Custom Game Start

Large galaxy
"challenging" difficulty
"common" everything
Tech rate: normal
6 opponents (random race bright intelligence)
Research and Influence victory disabled

No tech trading
Blind exploration
Research and influence victory disabled
Random everything except difficulty (currently at tough)

Makes for fun games that can be quite different from one to the next. I usually play as the Yor (+25 minituarization is awesome) with their traits rearranged to give me +20% PQ, 1 in luck, and the final point in whatever I feel like at the time.

Gigantic Galaxy
Suicidal
No tech trading
Blind exploration
Research and influence victory disabled
All Races start at war
No starbases
Slowest research
Taxes set at 5%
zero bonus abilities
No farms

For the last 3 games I have been playing blindfolded. My 4 year old nephew describes the screen for me. Fun game and a real challenge

Large or Huge, I like to get games finished with so I can start a new game soon after a new patch comes out
All alternate victory conditions off (I like to use a combination of influence and brute force to take over planets).
Common habitable planets.
Uncommon stars.
Uncommon planets.

P.S.: Stardock, why do I have to uncheck the alternate victory conditions every single time I start a game? Why can't GC2 remember my preferences and maintain them?

All other settings vary per game, and even the above change occasionally, but mostly I am (very) gradually working my way up the difficulty levels as I develop some strategies.

For the last 3 games I have been playing blindfolded. My 4 year old nephew describes the screen for me. Fun game and a real challenge

ehm.... ok, that sounds interesting, have to try that one time.

I have recently tried suicide and I like the challenge. I play Huge galaxy and have a newborn so it takes days to complete a game. If the tile building option gets added to a fix (set a planet to build itself , factory based, research based, population based, economy based.....) then it will take less time. I had all the winning conditions there but I am still going to try to conquest (looks good so far). In the future I will turn off all but conquest.
my next game:
Huge galaxy
suicide
5-7 races (do not like the tor or yor)
planets abundant
tight clusters
normal research
all but conquest victory disabled
blind exploration

my actual game (and all the games before, but those had weaker AI settings):

gigantic;
planets and stars and habitable planets rare;
highest research rate (this cause I finally want to see blackhole weapons!);
no tech trading;
against 9 AI @tough;
blind exploration;

wow, this is my 4th game and it is definitly the most challenging one I ever played. I got started in the middle of the galaxy, sorrounded by evil races (I am Terran) and I am fighting for my right to be since the year 2226!

I usually go for:

huge (or occasionally large)
blind exploration
abundant anomalies
max difficulty
~ 6 random races
all victories on
normal research
everything else random - I love not knowing what I'm going to get!

Random all the way. Sure, you might not always have technically the toughest challenge, but you have to adapt to each game rather than just settling into a rut.
All victory conditions on (I like to keep my options open)
Tough difficulty
Blind exploration
Tech trading and Minors on
I switch races regularly to add variety

So... I really have no such thing as a 'standard' setup.

Noob question, but what is the blind exploration about?

Mad > It stops you from knowing who else you are playing against in the game. Handy if you have randomized the ai's.

I like to play the following conditions

Galaxy size - Huge/Gigantic (depends on my mood and time avail.)
Habitable planets - Common
Number of planets - Random
Star density - Random
Anomalies - Random
Number of stars - Common
Technology rate - Very slow ( i like each new tech to mean something and get a chance to use it )
Blind exploration
Tech Trading - Off
Minors - On
4 AI's - Random on pick and intel