Devouring swarm

[Fuinril]

Just a quick question about this trait : can one choose wich population will beat eat ?

It seems to be choose randomly...

It's pretty borring to have to regulary check each planet to see if a slot has been free when you acquire a bunch of new planets.... and it doesn't make sens lore wise

[Locklave]

They eat everyone that isn't you. There are no options.

edit:
waiting on slots to free up for resettling is annoying, I completely agree with you.

[cooltv27]

the way ive seen it work is that pops get randomly deleted over the 10 year duration, while any remaining at the 10 year mark get instantly destroyed

[Darkaiser]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

the way ive seen it work is that pops get randomly deleted over the 10 year duration, while any remaining at the 10 year mark get instantly destroyed

This makes sense as a large planet and/or a planet inhabited by Fast Breeders might take longer than that to be devoured.

[Fuinril]

Originally posted by Darkaiser:

This makes sense as a large planet and/or a planet inhabited by Fast Breeders might take longer than that to be devoured.

I disagree : if you apply a strict birth policy no birth can happen with proper medical support. This should result in a big increase in natal death and so a decrease in the overall population (we speak about star explorers here, not some primitive clans).

And as a devouring swarm I do not understand why I can not chose which population I will use as food stock... If I had invaded earth why could I not choose to eat northern americans berfore any asian people ?
And here, we do not even speak about continents but whole planets : having to wait years before any one one a given planet is eat while the next one is being depledted is beyond absurd....

It's my first game for a while (last one was ... well... before utopia), overall I'm pretty happy with the changes, but lot of things just does not work - at least for hive mind (food is crap - sometimes it's gamebreaker and other it's useless - , not being able to ask for planet to a vassal without integrating it - or, as I understand this could be gamebreaker, at least some population or resources tribute : what the hell ? I'm playing as a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ devouring swarm, a cancer eating the whole galaxy, alliances are formed especially to counter me, it seems I'm a bigger threat than the (much more) powerfull awakened empire or the extra galaxy threat.... And the more secure inhabitants are my vassals ? What a joke !)

[cooltv27]

Originally posted by Fuinril:

And here, we do not even speak about continents but whole planets : having to wait years before any one one a given planet is eat while the next one is being depledted is beyond absurd....

the pops producing 5 food is you eating them, the pops disappearing probably represents other effects going on and the remaining people in that area dying of unrelated occurances.
the 10 year timer is the actual point where you have eaten everyone, systematically gone through and captured close enough to everyone that any who remain can entirely be ignored.

though I agree that having more choice between planets would be nice. I still want the population of my slave species to grow, just not on this or that planet anymore

[Fuinril]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

the pops producing 5 food is you eating them, the pops disappearing probably represents other effects going on and the remaining people in that area dying of unrelated occurances.
the 10 year timer is the actual point where you have eaten everyone, systematically gone through and captured close enough to everyone that any who remain can entirely be ignored.

No. Sorry but no ! Your point of view would have made sense if I was just a dumb insect. I am not ! I mastered interplanetary trips, I'm one of the most powerfull and advanced empire the galaxy has ever seen, and I would not be able to manage some livestock ?

Either the inhabitants are chased down and I should be able to choose which one I hunt, the 5 food per inhabitant beeing a symbolic representation of that, either it's just livestock and I should be able to choose to keep them alive forever without malus (after sometimes of course) or to erase them whenever I want.

Anyhow the current implementation works pretty well in the purge sense, but it makes absolutely no sense at all when coming from a devouring swarm point of view (and, remember, I'm a hive mind, my people do not do anything out of my control)

[cooltv27]

ah, I misunderstood what you meant
a devouring swarm is about the consumption of everything, you are either part of the swarm or you will be used to grow it. there is no "livestock" in the swarm, things not part of the swarm do not deserve to exist.

as for a normal hivemind, I totally agree that you should be able to keep other species as livestock, rather than purge through consumption or displacement.

[Cerebral Daemon]

Originally posted by Fuinril:

(and, remember, I'm a hive mind, my people do not do anything out of my control)

That's not particularly true. Being a hivemind just means your entire specie is inter-connected and can be considered as a single individual, but that doesn't necessarily equate having control over everything your "drones" (as per their name in the game) do. This is actually even demonstrated by several of the civics, which have descriptions alluding to the fact the brain is delegating one function or another of the whole organism to the drones to speed up the whole process.

If anything, being a devouring swarm hivemind just makes it even less likely for that hivemind to have control over that specific behavior; we're talking about a hivemind in which its drones eat any living being outside their hivemind, and makes absolutely no distinction in doing so. Saying the brain has "control" over any of this is like saying you, as an individual, have control on when you start and stop digesting food; you don't, and it's logical for a hivemind which follows such a basic "eat everything" logic to not have any control either.

tldr; "one entity" does not mean "has control over everything". Just like how you can't control your own immune system, neither can this hivemind.

[Fuinril]

Originally posted by Cerebral Daemon:

....

That makes sense. I'm still frustrated by the planets click cycle while in absorption process but it does indeed make sense

[Gibbles]

Pops don't die randomly, they flee your empire as refugees.

[Von Faustien]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

ah, I misunderstood what you meant
a devouring swarm is about the consumption of everything, you are either part of the swarm or you will be used to grow it. there is no "livestock" in the swarm, things not part of the swarm do not deserve to exist.

as for a normal hivemind, I totally agree that you should be able to keep other species as livestock, rather than purge through consumption or displacement.

Ants farm aphids so livestock would make sense for a hive mind