More Purging Types!

[Tyrannical Prince]

I would like to see more things be recognized as purging in the game but I think there should at least be more forms of purging. Here are some purge types I would like to see

Organic Component Harvesting:
This method of purging would create cybernetic drone armies that have upkeep split between more resources (including food) and significantly less energy.
Some examples of this would be the Combine from Half Life 2 or the Borg from Star Trek

The Combine

The Borg

Genetic Transformation:
This method of purging gradually converts one species into another
Some examples include Childhood's End and Village of the Damned

Childhood's End

Village of the Damned

EDIT: as a way to further differentiate the purge types/provide "incentives" for the different types, perhaps the different types should be more specialized in what they produce

Extermination - fastest, produces some energy
Displacement - fast, has the largest diplomatic penalty (it's not a secret) and has the smallest happiness penalty for pops who oppose purging
Forced Labor - medium speed, produces minerals (minimal food/energy, no research)
Processing - medium speed, produces food (nothing else)
Neutering - slowest, small diplomatic and happiness penalties
Organics Harvesting - slow, converts pops into armies (forced cybernetic-augmentation armies)
Genetic Transformation - slow, converts the species into another species



What other forms of purging would you like to see?

 

[Sheriff Godwin Law]

I'm on board with forcefully converting populations into your own race, once appropriate technology has been unlocked, it would be a fun play for the pacifistic xenophobe isolationist game, but I'm worried something so merciful might lessen the impact of what is the horrifying destruction of a unique race and culture.

On the other hand, converting into armies seems kinda of meh for a game that already has four different themed end game army types and very little to do with them.

 

[Surimi]

The combine situation seems far better handled by slavery.

As for Childhood's End, I don't want to spoil what I genuinely rate as one of the best science fiction books of all time, but what's happening is far more akin to psionic ascension than to purging. The humans are not being converted into another species, they're leaving behind their physical forms and becoming part of the collective consciousness of all the species which have previously done the same. The clue is literally in the title, the childhood of humanity is coming to an end and now they're ready to hang with the grown ups.

As for the village of the damned scenario, this might work for a species which is naturally parasitic (I would like to see parasitic species added at some point), but otherwise surely all you're doing is replacing the individuals with members of a different species in disguise, not converting them into usable pops.

 

[Untrustedlife]

The combine situation seems far better handled by slavery.

As for Childhood's End, I don't want to spoil what I genuinely rate as one of the best science fiction books of all time, but what's happening is far more akin to psionic ascension than to purging. The humans are not being converted into another species, they're leaving behind their physical forms and becoming part of the collective consciousness of all the species which have previously done the same. The clue is literally in the title, the childhood of humanity is coming to an end and now they're ready to hang with the grown ups.

As for the village of the damned scenario, this might work for a species which is naturally parasitic (I would like to see parasitic species added at some point), but otherwise surely all you're doing is replacing the individuals with members of a different species in disguise, not converting them into usable pops.

Hiveminds will be able to assimilate new species to their hive mind after completing the biological ascension path which is very similar. So I imagine direct pop conversion to a different species isn't far off.

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

I'm on board with forcefully converting populations into your own race, once appropriate technology has been unlocked, it would be a fun play for the pacifistic xenophobe isolationist game, but I'm worried something so merciful might lessen the impact of what is the horrifying destruction of a unique race and culture.

On the other hand, converting into armies seems kinda of meh for a game that already has four different themed end game army types and very little to do with them.

Well I'd say it's still horrifying to be gradually replaced by another species.

And you're right about the armies thing. Currently armies only have a few minor stat differences and don't really have any flavor differences between them. I hope that in the future there is something that gives these different army types some life.

The combine situation seems far better handled by slavery.

I was have an internal debate on weather the combine situation would be a slavery thing or not. I didn't think it was because it was inherently unsustainable. Kind of like how there is the "live stalk" slavery type and the "Processing" purge type. They also portray it as something that is irreversible with Alyx hoping that "they don't remember who they were." Being assimilated by the Borg was reversible in a small handful of situations but those situations don't reverse the fact that the entire species was assimilated and wiped out, likely never to return.

As for Childhood's End, I don't want to spoil what I genuinely rate as one of the best science fiction books of all time, but what's happening is far more akin to psionic ascension than to purging. The humans are not being converted into another species, they're leaving behind their physical forms and becoming part of the collective consciousness of all the species which have previously done the same. The clue is literally in the title, the childhood of humanity is coming to an end and now they're ready to hang with the grown ups.

I never read the book so I don't know how the book portrayed it. I only saw the miniseries. I didn't see it as a Stargate Ancients kind of ascending. What I saw was aliens coming down, harvesting humanity of its children with the standard "master race" kind of justification before leaving the rest to die alone. I thought the ending where the guy was walking around ghost cities with bones strewn about made the imagery genocidal. It seemed pretty clear that it was an example of "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." At least that's how I saw it anyways.

As for the village of the damned scenario, this might work for a species which is naturally parasitic (I would like to see parasitic species added at some point), but otherwise surely all you're doing is replacing the individuals with members of a different species in disguise, not converting them into usable pops.

Invasion of the body snatchers is another example actually (now that you mention parasite). I was thinking that the new pops would be usable pops.

 

[AndragonLea]

Hiveminds will be able to assimilate new species to their hive mind after completing the biological ascension path which is very similar. So I imagine direct pop conversion to a different species isn't far off.

To be honest I don't really see why a hivemind player would want to spend the genetic trait points to convert races when they could just resettle a few of their own pops over. It seems like a waste of points when the same effort could go towards making your drones into sleek, optimised precision tools and machines for their intended use.

 

[Emraldis]

To be honest I don't really see why a hivemind player would want to spend the genetic trait points to convert races when they could just resettle a few of their own pops over. It seems like a waste of points when the same effort could go towards making your drones into sleek, optimised precision tools and machines for their intended use.

Roleplaying purposes mostly

 

[AndragonLea]

Roleplaying purposes mostly

Fair enough. God knows I played some wacky races for no other reason than to pretend to be some sort of xenophobic psychic slug or a jedi gecko - as long as I'm not forced to do that and can use my genetic lottery tickets to improve my drones instead, I'll allow it.

 

[Surimi]

I never read the book so I don't know how the book portrayed it. I only saw the miniseries. I didn't see it as a Stargate Ancients kind of ascending. What I saw was aliens coming down, harvesting humanity of its children with the standard "master race" kind of justification before leaving the rest to die alone. I thought the ending where the guy was walking around ghost cities with bones strewn about made the imagery genocidal. It seemed pretty clear that it was an example of "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." At least that's how I saw it anyways.

I deliberately avoided the miniseries because I knew it could very easily annoy me, but the book makes it very clear what is happening.

Spoiler

Basically, government research into paranormal and psychic abilities had unknowingly begun to awaken those abilities in humans. The process was inevitable, it would have happened regardless of whether the overlords had even arrived. The mission of the overlords was actually to delay the transformation and to guide human culture so that their aggression and superstition would not damage the overmind when they were absorbed into it. To this end, they take over earth's society and transform it into a secular utopia where everyone lives in luxury and comfort but at the expense of art and culture.

By part two ("the golden age") some humans are beginning to show the signs of psychic awakening, such as when Jean Greggson correctly identifies the overlords home planet using a Ouija board. However, it is still very rare.

In part three ("the last generation") the children start to develop increasingly powerful psychic abilities which culminate in them becoming a collective consciousness and no longer communicating with anyone else. They are taken away by the overlords for their own safety and so that they can develop in peace. The rest of the human race is told that they are the titular last generation of humans, and effectively left alone to live out their lives as they see fit. Many choose to kill themselves. The rest die of old age or disease. It's a pretty sad and depressing ending in that sense.

But here's the thing.. why do the overlords look like demons?

Well, in universe Keralan explains that the overmind is a psychic being which transcends time itself, it reaches back through human history and speaks to its human ancestors, so humans always subconsciously knew what the overlords would look like. More thematically though, the overlords look like demons because they are in hell. They live in a universe in which there is a God (the overmind) but for all their superhuman intelligence they lack the ability to join with it. It's ambiguous whether they feel sad about this or whether they take a kind of perverse pride in retaining their individuality, but the defining feature of their culture is that they are intimately aware that they merely exist in someone else's universe, and one day they will all die out. Some part of humanity, on the other hand, will exist forever within the overmind. The phrase "the stars are not for man", which seemed to be suggesting that only the Overlords had the abilities to travel and colonize space, is ultimately ironic. By becoming part of the Overmind humanity inherits dominion over the universe, while the overlords themselves are mere servants.

Whether it's a happy or sad ending for humanity thus depends a bit on how you feel and who you think is right.

 

[Elfwind]

Mad Scientist Experimentation for society research and a dabble of physics (weapon testing).

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

I deliberately avoided the miniseries because I knew it could very easily annoy me, but the book makes it very clear what is happening.

Spoiler

Basically, government research into paranormal and psychic abilities had unknowingly begun to awaken those abilities in humans. The process was inevitable, it would have happened regardless of whether the overlords had even arrived. The mission of the overlords was actually to delay the transformation and to guide human culture so that their aggression and superstition would not damage the overmind when they were absorbed into it. To this end, they take over earth's society and transform it into a secular utopia where everyone lives in luxury and comfort but at the expense of art and culture.

By part two ("the golden age") some humans are beginning to show the signs of psychic awakening, such as when Jean Greggson correctly identifies the overlords home planet using a Ouija board. However, it is still very rare.

In part three ("the last generation") the children start to develop increasingly powerful psychic abilities which culminate in them becoming a collective consciousness and no longer communicating with anyone else. They are taken away by the overlords for their own safety and so that they can develop in peace. The rest of the human race is told that they are the titular last generation of humans, and effectively left alone to live out their lives as they see fit. Many choose to kill themselves. The rest die of old age or disease. It's a pretty sad and depressing ending in that sense.

But here's the thing.. why do the overlords look like demons?

Well, in universe Keralan explains that the overmind is a psychic being which transcends time itself, it reaches back through human history and speaks to its human ancestors, so humans always subconsciously knew what the overlords would look like. More thematically though, the overlords look like demons because they are in hell. They live in a universe in which there is a God (the overmind) but for all their superhuman intelligence they lack the ability to join with it. It's ambiguous whether they feel sad about this or whether they take a kind of perverse pride in retaining their individuality, but the defining feature of their culture is that they are intimately aware that they merely exist in someone else's universe, and one day they will all die out. Some part of humanity, on the other hand, will exist forever within the overmind. The phrase "the stars are not for man", which seemed to be suggesting that only the Overlords had the abilities to travel and colonize space, is ultimately ironic. By becoming part of the Overmind humanity inherits dominion over the universe, while the overlords themselves are mere servants.

Whether it's a happy or sad ending for humanity thus depends a bit on how you feel and who you think is right.

I don't remember in the miniseries that it was going to happen anyways. But it still doesn't seem like the overlords were just swell guys.