Ascension Perks need Help! - To buff the weak one.

[evilcat]

There are some good ascension perk, some ok or fine, and the weak one which nobody talks about.
So lets buff the weak one. So there will be more options. If Perk is so weak it is not worthy it is as good as it dont exist at all.

Consacred Worlds
Problem: It could be hard to find spare planets before you get Ascension perk. And decision to not colonize 3 planets is too much for too little.
There could by 1in100 situation when you get holly worlds of FE, but that is rare shot.
Solution:
+ You can consacred habited worlds
+ Consacred worlds get some +50% migration bonus (as pilgrimage site)
It will be easier to use that way. Make it Pilgrimage sites or like resort worlds but holly.
There is the bug when can consacrete, colonize and keep bonus. Can we make the bug into the feature?

Eternal Vigiliance
The bonuses arent too big considering how bad the DP and SB are to begin with.
There is a problem with DP dieing and micromanagment of them.
You do not get bonus starbase from this one, so it might be hard to use.
Solution
+ You get 2 starbase capacity
+ Hull, Shield, Armour bonus increases by +50% and it works on Defense Platform and Starbases
+ Add some button to rebuild all DP
+ Introduce Super Defense Platforms which will take more space but have like 4 modules. DP needs less clicking to build them.
+ Add Starbases defense against Spacecraft (point defense), with just Medium canons it is hard to defend against corvettas.
+ For Citadels swap some weapons into L. Like 6M 6L. Mid game M weapons will not even reach battleships.
+ Adjust Starbase weapon range, so it will mach all bonuses ships can get.
Adding 2 starbase cap, and increasing Hull+Shield+Armor by +50% would make it fine for now.
However there is a bigger problem with how Starbase and Defense platform perform. Generally they progress slower than ships and just melt without even inflicting casulties.

Imperial Prerogative
This 20% Admin Cap does little on its own. Since even if we have 2000pops (late game) our admin cap is around 1000 (a bit more). So we are saving 20 buerocrats, which is like 1% of our output. Even if we have just 1000pops with 1000admin cap that is 2% better empire. That is not much. I simply expect 5% better empire (in some ways) from ascension perk, or ppl are just fine with 1% imrpvment, yay.
Solution
+ Attach it to some other perk (Interstellar Dominion)
+ Add thicc face value bonus, like 100 admin cap with no question +20% of total.

Interstellar Dominions
It could be hard to take it early enought to use starbase cost.
Solution
Just bundle together Imperial Prerogative and Interstellar Dominion, it will still be weak but at least it will do something.
This two fit together, you build big empire so might as well get some admin cap to cover it.
Yes we will "lose" one perk, but it will be just 1 cool name for future use.

Shared Destiny
It is hard to get casus belli on vassalization. The galactic tribunal have strong opinions of whom we can subjugate.
Ai is not willing to become vassal in diplomatic way.
Solution
+ Add modifier for AI to become the Tribute (so it will be more willing)
+ Add options to peaceful influence AI empire to switch ethos to our
+ Make Unrestricted Walfare trully unrestricted and allow to DOW for change of regime
+ With this Ascension perk you can get a claim always no matter calculations of strenght
+ Trubutes payment is modified by +25% (it is more efficient we dont take more)
+ Vassals generate Naval Cap for us.
It is hard to use this perk with some hidden modifiers preventing us from getting vassals.
We mght need another perk (new) for federation specialization and faster progresion inside it. But keep that one for vassaling. And another for Galactic comunity.

TranScended Learning
The experience bonus is minimal
The XP leaders progresion is geometric (by x 1.5) so your leaders might die before you use it.
There are many ways to get extra leaders level so you really might not use it.
Solution
+ +100% XP so we will see some effect
+ +20 lifespan for organics
+ Cheaper -20% to recruit and maintain
- Lower default level cap for leaders to 3 from 5, so you need all that sweet bobuses to unlock full potencial.
Right now it does not change enought.

Voidborne
The Habitats and even perk are good. Just habitats have default 80% habitability for everyone, and there are many ways to get extra habitability so the bonus from perk does not count.
Solution
- Reduce Default habitability for Habitats to 50% for normal species. Voidborne will have bonus of course.
It will be NERF for habitat spam for everyone unless they spec into it. But you can gest +35% Habitability (medium easly) to +65% (full stack) so it will be fine even without perk.

Enigmatic Engineerin
It may be MP only perk
Or just not gives enought
Solution
+ Add +2 Decryption
+ Add +1 Envoy
+ Increased threshold for visibility by +10. So itis harder to get view of our fleets.
+ Fleets are harder to detect and get useful info about.
+ Ships get 10 evasion, but it is not exacly evasion more like stealth technology so hard to pinpoint.
It needs something more to be worth it, more stuff giving us invisibility or stealth technology.
We may need another new ascension for offensive spy play (and civic). Keep this one defensive, but create one offensive to.

Galactic Contender
It might be sometimes good in all star allighn scenerio. The list of targets is very limited and they are not even that powerful (not awaken one) The 33% buff is less than protector of the galaxy.
Solution
+ Expand the list on Marauders, Leviathans, Grey Tempest! (or is GT already in) Or all "neutral targets".
+ Lower requirment to 2 perks, so we can deal with leviathans soon enought.
+ Give special casus belli against FE we pick as rivals (it fives claims on their clay)
+ Allow us to close borders with FE, what is the deal with that?
+ Change the bonus to +50% so it will be more significant
The list of targets could larger so there will be more usage of that. There is a problem with Leviathans that when we can beat them the reward isnt that great anymore. The buff against Marauders would be nice. Same with Grey Tempest (it may be already in)

Master of Nature
This perk is almost good or fine, so small buff.
Blocker clearing is minima bonus since you have edict or Domination tradition. So you are not saving much more. Or just blast them in terraforming.
With decision you pay 100i for 2 district, but you can pay 150i for habitat without any perk. Or 300 for ringword (with perk) so it is questionable investment and not really fun. Decision is more late game when tiles are partially cleared, so perk could be made more early game worthy.
Solution (pick only some).
+ When we finish tileclearance, we get random reward (deposit) so we can net profit from manual clearance
+ When performing decision it adds 1 random positive perk for planet.
+ The decision cost more influence but adds more disctrict. 4 Disctrict for 200i. So it will be impactful.
+ You can remove negative planet mods with this, for the price.
This perk is almost fine, so it is more about adding ease of use or fun factor. Going with tileclearing aspect is probably better for now. (guarantee+loot)
Or just loot part, since tileclear tech have already high weigth, so it appears anyway.

Galactic Force Projection
Does not scale too well till end game, and comes late (3rd) so is not early game. 80 naval cap could be multiplied at least by +60% but is very little in 1000 or 2000 end game fleet.
There is also an alternative of Grasp of the Void which is nothing special, but could give 180 naval cap, Hydrocponics Bay, Deep Space black site, other rare modules (curator, or black hole observatory) and trade collection. And also gives flexibility.
There are Fanatic Purifiers, but they cant pick soon enought and often conquere some starbases, so it is not even good for them.
Solutions:
+ Improve effect to 150 naval cap so it will have impact when it comes
+ Add +10% naval cap so it will scale to endgame
+ Add +10% ship maintainece reduction, so there will be scaling bonus.
+ Make ships start with 100XP
+ Add +20% naval weight
+ Add 5% support for militaristic faction
+ Reduce requirment to 0, for extra cheese (or not, that would be OP)
Ideally change something, so it will matter as 3rd pick, and have some effect in the end game.

So this the list of Ascension perks which need small buffs.

It would be great if more perks was A tier, since going in cycle Technological Ascendancy and then Ascension Path of choice and then Megastructures every game is quite boring. So other perks could be made more tempting.

 

[A2ch0n]

Enigmatic Engineerin
It may be MP only perk
Or just not gives enought
Solution
+ Add +2 Decryption
+ Add +1 Envoy
+ Add espionage operation bonus
This could be Ascension perk for spies if someone want to spec into it

I agree in most things you said except Enigmatic enigneering. Espionage shoud get it's own offensive AP. I modded one for myself with:
+2 Envoys
-2 Operation difficulty (in the actual iteration, +2 operation skill is the alternative one)
+ 1 Codebreaking
In addition it unlocks some more advanced espionage operations. Such things like ethic shifts, assassinations (with empire wide stability loss), resource steals and planet sabotages.

If an ascension perk for espionage should be implementet it must be worth it's weight. And simply adding something to a defensive option is in my opinion not enough!

The rest of your idea is ok and fitting i think (ok, maybe i have more expectations in case of espionage, like always )

 

[evilcat]

I agree in most things you said except Enigmatic enigneering. Espionage shoud get it's own offensive AP. I modded one for myself with:
+2 Envoys
-2 Operation difficulty (in the actual iteration, +2 operation skill is the alternative one)
+ 1 Codebreaking
In addition it unlocks some more advanced espionage operations. Such things like ethic shifts, assassinations (with empire wide stability loss), resource steals and planet sabotages.

If an ascension perk for espionage should be implementet it must be worth it's weight. And simply adding something to a defensive option is in my opinion not enough!

The rest of your idea is ok and fitting i think (ok, maybe i have more expectations in case of espionage, like always )

You are probably right, there need to be two ascension perks one for Going Dark (Sthealthy type) and other for offensive Espionage.

 

[DukeLeto42]

Interstellar Dominions
It could be hard to take it early enought to use starbase cost.
Solution
Just bundle together Imperial Prerogative and Interstellar Dominion, it will still be weak but at least it will do something.

Starbase influence isn't big, though it will generally save influence while you build outposts in space critter systems, Marauder / Khan systems, L-Cluster systems, Leviathan systems... and of course for long-distance station leapfrogging if there are pockets of the galaxy the AI hasn't settled.

However, claim influence (if you aren't going for a TW CB) is enormous.

Voidborne
The Habitats and even perk are good. Just habitats have default 80% habitability for everyone, and there are many ways to get extra habitability so the bonus from perk does not count.
Solution
- Reduce Default habitability for Habitats to 50% for normal species. Voidborne will have bonus of course.
It will be NERF for habitat spam for everyone unless they spec into it.

This one I really like. Sure, habitats are constructed and potentially perfected environments, but there are all sorts of potential costs to living in space (which is well-simulated by the upkeep cost increase of habitability).

 

[Zander]

I agree in most things you said except Enigmatic enigneering. Espionage shoud get it's own offensive AP. I modded one for myself with:

If you want to have a separate offensive one, that could be reasonable (though so far Espionage isn't really a big enough part of the game to have two Ascension Perks). But then the defensive one needs to be way stronger than it is now, as usually offensive Espionage is going to be more important to a player than defensive.

 

[A2ch0n]

If you want to have a separate offensive one, that could be reasonable (though so far Espionage isn't really a big enough part of the game to have two Ascension Perks). But then the defensive one needs to be way stronger than it is now, as usually offensive Espionage is going to be more important to a player than defensive.

Actually Enigmatic engineering is garbage. And it's not about the +2 encryption bonus. That came on top as a logic consequence. I think there shouldn't be a specialised defensive one. If any defensive option is planned, it should be inside the offensive one (maybe +2 encryption as well).

 

[GOLANX]

Consacred Worlds
Problem: It could be hard to find spare planets before you get Ascension perk. And decision to not colonize 3 planets is too much for too little.
Solution:
+ You can consacred habited worlds
+ Consacred worlds get some +50% migration bonus (as pilgrimage site)
It will be easier to use that way.

I was thinking they would be like super Strong Resort Worlds. If your Pops are Taking a Hadj it would really kill the mood if you were Strip mining the Place, or they Built a Giant Factory on top of the Dome of the Rock.

Eternal Vigiliance
The bonuses arent too big considering how bad the DP and SB are to begin with.
There is a problem with DP dieing and micromanagment of them.
You do not get bonus starbase from this one, so it might be hard to use.
Solution
+ You get 2 starbase capacity
+ Hull, Shield, Armour bonus increases by +50% and it works on Defense Platform and Starbases
+ Add some button to rebuild all DP, or introduce Super Defense Platforms which will take more space but have like 4 modules. DP needs less clicking to build them.
+ Add Starbases defense against Spacecraft (point defense), with just Medium canons it is hard to defend against corvettas.
To make starbase defense work there need to be more Hull size for them, so they will not die instantly, there is too many bonuses to weapon strenght and Starbase defense just cant catch it.

Can't build an Ascension Perk on Rotten Foundations and that's the problem with Vigiliance, Starbase and Defense Platforms need to be reworked first then see where Vigiliance sits.

Imperial Prerogative
This 20% Admin Cap does not help us

Interstellar Dominions
It could be hard to take it early enought to use starbase cost.
Solution
Just bundle together Imperial Prerogative and Interstellar Dominion, it will still be weak but at least it will do something.

I had that idea, but then what does Imperial Prerogative do?

Shared Destiny
It is hard to get casus belli on vassalization.
Ai is not willing to become vassal in diplomatic way.
Solution
+ Add modifier for AI to become the Tribute (so it will be more willing)
+ Add options to peaceful influence AI empire to switch ethos to our
+ Make Unrestricted Walfare trully unrestricted and allow to DOW for change of regime
+ With this Ascension perk you can get a claim always no matter calculations of strenght
+ Trubutes payment is modified by +25% (it is more efficient we dont take more)
+ Vassals generate Naval Cap for us.
It is hard to use this perk with some hidden modifiers preventing us from getting vassals.

Shared Destiny imo should be the federation Ascension Perk and improved Federation trust and Cohesion with various other Fed buffs. As it is now its more Like Greedy Destiny with the subject focus, to be clear Greedy Destiny should be its own thing and those are great suggestions for it.

TranScended Learning
The experience bonus is minimal
The XP leaders progresion is geometric (by x 1.5) so your leaders might die before you use it.
There are many ways to get extra leaders level so you really might not use it.
Solution
+ +100% XP so we will see some effect
+ +20 lifespan for organics
+ Cheaper -20% to recruit and maintain
- Lower default level cap for leaders to 3 from 5, so you need all that sweet bobuses to unlock full potencial.
Right now it does not change enought.

I'd Rather raise the leader hard cap and completely rework the leader system. More realistically, it could increase Warship and Army XP. Which could be cool

Voidborne
The Habitats and even perk are good. Just habitats have default 80% habitability for everyone, and there are many ways to get extra habitability so the bonus from perk does not count.
Solution
- Reduce Default habitability for Habitats to 50% for normal species. Voidborne will have bonus of course.
It will be NERF for habitat spam for everyone unless they spec into it.

Yes

Enigmatic Engineerin
It may be MP only perk
Or just not gives enought
Solution
+ Add +2 Decryption
+ Add +1 Envoy
+ Increased threshold for visibility by +10
+ Fleets are harder to detect and get useful info about.
+ Ships get 10 evasion, but it is not exacly evasion more like stealth technology so hard to pinpoint.
This could be Ascension perk for spies if someone want to spec into it.
But... It is possible that better route it would be to create offensive espionage Ascension perk. So keep Enigmatic Engineering for dark mode. And create completly new Spy Master perk. That would probably be better.

My personal mod gives them +1 Research Alternatives though I know it still needs more, Nothing Says I like having technology you can't steal quite like having good techs other empires might want to steal. A major part of the Problem with this Perk is that it Comes From Utopia, which Fun Fact is not Nemisis the DLC that has all the espionage goodies, so as bad as you think this AP is, Add that it's major effect requires a seperate DLC to get value out of it.

Galactic Contender
It might be sometimes good in all star allighn scenerio. The 33% buff is less than protector of the galaxy.
Solution
+ Expand the list on Marauders, Leviathans, Grey Tempest! (or is GT already in) Or all "neutral targets".

That sounds like a great add to defenders of the Galaxy (which is pretty niche itself)

+ Change the bonus to +50% so it will be more significant
+ Give special casus belli against FE we pick as rivals (it fives claims on their clay)
The list of targets could larger so there will be more usage of that. There is a problem with Leviathans that when we can beat them the reward isnt that great anymore. The buff against Marauders would be nice. Same with Grey Tempest (it may be already in)

What I would like is for Galactic Contender to get full Diplomacy with Fallen and Awakened empires, and they have to treat you as a normal AI would. The more you interact with them the more likely you are to awaken them, if you Rival one Potentially they could start the War in Heaven with you.

 

[Incompetent]

Some good ideas here. I would also add Mastery of Nature here as a failed perk. You don't need to enlarge your planets early on (or ever, honestly, with how low populations are in 3.X), and by the time you are thinking of enlarging a planet, unless it's an Ecumenopolis, you'd be much better off spending that influence on another Habitat instead (and even on an Ecumenopolis, the extra Habitat is probably a better use of resources). I can think of a couple of ways to go (both at once is maybe a bit much, but each would be a good buff individually):

1. Make it a fun early perk by really leaning on the blocker clearing aspect:
+ all the blocker clearing techs become guaranteed research options (also handy for clearing the Society deck to get at the more general stuff)
+ every time you clear a natural blocker, you get some random bonus, e.g. a one-off payment of resources or a new deposit of something (also an incentive to keep blocker clearing later in the game, rather than just blasting all the blockers with terraforming)

2. Make the Mastery of Nature planetary decision more of a big deal, so its influence cost makes sense:
+ Mastery of Nature planetary modifier also grants a permanent bonus to natural resource jobs on that planet (i.e. Technicians, Farmers, Miners, workers of strategic resource deposits, workers of some special event features, and all the Gestalt counterparts), so it's like a rural counterpart to the Ecumenopolis bonus

 

[evilcat]

Some good ideas here. I would also add Mastery of Nature here as a failed perk. You don't need to enlarge your planets early on (or ever, honestly, with how low populations are in 3.X), and by the time you are thinking of enlarging a planet, unless it's an Ecumenopolis, you'd be much better off spending that influence on another Habitat instead (and even on an Ecumenopolis, the extra Habitat is probably a better use of resources). I can think of a couple of ways to go (both at once is maybe a bit much, but each would be a good buff individually):

1. Make it a fun early perk by really leaning on the blocker clearing aspect:
+ all the blocker clearing techs become guaranteed research options (also handy for clearing the Society deck to get at the more general stuff)
+ every time you clear a natural blocker, you get some random bonus, e.g. a one-off payment of resources or a new deposit of something (also an incentive to keep blocker clearing later in the game, rather than just blasting all the blockers with terraforming)

2. Make the Mastery of Nature planetary decision more of a big deal, so its influence cost makes sense:
+ Mastery of Nature planetary modifier also grants a permanent bonus to natural resource jobs on that planet (i.e. Technicians, Farmers, Miners, workers of strategic resource deposits, workers of some special event features, and all the Gestalt counterparts), so it's like a rural counterpart to the Ecumenopolis bonus

Master of Nature is almost fine. +2 edicts with avg size 15 that is some 1/8 increase. But it could be more late game perk, when tiles are clearance. You might be right that it is hard to use tile cost reduction part, or at least make it worth perk. Buffig tileclearing could be a way, or making it easier, or just fun.
They could add tileblocker techs to the list, but we still need to research them, voidborne has similar gimmick with habitat expansion. This will flood tech list, but player click the button, so they will be ready.
Add random or listed reward (deposit) from tile clearance. So if you stack some clearence redaction you can net profit from it. (Domination, Edict, Perk).
Listed reward: Volcano =100 moltes, Seaweed=1000food and so on. More thematic fixed list. Random is random.
However, tileclear has high weith, so it appears anyway. So just adding deposits may be enought with less work.

 

[SirBlackAxe]

A big problem with Mastery of Nature is that the more you need it, the less you get out of it: +2 max districts is generally only relevant if you have very few worlds so they're all filling up, but that also means you have very few worlds to actually use the decision on.

Other stuff the perk could do:

• Uncap generator, mining, and/or agriculture districts on planets.
• Habitability bonus on planets.
• Add or remove natural planet modifiers.
• Edict to discover a new terraforming candidate every 10(?) years. (Positioning the perk as an alternative to habitats.)
• Reduced cost and/or build time for generator, mining, and agriculture districts.

 

[evilcat]

• Edict to discover a new terraforming candidate every 10(?) years. (Positioning the perk as an alternative to habitats.)

This would be very interesting to be able to spend 300 influence to start terraforming process for barren world (dead planets) instead of building 2 habitats or ringworld. The result will be similar just in different way.

Adding random random positive trait for planet after decision would also be interesting, it is different and something new.

 

[GOLANX]

A big problem with Mastery of Nature is that the more you need it, the less you get out of it: +2 max districts is generally only relevant if you have very few worlds so they're all filling up, but that also means you have very few worlds to actually use the decision on.

Other stuff the perk could do:

• Uncap generator, mining, and/or agriculture districts on planets.
• Habitability bonus on planets.
• Add or remove natural planet modifiers.
• Edict to discover a new terraforming candidate every 10(?) years. (Positioning the perk as an alternative to habitats.)
• Reduced cost and/or build time for generator, mining, and agriculture districts.

I don't particularly care for the terraforming candidates point, I think we should get more district slots perhaps you can use the decision more than once, just make sure the influence costs are high enough.

 

[Farbros]

I would agree about voidborne, because I mainly use this perk for getting +2 buildings slots and it already does make a difference.

 

[Fenris_SE]

I was just thinking about starting a topic on ascension perks, and asking which ones people thought were useless and needed a rework

Kinda surprised "Galactic Force Projection" wasn't mentioned. Plus 20 Fleet command limit is useless, thats 2 battle ships or a few cruisers. Sure it's 20 corvettes, but corvette spam isn't what it used to be, unless I'm missing something. And if you need extra ships, make another fleet to follow the first one and you will have way more than 20 points in ships.

+80 Naval Capacity, even by midgame that's not much, and by late game not even noticeable. A few forts on some worlds that aren't 100% specialized and a couple anchorages on star bases that aren't needed for shipyards or bastions and you end up with way more naval capacity.

Not sure how to fix this one tbh. It's not to hard to get 1,200 to 2,000 or more fleet power by late game, so I don't know that any Naval Capacity bonus would make me pick this perk over one that adds more to my empire.

 

[evilcat]

Galactic Projection
It is 80 naval cap without any questions and instant. No slots and pops for forts, no starbase limit, no alloys on starbase upgrade.
Add +40% from supremacy and +20% from Ambition.
There is also Fanatic Purifiers and Citizens Service. But this one are situationa.
Galactic Wonders are better but will take some time to shine.
Take it early enought, overcome your neigbour, and steamroll from there.
Possible buffs:
Ships get +10% hull points. Minimal, but scales with 2000 naval cap.

 

[GOLANX]

What Devs need to do is Split the APs up into different Categories not literally per say but just In a design Document they have access to, you have Categories that do different things and cater to different playstyles, so Some APs go in the tall Category, some APs go in the wide Category, Some APs are niche, some are situational. Make sure tall and Wide are balanced against each other and that it would be difficult for an wide empire to use Tall perks. Make sure that players pick a different set of APs every game as they need to fulfill the goals of the empire they are playing.

 

[Xenith_Shadow]

Galactic Projection
It is 80 naval cap without any questions and instant. No slots and pops for forts, no starbase limit, no alloys on starbase upgrade.
Add +40% from supremacy and +20% from Ambition.
There is also Fanatic Purifiers and Citizens Service. But this one are situationa.
Galactic Wonders are better but will take some time to shine.
Take it early enought, overcome your neigbour, and steamroll from there.
Possible buffs:
Ships get +10% hull points. Minimal, but scales with 2000 naval cap.

The main reason galactic force projection is kinda eh is that is used to give 200 naval cap once upon a time, and that was when naval cap was alot harder to get i'm pretty sure.
Galactic force projection is generally just a worse version of Grasp of the void since that give you extra 5 starbases which can give up to 180 naval capacity and like 50 food and what ever other starbase building you can construct.
If you imediatly needed 80 naval cap then maybe it might be worth it but it seem unlikely that such a specific scenario would occur.
By the theming of the name "galactic force projection" it should likely have +x% (30) diplomatic weight from fleets in addition to it's current effects.
Maybe also have militarist faction get +5 oppinion if you take the perk.

 

[Incompetent]

Add random or listed reward (deposit) from tile clearance. So if you stack some clearence redaction you can net profit from it. (Domination, Edict, Perk).
Listed reward: Volcano =100 moltes, Seaweed=1000food and so on. More thematic fixed list. Random is random.
However, tileclear has high weith, so it appears anyway. So just adding deposits may be enought with less work.

When I say random, I mean it's not totally deterministic or predictable, but the pool of possible rewards can still depend on what kind of blocker. Some rewards like, say, finding a new exotic gas deposit or gaining a permanent modifier to the planet, should be possible for certain blockers, but they need to be on a lowish % chance in order to not be overpowered. You will net profit on average if we take the energy cost of clearing vs the expected reward, but you can't just target guaranteed "profitable" blockers to clear first. (If you want guaranteed rewards from blockers, these are already in the game in the form of the deposit you can see is "under" the blocker, and the number of districts it releases; here we're talking about bonus rewards on top of that.)

The idea is that in blocker clearing, you seek to "tame"/"exploit" whatever the blocker represents to the best of your ability rather than simply removing it (as a non-Mastery of Nature empire would), but that this is an inherently exploratory process that will vary from planet to planet, e.g. each instance of Dangerous Wildlife represents totally different species that could have different practical uses.

 

[Vorpaliminal]

Eternal Vigiliance
+ Introduce Super Defense Platforms which will take more space but have like 4 modules. DP needs less clicking to build them.

Someone posted about a week ago that the game used to have larger defense platforms before the current outpost system. All of the default ship sets still have their models in the code, and I think the humanoid and plantoid sets have them too.

 

[Dragatus]

Consacred Worlds
Problem: It could be hard to find spare planets before you get Ascension perk. And decision to not colonize 3 planets is too much for too little.

Actually the perk isn't weak at all, if only because of a bug. The bonuses you got from consecrating a planet remain even if you colonize the planet later and whenever you do colonize a planet you gain the ability to consecrate another one. This means you can keep consecrating new planets as you go along and really stack up the bonuses.

But once they finally fix the bug it will need a buff and what you propose would make sense.

Imperial Prerogative
This 20% Admin Cap does not help us

We could have a discussion about it, but PDX announced they'll remove admin cap from the game entirely in the 3.3 patch, so we'll have to wait and see what they do with it. My main gripe with it is that it doesn't do much in the early game, but then later you have so many more tempting options. It could give a flat bonus in addition to the percentile one. That's what I did in my perk mod (shameless self-promotion).

Interstellar Dominions
It could be hard to take it early enought to use starbase cost.

I disagree. You do need to take it as your 1st perk to get full use of it, but it's trivial to wait until you finish your first tradition tree before you start taking empty systems (before that you only take systems you need in order to be able to colonize your guaranteed planets). The speed at which you can expand into empty space is limited more by Influence cost than by construction speed anyway.

And if someone does take a system you wanted, you have reduced claim cost to take it for yourself.

Shared Destiny
It is hard to get casus belli on vassalization. The galactic tribunal have strong opinions of whom we can subjugate.
Ai is not willing to become vassal in diplomatic way.

Since the 3.0 patch this is not just a vassalization perk, it's also an envoy perk and envoys are in short supply. I don't think it needs a buff.

TranScended Learning
The experience bonus is minimal
The XP leaders progresion is geometric (by x 1.5) so your leaders might die before you use it.
There are many ways to get extra leaders level so you really might not use it.

Valid points. I think the actual use of this perk is not so much to make your best leaders better. It's to make replacement leaders get up to speed faster. But it is still quite lacking and your suggestions are fine. Another thing it could do is increase the initial level of new leaders so that for example they start at level 3 already. I implemented that for my Perked Up Perks mod.

Voidborne
The Habitats and even perk are good. Just habitats have default 80% habitability for everyone, and there are many ways to get extra habitability so the bonus from perk does not count.
Solution

The real benefit of Voidborne has never been the +20% habitability (BTW default habitability on habitats has been nerfed to 70% a few patches back). The real benefit are the +2 building slots which are precious and hard to come by on habitats (and before the habitat rework the real benefit were the +2 districts). It's a strong perk for anyone investing into habitats and doesn't need a buff.

Enigmatic Engineerin
It may be MP only perk
Or just not gives enought

Yes, you are right that the perk is useless vs AI empires. I don't think a Codebreaking bonus fits the theme though as you wouldn't have any easier time cracking the code of others. The envoy bonus also doesn't seem fitting. I do like the evasion though. I am ultimately fine with there being a MP only perk, if it's just one perk.

Galactic Contender
It might be sometimes good in all star allighn scenerio. The list of targets is very limited and they are not even that powerful (not awaken one) The 33% buff is less than protector of the galaxy.

A bonus vs marauders and the khan would be good. I actually added that in my perk mod. Bonus vs leviathans sounds interesting and could be fun.

Master of Nature
This perk is almost good or fine, so small buff.
Blocker clearing is minima bonus since you have edict or Domination tradition. So you are not saving much more. Or just blast them in terraforming.
With decision you pay 100i for 2 district, but you can pay 150i for habitat without any perk. Or 300 for ringword (with perk) so it is questionable investment and not really fun. Decision is more late game when tiles are partially cleared, so perk could be made more early game worthy.

Just remove the Influence cost from the decision and it becomes a strong perk.

Galactic Force Projection
Does not scale too well till end game, and comes late (3rd) so is not early game. 80 naval cap could be multiplied at least by +60% but is very little in 1000 or 2000 end game fleet.
There is also an alternative of Grasp of the Void which is nothing special, but could give 180 naval cap, Hydrocponics Bay, Deep Space black site, other rare modules (curator, or black hole observatory) and trade collection. And also gives flexibility.
There are Fanatic Purifiers, but they cant pick soon enought and often conquere some starbases, so it is not even good for them.

We're largely in agreement on this one.