Suggestion: Add Cloning Vats tech

[RougeNPS (OP)]

I have a suggestion for an addition to the Biology/Genetics tree. Cloning Vats. Decreases the time of Gene-Modded troops training/growing. Or/And potentially increases the growth of populations. I feel like if it would increase the growth of populations then it require the Genetic Modification Center (When its added back in.) It could be repeatable maybe up to 3-4 times for a marginal increase to not make Gene-Troops OP.

Just a suggestion to flush out a tree i feel doesnt have much in it honestly and an interesting concept, especially if it could increase the growth of populations since i feel like there isnt actually much in the way of doing that since you dont get population spirals and to my knowledge, mass deaths of millions of population isnt simulated. (Not that i want that added, just saying.)

[nuclearslurpee]

This would be a neat idea to make gene-modded troops more viable/common as the game gets into later stages when you'd expect an advanced sci-fi society to have gene modding as a matter of course. Maybe something like 15k/30k/60k RP to make it more of a mid-game addition, so the RP investment is justified only when the race has enough ground training centers and advanced gene mods to want large-scale genetic soldier production.

Maybe adding a couple other gene mods would be a good complementary feature, e.g. mods to hit chance and fortification/evasion levels in addition to HP. Would make the bio techs a little more useful without requiring Steve to re-implement species which sounds like more work than he wants to do for that feature.

[RougeNPS (OP)]

Yeah i was thinking that this would be mid-late game techs. You shouldnt be able to make good Gene-Troops viable early game without the ability to support them. Thats why i said it should require the Gene Mod installation once Steve adds it back. Which i hope he intends to.

Edit: I forgot species was even a thing since i never messed with them, ever. I always saw them but never messed with them. Too much hassale.

Edit 2: I also really like your idea of Gene-Mods to increase Gene-Troop stuff. But i feel like that would make them overly used in Lategame Empires unless RP or infrastructure demands otherwise.

[nuclearslurpee]

Edit 2: I also really like your idea of Gene-Mods to increase Gene-Troop stuff. But i feel like that would make them overly used in Lategame Empires unless RP or infrastructure demands otherwise.

Since the cost multipliers for gene mods and other capabilities are multiplicative there would still be a (soft) limit. Currently we have three levels of HP boost and two levels of power armor, with the max of both being 2x the stats for 2.5x and 2x the cost respectively, so having both 2x HP and armor gives 5x cost multiplier. If we start adding things like +aim (say, +2.5% for 1.5x cost and +5% for 2.0x, arbitrarily) and +fortification (say +0.5 fort for 1.5x, +1 fort for 2.0x), stacking the maximum gene mod of all three types plus the armor gives in this example a 20x cost multiplier before we even start talking about terrain types and such.

I think the idea of the gene mod tech you're talking about would be that as an empire transitions through the mid-game a baseline of modded infantry becomes standard which reflects the advanced tech of an advanced space empire, but these are still very expensive units to build if you stack all the capabilities so you're really looking at establishing a baseline of 2-3 capabilities for your main line infantry and maybe more for elite units. Although at that point you do need to think about if there's enough gene mods to make this make sense, otherwise every late-game empire will just run the same generic boosted infantry and there's not as much flavor behind the feature.

Possibly this could be solved by considering the terrain-based capabilities for infantry as genetic modifications - you can dig out of the DB or read in this comment I made a while ago that there are 3 infantry-only terrain capabilities which could be moved to the bio/genetic tree (we could also do this with desert capability if we're okay removing that from vehicles/statics). That would give more specific flavor to different gene-mod units besides the generic aim/defense bonuses I proposed.

[RougeNPS (OP)]

I think thats fair. Thanks for explaining it more detail.

[StarshipCactus]

You could have base level terrain traits being about "training and equipment," while more advanced levels of those terrain traits come from genetic modification to suit those terrains better.

[nuclearslurpee]

You could have base level terrain traits being about "training and equipment," while more advanced levels of those terrain traits come from genetic modification to suit those terrains better.

This would be a cool ruins tech - "Advanced X Terrain Gene Modding".

[RougeNPS (OP)]

I think that would be a nice thing, yeah.

[StarshipCactus]

You could have base level terrain traits being about "training and equipment," while more advanced levels of those terrain traits come from genetic modification to suit those terrains better.

This would be a cool ruins tech - "Advanced X Terrain Gene Modding".

First, you train/equip your soldiers for desert warfare.

Then you genetically engineer your soldiers to withstand heat, cope with less water and deal with mirages rising off the hot sand. (Could be very confusing for low tech scouts on a long, unsupported desert campaign, far from resupply.)

After you find the ruins on a desert planet, you learn how the spice must flow, how to walk in single file, how to summon the great worms, and learn to like sand, even though it is course, rough and gets everywhere.