I like this idea. Good thinking!

Hopefully we'll see something like this in a future patch.

This is a good idea, but there should be limits on how much you can modify each race. For example, you shouldn't be able to set the aggressive races below an aggression level of, say 5 since any lower and you're making a warlike race into pacifists which is just not cool.

Yes, it is cool, Arfs a Lot. For example, in GCI I flipped the morality of all the races to the opposite and it was really funny to hear the Drengin and Korx cuddling up to you like the friendliest things in the galaxy.

you should also be abel to change there bounuses and names like with custom races

Well if we do it it will be in an expansion.  Not in an update.

Well if we do it it will be in an expansion. Not in an update.

Just tell me where to sign then.

This is probably teaching granny to suck eggs as we say over here in Scotty-land but have a rummage around the theories surrounding micro-simulation. As well as your two main factors "Intelligence" and "Aggression" you also have "Awareness" - which I think would be a nice addition.
I think it'll proably be built into your Intelligence at present but separating them could be quite interesting.
Imagine races that know nothing about the universe but react locally in a highlly intelligent manner - insular basically.
Vice-versa races that know everything that going on but haven't a clue what to do about it.

The way I've described it sounds more like a level of "expansionism" but that's not really what I mean. A race with a low awareness might be heavily expansionist, but just not care/know what everyone around them is doing.

I agree with Brad's idea about a billion percent ... though I would also like to create full blown separate races that could be chosen as an AI Opponent - i.e. not just randomizing/tweaking the stock races but also possibly choosing other races I may have designed - Klackons, Zerg, whatever. Thus it would also be nice to link a pic and name to this race, as well as adding whatever bonuses would be specific to that race (Better Soldiers, Production bonus etc, etc), as well as an alignment and Strategy.

It would also be cool if I could put full blown penalties as well as bonuses on said race to make them even more distinctive, so the Klackons would suck as researchers but be insane when it comes to production bonuses etc. Sure it might make metaverse scoring difficult with this min/maxing but then just don't allow such games to be submittable.

Lastly, with all of the above it would be awesome if there was a 'Swap Personalities' button, which would basically shuffle the Identities of your aliens (i.e. the Pic and the Name) with some other personality type. So you could have Klackons that were awesome researchers, Torians that were evil Spy masters etc.

Note - I say "Swap" rather than "Randomize" since I think it would lead to more satisfying alien behaviour to keep the full personality of an alien archetype in-tact (Good Warrior, Evil Researcher, Neutral PuppetMaster) rather than having the randomizer sprinkle a little here and a little there which would usually wind up with something generically average.

Just my 2 BC

Dano

This is a good idea, but there should be limits on how much you can modify each race. For example, you shouldn't be able to set the aggressive races below an aggression level of, say 5 since any lower and you're making a warlike race into pacifists which is just not cool.

Isn't the answer here for you to just not set those sliders that low? If someone else wants to, so what? If the idea is to make the races fully customizable, then make them fully customizable. Any user still has the ability not to use that feature or to adjust it to their particular liking.

"One of the reasons some people like multiplayer is that you get a lot more variety. But having played multiplayer for years and years (I love multiplayer personally) there really aren't that many strategies. At least, not when you get good at it."

This has been the problem with most MP Strategy games. There really needs to be some new innovation that allow users to develop their own strategies and not just exploit flaws in the games design or use the standard RTS tactics!

Bruce Geryk wrote a great article about this topic on his Wargamer blog when he was giving his impressions on ROL! http://grognards.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5647873

Awesome ideas there, frogboy.... Right now im wishing CIV4 had the same sort of system, after installing in on my computer once again to find out, yes, the computer does cheat its little hiney off just to stay competitive. Plus it just sits there like a comatose invalid on moderate, and rolls you right over before you blink on hard. An issue I am sure will not be fixed with the expansion, so I might just very well skip it in lieu of the GC2 expansion *drool*

Sounds like a great idea to me.

I'd add a 'willpower' type of attribute that dictates how stubborn an AI is in regards to surrendering or caving in to tribute demands. For ex, a very stubborn AI might not give tribute or surrender even when facing certain doom, while a wuss-like AI might give tribute even to inferior foes just to keep the peace.

Ooh, you know what I'd like to do? Put the computer on Fool intelligence with a 2000% econ bonus and see what percent of the difficulty level is due to the AI's strategy versus its resources.