[Suicide Junkie]

An RP racial trait.
Go into racialtraits.txt, and add "Roleplaying".
Make the ancient maintenance reduction require that racial tech. (Plus any other appropriate items)

So, if you're playing a free for all, you don't take the RP trait, and it works out to be about balanced.

If you're in a Roleplaying game, you can take the trait, and have the ancient uberpower races we all know and love.