Racial trait

Racial traits are essentially racial picks updated for Master of Orion.

Some of the traits listed here are "hidden" in the game and not normally available on the custom race screen. They are either exclusive to a preset race, meant to be obtained through one of the special abilities bundles, or used behind the scene by one of the non-playable factions (Antarans, pirates, and space monsters). Hidden traits are listed in a fainter style.

Population Growth

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Population Growth: -50%	Population growth is much slower than normal.	-7
	Population Growth: -25%	Population growth is slower than normal.	-4
	Population Growth: +25%	Population growth is 25% faster than normal.	4
	Population Growth: +50%	Population growth is 50% faster than normal.	7

Food from Population

These traits affect food generated by farmers:

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Food from Population: -25%	This race's population generates less food than normal.	-3
	Food from Population: +25%	This race's population generates 25% more food than normal.	4
	Food from Population: +50%	This race's population generates 50% more food than normal.	7

Production from Population

These traits affect production generated by workers:

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Production from Population: -25%	Production is slower than normal.	-3
	Production from Population: +25%	Production is 25% faster than normal.	3
	Production from Population: +50%	Production is 50% faster than normal.	6

Research from Population

These traits affect research generated by scientists:

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Research from Population: -25%	Research is slower than normal.	-3
	Research from Population: +25%	Research is 25% faster than normal.	3
	Research from Population: +50%	Research is 50% faster than normal.	6

Credits from Population

These traits affect credits taxed from citizens:

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Credits from Population: -25%	This race generates fewer credits than normal.	-4
	Credits from Population: +25%	This race generates 25% more credits than normal.	5
	Credits from Population: +50%	This race generates 50% more credits than normal.	8

Pollution Tolerance

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Pollution Tolerance: Immune	Pollution doesn't affect food production.	8

Homeworld Size

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Homeworld Size: Small	This race's homeworld is a small planet. It supports less population than a normal planet.	-2
	Homeworld Size: Large	This race's homeworld is a large planet. It supports a bigger population than a normal planet.	2
	Homeworld Size: Huge	This race's homeworld is a huge planet. It supports a bigger population than a large planet.	4

Homeworld Minerals

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Homeworld Minerals: Poor	This race's homeworld is a mineral-poor planet. It causes slower production than normal planets.	-2
	Homeworld Minerals: Rich	This race's homeworld is a mineral-rich planet. It allows faster production than normal planets.	2
	Homeworld Minerals: Ultra-Rich	This race's homeworld is a mineral-ultra-rich planet. It allows much faster production than normal planets.	6

Beam Defense

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Beam Defense: -25%	Beam defense is lower than normal.	-1
	Beam Defense: +25%	Beam defense is 25% higher than normal.	2
	Beam Defense: +50%	Beam defense is 50% higher than normal.	4

Beam Attack

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Beam Attack: -25%	Beam attack is lower than normal.	-1
	Beam Attack: +25%	Beam attack is 25% higher than normal.	2
	Beam Attack: +50%	Beam attack is 50% higher than normal.	4

Ship Improvements

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Ship Improvements: Auto Repair	Ships regain 5% of their hull at the beginning of each turn.	3
	Ship Improvements: Combat Speed Bonus	Combat speed +25%	1
	Ship Improvements: Travel Speed Bonus	Travel speed +25%	2
	Ship Improvements: Stealth	This race's ships can get closer to opponents without being detected.	2

Ship Cost

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Ship Cost: -20%	Ship cost is lower than normal.	3

Homeworld Biome

In addition to these, localized strings exist for uber planet homeworlds: tropical, grassland, cavernous and inferno.

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Homeworld Biome: Swamp	This race's homeworld is a swamp planet.	-1
	Homeworld Biome: Desert	This race's homeworld is a desert planet.	-1
	Homeworld Biome: Arid	This race's homeworld is an arid planet.	-1
	Homeworld Biome: Volcanic	This race's homeworld is a volcanic planet.	-1
	Homeworld Biome: Ocean	This race's homeworld is an ocean planet.	-1

Uber Planet

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Uber Planet: Cavernous	This race can transform arid planets into highly improved cavernous planets.	2
	Uber Planet: Grassland	This race can transform arid planets into highly improved grassland planets.	2
	Uber Planet: Tropical	This race can transform swamp planets into highly improved tropical planets.	2
	Uber Planet: Inferno	This race can transform volcanic planets into highly improved inferno planets.	2
	Uber Planet: Ocean Uber-Planet	This race can transform tundra planets into ocean planets.	2

Food Consumption

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Food Consumption: -25%	This race consumes 25% less food than normal.	3
	Food Consumption: -50%	This race consumes 50% less food than normal.	5
	Food Consumption: None	This race doesn't consume food.	8

Morale

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Morale: -15%	Morale is much lower than normal.	-3
	Morale: -5%	Morale is lower than normal.	-1
	Morale: +5%	Morale is higher than normal.	2
	Morale: +15%	Morale is much higher than normal.	4

Ground Units

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Ground Units: Improved Marine Training Rate	Marines are generated 50% faster.	1
	Ground Units: Extended Barracks	This race can host more marines at each colony.	1

Ground Combat Rating

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Ground Combat Rating: -25%	Ground Combat Rating is lower than normal.	-1
	Ground Combat Rating: +25%	Ground Combat Rating is 25% higher than normal.	1
	Ground Combat Rating: +50%	Ground Combat Rating is 50% higher than normal.	2

Assimilation Power

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Assimilation Power: -25%	Assimilation of invaded races is slower than usual.	-1
	Assimilation Power: +25%	Assimilation of invaded races is 25% faster than usual.	1
	Assimilation Power: Immediate	Assimilation of invaded races is immediate.	4

Gravity Tolerance

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Gravity Tolerance: Low Gravity	The race is not affected by low gravity.	-3
	Gravity Tolerance: High Gravity	The race is not affected by high gravity.	4
	Gravity Tolerance: All	This race is not affected by low or high gravity.	6

Security

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Security: -20%	Security is lower than normal.	-3
	Security: +10%	Security is 10% higher than normal.	1
	Security: +20%	Security is 20% higher than normal.	3

Missions Risk

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Missions Risk: +10%	Spies have lower chances of accomplishing missions.	-1
	Missions Risk: -10%	Spies have higher chances of accomplishing missions.	2
	Missions Risk: -20%	Spies have much higher chances of accomplishing missions.	4

Experience

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Experience: +50%	Spies gain experience faster than normal.	4

Omniscience

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Omniscience: Enabled	The race can see all stars, planets and opponents' colonies and ships from the beginning.	8

Trading

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Trade Treaties Bonus	Race gets +25% Billion Credits from Trade Treaties.	3
	Trade Goods Bonus	Race gets +25% Billion Credits from Trade Goods project.	2
	Trade Goods Bonus	Race gets +100% Billion Credits from Trade Goods project.	6

Diplomacy

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Diplomacy: Repulsive	Repulsive races can't make treaties with others.	-6
	Diplomacy: Worsen Negotiations	The race has lower chances of others accepting deals.	-1
	Diplomacy: Improved Negotiations	The race has higher chances of others accepting deals.	2
	Diplomacy: Worsen Disposition	Positive actions have softer diplomatic consequences and negative actions have more severe diplomatic consequences.	-2
	Diplomacy: Improved Disposition	Positive actions have better diplomatic consequences and negative actions have softer diplomatic consequences.	3

Command Points

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Command Points: +10%	This race has 10% more Command Points than normal.	2
	Command Points: +20%	This race has 20% more Command Points than normal.	4
	Command Points: +30%	This race has 30% more Command Points than normal.	6

Starting Technology

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Starting Technology: Government	This race starts with Government technology researched.	1
	Starting Technology: Physics	This race starts with Physics technology researched.	1
	Starting Technology: Biology	This race starts with Biology technology researched.	1
	Starting Technology: Engineering	This race starts with Engineering technology researched.	1

Mind Control

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Mind Control: Enabled	This race can invade planets by using their mind-control ability. (Requires Battleship or larger ship)	1

Technology

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Technology: Creative	Get all Technologies when researching a Technology Node with optional applications.	4
	Technology: Uncreative	Get a random Technology when researching a Technology Node with optional applications.	-2

Homeworld Specials

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Homeworld Specials: Artifacts	This race's homeworld has artifacts. They allow faster research.	1
	Homeworld Specials: Low Gravity Homeworld	This race's homeworld has low gravity.	-3
	Homeworld Specials: High Gravity Homeworld	This race's homeworld has high gravity.	4

Special Abilities

Special abilities are bundles of racial traits. A couple of them, Aquatic and Lucky, also have some special hardcoded effects.

Icon	Name	Description	Cost
	Diplomat	Diplomats concentrate on trade with allies and espionage with enemies. They seek a balance between military buildup, ecological maintenance, and technological research. Starting Technology: Government Morale: +5%	3
	Militarist	Militarists seek to develop weapons technology. They will build and maintain a large star fleet at all times. Starting Technology: Engineering Ground Units: Improved Marine Training Rate	3
	Technologist	Technologists focus resources on research, seeking to advance their knowledge in all areas. Starting Technology: Physics Homeworld Specials: Artifacts	2
	Ecologist	Ecologists emphasize improving their environment. They concentrate research on planetology and construction, while prioritizing terraforming projects. Starting Technology: Biology	1
	Industrialist	Industrialists emphasize factory construction. They prioritize research into areas that will increase production capacity. Starting Technology: Physics Production from Population: +25%	4
	Expansionist	Expansionists hunger for territory. They emphasize propulsion and planetology technology and the building of colony ships. They tend to be aggressive in border disputes over recently settled lands, but hold less interest in attacking well defended worlds. Starting Technology: Engineering Starting Technology: Biology	3
	Aquatic	Coming from an oceanic home world, this race perspective is skewed by water. They find Terran and Ocean planets ideal for their development, and can even thrive in swamps. Homeworld Biome: Ocean Uber Planet: Ocean Uber-Planet Hardcoded behavior: terran and ocean planets are treated as if they were gaia planets, swamp planets are treated as if they were terran planets.	2
	Subterranean	Living underground, this race ignores the light of the sun as much as possible and carves out its dark existence beneath the surface. Homeworld Biome: Arid Uber Planet: Cavernous	2
	Plains Dweller	This race lives to worship the sun and roam free in the open spaces of grass and fields, moving from one oasis to another to take in shade and water. Homeworld Biome: Arid Uber Planet: Grassland	2
	Jungle Creature	The thick wetness of jungles and swamps appeals to this race, as they flourish in the ripe dampness, rich with teeming life. Homeworld Biome: Swamp Uber Planet: Tropical	3
	Lava Breather	This race doesn't breathe a mere gas concentration, but hot magma that would heat the surface of most planets. Homeworld Biome: Volcanic Uber Planet: Inferno	2
	Lithovore	Consuming rocks instead of living organisms for sustenance, this race depends entirely on a planet's mineral richness to grow its population and sees little use for plant or animal life. Food Consumption: None Hardcoded behavior: population growth based on mineral richness rather than food.	8
	Cybernetic	Half creature, half machine, these cybernetic organisms require less food and work more efficiently, and also have a knack for taking care of artificial systems. Food Consumption: -50% Ship Improvements: Auto Repair	8
	Charismatic	This race is the used car dealer of the galaxy—smooth, suave, and transparently artificial, but you just can't help feeling like you should be their friend. Diplomacy: Improved Negotiations Diplomacy: Improved Disposition	5
	Repulsive	No other race willingly works with you; your attitude, smell, appearance, and even your voice repel other creatures instinctively. Diplomacy: Worsen Negotiations Diplomacy: Worsen Disposition	-2
	Creative	The galactic nerds, this race is focused on mind over body, and spends all of their time studying and thinking; science and philosophy are goals in and of themselves. Technology: Creative Research from Population: +50%	10
	Uncreative	This race is a bit slow, not very interested in new technology or science, and would rather let someone else do the thinking so they can relax or play. Technology: Uncreative Research from Population: -25%	-5
	Lucky	These fortunate beings must have saved up a huge chunk of karma from a previous life. Negative events never seem to find them and, as luck would have it, they get attacked less frequently by outside forces. Hardcoded behavior: immune to negative random events.	4
	Omniscient	These know-it-alls’ innate abilities let them map the whole galaxy without leaving the comfort of their own home world. Omniscience: Enabled	6
	Telepathic	The mental abilities of this race have evolved above and beyond that of their galactic peers. Knowing the mind of others makes them shrewd negotiators, hard to deceive and allows them to take whole planets without resorting to violence. Mind Control: Enabled Diplomacy: Improved Negotiations Security: +10% Assimilation Power: Immediate	6
	Tolerant	This race is quite hardy and can withstand the differences in gravity on many different worlds, no matter how strong or weak. Gravity Tolerance: All	6
	Traders	Natural bargain-hunters, this race can haggle its way out of almost any situation, and frequently come away with a tidy profit. Trading: Trade Treaties Bonus +25% Trading: Trade Goods Bonus +25%	5
	Fantastic Traders	Coming up from a society of fierce capitalism has prepared this race to excel in trade negotiations, squeezing value from every deal no one else would have even seen. Trading: Trade Treaties Bonus +25% Trading: Trade Goods Bonus +100%	9
	Transdimensional	An unusual genetic alteration allows this race to phase-shift through the space-time continuum, granting their ships extra speed in combat and while scurrying the galaxy. Ship Improvements: Travel Speed Bonus Ship Improvements: Combat Speed Bonus	4
	Stealthy	Invariably sneaky, always quiet, and patiently considering their next move, this race uses their stealth abilities for espionage and penetration of enemy defenses. Ship Improvements: Stealth Experience: +50%	6
	Shapeshifters	By changing their form, this race can pretend to be almost anything they want, making it easier for them to recognize outsiders and infiltrate other societies. Security: +10% Assimilation Power: +25%	3
	Strategists	This race plans ahead in every way militarily possible, and is always on the brink of a war economy, intended to support operations in the field. Command Points: +20% Ship Cost: -20%	7
	Natural Pilots	Like birds, this race has an affinity for flight and their natural skills lend themselves to becoming top combat pilots, always pushing the limits of their ships. Beam Defense: +50% Beam Attack: +25% Ship Improvements: Travel Speed Bonus Ship Improvements: Combat Speed Bonus	8
	Warlord	With their sights set on the domination of other races by physical force, this race trains extensively in ground combat and maintains a large reserve force of warriors. Ground Units: Improved Marine Training Rate Ground Units: Extended Barracks	4

Notes

While most traits are approximately the same as the equivalent Battle at Antares race picks, there are several major differences.

• Aquatic in MOO2 also affected the planets' base food per cell, in addition to maximum population. In MOOCTS, it only affects the maximum population, but leaves the base food per cell unchanged: an ocean planet is treated as a gaia planet for maximum population, but still produces just 2.5 food per farmer instead of 4 for a real gaia.
• Government traits are not implemented. Although present to a limited extent in the game code, they have no in-game effets, as the implementation was never finished.
• Repulsive in MOO2 limited diplomacy to declaring war, while also increasing assimilation time and making mercenary leaders more expensive and less likely to join you. In MOOCTS, it does not include the Diplomacy: Repulsive effect and instead merely makes diplomacy more difficult without blocking other treaties outright; though the older behavior can be modded back in easily.
• Subterranean in MOO2 doubled the max population of any settled planet, while giving a minor bonus to ground defense. In MOOCTS it instead allows terraformation of dry planets into cavernous planets.
• Tolerant in MOO2 allowed a race to ignore the effects of pollution. The trait with the same name in MOOCTS instead is about ignoring the effects of gravity.
• Warlord was in MOO2 mostly a ship combat trait (command points from colonies without having to build a star base allowing for a larger fleet sooner, ship combat statistics improved through leveling up, etc.) while it is purely a ground combat trait in MOOCTS.

Master of Orion races Racial biases · Racial traits Major civilizations Alkari · Bulrathi · Darlok · Elerian · Gnolam · Humans · Klackon · Meklar · Mrrshan · Psilon · Sakkra · Silicoid · Terran · Trilarian Independent civilizations Akirian · Degonite · Eldritch · Glis · Nyemorian · Nyunyu · Thersonian · Yar-ssian · Zarkonian