Utopian abundance

[AaronArx]

My empire has the mechanist and technocratic civic, also it has the egalitarian ethic and conservational trait which decrease the consumer goods required.

Do you think it's a good idea to set the living standards to Utopian Abundance since the start of the game?

 

[tobias.mb]

Early Game you should only get factions that conform with your empire ethos. You can easily make them happy even without utopian abundance.
Utopian abundance seems like more of a mid-game thing, if you need to keep a big empire with all the "bad" factions happy.

 

[AaronArx]

Early Game you should only get factions that conform with your empire ethos. You can easily make them happy even without utopian abundance.
Utopian abundance seems like more of a mid-game thing, if you need to keep a big empire with all the "bad" factions happy.

Maybe social welfare would be a better idea?

I usually take utopian abundance so that my people work the power plants more efficiently. As mechanists the initial energy income is pretty low.

 

[tobias.mb]

The problem is, that utopian abundance is really expensive. In the early game you can usually use every single mineral to expand your fleet and / or colonies.

 

[AaronArx]

The problem is, that utopian abundance is really expensive. In the early game you can usually use every single mineral to expand your fleet and / or colonies.

Okay then

 

[Secret Master]

The problem is, that utopian abundance is really expensive. In the early game you can usually use every single mineral to expand your fleet and / or colonies.

Yep. Consumer goods really hit early civilizations (not hive minds) hard.

My empire (the looks suspiciously like the old Sith Empire) even set consumer goods lower to scrape together more minerals for early conquest of the xenos. When I had enough chattel slaves, I set it back to normal, but it was rough since I started with few mining stations in my neighborhood.

I used factions to keep people happy during the period of fewer consumer goods.

 

[AaronArx]

Yep. Consumer goods really hit early civilizations (not hive minds) hard.

My empire (the looks suspiciously like the old Sith Empire) even set consumer goods lower to scrape together more minerals for early conquest of the xenos. When I had enough chattel slaves, I set it back to normal, but it was rough since I started with few mining stations in my neighborhood.

I used factions to keep people happy during the period of fewer consumer goods.

However my empire is a mechanized one, most of my workers are robots already and don't require many consumer goods.

 

[Secret Master]

However my empire is a mechanized one, most of my workers are robots already and don't require many consumer goods.

Ah, I haven't run the numbers on a situation like that.

How many robots do you start with for free compared to other POPs?

 

[AaronArx]

Ah, I haven't run the numbers on a situation like that.

How many robots do you start with for free compared to other POPs?

4 robots, one for each farm and mine

 

[Secret Master]

4 robots, one for each farm and mine

That certainly changes things.

I'm still not sure if justifies going to a higher standard of living for your other POPs (you still need minerals to make more robots), but the energy cost of new robots is substantial. It might make sense.

 

[AaronArx]

That certainly changes things.

I'm still not sure if justifies going to a higher standard of living for your other POPs (you still need minerals to make more robots), but the energy cost of new robots is substantial. It might make sense.

For instance if I set the living standards to utopian at the very very beginning of the game I lose one or 2 points of monthly minerals and gain 1 point of energy per month.

 

[Sheriff Godwin Law]

I wouldn't bother early in the game. Those 2 points of minerals matter when you're only produce 10 or 20 a month and, as was mentioned earlier, you have no unhappy populations until your people start fracturing into unruly ethos-opposed factions.

 

[nrader]

It means doubling minerals that are spend to goods in return for 20% happiness. And 20% happiness means +8% production if we talking about raising it above 50%. Unless you use it to suppress unhappiness, answer to your question is the same as answering "does twice goods spending cost less than 8% production boost will give me?" question.