Gestalt ideas (Cognitive Capacity and Mind Structure)

[Lazy Name]

Some ideas for adding more flavor to Gestalt empires. Feedback appreciated.

Gestalt Mind Structure
Replacing Governments Type, this represents the way the Gestalts mind is structured (as it's currently left very vague). They range from more decentralized to centralized.

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Collective Intelligence​

This Gestalt originates from a population of autonomous drones, which through their connection have formed a decentralized emergent intelligence. One would have trouble considering a single drone particularly insightful, yet the collective whole of thousands of minds forms a seamless neural network.​

Significantly smaller Empire Sprawl penalty, and deceased base Influence income. Complex Drones produce less Empire Sprawl, and Menial Drones increase the Admin Cap by a small amount to represent how every single drone has a mind that contributes to the total brainpower of the entire empire. If the empire loses control of a planet with only a few pops, they will turn into pre-sapients for flavor.​

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Overseer Network​

This Gestalt is made up of a minority of semi-autonomous sapient overseers managing the masses of mindless drones. This system allows the mind to divide its attention easily while still retaining the benefits of a united mind, so long as the drones have their overseers to guide them.​

This mind type has two separate species, an Overseer species and a Drone species. There are no longer Synapse Drones/Coordinator Drones. Overseer pops gain a separate Overseer job strata, and non-Overseer species cannot be Leaders. Overseer jobs are created by Capital buildings or if there are sufficient Drone pops, and produce Unity, Admin Cap and Stability. If there are not sufficient Overseers on a world, Drone pops there will have decreased productivity. Overseers have happiness, and if they become deviant they will bring their drones with them.​

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One Mind​

This Gestalt is built around a single mind, for which each individual is merely an appendage. While it might not be capable of dividing its attention as well as others, the force of an entire species united behind a single will is a force to be reckoned with.​

Significantly greater Empire Sprawl penalty, and higher base Influence income. Gains a special stackable planetary decision called "Concentrate Focus”, that increases all pop productivity on the planet but also increases the empire sprawl cost, and “Lower Focus”, which does the opposite.​

Cognitive Capability
Admin cap is now renamed “Cognitive Capacity” for Gestalts, and represents the total mindpower the Gestalt is capable of dividing between its drones. Going over your Cognitive Cap will now also cause Instability and Deviancy, with the effect increasing the further away from the capital a colony is. All Gestalts suffer from larger Empire Sprawl penalties, since unlike individuals that can improvise if communication is cut off, drones are reduced to animals at best and paperweights at worst. Menial Drones now create less Empire Sprawl (since they can essentially be set on autopilot), while Complex Drones create more (since every thought that a Complex Drone has uses part of the attention of the entire empire).

Portraits
You now have the option of selecting different portraits for your Gestalt ruler and your regular pops, so that the mind and body of Gestalt empires can be made to feel more separate.

 

[Spaceception]

Overseers
This Empire is made up of a minority of semi-autonomous sentient overseers managing the masses of mindless drones. This system allows the mind to divide its attention easily while still retaining the benefits of a simpler mind, so long as the drones have their overseers to guide them.
This mind type has two separate species, an overseer species and a drone species. There are no longer synapse drones/coordinator drones. Only overseers can be leaders, and they have their own separate Overseer job strata. An overseer job is created by capital buildings or if there are enough drone pops, and produce unity, admin cap and stability. If there are not sufficient overseers, drone pops have decreased productivity. Overseers have happiness, and if they become deviant they will bring their drones with them.

You know, I liked the general idea, but this is INCREDIBLY similar to my hive mind idea for a novel I'm working on. I'm not sure how common this type of Hive mind is though, convergent ideas? It's even down to the fact Overseers are sapient enough to have feelings (happiness) and can pull drones away (mine goes in depth a bit more). I even use the term Overseer for them (it's temporary but still).

Anyway, to stay on topic, I like this idea, and the admin cap change. It's fitting for them. And I think the Hive structures could work as civics.

 

[Lazy Name]

You know, I liked the general idea, but this is INCREDIBLY similar to my hive mind idea for a novel I'm working on. I'm not sure how common this type of Hive mind is though, convergent ideas? It's even down to the fact Overseers are sapient enough to have feelings (happiness) and can pull drones away (mine goes in depth a bit more). I even use the term Overseer for them (it's temporary but still).

Anyway, to stay on topic, I like this idea, and the admin cap change. It's fitting for them. And I think the Hive structures could work as civics.

I was mainly looking for a middle ground between the extreme centralized and decentralized options and thought a hivequeen-type hierarchy would work well, but its a neat coincidence that it fits perfectly with your idea right down to the name.

I agree that I wouldn't mind having the mind structures as civics, since more options is always good, but I feel like civics are better suited for unique quirks about your empire rather then the fundamental structure. Besides, personally to me it seems like gestalts right now just remove a lot of ways to add flavor to your empire (ethics, government, etc) without giving many unique options of their own, and I thought adding some will help them feel less bland.