Questions for my current game:Wich Ascension to take and pop assembly?

[makaramus]

I have skynet AI trying out and decided to play a federation game where I started with relic world and rushed it to ecunopolis(completes in 3 years) as xenophils with cross breeding.
I was hoping to get psionic ascension when I had a psionic expert as researcher but he died before getting tech and I am not hopeful of finding it soon so I was wondering:

Should I pick biological ascension? if so should I remove robot buildings and replace them with cloning vats
or I should go for psionics still praying 7/24?
I am also thinking about going for cyborgs without becoming fully synth too but not sure about that.

 

[Dragatus]

In my opinion biological ascension on a xenophile empire is a pain to play. Too many species to make a perfect variant of each one.

Going cybprg without going synth is viable. You get a nice habitability bonus for everyone, so planet preferences are less of an issue and you can more freely move pops around. But ... you could take World Shapers perk instead and turn all your planets into Gaia worlds and have 100% habitability for everyone everywhere.

I think in the end it's best if you just stick with the original plan.

 

[makaramus]

In my opinion biological ascension on a xenophile empire is a pain to play. Too many species to make a perfect variant of each one.

Going cybprg without going synth is viable. You get a nice habitability bonus for everyone, so planet preferences are less of an issue and you can more freely move pops around. But ... you could take World Shapers perk instead and turn all your planets into Gaia worlds and have 100% habitability for everyone everywhere.

I think in the end it's best if you just stick with the original plan.

Reason I was thinking about going cyborg was so I would be able to have synths without rights and cross breed species easier with high hability but world shaper sounds interesting too

 

[TrotBot]

In my opinion biological ascension on a xenophile empire is a pain to play. Too many species to make a perfect variant of each one.

I always hear this complaint. The solution is simple: you usually only have two species with 100+ pops. Sort the species list by pops. Start with your 100+ pop species, and work down the list. After your first two, the next will be like 50 pops, then like 20, then like 10, then like 2. So realistically, you're only going to be "regularly" updating the templates for the top 2, maybe the top 3 or 4. The only reason I ever mess with low pop templates is to perfect something I don't have. So rackets always get the repugnant removed and rapid breeders or fertile added because I want their psionics to crossbreed with everyone.

 

[makaramus]

I always hear this complaint. The solution is simple: you usually only have two species with 100+ pops. Sort the species list by pops. Start with your 100+ pop species, and work down the list. After your first two, the next will be like 50 pops, then like 20, then like 10, then like 2. So realistically, you're only going to be "regularly" updating the templates for the top 2, maybe the top 3 or 4. The only reason I ever mess with low pop templates is to perfect something I don't have. So rackets always get the repugnant removed and rapid breeders or fertile added because I want their psionics to crossbreed with everyone.

so, if I go for biological ascension should I go for cloning vats or robots?
currently playing for immigration, got an ecunopolis that is incrasing growth speed by %25 (my other planets are getting immigration too)

 

[Vorpaliminal]

You can still get Psionic Theory to drop if you use a Spark of Genius or Curator researcher.

 

[TrotBot]

so, if I go for biological ascension should I go for cloning vats or robots?
currently playing for immigration, got an ecunopolis that is incrasing growth speed by %25 (my other planets are getting immigration too)

i like both. clone vats are very expensive in food, 30 a month for each clone vat. so i will keep robot factories and transition them to clone vats one at a time starting with my highest pop worlds, based on the amount of food surplus i have.

 

[makaramus]

You can still get Psionic Theory to drop if you use a Spark of Genius or Curator researcher.

yea I tried them... really difficult to get I think I was just unlucky
edit:Also you are confusing it with maniacal scientist. Just saying

 

[Mcgan]

You can still get Psionic Theory to drop if you use a Spark of Genius or Curator researcher.

Actually, I looked at the code, and neither of those has any influence on it.
Maniacal scientists however do get a double chance to get the tech.

But the most important thing is that only materialist empires seem to be locked out of getting Psionic Theory (not counting gestalts), unless they have at least one pop that's psionic, or their society researcher has "Expertise: Psionics" trait.

        modifier = {
            factor = 0
            AND = {
                is_materialist = yes
                NOR = {
                    research_leader = {
                        area = society
                        has_trait = "leader_trait_expertise_psionics"
                    }
                    any_owned_pop = {
                        OR = {
                            pop_has_trait = trait_psionic
                            pop_has_trait = trait_latent_psionic
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

 

[Dragatus]

I always hear this complaint. The solution is simple: you usually only have two species with 100+ pops. Sort the species list by pops. Start with your 100+ pop species, and work down the list. After your first two, the next will be like 50 pops, then like 20, then like 10, then like 2. So realistically, you're only going to be "regularly" updating the templates for the top 2, maybe the top 3 or 4. The only reason I ever mess with low pop templates is to perfect something I don't have. So rackets always get the repugnant removed and rapid breeders or fertile added because I want their psionics to crossbreed with everyone.

The solution you propose only works for someone who doesn't have OCD. Well, I don't actually have real OCD either, but I still get irritated when I have even just one single pop with unspent gene points and guess what I keep getting if I make migration treaties.

so, if I go for biological ascension should I go for cloning vats or robots?
currently playing for immigration, got an ecunopolis that is incrasing growth speed by %25 (my other planets are getting immigration too)

Go for cloning vats. Technically the upkeep is higher because 30 food + 2 energy = 32 value while a robot factory will need 5 energy + 2 alloys = 13 value (because alloys on the market cost 4x as much as basic reources), but food is actually easier to come by and you do get 3 growth per month instead of 2. And then on top of that you get to make your super species instead of boring standard robots.

 

[TrotBot]

The solution you propose only works for someone who doesn't have OCD. Well, I don't actually have real OCD either, but I still get irritated when I have even just one single pop with unspent gene points and guess what I keep getting if I make migration treaties.

The thing about biologicals is they're like that. If you think the biologicals are vermin, and want absolute control of every single thing in your empire, go mechanical.

Bio ascension (especially with xenocompatibility) is about unleashing the potential of the diversity of life So yes, there is chaos, and it's up to you to make order out of chaos. Not to impose order on chaos. You can divert the stream, but you cannot dam it. So Just change what you can, and over the hundreds of years of a game session, you should be able to genemod the most important species and even a few more. Stop obsessively checking the species list to minimize this annoyance haha.

As for OCD, if that was your issue you would be far more triggered by the fact that the game will never dismiss the "unspent points" notification if you have uplift and there is even a single presapient outside your empire.

 

[Dragatus]

As for OCD, if that was your issue you would be far more triggered by the fact that the game will never dismiss the "unspent points" notification if you have uplift and there is even a single presapient outside your empire.

Oh. That would explain why all my furious searches failed to find the damn presapients on any of my planets.

 

[TrotBot]

Oh. That would explain why all my furious searches failed to find the damn presapients on any of my planets.

took me a while too, till i noticed that every time i click the notification it takes me to the galaxy list of species rather than the empire list. i think if you haver some presapients in your borders it would default to the empire list.

 

[Dragatus]

Well, thanks for informing me. Now I have a new use for my colossus.

 

[hart30]

Dont go psionic with xenocompability if u want every species to have the psionic trait. U only end up trying to set over 100 species and subspecies to assimilation species right. Same goes for synthetic. It just hurts.

 

[Surimi]

With xenocompatability, you really want to be going to biological ascension as to get the most out of xenocompatability you'll want to modify your pops a lot.

One interesting thing to note, if you have a psionic species in your galaxy (most notably the Ketlings or Rackets, but also in the extreme long term pops from spiritualist fallen empires) they can pass on the psionic trait to species they cross-breed with. It's heavily RNG dependent, so you shouldn't rely on being able to make all species psionic, but it is a potential bonus.

On the cloning vats, it depends a bit but in general robots are much more resource-efficient to produce than clones, are very efficient while in servitude and are still somewhat competitive with biological pops even when free. That said, if your population is leaning towards spiritualist you could outlaw robots and just use clone vats instead. Consider it an optional bonus.

 

[TrotBot]

Well, thanks for informing me. Now I have a new use for my colossus.

oh no

With xenocompatability, you really want to be going to biological ascension as to get the most out of xenocompatability you'll want to modify your pops a lot.

One interesting thing to note, if you have a psionic species in your galaxy (most notably the Ketlings or Rackets, but also in the extreme long term pops from spiritualist fallen empires) they can pass on the psionic trait to species they cross-breed with. It's heavily RNG dependent, so you shouldn't rely on being able to make all species psionic, but it is a potential bonus.

On the cloning vats, it depends a bit but in general robots are much more resource-efficient to produce than clones, are very efficient while in servitude and are still somewhat competitive with biological pops even when free. That said, if your population is leaning towards spiritualist you could outlaw robots and just use clone vats instead. Consider it an optional bonus.

If you make the racket fertile you will almost definitely get psionic on your main species through xenocompatibility, given enough time.

 

[Dragatus]

Dont go psionic with xenocompability if u want every species to have the psionic trait. U only end up trying to set over 100 species and subspecies to assimilation species right. Same goes for synthetic. It just hurts.

You can just set default species right to assimilation (the button is in the upper left portion of the species view) and then click the button to reset all species to default rights (to the left of the default rights button).

 

[hart30]

Thanks - i did not know that and tried to set it for every sub-species manually. However even if i only do it for the main species it stays a scrolling hell. Some half breeds creating their own main species is part of that. I really wish there was a button to only show main species.