Console:Megastructures

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This article is for the console version of Stellaris only.

Megastructures are colossal object constructions. Expensive and time-consuming, these remarkable feats of engineering are nonetheless important wonders that provide large bonuses, demonstrating the technological and economical primacy of the builders' empire.

It is possible to find ruined megastructures spread in the galaxy to repair and restore them into their final form. Doing so allows saving a lot of the resources required to construct them. While restoring the megatructures does not require any ascension perks, it does require the player having researched the technology Mega Engineering.

It is only possible to build, upgrade, or restore one megastructure at a time, except in the case of habitats. In general, megastructures cannot be destroyed - the only exception to this are Habitats which can be destroyed with war demands or via certain events.

Note: Ring worlds can be restored even without Utopia enabled.

Ascension Perks

A number of Ascension Perks enable or affect the building of Megastructures.

Voidborne

This Perk enables the building of Habitats. It has significantly lower requirements than the perk for the other Megastructures, requiring only some of the prerequisites of Mega Engineering rather than the tech itself.

Circle of Life

Requires Mega Engineering and Voidborne. This enables the construction of Ringworlds. They offer extreme living space at higher efficiency than Habitats. However the system they are built in must be devoid of habitable planets as in the construction of the ringworld all planets will be destroyed to supply the materials. You can build an infinite number of these.

Galactic Wonders

Requires Mega Engineering. Enables the Dyson Sphere, Science nexus and Sentry Array. What each of these Megastructures have in common is that they provide effects and bonuses without any of the disadvantages associated with a colonized planet.

Master Builders

Master Builders will increase the buildspeed of Megastructures by +100%.

Habitats

Mammalian habitat.

An artificial planet in all but name, these Habitats offer 12 tiles to work coupled with 100% habitability for all species. Its graphical model is dependent on the builders' species type. Note that the constructed habitat still requires colonization.

It has the peculiarity of having a unique set of buildings distinct from normal planetary ones. This set of buildings has good Energy and research yields, but is less effective for generating Food and Minerals. Several event or tradition-unlocked buildings can also be constructed, e.g. Spiral-Feed Power Hubs and Paradise Domes.

The project takes 5 years to complete and costs a total of 100 and 5 000 minerals.

Requires the Voidborne ascension perk, which does not require Mega Engineering, only the Battleship and Fortress technologies. It cannot be built on habitable planets, asteroids or any type of moon.

Strategy

Habitats have considerable production penalties for both Minerals and Unity, as they effectively act as a rather small planet. However, they offer superior Energy and Science income, while doubling as an Orbital Farm. They also require considerably less micromanagement, because none of the buildings need upgrades nor provide adjacency bonuses. Of all the megastructures, they have the least onerous requirements in terms of technology and placement.

Habitats are uninhabited when they are built; they need to be colonized afterwards. They will also inherit orbital tile deposits from their orbiting planet.

Habitats are normally indestructible because they are treated as planets, however they can be disassembled by war demand. If a habitat is destroyed, it will strangely never be possible to build another habitat, or even a mining/research station, orbiting the planet, so any strategic resource on the planet is permanently lost. What's more, habitats can't have spaceports, so if an empire has only habitats and no planets, it will never be able to build ships.

Ringworld

Ring world.

Immense in both radius and scope, these Ringworlds encircle their system's sun and award their owner four, 25 tile sized sections when fully constructed. Its carefully designed ecosystem and finely-tuned atmosphere imply excellent living conditions towards all higher forms of life; that is to say, all residing species have 100% habitability on a ringworld.

The project takes 58⅓ years to complete and costs a grand total of 300 and 110 000 minerals. With the Master Builder perk, it takes 29⅙ years instead.

The initial site is built by a construction ship around the star, and cannot be begun if another construction ship is building a megastructure. Once the site is complete, it constructs the subsequent sections without the need for a construction ship.

Ringworlds cannot be built around black holes. All planets in the system are consumed upon the completion of one of its four sections.

Requires the The Circle of Life ascension perk and a system with no habitable planets. The following list shows the upgrade order.

Type		Upkeep	Time	Cost
	Site	-5	1 800	300 10 000
100px	Frame	None	4 800	20 000
	Completed Section	None	3 600	20 000

Strategy

The Ringworld offers a massive amount of living space (100) while only counting as 4 Planets. The big limitation is that there are only very few Systems one can build them in, as the system requirements are identical to the ones for a Dyson Sphere, except it also needs a lot of planets to be used for raw material. Like Habitats it also requires a separate Ascension Perk from the other Megastructures. It is the only Megastructure that is exclusive for its system, as its creation will consume all other stellar bodies in the system.

Events

Sometimes there is an event while constructing a section of the Ring World that grants you a temporary +20% Megastructures build speed. There is also an opportunity to gain 500 minerals in exchange for increase of Ring Section building time by 20 days. You may also gain an event while it is still under construction where a neighboring empire will request to inspect the ring world for fears of "weapons of mass destruction", delaying it, or if refused giving an opinion penalty to you by -40, which decreases by +2 yearly. You may also gain an event while it is under construction where an empire will have a vision and wish to bless the ringworld, refusing does nothing, while accepting delays the building by 20 days and grants an opinion bonus. There is also an event where one of the planets had been home to a type of giant space worm, which the workers on the ringworld grow to like. You can either exterminate the worm species, halting construction for a month, or continue with the worms. If you chose to continue with the worms, a few days later the worms are found to be larvae, and to be feeding on the bodies of several missing workers. You must then kill off the worms, halting construction for a month.

Dyson Sphere

Dyson Sphere.

These multi-staged, truncated icosahedron-shaped structures harness the energy output of an entire star. A fully constructed Dyson Sphere provides a whopping +400 energy.

All rocky planets and moons in the system turn into frozen or cold barren worlds upon its completion. This is meant to represent the lack of thermal radiation they would receive considering the star has been mostly completely encased.

The project takes 55 years to complete and costs a grand total of 300 and 210 000 minerals.

Requires the Galactic Wonders ascension perk and a system with no habitable planets. The following list shows the upgrade order.

Note: The amount of energy provided does not vary between different star types.

Type		Produces	Upkeep	Time	Cost
	Site	None	-5	1 800	300 10 000
	Frame	None	None	3 600	40 000
	Partial (25%)	+100	None	3 600	40 000
	Partial (50%)	+200	None	3 600	40 000
	Partial (75%)	+300	None	3 600	40 000
	Dyson Sphere	+400	None	3 600	40 000

Events

During the construction of the framework of the sphere, neighboring empires may tell you their astonishment about your progress in constructing the sphere and request for your permission to allow a group of engineers to study the technology. Accepting the request may result in opinion improvement by 40 which decreases by -2 yearly. You will also be awarded 250 points of engineering research. There is no clue that whether the empire will be able to construct Dyson Spheres after the event.

Once you finish the framework of the Sphere, there is a chance where a neighboring empire will approach you asking you to deconstruct the Sphere due to the importance of that star in said empires culture. Refusing to dismantle the Sphere adds "The Blind Wanderer" to their opinion screen which reduces their opinion of you by -40 which decreases by +2 yearly.

Strategy

The Dyson Sphere offers considerable energy income at no cost for Unity or Research from population/colonized planets. Habitats may also be built in systems with a Dyson sphere, but not other megastructures.

Science nexus

File:Science nexus.jpg

Science nexus.

The Science nexus takes close to 25 years to complete and costs a grand total of 300 and 70 000 minerals.

Requires the Galactic Wonders ascension perk and cannot be built on habitable planets, asteroids or any type of moon.

It is possible to build a single Science nexus in each (non-black hole) system within your empire's borders.

Strategy

The Science nexus provides a considerable bonus to Science without any penalty from having another colonized planet. The initial site cost 10,000 minerals, and the three stages after cost 20,000 minerals each while providing 30/60/90 to all science. This is equivalent to a fairly good research-focused planet, although fully-focused size-25 planets can output over 90.

Events

Upon completion, you may randomly get an event where you may sacrifice one of your scientists to increase the science yield to 100 to all science, up from 90.

Sentry Array

Sentry Array.

The Sentry Array takes close to 25 years to complete and costs a grand total of 300 and 70 000 minerals.

Requires the Galactic Wonders ascension perk. A Sentry Array must be built around a star (or a black hole), and is empire unique.

Strategy

The completely finished Sentry Array will give you vision over the entire galaxy. This can make it an important military and strategic asset, as complete intelligence of every pop and fleet in the galaxy can give considerable strategic information. On lower levels it will still provide at least considerable vision, quickly eliminating any "blind spots" in the sensor coverage of the player or their federation.

Provided you do not lose the system hosting your Sentry Array, it makes the Planetary Signal Booster technology useless, allowing you to focus on other late-game repeatable technologies.

Sanctuary

The Sanctuary system has about a 10% chance of spawning in a game. It is a solar system with a ringworld with 4 completed sections, each housing a primitive civilization, none advanced beyond the Industrial age. It is recommended if this system spawns in your galaxy, you try to go after it as it can provide hundreds of minerals or food per month. Unfortunately it is guarded by multiple stations totaling about 30K in combat strength. You'll need a fleet of similar strength to beat the stations. However, if you approach from away from the main station (8K combat strength) then you may be able to get away with a fleet with only 20-25K if you emergency FTL one or two times, taking out the stations a few each time. The stations are well balanced, and there is no recommended weapon type against them, other than the normal powerful weapons, aka; plasma and disruptors, or kinetic weapons. Once you take out the defenses around it and the system is in your territory, you can either enlighten the primitives, or if you are a xenophobe and not a pacifist, you can just invade, or if you want to do a middle path use covert infiltration. Both outright invading and covert infiltration will directly annex the ringworld sector, however, invading them will give them the stellar shock modifier, decreasing happiness, mineral and energy output, as well as making them completely useless at science. That said, while covert infiltration might seem superior, you need that primitive civilization to be at the industrial age or more advanced, which is unlikely but possible as well as the Gene Tailoring technology to do it. Enlightening the primitives is always possible, but can take ~40 years and a few hundred influence to get them fully integrated into your empire.

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