Hi, I am new to this game

The library mods for the most part were uploaded and created by players.

Each of them have instructions for install and many are great mods.

Take care using them, the mods labled Stardock Certified are safer to try.

Glad you like the game, you many want to give "The Core" a try http://www.diplomats-empire.com/forum/portal.php

Hello amrogers3! Nice to have you aboard.

Hope to see you at the Core, too!

I highly reccommend the Mod's made by Icho Tolot. I have only 3 mods in my game and 2 of them are his (the Halut and Omega packs). The other mod I have is the Research Inc. party.

As the others have stated, we hope to see you in "The Core".
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As stupid as this sounds.......i need more basic help..... i started with a "tiny" universe, and there werent any stars that werent taken!

Is this normal?

What is the abundancy of habitable stars? Playing with rare or abundant don't give the same amount of yellow stars.

BTW, every starting race needs an habitable star. So there need a star for you, for all major AIs and for starting minors. That can be 8 habitable stars in standard galciv (you, 5 majors AI, 2 minors AI) and 10 in AP ( you, 7 majors AI, 2 minors AI).

On rare tiny settings, there isn't much available stars. So they all can be taken at the start.

In those games it's crucial to have a star at least valued PV 19. It also helps if you have a minor near, which you can use for tech trading (they're pretty fast researchers in the beginning).

I used a small galaxy too, but didn't have the same problem. My problem was that the star systems had planets that were like 12 and under. It was ridiculous - the other races had already taken the 15+ planets. I think the AI cheats. LOL

I can't remember exactly where it's mentioned, but since the major AI's have been spacefaring civilizations for a very long time. Their space probes have scanned every star in the galaxy, and as a result they start with the knowledge given by the Stellar Cartography tech, which is where every yellow star is located.

Yellow stars are almost always where you'll find PQ 15 and up planets, and the computer players make a beeline for them. Unless you take advantage of the game by using the reveal map code, writing down the location of the good stars, then reload your save file so you can still submit the game to the metaverse, you'll be hard pressed to out-colonize the computer.

Playing fair, at the begining you will either need to split your production between scouts and colony ships, building scouts to locate the ideal stars so you know where to send the colony ships, or building only colony ships and blindly send them to every star, hoping to get lucky. Unfortunatly, colony ships are neither particularly fast nor have a long sensor range.

Neither option is without a downside. Even using the survey ship you start with to identify stars has the disadvantage that it's ability to explore goes to waste, as anomalies can provide small but permanent bonuses to your civ, and exploring asteroids sometimes gets you free ships, which is a pretty sweet deal. Anomalies and asteroids don't respawn, so if the AI's survey ships get to them all first, you're out of luck.