best custom race setup?

economics and moral seems like a good thing to have in any situation

I usually take some +20 econ, +10 morale and +20 or 30 pop. growth

I like those

this game is so customizable, there can be so many different ways to set up your race. It all depends on what stradgy you plan on using.

I use max morale and some combination of population growth, influence, econ, research, social/military or diplomacy. Some of the attributes are more useful than others, though none are bad and there are lots of combos that can win.

Max morale, some influence and 20-30% population growth should give you a good game, especially if you build economy starbases or grab an econ resource or two.

I avoid things like soldiering, speed, weapons, defense, courage. The other choices just seem more useful and practical to me.

Speed bonuses can be very useful early-game, but I'm not sure if it's worth missing out on the more useful bonuses.

Maybe it's just me, but I quite like the planet quality bonuses.

Planet Quality % increase will do two things :
-on your home planet : number of tiles increased
-on any other planet : number of tiles NOT increased but PQ still increased
which means that you may have a bigger total pop per world

I don't find this really that interesting

I myself focus on growth (playing in gigantic galaxies) then economic & morale

Luck, Creativity and Universalist Party. Seriously, the number of events I get in my favour is often staggering. One game I had ultradrives, research boom, econ boom, reproduction boom *AND* funamentalists (annihilating the evil powers knocking on my door) in a period of about 10 turns ^^ The good event 'penalties' often seem less too.

Don't seem to see precursor ships anymore in the betas, but the older versions I got enough of them that I never had to build a warship

There's nothing like stacking the dice in my favour ^^

After that, its pretty much growth, morale, econ and weapons (especially since, during all the tweaking, I seem to have aquired a free +15 weapons I should probably stop abusing that lol).

My favorite custom race ability/political setup so far is:

Diplomacy: 2 points
Economics: 4 points
Morale: 2 points
Population Growth: 2 points

Political Party: Populists (+20 Diplomacy, +20 Morale)

The high Diplo helps by improving intergalactic relations and by helping me practically steal the other races blind in trading. Imho, putting points toward Diplomacy is like putting two or three times as many points into Research, and that's ignoring the improved relations.
The high Econ gives me a fantastic financial boost, and is in turn boosted by the high Morale rating (higher taxes) and the Pop Growth (more people to tax). Pop growth also helps planets recover quickly after I deplete them with high-capacity invasion transports...

Zephyr, try getting rid of the Creativity and see if you still have the same results. I've read all over these boards that Luck is responsible for that stuff and nobody can see any use for Creativity at all. Unless you know something I don't, give it a try.

=$= Big J Money =$=

I admit I haven't tried playing without it since the betas reduced the precursor events... I'm begining to wonder if events like 'ultradrives' are happening to the luck players - I'm usually get one each game. Advances affecting everyone like that seem more in-keeping with the creativity description (they tend to be 'discoveries' rather than random events), while luck could affect your chance your being hit with positive/negative events? Just speculation, but worth investigating... if only I had the time...

Its only a single point - in essence the 'free' one I've managed to aquire. So I can afford to try out useless stuff If its not doing anything, I'm not exploiting am I?

I was under the impression that all the "double engines speed", "significantly increases research", etc. events affected all the races at the same time, not just the player's.

Economic - Master +30% 4 picks
Population growth - Frisky? +70% 6 picks

The Federalists +20% economy.

1. Economics bonuses.

I finally figured out after flailing around in the first 2 attempts, that galactic civilization is about ECONOMY. There is no point in getting bonuses to military/social/research production if you don't have the $$$ to back them up (only half of the racial bonus is free). If you earn enough $$$ you can keep yourself out of the red (or get out of it fast enough) so your morale and hence pop growth isn't affected. And since population size is related to tax revenue.....

Right now I build Trade centers like crazy on the bigger planets with larger populations, for most of the game i have no problem staying at 100% spending without seriously going to the red.

Funny, in most TBS games like civilization, MOO, getting a steady flow of $$$ is less important, you only use it to pay for maintaince of building , and for speeding up builds, but you don't actually need it to fund the production points...

2. Population growth bonuses

Since tax income depends on population, population growth bonuses are a big deal.

With the new 1.1 change to population growth, population related bonuses are even more important. Go ahead and do the colony rush for high PQ planets.

Should probably experiment with morale. bonus.

But I think it's clear economy,population,morale are the top picks. Have to look at the equations to decide.

Morale, Research, and Planet Quality are my big picks. I'll then pick up Social Production or Economy via the political party, depending on just what I grab.

My theory is this- Research is key for flexibility- I need to be able to adapt to a changing environment. If I end up facing the Torians on my porch, I want to be able to wage an Influence war. If the Drengin are to my left, I'll need advanced weaponry and ships. If I get halfway through the game and need to switch things around, I can. The Social Production and Economy helps me hit full speed out of the gate and then stay there. I want my research, economy and industry planets up and running fast, not 80 turns down the line. With 1.1 putting Social Production into Military when it isn't needed, upping my Military Production feels like a waste.

Morale and Planet Quality help me get more money out of my people, as well as help me push things further. And it seems to work.

I have been playing with numerous combos but I think undoubtedly, especially at higher difficulties (bright or above), you need money first (economy). Eventually I can set my social production at 5% and through trade and economy, buy virtually any building anywhere. It doesn't matter if you want to be peaceful, violent, a builder, a diplomat, etc...economy is the only thing that helps one universally. You can play around with any combo of other traits but like in real life, money makes the world go round-

I have always been partial to research. I tend to be a technologist and add research bonuses on top. While I know that money is a big part, I usually try to get my population up to get the tax revenue high enough to balance the money out. If I start running a deficit, I just start concentrating on population growth and revenue through trade and economic centers.