Why is it that even when I generate a new game with a large galaxy I am always finding other empire's home worlds within a few (3-5) systems away from my own? Is the galaxy generator truly random when it comes to placing the other empires? It sure seems to always put someone within close proximity. I would love a tweak to tell the galaxy generator to place all empires as equidistant to each other as possible.

It all depends on your galaxy-settings. This sounds like you are playing a Disc-Map, which really can turn out pretty random. If you want to make sure you have a fair share for your own choose either Arms-8 or the new (in 1.1.14) Circle-Type.

Other than that you can reduce the randomness on Disc-Types as well by increasing the number of Constellations and setting the Starting-Location-Equality to "Perfect" in the Advanced options.

The game should be able to put the empires not to close to eachother in a one constellation galaxy.

kyrah wrote:
The game should be able to put the empires not to close to eachother in a one constellation galaxy.

It's perfectly capable of doing so. You have to set the starting location balance to "Perfect" if you want to do it every time, though, otherwise it will be random (which some people enjoy).

I like the 8-arm galaxy because by the time you meet the other inhabitants of the galaxy, you're usually better prepared.

draeh wrote:
Why is it that even when I generate a new game with a large galaxy I am always finding other empire's home worlds within a few (3-5) systems away from my own? Is the galaxy generator truly random when it comes to placing the other empires? It sure seems to always put someone within close proximity. I would love a tweak to tell the galaxy generator to place all empires as equidistant to each other as possible.

That's quite normal in my opinion. I usually play medium galaxy game with 8 empires and other factions are sometimes 2 or 3 star systems away.



Try huge and less empires, and you can get the result you want.

Fenrakk101 wrote:
It's perfectly capable of doing so. You have to set the starting location balance to "Perfect" if you want to do it every time, though, otherwise it will be random (which some people enjoy).

I tried this a lot, it dont work. In a one constellation galaxy the first empire is only 1-2 systems away.

kyrah wrote:
I tried this a lot, it dont work. In a one constellation galaxy the first empire is only 1-2 systems away.

You're doing it wrong...if there is only one constellation, everyone is in the one constellation. The goal is to have MANY constellations so that different players are separated by worm holes. In other words, no one starts sharing a constellation.



STAY AWAY FROM UNIQUE AND FEW IF YOU WANT SOME BREATHING SPACE AT THE START!



Listen, if you want to know what the settings do, go to http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_settings

Why you shouldnt get some space between the empires in a one constellation galaxy, sounds not reasonable to me?

kyrah wrote:
Why you shouldnt get some space between the empires in a one constellation galaxy, sounds not reasonable to me?

I don't know. I'm not a doctor.

Fenrakk101 wrote:
It's perfectly capable of doing so. You have to set the starting location balance to "Perfect" if you want to do it every time, though, otherwise it will be random (which some people enjoy).

I don't see a starting location balance in the advanced galaxy generation settings.



Are you talking about the "System balancing"?







Thanks.

draeh wrote:
I don't see a starting location balance in the advanced galaxy generation settings.



Are you talking about the "System balancing"?







Thanks.

I was paraphrasing because I have awful memory I've never seen a game that wasn't fair with System balancing set to "Perfect," but if you run into them I either had really good luck or you had really back luck.

Good stuff I never quoted that system balancing thing and don't like too much when it's very uneven on start, I'll try that in my next game with no pirates to quote how well each AI faction develop.

I have to say, Endless Space is rather end-full. Even with the largest galaxy size, it is small and opponents are not far away from each other. When I play Civ4 on a huge map, it is actually huge. Here, even the largest size is what I would consider medium. I like to explore and expand a while before I have to worry about other opponents, but with Endless Space, they are right on top of you (especially because the Casimir tech is a pretty early game tech, unlike say Astronomy in Civ4).

Yes. I have to say I'm underwhelmed with even the "perfect" setting. I recently started a large spiral map with the balance set to perfect. The map started with my home world at the base of my spiral arm with the wormhole to the central hub. I thought, "great" maybe I can get the jump on the other AIs if I get to the Casmir tech first. What I found was a small system in the hub where the other 3 wormholes are attached, but low and behold each AI is at the direct opposite of the wormhole.



In a sense it was "perfect" as far as balancing is concerned, but still pretty claustrophobic if you ask me.

draeh wrote:
Yes. I have to say I'm underwhelmed with even the "perfect" setting. I recently started a large spiral map with the balance set to perfect. The map started with my home world at the base of my spiral arm with the wormhole to the central hub. I thought, "great" maybe I can get the jump on the other AIs if I get to the Casmir tech first. What I found was a small system in the hub where the other 3 wormholes are attached, but low and behold each AI is at the direct opposite of the wormhole.



In a sense it was "perfect" as far as balancing is concerned, but still pretty claustrophobic if you ask me.

Well, spiral galaxies should be like this. They give you one arm that will be fully yours (if you have the same number or less empires than the number of arms), and you have to compete for the central systems. You may want to increase the galaxy size, or make them more dense in the advanced settings part.



If you ask me the perfect balacing is b***sh**, because it does not affect the type of stars, and the starting positions will still be extremely random, sometimes making the game unplayable if you get so crappy systems...