Huge List of Hivemind suggestions

[Tech Noir Synth]

Hey all!

I didn't know there was a suggestions forum so I've only ever created threads in the general forums which sadly got buried quickly.

However I have posted a ton of Hivemind suggestions and received them in my threads so I am going to collect them here:

Overall changes to Hiveminds:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...uggestions-for-hiveminds-and-balance.1159335/

Huge Thread about Civics, contains tons of ideas for Hiveminds + link to older threads:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/lets-talk-about-civics-and-balance.1164807/

Old Hivemind suggestion thread by Methone:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hive-mind-ideas.1158097/#post-25232792


Here are some ideas I collected from these threads:

Being immortal is nice and all but its not comparable to something like 10% research speed or 10% empire mineral production alongside additional traits. Synths get to be immortal aswell but retain ruler traits and agendas. Even organics can become immortal if you keep researching the +5 leader lifespan tech so immortality is really nothing special. I would welcome a small overhaul of Gestalt rulers to make them better.

How about letting us choose Traits for our rulers and choose agendas based on our ruler level? You could allow us to change these for an influence cost to have a dynamic system that allows us to change our empire strength to whatever situation.
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Hiveminds should have a better form of Bio Ascencion. They cannot make use of migration so they need something to keep up with normal empires in terms of growth.

I suggest the following: Allow the use of a Hivemind-like Xeno Compatibility once Bio Ascension has been finished. This Ascencion perk allows you to integrate traits of other species into your own species and increases the maximum amount of traits. (Similar to Horatio from Endless Space 2).
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I got an idea for a Hivemind background civic working similar to a criminal megacorp: A Hivemind that constructs infestation on planets, influencing the pops to emigrate toward the Hivemind empire and become one with the Hivemind, cause unrest and kill pops on the infested planet.


I think the way megacorps work would play out perfectly for a Hivemind. You could simply take the criminal heritage megacorp and allow hiveminds to do something similar. Instead of building corporate buildings you build infestation buildings which increase crime or you could add a new keyword called infestation. You have multiple buildings to choose from, with different effects:

• Cause pops to emigrate away from the planet towards the Hivemind, gaining the Hivemind trait in the process
• Cause pops to get infested and die after a short time, spawn attacking armies once killed similar to the subterranian invasion or a rebellion
• Cause pops to steal research or other ressources from the planet and add it to the Hivemind home planet instead

The way to deal with this would be the same as to dealing with Criminal Megacorps. We all know that Criminal Megacorps need a bit of an overhaul, but I think once the developers get it right, the ability to construct buildings unannounced and without asking opens up a ton of possbilities for new civics.
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Here are some more ideas for Hivemind civics:

Pooled Knowledge:

Old version:

• +1 Leader Level Cap
• +1 Leader Pool Size

New version:

• +2 Leader Level cap
• Once a leader dies, the minimum level for all subsequent leaders generated from the pool is the old level -2

Idea behind this: The Hivemind's drones share knowledge so new drones can make use of knowledge acquired by earlier generations. There are not many builds around leaders and most of them are quite bland, granting either leader experience gain or additional leader levels. Choosing this Civic allows you to get stronger leaders the longer the game goes and fulfills the fantasy of playing a Hivemind that contains the knowledge of each of its drones.


Natural Neural Network:

Old version:

• +1 research alternative

New version:

• Brain drones produce unity in addition to science (see Technocracy)
• Add 1 Synapse Drone job for every 20 menial drones.

Idea behind this: Technocracy is a really nice civic so I thought it would fit aswell for Hiveminds. They don't get science directors, so I gave them more Synapse Drones instead.


Strength of Legions:

Old version:

• 20% army damage bonus
• 20% less army upkeep

New version:

• 20% army damage bonus
• adds 1 Warrior Drone job every 20 Drones

Idea behind this: The Hiveminds armies are stronger and they hiveminds values its warrior drones very highly. This civic basically grants you a bunch of naval capacity and defensive armies the more pops on a planet. The Naval capacity bonus is similar to the bland 15% Naval capacity bonus from Subspace Ephapse but in my opiniong granting Naval bonus this way is a lot more interesting and works together nicely with an army damage bonus.


Another idea for an ascencion perk/lategame bonus:

Hiveminds need more growth bonuses in the lategame. They end up far behind normal empires who can make use of Ecumenopoleis, immigration and robot pop assembly. A regular Synth empire without organics growths at >12 pop growth. Adding organics is another bonus from anything between 3 and 15 or more, depending on immigration, Xeno Compatibility and so on. I already suggested for Hiveminds to get their own version of Xeno Compatibility to integrate other pop's traits and gain additional maximum traits and growth bonus. However, I got another idea that works similar to Synths:

Add 2 spawning drone job per upgrade of main planet building (50% growth bonus at 40 and 80 pops)

Adding these growth bonuses later on allows other empires to catch up and gives Hiveminds the much needed pop boost they lack in the lategame.
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Reworked hivemind civics:

Strength of Legions: +100% army building speed, -50% army building costs, -50% army upkeep
Since ground combat is almost irrelevant, you need really powerful bonuses in order to make it count. Doubling your army output while lowering its costs is a significant boost that also helps to bring home hivemind's "quantity over quality" flavour.

One mind: -50% to administrative capacity Unity penalties, +50% empire cohesion
An indirect bonus to unity generation that also encourages wide gameplay and has no equivalent in any other civic

New hivemind civics:

Hive-fleets: -75% space and cost to fighter bays, starts with fighter bay technology, -15% naval capacity consumption
"This hivemind is specialized at controling small aircrafts and spaceships, which are directly connected to its central nervous system as if they were any other physical appendage"

Symbiotic parasite: You can assimilate xenos right out of the bat, albeit twice as slower than with the biological ascension perk.
Unlocks "enhance genetic material" research project in order to add a random positive bonus to your assimilated xenos.
Fixed civic. Incompatible with Devouring Swarm.
"Your hivemind is a gestalt consciousness born out of a of a microscopic yet extremely complex symbiotic organism. Other species lended their neural cappabilities to your hive and in exchange your species altered their DNA, turning them stronger, healthier and smarter, while allowing them to rettainin a smidgen of their individuality. This millenia-old successful cooperation will be one of your biggest assets in this new foray into the stars"

Hive queens: Synapse Drones get replaced by "hivemind queens".
They consume 3 energy and 3 food, and generate +4 unity, +1 administrative cap, +25% pop growth, and one unique, extremely powerful defense army
"This hivemind can offer some degree of autonomy to certain wondrous creatures known as Queens, which can aid the brood by helping our species to multiply and by personally overseeing the drones"
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Some more ideas for Hivemind civics:

Those are not my ideas, they are from the mod "Complex Hive Ascension Path" by Complex. Link to this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1708586892

I haven't tested it myself but the idea seems brilliant, yet simple. It allows Hiveminds to breed an additional organic species alongside their Drones, just like other empires manufacture Robots.

Life Assemblers
Requires Gene Tailoring Tech
Grants Cocoons technology which grants the cocoon building that allows hive minds to build pops of their main species

Life Masters
Requires Life Assemblers
Cocoons can now assemble pops from other species too

Essentially the Cocoons seem to be similar to Robotics Assembly. With this you can have 2 different species grow at the same time, or 2 of the same species. The requirements make sure it doesn't come online until you finished Gene Tailoring so it seems fair.

This would work perfectly with new Civics or Backgrounds for Hiveminds. You could have a Hivemind similar to Driven Assimilator, which breeds pops of an assimilated species. Or you could simply increase the Pop growth of your own species. And it makes use of already established mechanics!
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Thanks a lot for reading so far. I hope atleast some of the suggestions will get added into the game. Playing a non Devouring Swarm feels like playing a Mediocre Empire at this point. Normal empires with robots end up growing quicker which used to be one of Hiveminds greatest strengths, and Robots are now a lot more efficient. Synth Empires combine both, easily outperforming Hiveminds at around the midgame by using up to 20-30 total growth and up to 60% specialist efficiency from Synths on Ecumenopoelis.

Hiveminds need more playstyles. It should feel scary to have your pops get integrated into an opposing Hivemind. Hiveminds should be the best at organic ascencion and the best at manipulating Genes yet they somehow lack the great features of Xeno Compatibility. You would think a pure organic species would atleast be able to use the same species-optimizing ascencion perks as a Xenophile empire.

The Corporate tab offers new opportunities for Hiveminds. Similar to a criminal megacorp, Hiveminds could make use of this tab to create "infestation buildings" using food and influence instead for very harmful outcomes.

Please tell me what you think!

 

[Methone]

They cannot make use of migration so they need something to keep up with normal empires in terms of growth.

They have this. +25% growth speed and the spawning pool.

I also like a lot of the civic ideas. Though Pooled Knowledge is susceptible to the edge case of 'multiple leaders die at once', so maybe 'when a Leader dies it splits its levels among other Leaders'.

 

[Tech Noir Synth]

They have this. +25% growth speed and the spawning pool.

Of course they have this. However at around midgame any normal empire using Robots will pull even or grow faster than a Hivemind.

Lets add up some Growth bonuses: Hivemind civic 25% + Nutritional Plentitude 33% + Spawning Pool 25%. The other bonuses like gene clinics or bonuses from research/traditions/ curators etc can be used by other empires aswell.

Normal empire: encourage growth 25%, nutritional plentitude 10%. This adds up to 35%, similar to nutritional plentitude from Hiveminds. In addition to this, they can get another 20% as Xenophile from Xeno Compatibility. As you said correctly Hivemind do grow faster at the start of the game. However, Robots add an additional 2 growth which is 3/2 = 66% total growth bonus. But what puts normal empires over the top are Ecumenpoleis: 50% growth speed bonus. Or any Empire doing Synth Ascencion will grow up to 12.26 in Synths alone + organics which is another growth modifier up to 15 or maybe even 16 depending on migration.

As proven a long time ago and regularly used by any Synth empire player, using Ecumenopoelis and organics + Synths adds up to more than 20 growth per month easily while having the best possible specialist output (around 60%, 30% alone from being Synths), which is something Hiveminds can never achieve.

To counter this, you can read suggestions such as adding additional spawning drone jobs later on once other empires finish their synth ascencion (around 2300) to make growth more equal. Hiveminds gain more raw ressource jobs from districts but have to sacrifice 20% menial drone output for an increase to 20% complex drone output (specialists and researchers). Keep in mind normal empires still have way more specialist output, up to 60% on ecumenopoleis and as we know specialists and alloys win games along with research. And don't forget the upcoming changes to Dyson Sphere and Matter Decompressor, which are going to yield even more than 1000 energy/minerals. This means that you will have to have less worker jobs and more specialist jobs. Another big buff to empires with the best specialists and therefore there will be a bigger gap between Hiveminds who focus on raw ressources and other empires who have better specialists. Of course this includes Machine aswell, who produce 8 alloys per 4 minerals instead of 6 alloys per 3 minerals. I can only hope the upcoming Ring worlds allow Hiveminds to build Alloy districts instead of consumer good districts. Still nothing beats Ecumenopoleis. It seems as the future will certainly not allow Hiveminds to close the gap to other empires.

The overall goal of these suggestions is to make Hiveminds more in line with other empires while providing more diverse and fun playstyles.

 

[Millbot]

Honestly, something that really bugs me with gestalt empires, be they hive or machine. Is that they all have the same bland ethic. This means outside of special backgrounds, every empire has the same opinions of every hive and every machine empire. Also outside of civics, they all get the same set of bonuses & demerits. I know some don't care for it, but I do think the ethic part of gestalts should be rewarded and a third ring gets added to the very outside of the ethics rings, that is only accessible if gestalt is selected. This new ring would be the gestalt's personality type. I'll list out what have in mind and try to keep it mostly to hive minds.

-Aggressive: This would have slight bonuses to fire rate, outpost construction & population growth/build speed. This would be required prerequisite to select devouring swarm or determined exterminator, and both civics would be rebalanced to account for the aggressive personality bonuses. Even if someone goes with the vanilla aggressive build, they'd have decreased opinion with normal empires, but they could still do diplomacy. Exterminator could be given the bonus, where they always start at neutral with vanilla machine empires, 200 with other exterminators & whatever is appropriate with the other machine empires (rogue servitors seem to be at 1K which makes since & not quite sure how driven assimilators should view them. It seems like they should align with servitors, but they don't. Maybe the devs could elaborate on this interaction).

-Academic: This would have bonuses to research speed & reduced maintenance & build costs for science stations & research buildings. Could also get improved opinion with materialistic empires.

-Diplomatic: This would reduced costs for all the diplomatic things & increased opinion with all empire types. Also have increased output from complex drones. This would be required for rogue servitor.

-Docile: This would have increased planet stability, increased opinion with some empires, but be disliked by militant empires and increased unity production.

-Bland: This would have the standard bonuses we see now. Would probably also be the requirement for driven assimilators.

This would at least give some flavor and variety to gestalt empires. Background civics are nice, but unless the devs intend to go down a route where every empires has to have at least one background civic (which would be fine IMO), there really should be something to prevent every non-background gestalt from being so bland before we even add civics. This also has the bonus of allowing for the addition of new hive civics that are locked behind certain personalities, thus allowing for more variety.

As for the immortal leader. First I think leader traits and leveling need a massive overhaul. That aside, gestalt empire leaders really should have more than just immortality going for them. I think it would be fine if immortality was what they got in place of agendas & mandates. They are likely to get their empire leader to level 10 before anyone else & don't have to waste influence trying to keep a good leader in place, nor do they have to waste time leveling a leader back up (yes, I'm aware psionic can get an immortal leader before the first one dies, but that's a crap shoot. Also aware that it's possible for bio ascended empires to effectively pull off immortality, but that requires tons of research at the expense off other useful research. Less sure how this whole thing works with synthetic ascended empires, I want to say the head huncho is still prone to random failure). Also worth keeping in mind that mandates are usually crap & agendas can be hit or miss. So immortality in place of those seems reasonable. What's not reasonable is that these leaders get zero traits. I suspect the devs are trying to avoid the issue of people getting upset that their leader picked up a useless or extremely weak trait in comparison to their empire's goals. The simple fix would be to just make sure the trait pool they draw from only has traits are generalist that are always useful regardless of empire goals.

 

[Tamwin5]

Being immortal is nice and all but its not comparable to something like 10% research speed or 10% empire mineral production alongside additional traits. Synths get to be immortal aswell but retain ruler traits and agendas. Even organics can become immortal if you keep researching the +5 leader lifespan tech so immortality is really nothing special. I would welcome a small overhaul of Gestalt rulers to make them better.

How about letting us choose Traits for our rulers and choose agendas based on our ruler level? You could allow us to change these for an influence cost to have a dynamic system that allows us to change our empire strength to whatever situation.

Sounds good. There should probably be some unique hive "mindsets" that give a couple of different bonuses. The default would probably be an "Expansion" Mindset, but you could also have "Growth" Mindset, a "Pensive" Mindset, an "angry" Mindset, etc.

Hiveminds should have a better form of Bio Ascencion. They cannot make use of migration so they need something to keep up with normal empires in terms of growth.

I suggest the following: Allow the use of a Hivemind-like Xeno Compatibility once Bio Ascension has been finished. This Ascencion perk allows you to integrate traits of other species into your own species and increases the maximum amount of traits. (Similar to Horatio from Endless Space 2).

Migration slows growth on one planet to increase it on another. Useful for colonies under 10 pops, but outside of the nomadic trait, doesn't increase growth. Hives don't get that initial growth penalty, they start with a Hive Core. They also get a cheap +25% from spawning drones. Throughout the early and mid game, when growth matters most, Hives have the best. Having a late game ascension perk to increase growth and add some other cool mechanics is perfectly fine though, and would be a good addition.

I got an idea for a Hivemind background civic working similar to a criminal megacorp: A Hivemind that constructs infestation on planets, influencing the pops to emigrate toward the Hivemind empire and become one with the Hivemind, cause unrest and kill pops on the infested planet.


I think the way megacorps work would play out perfectly for a Hivemind. You could simply take the criminal heritage megacorp and allow hiveminds to do something similar. Instead of building corporate buildings you build infestation buildings which increase crime or you could add a new keyword called infestation. You have multiple buildings to choose from, with different effects:

• Cause pops to emigrate away from the planet towards the Hivemind, gaining the Hivemind trait in the process
• Cause pops to get infested and die after a short time, spawn attacking armies once killed similar to the subterranian invasion or a rebellion
• Cause pops to steal research or other ressources from the planet and add it to the Hivemind home planet instead

The way to deal with this would be the same as to dealing with Criminal Megacorps. We all know that Criminal Megacorps need a bit of an overhaul, but I think once the developers get it right, the ability to construct buildings unannounced and without asking opens up a ton of possbilities for new civics.

This would require the current branch office system to be overhauled [Insert suggestion thread to do that when I finally write it], but when it is, this NEEDS to be done. Genestealer cults, Zerg infested Terran, there are just so many stories that can be told with this. 10/10 support.

Here are some more ideas for Hivemind civics:

Pooled Knowledge:

Old version:

• +1 Leader Level Cap
• +1 Leader Pool Size

New version:

• +2 Leader Level cap
• Once a leader dies, the minimum level for all subsequent leaders generated from the pool is the old level -2

Idea behind this: The Hivemind's drones share knowledge so new drones can make use of knowledge acquired by earlier generations. There are not many builds around leaders and most of them are quite bland, granting either leader experience gain or additional leader levels. Choosing this Civic allows you to get stronger leaders the longer the game goes and fulfills the fantasy of playing a Hivemind that contains the knowledge of each of its drones.

I'm not sure how well this would work in practice, but my gut feeling tells me this wouldn't play well. It does seem relatively balanced though, so I'm really not sure. This is one of those things that would need to be play-tested to figure out.

Natural Neural Network:

Old version:

• +1 research alternative

New version:

• Brain drones produce unity in addition to science (see Technocracy)
• Add 1 Synapse Drone job for every 20 menial drones.

Idea behind this: Technocracy is a really nice civic so I thought it would fit aswell for Hiveminds. They don't get science directors, so I gave them more Synapse Drones instead.

Science Directors REPLACE Administrators, and are arguably inferior. If you are just porting over Technocracy, you don't need that aspect. I think it might be more interesting if instead of buffing Brain Drones with Unity, you buffed Synapse Drones with Science. Natural Neural Network implies that your neural network (i.e. Synapse drones) is better. Could even make it two separate civics, one the Technocracy port, the other a Synapse Drone buffing one.

Strength of Legions:

Old version:

• 20% army damage bonus
• 20% less army upkeep

New version:

• 20% army damage bonus
• adds 1 Warrior Drone job every 20 Drones

Idea behind this: The Hiveminds armies are stronger and they hiveminds values its warrior drones very highly. This civic basically grants you a bunch of naval capacity and defensive armies the more pops on a planet. The Naval capacity bonus is similar to the bland 15% Naval capacity bonus from Subspace Ephapse but in my opiniong granting Naval bonus this way is a lot more interesting and works together nicely with an army damage bonus.

This one might be a bit too powerful, but that could be balanced by the rate at which you get warrior drones (1 per 25, or 1 base plus 1 per 30, say). I think it's good as-is though. It doesn't grant any direct economic buff, and trying to invade the planet of a warrior-bug hive mind SHOULD be hard (starship troopers, anyone?). This civic will probably need to be balanced for the late game, as that's when stacking naval cap becomes the most important, and scaling pop jobs can get insane. Balance might be better to just have it be a flat number of warrior drones per Capital level, but thats harder with hives, since they only have two capital levels.

Another idea for an ascencion perk/lategame bonus:

Hiveminds need more growth bonuses in the lategame. They end up far behind normal empires who can make use of Ecumenopoleis, immigration and robot pop assembly. A regular Synth empire without organics growths at >12 pop growth. Adding organics is another bonus from anything between 3 and 15 or more, depending on immigration, Xeno Compatibility and so on. I already suggested for Hiveminds to get their own version of Xeno Compatibility to integrate other pop's traits and gain additional maximum traits and growth bonus. However, I got another idea that works similar to Synths:

Add 2 spawning drone job per upgrade of main planet building (50% growth bonus at 40 and 80 pops)

Adding these growth bonuses later on allows other empires to catch up and gives Hiveminds the much needed pop boost they lack in the lategame.

According to the wiki, Hives only have 2 main plant buildings, the one you start with and one at 40 pops. So that idea doesn't work. While hives do have less growth than an optimized machine empire or a synth ascended empire, they have the most growth early game, when growth is the most important. Hives shouldn't have equal growth into the late game, but use their early advantages to establish themselves. Yes, Ecumeopoli have a lot of growth. They are also very expensive and slow to get (Fen Habbinas is it's own problem).

Reworked hivemind civics:

Strength of Legions: +100% army building speed, -50% army building costs, -50% army upkeep
Since ground combat is almost irrelevant, you need really powerful bonuses in order to make it count. Doubling your army output while lowering its costs is a significant boost that also helps to bring home hivemind's "quantity over quality" flavour.

Even though this is better than the current version, it still doesn't really matter. Better to go with a warrior drone related rework.

One mind: -50% to administrative capacity Unity penalties, +50% empire cohesion
An indirect bonus to unity generation that also encourages wide gameplay and has no equivalent in any other civic

Interesting way of going about it. The Empire cohesion buff is literally useless, but the first part is good. Probably needs some iteration or other associated bonus, but a very solid core.

New hivemind civics:

Hive-fleets: -75% space and cost to fighter bays, starts with fighter bay technology, -15% naval capacity consumption
"This hivemind is specialized at controling small aircrafts and spaceships, which are directly connected to its central nervous system as if they were any other physical appendage"

-75% Space? I don't think thats how starbase modules work. There isn't a single civic, tradition, or ascension that directly buffs one type of ship or weapon, and I imagine thats an intentional design philosophy. Still, it has the potential to change in the future, and if anyone get it, it will be a hive mind

Symbiotic parasite: You can assimilate xenos right out of the bat, albeit twice as slower than with the biological ascension perk.
Unlocks "enhance genetic material" research project in order to add a random positive bonus to your assimilated xenos.
Fixed civic. Incompatible with Devouring Swarm.
"Your hivemind is a gestalt consciousness born out of a of a microscopic yet extremely complex symbiotic organism. Other species lended their neural cappabilities to your hive and in exchange your species altered their DNA, turning them stronger, healthier and smarter, while allowing them to rettainin a smidgen of their individuality. This millenia-old successful cooperation will be one of your biggest assets in this new foray into the stars"

Interesting idea, I could see it working. I feel like symbiotic parasites deserve unique mechanics, more similar to Driven Assimilators or Rogue servitors, though.

Hive queens: Synapse Drones get replaced by "hivemind queens".
They consume 3 energy and 3 food, and generate +4 unity, +1 administrative cap, +25% pop growth, and one unique, extremely powerful defense army
"This hivemind can offer some degree of autonomy to certain wondrous creatures known as Queens, which can aid the brood by helping our species to multiply and by personally overseeing the drones"

Hive Queens are such a classic trope, I'm kinda surprised hives don't have them. I'd remove the administrative cap personally, feels a little gimmicky and distracting. 4 Unity and 25% Pop growth by themselves are more than enough to make it worthwhile. Having them be a fefense army could stay or go.

Some more ideas for Hivemind civics:

Life Assemblers
Requires Gene Tailoring Tech
Grants Cocoons technology which grants the cocoon building that allows hive minds to build pops of their main species

Life Masters
Requires Life Assemblers
Cocoons can now assemble pops from other species too

Not a huge fan of this mechanic, it should stay as a mod imo.

 

[Tech Noir Synth]

Oh I forgot the recent idea than I'm sure many people have had so far:

Give Hiveminds their own special colossus that is able to create Hive worlds and Assimilate pops into the Hivemind. This is likely very strong so you could make it so the colossus is consumed in the process.

Or you could simply give them a similar version to what Driven Assimilators get, to instantly convert Bio pops into a Hivemind.

 

[Tamwin5]

Oh I forgot the recent idea than I'm sure many people have had so far:

Give Hiveminds their own special colossus that is able to create Hive worlds and Assimilate pops into the Hivemind. This is likely very strong so you could make it so the colossus is consumed in the process.

Or you could simply give them a similar version to what Driven Assimilators get, to instantly convert Bio pops into a Hivemind.

Eh, I'd say something more like the Neutron Sweep. Destroys all pops, but turns them into food. Nom Nom swarm.

...Or maybe it eats the entire planet, turning it into a barren Terraforming Candidate world. Gives food AND minerals

 

[The Grumpy Buddha]

I apologize if I missed it above, but why not let Hive Minds have a Society repeatable for +10% or +20% population growth, so that they actually can grow faster (imagine!) than other organic empires?

It would hardly be broken as generally speaking, I, at least, always work on the Admin Cap repeatable for a few decades to get it to where I have no tech/unity penalty, so the presence of this repeatable might make it a tough choice, which way to go.

 

[Tech Noir Synth]

Thats a very interesting idea. I think repeatable would end up being too strong though. But its clear that Hiveminds need more pop growth since they end up with the weakest at the moment.

I would prefer an upgrade to the spawning pool building to allow for additional spawning drone jobs. Also many people so far have suggested to make use of the 2nd pop assembly slot for Biological empires. So when you unlock the special pop growth building from Bio ascencion, instead of getting a flat 33% growth bonus, you get the ability to grow 2 types of organic pops at once. Something like this is what organics need to be able to keep up with Robots.

 

[melarkhan]

I would suggest buffing the Strength of Legions Civic even more by additionaly to your suggested buffs letting it let you completely ignore War Exhaustion from Army / Ground Combat losses. That way you could really wear down that Fortress Planet with thousands of bodies and don' t even care how many perish.

 

[Pale Blue]

The devs should make sure the hivemind can't get the trait that stops it from gaining exp. Nothing was more depressing than gaining it on a low level hivemind when they still could get ruler traits.