Please stop asking for biological technology for hive minds

[Me_]

Biological technology including some form of living ships and buildings is interesting and could be a unique addition to the game.

Expanding hive minds by adding different unique kinds of hive minds is interesting and could be a unique addition to the game.

But there is no rhyme and reason to marrying the two concepts.

I get it, you like Zerg, you played Starcraft and wish to recreate it in Stellaris. I played it too, it was fine.

But, if organic technology is possible there is no reason why it would be used by species that has individual individuals. Conversly, there is no reason why a hive mind would not use non-organic technology. Animals with wheels aren't really possible, which is why a hive mind would use ordinary wheels, but also if they were possible non-hive minds would use them as well. We've been using animals and breeding them for centuries. Why would we not do so if it were possible to bred them for acting as a computer or spaceship?

In summary: please, add organic technology (provided it can be sensibly balanced, I'm looking at you catalytic processing), add more options for hive minds, allow the mixing of one and the other, but do not restrict them to each other.

 

[3ishop]

Yeah, fine with it coming with such a rework but as always I prefer to keep the unique elements untied unless very specific for it such as Robots.

 

[Fulgrymm]

Nah. I'll keep asking, thanks.

 

[theBigTurnip385]

Can we please have biological technology for hive minds

 

[OnyxAbussos]

For the sake of the nuance, we can totally simulate Bio Tech right now.

1. Choose the fleshy background for leader.
2. Choose Catalytic Processing.
3. Choose Plantoid, Fungoid, or Mulloscoid city appearance.
4. Choose either Mulloscoid or Fungoid ships.

Boom. Your alloys aren't really alloys. They're bio-engineered tissues and organs and enzymes. They're the "growing if a bio ship" out of organic material. I mean for me, my headcanon fir Catalytic is (half the time) specifically bio ships.

 

[DukeLeto42]

For the sake of the nuance, we can totally simulate Bio Tech right now.

1. Choose the fleshy background for leader.
2. Choose Catalytic Processing.
3. Choose Plantoid, Fungoid, or Mulloscoid city appearance.
4. Choose either Mulloscoid or Fungoid ships.

Boom. Your alloys aren't really alloys. They're bio-engineered tissues and organs and enzymes. They're the "growing if a bio ship" out of organic material. I mean for me, my headcanon fir Catalytic is (half the time) specifically bio ships.

Honestly all it's missing is a reskin for buildings and districts to match.

 

[Liquid Ghost]

Please stop asking for biological technology for hive minds​

 

[Brael]

Biological technology including some form of living ships and buildings is interesting and could be a unique addition to the game.

Expanding hive minds by adding different unique kinds of hive minds is interesting and could be a unique addition to the game.

But there is no rhyme and reason to marrying the two concepts.

I get it, you like Zerg, you played Starcraft and wish to recreate it in Stellaris. I played it too, it was fine.

But, if organic technology is possible there is no reason why it would be used by species that has individual individuals. Conversly, there is no reason why a hive mind would not use non-organic technology. Animals with wheels aren't really possible, which is why a hive mind would use ordinary wheels, but also if they were possible non-hive minds would use them as well. We've been using animals and breeding them for centuries. Why would we not do so if it were possible to bred them for acting as a computer or spaceship?

In summary: please, add organic technology (provided it can be sensibly balanced, I'm looking at you catalytic processing), add more options for hive minds, allow the mixing of one and the other, but do not restrict them to each other.

Really what I would like more than anything as organic is a way to assimilate other species without being necrophage.
Making the species window easier to manage many times feels like the best benefit of synthetics.

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

living ships with non-hives are somewhat immersion breaking

 

[Fulgrymm]

living ships with non-hives are somewhat immersion breaking

Have you ever watched Farscape? I don't think Moya was part of a hive mind. So they needn't necessarily be connected, but the option should be there.

 

[Surimi]

I think hive minds being more likely to use some kinds of organic technology makes a degree of sense. For example, hive minds don't use things like AI or robots because they have drones for that. A lot of the tradition variants for hive minds also mention organic technology. Hive minds will also end up making things like non-mechanical sentient starships, which implies they're using organic technology.

But here's the thing, organic technology doesn't have to mean spaceships looking like gribbly monsters. That's the Prethoryn's thing, and I wouldn't even call it a technology, it's just what the Prethoryn are.

For most of us, building a spaceship out of meat is not a good idea. In order to be a useful spaceship, it still needs materials with properties that meat does not have. Using organic components as the brain and nervous system of your spaceship isn't going to fundamentally change what it's made of or the way it looks. It still has to be a spaceship.

 

[Slaughter]

I agree, I get it. It makes sense that Hive Minds and Organic Ships aren't married concepts.

That said, Hive Minds should have some relation to it, like bonuses and stuff

 

[Kapi96]

eh, having it just for hive minds would definitely be better than having it for nobody.

But yeah, I'd agree it shouldn't be exclusive to them. No reason non-hive mind races shouldn't be able to use organic ships either. The first thing that comes to mind to me in regards to organic ships are the Wraith from Stargate, they're definitely not a hive mind.

 

[Mastikator]

Can I have biological technology for machine empires then?

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

Can I have biological technology for machine empires then?

be careful with what you're wishing, or we might just end up with bio meatbags enslaving poor robots again

 

[mergele]

Can I have biological technology for machine empires then?

Heck yeah. Machine empire incorporating biological technology and tools in it's line up would be cool as heck!
I am with OP here, I think it would be a reduction to Stellaris lore if only Hive mind would be bound to only biological focus, I'd want all of them to be able to specialise into all tech categories. There can be mutually exlusive techs/tree branches -I'd be all for that - and Hive minds can have boni to weights there, fine by me, but a Hive mind should be able to develop mechanical killerrobot armies if it finds them useful and robots able to breed xenomorphs if it desires and commits to it.

 

[GloatingSwine]

For the sake of the nuance, we can totally simulate Bio Tech right now.

1. Choose the fleshy background for leader.
2. Choose Catalytic Processing.
3. Choose Plantoid, Fungoid, or Mulloscoid city appearance.
4. Choose either Mulloscoid or Fungoid ships.

Boom. Your alloys aren't really alloys. They're bio-engineered tissues and organs and enzymes. They're the "growing if a bio ship" out of organic material. I mean for me, my headcanon fir Catalytic is (half the time) specifically bio ships.

5. Always fit Regenerative Hull Tissue



But that's kinda the thing. What does is mean in Stellaris to have biological ships? What's the mechanical difference you can attach to them that we don't already have?

 

[Vegetalss4]

For the sake of the nuance, we can totally simulate Bio Tech right now.

1. Choose the fleshy background for leader.
2. Choose Catalytic Processing.
3. Choose Plantoid, Fungoid, or Mulloscoid city appearance.
4. Choose either Mulloscoid or Fungoid ships.

Boom. Your alloys aren't really alloys. They're bio-engineered tissues and organs and enzymes. They're the "growing if a bio ship" out of organic material. I mean for me, my headcanon fir Catalytic is (half the time) specifically bio ships.

To me that mulloscoid and fungoid ships still looks too mechanical, and the fleshy background looks the wrong kind of organic for the city options.

I do agree with your larger point about how similar bio-tech and non-bio-tech end up being on the scale of stellaris, so all I'd want to have it all would be a new "biological" ship appearence and either a bio-city in the same style as the flesh leader background or a new leader background in a style fitting the plantoid/fungoid or mullescoid style. (honestly preferably both since wishes are free).

 

[Kapitalisti]

I was gearing up to (respectfully) disagree with you but then you went all reasonable. So yes I actually agree. Organic ships would be a good addition but there's zero reason to marry the trope to hiveminds. There are plenty of non-gestalt examples in fiction, like the Leviathans from Farscape, the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis or the Vorlon from Babylon 5.

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

I was gearing up to (respectfully) disagree with you but then you went all reasonable. So yes I actually agree. Organic ships would be a good addition but there's zero reason to marry the trope to hiveminds. There are plenty of non-gestalt examples in fiction, like the Leviathans from Farscape, the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis or the Vorlon from Babylon 5.

those ships are only partly made of organic tissue (mainly the hull/armor as well as some interior interfaces) without the ship itself being a living organism

when speaking of an organic ship i've got for example lexx in mind, which is an actual (yet artificially created) huge living organism (e.g. like the drakes or voidspawns in stellaris)

The Lexx

The Lexx was created as a flagship for His Divine Shadow to use on a universe-wide cleansing. It is the spiritual successor to the previous flagship the Megashadow (and its own predecessor the Foreshadow). “I am The Lexx, I am the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes” — The...

lexx.fandom.com

this kind of ships are usually part of a hive mind or are controlled by a psionic entity, there are alao cases where the ship is fully self-aware and acts independently just like any other living organism

lexx for example was built by the divine order which itself was an insectoid hive fighting off humanoids and is fully self-aware, the new crew made up of individuals it treats more like kids to protect than