Galaxy

A galaxy is randomly generated to play in. Four sizes are available, determining the number of star systems:

• Small – 24 stars. A quick game, and contact with other races is almost immediate. This is actually more difficult than playing in larger galaxies.
• Medium – 48 stars. Long enough to develop most technologies.
• Large – 70 star systems.
• Huge – 108 stars. For epic games with huge empires and massive star fleets.

Star systems need to be explored by a scout ship before a colony ship can be sent there. Ships travel freely between star systems but the distance they can travel is limited; they have to stay within fueling distance of one of your colonies. Scout ships have fuel reserves allowing them to travel further away to explore distant systems.

• Yellow - The best. These are the most likely to produce habitable worlds. The habitability of a star system increases slowly till it peaks and then declines slowly again. These stars are the ones that happen to be in the perfect conditions for habitability in the millenia during which the game takes place.
• Orange - Second best. These are either just short of their prime or just past it. They are close to optimal, but just not quite optimal. If the game had taken place in a different millenia these might have been yellows.
• Red - One of the worst. These are well beyond their prime and are very often on the bad side of the spectrum in terms of habitability. Don't hope for too much when scouting these systems early or at all.
• Blue - Another one of the worst at the beginning. These are way too young, generally, to have conditions conductive to habitability. They usually have very hostile environments and require very advanced technology to colonize. They do, however, tend to have higher chances of better mineral deposits which increases factory production on the world if it can be colonized.
• White - Another one of the worst. These planets tend to be too close to the sun and are very hostile, being far too hot (inferno environments) or receiving too much radiation (radiated environments). It is highly unlikely these can be colonized early and usually require the highest colonization technology to colonize at all. They tend to offer no advantages over other better stars to offset this advantage as well.
• Purple - The rarest type, only a few per galaxy will be this color. They have very good chances for mineral richness although the environments still usually require technology to allow their colonization. At best 4 or 5 worlds will be of this type per galaxy and they are highly coveted in the stages of the game where most of the easy worlds are taken and civilizations are trying to research the technology to gain access to the hostile planet environments.