So I was trucking along after getting back to ES few days ago. bought game last year but only now really playing it, and as a 4x junkie I figured I could handle the harder settings, got beat down till I admitted I needed to be on normal mode for awhile.



Then I got pretty confident that normal wasn't a challenge and started playing a few games on hard, that seemed pretty nice tier for me at moment, and serious for now is just too hard until I learn better optimization.



But I started a normal game on large map just to grab some challenge achievements, and I got pounded. Only thing I can point to is that on this normal mode game which felt as hard as serious, I had a pretty bad roll of dice to start for my cluster. Everything behind my wormholes was kinda a crap system and venturing out to the middle to grab what looked like some sweet systems just turned into a 7-on-1 gang bang from everyone else.



So i retreated back into my cluster and by turn ~100 or so I knew I was done for. Couple of the AI and turned into locust swarm juggernaughts and the carpet of doom came rolling through my solar system.



I find it refreshing the game can hand challenges like this but it also feels kinda RNG - usually normal mode seemed easy but I guess it's the start conditions that matter as much or more than the difficulty setting. Seems like every game can actually be like +/- 2 levels in difficulty based on what kind of start you get.

There are two settings I recommend to help with that: Perfect balance and many planets per system. This helps even out starting positions.

Oh wow, just looked at all the optional settings under advanced. That's a real help and pretty cool to tinker with. I like the many planets option - in the bad game I had my home system was 1 planet and 2 asteroid fields, pretty bad to start out with.

yeah, starting with a home system of 3 planets vs 6 can make a world of difference, and honestly I feel that having 2 good systems in close range can make the game trivially easy in the long run, while having none can make it impossible. Typically by turn 5 I can tell if it's just not going to happen and just scrap it and start fresh. That being said if you're feeling like you had a bad draw, nothing wrong at all with pushing the diplomatic route and building an alliance of 3 or more races (through whatever bribery is necessary, strategic resource abundance matters far less than allies at that point) to tip the scales the other way. If anything, I find it too easy to convince the AI to trust you regardless of their attitude, the diplomacy aspect of this game is the one area I feel there is room for substantial improvement.



But yes, the optional settings under advanced should make sure that bad of a draw is a rare occurrance indeed.