I would like them to colonize, only at a much slower rate than the majors. Maybe 1/4 of the speed.

They should not have any more limitations in my opninion

The main problem with the minor races in GC1 was that while some simply sat around and didn't do a great deal in the game (some early research, perhaps some trade and that was about it), some of them colonised a few planets quite quickly (around 3 or 4) and then sat there and churned out vast quantities of very powerful ships. This had the problem of them being easily more powerful than any of the major races (I remember some minor races having a military rating over 1000) and not so easy to wipe out as they owned a few planets instead of 1.

This makes the game more challengning in the sense that they can be a serious thorn in your side if you get on the wrong side of them, but it has its flaws too. They caused problems in galaxies with limited habitable planets, as they took a chunk of them. Also, they caused problems with the continuity of the story (not that there was much of a story in GC1). The races are supposed to be MINOR. How can they be minor if they could mop the floor with the entire galaxy combined? They are also supposed to be less advanced than the other races, both in technological level and in way of life, so the idea that they are advanced enough to colonise other worlds and build massive juggernaut ships is absurd.

I like to think of them as minor countries. It was just unfeasible that Paraguay would have had the abilities and drive to take on the USA and USSR in the cold war, for instance. I think that GC2 has it right with the minor races. They exist, but they are of little consequence on the galactic stage.

Eh, minor races in my games all seem to fill the space above their homeworld with freighters, constructors and a couple of troop transports (?!). I wipe them out with a few cheap fighters then invade. One would think they would build a couple of military starbases and defense fleets.

What difficulty rating were you playing, jefe414? The minor races in my games are like obnoxious vermin that keep infesting the wrong planets (the ones that I usually want) and throwing influence bases in MY territory.

I usually playing on normal and they do that on my game mining and economy bases all over and when in war maybe two or three defenders
oh yeah, how do you use espionage on minors? on the minors report they always say they need more funding yet theres no way to fund espionage.

so they should at least get maybe two planets and stuff their horrible no challenge at all and they don't do anything