Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares/Race design options

In Master of Orion II, the race you pick to play with will depend heavily on the way you like to play your game, and the chances are that if you pick a race at odds with your favoured strategy, you will have a tough time. Thankfully, there are races for just about every possible playing style, from the peace-loving diplomats to the reclusive geniuses and the repulsive war-mongers. But in order to know which is which, you should be familiar with the traits each race has, and to this end, it's easiest to look at the screen allowing you to create a custom race.

Traits
The number in square brackets next to the trait name will come into effect when you are creating your own race, as they represent the number of Race Picks used by picking that choice (or given to you, if the number is negative). This will be explained later in more depth.

Population
-50% Growth [-4] - Exactly as it sounds like, as many of the next sections are, this trait will cause all of your colonies to grow at half speed. Research can nullify this trait in time, but in the beginning, the more people you have in a colony, the better as it improves every facet of your colony - farming, production and research.

+50% Growth [3] - This trait causes all of your colonies to grow at 150% normal speed, so one and a half times as fast as normal. This has the same advantages as the previous trait has disadvantages, but takes up a third of your given Race Picks. This one enhances the production of buildings like Automated Factories, and is recommended if you like playing a blitz strategy.

+100% Growth [6] - This trait causes all of your colonies to grow at 200% normal speed, twice as fast as normal. This one costs too many Picks to really be worthwhile in the long-run, as the 3 point difference between +50% and +100% could get you another positive trait elsewhere.

Farming
-1/2 Food [-3] - This trait decreases the production of all individual farmers by half of a crop, but it cannot make a farmer produce a negative amount of food. If you are looking for easy Race Picks, this is not a bad disadvantage as it is easy to recoup the production decrease by using improvements like the Hydroponic Farm

+1 Food [4] - This trait increases the production of all individual farmers by one crop each. Since the Hydroponic Farm is discovered so easily, this trait is a bit of a waste, and isn't recommended.

+2 Food [7] - This trait increases the production of all individual farmers by two crops each, and is a terrible one to take. Even if you want to have one or two colonies feeding your entire empire, late in the game it will occur anyway through research and improvements.

Production
-1 Production [-3] - This trait decreases all individual worker production by one unit. As always, some improvements can negate this disadvantage, and a worker cannot produce a negative amount of units as a result, but in the end it's not really worth it.

+1 Production [3] - This trait increases all individual worker production by one unit. Unlike the previous one, this pick is not bad to make as, in the later stages of the game, having a planet or two capable of producing ships at a good rate is key, and this trait would only aid that. The reason +1 Food isn't recommended while this one is, is because +1 Food is a) one Pick more expensive, and b) requires a fleet of freighters to actually be put to proper use.

+2 Production [6] - This trait increases all individual worker production by two units. The high costs and the array of improvements that can act as substitutes for it mean this isn't worth it.

Research
-1 Research [-3] - This trait decreases all individual scientist production by one beaker, and is only recommended if you find the highest difficulty too easy. Since science is key in this game, taking a trait that causes you to lag behind in the early going before better improvements are available is a big mistake.

+1 Research [3] - This trait increases all individual scientist production by one beaker. Unlike its counterpart, this trait is useful for novices - it allows you to get an early technological edge over your enemies and will consolidate all improvements discovered later, keeping that edge for a long time.

+2 Research [6] - This trait increases all individual scientist production by two beakers. This is a favoured pick of mine because I love having a big technological advantage over enemies, but the key thing with this is that while food and mineral production can be aided by a good planet as well as building improvements, the only way a planet can improve research is by having Artifacts, and that's rare.

Taxation
-0.5 BC [-4] - This trait decreases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or trade good production by 0.5 BC, basically halving the money you get from those sources. This is not a bad trait to take if you want additional Race Picks because the Spaceport is researched early on and can almost completely negate this trait's effect.

+0.5 BC [5] - This trait increases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or trade good production by 0.5 BC. Despite the boost, the high cost of this trait makes it a bad idea to do unless you want your race to be centred around gaining money.

+1 BC [8] - This trait increases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or trade good production by 1 BC, effectively doubling the money you get from them. This is a terrible trait to have unless your race is supposed to be centred around having lots of money because it costs so much. The Stock Exchange has the same effect, even if it is fairly late in the tech tree.

Alkari
Race Traits - +40 Ship Defense, Artifacts Homeworld Government - Dictatorship

In the very beginning, the Alkari have the easiest time because their homeworld puts them on a research level greater than all the other races except the Psilons, and they should be able to hold on to this advantage to some degree. The best strategy for them is to put everything you can into research in the beginning, then start producing ships en masse; the quicker you can get into combat with a race, the better. The Alkari are one of the easiest races to use because their traits are nice and simple, presenting clear strengths.

Bulrathi
Race Traits - High-Gravity World, +10 Ground Combat, +20 Ship Attack Government - Dictatorship

Good at ground combat, and entering other ships.

Psilons
Good scientists, physically weak.

Humans
Average everywhere, good diplomats.