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

You need to understand quite a lot of basic material before going on to the more advanced aspects of race design, and this page presents the basics:
 * How the race design screens work.
 * The meanings of the race design options.
 * Which are worth using.
 * Which go well with which.

The screens
Race design starts with the "Select Race" screen. Since this page is about custom race design it assumes you choose the "custom" option.

Then you see a screen which is identical to the "Select Race" screen except that its title is "Select Race Picture". MOO II has only a fixed set of race pictures, which are used in various other screens, and you must choose one of these for your custom race. This has an important side-effect in single-player games: whichever picture you choose, the corresponding pre-defined race will not appear as one of your opponents in the game. We're showing the Race Design screen at a much larger scale than usual because there are so many features you need to understand. Edit the box at the top to show the name of your empire ("SciFi Fan" in this example).

In the standard game you start race design with a budget of 10 "Picks" (race design points). Advantageous traits cost points; disadvantageous traits increase your budget, but you can't choose more than 10 Picks' worth of disadvantages. Some mods increase your race design budget and / or the maximum negative Picks (disadvantages) and / or the costs of specific traits.

The number to the right of each trait's name represents the number of Picks deducted from your budget if you select that option (or added to your budget if the number is negative). This number is shown in in square brackets in the trait descriptions below.

Highlighted traits are the ones you've already chosen - you can unselect them by clicking the buttons beside them. Grayed-out (or greened-out) traits are unavailable because you have insufficient Picks left or because they'd take you over the limit on negative Picks or because they're incompatible with traits you've chosen. Traits that are neither highlighted nor grayed-out are available for you to select.

The "Picks" box shows how many Picks are left in your budget. The score box shows by how much the game will multiply your score at the end of the game if you use the current design - the fewer picks you use, the bigger the multiplier.

The "Clear" button (bottom left) resets all selections.

Traits
This section describes the costs and benefits of all traits as defined in the standard game - mods may have different values.

Genetic and empire-based traits
Some of the traits are part of the genetics of a race, and are retained even if another empire (hopefully yours) acquires a colony of another race by conquest, diplomacy or the surrender of another empire. Other traits depend on the empire, as if they are attributes of the government rather than the population; if a colony changes owner, the new owners' empire-based traits are applied.

Choosing some traits eliminates others
In addition to the budget limitations described above, choosing some traits makes others unavailable. The most obvious example is Lithovore (no food required), which makes all the Farming traits unavailable.

Population (genetic)
It's often said that in MOO II population is power (there's more about this later).

Makes the populations of all your colonies 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 aspect of your colony - farming, production, research and money. Avoid this pick if possible.
 * -50% Growth [-4]

Makes the populations of all your colonies grow at 150% of normal speed. Whether this is a good choice depends on your other picks and your overall economic strategy; for example there are 3 technologies and 1 management technique that can increase you population growth quite nicely, so you may prefer to spend your Picks budget on other advantages. It's largely wasted if you don't also choose at least one trait that increases the maximum populations of your colonies (Subterranean, Tolerant, Aquatic). There are usually better choices.
 * +50% Growth [3]

Makes the populations of all your colonies grow twice as fast as normal. This one costs too many Picks to be worthwhile since: the 3 point difference between +50% and +100% could get you another positive trait elsewhere; there are 3 technologies and 1 management technique that can increase your population growth.
 * +100% Growth [6]

Farming (genetic)
Decreases the production of all farmers by half a unit, i.e. from 2 to 1.5 per farmer, but it cannot make a farmer produce a negative amount of food. If you choose this, you probably need to research Soil Enrichment early, otherwise too much of your population is tied up in farming and not available for research or industrial production. This trait works best with Cybernetic, as Cybernetic races require 50% less food than normal; but Cybernetic is a dubious choice, and that makes -1/2 Food a poor choice.
 * -1/2 Food [-3]

This trait increases the production of all farmers by one unit each. Not recommended, since: Soil Enrichment can be researched early and gives the same benefit; Unification government (+1 food; +1 production; better security against spies / saboteurs; only [6] Picks) is much better value.
 * +1 Food [4]

This trait increases the production of all farmers by two units each. It is a very poor choice since you can get better value for the 7 Picks elsewhere, especially as there are many research options that increase food production.
 * +2 Food [7]

Production (genetic)
Decreases industrial production by 1 unit per worker. As usual: a worker cannot produce a negative amount; some technologies can negate this disadvantage. But in pre-warp starts you have to research even the most basic production-boosting technology (Automated Factories), and running at reduced production while you do this is a significant disadvantage. The main exception is if you have 1 or more traits that boost your money income (Democracy government, or +n Money). Avoid unless you have a money-boosting trait.
 * -1 Production [-3]

Increases industrial production by 1 unit per worker. Its value very much depends on the other traits you choose; for example in at least the early game pollution limits your industrial production quite severely, so Tolerant (no pollution penalty) fits very well with increased production. If you're considering the +1 production trait, you should consider whether Unification government (+50% production, +50% food, improved security against spies / saboteurs) should be used either an alternative or as a further booster. If you take Unification and the +1 production trait, you potentially have +2 production per worker but you really need Tolerant to avoid wasting it all on pollution; but Unification with Tolerant and +1 production is 19 picks, so you'd have to choose 9 or 10 Picks worth of disadvantages. Think carefully about this one.
 * +1 Production [3]

Increases industrial production by 2 unit per worker. The high Picks cost and the array of production-boosting technologies you can research mean this choice isn't worth it.
 * +2 Production [6]

Research (genetic)
Decreases research by 1 unit per scientist. Technology is crucial in MOO II because a high-tech warship slaughters whole fleets of low-tech ships and high-tech colonies can out-perform in every way those of lower-tech empires with specific racial advantages in production / farming / research. Choose this only if you find the highest difficulty too easy; never choose this against a human opponent (unless you've agreed some unusual start-up conditions for the sheer fun of it).
 * -1 Research [-3]

Increases research by 1 unit per scientist. As with the other "+1" traits, you need to consider the alternative and complementary traits. Artifacts world [3] increases research by 2 per scientist, but only on your home world; it can be very powerful if you use it to get key technologies early, for example if you get Planetary Supercomputer (a significant research booster) 10 turns before the opposition you probably have a permanent lead in technology. Democracy government (+ 1 research, + 1 money; [7 Picks]) provides fast research and the money to buy things quickly after you discover how to make them.
 * +1 Research [3]

Increases research by 2 units per scientist. Despite its high cost, this may be better than +2 farming and +2 production because it enables you to research quickly the technologies to counter the disadvantages you will have to choose in order to balance your Picks budget. Even so, think carefully about this one; in particular, Artifacts world ([3] Picks) is a powerful and cheaper alternative.
 * +2 Research [6]

Money (empire-based)
Decreases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or Trade Goods production by 0.5 BC, halving the money you get from those sources. Surprisingly this can be useful as a disadvantage to boost your Picks budget, provided you balance it with good choices in other areas - for example Democracy government (+1 research;  + 0.5 money; decent productivity at new-born colonies) compensates for the money disadvantage and enables you to research Spaceport faster (+ 0.5 money per taxpayer, when built) and, if you want, Stock Exchange (+1 money per taxpayer, when built); so your money worries vanish quickly and you still have the research boost. The downside of this combination (Democracy -0.5 money) is that before you've built Spaceport(s) you have to be careful not to build too many buildings or ships or spies, otherwise the maintenance costs may cripple you.
 * -0.5 BC [-4]

Increases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or Trade Goods production by 0.5 BC, i.e. boosts your income by 50% before Spaceports etc. Too expensive - Democracy government (+1 research; + 0.5 money; decent productivity at new-born colonies; [7 Picks]) is much better value.
 * +0.5 BC [5]

Increases every 1 BC your empire receives through taxes or Trade Goods production by 1 BC, i.e. doubles your income before Spaceports etc. Far too expensive. Democracy government (+1 research; + 0.5 money; decent productivity at new-born colonies) is much better value because it's cheaper, gives you +0.5 money and enables you to research money-boosting technologies faster (and every other tech, including military).
 * +1 BC [8]

Ship Defense (empire-based)
Reduces by 20% your warships' ability to avoid being hit by "beam" weapons (including the "machine-gun" weapons Mass Driver and Gauss Cannon). A very common negative pick to balance the Picks budget since research can quickly provide means to: improve your ship defence; shoot with greater power and accuracy (if you destroy enemy ships fast, a defensive weakness becomes much less important).
 * -20 Ship Defense [-2]

Increases by 25% your warships' ability to avoid being hit by "beam" weapons. Poor value because of the technologies described above. For the 3 Picks you could have +1 Science or Artifacts Homeworld, both of which get you these military techs faster. Most likely to be useful in small or crowded galaxies where early, low-tech combat is probable.
 * +25 Ship Defense [+3]

Increases by 50% your warships' ability to avoid being hit by "beam" weapons. Very poor value - it costs as many Picks as Democracy government, which gives you advantages in both civilian and military areas and that last much longer (+50% research and income) - even in small or crowded galaxies where early, low-tech combat is probable.
 * +50 Ship Defense [+7]

Ship Attack (empire-based)
Reduces by 20% your warships' ability to hit enemy ships with "beam" weapons (including the "machine-gun" weapons Mass Driver and Gauss Cannon). Avoid if at all possible - in MOO II research makes the power of warships' attacks increase faster than the strength of their defenses, so you need to kill enemy ships as fast as possible; and if you get into a low-tech fight in a small or crowded galaxy, your ships' inaccurate firing may be fatal.
 * -20 Ship Attack [-2]

Increases by 20% your warships' ability to hit with "beam" weapons. Can be good value if a blitz strategy is viable, in other words if your other race design choices support attacking as early as possible and the galaxy is small and / or crowded - otherwise your opponents probably use other traits to pull ahead in production and technology and you're losing.
 * +20 Ship Attack [+2]

Increases by 50% your warships' ability to hit with "beam" weapons. Poor value unless you're very confident about winning by a blitz - and probably fatal if the the blitz fails or if it is never started because there's no-one you can attack quickly - your opponents probably will be pulling ahead in production and technology.
 * +50 Ship Attack [+4]

Ground Combat (empire-based)
Decreases your ground troops' effectiveness by 10%. A very common negative choice to balance your Picks budget since: ground combat skill is useless if you lose space battles; it's easily compensated for by research.
 * -10 Ground Combat [-2]

Increases your ground troops' effectiveness by 10%. Usually poor value since: ground combat skill is useless if you lose space battles; it's easily countered by research. It's best used if you aim to capture rather than destroy enemy ships - captured ships cannot be upgraded but if you scrap them there's chance of gaining space combat technologies from them. The best freebie techs you can get this way are from scrapping captured Antaran ships, but: it's incredibly difficult to capture Antaran ships; many multi-player games as played with the "Antarans attack" game option off, so you never get the opportunity.
 * +10 Ground Combat [+2]

Increases your ground troops' effectiveness by 20%. Poor value for the reasons stated above. There are many better ways to spend 4 Picks.
 * +20 Ground Combat [+4]

Spying (empire-based)
Decreases by 10% your spies' effectiveness both in espionage / sabotage missions against opponents and in defending your empire against opponents' attempts at espionage / sabotage. A fairly common negative choice to balance your Picks budget but must be used carefully. Not a severe disadvantage if you research espionage technologies quickly. Do not use if you choose Democracy government, as Democracy has a built-in -10 disadvantage in defensive spy operations; Democracy with the -10 Spying trait is at a 20% disadvantage and its opponents can steal its technologies as fast as it discovers them.
 * -10 Spying [-3]

Increases by 10% your spies' effectiveness both in espionage / sabotage missions against opponents and in defending your empire against opponents' attempts at espionage / sabotage. Seldom a good choice: technologies that boost spies' effectiveness (especially in defense) appear at several levels of the tech tree; espionage and sabotage make enemies quickly, and those enemies probably have advantages in production and / or research, so when they come knocking at your door, you're in real danger. To look at it another way, several 3 Pick choices boost research so you can quickly get technologies that boost spies' effectiveness, and these other traits have other civilian and / or military benefits.
 * +10 Spying [3]

Increases by 20% your spies' effectiveness both in espionage / sabotage missions against opponents and in defending your empire against opponents' attempts at espionage / sabotage. A really bad choice, for the reasons stated above but more strongly.
 * +20 Spying [6]

Government (empire-based)
This is the most important group of traits, as each government type is a package of advantages and disadvantages. Each government type also has an advanced version that can be researched; these advanced versions generally increase the basic version's advantages but do not mitigate its disadvantages. Although the advanced versions cannot be chosen in the Race Design screen, this page describes them because you should understand the advanced version (your medium- to long-term future) before choosing your initial government type.

Advantages: spaceship production costs are ⅔ (67%) of normal. Disadvantages: 50% less research per scientist; colonies without a Marine Barracks or Armor Barracks produce 20% less per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer (yes, your income suffers too), in other words colonies don't get going properly until they have a Barracks and the actual building of the Barracks is slowed by the poor productivity; if the empire's capital is captured or destroyed, the whole empire suffers a 50% reduction in output per per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer until a new Capitol is built. Notes: the manual says that populations captured from a Feudal empire assimilate instantly, but the base version of MOO II does not behave this way and no patch (official or user-developed) has fixed this. This bug is fixed in the version distributed electronically through Atari's website (Windows, version 1.31).
 * Feudal [-4]

Advanced version: Confederation. Advantages: spaceship production costs are reduced to ⅓ (33%) of normal; populations captured from a Confederation empire do not assimilate instantly (an imaginary advantage, since Feudal populations do not actually assimilate instantly); assimilates populations captured from other empires at twice the normal rate. Remaining disadvantages: It is not reflected in the manual, but the research penalty is lowered to 25% reduction per scientist; 20% penalty for colonies with no Barracks; 50% penalty after loss of capital, until a new Capitol is built.

Note: Although not discussed in the manual, experience shows that the Feudal and Confederation governments also obtain a 50% and 25% penalty to their research treaty amounts respectively. Therefore, if a Dictatorship would have earned 30 BC from a fully developed trade treaty, and 30 RP from fully developed research treaty, a Feudal or Confederation government would earn the same from the trade treaty but be penalized 50% or 25% on the research treaty respectively. This means they would gain 30 BC from the trade treaty but only 15 RP for Feudal and 23 RP for Confederation from the research treaty.

Feudal's 50% reduction in research per scientist is usually crippling. Feudal only stands a chance as a blitz race in a small galaxy - in a large galaxy, however crowded with juicy targets, some race on the far side will build up an insuperable technological advantage before the Feudal empire's ships get there. Outpost ships are often a vital part of Feudal fleets; they can extend a Feudal empire's range by landing on uninhabitable gas giants and asteroid belts; and they can overcome the "no Barracks" penalty for young colonies because they convert to Marine Barracks when a planet on which they've already landed is colonized (but not by landing on a colonized planet which has no Barracks). These techniques are rather expensive in production cost for non-Feudal empires in the early game, but they exploit Feudalism's one strength, which is cheap ships.

Advantages: spies get a 10% advantage in defensive operations. Disadvantages: colonies without a Marine Barracks or Armor Barracks produce 20% less per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer (yes, your income suffers too), in other words colonies don't get going properly until they have a Barracks and the actual building of the Barracks is slowed by the poor productivity; if the empire's capital is captured or destroyed, the whole empire suffers a 35% reduction in output per per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer until a new Capitol is built.
 * Dictatorship [0]

Advanced version: Imperium. Advantages: no penalty for lack of a Barracks; assimilates conquered populations twice as fast as normal; defensive spying bonus increased to 20%; 50% more command points per starbase or battlestation, i.e. you can immediately increase your fleet by 50% without increasing maintenance costs.

Note on the Barracks issue: the 2 paragraphs above summarize the manual but observation suggests the manual is not quite accurate. When a colony of an Imperium builds its first Barracks, it gets a 20% increase in food / production / research / money per "person". So the truth appears to be that: the base "morale" (productivity) for Dictatorship is -20%, and Imperium eliminates this penalty; a Colony's first Barracks raises "morale" by 20% of the normal level for both Dictatorship and Imperium.

Much better than Feudal, but most players prefer Democracy or Unification.

Advantages: 50% more research per scientist; 50% more income per taxpayer; assimilates conquered populations twice as fast as normal; no penalty for absence of a Barracks. Disadvantages: spies get a 10% disadvantage in defensive operations; if the empires' capital is captured or destroyed, the whole empire suffers a 20% reduction in output per per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer until a new Capitol is built. Note: the building of a Barracks does not increase morale (productivity).
 * Democracy [7]

Advanced version: Federation (do not confuse with Confederation, which is the advanced version of Feudalism). Advantages: 75% more research per scientist; 75% more income per taxpayer; assimilates conquered populations 4 times as fast as normal. Remaining disadvantages: spies get a 10% disadvantage in defensive operations; if the empire's capital is captured or destroyed, the whole empire suffers a 20% reduction in output per per farmer / worker / scientist / taxpayer until a new Capitol is built (a less serious penalty than for Feudalism or Dictatorship).

Note: Although not discussed in the manual, experience shows that the Democracy and Federation governments also obtain a +50% bonus (or 75% with Federation) to their research and trade treaty amounts. Therefore, if a Dictatorship would have earned 30 BC from a fully developed trade treaty, and and 30 RP from fully developed research treaty, a democracy would earn 50% more from each or 45 BC from the trade treaty and 45 RP from the research treaty. A Federation would gain a 75% bonus, thus giving them 53 BC and RP.

Democracy's assimilation advantage is minor, since other governments can reduce their assimilation times by building on each conquered planet a Alien Management Center, which is fairly easy to research.

Most good research-oriented races are Democracies: the effect is increased if they are also Lithovores and therefore "waste" no population on farming; the income advantages enable them to buy all the pretty toys soon after researching them. Democracies can also be the most dangerous blitzers: they get going slower than Feudalism because their ship production costs are normal; but Democracies' ships are more advanced, their faster researching of range and speed technologies gets their ships to distant targets faster, their money advantages allow them to run fleets in excess of their command points and their rapid assimilation of conquered populations (even without Alien Management Center) turns conquests into strong points very quickly.

However although Democracy is the most expensive government, many players think Unification (below) is the best.

Advantages: +50% production per worker; +50% food per farmer; no penalty for absence of a Barracks; spies get a 15% advantage in defensive operations; no penalty for loss of the capital. Disadvantages: cannot use any morale-boosting technologies (but its farming and industrial advantages generally more than compensate for this); assimilation of conquered populations takes 250% of the normal time (20 turns per head rather than 8).
 * Unification [6]

Advanced version: Galactic Unification. Advantages: +100% production per worker; +100% food per farmer; assimilation of conquered populations reduced to 188% of the normal time (15 turns per head); other advantages unchanged. Remaining disadvantage: cannot use any morale-boosting technologies (not severe, see above).

Note that Unification's assimilation disadvantage is eliminated by the Alien Management Center technology.

Most good production-oriented races are Unification, and many players think it's the strongest government; its effects are increased if the race is also Tolerant and therefore "wastes" no production on pollution. Despite the high Picks cost (6 + 10 =16), the "UniTol" combination (Unification + Tolerant) is so strong that it is sometimes banned in online tournaments, and some mods aim to reduce the advantage of Unification and especially the UniTol combination. The great strength of this type of race is its ability to build an economy fast, especially to colonize fast. Its greatest weakness is rather slow early research (although better than Feudalism's); it can be vulnerable to early blitzes, usually by Democracies rather than Feudalisms; Unification, especially UniTol, can build ships as fast as a Feudalism but a Democracy can soon build much better ships and usually buy them when half built if it's in hurry. Later in the game this type of production-oriented race can often out-research a research-oriented race, because it will have more colonies and therefore more research buildings.

Special abilities
Some of these are "genetic" and some are "empire-based"; and 4 are traits of the home planet rather than of the species or empire.

Advantages: Removes the 25% productivity penalty on Low-G worlds. Disadvantages: productivity is reduced by 25% on Normal-G planets(the penalty on High-G worlds remains at 50%); ground troops have a 10% reduction in effectiveness on Normal-G planets, and a 20% reduction on High-G planets.
 * Low-G World (genetic/homeworld) [-5] (genetic)

The fundamental problem is that Low-G planets are rarer than Normal-G planets and are smaller in size or mineral richness, so your colonies will be less productive. A Gravity Generator can eliminate the productivity penalty on Normal-G planets, but it will take a while to research.

However, since the penalty for placing colonies on High-G worlds is the same regardless of whether your race is a Normal-G or Low-G race, and because it gains you an additional 5 points to spend on your race, it might be worth the cost if you need the extra racial points and spend them wisely, especially since you can research Gravity Generator later in the game to eliminate the penalties.

Advantages: normal productivity on High-G planets; 10% ground combat bonus on Normal-G planets. Disadvantages: none (High-G races have the same 25% penalty on Low-G planets as Normal-G races).
 * High-G World (genetic/homeworld) [6] (genetic)

Seldom worth the cost. Gravity Generator gets the same benefits in productivity and Anti-Grav Harness gets the same benefits in ground combat; Normal-G races can research both fairly easily. Although a lot of the richest planets are High-G worlds, you can usually research Gravity Generator by the time you need to expand into the High-G planets.

A complex package whose benefits apply only on "wet" planets: Tundra is as good for an Aquatic race as Terran is for other races (+1 increase in farming, habitable area increases from 25% to 80%, so maximum population is increased by more than 3 times); Swamp becomes effectively Terran (no increase in farming; habitable area increases from 40% to 80% doubling maximum population); Ocean becomes effectively Gaia (+1 increase in farming, habitable area increases from 25% to 100% increasing the maximum population 4 times); Terran becomes effectively Gaia (+1 increase in farming, habitable area from 80% to 100%, a 25% increase in maximum population).
 * Aquatic [5] (genetic/homeworld)

Aquatic is a gamble, but experienced players often take it. If you find a few medium or larger "wet" planets in or near your home system, you get an excellent start: you can build up a large population fast; most of that increase goes into research as you need fewer farmers; you research industrial and pollution-control technologies and develop a monster economy. If the area round your home planet contains only "dry" planets (Desert or Arid) or no-farming planets (Toxic, Radiated, Barren) in or near your home system, you get very little advantage over a non-Aquatic race (+1 farming and +25% maximum population on your homeworld, which is an Ocean, instead of Terran and performs as Gaia); and in standard MOO II most planets are no-farming at the start of the game.

This gives the greatest increase in the maximum population capacity of your colonies(from 2 on Tiny planets to 10 on Huge planets or 40% of maximum possible population on a Gaia type planet) and, unlike Aquatic, applies to all planet types inhabited by your race. Subterranean also provides a 10% ground combat bonus when defending a colony.
 * Subterranean [6] (genetic)

Less of a gamble than Aquatic, but you have to play carefully to turn the extra population into an asset, since Subterranean provides no farming advantage and is a relatively expensive pick. Soil Enrichment (+1 food per farmer) is a key technology for Subterranean races.

Increases the size of your homeworld from medium to large, and subsequently it's maximum population capacity by one third.
 * Large Home World [1]

A good way to spend that last Pick remaining in your budget but don't choose it at the expense of other ways to increase maximum population capacities.

Increases the mineral richness of your homeworld from Abundant to Rich, increasing industrial production from 3 to 5 per worker.
 * Rich Home World [2]

A good use for your last 2 Picks but don't choose it at the expense of other ways to increase production (e.g. the Unitol combination).

Avoid this if you can, as it significantly slows down your early colonization - production is reduced by 1 per worker.
 * Poor Home World [-1]

Increases research on your homeworld from 3 to 5 per scientist; that's a 67% increase.''
 * Artifacts World [3]

Possibly better than +1 Science; but Democracy is better if you can afford it. Artifacts World is often better than +1 Science (also 3 Picks) because in the early game most of your scientists are on your homeworld, except perhaps for Unitol and other extreme production-oriented races. Don't choose either at the expense of Democracy, which benefits all colonies with scientists and allows you to move people from industry to research because its higher tax revenue enables you to buy things when half-built.

Each population unit consumes 0.5 food and 0.5 production; ships are completely repaired after combat; ships' structural and armor are repaired at 10% per turn during combat; ships' systems (engines, weapons, targetting devices, etc.) are repaired by 5% per turn during combat. You can't be both Cybernetic and a Lithovore.
 * Cybernetic [4] (genetic)

Not worth 4 Picks in most cases. Unless you're also tolerant or have a production bonus in the early game the 0.5 production consumed by each population unit can't be replaced easily by moving people from farming to industry, because 50% of your increased production will be "eaten" by pollution, so your early colonization will be slowed down almost as much as by Poor Homeworld. The combat advantages are also minor: you could have used the 4 Picks to increase your fleet strength by other means.

Using Cybernetic. Cybernetic can be a useful choice when paired with Tolerant and Unification. What you get with this combination is a way to hedge your early colonization strategy. The 50% bonus to farming and production from Unification paired with Tolerant, and an early pick of Hydroponic Farm gives you a way to rapidly colonize all nearby planets at the start of the game regardless of their traits.

Lithovores eat rocks instead of food, so don't need to farm to support themselves (but can farm to generate income or to support non-Lithovore captured colonists). You can't be both Cybernetic and a Lithovore. You also can't research technologies that boost food production (with one fairly late-game exception), which means you have to be careful how you manage non-Lithovore captured colonists.
 * Lithovore [10] (genetic)

Good for research-oriented races, almost useless for production-oriented races. Despite the high cost of 10 Picks, this gives early research a major boost because you don't need to use 25-35% of your homeworld's population for farming; and  nothing researches as fast as a Demolith race (Democracy + Lithovore). A production race will generally have Unification government, which provides a farming advantage that would be wasted if you choose Lithovore as well.

AI races are more likely to be hostile. You get a poorer choice of Colony Leaders and Ship Leaders, usually at higher cost, and fewer opportunities to hire leaders. The only Diplomatic options you have are "Declare War" and "Surrender" (no trade or research treaties; no opportunities for extortion / blackmail). It takes 50% longer to assimilate captured colonists. You can't be both Charismatic and Repulsive.
 * Repulsive [-6] (empire-based)

But this can be the best negative trait! At the higher difficulty levels AI players are hostile anyway; and diplomacy is usually forbidden in death-matches involving more than 2 human players, to prevent collusion. Repulsive's assimilation disadvantage is eliminated by the Alien Management Center technology. For a few minor sacrifices you get an extra 6 Picks to spend on becoming a great power. Oderint dum metuant (an ancient Roman saying: let them hate us provided they fear us).

On the other hand, while it is true that you get many points to spend on making your race better, in multi-player games with other humans Repulsive can be devastating. Assuming treaties are not forbidden, your opponents gain wealth and research from other empires, while you cannot. Furthermore, with this trait selected they have no reason to be friends with you, thus potentially forcing them to ally with another against you. Additionally, it is easy to convince any computer players to declare war on you since they have no prior relations, which can result in a 5 front war. A multiple front war, no matter how great your species is, can often destroy the most powerful empire.

The opposite of Repulsive.
 * Charismatic [3] (empire-based)

Seldom worth 3 Picks for the same reasons that make Repulsive good value. Although again, if playing multi-player with computer opponents, a Charismatic species can open up additional fronts against their enemies, buying you at the least, time, and at the most, a total victory. In single player games being charismatic can lead to a swift victory through galactic vote.

In general, being charismatic is also very useful for getting better leaders and techs through leaders: Having an autolab and terraforming early on can turn many games around.

Non-creative races have to choose 1 technology but Uncreative races don't get to choose; the game software makes random selections for them. Incompatible with Creative.
 * Uncreative [-4] (empire-based)

Avoid this like the plague except in single-player games where you want a real challenge. Human opponents will quickly work out the technologies you're missing and exploit these weaknesses ruthlessly - if the lack of critical technologies doesn't cripple you anyway.

When you research 1 tech at a given level, you get all the techs at that level - usually 2 or 3 for the price of one (there are about 6 levels where this does not apply, out of about 80). Incompatible with Uncreative.
 * Creative [8] (empire-based)

''The most controversial and 2-edged option in all of MOO II race design. Beginners may use this for a few games to learn the effects of all the technologies. Very difficult to use against good human opponents.'' Because the cost in Picks is so high, a Creative race has to forgo many early-game advantages in both research and production; so its early colonization and research are slow. But a Creative race that reaches the mid-game unscathed can be deadly. As the mid-game progresses Creative can rival Unitol in production per worker and Demolith in research per head of population; the secret is that Creative races get the "morale" technologies that Unification can't use and Demolith often forgoes in order to get research boosters or better space combat gear, which Creative also gets at no extra cost; and Creative gets (at no extra cost) some production boosters that both UniTol and DemoLith often forgo and pollution-control techs that Demolith seldom chooses.

Yet some players regard Creative as "primarily a war pick", because ships designed by a good Creative player can often beat 2-3 times as many non-Creative ships that have 1 or 2 grades better armor and weapons; once again the secret sauce is techs that non-Creatives usually have to forgo, in this case special systems that give a huge boost to the combat effectiveness of Creatives' ships (in good Creative ship designs the whole is much more than the sum of the parts). Not surprisingly in online games experienced players gang up on any Creatives without needing any diplomatic collusion.

The downside is revealed by the words "rival UniTol in production per worker and DemoLith in research per head of population": Creatives usually have small populations at the transition from early to middle game and must very quickly chop down their opponents or expand by conquest once they have just a handful of decent warships; otherwise the larger economies of their opponents will grind them down in a war of attrition.

No pollution penalty to reduce effective production. A significant increase in the maximum population of all colonies (25% of maximum possible on that planet's size class; less than the gain for Subterranean, but Tolerant's freedom from pollution penalties outweighs that). Note: Tolerant races' empires cannot research pollution control techs; this can be a problem for conquered colonies with non-Tolerant populations, and for colonies with Natives (who are sensitive to pollution).
 * Tolerant [10] (genetic)

Very important for production-oriented races, despite the high cost in Picks; of little use to other races. Research-oriented races can discover pollution control techs quickly enough; blitz races need to get a decisive advantage before production-oriented or research-oriented races get up to speed.

25% extra money income from trade treaties. Double the usual income from surplus food production (1 BC instead of 0.5 per unit of food). 50% extra income from producing "trade goods" (0.75 BC per unit of trade goods produced instead of 0.5 BC).
 * Fantastic Traders [4] (empire based)

Generally not worth 4 picks. The benefits look good in percentage terms, but less impressive in actual BCs (cash) generated. Looking at it the other way, you should usually minimize surplus food production (transfer your least productive farmers to research), and having to produce trade goods is usually a sign that you've mis-managed your economy. Democracy (7 Picks) quickly becomes a better way to generate cash, because: it has a permanent cash bonus, without needing trade treaties, surplus food or trade goods; its research advantage gets you both direct income boosters and population-boosting techs earlier.

25% bonus in diplomacy (aliens will like you and be more inclined to accept your proposals); you can mind control enemy colonies after winning space battles over them(unless they're also telepathic or have a telepathic leader), which saves you the cost and hassle of building Troop Transports and also the long wait for the population to be assimilated; 10% bonus in both offensive and defensive spying; can immediately use ships captured in combat, instead of having to wait for the end of the battle.
 * Telepathic [6] (empire based)

Seldom worth 6 Picks. Mind control sounds nice, but: you have win the space battle first, which may be difficult against opponents with superior research and / or production. All the other benefits can be gained by research, so 6 Picks' worth of research and / or production advantages is better, especially if packaged with other benefits as in Unification([6]) or Democracy ([7]).

Gets random events more often, almost always good ones. Antarans usually do not attack a Lucky empire.
 * Lucky [3] (empire based)

Inexpensive but worthless. A Lucky empire gets lucky about once per 50 turns, usually in not very spectacular ways. And even on the highest difficulty level the Antarans don't appear until about turn 220, by which time you should have the military tech to kill their small raiding fleets (1 frigate initially!) with ease. And multi-player games are often set up with "Antarans attack" switched off so no-one can win by attacking Antares.

Can see all systems, planets and colonies (including actual and maximum populations, and stationary defenses). Can see all ships and where they are going, even if the ships are cloaked or their owners have the Stealthy Ships trait.
 * Omniscient [3] (empire-based)

Not as impressive as it sounds. Seeing all systems, planets and colonies can be achieved by sending small scout ships from time to time; and if these have just 1 weapon, they can also blockade enemy colonies very cheaply. Being able to see cloaked ships is a more significant benefit, and one which cannot be achieved by research or scouting. But for 3 Picks you can have +1 Science or Artifacts Homeworld, and this will enable you build and upgrade defenses for colonies which are within the enemy's range but not important enough to merit stationing fleets there; and if you keep harassing a Stealthy Ships enemy, you can deter attacks on your colonies most of the time. Stealthy Ships only works for warships, not for Troop Transports, in other words it only works for bombing raids rather than invasions. If a Stealthy opponent manages to destroy one of your colonies, he / she / it has just increased the distance between your empires and therefore will find it more difficult to attack other colonies.

Warships (but not Troop Transports, Colony Ships or Outpost Ships) are invisible on the main map) - non-Omniscient opponents only see them when they arrive in colonised systems.
 * Stealthy Ships [4]

Not as impressive as it sounds for the same reasons as Omniscient (which is also cheaper). Its best use is in small galaxies where 1 small Stealthy ship can bomb and possibly destroy new colonies.

Ships move 2 parsecs per turn faster between systems. Can build ships before researching any FTL (faster-than-light) drives; +4 increase in combat speed (increases a ship's defensive capabilities as well as giving tactical flexibility). Not affected by "Hyperspace Flux" random events.
 * Trans-Dimensional [5]

Poor value for 5 Picks, the beam defense/speed bonus is insignificant compared to other uses of 5 picks. There is only about a 50% chance of a Hyperspace Flux in the first 100 turns. Can be used for a super fast rush in a small crowded galaxy, because it allows you to build ships earlier.

All warship crews are one experience level higher than normal, they start out as Regular Crews and max out at Ultra-Elite, while normally they start out as Green Crew and max out at Elite. Defensive troops at colonies (Marines, Armor) are produced at double the normal rate. Ship Leaders usually perform as if they are one experience level higher. Every starbase provides 2 extra command points.
 * Warlord [4]

Good choice for blitzers - but only if the blitz succeeds. Warlord works best in small galaxies where there are attackable colonies nearby and there's no-one totally out of range building up a large economic and technological lead. The improved skill of ship crews is slightly weaker than the +25 Ship Defense and +20 Ship Attack together(though it also provides bonus missile evasion), and that combination costs 5 Picks. The increase in command points is very significant in the early game, when empires have at most 1 or 2 starbases and have not researched techs that increase command points per starbase. The arithmetic behind this is: lots of small ships provide a better ratio of firepower to production cost than a few large ships at the same tech level; but lots of small ships provide a worse ratio of firepower to command points required than a few large ships; so only warlords can afford to use the early firepower advantage that lots of small ships can quickly provide. On the other hand if an early blitz fails or is impossible because there are no vulnerable colonies within range, the 4 Picks would have been better spent on research or production.