Playng as Devouring Swarm/Fnatic Purifier

[alteration]

My question is, after I go beyond my administrative cap, is it worth to continue to conquer other planets? In my last game, I'm declaring war, conquering the planets, then resettling all the pops on my worlds to eat them. I feel it's not necessary anymore to expand beyond a certain point.

 

[Shirasik]

administrative cap

That's a new realization of old "efficiency vs absolute production" balance. Currently it mostly affects science, while other stuff is either affected not that much, or may not be used.

In my last game, I'm declaring war, conquering the planets, then resettling all the pops on my worlds to eat them. I feel it's not necessary anymore to expand beyond a certain point.

All that additional food from tasty xeno allows to set Nutrition Plentitude policy, that grants very fast growth of pops, so you will have to build new jobs and new housing all the time. Then, when food storage hits zero, wage another war. Hunger war.

 

[Zentay]

My question is, after I go beyond my administrative cap, is it worth to continue to conquer other planets?

Yes. You need to expand to reach the strength necessary to deal with crises and strong opponents.

 

[alteration]

Yes. You need to expand to reach the strength necessary to deal with crises and strong opponents.

But the malus are huge! Research time doubles, so production is slowed down.

 

[hangry]

But the malus are huge! Research time doubles, so production is slowed down.

The penalties are lower than in 2.1.

 

[corny.1234]

In the beta patch, it has been renamed to empire capacity. They changed the name because it was not clear that you should in fact go over it. The penalties are manageable. You pay more for your leaders, research and traditions mostly, but you can compensate it by fortifying your economy. Currently I can support an empire of size 80 but my empire size is 150 and I'm making profits.