Stellaris 4.x mod that makes the AI play like a competent human.
No bonus resources. No hidden modifiers. No cheating. The AI simply makes better decisions — building what it needs, when it needs it, based on the same information a human player has.
Vanilla Stellaris AI builds alloy foundries when it can't afford the mineral drain. It spams gene clinics instead of research labs. It over-invests in energy when it should be mining. It ignores planet specialization and builds a little of everything everywhere.
Sovereign AI fixes this with three systems:
Every building and district starts at weight 0. The AI only builds when it detects an actual need — mineral income dropping, alloy deficit emerging, housing running out. No more proactive waste.
Before the AI builds a converter (alloy foundry, research lab, consumer goods factory), it checks whether the upstream resource can sustain the drain. If mineral income is below 15/month, it won't build another foundry no matter how much it wants alloys. This prevents the cascade failures that cripple vanilla AI economies.
| Gate | What It Checks | What It Prevents |
|---|---|---|
| G1 | Mineral income | Foundries crashing mineral economy |
| G2 | Consumer goods income | Research labs crashing CG economy |
| G3 | Mineral income (strict) | Strategic resource refineries draining minerals |
| G4 | Strategic resource income | T2/T3 buildings without upkeep source |
| G5 | Alloy income | Expanding when can't afford it |
| G6 | Energy income | High-upkeep buildings tanking energy |
9 distinct AI personalities that actually play differently:
| Personality | Strategy | You'll Notice |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive Expansionist | Alloy rush, early wars | Large fleets, frequent conquest |
| Ruthless Industrialist | Production supremacy | Highest resource output in the galaxy |
| Diplomatic Hegemon | Federation builder | Many pacts, early federations |
| Fortress Guardian | Defensive turtle | Fortress starbases, never attacks first |
| Knowledge Seeker | Tech rush | Research labs everywhere, tech lead |
| Evangelizing Zealot | Unity rush, liberation wars | Temples, tradition dominance |
| Xenophobic Purifier | Total war | Constant aggression, no diplomacy |
| Devouring Swarm | Consume everything | Rapid expansion, biological warfare |
| Adaptive Optimizer | Efficient machine expansion | Balanced, methodical, diplomatic when useful |
Each personality has distinct weight factors that shift building priorities — a Knowledge Seeker values research labs at 2.5x while deprioritizing military buildings, and a Ruthless Industrialist pumps alloy foundries at 2.5x.
- Download or clone this repo
- Copy the
mod/folder contents to your Stellaris mod directory:- Windows:
Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod\sovereign_ai_overhaul\ - Linux:
~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mod/sovereign_ai_overhaul/ - macOS:
~/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mod/sovereign_ai_overhaul/
- Windows:
- Copy
sovereign_ai_overhaul.modto the parentmod/directory - Enable "Sovereign AI Overhaul" in the Paradox launcher
- Start a game on Ensign difficulty (no AI bonuses) for the intended experience
The best way to see Sovereign AI in action:
- Start a game with 10+ AI empires on Ensign difficulty
- Open console (
`) and typeobserve - Set game speed to fastest
- Watch the AI empires develop — you should see distinct economic patterns per personality
- Use
debugtooltipto inspect AI decision values
- Stellaris version: 4.x
- DLC: Works with all DLC, none required
- Other mods: Should be compatible with mods that don't modify AI weights or personality definitions
- Save compatible: Can be added to existing saves (AI will start making better decisions immediately)
This is v0.1.0 — the foundation is solid but coverage is still expanding:
- Core building and district weights for the early game are implemented and validated
- 9 personalities are defined with distinct behavior profiles
- Gate system prevents cascade economic failures
- Scripted triggers provide consistent ethics/authority checking
See research/v0-plan.md in the development branch for the full roadmap.
This mod is developed using an evidence-based pipeline with custom tooling:
- stellaris-wiki-mcp — MCP server for structured Stellaris Wiki access (game data, patch notes, search)
- stellaris-save-mcp — MCP server for save game analysis (empire budgets, tech trees, version tracking)
- Economy simulator — turn-based weight resolver that validates AI building decisions before they go into the mod
- Template system — 17 JSON archetype templates (AI-derived + player-derived) that define complete personality profiles
The development toolchain is in the claude/init-stellaris-ai-project-0mhnc branch. The main branch contains only the mod files and templates.
The AI should play Stellaris like a competent human player — making rational decisions based on available information, responding to threats, and pursuing coherent long-term strategies.
Read more in design/philosophy.md on the development branch.
MIT