Well, I suppose that's one way of playing the game, but to me at least playing without the big, bad guys out there is no fun at all.  I delight in knowing that something out there could kill me very, very quickly. 

There's a few problems, in practical terms.

One is that NPRs typically run out of one or more vital minerals pretty quick right now; theyre not as good at exploiting minerals as humans.  Another is that starting NPRs can cause massive cascades of discovered NPRs, leading to much lag and potential errors, as well as lots of probably low tech enemies.  Third is that invaders arn't so much a challenge at lower tech, and more of a complete death sentence if you are unlucky.

You could start your NPRs manually, and turn off NPR discovery chance.  That way they can't discover new NPRs, and have a strictly limited ability to expand.  This necessitates generating systems as the SM Race, otherwise you will already have 'discovered' the NPR home systems.  It also lets you give the NPRs huge mineral stocks if needed and customize their starting power/tech.

You could also just use "Add New NPR" when you feel the time is right, which will auto generate an NPR race.

You could just do it purely off NPR discovery chance, which is frankly a just-fine-workable way to do it.

You don't need to compact the database.   I would just delete it and unpack the original from the zip file again.   The DB has a tendency to corrupt, especially when significant errors occur during games.

If you want to play a game with reduced chances for errors and slow-downs turn off all three of the default spoiler races and set the initial NPRs to 0.   Leave the NPR generation chance enabled so you will encounter aliens as you grow.   This reduces the need for military craft, but won't eliminate it.   It will let you cultivate an empire and learn how to manage the monetary and mineral economies (which are often much harder to deal with than aliens).

What ships to design and exploration doctrine are just play-styles.   Cultivate a game theme and go with it.   The entire application is a sandbox for roleplaying.   There really isn't anything you can do wrong and there isn't any way to 'win' the game.

Well, I suppose that's one way of playing the game, but to me at least playing without the big, bad guys out there is no fun at all.  I delight in knowing that something out there could kill me very, very quickly. 

Still, I guess that for the next games I will play always recopying the database from scratch.  I just hope my current game is not bugged too much, cause I really don't feel like scrapping it.  Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

So. . .  I suppose I should delete the other old games and then compact the database? Because I do have a problem.

I backed up the db, in order to be able to restore it if needed.  Then I deleted all the other games I had there.  And then, I hit the compact database option from the menu.

And it does not work, I get
error 429
activex component can't create object

followed by endless error UpdateGameLog
Error 3420 generated by DAO. Database
Object invalid or no longer set

I am unsure as to how proceed from here. . . .  I can't compact the database.

Did you delete the default game from Steve?

I did so.   However I still have my aborted game from before, I did not delete it.   And also, in that game I did not exploit Titan whatsoever. 

Does it matter? I wanted to start another game with a friend of mine but.  .  .   am I limited to one game at a time?

Err something strange is happening to this new game as well.  I wanted to ask here before posting a bug somewhere.  I did a search, but maybe because the search terms are too generic I could not find anything.

As it should be, when I drop a team on a moon or planet to completeyl survey it, the game sets it as a colony.  And that is normal of course but. .  sometimes, when I do so, some random and impossible civilian orders get created at the same time, I do not know why.

For example, I dropped my team of Titan, Titan gets marked as colony, and checking the civilian tab I found a supply order for 60 automated mines.  And all my civilian ships get here and hang around doing nothing. . .

Thoughts?

Thanks once again, I will be sure to try the missile way in my next game.  In fact I think I'm off to start it now

But another quick question.  Is there a way to customize what is an interrupt? I guess not becuase from whatI read around the interrupt events are the same for the player and for the NPR, but it would be nice.

Duranium, corundium, and neutronium are the usual shortage suspects in early games.  Sometimes also gallicite.   However, it's completely dependent on your start, situation, and mineral rolls.

If you are short on wealth because you are buying from civ mines, you arn't short on wealth.   Only buy from civ mines if you can actually afford it. 

To the new user, afraid of shortages, not buying minerals is a sin  But well, now I understand better than you can sometimes avoid doing that, for the sub-par civ complexes.  Maybe.

Error 6 is probably coming from some bugged ship somewhere.   It may be possible to trouble shoot it.  Go to the Event Logs screen while in Spacemaster Mode and export the text logs.   These logs can reveal current NPR activity, which you may be able to use in SM mode to find the system with the troubled ships and delete it.  

Well, I decided to restart anyway, but at any rate
20th April 2057 20:38:41,SM Only,System 0,Error in GetMaxPotentialSensorRange
Error 6 was generated by Aurora
Overflow
Please report to hxxp: aurora2. pentarch. org/index. php/board,11. 0. html

And as for the interrupts every few hours every day
11th April 2057 22:38:41,Precursors,Unknown,A strength-31 thermal contact associated with MC-30 005 has been lost
12th April 2057 02:38:41,Precursors,Unknown,New Transponder Contact!  Contact ID:  002, Class ID: Alien Class #348, Race ID: Unknown Aliens #287
12th April 2057 02:38:41,Precursors,Unknown,New Transponder Contact!  Contact ID: Alien Class #348 004, Class ID: Alien Class #348, Race ID: Unknown Aliens #287
12th April 2057 02:38:41,Precursors,Unknown,New Transponder Contact!  Contact ID: Alien Class #348 003, Class ID: Alien Class #348, Race ID: Unknown Aliens #287
12th April 2057 02:38:41,Precursors,Unknown,Hostile transit detected!

On average about 5 times a day, though even if I pick a smaller time period and that does not happen, the overflow error is still there, so no, I don't think it's related.

p. s.  what version of the game are you running?

Obviously 6. 2. 1

Thanks for all the answers I got here, I will find them useful in my new (and alreay doomed) second game

A couple of other questions though, based on the answers I recieved.

I see the reason for the need to make some decisions about which civ complexes to buy from.  Obviously civ complexes with many different minerals are good prospects, but is there any reason to move MY automated mines there instead? (ofc I'm supposing it's not a colonizable planet here, thats a different matter) I mean, sure, I am not forced to buy, but then again in the beginning automated mines are long to build, and use many minerals.  A civ complex, even with just 4 civ mines, is a huge improvement then, because it's as if you immediately gained 40 automated mines + 1 mass driver.

And second, what minerals are generally considered extremely important in the beginning, considering a conventional start? From what i learned, I'd have to say Duranium (duh! That's like half the cost of any building), mercassium, corundium, sorium.  Did I miss anything? I'm rather paranoid about getting a serious shortage. . .