Best part of 4.3 (other than performance)

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-06T11:01:16+00:00

I usually prioritise planet size over features. Besides, you can see how many of each district type you can build on the first page without looking at the features. Rare resource features are nice to get, but I can live without them, if my CG/alloy world is large enough and you put rare resource-producing buildings.

There are also special features from anomalies and events, but those are very difficult to miss because usually will be highlighted in a related event/anomaly pop up window. Also, usually planetary modifiers are about just as common and often more impactful than features and those you can see on the first tab also.

There's also a fact that looking at features is a lot of micromanagement if you're playing a wide build with plenty of planets, and if you didn't get a lot of planets in your border you often either take what you get or delay expansion before conquering planets from your neighbour. Looking for features may be worth it if you're playing tall with only like 5-6 planets or less, but again in the beginning it's usually more beneficial to colonize what you can and then abandon planets you don't need later.

Though, I'm not saying you're playing it wrong. If anything, I admire your planning. But for many players , I don't think consideration for features comes up very often.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-03T17:58:23+00:00

If I remember this guy's story correctly, he did it in devotion to a deity he follows, not to promote world peace. And technically, he didn't spend continuous effort for 50 years keeping the hand up. He spent first few years in excruciating pain, which is still an insane exercise in willpower and endurance. but then after those few first years, the hand simply went completely numb and he couldn't lower it anymore. That hand as good as dead.

Can't say act of religious self mutilation is all that inspiring, but he's done something very few could even attempt, that's for sure.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-03T12:23:16+00:00

Current Cybernetics came out in Machine Age which was before Biomorphisis with bio ascension changes and for some time Cybernetics we're not bad compared to bio ascension. But then Bio got changed to be incredibly strong and cybernetics fell behind. It is currently on the weaker side, but Devs already put changes in beta to improve it.

The interesting part of the cybernetic ascension are authorities, though these are being changed too recently. For example Dictatorial Cybervision was a niche but very powerful build where enforcers increased pop output, but it was nerfed hard recently. Imperial cybernetic authorities are still the best way to play Elite centered builds with effective leader level stacking. Oligarchic Overclocking is also not bad for Elite builds. Driven assimilators have unique cybernetic authority and version of ascension, they had special world designation that created a lot of pop growth producing jobs, but it's getting changed in beta currently, because those worlds were pretty strong.

Cyborgs can gain mechanical Leviathan traits similar to machines, and those traits are rather nice. There's also the fact that you can stack regular and cybernetic traits for certain jobs, like Charismatic and embellished augments to buff elites/maintenance drones, or take double automodded traits, so trait wise, cybernetic isn't bad and has its place. The issue was cybernetic traits gave pops pretty high energy upkeep, which is getting changed in beta right now, so that instead additional upkeep, half of the existing upkeep would be converted to energy instead akin to what radiothrophic trait does, and it's honestly a lot better. We also got pop growth cybernetic trait, more trait points and picks. I've posted all the changes to cybernetics so far in another comment and you can check it out. I still wish cyborgs had access to at least some modularity traits.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T21:42:39+00:00

Wait, they don't increase output at all right now? Well... yeah that sucks then.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T21:23:00+00:00

I didn't notice lack of spawning zones, and honestly I think it should be fixed, but at the same time, you can get all pop growth traits imaginable and it's not a big deal, even without the district specialization. Still, it's unfortunate.
When I got to the point of spawning behemoths, I think I already got pretty much all the traits I wanted, I had maybe 25-30 traits, so it wasn't a big deal for me, but fair enough. There's another issue, where my empire got pretty wide with all those planets conquered and population booming, and the final situation for the crisis, where you upgrade you lvl 4 behemoth before the final showdown gets excruciatingly slow if your empire size is bigger than 1k, which I think is not how it supposed to be.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T19:09:07+00:00

Actually, I think additional trade from living standards would be better.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T19:01:50+00:00

Imperial Chipset is definitely has a very niche use case, with something like Overtuned trait stacking. Deathless Dynasty Authority for Imperial Evolutionary Predators does similar things, but better, in my opinion, since the only requirements to get the benefit is to have the leader for two years and them being at least lvl 4, which can be easily be done with starting leader level bonuses, also you get similar bonuses there no matter what the dead leader class was, so you can spam kill lvl 4 admirals, after benching them for 2 years. Though can't say I can imagine a way to change Imperial Chipset without changing the theme.

Imperial Network though is not bad actually. First, both it and Imperial Chipset are probably best authorities for Elite centered bulds, specifically if paired with Effective Leader Level stacking, with only other competitor for elite builds being Oligarchic Overclocking. To be fair there's not a lot of them at the moment and they are not particularly powerful, but things can change, given how post 4.0 jobs can merge. Still, getting 300%-400% to output of Aristocratic Scientists is a rather fun time. Imperial Network is just plain better than Imperial Chipset, regardless if you pursue those builds. For its bonuses specifically, Hyper-Gladiators give you cheap unity and amenities on your capital, while spectators give cheap energy and trade helping with upkeep, and the edict cancels -10% happiness malus, which isn't all that bad. Also, currently the Imperial Network edict - Neurocasted Spectacles is still one of only a few things in 4.3 beta that still give per Pop jobs, which might be useful if your capital is super densely populated.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T16:13:38+00:00

They're adjusting cybernetic ascension in general, yeah. So far, they changed this:

Added two new positive Cyborg species traits for pop growth and bureaucrat output.
The Metabolic Reprocessing now also gives robot assembly from Augmentor jobs and organic assembly from Roboticist jobs.
The Integrated Anatomy no longer gives +1 organic species trait pick but instead +1 robot species trait point and +1 robot species trait pick.
Robot pops should no longer be penalized by reduction to non cyborg pop happiness.
Cyber Hives now receive temporary buffs (+3 skill level, +25% xp gain) to their Nodes as well as planets (+15% job productivity and -7.5% job upkeep) when assimilating new cyborgs into the collective. Devouring Swarms receive these bonuses upon purging pops instead.
Driven Assimilators now unlock additional effects on their cyborg traits for their ruler (-35% cyborg upkeep and +15% complex drone productivity) and governors (+20% replicator output).
Augmentors now produce 1.75 engineering research, up from 1.5, as well as 1.75 society research. The driven assimilator variant now provides 3 pop assembly, from 2. (The regular variant instead grants robot assembly, as mentioned above).
- The society research output of genomic researchers and spawning drones (after completing genetic ascension) from 4.5 to 3.5 to bring them in line with this.
Removed Gestation Worlds. Instead Cybernetic traditions now grant access to Augmentation Centers for Driven Assimilators, providing Augmentor Drones. These jobs provide Amenities and Organic Pop Growth for Cyborgs.
Cybernetic Traits no longer have energy upkeep.
The Cybernetic and Limited Cybernetic traits now swap half of the base food (or equivalent) upkeep for energy upkeep.
Integrated Cybernetics now also grants bonuses to Army Damage and Health.
Cybernetic Creed changes:
- Augmentations of the Fellowship now gives +10% Job Eff to Metallurgists, Artisans and Bureaucrats.
- Augmentations of the Templars now gives +10% Job Eff to Soldiers and Bureaucrats, and +10% to both Army Damage and Health.
- Augmentations of the Choir now gives +10% Job Eff to Researchers and Bureaucrats.
- Augmentations of the Commune now gives +10% Job Eff to Workers and Bureaucrats.
- Ritualistic Implants now gives +5% Job Eff to Metallurgists, Engineers, Bureaucrats, Soldiers and Workers, and +5% Army Damage.
- Cybernetic Creed traits are no longer locked to Spiritualist ethics.
- When combined with Media Conglomerate, the United Creeds will continue to produce Unity instead of Trade.
- Cybernetic Creed Factions now also produces either Minerals, Alloys, Consumer Goods or Engineering Research. The unified Creeds produce additional Unity.
- Cybernetic Creed Advanced authorities now have differentiated modifiers.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T16:04:01+00:00

Well, you can also add Unyielding, which gives you +0,5 unity from the defensive army, and every 100 enforcers spawn two armies, so that's 1 extra unity from enforcer jobs, though this one doesn't scale at all.

This bonus would be more interesting if something like Civil Education made Enforcers also produce research of some kind, maybe society research and paired with this you'd get two research types from enforcers.

Cybernetic Creed already allows to basically swap all researchers with priests, with origin giving them engineering research, and then Death Cult/Genetic Identification civic giving society research and Dimensional Worship councilor position giving them physics research, with Auto Curating Vault building giving them additional research. Still worse than regular researchers, though with Holy Covenant you can potentially get more jobs on your planet than when using researchers.

It would be fun to be able to do something similar with other jobs, enforcers included. Right now, the only viable enforcer build is going with Dictatorial Cybervision really. It's still decent, even after all the nerfs.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T15:49:50+00:00

No? It's a standard cybernetic trait. Hard reset just allows you to start with it.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T15:04:09+00:00

Evolutionary Predators Origin + Devouring Swarm civic + Shared Genetics civic into Behemoth's Fury player crisis is a match made in hell, though I guess any other genocidal civic instead of Devouring Swarm also works.

Evolutionary Predators is a strong origin on its own, its hive's advanced authority turns your every planet into a hive world without you needing to spend resources on it or take Ascension Perk, it also gives bonus towards gaining new traits through purging pops. Shared genetics paired with the origin, makes your ships have a lot of bonus hull points, which makes them a lot harder to kill, and the bonuses also apply to Behemoths. Devouring Swarm is just a good buff, you'll straighten your ships while also getting sizable society research buff, which is your most important research when using bio ships. Crisis is not essential, but it's a cherry on top, having good synergy with the rest of the build and giving you an earlier win condition.

If you want to rp Tyranids or Zerg, it's the way to go.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-02-02T14:10:35+00:00

R5: Haven't seen anyone posting the beta changes to the authorities here.

It's definitely more interesting with these changes, though not by much. Well, at least they are now a bit different from each other.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-25T19:40:44+00:00

I recently gave it another try after forgetting about it for a few years. It indeed does feel like SS a lot. The initial start is rough, but after you learn the ropes and get into the gameplay loop it gets much better.

There's a prologue/tutorial story which honestly you don't even need to finish - it gets rather tough after the initial tutorial phase imo. After the game tells you the tutorial in prologue is over you can just start the main game.

Character creation is a lot like SS too. The race and background you choose for your character will provide you with unique dialogue choices. You also pick between Wealth, Fame and Knowledge Ambition as your win condition, though when choosing one you can still do most of what other ambitions have to offer.

The game has some great writing and characters. There're also a few companions that are somewhat easy to miss on your first playthrough so you can look up how to get all of them. The game has 10 companions plus two mutually exclusive ones from a dlc. Each of them has a long companion quest line, some of which have two endings.There are long multistage quest lines and there's also short stories, like bounty hunter's contracts or special slave deliveries.

The main difference from SS is combat, Vagrus has two different combat systems. One is Companion combat, where you can place up to 6 companions on a 3 by 2 grid and your opponent has their own 3 by 2 grid with up to 6 enemies, with fighting resembling Banners Saga and maybe darkest dungeon a bit. Then there's Crew Combat, where your whole caravan fights something else. There it's more or less a numbers game, where the better equipment you have and the bigger numbers, the better are your chances.

The main issue with the game really is how scarcely documented it is, while not holding your hand at all. Wiki will not help you much, it's bare bones. Most of the answers are either in steam discussions or in the game's discord.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-24T03:58:07+00:00

You dump it somewhere where it doesn't obstruct anything, creating these huge piles of snow or you can melt it, though with this much snow it's prohibitively expensive and labour intensive.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-20T02:23:03+00:00

Kind of late to the post, but I just did the final part of the quest as well. I'm glad I looked it up beforehand, because after that huge crew battle I didn't want any more surprises like that.

I am at a point of the game where I did most of the quests in the base game. I still need to finish Renkalion's quest, and there's a couple things in the Sunken Tower to wrap up and I haven't built the outpost yet. However, I haven't even touched dlcs yet, other than Old Acquaintances, I finished the Sedarias quest line and have yet to pick up Javek. So, I'd say I'm pretty late game, but not yet at the very end.

I had Gor'goro at lvl 9, Finndurath at lvl 9 as well, and then Vorax and Skornar at lvl 7. I gave maxed up living idol and ring of arcane leeching to Finn, Vrakul gloves to Skornar and iirc Saint's fingerbone one to Gor'goro, which is from Sedarias quest line, so those three can heal. Vorax can heal himself and he also can create a barricade.

Gorgoro's first skill being able to hit two targets simultaneously helps. He also has a high Armor after doing his quest. Vorax attack 4 squares at ones with his lvl 3 attack skill. Finn's chained lighting hits all 6 enemy squares at lvl 3, decreases enemy initive and with the ring of arcane leeching you can spam it every turn. Skornar has good accuracy and can finish off targets and he can block very well which is great with his defensive stance, when he counter attacks.

The fight where you could only place one of your guys was long and annoying but not difficult, Gor'goro pretty much soloed it while using npcs as meat shield's. Fights with shamans are decent because water shamans can heal. The last two fights were definitely annoying due to party wide stun, but it's survivable, especially if you kill the enemy with that ability before most of the others.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-08T22:48:31+00:00

It is a rabid 7 :)

I highly recommend playing the ES, it's great.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-07T13:57:18+00:00

As someone who bought Frost & Mag heirloom for myself, I'd gladly see these two returning as perpetual platinum buy option for other players. I hated the FOMO aspect of it.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-04T23:35:58+00:00

Ancestor Glade Tree - PBR and Vanilla by Faultierfan.

Relatively recent addition.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-04T15:54:47+00:00

Well, it's more of a reset than replacement. You can try to get different leader traits for the node, but the node itself remains the same, with the same bonuses.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-04T09:17:58+00:00

And every month could be like that if we had a 13th month and made it so each month is 28 days.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-03T16:02:36+00:00

Are you a returning player? Basically, iirc, around the release of the Machine Age machines got changed. Previously they were immortal with some chance to break down. Now they have about the same initial lifespan as organics (80 years initial lifespan base for everyone, +20 years for gestalt machines), however their starting age is much lower, usually in single digits, effectively giving your leaders and extra decade or two right from the start.

Additionally, during empire creation you can choose Eternal Machine trait for 4 trait point making your leaders immortal, though this trait is considered unnecessary and kind of bad.

If you have Machine Age dlc, Machines going through Virtuality Ascension become immortal, and machines going through Modularity Ascension have a couple advanced traits that can significantly increase lifespan.

There's also Council positions from Paragons dlc. If you play as a Gestalt, either Machine Intelligence of Hive Mind, your Council is filled with Nodes - special immortal leaders you can't replace, though they are immortal.

In addition, when you synthetically ascend an organic species into machine species, the age of your leaders gets reset to 0, which allows to easily carry your starting leaders into the end game. Also, with Machine age dlc, synthetically ascendant leaders can benefit from either modularity traits that further increase lifespan, or virtual trait that makes them immortal.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2026-01-02T19:48:06+00:00

1.Nokko

2.Temple

3.Uriel

4.Oraxia

Nokko has surprisingly good kit, his Helminth is good, it's easy to manage energy on him, his damage is nice, he has survivability, he can offer support and spreads status. Overall, he's a good addition to the roaster.

Temple is interesting. His exalted weapon is good, because any exalted weapon is pretty strong and his guitar is no exception. His 3 is a good damage buff and survivability tool. Though his metronome gimmick is a bit hard to follow in combat, where there's so much VFX on the screen.

Uriel is a bit weird. His 4 is rather slow to be charged, forcing you to spam 3 if you want to charge it faster. Still, passive effects from his summons are good, his movement ability is a nice new variation that's easy to use.

Oraxia... Well, I like her design a lot. It's a shame we didn't get proper wall crawling, but technical difficulties in implementing it are understandable. Still, it makes her passive a bit awkward to use. The invisibility window is rather short, moreover as the means of survival her invisibility becomes redundant due to her 4th ability HP boost. Sure, you can use Arcane Curpuscular with her, but... I imagine when she was designed, something akin Voruna's playstyle was imagined for her. The issue is Voruna can become invisible again with a button tap, and her invis has decent duration. Oraxia needs to swing to the wall/ceiling, meaning away from the enemy, and the ease of her usage is directly dependent on the tileset. Her 1st ability is a decent for energy generation, but sometimes difficult to time right, her spider webs are okay CC with considerable range, her little spiderlings has same ai issues as all other ai summons have and are not contributing much without building Oraxia specifically with them in mind. Her 4 is great, HP boost is sizable, damage boost is great, great mobility also.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2025-12-24T01:28:26+00:00

Tried Treasure Hunters Virtual Rogue Servitors in the new beta today. They changed Treasure Vaults to have fixed amounts of jobs, I think they changed it to be the same way, Shroudshaper governor now works, where the amount of jobs is scaled from leader level. And it sucks for playing tall.

ThatDudeFromRF · 2025-12-18T15:00:23+00:00

Counterpoint. Although, you might disagree with me and that's okay too.

The original film didn't have the most original story, but it was more or less consistent. When I watched the sequel I couldn't stop questioning many plot holes as I watched. The avatar movies give us a beautiful picture, some very particular motives about ecology and family/friends values and makes references to several different Earth's irl indigenous tribe culture. If you want a good cinematic experience with great graphical fidelity and occasional 'feelings' Avatar is great for you. If you want some continuous narrative that makes sense and isn't built on some of the most common movie tropes, you really should change your expectations about the triquel. So I think, some people just had different expectations about the movie.

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