Newbie question - Visitor Center

[spark.milanders]

So I have the option to research the visitor center which gives Alien Migration Attraction +50%. My question is why would I want that? I'm very new and learning as I go but my understanding is that having aliens would increase the ethics divergence and also create factions? And those are things I'm trying to avoid for a happy cosmic race. So why would you want to attract alien races to your colonies?

[Korvre Tailpoof]

you can have migration treaties with people, and this can sorta "steal" their pops for yourself, so you dont have to grow them.

[BKatt]

You would want that if you want a vast empire filled with diversity. Not to mention some of the aliens have some nice ethics for different purposes ;)

[spark.milanders]

I see, thanks. It would be nice to have a diverse population in a sort of utopian star trek kind of way. How can you use the different ethics of the aliens?

[Hurodrik]

Having different species on your empire is nice because it allows you to colonize a wider selection of world types before you research genetic modification. Furthermore, if your population is xenophile they get a bonus to happiness for having aliens on their planet. The visitor center also gives a +5% to habitability, which is very usefull.

About the ethos, it can hurt you and it's up to luck which ethos you get but you can control the odds a little. You will only receive migrants from empires you sign a migration treaty with. So I always avoid signing that treaty with people that have ethos that wouldn't work for me.

[spark.milanders]

Great info thanks a bunch!