Ok, here is my suggested racial setup for the Trade Federation. This can be done with no mod files, but it requires 5000 racial points. You don't have to have a 5000 point racial game though. You set the racial points to what you want in game settings, add in all the players to verify they haven't exceeded that, and then you change the racial settings for the game to 5000 and add in the Trade Federation race.
Advanced Traits:
Natural Merchants, Advanced Storage Techniques, and ALL FIVE racial tech traits.
Physical Characteristics:
Physical Strength - 50% The Trade Federation will not make war. If attacked it will use it's considerable economic influence to bring the other empires of the galaxy to it's defense.
Intelligence - 50% The Trade Federation will not need to research, as it will accuire technology though trade and gifts frmo the other races of the galaxy.
Cunning - 50% See Strength
Environmental Resistance - 50% The only negative effect this will have is on reproductive rate, which will not be an important factor fot the Trade Federation.
Reproduction - 91% The Trade Federation will have colonies all over the galaxy, but not very many. Their object is to have widely dispersed cololonies. Population levels are not important. But if additional population is needed they can be accquired from other empires.
Happiness - 110% Needed to offset the lack of ships and defenses the TF will have. Plus, wouldn't you be happy with all that money?
Aggresivness and Defensivness - 75% for both. See Strength
Political Savvy - 123% This is their bread and butter.
Vocational Aptitudes:
All of these at 100%, except Refining at 99% because I needed 25 more points.
Of course this is just my suggestion. I also suggest they be a race that breaths the none aptmosphere. This will allow them to maximize the use of the moons for their outPosts, which seems appropriate IMHO.
In fact I think it would be appropriate that the TF player strive to achieve a widely scattered "empire" of tiny planets, moons and bases in strategic locations and abandon their homeworld. Or at least get to the point where the homeworld becomes unimportant to the survival of the TF overall. This will be their greatest defense against attack. Since no one will be storng enough to attack them everywhere at once and wipe them out before political pressure of the other empires can be brought to bear.
Of course there will come a point in the game where one empire may get strong enough that he is immune to this pressure and thus can pressure the TF. But that's life.
Geoschmo