Just take Driven Assimilators out of the game.

[pete3great]

After doing a deep dive into the new mechanics (and bugs) in the newest version by playing a regular empire, I thought maybe things would be better if I went back to my old stand-by: driven assimilator.

Wow.

It's bad.

For all the missteps made over the years, I've never felt actively punished for choosing a particular empire type. Playing a driven assimilator got more difficult last time (3.5-ish), which was fine, I welcomed the challenge. The changes in 3.8 are different. As I said, it feels like punishment. Like the devs can't simply remove them because we paid for the DLC they came with, but that the devs don't want us playing them at all. So instead, they made playing driven assimilators torturous. It's awful. Just take them out of the game.

[mss73055]

In 3.8 playing ultra peaceful I charmed a driven assimilator into becoming my subject.
Giving it 1k alloys per month and also free diplomacy the miracle happened.

These bastards declare total war on everything. My ultra peaceful total war.
I had a blast playing as I scooped up the galaxy to fill my ring worlds.

[Carog the Fat]

Yeah Gestalts in general got the finger this update. I hate looking at my nodes and seeing no skill for lvl 1, slower exp, no special leaders, no flexibility but hey that's OK gestalts are OP right.... Right RIGHT!!!

No they are not, I think gestalt got a weaker worse option again and it really shows, my friend has started to call them Slowbots because just starting Lithoid and going Synth is so much better.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by pete3great:

Wow.

It's bad.

I haven't played with 3.8 yet, or tried Driven Assimilators recently, but yeah. They used to be my favorites, but as of the last time I tried them they were just too frustrating to play. We need a way to control what species can and cannot work each job. For an egalitarian democracy that level of control wouldn't make sense (and so probably shouldn't be available), but it is precisely how a DA empire would approach matters.

Originally posted by mss73055:

In 3.8 playing ultra peaceful I charmed a driven assimilator into becoming my subject.
Giving it 1k alloys per month and also free diplomacy the miracle happened.

These bastards declare total war on everything. My ultra peaceful total war.
I had a blast playing as I scooped up the galaxy to fill my ring worlds.

So, they are fine as long as you aren't playing them. Got it.

[Ryika]

From what I've seen recently, they're actually still a very strong choice. Total War casus Belli combined with being able to keep the pops you conquer just makes for a combination that's good almost independently from whatever is strong or weak in a given patch. Start with an aggressive opener, and snowball from there.

What exactly makes them bad in your opinion?

[Ulthar]

I think what bugs me is that as robots or hive minds, I cannot create vassal empires of robots and I end up getting overwhelmed when I take over half of the galaxy.

[pete3great]

Originally posted by Ryika:

From what I've seen recently, they're actually still a very strong choice. Total War casus Belli combined with being able to keep the pops you conquer just makes for a combination that's good almost independently from whatever is strong or weak in a given patch. Start with an aggressive opener, and snowball from there.

What exactly makes them bad in your opinion?

Driven assimilators were already unity starved early game. The new leader mechanics make them unplayable.

[Ryika]

Machine Empires in general are a bit unity-starved, but Evaluators should be enough to get you to a decent income, and they're quite efficient jobs. Don't really see why that would make them "unplayable".

[pete3great]

Originally posted by Ryika:

Machine Empires in general are a bit unity-starved, but Evaluators should be enough to get you to a decent income, and they're quite efficient jobs. Don't really see why that would make them "unplayable".

Oh boy, here we go with a lot of theorycrafting that isn't reflected in actual play. I'm telling you from experience, this goes beyond simply having lower unity in early game to being broken. Go find another thread to troll, Ryika.

[Mazey]

Originally posted by pete3great:

Originally posted by Ryika:

Machine Empires in general are a bit unity-starved, but Evaluators should be enough to get you to a decent income, and they're quite efficient jobs. Don't really see why that would make them "unplayable".

Oh boy, here we go with a lot of theorycrafting that isn't reflected in actual play. I'm telling you from experience, this goes beyond simply having lower unity in early game to being broken. Go find another thread to troll, Ryika.

I'm playing driven assimilators right now, and I'm having no problems. Yes, they have less unity generation, but they make up for it in other areas.

That is literally the concept of a trade-off.

[VoiD]

I don't see the problem, still possibly the best overall empire in the game.

All the benefits of genocidals, none of the downsides, full total war CB, wars are actually useful as you can gain the only resource that truly matters (pops), you can engage in diplomacy, get federation bonuses, and vote on the galcom to avoid getting declared as the crisis forever.

If these guys are unplayable then nothing is.

[pete3great]

The usual suspects are here to fanboy and deny the game has any problems at all.

[Mazey]

Originally posted by pete3great:

The usual suspects are here to fanboy and deny the game has any problems at all.

"We can safely dismiss these people's opinions on liking the game, because they clearly like the game."

[RoboticRobin20]

pete, you don't have to play this game if you don't want to, there are plenty of other games

Originally posted by pete3great:

The usual suspects are here to fanboy and deny the game has any problems at all.

[Geoff]

Originally posted by RoboticRobin20:

pete, you don't have to play this game if you don't want to, there are plenty of other games

This thread has been inactive since May.

[Biggs]

Originally posted by Geoff:

Originally posted by RoboticRobin20:

pete, you don't have to play this game if you don't want to, there are plenty of other games

This thread has been inactive since May.

so what