I made my species into robots, but it sucks [Utopia, minor spoilers]

[Blue Giraffe]

Hi.

Save dissapeared (paradox pls) and I got no screenshots, yet still I want to share with you my first experience with Utopia.

So paradox made a new DLC and I've been playing all freaking night instead studying (thanks paradox)

I made my species and absolutely loved them, picked intelligent and natural engineers to rush synthethic dudes, got fanatic materialist, pushed for low pop, high research.

Got spawned next to 2x advanced AI on insane difficulty and high aggressiveness, but still survived cuz my sweetest dudes found and hacked themselves free AI tech from some sphere near a blackhole.

My species explored almost entire galaxy, surpassing everyone with tech progress, got synthethic population, and the leader modifier quite early.

My first ascension was the +10% research and then the freaking cybernetic modifications one.

OH GOD! The cybernetic modifier is amazing! Absolutely insane, pops get 20% habitability and some other shit, but THE LEADERS! I don't remember all the perks but admiral had like free +15% rate of fire just from being a cyborg.

My species were godlike, dumpstered all galaxy, but it became a bit tedious from this point on.

NOW, without beating around the bush - the ascension for making species into synthethic requires 3 ascension perks before that - really? I lost my patience and opened console to gain Unity, it was taking fucking ages.

-I already had synthethic pops, A LOT OF THEM, so I was hoping that outside mere -25% maint. modifier my pops would become even better than cyborg variants of them, since the amout of unity and research needed to unlock this ascension perk was so crazy that I resorted to cheats.

WRONG!

My pops turned into freaking ordinary synthethic dudes, pradox pls.
Synthethic leaders in many cases are worse than cyborgs. I lose all the benefits from my ethos, my species characteristics, they lose ability to reproduce and I already had all the synthethics I wanted, I could build them before.

This begs for a non-rhetorical "What the hell?"
Did you guys at paradox even read through this shit before you put this into the game? Why the synthetic evolution is so garbage? :<

Pls nerf regular robots or make synthethic evolution better.

Edit:
I forgot to mention... Robot variant of my species is actually worse at collecting science than my original dudes. Wow.....

 

[Bobylein]

Edit:
I forgot to mention... Robot variant of my species is actually worse at collecting science than my original dudes. Wow.....

That's because your original race is pushed to the max in science, what negative traits did you lose and how much better at anything else are they?


I can understand your frustration but I think your post is a bit too ragey.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

The main problem seems to be that the syntethic trait for admirals was tweaked, but the Cyborg one was not.
Outside of that, Synthetics leaders are superior to Cyborgs (with Governours being debatable).

Same for Synthetic vs Cyborg pops.
Yes, you can end up with less science output if you have Intelligent + Natural [Techschool], but synthetics have way better average yield benefits on top of 100% habitability, reduced consumer good demand and massively reduced E instead of F consumption.

If you want a hyper-intelligent min-max species, I recommend to use the Genetic Engineering path next time.

 

[Bobylein]

Meh, don't be a little girl. This is nowhere near me being frustrated/upset.

Okay, sorry then

...Though, I had wet dreams about my species becoming robots and well :< I think they should keep their ethos bonuses at least (unless its a bug).

Yea they should definitely keep ethic bonuses (do they even still exist on a pop basis?)

 

[forfor]

Out of curiosity has anyone found a way to turn other biological pops into synth pops with this? I thought I could, but I can't find the option anywhere.

 

[jazzglands]

There are no pop ethics bonuses anymore, no.

But aboutlosing traits, I see no reason why people would stop being fanatically interested in engineering after using it to become robots. That seems unexpected to me as well.

As for your unity income problems, how big were you?

 

[C0ldSn4p]

The worst part is that you can't set the right of your synths and ascended primary specie. In particular they are stuck with whatever standard of living they had before ascending.

 

[Birdy123]

So beehiving towards Synth conversion is pointless because awful? I knew it.

 

[C0ldSn4p]

So beehiving towards Synth conversion is pointless because awful? I knew it.

It's mostly pointless because why bother. If you took the mechanist civic (or rush robot) and build a lot of robot from the start then droid then synth, you gain almost nothing by converting what is now the remaining 10-20% of your pop to synth. Heck since synth leader are immortal, over time regular synth will fill all your leader slot (once you have the synth leadership tech) without requiring the ascension.

Using regular synth you get almost all the advantages without having to spend 2 ascensions points and 10+ year in an engineering project.

If only you could integrates synths into your primary specie and then upgrade and integrate conquered pop then it would be a lot more interesting.

 

[AdamantineFist]

Problems as I see them:

- can't transform any new species into synths after you complete the one project
- any species in your empire not modded into cyborgs when you complete the ascension project are left behind
- can't affect species rights of robots (no changing the living conditions!)
- no way to set your core planets to auto-build new synth-people (would be a huge time-saver)

Suggestions:

- offer a way to transform new pops into synths after you complete the ascension project: 1) make pops modded to have the cyborg trait transform over time or instantly, or 2) offer additional special projects per race in your empire
- prevent any spiritualist pops from transforming (they would refuse the process)
- allow species rights changes, but obviously prevent citizenship demotions
- provide some method of core planets auto-building synth-people once you synth-ascend

 

[forfor]

I don't know why they didn't just put the option to ascend new pops into the species modification menu. That seems like such a simple idea.

 

[Sheriff Godwin Law]

A possible solution for your people inexplicably losing 5% of their engineering research bonus while gaining 10% bonuses in both physics and society would be to make intelligent mutually exclusive to the 'natural (research category)' group of techs again.

Other than that, I absolutely agree you should be able to convert newer populations to cyborgs and from there either spend resources or have them slowly convert to synthetics as well.

 

[Antediluvian Monster]

I thought robots never have any living standard and never consume any consumer goods? Asking for ability to change it is moot.

 

[chegitz guevara]

Over time, don't you think a synth society would gravitate towards a hive mind?

 

[J.P.Cliffer]

And the mind over flesh should be repetable to convert all people into cyborg because when i annex half of a civ and then got native one it's quite disappointing that i can't do the same thing to them.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I thought robots never have any living standard and never consume any consumer goods? Asking for ability to change it is moot.

Robots and Droids don't. Synthetics have a -25% reduction.

 

[Almond_Brown]

Robots and Droids don't. Synthetics have a -25% reduction.

So "Synthetics" retain their emotional state as opposed to Droids and Robots who do not?

I ask due to the statement made in Post #6 about how Robots lose the Fanatic status after attaining the Robot state. That makes sense as Robots do not possess emotions. So would a species modded to Synth somehow retain their emotional side too?

 

[forfor]

I don't think individual pops do get "fanatic" ethos anymore they just are that ethos type or they aren't.

 

[Pizzarugi]

I dunno about OP, but I am wholly satisfied with synthetic ascension. The confusion of cyborg vs synthetic admirals aside, having immortal leaders and pops with immensely reduced maintenance on top of the general bonuses to all resource gains is worth the effort. Why bother with terraforming or uplifting when literally every planet becomes 100% habitable as a synth? The galaxy is my oyster.

It would be nice to repeat cyborg and synthetic ascension for other species besides my own, though. As it currently stands, synthetic ascension seems like the best path for players who don't want to rely on aliens for things like colonization. Also, I remember Wiz posting on the forum somewhere that synths you built before ascension should become part of your ascended race. They don't, my empire is split between ascended synths and standard synths.

I'd also like to set specific rights on synths as well. I can't improve their living standards for example.

 

[Birdy123]

Robots and Droids don't. Synthetics have a -25% reduction.

Then how come we can't change their rights? They have happiness, and a modifier to their goods (-25% as you say), but can't change their living standards?