Aiken Drum - The Many Colored Land (plus follow-ons) by Julian May. These are excellent by the way. Polgara - David Edding's several series and stand alone books, starting with The Belgariad. Fflewddur Fflam - Chronicles of Prydain - Kirk Simmons
I would prefer to leave trading off in TA to preserve the uniqueness of the races. However some of them (Thalans) just get completely shafted if you do so. It takes the Thalans SOOOO INCREDIBLY LONG to research any buildings that if they are unable to trade for anything along the way then they are just hopelessly crippled. Lets not even talk about the fact that they don't get any farms. - Manii Names
The Arceans get a +33% version, which is pretty spiffy if you're playing them, or can manage to trade for it. - Manii Names
My pattern with the Iconians is to drop their three unique buildings on almost every planet, and then customize some from there. If you can get the Archive, Library, and Emporium up then you can usually get semi-decent background research going and avoid bankruptcy at the same time. - Manii Names
I researched Xalax Defense from the Iconian tech tree, but there does not seem to be an accompanying ship technology implemented? The offensive fleet technologies have a ship tech that I can mount on something, but the defensive side seems to be missing. Am I looking in the wrong place, or is it not yet in the game? - Manii Names
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