Following up on this, I've finally realised race creation is on the system generation and display page. What I can't work out is how make my original race not have knowledge of the existence of the new system I create to place my new race in.
Welchbloke
AFAIK, that is not possible in-game currently, because you obviously cannot delete the system. People use a special SM-race at game creation to do this sort of stuff, which means that only the SM-race knows all the systems, the other races only know their home system. But if you don't have a SM-race, then you're out of luck.
I have a few questions for you fine connoisseurs of the game!
I see it's not possible to make NPRs start as pre-TN. Too bad, and I guess it's because the additional code necessary for the transition would be too much work for the reward. In your mind (and I know I'm somehow comparing apples and oranges here), what would be the rough ratio of power (economic and research) between a non-TN and a TN so that the non-TN can catch up within 10 years with the TN. I would be the non-TN starting on Earth, with several other power blocks starting as TN on Earth too, so I prefer to err on the safe side and be too weak rather than too strong.
Let's say, if I start with 1600 CI and 16 RL, at 35% research speed, what should I give to the starting TN so they are not overpowering and I'm able to catch up with them within 10 years?
For the second question, in the same setting, if several races start in the same system and each has several bases in the same system, including on the same planet, what should I expect relations-wise when the truce period is over? A slow degradation of relationships? A fast one, immediate war? Everything is open, including staying friends?
Lastly, is it possible to make 2 NPRs like or dislike each other from the start, so that their relation evolves naturally either to alliance or war? That's to create some 'alignments' between different power blocks, and I would prefer not to see China befriend the USA against the EU, etc.
That last bit is easiest - you cannot use SM to edit NPRs so unfortunately setting relations like that is impossible. The most common thing that will happen after the truce is nuclear war in few months but some people have reported that they were able to maintain peace with some of the NPRs. So really, it's either world peace, world war or some combination of peace and war depending on the number of NPRs. Do remember that an NPR will not hesitate to nuke Earth during a war so the risk of early game ending for your campaign is high. As for the size and difficulty settings for your own race, the only things that matter are the difficulty percentage and your starting population as the NPR creation is scaled based on those two factors. But there is still enough of a random element that it is difficult to predict what will be created.
But dude, from your explanation, it seems that you are looking to make a pretty detailed campaign with diplomacy and other stuff that is almost impossible with NPRs. It is extremely unlikely that they will play in a manner that would fit your story. I'd recommend doing multiple player races instead of NPRs but of course, that means that you would have to play all of them yourself. Whichever way you end up going, please keep us updated!