Synthetic ascension seems to be much too difficult to accomplish at the moment, relative both to the benefits it grants you and to the relative ease of accomplishing the other forms of ascension.
Psionic ascension requires one rare tech typically unavailable to materialists (Psionic Theory), then two ascension perks, then a fixed-cost special project to unlock the shroud. The tech and the project require society research, the most abundant type of research.
Biological ascension requires an ordinary tech (Gene Tailoring) followed by an ascension perk, a rare tech (Targeted Gene Expressions), the next ascension perk, and finally an always-available rare tech (Genetic Resequencing) before you can use advanced gene-modding, which then requires separate projects scaled to pop number each time. This is harder to accomplish than psionic ascension, but still requires nothing but society research.
Synthetic ascension requires an ordinary tech (Droids) followed by the ascension perk, followed by a special project scaled to pop number, followed by a dangerous (rare?) tech and an ordinary tech (Synthetics and Synthetic Personality Matrix), followed by the next ascension perk, followed by another pop-scaled special project, and then (probably) followed again by a pop modification special project to add useful traits to your new blank species.
Synthetic ascension's steps are harder and take longer to follow than either of the other ascension types: the same amount of tech is required as for biological ascension, but none of them are unlocked as always-available by your perks so you have to roll them all normally. It requires a minimum of two special projects, unlike biological (0) and psionic (1), and again unlike psionic the projects are both scaled in cost to your pop count. Finally, all of this requires engineering tech points, which are currently the hardest type of tech point to come by.
Now, if the benefits were suitably strong, then that would all be fine. But I think the overwhelming consensus is that in 2.2, they're simply not. It's probably the weakest ascension type at present. Your new robot pops get +10% resource production, and a selection of traits for robo-modding that are similar to but generally not quite as good as biological traits. Robot pops, annoyingly, are also incapable of migrating. The ascension also doesn't grant a useful unique building like biological ascension's clone vats or psionic ascension's psi-corps.
The beta patch has paved over the most absurd flaws in the ascension path introduced by 2.2 (losing the ability to colonise among them), but I still don't think it's gone far enough. In particular, something needs to be done about the prohibitive tech cost. As a quick band-aid for the cost, maybe Roboticist jobs from Robot Assembly Plants should provide engineering research? And maybe the two mandatory special projects shouldn't be scaled to pop size, since that makes them far far more expensive than any contemporary technology?
Psionic ascension requires one rare tech typically unavailable to materialists (Psionic Theory), then two ascension perks, then a fixed-cost special project to unlock the shroud. The tech and the project require society research, the most abundant type of research.
Biological ascension requires an ordinary tech (Gene Tailoring) followed by an ascension perk, a rare tech (Targeted Gene Expressions), the next ascension perk, and finally an always-available rare tech (Genetic Resequencing) before you can use advanced gene-modding, which then requires separate projects scaled to pop number each time. This is harder to accomplish than psionic ascension, but still requires nothing but society research.
Synthetic ascension requires an ordinary tech (Droids) followed by the ascension perk, followed by a special project scaled to pop number, followed by a dangerous (rare?) tech and an ordinary tech (Synthetics and Synthetic Personality Matrix), followed by the next ascension perk, followed by another pop-scaled special project, and then (probably) followed again by a pop modification special project to add useful traits to your new blank species.
Synthetic ascension's steps are harder and take longer to follow than either of the other ascension types: the same amount of tech is required as for biological ascension, but none of them are unlocked as always-available by your perks so you have to roll them all normally. It requires a minimum of two special projects, unlike biological (0) and psionic (1), and again unlike psionic the projects are both scaled in cost to your pop count. Finally, all of this requires engineering tech points, which are currently the hardest type of tech point to come by.
Now, if the benefits were suitably strong, then that would all be fine. But I think the overwhelming consensus is that in 2.2, they're simply not. It's probably the weakest ascension type at present. Your new robot pops get +10% resource production, and a selection of traits for robo-modding that are similar to but generally not quite as good as biological traits. Robot pops, annoyingly, are also incapable of migrating. The ascension also doesn't grant a useful unique building like biological ascension's clone vats or psionic ascension's psi-corps.
The beta patch has paved over the most absurd flaws in the ascension path introduced by 2.2 (losing the ability to colonise among them), but I still don't think it's gone far enough. In particular, something needs to be done about the prohibitive tech cost. As a quick band-aid for the cost, maybe Roboticist jobs from Robot Assembly Plants should provide engineering research? And maybe the two mandatory special projects shouldn't be scaled to pop size, since that makes them far far more expensive than any contemporary technology?
