Race Design Questions

[Menschenfresser]

I received my copy of SE4 a week ago and am new to this forum. I've decided to see if I can create my own race, and I have a few questions. I'd appreciate any help whatsoever.

1) In the AI general file down at the bottom, I am confused as to the function of everything that has to do with the "Race Opt 1,2,3" etc. Some of the lines I understand, but I don't quite get why there are repetitions, and what exactly the number in the "amount" line corresponds to.

2)I wanted to give this race the possibility of starting with all the colonization techs, so I just wrote in multiple "Planet type" and "Atmosphere." I was wondering if this will work, or do I need to approach it in another way.

3)In each Category, say "Happiness Type" for example, there are several selections to pick from. In this case we have three. I was wondering if I add another "Happiness" type to file, will I be able to use it in my new race. I suppose my question is, I realise I can change variables for different things, such as shields, weapons, Culture, Racial Traits, etc, but can I add new ones? Say for instance I wanted to add an "apathetic" type to the Happiness file.

I realize this is a monster of a request. My hope is that this post will lead to a sort of enlarged thread that we can all save as a newbie configuration guide.

This forum was here before me, and this may have been done before, and if so, please, point me in the right direction.

To tell you the truth, I am still in my first game, just on the side, in a separate folder, I am juicing up stuff and creating things for my second game.

Many thanks.