Terravores can't get hive worlds and it makes me sad. Ideas for "breathing" empire?

[MasterOfGrey]

So I've been meaning to play a necro-hive swarm for a long while and I thought, with the new crystallization trait it might be really cool to do that as lithoids.

Except that makes you a terravore and they can't get hive worlds - which kind of spoils my plans of having a "breathing" empire, that periodically expands, captures territory, eats people, *mostly* eats worlds, and then withdraws behind impenetrable chokepoints while the cattle reclaim their systems and spend time removing blockers from mostly-eaten worlds.

So now I'm kinda stuck and curious. What build do you think I should do to do my breathing empire?

 

[Dementor4]

I don't see why hive worlds are necessary to your concept.

 

[The5lacker]

I mean that's more or less how my Terravores worked. I barely had to declare war, so many people were lining up to take a shot at me, then failing, then losing half of their territory.

Hive Worlds are handy but hardly necessary. Calamitous Birth/Subterranean both get you all the Minerals you could ever need.

 

[The Bored Chairman]

Kind of a weird concept for a species to establish a Hive World while they are in the process of consuming said world.

 

[Strangedane]

Kind of a weird concept for a species to establish a Hive World while they are in the process of consuming said world.

You xenophobe.
We eat where we breed.

-NomNomNomNom... Food taster for the Dimrok Banquet Organism

 

[theBigTurnip385]

Subterranean noxious terravore crisis build

Almost eaten planets produce unity and still have 80% habitability

Once you get the crisis eat all the nub planets and bang you have something to conquer the galaxy with and guess what the galaxy is not ready and not prepared

 

[Methone]

Kind of a weird concept for a species to establish a Hive World while they are in the process of consuming said world.

I think the idea is to make the worlds even worse for the reclaimers.

 

[MasterOfGrey]

I don't see why hive worlds are necessary to your concept.

Ah, the idea was that since I would sort of retreat to a core territory each time (or a few core territories once I had gateways), that I would want that to be as good as possible - hence the hive worlds.
They’re really a whole tier above anything else a hive can do once you unlock planetary rings.

I think the idea is to make the worlds even worse for the reclaimers.

Because yeah, this. I don’t really play to “win” the game. I’m not planning on becoming the crisis. My “win” condition would be to be strong enough and have hobbled the galaxy hard enough that after the crisis and awakened empires are dealt with I could continue farming the galaxy for new pops (remember necro-hive) indefinitely.

 

[Dementor4]

Ah, the idea was that since I would sort of retreat to a core territory each time (or a few core territories once I had gateways), that I would want that to be as good as possible - hence the hive worlds.
They’re really a whole tier above anything else a hive can do once you unlock planetary rings.

Because yeah, this. I don’t really play to “win” the game. I’m not planning on becoming the crisis. My “win” condition would be to be strong enough and have hobbled the galaxy hard enough that after the crisis and awakened empires are dealt with I could continue farming the galaxy for new pops (remember necro-hive) indefinitely.

Ringworlds, Gaia worlds, or Ocean worlds (with Hydrocentric) then.

The main draw of hive worlds is basic resource generation, which hydrocentrics do great on ocean worlds anyway. But realistically you don't need much in the way of basic resources because you get so much minerals from eating planets anyway, so I feel like Ringworlds are the best fit for the sort of playstyle you're talking about. Gaia worlds are the closest stand in for hive worlds if you want a 1-1 comparison.

 

[DeanTheDull]

So now I'm kinda stuck and curious. What build do you think I should do to do my breathing empire?

Slingshot of the Stars.

Take catalytic processing as your second civic, and unyielding as your first tradition, to build a Unyielding catalytic starbase economy of about 10 starbases. Colonize all your local worlds and make one a guaranteed alloy world to move all your industry to, but immediately devour the low-value ones for the minerals/alloys/pops to accelerate your spin-up. The catalytic processing will let 10 starbases support about 12 alloy workers, which is more than enough in the very early game to build an overwhelming alloy economy.

Then, use your slingshot-total war to go out, raze empires... but then, before the AI can reach you in a war, delete the starbase outposts of all the non-inhabitable systems, so that they spend their alloys/influence expanding into the null zone you establish.

At this point, you should enter a cycle where you let an empire set-up in the null-zone, wipe it out via a slingshotted fleet raising havoc deep into its rear, throwing the empire into turmoil until you jump in your armies to land and nom, and then abandon the sectors for the next empire to arrive.

You'll want to be in a well-placed origin to be effective with this, but I think it hits your intent.