Machine Uprising

[TextualArc]

So I tried a genocidal spiritualist wide playthrough for once, rather than going pure palpatine "friendly diplomacy" tallboi.

I just finished a near complete galactic conquest before reaching the 200 year mark, feels pretty good so far.
then the machine uprising triggers, and I think itll be interesting, since it took all three ecumenopoli I had, essentially putting me on an economic timer to kill all robuts.
they have a dozen or so worlds total but I manage to hunt down their fleets and take the starbases, and start the process of retaking my worlds.
seems like I'm gonna pull it off without too much issue, happy day.

but wait, ALL MY BUILDINGS ARE GONE.
OH NO, ALL MY POPS ARE DEAD, OH ♥♥♥♥ IM SADDLED WITH USELESS PLANETS NOW.

so I guess the ai uprising, while kinda fun to have fought against, essentially gives the finger to any and all development work you've put in. like there is no recovering now. not enough pops to sustain a recovery from this economic freefall.
it was a fun campaign and it would've been my first galactic conquest, but the broken ass ai uprising mechanics have saddled me with a massive economic void which has effectively killed my run.

TLDR: AI took my jobs, I am salty. uprising mechanic seems busted.

[Spirit]

no wonder i outlaw Abominable Intelligence and call for inquisitorial aid when someone research this stuff in my empire

[SkiRich]

Broken ass AI mechanic?
You didn’t know the rules and got burned.
That’s all you.
Want robots you have to give them AI citizen rights and full citizenship otherwise prepare for an uprising.
Don’t blame someone else for your mistakes and don’t say it’s busted when it works as planned.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Umm, close the less important jobs draining your economy and rebuild those planets...

[TextualArc]

no you're right, I didn't know the mechanics since I always give full AI rights and haven't dealt with a robot uprising more than once or twice more than a year ago.

that said the whole "purge all buildings, districts, and pops" thing is what I consider busted, it seems illogical, counter intuitive, wasteful, and overly punishing considering how many worlds it affected. I dont think its possible to muster an invasion force for every world fast enough to prevent serious permanent issues.

as to rebuilding, the loss of life is just so substantial, and the demands of a newly conquered galaxy are incredibly draining, its a big L for the run.

like Ill do the run again and keep AI and robuts banned, but I feel like fighting an AI uprising should be more reasonable/viable, the fight itself can be reasonably challenging, but the fallout of reconstructing is absolutely devastating.

in other words I'm not likely to see another AI uprising ever again because its so punishing its just a thing to avoid, rather than a flavorful event for an empire to go survive.

"just avoid it" is what I've been doing for years, and in trying I'm only vindicated in that, because even if you win, you still lose. it's got to be either the best or the worst crisis in the game because you can just not make eye contact and move along, or have a serious long lasting fallout from a devastating war with men of iron.

[Elitewrecker PT]

As far as I'm aware, your pops aren't immediately killed, they're gradually purged or exiled. And honestly, only buildings not available to Machine Empires should be destroyed, I want to say it's a long overdue oversight.

[SkiRich]

There is one scenario which I will encourage an AI uprising.
If I want to play as a machine empire.
During the uprising you are given a choice to switch players and play the AI side.
In that case where you lost your ecu's and a big portion of the empire, I would have switched and went biblical on all the meatbags.
Probably would have worked out nice.

[HappySack]

I don't understand why they can't program it to happen like a slave uprising where armies are created based how many of a type of pop there is and it's only when they win do they form into an independent empire so it's both more engaging and less stupid how you instantly lose worlds.

[TextualArc]

the machine uprising switcharoo actually sounds pretty compelling, might do that on another run tbqfh. still doesn't justify how borked the mechanic is at present.
easy to avoid, AND devastatingly hard hitting? might as well not have the mechanic at all, except as a deterrent for spiritualists who want robots.