So, as I was lurking on this forum, I noticed that many of you, if not all, seem to rather dislike Cybernetic. The reason I most commonly saw was that it decreased production. I was bored and had time on my hands (or rather obsessed with this forum late at night after I should probably be sleeping), so I decided to do some testing (or rather, number-crunching--I didn't actually play out a few games with Cybernetic to see how it would work). Keep in mind that for all of these I assumed you weren't trying to build anything at the time, and could thus devote all of your spare people to whatever occupation suits your desires. So, the results of my late-night number-crunching frenzy were these:
Assume that we have a full Medium Abundant Terran world, for 12 pop and 2 food per farmer, 3 production per worker, and 3 science per scientist. No buildings, to simplify the scenario, though further detaching it from actual gameplay.
Without Cybernetic, this world would require 6 farmers. That leaves 6 people for science or production, with a total of 18 science or production for this single planet, minus pollution of course..
With Cybernetic, the world requires 3 farmers and 2 workers. This means you have 7 free people, for 21 science or production, minus pollution--an extra person, while a small bonus, is nothing to scoff at.
Now, to set up my next 'test'--a normal agricultural world has all 12 population devoted to farming. This produces 24 food-enough to feed one other world. A Cybernetic world has only 10 population to farm, resulting in 20 food-still enough to feed two other worlds, with room for a third of another. That's a big difference.
A normal production/science world, fed by an agricultural one, produces 36 production/science (12 workers * 3 production/science). A cybernetic one can only devote 10 population to working, with the other 2 providing 'maintenance' production, and produces merely 30 production or science. This sounds like a horrible handicap, right? Read on!
So, say we have 12 worlds (same type as before), each one specialised to have only its specific population type, splitting the non-farming worlds down the middle between science and production. The 'normal' race requires 6 farming planets, the Cybernetic only 4. The normal race has 3 production and science worlds, for 108 industry/science (36*3). The Cybernetic race can devote 4 each to industry and science, with 120 total production and research (30*4)! They do have the handicap of producing less per world, though.
An interesting side-note: by decentralising your science worlds' food supply and converting the extra two agricultural worlds to science worlds, you actually end up with a slightly larger total of 126 research (21*6), or 2 extra scientists (ie one per 1 farming world/2 science world group). The same goes for production, though this further weakens each individual planet's power.
IMPORTANT NOTE, read this even if you skip this other boring stuff! These advantages are probably due to the fact that on an Abundant Terran, a single population can produce more production than food. This means that Cybernetic races have no agricultural advantage on Poor worlds and a disadvantage on Ultra Poor, unless you took +1/+2 production, in which case you're fine (though still less powerful comparatively) on those worlds. So, unleash a Cybernetic race on a Huge Ultra Rich Gaia and you have yourself a massive lead. To illustrate, Huge Ultra Rich Gaia industry, science and agricultural worlds (in that order):
Cybernetic: needs 5 farmers, with 20 workers for 160-13=147 production. Wow!
Normal: needs 9 farmers, with 16 working for 128 production. Notice that Cybernetic now produces more production on this planet, as opposed to less production on the Abundant Terran.
Cybernetic: needs 5 farmers and 2 workers, with 18 scientists for 54 research.
Normal: needs 9 farmers, with 16 scientists for 48 research. Once again, Cybernetic leads.
Cybernetic: Can devote 23 population to working, with enough food surplus to supply nine Medium Terran worlds.
Normal: Can devote all 25 population to working, with enough food surplus to feed 4 Medium Terran worlds. That is a large difference.
So, my conclusion: Cybernetic may, indeed, consume production points, but it also frees up population to create more, which more than balances it out--not to mention much easier colonisation of poor-environment worlds and the ship bonus. I would view Cybernetic as a poor man's Lithovore, with roughly half the effect for less than half the cost (only 1 point if you take -1/2 farming). It also synergizes well with picks that increase production or population (which you usually try to increase anyways), so if you want to focus on maximizing Cybernetic an Aquatic +2prod race would work well (I haven't tested that though, to see if it works). And that essentially wraps up my views on Cybernetic. I'd love to see how a fully-upgraded (Gaia, huge, all of the research/food/industry bonus buildings) planet would fare, Cybernetic vs Normal, and how a realistic empire (let's face it, finding 12 Medium Abundant Terrans is almost impossible, colonising only those even more so) would fare Cybernetic vs Normal. And, of course, other people's opinions On Cybernetic and why it's a subpar/par/awesome choice.
Right now, everything (on my side at least) is theoretical.
) And I would think with heavy armor and something like Zortium they would be pretty evil with their ship repair bonus.