Gonna write this here since there doesn't seem to be a proper spot to put it in the discussions. maybe the ideas thread but it's not so much as a new idea as rather a reworking of an existing one: the species modifier.

two modifiers seem odd to grab. 1st, the unhappiness one. I'm not even sure if it's actually possible to play with this modifier, as your people will instantly be in a faction and be revolting. rather than only masochists using this, I don't think anyone could reasonably use this. it doesn't counteract any bonus from other perks because it makes it unplayable. but that's only if you grab the worst tier, and technically you could argue that with that you know what you're getting in to. I take this back for reasons in the edit below

the 2nd one is the repulsive one. At first, I figured it was just a dissuasion thing - you -probably- don't want it since everyone and their mothers will hate you. this isn't a problem if you're pretty strong or like to gobble up the people nearby anyway. so I figured, "sure, I'll deal with everyone hating me right now since I can protect myself". I'll make no friends, but hey, that's nothing new. However, since fallen empires base their likes and dislikes on entirely different matters (only the xenophiles will get mad at purging, fanatic religious ones will actually applaud you lol, etc) and so typically aren't affected by the same things as everyone else or in the same manner.

I was wrong.

I met a xenophobic empire and he immediately demanded I apologize. not knowing what for, I checked the disposition and it was ~-125, 75 of that being because I was repulsive (40 more being because they were fanatical xenophobes, and 10 because I allow purging. even if I disabled purging, I'd still be at -115, which is past the breaking point for fallen empires, which is -100). naturally, at this point it's unplayable. I can deal with the other empires, but it's still early game, and I had cruisers at best. so I reloaded and avoided him while spamming research to get 5 trait points and remove it from all my people (including using console commands because this annoyed me). seeing as removing it from all my pops hadn't removed the repulsive debuff, I then waited for the 10-year-mark for the leader pool to refresh, fired all my leaders and hired new ones to replace them, and forced a re-election. turns out they've yet to fix the gene engineering bug (yes it's a bug, they've acknowledged that). it's much better - pops don't hate you or each other, they still generate leaders even without allowing xeno leaders, etc. but leaders were still only able to be your original pops, and I couldn't vote for anybody else.

since I already grabbed absolutely weak, infertile, and sedentary, there weren't any other negatives that were worth dealing with that could give me enough trait points (slow learners is fine but doesn't give enough, and I don't see the value in slaves so I'm not grabbing decadent). I could just forgo the -5 conformist and stick with the -2 conformist, but that's not the point. while having the option to make your people permanently PMSing or the entire universe be offended by your face is nice, as it makes the game unplayable, there's no benefit or counter-balance for it. making your people extremely weak sucks, but there are ways of coping with it, meaning you can forgo having a militia, be forced to rely on something else, gain benefits from other perks, and still have fun (throw enough people at another civ or research strong enough troops fast enough and the debuff won't hurt as much, then conquer someone else and use them as troops instead, or focus on robots and create a robo-corp, as they don't suffer from your debuff, but again you have to worry about religion and the scientific fallen empire [at least until the next update]). being extremely weak is a pretty bad debuff, but it's copeable. insulting fallen empire's ancestors just by being near them is not.

well, ok, the happiness thing can be somewhat dealt with by picking a direct democracy or theocratic republic for that +5% happiness bonus, so it's possible to survive the wrath of your own pops, but I see no way to fix the issues with this debuff other than removing it. as for the repulsiveness, if you could change it so that fallen empires don't get insulted by your existence it would change from being "unplayable" to being a "copeable inconvenience". that, or changing how much your disgusting mug pisses off other empires (it states -5% to other pops happiness, yet causes an un-specified -75 to displomacy). making it a -5/-15/-25 would be better than -15/-45/-75. or, again, simply getting rid of the option to not-have-fun since fallen empires are not fun to annoy 10 years in. if it's unplayable, it's not a good idea to let players think that it is, and being able to somehow avoid fallen empires until you're strong enough to eat them for breakfast does not make it playable, especially considering that you'll oftentimes meet them without venturing anywhere near them, making it entirely luck-based.

also, before someone says "if you don't like them then just don't use them" - I'm not gonna use them because I don't like them. but that's not why I made this. I made it because the mod gives an option that ruins the game in regards to the player not having fun with it. it's not a matter of "those who want a challenge" to use it, but rather that no one can use it, even those who "want a challenge". it's not a masochist's perk, it's a game-breaker, and that's why I brought it up.

EDIT: Wow, didn't know the word for "annoy" and "pee" was considered a cuss word, steam. I'll change those words so it doesn't look like I said actual cuss-words. also, I take back what I said about the unhappiness. I was under the impression that you start off with 50 happiness, but the capital world actually starts off with 60%. it's entirely possible to play with the worst unhappiness modefier. not the most fun to have, but 100% playable, as you can definitely build up some happiness before your empire revolts. well, if you're doing any of the legacies, anyway, but if you're grabbing the -25% happiness, you probably are. grabbing the happiness governments will provide your capital with a 40% to boot, so you won't suffer from any factions either (or at least I don't believe factions start up at 40%). my point with the other genetic modifier still stands, however.