Machine empires are almost forced to take a food tech to advance the society tree. This is silly.
On their 5th society tech, machines gestalts are all but guaranteed to get to choose between 2 food buff techs, with no other choices. It happens because you must research 5 tier one techs to be able to draw any tier 2 techs. There are 19 tier 1 society techs, 14 of which are available to gestalts. 7 of those are blocker clearing techs which wont show up unless you have a planet with that blocker. Of the 7 remaining techs, 3 are food buffs. So there are 4 non-food tier one society technologies available to Machines. To be able to draw any tier 2 techs, you must research 5 tier 1s. That means if you are a machine, you must either expand faster than it takes to research 4 techs, or learn the joys of farming for fun.
...Can we please have just one more tier 1 society tech, that way it is actually possible to get to tier 2 techs without being forced to grow a mechanical green thumb?
On their 5th society tech, machines gestalts are all but guaranteed to get to choose between 2 food buff techs, with no other choices. It happens because you must research 5 tier one techs to be able to draw any tier 2 techs. There are 19 tier 1 society techs, 14 of which are available to gestalts. 7 of those are blocker clearing techs which wont show up unless you have a planet with that blocker. Of the 7 remaining techs, 3 are food buffs. So there are 4 non-food tier one society technologies available to Machines. To be able to draw any tier 2 techs, you must research 5 tier 1s. That means if you are a machine, you must either expand faster than it takes to research 4 techs, or learn the joys of farming for fun.
...Can we please have just one more tier 1 society tech, that way it is actually possible to get to tier 2 techs without being forced to grow a mechanical green thumb?