Obviously, The Zenith of Fallen Empires is not an all-powerful creation, neither does it intend to be nor is it possible. Please note that there are limitations with the country type change in Sandbox, and not applicable to Vanilla Mode. For veterans of the ZoFE series, these limitations will be no surprise and they are the same as they have always been, until PDX does something about supporting custom country types.



Below are known limitations of Zenith of Fallen Empires 4.0. This is what happens if you try to allow a player to play something that the game isn’t made for. This mod attempts to tie in as many existing structures as possible, but the hard-coded nature of Stellaris simply means that playing as an Ascended Empire will never be as smooth as playing as a default Empire. Working within these confines, ZoFE 4.0 nevertheless provides a ton of features which hopefully the player will find acceptable gains over potential limitations below:

• Ascended Empires cannot see themselves in Contacts list. Awakened Fallen Empires also don’t see themselves in Contacts list. This is hardcoded and nothing you can do about that.
  
  
• Ascended Empires cannot trade Favors. Again, hardcoded. Nothing I can do about that.
  
  
• Critter weapons (Space whale weapons, Cloud Lightning etc) spawn turrets on Fallen Empire ships! Don't use them!
  
  
• Species Rights are reset upon Ascension. Currently all species rights in the empire are reset to your default species right when the country type is reset, meaning you have to redo those species rights. That is hard-coded too.

Modded content that do not account for ZoFE country types or have their triggers scripted to be allowed for all playable countries will be inaccessible once the country type change occurred, so you can do a find and replace in the said mod like so:

Replace:

is_country_type = default

With:

is_playable_country = yes

And ta-da. It works.




Q) What's the difference in 4.0 Vanilla and Sandbox?

Sandbox functions the same way 3.0 does, with the country type change.

Vanilla Mode doesn't change the country type hence it's more compatible with other mods that exclusively use the default country type trigger. Vanilla Mode does not have access to certain features such as the dropping of your non-fanatic ethic, ethic related civics for AEs, some technologies, the ability to gain hedonists and fall, the AE specific wargoals, the Ascendancy Affairs Office, subject events, origins, and FE ship starts/rooms/city sets).


Q) What about the previous submods in 3.0?

They have been integrated into the main mod of 4.0, you can toggle the settings in game on game start. The exceptions are the icon submod and ZoFE megacorp.


Q) Do I need both 4.0 and sandbox if I want to play with the country type change?

Yes, you have to use both mods and sandbox must be loaded after 4.0.


Q) Why use a different country type?

A different country type is used to enable a different AI (Awakened Fallen Empire AI), and how other AI respond to you due to this special AI. It allows for new country subtitles and descriptions, allows you to ignore borders like a boss, and in general provides a greater sense of immersion and gravity of your rise.


Q) What's different with this iteration compared to 3.0?

Two modes: Vanilla and Sandbox. Vanilla does not change country type on ascension while Sandbox will. Sandbox will have access to all the features while Vanilla will have access to some. Additional mod menus have drastically increased the customization options in the game, giving greater flexibility than ever before.


Q) How do I start as a Fallen Empire?

This mod doesn't allow you to start as a Fallen Empire (yet?). It allows you to become like one, and drive their sexy ships, through playing the game.


Q) How is ZoFE balanced? What are the considerations?

ZoFE is designed to feel like the vanilla game, where possible, and seeks to add to the Fallen Empires in the game. Numbers will be based and scaled on vanilla numbers as well.


Q) Can I run this with submods from ZoFE 3.0?

Better not. It's like running Sims 3 with Sims 2 expansion packs. I won't be held responsible for bugs and issues you may encounter.


Q) What happens if I run this mod without Apocalypse or Utopia expansion packs?

Without Apocalypse, you are unable to put a Titan Lance on Fallen Titans, as T slots are restricted to Apocalypse only. You will also not be able to get the Colossus project from 'Ambitions of Power' project, despite the text saying so.

Without Utopia, you are unable to get any megastructure techs from 'Engineering Perfection', despite the text saying so.

Otherwise Ascension mechanic is unchanged and if you want to play this mod without these expansions just be aware you won't be able to access all its features. Future submods will assume you already have these two expansions packs, and won't re-list the same requirements as base mod.




event zofe_debug.1 Fires the ZoFE Debug Menu