I was looking at the Pacifist ethic, which I’ve never taken before because I thought it would hurt me in the inevitable fights. This is what the wiki says about it:
Empire : −15% Empire size from pops
Planets : +5 Stability
Policies Principles
Edicts Can use the Peace Festivals edict
X Cannot use Unrestricted Wars War Philosophy policy
X Cannot use Aggressive Interference Pre-FTL Interference policy
X Cannot engage in Indiscriminate Orbital Bombardment
X Cannot use Aggressive First Contact Protocol policy
As a person who generally plays turtle and avoids wars because they screw with my technical ascendency sim, this looks like there are no downsides. Can that be right? Are there no hidden horrific events or war debuffs this doesn’t cover? Does the Peace faction just kinda chill as long as I’m not starting any fights?
Yup, that’s the gist of it. It’s quite possible this feature comes from a mod, but it also lets you become peaceful with the various space creature factions (like space amoebas, etc). If you wanna play peaceful anyway it’s a great pick.