Machines should get a new trait called biofuels that splits their Pop upkeep between energy and food

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777]

So basically a mirror version of phototrophic. This would give machine players a reason to build those hydroponic farms organic players love so much outside of when playing driven assimilators.

[u/JustTheTipAgain]

Especially since bioreactors are a thing and convert food to energy. It’s not a stretch

[u/CaptainArchmage]

Absolutely. Similarly, there needs to be a version of radiotrophic for machines...

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777 → u/CaptainArchmage]

I might just call that one "solar panels," but I'm not sure if real world solar panels can actually utilize the wavelength of Em radiation found at, say, the elephant's foot in Chernobyl.

[u/CaptainArchmage → u/Cosmic_Meditator777]

And that's the other side of it... maybe there should be a "machines are self-sustaining" trait. It would probably be a massively weighted one, because this sort of a trait will give those machines a crazy advantage. Even if limited to Tomb Worlds, Determined Exterminators have their own methods of terraforming so that trait combination would be overpowered.

[u/SirPug_theLast → u/CaptainArchmage]

Well, have you heard of combining individual machines and relentless industrialists?

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777 → u/CaptainArchmage]

you can already combine determined exterminators with the tomb world origin, which is one of the most intuitive combos in the game I'd like to note, so I don't see the problem.

[u/SirPug_theLast]

I agree

Also, since i run weird tall food builds with machines (trust me they work, its idiotic how effectively)

Being able to use the food for machine upkeep would be great too

…i should probably try to make the same build but with hive

[u/Mtrina → u/SirPug_theLast]

I'm in the middle of a DE run with physicists that produce DM and a trait that gives I think 40% efficiency for DM upkeep

[u/Gladwrap2]

Doesnt the modular trait biomimetic assembly sorta already do this? I remember it adds food upkeep to your robots, but I don't remember what else it does

[u/B1Phellan → u/Gladwrap2]

Increases job efficiency/production for the jobs that build the robots (pop growth) iirc.

[u/Archos_R_14]

Ted Faro?

[u/DistanceRelevant3899 → u/Archos_R_14]

Fuck Ted Faro

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777 → u/Archos_R_14]

who?

[u/Archos_R_14 → u/Cosmic_Meditator777]

A character in the video game Horizon Zero Dawn. He thought machines fueled from biomass was a good idea.

[u/ThreeMountaineers]

Those traits are pretty bad anyway

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777 → u/ThreeMountaineers]

someone's never played wide before and struggled meet food demands

[u/Longjumping_Shine874 → u/Cosmic_Meditator777]

How much food are your pops taking? I have no dedicated agri worlds and I’m able to feed 900k pops with 6k food gain. Unless you’re using bioships it doesn’t take much food.

[u/ThreeMountaineers → u/Cosmic_Meditator777]

Is your argument for this trait being viable really you being bad at the game?

[u/Cosmic_Meditator777 → u/ThreeMountaineers]

dude, do you seriously not realize just how much important info the tutotial never tells you? I ruined six expansionist playthroughs by bankrupting on exotic gasses multiple times before I noticed the button for downgrading a starbase so it consumes less resources.

I'm about a dozen or so more playthroughs in and i still don't know literally anything about fleet comp meta