Stellaris Dev Diary #328 - New Year, New Beta

[King Harkinian]

In a way, this is what I hate about the addition of evermore sliders. It just feels like too much is being pushed on the player to figure out “their” balance. I want to see the shiny end game content - not continually replaying the first 50-70 years. Yet often, I feel like that’s what I should be doing because I either tuned everything way too high or (most often) too low. All to find a balance that can change dramatically patch to patch/opening to opening.

Even only playing 50 years can be a considerable time investment.


**I fully understand how much of a pipe dream this probably is and that additional customization options are actually more likely to ensure a player can find their perfect settings. Still, dreaming of the ability to just select basic galaxy settings, a difficulty, and have a challenging, yet non suicidal, mid/endgame.

As I've said before, the problem with this is that the skill gap between bad and good Stellaris players is enormous, even for first-time players, so it's very hard for the devs to balance the game without giving a lot of fine control to the player.

You are locked to a difficulty higher than Civilian for the Difficulty Adjusted Technology Cost slider to have any effect whatsoever. When on civilian difficulty (default) difficulty adjusted tech scaling is multiplied by 0.

This really seems like an oversight, because there is no reason to tie tech scaling to difficulty- You should be able to have high scaling on low difficulty and vis versa. This setup has bizarrely limited us to only being able to have high scaling on high difficulty. That formula would work equally well if it was just 1+ q*x, with the caveat that we would need a larger range for X to be able to get all the way up to the previous max with q*x*6

The reason for this, presumably, is that the AI would be completely helpless on low difficulties with high tech scaling. They need those massive boosts to get anywhere at all. It's still unintuitive though - the scaling should at least affect Civilian to some degree.

 

[Starfury]

Yes.

Here is the complete list based on scanning /common/ for entries with both an all technology speed modifier and matching researcher upkeep change.

Administrative AI, Sapient AI, and Positronic AI tech
Ministry of Science holding
Nanite Actuators edict
Scientific Revolution unity ambition
Curator Leader trait
Curator insights
Synthetic Dawn ghost signal patched/wiped/research bonus modifiers
Software Damage from bad ending to Geomagnetic Storm situation
Unexplained Insights from the Express Mail anomaly
Knights of the Toxic God Trickster Curse

Thanks! One would almost think I could've tried doing that myself...

So one could say the broad theme would be "techs, edicts and external assistance" still increase upkeep. (and maybe a few where they missed removing the modifier)

 

[Mech_infect]

I liked the idea with breakthrough technologies, it’s a pity that it was canceled with the current patch for January 19, 2024. Perhaps if we change this idea somehow, it would be interesting. For example, adding a tracked amount of research at a certain level in order to make a “breakthrough” and reach the next level of technology.

 

[Romulus Augustus]

As I've said before, the problem with this is that the skill gap between bad and good Stellaris players is enormous, even for first-time players, so it's very hard for the devs to balance the game without giving a lot of fine control to the player.

Isn’t this exactly why the game has difficulty levels? Not that you’ll pick the right one on your very first play, but broadly speaking.

To be fully clear, I know I’m essentially asking the devs to wave a magic wand and find a balance that works in all situations, which is probably impossible considering the complexity and number of variables on given play through. It is, however, frustrating when you have to keep going in and adjusting settings, trying to find an appropriate challenge - in certain ways this seems symptomatic of the vast number of items which can be changed. Is the crisis (mid/end/WiH/BtC AI) more of a challenge if I move end game to 2300? 2350? Should I set tech to 5x? AI to GA?

Didn’t get it quite right? Guess you get to stomp that AE in 5 minutes** and go start a new game to essentially replay the last 100ish years.

Inversely, oops spawned the crisis when I’m way behind on tech because 2x cost was an overcorrection the next game.

**In addition to the tech rebalance, I do really hope the various endgame challenges can get a revisit to their AI - both on decisions and fully utilizing new features. Regular empire AI seems more militarily effective these days than AE/crisis.

 

[Dragatus]

What do the anomalies/archaology sites that previously gave progress in those techs (e.g. Supersolid Materials) now give?

I did a quick scan of a few game files and by the looks of it you get whatever you would previously get if you already researched the technology. Typically that's some amount of physics/society/engineering research.

So the end result of the beta so far is just removed content. Core flavor content that has been in the game since the vanilla release (but had much more interesting effects back then - those techs unlocked specialized Research Labs). 9 whole techs removed in fact, or 12 compared to the beta.

Well, ever since they got rid of specialized labs these techs weren't providing all that much flavor, so the damage has been done long ago and the final removal of the technologies isn't that big of a loss. That said, I'd still prefer it if they found some use for them.

 

[fourteenfour]

Once more on the subject of sliders.

Remove any tech cost changes from the Game Difficulty setting.
Ideally players want to choose how much each tier costs but having a slider for each tier makes for a complicated UI but it could probably be done with just two sliders. Both would need flyover help which would show one line of text revealing the costs of tiers one through five. Should not be hard to make a dynamically updated string like that.

Tech Cost Slider which obviously affects the base cost at each tier
Tier Cost Scaling which would increase the spread between tiers. This would combining the current game difficulty setting (d) and difficulty adjusted tech cost galaxy (q) together.


I

 

[Dragatus]

Yes, research output remains reduced so there is less disparity between unity producing and research producing jobs.

You could've increased the output of Unity jobs instead. I'm personally cheering for having Researchers produce 12 research and Bureaucrats 6 Unity, but giving both a 3 CG upkeep.

Since research output remains reduced, you may need to adjust the Tech Cost slider to taste. Players that previously played on 2x Tech Costs might find the Difficulty Adjusted Tech Costs slider to be more to their liking, as it skews the increased costs towards higher tiers.

Speaking of "Difficulty Adjusted Tech Cost", that's a name that's very accurate and descriptive if you know what it does, but very confusing if you don't. Tying the cost scaling to difficulty also seems a little bit arbitrary. What if I like the GA cost progression, but can't handle the difficulty?

IMO it would be better to instead have a slider where you simply set X and the tech cost for a given tier of technology is 1000*[X^tier]. Range for X could be 2-4, with perhaps 2.5 as the default. Naming it would be tricky, but something like "Tech Cost Scaling Per Tier" hopefully wouldn't be too confusing.

Largely, yes. We considered a different implementation that would work around the performance implications of the current variant, but we (and the community) didn't find the feel of the breakthrough techs to be good as-is. I can think of some variants that might prove satisfactory, but I feel that dedicating Custodian resources towards some other tasks is more valuable overall.

Do you mind elaborating what kind of performance issues breakthrough costs caused? I quite liked them as an indicator of tech progress and I liked having the option to stay at a lower tech tier, fishing for missed key techs before progressing further.

Would they cause the same performance issues if they just had a fixed cost equal to the lowest cost of the next tier of technologies?

 

[Calvax]

I thought the idea of breakthrough technologies was good but the implementation needed adjustment because researching them didn't feel great. They did have a substantial impact in keeping you within one tier at a time and that let those mid-game techs shine a lot more. I think that impact was underrated because I got back-to-back laser and kinetic upgrades in this game with the help of a couple of events, to the point where I could have started researching tier 4 lasers in 2227, but didn't have the crystals yet to build them. In comparison, I spent about 50 years in each tier on my full tech tree run last beta, so these would've shown up closer to 2350, or probably early 2300s if I was more focused on pushing through tiers. Most of my ship components now are already T3.

Do you mind elaborating what kind of performance issues breakthrough costs caused? I quite liked them as an indicator of tech progress and I liked having the option to stay at a lower tech tier, fishing for missed key techs before progressing further.

Having the tech "tree" gated was a nice organization feature. Made the tiers feel distinct.

 

[starchitect]

The reason for this, presumably, is that the AI would be completely helpless on low difficulties with high tech scaling. They need those massive boosts to get anywhere at all. It's still unintuitive though - the scaling should at least affect Civilian to some degree.

This is incorrect. Difficulty Adjusted Tech cost scaling does not boost or hinder the AI in any way, both the player and the AI have tech costs altered. It changes the game pacing, which is a thing both high and low difficulty players can want. That can have the knock-on effect of making the end game crisis more difficult, but again, that has nothing whatsoever to do with relative AI power, which is what people perceive as difficulty. It's entirely reasonable to have the default scaling be low for new players, but it simply incorrect to assume that only players who play on high difficulties would want high scaling.

They do not link other settings to difficulty- the base technology cost slider does not only increase costs if you are on high difficulty. The crisis multiplier is not itself multiplied by difficulty. The only sliders that are affected by difficulty are the sliders directly related to the difficulty modifiers themselves (late game scaling, and difficulty adjusted modifiers). Locking tech scaling to difficulty is simply a mistake, there is no possible justification for doing that over a simple Technology Cost Scaling slider, that can have the same effects, same defaults, and is much less confusing than a Difficulty Adjusted Cost Scaling slider.

 

[HFY]

The beta version of bioreactors would be great for Anglers. It still wouldn't require you to research the energy techs, and it would allow you to use the incredibly efficient Angler job for energy production (and the incredibly efficient Pearl Divers for CG) instead of Traders/Clerks.

I would also like if AI reduced farmer food production and added something else. I've long advocated for it.

This is an opportunity to effectively get that change.

It's just a useful mechanic. I don't think it's clear that it's in the wrong place.

Okay, I think I see the disconnect between our positions.

I'm looking at Synth Ascension, Machine Empires, Lithoids, Overlords with taxed vassals, Worker-Owned MC trade policy, Anglers, Agrarian Idyll, etc., and you're only focused on Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

I agree that the beta Bio Reactor would be good for Anglers + Agrarian Idyll, but I don't think it's fair to leave Synths, Machines, Lithoids, Overlords, and every other excess-food empire to just hang in the wind.

Also, I don't like that it seems to be basically required for Anglers + Agrarian Idyll -- something which is so good that it's not optional should not be an option. If it's not a genuine choice, but it's framed as a choice, then it's just a chore. I like the effect, but I don't like that it's not baked in.


In summation, it looks like you seen an opportunity to gain a nice thing for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll. That's cool, I like Anglers & Agrarian Idyll and I want them to have nice things because I do also play Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

But I don't like the idea that the only food-to-energy mechanic in the game is exclusively useful for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

I see an opportunity for Synth Ascension, Machine Empires, Lithoids, Overlords with taxed vassals, Worker-Owned MC trade policy, etc. to also have a nice thing, and I want them to have nice things, too, and these empires greatly outnumber Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.


So, I'd be fine if Anglers & Agrarian Idyll got the beta Bio Reactor, but I would prefer that everyone else -- the vast majority of empires which need food-to-energy conversion -- got something they could use, too.

I don't want Anglers & Agrarian Idyll to lack nice things. But I also don't like seeing something generally useful (2.x Bio-Reactor) turned into a toy only useful for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

Okay, I think I see the disconnect between our positions.

I'm looking at Synth Ascension, Machine Empires, Lithoids, Overlords with taxed vassals, Worker-Owned MC trade policy, Anglers, Agrarian Idyll, etc., and you're only focused on Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

I am looking at all of them.

tl;dr:

• <<The beta farmer-modifying change helps Anglers and Agrarian Idyll, but leaves lithoids/machines out in the cold. This is bad.>>
• Doing just your proposed technician-modifying change doesn't expand the role of bio-reactors, it just makes them more scalable. And it leaves out trader lithoids/synths, so it's even more limited than the current version. And it makes bio-reactors obligatory (or at least, optimal) even if you don't have excess food.
• Doing the farmer changes and keeping the old food upkeep/energy production of bioreactors lets them be useful to everyone. Excess food from vassals/starbases? Make a bioreactor on some random planet. Excess food from farmers that are too good? Make a bioreactor on your agriworld to divert some food to energy.
• Make no changes to the building (other than giving it an upgrade which makes gas as well as energy to add density) would seem to cover all the bases but make Urban worlds weird.
• Doing both the farmer/technician changes still leaves out lithoid/synth traders, but otherwise covers all the bases (as the two don't conflict). But it still makes bio-reactors optimal for vanilla energy generation. Nerfing the technician ratio slightly fixes that.

I agree. Anglers, Agrarian Idyll, and Baol seem like the primary users. For everyone else, it just doesn't really work.

But given I've only used it for machines/Terravores before, I'm not sure it's much more limited. Just a different small subset.

I don't know how I can make it much more clear:
Old version helped lithoids/machines/synths. The new version only helps Anglers/AI. The technician version is similar to the old version, but it additionally helps people with too much food from vassals but no longer helps synths/lithoids with trade builds.

I have never, at any point, said that the new version is perfect in every way and solves everyone's problems. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that it's only useful to empires who employ farmers in the first place.

There's a reason why I'm advocating for new and old stapled together, or new and your technician version stapled together. Those would cover all the bases.

 

[HFY]

I don't know how I can make it much more clear:
Old version helped lithoids/machines/synths. The new version only helps Anglers/AI.

The part which was unclear is that it looked like you were arguing for the general utility of the new version.

And again, I do want Anglers & Agrarian Idyll to have nice things.

But it's not reasonable to take the only efficient mechanic for food-to-energy away from Overlords / Robots / Lithoids / etc. since those are the majority of empires with excess food.


If there is only one such mechanic allowed in the game, then I would prefer to give nice things to the majority, not only to Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

So the questions should be:

- Is it true that only one efficient food-to-energy mechanic is allowed in the game?

- What is preventing us from having mechanics for both the majority (Overlords / Robots / Lithoids / etc.) and the minority (Anglers & Agrarian Idyll)?

- Why is Catalytic a civic and not a planetary decision? That could also solve food excess without imposing on trade, making Anglers & Agrarian Idyll both viable without the need for any Bio-Reactor shenanigans.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

- Why is Catalytic a civic and not a planetary decision? That could also solve food excess without imposing on trade, making Anglers & Agrarian Idyll both viable without the need for any Bio-Reactor shenanigans.

Because turning pumpkins into battle steel requires more effort than the local governor ordering surplus pumpkins shoveled into the alloy furnaces, presumably, were one to look for any in-game rationale, and because being able to do so is a considerable strategic advantage, so the developers decided to restrict this ability to societies willing to expend one their most limited resources to get it, if looking for a balance rationale.

It was either that or make it an ascension perk.

 

[Shark7]

On Bio-fuel reactors...

It seems to me that sometimes the simple, direct solution to a problem is often the best. Rather than having the tech touch multiple systems, why not just have it unlock a new building, with a new job? This way the system could be contained so as not to require massive reworks when it needs tweaking and every empire type could use it in exactly the same way.

Example:

Tech: Bio-Fuel Processing
Gives: Ability to build Bio-Fuel processor building.
Bio-Fuel Processor building provides 2 Bio-Fuel Processor jobs

Bio-Fuel Processor job:
Upkeep: 10 food
Produces: 2 energy

Tech: Advanced Bio-Fuel Processing
Gives: Upgrade to Bio-Fuel Processor building and Job
Upgrade: add 2 Bio-Fuel Processor Jobs per upgraded building, add +1 Exotic Gas production to Bio-Fuel Processor job.

If the tech is available to all empires, and all empires can build a farm (of some type) to produce food, it seems this would solves the issue and make it fair across the board with all empires having equal access.

Anyway, just my simple way of doing what I think the intent of bio-fuel reactor changes are.

 

[HFY]

Because turning pumpkins into battle steel requires more effort than the local governor ordering surplus pumpkins shoveled into the alloy furnaces, presumably, were one to look for any in-game rationale, and because being able to do so is a considerable strategic advantage, so the developers decided to restrict this ability to societies willing to expend one their most limited resources to get it, if looking for a balance rationale.

It was either that or make it an ascension perk.

It needs to be available from game start for those empires which are built around it.

Hmm, maybe it's an empire-wide policy by default, but with the AP it becomes a planetary decision.

 

[Abdulijubjub]

The part which was unclear is that it looked like you were arguing for the general utility of the new version.

And again, I do want Anglers & Agrarian Idyll to have nice things.

"This version is good for Anglers, but not useful for everyone else. Let's do a new version that's good for both!"

"Yeah, but you missed the fact that it's only good for Anglers. Let's do this version which is good for everyone but Anglers and traders."

"No, see, that's leaving Anglers and traders out. Let's do a version that's good for both!"

"Can't you see that this version is only good for Anglers? Why would you want this version that's only good for Anglers? Why not this other version that's good for everyone except Anglers?"

"I already said that. I know it's only good for Anglers. That's why I said so, and proposed a version that works for both."

"It's so unclear. It seems like you're arguing for the fact that the new version is good for everyone."

I'm so frustrated.

 

[Bork_of_Boletaria]

Here's another take: The default habitable planets setting is overwhelmingly regarded as fine. Reason for this take: It is a topic seldom discussed.

You often see players recommending dropping habitable planets to minimum in the context of providing answers to people who have problems, that reducing the number of habitable planets might address. Typical examples would be wanting less planetary micromanagement or reducing late game performance issues.

That's not to say that those are the only reasons for liking playing on minimal habitable planet settings, for instance somebody might prefer a universe where opportunities for life are scarcer, or prefer a less crowded feel, but they are two prominent mechanical ones.

Likewise, you'll often see players who play with minimal settings mention how the many non-random event planets added at galaxy creation are affecting their enjoyment of the game negatively, which is a very valid complaint.

But how often do you see threads discussing the habitable planets setting in general? Very infrequently.

I feel like I've seen it discussed quite a bit, but you are right now that you mention it that it is usually in the context of fixing lag or micromanagement, not game balance!

 

[HFY]

I'm so frustrated.

Hey, me too.

I started this conversation, not you.

You jumped in saying that the mechanic was good, and it took me a bit to suss out that you meant it was only good for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

Surely some of that's on me, but you are currently misrepresenting the conversation if you frame it as you starting the conversation -- especially since it was clear that you were defending the new beta change, but not clear that you were intentionally dismissing Overlords / Robots / Lithoids / Coops / etc.


Again, I do want Anglers & Agrarian Idyll to have nice things, but it's not reasonable to take nice things from the majority (Overlords / Robots / Lithoids / Coops / etc.) just for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

 

[Chipchat2]

Hello everyone!

I hope that you all had a pleasant holiday season, and want to start off by thanking everyone that submitted feedback regarding the Technology Open Beta. That data we gained from these experiments was invaluable, so let’s get right into it.

Summary of Results​

As expected, the players that responded to the survey were overwhelmingly passionate players that have a ton of experience with the game. Nearly 70% of responses come from players that have over 1,000 hours played in the game. This is somewhat natural for an opt-in beta over the holidays with an intimidating feedback form, so I wanted to thank you all again for filling it out.

There was a strong consensus around the military changes (ship cost and upkeep), so we’ll likely be keeping those mostly as-is.

The technology changes were naturally more controversial. Roughly 80% of responses believed that technology (especially at higher tiers) was overall too slow in the beta, but a majority still thought that the changes were beneficial to the game overall. Several of you pointed out that so many simultaneous changes compounded too strongly, and we agree. I was happy to see that your feedback matches our expectations - we expected that the Open Beta was tuned too harshly and that we would want to pull back from it before release.

The Open Beta also revealed several technical issues, including some major performance implications from how Breakthrough Technologies interacted with diplomacy.

Next Steps​

Overall, I view the Technology Open Beta as a great success, and as such am taking the opportunity to update it and let it run for another few weeks, after which we will decide whether or not we want to continue experimentation, integrate it into 3.11 (or 3.12), or discard the initiative.

We concur that the original Open Beta went too hard on technology. We liked some of the things we were seeing, such as tier 3 and 4 technologies becoming more valuable for an extended part of the game, but felt that it delayed other critical parts too long. Breakthrough Technologies were interesting as a slowdown mechanic, but if kept would likely need some sort of temporary (non-technology or unity related) bonuses as some form of reward for the frontrunners. The excessively high costs for late tier techs pushed some critical technologies such as Ascension Theory or Mega-Engineering too late in the game, and certain undesirable behaviors (like ignoring research entirely) were too effective.

The updated Technology Open Beta should be up on stellaris_test now, with the following changes:

Spoiler: Technology Open Beta Updates

[Feature]

• Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs slider added to galaxy generation. This slider adjusts technology costs based on tier and game difficulty.

[Beta]

• Removed Breakthrough Technologies.
• Reverted base technology costs to their 3.10.4 values - the increased cost between tiers is now handled by the Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs slider.
• Removed the majority of Researcher Upkeep Modifiers introduced into the Open Beta.
• Reverted changes to Knights research output from the Open Beta.

[Balance]

• Tweaked the tiers of technologies that increase naval cap and fleet command limit.
• Reduced the amount of Naval Cap granted by technologies.
• Significant changes to Bio-Reactors:
  • Bio-Reactors are now a tier 1 rare technology instead of a tier 0 technology, and are available to all empires.
  • Bio-Reactors now reduce the food output of farmer jobs and give them a small amount of energy output.
  • Added a tier 2 Advanced Bio-Reactor technology and building.
  • Advanced Bio-Reactors further reduce the food output of farmers in exchange for a small amount of exotic gas output.
• Decreased the amount of research produced by unemployed pops with Utopian Abundance.
• Event options in the Knights' quest that improve their capital have been buffed to be better balanced compared to the options that improve knight jobs.

At player request, we have kept the older version of the Technology Open Beta available on stellaris_test_old. It will remain there until the release of 3.11 “Eridanus”.

Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs​

One of the frequent points of feedback was that there was concern that newer players would be hit especially hard by the technology cost changes. We also recognize that different players have different desires for the pacing of the game, so we’ve added another slider to galaxy generation.

The Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs slider adjusts the base cost of technologies based on the difficulty of the game. Higher tiers of technology are affected to a greater degree than lower ones, so this slider essentially affects “tier width”. While this does overlap with the Technology Costs slider to a degree, it does so in a different way, so we consider each to have valid reasons to exist as separate sliders.

View attachment 1074648​

Disabling Difficulty Adjusted Technology Costs will cause them to follow the 3.10.4 / Civilian difficulty curve. As with many other galaxy generation sliders, the Stellaris team will be balancing the game around the Normal setting.

Spoiler: Show me math and graphs!

View attachment 1074649
Tech Curves of basic technologies on “Normal” scaling, at different difficulty levels.​

The base cost of technologies is now based on 3.10.4’s formula, y=1000*2^x, multiplied by the difficulty modifier of 1 + (q*x*d), where x=technology tier, q=difficulty adjusted tech cost galaxy setting (0 - 0.10, default 0.05), and d=difficulty (Civilian = 0, Grand Admiral = 6).

View attachment 1074650
TierXCost1 technologies at different difficulties, on “Normal” scaling (q=0.05).​

For the players that enjoyed the larger amount of distance between tech tiers, scaling can go up to a maximum of “Extreme”, which gives Grand Admiral a curve that is similar to, but not exactly, the Open Beta numbers. Note that technology acquisition will still be faster than the old Open Beta as we’ve removed Breakthrough Technologies.

View attachment 1074651
Tech Curves of basic technologies on “Extreme” scaling, at different difficulty levels.

View attachment 1074652
TierXCost1 technologies at different difficulties, on “Extreme” scaling (q=0.10).

View attachment 1074653
Previous Open Beta values for reference.​

We have a new feedback form for this version of the Open Beta, available here. As with the previous version, you can respond multiple times if you have different thoughts after different playthroughs. Please let us know what you think, and whether you think we’ve gone back too far in the other direction.

Currently we're planning on collecting feedback from this phase of the Technology Open Beta for two weeks, until the 1st of February, but will leave the branches available until the 3.11 "Eridanus" update releases later on in the quarter.

See you all next week!

Please note that the Technology Open Beta is an optional beta patch. You have to manually opt in to access it.
Go to your Steam library, right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> betas tab -> select "stellaris_test - Technology Open Beta" branch.
Please disable mods for the Technology Open Beta, they are likely to break.
In-progress games should continue on the “stellaris_test_old” branch.

Leave your feedback!
​

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Eladrin is talking about turning off your mods, and now the Community Team shows up, telling you to download more mods:

#MODJAM2024 is Available Now!

​

Want a sneak peek at the Legendary Leaders included in #MODJAM2024? Check out the feature video:

​

Voting will run until February 11th, so there's still plenty of time to play and vote for your favorite submission here!

Meg

 

[BlastFilms_]

Again, I do want Anglers & Agrarian Idyll to have nice things, but it's not reasonable to take nice things from the majority (Overlords / Robots / Lithoids / Coops / etc.) just for Anglers & Agrarian Idyll.

I think the most clear thing to do is to make two buildings, one with new bio reactor, and one (let's call it catylytic generator or something) for Synths/Robots/Lithoids that's a T0 tech that converts straight food into straight energy like the old building did.