The lag caused by an ever-increasing population in the galaxy becomes increasingly unbearable in the late game, especially if there are fanatic xenophiles out there who thought mating with aliens is a good idea. This forces players to take drastic measures such as a Colossus. But despite all Stellaris players being labeled as war criminals that enjoy genocide, being limited to just 1 colossus made it an ineffective process. Furthermore, in Vanilla Stellaris, resource production per pop sees little improvement as technology progresses, which is illogical and encourages empires to have a large number of pops. Fortunately for us, mods such as Gigas and ACOT not only provide the means to make traditional pop jobs obsolete but also makes galactic population control significantly more convenient.
[Gigastructures] Automation: In Vanilla Stellaris, we only have a limited variety of megastructures, incapable of completely replacing pop jobs. Now with Gigastructures, we have a wide variety of megastructures that covers the production of every type of resource other than Unity, and each one can replace dozens to thousands of pop jobs. This theoretically allows you to live with only one pop while still being the most powerful empire in the galaxy.
[Gigastructures] Superweapons: In Gigas, we have two types of superweapons that allows you to rapidly solve your unemployment problem. The Nicoll-Dyson beam (built around A or B-type stars) and the Quasi-Stellar Obliterator (built around a quasar). To do this, designate a world you want to get rid off, create a resort world, and force resettle all the unwanted pops onto that world and blow it up! Of course, if your goal is to reduce the number of worlds rather than pops, the QSO would do much better because it has a much shorter reload time. The QSO also allows you to throw undesirables into it, 125 pops to gain enough energy to blow up a planet. Once you built it, the entire galaxy will declare you a crisis, which saves you the time of declaring war on each one of them. For the fanatic militarists out there, you can turn your surplus pops into the crew of a super-ship, the Stellar Systemcraft for 40 pops at a time.
[ACOT] Efficiency with better technology: ACOT offers two things that many may desire in the base game. The ability to build Fallen Empire buildings and ships, as well as having pop jobs that actually get significantly more efficient as technology advances. This allows everyone to reduce the number of pops required to run their empires.
[ACOT] Exterminatus: ACOT adds three bombardment stances that are far more powerful than the vanilla ones, and the best of them is Exterminatus. This allows any fleet to have the capability of destroying planets, turning them into an unhabitable fractured world. And amongst the precursor ships you can build, there is a "colony ship" called Precursor Emissary which comes with a W slot. Unlike the Colossus, the Emissary can be easily mass-produced and has some light weaponry to defend itself. And then there's the super-ship Herculean, expensive but can blow up planets with practically no cooldown.
Even though these mods may have crises that may fry your CPU while fighting them, they are optional and the convenience of galactic population control makes these mods well worth it.

My current "lets test a bunch of stuff at once" list is -

Deck 4 Experimental Augury (ONE) 49 2 Drown in Ichor (ONE) 91 4 Venser, Corpse Puppet (ONE) 219 4 Voidwing Hybrid (ONE) 221 4 Reject Imperfection (ONE) 67 4 Ichor Synthesizer (ONE) 55 2 Blue Sun's Twilight (ONE) 43 4 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting (ONE) 115 2 Sheoldred's Edict (ONE) 108 4 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97 2 Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus (ONE) 71 2 Raffine's Tower (SNC) 254 3 Mirrex (ONE) 254 2 Island (ONE) 273 3 Blast Zone (WAR) 244 2 Swamp (ONE) 274 4 Darkslick Shores (ONE) 250 4 Underground River (BRO) 267 4 Shipwreck Marsh (MID) 267 Sideboard 3 Whisper of the Dross (ONE) 117 2 Serum Snare (ONE) 68 2 Mesmerizing Dose (ONE) 62 1 Whisper of the Dross (ONE) 117 2 Serum Snare (ONE) 68 2 Spell Pierce (NEO) 80 3 Bring the Ending (ONE) 44 

Rough gameplan so far has been midrangey. Vs control you're resolving low to the ground threats and protecting them with a bunch of stuff that gives you value. Vs aggro you've got some good blockers and several ways to slow them down while you take over the game.
The main combo-
Lili + Voidwing + proliferate
[[Liliana of the Veil]] needs no introduction. Good card is good and it comes down fast on 3 and can take over the game. Being able to proliferate her to an even faster ultimate, while also destroying your opponents hand is just backbreaking against control. Against creatures you can - her to get around things like rotpriest/ward. I sincerely think she's being waaay overlooked in any deck running black and proliferate.
[[Voidwing Hybrid]] is just a pile of value in this shell. You can often just throw it down on two, and let your opponent waste a card on it, and then recur it easily later. You don't even need to cast it again to gain value if you get to resolve a Lili.
Proliferate options- ** [[Experimental Augury]]** seems like an easy 4x. Instant speed lets us hold up things like [[Mirrex]] (another control back breaker) and counter, and still dig for options. Further its the cheapest instant proliferate card in UB that can be played on any board state (doesn't need a creature like whisper of the dross or permanent like Serum).
[[Reject Imperfection]] is just gross in this shell. Slam lili on 3, they get a turn to answer, and then you go shields up and not only stop their next answer but may accelerate her ult, and gain whatever other value you've got coming, or in the worst case still just flat out protect her. Again we're more than happy resolving a threat and then just playing on their endstep so strikes me as another auto 4x
[[Vraska, Betrayal's Sting]] seems like another easy 4x. Quasi removal, proliferate on a stick, card advantage, and an auto win ult.
[[Drown in Ichor]] is solid if slow removal and has some big misses. Namely rotpriest, sheolred, graveyard trespasser, and obliterator. I could maybe see cutting this as i'm not so desperate for proliferate triggers.
[[Whisper of the Dross]] might be better than I think. Again i haven't tested vs much aggro, and again Rotpriest is a problem, but being the cheapest proliferate option is important, and I can see a lot of silly scenarios in this deck where you just want a 1 mana proliferate trigger. Hit your own voidwing to stop them from exiling and get your value, or throw it on Venser to get his golem out. Still you need a target so I suspect this is good if we wind up with some aggro that we can target.
[[Serum Snare]] is another conditional proliferate that strikes me as more useful if non rot aggro is a thing, while also helping if there's a lot of other permanent types we need to slow down.
[[Mesmerizing Dose]] clearly would be ideal vs big creatures, and it does have a silly use case of being a target for [[Serum Snare]], but i won't be shocked if I cut this for more edicts. After a bit more testing I think 2 in the side has some merit.
Note that I'm not even trying things like [[Thrummingbird]] because I think proliferate creatures are mostly too slow or unreliable. We need or proliferate value to be certain and happen when we want. Not IF we get an attack through or IF the creature dies or anything like that.
Proliferate payoffs-
[[Blast Zone]] is just insane in this deck. Now with lots of proliferate running around, it might not continue to perform, as your opponent could make you overshoot, but so far this has almost always been game winning and super easy to pump.
[[Venser, Corpse Puppet]] looked like utter jank but I figured i'd give it a shot anyways, and surprisingly I think it works really well in this shell. He's a cheap large body, can help get a poison on the opponent, and will often leave you with a 3/3 golem if they try to remove him while you have any mana open. Works vs aggro thanks to lifelink and a big butt with a buddy, and works vs control by threatening toxic and often being a pain in the ass to remove efficiently without a sweeper. He can also give the mirrex mites flying to get them in there for that final point of poison.
[[Ichor Synthesizer]] has been surprisingly decent. I was really hoping there would be some oil card to help this deck, and while he's not stellar, the fact that it tends to take 2 casts to turn him on hasn't been disappointing. You're not often beating your opponent to death, but having a 3/3 unblockable deals with PW's super well and helps put pressure on the opponent. The 1/3 statline is also WAAAY better than [[Mercurial Spelldancer]] 's 2/1 when you hit an aggro deck. Still not sure if he's actually final deck viable though.
Other threats-
[[Mirrex]] is just really really good. End step threaten a 1/1 toxic token has helped me grind out so many matches. I think everyone knows this is strong at this point.
[[Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus]] like Venser was a "well he's probably crap but i'll try him" pick. Unlike Venser...yeah i think he's likely crap. That said we've got 3 cards that can hold counters for him to go indestructible on 5 mana (the 2 pw's, and Ichor). The big combo i was hoping for was using him with blast zone, but reading is hard and he doesn't work with lands.
[[Blue Sun's Twilight]] was basically "surely everyone will still be running fable" and this should help with that nicely. I wouldn't know for sure because I haven't actually hit fable yet. Still 2 mana steal the ramp token strikes me as one of the best ways to handle an otherwise troublesome card. It's performed well vs aggro but is probably sideboard material right now.
Things I haven't tested but might be worth it-
[[Mercurial Spelldancer]] has a lousy stat line, and a really powerful effect. IF you can get her going, something like hit them, remove 2, experimental augury, put 4 more on her is pretty gross, but I suspect that's win more territory.
[[Tablet of Completion]] is interesting and easy to cast, and the ramp/draw is nice for control games, but I'm not sure where you'd fit it in.
Pretty much the same with [[The Filigree Sylex]]. It's an easier to deal with blast zone in 90% of cases, but with the potential to help close out a game. While toxic isn't our main plan, I suspect
Other planeswalkers-
Jace/Sorin/Kaito's/Karn/Tef/Tezz all don't have removal stapled onto them and I think part of the power of this deck is being able to - a PW to handle a threat, but still gain loyalty through proliferate triggers. If anyone is worth testing it's probably one of the ones that can generate tokens, but I'm unsure any are worth the slots.
Conclusion/Core Shell-
That's about it.
The potentially competitive core is

Lili Vraska Voidwing Mirrex Blast Zone Reject Experimental. 

From there I'm not sure where to go. I'm hesitant to go too hard into the corrupted effect as you can go quite awhile without turning it on in this deck, but maybe [[Bring the Ending]] and [[Distorted Curiosity]] are still worth it. I'd be curious to hear any thoughts other players have, especially on sideboard.

This is from a mod called “Gigastructural Engineering & More” which is pretty popular but I took over the birch world and it was crazy! They had fleets of like 10 million and so much defense! Anyway once I took it over I was ok cool, but I want that super weapon not a birch world. So is there a way to dismantle or destroy the world so that the only thing that’s left is the super black hole itself?

I’ve finally completed the construction of the quasi stellar obliterator, but I’m unable to open any sort of control panel or figure out how to fire it, is this a bug or am I missing something?
I’ve annoyed the whole galaxy by building it so any suggestions would be appreciated!

Pre-merge and post-merge tribes ranked separately because those are entirely different metrics. I'm considering not just the individual set of characters or the episodes but also the collective narrative for the group across the season as a whole. I hope my trash takes aren't too GHOUUULISHly bad for you all on this fine holiday!
PRE-MERGE:
Excluded are original La Mina and post-swap iterations of Gota, Aparri, and Vanua because they had no real narrative significance, and any iterations of Malolo or Lairo because I didn't finish 36 or watch 39. Survivor Wiki claims Mana is orange, but they look red to me, and also it's S34 so who cares.

1. Tagi 🧡 An obvious #1 and one of the greatest tribes of all time. Because S1 is great legit every one of these are developed, interesting, entertaining characters with realized narratives and here we've got the original Alliance and the story of their unexpected and unpopular success, the iconic connection between Richard and Rudy that made a huge difference on the perception of gays in America in general, Sue's relationship with Kelly culminating in the rats and snakes speech, Sean's role as an unwitting +1 to the alliance with his alphabet strategy, the first blindside in Survivor history in episode 1 with the Sonja boot, and so, so much more. Stacey is probably the least fleshed-out character of the season and even she has a developed clash with Rudy. One of the best Survivor tribes of all time with a very strong argument to be #1. I would probably put Drake and Rotu above them but not a whole lot of others, if any.
   
2. Timbira 🖤 One of the most fun genres of Survivor tribe is the tribe that wins so much that they can never resolve their internal issues and wind up hating each other enough and being on such pins and needles that by the time they finally start voting they absolutely implode, and Timbira are a stellar and truly worthy addition to this pantheon. Timbira's group dynamics are pretty much all the best parts of the season with everyone's reactions to Coach, Erinn and Brendan being great narrators in opposition to him, the antagonist power group of Coach, Debbie, and Tyson, their hatred of Sierra and Sierra getting blindsided by her own safety at the Tyson boot, Erinn pretty much hating and having no loyalty to any of these people and defecting... Great stuff all around with a lot of fun characters whose group dynamics shape the trajectory of the season.
   
3. Morgan 🧡 Drake are the real stars but Morgan still has a worthy arc as a tribe with how aaaabsolutely pitiful they were in episodes 1 to 3 compared to any tribe before and almost any tribe since, yet still managing to come up and merge with even numbers, which is in large part due to Drake's failures but not entirely as Savage pulls off the epic win in the weight endurance challenge. The story of Osten being kind of the half-invested outsider but the tribe keeping him around over the outsiders, culminating in his epic quit in the Outcast episode, Lill's return and taking out Savage, Skinny Ryan as an underrated narrator for the first few episodes are more than enough to make up for how honestly half of this tribe are not super memorable lol and still make them feel like a worthy tribe for the obviously superior Drake tribe to bounce off of.
   
4. David 🧡 Can't rank higher due to the lack of much real organized group narrative imo but this is still a very good group of characters, with some interesting interactions and arcs between them, mostly as a result of Gabby. Bi and Jessica are probably the floor for the cast yet are both still somewhat memorable and likable, and the Jessica boot sets up Gabby as a proactive and observant player very early on before the Carl boot and her own unfortunate departure, two other David boots, continue that trend. The Gabby/Christian relationship is obviously excellent stuff and one of the best on the show in many years at this point, and in general while I don't think Nick, Elizabeth, Lyrsa, or Carl have any connections to other Davids that stand out as too memorable, they're each still good and memorable characters in isolation for sure, so this is a solid tribe.
   
5. Aparri 🧡 While I'm not a Tony fan and Lindsey is a dud, even the two of them pull their weight for sure in a tribe ranking focused on group politics as Lindsey quitting in the wake of the blindside of Cliff, a fellow Aparri, helps make it an even bigger moment, and Tony's best and most interesting content is easily when he's interacting with his fellow Aparris like Trish, Sarah, and Woo, all of whom are themselves solid characters. The impeachment of President Lacina makes for one of the all-time best merge episodes, and while I do think Trish and Woo could have been more fleshed out throughout the season, they're still fun and interesting when we do get to see them. Cliff and Woo don't get a TON of focus as a pair with how early Cliff goes out, but still enough that we can feel Woo's reaction to the blindside and it's fun content while it's around that helps build up the group dynamics of Aparri a little more, and before Trish is introduced to Kass, her main nemesis is Lindsey, a fellow Aparri. So this is a pretty strong group that I ended up ranking higher than I expected to, and if I were a Tony fan they would be top 3 easily.
   
6. Chuay Gahn 🧡 A hotter take here and I don't begrudge anyone who just puts this tribe near the bottom because episode 3 resolves with a Ghandia boot and then all the people who boot her make the endgame, with an obviously highly problematic final 2. Despite being a pretty big Thailand fan (I have it in the top 15 lol) I honestly do still think Brian's a weird mix of unlikable and boring and a huge drain on the season and bottom-tier character of all time -- but CG still makes up for it as a set of characters since I do find Clay pretty funny (but I get why many people don't), Jan and Helen are pretty great, Ghandia's a good character for her short time, and I do like the underdog thing they were starting to set up with Tanya and would have loved to see how it'd realize if she hadn't just gotten sick. Ted and John are duds and Brian's awful but I still like these characters overall. As far as their group narrative goes, again if the final 2 and all the Ghandia voters dominating the season tanks this group for people that's fair, but I like how the season did a good job subtly setting up a narrative of the more experienced, wise, older tribe beating the impulsive, reckless, younger tribe. It's not GREAT like Tagi or Timbira's stories but it's still more of an effort towards a collective, cohesive, season-long story for a tribe as a whole than you ever really see nowadays.
   
7. Coyopa (post-swap) 🧡 Jon and Jaclyn just kind of openly making out and wrecking everyone for two episodes? Yes please, see my flair. Flip side is the Dale boot is admittedly the most forgettable episode of the season, though the flip side is it does its job well of removing a dud character so I still don't mind it or anything. This tribe also has Missy/Baylor starting to be set up as antagonists and paving the way for their FTC loss, the Wentworth connection which isn't MUCH but is something, and then amidst all these pairs Keith is just kind of hanging out being Keith. So by the standards of the many, many, many short-lived post-swap tribes we have in the modern seasons, NuCoyopa ranks as one of the better ones for all the BvW development we get of these people and their partners. I mean setting up Missy/Baylor and Jonclyn is pretty key. In fact upon reflection, this is basically the exact group of people who end up booting Jeremy? So you're setting up not just the Missy/Baylor and Jonclyn pairs individually but also establishing the connection BETWEEN those pairs, which is huge in the Jeremy boot. So yeah actually even though the NuCoyopa episodes themselves are just okay, they pave the way enough for future dynamics that as I write this I'm moving them up lol. I had them #9 before writing this.
   
8. Taku 🧡 Might rank higher if I rewatched the season or had watched it more closely but I binged it pretty casually in a week, but the early Jackson boot and then losing Marya set up the other 4 as kind of underdogs and reasonably close together, which paid off with them then being the majority of players left at the end, but within that you still have division with Jonathan clashing at times with Lindsay and Maryanne. Maryanne taking out Omar was a great episode to vault her ahead as the season's winner and she alone gets the tribe a ton of points as one of the best characters in a very, very long time easily. Marya and Jackson don't really add much to the table and I don't think Jonathan works much as a character, but the other half, and the group dynamics they do have even inr elation to those three, are still enough to make Taku a good group.
   
9. Coyopa 🧡 Coyopa suffers in the ranking for having no real long-term significance; a lot of them go out early and Hunahpu are the real stars of the show, for the most part, and of those who do make the merge, Wes and Alec are both pretty minor characters. But still, even Wes is kind of fun, and this group is for sure the one carrying the first 3 episodes of the season with the ascent and downfall of John Rocker (even there the best content comes from Hunahpus, though), building up Josh as a big threat to be epically dethroned at the merge and setting up his relationship with fellow Coyopa Baylor, and Val is a great early boot and underdog. Still, though, Nadiya, John, and Dale are all kind of duds. Jaclyn is an all-time great character, but she is basically never shown in the Coyopa episodes themselves and her more interesting content tends to be in conjunction with Hunahpu members later on. Still a decent group from a fantastic season, though.
   
10. Airai (original) 🧡 Original Airai is decent! Natalie, Alexis, Mary are really neglected in the early episodes and that kind of hurts, and Erik's content down the line doesn't have much to do with Airai collectively (Natalie's the one who ultimately works him, but their connection isn't established early on or anything.) But still, Erik and Jason ARE great in the post-merge and have interesting connections with Natalie at that time, and for Airai episodes specifically, you've got well-established group dynamics in terms of Tracy, Kathy, and Chet as the underdogs, Tracy maneuvering and manipulating Chet to keep them around not once but twice, the one-sided feud of Joel aligning with Mikey B. but also completely distrusting him, and while Joel is horrid to Chet after the swap in episode 5, that sets up Chet's survival in a fun way. So yeah this is a decent group! They just suffer a bit for some of the stories not being fleshed out as well as they could be, particularly in terms of people's relationships with Natalie.
    
11. Airai (post-swap) 🧡 Decent and less forgettable than many post-swap tribes: this is where Parvati becomes close with Alexis and Natalie, setting up the BWB, and while NuAirai never votes and so I can honestly barely remember who was on this tribe half the time, they still have two big, emotional departures for Kathy and Jonathan, so the tribe is still losing people and having some big episodes. So this is a decent tribe.
    
12. Ravu (original) 🧡 It would be cool to like Ravu more considering Earl and Yau-Man ARE great and win the season despite having lost so much early on, but considering they're Haves after the swap I don't think it plays as an underdog arc really, and at any rate, despite the strength of those two as a season-long pair, Ravu is still kind of forgettable overall: Jessica and Rita are basically non-existent, Erica is okay but not enough to make up for it, and Michelle really isn't as prominent as I wish she were. Meanwhile Rocky, while even worse after the swap, is still generally terrible. I also gotta knock this tribe for how the first Tribal Council makes absolutely no sense lol we see Rocky align with Jessica and Erica, then they all vote in different directions and it's never explained or addressed or mentioned again. But still, they have a distinct identity as the Have-Nots, it sets up the Earl and Yau-Man connection, and I like Anthony and Sylvia as underdogs here, so this is still an okay group.
    
13. Vanua 🧡 This group is okay. Adam is pretty good, Hannah and Jay are cool, Michaela is great, and after the swap you get the Michaela blindside and the great standoff with Jay after she's out. But Mari is kind of a dud and despite how close her vote was, I don't feel like the divisions there really mattered, due to the swap. Figgy and Taylor are a kind of fun showmance of quasi-antagonists, but "kind of" is the operative word there. You could put this group above Ravu if you wanted for Figgy/Taylor and Michaela/Jay, oh and Adam/Jay too I guess, so even above NuAirai, but I'm comfortable leaving them here.
    
14. La Mina 🧡 La Mina being above 5 other tribes speaks to how many bad orange tribes there are, lol. La Mina are a total 4/10. They're fine. None of them are objectionable other than Terry who is not too objectionable and even then a lot of people enjoy him and with good reason, he doesn't ruin the season or anything. Everyone else is, like.... sort of, vaguely likable ish? Idk this season is the Casaya show and everyone knows it.
    
15. Gota 🧡 Massive dropoff here, Gota are a pretty horrible tribe. Julia, Allie, Hope, Michael, and Matt are basically never developed, we get like one scene of Michael and Matt being pals but not much reason to care about it. In the Gota episodes themselves the tribe is actually kind of okay, since you have a decently developed feud between like Reynolds and Sherri with Sherri being this cool, savvy, Tracy-esque underdog using Shamar as her goat and taking out the cockier younger people - it's actually pretty similar to original Airai lol. But all of that actually only makes the season, and Gota, WORSE and not better because then in one of the most baffling narrative choices of the series, at the swap it's just completely reversed to where people only start talking bad about Sherri, she's given like no strategic insight whatsoever, her role in the story just completely changed and vanishes (as the show has lazily done with a lot of runners-up: Monica, Brad, and Ken have similar trends) and Reynolds and Eddie are suddenly depicted positively?? Like a character can be multifaceted and have their role shift over the course of the season, but here it's just a total 180 with no reason given to the audience at all: Reynolds and Eddie are unambiguously the villains of the early episodes but then in a Previously On segment at the swap Probst just calls Reynolds "heroic" and suddenly the entire story changes. There is room for a good, dynamic story where Sherri losing her goat makes her own social flaws stand out more, the way people talk about her changes, and she consciously switches to a more passive role that other players don't respect, but this... is not that story. So all of Gota's interesting narrative threads go nowhere or are reversed and that makes them even worse than forgettable. Bikal is still probably even worse though alol
    
16. Manono 🧡 Hot take here but I'm not sure that Colton guy was really the most likable member of the season 24 cast. (Stan his AMA though, go read it, he's great now.) Plus Tarzan is annoying and Leif, Jay, Michael, and Jonas are mostly duds so honestly the real question is why isn't Manono even LOWER, and my answer to that is that there's at least something intrinsically interesting about a tribe giving up Immunity voluntarily and all the social factors of peer pressure and groupthink that have to go into that. In theory that's a really fascinating Survivor moment, and it's undeniably a unique one, Leif is actually pretty likable in that episode, and Bill is of course excellent. It just all plays out in the worst possible way lol. The Troyzan and Matt dynamics are decent I guess. But yeah this tribe is basically all Colton and therefore bad, but there's interesting enough content WITHIN the Bill boot that I'm still not going to put them dead last.
    
17. Ravu (post-swap) 🧡 Anthony notwithstanding - whose short stay on this tribe just consists of being bullied into oblivion by Rocky, which... makes this tribe even worse, not better - it's almost ridiculous how this is basically one of the most unlikable sets of Survivor characters you could have possibly put together if you tried. Like I find Lisi funny; in these episodes she actually has a good story, if you squint your eyes enough at the definition of the word "good", I mean it's a FUNNY story at any rate, of expecting to be booted at the swap, then being bummed when she isn't, then wanting to quit, then suddenly not wanting to and being pissed they're voting for her lol. Which is about the most you can ever ask for out of Lisi content. Plus Mookie, Edgardo, and Alex being an unlikable group arguably works when they're being set up for a downfall. But they're just not unlikable in dynamic or interesting ways to me idk this tribe just has the bland negativity of Shawn Cohen but without any of the silly fun of Shawn Cohen that makes him a good character. NuRavu is just a ton of the most unlikable people all clustered together and so despite creating the Four Horsemen group that pays off very well in the F9 episode with Dreamz's betrayal, I still think they're a bottom-tier tribe, though I can see the argument behind them being higher due to their narrative significance.
    
18. Manono (post-swap) 🧡 Colton now joins Alicia and everyone's life is worse for it, and we lose a potentially fun character in Monica. Only saving grace of this tribe is that the Colton medevac spares us from a horrendous Christina boot that would have made this like almost unambiguously one of the two worst tribes in Survivor history, but this is still a horrible tribe lol
    
19. Ometepe 🧡 Second-worst tribe in Survivor history imo. Francesca is fun and Kristina is okay and then their role within the broader Ometepe story is just to get booted immediately by the horrible major characters of the season, so that doesn't really make Ometepe as a tribe much better. Almost everyone else is forgettable but with the exceptions of Rob and Phillip who are absolutely horrid characters on this season, 2 of probably my bottom ~5 of all time, just giant air time hogs which in Rob's case is devoted to hyping him up waaaay too much and acting like he was somehow entitled to having already won Survivor and in Phillip's case... I mean, everything, lol. Abominable tribe, and as an aside I don't really get when people occasionally say "RI sucked but at least it had Rob" or "at least it had Phillip" because they're, like..... the entire show? Them being bad is (part of) why the season is bad and vice versa lol like 80% of the season's runtime is devoted to one or both of them. So like yeah the dominant tribe from the worst season of all time is shockingly one of the worst tribes of all time. I can see the argument for Matt's story being good in isolation but it giving the game over to this group prevents me from really enjoying him as a character, either.
    

POST-MERGE TRIBES:
Lavita excluded because I didn't watch them. Gotta do shorter write-ups here to avoid the character limit.

1. Alinta 🧡 Alinta are such an elite merge tribe that it makes me give consideration to actually ranking all the merge tribes lol. There are an absolute ton of interesting and memorable dynamics here that interweave like Rory/Sarge, Chris/Sarge, Chris/Rory, Twila/Scout, either one of them and Eliza, Chris/Julie, Leann/Ami, either of them and Twila, Scout gunning against both of them, Chris/Eliza -- like basically Vanuatu is just an absolutely great season that only gets better and better as it goes whose narrative peaks in the later episodes are all set up very, VERY far in advance. The Leann boot is an absolutely elite episode as the perspectives, positions, and approaches of every single member of the final 7 literally all make sense and are known to the audience at that point. Sometimes you get people talking about whether the show is better when it's "about strategy" or "about characters" and I get what they mean but I would counter that when the show is at its best, that's a false dichotomy because how people play the game and who they are as people and who they relate to are all intertwined, and the very first example I would choose, every time, is the final 7. And you have the contrast between Chris and Twila at FTC... this is just a ridiculously great group.
   
2. Balboa 🖤 A chaotic and hectic merge tribe due to being the combination of not just two tribes, but three, with the two Outcasts joining up with JFP to do exactly what they were meant to do and wreak havoc on an unpredictable, epic merge tribe that were just the right amount of toxic and malicious towards each other to keep the show interesting, with a massive payoff in the epic FIC.
   
3. Yin Yang 🖤 A starkly divided merge tribe can be great OR can be bad depending on the situation, and Yin Yang is an example of it working out very well, with the rift between the two tribes at the merge, as well as the mild crossover in Russell continuing to fake out the Heroes, paying off massively in one of the most memorable merge episodes as well as down the line in Russell's loss. Past that things don't remain as static as they may appear and remain interesting from a group, tribal perspective as you have Sandra trying to flip from the Villains to the Heroes, which, while unsuccessful, allows her to be the most heroic villain at the end and claim the prize, you have Russell continuing to piss off everyone culminating in his loss, Rupert's fake rock, Candice kind of sucking at Survivor again, lots of good stuff. Wish Colby were built up more and we saw the Colberri reunion tho :(
   
4. Dara 🖤 Michele/Julia, Tai/Aubry, Tai with Scot and Jason, tons of great stuff here. Honestly Tai seriously carries this group but he carries it through the focus on his relationships to the other characters and their relationships to him, and if I am ranking a tribe as a collective group that's exactly what I want
   
5. Barramundi 🧡 I wish the attempts at ferreting out past votes in the merge episode had been a little more explicit, and this tribe would rank above Dara if so, but it's still interesting stuff that plays the "two divided tribes" angle well, like Yin Yang, even if the latter is superior. The Ogakor vs Kucha dynamics on Barramundi are static but that makes sense in the context of the season, and you have the dynamics on the Ogakor side of things playing out perfectly with the ways Jerri and Keith go out, and on the Kucha side you have Rodger sacrificing himself for Elisabeth, so there's still a lot of interesting group dynamics here.
   
6. Vinaka 🖤 I don't care about most of this season but Vinaka gave us a rock draw and for that should be praised
   
7. Dangrayne 🖤 Tandang doing the Timbira thing of imploding because they hate each other, allowing Matsing to infiltrate and actually pull off a victory, great stuff that makes the 3-tribe merge work really well even tho it's actually kind of a 2-tribe one lol. And as far as Kalabaw goes they all just kind of get picked off which is what I would both want and expect. So this is a pretty good and decently rewarding tribe.
   
8. Hae Da Fung 🖤 I don't feel like there's a strong tribal narrative here for some reason but like the Jaime, Jean-Robert, James boots are all still good so this tribe is still doing fun things
   
9. Gitanos 🖤 Divided merge tribe and here the results from, like, a group dynamic perspective are more okay than actively interesting, but Gitanos also has the correct boot order with Casaya sweeping La Mina so cool, good job Gitanos
   
10. Solarrion 🖤 I'm running out of steam y'all but I dunno Solarrion is okay? I feel like most of the good Solarrion stuff is just good Aparri stuff. Ranking merge tribes is a weird concept anyway tbh. Four of their episodes are kind of dull, but the individual characters aren't bad. I give Solarrion a 6/10. I like how their name sounds like a Pokemon though
    
11. Koru 🖤 Maybe if there hadn't been fire tokens and Edge of Extinction I would be able to care about virtually anything that happened on Koru. I bumped them up above Tikiano because Ben quitting is funny, though
    
12. Tikiano 🖤 Sabrina vs. Troyzan is kind of fun. Kat gets blindsided. Not a lot else to report. Static and boring but certainly not, like, BAD.
    
13. Aitutonga 🖤 Okay and now we get into the truly awful ones. Murlonio is obviously last place, but Aitutonga vs. Merica is a rough one. Basically on Aitutonga you have a bunch of forgettable contestants beating a bunch of unlikable ones, so there's almost no one to really root for or care about, but in terms of who I'm more rooting AGAINST the boot order still works out well. Merica has a bunch of unlikable contestants beating a bunch of likable ones (other than the Mike win), so they have higher highs than Aitutonga in terms of their individual characters, but their boot order is worse...
    
14. Merica 🖤 ...so ultimately trying to do this as a TRIBE ranking, and ranking them from a GROUP perspective, I'd say that while Merica has some better characters than Aitutonga, the fact that they all just get obliterated immediately and that that's such a horrible storyline, even with the Mike win, means that the tribe as a whole and collectively is a worse one than Aitutonga, who are certainly duller but at least have a relatively good boot order out of the options that were possible, I guess.
    
15. Murlonio 🖤 Can't decide whether Aitutonga is worse for almost all being unlikable or undeveloped or whether Merica is worse for booting all the good characters? Well, you're in luck when picking last place: Murlonio has all the worst characters dominate the game but ALSO doesn't have many likable or interesting characters! I actually think Zapatera were a potentially super interesting group of personalities and players that could have bounced off each other in interesting ways, and if they won out at the merge, the season actually could have been okay. I mean, with Redemption Island in play, it wouldn't have been GOOD, but it could have been okay. So the boot order here with Zapatera losing out to Ometepe sucks, but unlike in Merica, I can't even really say "Well at least I got to enjoy Zapatera while they were around" because they are not developed nearly as much as Shirin, Jenn, Joe, and Hali were. Plus at least Merica has the Mike win I guess. Murlonio has, like, 57 cumulative seconds of entertaining Julie and Steve content across the entire season and that's basically it, and then they lose anyway. Booo.
    

I can't seem to target galaxies for empires whom I'm in war with. This was not an issue with the beam -- kinda making the beam useful in combat. It trying to use the build interface for this??
When it comes to planets, those with ring structures build are visually targettable but when I click on them nothing happens. So, I can only destroy habitats because all plants have orbital ach stuff.
Is there a way to use an interface similar to Nicol Beam here? Or any patches I can apply on top of the gigastructure mod (everything targettable preferrably)?
It just to get the QSO you kinda have to play a whole week

So I've been trying to play around with the QSO but I'm starting to think that it's too buggy to use. I've spent all afternoon trying to get it to blow up a star cluster but the only systems it will let me target are my own cause it thinks that the systems I'm trying to target have hostiles in them still. I've cleared out the entire system(s) of planets, ships, and megastructures with console commands but it still won't let me fire. I can target planets and fleets just fine but the restriction for star clusters/systems "it must be clear of hostiles" seems to be breaking the QSO. I've reset the structure twice and have no idea what to do now so if anyone has an idea what's wrong, ide appreciate the help. What good is the biggest gun if you can't shoot it.

Hi everyone. It's not my first time playing with gigastructures but it's my first playthrough when I attempt to defeat Blokkatz. Any tips? My strategy is to create a one system craft (they are really op so I don't want it to be too easy, thats why I only anabled one systemcraft), fleets, planetcrafts and most importantly: quasi stellar obliterator. Do you have any tips for me? New strategies etc.? Thx

Everybody knows about the legendary Birch world, the largest one would have a diameter in the lightyears.
And then there are the Artificially Optimized Galaxies, which I don’t really feel like megastructures.
There is also the Megaring, Megadisc and Megadyson sphere, which are ringworld, Alderson disc and Dyson sphere but scaled up from a star to a quasar. They are big, like Kardashev type 4 big, but they are boring - simply take something old and make it bigger
But are there others? I haven’t been successful in finding any idea for such scale
One close candidate is the Quasi-Stellar Obliterator - a megastructure weaponizing an Active Galactic Nucleus. But as we can see, not very realistic I suppose. And it depends on the ability to open a wormhole in the target’s vicinity - which has been mentioned by Arthur but is even less than hypothetical

After taking the Ascension Perk and building the QSO (and spending a million alloy in the process) it appears that it's simply not as good as the NDB. The fact that you have to clear a system of hostiles and then send a construction ship in order to target the QSO makes me wonder why I wouldn't just send a fleet to wipe them out.
Meanwhile, the NDB can completely destroy a system and everything in it regardless of whether there are fleets present or not - and it's 100% remote. It also doesn't need to be built around the galactic core, which is a huge plus, and it's many times cheaper than the QSO. It also doesn't cost a single-focus Ascension Perk like the QSO.
I guess the only advantage the QSO has is that it can destroy star clusters but again, you'd have to clear each system with a fleet which kind of defeats the point of having an expensive megastructure made to blow things up without sending ships. You could be much more efficient with your time and resources by destroying each system individually with the NDB. Is there something I'm missing as to why you would even want to build this? Except maybe to show off to the rest of the galaxy.

Do what you want. No specific setting, except maybe it takes place at least 30,000 years from now.

Having beaten up the Aeternum, I've been boredly waiting out the 10 year warmup period for the new Gigastructural Engineering crisis. I've made a list of silly projects with which to pass the time and use my basically unlimited resources while I wait. Anyone have suggestions to add? XD

• Finally build a Stellar Systemcraft for the first time ever (I admit, I'm a heretic who prefers conventional fleets XD)
  
• Build a complete Alderson Disk despite having Galactic Population Controls active
  
• Explore Aiondia for the first time (I've usually quit after beating the Aeternites XD)
  
• Wait to see if the huge Horde successor state that made a pact with the End of the Cycle will explode before Blokkats arrive. Turns out playing with a mod that gives a repeatable tech for ascension perks leads to interesting things!
  
• GLUE together a Contingency world in my space and start making it a giant Ecunumopolis
  
• Blow up a few stars with the Fusion Suppressor for amusement
  
• Debate if you should make a mod that makes colossi actually death star-esque in terms of firepower
  
• Contemplate building a Quasi-Stellar Obliterator in the EHOF cluster, but decide not to because everyone trying to kill you would be a boringly faceroll war.
  
• Make Cyberex Alpha into a completed 4-ring ringworld complex even though you have no plans to settle the outer three rings
  
• Build a fleet entirely of ZoFE goliaths, nothing else.
  
• Force through all Tier 5 sanctions in the Galactic Community even though you're already the senate like 5 times over.
  
• Pass Tier 6 Divinity of Life even though there are no machine empires around to properly oppress.
  

^{{{TL:DR \}WARNING: "DISRESPECTED" PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED, INITIATING PETTY RESPONSE]}})
^{Read it you lazy bum; I took the time to make it for you, you can take a moment to read it. Especially since you clicked on the post. It took a long time to make this and post it, literally a full day trying to work it all out. Please just read it.}
Ever wanted to take the galactic Mantle of Responsibility in your own hands and defend the galaxy from unknown threats and/or heretics? I'm not sure if this has been posted here or not but this is probably one of the closest playthrough's of the Halo Universe in Stellaris(as the Halo mod is broken{not SotP, but the one that lets you make fireable Halos}).
So instead of attempting to recreate something that cant be done in the Stellaris universe atm, I settled for good enough, and have come up with a pretty good lore-filled, Halo-inspired, Stellaris-based Universe for us all to experience(if you haven't come up with something likewise already)
I've come up with Vanilla and Modded scenarios with various empires to build, some require DLC, so check the scenario and see if you'll need them.
This is Halo INSPIRED, meaning its not meant to copy Halo exactly, but take inspiration and convert it into something playable in Stellaris
THESE ARE NOT PERFECT, and could actually use some tweaking from you guys, so use your imagination.

Prologue

The 4th Era: The Era thought to bring the end of the galactic threat known as the Horde. For eons the galaxy fought endlessly with the all-consuming hive, and it was all in vain. With the The Custodians being the last vestige of a recognizable empire, it took everything they had to push them back. After a long period of war and small success, The Custodians had the Horde-Mind cornered on one of their own systems. A system that housed one of their great Aether Rings, a massive ringworld orbiting a star. The Horde-Mind was successfully locked away on the ring with much effort, and the Ring was left deserted, a testament to the sins of the galaxy.
With the Horde-Mind locked away, drones all over the galaxy lost connection and succumbed to what is known today as "Hiveloss"; when a drone losses connection with it's hive, it experiences various neurological breakdowns that cause the drone to become senselessly enraged and violent, attacking even their own kind. The planets cannot be inhabited by sentient life while these drones roam free on their surface, so a proposal was offered; Cleanse the worlds using the Custodians Neutron Sweep, and repopulate when the radiation dissipates. The Custodial Council agreed, and the "Great Cleansing" was carried out throughout the galaxy, wiping all known planets of biological life. This proved a great success but The Custodians still bore much grief; having survived a galactic collapse. Another proposal was offered; A Re-Seeding project that would repopulate the galaxy with species from the Custodians DNA Databanks. Another profound success dubbed the "Great Revival", and one that would greatly relieve the Custodians.
With their ancient enemy no longer a threat, and the galaxy successfully Re-seeded with sentient yet primitive life, they reduced their sprawl to a single system; their Home System. This would allow for growth within the system once a few sentient species achieves FTL-travel. Over the centuries they dismantled various constructs of theirs to fuel their economy, and slow the advancement of any would-be explorers who may happen to stumble upon them.
Centuries pass and the galaxy is at peace. The Custodians have reduced their own population in accordance to protocols for population resource allocation, and are now the equivalent to a new FTL society with a few minor exceptions. All of this would prove futile with the arrival of The Interloper.
The Interloper arrived seemingly out of nowhere, and also seems to have a personal vendetta against this galaxy because it smashed right into the Aether Ring containing the Horde-Mind, effectively setting it free and allowing it to reconnect with whatever vestige of drones may be left on the ring.
Containment protocols on the ring alerted the Custodian homeworld of the breach, and the Custodians have once again picked up the mantle of Galactic Savior. Can they find a way to eradicate the horde-mind once and for all? Will the re-seeded species survive the new Horde onslaught? Could there exist a threat so dangerous, even the Horde fear it... or better yet, could it be controlled?
The 5th Era, the current era the player is involved in and the beginning of the new civilizations from the Custodians "Great Revival" project.
​

Forced Galactic Empires(Species portrait/name up to you):

United Nations of Earth(1st Preferred Playthrough) - A Custodial Black-Project in the Sol system, biological variations on the surface of a continental planet proved as viable hosts for DNA manipulation. A mildly sentient primate species was uplifted and genetically altered to give rise to the Humans after the Great Cleansing. This project was one of high priority at the end of the 4th Era, they were meant to replace the Custodians as the Defenders of the Galaxy. Can they live up to their potential?
Preferred Species Type - Human
Preferred Species Traits - Nat Engineers/Intelligent/Quick Learners/Deviants/Quarrelsome
Preferred Empire Traits - Militarist/Materialist/Egalitarian
Preferred Government - Citizen Republic
Preferred Civics - Beacon of Liberty/Citizen Service
Preferred Origin - On the Shoulders of Giants
Custodians (Forerunner-type)- The first known civil and intelligent biological space-faring species in the galaxy, present and active during the First League. Defenders of the Galaxy and the Re-Seeders of the 5th Era after the "Great Cleansing".
Preferred Species Type - Plantoid
Preferred Species Traits - Agrarian/Nat Physicist/Enduring/Weak/Deviants
Preferred Empire Traits - Pacifist/Xenophile/Materialist
Preferred Government - Moral Democracy
Preferred Civics - Agrarian Idyll/Environmentalist
Preferred Origin - Life-Seeded
Horde (Flood-type)- The oldest known threat to biological life in the galaxy. A Ravenous Hive that consumes biological lifeforms to sustain itself. The Hive-Mind is immortal, and no one has ever found a way to destroy it. In the 4th Era, it was locked on an Aether Ring created by the Custodians to house and contain the Hive-Mind, rendering it virtually harmless. Until...
Preferred Species Type - Necroid(Consuming playstyle) or Fungoid(Infecting playstyle)
Preferred Species Traits - Repugnant/Rapid Breeders/Extremely Adaptive/Unruly
Preferred Empire Traits - Hive-mind
Preferred Government - Ravenous Hive
Preferred Civics - Devouring Swarm/One Mind
Preferred Origin - Shattered Ring
Bothrian Tribunal(Covenant-type)- A Grim Council hegemony that arises in the 5th Era who regard the events of the "Great Cleansing" and "Great Revival" with high spiritually. Asserting that the "Great Cleansing" was a form of "Divine Galactic Retribution" for the sins of the galactic species, while holding that the "Great Revival" was in fact a Heretical move against their God's judgement. They seek to revert the efforts of the Custodians and "Re-Cleanse" the galaxy of sapient life, claiming that all who partake in the cleansing will receive Salvation.
Preferred Species Type - Mammalian
Preferred Species Traits - Nat Sociologist/Intelligent/Agrarian/Slow Breeders/Sedentary
Preferred Empire Traits - Fan Spirit/Militarist
Preferred Government - Oligarchic Grim Council
Preferred Civics - Exalted Priesthood/Death Cult
Preferred Origin - Hegemon
Valiant(Elite-Type)- an Imperial Star Empire under the hegemony of the Bothrian Tribunal and act as their military force. A mighty force indeed, the Valiant earned their name directly from the Custodians after reclaiming their homeworld from the Horde by force. This rendered their homeworld barely hospitable and a remnant of its former self. Now, eons after the "Great Revival", they act as the enforcing will of the Tribunal, following in their spiritual footsteps, unaware of their past and unsure of their future.
Preferred Species Type - Reptilian
Preferred Species Traits - Resilient/Adaptive/Industrious
Preferred Empire Traits - Militarist/Authoritarian/Spiritualist
Preferred Government - Imperial Star Empire
Preferred Civics - Distinguished Admiralty/Warrior Culture
Preferred Origin - Remnants
Blade of Nagyaria(Brute-type)- a Re-Seeded species whose past is a battered one. Discovered by the Custodians in the 3rd Era, it took eons for them to finally unify and begin to cooperate. Once they got into space in the very early 4th Era, it was quickly stifled with the arrival of the Horde in their home system. The Custodians could do very little to salvage their species. Few samples were taken and their homeworld was lost to the Horde. After the Great Revival, the Blade of Nagyaria suffered an extensive repopulation cycle. After eons of growth and expansion on their homeworld, they are finally ready to conquer the stars, for real this time.
Preferred Species Type - Humanoid or Mammalian
Preferred Species Traits - Adaptive/Rapid Breeders/Strong/Quarrelsome/Unruly
Preferred Empire Traits - Fan Militarist/Authoritarian
Preferred Government - Imperial Star Empire
Preferred Civics - Cutthroat Politics/Warrior Culture
Preferred Origin - Syncretic Evolution(Tal'Akkur)
Tal'Akkur(Drone(Flying-Bug)-type)- a Re-Seeded species who is considered lesser by the Nagyari. A once-powerful civil hive-mind that could have easily rivaled the Horde, had it not been for a single Hive-phobic member of the Galactic Council in the 3rd Era. Now doomed to serve the Nagyari, the Tal'Akkurans are simple-minded drones that, for some odd reason, never suffered from "Hiveloss". The anomaly is still not understood and may never be, but the Nagyari see no point in wasting potential workforce.
Preferred Species Type - Arthopoid(Preferably the flying one that looks like hes from the MIB movies)
Preferred Species Traits - Servile(Mandatory)/Rapid Breeders/Slow Learners/Docile/Repugnant
Inari League(Stellaris-Original)- a once-mighty force for freedom and galactic equality, the Inari League faced many threats in their existence, not excluding the Horde. Inarus ultimately suffered the same fate as most home planets did in the 4th Era; consumed by the Horde. Luckily, they had a a few untouched orbital habitats around their home system and just enough survivors to carry on. Inarus never recovered and the Inari evolved over the eons to better suit habitat life, this allowed the Custodians to focus on the less-fortunate species of the galaxy, leaving the Inari to repopulate themselves and were skipped as a re-seed option during the "Great Revival".
Preferred Species Type - Avian
Preferred Species Traits - Intelligent / Rapid Breeders / Thrifty
Preferred Empire Traits - Egalitarian/Xenophobe/Materialist
Preferred Government - Direct Democracy
Preferred Civics - Diplo Corps/Parliamentary System
Preferred Origin - Void Dwellers
Valdari Union - the Custodians final Black-Project. The Valdari were meant to represent the epitome of genetic achievement within the Custodial Research communities. Sure, plenty of uplifts had occurred before throughout galactic history, but creating an entirely new species using pre-existing DNA blueprints from various species across the stars? Now that's achievement. A second candidate from the continental world orbiting Sol was chosen; a feline species that would act as the genetic base. They could have pretty much chosen any creature, but they found this particular specimen "cute". The Valdari were born using the genetic code from 68 different species across the known galaxy, and Valdari has wares, if you have coin.
Preferred Species Type - Mammalian(Cat People)
Preferred Species Traits - Intelligent/Thrifty/Nat Sociologists/Slow Breeders/Quarrelsome
Preferred Empire Traits - Egalitarian/Pacifist/Materialist
Preferred Government - Trade League
Preferred Civics - Free Traders/Trading Posts
Preferred Origin - Prosperous Unification
Elderoid Hub(You can kinda do what you want with this one, but here is what I've got:)- The oldest known intelligence in the galaxy, based on their own records, far predating the Custodians and even the Horde. They were discovered deep underground on a Gaia planet at the center of the galaxy during the 3rd Era by the Custodians. They were able to probe the Elderoids for minimal information before they receded into a safety protocol loop where they constantly inquired the Custodians about there impending arrival to their Main Hub. The Custodians were able to locate a previously unknown hyperlane leading to the Main Hub completely by chance. On the way to deliver multiple droids to a Custodial Research Facility, the Elderoids onboard the Custodian vessel activated another protocol, stating the system they were currently in was the Gateway to the Main Hub and then their vessel started picking up an unregistered hyperlane, which they obviously traveled. To their surprise, the "Hub" was nothing more than a standard Gaia planet to their surveys, but the Elderoid insisted they be returned to the surface. The Custodians obliged and were left with a single Elderoid record to take home for study. The Custodians learned 2 things from this record: the Elderoids are at least 2.46 billion galactic years old, as that's the age of the record, and that they have a very specific and extremely odd protocol, titled "Unity Contingency". This protocol, if Custodian Quasi-Quantum Hyper-computing holds up, states that during their creators "experiment", should something go horribly wrong, the Elderoids would only activate and expand diplomatic protocols after the arrival of an expected anomaly code-named "The Savior". The record states that their were two possible outcomes of this "experiment": 1) The experiment is a success and all the species in the galaxy "ascend" 2) The experiment fails and the galaxy is consumed by what is referred to in the record as "World-Eater". No further information is given except the expected arrival date of "The Savior", and a few data points about it: it is projected to hit its target in approximately 2.43 billion galactic years with an accuracy of 93.333%. It took the Custodians eons to figure out they could flip the record over and retrieve more information from the other side, but the only information available was encoded in some unknown language. They were however able to estimate the size and contents of the data and hypothesized it be nothing more than images and references to an ancient and dead culture, presumably the Elderoids creators.
Preferred Species Type - Robot(the UFO-head one with vegetation growing on it)
Preferred Species Traits - Logic Engines/SuperConductive/Durable/Luxurious/High Bandwidth
Preferred Empire Traits - Machine Intelligence
Preferred Government - Industrial Production Core
Preferred Civics - Unitary Cohesion/Rapid Replicator
Preferred Origin - Resource Consolidation
​
Okay, now that we've gone through all the major empires and lore and whatnot, lets move on.

Vanilla Playstyles

Vanilla will not be as detailed(or in some cases, fun) as the modded version. The difference is the gigastructures, because it adds so many new elements to the playstyles. Another would be imporoved vanilla buildings mod and so on. Either way, it can be played in vanilla, but if you havent played with mods you need to check it out.
Also, this might need some work so play around with values if you arent satisfied.
{Basic Game Settings} - These will apply to all scenarios; changes to make will be listed in that scenario
Galaxy shape and size up to you, but the bigger the better.
0.25 Habitable worlds(The Great Cleansing, remember?)
No guaranteed Habitable worlds
Random Placement(does anyone even use clustered?)
2x primitive civs(The Great Revival, remember?)
0.5-1x Hyperlane Density(personal preference)
Off - 0.25 Gateways(i hate how AI just place these things everywhere so I usually disable them)
0.25-0.5 Wormholes(in reality they would be rare anyways)
Tech is up to you, depends how long you want to play that particular playthrough.
No Caravaneers
No Xeno-Comp
Ironman ON
8 Forced AI Empires (Listed Above)
1-2 Advanced AI Starts
No Fallen Empires
No Marauder Empires
1x Crisis Strength
Scaling OFF
High AI Aggressiveness
Mid Year 2250
End Year 2400
Victory Year 2500
{Scenario Name} - {Empire},{Game Settings},{Goal}
One Giant Leap - UNE Empire, standard settings, survive.
Shoulders of Giants - UNE, {1x Tech, 2 Advanced Empires, 2x Crisis, (Years mid-2300, end-2500, vic-2700)}, build a ringworld within L-Cluster space and populate it with all major species, defeat the horde once and for all(and probably the crisis as well) and repopulate the galaxy.
Shoulders of Gods - UNE, {1x Tech, 2 Advanced Empires, 3x Crisis, (Years mid-2300, end-2500, vic-2700)}, take Genetic Ascension, build a ringworld within L-Cluster space and populate it with all major species with only positive traits, defeat the horde once and for all(and probably the crisis as well) and repopulate the galaxy with every species having their own empire and their homeworld restored(so dont world crack them)
Round Two - Custodians, standard settings; {Resist the Horde, Gather ALL main species DNA listed above in your species tab and as many others as you can, seed a ringworld with all species, destroy the horde once and for all, reseed at least one planet per species for every species.
Golden Age - Custodians, standard settings, Round Two except victory is only achieved if every species regains their homeworld and is their own empire(My Current Playthrough, and boy the Horde is rough.)
Horde-Minded - The Horde, standard settings, leave no sentient biological life left alive in the galaxy.
World-Eater - Horde-Minded except no trace of any biomass anywhere in the galaxy(no habitible worlds)
Our Lord Has Spoken - Bothrian Tribunal, standard settings, destroy the Horde and any heretics you encounter along the way. Achieve Psionic ascension and purge the galaxy of sentient life, completing the Great Cleansing once and for all.
​

Modded Playstyles

This is how I meant these playthroughs to be played.
Also, this might need some work so play around with values if you arent satisfied.
Required Mods - these mods are necessary to enjoy these scenarios the way they were meant to be enjoyed
Gigastructures - duh
Additional Vanilla Buildings - this should be vanilla. Make it happen Paradox
More Ascension Perks(+6 for 15 total) - anymore is OP in my opinion, but with gigastructures you absolutely need more than the default.
Stellaris Rework OLD(Dunno if they'll update, but you need a patch)
2.8 defines for 2.7 mods (pop growth bug fix) - this is the patch for the Stellaris Rework, exact name
Habitat AI Colonization fix - another patch
UI Overhaul 1080p+ (swap for IUO Dynamic if using NSC2)
No Megastructure Limits Extended(Not sure if gigastructures removed the limit but this sure does)
No Clustered Starts - because I swear the "Random" option in empire generation is wrong.
Encourage Planetary Growth for 2.7.1 - still works for 2.8
Optional Mods - these mods are for aesthetic purposes or for a richemore immersive experience
Realistic Ships 2.8.1 + Lith/Nec Shipset
NSC 2 - Using in my current playthough, and its a little too much for me, will be switching to Realistic Ships in the next one
UI Overhaul Dynamic - required for NSC(use this instead of UI Overhaul 1080p+ Mod)
There is a patch you will need if you use Realistic Ships and NSC 2, but I dont plan on using NSC after this playthrough(and am not using realistic ships currently) so I dont know the patch name, look it up on Steam workshop
***WARNING: If you use NSC 2 and wish to complete one of these challenges; when using the hyperlane removers, you must leave any inhabited systems connected to the rest of the galaxy. If you disconnect your empire from the galaxy, a bug occurs in which everyone(except the really bad guys) will want to be your friend and its way too cheesy of a strategy. Until this is fixed or if anyone knows of a mod that fixes this, then please leave empires(even the AI) connected to the others. (I dont think uninhabited systems count, only ones with pops. Hell, may even only be the homewold. Either way, stickin to my guns. To complete the challenges, leave empires connected)
{Basic Game Settings} - These will apply to all scenarios; changes to make will be listed in that scenario
Galaxy shape and size up to you, but the bigger the better.
0.25 Habitable worlds(The Great Cleansing, remember?)
No guaranteed Habitable worlds
Random Placement(does anyone even use clustered?)
2x primitive civs(The Great Revival, remember?)
0.5-1x Hyperlane Density(personal preference)
Off - 0.25 Gateways(i hate how AI just place these things everywhere so I usually disable them)
0.25-0.5 Wormholes(in reality they would be rare anyways)
Tech is up to you, depends how long you want to play that particular playthrough.
No Caravaneers
No Xeno-Comp
Ironman ON
8 Forced AI Empires (Listed Above)
1-2 Advanced AI Starts
No Fallen Empires
No Marauder Empires
1x Crisis Strength
Scaling OFF
High AI Aggressiveness
Mid Year 2250
End Year 2400
Victory Year 2500
{Gigastructures Settings}
No FE Planetcrafts
Galactic Core Depends on Scenario
Infinite Structure Build Cap, you got the resources, you can build it.
DS Scaling ON
SL Scaling ON
MB Scaling ON
Megastructure Influence Upkeep OFF - since when have things been powered by our level of governmental influence? Boy, would that power that world...
Paluushia OFF
Achievements ON
Katzenartig Imperium OFF(as you can see Im not a fan of GS created empires)
E.H.O.F. ON
EHOF AI OFF(I havent played with this, but I might, does this kinda solve the disconnected empire glitch since they could teleport into your space?)
Crisis OFF - Gigastructure crisis; vanilla crisis is ON
And then set everything else to infinite builds.
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{Scenario Name} - {Empire},{Game Settings},{Goal}
Livin' Up To Potential - UNE Empire, {0.5x Tech}, advance fast enough to protect the galaxy from the Horde before it can destroy a single empire.
You Were Chosen- UNE, {1x Tech, 2 Advanced Empires, 2x Crisis, (Years mid-2300, end-2500, vic-2700)}, defeat the Horde before they consume the galaxy using giga-weaponry(Titan, Stellarcraft, Obliterator, Colossus, etc) at least 2 other empires must remain and you must resurrect any consumed empires(obviously wont be perfect, use ethic shifts to get as close as you can) using genetic preservation(immigration) and vassalization before vicotry year.
You Were Designed - UNE, {1x Tech, 2 Advanced Empires, 3x Crisis, (Years mid-2300, end-2500, vic-2700)}, You Were Chosen except you must take Genetic Ascension, all the species in your empire must have all positive traits, all owned planets must be Gaia planets(World Shaper or a Special Relic are needed for this), and must destroy the last Horde Capitol using a Quasi-Stellar Obliterator while the Custodians original empire still exists.
Let's Try This Again - Custodians, standard settings; {Resist the Horde, seed the Birch World with every known species, restrict(but do not destroy) the Horde to a single system somehow and prevent them from expanding.(Shielding an empires final world destroys that empire, so shielding wont count(Think L-Gates and their potential destruction maybe? Or...)
Harmonious Unity - Custodians, standard settings, Let's Try This Again except victory is only achieved if every species regains their homeworld and is their own empire.
Horde-Minded - The Horde, standard settings, leave no sentient biological life left alive in the galaxy.
World-Eater - Horde-Minded except no trace of any biomass anywhere in the galaxy(no habitible worlds)
Prophecy Fulfilled- Bothrian Tribunal, standard settings, destroy the Horde and any heretics you encounter along the way. Achieve Psionic ascension and use the Quasi-Stellar Obliterator to destroy every star possible, leaving no remnant of life anywhere to be found.
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If you enjoyed this please leave an upvote, if you have suggestions or scenario ideas, leave a comment!

P.S. - let me know what you think of the Lore I came up with.

Okay, I know nobody is really going to care about this post and that it won't be read by many people, but this is something that has been irking me for a while. The black holes in Stellaris are WAY too big for the game, especially the Supermassive ones added by several mods. (Namely Gigastructural Engineering).
Black holes are massive objects, however, many people take this to mean that they are huge, which is really not the case. If you have a black hole the size of a basketball, you have 14x the mass of Earth in it, and while Supermassive black holes are many millions or billions times the mass of the sun, their diameter is relatively tiny. I'm not going to go into the math and scientific aspect of it, I invite anyone who knows this well (not that I'm assuming anyone will see this) to post the math and their views on this.
Getting into Gigastructural Engineering, the largest supermassive black hole we've ever discovered is 40% the size of the solar system (Please correct me if I'm wrong) so that makes you wonder why the Birch World and Quasi-Stellar Obliterator cost millions of alloys are resources, while the Alderson disk for example only costs a few 100,000s while we know the black holes can be AT MOST 40% of the size of the solar system and they tend to be far smaller. I completely understand the balance reasons, but with all the technologies and whatnot leading up to this, it gives this impression of them being massive.
Does this matter? No
Is anything going to change? No
Is anyone going to care that I took a half hour out of my day to write this? No
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I was just hoping to strike up a debate if possible

So, this is part two because I posted this before a week or so ago and I’m still stuck.
So, in short, I have control of all of the galactic core systems, and I can’t build the Quasi-Stellar Obliterator Megastructure from Gigastructures mod.
The system has nothing built in it except the Station and an Intergalactic Habitat )which technically shouldn’t interfere with it. But even before I built it, I had issues.
I have a construction ship in the system, so I have no idea whats wrong. The galactic map says theres Eloo in the system, but when you go into system view into the galactic core, all you see is a random molten world planet.
So Im at a a loss because I was excited to start blowing up entire systems so I could get rid of my enemies.
If anyone has any idea, I’m welcome to hear them.