You're kind of right, although I made it a point to never sell a ship technology untill I had a better one researched. Anyway, it's a style of play, by selecting a few things to sell, you can make lots of money. Selling star fighters and corvettes ought to make some cash, I just need to try it out (and see if I can sell them for what they cost (60BC for starfighters I think ?))

I prefer:

+20% blowup goat production
-60% chafing
+5% hamburgers
+15 Chocolate doughnuts

~SDC~

Chocolate and hamburgers really don't go together well, unless it's a shake. The chafing reduction is *always* good, though.

~SDC~

I've got a new combo that I'm looking to try out when I get inspired to play again (the huge galaxy game was fun, but I'm just not feeling up to another game for a bit).

Anyway, Federalist Government. My current picks are "economy +20, diplomacy +50, loyalty +20." I haven't decided what size galaxy to play, although it'll probably have abundant habitable planets in tight clusters.

The races will be:
Drengin (Pure Evil, Normal)
Altairian (Pure Good, Normal)
Arcean (Neutral, Normal)
Torian (Chaotic Good, Bright)
Yor (Chaotic Evil, Bright)

I'm debating making alignments random, but whenever I do that, the majority of AI empires will be whatever alignment is opposed to mine.


~SDC~

Hmm.. you sure you are playing with the latest patches? In 1.01, the aliens were a bit too optimistic with their money, resulting in them willing to trade themselves into bankrupcy buying all those tasty terran techs. It's still doable in 1.02, but it's far harder, and if the Drenging empire gets big, the minor races seems to be extorted so hard they can't afford to buy all that many techs. Also, if they are low on money, they don't offer so much anymore.

That being said, trading tech/trade goods is indeed a vital part of the game.


~SDC~

50% diplomacy worked out very well with the strategy that I tried with great success in one of my old games against all-normal level AIs if I recall correctly. I went straight for the early trade goods and especially the diplo translators for 20% more diplo bonus. I got the AIs to pay through the nose for the trade goods and some techs thru long term leases. I got filthy rich quickly. I acculumated about 30,000+ bcs early in the game with 100% spending, and I must have ruined the AI economies because most of them went negative bcs for a long time , I do not remember which version of the game it was, but it was one of the early versions. I think it still can work out quite well even with current version. I recommend you try it one time.

~SDC~

matso, you can still use trade goods to overdrive your economy long enough that the AI can't catch up. There's usually enough random new minor races popping up that you can keep fuelling your economy through them.

~SDC~

I usually go Pacifist + PQ 10% + Research 10% + Morale 10% + Economy 10%.

Cyzada, true, but 15% would turn that 14 into a 16 on landing

My current favorite combo is 15% PQ and +1 to sensors. The sensor bonus lets my colony ships do their own scouting. It doesn't sound like much until you try it, but when you're dealing with the itty-bitty sensor rating of a colony ship, the boost seems huge.

On the other hand, I'm only playing large and larger, so I haven't finished enough games to have a decent opinion of all the others. I'm not big on the trade route bonus, as I usually hit the 10-trade route limit before my boosted research abilities cause me to fund at less than 100%.
I've played around with other Parties, but always come back to Federalist. I thought that the Mercantile Party would be my favorite, but I just don't have that many times that a 20% increase in trade is more money than a 20% increase in economy, and as for espionage, I set the minimum amount of espionage as soon as I meet a new race and never have a lack of espionage. After all, there are all these +5% espionage bonuses in the anomolies, and they're additive, not multiplicitave (ack, that looks wrong but I can't remember how to spell it), so there's not as much a difference between a +100% bonus and a +120% bonus.

The Parties that increase research and production are fine, though early on I tend to run at less than 100% funding with them.

I go with PQ 15% and Morale +10%

Then I choose teh Populist party which gives me another Morale boost.

More planets + More Pop/Planet = domination

I may be very well the dumbest monkey on the planet, but I cant figure out how to get the PQ+15% bonus on start-up.... Please take this dark veil of my skull, yes?? (:(

PQ +15% is awesome, as already stated.

Some of the better 1 pointers IMO:

Population Growth +10%
Morale +10%
Weapons +15%

I personally lean towards Morale +10, but I could see the population bonus as possibly being better...I'll have to give it a try.

Other great picks:
Diplomacy +70 for 5 points
Econ (whatever amount you want to spend)
Speed in smaller galaxies
Range in clustered galaxies

Those are my favorites so far, anyways.

What exactly does Bravery do??

bravery increases the strenght that your troops defend your planets, im not 100% sure, but i also think they help when you attack too...

Okay, so what does 'creative' do.

+25% to what exactly?

~SDC~