Me Me Me I think the back story lends itself to roleplay.

the Rhonan Conglomerate. they're like the Covenent, but all their soldiers are like the Arbiter...haha, DIE FOOLS!

The Dantonian Empire. A highly insular empire that maintains a strong millitary presence as a deterrant more then anything else. They refuse to spread out from their own space (which usually occupies a whole corner of the map) until drawn into combat, when they strike without hesitation.

They're a neutral race with technological emphasis who never start trade routes until the race near them has been stable and at war with no one for at least a year. Two years if they're still stable they're willing to have an alliance, though they view it less like brother empires, and more like them looking after 'a wayward son'.

They focus on singular ships of great power, medium being their smallest, usually, but fleets usually composed of no more then three ships. This means their defensive abilities are very important (usually I get ships with defenses totally over 60) and they rarely suffer damage.

Oh, and recently I've included another race into my arsenal. An insectoid race with slightly stunted researching abilities (hard to think creatively when you live in a hive mind). However, they have incredible economic, morale, and production abilities. Throw all that together, and you find fleets composed of two sorts of ships
1. Tiny hulled expendable craft making up 90% of the fleet
2. MASSIVE heavily armoured warships that act as the flagship.

Throw in a dash of inability to really act diplomatically, and you end up with an evil race (for the reason they know no better, they see something they want and they have no qualms with taking it) that just sets itself up for a few years, then flows out in a massive swarm over their foes.

I play as the Ichtarians, a humanoid/fish race. The Ichtarians are naturally aggressive as they constantly identify their own territories and defend them to the death. They are not hell bent on taking over the entire galaxy but they like their room. Every so many years when spawning occurs, war is declared on any race who seems to get "too close" to our spawning planets. The Ichtarians believe that large "schools" of smaller ships provide the most security but the ruling family owns several small fleets with large "roque" cruisers who patrol space looking for easy prey. Ah, I love this stuff. If I could only create my own AI for them.

I like to play as a custom race called the Wyrms.
They are into the fine art of breeding (+70), and it keeps them very happy (+30).

just a good ol' bump.. since i like this thread

I played the snathi as they were described (custom race of course). I'll usually pick a midgame play style that resembles the race I selected. I think my next sandbox will be altairan, and I'll see just how good and diplomatic I can be and still be a contender.

For the record, I think that taking altairan just so you can choose all the evil event options and then end up neutral for NLC's is cheesy. Valid on masochistic if you want to win, but still cheesey.

I roleplay while playing. I've played as The Shadows (Babylon 5). I also play as Neutral and Evil Humans.

I'll try Good soon.

I have actually written stories set in universes that have unfolded before my eyes in this game. My user name is actually the name I've given the Terrans in my games, while I just imagine the Stardock-named aliens are...named something else

I role play as either the Freemen, Furyians, Necromongers, or the Harkonen.

Meh, I play mostly the T-Sidian Commune, a dark sect that were a splitter group of humans, who are mostly darwinistic bastards. We kill those who are not fit to survive, but never do it ourselves (outside the commune of Termino itself). Manipulation is the name of the game, and we pretend to be good, but often our nature exposes us (start as good, and work the way down to demonic).

We never fight our own wars, but are normally funding someone else to do it. Our bonuses to weapons, espionage, and economy help greatly. We pay no heed to those fools at the united planets, and have left their pathetic union many times, if it deemed more profitable to do so. We own the galaxy, and our army is made of hundreds of the best ships we can find. We pay others to start and finish our wars, and hide our involvement under the cover of false alliances, so we are never seen as the greatest threat.

You have no chance to survive. Make your time.