[PvK]

Geo, if you'd like to bow out, then I think your empire would be a good one for a new player. It is central, at peace, and seems to be in reasonable shape.

The other choices are:

Enlightened Plague: Central, more or less at peace, used to be strong, but I hear that some people have been pillaging parts of it during several game-years of AI control. I'm not sure if it's still strong, or if it should be re-named the "Unenlightened Carcass" at this point.

Slu'vek Society: Temporal researchers intact and at peace, but not centrally located. They have room to expand and dominate their corner cluster of systems, but are remote to the current conflict and most of the other nations. They could start a war with the Draconians to dominate their cluster, and/or go plunder the currently-uncontrolled Krsqk, or develop warp technology to reach the center.

Krsqk: Buggish race in their own very remote corner cluster of systems. They could go attack the Slu'vek and/or Draconians from a very safe position, or research warp tech and break in from unexpected directions. Or, camp out and probably never be bothered by anyone. The map is really pretty interesting in the amount of choke-points, seas of warpless space, system clusters, and one very long weird warp line going from isolated cluster to isolated cluster across the entire map without stopping.

As mentioned previously, Kobaia and Rex Dominion are barely existant - someone could play them if they want a game where they have very little to do. ;-) Actually the Kobaians could act as space pirates and exiles trying to get their homeworld back (especially since there are some of us trying to give it back to them).

PvK