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Perked Up Perks [4.0]

tl;dr: Rebalanced ascension perks to make basic ones more interesting and the more advanced one less gated by technology.

In current Stellaris technology and research are far more important than Unity and traditions. What's worse, you can generate too much Unity and unlock ascension perks faster than you can research technologies required to unlock the ones you want. This mod aims to combat that and make generating Unity more rewarding while still preserving the feel of vanilla Stellaris.

Ascension perks are now categorized in three groups:
1) Basic perks have no prerequisite and they give you a related technology as a permanent research option, typically a tier 2 technology which wouldn't be available for a while
2) Intermediate perks require you to already have two basic perks and have some technological requirements, but in several cases a basic perk will give you the requirement as a research option, so you can chain basic perks into intermediate ones.
3) Advanced perks require you to have four basic or intermediate perks selected first. They have technological requirements, but they will often be less strict than in the unmodded game.

All the perks have also been revised and many have new or altered effects.

You can view the full list of changes here: In-depth change list

Additionally maximum possible leader level cap is no longer limited to 10 like in the base game. There is effectively no more fixed upper limit anymore. This was necessary to make Transcendent Learning actually work properly and as a side effect the Philosopher King civic and Talented species trait should no longer be useless either. This effect is fully compatible with any other mods that also remove the upper limit of the leader level cap.

This is a gameplay altering mod and as such it will prevent you from getting achievements.

The mod replaces one file: .../Stellaris/common/ascension_perks/00_ascension_perks.txt

Additionally the mod overwrites entries in the following files:
- .../Stellaris/common/council_agendas/02_council_agendas_ascensions (agendas that grant technologies required to take ascension traditions.)
- .../Stellaris/common/crisis_objectives/00_crisis_objectives.txt (Cosmogenesis objectives)
- .../Stellaris/common/economic_categories/00_common_categories.txt (adds cost to megastructures_hyper_relay)
- .../Stellaris/common/technology/00_fallen_empire_tech.txt (technologies that unlock basic FE buildings)
- .../Stellaris/common/terraform/02_special_terraform_links.txt (toxic world terraform links)


It will be incompatible with any mod that also edits that same file or those entries, but should be compatible with all the mods that don't. It may also be technically compatible but effectively incompatible with a mod that dramatically alters the game in some other way.

This mod may confuse AI overhauls like StarNet and StarTech AI, but the perks are still close enough to vanilla that it should work well enough.

I'd be grateful if you could rate the mod with either thumbs up or thumbs down. The button for it is up just below the mod cover image. If you really like the mod there is also a favorite button nearby.

If you like this mod you might also my other mods.

I also created a Discord server[discord.gg]

I'm an old-school modder and don't think it should be necessary to get people's permissions to use their work as a basis for your own. So if I ever go off-line, you have my blessing to update my mods and upload them yourself. You also have my blessing to incorporate bits and pieces of my mods into your own mods. In both cases I'd just appreciate if you gave me credit for my work and send a notification my way. Thanks.