I suppose i shouldn't have for my first game but i dived straight into the custom race.



do most people play established races or do you make a custom to work with your play style?

Custom. I'd never even consider playing a stock race once the ability to design your own came into the game.

This depends...



I used to always min/max a custom race, but lately I've been put off by that, because it kind of doesn't feel right...



For learning the game mechanics I don't think it really matters, though a stock race may be 'better' if only because it's one less thing to worry about.



For getting the most out of your gaming experience?



Well that depends entirely on your individual preferences. After having played roguelikes for years, and then getting back into 'them' with FTL a couple months ago... I come to appreciate that sometimes the challenge in a game is in how you choose to play it, and how the game restricts you based on those choices.



Taking 'suboptimal' builds for the sake of taking them is one thing. Playing stock races goes along that vein, but it also adds somewhat to the mood of the game, meaning the lore was created for a reason, might as well play within it.



My 2c anyway, I've gamed long enough to have done my fair share of min/maxxing and for the moment, I'm bored with doing things that way

Yeah, it depends - the "casual" player might be happy with the "pre-made" races, but the elitists will find even better custom builds, adapted to their playstyle!

Hmm...



I wouldn't call it 'casual' only. I don't consider myself a casual player. On the other hand, I don't take much pleasure out of min/maxxing a race either using nega-traits which are irrelevant just to add points.



Now that is not meant to be an indictment of anyone who does enjoy doing that, just my personal stance at the moment, I want a more challenging experience, and tweaking races around to max them out doesn't feel quite like the way to do that



Also for some people (though I'm not one of them) the story/setting/lore is very important, and making a 'cheese' race plays against that aspect of the game.



I'm not sure how well ES plays to the strengths of the different races, but for example, in a game like SotS, there is no customization of race, and it works, each race needs to play using different 'rules' to succeed. I get a smattering of that in ES so far, but I don't think it was a major design point. Which is fine, of course, customization is a big draw for most 4X games.

Yeah, however to name it, my opinion

licker wrote:
Also for some people (though I'm not one of them) the story/setting/lore is very important, and making a 'cheese' race plays against that aspect of the game.

This could be me - sometimes



but I think we can still agree on settings depending on playstyle

Indeed.



It's your game, play it in the way which gives you the most enjoyment

licker wrote:
Indeed.



It's your game, play it in the way which gives you the most enjoyment

Well I'm always open to new ideas, but usually I play my own way / the way I like it most *nods*

I use pre-made races.



I already have enough advantages over the AI.. I don't need another one.

I usually start a game with pre-made races. After getting some experience i try to customize and optimize a race to win the highest difficulty. This is done for ES atm (Unfortunatly it looks like one customization fits all races). Now i go back to the pre-made races and try to win the highest difficulty with them.