Does anyone else not like the subterranean civilization event chain? (2024)

The trick is to establish contact with them and then make the civilization angry by picking negative options, including accepting refugee pops.

That way you get extra subterranean districts, while also getting to integrate the species in your empire.

beepboopMKII said:

not cause I dislike genocide or anything

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That's pretty sus.

beepboopMKII said:

See Also

Subterranean refugee rapid breeders

not cause I dislike genocide or anything

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Spoken like someone that've never played a Paradox strategy game

Orphalesion said:

Wasn't there a way to exist peacefully with them? I seem to remember it that way. But in my most recent game the event suddenly prompted me to do that nerve gas thing and exterminate them, even though I was playing a xenophile empire.
I do wish there was some peaceful way to integrate them into your empire. It's weird that I can peacefully vassalize (and eventually integrate) pretty much every other one planet civilization that ascends to FTL, but I can't do that with the people who live under the feet of one of my colonies?

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the peaceful option is a trap, eventually they split into factions and you can't please both of them, so the other one will make more trouble for you. it's just easier to genocide them and not deal with their BS

amib said:

the peaceful option is a trap, eventually they split into factions and you can't please both of them, so the other one will make more trouble for you. it's just easier to genocide them and not deal with their BS

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But I don't do genocide.

I agree that the entire event line is utterly absurd.

Especially if you start peacefully but things go wrong - your society makes a 180 and goes full genocide. Then later you find "millions of frightened aliens" in a cave and literally the only option that you have as a non-slaver is to collapse the cave and kill them all. Like... what? Did the UN overrule the Geneva Conventions between now and 2200?

amib said:

the peaceful option is a trap, eventually they split into factions and you can't please both of them, so the other one will make more trouble for you. it's just easier to genocide them and not deal with their BS

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???

If you choose the peaceful option, you can keep them happy and enjoy your free half-merchants by just choosing not to make a fuss.

There's a single event where refugees come to you and you're forced to choose between making a diplomatic incident or sending them back, but if you choose to make nice with all the other events, you get away with it.

Abdulijubjub said:

???

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I'm fairly sure that's from an event mod.

Abdulijubjub said:

If you choose the peaceful option, you can keep them happy and enjoy your free half-merchants by just choosing not to make a fuss.

There's a single event where refugees come to you and you're forced to choose between making a diplomatic incident or sending them back, but if you choose to make nice with all the other events, you get away with it.

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I think you technically miss out on some society research if you accept the refugees (Xeno Anthropologist event condition), but otherwise yes- you have to harm relations twice for an invasion.

The refugee is generally going to be worth more. I don't remember if they now spawn with the cave dweller trait, but it used to be a reasonable way to get another biome species in your empire.

Abdulijubjub said:

If you choose the peaceful option, you
can keep them happy and enjoy your free half-merchants by just choosing not to make a fuss.

There's a single event where refugees come to you and you're forced to choose between making a diplomatic incident or sending them back, but if you choose to make nice with all the other events, you get away with it.

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Yeah see that's how I remember it. And I even always accepted the refugees, because I'm not gonna miss a chance to get another species into my empire. And there never were problems.
But it seems like since the last patch it just bee-lines to the poison gas event (which I never got before), even if you don't interact with them much at all....even if you are xenophile....

Orphalesion said:

But I don't do genocide.

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you don't have to genocide them, they don't force war on you, they're just an annoyance. if you don't mind dealing with their events you can just put up with them, but in my opinion just wiping them out and claiming their caverns for extra mining districts is better. i think you can still get the districts if you cooperate with them, i just find that path annoying.

Are we all talking about the same event chain?

The subterranean civilization has two (really three) choices:

• complete society research project and establish contact, letting you then choose between peaceful contact and war
• complete preemptive strike engineering research project, where they never invade you and instead you jump to ruthlessly genociding them all.
• wait for them to contact you (a chance of either war or bringing up the same dialogue as the society project)

If you wait for/declare war and then fight off the invasion, you get a lot of random events of them killing your armies, causing devastation, killing your pops, etc. until you complete the engineering research project to eliminate them.

The end result is one of two outcomes:

• one where you kill them all, get 3 special features which give you +6 max districts and +3 of each basic resource district, then a long-ish series of later events with some energy, another +3 max districts, and possibly some slaves.
• one where you get a contact zone special feature which gives you merchant-lite jobs (6 trade, but no CG upkeep), and an even longer series of events which always give you a binary choice between accepting some penalty (giving up a pop, taking a happiness penalty, giving up a pittance of food, giving up engineering research) or making them angry. There are also a few purely positive events where you get society research or minerals. And if you make them angry twice, they invade (war) anyway.

There's no option where you get extra districts through peace (unless it's brand new), they don't force you to choose between two factions (other than the refugee thing, at least), and AFAIK you can just ignore them even after they declare war (losing a few pops/armies/etc. from time to time), since they're a mostly impotent pre-FTL civilization.

Side note: ignoring them, letting them invade, then just sitting on the engineering research project lets you wait to get the special features and hence +9 districts after you encase the planet. If you do it before encasing, only the +3 modifier sticks around, so doing this gets you 6 extra districts for an absolute monster of an ecumenopolis, if you so choose.

I really don't like just how... evil the option after they declare war is. There's no "invade and occupy them so they stop killing you", only "let them keep killing you without reprisal" or "fill the tunnels with nerve gas, crush their pathetic artwork under foot, laugh at the rotting corpse of their pathetic 'emperor' on its throne, and execute their mewling survivors". Learning that it has exactly the same events, even as a pacifist xenophile (with no option for re-establishing relations) was certainly a disappointment.

This event is very old, I remember seeing a version of it before the FTL types changed, and it's not really been updated story wise since.

A lot of the older events are like this, where nothing other than your in event choices matter, not your empire type, ethics or civics.

Mechanically it's received exactly enough attention to keep it functional with the planetary changes since it was added.

Kinda wish the custodian team would take a look at some of the older content, as stuff like this is very common.

Heck, make the next expansion another distant stars, with a focus on new and interesting events, with some polish for the old ones.

The exploration is what really sets this game apart from most grand strategy, and it's arguably the game's best aspect, it could do with some more love.

I always remember a fun fanatic pacifist inward perfection game I played years ago when this event shows up.

Never were xeno slaves more welcome.