Average playtime on different amount of starts / sector sizes?

[Fex]

New player here.

Curious to know how the average playtime (actual hours) to complete/win a game varies depending of the star / sector size, if you start from prewarp.

Any guesses?

[johanwanderer]

It depends on the dificulty of the game and teh amount of automation you use. I personally use about 50% of the automation, and usually start out automating everything except troop, fleet, and colonization. I turn off most advisers stuff because I find them more annoying than useful. I usually leave ship designs on auto until I actually use them (which is quite a few years in.) Victory condition: 80% of control 50% of the galaxy in economy, territory, and population.

With that said, on a Hard / Very Hard game, 700 stars, I usually win after 90 game years or so. To get to that point, it usually take me about two weeks playing, at a few hours every day.

• The 1st 10-30 years is usually played at 4X speed with pauses. I usually get out of system after 5-10 years.
• The next 30 years is usually played at 2-4X speed with pauses and maybe some slow down for battles.
• The rest is usually played at 1-0.5X because there is so much going on. This is the bulk of actual play time.

I'm currently playing on an Extreme / Chaotic / Crazy pirate game (inspired by Larry Monte's series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Z34vezLKn4). I have spent about 20 hours on it so far, on 44 game years. I'm currently ranked a distant 3rd in that game, and it's still mostly being played at 2-4X speed. It looks like this game will take a while before it becomes heated and I will have to slow down for it.

[Fex]

Good to know!

I just wanted to know if a 8x8 / 250 Stars game can in the end take THOUSANDS of hours to finish. I wouldn't want that. The scope would be just ridiculous...