Hmm, so I am not sure I understand the whole Fallen Empire thing. Do people play with them turned on or do you generally turn them off? I sort of feel like I will turn them off moving forward as they are not exactly ... fun?
In my last game, the universe was already a clusterfuck of militaristic empires that could barely hold a teaparty without a war breaking out. Then the xenophobe fallen empire wakes up (they always wake up? So they are just timebombs?) and they decide to swoop in with a fleet of 198K strength? Yet for some reason they said our fleet power was equivalent? My entire force was maybe 90k?
I dunno. Not really sure what the point of having these factions around if they basically just cheat (their fleet is so big it lags the game...) and you know you will have to end up at war with them at some point?
Hmm, so I am not sure I understand the whole Fallen Empire thing. Do people play with them turned on or do you generally turn them off? I sort of feel like I will turn them off moving forward as they are not exactly ... fun?
They are fun. Allow me to demonstrate. This comic is about Dwarf Fortress, but it's the same idea.
Fallen Empires are literally cheating fuckwads, Awakened Empires are even worse. That's what they are. They can spawn infinite 100+k fleets just because, making winning a war with one practically impossible if one happens to spawn on the opposite side of the map from you and starts expanding. Shit, I watched my brother get dismantled by one he was equivalent in power to simply because they never took any meaningful losses, whereas it took him time and resources to replenish his forces.
Unless you like bulletsponge style difficulty, there's no reason to have Fallen Empires on the map. Just add some more Advanced Start AIs.
I honestly saw one of their fleets jump from 80K to 98K while it was flying around. Nothing happened, no new admiral or anything. Just, boop. Stronger.
And look, I will admit, I am sort of salty just because it ruined my game. But sort of from a game design perspective, I don't get it? They are so powerful that by the time you are strong enough to kill one there is nothing left in the game for you? Like, even if you still need to clean up the galaxy you might as well quit because it is just busywork at this point. You have their mega worlds and can murder anything you like.
It sort of feels like they were meant to be an end boss of the game, but they show up early when you are grinding and knock the sword out of your hand.
Hmm, so I am not sure I understand the whole Fallen Empire thing. Do people play with them turned on or do you generally turn them off? I sort of feel like I will turn them off moving forward as they are not exactly ... fun?
In my last game, the universe was already a clusterfuck of militaristic empires that could barely hold a teaparty without a war breaking out. Then the xenophobe fallen empire wakes up (they always wake up? So they are just timebombs?) and they decide to swoop in with a fleet of 198K strength? Yet for some reason they said our fleet power was equivalent? My entire force was maybe 90k?
I dunno. Not really sure what the point of having these factions around if they basically just cheat (their fleet is so big it lags the game...) and you know you will have to end up at war with them at some point?
See that screenshot at the bottom of the last page from me? That's a FE making that request.
I had the choice to comply and make them happy (which is going to lead to ???) or to deny their request (which would piss them off). Last game I played I lost because I settled to close to a FE that didn't want neighbors.
In a game as player-centric as a 4X, they add spice and force you to make on-the-spot tough choices that you wouldn't have to worry about in the typical 4X, because generally everyone starts on the same footing.
Primitive empire within my borders has an asteroid heading to destroy it. I send in the grand fleet to destroy the asteroid, they get there while it's practically inches from the planet.
Hmm, so I am not sure I understand the whole Fallen Empire thing. Do people play with them turned on or do you generally turn them off? I sort of feel like I will turn them off moving forward as they are not exactly ... fun?
In my last game, the universe was already a clusterfuck of militaristic empires that could barely hold a teaparty without a war breaking out. Then the xenophobe fallen empire wakes up (they always wake up? So they are just timebombs?) and they decide to swoop in with a fleet of 198K strength? Yet for some reason they said our fleet power was equivalent? My entire force was maybe 90k?
I dunno. Not really sure what the point of having these factions around if they basically just cheat (their fleet is so big it lags the game...) and you know you will have to end up at war with them at some point?
See that screenshot at the bottom of the last page from me? That's a FE making that request.
I had the choice to comply and make them happy (which is going to lead to ???) or to deny their request (which would piss them off). Last game I played I lost because I settled to close to a FE that didn't want neighbors.
In a game as player-centric as a 4X, they add spice and force you to make on-the-spot tough choices that you wouldn't have to worry about in the typical 4X, because generally everyone starts on the same footing.
If it was a plot thing, I could definitely get behind it. If they were weird, unknowable monsters that made requests and had cool plotlines surrounding them it would be awesome. But they don't really do that either. In my last game the one time the faction even spoke to me was when I met them. After that it was radio silence until murder time.
To be honest plot reasons like the one you showed there was the whole reason I even included them in my last game. I was hoping I would get to see something cool, but sighed as my finger hovered over the button thinking "You are probably going to regret this...".
The thing is, they can end up being a cool "end boss", but with the name of the game being randomness, a lot of stars have to align for that to actually happen. I had a fanatic Xenophile FE awaken and trigger their "Everyone be my vassal peacefully or I'll vassalize you by force... for peace" event which lead to a pretty cool end-game scenario in which they basically were the end-game crisis, an actual end-game crisis having failed to appear long after it should have. The galaxy was basically me + vassals and a huge democratic crusader empire on roughly equal footing, plus a bunch of smaller trash empires on our periphery. The smaller empires bordering the FE agreed to become vassals, naturally, but the Democratic Crusader naturally would not. We'd been butting heads all game because I was Imperial Authority, but the threat of the AE was enough to convince them to form a defensive pact with me and suddenly we're best buds. It wasn't enough to save them though, and they promptly got half of their territory taken in a single war because apparently AEs don't play by the war score rules either. It then became a race against time to see whether I could build up my fleet enough to survive the inevitable wardec; I gobbled up the nearby Fallen Empire because at that point they offered little resistance and I needed their tech and generally went full war economy... but it wasn't enough. Not because I couldn't beat their fleets, but because I couldn't beat their production; I could guerrilla-warfare their smaller fleets to death, but could never take their larger ones head on because they were 500k strength or something utterly ridiculous and they could replenish losses like it was nothing. Turns out the only thing keeping Fallen Empires remotely balanced is the fact that they don't get any more uber-ships once you destroy the ones they have.
So it was a lame end to the game, but for a brief shining moment, I caught a glimpse of what fallen empires are supposed to be; an end boss, source of cosmic drama and an endgame crisis in their own right.
The thing is, they can end up being a cool "end boss", but with the name of the game being randomness, a lot of stars have to align for that to actually happen. I had a fanatic Xenophile FE awaken and trigger their "Everyone be my vassal peacefully or I'll vassalize you by force... for peace" event which lead to a pretty cool end-game scenario in which they basically were the end-game crisis, an actual end-game crisis having failed to appear long after it should have. The galaxy was basically me + vassals and a huge democratic crusader empire on roughly equal footing, plus a bunch of smaller trash empires on our periphery. The smaller empires bordering the FE agreed to become vassals, naturally, but the Democratic Crusader naturally would not. We'd been butting heads all game because I was Imperial Authority, but the threat of the AE was enough to convince them to form a defensive pact with me and suddenly we're best buds. It wasn't enough to save them though, and they promptly got half of their territory taken in a single war because apparently AEs don't play by the war score rules either. It then became a race against time to see whether I could build up my fleet enough to survive the inevitable wardec; I gobbled up the nearby Fallen Empire because at that point they offered little resistance and I needed their tech and generally went full war economy... but it wasn't enough. Not because I couldn't beat their fleets, but because I couldn't beat their production; I could guerrilla-warfare their smaller fleets to death, but could never take their larger ones head on because they were 500k strength or something utterly ridiculous and they could replenish losses like it was nothing. Turns out the only thing keeping Fallen Empires remotely balanced is the fact that they don't get any more uber-ships once you destroy the ones they have.
So it was a lame end to the game, but for a brief shining moment, I caught a glimpse of what fallen empires are supposed to be; an end boss, source of cosmic drama and an endgame crisis in their own right.
A huge (like, maybe a third or more) of the listed fleet strength of an Awakened empire's main fleet comes from their Titan flagship, which will actually go down pretty fast vs. a fleet with a bunch of tac lances or giga cannons.
No joke, the thing is about 100-200k on it's own, just because it has a laser that can one-shot battleships something like twice a month, but it's actually contribution to the battle is nowhere near what it's scorecard says it should be.
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Ah nice, so you get to actually choose what your syncretic evolution species looks like, that's nice. And it looks like there are new nation traits, I see a "Corvee" system down there which is probably something to do with slave labor in game.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Ah nice, so you get to actually choose what your syncretic evolution species looks like, that's nice. And it looks like there are new nation traits, I see a "Corvee" system down there which is probably something to do with slave labor in game.
Perhaps it's less production bonus than full chattel slavery but less unrest as well?
I'm pretty excited about assimilation. That seems like a fun empire to play.
I'm still torn on Devouring Swarm (and, I suppose, Fantatic Purifier). They seem like they're thematically really compelling and freeing, but the removal of external politics takes out a chunk of gameplay, and with Devouring Swarm, the removal of internal politics as well takes out even more!
Have people been enjoying their Devouring Swarm playthroughs? Do you find you still have to make fun, interesting decisions that make for an interesting emergent narrative? Is it mostly just who to attack and when, and general strategic/tactical decisions?
This will be even more significant if they really expand on internal politics as an area of gameplay
Tip on Fallen Empires awakening. (minor mechanic spoiler)
The process starts once an empire reaches 50k fleet strength. Usually you (but of course not always). Since this often happens when expanding rapidly it can be good to stop building fleet for a while unless you absolutely need it around 40k or so and develop your infrastructure if you suspect you will be in trouble from an AFE. Also having a ascendancy slot available for the perk might be a good idea just in case.
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaow - Felicia, SPFT2:T
0
Options
MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I'm pretty excited about assimilation. That seems like a fun empire to play.
I'm still torn on Devouring Swarm (and, I suppose, Fantatic Purifier). They seem like they're thematically really compelling and freeing, but the removal of external politics takes out a chunk of gameplay, and with Devouring Swarm, the removal of internal politics as well takes out even more!
Have people been enjoying their Devouring Swarm playthroughs? Do you find you still have to make fun, interesting decisions that make for an interesting emergent narrative? Is it mostly just who to attack and when, and general strategic/tactical decisions?
This will be even more significant if they really expand on internal politics as an area of gameplay
Internal politics were hever really a thing though, so it really just changes a couple of building choices, though a lot of the +happiness buildings also provide unity so sometimes you end up building those anyway.
As for external politics, it doesn't feel more limiting to me since I usually plan on playing a particular game in a specific way i.e. starting a federation which means playing in a similarly restricted way, even though you technically have more choice.
Favorite Fallen Empire experience: I form a three empire federation and everything is going great. Then I then settle too close to a xenophobic isolationist FE about the first third of the game in. Their fleet dwarfs my alliance, so I become a vassal.
The next third of the game is me going on adventures and building infrastructure while my old alliance swells to a third of the galaxy. The extradimensional portals open, and all the FEs wake up. Everybody goes to war. I make sure never to move on my allies, and they don't hit at me either.
The last third starts with me steamrolling my vassal lords. My old alliance declares war as well, and we all end up reunited. After the crisis is repelled and another FE war, I get my official game over screen for the federation victory.
When FEs work, they work well. One of the ways they work is by creating constraints on the player - like becoming a vassal - that can create a unique experience. Admittedly, its less fun when the experience is you getting slaughtered.
+6
Options
Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
Ah nice, so you get to actually choose what your syncretic evolution species looks like, that's nice. And it looks like there are new nation traits, I see a "Corvee" system down there which is probably something to do with slave labor in game.
I wonder if you can choose a species from "outside" the appearance family? I want to make a flowering plant race with a bee syncretic species serving them
+8
Options
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Ah nice, so you get to actually choose what your syncretic evolution species looks like, that's nice. And it looks like there are new nation traits, I see a "Corvee" system down there which is probably something to do with slave labor in game.
I wonder if you can choose a species from "outside" the appearance family? I want to make a flowering plant race with a bee syncretic species serving them
If you mean choose a syncretic species that isn't of the same species type (so like, mammal and mollusc) you should be able to, the game already does randomly select from all the species portrait types, and in the preview image they showed an arthropod species with a mammalian syncretic species.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. This week’s diary I’m taking charge and going to write about Voice Over’s for the (unannounced) Story Pack coming alongside the 1.8 ‘Čapek’ update! We still can’t tell you any further details about the name or release date of the Story Pack, but stay tuned for future dev diaries!
For the upcoming Story Pack we felt that we wanted to experiment with VIR, our friendly advisor, see how it would feel to have different set of VO cues depending on your Empire’s ethic. A VO Cue is a term that we use to describe a Voice Over line that triggers at a certain point in the game as for example “Hostile Fleet Detected” or “Research Complete”.
We started with a test case in-house to try it out and we concluded that it was a great experience! From then on we moved on with the process and allocated time to write unique script for each role, character description, casting, auditions and finally recording sessions. It has been personally a long and hard process but in the end I’m really pleased to finally show of 3 samples out of 10 Voice Packs!
There will be a automatic settings for the VO Packs in the game so that the VO will switch depending on what Ethic you start with in the game and also switches while you're playing if you decided with switch Ethic's in your campaign. If you're not into that you will be able to select with set of VO Cues you want to play and you will always be able to switch back to the original VO if you desire.
Now that you have heard some of the results you might ask yourself how the whole procedure works with recording VO? So I’ll describe to a certain detail how the whole process goes by.
First of you need to write a script and if you have talented Content Designers. and we do have in our team, there is no problem to get good a script. Once the script is complete and approved it gets handed to me and I take it to the next step: Casting!
Casting of it’s own is also a long process which takes time. With help of a Casting Director you can get in touch with several possible Voice Actors that can help you to deliver the best result out of each script. When you have picked out potential actors that you think will suit for the role, you bring them in for a audition. In an audition you let the actor read a certain part of the script which usually depict the character the most and also give the best material for the Voice Actor so that they can perform as good as possible. After all the auditions are done you pick the actor that suited the best for the role. Sometimes during auditions actors comes for a certain role to read but during the session you realize that the actor would be more fitted for another role and that happened to our Militarist! We brought her in to do a audition for another role first but while she was reading the part for the first role I heard that she might be better suited as a angry general, so I asked her to try out for the Militarist and it was a really good fit! So good that we ended up with her as the Militarist.
With all the casting/auditions done you move on to the actual recording session, get as much possible material from your actors. It is important that you’re there to act as a “director” for the actors so that you can give the instructions and guidelines so that they can give you all the right emotions and takes that you require for your character in the game.
As soon as the recordings were done I moved on to editing. There is a lot of editing when it comes to VO since it is not only about how the recording equipment sound but also the sheer amount of assets you need to go through..
While editing you usually “zoom in” really close in the waveforms of the recordings to mess around/cutting noise such as clicks and pops. So yes, we Sound Designers tend to get really nerdy when it comes to VO editing:
After you have done all the editing which is removing “clicks” and “pops”, ugly breath takes, add fade in/out, you move into adding “effects” to the VO so we can get that cool Robotic style. For each VO I gave them something else than just using the same settings as for “Default VIR”.
So in short terms that is how you record VO!
That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about robots and robotic modification.
Primitive empire within my borders has an asteroid heading to destroy it. I send in the grand fleet to destroy the asteroid, they get there while it's practically inches from the planet.
this game is so fucking cool you guys
Every so often you do, in fact, get to do something altruistic.
Whether or not you enslaved or ate that less-advanced species was up to you.
0
Options
CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
I have a Stone Age civilization that I'm trying to enlighten, but I keep getting bit by the bug that resets progress on it. It's infuriating because of how slow that type progresses. I can't play long enough for it to finish, and every time I load the save the progress is lost.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris dev diary. Today we'll be talking about some changes coming to robots in the 1.8 'Čapek' update, including the ability to modify Robotic pops. All changes mentioned in this dev diary are part of the free update.
Robomodding
In the 1.8 update, it will now be possible to create different 'models' of Robot, Droid and Synth pops through a system similar to genemodding. By researching the 'Machine Templates' engineering technology, you will get access to robomodding and a single robot trait point. More robot trait points can be gained through further engineering research. Using these points, you can create templates with different configurations of traits. Rather than using the basic biological traits, robotic Pops have their own set of traits, some of which are not available to the more basic robotic types. Once a template is created, it is immediately available to be used when building robotic Pops on a planet, and existing robotic Pops can be converted into that template through a special Robomodding project that uses Engineering research.
In addition to adding robomodding, we've also added support for switching Pop portraits into the genemodding and robomodding systems. If set to be permitted for a particular species class, that species class can have its portrait changed to any other portrait in the same species class as part of the template creation process. This system is also fully accessible to modders. But more on that in a later dev diary.
One final note: Since the addition of traits to robotic Pops will make them, and Synthethically Ascended empires, stronger overall, we're going to be doing a balance pass on them and possibly making changes and/or buffing the other ascension paths before 1.8 comes out.
Robot Building
We've also made some improvements to how you build robotic pops. Robotic pops are now built through their own 'Build Pop' interface in the planet view, which lets you select what robotic model you want to build and also has the option to start building several Pops at a time. If this option is checked, you will be able to build robotic Pops on any number of tiles with one simple click each, massively cutting down on the clicking needed to fill up a planet. Note that this is only a UI change, and does not in any way change the mechanics of how robotic Pops are built.
AI Policy & Techs
The way the AI policy works has always seemed inconsistent: Outlawing AI prevents you from building dumb robotic workers, but does not prevent researching Sapient AI or installing it on a spaceship. To address this issue and open up for more varied use of robots, we've changed the AI policy to be about sapience rather than about robots, and reworked some related technologies. The Sentient AI technology has been renamed Positronic AI, and is no longer a dangerous technology in itself (its effect has also been reduced to +5% rather than +10% research speed). The AI policy will not appear until this technology has been researched, as it's simply not relevant up to that point. Once it *does* appear, it has the following effects:
Outlawed: Sapient AI is outlawed. No effect on robots and droids. Prevents research and use of sapient combat computers. Synths can be researched and built, but have their sapience removed, removing their ability to feel happiness and essentially making them into slightly upgraded droids.
Servitude: Sapient AI is allowed, but Sapient AIs are considered property and have their free will restricted. No effect on robots and droids. Synths can be researched and built, but have slight penalties to energy and research production as a result of these restrictions. They also cannot join factions.
Citizen Rights: Sapient AIs are given full individual rights. No effect on robots and droids. Synths have citizen rights and can join factions, but some traits that depend on Synths being property (such as Domestic Protocols, which increases happiness for owner Pops) lose their effect and can no longer be added to new templates.
Manual Disassembly
Finally, since outlawing AI no longer purges robotic Pops, we've added back the option to manually disassemble them. This can be done to Robots, Droids and Synths without citizen rights, and works the exact same way as a regular 'extermination' purge, killing the Pop(s) off in a relatively short time.
That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about combat balance, ship components and the changes we're doing to put some clothes back on those naked corvettes.
I've only recently started getting into this even though I've had it for a long time.
I tried out hivemind but I'm not 100% sure it's for me. Mostly because a lot of the flavour text that pops up seems jarringly out of place considering I chose the devouring horde trait that just wants to eat everything.
So I switched out to some militaristic frog men who use worm holes for travel.
I never seem to get much farther than early mid game with Stellaris. I always think of another 'style' I want to try and start a new game.
I'm looking forward to being able to have my race become cyborgs and ultimately synthetic beings in this new patch because of the new assimilation mechanic.
It'll actually give all those former organic allies a reason to have negative opinion of me when I ascend my people to synthetic perfection.
I could understand the spiritualist races' negative opinions of 'wicked cyborgs' and 'soulless machines', but when you go full synth, even your regular allies squirm a bit and side-eye you.
Posts
In my last game, the universe was already a clusterfuck of militaristic empires that could barely hold a teaparty without a war breaking out. Then the xenophobe fallen empire wakes up (they always wake up? So they are just timebombs?) and they decide to swoop in with a fleet of 198K strength? Yet for some reason they said our fleet power was equivalent? My entire force was maybe 90k?
I dunno. Not really sure what the point of having these factions around if they basically just cheat (their fleet is so big it lags the game...) and you know you will have to end up at war with them at some point?
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Unless you like bulletsponge style difficulty, there's no reason to have Fallen Empires on the map. Just add some more Advanced Start AIs.
And look, I will admit, I am sort of salty just because it ruined my game. But sort of from a game design perspective, I don't get it? They are so powerful that by the time you are strong enough to kill one there is nothing left in the game for you? Like, even if you still need to clean up the galaxy you might as well quit because it is just busywork at this point. You have their mega worlds and can murder anything you like.
It sort of feels like they were meant to be an end boss of the game, but they show up early when you are grinding and knock the sword out of your hand.
See that screenshot at the bottom of the last page from me? That's a FE making that request.
I had the choice to comply and make them happy (which is going to lead to ???) or to deny their request (which would piss them off). Last game I played I lost because I settled to close to a FE that didn't want neighbors.
In a game as player-centric as a 4X, they add spice and force you to make on-the-spot tough choices that you wouldn't have to worry about in the typical 4X, because generally everyone starts on the same footing.
this game is so fucking cool you guys
If it was a plot thing, I could definitely get behind it. If they were weird, unknowable monsters that made requests and had cool plotlines surrounding them it would be awesome. But they don't really do that either. In my last game the one time the faction even spoke to me was when I met them. After that it was radio silence until murder time.
To be honest plot reasons like the one you showed there was the whole reason I even included them in my last game. I was hoping I would get to see something cool, but sighed as my finger hovered over the button thinking "You are probably going to regret this...".
Yup, totally regretted it.
So it was a lame end to the game, but for a brief shining moment, I caught a glimpse of what fallen empires are supposed to be; an end boss, source of cosmic drama and an endgame crisis in their own right.
A huge (like, maybe a third or more) of the listed fleet strength of an Awakened empire's main fleet comes from their Titan flagship, which will actually go down pretty fast vs. a fleet with a bunch of tac lances or giga cannons.
No joke, the thing is about 100-200k on it's own, just because it has a laser that can one-shot battleships something like twice a month, but it's actually contribution to the battle is nowhere near what it's scorecard says it should be.
Perhaps it's less production bonus than full chattel slavery but less unrest as well?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I'm still torn on Devouring Swarm (and, I suppose, Fantatic Purifier). They seem like they're thematically really compelling and freeing, but the removal of external politics takes out a chunk of gameplay, and with Devouring Swarm, the removal of internal politics as well takes out even more!
Have people been enjoying their Devouring Swarm playthroughs? Do you find you still have to make fun, interesting decisions that make for an interesting emergent narrative? Is it mostly just who to attack and when, and general strategic/tactical decisions?
This will be even more significant if they really expand on internal politics as an area of gameplay
Internal politics were hever really a thing though, so it really just changes a couple of building choices, though a lot of the +happiness buildings also provide unity so sometimes you end up building those anyway.
As for external politics, it doesn't feel more limiting to me since I usually plan on playing a particular game in a specific way i.e. starting a federation which means playing in a similarly restricted way, even though you technically have more choice.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
The next third of the game is me going on adventures and building infrastructure while my old alliance swells to a third of the galaxy. The extradimensional portals open, and all the FEs wake up. Everybody goes to war. I make sure never to move on my allies, and they don't hit at me either.
The last third starts with me steamrolling my vassal lords. My old alliance declares war as well, and we all end up reunited. After the crisis is repelled and another FE war, I get my official game over screen for the federation victory.
When FEs work, they work well. One of the ways they work is by creating constraints on the player - like becoming a vassal - that can create a unique experience. Admittedly, its less fun when the experience is you getting slaughtered.
I wonder if you can choose a species from "outside" the appearance family? I want to make a flowering plant race with a bee syncretic species serving them
If you mean choose a syncretic species that isn't of the same species type (so like, mammal and mollusc) you should be able to, the game already does randomly select from all the species portrait types, and in the preview image they showed an arthropod species with a mammalian syncretic species.
Every so often you do, in fact, get to do something altruistic.
Whether or not you enslaved or ate that less-advanced species was up to you.
Also you will apparently be able to customize your robots with new functionality:
"Full functionality" has... distressing implications.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-78-robomodding-robot-changes.1036193/
This is Stellaris....so asexual anything isn't an option. 8-)
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
I just want to point out that this game makes you ask "Are robots people?" and you get some unconventional answers.
That is all.
I tried out hivemind but I'm not 100% sure it's for me. Mostly because a lot of the flavour text that pops up seems jarringly out of place considering I chose the devouring horde trait that just wants to eat everything.
So I switched out to some militaristic frog men who use worm holes for travel.
I never seem to get much farther than early mid game with Stellaris. I always think of another 'style' I want to try and start a new game.
What are some of your favourite starting races?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
And a new voice over and more appropriate traditions.
It's also a game with weird and confusing distinctions between things that you would think are similar but aren't.
Like the differences between the pre-spaceflight civilizations and primitive tribal aliens.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
It'll actually give all those former organic allies a reason to have negative opinion of me when I ascend my people to synthetic perfection.
I could understand the spiritualist races' negative opinions of 'wicked cyborgs' and 'soulless machines', but when you go full synth, even your regular allies squirm a bit and side-eye you.
They will understand in time.
One of us.
One of us.
ONE OF US
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516