New Minor Races appearing

This is one of the reasons that I play with Tech Trading and Tech Stealing off. That way the minor races can't trade away their ridiculously large library of techs, nor can they give one up when they get conquered.

Unless they give all their tech to your closest competitor on the same turn they appear, I don't see it being such a big deal. If you really are dominating, just send a transport and wipe them out!

You could also disable minor races to avoid this sort of thing. A little less dramatic than turning off trading altogether.

"Unless they give all their tech to your closest competitor on the same turn they appear, I don't see it being such a big deal. If you really are dominating, just send a transport and wipe them out!"

Way ahead in tech, but I haven't gotten around to Planetary Invasion just yet. Ergo, no transports.

"You could also disable minor races to avoid this sort of thing. A little less dramatic than turning off trading altogether."

Weeeelllll. The way I was working the economy was by selling off really, really old tech (things that I was at least 3-4 levels past) to ALL of the others at the same time). 7 Majors and 8 Minors. Dump the Minors and I just lost half of my retail sales!

Honestly, though, I find that IF your race can churn out tech, you can float the economy by selling off inconsequential stuff like Stellar Cartography and Sensors. Those, in the absence of advanced Propulsion Systems means they have a certain capability, but don't get the opportunity to take advantage of it.

Which is one of the whole tech selling logic flaws: the other races will buy _anything_, provided they don't already have it. Their bid offer is based on how close they are to researching it themselves (plus mods for Trading/Diplomacy skill differential). Meaning something waaayyy far along the tech tree from where they are is something they will bankrupt themselves for -- even though they can't use it for quite awhile.

Logically, I can see that any two intelligent species _will_ try to wheel-and-deal their respective techs, even if the other tech is totally "alien". The important thing is that **it works**. The truly important aspect is, "Does this tech allow me to do something that I currently cannot do?" And something that has some big effect that you won't be able to use until for quite awhile (after several other techs are developed to go with it) isn't as valuable as something that you can apply _right now_.

Mind sharing the setup for the custom race you're playing as? It sounds like fun.

Use the Altarian tech tree (oriented towards a Research-intensive race)

Immense galaxy
Habitable planets abundant
# of planets "
# of stars "
Anomalies "
Asteroids "
Star density scattered
Tech rate normal
# of Minor races 8
# of Major races 7

Economics +30%
Morale +20%
Research +20%
Planet quality +10% (you start with a 11 quality planet, which adds 1 clear tile)
Creativity +25%
Logistics +6

Super Adapter (makes Toxic and Aquatic available immediately)

Technologists -- Research +20%, Sensors +1

Hyper Fusion Reactors
Artificial Gravity
Interstellar Construction
Traditional Research
Industrial Revolution

Turn 1
Set tax to where Morale drops to 52% (Actually, you _could_ go all the way down to 30%)

Land the Colony ship and increase passengers to 250.

Set Research on the Propulsion path and focus there until you have at least Impulse I.

Split production military 20/social 20/research 60 (put military's 20% in research until you can actually build a Colony ship.)

Set production to 100% AND LEAVE IT THERE.

Send the Colony ship as far away as possible. It has a range that exceeds anything that you will have for awhile, so snag a planet as far away as possible. UNLESS you find a planet that is _at least_ quality 20. (At +10% quality, that automatically will add 2 to the planet quality.) And keep in mind that bigger quality planets = more usuable tiles = a greater probability of bonus tiles.

Use the Flagship to chase down anomalies (except for wormholes; don't _ever_ use one of those). You _will_ incidentally uncover planets at the same time.

NEVER settle a planet of less than 10 quality.

NEVER buy an improvement or ship unless absolutely necessary (or if you're already stinking rich).

Your first 5-10 ship builds should be Colony ships. They will double as your Scouts for revealing the map. Your first big planet should set to building Scouts once the Starport is built.

A new colony will start with a research value of 7-12 -- so colonize quickly and often.

After Propulsion gets going, start cranking out anything yellow (Trade and Diplomacy) that won't take too long to research.

Your Treasury goes negative along about Turn 50. (Many of those anomalies will dump money into your Treasury, so you get more breathing space.) By then you should have quite a few more techs than your opponents. Pick ONE low-level tech that you're way past that is NOT Research, Propulsion, Trade, Diplomacy, Weapons, or Production. Something like Stellar Cartography. Contact ALL of the other races and sell that ONE tech to ALL of them. (If they already have it, skip them.) If their offer matches their Treasury (you tapped them out), make up the difference with Influence. Do NOT trade tech for tech. (Their price is _always_ too high; you can research it yourself for much less.) UNLESS it is one of the unique racial techs that may be useful. And if you do swap tech, make sure you _sell_ the tech you swap to _everybody_, ASAP. Upon completion of the sales round, you should have enough cash to carry you for another 25 turns.

Repeat as needed.

And all that should get you pretty far towards Galactic Geek Overlord.