Read the thread. I made like 3-4 posts here.
Concerning armys, you can still have those xenomorph armies, which suffice for me. Every game I made so far I had the luck to get titans. With these planet conqering is a joke. Never tried robotic armies.
Psionic ascension vs Gene ascension vs Synthetic ascension
- Thread starter stenver
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Read the thread. I made like 3-4 posts here.
Concerning armys, you can still have those xenomorph armies, which suffice for me. Every game I made so far I had the luck to get titans. With these planet conqering is a joke. Never tried robotic armies.
Deciding to design your starting race about going Psy-Ascension is almost a guarantee for your galaxy having NO Zro for you to actually be able to use those Psionic Shields you researched, while the stuff just piles up for Bio-Ascension.
psy can be the best with zro, but most of the time bio, bots are just bad, wouldn't suggest them right now.
Absolutely not. It is so much micro that it melts your brain out. Xenocompatibility doesn't require biological AP
Gene-tailoring is fun as it allows insane pop growth and cramping your people to ridiculous degree, especially with slavers. 1- or even 0-district habitats are legitimate possibilities. Those extra building slots.
Biological AP gives access to nervestapled, so it is probably the best friend of slavers.
What happens when you synth-ascend regarding ecumenopoli ?
Can you still make them ? Does it get replaced by machine worlds ? Can you take both perks and build both ?
Can you still make them ? Does it get replaced by machine worlds ? Can you take both perks and build both ?
Synth should be set up so that you have bio pops who convert to synth in their mid-life to become immortal. Then you have biological growth rates but no one ever dies... which would mean actual net growth would be huge. That seems more like how things would actually play out if synths existed in real life.
Biological ascension should include free extended lifespans as well, since that would certainly be one of the first gene mods a species would work on. From a flavor perspective, at least, though I get the game might need additional balancing to make that work.
-10% for tradition (requires barbaric despoilers or gestalt), -10 for fertile (biological AP exclusive) and -10 for communal. Also, x0.25 basic for domestic servants/livestock or x0.75 for regular slaves. 0.75*0.7 ~= 0.53, so each fortress with battle thralls is ~1.5 net housing for thralls, two servants and one pop of main species.
edit: 5 housing comes from the main building and 1 free slot comes from same adaptability tree. Alltogether you might aim for 2-3 'free' building slots per habitat costing only 2 sprawl. Fortresses can be built in any amount and for 1 housing district you can open a lot more slots if you need.
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Servant are only 0.25 housing when they act as servant, in regular job they use 0.75
A lot of people are gravely underestimating the power of turning most of your empire into synths. While the direct boni to synth pops on the perks don't look impressive, turning all your pops into synths leverages the powerful synth boni which are available without ascension, especially the fanatic materialist upkeep reduction.
There are, admittedly, a number of avoidable but surprising ways synth ascension can destroy you. In particular, completing the project with synths enslaved will doom you and egalitarian will prevent any emigration from overpopulated worlds. It also becomes difficult to maintain a slave economy or a multicultural society when all aliens in your empire get rolled into the same ascended synths as your rulers.
So: simply pick militarist or pacifist as your second ethic, permit resettlement and forbid slavery. Remember to emancipate the synths before you ascend, and collect enormous bonuses to everything.
There are, admittedly, a number of avoidable but surprising ways synth ascension can destroy you. In particular, completing the project with synths enslaved will doom you and egalitarian will prevent any emigration from overpopulated worlds. It also becomes difficult to maintain a slave economy or a multicultural society when all aliens in your empire get rolled into the same ascended synths as your rulers.
So: simply pick militarist or pacifist as your second ethic, permit resettlement and forbid slavery. Remember to emancipate the synths before you ascend, and collect enormous bonuses to everything.
psionic theory being semi RNG and sometimes very hard to get is super annoying considering mind over matter is prolly the worst first ascension to pick
After a lot of playing all three I changed my mind.
Synth ascension is good. You'll need to plan ahead with it, as you don't upgrade your bonuses (like droids, who can be specialists with no CG upkeep and very little housing) but throw away your previous bonuses and get totally different set.
- the main advantage is insane robot assembly speed
- synths have 20% production without traits - 10% from being synths, 10% from synth ascension
- some of machine traits are quite nice - like +10% happiness
- up to 70% upkeep reduction (20% F.materialist, 10% civic, 5% mechanist civic, 10% trait, 10% flesh is weak, 10% edict, 5% event edict). Live in utopia without any cost! Well, I prefer different civics really, but even 20-40% reduction make synth specialist or ruler cheaper then any organic.
- no penalty in assembly speed if you select the model, unlike bio (like using +energy model on generator worlds)
- be immortal without spending trait points for that (bio can be more reliable to live long, but it cost 4-8 points just to stay alive)
And you still can use organics if you wish even more combined growth speed - you'll get much more then bio who also build synths.
Synth ascension is good. You'll need to plan ahead with it, as you don't upgrade your bonuses (like droids, who can be specialists with no CG upkeep and very little housing) but throw away your previous bonuses and get totally different set.
- the main advantage is insane robot assembly speed
- synths have 20% production without traits - 10% from being synths, 10% from synth ascension
- some of machine traits are quite nice - like +10% happiness
- up to 70% upkeep reduction (20% F.materialist, 10% civic, 5% mechanist civic, 10% trait, 10% flesh is weak, 10% edict, 5% event edict). Live in utopia without any cost! Well, I prefer different civics really, but even 20-40% reduction make synth specialist or ruler cheaper then any organic.
- no penalty in assembly speed if you select the model, unlike bio (like using +energy model on generator worlds)
- be immortal without spending trait points for that (bio can be more reliable to live long, but it cost 4-8 points just to stay alive)
And you still can use organics if you wish even more combined growth speed - you'll get much more then bio who also build synths.
then you'll be space America: "oh, you have
my main problem when I play my "perfect" race is to trigger Worm. sometimes it takes decades
Synthetic ascension is my preferred route, but Bio has a ton of versatility that the other 2 paths can't give you. The power to reshape entire species down to their portraits is incredibly useful, especially if you are a slaver. 2.2 in particular has a lot more uses for the bio path. For example, you can create a Thrall World to breed high value slaves super fast and sell them on the market. You can make a lot of energy this way.
I haven't played with the Psi ascension much. It gives you access to the best shields, drive, and combat computer in the game, but there is a lot of RNG to it. You can eventually get all the bonuses it has to offer, but sometimes the RNG in this game really sticks it to you.
Ah, my friend, then you haven't encountered the bug where you can never build your main species ever again once you synthetically ascend. As a fanatic xenophobe empire that cannot grant full rights to even my own non-main species synthetics, it broke my game.
Machine Worlds are a Machine Empire only perk. A synthetically ascended empire cannot make them or get the perk, although they should still be able to use them if you steal some from a machine empire. They keep the ability to make ecumenopoli, which can fill out quickly thanks to their super fast robot pop production.
I haven't played with the Psi ascension much. It gives you access to the best shields, drive, and combat computer in the game, but there is a lot of RNG to it. You can eventually get all the bonuses it has to offer, but sometimes the RNG in this game really sticks it to you.
Ah, my friend, then you haven't encountered the bug where you can never build your main species ever again once you synthetically ascend. As a fanatic xenophobe empire that cannot grant full rights to even my own non-main species synthetics, it broke my game.
Machine Worlds are a Machine Empire only perk. A synthetically ascended empire cannot make them or get the perk, although they should still be able to use them if you steal some from a machine empire. They keep the ability to make ecumenopoli, which can fill out quickly thanks to their super fast robot pop production.
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I used to love Psionics but yeah, recently discovered the benefits of what the gene modding gives you.
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Indeed, I have not. What about an ethic shift to solve that problem? To be honest, this might solve the game-breaking-issue, but might not feel right.
I thought I would just wait until the bugs got fixed. I was playing a bio-path slaver empire in the mean time, thinking to myself, "what could go wrong with the bio path?" Turns out nothing did go wrong with it, but then I finally hit the performance bugs everyone has been talking about. I didn't really notice the stuttering so I thought my computer was powerful enough to brute force it but when the game year hit about 2350 it was like a completely different game. The stuttering and lag were so bad it become unplayable. After my 7th failed run in 2.2 I am setting Stellaris aside for now until it is an a playable state.
It's a huge problem that if you are egalitarian and force resettle this way plays against your empire ethics. Granted this is not a new problem, but only presumably worsened in 2.2 from the change in pop growth speed and overcrowding, etc. Prior to 2.2 I have found no mods that allow free synths to migrate so I can only assume it's impossible, so yeah it definitely should be looked at by the devs.
Speaking about synths, are ascended ones still separate race from ones built before? What about xenos that you turn into tin cans?