Bio-Engineering a New Species

[blue emu (OP)]

I have discovered a planet in the Wolf-359 system which is almost ideal for Human occupancy... a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere which only needs a bit of Oxygen removed to drop it back into the habitable range. Temperature is OK (12 degrees C). The place even has a rich (multi-million ton, 0.8 concentration) deposit of the mineral that I require most urgently.

Unfortunately, the surface gravity is just a touch too high... just 0.03g above my tolerance range.

So I'm planning to breed a sub-race of "Heavies", to inhabit this new world. Obviously, only minimal Genetic Engineering will be required... a single tech will do it.

So I researched the +5% Gravity Biology tech (and the +10% Gravity tech for good measure), and I'm now researching the "New Species: Heavies" tech.

Question: How exactly do I create, segregate, load and ship these modified colonists?

I assume that once the New Species tech is ready, I will need to build a few Genetic Modification Centers on Earth, and set them to producing the new species. How will the modified colonists be seperated from the ordinary Humans? Will a new "colony" be automatically created on Earth for them? How do I make sure that my colony ship loads the modified colonists, and not ordinary Humans?

[Haji]

Will a new "colony" be automatically created on Earth for them? How do I make sure that my colony ship loads the modified colonists, and not ordinary Humans?

This is exactly what will happen: a new colony (but on the same planet) will be created and - again, despite being on the same planet - it will be treated as a separate colony in all windows, including the one where you give orders to your task groups. It will look something like this (example, I'm assuming you're breeding them on Earth):

Mercury
Venus
Earth (1000m)
Earth (2m)
Mars

So all you need is to select the Earth colony belonging to heavies when ordering loading colonists. This, the segregating that is, will happen automatically and will require no imput.

If I remember correctly. I played with genemodified spiecies only once so far.

[ussugu]

I have run into an issue as well.  My new species created a separate colony on Earth and immediately started bitching about being a minority.  I figured I would remove all of them from Earth to "Their (new)Homeworld" but couldn't load the last 100k or so on a colony ship.  They were on Earth, but my colony ship wouldn't pick them up.

I have decided that if I plan on doing species modification, I'll just build the Genetics labs on the planet and convert Humans to the new species.

That is a big if, though.

[metalax]

Yes, the last few colonists not loading seems to have come up a few times before. If the number of colonists remaining is less than the capacity of the transport it seems to not like to pick them up.

[Haji]

I have decided that if I plan on doing species modification, I'll just build the Genetics labs on the planet and convert Humans to the new species.

They will complain about being a minority no matter where they are. It's about ratios of one species against the other. I had the same issue, but it's built-in mechanics. Since I was playing with biomodifications only once so far, I don't know what you can do to lose the "minority status."

I'm pretty sure ground troops will pacify them thou.

[Person012345]

They will complain about being a minority no matter where they are. It's about ratios of one species against the other. I had the same issue, but it's built-in mechanics. Since I was playing with biomodifications only once so far, I don't know what you can do to lose the "minority status."

I'm pretty sure ground troops will pacify them thou.

This is also pretty much my main reason for supporting the "hidden events shouldn't trigger interrupts" thing. People bitching and whining about being a "minority" when you've just given them a brand new planet to live on. It's also one of the reasons I won't use genetic modifications as it stands.

As for the colony problem, you could just abandon it and forget about them, or else I posted up a micromanagey workaround somewhere... let me find it.

It won't let you load -more- than the available amount of colonists. however, there is a way to do it. Pain in the ass, but still...

Basically, the number it shows you is rounded. So, tell it to load 45,000 colonists. Then, tell it to load 1,000 colonists, and repeat until it gives you the error. Then tell it to load 100, and repeat until it gives you the error. The colony should then have 0 population and be listed under "other colonies" (IE. uninhabited). I don't think Aurora tracks the population into the 10's, but it might be worth telling it to load 10 just in case.

-edit- Of course, you wouldn't tell it to load 45,000, that was specific to the other case, just tell it to load as many as you know at least are there. If you just say "load colonists" it tries to completely fill the transport, and if you have more space in the transport than there are colonists, for some reason they just throw their hands up and send everyone home.

[Marthnn]

Yes, the last few colonists not loading seems to have come up a few times before. If the number of colonists remaining is less than the capacity of the transport it seems to not like to pick them up.

Another solution, turn SM on and alter the populations to "move" them and effectively empty the colony.

IMO, SM mode is there for that kind of annoyance. Wish I could do the same with mineral packets in limbo...

[Mel Vixen]

Normaly i do my moonies (got to use sols realestate) with the aid of some Orbital habs. I just ship them and a couple of genetic modcenters to a planet and create a Human colony. Then i set the GM-centers to produce the species i want. Constant shipping of normal Humans to the Habs ensures a rapid growth of my new species which quickly removes the "Minority" issue.

I could imagine xenophobia could play a role here since my fashist empire had more problems then my republics.

[Nathan_]

I haven't run into the minority whining problem on Titan, is it because all the unmodified humans live in domes vs the new natives? Even with 10M conversions per year the original pop is still growing, of course the freighterswarm is contributing to that as well.

Anyway, as others have suggested, an orbital habitat is probably the cleanest way of setting up a new species.

[Steve Walmsley]

I am tempted to remove the unrest penalty for "minority species". Would anyone miss it?

Steve

[Beersatron]

I am tempted to remove the unrest penalty for "minority species". Would anyone miss it?

Steve

What if you exclude the minority unrest if it is a species derived from the majority species but keep it if it is a truly 'alien' species - maybe one you have transplanted from a conquest.

i.e. 'Home Sapiens' would get on well with 'Homo Lunariens' but not so well with the 'Squidilians of Thelmar iV'.

Do you already factor in the xeno rating of the two species? That might be a good factor to use in the unrest calculation.

[Sotak246]

I wouldn't miss the minority penalty at all.

Mark

[Nathan_]

"I am tempted to remove the unrest penalty for "minority species". Would anyone miss it?"

Is it possible to create 10 or more colonies on the same world? I can see some gamey abuse issues that might result if someone were so inclined.

[Mel Vixen]

Well i dont mind if the Minoritys go but maybe they need just some tweaking? For example removing the minority status if the Population hits either 25 Mil or 10% if another Species is present in the colony.

[Havear]

I'd prefer removing minority status and instead have some sort of Xenophobia penalty. Single species worlds would be unaffected. Two-species worlds would either have a low xenophobic unrest penalty (like Xenophobia / 5) when one species is an offshoot of the other, or a higher unrest penalty (like Xenophobia / 2) when the two species are completely alien to each other. Multiple species would have penalties stack on each other into a larger penalty.