Suggestions to improve the pop system to surpass the tile system

[Tech Noir Synth]

Hey guys,

I discussed a lot about Robots and Synthetic Ascension now and always ended up with the same arguments which can be traced back to some core problems of the new system:

• Less control over assigning pops
• decreased micromanagement for upgrading buildings but severely increased micromanagement of pops
• less control over pop growth/assembly
• pops with low habitability growing causing high upkeep

From what I understand, the new system was build to reduce the amount of clicking "upgrade" on buildings and to allow for more depth in developing planets. I think it has achieved this goal and specializing planets feels worthwhile.

However the downsides seem to outweigh the upsides from my experience.

One of the core problems right now is the huge micromanagement it requires to organize pops specifically so the pops with the best traits end up in the correct job positions. Lets take Synthetic Ascension as an example:

I want to use 4 different types of Robots for energy, minerals, science and unity. I can no longer queue up building these different pop types. Instead I have to check how many jobs need to be filled and I have to switch around which pops are being assembled manually. However each time I lose 50% on current assembly progress on the next pop, so I have to switch right after a new pop is added to not waste precious time.

Why did paradox design the system in such a way that it requires such a huge increase in micromanagement to allocate your pops properly? All the traits for extra ressource output are still in the game - it does not seem like the goal was to simply kill off any min/maxing yet this is effectively what happened.

I like the current system and see its potential. I think it would only require a couple tweaks to come out ahead of the old system.

Give us the option to queue up different Robot pops to assemble, so that we no longer have to check every planet, habitat etc in intervals. Make the AI smarter when it comes to assigning pops to jobs OR allow us to assign them manually (atleast for Robots). By doing this, you effectively remove the tedious upgrading of buildings and the insane micromanagement we are forced to do currently and you end up with a superiour, more immersive and beautiful management screen.


Unlike many of you, I am still quite new to this game. This comes from a perspective from someone who has only played single-species empires with synthetic ascension or hivemind empires. I can imagine managing an empire with many different species is simply and impossible task to min/max the pop traits perfectly for their jobs. However I am sure we can all agree that xenophile, xeno compatibility made multiple species empire a lot better. Pop growth is king, so you can deal with a little less efficiency since it is outweighed by an enormous pop growth speed from immigration. Xenophobe empires get a nice growth bonus, but can not keep up with immigration speed bonus so they should rely on more efficient pop output.

Each of the three ascension perks offers bonuses for ressource production, so having an easier time to allocate pops correctly would help out all players.

 

[JMBarbarossa]

You would think that you wouldn't want your combine harvester bots working in a mine. I think that would get pretty comical. I don't want to individually assign robots per se, but I would like to say "This template of robot is whitelisted to allow working the following jobs: --checkbox jobs--" Also other controls saying build robots of X kind until all of X type of job are filled. That would get you around the tedium of having to manually assign the robots while still giving you the freedom of micromanaging your robot types and when they're built. (or you could just choose to tell your factory to keep building x type of robot)

It would be similar to Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld where you set up a bill on a workspace like the oven where you say make x product and you can choose for them to make x amount of the product, to make it continuously, or to make it until x amount of the resource exists in storage.

 

[Tech Noir Synth]

You would think that you wouldn't want your combine harvester bots working in a mine. I think that would get pretty comical. I don't want to individually assign robots per se, but I would like to say "This template of robot is whitelisted to allow working the following jobs: --checkbox jobs--" Also other controls saying build robots of X kind until all of X type of job are filled. That would get you around the tedium of having to manually assign the robots while still giving you the freedom of micromanaging your robot types and when they're built. (or you could just choose to tell your factory to keep building x type of robot)

It would be similar to Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld where you set up a bill on a workspace like the oven where you say make x product and you can choose for them to make x amount of the product, to make it continuously, or to make it until x amount of the resource exists in storage.

The new system provides options for a more hands-off approach on economy, but sacrifices depth and control needlessly. Whether or not we get an option to design Robot species or organic species to always fill a prerequisite job, we get the option to manually drag pops into jobs or we get the option to queue up exactly the right amount of Robot pops we need, in the end the goal is to give us back control to have our pops work efficiently accordning to their traits.

The fact that "rapid breeders" and similar traits exist is now a huge problem in design, because it limits everyones ability to design a unique yet competitive race.

Rapid breeders and similar traits are now mandatory because they influence the economy and the game way more than any nother trait. This results in every species having -2 trait points to spend which could be used to design a more unique species.

If the devs were to simply remove the bonus growth traits from the game and compensate them with increasing base growth, everyone wins.

 

[Badesumofu]

The main things I’d like to see changed are firstly how pops are selected to grow. You get one pop of a new race in your empire and then that is all that will grow on every planet for the next few decades. It’s bizarre.

Secondly sectors are wonky. Make them definable by players but have there be a governor limit similar to fleet cap that sets how many planets can be in a single sector. It’s especially weird if you use total war - depending on the order you conquer planets you might end up with one sector or 3+ when you conquer an FE. It’s strange. For those who like to use them to manage planets it would be good to have a way assign them a resource income to work with as well.

I’d like a way to just make individual planets stop appearing in the outliner. Beyond a certain point a planet is mostly done and doesn’t need to appear any more.