I totally understand why the point cap is set the way it is- the existing factions were carefully balanced against each other, with the abilities they gain being uniquely suited to their affinity so that it all balances out. When you start messing with that, you can make something much more powerful. However, that doesn't change the fact that the existing races have the following point totals:



United Empire - 68

Cravers- 64

Sophons- 77

Horatio- 84

Hissho- 73

Sowers- 61

Amoeba- 74

Pilgrims- 88

Automatons- 77

Harmony- 69

Sheredyn- 64

Vaulters- 77



So only 3 of them are actually below that total (Cravers, Sowers, and Sheredyn), with the average being 73. The highest being more than a third higher than the point cap. I'm not saying that I want to set it to 90 or anything, though it is unfortunate that you can't even remotely swap out one of the Pilgrims abilities for a different one, but it would be nice to be able to kick it up a bit, make it feel like a more even playing field. Is there a config file anywhere where the custom race point cap can be adjusted, that anyone has found?



Edit: Nevermind, found what I was looking for. It's nice too because I can actually just set the point limits for the various affinities to the point total for that faction, ensuring they continue to be balanced, so I'm all set. I cannot find where to mark this thread for deletion, though :-(



For anyone else wondering about this, I found the answer with a bit of google fu here:

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/16329-how-to-change-custom-faction-trait-points

As a relative newbie please take my comments with a huge pound of salt since I've only just now started experimenting with custom races.



But way I see it, point cap comparisons only apply if 1 point = 1 point. So that a Sophon 77 in your list above would be 16 points "better" than Sowers at 61. But that's only if each 1 point actually was worth 1 point.



My initial take of the abilities you can combine is that there is a short list of A) 'really, really good abilities', a modest list of B) 'decent abilitiers', and a whole lot of C) 'meh, better than nothing but not a big deal'.



So take the point leader Pilgrims in your list, if they had used most of those 88 points filling up with all or most of the bucket A list, then they'd be super powerful compared to Sowers who only spent 61 points filling up on the same.



But none of the pre-designed races do that - they fill up with a lot of category B (decent), a lot of C (meh, not exciting) and only 1 or a few of the really good stuff category A.



Whereas you and I, as sneaky back stabbing human players, will custom design the race and load up with as much of category A as we can fill, and then I suppose there is a new category D - the negatives that really aren't that bad a negative you can take that increase your point total to add even more category A abilities.



Even without the addition of adding not that bad a negatives though, just the ability to cherry pick all your points from the category A stuff seems to make a custom designed race a lot more superior, point for point, than the default races that loaded up on a lot of bread and not a lot of meat.

That is absolutely true, and indeed it's more complex than it first appears- for one, it can be argued that the Craver affinity itself is very valuable (+25% FIDS bonus for the first 40 turns of the game? Yes Please! Especially if you're on a small map and plan to end things quickly), so it makes sense they have a lower cap. However, the custom point cap *can* be set per affinity in the games code, it's actually relatively trivial to do so. They just opted not to. Second, the 1 point = 1 point thing, I absolutely get where you're coming from. In classic, I *always* took hellgourds. 5 more points to play with, *and* +3 food per capita on my starting world? That's an insane value from the "negative" trait! Point valuations are always going to leave something to be desired, especially when you synergize abilities and drop the cost of colony ships to under 100 through both Masters of Illusion (previously too cheap) and Make Science not War.



That being said, though, the approach they took with it is certainly valid. It appears to basically be "let's give them the same amount of points as the lowest of the races, and since they can do more with them presumably they can make stronger races with it". I don't think it's in any way ideal though. The Horatio have a HUGE point total, and sure, it's loaded up with several redundant abilities that cost way too much for what they're worth. I'd rather have seen those "meh" abilities given point values that reflect their minimal impact, and a uniform point total used across the board. Alternately, a variable point amount assigned to the different affinities to reflect the differences in the base power of that affinity itself. Since they give me the tools to do so, I'll poke around in there and customize point totals and values for various abilities until I'm more satisfied with the balance :-) Maybe if based on my final results things end up being uneven I'll end up modifying the stock races, adding some things in for the 'weaker' races to balance them out.



Such a project would be a long way off with way more playtesting with the existing balance, though. For now I just want to be able to make a militaristic version of the Sophons with Black Thumbs instead of feeble warriors and unskilled builders, and Militarists instead of Make Science not War (a net change of 0 in points used, and really no overall change to their strength, if anything possibly a bit weaker with black thumbs in there) without having to throw a bunch of penalties at them to get them down to "custom" level of power.