All the problems with robots.

[pgt1027]

First, while I think this was intended, I think this may have caused a few of these problems. Robots no longer “promote” to Droids and then Synthetics, just remaining “Robot” pops while the Droid/Synthetic effects appear to be empire modifiers.

Banning population controls means you cannot select robot teplates to build (this should never be the case, even with Synthetics with full citizen rights, I don’t see why they would prefer your robot factories at complete random and would get mad if you selected certain kinds to build, robots don’t “mate”, they’re constructed in factories so “population controls” on them aren’t a violation of their rights)

Robots with full citizen rights cannot have migration controls turned off on them, meaning the Egalitarian faction will be eternally pissed at you for not having free movement.

It appears that Robots can’t become leaders.

“Synthetic” robot pops are no longer the super pop they once were, and combined with them not spawning leaders, the “synthetic evolution” project is of very limited utility at best, if it isn’t outright counter-productive. As another poster pointed out, there isn’t really even much of a point in taking the Synthetic tech at all. Oh, they might randomly get shuffled into a researcher or leader slot now. Wowee. Totally worth the higher upkeep or possible AI uprising and chance of spawning the Contingency.

If you get the 'basic' robot template from an event, the auto-select prefers them despite their inherent inferiority (no race points to mod them with) (thanks ronlugge)

synths should retain their reduced upkeep (thanks Derp)

If there any other issues with the robos, lemme know and I’ll edit them into the OP.

 

[ronlugge]

If you get the 'basic' robot template from an event, the auto-select prefers them despite their inherent inferiority (no race points to mod them with)

 

[Derp]

synths should retain their reduced upkeep

 

[WhiteKyubey]

“Synthetic” robot popsicle no longer the super pop they once were, and combined with them not spawning leaders, the “synthetic evolution” project is of very limited utility at best, if it isn’t outright counter-productive. As another poster pointed out, there isn’t really even much of a point in taking the Synthetic tech at all.

They have other bonuses to be very strong ascension.
- You get x3-x4 robot growth speed on your planets. With 12+ growth per month you'll be much quicker then any Fertile+Clone Banks bio ascension. And you still can grow organics without any downsides.
- You get 10% to all production from synths tech, +10% from synths evolution and +5% from synths ruler. You have even more production bonuses to everything then before.
- You can stack much more -% upkeep bonuses then any other empire, thanks for Materialist ethics bonuses. While they have to be full citizens instead of toasters they will have less upkeep cost then regular organics specialists or leaders.

Sure, you cannot have both no CG and 0.5 housing for toasters and +12 growth speed at the same time, so you should either go bio/psionic and use toasters or go synth ascension and spend CG.

You have a point about egalitarian ethics - it is the worst thing to have with robots. You can still ignore all their demands - 90% will go materialism anyway. But just not picking egalitarian with robots works best.

 

[trojan1234]

I am new to Stellaris. I found there is not enough explanation in terms of localisation. I tried robot build last time and researched synth tech and boom. Half of my planets suffered overcrowdings, CG balance goes way below what it was.

 

[Wolfgang I]

A noticed a different kind of robot problem. It seems the Awoken bots from the Limbo event start with synth ascension now if they found their own empire. They start without an upgraded capital and only 6 pops though which completly cripples their pop growth. It also looks like the Awoken pops can't take ruler jobs in their own empire.

Synths in an ascended empire are only grow fast if you have a fully upgraded capital though and it takes pops which could work other jobs. Bio-ascension empires only need 10 pops and clone vats for near max. pop growth speed.

Aside from this the Contingency is still broken so taking synth ascension will still break your endgame.

 

[Shekelnator]

Robots can be leaders after getting synth leaders technology found in engineering .

make sure to give the machine population full citizen rights so the technology can appear.

In order for this technology also to appear you need the following techs:
1- Sentient AI is required from Physics
2- Robotic Workers then Droids then Synthetics in engineering.

 

[xoxo]

synth tech comes with all robot jobs production getting +10% hows that not worth it? Oo

 

[Wolfgang I]

synth tech comes with all robot jobs production getting +10% hows that not worth it? Oo

Synths used to get +20% by default and even base robots had a bonus to mining. That's what people are used to.

 

[xoxo]

wrong, synths had boni on particular things with 20%, research i think? in any way. they are still very much worth going for them. mat is right now far better as spiri so i dont see why you would buff them further. if something robo empires need a buff, not ordinary robos from bio empires

 

[Wolfgang I]

wrong, synths had boni on particular things with 20%, research i think? in any way. they are still very much worth going for them. mat is right now far better as spiri so i dont see why you would buff them further. if something robo empires need a buff, not ordinary robos from bio empires

Because I could not be bothered to revert the game I just looked at an older version of the wiki.
The base traits had bonuses before 2.2. These traits do not exist in 2.2 anymore.

Robots with the old power drills mod alone had +20% minerals for example and you could ensure that they only worked the proper tiles with ease.
Synths used to be way better than most possible pops and free happy synths were the best possible pops(+40% to everything without traits) with the exception of gene-modded slaves for minerals/food.

Psionic ascension got nerfed hard with the instrument of desire bonus being reduced to +10%. Before 2.2 it gave +25% to energy and minerals. Which you could stack on top of the old +20% synth bonus if you wanted to.
It is still the best ascension if you play unmodded though because the Contingency and the Prethoryn Scourge are still broken and you want the psi-jump drive to make the Unbidden spawn.

 

[xoxo]

i dont care about endgame crisis but robo pops are strong enough. period. no need to buff. if anyzthign needs buff its spiri, auth and xenophil

 

[TheGrouch91]

It really depends whether you want to go for synth ascension or use your robots as servants. Synth ascension is actually really strong as it gives you the highest growth rate by far. It also allows you to get some insanely cheap upkeep cost on robots.

If you however want to just use your robots as cheap efficient workforce going for synths is pointless. It's actually a terrible idea as it will crash your economy when you rely on robots.

All those bugs and oversights are of course annoying and need to be addressed. Especially because some of them are gamebreaking.

 

[pgt1027]

It really depends whether you want to go for synth ascension or use your robots as servants. Synth ascension is actually really strong as it gives you the highest growth rate by far. It also allows you to get some insanely cheap upkeep cost on robots.

If you however want to just use your robots as cheap efficient workforce going for synths is pointless. It's actually a terrible idea as it will crash your economy when you rely on robots.

All those bugs and oversights are of course annoying and need to be addressed. Especially because some of them are gamebreaking.

Well that's the thing, isn't it? Synthetic pops used to essentially be super pops without their buffs being locked behind an exclusive ascension, and the main attraction of Synthetic Evolution was being able to turn all your pops into that super pop. Remembering, once again, that Synthetics is a dangerous tech that can spawn an end-game crisis even if you don't get the AI rebellion.

 

[pgt1027]

Robots can be leaders after getting synth leaders technology found in engineering .

make sure to give the machine population full citizen rights so the technology can appear.

In order for this technology also to appear you need the following techs:
1- Sentient AI is required from Physics
2- Robotic Workers then Droids then Synthetics in engineering.

I'm fairly sure this is broken. At least in my playthrough I've never seen a robot leader and others have reported the same.

 

[Xshu]

I'm fairly sure this is broken. At least in my playthrough I've never seen a robot leader and others have reported the same.

Have you tried actually setting the robot leaders policy to "yes"? Because it's off by default for some reason even after it's enabled. I think this is fixed in the beta.

 

[Xephos Demonslayer]

Robot pop growth speed is terrible. Robots, which don't need things like "growing up" or education, have a base growth speed worse than that of organics. Prior to 2.2 I routinely had games where I would have more robots than people, which isn't possible without shooting yourself in the foot and crippling your own pop growth RN, which is a shame as playing a MI or heavy robot build was my favorite way to play before the update. I love the game, but robots need some seriously re-balancing to make them on par with organics again.

 

[Derp]

Robot pop growth speed is terrible. Robots, which don't need things like "growing up" or education, have a base growth speed worse than that of organics. Prior to 2.2 I routinely had games where I would have more robots than people, which isn't possible without shooting yourself in the foot and crippling your own pop growth RN, which is a shame as playing a MI or heavy robot build was my favorite way to play before the update. I love the game, but robots need some seriously re-balancing to make them on par with organics again.

you do realize they grow alongside bio pops, right

 

[Xephos Demonslayer]

you do realize they grow alongside bio pops, right

Yes, I do, and they grow at a rate of 2.3/month (with the growth speed trait), while my organics can reach eight per month.

 

[TheGrouch91]

Well that's the thing, isn't it? Synthetic pops used to essentially be super pops without their buffs being locked behind an exclusive ascension, and the main attraction of Synthetic Evolution was being able to turn all your pops into that super pop. Remembering, once again, that Synthetics is a dangerous tech that can spawn an end-game crisis even if you don't get the AI rebellion.

Yeah not saying that it's a good thing. But I also don't know how you would fix it without making one or the other imbalanced. I'm in the apparently small camp of people that say that synth ascension is pretty strong. So I find it difficult to balance one or the other.