Huge galaxy, common habitable planets, tight star clusters, normal research, and everything else set to occasional. I allowed all types of victory. Five AI's: Yor, Drengin, Altarian, Torian, Thalan. Skill level set to "Tough". I played the Terrans with a Federalist government and throughout the game chose to follow a neutral ethical path.
As the game started I noted that starting positions weren't all that bad, so I didn't hit ctrl-n even once. (Actually, I read a note that doing turns the game into a non-Metaverse game anyway, so it's a good thing I kept my fingers away.) In the far NW corner of the map were the Thalan. To the east of them were the Drengin and then the Yor. I started just south of the Drengin. South of me was the Altarians and further to the east of them, across a void two sectors wide, were the Torians. All civs were in the top two-thirds of the map.
I followed the same strategy that I've followed since I started playing on "Tough": taxes to 49%, industry to 100%, and social spending at 100%. I was able to colonise half a dozen worlds before my flagship jumped into an anomaly that sent it way across the map. I probably would have been able to grab a couple more planets to the south, had it not been for that. One system I held in the NW of my territory was shared with the Drengin. To the south, the Drengin had occupied a couple worlds that I hadn't been able to scout due the loss of my flagship.
The game progressed rather nicely. I didn't get the economic power that I wanted, early on, but I was still able to hold my own once the Drengin started to attack. Just before the war, I had set up a military starbase near the border and even produced a few Flashlights (small hull, one Laser, and basic hull plating). This kept them at bay while I researched better tech and also planetary invasion. I took the system that we shared early on and then focused my attention on their worlds to the south. I was only able to take one of them, though, before they surrendered to the Torians, having exhausted their fleet. As it turned out, they only had three planets left, including the two in their home system.
The Torians, meanwhile, had grown significantly. They were pretty much alone in their section of the map and had alot of uncontested space to play with. The addition of the Drengin worlds was quite worrisome indeed, though the Torians in general are pretty tollerant, so I didn't worry. Besides, they had the Yor to the north, who were also doing very well. Also, during my war with the Drengin, they had given me four starbases, all mines: military, research, morale, and influence.
The Altarians to the south were also becoming quite strong. They occupied everything down in their area, as well as almost all of the planets on the southern edge of the map. In total it was probably about a dozen worlds.
The Thalans were pretty isolated in their corner. They had about three planets and there was a minor civ in their territory, which they eventually conquered.
Predictably, the Altarians decided to get pissy. You know, arrogant that speach about humans and Altarians being so similar, so they might as well conquer me? Pricks. . .
Anyway, over the course of next couple years I dug deep into their territory, bringing them down to around eight worlds. About this time I was getting worried about the Torrians, whose influence was expanding rapidly. I tried the Atarians to make peace, but they seemed to think that they were still doing well. It was true that their military was still rated as stronger than mine, but they hadn't destroyed many of my ships and they hadn't managed to do so much come close to my planets with a troop transport. I didn't feel like giving them anything, so I kept smacking them while I built constructors. I knew that I had to attack the Torians at some point, so I sent wave after wave of constructors to fortify the starbases they had given me.
Before I finally decided to go to war with the Torians, the Altarians finally decided to ask me for peace. I gave it to them. I had also allied myself with the Yor (who earlier in the game had haughtily demanded money and tech from me) and the Thalans. The Yor were actually doing quite poorly in their war. They didn't lose many worlds, but they hadn't managed to take any, either. Also, the Torian's monstrous influence was starting to envelope a large number of their worlds.
I finally declared war. The Torians had allied with the Altarians, so it was a three vs two war.
The rest of the game was pretty monotonous. I had little trouble conquering the rest of the Altarian worlds and had even managed to pick up another military resource. After fully upgrading that, my ships were quite powerful indeed. The Torians tried to attack the starbases they had previously given me, but each fleet they sent died quickly. The only time they managed to kill one was much later in the war, when they had found a Lucky Ranger -- which I subsequently destroyed. I refused every offer for peace.
Predictably, the Altarians eventually surrendered to the Torians. That changed nothing, my my point of view. I continued taking world after world. Eventually I came upon a set of four resources, all within two sectors. Two of them were influence resources, upon which the Torians had built and fully upgraded two mining bases. That was indeed the secret to their massive influence. Once I destroyed each mine the massive influence that their remaining worlds still had collapsed. Eventually, they surrendered to the Thalans.
Some notes:
I'm not entirely satisfied with that game. The mining bases that the Torians gave me helped immensely. Had they kept that influence base they would have had three in total, which probably would have been enough to give them an influence victory. Even with "just" two, I ended up researching the entire Cultural Domination branch of the tech tree in my effort to keep their influence at bay. They should not have given me those mines. Really, under no circumstance should the AI ever give away starbases.
The AI built some decent ships. All too late the Altarians designed some fast frigates, while I was still not puting engines on my ships at all. They didn't use them enough, though, and the bulk of their force was still no faster than my ships. Had they used more of those quick ships, they would have probably been able to bypass my frontline and retake a few of their worlds -- at least temporarily.
The Torians were better. They had more time to adapt their ships to me and without those two military mines I had, it might have been a hard fight. As it was, I rarely had to build new ships, by that point.
Overall, it was a decent game. Not entirely satisfying due to their various AI quirks, but certainly not a bad game, either. Still, I think I'll hold off on more Metaverse games until the new patch comes out.