Creating races

Actually Low gravity's combat penalty was NOT circumventable.

the easy way to decide is to play a few games then look at what you didn't find as necessary. I love to build Monoliths, thus I rarely have resource issues. Coorespondingly I use this behavior to offset the penalty of having relatively weak resource production.

I like to use the propulsion experts(?) trait to give my ships an increased range of 1, great advantage in escaping overwhelming fleets and also rushing up reinforcements. Obviously using the diffent traits such as Crystallurgy and Organics gives you more techs and weapons. I've found that taking the hit on organics and radioactives production as an easy way to free up more trait points. Also increased facility and cargo space is nice.

Theres not really any traits that are "better" than others. It depends what you want your race to be able to do.
you can have any combination. though its kind of silly to take the bonus and the anti-bonus in one specific area. saaaay the SMART trait (research +5?) and the DUMB trait (research -5?) But say you need 500 extra points for Organic Manipulation trait you take a hit in research or minerals extraction and your good to go.
they best way to figure it out is to just play around with the combos.
the different research areas are pretty sweet. Temporal is one of my favourites as well as crystaline.

I love crystaline as well but there seems to be a large group who dont't so maybe it does just come down to playstyle and roleplaying

Groovy Baby Yeah!

Like any monkey, I'll downplay my phyiscal side, to uplift my intellectual side. I tend to make my race physically weak, and put the points into research. Because, like Moo2, the tech will offset your downside. By the time you're in ground combat, you've gotten so many tech advantages, that your equal or better than your opponent.

Anyone who says to me that Soviet Soldiers were weaker then American Soldiers can, well kiss my butt. I'm the American Soldier who was there when the wall fell. We out Teched' them. End of story. Maybe.

In any case, making the trade off, in a game where races are so different physically, to downplay physical strength versus mental strength. I think that's a winner.

I might even go so far, depending on my mood, as to make my race 'environmetally' weak. I know I'll get the tech to overcome that shortcoming. And I'm only on my third game. Much like Moo2, but much better!

EDIT: I just thought to add one thing. If you're going to dumb down you physical to get them extra points, then choose a whole new tech tree (Organics, Crystalline) beware! Hell the tech tree is hard enough already. Way more stuff to research then time or money allows. So, if you do that... use it, don't just research applied science, explore the new tech tree... otherwise, it's not worth it!

Woohoo!
Casca
The Immortal Soldier

i usually do the same thing, less physical and more research and always pick crystalline technology for the ships with reduced maintenance, as i like the liberty of being able to build a ton of ships without worrying about maintenance so much. i really don't like espionage but sometimes its nessicary i suppose. also like said before in this thread i usually down organics and radioactives for minerals and other things.

natural merchants (saves some space and build time on new planets) and especially hardy industrialists (space yard prod +25%!!!) are a few favorites.

i have yet to try the balance mod so i dont know if any of this is different with it

When setting these created races to AI controlled, what AI scripts do they use?

Should be the default AI scripts.

-Unnamed

Unnamed Mod

I usually put all my points into manufacturing and faster shipyard construction rates, with my race type being industrialists. I love being able to pump out ships, replace my losses faster than my enemy, and produce lots and lots of resources to support large assault fleets.