Starting Position in Corner on Gigantic = Doom?

from Stardock Forums
I started a Gigantic map with all the AI as Intelligent except for the Arceans, who i made Genius.

I ended up starting in the corner of the map. I set spending to 100% and the split to 80/10/10 and started pumping out colony ships. I got all of my cluster, and the next cluster to the SW (I was in the NE corner) but the next cluster over had the Torians, and i only got a couple stars on the edge of it.

There were two clusters to the SW, when my scouts got there the western one had the Arceans already there (don't know if they started there or colonized it) and the eastern one was uncolonized. I sent lots of scouts and colony ships to the eastern one, and through lots of creative blocking of the AI colony ships, i managed to get almost all the good stars in the area.

There was another cluster to the SW of that, so i sent my entire scouting/colonizing fleet down there. Unfortunatly the scouts hit the range wall one sector before the planets, and the colony ship stalled several sectors before that. I rush-built a constructor to extend my range, but as it was moving south, i watched a stream of Arcean colony ships go by, too many for my scouts to block all of them.

By the time the starbase extended my range, all the 15+ plus planets were taken by the Arcean. I can try colonizing one of the 14 PQ planets to extend my range, but i suspect that the Arceans will have expanded everywhere beyond it first.

So was i just doomed from the begining? Or did i screw up somewhere? If i were to restart from turn one is there something i should do different?

Currently i'm at about 60 tech, and my military is about 1/5th of the Arcean's and Torian's. The only reason i'm not paying tribute or at war is because i've refused to research Universal Translation. I'm not sure if the lack of war and tribute compensates for the lack of positive benefits of trading with the minor races, but i'm afraid to do the research and find out.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Starting in a corner is not always at bad as it seems in your case, but if you think this is a disadvantage, before actually starting to play the game you can "re-draw" the galaxy hitting CTRL + N.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm just starting to play against "intelligent" AIs, but I actually like starting near a corner. It does mean, however, that you expand outward as fast as possible, and then fill in what you skipped over after first contact. Exceptions made for high-PQ planets, since you don't want to risk loosing them, plus they'll pump out colony ships faster.

That said, some corner starting positions are positions of doom. I had a gigantic start yesterday with a PQ20 Earth, PQ15 Sol IV and PQ16 Sol V, and one yellow in the same sector with two PQ16s. Sounds great, doesn't it? There was one more star in the same sector with nothing better than an 11, and no other star within 5 sectors. Quite a moat, really. I might have tried playing it out, except that I was in the mood for a military frenzy.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I like to try to start near a corner myself , especially if I can get a nice big cluster of stars. No particular reason, I just like the psychological security of not having to worry about an opponent at my back.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I think it can be an advantage if you play with the rare planets setting. Of course this assume that there's worthwile stuff in your corner. It give you some time and security to build up your power.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Clearly either the other AIs have expanded too much for me to be able to build power at an equal rate, or i just suck, cause like i said, i'm at 60 tech and an abysmal level of military.

I've recently been pumping out Star Fighters to try and build my miltiary score, but that's causing my net revenue to plumet =P

If i can manage to get an aproximatly equal military force with the other AIs, then i'll research the Universal Translator and start trading.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I had a 4 star cluster in the corner once and the next nearest star was over 7 full sectors away. That was definitely a control n. But if you have a reasonable cluster to start out in, the corner position isn't all that bad. It's easily defended and you can build up social stuff to start converting your enemies.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I prefer corner starting locations as well. I like this game because it is a strategy game that doesn't require war to win. I've never been crazy about war strategy games (although I LOVE shooters?) and I can't stand when a game that is otherwise a builder-type game suddenly tries to be a RTS war game (Pharaoh I'm looking at you.)
The corners are good becuase you get the most profitable trade routes, can be left alone to culture up your race and you don't have to worry about invasion for a while. Although once or twice I've started in the middle away from everyone else. Which is the same thing really, except for the trade bonuses. One thing I would like to see is an option for choosing where everyone gets to start. The AI is usually pretty difficult anyway so I don't think it would throw the game too much out of balance, to prevent this maybe the game could have a limit as to how close AND far away the races need to be placed in relation to each other. Since more than once I've CTRl-n'ed myself out of a map that would be perfect if only I'd started "over there" instead of "over here." BTW I've said this before but... if I'm copying anyones ideas sorry in advance this board is huge and I don't think anyone on Earth has the time to go through it all. One final question since I brought up Earth: the manual says that class 16 planets are "earth like" or "earth equivalent" or something like that, so shouldn't Earth (the planet you start off on) always be a class 16?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Also note that most of the resources respawining in 5 sector range from player starting location, so you'll have 2x less resources near you, and they will be near other civs.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry 4x less in 5 sectors range.

~SDC~