Title says it . . . I hate restarting, but it seems like I have to restart five or six times before I get a decent start that's neither insanely hard nor way too easy. A few fixes to the galaxy and planet generator might be in order to iron out some of the problems:

Starting in the corner without another system anywhere nearby. I hate this one, it's a virtually guaranteed restart. Even on Large with Common stars, I frequently start out in the corner, with the nearest system being six or seven turns away. Chances of successfully colonizing anything fall to almost zero. I realize certain races are supposed to start out further away, but the galaxy generator should use an algorithm to keep players from starting out too far from the center of the map (AI players that start out in the corners almost invariably get crushed as well).

Five, six, seven or more "dud" systems in a row. I have planets and habitability set to Common, and yet I get one dud system after another. You would think that at Common, habitable planets would be, well . . . common. It appears that at Common, each planet has a roughly 10% chance of being habitable; that's way too low, with an average of three planets per system, it needs to be more like 20% for most systems to have a planet.

Way too many habitable planets. This happens every few games; planet after planet will be habitable. I am perfectly aware of the fact that true random number sequences are somewhat "streaky", but this, combined with the fact that most games have so few habitable planets, leads me to believe that something might be buggy in the galaxy generator.

Starting with a +700% Manufacturing bonus. WAY too easy. Starting planets shouldn't have any bonuses greater than +100%, if they have any bonuses at all. I realize this wouldn't be a popular change, but on the flip side I don't think anyone would want to play against a Drengin who started with a +700% Mfg.