you could SM yourself some of the tech for +30% construction/mining/research off the bat. There are a couple of things that could help you speedwise though: disable all orbits, even planets. hitting the DB is expensive. Turn off/kill spoilers, one of them doesn't really hit turn length that often, but the other two can kill it. eliminate NPR generation on system generation, and just start with a few established NPRs. anyone that explores could potentially trigger an NPR cascade of new races creating even newer races. Lastly, run 30 day increments whenever possible, large civilian fleets are not your friend, and because of the way trade works this basically starves them.