From what I've red about the custom factions' creation so far, it appears that - among other things - you will be choosing a racial affinity, like Sophon or Horatio affinity, which will determine a basic ability of the new faction - for example Horatio ability is cloning heroes. This would be fine, but the description also states that the racial affinity will determine a set of unique technologies:



"The affinity is a very strong orientation for a faction; which will give one powerful Ability and a unique Tech Tree (modifying the main tech tree)."



In my opinion, the pre-determined unique technology set is too restrictive. If we are to be creating a new unique race, when the option becomes available, we will probably want it to be, well, unique. I personally would prefer to have the option to choose my own set of technologies from available list, rather than to have a set of technologies similar to that of, say, Sophon set.



From what I've seen on wiki, it appears that each of the original factions has five unique technologies, each of which cost different amount of research points. I would suggest to put these technologies on the list from which will the player during the creation be able to choose five technologies into his new factions' tech tree. Each following technology chosen would be placed higher in the tech tree, costing more points to research, thus forcing the player to decide, which of the technologies would he want to get in early game and which could wait until later.