I've never even submitted a game to the metaverse. I guess all these angry threads have made me think what would score well, based on the exploits I know.

FOr those MV vets, which of these work/don't work?

Pregame
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Allied to everyone
9 opponents - all the better to trade with
Suicidal -cos that just increases the rate that the other civs get/do things
Tech trading on in setup.
Enable conquest only in setup
Max planets and max stars in setup.
Galaxy size prob should be as big as you can stand, given how boring this game is going to be.
Max out pop growth and backfill with economy picks.

Start
Tech trade everything you can
Rush build Aphrodsiac ASAP. Give it away. You want the AI to be expanding as quickly as you.
Build farms as soon as you are approaching max pop on any planet.
Do you need to keep them happy? my guess is that you don't need to keep them that happy if you've maxed your pop growth in picks and wonders
(is the -ve pop growth for 1% popularity outweighed by the +ve of having maxed out the pop growth in setup?)
Get Restaurant

Mid game
Head down max weapon damage route. Build more and more ships and keep them docked at home
Avoid any defences or engines on ships as hp and attack matter
Does spin centre affect your military score... i.e. does it fool the scoring as well as the opponents AI.
If so build it ASAP.
Grab resources, by bribing the AI's to attack each other wherever you've not got one. Max out mining modules on resources wherever possible.
Go neutral for NLC's and PQ improvements
Lots of constructors to build influence and production as applicable
Get other influence wonder. There are other wonders which are probably useful in building a big score. I'll have to look at the decriptions as they come up.

Mop up
Flip planets with culture rather than war. That way you keep their populations.
Continue reasearching even when the tree is done
Continue building til you've flatlined all the graphs and then keep pressing turn until you fall asleep or get RSI.