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Ezixl does not believe that it is useful to provide possible race designs here, because they can be found elsewhere, and because it is more enjoyable to experiment with one's own designs. Here I will provide general guidelines for each category, and a few basic ideas, but no hard rules. Population: This is not usually a good use of your picks. While it does help your planets become productive more quickly, there are plenty of other ways to do that. If you need to take a penalty, a good player can take one here and simply use lots of housing to compensate. Farming: Don't take a penalty here; it will cause headaches in the early game. If you are cybernetic, a bonus is nice. If you are unification, a bonus will yield huge volumes of food. Otherwise, unless you plan to go subterranean, just leave food alone. Industry: Same rules apply for cybernetic and unification. In this game, industry is the key to early game domination. Science: A research bonus is nice, but in race designing industry is everything, so if I had to choose one or the other, I'd go industry all the way. Ship Defense: Who would take a penalty here? A bonus is good, especially since it also helps with missile defense. This is a good place to spend some picks. Ship Attack: Never take a hit here either. Ship attack bonuses let you avoid wasting research on those early-game computers. Ground Combat: This one is interesting. It's not very useful, unless you plan on lots of boarding missions. If you plan on using Troop Ship designs, or plan to board Antaran warships, get a bonus. Otherwise, taking a penalty is ok due to the power of bombs in this game. Spying: I frequently take a penalty here, since if you get a few good techs you can easily make up for the early problems. And plenty of defensive agents will do the job just fine. Governments: Democracy isn't worth it unless you are making a research-heavy race. It is a great government, and no morale penalty, +50% research and +50% money are great. Still, Unification is the way to go, because the food and industry bonus is amazing. Dictatorship is fine. Stay away from Feudal- the ship-building bonuses aren't nearly enough to make up for 1/2 research. Special Abilities: Low-G is fair at -5 picks, and in all honesty you will be finding many low-gravity worlds, so this can be a good selection to gain 5 picks. High-G would be nice, but is too pricey unless you want some Superbulrathi race. Aquatic is quite useful, especially in Organic-rich galaxies, and is recommended. Large Homeworld is great at 1 pick and can prove quite useful. So is Rich Homeworld at 2 picks; these two provide a big boost in the early game. Poor homeworld is disastrous and causes horrendous expansion problems. -1 pick for this is ridiculous. Artifacts world is good, though it costs a little more. Its benefits will be great for the early and middle stages of the game. Cybernetic is awesome if used properly, but use the Unification government with it, along with a food and/or industry bonus. Lithovore is cool, but take a penalty so you can get another attribute also. Repulsive is iffy; if you are good, you can take it, but it seems to take a lot of the fun out of the game, and you don't get any good leaders. Charismatic is great and should definitely be considered. Uncreative is difficult, but with proper tech trading can be overcome, and it does give you -4 picks. Creative is almost unfair and is highly recommended. Tolerant is great, but not by itself. Fantastic Traders is probably not worth it by itself either. Telepathic is also almost unfair, so it can be a powerful tool in your arsenal. Lucky is a toss-up. If you can't seem to beat Antarans, go for it; otherwise, forget it. Omniscient is useful, but it seems like a low-skill pick to me . Stealthy Ships is ok, but this feature seems to help the computer more than Human players. Trans-dimensional can be very good for a military-style race, especially in a Pre-Warp galaxy (where you can move before you even have engines if you have this pick). It is also enjoyable to attack during Hyper-space fluxes. Warlord is one of the best in the game, and is an incredible bargain at 4 picks. Get it.
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