Genetic Engineering v. Psionics?

[EJR]

I'm a GE guy as it has provided me with the best bonuses, and I just prefer it over Cybernetics (It's cool but meh). But I never tried Psionics yet, is it good? And what does it offer over GE?

[VulpesFulguralis]

They get the latent/psionic traits.
Psicorps building that provides 5 stability to each planet its on and up to +20% output for all jobs on said planet if both telepath jobs are worked and the path's tree finished.
Best shields and jump drives, and a sidegrade T3 combat computer.
And you can take one of 5 covenants that will have both upsides and downsides.
Its main weakness is everything beyond the trait and psicorps its RNG when you gain access to everything else.

[Passive Extremist]

i prefer genetics myself but it is by far the weakest, psi on the other hand was strong but rng to begin with and is currently catapulted to undeniably the best option outside of rp fun.

[nilfiry]

The Teachers of the Shroud Origin that locks you into psionics is also good, as it saves you an extra ascension perk since you don't have to spend a slot on picking your ascension path. Ever wanted World Shaper AND Arcology Project? Now you can.

The Psionic trait gives all your pops +10% to all research types, and all your leaders get bonuses according to their job. You also have a chance to make one of your psionic leaders immortal.

You get to enter the Shroud once every 10 years. The results are RNG, but you can always savescum it. Save before you enter the Shroud. This is also how you unlock the best shields and jump drives. The combat computer is also great for dealing with evasion. Psionic shields are basically T7.

Also, you get a nifty popup telling you that you caught the Contingency trying to infiltrate your empire a la terminator style.

[HappySack]

GE is the second weakest ascension namely because of how easy it is to get in comparison.

Psionic while powerful is based on RNG without its specific origin.

[yuzhonglu]

No. Genetic Ascension is by far the strongest, especially for Hive Minds. Budding + Cloning Vats + Spawning Pools = 10 pop assembly per month.

[HappySack]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

No. Genetic Ascension is by far the strongest, especially for Hive Minds. Budding + Cloning Vats + Spawning Pools = 10 pop assembly per month.

Well I suppose if you stack pop growth or go for a food based build then it can be powerful but you'd have to go out of your way for it instead of popping down a Psi Corps and getting instant benefits.

[nilfiry]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

No. Genetic Ascension is by far the strongest, especially for Hive Minds. Budding + Cloning Vats + Spawning Pools = 10 pop assembly per month.

You can achieve similar numbers without any ascension, though.

[yuzhonglu]

Only Genetic Ascension gets Cloning Vats. +4 extra pop growth, which is +5 with vat grown which only genetically ascended species can get.

[Xaphnir]

Psionic ascension is something you can do earlier than others, which is the main advantage it offers. While it has the highest pop efficiency of the four ascension paths, it's not enough to compensate for the higher pop growth offered by the others.

[Mr.I]

My favorite thing about psionics is that you can start with 25 rare crystal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySPIbViSck

[Ericus1]

I know you said you don't like cybernetics, but there is one simple, mechanical reason why it is the best path: going full synthetic converts all the various different pop "species" down to a single type, which has a knock-on effect of collapsing the number of various different pops down as you approach late game and (likely) are map-painting more and more of the galaxy.

Why this matters? It reduces the late-game lag from pops. It doesn't remove it, but it attenuates it.

[titanopteryx]

One reason to go with genetics is it allows you to remove the hive from hive pops. For instance in game a proto civilization matured and i wanted to annex it but it was a hive mind and they would have been exterminated if I had annexed them. If i had genetic ascension I could have remove the hive from them.

[Mentato]

Imo Psionic is only good if you are already won the game and are having fun.

Genetic is good if you are not into early robots for starting advantage.

That's why I prefer Cybernetic, to further augment lots of robots and riff-raff aliens I get.

Synthetic is another "I've already won, now I can do whatever" which wastes lots of organic bodies.

Inverting the Churchill here "what for I need vat-grown meat if I already have chickens. Augmented chickens".

[dcain3456]

psionics means you have to deal with the shroud entity and gets rather random. Cyber and genetic don't have that problem. It's all under your control.
Gamewise, I don't see a bit of difference between genetic and cyber.