Why play a gestalt consciousness?

[Malaficus Shaikan]

I am trying to see the appeal.
To me there just normal empire's striped of gameplay.
No migration, No refugee's, Forced remove/enslavement of pop.

What do they offer that normal empire's dont?

[coolman552]

no consumer goods
no happiness
and machine empires require no food
and machine empires are the meta rn
(hive minds are still trash tho)

[Sammy]

Because who doesn't want to play as the Zerg?

[Sammy]

Originally posted by i love dogs中国第一:

no consumer goods
no happiness
and machine empires require no food
and machine empires are the meta rn
(hive minds are still trash tho)

Yet they still need amenities for some strange reason.

[coolman552]

Originally posted by Sammy:

Originally posted by i love dogs中国第一:

no consumer goods
no happiness
and machine empires require no food
and machine empires are the meta rn
(hive minds are still trash tho)

Yet they still need amenities for some strange reason.

atleast they are changed to maintenance

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Greater production of useful resources, better early-game pop growth, no need to micromanage the nonsensical demands of annoying factions to keep your Influence gain high, Machine/Hive Worlds, and in the case of machines, 100% habitability literally everywhere. Also robots are cool.

[Kerian Halcyon]

The hive mind chortles at your clanking machines, thinking because you can't eat you're better. Kikikikikikiki...

From my own experience, playing a hive mind/machine empire is a ton of fun. You don't even need to go the route of determined exterminator/assimilator route for it to be enjoyable. My first machine empire had just "woken up" after the mining corporation that built it had gone extinct due to an ice age of their own making. My machines went exploring and the very first organics I encountered were the local Militant Isolationist Fallen Empire. Needless to say, it scared them ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, so they kept as far away from them as possible. The next organics they encountered were a race of bird people who were far less scary, so because the Empire guys were scary I decided to be these guys's friends. Worked out pretty well. My center of consciousness, Singularity, vowed that he would protect his mushy, organic friends even if it meant vaporizing meany organics, because all the minerals in the world are next to nothing without customers to consume them.

The only issue with Gestalt Consciousness in my mind is that the base game doesn't give them enough options to work with. There's no special ships for either group or any particular end-game bonuses save for machine/hive worlds, both of which are kind of meh. The BEST way to play Hive Mind IMHO is via Complex's Forgotten Queens unofficial expansion mod, which adds a ton of great stuff to help you get the chitter in your chicken dinner. Not going to spoil it, save that one of the things it adds is a Hive-specific colossus that melts all life on a planet and turns the mush into food for your empire. Finger-licking fantastic!

[Danny]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Greater production of useful resources, better early-game pop growth, no need to micromanage the nonsensical demands of annoying factions to keep your Influence gain high, Machine/Hive Worlds, and in the case of machines, 100% habitability literally everywhere. Also robots are cool.

Regular empire factions can potencially give ALOT more influence.
Gaia worlds also give 100% habitability and just like hive and machine worlds need an ascention perk.
And regular empires can also build robots, in addition to normal pop growth.

[coolman552]

the faction influence gain is basically a minus for gestalts since factions will always give you more influence gain not lose influence gain whether you barely follow what they want or check all their boxes