I apologize for not responding to someone else's thread on the subject but I wanted to create a more cogent argument than I had previously witnessed. To my perception thus far the argument has been that gestalt consciousness not having trade is a major nerf compared to other empires, and that is 100% correct. However you also don't have to make consumer goods and your housing is just so much more efficient so I was willing to accept it as some sort of balance.
However I did want to see it brought to the table in some way so I had been working in my head some sort of way to bring back Single Mind Fascination to let a hive mind trade. Then I was hit with a sudden realization. Those drones on the fringe of my space weren't just piling up the rocks they mined, they were sent to my refinery worlds to be made into alloys. This meant I had supply lines, and presumably since I wasn't suffering massive economic penalties these lines were more organized than a lack of trade routes would represent.
I can understand these lines perhaps not generating energy credits, cause no merchants, however it could generate minerals or food, or both. It could even be that instead of maintenance drones generating trade value miners, technicians, and farmers do, since they directly add to these supply line, and now the trade value is overhead that can be collected with a little care. More importantly these lines could generate pirates just the same they do for single minds. In fact instead of saying they are deviant drones gone rogue, maybe it is actual single mind pirates that snuck in hearing of these undefended and automated routes to plunder.
You could also bring back Single Minded Fascination to give you the normal empires trade routes, trade stations, and some drone jobs that generate consumer goods and trade value, as well as the non-bugged ability to host the galactic market, cause once upon a time you were an anomaly with a trader empire and that made you want to reach the stars and trade with them.
Most of what I said is from the perspective of a hive mind but should equally apply to a ME, although swapping food for energy of course.
tl;dr Gestalt Consciousness would also have supply lines and thereby should have a variation of the trade system.
However I did want to see it brought to the table in some way so I had been working in my head some sort of way to bring back Single Mind Fascination to let a hive mind trade. Then I was hit with a sudden realization. Those drones on the fringe of my space weren't just piling up the rocks they mined, they were sent to my refinery worlds to be made into alloys. This meant I had supply lines, and presumably since I wasn't suffering massive economic penalties these lines were more organized than a lack of trade routes would represent.
I can understand these lines perhaps not generating energy credits, cause no merchants, however it could generate minerals or food, or both. It could even be that instead of maintenance drones generating trade value miners, technicians, and farmers do, since they directly add to these supply line, and now the trade value is overhead that can be collected with a little care. More importantly these lines could generate pirates just the same they do for single minds. In fact instead of saying they are deviant drones gone rogue, maybe it is actual single mind pirates that snuck in hearing of these undefended and automated routes to plunder.
You could also bring back Single Minded Fascination to give you the normal empires trade routes, trade stations, and some drone jobs that generate consumer goods and trade value, as well as the non-bugged ability to host the galactic market, cause once upon a time you were an anomaly with a trader empire and that made you want to reach the stars and trade with them.
Most of what I said is from the perspective of a hive mind but should equally apply to a ME, although swapping food for energy of course.
tl;dr Gestalt Consciousness would also have supply lines and thereby should have a variation of the trade system.
