take rock oxygen as your trait, more races use this, but you will start off with more planets closer for you to colonize, pick midlife for your map, pick large map, med number of computer opponets, no neutrals, racial points are up to you, I usually go with 5000, let computer pick your ai races for now until you learn the game, low/med tech start, pick 1 planet start, all warp points attached, your advanced traits are really up to you and your style of play, everyone has their own preferences in this area, Med to high aggressivness, since your just starting out you may want to stick with medium for now, no bonus unless you want a short game
, Basically you may just want to experiment with the various ways you can set the game up, what I have listed is in my opinion only, a good way to learn the game for now, Just remember if you do pick existing ai's to play in the game, be sure you mark that they are computer controlled or they will all start as human controlled. Even if this happens it can be adjusted on the lst game turn by going to players and turning on the computer player....
Just my 2 cents, enjoy the game, and never be afraid to ask questions....someone will always answer...
just some ideas Mac