The best and quickest method (exploit?) for blitzing through traditions/ascension perks here!

[Blue Giraffe]

Hey!

I've no time to search through all the topics appearing at a super rapid pace to see if I'm not duplicating a thread that is there somewhere. Mods, pls delete if that's the case.

So, here's the description of exploitive way to blitz through traditions (I think Unity gain is WAY TOO SLOW for how shitty the ascension perks/traditions are, but let's not discuss it here).

The entire point is: There are huge penalties for having additional planets/pops in your empire for getting these precious traditions, the obvious solution is, to get rid of planets before hitting the button and then claiming them back, simple as that.

In a multiplayer game the other day I just stockpiled few dozen thousands of Unity points, traded all my planets to befriended race, picked my traditions and traded my planets back, effectively saving some additional 200% cost in Unity (still felt underwhelming to get ascension perks though :<).

I have to try this in single-player but the obvious solution is to have some 1-province-minor hanging around somewhere. Transfer all the planets to unsuspecting dude, while keeping army and fleet up and hit the button before annexing.

Or, have a vassal somewhere, start annexing, transfer planets shortly before annexation is over and then hit the button.

What do you guys think? Have your own ideas on how to trash the system to make traditions/ascension a bit less underwhelming?



(On a side note, penalty to research/unity from planets/pops is horrible! Why would I ever want to build the newest structure (The habitat) to get these penalties, do you guys at paradox even play your own game?)

 

[Syr]

I dunno, some of the perks are incredibly OP imo, even as a hivemind where one tree is almost 100% useless.

How fast are you expecting to get unity perks? (I'm 160 years in and almost done. I averaged roughly 4 perks/yr - starting at ~one every 3 years, down to ~one every 5 years, and thats including owning half the stars in the galaxy and a system that I shoved full of habitats for lulz (and using habitats as makeshift outposts because outposts are horribly expensive to maintain even with the -50% cost being a huge lifesaver due to the super limited amount of influence gain that hiveminds have, so I've to date got around 12 habitats floating around with more on the way)

 

[scaper12123]

The perks aren't shitty, they are actually really good. Hence the traditions taking a long time to get. That being said, if you really want to rush the traditions just adopt the farming lifestyle (agrian idyl)

 

[Tacticus101]

I like how you have "exploit" with a question mark in the title, as if there is some doubt as to whether transferring all your planets to a friend and then getting them back again is an exploit. That's possibly the most meta-gaming thing you can do.

Unity is fairly easy to get though. More planets increases the cost, but also increases the number of unity generating buildings you have, it balances it out a bit.

 

[Blue Giraffe]

I dunno, some of the perks are incredibly OP imo, even as a hivemind where one tree is almost 100% useless.

How fast are you expecting to get unity perks? (I'm 160 years in and almost done. I averaged roughly 4 perks/yr - starting at ~one every 3 years, down to ~one every 5 years, and thats including owning half the stars in the galaxy and a system that I shoved full of habitats for lulz (and using habitats as makeshift outposts because outposts are horribly expensive to maintain even with the -50% cost being a huge lifesaver due to the super limited amount of influence gain that hiveminds have, so I've to date got around 12 habitats floating around with more on the way)

While I'd love to respond to that, this is not the point of the topic.

...Wanted to ask about (not-obvious) ways to gain Traditions at a reasonable pace. Playing with government type that gives a bonus to unity is fine, but I don't really like penalties for being hive-mind.

 

[Syr]

Well I was hoping to understand what your idea of a reasonable pace is.

(As a side note, hiveminds DONT actually specialize in unity gain. They are simply ok at it, due to jacks of all trades (that aren't diplomacy), master of none). I just apparently am doing a really good job of getting unity despite playing wide, at least based on the limited information I have.



I'd personally grab the expansion tree ASAP if you plan to have more than one planet.

If you're diplomatically inclined, you can metagame that to the end of the universe and back by getting tons of tiny federation members, or in MP forming a 'unity pact' with a bunch of players, and trying to generate more AI players you can scoop up. (Yay liberation wars, which I currently cant do as a hivemind) - each is only +5%, but hey, if you have a lot, that number can add up really quickly.
If you have lots of rival slots & are up for war, you can go Supremacy instead, and just rival your neighbors for a nice +10% bonus each
Prosperity has a unity gain in the form of energy grid & nexus producing 2 unity. I grabbed that up, because extra 2 unity per planet is a win in my books.
Once you unlock the auto-curating vault, that gives you an extra +10% empire-wide in addition to the 20 unity it produces on its own.

Wrap all that up together and you can be rolling around in over double unity production from every source.

 

[Held der Arbeit]

175 years in I'm about halfway done and I agree that it's somewhat slow (need about 80k unity per tradition pick at this point).

This makes the wonders more of a fun plaything for the post-scarcity endgame phase where you have flattened the competition anyway, than an actual decisive gameplay mechanic. But then again, seeing how they are meant to signify your "ascension", maybe that's the point