Remove the caps of max 50% and make it 100.
The standard races will still be used because of more points being used in the creation and they are a standard option which always works. But removing this cap will make the custom races fill a certain nice that can make the game a lot more strategic.
An example would be
-100% attack, droids and the leftover points in speed.
100% income and tax offices but no science and no pop
Etc…
Would make things more interesting.
Would this though mean that you could potentially do -100% and get loads more race points to assign?
That would be up for debate.
Maybe some middle ground like maximum - 50% or make 80 to 100% cost dubbel the points.
If for example -50 magic also means defence than you really have to think hard about what you want to do. It’s a bit like min maxing in a normal mmorpg game. A nice can be very strong but at the same time a glass cannon. But again, this is a strategie game so in my eyes that just makes it better
I like this idea
Ahhh, yes. The time for +100% income is finally nigh. 
Obligatory Place Nukes included in custom as well.
Nom , before I did this I’d work on fog of war options I mentioned for messages as well.
Also I would recommend some sort of action on ops spells first making them balanced again even if that means starting from original rules on how these ops and spells work sometimes it’s back to basics.
I bet you over a few years if you had a galaxy always running original rules on everything spells ops builds maybe keep extra races but reset bonuses to original to the death matches you would get more players and traffic coming thru Nom!