Simple plan
by Ryan

Like I said, my plan is simple. Make your regular race picks as you wish. Then, add superior diplomacy and special attribute empathic. Remove picks to compensate.

Then, when playing the game, get as many trade agreements as possible. Once this is done, start by trading fairly. Once you get them to like you between 196-200 just start demanding stuff. You may have to set your speech to beg, plead, or reason for the first couple of times.

The negative side to this? You have to build the stuff, so it may take a long time to get stuff on your planet, but you're still getting the stuff without researching, right? Then your own research passes theirs and you can spend more time advancing on them than trying to keep up with their constant research completions.