I have seen quite a few posts in which players are complaining about the colonial rush that characterizes the first part of many games. So I am putting up this thread for people to post their various workarounds and strategies (either in game options/sandbox game setup or in-ganme strategy).
My original reasons for this particular setup was to try and emulate a more realistic space expansion. The incredibly vast distances involved, and the incredible inhospitability of the majority of planets in it. The no-rush factor was a happy accident, but remains the main reason I use this setup.
here are the sandbox settings I use for minimalised rush games:
number of AI opponents: 3
map size: gigantic
star density: tight clusters
number of stars: rare
number of planets: common
number of habitable planets: rare
number of anomalies: abundant
For the most part this map leads to a game where colonisation happens at a very reduced rate. Initial ship movements are alot more scouting intensive, and past the third or fourth turn you can entirely forget about the constant pumping out of colony ships, instead switching to a much more amenable arrangement of producing colony ships when you find a destination to send them. The number of anomalies setting is primarily to let you produce fire-and-forget survey ship scouts, as micro managing your scouts on a gigantic map is sort of overwhelming.
