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 ad / or the maximum negative picks (disadvantages).

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.

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.

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

-50% Growth [-4] - Makes the populations of all of 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 and research. Avoid this pick if possible.

+50% Growth [3] - Makes the populations of all of your colonies to grow at 150% normal speed, so one and a half times as fast as normal. Whether this is a good idea depends on your other picks and your overall economic strategy. 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).

+100% Growth [6] - This trait causes all of your colonies to grow 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.