Speculation: the other 2/3 of the future

[alphamikefox]

This week's dev diary and livestream shared a lot of what to expect from the psionics branch of the ascension perks, while still leaving lots to the imagination. That's great, and much appreciated, I'm excited to try my hand at a psionics game. That said the other two branches, machine empire and genetic perfection, have yet to receive quite as much attention in teasers, and we won't be seeing any new stuff on either of them in next weeks dev diary either it seems, but I am fully expecting them to have as much new and interesting content and mechanics as psionics. Wiz wasn't kidding when he kept saying they'd barely scratched the surface of this new dlc's content!

What kinds of things do you expect/hope for out of the other two major empire-spanning ascension perk branches? Personally I'm most hyped for making my machine empire, and after watching the livestream get in to how livestock and processing pops works, I though that what would be super cool would be if after taking your empire down the path of the machine there was a Matrix-style option to have a "livestock" species that turned humans into this:

Ya know, seeing as how you won't need food anymore

 

[LordMagus]

Just hoping for massive boosts to science and more awesome technologies to research to destroy the space psychics.

 

[Xoatl]

Just hoping for massive boosts to science and more awesome technologies to research to destroy the space psychics.

Megastructures AP lets you build science nexus (nexi?) to do just that.

 

[LordMagus]

If psi path gives you boosts to pretty much everything, and an immortal leader, idk how much will be left for machine empire. You'll get immortal leaders, and you won't need food anymore, so I suppose you could make way more orbital habitats.

 

[Xoatl]

If psi path gives you boosts to pretty much everything, and an immortal leader, idk how much will be left for machine empire. You'll get immortal leaders, and you won't need food anymore, so I suppose you could make way more orbital habitats.

I don't think psychics get as many (if any) bonus output modifiers like synths (and I assume cyborgs) get. Which makes sense, Materialists should be better at acquiring material.

 

[LordMagus]

All I've seen is the modifier as part of the psi event that gives +100% bonus to everything.

 

[Xoatl]

All I've seen is the modifier as part of the psi event that gives +100% bonus to everything.

That has nothing to do with the POPs. That is a decision for the Shroud and there is supposedly a REALLY bad result if you pick it that Wiz doesn't want to spoil it but says will be a bad decision to make almost always. What's the point of +100% to everything if you spawn the unbidden ontop of your homeworld and cause you to GG?

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

All I've seen is the modifier as part of the psi event that gives +100% bonus to everything.

That's one of a few possible "Covenants" you can make with different factions within the Shroud- it's also heavily foreshadowed to be a Bad Idea. That 100% bonus to everything lasts 50 years- after which, presumably, something utterly catastrophic happens to your empire.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

If psi path gives you boosts to pretty much everything, and an immortal leader, idk how much will be left for machine empire. You'll get immortal leaders, and you won't need food anymore, so I suppose you could make way more orbital habitats.

The Psionic Ascension path appears to primarily give you access to the Psi techs (mostly based around boosting the morale damage of your troops), potentially an immortal leader with a stat boost, and gives boosts to your other leaders.

Even assuming all the Synthetic Ascension gave you was turning your core species into Synths (unlikely to be the extent of it), that makes all your leaders immortal and gives your POPs a huge boost to all production types except food.

 

[Elimdur]

I hope to see some Ghost in the Shell inspired themes for the cybernetic phase before going over to synths. Also becoming an empire similar to the Borg seems like a possibility the devs could go for. A hivemind/connected consciousness assimilating the rest of the universe. Maybe even offering an alternative to going full synth and staying cybernetic that way.

 

[Technotopia]

I think, there should be some equally creepy threat on the machine ascension path, on par with the Shroud for the psi-path. For example, if your people chose to unite with AI, it can happen at certain moment, that AI consumed, subjugated or just deleted their personalities. For some time this process goes under cover, but suddenly player discovers that a certain portion of his population that converted into machines is long dead and replaced by AI that act as if nothing changed. Then there is a civil war between machines that still contain personalities of the original people and these that devoured them.
If looking for parallels with WH40k, it is obviously like the Necrons.
Another parallel - Black Bellers from Philip Farmer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Tiers

As for the biological ascension, gene modding may get out of hand after certain number of upgrades. You species start to gain some trait 'genetically-volatile'. Which brings some immediate benefits (+20% to minerals, energy, +50% to reproduction). This seems like a boon in the beginning, but then of course your pops start to transform into mutant horrors turning your worlds into 'infested'.
You either purge the volatiles before it spread, or race against time to research a way to prevent their final transformation. If you can't complete the event chain in time, then the bad ending.

 

[Mackus]

I my evil robot empire approves of using meatbags as batteries.

 

[Diezy]

For Gene-modding, I hope that if you gene-mod a part of your species, it'd still be only a sub-category of the original species in the Species panel, as a drop-down menu. You'd click the main species with their total population listed, and see a drop-down of all the modded (and the original) sub-categories, with their population numbers. Naming the sub-species would also be pretty neat!

Also I suspect that Gene-mod ascension might have some unique traits to gene-mod into, as well as many more points to play around with, or the special traits could even appear by default, much like with Psionics, after your special Genetic Potential Unlocking program!

 

[Xoatl]

As for the biological ascension, gene modding may get out of hand after certain number of upgrades. You species start to gain some trait 'genetically-volatile'. Which brings some immediate benefits (+20% to minerals, energy, +50% to reproduction). This seems like a boon in the beginning, but then of course your pops start to transform into mutant horrors turning your worlds into 'infested'.
You either purge the volatiles before it spread, or race against time to research a way to prevent their final transformation. If you can't complete the event chain in time, then the bad ending.

This reminds me of the Cronenbergs from Rick and Morty

For Gene-modding, I hope that if you gene-mod a part of your species, it'd still be only a sub-category of the original species in the Species panel, as a drop-down menu. You'd click the main species with their total population listed, and see a drop-down of all the modded (and the original) sub-categories, with their population numbers. Naming the sub-species would also be pretty neat!

Also I suspect that Gene-mod ascension might have some unique traits to gene-mod into, as well as many more points to play around with, or the special traits could even appear by default, much like with Psionics, after your special Genetic Potential Unlocking program!

I heard that subspecies will have a prefix like -alpha, -beta, -cappa.

Very Brave New World-esque. But you should also be able to name them yourself. Apparently POPs can already mutant after some time in the base game. Don't think that ever happened to me but a tech says that. Bio perks probably increase the chance.

 

[henzington]

I would guess get you would get the 20% bonus that synchs get. If the materialist maintenance reduction applies this would make for a pretty large increase in all production.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I would guess get you would get the 20% bonus that synchs get. If the materialist maintenance reduction applies this would make for a pretty large increase in all production.

Yeah, as I've mentioned before: even assuming the only thing that the Synthetic Ascension path gives you is turning your entire species into Synths (which is unlikely to be the full extent of it), that's...

• +20% production across the board (except to food, which is obsolete)
• 100% habitability everywhere
• Immortality for all leaders and POPs

...which is pretty great.

 

[LordMagus]

Though you'd need some long term planning for the 500+ energy maintenence increase when your pops consume energy instead of food, while you slowly replace your food buildings.

 

[Ikael]

There are many intriguing options for the materialistic path:

- Replace all your pop by synth and start a Total Anihilation type of chain event
- Become the borg by creating an artificial hivemind
- Ally with the AI rebellion using the organics like batteries a la Matrix, complete with a VR simulation for your unkowing organics
- Create an artificial quantum brain, an AI so powerful that ends up becoming the de facto god of this universe
- Realize that you are, indeed, inside a videogame, sucessfully escape into true, real material world at Paradox's offices in Sweden. POSTMODERNISM

 

[Me_]

What kinds of things do you expect/hope for out of the other two major empire-spanning ascension perk branches? Personally I'm most hyped for making my machine empire, and after watching the livestream get in to how livestock and processing pops works, I though that what would be super cool would be if after taking your empire down the path of the machine there was a Matrix-style option to have a "livestock" species that turned humans into this:

Considering that you can get more energy by burning people than keeping them as batteries... And burning their food is more efficient than feeding them... and burning their world would be more efficient than growing food for them to burn...

Hey - that's an idea. Consuming planets for energy and minerals.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Considering that you can get more energy by burning people than keeping them as batteries... And burning their food is more efficient than feeding them... and burning their world would be more efficient than growing food for them to burn...

Hey - that's an idea. Consuming planets for energy and minerals.

In fairness, the "humans as batteries" meme is a result of executive meddling to make the concept more easily digestible for a wider audience- the original idea was that human brains were being used as an extended network of bioCPUs. We weren't a battery farm, we were a server farm.