1. Besides blowing away the prefs.ini file, is there any way when you start a new game the ability to set the galaxy settings and race properties back to their default settings? If not, I would think a 'default' button would be a great addition to some patch.
None that I know of, And I agree, a default button would be nice. Though after you play it awhile, you get a feel for what you like.
2. When I select a new, unchanged race, am I supposed to use my ability points? Does the game do the same for each of the opponent races? If so, does it do it randomly or based on some sort of default? I'm worried that I'm 'cheating' by using the ability points of the A.I. doesn't do the same for the other races.
Yes, the AI does use it's ability points, so you'd be putting yourself at a disadvantage if you didn't do the same. I'm not sure how the distibution of those points are determined though. It's probably different for each race, depending on their personanlities and priorities.
3. Do all the races start off as Federalists like whatever unchanged race I pick to play with? Or does the game change them to something else once the game starts? Again, random or based on some default for that race? Actually, something must have changed since early, base GalCiv II as now I notice that at least some of the races have different political parties assigned to them.
Yes the races do pick their own parties. However, in the patched version of Dark Avatar, if you edit the races at all and select a party for them, they will always use the one you select. I've noticed that, if left to themselves, most of the races will choose Federalist. It would be nice to see a bit more variation.
