Story events

The mod reshapes the game's periodic story events; its main change is the Pre-Founder Stage. Once per game, in the night between Sol 2 and Sol 3, a single Pre-Founder event pops up and asks you to choose a reward. The mod replaces the vanilla pre-founder events with its own set of 15 and rolls one at random: you never pick which event you get, only how you answer it. Each event offers three or four thematically different options - research, money, resources, colonists, buildings - balanced so no option is a trap and no event is a jackpot. The aim is not to hit an exact number but to give rewards that read nicely as part of the story - a round amount like 30 Drones, not 32 tuned to the last unit - around a ~500 M target inside a 400 to 700 M band. An event is skipped when one of its rewards would be redundant (a tech you already researched, or a prefab your sponsor already has an advanced version of).

Events and outcomes

Choice	Reward	Group	Value (M)	Event (theme)
Chase a breakthrough	A Breakthrough is revealed	Breakthrough	500	Research Research Grant
Take it as direct funding	500 M	Money	500
Fund the labs directly	150 Sponsor Research	Research points	500
Take the full swarm	Filled Supply Pod: 20 Drones	Rovers and drones	463	Robots Drone Prototypes
Take the rover team	Filled Supply Pod: an RC Explorer and an RC Transport	Rovers and drones	463
Reverse-engineer the prototypes	Reveal the next 3 Engineering techs	Tech reveals	450
Fill it with Polymers	Filled Supply Pod: 40	Advanced resources	517	Resources Supply Run
Load it with drones	Filled Supply Pod: 20 Drones	Rovers and drones	463
Pack orbital probes	Filled Supply Pod: 5 Orbital Probes	Orbital probes	513
Drill for metal	A deep Metal deposit (900 = 225); Deep Metal Extraction (avg 13,000) revealed (150) and 25% cheaper (133)	Deposit + research	508	Map Deep Survey (skipped if you already have Deep Metal Extraction)
Tap subsurface water instead	1 Subsurface Heater, 1 Drone Hub and 1 Moisture Vaporator prefab	Prefabs	550
Deploy a scout rover	Filled Supply Pod: an RC Explorer and 10 Drones (300 + 10×22.5 + 12.5 pod)	Rovers and drones	538
Scientists	10 Scientist applicants (10 × 26.67 = 267) and a Genius applicant (200)	Colonists	467	Colonists Training Program
Geologists	10 Geologist applicants and a Genius applicant	Colonists	467
Botanists	10 Botanist applicants and a Genius applicant	Colonists	467
Take the recruitment grant instead	500 M	Money	500
Take a prefab Shuttle Hub	1 Shuttle Hub prefab	Prefabs	525	Funding Sponsor Deal (skipped if you already have Extractor Amplification, or play the Paradox sponsor)
Take a research grant	150 Sponsor Research	Research points	500
Take the extraction deal	Permanent +20% Rare Metals export price (240); Extractor Amplification (avg 1,400) revealed (150) and 50% cheaper (63)	Export + research	453
A Shuttle Hub	1 Shuttle Hub prefab	Prefabs	525	Buildings Free Prefabs (skipped if you play the Paradox sponsor - its Jumper Shuttle is an advanced Shuttle Hub)
Scrub the atmosphere	1 Triboelectric Scrubber prefab	Prefabs	550
Take the funding	500 M	Money	500
Take the machine parts	Filled Supply Pod: 30	Advanced resources	499	Funding Colony Investment (skipped if you already have Deep Metal Extraction)
Take the mining rovers	Filled Supply Pod: 2 RC Transports and 10 Drones (2×150 + 10×22.5 + 12.5 pod)	Rovers and drones	538
Take the export stake	Permanent +15% Rare Metals export price (180); Deep Metal Extraction (deep Rare Metal mining, avg 13,000) revealed (150) and 25% cheaper (133)	Export + research	463
Orbital probes	Filled Supply Pod: 5 Orbital Probes	Orbital probes	513	Vehicles Exploration Contract
Map the terraforming survey	Reveal the next 3 Terraforming techs	Tech reveals	450
Take the survey electronics	Filled Supply Pod: 20	Advanced resources	553
Decode the archive	A Breakthrough is revealed	Breakthrough	500	Research Heirloom
Sell the patents	500 M	Money	500
Trade it for lab time	150 Sponsor Research	Research points	500
Install the upgrades	Reveal the next 3 Physics techs	Tech reveals	450	Research Mandatory Upgrades
Request materials	Filled Supply Pod: 40	Advanced resources	517
Fund the research	150 Sponsor Research	Research points	500
Recover the databanks	Reveal the next 3 Robotics techs	Tech reveals	450	Salvage Salvage Rights
Salvage the rovers	Filled Supply Pod: an RC Commander and 10 Drones (225 + 10×22.5 + 12.5 pod)	Rovers and drones	463
Strip the electronics	Filled Supply Pod: 20	Advanced resources	553
Publish the findings	Reveal the next 3 Biotech techs	Tech reveals	450	Research and people Field Study
Recruit the team	10 Scientist applicants and a Genius applicant	Colonists	467
Take the stipend	500 M	Money	500
Recover their colony records	Reveal the next 3 Social techs	Tech reveals	450	Research Deep Space Signal
Feed it to the labs	150 Sponsor Research	Research points	500
Trace its origin	Filled Supply Pod: 5 Orbital Probes	Orbital probes	513
Chase every lead	Reveal the next tech in 3 different fields	Tech reveals	450	Research Cross-Discipline Survey
Send out the survey teams	Filled Supply Pod: 5 Orbital Probes	Orbital probes	513
Recruit the research corps	10 Scientist applicants and a Genius applicant	Colonists	467

The mod and the game's event stages

The base game fires its periodic story events in three stages, gated by how far the colony has come (story events by colony stage). This mod takes a different stance on each:

• Pre-Founder Stage - the events on this page. The mod empties the vanilla Pre-Founder pool and fires one of its own 15 at random instead.
• After the Founder Stage - the large main-game pool (65 vanilla events) is left as vanilla: the mod neither adds to it nor removes from it.
• Any time - not supported. The mod disables this whole group, so its two events, Fickle Economics and Power Surge, never fire.

Design rules

Rewards are rounded, not tuned to 500. "Rounded" means every reward amount is a clean, recognisable number - a multiple of 5 or 10 (20 Drones, 40 Polymers, 150 Sponsor Research, 5 Orbital Probes), never a figure filed down to the last unit to land exactly on 500 (not 18 Electronics, not 22 Drones, not 8 Drones). Among the round amounts you pick the one whose value sits closest to the ~500 M target, and accept that it lands a little above or below - 20 Drones is 463, 20 Electronics is 553 - rather than adding an odd unit or two to reach exactly 500. A round number reads as a deliberate gift; an odd one reads as a tuned spreadsheet cell. Amounts that are fixed by their nature (a three-tech reveal, a prefab, money at 500) simply sit where they land.

Redundant-reward gating (whole event): an event is skipped for the whole game when one of its rewards would be wasted, even if the event's other options are fine - the gate always removes the entire event, never a single option. Two triggers: (1) an option grants or discounts a specific named tech the player has already researched (from a commander, sponsor, or normal research); (2) the player's sponsor already has an advanced version of a prefab building an option grants - e.g. the Paradox sponsor's Jumper Shuttle is an advanced Shuttle Hub, so any event offering a Shuttle Hub prefab is skipped for Paradox. Gated today: Deep Survey and Colony Investment (Deep Metal Extraction), Sponsor Deal (Extractor Amplification, and Paradox via its Shuttle Hub prefab), Free Prefabs (Paradox). Generic research rewards (reveal the next tech in a field, Sponsor Research, a random Breakthrough) name no tech and are never gated. Enforced at pick time in Code/StS_PreFounderEventChoice.lua: STS_EVENT_BLOCK_IF_RESEARCHED via UIColony:IsTechResearched, STS_EVENT_BLOCK_IF_SPONSOR via GetMissionSponsor().id.

One-reveal rule: no Pre-Founder event may have more than one result that reveals techs. A reveal can be one of an event's options, but two tech-reveals never share an event. The seven reveals are spread one per event: a single-field reveal (that field's next 3 techs) rides Exploration Contract (Terraforming), Drone Prototypes (Engineering), Salvage Rights (Robotics), Mandatory Upgrades (Physics), Field Study (Biotech) and Deep Space Signal (Social); the seventh, the Cross-Discipline Survey, reveals the next tech in 3 different random fields. Only that random-field reveal needs code (Code/StS_PreFounderSpreadEvent.lua); the six single-field reveals are plain options in items.lua.

Distinct-options rule: within one event, no two options may hand out the same resource. An option that gives "X of a resource" next to another that gives "less of that resource plus cash" (or plus a vehicle) is banned - it is a fake choice: the same reward padded two ways. Every option must be a genuinely different reward (a resource, cash, research, applicants, a prefab, a vehicle, a tech), so the choice is real. Example of what NOT to do: "a Filled Supply Pod with 30 Drones" next to "a Filled Supply Pod with 16 Drones and an RC Commander" - both are just Drones in different amounts.

One cash-like option, max: money and advanced resources (Polymers, Machine Parts, Electronics) are the same currency - advanced resources are just money you would otherwise spend to buy them. So an event may have at most ONE outcome that is money or an advanced-resource pod; every other outcome must be something genuinely different (a tech or Breakthrough, applicants, a prefab, a vehicle, a deposit). Two resource pods, or a resource pod plus a cash option, is banned - it is the same boring reward twice. Money is only worth offering when none of the other options is a resource.

Money is a flat 500 M: whenever an option pays money, it is always 500 M - never 450 or any other figure. One fixed cash amount keeps the money option directly comparable across every event.

An advanced-resource option gives one resource, slightly over: when an option hands out advanced resources, give a single resource (all Polymers, or all Machine Parts, or all Electronics), never a mix of different kinds - a spread of several resources is too strong, because the variety is worth more than the sum. Advanced resources are valued at 90% of their money cost (reward value): a granted pod is slightly worse than the cash, so you take it only if you need that resource. To keep the option a reasonable pick, give a small oversupply - a few more units than the money would buy - rather than an exact cash-equivalent.

A prefab option gives only prefabs: when an option's reward is a prefab building, it may hand out one or more prefabs but nothing else - no Sponsor Research, cash, resources or applicants alongside. A prefab is its own kind of reward; padding it with research makes a muddled half-and-half option instead of a clean choice.

Sensible quantities: for a building or vehicle - RC Transport, RC Commander, a Subsurface Heater, a Moisture Vaporator - you rarely need many. One is often enough, two is plenty; three or more of the same unit is not a sensible reward, because the extra copies sit unused (each prefab copy is worth half its resupply value - see reward value). If two of a unit fall short of the target value, top up with a different reward (some Sponsor Research, cash) rather than piling on a third copy.

Group counts

How often each result group appears across all 46 options (15 events, 3 options each except Training Program with 4). Tech reveals now lead at seven - one per research field plus the Cross-Discipline Survey - with Rovers and drones next at six. Prefab and Prefabs are one group; Drones, Rovers, and Rovers + drones are one group.

Reward values

Every value in the table is figured on the one wiki scale, Reward value - money, research, resources, vehicles, prefabs (half their resupply value), deposits, applicants (with saturation), and export. See that page for the method; the balancing rules for these events are in docs/pre-founder-event-rewards.md.

Prefab rewards are valued at half the prefab's resupply (import) cost: a Shuttle Hub (1,050 resupply) is 525, a Subsurface Heater (350) is 175, a Triboelectric Scrubber (1,100) is 550. Every resupply price is on Prefabs; the method is on Reward value.

The goal is a reward that reads nicely as part of the story, not an exact 500 M. Each option should be a clean, recognisable amount - 30 Drones, 5 Orbital Probes, a Shuttle Hub - chosen for how it reads, not reverse-engineered to the last unit to land on 500. Treat the scale as a sanity check: aim a ~500 M target inside a 400 to 700 M band, and do not add an odd Drone or two just to hit 500. Some rewards are fixed anyway - money at 500 and 150 Sponsor Research at 500, a three-tech field reveal at 450, five Orbital Probes at 525 - so an event's options sit a little apart inside the band by nature.

Sources

The events are hand-authored in mod-survive/items.lua (group "StS Pre-Founder", id prefix "StS_PF_"), except the Cross-Discipline Survey, whose random-field reveal needs code (Code/StS_PreFounderSpreadEvent.lua); the mechanic is Code/StS_PreFounderEventChoice.lua and the fire timing is docs/pre-founder-event-timing.md. Design rules and value scale: docs/pre-founder-event-rewards.md. The vanilla pool this replaces, and the two other event stages, are on the vanilla story-events page. The Any-time group is disabled in Code/StS_DisableAnyTimeEvents.lua (same empty-pool method as the Pre-Founder replacement). Effect shapes verified in external/SurvivingMars: