Can an Espionage based race be competitive?

Try it and set yout research to zero, see if you can keep up with the AI on spyt stealing alone. if you can get enough tech that way it might be worth it.

The cost of the espionage trait is very low. I wouldn't expect too much from it. Even with it maxed out, you're not an "espionage race" any more than you would be a "15% morale" race for taking that on the side. You just don't have to sacrifice very much to get it, so your overall strategy will still be dictated by where you put your other points.

I believe all it does is increase the rate at which you gain higher levels of intel on your enemies. It may not be worth much, but it doesn't cost much either.

I've tried it, used the drath with +50 espionage and took the political party with +20 espionage, played on painful difficulty level. While the game was quite fun, I can't say I noticed myself stealing tech any faster than usual - in fact it was really slow and I still got way more tech from invading planets. I did get up to advanced quite quickly on most races, but I usually do anyway so it wasn't really a big deal. In hindsight I'd say that taking espionage is probably the most worthless of all bonuses now that population growth and planet quality have been fixed.

I would say "no" just based on how espionage works in general not just race picks.

You can't take over planets (incite revolt) or destroy factories and research centers with it.

Aw, too bad. I would have liked to create a custom race like the Cardassians. Maybe in future titles, espionage will be a strategy one can place his focus on.

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