So you know how there are a few sacrificial mechanics in the game such as Hisho's observance, Guardian sacrifice, and Cravers feeding stations? There are also quests that require spending either resources or certain population types, such as Sophons & Mavrons questline, also there are quests that have... destructive consequences.

I am trying to figure out how to make it possible for Sophons to either have a sacrifice-type system improvement that will require a single Sophon population for a boost in science or something, since they don't really care about their safety. Something like a mad experiment gone wrong. I also like this because sometimes I want to curb my sophon population in an immersive way, like conscripting.

Alternatively, something that I think is really cool is if I could build a system improvement, the experimental lab of sorts, that would trigger a quest that rewards with a boost in science or something like that, but will have a chance of either killing off a population, causing an economic crisis or some other debuff on the system, or even destruction of another system improvement, or (this is the exciting part) a chance to cause a negative anomaly or terraform a planet into a less inhabitable type! That just SOPHONITY turned all the way up!!! They did blow up their own moon, after all. Maybe this building would spawn a quest curio that will do all that. In other words, take risks... For science! imagine being able to accidentally destroy your planet or a whole system! I mean, that definitely sucks but just knowing that you play a race that can do things like that in the name of science would add immense roleplaying element, at least for me.

I kinda have an idea of what I need to do to make this happen, however, this is very ambitious and is a lot, and I would like help to narrow it down and maybe start with something simpler. So far my only successful mod was adding a Faction Trait, it was pretty straightforward once I understood how XMLs worked. Granted it took me about 4-5 hours, having an example mod made it relatively simple. But that one was a single function mod, for this project it seems I will have to use Quest, System improvements, Maybe Curio system XMLs, and the hardest function that is the Sacrifice mechanic because the effect is not described in SimulaitonDescriptors like other effects that add food for example. I would prefer to be able to target Sophon pop specifically, but for the start, I think I would just use Conscription/Observance as a template. The biggest concern I have is that I will makes some small mistakes here and there in XMLs and they wouldn't even load.

I know I'm pretty late to the party since the game came out in 2017, but I finally got to play it and it's amazing! Any references to other modes, criticism, or advice is welcome, thanks for reading!