Steve wrote
How about if I added some extra levels of wealth rates below the normal starting rate and provided an option during race creation to start a race on a lower level?
This would certainly provide an answer especially if you can reduce the wealth in steps to about a quarter of the normal starting wealth. It gives the advantage that you can increase the wealth to "normal " levels via research while selecting an appropriate starting level. All I need to find now is a measure of industrial capacity, then we could have the situation with the first world alliances having the wealth but less manufacturing capacity then the second tier empires.
I have added an extra step to race creation that allows you to select the starting wealth rate. The normal starting rate for TN races is 20 and for conventional races it is 10. I have added rates of 2.5 and 5 as well. All the existing rates will be available as well so you could assign 24, 30 or higher as the starting rate. The research amounts are higher for the very low levels as these are larger jumps in percentage terms than the existing tech levels
Wealth 2.5 is the mininum starting rate
Wealth 5 Research is 3000 RP
Wealth 10 Research is 5000 RP
Wealth 20 Research is 10,000 RP
The higher levels remain as before
3000 RP for Wealth 24
5000 RP for Wealth 30
10,000 RP for wealth 37.5
etc.
Steve