So, I wanted to start a new game as an isolationist, xenocidal human faction bent on eradicating all alien life forms. Unfortunately, those character traits intended to make the game interesting also make it exceptionally difficult. Usually, I'd balance my economy with some trade routes and tech sales for the occasional quick boost, but that's going to have to be a big no-no in this game. After all, in a society that punishes xenoconsortion as the most heinous of sins, why would I as their leader willingly consort with and aid the Enemy by allowing them access to my knowledge and wealth?

I'm playing DL (I won't be getting DA until I go back to school later in January, and even then I think I'm just going to wait until TotA is released to download both) on a gigantic map (or whatever the largest DL 1.5 map is) with abundant everything, normal tech, and a full galaxy of opponents all set to intelligent. I played for about 1 game year last night and succeeded in royally crashing my economy and having to drop my approval to 1% just to keep above the -500 bc debt limit. Meanwhile, the Paulos (xeno filth!) infesting one of the worlds in my home cluster have a military advantage over me and I botched the campaign to rid myself of them quickly - as such they're rather upset.

So, I'm figuring on restarting anyway, but I'm looking for pointers on how to keep isolated but still strong.