Bio-ascension: assimilate others into your primary specie

[General Retreat]

Pretty much what the title says. Once the genetic resequencing tech is unlocked and you gain the ability to add/remove traits and change specie portraits, it should be possible to assimilate other species into your primary specie.

It'd be great if the sub-specie template for assimilation could be assigned on a per planet basis. This would allow for migrating / grown pops to be automatically assimilated into the correct pop template, ensuring specialisations are correctly applied across entire populations.

Running bio ascension on a xenophile void dweller empire can currently be frustrating, as you're stuck repeatedly carrying out gene modding projects as specialised pops constantly move around or get mixed up with new arrivals who also aren't specialised.

 

[HFY]

What happens when you make a template for a species in the same portrait group with your own species name and your species portrait?

 

[GOLANX]

once you reach that stage genetics are like molding clay you can make whatever you want, what difference does race matter? seriously there should be a button or Policy somewhere that just says all pops can be molded doesn't matter what they look like long as they fill these templets who cares? that just removes species specific policies allowing you to just create templets and apply them to all the X workers in your empire

 

[Qwerlancer]

Horatio likes this idea.

 

[General Retreat]

What happens when you make a template for a species in the same portrait group with your own species name and your species portrait?

Sadly, nothing. I just tried it and all you end up with is a confused group of pops who are listed as a subspecie under their original parent specie.

 

[Ferrus Animus]

Isn't that basically Necrophage?

 

[HFY]

Isn't that basically Necrophage?

Kinda, but it's also how Bio Ascent Hive Minds can now assimilate pops, and how regular empires (also with Bio Ascent) can assimilate hivemind pops.

 

[Farbros]

It could not only be a logical step, it could also improve the performance of the game, because you would have less different pops.

 

[HFY]

It could not only be a logical step, it could also improve the performance of the game, because you would have less different pops.

Hmm, perhaps it'd be cool if you could Bio Assimilate every pop into one species in its portrait group.

Then you'd have like an Ideal Humanoid, an Ideal Mammal, an Ideal Reptilian, and so on ... still distinct species, you are Bio Ascended so you're supposed to have specialists, and you will ... but a much smaller number of them.

Also, this way it's not a strict duplication of the Necroid mechanic.


(Not that there's anything wrong with an Ascension Perk giving you an Origin benefit -- Nihilistic Acquisition does so, and that's one AP cheaper than a full Bio Ascension.)

 

[DukeLeto42]

Horatio Two also likes this idea.

 

[mial42]

Yes please. Bio ascension is micro-hell for no reason: I'm applying the exact same template to everyone anyways; let me do it all it once.

While we're at it let synths and synthetic age machines assimilate robots.

 

[HFY]

While we're at it let synths and synthetic age machines assimilate robots.

Let EVERYONE assimilate robots, immediately upon researching Robomodding.

 

[Farbros]

Hmm, perhaps it'd be cool if you could Bio Assimilate every pop into one species in its portrait group.

Then you'd have like an Ideal Humanoid, an Ideal Mammal, an Ideal Reptilian, and so on ... still distinct species, you are Bio Ascended so you're supposed to have specialists, and you will ... but a much smaller number of them.

Also, this way it's not a strict duplication of the Necroid mechanic.


(Not that there's anything wrong with an Ascension Perk giving you an Origin benefit -- Nihilistic Acquisition does so, and that's one AP cheaper than a full Bio Ascension.)

The only thing I am afraid of, is that it would destroy the whole idea about species and care of them, so I rethought it and I think that much better solution would be to give the ability to apply specific traits project to all the different species with 1 single button.

 

[DukeLeto42]

The only thing I am afraid of, is that it would destroy the whole idea about species and care of them, so I rethought it and I think that much better solution would be to give the ability to apply specific traits project to all the different species with 1 single button.

There would be some simple ways to address this:

1. Forced assimilation into another species is effectively genocide (you aren't killing the pops, but you are utterly wiping away the unique identity of an entire species) - apply that per-pop opinion modifier for doing this.
2. Since humans generally wouldn't respond well to being informed that they are to report to their nearest gene clinic to be transformed into, say, Blorg, forced genetic assimilation could have major unrest penalties, or even force pops into "purge" status.
3. Finally, as you can tell from my previous post on the thread, I've been playing Endless Space 2 lately, and the game has a system where "collecting" a large number of any species' pops grants some fairly hefty bonuses. I'm not suggesting a wholesale port of the mechanic, but a rethink of what species diversity can provide to an empire beyond "another type of pop" (which isn't so valuable by the late-game, when you can already customize pops).

 

[Farbros]

There would be some simple ways to address this:

1. Forced assimilation into another species is effectively genocide (you aren't killing the pops, but you are utterly wiping away the unique identity of an entire species) - apply that per-pop opinion modifier for doing this.
2. Since humans generally wouldn't respond well to being informed that they are to report to their nearest gene clinic to be transformed into, say, Blorg, forced genetic assimilation could have major unrest penalties, or even force pops into "purge" status.
3. Finally, as you can tell from my previous post on the thread, I've been playing Endless Space 2 lately, and the game has a system where "collecting" a large number of any species' pops grants some fairly hefty bonuses. I'm not suggesting a wholesale port of the mechanic, but a rethink of what species diversity can provide to an empire beyond "another type of pop" (which isn't so valuable by the late-game, when you can already customize pops).

We do have necrophages, which can turn other species into itself, my idea will reduce the micro required to manually apply new traits to every type of species in empire and will not break something, because it's just qol improvement.

 

[Peepijeep]

I really think that bio ascension feels underwhelming at the moment. I had the same idea some weeks ago (My suggestion for assimilation)

 

[HistoricalScore1]

I agree with this. It's logical and plausible given the technology. The difference is the OP Necros can assimilate right away. This takes a very long ascension path. I think Bio should also get 1 addiitonal trait point pick eventually or something to make it less terrible (currently running it in my game for added challenge). Though I prefer to have a worker/slave species in my empire and just use transit hubs/ slave processing centers.

 

[HFY]

Should a Fanatical Purifier which goes Bio Ascension gain access to some equivalent of the Necrophage purge?

 

[Anton1978]

This is a good idea. At the end of the game, you have so many races that it is painful to change them. There are not many of them, there are a million of them.
And it would also be nice:
1) add mega anti-perks, which add not 1-2 points, but 3-4. There are blue, green and red perks, add very red perks.
2) add the technology "Transform robots into live". With the new system of growth, each unit is expensive, and if I have a policy of "banning robots" - they are destroyed.