I started out as a n00b or whatever the kids are calling it these days but I'm something of a veteran now, at least I'd like to think so.

The most important things to consider are
#1: The first 10 games you play will be total disasters. You'll have ships running out of fuel and engaging enemies without and missiles armed and stuff
#2: the 11th game you play will be awesome but crash due to some unforseen error, so back it up.
#3: even when you get to game #30, weird things will still happen, like you'll forget to direct a single wing of a battle fleet to attack, or an allied alien race will spontaneously attack you. Or you'll accidentally blow up 1 million people on your own planet because you didn't realize that's what missiles did...RP these moments and you will have fun.

I would reccommend you do what I did: conventional start for a while until you understand economics: when you know how to create a research project, get minerals from other worlds, design ship components, and build a basic spaceship, start experimenting with ridiculously accelerated transnewtonian starts...just to make cool ships. Make some Supercruisers from teh year 2300 that have 20 particle beams and suites of antimatter torpedoes...this gives you something to work toward.

Aurora is unique in that you can get a really good, deep history going, so in general when its time to start playing your first "really serious game", I think it's best to do conventional start. Otherwise your fiction or whatever is going to start with "In the year 2020, humanity was pretty much like now, but within a decade we had shields and lepton cannons and stuff, it was awesome." Plus it makes finding aliens cooler: "For a century, we had plumed the nighted depths of space alone, and then, we saw it...a single pulse of heat in the cold...an unmistakeable sign of intelligence."


Course this is all just my opinion.

I think I did the tutorial from the forums as a TN start in my first game, then did a conventional start for my second.  The first tutorial game let me try out most of the main features right away.  The conventional start game helped me fill in a lot of the gaps of my game knowledge, but a conventional start is pretty darn slow, so be careful.

One thing I would do with a conventional start is give yourself extra research labs.  At least 20 is a good start.

3 last questions
1- Number of computer controlled opponents at the start of the game. Should I set that to 0 as well?

2- Create 1 or more computer controlled opponents clicked or unclicked?

3-Generate empires as NPR's checked or unchecked? Thanks for all the help

I wouldn't.  I played two or three times (some thirty years into the game) before I started the LP so that I could test out everything.  It depends on you but remember that I have invaders on in the LP (they can come at ANY time and destroy you), so I would do exactly the same as I have with Invaders and Swarm off and 0 NPR's.  You can do a restart when you think you got the hang of it and make it harder for yourself if you wish

1-Ok when I start a new game what do I set the NPR generation chance to?

2- What do I set the NON NPR computer opponents to? What do I leave checked or not checked?

3-And in the computer controlled empires box what is checked on of off?

4- Starting system jump point leave default of up it to 6? Thanks guys.

In all honesty, your first dozen or so plays will end after just a few years due to some thing you overlooked, or zigging when you should have zagged. Don't let it discourage you. Just start a new game and play on.

A couple points to note about a conventional vs TN start.

1. Conventional means you start with basically zero tech. Any NPRs generated at start won't. They will have basic TN tech.
2. Once you have achieved TN and are exploring, any NPRs encountered will be generated using the elapsed game time as a key for building up their tech. So you might be the equivalent of year 5 TN, but have played 30 years total. Any NPRs will be generated with 30 years of equivalent tech.
3. Any of the spoiler races will chew you up more so than usual.

Hence why I said he should start with no spoilers, no NPR's and run a peacful campaign first time around before venturing in the depths of space

Thank you so much.  Your video's are very intellectual, and very entertaining ( with your little funny text pop ups from time to time) at the same time.  Would love to see more LP's and maybe even an LP for a complete noob like me

Wow so good that you are still active in this community trying to help noobs out like myself.  So, should I go for the same start as you had when you set game up? Follow exact same setup steps?