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Mundane Machines: Better Robot Balancing

For Stellaris 2.3 "Wolfe"

Mundane Machines is a balance patch that looks to tweak the numbers on robotic and machine pops and empires. After the slew of changes that came in 2.2, Machine Empires have had a steady rise in power that some feel is a step too far. This mod looks to change that.

• Robots and Machines now have a universal 80% Habitability for all worlds. There are always trials and tribulations to overcome when settling on a new planet; though far tougher than most organics, robots and machines still face these challenges.
  
• Added a new trait, Universal Compatibility. It costs 3 trait points and gives +20% habitability, returning Robots and Machines to their vanilla glory.
  
• Mass Produced now costs 2 trait points (was 1). Custom-Made costs -2 (was -1). They are still more impactful than their organic equivalents, but no longer obvious picks.
  
• Recycled is now a -50% Assembly Cost bonus (was -20%), and Luxurious is now a +50% Assembly Cost bonus (was 20%).
  
• Robots now have the full 5 trait picks like their organic and mechanical brethren.
  
• Robots and Machines can now be processed if your ethics and policies allow it, producing 3 Alloys per pop.

• Coordinators no longer produce 1 of each research. Instead, they produce 3 Engineering research. They still produce 3 Unity and increase Menial Drone Output by +1%.
  
• Replicators no longer produce Engineering research.
  
• The Machine Empire government type no longer gives a +10% Mining Station bonus. With their Nexus Hubs, Energy Grids, and Mineral Purification Plants, MEs are more than capable of extracting all the resources they need from the planets they colonise.

• Robot Assembly Plants now give 2 Roboticist jobs. Each job turns 6 minerals into 0.5 assembly (was 2). This makes them more equivalent to Healthcare Workers in efficiency.
  
• Machine Assembly Plants give 1 Replicator job. Each job turns 8 minerals (was 3) into 1 assembly. They no longer produce any engineering research.
  
• The Synthetic Megaplex is unlocked with the Synthetic workers technology for regular empires, or with the Synthetic Age ascension perk for machine empires. It costs Rare Crystals to maintain, but gives an extra 3 Roboticist jobs or 1 Replicator job, as appropriate.
  
• An empire that pursues the synthetic ascension path will receive a gradual +100% assembly speed bonus, returning their pop growth to vanilla levels. Roboticists in synthetically ascended empires also produce amenities.
  
• Colony Ship Shelters for synthetically ascended empires now have 2 Roboticist jobs, instead of 1 Colonist job and 1 Roboticist job.

For additional balance changes to improve Hive Minds, consider Mundane Machines Plus.


Due to the limitations of Stellaris modding, some vanilla files were harmed in the making of this mod. The files in question are:

• Specialist and Gestalt jobs, to alter the values of Roboticists and Replicators, and to tweak Coordinators.
  
• 04_purge_types, to allow empires to process Robots and Machines if appropriate.
  
• 00_species_archetypes, to give Robots 5 trait picks like everyone else.
  
• 02_species_traits_basic_characteristics, to give Robots and Machines a mere 80% base habitability.
  
• 05_species_traits_robotic, to tweak the values on Mass Produces, Custom-Made, Recycled, and Luxurious.

The vanilla files harmed in this mod are modal, and should not break anything if overwritten individually or as a whole.