Stellaris Dev Diary #63: Synthetic and Biological Ascension

[TheDungen]

There are actually quite a bit of cyborgs. Lando's right hand man, the victims that that guy at the Cantina (who got his arm cut off) and his associate (the ugly guy). There are plenty others. Those are just the canon ones I can think of off the top of my head. Legends has even more.

A headset and a gas mask does not make a person a cyborg more than contact lenses does.

 

[moglus]

Governments are out and replaced by Civics come Banks, unless picking the republic leadership option completely simulates the benefit.

I know, i was talking within the framework of the game as it currently is. But i'd be surprised if there aren't civics in banks that have similar effects tbh. tho i do love the new government system, much more versatile. But i do hope there are upgraded civics like there were upgraded governments. Or at least better ones unlockable later in the game since you can change most of civics later (as long as they don't give start bonuses like syncretic evolution)

 

[Democratic Monarchy]

A headset and a gas mask does not make a person a cyborg more than contact lenses does.

I always thought of Lando's right-hand man as an "upgraded" organic, seeing how that headset is the only mechanical thing on him. Maybe Paradox could add something like that?

 

[ModZero]

Yeah but you can't make the martian gravity livable!

Compared to the pressure on Venus? Nah, it's fine. I mean, it is silly, but compared to the whole idea of colonising planets it's fine.

And do you even know the meaning of the word aerosol? They are floating, suspended in the atmosphere, nothing can survive on Venus' surface but the upper atmosphere is a a paradise.

Where by "paradise" you mean "winds of 220km/h."

And no you don't need oxygen for algae, algae take in sunlight and co2 and produce oxygen.

You need hydrogen. At least hydrogen. And while are both H2S (yay sulphur!) and water vapour, the amounts of both are pitiful.

Often called the sulferic acid layer. And you know what defines an acid?

facepalm.jpg. You know what defines bases? Hydroxide ions, which happen to also involve hydrogen. All that means is that there are more hydrogen ions than hydroxide ions, which isn't a particular achievement in an atmosphere that has no hydroxide ions.

Edit: Turns out there are scientists who believe such microbes already exist.

Dude quoting a dude reviewing a book written by a scientist in 1997 believes such microbes already exist. It's plausible to make organisms that maybe could survive, but at concentrations of vital minerals present in the atmosphere your terraforming project is not going to be a fast one.

And no orbital habitats are way more complicated (You'll need to solve the cosmic radiation issue and again the gravity issue) than getting some frozen hydrogen to a planet, considering hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, by far (roughly 74% of out galaxy's mass is hydrogen).

Too bad you need one for the other, then. Also, sigh, I'm making very obvious allusions here. If you want my actual, serious opinion, leaving Earth is rather daft [mutes thread].

Look smarter people than you or me at NASA are seriously considering this stuff,

And also reactionless drives and FTL systems based on mathematical thought experiments that would sterilise solar systems if they work, which they wouldn't. NASA gave small amounts of money to a lot of projects, that's not really an evidence of anything. If you want a shortcut to what NASA actually considers plausible, look at the amount of probes NASA sent to Mars instead of Venus.

 

[StJimmyRocks92]

I think we should be able to terraform planets to machine worlds that are 100% habitability (maybe some other bonuses) to robots and 0% to everything else.

I want this so badly now

 

[LizardCommander]

The Psionic and Genetic Ascension paths seem very interesting and add a lot of depth and complexity to the game, however the Synthetic Ascension is extremely lackluster in comparison. Unless the robots will have automatic pop growth, additional bonuses that are unique to biologically evolved synthetics, there will be no real reason to play as them. If they're essentially Synths, why not just build synths instead and go down the biological path while you are doing it? This way you get the best of both worlds, as it stands (if using the exact same rules as standard synths, aka no automatic growth and whatnot) it would become more of a bother than a boom to play a robotic empire, I know b/c I have done it.

I mean when you compare the options:
Psionics get access to the shroud, which offers a myriad of bonuses, choice, and player interaction.

Gene modding allows for interesting uses to create super species, and to create subservient ones.

Robots are...robots. No different than old ones, immortal leaders is okay I suppose but not all that interesting either.

If robots had more choices, it would be fine. Perhaps adding in additional portraits so that we can pick to play as different looking robots? Additionally, weakening the overall power of the robots, but instead offering additional traits that are unique to them (and powerful in their own right) that would also double down as additional customization might be what we are looking for here. The portraits bit is probably unlikely, however the additional perks and choices is somewhat reasonable, it could be accomplished in a day by a single person perhaps.
Examples
Robots would only have a +10% yield towards the standard stuff (minerals, research, energy) standard synths would drop in their power accordingly as well, to create a contrast, or these wouldn't be quite like normal synths. Keep the use of food, perhaps they use 'organic matter' to fuel their power cells or something. This way there is a mechanic allowing for them to populate planets without the player getting a headache, take this from someone who used Synths to colonize something like 80 planets in one game, I was glad when the prethoryn scourge wiped me out after they entered in all my core systems, b/c at least then I wouldn't be attempting to click everywhere to produce more synths, which of course my sectors refused to do. Secondly, after the species has completed their transformation, on the same screen where they could alter their name, they would be able to add extra traits to their species, each one would be worth 1 and you would have 2 points. They might include 'Increased Neural Capacities +15% to research yields', 'Preliminary Combat Functionalities +50% army damage', '(insert here) +15% to mineral yields', '(insert here) +15% to energy yields', 'Improved Leadership Matrix leaders gain additional, synthetic exclusive benefits'
This would offer the players more choice, and allow them to create their own, more or less unique Synthetic Species. Including the additional portraits suggested, this would really improve the quality of the Synthetic Ascension. Synths need to either use food, or automatically reproduce (or have that option) so that we don't go crazy with the micromanagement.

Realistically, without the preceding I will still be buying Utopia. However, to note is that unless there is a lot more depth or something similar to what I suggested in regards to the synthetic ascension, there is no chance I would even consider using it. It would become a wasted game mechanic. Other than the synthetic ascension, I like what you guys did with the other two!

 

[Tyr4el]

Look out, there's gonna' be a lot of Robotic Empires called Reddit.

 

[Atlantians]

Next week, the ability to terraform Mars.

Most. Important. Update. Ever.

 

[Wise Strategist]

@ Wiz

Question: Will becoming an Empire of Robots drew the ire of a "Keepers of Knowledge" fallen empires?

 

[Little One]

Agreed. But you're still gonna buy it, right?

Of course, The wealth of changes and improvements to the game overall, and the systems that they are implementing are well worth the price. I just find the design philosophy fell a little flat when it came to addressing the 'ascension' paths for biological and synthetic avenues, whereas a lot of thought clearly went into how Psionics would be changed. The Dev Diary itself excuses this by saying that they could be lumped into a single DD because they didn't have any sweeping changes of mechanics. But why not? Was it a budgetary/time constraint, or did they honestly not feel that these systems needed addressing?

It distresses me only in that the way that patch logic seems to work at Paradox, is that they focus on one aspect of the game at a time. Which is great, I love the way that they make patches and expansions. But that means if an aspect of the game being worked on is left alone it's going to stay that way for a long while, and won't likely be revisited until they've looked at (presumably) warfare and combat, as Wiz has mentioned a few times wanting to redesign in a later expansion. They've also mentioned in their streams that they have the next 3 or so major expansions blocked in- so anything like changes to the ascension paths after their initial implementation come Utopia, are a long way off. I'd rather wait an extra month and really feel like they were all powerful, end-game, mechanics-changing choices rather than having impressive, but somewhat lackluster changes in the interim until later polish.

 

[Denjell]

People are forgetting about food storage, youl need to increase your storage and in the months before ascending youl start replacing farms.

Most people also believe dyson spheres will be the go to thing to "feed" your synths.

 

[Elfwind]

I have a suggestion for Robots, how about their leaders can "download" traits and levels? Also allow them to become like Bentusi and straight up become their ships they are assigned too. That can give their ships unique capabilities, this way all 3 paths are different!

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I hope people realize that these paths will still have intermediary events and additional costs, the same as the Psionic Ascension does. There just wasn't enough space to rehash that part.

 

[ECFOX]

The synthetic asention path

 

[Untrustedlife]

I hope people realize that these paths will still have intermediary events and additional costs, the same as the Psionic Ascension does. There just wasn't enough space to rehash that part.

I dont blame people for worrying. But I trust that paradox has added stuff like this, others may not have that same trust.

 

[Zarpaulus]

Quick question:

Conquering planets from empires following Biological ascension seems like it wouldn't be much of a problem, you've just got new POPs with unique traits, but what about POPs from Synthetic or Psionic empires? Do you treat uploaded POPs the same as any other robots (including disassembly if that's your policy)? Can you have psi-latent POPs from conquest or immigration?

 

[Erei]

I can see several major issues with those paths. First, the change from food "upkeep" for pop into energy. I can see a MASSIVE deficit happening in energy, especially in large empire. Bankrupt and empire destroying scale of deficit. Could we have the hydroponic farm turned into energy producing building of the same tier when this happen ? Since they become obsolete anyway. Or turn the food into energy (I don't know, biofuel ?). Also, it will force us to open the sector into being able to rebuild building, which may lead to issues by itself.
With the biological path, if the time required to mod a pop is not changed, we are looking at years of society research by endgame to change every pop of a single species. So, most likely a century or so for everyone in your empire if you play several races. That would be ridiculous.
Then, will we have the option to mod a species several time ? Right now, if you use gene mod on a species, we can't gene mod it later on, even if we have access to more gene point. So if I modify a species earlier on, then unlock more gene stuff in the biological path, I'd be screwed.

 

[Zarpaulus]

Going to add one more option. For synthetic ascension, your people have all uploaded their brains to a computer. So your species still looks it once did, its just now transparent, like a hologram.

Holograms can't mine minerals.

Maybe the Synths are drones teleoperated from the planetary server?

 

[Marneus Calgar]

At the end my favourite part: "including the ability to terraform Mars."

 

[Emraldis]

I dont blame people for worrying. But I trust that paradox has added stuff like this, others may not have that same trust.

The main issue is simply that they haven't mentioned anything, while they could have put a single sentence right at the end of this DD saying "oh btw, there are events for all of this."