Those choices favor evil, but the UP votes, and diplomacy usually go against evil.

Actually, if anything needs patched, it is that the good side is way too dominant. An isolated, evil race is an easy target. Whatever minor penalties one sustains early from choosing good are paid back ten fold later in the game as long as trade is maintained with your buddies.

just pick every evil option and after colony rush research xeno ethics and aling with good/neutral

I think it's all too easy to choose to be a good race and then choose the evil options. If you started out as good the evil choices you make have no effect on your alignment, you will be pulled towards neutral but always remain good thus always getting all the benefits of both good and evil. Surely corrupting a good race into evil ways should not be rewarded quite as much?

If you're on a small galaxy or there are few events then you can choose all the evil ones all the time but if you're playing on a large galaxy then you'll have to choose which ones to go for. Personally I always try to be good (I care about my people too much) but for the research choices and sometimes the larger starship bonuses I really can't resist those evil bonuses.

"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb" ( - Dark Helmet, Spaceballs)

To be honest I think all 3 alignments have things going for them and I have enjoyed playing all. (especially since good defences and nutrality learning centres works now)

i have to agree, evil tends to get a better start, but in long games, it does fall behind. i personally would really like to see more difference between good evil and neutral in the game. i mean, it says superior weapons for evil, right? it would be nice to maybe have (just a few) even more powerful than what a good race could research. i mean, while researching, for a short time you might have a few more powerful weapons, but in long games, when the last level of a given weapon category is reached, it is the same for anyone. an evil race ought to be able to go just a few damage beyond that. to compensate, the same should go for good and its defense bonuses. maybe neutral instead of MORE shields and weapons ought to get a slight miniaturization bonus to fit MORE on a ship. just a thought here....

I would actually like to see more choices than just colonizing a planet give you an ethical choice. imagine, you encounter a race for the first time, a message comes up saying that first impressions are very important, you just met whatever race, what do you do: Show your good nature with a gift? State your intentions clearly with no emotion? Show you will always be their superior with a sacrifice of one of their people? the difference here is more than just how friendly you are too. i could imagine certain races responding differently to this, (i mean, the Yor are robots, being just kinda non emotional toward them could be a plus, where sacrificing a Torian when you first meet them, rather than hating you, could cause fear, and hence, compliance.

Maybe even like random events, things come up from time to time. that would be nice too. do you crush a forming rebellion by bombing all the rebellers, or do you say they are allowed free speech, and instead go try to appease them?

in fact, i would like to see these choices appear even after xeno ethics is researched, albeit maybe with your choice after that forcibly made

It may seem that from that limited view (the scope of events only or on a per event basis ) that Good gets "the shaft", Neutral either gets the shaft or nothing, and Evil gets bonuses. However when using the scope of the overall game, its intended to balance out. Evil gets short term bonuses and Good gets bonuses in the long term. Neutral gets some of both.

I brought this issue up at least once, beta testing the game before the official release. Other GC1 veterans also beta testing (such as Star Pilot, Peace Phoenix) put me in my place. Also, Stardock was awesome with adressing any concerns its beta testers had about the game while we went back to testing.

Point of all this was to say, yes it was all brought up and discussed before. Also, when you factor in long and short term advantages/disadvantages its balanced.

Using the Yor or the Drengin you should pick evil because everyone hates you anyway and switching to good will cost too much. e.g I was playing as the Yor with my friend and we were picking all good but i still was considered demonic and cost 10000 to switch to good but it payed off as i was liked by all. But playing as the Torians or Terrans you should probably pick good. And when you choose your alignment do you lose all events? because I noticed after that nothing really was happening.