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I love megastructures.

Did the devs look at the balance and the meta and thought : "Nevermind, let's restart" ?

I absolutely adore how much emphasis on roleplay was put into these civics. Even the potentially broken Tactical Algorithms civic has a neat warbots for hire flair. They also don't seem to be mutually exclusive, so you can go for wild combinations like a hyper-corporate machine empire selling everything from paperclips to sapient battleship computers.

I don't care about locked civics because I never remove civics because it usually doesn't make sense storywise

5:54 I like how easy this Civic makes it to start with Venerable +80y lifespan while still being able to also take other good Traits.

6:00 Wait a second. "Does NOT have Teachers of the Shroud Origin" for a hive civic? Does this mean Hives will be able to go Psionic?

A possible addition that the Devs could add to The colossus. Is the ability to equip a weapon that instead of cracking the planet turns it into a Molten World. I do that with My Nicoll Dyson Beam, when I am running short on Molten Worlds for Equatorial Shipyards. It'll be a good way to get some more use from the planet killers.

On the Discord, Alfray confirmed that the bonuses to the Genesis civics improve throughout gameplay.

Very cautiously optimistic about Augmentation Bazaar. Automodding looks absolutely insane. 10/10; no notes.

Arc furnace sounds useful for habitat mining. Build lvl 1 furnace in a system with a lot of planets and you'll have a habitat with a tonn of mining districts

Finally I can play Universal Paperclips in Stellaris

Imagine Arc Furnace buff stacked with Cybrex mining station bonus. That's +250%😮

27:55 Your numbers imply that the system was completely barren before the Arc Furnace, 100% is definitely weaker than any Dyson Swarm, but if you put the Arc Furnace in the right system your still gonna get some good numbers, mining stations also harvest Strategic Resources, Living Metal, and I think Nanites I might be wrong on that last one.

I am going to be honest here I really don't like that we're limited on the number of megastructures we can build. Is such an immersion break. Since, let's be honest here. The first thing any empire would do the moment they finished a Dyson Sphere. Is to use its energy output to build another.

aah, the arc furnace and cybrex station mining module synergy will be mad

Notable with Augmentation Bazaars is that Augmentors *specifically* give trade value with the civic. Implying other empires get augmentors without the extra trade value.

Tactical Algorithms also feels like a really good multiplayer fluff civic.

Feels like these upkeeps on the kilostructures will make them pretty pointless. Those numbers could be halved and still be balanced enough, considering that you still have a finite 5-6 limit on their number.

natural design is my favorite so far, been wanting a "non-ascendant" thing for a while. Can't wait!

The paperclip maximizer should be a crisis ascension instead of a civic. You can start with the civic and then unlock the crisis ascension which allows you to finally utilize those consumer goods for almost everything; special ships, buildings, pops, etc etc all made out of consumer goods, for the sole purpose of making consumer goods. The repeating situation of the civic is removed and one end goal is given; make every planet in the galaxy into a goods stockpile, an uninhabitable planet that if captured by a non-maximizer empire, provides monthly consumer goods. Each one costs colossal amounts of consumer goods. Destroying ships, purging pops, anything involving matter will give you consumer goods. Effectively your economy becomes only consumer goods and energy. The downside is that the moment you take this perk you are hostile to all other empires, without the need to declare war, meaning they can destroy your ships and bombard your worlds at any time. The current one seems more like a role play tool than the actual applied concept, much like a lot of the other civics here, which is… disappointing.

Waiter, waiter! More Paperclips, please!

I think the Arc Furnace might be good with void dwellers. It might help you force build a great mining habitat later in the game.

I love Natural Design. I have in mind designing a quasi-Luddite civ that uses that and Agrarian Idyll.

6:20 Imo a civic slot is a good exchange for freeing up an tradition tree AND an ascension perk slot also personally I rarely ever switch my civics anyways, I just add a third one eventually so locked civics for me just means "it can't be your third"

Tactical Algorithms will either be hilariously broken (very probable) and get hit with a devestating nerf next patch, or functionally useless. The main thing I can think of is getting a few vassals and, assuming you can give multiple admirals to the same empire, just give each vassal 5 or so admirals. If they accept that automatically, since they're a vassal, that seems extremely busted.

Finally, space Arasaka

12:50 when you're actively using diplomacy you will very quickly run out of envoys you can send to people also you can do silly things like sending three each to the strongest empires to grind all those favors or sending one envoy to every empire to get trade deals, research agreements and other fancy things depending on your position on the map those two envoys will also be a godsend when you get several first contacts at once and want to finish all of them first for the free influence

I’m still hoping they add a defense platform megastructure something that only fallen empires/crisis could possibly get through

natural design and determined exterminators is going to make a really wild combo

6:06 True. The base idea is that you can basically have *TWO* Origin bonusses. While it is not ideal that you lose a civic slot just remember that you in a sense get an origin slot for it. For instance you could have a natural design *AND* be life seeded or whatever. With that as an origin you'd have to choose.

I think there's something people are overlooking with the arc furnace, if you then build a habitat in the same system you'll be able to build the ultimate mining base.

So for tactical algorithms, couldn't you start as a federation, and give these commanders to your ai buddies? That would mean you could ignore all other unity projects until you have enough commanders given away right from the get go. If you make a trade fed you could be making 30 unity easily off the bat, which (assuming this doesn't increase which is unrealistic given how easy it is to increase trade value) I calculated to only be 7 years assuming a 3k end cost. That would be an insane early game bonus that would steam roll the entire galaxy. Is the new meta a virtual trade empire with tactical algorithms? Edit: this is assuming the ai can and will go over their leader cap. I have no idea if they do/would. If not, this is far less powerful (although still good)

There's clearly a lot of inspiration from mods like gigastructural engineering and stellaris evolved in the machine age. First it was ascension situations, and now kilostructures. I'm curious what mods the next updates / DLC might be influenced by.

Just one point on the Arc Forge you didn't factor in the video, since you're not actually buying from the market, you can still buy from the market at their lower or base market values if you need even more minerals or alloys than you're producing.

The arc furnace will definitely synergize well with the Cybrex forge for starbases, or if you find the crystilline entities' systems.

Oh boy, my brain is working! Genesis Guides + Idyllic Bloom for the ultimate progenitor empire!

10:48 Its not that bad. Artisan Drones have a base output of 10 consumer goods. So 2 Drones with the Overdrivebuff already produce 3000 CG in 10 years (ignoring all other buffs like stability, leaders etc.). It will harm your economy, but on the other hand you don't need drones for unity etc.. And who knows what other buffs it provides.

I think the arc furnace, since it’s on a molten world, shouldn’t have energy upkeep. It should have mineral upkeep and produce alloys.

Excited to try Natural Design! Thank you for the constant updates! Love your content you’re the best!

I love that the use the paperclip icon reference.

Natural Design is something I've been wanting for some time, thanks Paradox

I’m really looking forward to playing Cybernetic Creed with Augmentation Bazaars and Gospel of the Masses. I should probably take PharmaState first and add Gospel of the Masses later, but I really enjoy playing as a MegaChurch. That’s of course if Cybernetic Creed’s priest jobs are compatible with Gospel of the Masses.

love the fact that they are adding kilo structures, but the furnace seems underwhelming sadly, would like some sort of mini ring world, that is in between the habitat and ringworld

Paperclips are great at granting unity to my paper sheets so that makes sense

There is a counter to 100% armor and shield pen strategy. Either use cloaked fleets to get the drop on your enemy before they can utilize their buff, or out range them via artillery ships that spam rockets and large weapons, They MUST be equipped with reactive armor to drop the penetration.

I like that these are civics instead of Origins because it lets you combine them with some origins for extra flavor. For example: Guided sapience goes well with syncretic evolution. Natural Design will fit with several, like Life Seeded or Scion Obsessional directive pairs well with Resource consolidation

Stellaris, return of clippy

- Guided Sapience gives event based unity, Unity and Biology research. So ideal for any genetic ascension build. The preserve probably vanishes on uplift - effectively making this like Calamitous Impact (extra pops, some digging required). I wonder of you could place new preserves, finding another species to uplift? Effectively printing pops with science? Rogue servitor can gain a lot of local trophies that way. - Natural Design: That building os probably a Gene Clinic Swap. Interestingly it works on Necrophages Could also combo with mechanist, for modable machines. Also works with high suitability species. - locked Civics are for things that can be combined with origins. The difference between a Interface and a Abstract class. - Paperclip AI is a still valid thought experiment for AI safety. It highlights a bunch of issues in setting up Goal driven AI. - Tactical Algorithms probably needs a cap. But keep in mind those commanders can be used against you (much bigger eneny fleets) and can still die to violence (including you conquering their empire). Paperclip and this are Machine Gestalt Mega Corp. - Augmentation Bazar sounds more like Ghost in the Shell, Shadow run and Cyberpunk to me. - Dyson Swarm seems primarily a Star Yield buff, increasing the value of those Stars. It might be very situational, only if you _really_ need that resources. - Arc furnace is a way to convert energy to minerals and alloys. I agree it seems underwhelming, given it only works on known depisites and you still pay station upkeep. Maybe a buff to special systems mostly.

if the effect from medical worker is uncapped, I can see myself playing with it, considering how many ascensio perks I work with.

I’m hoping Dyson Swarms and Arc Furnaces can be built more than once. They’re powerful but feel like things you should be able to pop out a few of (though for the Swarm, only one could be upgraded I’d assume)

One thing that stands out in the Automodding section is Commercial Genius, which is a new addition to Overtuned as no such named trait exists in the current patch. From the name, it sounds like they're stealth-dropping an Overtuned Thrifty equivalent, and if so a Cybernetic Overtuned build would be something to look into in 3.12 as you could stack Thrifty, Commercial Genius, and Trading Algorithms for +75% trade output on a pop, which sounds tasty especially with the effects of the new Augmentation Bazaars civic.

I actually like natural design because itll mean you have freed up an ascension slot as well as tradition tree because you wont be ascending

Addressing the permanent civis vs origins thing - I totally agree. I think that they should have two different categories of origins and let us pick two. Perhaps a "natural origin" that describes their location and the nature of their species (cataclysmic birth, necrophage, fruitful partnership, etc) and a "societal origin" that describes their cultural psychology and political situation (void dweller, broken shackles, rogue servitor, etc). I just... really want to play as a void hive terravore with cataclysmic birth, please paradox

Hey Montu ! Nice vid as always can't wait for the next devlog. About this "Augmentation Bazaar" i'm a big player of megacorp and i've done some test about how to maximize trade value and Ring Worlds are not the best type of worlds... Habitats ! they are the best thing you could have for trade value, you can easily reach a 25 size habitats if you have ressource-rich system and the habitation district with the Trade Station designation is producing Crazy amount of Trade value. Yeah the Ring World is the best choice to produce trade value but when you look to how much you needed to spend to aquire one and when you look to how easy it is to have an habitats, you see that habitats are clearly better. PS: Virtuality is a bad choice for megacorp cuz you can't stack organic and Cybernetic traits which mean you wont have the +25% trade value from Thrifty and Trading Algorithm combination. Have a nice day !

Honestly I do personally like the idea of megastructures not being the obvious META answer, but as something that becomes worth it if you have an overabundance of one resource, but not necessarily others. Oh, and ofc, its fun when megastructures pay for each other, and you get some net benefit from that. Dysonsphere / Dysonswarm for energy, which then fuels the Arc Furnaces that then fuel the Dysonswarm upkeep.

So happy to have more mega structures

One thing to consider about both the Dyson Swarm and the Arc Furnace: Cybrex Mining Hub presently works on current megastructures like the Dyson Sphere and the Matter Decompressor, so those bonuses from the "kilostructures" would likely *also* be affected, meaning +100% Mining Station Bonus (remember that it's still a mining structure when collecting energy deposits) and then Archaeo-Engineers adds an addition +50% mining station output. I'd be interested to know if the kilostructures have the same limitation on no more than 1 megastructure per system, because you might be able to have a Dyson Swarm and Arc Furnace in the same system, with a Cybrex Mining Hub, and rake in the basic resources that you don't have to spend drones on.

I think you're even underrating the perfect genes one - since you can't take any ascension you get an extra acension slot and tradition tree compared to the regular ascension paths. Combined with effectively starting with 1/2 asccension or so this seems really powerful.

I like the look of Adaptive Frames. 🙂

I LOVE that paperclip empire that's so fun

That Arc Furnace could be strong with the cybrex mining hub for a nice 250% output, if it stacks ofc

the arc furnace is so cool, i love being able to use ruined worlds for more than terraforming

With the arc furnace I wonder if it is additive or overwrites existing system resources. I can see it being crazy in a resource rich system or like a dragons hoard if you get a molten planet in there.

The Dyson Swarm is what Freeman Dyson originally envisioned for his Dyson Sphere concept. What we normally see in sci-fi, including Stellaris itself, is called a "Dyson Shell". Which Dyson himself says is mechanically impossible. Both are Dyson Spheres but the Swarm is more realistic, while the Shell is pure fiction/fantasy. It would be nice if Stellaris renamed the current Dyson Sphere as "Dyson Shell" to represent that distinction and had them both filed under "Dyson Sphere"

The MMs (Mini-Megastructures) will be goof for some starts. Like the array will be good for Ruined Ring and Resource Consolidation. Both start with a 10 energy star.

I can see Natural Design being used with an Aquatic Overtuned empire. Aquatic, because you can't modify your preferred planet, meaning that you would want to terraform, and aquatics have access to bonuses from a specific type of world and heaper terraformation. Venerable: 4 Pre-Planned Growth: 2 Elevated synapses: 2 Aquatic: 2 = 8 You start with 4 points and 7 trait poicks, we have 3 picks left and need an additional 4 points. With Aquatic giving -10% housing usage, solitary is a pretty big no brainer for a -1. Then you can pick something like Sedentary for another -1, your choice really there are multiple viable -1 traits. We do need one -2 trait, though. One thing that springs to mind is that Nonadaptive doesn't even fully negate our +10% habitability on ocean worlds bonus from Aquatic, making it viable for once. We would have a lot of trouble living on anything else until we can terraform though. Unruly is always an option, and probably the most commonly picked -2 trait, but Psychological Infertility is also a pretty free pick for simcity players like myself who don't declare war much. Seems like a very specific, but interesting option for us. Edit: Realised afterwards that you can't have this Civic and Overtuned at the same time. Seems pretty weak to me then.

I can see the Arc Furnace being powerful if you can get a system with 6-10 planets. And also the Cybrex mining hub in the system too🤷‍♂️

It'd be neat if there's an option down the line of the Paperclip Creator where you can replace alloy costs in ships with consumer goods costs.

If you can find a huge system the arc furnace could be decent early boost to alloys

If Arc Furnaces don't make systems uninhabitable like full Dyson Spheres, then they're great for Habitat resource rigging. Basically no mining district cap for your late game needs.

@MontuPlays, I think Arc Furnaces might be insane when paired with Cybrex Mining Hub, however it requires a bit of luck for a precursor

Augmentation Bazaar sounds rad, Can't wait to roleplay Arasaka.

I realy enjoy paradoxes adding civics like Obsessional Directive. Even if it would be not fun to play it, it's already fun just to have it in game.

The fact the devs are referring to these as "Kilostructures" kinda shows how influential Gigastructural Engineering and other related mods are, as it seems like, from the outset, these mods referred to the more "minor" or fully repeatable "megastructures" (gateways and hyper relays) as Kilostructures to denote that, even with vanilla rules, these things don't share the usual "1 per" cap that most other megastructures have.

Montu sounds like a kid on Christmas morning reading that new military stuff for robots.

combine the arc furnace with the cybrex mining hub and archaeo-engineers and you'd get 250% minerals on every planet/astroid in the system.. (if you can get super lucky and be able to put a mining bay and/or nebula refinery, all the better) (or if you put it in the dragon's hoard system.. maybe)

The Arc Furnace seems like it would be a good idea for systems with high energy districts but very few minerals. After all, there is a limit to how many minerals you can buy per turn without causing inflation.

You gotta slap a cybrex mining hub in the system with the arc furnace, that would be crazy

I really like the Kilostructures, i hope we get more in the future.

"Commercial genius" isn't an overtuned trait. at least not yet. sounds like overtuned's getting a few extras on the side here to me. between that, thrifty, and trade algorithms, i think we know what the new trade build is going to be...

Well, I'm going to be having fun coming up with new civilizations and tweaking my existing ones. Excited for Fleeting Excellence as an Overtuned main. Think that Commercial Sense trait or whatever it was called is new. I'd played as Mercantile for a while, and I would have gotten it if it was available. I will be entirely unsurprised if it's an overtuned counterpart to Thrifty. Guided Sapience might be fun to try out just for its theme. I do like the idea of Natural Design, since I have one megacorp that didn't really speak to any of the existing ascension paths. Seems one of my ideas was on the mark about Obsessive Directives: A machine empire centered around consumer goods. Now I just need to think of a silly widget and how I'm going to pressure my neighbors into buying them. If that Tactical commander trait doesn't have a cap, I expect it will not take them long to add one. When I saw Dyson Swarms increase the star's output instead of just producing energy, I immediately thought of science-producing stars. Sad to hear that Arc Furnaces don't seem that efficient, but I'll give them a whirl, anyway.

Tactical Algorithms is capped to a maximum of 10 leaders being able to rented out.

The things about the Dyson swarm is that given it increases the stars output directly, do mining/research station output bonus stack on afterwards? Because then it might still be better than market value for the alloys.

okay, the automodding species traits, might be the thing that finally makes me use gene clinics.

It may not have been shown but hoping you can pair Natural Design with Pharma State for the ultimate hospitals

If you need to build mining stations on the deposits made by an Arc Furnace, you can get +200% or so in the lategame, with even more from the minerals side of the furnace. We can say you have 3x the deposits in income. so 9 minerals and 6 alloys per deposit. It wouldn't be that difficult to get 60 minerals and 40 alloys out of this. They need to be careful with this to make sure that these won't be just plopped into every system in the game. It can also synergize insanely well with the cybrex starbase building and the ice mining building for obvious reasons. With absolutely perfect luck this possibly give you around 100 alloys for 100 energy credits and an insane amount of minerals on top of it.

That deposit spawning relic is going to be insanely good with this new megastructures.

Hello Montu, greetings from South Korea. Thank you for your dedication to this game and quality of the contents!

Augmentation bazard + Overtuned Add the automod trait and it's basically playing cyberpunk in stellaris, I'm loving this

Montu, if it helps as a comparison, Gigastructural Engineering has the Neutronium Gigaforge, granting you 750 alloys for 1250 energy upkeep (investment total is 20k alloys). It is, in my experience, rather busted (for Gigastructures; there are stronger ones but they don't come that cheap nor as early as only needing Galactic Wonders AP). Increasing alloy output without the need for increasing pops can be surprisingly powerful. Especially with the new tech-sprawl effects. If you compare the output of about 12 Arc Welders (to have similar upkeep), _only taking into account the megastructure's output buff,_ you'd need about 12-ish deposits on average per structure (system) to have a comparable alloy output. Which is a lot, but you'd also get a crap ton of minerals too. If one assume the value of an alloy equates to that of 2 minerals, you'd need on average 9 deposits per structure (high but fairly common). All to compare to a structure from an OP mod's busted megastructure you'd need Galactic Wonders for. And any additional mining station output buffs tilt this even further in the Welders' favour. Given that you can only build five unless you indefinitely borrow more, there is a limit on totals but the input/output comparison still stands. Therefore I think the deciding factor for the Arc Furnace being strong will be what the actual cost and build speed are. If it is prohibitively expensive to build that would be unfortunate. If it takes long to build, then it depends. If you run a planet count-restricted strategy (and a filthy tech rusher like myself) whether by choice or poor neighbours, this thing allows you to divert pops for resource production towards Tech, Trade and/or Unity. Now we wait if the devs take over the research-producing kilostructures of Gigas for those who focus purely on resources instead.

Elon must be very pleased to finally get the representation in Stellaris that he and Neuralink deserves. Definitely not dystopian!

13:29 Just get a Dyson Sphere or two and the energy cost gets entirely offset, I usually get these for free from other empires

well it will make playing semi isolationist pureifies alot easier with the arc furnaces and dynson stuff

I got very excited for a moment when i saw the auto-modding but sadly it isnt what I thought. It looks ok, ill reserve full judgement for once I see it in action. As a player who loves to play overtuned and optimise all my pops, im crying out for a better way to manage traits and the jobs my sub-species are allowed to do. They should also give an option to link which species grow based on the available job slots they are asigned to. They would be so practical and thematic, especially for highly ordered overtuned societies or hive minds! Paradox plz!!

That automodding looks really nice, finally you don't have to micromanage this.

So with Augmentation Bazaar, I can finally roleplay as a dystopian cyberpunk megacorp? The future's lookin' bright choom

Dyson swarms can easily do 120 or even 150 on the right star. I just started a new galaxy, went observer mode and saw plenty of 4 or even 5 energy stars. With a bit of luck you might even get a good deposit from an anomaly. I wonder if the space amoeba mind if I build a dyson swarm on that 8 energy sun in Amor Alveo?

Clone Army & Natural Design lets goooo!

Great stuff, thanks Montu!