Way too hard. I feel like this has all of the 'flaws' inherent to Ecumenopolis planets but few if any of the benefits, and then some hardship modifiers stacked on top.

It's definitely interesting from a role-play perspective, but as a viable start, I feel this is basically a challenge-mode origin - as opposed to an 'actual' ecumenopolis start.

Thank you for the feedback!

The intention of the origin was to have a little challenge to circumvent ecumenopolis starts being extraordinarily efficient- nyone who remembers First League before ancient relics came out- and basically just supplanting Relic World starts entirely. (I didn't want to create another shattered ring.) The primary method of getting around some of the negative aspects is to leverage the large trade value you have. Now, that's easier for megacorps than others, and I realize it sort of precludes rush builds. (Keep in mind that you still have the +20% output for being an ecumenopolis, so the max penalties are only -30%, and you are getting more research the whole time!)

While you do have a method to skip the entire event chain (typing "event exodus.skip" into the console,) which makes this very similar to shattered ring, I think to address those looking for a more straightforward "Ecumenopolis Start" I might publish a very stripped down, Shattered Ring clone. (You'd have the planet, 3 blockers for getting strategic resources, and the generator feature to pay for 1 of each district. Might add a blocker for Antigrav tech to remove either the pop growth since that would be straight OP.)

Would that be more in line with what you'd enjoy?

That definitely sounds interesting, and fair. That was probably more of what I was expecting from this.

Don't get me wrong, I 'do' like the roleplay aspect, but as a more 'sandbox' origin I would probably personally opt for the more stripped down version you're describing.

Okay, put together this little guy for everyone who would prefer their origin straight:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2052764610

Still interested in feedback on the event chain in this mod, though!

Awesome! Will give it a shot tonight.