So a Question: is there a Generalist Faction, as in a Faction that specialises in nothing but being an all rounder?

I'd say several factions can fit this playstyle rather well... The United Empire & Vaulters could go for military, or wonder, or science victory with relative efficiency (depending of course on their opponents in the galaxy).

I don't think we want a perfectly "jack of all trades, master of none" faction, as we tend to go for specific gameplays per faction, but the aforementioned are rather versatile in my experience.

Cue a dozen people telling me I'm wrong. :D

Lumeris can be pretty flexible if you disable economic victory so you don't accidentally win. A bit more inclined to the military specialisation without economic because of the buyouts buy I think they would fit as Generalist Faction too.

Most of the factions are pretty versatile. All the best factions have a strong economy, and a strong economy, especially the research portion of it, is essential for every playstyle and victory condition (obvious for scientific, but wonder and economic victories depend on getting certain key techs quickly, and of course an edge in military technology makes winning all your battles straightforward). Factions that can easily run the industrialist 2-influence law or have the scientist party in the majority (not at the same time) are the most versatile, since those two things are major components of fast wonder and science victories, respectively. Thus Riftborn and United Empire are great at whatever goal they want to pursue. The Vaulters might be as well (though I haven't played the DLC to check this for myself). I'd trust Frogsquadron on this one. The devs are usually (though not always), the best authorities on their game.

The United Empire bears special mention as a generalist. Their play is in many ways the most standard of any faction, as they have the default colonization mechanics and their main trait is in practice just a source of additional influence (buying things out with influence is rarely worth the cost). Their faction quest lets them pick between industrialist, militarist and scientific bonuses, letting them specialize in whichever they prefer. This pattern of "generalist that eventually specializes" is typical of the game: the most effective way to win for most factions is to focus on all-around growth early, then pick a victory condition and single-mindedly pursue the things that make you better at it from the mid-game onwards.

I usually think Horatio as a pretty generalist faction, while they aren't my faviorite your basically just emass population to make your main population better and do whatever you want, as well as with the default Dictatorship you can generally go for whichever party you want (and hopefully are keeping your people going that direction too) although I generally change that to a Democracy or Federation as soon as reasonably possible. Thier ships are also very easy to fit any need you have so they can be built many ways.

If you mean factions that are capable of securing more than one victory type, then several factions are quite suited to this.

The United Empire is especially flexible with their ability to buyout literally anything with Influence; this lets you lean towards whatever you need more at the time--ships, improvements, politics, science, market resources, whatever.

The Lumeris, with their focus on Dust, are similar in that they can buyout what they need most.

The Horatio are perhaps a bit of a wild card, depending on what factions they manage to splice.

The Sophons can lean towards several victory types, but almost inevitably are pushed toward a science victory, though they have a curious dependence on the scientific choices of the other factions to influence their scientific path.

Most factions do have some measure of flexibility; the Cravers, Vodyani and Riftborn spring to mind as the least flexible, given that they absolutely require certain behaviors to thrive (war, aggressive essence harvesting, or rapid colonization respectively.)  While they --CAN-- go for certain victory types, you'll be hard pressed to go for anything but conquest and supremacy with the Cravers, the Vodyani are very likely to be pushed into war simply because they'll piss off everyone by stealing their essence and the Riftborn...well, they're "out-of-towners."  They're kinda special.

So what does anyone think of a Generic Faction? In both Space and Legends?

As in, "how about you guys create a generic faction"? I don't think that's really the kind of stuff we're interested in creating. Some factions are fairly straightforward in gameplay, but generic is easily bland, and we make a conscious effort to avoid that. :)

Kay then. But I'm a type of guy who likes using a plain weapon, so to speak. But I get your point. That's my only problem with Endless Legend, you see. It's not really much of a problem until I read "The Art of Endless Legend". Looking at the artwork from Pages 25-53 got me thinking "Hmm... I like to see those guys..." But eh... 'Tis a silly thought from a silly man. My appologies for wasting your time.

Definitely not a waste of time! If anything, you're learning more about the Amplitude Mantra. Plus, it's good to discuss these things because a lot of new players are probably expecting a generalist faction since most games have one.

While I would highly recommend the Vodyani (they're one of the most unique 4X factions I've ever played, that being one of dozens of reasons why they are drenched in awesome), I would not consider them a beginner faction. Honestly, not that they're even harder to play than other factions if you're coming to this game with a clean slate. But, they are very different. Which isn't bad, it's one of the reasons I love them so much, and you are right, they can be very flexible once you know how to play them. I would just emphasize that they are one of the most unique factions in the game, and a lot of mechanics you must understand to play them well will not translate to the other factions.

I would suggest starting with Lumeris actually. Apart from their buyout of outposts, they are pretty straight forward.

It's true I've played a lot less Vodyani than other races and I haven't been playing Es2 for years or whatnot.  The Vodyani, however, have much more critical points of failure than some races.  Fail to manage your pops properly=dead.  Fail to load up your arks with essence=outpaced by literally everything.  Fail to find systems with enough planets=massive growth loss due to not overcoming the 50% growth penalty.  Most factions have optimal ways to play that give you great advantages, but the Vodyani seem to suffer the worst for not playing them correctly.

Compare that to, say, the Sophons.  How do you critically fail as Sophons?  You don't, really; you can do poorly and lose, but that's because the other players beat you.  UE?  No particular self-destruct there other than just a generally bad game.  Even Horatio can still manage without finding lots of pops to splice, though it's difficult; they just don't have anything special other than the pop bonuses that splicing can grant.

The Vodyani, on the other hand, are fully capable of defeating themselves before they even meet another faction, stalling out far worse than most races if a particular set of decisions is not made.  This, by my definition, makes them far less flexible than most races--at least in the early game.  NOTE: this doesn't make them BAD to me by any means and they can still dominate a game.  They just have more ways to destroy themselves with the wrong opening moves than most races do.  Why do you think a lot of new players are turned off by the Vodyani after basically shooting themselves in the foot?

I think Daynen vocalized what I was trying to say much better than I was able to. Vodyani can snowball into one of the biggest powerhouses in the game if they are played properly (and with a little luck), however, there are many critical junctures that will hamstring you if you don't know how to work them.