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 in the game. We're showing the Race Design screen at a much larger scale 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 in square brackets next to the name of each trait represents the number of picks deducted form your budget if you select that option (or added to you, if the number is negative).

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 the current design - the fewer picks you youse, 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. Others 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 (you'll see more about this on another page).

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 facet 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 coloniesgrow 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 you 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 redcued 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 (+1 production, +1 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 pers worker. The high Picks cost and the array of production-boosting techologies 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-everything against 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]

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.