Ever wonder why the Xenomorph army unlock tech randomly talks about subconscious interfacing?
[quote=Xenomorph Army Tech]From its cradle as a purely pharmaceutical venture, advancements in our understanding of the morphogenetic field allow for direct, subconscious interfaces with organic units.[/quote]
It's because it was actually made for the alien cavalry feature:
[quote=Stellaris 1.0]These sturdy war beasts make excellent mounts, once they have finished bonding with their riders. They can traverse almost any terrain, and have proven very effective in scouting and raiding roles. Larger specimens have also been used with success as heavy weapon platforms.[/quote]
Pretty cool, right? It's Turok, Avatar, etc. But nowadays it's been removed from the game. You can't play a really cool idea and the Xenomorph tech looks vaguely broken/un-thematic.


Dangerous Wildlife Expanded adds a selection of new alien fauna, and then gives you fun ways to interact with it.

• Discover and explore 44 new varieties of alien wildlife and their homes.
  
• Defend yourself from, and take the attack back to, said wildlife.
  
• Integrate fauna into your colonies to gain new living spaces.
  
• Bring your monsters through the vacuum of space to invade alien worlds.
  
• Xeno-Cavalry is restored! Ride alien animals on mounted divisions.
  
• Explore the deepest wilderness, uncovering epic bosses that you can one day use for yourself.
  
• And lastly breed the wildlife - getting around their scarcity.
  
• Afterwards, you're ready to progress into Xenomorph development in a natural way.
  

Everything is contained inside two short tech paths:
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Dangerous Wildlife Manipulation deals with exploring, relocating and breeding creatures.

Morphogenetics deals with genetically modifying fauna.

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You can find new wildlife just like vanilla - by scanning a planet and seeing it's features. But sometimes you'll find a dangerous continent.



Colonists are struggling to develop these vast areas. You scout them with teams of military and science personnel, who reveal a selection of new planetary deposits for you, and detailing what the dangerous wildlife was living there.


I've added prehistoric Mammals, Dinosaurs, Giant Bugs, or other Apex predators that might exist on earth today. Three animals - Raptor Flocks, Battle Worms and the Parasitic Brood are based on more attachments like Xeno-Cavalry, unimplemented ideas by Paradox the mod adds back.

Mechanically, wildlife is a tweaked "Dangerous Wildlife" blocker. They will strike out and attack your colonists in ground war. Attacks will pressure you over time, and some are strong, so you have a reason to land your idle transports. Different wildlife has different strength, too. Packs of Dire-Wolves may be tough, but are nothing compared to the rare and mighty Tyrannosaurus.

Like Vanilla, you get a tech to stop the attacks, and each climate has it's own one. So if you've dealt with Goliath-Bats in your Alpine Caverns, you still need a solution for Millipedes infesting your Tomb World.

Afterwards you'll possess a deposit of pacified specimens that are no longer a threat. It doesn't do anything yet, but evolves in fancy ways as you progress the techs.


The other way to find new wildlife is on a super-rare Wildlife world:



They're special planets whose ecosystems are overrun by one species. Perhaps a prehistoric Savannah world with skies swarming with Pteranodon, or it's fields full of Velociraptor... They have many deposits and are therefore very tough to colonise.


The Morphogenetics tech is where we start, giving us useful colony bonuses as our citizens learn to live with Wildlife:



Impulse control is next, and let's us pack the wildlife into our transport ships:



Wildlife is powerful but has troop limits like the vanilla "Titanic Life". You can't recruit infinite Woolly Rhino's, you're more likely to use a mix of different species and create some fun invasion make-ups.

Hopefully you now see the value in finding a wildlife world! If you conquer one you have more armies at your disposal. They're hopefully the kind of world to wage war over.

Remember: Wildlife has varying strength - this remains true when you recruit them. If T-Rex were bad-ass enemies, they are bad-ass allies!

⚠️Your Woolly Mammoths will be stronger on Tundra worlds, and suffocate on a tomb world. Your Megalodon Sharks do well on Ocean worlds, but do very little on Deserts. - Please paradox add triggered_army_modifier so I can do this!⚠️


Next are the alien mounts, your citizens can now ride the monsters:



Not everything is mountable, I've only added ones that make sense. But as a cherry on top, if your wildlife is capable of flight (say, Giant-Eagles) then you get flying cavalry - same for if they can swim (like Sharks). These armies are stronger and have a lower troop limit.



Deep Wildlife extraction is a DANGEROUS tech. It will substantially raise your troop limits for all wildlife - a huge perk. But there is a chance that those exploring teams will also provoke the mods apex predators, wildlife bosses!


Wildlife bosses are titanic specimens that can take on hordes of armies all on their own.


All 44 forms of wildlife have their own boss with unique name and idea for their ultimate kingpin. They also appear without the tech in one place: On wildlife worlds when you pacify the last deposit.

If you beat a boss you'll find a planet modifier marking that it has been subdued, and may be useful later. Which is where Exotic Morphogenetics comes in:



Recruiting a boss is a big deal and a tough endgame activity, costing a lot of food, money and time. It's also a one-time thing, try to keep it alive! Think of the feature as a ground-combat megastructure.


The last tech of the mod allows you to create new deposits:



With this you'll be able to specialise your worlds as recruitment capitals. You can take your limited alien Pandas and breed more of them - getting around much of the army limit. Just in time to build a horde to fight against the Prethoryn. Sorry if they get zombified.


In vanilla, Machine Empires don't use Morphogenetics or Epigenetics, same here.
Fanatic Xenophobes and Purifiers also are uninterested in wildlife.
And I included that Devouring Swarms will, of course, get to eat them. (Via decision.)


Compatible with my mod Planetary Features Expanded. It's basically an expansion to it.
Fully compatible with Planetary Diversity.
One overwrite - Morphogenetic Field Mastery tech.
Fully configurable in the scripted_variables file. Try it!
Like my other mods, I have full details on a spreadsheet - if you have feedback you can right-click comment anything and I'll see!

I super duper want for this mod custom army icons. That would look so cool. There are currently none. If you can help with this, please message me.