I like the Sophon for their description, but they don't really play to their description in my opinion. This got me to thinking about how the races are described, and how we can make them more true to their descriptions during game play.



Sophon Description:

http://www.amplitude-studios.com/Articles/SOPHON



The Sophon's develop technology quickly. This is one of the strong suits. However, when you first start playing, their tech growth does not seem to be any greater than any other race's, and it seems you have to use the special Sophon tech to boost it ... which seems to take around 150 turns or so. Given the nature of the game, this can result in the Sophons being destroyed before they can really get started.



Here are my suggestions: Sophons get a science boost of around 300%. This could be split in two ways.



The Sophons would gain 150% science. They would have their research costs slashed by 50%.



Additionally, Sophons would have a wide array of technologies that would be unattainable by other races, further enhancing their technological advantages towards the end game.



The Sophons are small, curious creatures that you describe as unwilling to destroy even the worst predators since they would count the predator's teeth rather than defend themselves. This means they should not be able to initiate combat, even in war. This also works as a beautiful counterbalance to all the powerful technology the Sophons would be able to develop with their huge technological advantages. It also makes the game more interesting because a player would know they never have to worry about losing a system to the Sophons, and, if they wished to take them out, they'd have to overwhelm them early lest the Sophons advance (very quickly) to the point where, while passive, they would be unbeatable.



Clearly, defeating the Sophons militarily would become impossible very quickly, so you would end up wishing to defeat them diplomatically or through some other measure (of which the game already comes with quite a selection of).



To make things worse (or better depending on your perspective), Sophons would tend to favor peaceful coexistence to the degree that declining a peace treaty would no longer even be an option for them.



If this can be achieved without too much trouble (I know programming resources are always scarce) I think the game would have so much more depth. On another note, I came up with some ideas that might help counterbalance things a little bit more.



Racial Technology Specializations:

As mentioned above, the Sophons would get a 50%-across-the-board cut on all their technology costs. This is because they really don't "specialize" in any technology, and just seem to learn things remarkably fast.



Most other races, in contrast, have in their descriptions implied technological proficiencies. There generally appear to be two, and we can pretty much define one as major and the other as minor.



For example, Horatio are Exploration and Trade. This might give them a 50% cut on all Exploration technologies, and a 25% cut on all trade technologies. Hissho are warriors first and foremost, and so they may get a 50% cut on Combat, and the second might be a 25% cut on Exploration. The Cravers are the opposite of the Hissho, so 50% Exploration, 25% Combat. The United Empire is clearly Exploration and Trade.



This would force the players in to different play styles or vault them in to more challenging gameplay. For example, imagine trying to win a diplomacy victory with the Hissho using this configuration. Hell, it could even be an achievement!



Also, along with the racial technological preference system, you could add special abilities to each race. As I already defined that the Sophons, being so curious, would get a 150% science bonus, would be completely incapable of initiating attack, even with a civilization they're at war with, and would never have the option to turn down a peace treaty; the other races would have similar traits. For example, the Cravers might be chronically at war with everyone, and be unable to sign a peace treaty, even if they wanted to. The United Empire would have a small chance of winning some technology from another civilization every time they score a victory, and an even smaller chance of winning another civilization's race-specific technology in this way. With thought and the preferred races of the various people who have played the game, I'm certain many different ideas will come forward. And like the Sophons as I have redone them, they would also get resource bonuses.



As I like the Sophons because I tend to prefer brains over brawn, I have naturally focused my attention on them. So it is pretty clear that I have used their description and at least some of my preferred gaming style to come up with a good way to define who they are. However, since I tend to want to use technology to squash people, and the Sophons seem to be pretty easy going, it seemed that they would really rather not fight a massive bloody war with everyone. Subsequently, I bit the bullet and decided that the Sophons probably aren't terribly interested in conquest and would always accept peace treaties with whoever offers while never initiating combat. It also works for balance. "What good is the ability to blast someone to bits if you can't actually use it?" The most powerful civilization should be the most passive, too.



In truth, though, I'm rarely terribly concerned about "balance." The other civilizations should have their own traits exaggerated and emphasized in a similar way.



You want an easy "squash your competition" game? Play Hissho or Cravers. Want to be rich, steal technology, and to be aggressively expansionistic? Go with the United Empire.



Clearly, in my mind, no other civilization should be able to match the Sophons in technological development, even in their own specialized trees. To do so would void the Sophon description. But no other civilization would be as interested in peaceful coexistence, either.



-Edit: United Empire Tech Theft-

The closer to a technology the United Empire are, the more likely they are to steal it. For example, if they're one or two steps from a technology, their chance of getting it after a battle is significantly higher than if they are half a dozen steps or more away. Also, they may only be able to steal technologies relevant to the battle they just won. Take over a system? Potentially win a system technology of some kind. Destroy a fleet? Potentially win a new shield or weapon technology. As a potential further restriction, they might only be able to win a technology that was in use in the system or on the fleet they defeated. This could be disastrous to an opponent because there's a very real chance they could lose the upper hand to the United Empire in a single defeat.



-Edit: Racial Happiness-

We can also use a number of these traits to develop what makes a race happier. For the Sophons, they would clearly be made happier by how much science they're doing. As a result, the Sophons would receive huge happiness bonuses as a result of their inquisitiveness. The Hissho would be happier with a high ratio of victories. The United Empire would be happier with more trade routes, making them an immensely complex civilization to play since war makes them unhappy, but is one way to get new technologies, and trade makes them very happy, which requires peace.



-Edit: Sophons-

I just wanted to add, based on the description of the Sophons, they are very similar to (although clearly different from) the Organians of Star Trek fame.