How will race setup be determined?
We could setup a poll with "plus attributes," "minus attributes," "plus traits," and "minus traits" (culture/happiness, too? Atmosphere/planet type? Shipset? The list goes on and on

). Allow selection of, say, 5-6 on each question. Combine positive and negative results, and use those in determining which traits have priority for raising/lowering/selecting.
Of course, we could choose Gas Giants and take -50% to research, production, happiness, environmental resistance, and construction and -20% to maintenance--just to give the AI a chance.
[edit--Used {}s instead of ()s. Too much time in POV-ray.

]
[ December 17, 2002, 22:54: Message edited by: Krsqk ]