Hi there. I've mentioned this once before but still don't understand how it works.
Basically, I started a new game with a custom race at the weekend, and loaded in a race that I must've created under previous versions (pre vers 1.3).
The thing is, that custom race starts with +50 research as a racial ability (before any other modifiers), and I've no idea how I managed to do this. Any attempt to recreate a custom race with +50 research just doesn't seem to work.
Consequently, I started playing the game as this custom race and have noticed before long I'm streets ahead on research.
Whenever I try and create another custom race, the max research bonus from racial abilities I can obtain is +20%.

Previously people have pointed out that certain races start with some default bonuses (like logistics +6), but this still doesn't explain the +50% research bonus of my saved race. The template for a new custom race doesn't start off with anything in research.

One possible explanation might be that a custom race is saved with every save game, so that the bonuses I obtained from a previous few games carry over into a race's starting bonuses in a new game.

Can anyone shed any light on this please...?

Cheers,

Scott