Hunt11 posted:

Going by the flavor text the idea is that they keep on using the same aesthetics as the race that created them. On a side note I wish you could chose what your robots looked like.

winterwerefox posted:

Slashrat posted:

aren't organic sanctuaries just a temporary building that reverts to whatever was on the tile before as soon as you move the organic pop off?

Technical Analysis posted:

Makes it easier to keep the cattle in line. If you don’t want to be nerve stapled, then you should stop being so delicious.

winterwerefox posted:

Captain Invictus posted:

nooooope! it booted a third of the organic pops off somewhere else and the rest of the tiles converted into sanctuaries. So Celestial Throne has like 4 fabricators, 6 dark matter power plants and 2 foodmakers and the rest turned into sanctuaries. super sucks!

Wiz posted:

This can't really be fixed with the tile system in place but will automatically be fixed with the planet rework.

Aethernet posted:

Hear that folks? Removing the tile system will fix ALL your problems!

Wiz posted:

This can't really be fixed with the tile system in place but will automatically be fixed with the planet rework.

Nessus posted:

Also what the gently caress is that little monster supposed to even be, a mole?

Randarkman posted:

Cute, but I want something more like just a straight up rat-man



Fleeting, Repulsive, Decadent, Rapid Breeders, Intelligent
Materialist/Fanatic Xenophobe
Shadow Council, Cutthroat Politics, Oligarchic

isndl posted:

One quick fix to improve your game! Developers hate this!

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

This is pretty fun so far, but I need to find some aliens to make my slaves

e: I think this is the first time I've ever run decadent without any authoritarian for caste system

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

Civilization pulled off tiles...

PittTheElder posted:

The AI's inability to develop them properly was always one of the big player advantages though.

Chomp8645 posted:

Civ's problem with tiles is not the economic side. Yeah the AI doesn't do everything ideally but it's good enough. It's the combat where it breaks. The AI just cannot handle the combat system at all. AT ALL.

THE BAR posted:

But you genemodded us to have gravy glands!

PittTheElder posted:

And yeah it's SMAC where advanced tile development becomes a thing, and the AI could not handle it. Civ3 was easier on the AI because the system was simpler, but it only got worse with each additional title.

quote:

Unessential neural pathways relating to self-preservation and free-will are severed, creating a docile and obedient client species.

Randarkman posted:

What is nerve-stapling anyway? I remember it being a way to make riots go away in SMAC and it made everyone hate you, but I don't really think it was much more elaborated on than that.

e: ah, there is an explanation of the trait in Stellaris, essentially a kind of super lobotomy it seems.

quote:

It is not uncommon to see patients undergo permanent psychological trauma in the presence of the Sphere, before the nerve stapler has even been strapped into position. Its effect on the general consciousness of the culture is profound: husbands have seen wives go inside, and mothers their children. Dr. Xynan left the surface of the sphere semitranslucent for a reason. You can hear them in there; you can see them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.

DrSunshine posted:

*Shudder*

SMAC was a dark, dark game.

Conskill posted:

We must dissent.

Sister Miriam Godwinson posted:

Will we next create false gods to rule over us? How proud we have become, and how blind.

Randarkman posted:

What is nerve-stapling anyway? I remember it being a way to make riots go away in SMAC and it made everyone hate you, but I don't really think it was much more elaborated on than that.

e: ah, there is an explanation of the trait in Stellaris, essentially a kind of super lobotomy it seems.

quote:

Nerve Stapler (TLS(P)): A device originally designed for psychotherapy, but often applied on both Earth and Planet to deal with social dissension. When strapped to a patient's head and upper back, the nerve stapler extrudes hair-fine probes into his brain and spinal column. A psychotherapist can then use the device to inflict extreme sensations (not necessarily pain) on the patient, subjecting him to a rapid course of psychological conditioning.

DrSunshine posted:

I think it's hinted at being "Punishment Spheres for all", applied as a one-time gesture rather than an ongoing basis.


*Shudder*

SMAC was a dark, dark game.

wiegieman posted:

SMAC was and still is incredibly important, so much so that they tried to do it again.

turn off the TV posted:

I don't know, Alpha Centauri is just too unrealistic for my taste. The parts about humanity developing matter teleportation machines, creating artificial universes and transcending into a psychic, godlike being seemed fine, but am I seriously expected to believe that Chairman Sheng actually practiced asceticism??????

quote:

Ah, Chairman Yang! The imagination and verve that Reynolds showed to not only come up with this character and his preferred society, but to then take him seriously … I am still in awe over a decade later. See, as one rapidly gathers from the quote, the name, and the picture, Chairman Yang is Chinese. Unlike the rest of the faction leaders, Chairman Yang’s philosophy for an ideal society is rooted firmly in Eastern thought. In particular, he draws his inspiration from a mix of Chinese Legalism, Taoism, and Maoist Communism. Though he takes those elements and pushes them to a new extreme.

The game labels Yang as “The Despot” as his one-phrase description. This is perhaps unfortunate from the perspective of an even-handed ideological description, but its something of a fair cop. At the very least, modern Westerners have been trained to see his radical collectivism as tyranny. Accordingly, in the game, Yang spends much of his time defending his model to the player.

As the name “The Human Hive” suggests, Yang’s preferred form of social organization is eusocial, rather than merely social. He sees the more natural human modes of organization that the other leaders represent as being completely dominated by the efficient and selfless cooperation individuals in an ant or bee colony are able to manage. Just like a literal meaning of the name of his faction suggests, he wants to build a hive out of humans.

He grants that the nature of man makes this a fraught prospect. Enlightenment, in any tradition, is always regarded as difficult to achieve. And Yang is no exception to the rule.

Hence the quote above. We first meet Yang exhorting his followers to not merely raise their consciousness upward temporarily, or in some vague mystical sense, but to quite literally “embrace the self of group” over the “self of body”. In the bee hive, the workers perform their assigned function to their utmost, with absolutely no regard for their own existence. Similarly, a member of the Human Hive is expected to obey unquestioningly and work unfailingly for the collective.

From this perspective, it is clear why he believes that humanity failed on Earth. History was, necessarily, a cycle of chaos and upheaval. Functional human organizations were built upon selfless labor at the direction of leaders who had achieved some degree of enlightenment. But these then eventually fell to pieces as key pieces of the system, both high and low, foolishly pursued the goals of the self. The negative consequences from these small defections from order begat larger and larger ones, until eventually the feedback led to rebellion and collapse.

The only way to break this cycle, Yang believes, is for the enlightened few to continually enforce their will upon the many. In order to accomplish this, everything about life in the Hive has to be structured to support this control.

In the game, this is mechanically supported by their faction advantages. For example, each Hive base is built as a complicated underground nest of tunnels, granting them all the effect of the Perimeter Defense building for free. And, to reflect Yang’s particular ideology, the Hive begins with the “Doctrine: Loyalty” technology, which allows the Chairman to institute a futuristic Police State as soon as he can come up with the spare energy to switch.

It would have been very easy for the creators of the game to just settle on the Chairman as the bad guy with his legions of faceless minions. But, to Reynolds’s eternal credit, Yang never falls apart. He never starts ranting and raving like a B-movie villain, nor does he turn out to be a corrupt autocrat who’s living it up at the expense of his duped minions.

Instead, he’s a true believer. His society mostly works, in its alien way. He’s not even obviously wrong in his philosophical musings.

And he’s coming to get you.

turn off the TV posted:

I don't know, Alpha Centauri is just too unrealistic for my taste. The parts about humanity developing matter teleportation machines, creating artificial universes and transcending into a psychic, godlike being seemed fine, but am I seriously expected to believe that Chairman Sheng actually practiced asceticism??????