Our starting population has an Industrial Ideology, hence Industrialists will be in power from the start. It also kind of forces you to build Cerebral Reality from the start lest you want to wait 14 turns to research your first Technology. This locks Cram Exam Act, pretty much forcing you to take Super Tax Act(or nothing at all) to start the game.

Since we have no base Science to start with, I opted to give myself even more of an early game challenge by having the faction start in a Republic Government. Ideally I'd like to use Atoll for the higher base Food and Industrial output along with actually having Science but figured having no Science is better than having no Industry in a Boreal opening scenario. I started on a Jungle Planet to fit under the 95 point Affinity cap. United Empire Visual Affinity also comes with +1 Colonization cap and improved Manpower Modules(not too shabby). Although you're locked into keeping your population as is in the Quest line(changing it to Sheredyn or Mezari completely overwrites custom population), it comes with 10% boost to Industrial output and a unique improvement that makes one system a Gold and Industrial powerhouse provided it has lots of Influence(not that hard if you assimilate United Empire or Minor Factions like Baghba). That's where I opted for United Empire since I not only love their quest line but their ships and in particular heroes since they make exceptional Governors. I've come to really like Horatio's ability to enhance its population but not their ships or even quest line. I wanted to create a custom Faction with as many factions represented as possible. Price of Perfection: +20% Ship cost, +10% Weapon DamageДЇledgling Traders: -50% System Trade Value Growth Plan III: 30% boost to Food ProductionД¬rowded Planets II: +2 Population cap on Planets Population Collection: Peer Reveiwed(Sophon) Population Traits: Extreme Foremen with Planet Menders Population Ideology: Industrial with Automatist to boost Industrial Ideology Name: Terran(Name really needs improvement) Anyways, what are some of your favorite Custom Faction builds? Below is one I've come to really like: Its honestly something I wish Civ 6 would add but it doesn't appear to be in the works any time soon. Vanilla Factions vary in power but being able to create a custom Faction is what keeps me coming back to ES2.

Endless space 2 custom race