I'm on my third game as the Vodyani, and all the minor factions I encounter seem... alright with me harvesting their pops of their essence. Even while I have ships in orbit leeching vast amounts of their pop, they act like nothing's wrong. My reputation with them is even increasing thanks to my influential Praise.

Is this working as intended? Are the Vodyani sneakier than I give them credit for? Or should minor factions declare War against you for harvesting their essence?

There is no diplomatic impact on leeching essence from minor in this patch. Dunno if it do with major but they going to shot my ship down fast so i don't even try. It probably unintended but if you over-drain them, their pop went down to 0 and you need to wait for them to re-populate again.

Hey

Yeah we noticed that on our end too and we were discussing of various possibilities to make leeching a minor faction more meaningful and have a larger impact on the diplomacy with the minor!

Nothing is decided yet, but it'll probably be adjusted for release.

Cheers, 

WeaponizedCaffeine wrote:

Hey

Yeah we noticed that on our end too and we were discussing of various possibilities to make leeching a minor faction more meaningful and have a larger impact on the diplomacy with the minor!

Nothing is decided yet, but it'll probably be adjusted for release.

Cheers, 

Factions of the population can be absorbed through the diplomatic path to the ark, this is considered a bug?

WeaponizedCaffeine wrote:

Hey

Yeah we noticed that on our end too and we were discussing of various possibilities to make leeching a minor faction more meaningful and have a larger impact on the diplomacy with the minor!

Nothing is decided yet, but it'll probably be adjusted for release.

Cheers, 

Hopefully the exact mechanics are explained better as well. It's taken me 3 games to really explore/grasp the best ways for Vodyani to gain essence. There was no explanation of what exactly would happen if I assimilated a minor faction, or that I get Essence from slowly destroying other colonies. Moreover, the quantity of essence gained from certain actions seems... off. Why do I get 50 essence per turn from relatively small-impact Leechers, yet only get 10 essence per turn from minor faction tributes and ripping conquered colonies to shreds? It's making the Vodyani a hard race to learn.