by MrFreake_PDX

Hello Stellaris Community!

Today is the end of working time for the modders participating in #MODJAM2025! The modders now have 10 days to test and polish their submissions before the modjam releases on July 29th. Were expecting between 15 and 20 new modded player crisis paths for you to enjoy. If youre interested in helping test the modders submissions, join us on discord and get the tester role in the #help-test-modjam channel.

We brought in Michael~ to create videos to highlight the modders submissions on YouTube as well:

Be sure to subscribe to [u]Michael~[/u] on YouTube to get more content about Stellaris Mods!

Our first highlight is by Greendog, is a diplomatic focused crisis that wishes to take over the galaxy, believing themselves to be as gods compared to the other empires.

When asked about their inspiration, Greendog said this submission was loosely inspired by the Galactic Empire and the Imperium of Man. Cant say they dont know their audience.

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Our next submission, created by Jin2188 and The_Wandering_Modder , takes you on a journey across Branchial Space, where infinite universes entangle in a vast web of endless possibilities.

When asked about the inspiration behind The Branchial Weaver, they said this:

After the last ModJam, I joined up with a few other modders to try and create a big "Crisis Expansion" mod, that would have a crisis path for each vanilla ethic, with the crisis for the Pacifist ethic involving time travel and rewriting history. The project never really came to fruition, but the core ideas were still there. When expanding upon this idea for this ModJam, I was heavily inspired by a "theory of everything" making the rounds in physics recently. Stephen Wolfram, Jonathan Gorard, and several others have been working on what they call the Wolfram Physics Project, one of several attempts to find the "fundamental theory of physics". Its validity is debatable, but I found myself fascinated by it anyway. One of the really interesting things I found was the idea that general relativity (our current theory of gravity) and quantum mechanics are actually the same theory played out in different kinds of space. Quantum mechanics, in this framework, plays out in what Wolfram calls "branchial space", which is a sort of "space of spaces" where each element of the "space" represents a single quantum state of the universe. It's a bit complicated, but Wolfram tries to make it as simple as possible when communicating his theory to the public. He has a few "writings" where he describes aspects of his ideas in a somewhat simplified form for those who are interested in physics but don't want to be bombarded with math and technical jargon.

Our next submission, by Daniellm is a spiritual crisis path revolving around the Shroud.

When asked about their inspiration, Daniellm said this:

"I have always loved psionics and the shroud in stellaris. The shroud patrons and just generally the idea of this other dimension of pure energy not so far from ours.

Stellaris has never really tapped into the idea of shroud cults, the closest we come to this are the shroudwalkers. The idea of cults, and them spreading to different empires, all with the common goal of wanting to summon their god or gods into the universe is what started project divinity."

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Our next submission to highlight is by jam1066, is a mining focused crisis path, which gives you access to more extreme mining techniques as you progress further.

When asked about their inspiration for creating this crisis path, jam1066 had this to say:

I looked at what ships existed in the game but were inaccessible to the player and found the Mining Drones. This helped me decide the direction of the crisis path in being mining focused.

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Our next submission by .wiirlak (with icons made by Oriya) revolves around terraforming planets into Bloom Worlds, making a haven for your people, and a nightmare for others.

When asked about their inspiration, wiirlak simply said Unlimited Growth.

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Our final submission this week is by TheRingBearer, whose crisis path aims to create a perfect idyllic utopia, a society previously thought unobtainable.

When asked about their inspiration, this is what TheRingBearer had to say:

While I can point to a joke in the Modjam Discord to the inspiration of the theme. The driving inspiration was wanting a way to "win" that didn't necessarily involve conquering the galaxy as well as being a "well intentioned" Crisis. Utopia justifies the means.

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Thanks for reading!

If youre interested in helping the modders playtest their mods, join us on discord and press the button in the #help-test-modjam channel to unlock the testing channels! Well be back next week with more highlights from #MODJAM2025!