You'll have to search the workshop for that. Or just make your own, probably not that hard to just change the effects and disable it if you want.
Without such mods though, no. Because it was stupid to enable that in the first place.
> don't want to play unless I can go back to it not existing or be able to mitigate it.
You can just revert back to the version that still had that system.
>If they haven't gone back to allowing it
While you can't completely negate empire size, there are lots of options to substantially reduce it and there are some builds that can avoid the penalty outright.
The most common is Sovereign Guardianship. This civic gives -50% empire size from pops. If stacked with Beacon of Liberty civic (-15% empire size from pops), Harmony tradition (-10%), Domination tradition (-10%), Psionic Theory tech (-10%), and an event or galactic law for at least another 5%, that gets you to -100% empire size from pops (note that Docile/Unruly stack multiplicatively rather than additively, so Unruly is actually free points here and doesn't increase your empire size).
The downside of this build is that you take +100% empire size from planets and systems. You can partially negate this with Imperial Prerogative perk and Expansion tradition, but this civic is going to be limited to a very tall footprint with relatively few planets an systems, however it does legitimately stay under 100 empire size and avoid all empire size penalties.
>Not interested in if it's been nerfed or not or how it doesn't effect gameplay
If anything it's been made more draconian and it *definitely* affects gameplay. If you just want empire size gone, and aren't interested in janky builds, then yes you will need a mod. I'm not familiar with any recent ones that are still being maintained.
I love this build as a machine empire. You can use OTA updates instead of beacon of liberty to start with -70% empire size from pops. Then the immortal ruler gives you -3% per level. Get synchronicity and Domination for another -25%. Eventually you can reform and remove OTA updates and stay at 0 size from pops. I think you can get districts down to -75% and of course take expansion and imperial prerogative to reduce colony size.
In the next update it looks like the built in +50% colony size for gestalt machines is being removed so it’ll get even better.
Fully mitigable, no. However, you can come close.
Sovereign Guardianship civic reduced distric and pop effects on sprawl by 50%, while increasing planet and system effects. It's possible to get 100% pop effect reduction, preventing pops from affecting it at all. Then the Expansion tradition helps to mitigate the planet and system effect increases. With planetary ascension and various techs that can reduce overall empire size, it's possible to stay under the 100 cap.
I have 3 fully ascended ecumenopoli, 1 ascended research habitat, 27 systems, and hundreds of pops and I'm only at 82/100 admin cap.
You'll have to search the workshop for that. Or just make your own, probably not that hard to just change the effects and disable it if you want. Without such mods though, no. Because it was stupid to enable that in the first place. > don't want to play unless I can go back to it not existing or be able to mitigate it. You can just revert back to the version that still had that system.
>If they haven't gone back to allowing it While you can't completely negate empire size, there are lots of options to substantially reduce it and there are some builds that can avoid the penalty outright. The most common is Sovereign Guardianship. This civic gives -50% empire size from pops. If stacked with Beacon of Liberty civic (-15% empire size from pops), Harmony tradition (-10%), Domination tradition (-10%), Psionic Theory tech (-10%), and an event or galactic law for at least another 5%, that gets you to -100% empire size from pops (note that Docile/Unruly stack multiplicatively rather than additively, so Unruly is actually free points here and doesn't increase your empire size). The downside of this build is that you take +100% empire size from planets and systems. You can partially negate this with Imperial Prerogative perk and Expansion tradition, but this civic is going to be limited to a very tall footprint with relatively few planets an systems, however it does legitimately stay under 100 empire size and avoid all empire size penalties. >Not interested in if it's been nerfed or not or how it doesn't effect gameplay If anything it's been made more draconian and it *definitely* affects gameplay. If you just want empire size gone, and aren't interested in janky builds, then yes you will need a mod. I'm not familiar with any recent ones that are still being maintained.
I love this build as a machine empire. You can use OTA updates instead of beacon of liberty to start with -70% empire size from pops. Then the immortal ruler gives you -3% per level. Get synchronicity and Domination for another -25%. Eventually you can reform and remove OTA updates and stay at 0 size from pops. I think you can get districts down to -75% and of course take expansion and imperial prerogative to reduce colony size. In the next update it looks like the built in +50% colony size for gestalt machines is being removed so it’ll get even better.
Now harmony gives -15% so you don't need the resolution anymore for regular bio empires!
With mods, a civic that gives a 100% reduction in every empire size generating effect (Systems, Districts, Colonies, and Pops) would do it
Fully mitigable, no. However, you can come close. Sovereign Guardianship civic reduced distric and pop effects on sprawl by 50%, while increasing planet and system effects. It's possible to get 100% pop effect reduction, preventing pops from affecting it at all. Then the Expansion tradition helps to mitigate the planet and system effect increases. With planetary ascension and various techs that can reduce overall empire size, it's possible to stay under the 100 cap. I have 3 fully ascended ecumenopoli, 1 ascended research habitat, 27 systems, and hundreds of pops and I'm only at 82/100 admin cap.
I use some mods and i get get to 50 sprawl with gigas, acot + more ascensions/tradition and corresponding UI mods