r/EndlessSpace

I've been playing ES 2 against custom factions that follow these rules:

1. Everybody starts on an Atoll (15 pts), Jungle (10 pts), or Arid (5 pts) planet because they have the best industry, and industry is the most important resource in the game.
2. Nobody can use the Constructionist trait, except the Cravers, United Empire, Vodyani, and Hissho because they needed the extra power, and it is thematically appropriate that they would value industry over environmental conservation.
3. Everybody gets a Titanium Mine on their home-world for the sake of fairness. One time, I played a game where the closest source of Titanium was from my neighbor's home-world so, from now on, I want to avoid this situation.
4. The chosen traits must have mechanics that support the original theme of the faction.
5. I'll avoid choosing the same trait for multiple factions; but the only exceptions will be Deadly Weapons for +20% ship weapon damage (which will be used by the Cravers, United Empire, Vodyani, Hissho, and Nakalim) and Rational Minds for +30% Science (which will be used by Horatio, Lumeris, Riftborn, Sophons, Unfallen, Vaulters, and Umbral Choir).

These are the traits that I chose for the Unfallen faction, in order to make them more challenging, when played by the AI on Endless difficulty:

https://lensdump.com/i/cMD2yA

For politics, I chose the Industrialists because this faction needs the extra industry, and it has a massive amount of influence, so it can afford the highest level of industrial law, which is quite strong. The Boundless collection (which normally belongs to the UE) gives +15% influence at 20 pops and gives extra influence per industry spent at 50 pops. Since this faction has so much influence and approval from the Gurdians trait, it needs to have a Democratic government so it has enough law slots to take advantage of all that influence.

Gargantuan Population gives +4 FIDS per pop but -50% food, which is quite strong, and Ruthless Defenders gives +50 defensive bombardment damage on fertile per pop, which is thematically appropriate because they should be hard to invade.

Doubtful Tacticians and Prone to Agitation are inconsequential. Cowards lowers the empire manpower capacity by 20%, which is irrelevant because this number is usually quite high. Feeble Warriors lower the health of Infantry troops by 20%, which has a minimal impact because this build has such high science values that it can change its troops to be armored fairly early.

The Unfallen has ships that do the lowest amount of damage in the game, so they need the Mutual Understanding trait, which makes their military do a high amount of damage when this faction enters an alliance.

Unfortunately, the AI is bad at using this build, the Vodyani and the UC, because it's not good at colonizing a lot of systems in a reasonable amount of time. But you could play this Unfallen build, if you want to experience an overpowered version of this faction.

If you're interested in my other custom factions, you can check out: Cravers, Sophons, Riftborn, Vaulters, Horatio, Lumeris, Vodyani, United Empire, Hissho, Umbral Choir, Nakalim.