What are some goals I should set, and deadlines to meet them by.

[Tyrius (OP)]

I've played several games of Aurora by now, but I am always left feeling like I am moving incredibly slowly.   Do you guys have any goals that you try to meet by a certain deadline in every game?  I have yet to come up with any for myself but feel that doing so may be the solution to my problem.

[Thiosk]

If you really need a deadline for, say, expansion or migration-- theres always the DISASTER button whereby Sol gets crappier and crappier every year.

Do you play with invaders?  They'll keep ya on your toes. 

I'm still on my first real game.  I couldn't encounter low-tech aliens because I was surrounded by precursors, so I have no idea how my fleet really shapes up or stands up against actual alien races.  But i'm getting out there.

[Tyrius (OP)]

Hm. . .   That would be interesting for sure lol.   Do the aliens advance their tech horribly fast?  If they don't then I'm probably just being paranoid for no good reason.   If they do though I would so rather not get owned for advancing at my sluggish pace.

[Brian Neumann]

In general the opinion of most players is that the npr does not push their tech research any where near as hard as a human player does.  This does however meen that they have more resources to spend on colonizing and building things as they are not building anywhere near as many research labs, nor spending the money for the continual research.

Brian

[Tyrius (OP)]

Alright so they will have a larger fleet, but probably be less well armed.   Sounds a lot better than I was hoping for.

[Brian Neumann]

One important note is when you use a conventional start that the npr still gets a standard start.  This meens that they will have a huge head start on you for everything.  They will have the industry, research labs, and research points that a npr of their size would normally have.  As npr start size is based on your start size this will give them a lot (five times) as many labs which also will also give them a greater research capacity than yours, plus they will have quite a few research points to spend that you don't have.  It usually takes me at least 40 years to catch up with the original npr when I do a conventional start.

Brian