Yah... i found that your WHOLE game ends up been based on how well you started... Seriously!, if you start even slightly poorly your empire goes STRAIT to the crapper, (unfortunetly computer dosent deal with this)... anycase ive observed some seriouse changes (if i could graph it i would
) one run it was 1000 year mark and i only had 1 system
another run it was 1000 year mark and i had plasmatics and a fleet of enormous ships with full out massive tech and i was dominating the galixy (this was in a sparce galixy mind you... i like it better :P)
my recomendation is to practice starting... learn to dominate as soon as possible
another thing i noticed... the shipyard... you start it to early, you lose time (and your empire is burned)... start it to late and your empire is FRIED, anycase 9/10 i get this wrong... any recomendations for when to build the shipyard?
also fav race? (mines the camichiens, the lizard guys... there special is any current topic you are researching will be finished in one day... if you set your research up right you can nock a good 500 years of research off... Also theres the chance of Super Advancing... should you find a xeno archiological site... it may lead to more tech... example... i found momentum conservation... and it lead to hyperwave... the big sweet genorator i use on almose all my big ships... i had it at year 600
)