How does Ethics Divergence work exactly?

[SBGaming]

In my current game, I had a pop diverge into being a Fanatic Xenophone, with the result being that he got the -40 Alien Overlord penalty to happiness, which drives his happiness down to 25, which adds an additional +20% to the Ethics Divergence. He of course started a faction, but as a solo pop he doesn't have much support, because he's the only one whose unhappy because of the Alien Overlord Penalty...

Throughout the game I've been making every effort to reduce Ethics Divergence. My starting Species had the Conformist Trait (-20% Ethics Divergence), but the issue is currently another species I had conquered many many years ago. For the most part, most of the people from this second species have shifted over, adopting some of my Primary Species Ethics, but this one went full Xenophone.

The Species that this annoying pop originated from was originally Fanatic Militarist-Collectivist. My Government Ethics is Fanatic Materialist-Pacifist. On every new planet I colonize I go so far as to deactivate the Reassembled Ship Shelter in order to remove the associated Ethics Divergence, though I imagine this will be 'fixed' eventually in an upcoming patch. If there is any Ethics Divergence, it's a very small chance where the Distance to Capital Penalty might be slightly over +10%, and this is minimized by the Information Quarantine Edict.

I will probably eventually Genetically modify this species to have the conformist trait (founder species has the trait), but if I do so, it'll use up all the Gene Points, and I may want to adapt them to one or two more planet types. They currently handle Arid and Tundra, while my Primary Species handles Ocean, Continental and Tropical.


So the question, when the Ethics Divergence happens, does this happen in small steps, or can it be completely random in nature? My understanding is that he should have become either Pacifist or Materialist if there was negative ethics divergence, but I guess the game decided he would become Xenophobic. I'd have to check various past auto-saves to get an idea of that pop's evolution.

If in small steps, over time he probably went from Fanatical Militarist to Militarist to no trait, and then somewhere the game generated him as a Xenophobe, before going full Fanatical Xenophobe. I wish I was able to Purge him, but I don't have that option. Don't know if I have the option to turn on Free Migration, but perhaps he'd move elsewhere, though I doubt he'll find a home desireable enough within my empire as a Xenophobe.

As much as I'd like to not have to worry about Ethics Divergence creating undesirables, maybe having Migration turned on would allow him to leave to go somewhere else. Overall the Ethics Divergence mechanic has had positive effects, most notably with one of my vassals who I had Liberated from the Fanatic-Militarist, and thus they were formed with the same Fanatic-Materialist-Pacifist Ethics, and 150-200 years later when I browse their own population, many of them have shifted towards my government ethics, which will make it painless to integrate into the empire if I decide to do so.

[Paragon]

The precentage displayed is a chance to change ethics per year. So a 20% divergence chance will make pops have a 20% chance of changing ethics at the end of the year.

Pop ethics can shift from one tier (nothing, normal, fanatic) and one class (next to current one on the ethos wheel, ether side) per shift. That means your rebellious pop went from fanatic militarist to fanatic xenophobe during the course of one year, and could have also became a fanatic spiritualist, or any of the above except normal instead of fanatic. Pops can also lose a normal trait and gain a fanatic one, but this will take 2 years to do. Pops gaining an ethic trait from nothing will usually have it be ether one of your governing race's ethos (if divergence is green) or one from another pop on their planet (if divergence is in the red), expanded on as follows.

The more pops of an ethos there are on a planet, the more likely the rest will shift to their ethos if divergence is in the red. They may also return to their orginal empires governing ethos (if their orgin empire still exists). This means you can quickly have rebellious populations go out of hand if not properly controlled.

A great way to kill off any divergence is the Will to Power tech, which is a rare late game tech, yet allows you to cull almost any ethnic divergence on a planet with enough investment.

Sorry if its a late reply.

[SBGaming]

Thanks for the response. Exactly what I was looking for. Makes a bit of sense now knowing that they could have made that jump in just one step. I didn't expect that they could shift around the wheel from one Fanatic Ethic to another, just like that, without going to the moderate position. I'm guessing he also went to Fanatic Xenophobe because it was the shortest route to Fanatic Materialist, which is three steps away from Fanatic Militarist, whereas 3 steps to get to Materialist, and 4 to get to Fanatic Materialist if that was his destination.

Well, the next step after that is Fanatic Individualist, so hopefully he makes that jump quickly.

I'll have to look out for Will to Power. All I know at the moment is that I don't have the option to Purge or Forcibly Resettle. I think I've seen Artificial Moral Codes (an early prerequisite for that part of the tree) pop up, but since the -10% Resettlement Cost and the Edict weren't something that was going to be useful, I skipped it. Fortunately I have a Scientist who has Spark of Genius which will make it more likely to show up.

I really like the Stellaris "Deck of Cards" Technology system, as it makes every game play out a bit different since you never know which Techs are going to be available to you at any one time, and having to make a choice between two that you want.