New Origin ranking

[Sledjer]

What do you guys think the new best origins are? Ring world was obviously hit hard. Also am I correct in believing that Prosperous Unification is now an inferior version of Lost Colony because the trade-off is now two pops or a permanent, already superior modifier? It seems like Scion is the only OP start now, with Relic being the best normal one.

 

[mial42]

Hegemon and Scion are still pretty broken. On the Shoulders of Giants might be the best "normal" origin, although for a synth-ascended empire mechanist might worth another look (robots and droids are much better now, so the slow start of the origin isn't as bad, and the`-5% upkeep stacks with the many other -robot upkeep modifiers in the game to get to like ~15% CG and ~35% energy).

Doomsday Driven Assimilator is probably the most "meta" build possible now, and NecroPurifier is still decent, although no longer brokenly strong like in 2.8.

 

[tobias.mb]

Prosperous unification still gives you 4 extra pops, which is pretty nice. Combined with the planet modifier, the idea behind that origin is basically to have a slightly better start and leverage that to "snowball". And I wouldn't call it inferior to lost colony just because the modifier is timed; remember that lost colony means you only have 80% habitability on the capital, so 20% increased pop upkeep and 10% less pop growth... (certainly makes the start much less attractive though... Turning a 'prosperous unification' capital into an ecu was always nice )

I'd say Ringworld is still among the best (only scion is even better, but that one is borderline cheating...). You just need to quickly conquer someone else for pops, that can live on planets... Also machines don't get the habitability downside of this origin! (So only hives are really bad with ringworld starts)

Among the more normal origins, I'd say mechanist is also pretty strong. Having pop assembly from the start is quite powerful (and robots are more useful now, since they can be technicians now...)

I actually don't consider remnants all that good... by the time you have the tech to restore your relic world, you can usually simply take the AP, which allows you to turn your homeworld into an ecu anyway.

Other origins can be really good depending on your situation:

• Necrophages or Syncretic evolution is great if you want to play a slaver empire
• Doomsday is actually great if you really want to double down on early conquest, especially for Lithoids or Machines that aren't hit by the habitability penalty (and setting guarantted neighbours to 0 negates a big downside of this origin)
• Voidborn is great in low habitability galaxies
• Hegemon / common ground is good if you immediatly conquer them - that's basically starting with 3 worlds worth of pops

 

[sillyrobot]

I'm a fan of On the Shoulder of Giants: 3 random techs nearly researched, a bunch of resources, and a decent permanent set of modifiers (+5% research, +5% happiness, +5% unity are of note). All at the cost of a science ship and scientist dedicated to the home system for 20-30 years.

A second archeology chain in mid-game doubles the modifiers.

 

[klingonadmiral]

by the time you have the tech to restore your relic world, you can usually simply take the AP, which allows you to turn your homeworld into an ecu anyway.

Ecus have been nerfed so hard that taking the perk is no longer worth it.

 

[Mastikator]

Ecus have been nerfed so hard that taking the perk is no longer worth it.

Especially if you find relic worlds, even a single one and I'd skip Arcology Project

 

[Less2]

Based on normal habitability, max AI civs, grand admiral difficulty:

SS Tier
Hegemony

S tier
Nothing because nothing even comes close to hegemony now

A tier
Scion, Doomsday w/ assimilator robots (not genocidal though because genociding is AWFUL)

B tier
Everything not listed

F tier
Syncretic Evolution, Lost colony, Common Ground, Galactic Doorstep, Calamitous birth, post apocalyptic. You know all the same crap that sucked before basically.


Honestly most of the OP ones have been nerfed pretty hard to the point where there's nothing too imbalanced except Hegemony, which is only imbalanced because starting in a federation with GA AIs is OP and can get you a 200 naval cap fleet for free by 20-30 years in just by spamming naval cap and taking the +100% contribution perk. Scion is still basically a gigantic cointoss to get a fleet that won't reinforce and is roughly as good as Hegemony gets all the time, except hegemony will eventually get 400 and 600 naval cap fed fleets.

There's definitely a few better than average like on the shoulders of giants or tree of life but nothing strong enough to rank a whole tier above the other stuff I consider B tier.

 

[tobias.mb]

Ecus have been nerfed so hard that taking the perk is no longer worth it.

I'd say that ecus are still well worth having... they're just not OP anymore (and spamming them makes less sense now).
Though I probably wouldn't get more than 2-3 at your empire's heart... more than that I prefer to use forge / factory habitats.

Based on normal habitability, max AI civs, grand admiral difficulty:

SS Tier
Hegemony

I'm curious: although I can see how getting GA AIs is great, isn't it difficult to keep them loyal? (or rather don't they quickly take over hegemony leadership?)
Wouldn't common ground work almost the same? How come you put that in F-tier?

 

[Promethian]

Necrophages is very high value if you are xenophobe. You can do the necrophage purge (even if not purifier) and that means your two freebie planets have 8 pops starting out that you very quickly turn into your species. Cheaper and faster than normal settling. You can resettle one of your other species in for 25 energy (no influence) because they are slaves so starting growth is good.

Its great for becoming the crisis. Can do nihilistic acquisition from small civs without the growth penalty and necropurge them into your species. Get all the war threat plus purging threat without losing out on the pop gain.

 

[Less2]

I'm curious: although I can see how getting GA AIs is great, isn't it difficult to keep them loyal? (or rather don't they quickly take over hegemony leadership?)
Wouldn't common ground work almost the same? How come you put that in F-tier?

You can quickly pass the law to make it a 40 year reelection and by 40 years you can choose to change the law to tech/diplomatic weight/fleet, whichever you are strongest in. "loyalty" isn't really a thing since they are just fed members, all that matters is winning reelection

Hegemony get a much stronger fleet early, better other bonuses, a CB that can be useful, better laws (president decides a lot of stuff rather than it being a vote). Common ground is worse in every way. Whether that's enough to be F is kind of up for debate though