As mentioned in a previous dev diary, devs are going to Buff the Backlog by adding some gameplay to the existing DLC. This time they talk about what additions are being made to the Plantoids Species Pack.
With the upcoming Lem update, Plantoids Species Pack is getting some changes that are focused on balancing out the power of the species with their intended theme and cost of that power.
Developers are adding 2 new Civics and 3 new Species Traits to the Plantoids Species Pack. The traits require the species to be either Plantoid or Fungoid.
One of the new traits added is Phototrophic, which is mutually exclusive with Radiotrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep.
The second one is Radiotrophic, which of course, is mutually exclusive with Phototrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep. It also makes it more beneficial for your Pops to live on Tomb Worlds, as their energy upkeep is removed.
The last, but not the least trait, is the Budding trait, which allows you to produce some pop assembly. Multiple Species with this trait can help provide pop assembly on potentially another species. For example, two species with the Syncretic Evolution Origin can together assemble one of the two. This trait can probably be especially great for a Hive Mind species.
Paradox Interactive
The case with the Civics is a bit different. Both of these new Civics are available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds. Only Idyllic Bloom requires you to be a Plantoid or Fungoid.
Catalytic Processing: This Civic lets you produce Alloys with Food instead of Minerals. Starting Districts have been adjusted to be balanced when using this Civic. Regular Empires and Hive Minds convert 9 Food into 3 Alloys. Machine Empires turn 12 Food into 4 Alloys.
Idyllic Bloom: This Civic lets you transform planets into Gaia Worlds by building Gaia Seeders and upgrading them. The Gaia Seeders have 4 phases, with the 4th and final phase triggering the terraformation of the planet to a Gaia World. Available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds, though, as said before, those must be Plantoid or Fungoid.
