Other uses for biology

[nakorkren (OP)]

While thinking about how to make the terraforming tab more user friendly without making it an "click this button to terraform", it occurred to me that it would be both thematic and an interesting game mechanic if there were techs under Biology that could be used to supplement terraforming. E.g. you could design organisms that converted carbon dioxide into oxygen [what an idea! ] and was optimized to survive between x and y temperature/pressure/gravity, then seed a planet with that organism. Could be a way to accelerate terraforming "organically", and generally make terraforming more interesting. I haven't thought through the mechanics, game balance, or implementation within the existing framework at all, but thematically it would be neat.

Would be even cooler if organisms could be made to be interdependent in some way, but then we'd be talking about "Aurora - Xenobotany Simulator 4x". I can dream though, right?

[xenoscepter]

 --- That's kind of how Biology tech works. It just hasn't been fully implemented in C# yet.

[nuclearslurpee]

--- That's kind of how Biology tech works. It just hasn't been fully implemented in C# yet.

Scheduled for 2.2, along with basically everything else we can dream of including world peace apparently. 

[cdrtwohy]

--- That's kind of how Biology tech works. It just hasn't been fully implemented in C# yet.

Scheduled for 2.2, along with basically everything else we can dream of including world peace apparently. 

is that why Steve is gone so much he's negotiating a peace deal in eastern Europe?

[nakorkren (OP)]

Dang it... I did a terrible job of explaining what I meant.

I know that you can design a new species of sentient beings that are just like your starting species but has a different env tolerance. I meant more like... drop some custom algae on a planet to accelerate conversion of one gas to another, change the albedo, etc. I.e. changing the planet (and ecosystem), not changing the "humans" who (will) live there.

[Bremen]

There are biology techs to increase terraforming rate, which I always figured was more or less that.

Interesting suggestions I've seen for biology in the past are increased leader lifespan, increased lifepod survival duration, and decreased crew quarters size/increased deployment time.

[nuclearslurpee]

I agree with Bremen, I don't think we need a specific tech for what can be roleplayed as the implementation of one or more terraforming techs.

I would like to see some ability to modify leader age rules, not necessarily techs but settings for starting age (still not on board with 21-year-old LCDRs and BGs, let alone planetary governors and research institute administrators) and age limits before retirement. I guess the latter can be a tech though, we can always SM to get the desired retirement age, but I think it is too niche to be worth RPs so is better as a game setting anyways.

[Aloriel]

If terraforming were altered, I think it'd be more interesting if we had to research aestusium and frigisium, and perhaps also had to research ways to eliminate dangerous gases. This would make green-zone worlds super valuable, since you can't just easily terraform a world with nasty stuff in its atmo, or that desperately needs to be warmed or chilled.

[Panopticon]

I've often wanted to be able to design tailored viruses, so that we can virus bomb unruly planets without destroying infrastructure. Perhaps it might come with a risk of some variety, like a mutation allowing it to spread to other species, reducing population or changing the colony cost of the world, something like the life-eater virus from Warhammer 40K would be cool too.

i do think as it stands Biology is the most easily ignored of the tech trees for sure, better than it was, but still.

[xenoscepter]

Dang it... I did a terrible job of explaining what I meant.

I know that you can design a new species of sentient beings that are just like your starting species but has a different env tolerance. I meant more like... drop some custom algae on a planet to accelerate conversion of one gas to another, change the albedo, etc. I.e. changing the planet (and ecosystem), not changing the "humans" who (will) live there.

That's... a really cool idea. And yeah, I've had my moments of failure to explain. Don't sweat it.

[bankshot]

I've often wanted to be able to design tailored viruses, so that we can virus bomb unruly planets without destroying infrastructure.

This is partially implemented via the Enhanced Radiation Warhead Missile tech but since those missiles don't do much against ground forces it would not be much use for invasions. 

[alex_brunius]

I've often wanted to be able to design tailored viruses, so that we can virus bomb unruly planets without destroying infrastructure. Perhaps it might come with a risk of some variety, like a mutation allowing it to spread to other species, reducing population or changing the colony cost of the world, something like the life-eater virus from Warhammer 40K would be cool too.

Pretty sure I read that excluding things like wiping out pop/army with virus or radiation bursts is game design decision to not be able to easily capture defended planets with intact infrastructure.

i do think as it stands Biology is the most easily ignored of the tech trees for sure, better than it was, but still.

Agreed. Here are some other things added biology techlines could impact:
- Lowered life support tonnage on ships
- Lowered life support tonnage on army units (a bit open to interpretation/implementation)
- Increased population growth (with or without genetic modification)
- Reduced % population needed for "Agriculture / Environmental" assisting mainly with colonizing higher Colony Cost worlds.
- Age / Health techline(s) increasing lifespan and reducing risk of diseases of commanders
- (In conjunction with "global warming" mechanics), a techline reducing CO2 creation by employed Manufacturing population down towards 0.
- Stronger versions of terrain specific capabilities unlocked for infantry by added genetic modification techs (say 3x chance to hit instead of 2x in Desert/Jungle/Mountain/Rift)
- Genetic Enhanced Intelligence giving +5% / +10% higher starting values for commander skills for any commander born after the tech was unlocked.
- Genetic Enhanced Management giving +1 / +2 admin starting "levels" for any commander born after the tech was unlocked.

[nuclearslurpee]

Agreed. Here are some other things added biology techlines could impact:

A big one would be moving the colonization cost reduction tech from Logistics to Bio/Gen, which makes much more sense anyways.

Another idea would be a med bay component which can be upgraded and has some chance to reduce crew casualties on taking damage. It would be similar to a command module, but probably should not have an actual commander assigned since this would require a new commander skill with very narrow use, and usually medical officers aren't in the normal chain of command anyways so should not, e.g., be promoting to starship captains.

A similar medical unit for ground forces that gives (very fractional!) casualty reduction rates would also be interesting and, if it applies to subordinate formations like a HQ does, would provide something useful to add to high-level HQs as currently we lack options for this.

[welchbloke]

I've often wanted to be able to design tailored viruses, so that we can virus bomb unruly planets without destroying infrastructure. Perhaps it might come with a risk of some variety, like a mutation allowing it to spread to other species, reducing population or changing the colony cost of the world, something like the life-eater virus from Warhammer 40K would be cool too.

Pretty sure I read that excluding things like wiping out pop/army with virus or radiation bursts is game design decision to not be able to easily capture defended planets with intact infrastructure.

i do think as it stands Biology is the most easily ignored of the tech trees for sure, better than it was, but still.

IIRC Steve was very keen to avoid GFFP (Genocide For Fun and Profit) as a mechanic in Aurora. There should always be a trade off/cost for player actions IMHO. I do agree that Biology needs some attention to improve its utility and there have been some great suggestions on this thread.

[Steve Walmsley]

A big one would be moving the colonization cost reduction tech from Logistics to Bio/Gen, which makes much more sense anyways.

Added this for v2.2