Balance problem

from Stardock Forums
I've long felt that the success of a game was very dependant on what one's start position was like. I just got a very dramatic proof of this.

The Yor started out in a very bad position, on the end of an arm of stars and with a minor next door. I was a bit up the arm and sent most of my colonizers in their direction making sure to take anything liveable.
For most of their life the Yor didn't make it out of their original sector! I was already beginning my cultural attack on them when they finally took on that minor. They got one more sector, the other world of the minor flipped to me. The only reason they could even go after the minor is that I had traded a lot of tech to them for 3 resource starbases.
The second sector they had conquered soon flipped to me--they were back to their original one sector.
The biggest they ever got was when someone surrendered to them.

It was a crazy game--it wasn't unusual to see a minor in third place. Only two of us majors were of any real size, whereas one minor had about a dozen stars.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
This is not so much a balance problem as a fun factor in the randomness. The human player can always use the retart if starting positino is crucial to them. Alternatively one of the cheat codes allocates all planets equally to the races lketting you play from a fairly even start. The altarian prophecy expansion also allows custom maps so perfectly balanced starting positions could be created. Personally I love the challenge of trying to win when I'm given a class 16 planet is fairly poor location to start with.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree, Paul. I love to see the random assignments of the various AI's. There was one game where I was literally surrounded by the Carinoids, Alexians, and Torians. No expansion for me until I managed to plow through their perimeter. I find the surprise one of the most exciting parts of the game.
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I find trying to win on a Maso-abundant large galaxy extremely difficult - as I am losing my current game. Two of the AI got extremely generous starting positions. While I am researching Battleship, they are building Dreadnoughts. My 10 worlds are no match for their 20. My only hope is the Altarians and the Dregins fight each other and let me war against the Yor and the minors.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I had one game where I was way up by myself in the corner of the map, with just Sol and two other stars. One was useless, but the one right next to Sol belonged to a minor and I had to research impulse drive immediately so I could get a couple of transports over before their population got to big.

That game was actually kind of interesting, because I just concentrated on research and building up my economy; I had a huge amount of money by the time the majors found me, and even though they all made fun of me (We sent you a bouncing red ball. Did you bounce the ball?) I still managed to get an Alliance victory :)