What would be great is if GalCiv2 has a special practice mode. In this mode, there are no victory conditions, no AI enemies, nothing. You start with a vast sum of money, and you can choose which techs to start with.
Then, you just get to play around with planets. This mode exists to do things like test out build strategies (ie, determine, given a class 10 planet, what's the right build to make it a heavy producer or an economic mecca, etc). In this mode, the player can pick any number of different civilization abilities and build all kinds of ships.
Now, the economic model still has to work the same way, so that the player can see how much a particular planet is making for them. But, other than the fact that the limits of the game are off, the game would work just like any other.
