[Name already in use]

I guess one of the main gains is the ability to colonize... everywhere. You can grow at a much more exponential rate than organics can (or, at least with a lot less effort since for them it would take micromanaging multiple species or sub species (which could lead to other problems) and maybe robots have new traits too? we don't know.

EDIT: I guess when i think about it. Less micro is one of the main gains. Since you can micro organics to be good at specific things (even better than synths at some things with the new traits) but synths are just overall really good at whatever you ask them to do.

1.Mod one planet to another preference.
2.Build a colony ship
3.Mod the planet preference on the planet back to prevent pops from dieing.
4.Repeat once for the third planet-group (wet, rocky, dry)

Congratulations, you can now colonize everything.
And with the tech you definitely have at the point you can build synths, your pops even have 100% habitability

 

[Ezumiyr]

On one of the screenshots Mars is shown as habitable and colonized planet - is this a new feature of this expansion? Sol system with 2 habitable planets?

Some barren worlds have the ability to be terraformed into habitable ones, Mars is one of them. This has been mentioned a few times already.

Just read this dev diary, Mars terraforming is teased at the end for next week.

What do synths get except beeing synths?
Psi has armies, tech, better FTL, better leaders (having immortal leaders might be useful, but nobody really cares when you can have awesome leaders)

Synths are the same as before. So why should anyone want to take them?

I would also be curious to know how it interacts with the Rogue AI end game crisis.

 

[Notho]

I love the delicious trait

Yea, it reminds me of the creature in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who was engineered to want to be eaten.

 

[ModZero]

Who's to say we couldn't use super-science to adjust those orbital properties?

Well, sure, but at that point we wouldn't really care about which one is better, because we could just rearrange all the planets and put Venus into an orbit around the (now much warmer) Neptune just because Neptune is pretty (it really is).

 

[Rubidium]

Uh. Venus has really weird orbital properties.

It also has a giant atmosphere we'd have to dump somehow (it's a lot easier to make an atmosphere more dense than it is to go the other way around).

Neither is a super-awesome terraforming candidate, but Mars is clearly better (and has a much longer tradition of being terraformed in fiction, which is probably more important for a game as focused on scifi tropes as Stellaris).

 

[Novacat]

Uh. Venus has really weird orbital properties.

Nothing some directed impacts from large rocks cannot fix. The main issue with Mars is that its dynamo died, thus removing the magnetic field. This means that any atmosphere will be slowly stripped away by solar wind and thus will need to be artificially maintained. Geological activity has stopped which will also cause some real long-term issues to any Terraforming project, no volcanic activity to counteract erosion.

Neither is a super-awesome terraforming candidate, but Mars is clearly better (and has a much longer tradition of being terraformed in fiction, which is probably more important for a game as focused on scifi tropes as Stellaris).

Kind of. Mars is easier to terraform, but any Martian terraforming will be temporary, as soon as it stops, it will slowly revert to its original state. In addition, the lack of plate tectonics means that water will slowly erode the landmasses and that will also require human intervention to fix.

Basically, Venus is the best bet if you want a permanent, self-sustaining solution, Mars is the best bet for a quick, dirty, but ultimately more expensive (in the long run)...

As for fiction, Mars is often depicted as Terraformed primarily because it is much easier for the writers to ignore the real life problems with Martian terraforming.

 

[Qoff]

All paths seems awesome.

 

[ModZero]

Neither is a super-awesome terraforming candidate, but Mars is clearly better (and has a much longer tradition of being terraformed in fiction, which is probably more important for a game as focused on scifi tropes as Stellaris).

TBH Titan or GTFO (but not Europa, attempt no landings there).

EDIT:

Nothing some directed impacts from large rocks cannot fix.

We already have an asteroid belt, no need for another.

 

[Myphicbowser]

Is it possible to have both the Synthetic perks and Some of the genetic perks? I want to turn other species into the perfect slaves, and also let's say somehow you suddenly can control of someone else's planet, can you synthify them? Can you make being synthetic a right only bestowed to your founder species?

 

[sigismundus]

How will full synthetic empires interact with AI rebellion?

 

[ModZero]

Yea, it reminds me of the creature in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who was engineered to want to be eaten.

TBH it really reminds me where they hired a writer from, delicious friends.

 

[moglus]

You already could cheese it in race creation and pick up the good traits later, but I find there is not really very many "Not so bad" negative traits in the game, Sedentary is the only one I can think of that certainly will not hurt you at any stage of the game and any strategy, while there are a few others that are also free picks based on your circumstances (Weak, Slow Breeders, Nonadaptive, etc), but there is not really that many.

If anything, after thinking about it, I kind of feel that the trait pick limit is a solution searching for a problem, even my best attempt to cheese, assuming unlimited trait picks and caste systems, I never get more than 10 traits total. For example, a ruler caste with Venerable, Charismatic (Not in the trait description, but you get a relations bonus to all species), Resilient (Militia pops are always the ruling species), Strong (Kind of meh, but also buffs militia and gives you more flexibility in recruiting infantry), Nonadaptive, Sedentary, and Slow Breeders.

I find the trait pick limit will primarily hurt attempts to make all-rounder species with a lot of low-cost positive traits.

Deviants - not a problem at all if you play Divine Mandate or Spiritualist/Fanatic Spiritualist
Fleeting - can be canceled out by Theocratic Oligarchy or almost entirely by an early societal tech
Sedentary - as you said, the all-time "i want free points" no brainer choice
Slow Breeders - can be somewhat lessened by Theocratic Republic and/or Fanatic Collectivist (less food consumption = more food = faster growth) and further negated by high food output (which should become easier since food will become a global resource in Banks/Utopia
Solitary - can be cancelled out by Theocratic Republic or Direct Democracy
Weak - very quickly cancelled out by the power Armour tech if i'm not mistaken

I might have missed some stuff, but i haven't slept in over 30 hours so take everything i say with a grain of salt lol

 

[moglus]

How will full synthetic empires interact with AI rebellion?

The important question right there!

 

[Ifreann]

Meanwhile, in unimatrix 01...

What should we do with these farms?
Hmm. WARNING: CANNOT STROKE BEARD, BEARD NOT FOUND
*SPLAT*
Food! Fight!​

 

[Moonshadow101]

Both of these seem really limited and shallow compared to the Psi path. The synthetic path, in particular, seems to be completely linear, with no options or choices being made at any point.

 

[Stoßtrupp Gold]

@Wiz :So if an authoritarian empire with caste system go the synthetic ascension way can have enslaved synths in their mines and happy synths on energy and research tiles?
In the same empire but without the synthetic ascension, could synths be enslaved?

As for the biological ascention
- are there still only two techs that grant a gene point? So atm there would be 7 points max.
- if you remove the intelligent trait would it free up the 2 points it used up?

 

[smjjames]

@ most people asking questions, you guys are forgetting to add @Wiz to get Wiz's attention. Though he's doing the stream atm anyhow.

edit: The stream doesn't seem to be live atm, thought there would be a stream.

 

[Name already in use]

The important question right there!

I will start to care when the A.I. Rebellion is actually remotely close to beeing a threat.

 

[moglus]

1.Mod one planet to another preference.
2.Build a colony ship
3.Mod the planet preference on the planet back to prevent pops from dieing.
4.Repeat once for the third planet-group (wet, rocky, dry)

Congratulations, you can now colonize everything.
And with the tech you definitely have at the point you can build synths, your pops even have 100% habitability

As i said, more effort. And if i'm not mistaken that would still cause problems with xenophobia and the policies associated with it (but i wouldn't know for sure since i never play xenophobes)
(Not to mention keeping track of what species is what when colonizing since they all have the same portrait, that would be a minor annoyance)

 

[moglus]

I will start to care when the A.I. Rebellion is actually remotely close to beeing a threat.

That's true. The last time i had an AI rebellion (which i triggered... even tho synths had all the rights in my xenophile materialist empire....) i crushed it in half a month. It needs to either be substantially stronger, or just needs more time to prepare in the background (i.e event code) which really just amounts to... spawn with more shit...