Driven Assimilator Traits?

[Moghopper]

What are the best traits for the robots and the cyborgs when starting as Driven assimilator?

Not really sure since i never played them before...

[Silicate Bunny]

You'll want to sustain a strong military presence, since most empires will immediately recognize you as a threat given your Borg-ish inclination. Minerals, alloys and oh so many energy credits (icydk that's how you feed your pops when they're robits). Research will put you ahead of the others in tech, too. It's kinda gonna depend on how you play an aggressor, too, but the +army damage can help. If you're dodging happiness, I think there's a trait that gives a stacking bonus to each pop with it, per neighbor *without* it (but that could very well be from a mod, it's been so long since I touched vanilla.)
I always recommend Luxurious (+2 point penalty for 20% increased replicator upkeep, very nearly free even with 5-6 replicator jobs per planet) and Repurposed Hardware(? the +1 negative that's 10% less leader experience, this actually helps save on monthly unity costs.)

[identity]

Adaptive Frames is pretty much the best trait for machines now.

[CrUsHeR]

For the cyborgs, definitely take the negative traits for consumer goods and ethics attraction. Because these are inactive in your machine empire.

Also it is a good idea to leave some space for cyborg traits, because some of them are really good (integrated weaponry = +100% army damage). So don't cram them full with as many bio traits as possible. Trait picks are the limit.

[oldirty`]

Im a bit out of touch with the game. Why do you guys suggest army damage? Is there some newish reason for that? Army damage was always useless.

[HyperKnight]

Adaptive Frames and Mass Produced are universally good, High Bandwidth and Repurposed Hardware do nothing in the most important early game. Luxurious will significantly reduce your alloy income in the starting phase.

Starting cyborg traits are mostly irrelevant as soon you will have all kinds of cyborg pops and be able to mod them, you can pick Strong to buff the starting armies in the first capital invasion.

[Moghopper]

Are amenities a big issue with Driven assimilators?

[HyperKnight]

Originally posted by Moghopper:

Are amenities a big issue with Driven assimilators?

Not at all.
You can build a Simulation Site on each planet to provide both unity and amenities.
When enabling planetary automation, it will lock unnecessary maintenance drone jobs.

[Moghopper]

Thanks for the input everyone. How about this for a build:

Origin: Resource Consolidation
Civics: Driven Assimilators, Maintenance Protocols
Machine Traits: Adaptive Frames, Rapid Replicators, Bulky, High Bandwidth, Workerbots
Cyborg Traits: Strong (leave remaining points for later)

[mister_lobos]

i'm sure some will disagree with me on this..
but i actually think lost colony is better then resource consolidation..
resource consolidation gives a partial machine world... i'm still not sure exactly what it's missing but i did resource consolidation as my first machine world after the machine age expansion, and the planet certainly changed when i actually unlocked machine worlds... it might just have been a change to the districts, but it threw my economy out of wack for a few months.
but anyway, it gives you some of the bonuses of a machine world up until you unlock the machine worlds ascension perk itself, then your origin bonus is gone, since you just get the regular machine world bonus you'd have anyway.

but lost colony gives you a permanent bonus to your capital planet. the actual bonus depends on your empires ethics.. (plus the mini story of finding your original species, i don't even remember exactly what that does)
for determined exterminators, that bonus is +15% resources and +5? amenities... it also says there is a plus to happiness, but gestalts don't use happiness directly (rogue servitors do for the bio trophies)
now.. IF the lost colony bonus stacks with the machine world once it's terraformed it would be a great bonus, but it probably doesn't.

[mister_lobos]

also you could do driven assimilator and Rapid Replicator for even faster pop assembly, which is always a good thing.

[HyperKnight]

I used to pick Maintenance Protocols too but switched to Constructobot lately. An extra building slot and mineral discounts are too impactful early game, you can pick Protocols as third civic when you have a lot of those.

[HyperKnight]

For origin I usually pick Remnants, for roleplaying reasons, cheap ecumenopolis and archaeoweapons, plus again big mineral discounts on nearby worlds.

[mister_lobos]

also on origins...
if you do subterranean machines you get 100% habitibility to all planets regular planets right at the start, not certain if tomb worlds may be slightly lower.

[HyperKnight]

Habitability doesn't matters much for assimilators, you will be having cyborg pops to colonize everything after you finish initial conquest phase.

[Moghopper]

I think someone told me that rapid replicators only worked on the machine pops, and that you already have a negative pop growth with the DA civic. Not sure if that is true though