Minor Races

I suggested awhile back that the trait "Isolationist" be added to the custom race choices. We already have "expansionist," to make them aggressive. With this simple option, we could create pseudo-minors that ARE interesting. They just wouldn't leave their systems. 

The problem with that is there's no way to win the game without expanding.  Even the science victory requires lots of planets producing research (And I won my last influence victory by invading everyone)

Well, one solution would be to make minor races more of wildcards.  More likely to throw the dice wildly, or far more conservative play, sometimes a rampaging bull in the china shop, or maybe a seeker of all knowledge.  Their characteristics should vary more between games.

I think that the Minor Races should simply be made more unique. Give each one a unique tech tree with improvements and ship parts and other things, some of which could be traded away. The catch to that being that the race has to stay in the game long enough to research those unique things. So a player would have to end up deciding who to befriend and defend in order to gain those benefits and who to leave to the dangers of the galaxy.

Even more interesting would be to have lots of these new, truly unique Minor Races modded into the game as well because the more races there are to possibly be selected for a game the more random that game becomes since you don't know who you will encounter for sure.

Just my two cents on the topic.

Minor races would be a lot more useful if you could vassalize them.  Make them give you techs and money in exchange for protection.

I try to imagine this from the point of a minor race. How would we interact with a huge, scary, inter-stellar, tech savy alien race? Probably skeptically at first! Any deal that is not a response to an outright threat would have to come with some guarantees. Don't kill us, don't let anyone else kill us! If that's the deal, then paying tribute is definitively worth it, most likely by promising exclusive trading deals. Also sharing tech would be a worthwhile price to pay, as well as only letting our population go visit your faction on holidays. However, if you can't give us any help, we'll start courting someone else and keep you on an arms length. If you're willing to actively help us, joining your faction as a vassal to survive in a hostile universe in which we can't hope to survive on our own sounds like a good idea.

a) Signing non-aggression pacts should give you a bonus

Signing alliance deals should give a bonus

c) Getting influence over them should give a bonus

d) Establishing a trade route should give a bonus

e) The bonuses should be worth a war to protect. Not at all costs, but it should be a worthwhile factor.

f) Good bonuses could be anything from promising to support you on the next UP, add a unique bonus to your faction (not just a flat % bonus on something), unique techs that you lease (only available while in alliance), ideology points or events concerning how you treat your minor factions, etc.

Why has minor races ever been worth anything to a major race in any sci-fi show? Because they give increased diplomatic standings and available pressure. Because it's handy to have a few tech-wizards on your warships to keep some special deflective shield thing working. Because having access to a psychic when you want to do some black-ops is beyond useful. Something that twists the "usual" in a good way. In the spirit of GC - let it all be balanced out by its OP'ness.

Bornloser, I think you missed my point. Minors aren't supposed to win the game. I don't think any player would choose "Isolationist." It would really exist to tag a custom faction. Think about it...sci fi is littered with stories of races either not advanced enough, way too advanced to be bothered, or simply desiring to be left alone. I like the idea from the strategic standpoint of "jump points." If an isolationist minor is in a strategic location, and won't sign a treaty, your really faced with an ideological decision. You have to go through, around etc.

I agree minor races are currently boring, and would love to see them made special and interesting. I made a post with some suggestions concerning money, one of my suggestions was the ability to outsource projects to 3rd parties and to buy unique ships and such from minor races using a new market tab.

how was it in GC2?

Even Civ5 (which is poor compared to 4), manages to make minors fairly interesting, gives you bonuses according to how to interact with them. And gives you cause to invade or defend etc.

TBH I'm quite surprised that they do nothing and have no uniqueness... seems to be a very backward step for a fairly hyped game in 2015. The game looks polished, but in fact when you start to delve, its starting to look quite hollow.

If Stardock don't add features, hopefully someone can mod them in.