I'm wondering a bit, what's the advantage/disadvantages of using these trees? Do they limit nearby construction like the anima tree? They seem to sprout orange grass for the dryads to eat, so it that sense they take up a large amount of space, but why wouldn't I always want to have a few hauler trees?
Pruning the tree takes time. And, they are more effective if you give them some space (but not as much as the anima tree - you just can't pack them in like workshops).
They seem independent of each other.
They're totally independent. You have neither, either, or both.
We go by the principle that regardless of your configuration there should never be anything that appears disabled or missing in the game. (There are even patches to item descriptions that remove the mention of their expansion-related functionality if the expansion isn't present.)
As for savegames, saves from 1.2 (and before) will load on 1.3 (assuming no mods break anything). In addition, non-Ideology savegames will load with Ideology. (However, if you do this you won’t be able to customize or randomize your belief system on startup, since the game is already started.)
I want to keep playing my current save, but I'm not quite sure what's meant by belief systems. I'm super hyped and want to just play my new game. Will I still be able to enjoy aspects of the new DLC once it's released?
So you'll be able to load your current save, but you'll just continue playing with the belief system that is the implicit default in 1.2. Your colonists aren't going to switch to be pain-worshipping tree-connnectors or anything like that.
Bascially you can continue your game, and a ton of new stuff will unlock, but you miss the part of Ideology where you can customize your belief system at game start.
(You can of course use devtools to edit your belief system if you want anyway).
Awesome! But at the same time... kinda not? It feels like a very specific thing to build a colony around. Hopefully (and I think this is the case) there are other mechanics like the trees for different types of colonies.
If this is standalone and is THE way to get some gatherer drones for example, it's... kinda weird imo in the sense it might be basically mandatory in every colony.
It is very specific - just one more piece of the expansion for players who choose this particular play path. I expect most games will see little to no Gauranlen tree use.
That's really the structure of Ideology. It gives a bunch of new directions to play in.
I'm pretty sure dryads and stuff are to balance going the nature-lover route and making it competitive with industrialist society. The dryads from what I see help with things that can be difficult if you are one with nature (like producing wood so you don't have to cut down trees) so I think that these are supposed to be benefits to being anti-industry. Without them it would be shooting yourself to play as druidic nature-lovers because you would lose out on stuff that would be so much easier and faster if you were industrial
Great analysis. This is a big part of it. Without something to juice it up, going the nature-worship path felt too limited. I am fine with different beliefs being harder or easier, but they should all feel rich and interesting in their own way.
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