Acutians

Cold, robotic capitalists. One of the more dangerous races, as they are always looking to make new
"acquisitions" and they are able to immediately have any citizens become soldiers.

Being an evil race, the Acutians will greedily seize planets of weaker races if given the chance. Their
manufacturing bonus, good tech level and capable ground troops often give them the advantage in
war. All Acutian citizens are soldiers.
Between the three leading CEOs, they generally have a fair to good set of deal options, potentially
including the planetcracker. This is their chief unique ability, allowing the player to completely
destroy a particularly recalcitrant enemy planet at the cost of an uncolonized moon (and being
universally reviled by the races of the solar system). The Acutians will also use a planetcracker if
they feel sufficiently threatened.
Being a robotic race, they have a slightly different tech tree from the organic races, and suffer from
different diseases.
Acutians don't really have politics, so much as they do ascendant capitalists. Out of the 17
industries that the Acutians organize themselves into, they choose 3 that are most powerful at
the time, and choose their top CEOs from those industries to represent their planet as the
Business Elite. Industry Quorums are held periodically, and if the power of various industries
has shifted, then leadership will also shift. You can influence this by helping or hindering what
Acutian Industry Buildings are constructed or sabotaged. You can also bribe CEOs to get
discounts on Credit costs of deals in their industry.

Andors
A utopian society of robots. They are a peaceable and benevolent race, and will never try to take a
planet from another race. They will fight, for a variety of reasons, but they can also be relied on to
send aid where it is needed.
The Andors are highly pacifistic sorts, who will refuse to invade or conquer enemy planets even in
wartime (they sign a peace treaty instead, if the defender yields). They are somewhat weak in space
warfare, and their low ground combat strength and absence of soldiers leaves them largely
defenceless in an invasion.
Due to the nature of their government, they have a fairly limited dealset, but this includes many
possible options for assisting other races, e.g. in terms of production or RCI. Like the Skylaxians,
they can convince another race with whom they have a good mutual relationship (+90 attitude) to
join the Federation, even if the player has low influence with that race.
Being a robotic race, they have a slightly different tech tree from the organic races, and suffer from
different diseases.
There are six political parties in the Andor parliamentary system. Each party has its own agenda,
and will only do deals related to its agenda. The deals thankfully overlap some between parties.
Each party has a representative chosen from the members of that party who are currently a part of
the 400-member body. Members change parties with... surprising frequency. Periodically there is an
"Andor Election," which is actually a strange way of saying that a new ruling party is designated
based on which party has the most members at the time. These robots may be nice, but there's
something a bit wrong with their circuits...
They will not accept bribes.
Deals can only be made with the ruling party.
Boarines
Solitary, beastly loners. Good in a fight, but their solitary nature leads to rather thin populations.
Usually not one of the major players in the solar system, but if you can convince them of the virtues
of a federation, they can be a good way to backdoor in other races.
Each planet belonging to the Boarines has a regent who runs it. The regent uses her best judgement
to determine where priorities should lie; the current situation of her planet and her race are her sole
concern when it comes to brokering political deals. Regents' priorities are based entirely around the
environmental, medical, economic, and public order ratings for their planet. If you can improve those
ratings, then you may put them in a position where they feel the best protection for themselves is
solar unity. In such a circumstance, they become an extremely useful ally. Bribes increase your
influence with their race.
The Boarines generally keep to themselves and tend to resent outside assistance, which can lead to
tension with the Andors. At the same time, they are also fairly capable in warfare if it comes down to
that.
The nature of the Boarine government and society limits the deals the player can undertake with
them. However, they do have the unique ability to manipulate relations between other races (but not
themselves) into improving or worsening, for a significant credit cost.
The Solar Unity regent priority is required to have the Boarines elect to join the Federation (without
resorting to special deals with the Skylaxians or Andors. Assassinating the current regent can see in
a successor with a different priority - but of course has a lot of other effects as well, often undesired
ones.

Burlusts
Warlike and volatile race, ruled by an unstable hierarchy of warlords. Quick to fight, but also
sometimes to a fault; predictable aggressiveness can be a form of weakness. Fortunately. The only
way to deal with them politically is through bribes, blackmail, and duels.
Your Credit is useless here. The Burlusts respond only to Bribes, Blackmail, and Duels. You can find
bribe items by raiding pirate bases, and you can purchase blackmail goods from the spy-probe-
happy Evucks -- but only if the Evucks sufficiently dislike the Burlusts, and like you. Both of these
kinds of items help gain you Leverage over specific warlords. Each Burlust planet has a Prime
Warlord and two Secondaries that are vying for power. Occasional internal intrigues lead to
"accidents." The only thing that matters against Burlusts, ultimately, is Leverage. You can gain this
on specific warlords through the aforementioned ways.

Quiet, studious, kept to themselves. We paid little attention to them. If we had, we would have
seen them develop sciences far beyond our own. We would have seen our death...
Quiet and studious race, these are the most advanced beings in the solar system. Unfortunately,
they are also amoral. They are not above unleashing horrible diseases on enemies, stealing every
technology that isn't nailed down, or even blowing up their own planet if they think they have no hope
of survival.

Evucks
The Evucks act entirely in their own self-interest, and resent help from outsiders (often causing bad
blood with the Andors). They have one of the highest research speeds in the game (roughly on par
with the Skylaxians) and tend to dominate the late game. Though their ground troops are merely
mediocre, their tech advantage means they can usually hold their own in a fight.
They have a wide range of deal options, and the player can have them use their spy probes to
damage enemy planets (at the cost of influence with non-evil races).
If their last planet is a gas giant and they feel sufficiently cornered, they can ignite said gas giant,
which if successful will destroy everything in a large part of the solar map.
The Evuck Council of Elders is a 7-member interplanetary body with membership that never
changes unless one of the Elders dies. Given their extremely long life, this pretty much means
assassination. Worse yet, the Evucks are extremely resistant to outside influence of even a positive
sort; with every political deal you make, you increase their resentment against your "meddling." This
in turn jacks up Credit costs with them. As time passes, their resistance fades back to nothing.
However, if a specific council member's disposition is not to your liking, you can use bribes to
change it. After the bribe rating on a member reaches 1000, a new disposition is rolled at random for
that member.

Peltians
Communist agrarian race. Weak, furry, and rather resembling barn owls. Usually very easy to sway
to your wishes, but they are absolutely pathetic in ground combat, and not always the best in a
space fight. They are quite good at suicidally bombing the heck out of enemy planets, though. So
there is that.
The Peltians are relatively weak in military terms, and will be absolutely massacred in a ground
invasion of their planets. On the offensive, however, they can use their suicide pods to trade 1:1 with
enemy soldiers regardless of the target, and have access to three unique techs that can give them
up to 125 times the planetary bombardment strength of the other races.
They have a wide range of deal options, and provide a fairly easy way to start the Federation with
the Create Federation for Safety deal.
Each planet belonging to the Peltians has its own Collective, with a Spokespeltian that acts as an
organizer only. Dealing with the Peltians is very unusual, however -- they have no interest in
anything that your Credit can yield. The only thing that matters to them are their own Voting Proxies,
which you can earn by doing friendly actions for them. Basically, every time you earn 1 influence
with them, you also earn 1 voting proxy. Oh, and you can also bribe the spokespeltian to gain voting
proxies, too. A little corruption never hurts.

Skylaxians
Honorable -- perhaps to a fault. Very scientifically advanced, very calm, and able to convince most
any race of anything -- under the right circumstances. An excellent foundation upon which to build a
federation -- but if they don't approve of your actions, you can find them a quick enemy, as well.
The Skylaxians generally get along well with others, but aren't above launching attacks of
opportunity on people they don't like. They have one of the highest research speeds in the game
(roughly on par with the Evucks) and tend to dominate the late game. Though their ground troops
are merely mediocre, their tech advantage means they can usually hold their own in a fight. As an
honorable race, they will not bomb planets from orbit.
They have a wide range of deal options, and have the special ability of convincing another race that
gets along with them (+90 mutual attitude) to join the Federation even if you lack influence with that
race.
The Skylaxian Senate is a 40-member periodically-elected interplanetary body with non-partisan
members who all vote their conscience. You can see the amount of support that each type of issue
has from the current senators. The amount of support for each issue has a big effect on what deals
the Skylaxians will do, and at what Credit costs. Skylaxians refer to bribes as "tribute," and dispense
them as rewards to particularly "worthy" members of their populace. Anyway, bribing them gains you
influence with the race as a whole.
Thoraxians
Monstrous nightmares. Each planet is ruled by a hive queen, who controls all the workers on her
world. They are efficient killers, the most deadly race in the solar system now that the Hydrals are
gone. They aren't evil per se, but they have no concept of the value of others' lives. They can be a
powerful ally if you manage it, but they are very hard to please.
This race is generally the hardest race to befriend. Each hive queen has a particular mood that
restricts the options that she will agree to undertake, e.g. warlike queens will not listen to peace
bargains, brooding ones concentrate mostly on her population, etc. Mood swings comes at pre-
determined, random intervals, which is estimated on the political screen. This interval can be
shortened by bribes, and players should note that bribes have no Influence benefit.
Therefore, players seeking to befriend Thoraxians will likely spend a lot more time doing dispatches
for them relative to other races. Federation prospects are better if their planet has many resources to
trade, as the only attitude building that Thoraxians like are also hated by Andors and Peltians. It may
be better to play pretend-peacebroker by encouraging pliable races to attack Thoraxians, and
swooping in for peace treaties before relations get out of hand. Keeping bribe items on stock to
minimise their bloodlust will also be important.
Each Thoraxian planet has its own hive queen, and she has her own mood based on her local
circumstances as well as the Thoraxian situation in general. Dealing with one hive queen versus
another, you may get a better or worse deal depending on their respective moods. Bribing a hive
queen is interesting, as there isn't a whole lot she can't get for herself. But if you please her, your
influence with her race goes up. The time to her next mood shift also goes down.