Is it a specific AI thing that Ashdar AIs like to enslave Gremak? I've noticed in a couple of games that Ashdar AIs will have everybody free... except for a slave class of Gremak from some Gremak conquests. (Also, are they capturing Slave Collars tech from the Gremak, is that what's allowing it? I've never captured that tech while fighting Gremak, but it might be faction-restricted for Phidi. Maybe.)

nweismuller wrote:Is it a specific AI thing that Ashdar AIs like to enslave Gremak? I've noticed in a couple of games that Ashdar AIs will have everybody free... except for a slave class of Gremak from some Gremak conquests. (Also, are they capturing Slave Collars tech from the Gremak, is that what's allowing it? I've never captured that tech while fighting Gremak, but it might be faction-restricted for Phidi. Maybe.)

Yes. It's working more or less as intended: Ashdar will enslave Gremak if they get the chance. Though I'm surprised it's happening consistently. I wonder where they're getting the Slave Collar tech from? I think there's a chance they could pick it up by capturing a bunch of Gremak planets at some point in their history... But there's no faction restriction on capturing techs as a result of planet conquests -- your Phidi should have as good a chance of getting Slave Collars that way as the Ashdar.

Well, it's been two games so far; maybe the Imperials (first time I saw it) and Colonials (second time I saw it) just got lucky with tech capture. This raises the question, are there any other special behaviors with slavery factions have? (I can imagine Phidi are scripted to free slaves by default, for instance.)

That's a nice immersive touch that the Ashdar do that.

Noticed that the AI move races around a lot more. Do the AI purchase slaves from the slavers? That's usually how I get key races. But I set mine free.

One thing that isn't quite clear is what the purpose of enslaving pops actually is. It penalizes their yields across the board. It upsets everyone, including your own people, unless you're Gremak (because Gremak have no empathy!). There doesn't actually appear to be any actual BENEFITS. You'd think it would at least improve their use as labor, but no, it penalizes that, too.

Is there any purpose for this beyond "For The Evulz"?

The chief benefit to slavery is that you can force people to work for you who otherwise wouldn't. Normal colonists stop producing yields when they become discontent, but slaves keep working.

The secondary benefit is that you can do inhumane things to slaves that you can't do to free people, like work them to death for a labor boost, or perform scientific experiments on them for research.

Is there any reason to enslave content people who would work for you freely? Of course not. A free worker is always going to be more productive than a slave. Slavery was included as a mechanic for the Gremak who have specific traits that help them take advantage of it (and who were supposed to have more alien morale problems than they currently do). It's available to anyone if you have contact with slavers, as we don't want to prevent the player from doing whatever his black little heart desires (within reason), but it's not meant to be something that otherwise benevolent players have any incentive to use.

You'd also think that, given the animosity between the Ashdar and Gremak, and the Ashdar AI's willingness to thus abuse the Gremak so, that this wouldn't actually be a form of mild footbullet: Doing so will actually annoy your Ashdar pops. Shouldn't they react positively to this, if this is a thing they want to do? Right now the AI's behavior is just entirely self-destructive instead of a mixed bag.