Optimal development in the early game?

Yeah, just search for "The ai suxx0rs" "The ai is crap" "this AI is terrible" etc, and you get a lot of cheesy tactics like rushing and other things that the AI (Or human player for that matter) can't handle. At least the AI won't disconnect if your tactic succeeds

But if you ask me, the key to victory is soldiering techs. With them, you can't be invaded, and that includes by the DL. Then the yellow techs are good, so you can be snobby towards the other races and buy tech cheap, which will mean you don't have to research for piddly improvement techs. Trade is the most important, the AI pays through the nose for this. Then get some good ships, medium hulls, 6 attack, and 3 speed are good for beggining game, so they won't attack you. Focus on logistics and miniturisation, and when you get attacked, focus on weapons, and use those new techs to create fleets that wipe the floor with the AI.

Can you be a little more specific? What difficulty and galaxy settings, are you curious about the first 5 turns or the first 50, about specific things like research order or more general guiding principles?

I find a big help to my early game (only playing on tough) is to get into military early even if its only 1 attack 0 defense 1 move per week deals...

In the early game I always purchase one defender (1laser 0 defense) for each one of my colonized planets. These ships stay there till the end of the game. This almost always puts me on the map as far as military ratings go so that I don't get attacked and it keeps any aliens from sneaking a fast unescorted troop ship behind the lines to capture a planet.

Felk the Sleepy

I start by researching Impulse drive. I put my sliders on 80% research, 20% social until I have it, then I start building fast (5 pc) colony ships. I never build any ships other than colony ships or contructors until all the planets are settled and all the resources I can find have been mined. Then I start building defenders while I research medium sized hulls. I buy at least a few colony ships in order to maximize my chances of claiming planets. I also buy a factory on the first few planets I colonize in order to get things started. I have at times turned my budget to zero in order to generate enough dollars to buy constuctors in order to get mines started and battle stations added to them. I hunt anomalies ruthlessly in hopes of getting those extra $2500 ones, each one of which can buy another couple colony ships which means I own another couple planets.

I play on Painful or higher on the latest beta build.

I'm fairly tech orientated in my games, but i do get a boost to production/research when:

go for planetary improvements fast - 10% production(military & social) an a 10% research
galactic warfare and the next red tech (can't remember what it is) for 10 % to military prod each.

Its then up to the situattion as to what to research, but these inittial bonuses help a lot.
do try to get to interstellar federation as soon as able though.

The colonisation rush:

the first two colony ships are rushed maybe the third if i hit one of those jackpot anomalies.

the rest get built until two turns are left, then rushed to save a fortune.

Its pot luck with the planets because of bonuses but as a general rule - go large unless you're feeling lucky.

build starports to get them scouts zipping about meeting people and planet hunting.

The home planet:

rush a factory straight away

then rush a morale building

then rush a lab

you need one or two more factories and a bank building to follow (when they get to two turns to finish then rush them)

you have got to keep your population growing otherwise you run out of money very very fast so never send out a full colony ship unless you are low on morale!

The sliders!

Tax go as high as you want until you loose the magic 100% morale and 200,000 happy new citizens per turn

when you have built your first morale building you can put tax higher and get more money without the loss of morale

And for gods sake put your spending on100% even if it means you are in a negative cash flow situation. sell your tech, pray for jackpot anomalies whatever you do keep the spend slider on 100%. I can't emphasise how impotant this is to winning/playing a better game etc

Racial picks

Morale - 10%
money - 20%
planet quality - 10%
research - 20%

with populists as my political party


BUT - This is how I do it .....Good Luck, init

Some good posts here! I love reading this kinda stuff.

Population management is definitely a big issue in 1.1, so keeping those troopers happy pays dividends. At least some racial morale bonus really helps me the way I play, I'm always short of cash so I tend to go for +economy politically (Federalists ? My memory is awful!), and I always figure extra social/military prod/research is good. And throw in some luck and pop growth for good measure

Rushing is a must-have for me. I won't always rush a factory out on my base-planet (unless there's a prod bonus), as the capital provides a lot of output. As long as there's other decent (PQ 10+) planets nearby I tend to save my cash for developing those instead. I do, however, rush a modded (with engine upgrade) colony ship out for the first few turns. Depending on map size and layout i may rush-build a scout early on too.

Research-wise, I prioritise on engines up to the first +1 speed level, and whack research right up til I get there. After that, research drops to maybe 40% or so and I go (in no particular order) for Planetary Improvements (+10/10/10 is awesome), Sensors 1 (helps exploring, I tend to play on large or bigger map size), the first military one for the +10 mil production, and by that stage, Universal Translaters so I can start trading techs. Xeno labs, diplomacy and trade are also priorities.

Colonizing - anything 14+ PQ I grab as soon as I see it. Otherwise, I try to expand as far as my range will let me, colonize on the edges on 10+ (8 or 9 if I really have to), and keep pushing out. I then in-fill later. The aim here is to hem in the other races, and provide myself with as wide a range as possible in which to find anomalies and resources.

Economy - always tricky. Anomalies can be life savers, I'll build a second surveyor with a cargo hull and as much engine power and range as I can get, and set it to auto-survey along with my flagship. I try to build a few monster-economy planets, and then put one or two economy buildings on other planets. Farms on the bigger ones, and don't understimate tourism income either.

Military - My military tends to be non-existant for longer than the AI, but I keep a close eye on relations and if people start getting to wary and have some military tech, then I will build up fast and also try to start trading with them asap - trade is an amazing war-detterrent. If all else fails I'll bribe my way into their good books until I'm good and ready to crush them in my own time

Then I start building defenders while I research medium sized hulls.

I start building defenders when I see other races have started building their military. It doesn't take much to keep them from thinking you are an easy target.

Usually you can tell when another civ thinks you are an easy mark because they will start making demands of you. If I haven't already started building military at that point, I do start soon. I seem to quickly always take the lead in military anyway because I always have more economic and production capacity than the AIs do.

I usually get impulse drive as early as I can. Sometimes I'll get planetary improvements first, or research labs. Next I get sensors so I can have fast survey scouts to match my new fast colonizers.
I buy my first two colonizers, but always upgrade the base models on the first turn because even a slight increase in speed is helpful. Sometimes I buy three if things look good. I often buy the first factory on the home planet, and if it has something special like a 300% research tile I'll buy a lab the first turn & the factory next. It's expensive, and sometimes it's better to save that money for starting out new planets, but it's also nice to have some ships in the game early and new planets are slow producers. On new worlds, I buy them each a factory and sometimes a starbase too (because those are cheap)...until I run out of money, which doesn't take long.
I put at least two and sometimes up to four markets on every planet that can hold them & has a decent population size, and often 2-3 labs and embassies on larger worlds. This really helps a lot, especially as the game goes on. I keep my slider at 100% and build/research whatever it takes to keep my population at 100% happy. I grab every mining resource tile I see, as fast as I can.
I do send out colonizers with 500 on them, it helps to get the new worlds off to a good start and the sooner they are producing the better off I'll be. But I can totally see the reason to send them out with less, too.
I try to expand as fast as I can, taking the largest planets first, followed by the most distant planets I can get to, to expand my area in all directions at once if possible. Once areas are established I colonize from the outside in to make it more difficult for other races to sneak colonizers into my space.
This system will run you short of money quickly, so you need to make sure your people are 100% happy. And research the econ branch early on, lol.