I just played a game on a small map with all the races, with the Yor being on the opposite side of the map. After about thirty turns while race military techs were on the rise, the Yor's Military Rating SHOT up. They quickly became at least six times greater than any other race, and thus they started refusing to do deals with others based on that, they also began to threaten me for money, and they began to attack other species. At one point they were against all but the Acreans which were the weakest.
This was a lot of fun, I have to say, having this menace looming over everyone else, I was able to make a lot of allies and eventually fight back against the Yor, winning the game, (which was on Challenging).
My only gripe was the military tech that they received to do this all... invulnerability shield II. In other words, while I thought that they must of had tons of mighty ships. In reality they were a little stronger as I was, only I could never use my laser techs anymore because all of their ships had 21 defences against lasers.
I like this, but I think that it changes their behaviour much too drastically as they have a powerful defensive tech that makes everyone else bow down to them.
Any thoughts or personal experiences of your own?
Cheers - Richard