[geoschmo]

I have lost track of the previous thead you all were discussing this in, so sorry if I am repeating something someone else has already said.

Another useful service the TF could provide would be repair/upgrade services for ships that are not near a space yard. This would have the side benefit of being a way for the TF to accquire tech as the contracting race would need to supply the TF with the technology so they could repair/upgrade the components on the ship.

This of course could present problems with Racial techs, unless you devise a way that allows the TF to have access to all the racial traits. It might be possible by allowing them to spend 5000 racial points at startup, and decreasing a lot of the other characteristics. The other players would still be limited to 2 or 3 K, whichever the game is set to. If this doesn't work you can use mod files at startup for this, or use a mod that allows racial tech to be gifted/traded/stolen, but not researched.

Is the idea that the TF would be super powerful to prevent attack, or just make it economically stupid for another race to attack them?

Geoschmo