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Purity wants to create the ideal human, because they think that the ideal human is it's current form.
They don't shy away from genetic engineering, insofar as it's still purely human. I.E. having perfect 20/20 vision, so glasses are no longer needed, except for cosmetic purposes.
They also don't shy away from technology as a whole, as long as it's human-centric. I.E. a suit of armor that needs a pilot to operate it.
They won't graft alien DNA into themselves, and A.I.'s are out of the question, but they aren't in the sci-fi equivalent of the Dark Ages either.
Purity is directly opposite to Harmony-Supremacy; the one thing they have in common is their tenacity. Purity is all "Defend at any cost to secure our future!" while Harmony-Supremacy is all "Survive at any cost to secure our future!"
So on paper it looks almost the same, except that Purity adhere's to the tried-and-true, whereas Harmony-Supremacy is willing to try anything and everything.
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Purity-Harmony wants to create a SUPER human. They want to give a human telescopic vision, or night-vision instead lf "just" 20/20, as in, they don't want to just fix their bodies, they want to improve them.
Their whole schitck is: "Wow, that alien saw us a mile away and moves faster than we can react... how can I get those abilities?"
Purity-Harmony is directly opposite Supremacy, in that they want more-or-less the same thing (optimization/perfection of humanity), but their approach towards that is essentially at opposite ends.
Supremacy would replace our eyes with sophisticated reactive-spectrum lensing, whereas Purity-Harmony would improve our eyes to be able to see across the electomagnatic spectrum without the need to cybernetic implants.
They both have a "Manifest Destiny" to them, except one seeks to render our biological forms unnecessary, while the other seeks to make our biological forms the best they can be.
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Supremacy-Purity, as it says in-game, takes the tool-maker aspect of Supremacy but applies it to society as a whole rather than directly onto/into humanity, I.E. instead of creating a fully-sentient A.I. with it's own personality and capable of self-improvement, they create a rudimentary A.I. that is receptive to human commands and compatible with various upgrades to be installed by an administrator.
Supremacy-Purity is all "why would I want to turn into a robot when I can just build one to do whatever I want?"
It's directly opposite of Harmony, in that they adapt a core aspect of humanity to be accomodating (our bodies, our tools). But while Harmony attempts to accomodate humanity to their environment wholesale, Supremacy-Purity attempts to accomodate humanity's environment to serve humanity.
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In a nutshell:
Purity: Defend our Legacy and Preserve our Future
Supremacy: Improve and Attain a Higher Capacity of Thought and Order
Harmony: Protect our Planet and Learn from the Mistake
Purity-Harmony: Improve our Legacy and Ascend
Harmony-Supremacy: Survive at any Cost to Secure our Future
Supremacy-Purity: Improve our Mastery so we can Build a Better Future
(a bit long-winded, and that last part's a mouthful, but hopefully it gets the idea across that the hybrid affinities are not just a mish-mash of the core affinities; their approaches resemble their opposing core affinity, yes, but in a fundamentally different approach.)
I am less sold on this. Are you saying that Supremacy-Purity would leave both the human species and the planet's ecosystem mostly unaltered, and instead make those bubble-cities really comfortable with lots of domotics?
I am sorry but that one feels like a huge stretch. Every affinity is extreme in its own way.
For Supremacy-Purity, yes.
The robots serve, with mankind as the master. Just look at the names of their units, and you see the clear reference to the machine as a tool, not a person.
Where Supremacy is cybernetic, full A.I. (become one with the machine) and Purity is absolutely not (the machine needs to be controlled), Supremacy-Purity goes a bit farther with rudimentary A.I. (not full sentience).
The Autosled is a prime (heh) example. In the civilopedia, it's explained that the Autosled is actually a three-man unit. The pilot, the gunner, and the Autosled itself.
The Autosled is meant to be piloted by a human pilot, but is capable of driving itself if necessary, even up to point of firing it's own weapons on it's own.
Supremacy units are completely autonomous, as in, there machine and the person are one and the same. While Purity units are not adverse to robotics, but it's very clear that the machine is nothing without the man. Supremacy-Purity takes the machine farther than Purity, but is less inclined to become one with it like Supremacy.
In a negative way, if Harmony is a bunch of tree-hugging space hippies, then Supremacy-Purity is a bunch of "high-class" hedonists with robot servants doing everything for them.
In a positve way, both try to accomodate humanity, just in different ways.
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As for Purity vs Harmony-Supremacy, I don't think I was clear, my mistake.
Purity is all "No, YOU change", what with aggressive terraforming, refusal to radically change the genome or implant a machine into your head, with a very strong "Plant your feet and stand your ground" attitude.
Very much an ABSOLUTE.
Harmony-Supremacy is the complete opposite. Any and all changes, adaptations and mutations are considered and even welcomed. "Oh, there's an alien gene that's better than ours, let's use it!" "Oh, this cybernetic implant is better then what we use now, lets replace it!"
Very much an ABSOLUTE.
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An argument could me made that Harmony and Supremacy are an extreme, yes, but Purity is argueably the more extreme in it's outright refusal.
The one thing that Purity and Harmony-Supremacy have in common is how ABSOLUTE they are. One is "No, I will not do this" and the other is "Yes, I will do anything and everything"
If Harmony builds a garden and Supremacy builds a server room, then Purity brings a bulldozer, explosives, a fresh set of blueprints and enough banners to cover a skyscraper.
Harmony-Supremacy makes the garden plants into minature server nodes while figuring out how to make those banners turn invisible at the same time as learning the limits of what defines a living, sentient organism.
Purity is one extreme, while Harmony-Supremacy is the aspects of both Harmony and Supremacy, combined, at the same time, which is the other extreme.
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Worst-case-scenario, this game is open enough that you can make your own "head-canon", as it were, and have it make sense for YOU.
So what I see in the Affinities may not be what you see, and that's completely fine.
This is the important part for me. What would Supremacy-Purity do to the planet? Does it really share Harmony's goal to preserve the native ecosystem? Have these people resigned themselves to never going outside and into the wilderness without wearing a space suit? With just the human-masters/robot-servants pitch, I don't see why they wouldn't terraform the planet in addition to flooding it with mechanic butlers.
And if the idea really is that you should look at the opposite end of the wheel to understand motives, then it should be called something other than Supremacy-Purity. Maybe something like Duality.
I am bothered by how this makes them sound less reasonable than other affinities, and defined by that immoderation, when I thougth the game let the player be the judge.
As I have already said, and as the developers have said:
IT IS OPEN TO INTERPRETATION.
What you see the Affinities as can be different from what someone else sees them as.
If you want to see them all as the same thing, then feel free to do so.
I go with the names of the affinities because that is what the game calls them, you asked if Supremacy-Purity was all about using robotics as servants, and I told you "Yes, that's correct."
Maybe I'm not understanding your question, but I must emphasize that
THE AFFINITIES CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT THEM TO BE.
There's some hard guidlines regarding them, but you can put your own spin on them however you like.
Robot servants are completely incidental to the theme of affinities. The regular Purity would use them, as long as people do not become cyborgs. The regular Supremacy would use them too, just with the remote control implanted directly into the user's brain. Even Harmony would use robot servants, why the heck not? This would be true for fully sapient AIs, even more so for rudimentary ones.
Now, using robot servants as a way for unaltered humans and the native ecosystem to coexist, that is interesting, that is what I would like you to tell me more about.
The hard guidelines are what I am mostly interested in. But feel free to share your headcanon and why you think it makes sense.
It's important to note that in a usual game, I end up with one one primary affinity, and the other two easily end up around 10 or so near the end-game. That's because it's far better to spread out and get all those cheap technologies near the center of the web when I can get them for around 5 turns each, scooping up tons of easy affinity points across the board, than it is to skip them and push headfirst into those outer techs. So really I end up with hybrid units from all three hybrids and then decide which victory condition I want to go with from there, sending all immortals back through the emancipation gate or holding off the aliens with my autosleds and golems while waiting for the link to be established. It doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes, lol.
Hmmm...
I see what you mean. If it's "just" robot servants, then yeah, it would be a bit of a letdown.
I think what I've been trying to say (somewhat unsuccessfully), is that Supremacy-Purity is the ultimate expression of "humans are big-brained tool-users" mentality.
As in:
I can't move this load, therefore I invent the wheel.
I can't see, therefore I invent fire.
(skip ahead)
I can't get this sheet of transparisteel up to the top of this starscraper, so I'll invent a semi-autonomous hoverdrone with an arm-crane and program it to do it for me.
So while Purity would build a giant "traditional" crane (good old-fashioned construction) and Supremacy would make the crane "sentient" (I AM THE MACHINE), Supremacy-Purity goes "in-between".
As far as "hard guidelines" go, that's a hard question to answer, because so much of it is left open.
The only things I know FOR CERTAIN is the stuff that's common knowledge; the Beyond Earth Wiki has all of that.
As for my "headcanon" regarding the Affinities, here you go:
--- PURITY ---
"We launched the Seeding to find a new home for humanity, so let us never forget our mission and our duty to our brothers and sisters on Old Earth."
I see Purity as the quintessential "good guys" of the game; they want to preserve everything good about us as a people. Part heart-wrenching, part heart-warming; much of Old Earth's history is lost or muddled, and they try their best to remember and restore that.
Their victory condition is the only one where they actually follow through with the original purpose of the Seeding.
--- SUPREMACY ---
"It was our technology that got us here, so let us expand on that; let us expand on our horizons, our thinking, and free ourselves from our limitations."
I see Supremacy as wanting to achieve true independence, making it so that we are no longer dependent on any one planet to survive and thrive. Where they fall short is that their victory condition involves invading Old Earth, and the whole idea of "assimilation" goes against the principle of liberty. Slavery is not independence.
--- HARMONY ---
"The Great Mistake was a tragedy, but thankfully we have learned from it. Let us never repeat such horrors ever again and make sure that we never endanger our home."
I see Harmony as wanting to ensure that the mistakes of yesterday don't become the problems of today. Where they fall short is that their victory condition entails forgetting about Old Earth entirely; basically dooming them to a slow death and therefore is a hugely hypocritical about what they claim to be doing.
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So that's the Primary Affinities, and here's "my" Affinity:
----- PURITY-HYBRID -----
"We got this far because we are human, let us never forget that. We have the means to improve our minds and bodies to become the best they can be, so let us use the best of this planet and the best of our technology to become something greater than ourselves.
We remember our brothers and sisters and we will find them and bring them to a new home.
We will show them the works of our hands, the fruits of our labors.
We will show them the way to perfection, to our genetic destiny.
We will take our place amongst the stars."
When I say "Purity-hybrid" I mean that Purity is the main affinity, but I don't disregard Supremacy or Harmony.
Case in point: I use CHAMPION and KODIAK as my infantry (Purity-Harmony) and BARON and COUNTESS as my navy (Supremacy-Purity), while my main battletank is the DRAGOON (Purity)
Additionally, I use IMMORTALS and AUTOSLEDS quite often, with GOLEMS making up the homeland defense supported by ARCHITECTS, DRONE CAGES, and THRONES.
Any upgrades for my units are the "Pure" designation, to emphasize the Purity of them all.
From a "story" perspective, Purity has the right idea as a whole, but by itself is too held back by fear.
Supremacy and Harmony have good ideas (optimzing worker efficiency, tissue regeneration, etc.) so I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to use them.
That said, I can't let the Supremacy or Harmony run rampant. I can't betray my brothers and sisters on Old Earth by forgetting our mission, so the Purity keeps it reined in, so I can properly utilize these breakthroughs in how we think and act on this planet.
Perfect Machines, Perfect Bodies, Humanity as it was Meant to Be.
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In any event, there you have it. That's my "headcanon" regarding the Affinities.
I'm sure you have your own.
Each affinity can lead a civilization to a dark path or a happy ending.
One civ could practice Purity as you described it, being careful not to surrender itself to mad science while also respecting transhumanism and trying to preserve as much of the native environment as possible, but another could persecute transhumans and go full steamroller on the planet's forests. The Promised Land victory works either way.
Supremacy could be the Borg, with the Emancipation victory being the final assimilation. But it could also be the affinity that ultimately lets humanity reclaim the Earth, withstanding its polluted environment as easily as that of the new planet. As with Purity, having a mixture of other affinities would also help to sell the idea that this civilization is not that forceful.
My headcanon encounters a problem with Harmony, because the Transcendence victory is a big "**** you Earth!" however you turn it, and feels even more forceful than Emancipation. That's why I would regard Contact as the true ending of Harmony. Whether or not they were right to put their trust in alien life remains to be seen.
I think I see what you mean.
My brother and I sometimes play the "Hotseat" mode (it's like multiplayer but you only need one PC), and he likes to go full-on Supremacy with a side of Harmony.
So affinity-wise, we are at opposite ends. We have some lively discussions about which one is "best" and why.
He sees 'my' Purity as "repeating the problems that got us in this mess" while I see 'his' Supremacy as "becoming the thing you hate".
But the one thing we have in common is that we both see how each Affinity can be seen as good and bad, sometimes in equal measure.
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Purity... the only sane group who remembers why we came here?
or Space-Nazi's who won't tolerate new ideas?
Supremacy... the only smart group who actually tries to find a solution?
or (like you said), the Borg in all it's horror in everything but name?
Harmony... the only considerate group who recognizes that we screwed up and now makes sure we don't ever again?
or a bunch of Space-Hippies who flip Old Earth the bird and get high on flowers?
It's certainly possible, especially on the easier difficulties.
One way I've found to stem the tide (heh) is to not spam cities, another is to change the game-pace to Standard or Epic instead of Quick.
If you're looking for a mod that tackles that, I can recommend the "AFFINITY AS YIELDS" mod.
In a nutshell, techs no longer grant Affinity points. Instead, your buildings and improvements grant Affinity points on a per turn basis; it's not what you *know* it's what you *do*.
So if you build lots of Domes and Terrascapes, you'll rack up Purity points; but if you dot the landscape with Nodes and Arrays you'll see your Supremacy score go up.
Your buildings can also generate Affinity points, and many of the quests are adjusted to accomodate that. As in, a Vivarium can be reconfigured for science (Supremacy) or health (Harmony), so you can customize what affinity your buildings will produce to an extent.
In my experience it's pretty compatible with other mods, so if you wish, go give it a try.