabbie
I can't believe I forgot to mention fallen empires. No, fallen/awakened empires are not affected by this at all. Only regular empires are.

This seems like a fun way to boost my enemies up a bit; keeping the galaxy thriving and all. However what is the effect on fallen empires? Wont they give all surrounding empires this bonus?

@Janx
Yes they do. And to clarify, negative modifiers do not stack so having a lot of "irrelevant" non-"ally" neighbors (what the heck are you doing?) will not royally screw you over.

does the ai get this event too?