Close enough. So basically you're right even if the numbers were off a teeny bit.

You can spend a few points in one area or a lot. Economics is one of my favs too!

Nice, thanks for the answers. Is there a breakdown anywhere on what advantages have levels and what don't and the point costs for levels? Race creation is a favorite section of mine in these types of games.

Also, can you take negatives in any of the advantage catagories to gain more points to spend elsewhere? So say a situation where you take a -5% in economics to get yourself an extra point to buy up your influence ability. I'm thinking this probably isn't in the game since it isnt mentioned in the manual but I have to ask anyways.

Games have done it and made it work just fine. MOO2 is the first game to come to mind. Thanks for the answer though.

Now to my last question: can anyone point me to a more rebust description of the race advantages and how they are implemented than what is in the manual? Specificaly I'm looking for level and point values for each advantage.

Yes, there is a file that you can open that gives a complete listing of all the major races and what their advantages are its name is:

Raceconfig.xml and can be found in the GC2 area of the d/l (even in beta) I will attempt to keep it short here though if you do not have access to it.

The format below has been very reconfigured and is not the format from the XML file and will not work if copied directly into it. (Just felt the need to pass that on incase someone got adventursome.)

Human:
RESEARCH 10
TRADE 10
DIPLOMACY 40
HITPOINTS 10
LOGISTICS 6
Techs: Xeno Communications, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering

Drengin:
WEAPONS 25
DEFENSE 25
MILITARYPRODUCTION 20
SOLDIERING 25
LOYALTY 10
LOGISTICS 8
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, StellarCartography

Altarian:
MORALE 50
LUCK 30
CREATIVITY 30
LOGISTICS 5
Techs: Xeno Communications, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering,StellarCartography

Arcean:
SOLDIERING 10
PLANETQUALITY 10
LOGISTICS 8
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, Xeno Communications, Xeno Industrial Theory, XenoEconomics, StellarCartography

Torian:
POPULATIONGROWTH 10
SENSORS 30
ESPIONAGE 30
SOLDIERING 10
COURAGE 20
LOYALTY 10
LOGISTICS 6
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, Xeno Industrial Theory, Xeno Economics, Stellar Cartography

Yor Collective:
SOCIALPRODUCTION 25
LOYALTY 100
LOGISTICS 10
MINIATURIZATION 25
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, New Propulsion, Xeno Industrial Theory, Ion Drive, Xeno Economics, Planetary Improvements, Stellar Cartography

Dominion of Korx:
TRADE 25
SOLDIERING 10
TRADEROUTES 2
COURAGE 10
LOGISTICS 6
Techs:Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, Ion Drive, Stellar Cartography

Drath Legion
SOLDIERING 10
COURAGE 10
LOYALTY 10
LOGISTICS 6
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, New Propulsion, Xeno Industrial Theory, Ion Drive, Stellar Cartography

Thalan: (Probably the most advanced race, but hard to play unless you get a couple of resource starbases like economy and research type very early in the game and fast)
POPULATION GROWTH 20
SOCIAL PRODUCTION 20
MILITARY PRODUCTION 20
LOYALTY 40
LOGISTICS 6
MINIATURIZATION 10
Techs:, Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, Starship Defenses, Xeno Industrial Theory, Space Militarization, Xeno Economics, Planetary Improvements, Stellar Cartography, Ion Drive, Basic Life Support, Sensor, Xeno Farm Construction

Iconian Empire:
ECONOMICS 10
RESEARCH 20
LOGISTICS 6
Techs: Galactic Warfare, HyperDrive, Xeno Engineering, Starship Defenses, Xeno Industrial Theory, Space Militarization, Xeno Economics,Planetary Improvements, Armor Theory, Missile Defense Theory, Shield Defense Theory, Stellar Cartography

Points per level I will only do out of my head as I do have some work to do today, the next increment after what I have listed is not necessarily linear.

Economics: (Incremental two more times)
2 points = 10%
4 points = 20%

Research: (Incremental one more time)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%
4 points = 30%

Military Production: (Incremental two more times)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%

Social Production: (Incremental two more times)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%

Planet Quality: (Not incremental)
3 points = 5%
5 points = 7%

Sensors: (Incremental two more times)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%

Soldering: (Incremental two more times)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%

Courage:
1 point = 10%

Hit Points: (Incremental two more times)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%

Luck: (Not incremental)
1 point = 25%

Diplomacy: (Incremental one more time)
1 point = 10%
2 points = 20%
4 points = 50%

Creativity: (Not incremental)
1 point = 25%

Logistics:
Can not be assigned, these are "fixed" values assigned to a race. Custom races start in Beta with 4% which is a huge disadvantage to overcome.

Thats about it off the top of my furry, pointed ears head.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Exactly - I guess the bonus values have been subject to a lot of balancing, so we have to wait until release to see the exact values.
Fro beta, I remember (on top of the stuff Suralle listed):

SPEED
5 points: +1
8 points: +2

Because I take it in most of my games. (Did this in galciv1, too).
Expensive, but the 5 points are well spend in my opinion - very powerful in the initial rush for planets and resources.