Question about the biotech gene stuff

[Jaggid Edje]

My current playthrough is my first time playing with Biotech installed and I've just gotten to where I can start messing with the gene assembler/bank/extractor. Of course, I didn't have the space required for any of that in the base I have set up already, so I'm doing an expansion.

My question is, how much space should I allocate for it if I want it to be 'big enough' from the start?

I imagine future research projects may unlock additional things to build related to it, and I really don't have any idea right now how many gene banks or assemblers I might need/want.
I also see that more advanced stuff will require gene processors, and how many of those you need depends on complexity but what I read on the wiki didn't really clue me in on just how 'complex' things can get.

Thanks in advance to anyone with an answer/advice. I did read the wiki page, but I didn't want to watch any videos because I want to experience it for myself first....I just want spoilers on how big to make the room. LOL

[MadArtillery]

That depends on how fancy and huge your gene lines will be. It starts out pretty minimal space wise but scales with your ambition really hard. It can start taking up a fairly large room by itself to both store genes and fit all the complexity buildings.

[XelNigma]

I assume your like most and have an all in one crafting room.
If so, a building about that size should do.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by XelNigma:

I assume your like most and have an all in one crafting room.
If so, a building about that size should do.

That's a pretty perfect answer, because I am and I do.

Though in this playthrough I didn't make my crafting room quite big enough. I failed to account for the anomaly crafting stations (it's my first anomaly playthrough too).

Thank you!

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

That depends on how fancy and huge your gene lines will be. It starts out pretty minimal space wise but scales with your ambition really hard. It can start taking up a fairly large room by itself to both store genes and fit all the complexity buildings.

And thank you as well.
Though my ambitions are currently rather humble, I know myself well enough to know they will greatly expand as I get my head wrapped around understanding how it all works. I'll plan accordingly.

[Gal Kraft]

I'm in the exact same boat right now (had biotech for a long time but never got into genetics). I am tearing down bedrooms to make a genetics room, and adding new bedrooms elsewhere. The hospital is too crammed with body parts and beds and tv now.

[Narrowmind]

Same. This information was helpful.

[Astasia]

The footprint of the max size gene setup is about 25x25. You can't really get any bigger than that because of linking range limitations. You could in theory start loading extra genepacks into unlinked gene banks, but that's probably not necessary unless you have a ton of gene mods. I have used nearly the full 25x25 before for an endgame xenogerm. You might be able to get away with a bit less than that, depends on what you are doing.

[Veylox]

Depends on the complexity you're looking for. There are some pretty OP combos with base complexity, and considering you can just throw useless genelines away instead of keeping them in banks, you don't realistically need a lot of space for banks. 11x11 room is almost too big already unless you're looking to recreate a vampire from scratch

[di eshor ribly]

It varies with mods too, of course. There are some geneprocessors that add more complexity, or are different sizes. There are bigger gene banks, or there's the 2x2 gene library that has *every* gene in your game stuffed in it (including modded genes, and yes gene library is a "cheat" mod).

I can usually get by with ~30 ish complexity, and usually keep somewhere around 40-60 useful genes. Your mileage may vary, but I use either an 11x11 room or a 11x23.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

I can usually get by with ~30 ish complexity, and usually keep somewhere around 40-60 useful genes. Your mileage may vary, but I use either an 11x11 room or a 11x23.

Good info. Thank you.

I built my room 23 x 11 since my last reply. I did 23 wide based on the range I saw for the linking and only 11 deep because I figured I probably wouldn't really need to go 23 for both dimensions. You confirmed that I made a decent choice.

It's built at the very edge of my base, adjacent to bedrooms, so if 23 wide ends up being more than I ever need I can repurpose some of it for bedrooms, and if I feel the need to expand I can go bigger on the x11 dimension by building further outward.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by Astasia:

The footprint of the max size gene setup is about 25x25. You can't really get any bigger than that because of linking range limitations. You could in theory start loading extra genepacks into unlinked gene banks, but that's probably not necessary unless you have a ton of gene mods. I have used nearly the full 25x25 before for an endgame xenogerm. You might be able to get away with a bit less than that, depends on what you are doing.

Would you please share a screenshot of this space? I wouldn't mind knowing what that setup of thing looks like, as I've only dabbled with the genetics stuff myself.

[Astasia]

I have one of my larger gene setups visible in this screen:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3105595045

I think the room there is like 27x21, could be condensed a little at the expense of walking space and the extractors could have been moved to another room. The linking range of the assembler is circular so that room cuts the corners off a bit.

[Narrowmind]

This is helpful to see. I realized that something like the 25x25 was probably accurate when I started to play around with it. And my experience was positive, so far, but I'm curious how you use genetics in general. Are you just constantly rotating your people into the machines constantly and hoping for the best? Is there a limit to how complex you try to make your combinations? Are you only specializing specific people at specific things? Any advice you could offer would be helpful.

[Astasia]

Ya I'm usually putting anyone with a gene I want into an extractor on cooldown, and usually have several prisoners of that xenotype to increase the speed of it.

As for the xenotype I create, usually I just go with a single xenotype for my colonists. There's definitely something to be said about min-maxing each individual colonist with their own xenotype based on their skills and job, but that's too much micro and grind for me. I don't create any artificial limit though, I generally cram all the good genes in there with enough "downsides" to make it work, avoiding "never sleep" or most skill modifiers, though I usually try to get great shooting and awful animals (because I rarely do anything with trained animals). I guess the exception is archite genes, since it's hard to get enough capsules. I usually limit it to deathless and archite metabolism, sometimes perfect immunity. I think I had 30 gene processors there, I remember I needed all of them and deconstructed a couple gene extractors to place the two at the top of the room.

I sometimes also have a xenotype I create for prisoners that I want to keep long term, like for blood bags, mostly just Dead Calm for preventing prison breaks, maybe a mood boost if I'm feeling generous. Not necessary since you can just remove legs, but usually I'm not playing the bad guys. Though I guess keeping genetically engineered docile prisoners for my vampires to feed on isn't exactly me being the "good guys" either.

[Narrowmind]

Thank you for all of your tips.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by Astasia:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3105595045

Thankyou!