Robots/Droids/Synths and the Decadent Trait

[jmj36]

After a successful playthrough with my individualist/materialist/xenophile build, I am working on creating a new and somewhat different build for my next playthrough. I am leaning towards Fanatic Materialist/Collectivist Despotic Hegemony, haven't ironed out the traits yet but will be research/society research focused, and have the Decadent trait. The plan is to purge most other alien races and terraform their planets, except for the one I find that have potential to be a perfect slave species to replace my own specie's slaves, and genetically engineer them to be the perfect slaves.

I am debating whether to use robots also, though their use would be limited. I am wondering though, would robots satisfy the decadent trait, so I could use them instead of my own species pops until I find a suitable alien slave race?

 

[Ur-Quan Lord 13]

Enslaved synths satisfy it. Regular robots don't.

But, synth slaves with regulated slavery + share the burden can't really be beat for mineral output, so it's a good idea to make some anyway.

 

[jmj36]

Sweet, thanks for the info.

 

[Ur-Quan Lord 13]

Sweet, thanks for the info.

Slave synths get double benefit from share the burden, for a total of +50% minerals. Strong + industrious slaves are only +40%.

But, if you find a prole race to uplift, they get another 30, for a total of +70%. So, they're better than synths.

 

[Tony Wonder]

But, if you find a prole race to uplift ....

Please for the sake of people just trying to find information. Be more specific. Now i had to log in and ask what that is

So what is it?

 

[jmj36]

Please for the sake of people just trying to find information. Be more specific. Now i had to log in and ask what that is

So what is it?

Proles is a trait only non-sentients that you can uplift will have. You can find out more about it on the wiki: http://www.stellariswiki.com/Traits

 

[Elfwind]

Uplifted species also get 20% happiness which helps them stay content. I'd focus on enslaving them instead.

 

[Ur-Quan Lord 13]

Uplifted species also get 20% happiness which helps them stay content. I'd focus on enslaving them instead.

Happiness doesn't matter for slaves.

 

[Talanic]

Doesn't it keep them from radicalizing to malcontent slaves?

 

[jmj36]

Doesn't it keep them from radicalizing to malcontent slaves?

I've been trying to find a definitive answer for this for a while through googling and reading through here, the wiki, and reddit. From what I gather with everything I have read, Ur-Quan Lord 13 is right in that happiness doesn't matter for slaves, but only to a point. Happiness does not effect production or ethics divergence at all in slave pops like it does for free pops. However, as you said, happiness does keep docile slaves from radicalizing to malcontent.

There are a few ways a slave can move to malcontent, from what I understand. If you have unregulated slavery, I think the docile slaves faction will kick some into the malcontent faction if they get enough support, they can also have some unrest for a time(which just happened in the game I started earlier since I didn't pay attention to the faction), which negates the slavery bonuses for a time. There is an emancipation faction that can do the same, but those are generally non collectivist pops that want to free the slaves. The other factor I read is if a slave has less than 30% happiness it can move to the malcontent faction. Slaves with collectivist ethos will not suffer any unhappiness for being a slave, however.

My guess is, and I could be wrong on all this as the only way to really find out is to just play with slavery, as long as you maintain collectivist pops, regulated slavery, and keep slave happiness above 30%, you shouldn't ever get malcontent slaves. So it looks like you can move slaves to worlds they don't have the best habitability to as well and not have to worry about them, unless the habitability is less than 30%(which I don't think you can resettle a pop unless it is 40%+ anyway).

 

[Secret Master]

Doesn't it keep them from radicalizing to malcontent slaves?

The short answer: who cares? Just shoot them in the face.

The long answer:

But there are disadvantages to slaves that go beyond energy and minerals. Malcontent slaves cost influence to suppress. You can easily be paying 1.5 or more influence a month in suppression once you have a high percentage of malcontent slaves; you will end up with plenty of malcontent slaves as you enslave those who do not share your ethos (unless you purge half the galaxy for some reason). This assumes you don’t spend influence to suppress emancipation movements and docile slaves; doing so adds even more influence costs to such a schema.

But what if you don’t suppress the malcontents? There is no obligation to do so; one can choose instead to save the influence cost. Doing so will require more… brutality. Malcontent slaves that are not suppressed will begin to succumb to the Interstellar Railroad. This will periodically delete slave POPs. On normal planets with proper food, this is more of an inconvenience than a real problem; on planets given the Glavnoye Koloniy treatment, it means paying a small sum of influence to move a new POP from a breeder world that has enough food to grow new POPs (or building a droid to replace it).

Beyond the Interstellar Railroad, there is the problem of a slave revolt. Revolting slave POPs, while not the equal of assault armies, are far more potent than the free garrison troops that spawn when a planet is attacked. On larger worlds, slave revolts will spawn enough armies to be a serious threat; thus, if you choose not to suppress factions, you will need to garrison worlds that contain significant numbers of slaves. Slave armies are themselves sufficient to this task; each slave army used will cost 0.20 energy a month. (Obviously, other armies are more or less expensive, and performance in ground combat varies widely.)

This means that if you choose not to pay the influence cost, you will have to pay the energy cost of garrisons. Even if you put 12 slave armies on a planet, that’s only going to cost 2.4 energy a month. This is still cheaper than droids, but it narrows the difference. It also means you have to take the trouble to garrison worlds.