Myself:
Galaxy shape: I like either ring galaxies or 4 armed spirals the most. Ring because it's the least like our own (probably), or alternatively 4 armed spiral, because, as far as people who get paid to look at the sky have been able to guess, it's likely the closest in shape to our own.
Galaxy size: Always 1000, because I like long games and big game worlds with lots of exploration to do. I only wish it could be somewhat bigger; obviously I know the scale of a real galaxy (ours has anywhere from 100-400 billion stars) is absolutely impossible to emulate in a video game. Maybe just a few thousand more stars would be a cool option. Or maybe it would cause people to start whinging about their cheapo PC's getting pan-fried, like when India became playable in CK2. Who knows.
Primitive Civilizations: 5x because by default, there are so ridiculously few of them compared to the default number of AI empires. Seriously, 15 others space age civs, but only one or two in the whole galaxy that are still in the bronze age? That doesn't exactly make sense. Besides, abducting, corrupting and enslaving them is fun.
Habitable Worlds: 0.25x, because I felt there were way too many by default, which cheapened them for me personally. IMHO, habitable worlds should be rare and precious, something worth going to war over.
Empire Placement: Random because I don't like having an inexplicably large number of neighbors right from the start.
Everything else I leave at default ATM.
Galaxy shape: I like either ring galaxies or 4 armed spirals the most. Ring because it's the least like our own (probably), or alternatively 4 armed spiral, because, as far as people who get paid to look at the sky have been able to guess, it's likely the closest in shape to our own.
Galaxy size: Always 1000, because I like long games and big game worlds with lots of exploration to do. I only wish it could be somewhat bigger; obviously I know the scale of a real galaxy (ours has anywhere from 100-400 billion stars) is absolutely impossible to emulate in a video game. Maybe just a few thousand more stars would be a cool option. Or maybe it would cause people to start whinging about their cheapo PC's getting pan-fried, like when India became playable in CK2. Who knows.
Primitive Civilizations: 5x because by default, there are so ridiculously few of them compared to the default number of AI empires. Seriously, 15 others space age civs, but only one or two in the whole galaxy that are still in the bronze age? That doesn't exactly make sense. Besides, abducting, corrupting and enslaving them is fun.
Habitable Worlds: 0.25x, because I felt there were way too many by default, which cheapened them for me personally. IMHO, habitable worlds should be rare and precious, something worth going to war over.
Empire Placement: Random because I don't like having an inexplicably large number of neighbors right from the start.
Everything else I leave at default ATM.
