The suggestions would work better if they were paired with an understanding of what the ascension perks in question are intended to do, strategy-wise. Without understanding the intended rolls of the perks- including whether they're intended to be long-term gains or short-term benefits for snowballing, the solutions are more questionable.
Take the Imperial Perogative trait. No one seems to recognize that it's really a mid-game science, unity, and pop-saving perk. 20% to admin cap is substantial after the early-game when it's no longer worth spamming scientists over admin sprawl. At early low-science levels you prefer it because +4 science outweighs the penalty you'd avoid by having an administrator Admin sprawl gives a .4% penalty per admin sprawl (increasing the underlying tech cost), so 12 adminsprawl is 4.8% tech increase cost- as long as a scientist adds more than 4.8% of your scientice total, it's superior. Round it up a bit more to be generous/factor in some homeworld science and the 10% research bonus for tech ascendency, and maybe you get to 5.5% as a break-even.
But after you're past the first the first 100 sceince of all types mark, the bias changes so that an administrator job's worth of admin savings is probably worth more than a scientist benefit's. It becomes a pop-efficiency question... and it's not just science. The admin penalty is even bigger for unity for those mid-game traditions and ascension perks that unlock ascension paths. The admin penalty affects your strategic resource edicts which have powerful effects in war and peace. And most of all this is effectively a perk that improves the pops as opposed to one that provides a small boost to all sources. Which is a trade-off- the all-sources of research boost matters more when a larger proportion of your empire's tech comes from science deposits, but matters less when it comes from the pops- but it is a trade-off. There is a period- a significant period in a science rush build- when your biggest boost to science is adding another scientist pop. At which point the pop-to-pop effeciency question will favor the bueracrat even before Perogative.
Now this exact value swings- the science boosters are rare but do come-online in the midgame, yada yada. Early game science snowball, the debatable value of rare techs earlier, whatever.
But we can't balance a significant mid-game bonus on multiple fields including science if the summary is 'it doesn't do anything.'
Take the Imperial Perogative trait. No one seems to recognize that it's really a mid-game science, unity, and pop-saving perk. 20% to admin cap is substantial after the early-game when it's no longer worth spamming scientists over admin sprawl. At early low-science levels you prefer it because +4 science outweighs the penalty you'd avoid by having an administrator Admin sprawl gives a .4% penalty per admin sprawl (increasing the underlying tech cost), so 12 adminsprawl is 4.8% tech increase cost- as long as a scientist adds more than 4.8% of your scientice total, it's superior. Round it up a bit more to be generous/factor in some homeworld science and the 10% research bonus for tech ascendency, and maybe you get to 5.5% as a break-even.
But after you're past the first the first 100 sceince of all types mark, the bias changes so that an administrator job's worth of admin savings is probably worth more than a scientist benefit's. It becomes a pop-efficiency question... and it's not just science. The admin penalty is even bigger for unity for those mid-game traditions and ascension perks that unlock ascension paths. The admin penalty affects your strategic resource edicts which have powerful effects in war and peace. And most of all this is effectively a perk that improves the pops as opposed to one that provides a small boost to all sources. Which is a trade-off- the all-sources of research boost matters more when a larger proportion of your empire's tech comes from science deposits, but matters less when it comes from the pops- but it is a trade-off. There is a period- a significant period in a science rush build- when your biggest boost to science is adding another scientist pop. At which point the pop-to-pop effeciency question will favor the bueracrat even before Perogative.
Now this exact value swings- the science boosters are rare but do come-online in the midgame, yada yada. Early game science snowball, the debatable value of rare techs earlier, whatever.
But we can't balance a significant mid-game bonus on multiple fields including science if the summary is 'it doesn't do anything.'
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