It sounds like a pretty central design decision: diversity adds strength but also makes it harder to hold the empire together. This adds a lot of interesting decisions to the game, and I applaud it.
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Diversity: Overpowered?
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Indeed. I can see a single species empire with Robot helpers as being very stable, but slower to expand.
While an Alien Nation might be able to expand faster, but have more issues with stability.
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Gotta be honest, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when a fanatical xenophile species tries to integrate a fanatical xenophobe one...
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Indeed, I totally want to play Space Habsburgs and try to keep a crazy-quilt multispecies empire together. Annexing empires through diplomatic marriage seems unlikely though
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Just like IRL then.
But seriously I think one of the devs put it this way recently: diversity has less internal stability but you're less likely to horrify people not part of your empire, if you're space Hitler you have more internal stability but others tend to hate your guts.
But seriously I think one of the devs put it this way recently: diversity has less internal stability but you're less likely to horrify people not part of your empire, if you're space Hitler you have more internal stability but others tend to hate your guts.
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I think the OP may have a point but I'm not sure I understand it fully. My understanding is two xenophobes would hate each other while two xenophiles would like each other. So theoretically it's possible to have the best of both worlds (higher inhabitable worlds and internal stability) with a xenophile if you can be a xenophile and just restrict your alien settlers to likeminded individuals. Whilst a xenophobe on the other hand would hate anyone just for being different. Than again maybe they can enslave other species more easily?
Didn't we see a milder version of that in the Blorgstream, where some of the 40k-Fanboy-Owls converted to xenophilia? Granted, that's not fanatic-xenophobe-to-fanatic-xenophile, but it's a step.
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I think a xenophobe sharing a planet with a different xenophobe will be happier than a xenophobe sharing a planet with a materialist. Because, yes, the two xenophobes both get a species-diversity malus, but this is somewhat balanced out by not having an ethos-diversity malus. Whereas the xenophobe + materialist would have both the species malus and the ethos malus.
Think of it this way: the mutually xenophobic hate-birds and the reptilian klingons may despise each other, but at least they agree that they should draw a line down the middle of the planet and not interact. Whereas if you stick a hate-bird next to a materialist, the materialist will keep coming over to the xenophobe's house to show him his new fedora and lecture him that they should join together in denouncing Le Magical Man In The Sky, who supposedly directs all their actions with his magic Sky Keyboard and Mouse. While the xenophobe just wishes he would go away and leave him alone.
I basically just can't wait to RP factional conflict. "Materialists agitating under a xenophilic government" has scope for more (or at least different) flavour than the "Prince Edgar For Bohemia" factions I'm used to.
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I'm not just talking about xenophobe pops, but a xenophobe playstyle. Although I'll probably try everything at one point or another, I want to do a play-through – perhaps my first one – where my goal is the fulfillment and greatness of my species, not integrating a bunch of different bizarre creatures.
I suspect it won't be that different from EU or Vicky rebels in practice.
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But less stable. It's a strategic trade off. Even if you colonise every world in your domain with your native race (which isn't feasible, even were it possible), every new planet will contribute to unrest and internal strife in your empire. You get richer, but you increase the risk of separatism and revolution, especially if you colonise sub-optimally.
There isn't a one-size-fits all strategy. There are trade-offs to every choice you make. Otherwise, it's not a strategy game at all.
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We already have seen a glimpse of that in the Blorg streams. Here's my post from Le Maymay Thread:
Once upon a time, the Fanatic Xenophobic Sibulan space owls were Fanatical Purifiers who viewed all alien life as a cosmic mistake and seek to purify the galaxy of its taint... but that does not discourage the Blorgs from trying to befriend them. All must become befriended by the Blorgs. Resistance is futile.
A New Generation indeed. All hail Executive Ashley Easterbrook, the Pacifier of Rebels and the Bringer of Happiness!!
Notice that the original 1st generation space owls are still noticeably less Happy (yellow bar @ 46%) than their 2nd generation space owls (yellow bar @ 60%), which in all likelihood implies the 1st gens still held onto their old ethos.
NOTE: that space owl on the top-row, 2nd from the left tile in Blorg stream #4 is the same POP as the one on the top-row, 1st from the right tile in Blorg stream #3; Wiz moved him. Just take my word for it, I triple-checked.
Nice, a gratuitous potshot.
But you're a bit off here. Blorgs did create Fanatic Xenophiles POPs out of Fanatic Xenophiles... though technically, those converts are the assimilated 2nd gen kids who grew up on the Blorg homeworlds of Blorg Prime and Khersonia, while the 1st gen forced-migrants still held onto their original ethos and technically haven't been converted yet. Will the holdouts flip in the future? Only time will tell, but I sure hope so!
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I think you're taking that a little too seriously. They were making a joke about how rabidly xenophobic that race was, as if they were trying to emulate one of the 40K factions.
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He's got a point and I do feel bad about that cheap shot.
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I don't normally make a point of disagreeing with people over the meaning of their own statements, but what cheap shot? I don't even understand how to extrapolate an insult out of that; 40K fans are space owls?
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Heh, I don't mind! It was a nice jab.
That post on its own is completely innocuous (and I'd normally find humorous), but not when put in context of the ongoing silly spat over 40K and such in the latest DD #29, in which both @TheBeautifulVoid and myself were participants.
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genetic adaptation. feed enough nuka cola to the blorg and they will transform into sandpeople or those rabbits from star wars.
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Perhaps, but that required @TheBeautifulVoid to have been suggesting that WH40K fans are actually xenophobic monsters, which isn't something I even considered since that's such a ludicrously stupid thing to say.
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At the risk of reopening old wounds: I have been known to say things which could be interpreted as that.
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