Technology Ascendant

Dynamic Research

Have you ever felt technology across the galaxy was too equal? No one rising to the top in a certain field, but lagging behind in others? Do you miss institutions from EU4? I know I do.

This adds thirteen breakthrough technologies, one for each specialization (particles, materials, biology, etc) that dramatically increase research speed in that field, along with other unique empire bonuses. They are incredibly rare, likely to originally spawn in a single empire across the course of the game.

This mod predates the short lived breakthrough system from the 3.11 Technology Open beta- it is considerably different both in intent and implementation.

New Mechanics

Breakthroughs have a unique spread system, and depending on your relationship with your neighbors you are more or less likely to learn their secrets over time. The goal is that different parts of the galaxy may end up specializing in entirely different fields, with one empire far ahead in biology and society while in an opposite corner another empire is on the cutting edge in physics.

Each breakthrough is more likely to spawn under different ethics and traditions, with bonuses for specific ascension perks, and scientist skills, making it nearly impossible to spawn all of the breakthroughs yourself, and hopefully spreading different technology boosts across the galaxy. However, having a research pact with a neighbor who has a breakthrough will do far more for you than stacking all the perfect modifiers to spawn the technology yourself. Once a breakthrough appears, it will begin to spread. All neighboring empires will have dramatically increased chances of drawing that tech and friendly empires will get double the spread bonus. The Enigmatic Engineering perk however will block breakthrough spread.

Specialization

Over time, your empire will specialize depending on the technologies you choose. This happens because every breakthrough that you take in Engineering will slightly decrease your chances of drawing a breakthrough in the other fields Society and Physics, or visa versa. Hive and Machine empires ignore this specialization rule to balance out the fact that they do not have any ethics that can boost spawn chance of a specific breakthrough, and that they are less likely to have friendly neighbors to share tech with. Hives and Machines will generally have a slightly lower chance of spawning breakthroughs at the start of the game, but should catch up as other empires begin to acquire specialization maluses.

Breakthroughs do not appear in the tech pool as regular techs, instead they are added by an event that rolls your breakthrough chances when you complete any technology. A pop up with flavor text will appear when a breakthrough may be researched, giving you a chance to accept or decline that breakthrough. You can only have one breakthrough available at a time. When other empires discover breakthroughs, you will be notified and have a situation log entry that explains what the breakthrough does, what your chances of getting it are, and what you can do to improve them. There is also mapmode added that shows the number of breakthroughs each empire has.

Espionage can aid in acquiring breakthroughs known by your rivals. Having a scientist asset from a foreign empire with a breakthrough will multiply your chances of discovering it yourself.

Since the mod works by boosting research speed, you will complete the tech tree faster than in a usual game. To balance this, I usually play with the game start slider for tech/tradition cost at 1.25x or 1.5x.

Other Features

New Research Philosophy Policy. Steer your planetary research labs towards a particular field, hoping to get the breakthrough you want sooner, or perhaps, balancing out your research once you've made a few. Research policy is also a stand alone mod.

Technology Repeated has been fully spun off into a separate mod. It is not required.

Compatibility

Few vanilla files were harmed in the making of this mod, so it is in theory compatible with nearly everything.

Compatibility Patch for Stellaris Evolved.

Since spread modifiers are tied heavily to ethics, leader traits, traditions, and ascension perks, any other mod that adds those may change the balance of this mod. It will still work seamlessly, but breakthrough spread will likely be slower since empires and scientists will have modded traits that do not boost tech spread.

Minor tweak to the game rule "can_species_be_assebmled" to block assembly of psionic robots with Deus Ex Machina breakthrough

The mod can be installed mid-save.

If you miss tiles terribly here is a Legacy 2.1.* Version

Translations

If you would like to help translate let me know and I will link and credit you below. Italian Translation by Rahl81 Russian translation by knon20 Chinese translation by 兽耳娘是好文明 Chinese translation by 卡尔文迪斯梅特 Japanese translation by Rio_Mizuhoshi

Credits

Big thanks to OldEnt for getting this updated to 3.1.2!

Images adapted from:

• semiconductor

• Fan Gao

• ick

• Robob3ar

• [George Hull](https://www.