why play xenophile?

[Kryndude]

Ai ally is useless, alien pops move over to unsuitable planets and cost you more upkeep, you can't assign jobs to appropriate secies and the algorithm doesn't work, etc. To me it xenophile looks like a big headache for no good benefit but am I missing something here? Why would anyomr ever want to play xenophile except for the sake of being a xenophile?

 

[Zardnaar]

Trade income bio engineering the pops, AI leaving you alone early on and the Xenophile compatibility perk for growth rate. Also getting new pops for lifeseeded start.

 

[Ezumiyr]

The pop system isn't completely optimized, yeah. But the xenophile ethics still has several advantages:
- it's easier to control who you enemies are, and more generally, defensive pacts still work as a way to prevent wars (AI empires won't try to attack a stronger alliance).
- the xenophile faction is both easy to please, and tends to grow exponentially as you start getting alien pops. That means lots of influence.
- Xenophile make migration treaties easier to get. While it currently doesn't benefit that much to your economy (since only one pop will grow at a time), it can still provide pops who can colonize different planet types.
- wars of conquest will go smoothly, with less time needed to absorb new pops (great combo with spiritualist and governing ethics attraction bonus)

 

[01d55]

Xenophiles get a very large bonus to trade, which helps avoid building early generator districts (generators are weak before researching technician / general resource bonuses) and optionally lets you shift minerals & specialists from consumer goods to alloys. Migration treaties can get you early access to different planet preferences (you don't need to wait for a pop to move in, though this is hidden in parts of the UI. Contrast the options you see when building a colony ship from a shipyard to the list when building it through the expansion menu. Hopefully this UI hiccup will be fixed.)

On the other hand, Xenophile doesn't ask you to pay a high price for its benefits. Migration does consider habitability, so once you have most of the planet types covered pops will mostly sort themselves out; a 100% hab world will also get you sorted.

 

[Alastor]

I liked playing xenophiles in previous versions. Because I liked having lots of cool different species in my empire. That was the main reason, aside from mechanical benefits. I rarely if ever even try to play this game optimally afterall. It's RP.

Yet in this version I loathe playing a xenophile. Because of the ridiculous situation surrounding xeno-compatibility. After the billionth-half-sth to become its own species it's just not fun anymore. You can't resettle. Building armies takes eons of scrolling. Going through your species screen is a neverending showcase of the same portraits. Etc etc.

Xenophobe all the way. I allow who I want in my empire and all these halfs are purged.

 

[makaramus]

just because AI can be stupid doesnt mean its useless
AI can still achive simple tasks like "attacking a starport" easly. also you can ask them to follow you too

 

[Wolfgang I]

It makes diplo vassalization easier which can be rather strong once you start snowballing. Once the entire galaxy is weaker than you which happens around 2250 unless I'm messing around (other players can achive this earlier of course I'm not really enjoying having lots of planets in 2.2)on GA you can get a lot of protectorates or tributaries and fanatic xenophile speeds this up. If you add the diplomacy tradition into the mix you can sign all treaties with all willing empires of the galaxy without runing out of influnce.
In the game I tested that approach had 15 protectrates by 2275 in a huge galaxy but had only fought 3 wars. That gave me a nice boost to influence. Only 4 non-FE empires still existed. 3 because I wanted 3 research agreements for faction reasons and one pathetic purifer on the other side of the galaxy. I think I got most of them in a 5 years phase. I also picked defender of the galaxy early for another opinion boost.

Together with the fact the integration is bugged and costs no influence I think you can expand even faster than a total war civic.

 

[ArmChairAttila]

Xenophiles are a good pick for those who are first trying out grand admiral difficulty level. It allows you a lot of wiggle room on that difficulty.

 

[AmpsterMan]

I think Xenophile is really cool in this expansion . Xeno compatibility is a seriously good AP. Mix it with Clone Vats and land of opportunity, you can get +100% growth easy on your planets. On Gaia worlds or Ecumenopoloi, it's awesome.

Also, if you can get a migration treaty early, which is much easier with xenophile bonus, you can start colonizing different planets very early on.

Xenophile and Egalitarian is kinda like playing with Laisez Faire in Vicky 2; you set your economy on autopilot and don't really sweat the details of who is where or what is being produced, etc.

 

[Alastor]

I think Xenophile is really cool in this expansion . Xeno compatibility is a seriously good AP.

No it seriously is not. If for no other reason then because half-species generation appears to be bugged to skyheaven. This was an issue in the past as well particularly with psionic and robot ascensions, but with halfs this has gotten insane. In my first game on a big map within a few hundred years there were literally hundreds of basically identical half-combos that were considered separate species. That is not only ugly to see, its also a real pain to manage since it greatly clutters up your UI.

 

[AmpsterMan]

No it seriously is not. If for no other reason then because half-species generation appears to be bugged to skyheaven. This was an issue in the past as well particularly with psionic and robot ascensions, but with halfs this has gotten insane. In my first game on a big map within a few hundred years there were literally hundreds of basically identical half-combos that were considered separate species. That is not only ugly to see, its also a real pain to manage since it greatly clutters up your UI.

Yeah, that's kind of what I mean though. Sure, it's bugged and could do with modification (pruning duplicates, for example), but I think the Xenophile ethic is supposed to be for players who don't really care about that. As in, I LIKE it when there are a bunch of different subspecies.

 

[Alastor]

Yeah, that's kind of what I mean though. Sure, it's bugged and could do with modification, but I think the Xenophile ethic is supposed to be for players who don't really care about that. As in, I LIKE it when there are a bunch of different subspecies.

I talked of species not templates (subspecies). And for the record as traditionally a xenophile I also like lots of species. As long as those species serve a purpose, they are different etc. After visiting my species screen to see 50 species that look exactly the same and have random assortments of the same traits the clutter is just not worth it. And cannot be undone either (without purging), unlike templates you can't genemod separate species. If they finally do fix this, as I mentioned, quite old issue with subspecies generation that xeno-compatibility exasperates then yes, I will reconsider. Until then, xenophobe all the way.

 

[Pooks1]

- Be xenophile megacorp
- ally everyone and get commercial pacts with everyone
- ????
- profit!

Jokes aside, it's actually really good for a megacorp if you go for xenophile, you can get a lot of money through trade which lets you focus on research and development of planets, especially if you are going for a tall play.

edit: forgot to mention branch offices, big love <3

 

[Sayakus]

1. Grab all pops possible
2. Get refugees from wars/crisis
3. Do synthetic ascension
4.Have 2k synths and quit game due performance issues

 

[Strangedane]

1. Start xenophile-authoritarian-anything.
2. Supress Xenophiles.
3. Pick xeno compatability.
4. Buy ALL the slaves.
5. Embrace authoritarianism.
6. Enslave and nervestaple the rabble.

 

[AlanC9]

Yet in this version I loathe playing a xenophile. Because of the ridiculous situation surrounding xeno-compatibility. After the billionth-half-sth to become its own species it's just not fun anymore. You can't resettle. Building armies takes eons of scrolling. Going through your species screen is a neverending showcase of the same portraits. Etc etc.

Like AmpsterMan said, It works a lot better if you just give up on pop micromanagement altogether. Let the various pops work out their own lives for themselves.

I like xenophile because I never wanted to do any of that in the first place. Less efficiency from the pops? Sure, but with the trade bonuses and so forth who cares?

 

[wtface]

Xenophile is QUANTITY focused. Got a Very Strong Lizardman working in lab and a Natural Engineer fungus working in the mines? Oh well, twice the pop at -10% efficiency still sorts out alright. It mixes well with Gaia world to suck in all the xenos, and then colonize with them.

I did however mod my galaxy to .1x habitable planets. When you are looking at 4-5 planets the micro becomes more or less tolerable.