How can I ever not pick Cosmogenesis now?

[atm]

The difference between picking Comsogensis and not picking Cosmogensis seems too great. It will triple the strength of your fleets; it will double your economy. The one drawback of annoying other empires can be mitigated with a high amount of diplomacy. I feel like if I don't pick Cosmogensis, I'm hobbling my empire and trapping it in a mere shell of its glorious possible self.
Maybe Paradox needs to add some more options that make non-Cosmogenesis play more competitive. It feels like by adding a must-pick perk, they've basically taken away options rather than adding them, because no option competes with this new option mechanically. They would have to make being Custodian competitive with Cosmogenesis, or buff Defender of the Galaxy so that it got some benefits that make it worth taking over Cosmogenesis, but even that is only adding a mere couple of options that could compete.
Hopefully we will see some balance return - not because I think a single-player game should be balanced, but because I'd like to feel that more of the options are viable when considered against one another.
On the same note, I also want to see some way for regular empires to gain late-game access to fallen empire buildings. I don't see why our research has to stop before learning how to harness Class 3 Singularities. Maybe we could be eligible to draw the the tech if we have said building in our empire, either through studying minor artefacts or through invading a fallen empire. That would go a long way toward watering down the 'must-pick' status of Cosmogenesis - if it changes from being the only way to get late-game economy-changing buildings, to just the fastest way to get them, I think that would be the best way to restore balance and you could feel okay about not taking it.

[Oldkye]

I feel like it's aimed at people like me(Maybe you too) who want to hide in the corner of the galaxy being mad scientists and committing war crimes.

If you are going to play a tall defensive research empire it's ideal, does that potential make it OP if you ride that line and keep enough diplomacy to offset your super armada and feeding slaves into the mind grinder? Probably.

But any game this big there are lots of ways to get an edge.(my current play-through of a cyborg hive mind with the overturned origin basically makes it impossible to have empire size problems)

I'd be down for a few more bonuses but if you are going for Custodian Defender of the Galaxy that +200 diplomacy you can grab fairly early with your 50% damage boost against everyone not in your club rolls pretty nicely.

Feel like that's the whole point of the become the crisis idea do you want to be the galactic Hero? Or do you want to pick between Secret Hitler or Cartoonish Super Villain who steals candy from babies?

I like the option of Secret Evil Mastermind very much but being a Hero is fun sometimes too.

[MAG]

I thought that playing a robotic assimilators run, and shoving a huge amount of pops into the Lathe was a fun strategy...after I built a Dyson Sphere so my energy credits didn't plummet. I had no idea that the end game of Cosmogenesis is essentially only for tall empires so I spent a stupid amount of time going to all 88 of my colonies

[Azor]

i avoid cosmogenesis for the same reason I avoid Virtual ascension. it's too strong. if you optimize it correctly i bet you could end do a x25 all crisis run in which every crisis spawned between 2300 and 2400. Maybe I'll try that some day. For now, I'm trying as a pacifist, initially biological empire, to beat x10 all crisis at 2300-2400 I would have done if, in my first attempt, game didn't bug and refused to spawn more crises after the Unbidden; and if, in my second attempt, the Synthetic Queen didn't spawn first and so early (~2320) as I was prepared to beat any other crisis but not her yet

[TcT Goth98]

It's fantastic! I have been waiting for something like this since the game almost first came out! They better not ruin all the fun by nerfing it!!!

[Eldritch Panda]

The nemesis perk is balanced (weak imo) considering the entire galaxy is after you, and you NEED to turbo expand to get even remotely enough dark matter to finish upgrading the mega while in super permanent super war.

Cosmogenisis on the other hand is probably 3x as strong (opinion) but has literally no penalty. Even the supposed 'penalty' of negative diplomacy and high energy cost can be entirely avoided if you don't build the included mega, but even if you do nobody really cares and you will have enough fleet power to make the AI never want to war with you. It's sadly a must take meta perk even if you don't plan on actually finishing it.

[TwoTonTuna]

Originally posted by atm:

On the same note, I also want to see some way for regular empires to gain late-game access to fallen empire buildings. I don't see why our research has to stop before learning how to harness Class 3 Singularities. Maybe we could be eligible to draw the the tech if we have said building in our empire, either through studying minor artefacts or through invading a fallen empire. That would go a long way toward watering down the 'must-pick' status of Cosmogenesis - if it changes from being the only way to get late-game economy-changing buildings, to just the fastest way to get them, I think that would be the best way to restore balance and you could feel okay about not taking it.

Good idea.

As for balancing out Cosmogenesis, it might help if reaching T5 crisis level makes everyone in the Galactic Community automatically declare war on you--prioritizing the destruction of the Horizon Needle if you build it. A more complicated method would be to tweak the AI so it is more likely to vote Cosmogenesis empires as a galactic-level crisis in the Galactic Community.

[jerrypocalypse]

Honestly, it's not much different than having easy difficulty options in my eyes. Do you also feel this way about those? It's just there as a choice.

[Fyre]

Originally posted by TcT Goth98:

It's fantastic! I have been waiting for something like this since the game almost first came out! They better not ruin all the fun by nerfing it!!!

Absolutely this. It's fun as hell so if you don't want to have fun, don't use it or better yet do something other than crap on ours.

[mss73055]

You *can* pick Defender of the Galaxy, and then Cosmogenesis for 4th ascension.
The galaxy will like you, borders are open for your science vessels.
150 Riddle Escorts making 4M fleet power a stack, I had 8 of these stacks and 3.5M alloys in bank.

Crisis x25 spawned and got destroyed on the spot.
pay2win

[VoiD]

Yeah, I wish it was functional, being too broken ruins the game, and I wish I could pick it, because it's fun, it's new content, I want to have more technologies, I want to use cool new ships, but I don't want to trivialize all the gameplay even on GA. So it's potentially fun content blocked from be due to bad balancing.

[Takichi]

Thats easy, simply dont pick it......

People complain about Cosmogenesis, the Same they did before about the Nemesis Crisis with its Mineral Ships and Stuff...... Both are just Fun to do.... The Main Problem is, that the AI in most Cases will not use it or use it anywhere efficent. Or that they would you not Punish you hard enought for using it. Thats what makes it "boring" in the Long Run.

However if you simply think it breaks the Game because you pick it, the Solution is easy. Dont Pick it.
And please dont come up with this Crap "Yeah but i cant resist" Stuff..... If you think a Mechanic breaks the Game, as long as you arnt Forced to use it (which you are not) you can just ignore it.

[arronax06]

Originally posted by Eldritch Panda:

Cosmogenisis on the other hand is probably 3x as strong (opinion) but has literally no penalty. Even the supposed 'penalty' of negative diplomacy and high energy cost can be entirely avoided if you don't build the included mega, but even if you do nobody really cares and you will have enough fleet power to make the AI never want to war with you. It's sadly a must take meta perk even if you don't plan on actually finishing it.

The diplomacy penalty you occur also very much depends on the RNG result from the Applied Infinity Thesis that you have to research at least twice. The first time I did this ending I had good result on both rolls, so no negative opinion. But the second time I got 2 bad results, and half the galaxy and 2 fallen empires declared war on me :)

[Merlin Pharmakeus]

The AP is super slow you get almost zero immediate benefits everything need to be research, build the hard way and filled with pops meanwhile you get subject to defender of the galaxy an instant 50% against you.
The lathe build genocidal opinion about you if you can fill it with thousand of pops from invaded planets you were already winning so it doesn't really matter if you use very costly fancy ships. If you don't the researches are very expansive. At that point in the game the building are like ring world mostly for pride your eco should already have massive excess and ascending your worlds is already more efficient than teching.
Nemesis give instant rewards and the best military benefits you can blow the galaxy bf cosmogenesis starts show off his shiny stuffs.