Ascension Perk Elimination

[Pointyearedgit]

Consecrated Worlds: 11
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13 (-2)
Synthetic Age: -1
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14 (+1)
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Day 2! I'm going to try to not just hit the same thing every day, so here goes. (Synthetic age already down for the count!)

Wonders have some use when you are late game and want extra resources and vision to battle the crisis, while Master Builders is only good with Voidborne to expand habitats and rush to megastructures. Therefore, the limited viability of master builders makes it weaker than Galactic Wonders.

 

[Jmes Snowscoran]

Synthetic Age added to graveyard. Currently:

25. Synthetic Age
26. Nihilistic Acquisition

 

[eagletrekkie]

Consecrated Worlds: 9 (-2)
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 17 (+1)
Enigmatic Engineering: 5
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 13
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Habitats are just so nice to have.

Consecrated worlds I don't think provides enough to justify the perk.

 

[Silens]

Consecrated Worlds: 9
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 15
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Enigmatic Engineering: 3 (-2)
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 16
Colossus Project: 14 (+1)
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Day 2, I have to boost the Colossus. I mean, even without the great benefits of brainwashing or sweeping worlds, you can always wage Total War and take over whatever you like, completely without claims or influence. What is there not to like?

On the other hand, Enigmatic Engineering is mostly interesting for Multiplayer. So it goes down a bit.

 

[General Guderian]

Day 2, I have to boost the Colossus. I mean, even without the great benefits of brainwashing or sweeping worlds, you can always wage Total War and take over whatever you like, completely without claims or influence. What is there not to like?

Little bit OT question: As I never play pacifist empires, I was wondering, does the colossus CB count for pacifists as well, or do they remain ristricted to liberation/defensive even with it?

 

[Jmes Snowscoran]

Little bit OT question: As I never play pacifist empires, I was wondering, does the colossus CB count for pacifists as well, or do they remain ristricted to liberation/defensive even with it?

You need your war policy set to unrestricted to make use of the Colossus CB AFAIK. So pacifists won't be able to use that.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Being able to keep mineral and fleet edicts up during an ill timed crisis has real advantages.

That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of focusing on unity, though when not doing a peaceful run.

There is only the mineral edict now. The fleet one is an Ambition.

I'm going to set out what my guiding ethos is for a "win the game" playthrough.

Power now is better than slightly more power later, and superceding an early perk is totally OK.

That means that, for instance, I rate Galactic Force Projection above Grasp the Void, even though the latter can give you much more fleet power it does so much slower because you have to upgrade and build and spend a lot for it to do so.

My pick order for a conqueror is:

Interstellar Dominion, Ascension 1, Galactic Force Projection, Ascension 2, World Shaper, Grasp the Void. (If I was just trying to map paint as fast as possible I'd take Colossus Project in place of World Shaper, but I don't pick it because Total War is too game breaking, and I need some brakes on expansion). Everything else is irrelevant to owning as much of space as possible and so can be safely ignored.

Well, in your example, you could spend unity on 4 domination tree traditions (3 fairly worthless and a unity booster) to finish the tree and unlock executive vigour, you would eventually break even with the alternative route of just spending unity on unity ambitions. Assuming the additional unity costs from 4 new traditions is in the ballpark of your gains from Vassal Acculturation and that there are no other modifiers to edict length, it would happen after 12 ambitions (no executive vigour) or 8 ambitions (with executive vigour). Not necessarily a great tradeoff, but worth consideration.

That assumes you have subjects. Which you really shouldn't if you want to take power for yourself because conquest gets you 100% of their resources and all the starbase cap of their population and systems, which is much more useful than any subject. If you don't have subjects, which are bad and you shouldn't, 4/5 of the Domination tree is useless. (Also you're assuming there are no other edict duration effects in play but there always are. Ruler skill level is +5% per level, so a reasonably skilled ruler can be giving you +20-35% or so pretty consistently, anyone can get at least level 7 with Capacity Boosters)

 

[Pointyearedgit]

There is only the mineral edict now. The fleet one is an Ambition.

Incorrect, although it doesn't always come up. Master's Teachings: Warring states is +10% naval cap and -15% army upkeep for a paltry 100 influence base.

 

[Archael90]

Day two
Consecrated Worlds: 9
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 13 (-2)
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Enigmatic Engineering: 3
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 17 (+1)
Colossus Project: 14
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 14
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

Land clereance is reallu awfull... i hope it will be drastically changed in 2.2, bcs even if simmilar, it is worth less than nothing (in my opinion )
Gaia worlds are really cool, even in galaxy with just a few planets (also, just in my opinion)

 

[苏白@夢璃花]

Consecrated Worlds: 9
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 13
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Enigmatic Engineering: 1 (-2)
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 17
Colossus Project: 14
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 15 (+1)
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 19

 

[WhiteKyubey]

Little bit OT question: As I never play pacifist empires, I was wondering, does the colossus CB count for pacifists as well, or do they remain ristricted to liberation/defensive even with it?

You are locked to liberation/defensive wars, but there is a funny thing with "liberating wars".
As pacifist you'll be given planet shield colossus (if you are spiritualist+psionic, then psi colossus would also an option), build a planet shield one.
Then start a liberation war, and don't try to achive war goals. Instead shot each of their planets with a colossus. When they lose their last planet the empire will be destoyed and all their systems will become neutral again. Using this way you can wipe out all xenoes even while playing Inward Perfection.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Incorrect, although it doesn't always come up. Master's Teachings: Warring states is +10% naval cap and -15% army upkeep for a paltry 100 influence base.

Rare as hen's balls though, so not really something to consider as a reliable strategy. Given that to get it you have to get an anomaly on a toxic planet and the same one can turn into +3 minerals and even if you do get the Warriors Texts it's only a 70% chance for the special project to work.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

Rare as hen's balls though, so not really something to consider as a reliable strategy. Given that to get it you have to get an anomaly on a toxic planet and the same one can turn into +3 minerals and even if you do get the Warriors Texts it's only a 70% chance for the special project to work.

True, but vigor boosts both this edict and the unity ambition, so there's that.

You are locked to liberation/defensive wars, but there is a funny thing with "liberating wars".
As pacifist you'll be given planet shield colossus (if you are spiritualist+psionic, then psi colossus would also an option), build a planet shield one.
Then start a liberation war, and don't try to achive war goals. Instead shot each of their planets with a colossus. When they lose their last planet the empire will be destoyed and all their systems will become neutral again. Using this way you can wipe out all xenoes even while playing Inward Perfection.

Yea, just have to watch your War Exhaustion. Keep in mind that the minute the empire is completely dead, you only get the systems you are actually occupying.

It's better to have a neutron sweep colossus, but you have to dip into and out of pacifism to get it. Then again, you probably don't even care about the planets as IP, since you are likely stacking population in habitats using voidborne.

Great for RP as you don't have to touch the filthy xenos. Also, for Fanatic Purifiers (and Determined Exterminators IIRC), you get unity from blowing up your first alien planet with the world cracker.

 

[Cry_Havok]

Consecrated Worlds: 9
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 13
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 13
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Enigmatic Engineering: -1 (-2) - Enigmatic is now dead
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 17
Colossus Project: 14
Defender of the Galaxy: 16
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 15
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 20 +1

As others have said, Enigmatic is pretty well useless. If you're ahead you should be winning, if you are behind it does nothing.

Psionic Ascension is far and away the most useful. It's basically free, not having some exceedingly long special project, and has amazing benefits, and doesn't screw you over diplomatically like synths do. The only drawback to Psionic is it can be annoying to get if you aren't spiritualist, and then it will spawn a really robust and annoying spiritualist faction, but it's still leaps and bounds better than the alternative. TFIW is an acceptable second, because super habitability, but still, it's a lot of time with a massive special project you could instead be gaining techs while you still get those cool psionic bonuses.

 

[Jmes Snowscoran]

Enigmatic Engineering has been added to the graveyard!

Eliminated
24. Enigmatic Engineering
25. Synthetic Age
26. Nihilistic Acquisition

 

[GloatingSwine]

TFIW is an acceptable second, because super habitability, but still, it's a lot of time with a massive special project you could instead be gaining techs while you still get those cool psionic bonuses.

The other issue is that it uses yellow science for the projects.

And yellow science is the most important science because all of your starbase upgrades, hull size upgrades, and mineral production upgrades live in it.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

The other issue is that it uses yellow science for the projects.

And yellow science is the most important science because all of your starbase upgrades, hull size upgrades, and mineral production upgrades live in it.

But +33% build speed on robots is pretty sweet, and it only takes 1 perk slot and is easier to beeline.

 

[GloatingSwine]

But +33% build speed on robots is pretty sweet, and it only takes 1 perk slot and is easier to beeline.

It wouldn't be worth the perk on its own though, its marginal utility is too low bearing in mind that an empire with robots is already doubling its overall growth speed. It's a nice extra when you're also getting the benefits of being cyborgs, so you can't discount the special project cost, and the fact that it blocks your most important science flavour for a considerable period, in the assessment of the perk.

 

[bunkerman]

Consecrated Worlds: 9
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 14 (+1)
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 13
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 14
Technological Ascendancy: 20
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 17
Colossus Project: 14
Defender of the Galaxy: 14 (-2)
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 15
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 20

-2 to Defender of the Galaxy: galactic crisis is usually beatable even without the perk and it doesnt give anything before or after its done (and if you keep slot for it is the same as if you have already selected it)
+1 to Imperial Prerogative: +5 whole systems not getting their income taxed by 25% whcih is locked behind influence is pretty nice and in the future admin cap will be even more useful as its gonna represent faster research and traditions

 

[Newbee53]

Day 2
Don't want to repeat myself:

Consecrated Worlds: 7
Executive Vigor: 18
Imperial Prerogative: 14
Interstellar Dominion: 20
Mastery of Nature: 13
One Vision: 14
Shared Destiny: 12 -2
Technological Ascendancy: 21 +1
Transcendent Learning: 15
Voidborne: 18
Grasp the Void: 16
Eternal Vigilance: 13
Galactic Force Projection: 16
Machine Worlds: 15
Master Builders: 13
World Shaper: 17
Colossus Project: 14
Defender of the Galaxy: 14
Galactic Contender: 15
Galactic Wonders: 14
Biological Acension (Engineered Evolution+Evolutionary Mastery): 15
Synthetic Ascension (The Flesh is Weak+Synthetic Evolution): 16
Psionic Ascension (Mind over Matter+Transcendence): 20

Everyone has talked about TA so...
Shared Destiny is boring, and only good if your going to be integrating a lot of subjects, which begs the question why you made them in the first place.

Edit: corrected to be in line with faster poster