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Game play notes 6
When you select infiltrate on the observation post a timer starts counting down. If everything goes right it takes like maybe 2 years, honestly if you CAN assimilate primitives, you really should. Its not that long to go through and then you don't have to deal with the penalties of stellar shock. Of course it doesn't always go cleanly and not every species is industrial or higher...
Yes that name is what you think it is
Claims cost influence and there are several different factors that effects price. The further from your sectors the more it costs, if the sector has a station above outpost its more expensive, if there is a colony, etc. If you try claiming during an offensive war the price will double. Then there are things that reduce costs, like being a militarists, certain techs and perks, but also being rivals will make them cheaper.
The timing of this is absolutely hilarious. I've only experienced this a few times but its always resulted in terrorists. If you let them through the planet they go to will get a penalty applies to it and some devastation.
While bombarding a planet you can set your fleets policy on bombarding. Selective is a weaker form of bombardment but wont kill pops as quickly and will straight up be unable to kill pops when they're below 21. When there is no more military defenders on the planet the bombardment stops.
Indiscriminate will do far more damage to both armies and pops, as well as inflict more devastation. It will stop killing pops at 11, but will continue bombarding after the defenders are wiped to cause more devastation fi you wanna be a dick.
If you're a more genocidal empire you can get an annihilation bombardment that will absolutely fuck everything up so much it can turn the world into a tomb world.
Now I did think about invading the home world just to humiliate the AI, but they had a LOT of troops on the capital (funny that) and I didn't want to spend a bunch of time getting a bigger army. When you start capturing territory the AI goes nuts in recruiting armies to fortify their planets, you gotta bombard them to make it so they can't recruit more troops. And if you leave a bombardment half done the defenders replenish silly quick.
There is a tech called Experimental Subspace Navigation that lets science ships jump to sectors you have some intel on. They go MIA for what can be an absurdly long time. and eventually arrive at their destination. Its useful if someone is blocking access, but this can't be used to jump into a sector you wouldn't be allowed in the first place.
Now the reward for this, one was +10% energy from jobs for 5 years. The other was... 250 physics research. We are currently getting over 750 a month 
Sometimes your universe will contain a "home sector" of the different space species. There will be several larger groups patrolling the sector and sometimes they have some neat stuff in them. For example, the Tiyanki has a Tiyanki graveyard planet on it. Though that last one is a mod added thing. I *think* if you were to have an outpost in a sector bordering this one there will be occasional attacks by the amoebas?
Sadly it isn't as easy as just getting the sector with the ring world, we also need to get the mega-engineering tech. Now that the world is in our space it should have a higher chance of being spawned. Not only that but a few of the mods I got adds research and other perks that adds more research alternatives and I'm drawing like 7 techs every research. Soon, hopefully!
A HUGE advantage to Cybrex precursor (hey, remember those? Still haven't found any for the Yuht!) is that you can spend some artifacts to get the secrets of the cybrex, which lets you unlock the mega-engineering research. Sure its a hella expensive tech and you're gonna wait a while to get it. On the other hand, its always there waiting to be researched.
But yes, 10k alloys and then a full 10 year wait. I'll be grabbing a few things that will reduce cost and time while waiting for mega-engineering
Now THIS was a surprise! Holy shit, not just a planetary computer but an orbital arcology! The arcology adds more districts to the world, again this was a really great building to have before they dramatically reduced pop growth. Maybe I should stop building up planets and only worry about a core that I resettle pops into.
This is also a pretty cool thing to find. When I get the tech I can build one up cheaper than it would normally cost, also for titan class ships I need to get a shipyard with a specific module built on it.
See this right here? While it worked out fine now, once one of your federation mates decides they like someone you plan to attack and gives them association status... In fact I had to decline a few that the Kelbrid were trying to hand association status onto.
Tiyanki are cool and chill and you are a monster for ever wanting to attack them.
This is a modded event, want to know what stuff happens to planets in vanilla? Pretty much fuck all! Its nice that there are events to keep going when the anomalies dry up.
When you change species, both organic and robotic, you need to dedicate a research division (engineer for robots, society for organic) to alter the pops. Depending on how many pops and how many planets you're changing will determine the cost of the project. There is a floor on points though, so even if you do just 1 pop it still might take some time.
Now for the traits, normally robots come in with just the mechanical trait, giving them their great habitability. When creating templates for species you have so many points that you get from research and perks, and you can have 5 traits total. For robots you can freely add and remove beneficial and negative traits, so even if you have just 2 traits you can throw some negative traits on them to get more points. For organics you can add only beneficial, but with some research and ascension in biologic perks you can add negative and remove positive. Now for the traits I changed around:
Effecient Processors give a flat +5% to job resources. I believe this is anything that is direct, like consumer goods or minerals. But nothing abstract like amenities, trade value, research, etc.
Regenerative Alloy gives a -17.50% reduction in robot upkeep, aka energy.
Enhanced Cooling provides +10% alloys from jobs, which is nice. While this is a general build I'm going with, I figure the vast majority of planets I'll throw the occasional industry district to keep up on consumer goods, and the androids can take the metallurgists jobs. Maybe. I can't manually change jobs and I don't think the game will change jobs that are already filled.
Identifying Gems increases pop assembly cost by 27.50%. Which is maybe an extra half of an alloy a month? And since not every planet has a robotics factory... yes this isn't that bad of a penalty to take.
I'm waiting for full bioengineering ascension before I go crazy with making super specialized pops.
Every time the traitor event popped I had to play it all the way to the conclusion (you kill him by bombing him with a military ship and your other agents take over a news station to report an asteroid hit him), never had the annexation finish until that happened. Maybe he caught a bullet in the first world war 
I can't believe its taken nearly 50 years to find a fallen empire. One. Of 3. The remaining 2 are either in the far north or somewhere in the west.
Fallen Empires are incredibly swole empires that do nothing for the vast majority of the game. Sometimes they might ask you for a favor, but on the whole they don't do anything until like 2350ish. They don't just have endgame tech, they have unique tech. Their planets also have unique buildings that you cannot make yourself. No, I didn't even install mods to let me do that, but I should 
Not only did it take so long to find a fallen empire, but to find a raider faction. And they're deep in Gurite Hive space, completely surrounded, which is kinda funny. They spawn in owning 3 sectors, each with a decently strong fleet and many outposts in each sector that will take a lot to take out. They are always hostile, but you might be able to sneak around their ships and outposts into other hyperlanes. There is no regular diplomacy with them, but occasionally they will message you demanding a tribute of energy cells, minerals or food. You can hire them to raid one of your rivals/war targets, likewise they can do the same to you. If you are targeted by these raiders you might get an offer to pay instead of having the raid happen. Oh and you can hire an admiral from them, who has a unique trait that gives a boost to evasion and ship fire rate.
I'm also surprised it took so long for the galatic community to start forming. Whats that? Maybe next update
Looking at what we can see here, there is an open space above the Conclave (north center) and all that unknown space in the west. Somewhere in those spaces are another 2 fallen empires and a marauder faction. There should also be another empire or two somewhere in there.
Oh and I want to point out, in the 4 o'clock position, next to the green faction (those are the caravaners btw). Left of that green faction, between Wulhubb and Spuxulac space is actually another faction. These poor schmucks spawned in a single sector that is bordered by wild space. I think space amoebas kept them stuck in place and they never expanded out of that one space, they're now subordinates of the Spuxulac.
Cormaggas III has Wondrous Planet for that +10% happiness and +100% migration pull, high quality materials for +1 mineral per miner and +2 mining districts as well as 2 new modifiers:
Resilient Parasites gives -10% habitability and a whopping +80% pop food upkeep. Thankfully this can be cleared out
Annexation Fever gives +30% happiness to the planet for a very long time, maybe as long as stellar culture shock's 11 years? And there is no penalty preventing you from moving the pops across planets.
The Lava Lake planetary wonder produces 6 exotic gas by itself AND has gas refiner jobs produce an extra 50% gas. There are jobs that turns minerals into the rare minerals, if you find yourself lacking space deposits. There is a refinery designation that increases the output of these jobs. As such this planet will be where I refine gas.
The Suramo species is a simple +15% engineer research and +25% experience gain.
Naff'Gaun was made just so I can get the colonies in the east under one district. Districts extend from 4 sectors from the capital in any connecting sectors. Beyond the governor's traits applying to all planets in the district, higher leveled governors will reduce crime, empire sprawl from pops and gives bonus to resources from jobs. This is why I still have Sisalin around instead of giving her the boot, a flat +10% to resources across 6 planets isn't something to ignore. 5 is currently the cap, I should pick up some traditions that up their level cap...
There is only 1 modifier (well besides resilience) that adds something to the habitat, Underground Cave System. It adds +5% minerals from jobs and +2 max districts
This planet has long underground cave systems that could easily be converted into usable space and access for mining operations
So yeah, even for planetary habitats it is a good idea to check out what the celestial body offers before plopping one down. Might actually be the deciding factor between a planetary habitat and a regular space one that wont get these bonuses.
Oh and the line about getting the western sectors in one sector requiring removal of an outpost? Yeah that wasn't a joke. Frustratingly you cannot remove a planet from a sector and make it its own sector, so I had to remove an outpost to disconnect Naff'Soao, make it a sector and then rebuild the outpost.
I'm not sure if Soao V's terraforming (spoilers!) will finish next update, but the western governor is Dov'gil who has the Retired Fleet Officer trait that gives +20% build speed and -10% cost for ships made in her sector. Hrm... actually I should swap her and Sisalin around, considering the east sectors has the starbase with the Yuht shipyard bonus.
A rather big bonus of nabbing planets from other empires is that they will have a good amount of pops on the planet, instead of growing your own. Taking this and I got an extra 20 pops contributing to the empire. The pro strat of Stellaris is pretty much "spam alloys and take over the nearest capital system". But I don't do things meta. Anyways this planet has Docile Fauna, which gives +5% habitability and happiness and +10% society research from jobs.
This world has evolved extremely docile and friendly fauna, and the surface is rife with curious friendly creatures that are easily domesticated. Their biology and kind demeanor offers great research opportunities
An unintended negative with this current play through is that sometimes the AI will remove blockers from planets.
Davassa IV here has the Flat Terrain modifier which reduces building costs by 60%. However minerals from jobs are reduced by 30% and there are -6 max mining districts
The terrain on this world is mostly flat
Talk about a complete and utter blue balling 
Let's go off the positives with the planetary modifiers. Planetary Computer gives a whopping +100% to all three research divisions.
This planet is a single colossal computer, and therefore provides massive buffs to research.
Orbital Arcology gives +4 max generator and agriculture districts as well as +8 max districts in general.
Space provided by the orbital arcology allows some energy generation, as well as food production
Sharp Architecture reduces mineral costs for buildings by 30%
Most of the infrastructure on this world is designated with function over form. Sharp corners, vast flat surfaces and unappealing colors may not be aesthetically pleasing to look at, but serve their function nonetheless.
There are only 4 districts available here, 2 of them are the same industrial and city districts as every other planet and you're a fool, a nimrod, if you build these. The two unique districts are the Research Laboratory and the Administrative Node, both of which provide 5 housing and either 5 researcher or bureaucrat jobs. Its a planetary computer, put research districts only you dolt! This has the bonus of expanding your research without having to use exotic gases, which are needed to upgrade research labs. This is actually a strategy with habitats in vanilla, you build them over a space resource that provides research which lets you build research districts. More scientists without the need for gas.
Now let's talk about the carpet being dragged out from under us: The Planetwide Rogue AI which gives a -25% penalty to resources from jobs, -10% happiness and -30% max districts.
A hostile and millennia-old rogue AI resides within the labyrinthine planet-spanning databanks of this planetary computer complex
Oh but its not just that, see several blockers have been added. Three are Rogue Processor Arrays which requires a large amount of alloys to remove. Even with our perks, Ecological Engineers and One with Nature, providing a 55% reduced price its still gonna be around 3.6k alloys and nearly 2 years to remove. Oh and we can only remove one at a time and this uses up our build queue. With the harsh construction time trying to build anything will take far more time, time that could be removing these blockers. The other is Corrupt Code, which costs 2.25k energy credits and there is four of them.
So whats the problem? Well the arrays, when combined, give a -75% penalty to growth speed. It is going to take 130 months to get a single pop grown here. Then there is slowing down build speed by 75%, -15 stability, -6 districts and +150% district costs. Disregard what I'm building in the screenshot, I cancelled it and told the colonists to remove those arrays.
Corrupt Code, when combined, gives.. -100% research speed, and -4 districts. Yep, they completely negate the bonus from the planet. Still lower priority right now.
Naff'Fujj is the district for our northern planets and governor Gabb has the intellectual trait which gives a +10% bonus to all research. Shame there will be no research on that planet for like a decade 
Talk about a kick in the nuts. Now onto the other empires that have been found:
The Citizen State of Gir-Zana is the USSR. Their civics are:
Shadow Council, which has their administrators provide an extra 2 stability each. They also spend 75% less influence in electing their ruler, get +10% resources from ruler pops and +1 to codebreaking.
Citizen Service has their military academies produce +2 unity and the Battle Praxeum produces +4 unity. They also get +25% naval capacity, -15% war exhaustion and +10% army upkeep
War Engineers provides a +5% chance to hit, +1 sensor range, +10 tracking, +10% ship weapons damage, +5% shield hit points, +10% sublight speed, +10% evasion, +25% to research speed for propulsion and particles and +15% ship costs
Their traits are Charismatic which provides +20% amenities from jobs
Adaptive, giving +10% habitability
Bloodthirsty, giving a 17.5% penalty to unity from jobs, -15% army morale and +15% army damage
Translucent Skin which gives +15% army health and +2% habitability.
Their origin is Pursuit of Genetic Improvement which starts them with the Gene Tailoring tech researched and gives +15% materialist ethics attraction.
The Uva-Xavani is supposed to be an empire that is protective of other empires. Well, I guess it kinda is: We DID attack another empire after all! The civics are:
Syndicalism which has mining, farming, generator and industrial districts provide +1 housing but increase their upkeep by 25%. They get a labor hero every 12 pops who produce energy, minerals, food and unity. Their worker pops also produce an extra 15% resources. They are obligated to live under the social equality living standards
Functional Architecture replaces their luxury residences with communal housing, which provides more housing but less amenities. They also get a 15% reduce cost for buildings and districts, +15% building speed and +2 building slots
Interventionism which makes their defensive pacts and guarantee independence (a one way defense pact) not cost any influence. They get access to the Interstellar Military Coordination Center which gives a bonus to naval capacity, diplomace weight from fleet, trade protection and spy network size depending on the number of unique species in the empire. They also get +100% bonus to federation naval capacity contribution, +20% federation space speed, +25 federation fleet cap, +25% diplomatic weight from fleet power, +15% infilration, spy network and opreation skill and a +30% to influence claim cost
Their traits include wasteful which increases pop goods upkeep by 10%
Fleeting, reducing leader lifespan by 10 years
Natural selection which gives +12% pop growth speed, +7% habitability and reduces leader lifespan by 15 years
Pyrokinetic which gives a +5% bonus to alloys from jobs and +30% army damage.
Their origin is Wave of Refugees which gives them an extra 6 pops of another species.
The Republic of Kesh-Suras are all about expanding and colonizing. Their civics are
Natural Heritage, which gives bonuses to blockers that provide worker strata jobs and housing. They also get unity and amenities. This is opposite to what we have, where we just get resources from blockers, no need to work them.
Star Settlers start with the Galactic Ambitions tech (+2 starbase capacity) and their colonists will provide +10 unity. They also get +5% habitability, -15% to outpost build costs, +1 extra pops on new colonies, -25% colony ship build cost, +33% colony ship build speed, +50% colony development speed, -10% to starbase upkeep, +25% new worlds research speed, +15% voidcraft research speed and +15% emigration push
Peaceful Commonwealth, which starts them with the heritage site tech (second tier unity building that no one builds). They also get +1 culture worker, medical worker and artisan job every 25 pops, their culture workers output 10% more, a +15% bonus to energy credits, +20% administrative capacity and -25% army damage
Their traits are Starbon, which gives +25% pop growth from immigration, -25% resettlement cost and +10% habitability.
Rapid Breeders which gives +10% pop growth speed
Devourers which increases pop food upkeep by 22.5%, reduces food from jobs by 10%, increases army collateral damage by 20% and assault army damage by 20%
Vampiric which increases amenities usage by 15%, leader lifespan by 15 years as well as army damage and morale by 22%
Their origin is Starborn which, beyond giving the trait, gives a free colony ship at the start and gives a unity bonus for colonizing new planets.
Kalaxenan TransStellar are the other corporation that I made. They are effectively Space America, pumping trade value and slavery. Strangely fun to play, just capture everyone and make them into clerks. Their civics are:
Indentured Assets which provides +10% slave resource output, -25% costs on buying slaves on the market and requires 35% of their pop be slaves, including species that aren't explicitly set as slaves.
Ruthless Capitalism which requires them to live under the stratified economy living standards. Their capital buildings will replace some administrator with mogul jobs, the galactic stock exchange provides more mogul jobs and increases the planet's trade value by 5% and they get a mogul job every 25 pops. Their moguls also increase the planet's energy and mineral outputs by 7% each. They start with the planetary power grid technology (building that gives a bonus to technician energy output). Finally they get +10% slave resource output, -25% slave costs on the market, -5% worker happiness, +15% crime and must have 25% of their pops enslaved. I think the higher amount required by indentured assets overrides this.
Slave Race starts 12 of their pops as another species with a slave gene trait which improves resource output and army damage but reduces pop growth speed and they cannot take any jobs beyond worker strata. They start with the genome mapping (more trait slots) and neural implants (species with this trait are not effected by happiness) techs. They get a +15% society research bonus, -15% modify species costs and... they can get society research from eating xenos 
Their traits include Thrifty, which gives +25% trade value from jobs (someone has to be a mogul after all)
Deviants which gives a -15% penalty to government ethics attraction
Aristocratic which gives a +2.5 ruler happiness and -17.5% penalty to worker and slave happiness
Aerobatics reduces pop amenities usage and housing usage by 5%, increases habitability by 5% and army morale by 10%
Sadists require 7% more amenities for pops, -10% happiness for slaves and +7.5% happiness for everyone else.
Their origins are Planetary Habitats, where they start with 2 planetary habitats in their starter sector, along with their capital world.
The Shazarak Interface is, well they are supposed to be a more warlike, hostile machine faction. But they aren't supposed to be driven exterminators like they are in game. I guess they changed their civics midgame to be that, I thought DE was something you had to pick at start. I took them off DE because anyone else had an open wargoal with them, and its a unique one where instead of occupying sectors you just took. So they were always getting their asses kicked every single game I played when they were AI controlled.
So, the civics they SHOULD be having: Corpse Processor will add a policy that can basically necrophage organic pops when they are purged.
Fleet Tactics AI gives them +10% ship fire rate and +20 fleet command limit
Microbot Architecture gives them 100% refund on demolishing buildings and districts, +20% planetary build speed, -10% building and district.
Their traits are Double Jointed, which reduces pop housing usage by 10%
Enhanced Cooling which gives +10% alloys from jobs and reduces pop upkeep by 5%
Handcrafted which reduces pop assembly speed by 25%
Their origin is Dormant Core, which gives them a machine world as their starter planet, which provides a boatload of bonuses already, but gets even further bonuses in special tile blockers, deposits and events to buff them further. I really don't know how they get slapped around so much.
For the other empires mentioned in the update but not talked about here? Didn't make them. There is still 1 more faction out there and I'm really hoping they're still out there 