The free pop is really good right at the start, but falls off pretty fast, and is map dependently good on how many worlds you find that will have a guardian on it. The early boost is great, but other than that, it doesn't give you much. Unfallen are OP because of how quickly they grow, how quickly they expand, the speed benefits of vines, and (until the balance patch) the pacifist force law. Guardians is pretty low down on the list of things that make them so strong.

Pathfinders overall is an incredible ability, and only falls off once you've explored nearly every node in the galaxy. Knowing how close a system is (the amount of times I've sent an unfortunate colony ship down some 30 parsec starlane just to find gas giants!), knowing where to send your probes, knowing whether there is a star in the system at all, are all super useful when working out where to colonise, where to send your scouts, etc. Not many people talk about the benefits of good scouting, but it can seriously turn you into an early game powerhouse. Picking up extra science, influence, and the occasional free population can launch you into getting all those techs, resources from minors, and extra FIDSI super fast. If you find some of T2 or even T3 ship tech, you will have stronger fleets than everyone else for a considerable amount of time. Make sure to prioritise the ruins, signals, and atmospheric curiousities.

Anyway, any trait that helps with scouting is really, really good, and its cost should reflect that. I imagine this only gets stronger in multiplayer, where information becomes far more crucial to taking out your opponents. Locating trade HQ's, key resource systems, etc., is essential to pulling off a win. Pathfinders is strongest scouting trait, and the cost reflects that.

As an aside, I'm kinda surprised that the MP games you play allow for faction customisation. It crushes any semblance of balance, so talking about balance in terms of traits when it comes to customisation feels a bit moot. 

Hi guys,

We've changed the point values of various faction traits recently, including Pathfinder and Guardians.

These changes should be made available in an upcoming update of the G2G Balance Mod at first, and if the community is pleased with the new values, they will be added to the base game.

Cheers :)

What does make them so nasty late game? I mean they don't have any bonus to anything but science and come that point everyone has a lot of what they wanted the most be it dust, industry or whatever. You would think that they just wouldn't be able to climb back up from a nice game of "kick the sophons for the whole game" when they have to catch up to people that possibly never got sidetracked. Is it that the results of scienctific development can never be removed?

Haven't messed a lot with the traits but the change seems perfect as long as Pathfinder and Guardians remain the same.