I'll try an AAR
The setup:
devnull 1.71
simultaneous turns
2000 point game
medium tech cost
1 good planet start
low technology start
FQM WPM Paradise Galaxy
Medium (but I'll generate one that has a good amount of systems)
No ruins
AIs
cue cappa
drushocka
fazrah
praetorian
norak
xi'chung
No neutrals
No space monsters this time around
Hard AI Difficulty (of course)
Medium AI Bonus (I'd like them ahead of me but not too far ahead, wish there was an x4)
To make things more challenging for an AI game, I did the following:
Change atmosphere of everyone to oxygen (AI not good at race management and too easy to steal ai ships)
Also use all rock planet types, for an added twist
No Trade (but surrender allowed)
Tweaked some of the weaker AI designs (Praetorian and Fazrah)
My Empire:
str 80
int 112
cunning 82
env resist 80
reproduction 110
happiness 105
aggressiveness 112
defensiveness 107
political savvy 50
mining 105
farming 90
refining 90
construction 120
repair 80
maint 110
Merchants
Organic
Advanced Storage Techniques
Plan to min-max to an extent, but not too much so it'll be more of a challenge.
Cosmetics:
Shadri shipset, but change the race picture to use ur-quan.
Not planning to act like ur-quan in the game, just enjoy the picture.
I don't plan on any involved story here, this will be more of a gameplay AAR.
Plan for early turns:
Build three base space yards
Retrofit space yards with a few storage components, siphon off some population for filling colonizers
Have space yards building colonizers
Homeworld will build colonizers, then small transports with sat launchers
What other worlds build will depend on what I find
Research (general idea, I'll try to list the exact order I research during updates)
Base Intel projects (of course), Propulsion to 3
Organic Tech, Organic Weapons 2
External Mounted Missiles (for sats to guard warp points on borders)
Fighters, Small Weapons 2