Team Nessassity Mods - These Jugs Are HUGE! (Patreon)

IT'S JULY! And it's halfway over already! @.@

I could ask where the time has gone but I probably shouldn't because then I'd realise how much of my summer I've spent stuck at home not doing anything summer-y... SO LET'S NOT GO THERE AND TALK ABOUT SPACE INSTEAD, OKAY?

Yes! It's always summer in space! The suns never set and there's nothing preventing me from bathing in their radiation all year round!

Oh? What is that, you say? When will I stop feeling sorry for myself and start talking about Stellaris mods instead?

Oh... Well, in that case I suppose we should rid ourselves of all this ado!

Elves of Stellaris

As mentioned in the previous monthly mod report, we've been poking at the underdeveloped origins, trying to come up with ways to make them stand out a bit more than just by looking pretty. That's still ongoing and unfortunately I don't have anything new to announce on that front. Between the summer blues and lack of ideas, we've been a bit stuck on that part.

That said, it's not the only thing on our agenda. An issue that came up recently was our implementation of the elven Fallen Empires and primitive civilisations. They've been part of EoS for the longest time, since the beginning, or at least close enough that they might as well be. But... they have not received as much love as other aspects of the mod and recently we've started questioning what role they are really supposed to play, and whether it's okay to leave them as is or if we should give them some kind of overhaul.
At the moment, our opinions are split, and we have several ideas floating around.

• One of them is separating FEs and primitives into their own sub-mod that wouldn't be held back by the limitations of our core mods policy (namely, never to modify or override vanilla files). That would allow us to keep them around as optional content and give us more room to expand and improve it in the long term.
• On the other hand, we've also thought of doing away with them as generic randomly-spawned entities and instead incorporating them more directly into EoS origins. By doing so, we could kill two space birds with one space stone, although it would also mean a lot more work and probably wouldn't happen anytime soon.

At the moment, we're still discussing possibilities and trying to come up with more alternatives that could work, but one thing is for sure: when our response to user concerns regarding those aspects is "please use the patch that disables them", it's quite clear that something needs to change.
Once we've actually made up our minds, we'll make a big announcement but for now I just wanted to let you know to expect some changes in the near future!

OH! And speaking of future that is getting nearer little by little, the long-awaited... promised by ancient prophecies... much anticipated... ELVEN JUGS!

...

...has started to take shape in a very early, very preliminary sketch that may or not be representative of something that may or may not resemble the final product or at least one of the iterations leading to it!

So, with the usual disclaimer out of the way, behold, the celestial croissant!

Yum!

It may look a bit simplistic from the top-down perspective but it will be anything but once we translate it into 3D! The plan is to have several layered decks, cut-ins to house hangars and shipyards and we might even try Something Fancy™ with the textures. Juggernauts are the biggest ships in any fleet, and also the most unique ones, given that only one may be fielded at any given time, so we plan to squeeze as much quality and detail into it as we can without making the spacetime continuum itself collapse from the sheer concentration of Shiny n_~

Speaking of...

MEC: Asari

We have finally found a good starting point for the ASARI JUGS too!

One would think coming up with a juggernaut for a shipset whose basic design pretty much takes care of most of the work already would be pretty straightforward... BUT that's exactly the reason why we didn't want to go down a straightforward route. As I said before, it's the most noticeable ship in the fleet so it deserves to be one-of-a-kind, something that only it and no other vessel in the armada can be.

To achieve that... we still need to do some thinking, but we did recently have a brainstorming session that produced some promising results I'd like to share with you!

Here are various takes on what the layout of hangars, radiators and wing shapes could look like. A lot of variation is possible, and the vanilla juggernauts themselves show a rich spectrum of designs. Still, however, it lacks a certain something, falling woefully short of our goal of uniqueness.

So to break out of the box a little, we're also experimenting with wing configurations not typically encountered on asari-inspired designs. This particular one was an idea we dismissed quickly (just doubling the wings won't cut it) but there is something compelling about the overall silhouette and the more I look at it, the more I'm wondering if perhaps the way forward would lie in adding more mass to the tips and rear edge of the wings. Up to this point, the backsides of all asari ships have been pretty much straight lines but... do they have to be? It's something I'd like to challenge, so if it doesn't turn into too much of a trainwreck, that might just be the direction we take!

Crusader Kings 3

As I mentioned last month, I'm dying of anticipation as CK3's release is now only a month and a half away! While I cannot yet reveal my secret pet project (it wouldn't be secret if I blew the cover now, would it? Everyone would gain hooks on me and I'd have to join their murder schemes and then I'd never have time to actually work on it!) BUT... I have been doing a lot of research and planning on the side and ended up with a surprisingly fleshed-out plan! Obviously, I still don't know how viable it will actually be to implement until I get to play the game and delve into its modding bits, but... it might be fun to at least speculate. In a very specific and possibly announcement-like manner... next month n_~

But that's not actually what I wanted to mention today. What's more important is that Nessa has also expressed interest in CK3, making it that much more likely that Team Nessassity might add it alongside Stellaris to our modding domain. That is, of course,  still not certain and it still hinges on how our foray into these new frontiers works out!

Nevertheless, we are looking forward to finding out! I have been looking for opportunities to diversify our portfolio somehow, because as much as we love MEC and EoS, I don't want us to burn out on them or to feel confined to our established brands. I would like us, as both a team and individuals, to remain agile and free to pursue whatever random ideas we happen to fall in love with, and a brand new game that resonates so well with us might just be the perfect outlet for those burning ideas that don't necessarily fit into Stellaris.

But perhaps that's something we should come back to closer to release! For now, please remain in suspense a little longer n_n and as always, thank you for your continued putting up with my derpness, stay safe, wear your mask, don't do drugs, avoid zombie hordes, aim for the head, always carry a Geiger counter, remember that a bunker is only as safe as the people you let inside.... where was I going with this again? OH! Right, um, also have fun playing Stellaris! We'll be back with another exciting episode of whatever this clown fiesta is somewhere middle-ish of next month! <3