I've gotten to a point in my previous campaign where I have been resorting too often to SM mode to fix my empire's resource problems. So, I want to shelve that campaign for a while and begin afresh and try and get a more balanced economy worked out. I'm looking for some suggestions regarding some interesting game settings for my next campaign.
Currently, I'm planning another marathon-style conventional start campaign (last campaign ran almost 1000 game years and was pretty epic) because I like the build-up and the overall development of the empire from minimalistic roots. I started my last campaign with 10 million starting citizens and only the most basic of installations, and I plan on repeating this for the new campaign. I gained much useful experience in the last campaign and now possess a much stronger understanding of ship combat, ground combat, and terraforming. Next I want to focus on improving my understanding of mining, economics, and efficient use of civilian shipping lines.
Last game I found NPR generation rate was a bit too low, and even with about 100 star systems explored I had encountered only a couple of precursors. I never actually found any of the 4 starting NPRs that supposedly exist somewhere in my 1000 star universe. Next game I am going to start with an existing NPR in my home system to make things interesting from the start and I will also up the NPR spawn chance somewhat (I used 20% generation chance last time, next I might go up to 50%).
I have been avoiding invaders for fear of being too easily overwhelmed so I will probably avoid those for now, same with aether rifts (though eventually I will attempt those). The Earth death-spiral scenario might be interesting but if I do a conventional start and have to contend with a hostile NPR in my home system conducting an exodus will be very challenging.
I had also considered a multi-faction game start, but if I did so I would want to control only a single faction. I might attempt this next campaign in addition to the home system NPR.
Anyone have any interesting starting scenarios they want to share?
Have you tried spending the amount of time you would normally spend between the conventional to TN transition and from the TN to actually jump capable transition to create something with SM a setup?
I have just finished to set up my latest campaign. It took approximately 3 or 4 days.
1 Terran Federation based on Earth
1 Martian Empire Based on Mars
1 Titan Corporation based on Titan
For this game I decided that the Titan Corporation was actually a conglomerate of private companies of the Terran Federation. They control all access to resources and fuel because of that. The Martian Empire was a result of a Solarian war between Earth and the Russian-Chinese-Korean factions which declared independence on Mars causing the war. All 3 worlds were terraformed to be 0 cost colonies.
Each race (I have used 3 races not all humans) have his own perks and of course preferred techs. All have existing mining colonies, ground unit and ships. All races have different starting infrastructure based on their history. For example On Earth there aren't any Fuel Refineries as they weren't need and or moved on Titan or terraforming installations as they were used to Terraform Mars and Titan. And things like that.
The Terran Federation relies on only 150.000 stockpile of each TN minerals on Earth all minerals are exhausted. Their priority is obviously getting out of Sol asap and find new resources.
The Martian Empire has a very weak economy but a strong military. They need to find a way to support their war machine.
The Titan Corporation has a very strong economy and also mineral output. They need to make sure nobody comes after their wealth and minerals.
Because of the above the Terran Federation has discovered Jump theory but not the actual techs to design a jump engine.
The Martian has an advanced weapon knowledge and a slight better sensor range.
The Titans have strong lasers with poor range as they were improving the tech for mining reasons at beginning. They also have all orbital researches completed along with all first tier modules for fuel and supplies etc as they were originally living on a station on Titan while the planet was terraformed. You have an option here: either you pretend the station was dismantled once the terraforming was completed to recover parts to build some ships or the station it's still there.
there is more to it on the above of course to balance things up. For instance the Titans have only 10 research labs while Terran Federation has 25...
In house rules:
Control all 3 races
No Civilians allowed. They have been exterminated or assimilated by the Titan Corporations.
100 years Truce in Sol only.
15% Research
5% Survey (but starting with Sol fully surveyed)
No systems within 4 Jumps (or 25 LY) of Sol can be claimed by any race.