i don't have any particular ideas, i just find generic buffs a bit boring.
on the contrary the awakened empires are really great because they shake up the end midgame a lot (much more so than the end game crisis)
i am currently in my second game of 1.3 and stellaris lacks a lot of replayability because it lacks exclusive choices and playstyles, e.g. in my first game i went with fanatic spritualists and in my second game with fanatic materialists, yet i always end up with the same ship designs and techs. in my current game i purged all my original pops and all alien pops and play an all synthetic empire, yet it does not really impact the overall gameplay that much. i would really like to see vastly different gameplay in stellaris future. to some extend this is already the case, e.g. i would love to play as a race that would play (or evolve during gameplay to play) like the scurge or unbidden. maybe a spaceborne race that does not colonize at all and houses it's population in vast ships. also internal politics could be much deeper.
on the contrary the awakened empires are really great because they shake up the end midgame a lot (much more so than the end game crisis)
i am currently in my second game of 1.3 and stellaris lacks a lot of replayability because it lacks exclusive choices and playstyles, e.g. in my first game i went with fanatic spritualists and in my second game with fanatic materialists, yet i always end up with the same ship designs and techs. in my current game i purged all my original pops and all alien pops and play an all synthetic empire, yet it does not really impact the overall gameplay that much. i would really like to see vastly different gameplay in stellaris future. to some extend this is already the case, e.g. i would love to play as a race that would play (or evolve during gameplay to play) like the scurge or unbidden. maybe a spaceborne race that does not colonize at all and houses it's population in vast ships. also internal politics could be much deeper.