Mundane Machines Plus: Better Hive Minds

If you liked this item, please rate it up on Steam Workshop page.

Author: Muggins

Last revision: 23 Jul, 2019 at 12:09 UTC (2)

File size: 112.64 KB

On Steam Workshop

Description:

For Stellaris 2.3 "Wolfe"

This is a variant of Mundane Machines that introduces the following additional balance changes, for the purposes of making Hive Minds (and to a lesser extent, standard organic empires) more competitive compared to Robots and Machines. I would recommend pairing this mod with The Unofficial Hive DLC to add some variety to hive minds that they’re sorely lacking.

• Hive Minds now receive 1 Maintenance Drone for each Hive District built, giving them a basic source of amenities just like standard and machine empire housing districts, to alleviate their over-reliance on Maintenance Depots.
• Synapse Drones now provide +1% Menial Drone Output, just like Coordinator Drones. Since the new Ancient Relays decision gives them the same bonus anyway (of +1% Menial Drone Output and +2 Stability), this seemed like more of an oversight than anything else.
• Hive Worlds now provide a +10% Pop Growth Speed bonus, in addition to their existing +10% Pop Output. This puts them more in-line with Machine Worlds’ -10% Housing Use and +10% Pop Output.
• Hive Minds now have access to the Infestation Heuristics midgame tech. This gives them +1 Housing on Generator, Mining, and Housing Districts, to match the jobs they already get from these districts and to incentivise Hive Worlds.
• This also unlocks the Forced Evolution Pits building, an upgrade of the Spawning Pools. It costs Exotic Gases to maintain, but provides a second Spawning Drone job.
• For standard empires, Healthcare Workers now give +10% Pop Growth Speed (was +5%), but have an upkeep of 2 Consumer Goods (was 1). This makes them more impactful sooner, but not without an associated cost.
• Organic Pop Growth is now 5/month (from 3/month), but the requirement for any growing or assembling pop is increased to 150 (from 100). The average time for a new pop to grow is roughly the same, but now modifiers are much more likely to be meaningful.

Original mod text continues below.

——————————

• Robots and Machines now have a universal 80% Habitability for all worlds. There are always trials and tribulations to overcome when settling on a new planet; though far tougher than most organics, robots and machines still face these challenges.
• Added a new trait, Universal Compatibility. It costs 3 trait points and gives +20% habitability, returning Robots and Machines to their vanilla glory.
• Mass Produced now costs 2 trait points (was 1). Custom-Made costs -2 (was -1). They are still more impactful than their organic equivalents, but no longer obvious picks.
• Recycled is now a -50% Assembly Cost bonus (was -20%), and Luxurious is now a +50% Assembly Cost bonus (was 20%).
• Robots now have the full 5 trait picks like their organic and mechanical brethren.
• Robots and Machines can now be processed if your ethics and policies allow it, producing 3 Alloys per pop.

• Coordinators no longer produce 1 of each research. Instead, they produce 3 Engineering research. They still produce 3 Unity and increase Menial Drone Output by +1%.
• Replicators no longer produce Engineering research.
• The Machine Empire government type no longer gives a +10% Mining Station bonus. With their Nexus Hubs, Energy Grids, and Mineral Purification Plants, MEs are more than capable of extracting all the resources they need from the planets they colonise.

• Robot Assembly Plants now give 2 Roboticist jobs. Each job turns 6 minerals into 1 assembly (was 2). This makes them more equivalent to Healthcare Workers in efficiency.
• Machine Assembly Plants give 1 Replicator job. Each job turns 8 minerals (was 3) into 1 assembly. They no longer produce any engineering research.
• The Synthetic Megaplex is unlocked with the Synthetic workers technology for regular empires, or with the Synthetic Age ascension perk for machine empires. It costs Rare Crystals to maintain, but gives an extra 3 Roboticist jobs or 1 Replicator job, as appropriate.
• An empire that pursues the synthetic ascension path will receive an assembly cost discount instead of a build speed bonus, as the base growth rates are more than sufficient. Roboticists in synthetically ascended empires also produce amenities.
• Synthetic capital buildings now provide 2 Roboticist jobs at all levels. For the Colony Ship Shelter, this removes the useless 1 Colonist job you’re stuck with in vanilla.

Due to the limitations of Stellaris modding, some vanilla files were harmed in the making of this mod. The files in question are:

• Specialist and Gestalt jobs, to alter the values of Roboticists and Replicators, and to tweak Coordinators.
• 04_purge_types, to allow empires to process Robots and Machines if appropriate.
• 00_species_archetypes, to give Robots 5 trait picks like everyone else.
• 02_species_traits_basic_characteristics, to give Robots and Machines a mere 80% base habitability.
• 05_species_traits_robotic, to tweak the values on Mass Produces, Custom-Made, Recycled, and Luxurious.
• Urban, Rural, and Ringworld districts, to apply the housing benefits of Infestation Heuristics.
• 00_planet_classes, to add the pop growth speed to Hive Worlds.

The vanilla files harmed in this mod are modal, and should not break anything if overwritten individually or as a whole.