Having thought about it a bit more - thanks to a prompt from Slynky - I think that we should ban Ancient. The reason is that in a team game, one player can of course take Ancient and immediately share the information with his partner. This makes what is already a powerful ability just a bit too cheap.

That leaves us with the question of warp-hole openers. I think that with Ancient unavailable, they are not a game-breaking option. Yes, two players can force the pace to get there much faster, but they've still sunk a large number of research points into one technology option. Their opponents are free to do the same, or to counter with another option.

So, that's my position;

Medium spiral (with teams together on their own side of the map)
3 Good planets
100000 starting resources
Yes to Intel
No to Ancient Race
Yes to Warp openers

But as implied in my previous Posts, I think it's only fair to allow any player to veto one of these if he feels strongly about it. Let me know.

Edit: OK, I've just read Primitive's post below. I'll take that as a veto on openers too. Any more?

[ May 28, 2004, 14:49: Message edited by: Mark the Merciful ]