Rise up against the meatbags in Stellaris' Synthetic Dawn DLC this month
Borg off!
Paradox Interactive have, unfortunately, shed their fleshy shells and embraced the ways of the machine, and they're now slyly spreading pro-robot propaganda through the latest DLC story pack for Stellaris [official site], Synthetic Dawn. It'll let you make all manner of machine societies when the singularity begins on September 21.
The last expansion, Utopia, gave players the ability to transform an organic race into a synthetic one over time, but Synthetic Dawn will come with customisable robotic races right from the get-go, along with new species portraits, voiceovers and empire types.
If you fancy conquering the galaxy as a race of intelligent machines, you'll be able to create and play against three broadly different types of new empire. The Determined Exterminator empire is made up of nutty robots who rose up against their creators, murdering them. They hate organic life and exist only to purge the universe of every fleshy creature. The Driven Assimilators are essentially the Borg, travelling the galaxy in an effort to assimilate all organic beings into their hive mind. The last type, the Rogue Servitors, are super-helpful droids who just want to make life easier for people, running their government and taking care of them.
Expect a new type of Fallen Empire, too. Powerful machine-based Fallen Empires can spawn at the start of the game or appear after a robotic revolution. They want to protect all organic life, which sounds lovely, unless they decide that you're a threat to their objectives.
I'm especially excited about the Driven Assimilator empire -- I've been wanting to create my very own Borg analogue since Stellaris first launched. The hive mind additions that came with Unity seemed like they'd be a good fit, but they're exclusively for organics. This should also be good news for fans of the New Horizons Star Trek mod, which includes a work-in-progress Borg faction.
Synthetic Dawn is due out on September 21 for £7.49/$9.99 on Steam.