2.2.0 Civics: New Entries, Winners & Losers for regular Authorities

[aprogressivist]

So with 2.2.0 and all the attention on Corporations, I thought I'd post my first impressions of Civics; winners, losers, and new contenders. Let me know what you think!

(I won't cover the Corporate Authority Civics, I figure those should be their own topic since they are effectively cordoned off from regular Authority Civics.)

Agrarian Idyll: City Districts provide 1 less housing while Generator, Mining and Agri Districts produce 1 more. Farmers produce 2 amenities. Considering you can burn excess food for extra Pop Growth, the Agrarian Idyll Pacifist seems like the kind of empire that can rapidly fill up planets and keep on moving.

Aristocratic Elite: Not been able to play with the Noble jobs; these any good?

Citizen Service: 15% Naval Capacity is always useful in the late game. The extra Unity from soldiers might be nice, but how many strongolds do you actually build in 2.2?

Byzantine Bureaucracy: Seems interesting. -10% Amenities and Housing means having to build less City Districts and Amenity-producing buildings, and extra Administrator jobs sounds like a nice Unity boost. Anyone played with this extensively yet?

Corvée System: like Nomadic, now that Migration pull causes pop growth, this may be a lot stronger.

Efficient Bureaucracy: Now simply+20 Admin Cap. Takes the edge off those expansion brakes... but I'm curious as to how this plays out in practice. Going to have to run into the late game on a non-Ironman save, then use 250 influence to flip this Civic in and out, to see what difference it makes.

Environmentalist: Given how much of a pain it is to juggle Consumer Goods production with Alloys, maybe -10% Consumer Goods is much better than it was back in 2.1. One to keep your eye on.

Exalted Priesthood: For doubling down on producing Unity from Priests. Probably highly valuable to any Unity rushing strategies.

Free Haven: more pop growth! Seems stronger than before.

Functional Architecture: now reduces building cost and upkeep by 10%. Before it just reduced building costs by 15%, right? This seems a fair balance because you'll probably be less worried about the upfront cost in minerals now than with the upkeep costs.

Life-Seeded, Post-Apocalyptic: I understand this is bugged as of 2.2.0? Let's wait for a hotfix then....

Mechanist: From what I can tell, the early game is a bit slower than in 2.1, so getting Robots early may be even stronger...

Merchant Guilds: Get extra merchant jobs that produce Unity. Not played with this one, any thoughts?

Mining Guilds: Talk about one hell of a nerf! +1 minerals per Miner seems like a waste of a Civic now given that my bottleneck is usually around converting those Minerals into Alloys or Consumer Goods...

Parliamentary System: The change to faction Influence gains means this Civic's utility is a bit flatter. Still, I love playing Fanatic Egalitarians with Parliamentary System; so much Influence!

Shared Burden: Shared Burden is basically a discount Utopian Abundance -- every pop consumes only 0.4 Consumer Goods, gets +5% Happiness, and Unemployed Pops are happy and produce Unity. (Utopian Abundance: every pop consumes 1 CG, gets +20% Happiness, and Unemployed Pops are happy and produce Unity and Research.) I've not run the numbers, but having played a few games and noticed that Consumer Goods production can be annoying to balance with Alloys, this seems like a strong Civic, at least in the early to mid-game when you can't afford Utopian Abundance.

Technocracy: some Administrators become Science Directors and Researchers also produce 1 Unity... this seems strong as hell now for the Materialist playthrough.


Overall, I think the 2.2.0 landscape for Civics is a lot more interesting than previously, with more varied and consequential choices. Let me know what powerful combinations you've found!

 

[brokenbow1]

I ran with Rockbreakers (Mining Guild but for Machines) and it seemed that it wasn't even giving +1 mineral per Miner, but +1 mineral per planet. Probably a bug, but even *more* of a nerf than you noted. And yes, Mechanist is great - having a second, independent source of pop growth is great for the early game.

 

[Azhcristokos]

Aristocratic Elite: Not been able to play with the Noble jobs; these any good?

I think they're okay. The nobles are useful if you ruthlessly oppress your lower classes (thematically appropriate) because they generate stability and are more powerful in a stratified society. The problem is that, even then, discontent doesn't seem like it'll be hard to manage. It is cool that you can build more of them though.

 

[RoverStorm]

I've tested a bunch of these, so I'll list the ones I've tried personally.

Aristocratic Elite: A++. Half the admins in your capital will turn into nobles. Admins normally provide 3 unity and 8 amenities; Nobles gives +5 amenities and don't provide any unity at all. They provide +5 stability. Each. Holy ****. They also provide another planet unique building that gives +1 Noble and +1 Housing, for even more nobles than normal capital buildings. I don't know the maximum number you can get, but I've personally had at least 4. This is extremely good for maximizing that delicious stability bonus, which is a slight challenge sometimes. Remember: 100% Stability = +30% Job Output.

Exalted Priesthood: The "High Priests" are...reflavored admins. That's kinda it. +5 amenities +5 unity. Basically they're admins that lose 3 amenities but gain 2 (base) unity. The good one here is that all NORMAL priests generate +1 unity, which is a 50% base bonus for priests. That's the actual reason I typically take it. Good for unity-it's fairly unrivaled in terms of unity gen.

Mining Guilds: This is an excellent pick if you find yourself with a few mining worlds or make liberal use of Agrarian Idyll. This civic was the difference between mineral starving and mineral swimming over a long period of time. I really don't see a mega-corp, city lovers, or in general people who avoid mining districts making good use of this.

Technocracy: Literally "Waa, I wanna be materialist but still get the unity of spiritualist!". The science directors (which any empire can get with the right building) give +3 to all science. Bit of extra science for existing, so that's nice.

Agrarian Idyll: Yep. This one is a slight game-changer. I consider this an all-around excellent pick. Cities losing one housing doesn't make a big difference mid-late game (SO many things give +1 city housing), but the early game housing from the important districts is huge. Unfortunately, it's much harder to switch from Agrarian Idyll to something else than it is to switch to Agrarian Idyll from normal builds, so maybe consider picking it for good. Don't switch to this if you have big cities on planets.

Citizen Service: Pretty much what it used to be. Worth noting is that this is excellent for BIG fleets because soldiers themselves provide +4 naval cap (base). Strongholds themselves shine as a fortress world: a nearly impenetrable planet of strongholds. Only downside to fortress worlds is the job issue; Forts alone cannot employ everyone required to unlock the building slots for said forts. Maybe forts plus the city district +1 clerk upgrade. Anyways, this is almost a niche pick, IMHO.

Life-Seeded: Bugged? Seems to work fine for me. A one-planet challenge works fairly well, as far as I can tell. I've gotten pretty far in a multi-player game with Life-Seeded. The resource deposits right on the capital is nice, and since emigration doesn't drag growth away from your capital you get a BIG planet really fast. Gotta unlock those building slots. It also makes a tasty planet for megacorps to get into bidding wars for the rights to put down a branch office.

Byzantine Bureaucracy: I would describe this as "smoother gameplay". Everything is "slightly" more efficient: More happy rulers for more happy-stability, more unity and amenities for no cost, everyone uses "slightly" less amenities and slightly less housing needs. -10% amenities consumption is NOT as good as +10% amenities on planet, but it's still a bonus. Surplus amenities means happiness, which means stability, which means MORE JOB OUTPUT! The housing is also nice: every ten jobs you can skip out on a living spot. Maybe more with communal trait. Unlike the name would suggest, it's just smoother, easier gameplay.

Anything Else I have yet to play with.

 

[Amblingon]

Mechanist is almost pointless since robots, droids, and synthetics were nerfed into the ground (they take 5 years to assemble, can't colonize, and droids/synths even lose their buffs to production).

 

[SomeIrateBrit]

Mechanist is almost pointless since robots, droids, and synthetics were nerfed into the ground (they take 5 years to assemble, can't colonize, and droids/synths even lose their buffs to production).

I see people keep saying this, but it's nowhere near true. With how important early pop growth is now, being able to grow a second pop at the same time is a huge deal.

 

[Elmokki]

I didn't find robots that bad, as in robots for an organic empire. Sure, they took a fair chunk minerals and 2 jobs, but you gain essentially a +66% pop growth modifier for the planet for it (base growth is 3, two robot builders is 2, 2/3 = 0.666...). It will slow you down in the short term as you sacrifice a building slot and two jobs for it, but as long as you aren't overpopulating yourself it'll help you in the longer run. Robots don't also seem to need consumer goods, which is helpful.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Here is a little feedback from my side (keep in mind I usually play Inward Perfectionists):

Agrarian Idyll: I was sceptical when it was first changed, but the new version is still amazing. The fact that you can ignore cities means that you can exploit a lot more deposits on your planets for only slightly less max population, which is fantastic in the mid to late game (particularly for tall empires). Another great side effect is that you use your admin capacity more efficiently (since cities in general aren't that great on their own). In addition, the amenities from farmers allow you to skip construction of buildings like the Holo Theatre.

Aristocratic Elite: Pretty good. Nobles are great and extra stability translates into higher job output across the board.

Merchant Guilds: Great choice for the 3rd civic slot. Merchants provide a lot of TV and quite a few amenities, and unlike other civics their jobs are in addition to existing ruler pops, not replacing them. Very strong for a developed empire.

 

[Xeorm]

Played around with Aristocratic elite. It felt decent, but much more of a midgame effect it seemed. Police state has a similar stability effect, without tanking your unity production, but doesn't offer that second noble from building the noble estates. Though having an additional ruler caste job does do wonders with stratified economy.

I see people keep saying this, but it's nowhere near true. With how important early pop growth is now, being able to grow a second pop at the same time is a huge deal.

Yea I don't get this either. Robots are nerfed compared to what they were before for sure, but that was in part due to them being so strong. Having robots now is still very nice. Increasing your pop production by a good 50% is a very strong bonus, as is having pops with half the amenity and housing usage.

 

[dav77-b]

Here is a little feedback from my side (keep in mind I usually play Inward Perfectionists):

Agrarian Idyll: I was sceptical when it was first changed, but the new version is still amazing. The fact that you can ignore cities means that you can exploit a lot more deposits on your planets for only slightly less max population, which is fantastic in the mid to late game (particularly for tall empires). Another great side effect is that you use your admin capacity more efficiently (since cities in general aren't that great on their own). In addition, the amenities from farmers allow you to skip construction of buildings like the Holo Theatre.

Aristocratic Elite: Pretty good. Nobles are great and extra stability translates into higher job output across the board.

Merchant Guilds: Great choice for the 3rd civic slot. Merchants provide a lot of TV and quite a few amenities, and unlike other civics their jobs are in addition to existing ruler pops, not replacing them. Very strong for a developed empire.

Merchants replace administrators.

Standart: 2 Admins --> 1 Admin 1 Merchant ; so you trade 3 unity + 8 amenities for 10 trade value and 5 amenities,

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Tsk, looks like it was changed without updating the TT. Oh well.

 

[Drinko]

Machine empires are kinda weak, unless you put everything into growth. (Not counting DA och RS) while you can colonize every planet actually getting anything useful or increasing build speed takes forever. My first game as a DE I also started with negative energy growth, which meant I had to focus on energy the first 15 years.

 

[Technotopia]

I started a new game yesterday and found that:

Mining guilds are kinda weak now. Minerals used to be a bottleneck of early expansion - not anymore. Additional +1 yield per worker is not worth the civic.
Though the other pick was lucky one. Technocracy is gorgeous for my build:

Fan materialist, egalitarian, nat engineers, weak, sedentary, talented ,indigenous (+energy).
Science director instead of administrator gives a lot of research, loss of unity is covered by the extra +1 unity from researchers. And I build second lab quickly, so I could employ two additional researchers = +4-3 = +1 unity AND a lot research.

In 2.1 early game planetary research was not important, you had to rush minerals and research stations in space. Now it seems different - majority of science is made at planets from the beginning and it is entirely doable to have a scientific headstart.

 

[Robertruler77]

Mechanist is almost pointless since robots, droids, and synthetics were nerfed into the ground (they take 5 years to assemble, can't colonize, and droids/synths even lose their buffs to production).

Mechanist is great IMO. On any planet where you are simultaneously growing regular organics and basic robots you will be speeding your growth very noticeably from the start. New colony pop growth is practically doubled seeing as on new colonies you have a 50% malus to organics, whilst the synthetics are chugging along at +2 a month. It isn't ludicrous, but it kickstarts new planets much quicker.

As far as Efficient Beauracracy is concerned, it is okay. If you're going wide, it won't really redefine your game as 20 is really just accepting one more fully developed Planet without debuffs. Better options are available.

 

[EvilTom]

Mining Guilds: Talk about one hell of a nerf! +1 minerals per Miner seems like a waste of a Civic now given that my bottleneck is usually around converting those Minerals into Alloys or Consumer Goods...

Maybe don't think of this as extra minerals as such... think of it of less people need to work to get the same number of minerals. So those people can now work alloy or consumer factories... maybe?

 

[blackchoas]

Slavery seems quite good now, probably still weaker than starting with robot pops and tech but still good since its easier to divide your society and maintain the correct mix of worker jobs for slaves and specialist jobs for free pops

 

[Auralynx]

Exalted Priesthood: The "High Priests" are...reflavored admins. That's kinda it. +5 amenities +5 unity. Basically they're admins that lose 3 amenities but gain 2 (base) unity. The good one here is that all NORMAL priests generate +1 unity, which is a 50% base bonus for priests. That's the actual reason I typically take it. Good for unity-it's fairly unrivaled in terms of unity gen.

Byzantine Bureaucracy: I would describe this as "smoother gameplay". Everything is "slightly" more efficient: More happy rulers for more happy-stability, more unity and amenities for no cost, everyone uses "slightly" less amenities and slightly less housing needs. -10% amenities consumption is NOT as good as +10% amenities on planet, but it's still a bonus. Surplus amenities means happiness, which means stability, which means MORE JOB OUTPUT! The housing is also nice: every ten jobs you can skip out on a living spot. Maybe more with communal trait. Unlike the name would suggest, it's just smoother, easier gameplay.

These are the two I was trying last night, and both assessments are accurate. I wanted to add that you get more of your special admins further down the capital-building upgrades (which helps Exalted Priesthood in particular), and that the bonus-admin building for Byzantine Bureaucracy is a 100% justified use of a building slot if you can afford it. You do run into some issues with surplus noble-caste guys that can be corrected by migrating them to new words to be bureaucrats there, however.

 

[RoverStorm]

I wanted to add that you get more of your special admins further down the capital-building upgrades (which helps Exalted Priesthood in particular)

Ah, good to know. I was 200 years in and hadn't unlocked better capital administration yet because every game there is SOME tech card that never shows up. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Twogs]

Functional Architecture: now reduces building cost and upkeep by 10%. Before it just reduced building costs by 15%, right? This seems a fair balance because you'll probably be less worried about the upfront cost in minerals now than with the upkeep costs.

You shouldn't underestimate this as it also reduces the upkeep in rare resources - which are pretty limited.

So this civic together with prosperity allows you to have 25% more rare-resource consuming building, which is pretty nice