Pre-Warp setting question

[Numdydar]

When you setup up the game as a pre-warp start, are all the AI races also pre-warp too automaticly or do you need to manually select the races and force them to be pre-warp?

[Bingeling]

You don't have to change them at all, they will be preWarp if the main setting is that. If you start specifying them manually, you may have to pick preWarp.

[Numdydar]

Thanks for the quick response. I was hoping that they started out higher since in my last game they were ahead of me in tech lol. So it is just my poor planning versus a game setting I missed [:(]

[Bingeling]

The AI will start with an energy research station. Possibly two quite soon, or a second base which is probably weapon. They will also upgrade to a large spaceport fast, which has a quite a few labs. In short, they max out research potential.

If you did not do this, you will lag behind in research and be "last out of the system". If you have a government with -25% research, that does not help either.

[BigWolfChris]

I also believe the AI gets an automated research bonus depending on the difficulty you've selected

Helpful tip, if you have a spare spy, use one to steal research and keep building that one spy up (and really hope he/she doesn't get caught lol)

[DasTactic]

The way I think this works is that some races will be 'Starting' rather than 'Prewarp'. There always seems to be a few that are a level plus or minus the level you select as the galactic starting level.

[Bingeling]

Since when? I have never seen signs of that. I had a fresh thrash game open just now, and no sign of anyone peeking out of their system by default. A "starting" setup should have some mines in a nearby system, as far as I remember.

I think some random races may have bonuses, though.

[BigWolfChris]

I think it could come down if you have the settings for independent races to become empires, it seems they'll start with level 1 tech right away
Meaning if any of them go from independent to empire early in the game, they'll have a hell of an advantage

[Scrove]

And a spaceport pops out of thin air, really able to trash your fleet as a pirate if that happens unexpectedly.

[BigWolfChris]

IIRC, the easiest way to look for this, is if after a while, if you have lots empires whose dominant race are the same the chances are most of them were independent planets at game start

[Bingeling]

As far as I know, each race only has one empire at start. The fast breeders are very prone to multiples as their independents grow to required size fast.

Some way into the game, they can be "rebelled" colonies as well. With the excessive Gizurean breeding before the latest patch, rebelling gizurean colonies was not so unlikely, since they were everywhere