Okay, thanks all. Seems like my food is useless to me so far.
I'm now at 7 hours. Attached is a screenshot. I'm the humans of earth. What should I be doing here? I need some direction.
I have 2 more colonize-able planets that I have found. One 25% habitable, one 90% habitable. Should I continue to explore, colonize, and build systems for resources and research? I'm also building my planets up as the pops grow.
I dealt with a few pirates in a couple of my systems.
I have a rescue mission to do in the bottom right. I have no idea if I have a big enough fleet for it.
Is my fleet in general puny and weak? I'm researching destroyers right now.
Do I have typically a certain number of years of peace before an inevitable war with someone?
I also have the dudes in the top left, militaristic and demanding a tribute of 500 energy. When I originally went to survey the unknown system, it looked like their military capability was 50,000, mine is about 500. Do I keep giving in to their demands? They've only demanded once so far. The description of them was militaristic but fighting among themselves, if they united we would be in big trouble. That's the only contact I've had.