Let me tell you about the birds and the bees.....

[Strager]

Ok Paradox - it's time we had a talk. It's time we learn where babies come from.

Different reproductive rates are already somewhat modeled with population growth. It would really help differentiate species if their reproductive cycles were different rather than using.

Instead each species would choose a reproductive type based on Phenotype. Does your species lay eggs? Do they drop seeds? Each would have inheriant advantages and disadvantages. Some examples could be:

Egg-Layers: Higher growth. Uses 1 trait point. Available to Humanoids, Avians, etc.
Live-Birth: Like the inferior mammals of earth do. Average growh rate. Availabale to Humoniods, Mammalians, Avians, etc.
Seed Droppers: Very high growth rate. Slower colony construction time. Uses 1 trait point. Available only to Plant species.
Spores: Available only to Fungoids. Slow growth rate, pops get a little extra health in combat.Does not use a trait.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

This seems like it gets waaaaaay more granular than Stellaris does otherwise.

(Also god no please do not lock things behind phenotype portraits let me imagine my species freely without arbitrary portrait-based restrictions like this)

 

[The_Meme_Man]

Culture and tradition kind of makes the biological part of reproduction pointless to depict in-game. Even live-birthing long-gestational aliens are going to reproduce more if their culture demands that "good citizens" have lots of offspring than a species of egg layering fast-fertilizing aliens with sexual freedom and easy access to contraceptives.

Basically, compare a feudal-age Elephant warlord, with the Johnny Bravo of salamanders.

Also, when regarding actual species traits rather than what would more appropriately be related to an ethos, just consider how much rats and rabbits reproduce compared to tortoises and monitor lizards.

 

[corny.1234]

By locking certain mechanics to phenotypes, you're one step closer to have prefabricated species...

So no

 

[safe-keeper]

I prefer having generic traits that I can then role-play. For example, when I made my kingdom of equestria I made my horses "slow breeders" because horses only have one foal at a time, unlike, say, dogs who have litters of pups.

Maybe a little more freedom would be interesting, but I'm happy with the current system.

 

[The Founder]

I agree that locking it to Phenotypes is a poor idea.
It is usually a lot easier to just pick the traits with the effect, then roleplay/headcanon them.
Like that time I made a Deviant + Venerable Species. Based on the idea that thier long life means they have centuries old fueds, leading to high fractionalsiation.

Also your assignments does not even make sense on earth. We have egg laying mammals (Platypus and 4 specise of Echidna):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme

 

[grommile]

Not only do we have mammals that lay eggs, we also have reptiles and fish that give birth.

 

[The Founder]

Not only do we have mammals that lay eggs, we also have reptiles and fish that give birth.

Do you mean Whales and Doplhins with the "Fish that give birth"? Because they are not fish, as they are also mammals.
If not, I would be interested in the cases.

 

[Korbah]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Viviparous_fish

 

[SadeRat]

I wouldn't mind seeing the OP's idea implemented using traits. Imagine a species which occupies all tiles on a planet simultaneously with spores, but those spores than take 10+ years to develop into a pop. That sort of thing. There is a neat idea here, if you remove it from the unpopular suggestion to attach it to phenotypes.

I would like to see more traits in general. We should have at least three tiers of each trait in each direction (positive and negative). Not just growth rate +/-10%, but also +/- 20% and +/- 30%. The same for every other trait. This would be trivial to mod in, but something like uniquely different reproductive methods would be more involved I think...

Slightly off topic question: if you load additional traits using a mod, will random galaxy species use those traits?

 

[Zaltys]

Slightly off topic question: if you load additional traits using a mod, will random galaxy species use those traits?

Yes, though I'm not entirely sure how the AI picks them. Maybe it's completely random.
Personalities (Federation Builder, etc) can be weighted based on what ethics and traits the species was created with, but I don't see any way to weight traits.

 

[The Founder]

I wouldn't mind seeing the OP's idea implemented using traits. Imagine a species which occupies all tiles on a planet simultaneously with spores, but those spores than take 10+ years to develop into a pop. That sort of thing. There is a neat idea here, if you remove it from the unpopular suggestion to attach it to phenotypes.

I would like to see more traits in general. We should have at least three tiers of each trait in each direction (positive and negative). Not just growth rate +/-10%, but also +/- 20% and +/- 30%. The same for every other trait. This would be trivial to mod in, but something like uniquely different reproductive methods would be more involved I think...

Two main issues with that:
- granularity. There is only 5 trait points. It could be easily solved by just multiplying all traitpoint values and cost in the game by 10. But that leads us to the 2nd problem.
- mutual exclusion. Why do you think Venerable costs 4 (and earlier 5) points? Because it should not be easily combinable with some other speciestraits. And/or require taking certain negative ones. Granularity might quickly dilute that.

Slightly off topic question: if you load additional traits using a mod, will random galaxy species use those traits?

Everytime the game creats a new species (inlcuding Environmental Adaptation, Invading Stoneage) it creates a species with "traits = random" (habibitability traits are not considered here).
I guess there are some lockouts (like certain traits only appearing on pre-sentient pops). But otherwise it I do not see why it should not use them.
Keep in mind that you may have to adapt AI personality and a lot of other files that reference traits, or you will get wierd results.

 

[erkkijuusto]

Good concept, but I would't lock the reproductive system behind a phenotype and I believe they shouldn't cost a trait point. I believe there should be positive and negative effects to each reproductive system, eg. faster/slower growth, less food production, longer/shorter lifespan etc.

I wouldn't care if there were egg-laying humans in the game, or seed-dropping foxes for that matter. It's a science-fantasy game, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a mammal laying eggs from it's ears or something.