Those perks should instead represent official government support for one of the paths, mandating cybernetic enhancements or meditations to the detriment of the other path (and thus maintaining the current system of requiring two ascension perks to fully embrace one of the ascension paths).Ģ: Pops are already able to modify their own traits in Stellaris, an example being pops adapting to different climate types than the main-line species inhabit once Gene Tailoring is unlocked. But Stellaris' gameplay and systems have developed further over the years and are continuing to do so, and I think it's now possible for the game to handle having cyborgs and psychics living in the same star nation without gimmicky methods (like the ever-popular "conquer cyborgs, modify your pops to have the same trait and then go psionic ascension path") or it being completely overpowered.ġ: Firstly, I would suggest uncoupling the Psychic (via the Telepathy tech) and Cyborg traits from the "Mind over Matter" and "The Flesh is Weak" ascension perks and, instead, making them part of the normal technology tree. It's pretty obvious that the ascension paths were made separate from one another for reasons of game balance and working within the framework of the existing ethics and pop systems that were present back when Utopia was launched. If I can be forgiven the obvious reference, the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40,000 is an example in which all three "ascension paths" of Stellaris live under one galactic state, albeit with some. While I can understand why this was done for game balance, it seems odd in-setting that you can't have a society where there are some who voluntarily embrace cybernetics, some who have awakened latent psionic powers through meditation, spiritualism and the Spic-er, Zro, I mean- and the government does not officially endorse or mandate either path. It's impossible to have cyborgs in your society unless the government mandates cybernetic implants, the appearance of psychics causes all cybernetic research to come to a complete stop, and developing advanced genetic engineering technology locks you out of both.
The Ascension paths added to the game back in Utopia are really fantastic and offer a lot of variety and choices when playing, but in my opinion there's one major flaw: the fact that the three big ascension paths are all locked out from one another.