How many times do you start over a game to get a good galaxy?

Try CRTL-N, it'll redo the map (at the beginning) until you get something you're comfortable with.

Awesome thank you so much

I tend to control+n once or twice, but never after the first turn. What i look for is the distribution of races. On a larger map, i've had five of the six civs start in the lower left (including me) but then had one civilization start in the upper right. -- I try to recreate untill people are fairly evenly spread out.

I recreate the map 4-5 times usually, the one big problem this game seems to have is that the starting locations arnt very fair, and you can usually tell right away just by looking at the map who is going to be the most powerful race just by how many planets they start next too.

This all being said, I am playing a game right now on a large galaxy where After sending out three colony ships I realized that EVERY planet within 3 sectors of me was either inhahibited or Class 0. So I cranked out some high weapon tech and built a fleet and conquered the two closest races... now I'm the dominate power in the galaxy, and this is all from having only my starting two worlds. So sometimes you can recover from a really bad galaxy setup.

you must add cheat to the end of your shortcut path with a space between the path and cheat, to use that I think

Hahaha. I go with the galaxy I get. So far, all of the ones I've gotten where reasonable. (2 games total, on the second right now, both on the biggest galaxy) In the current one right now, I have a whole side cluster thing to myself with about... 10 3-8 planets, ~6-8 9-10 planets, and ~6 10+ Planets. all the other races where spreaded evenly. I also had a middle outpost with 5 planets, and a side with about 4, with ~8 unguarded enemy planets there too. THEN another race surrendered to me without doing anything. (Love this AI. They must have PISSED OFF thier enemies) Because they gave me a class 26 planet, about 4 12 Class planets, and about 6 10-5 planets on the OTHER side of the map. So now, i got a SUPER HUGE encomy and crackin out those ships and reserch. My main fighters do 20 Missle damage, with about 80-90 HP. So I'm pwning my enemy, my ally is holding his position, and the other race isn't doing to much. But this battle is going EXREMELY WELL.

Ctrl-N isn't a cheat key.

I play the hand Im given. For me thats part of the "strategy" aspect. You make the best out the resources you have, and adapt your strategy accordingly. But everyone prefers different levels of challenge...theres no "right " way.

Control + N once if I am completely gimped (like being 30 Parsecs from the nearest star like I saw the Yor's home system end up once. Amazingly, they still managed to colonize a few planets.) by bad luck in Star dispersal. Only on the 1st turn.

If it's anything less, I don't. Corner of the map with only four stars within 20 Parsecs? Whoops, time to research Impulse Drive, then. It just makes your triumph more fun. Or makes it more acceptable when you lose because then you can blame the random number generator and not your skills.

I've been restarting for the past few days... I just can't find the right balance of settings for habitable planets, number of planets, number of stars, galaxy size, and opponents. After I get frustrated of restarting, I do a campaign mission instead.

I play with what is given, its my whole idea of strategy and what you start with to work with to beat the others

I don't restart at all, but I often will retire a game in the middle if I think it's hopeless.

I restart, sometimes you get a hopeless position.

I've been restarting for the past few days... I just can't find the right balance of settings for habitable planets, number of planets, number of stars, galaxy size, and opponents. After I get frustrated of restarting, I do a campaign mission instead.

I like, Gigantic, planets common, habitable planets common, # stars uncommon, stars spread out, anomaly uncommon and fast tech. Play with 6 opponents. I check to make sure everyone is evenly spaced out (or my starting position is good at least) if not, restart, or as I see now cntr-n.

I never try for a new map. If I lose a game, I learn something, even if it was because of a terrible starting setup. I try to make the best of what I get, even if I spend ten minutes on a turn twiddling the details to maximize production.

Id say 50%of my ctrl-N results put me in a corner, with civilizations in each of the 3 connecting sectors.
And of course there is the one civ in the center of the galaxy, far from the civs who were destined to make sure I stay in my corner, sigh.


I don't play every hand, I know when to fold

Citizen LeegleechN stated:

I don't restart at all, but I often will retire a game in the middle if I think it's hopeless.

I've had a handful of situations where my mid-game prognosis seemed hopelessly untenable, but I persisted anyway. Playing through those games forced me to reconsider and alter my strategies, and as a result I've become a better player for having stuck with it. Oh, and I ended up winning all those apparently hopeless games.

I prefer to start with at least one bonus tile on my planet, and not in a part of the map where there's no nearby stars.