Once again, we’ve been gifted another informative dev diary from the folks working on Stellaris, and this week it’s all about pre-sentient species and the fun you can have at their expense.
There is an idea in Stellaris that has you “uplifting” species from the primordial goo that is early life. As you start exploring the galaxy you will inevitably come across planets with simple life already inhabiting it. Defenseless and weak you say? Anyways, some of these “pre-sentient” species are already on their way to becoming intelligent, organized life within a few million years — we don’t need to wait that long, do we? Instead, you can give those cute little creatures a sentience boost and have them up and running within a few short years. Once your little petri dish of life has started to rapidly accelerate in technology and organization, your civilization will be in an excellent position to shape that species in whatever way you like.
Goosecreature explains a little more about the way uplifted species can be used in Stellaris:
Perhaps they are looking for a hardy species to serve as shock troops in their ground armies, or industrious workers that are skilled at mineral extraction. Uplifted species are also frequently used as colonists, to settle worlds with climates that are unsuitable to an empire’s dominant species.
As your genetic experiment continues to evolve, you might find yourself wondering how to play as God(s) even better. Once your technology has progressed enough in a certain direction, you will have the ability to manipulate the genetic code of your citizens. Even more interesting is the fact that your citizens can, at some point, modify their own genetic code if they are living in a particularly adverse environment.
If you let your genetically modifies peoples, also know is GMPs, go too far, you will probably end up with a completely new sub-species. Goosecreature states, ” I can tell you that once you have modified yourself and your family to better deal with the cold, it can be very tempting to also increase your strength, or your fertility, or whatever else you think will give you and your kin an edge in a cold and uncaring galaxy.”
There might even be a point where your deeply altered subspecies, that you’ve cradled like a frail child from day 1, might turn against you. Damn them all! Now a rift might form between the parent species and their sub-species because of apparent differences in their genetic code — possibly leading to a prolonged genetic war of supremacy. It will be interesting to see if your altered sub-species can also colonize and have break off versions of their genetic code as well…
So, will you be altering the genetic code of a chosen species in Stellaris? Let us know in the comments below.
