Game settings

Version

This article has been verified for the current PC version (3.10) of the game.

**Galaxy Settings** are the various changes that the player can make before starting a single player or multiplayer game. These settings can be used to make game sessions shorter or longer, simpler or more complex, as well as to increase the difficulty if desired.

## Galaxy

When starting a new game, the player may choose which type of galaxy they are to play in. An empire’s expansion is limited to the galactic plane, so the shape of the galaxy will affect play. Which galaxy types are accessible at the start of the game is determined by how many stars the galaxy is to have.

### Galaxy shape

There are 10 different types of galaxies available, some of them requiring a minimum galaxy size to be used.

 File:Spiral 6.png **Spiral (6 Arms)** | Large

 File:Elliptical.png **Elliptical** | Tiny

 File:Starburst.png **Starburst** | Medium

### Galaxy size

In addition to the galaxy shape, the size of the galaxy can also be chosen at the beginning of the game, ranging from 200 to 1000 stars. The size of the galaxy affects the number of stars, as well as how many AI Empires, Fallen Empires and  Marauder Empires can be generated at the start of the game.

## Game details

 File:Hyperlane Density Min.png
 File:Hyperlane Density Max.png
 File:Hyperlane Density Full.png
* **AI Empires** – Determines the number of AI empires that spawn at the same time as human players. Number ranges are dependent on galaxy size; minimum can be set at zero.
* **Advanced AI Starts** – Determines the number of advanced empires. Can range from 0 to all of the AI empires.
* **Fallen Empires** – The max number of Fallen Empires that can spawn. There can be no more than 5 Fallen Empires, one of each kind. (Ancient Caretakers is only available with  Synthetic Dawn DLC)
* **Tech/ Tradition Cost** – Determines the costs of technology, traditions and ambitions for regular empires. Does not affect event rewards. Ranges from 0.25× to 5×.
* **Habitable Worlds** – Increases or decreases the chance of planets being habitable. Ranges from 0.25X to 5X.
* **Pre-FTL Civilizations and Pre-Sapient Species** – Increases or decreases the chance of Pre-FTL species spawning.
* **Crisis Strength** – Determines the bonus that endgame crisis ships get. Ranges from 0× (no crisis) to 25×. Base crisis ship bonus is multiplied by the number of this slider.
* **Crisis Type** – Determines which one of the endgame crises will appear. If set to All each crisis will be stronger than the previous one.
* **Mid-Game Start Year** – Determines earliest year whereby mid-game events can occur. Default is 2300.
* **End-Game Start Year** – Determines earliest year whereby end-game events can occur. Default is 2400.
* **Victory Year** – Determines when the empire with the highest score is declared winner. Setting it to max disables victory. Default is 2500.
* **AI Aggressiveness** – Determines how likely the AI is to declare war on empires if they have negative attitude as well as how many fleets will it use for offense.
* **Empire Placement** – Determines whether empires will be placed in clusters to increase the likelihood that you'll have some neighbors or placed at random.
* **Advanced Neighbors** – Determines whether advanced AI empires can spawn next to human players or not.
* **Hyperlane Density** – Determines number of hyperlanes in the galaxy. Ranges from 0.5× to 2.75× to Full. Full density removes clusters and choke points.
* **Abandoned Gateways** – Determines number of abandoned gateways in the galaxy. Ranges from 0× (no gateways) to 5×.
* **Wormhole Pairs** – Determines number of wormhole pairs in the galaxy. Ranges from 0× (no wormholes except the one leading to the Sealed System) to 5×. Does not affect event-generated wormholes.
* **Guaranteed Habitable Worlds** – Creates a number of habitable planets of the same class as the homeworld close to every empire's starting system. Default is 2. Some origins disable or modify the guaranteed worlds.
* **Logistic Growth Ceiling** – Determines the pop growth bonuses when planets are in the middle of their logistic curve. Higher values negatively affect late-game performance.
* **Growth Required Scaling** – Determines how many growth points are required for new pops to be created. Lower values negatively affect late-game performance.
* **Marauder Empires** – The max number of marauder empires that can spawn.
* **L-Gates** – Determines whether the L-Gates will spawn.
* **Caravaneers** – Determines whether the Caravaneers will spawn.
* **Xeno-Compatibility** – Determines whether the  Xeno-Compatibility ascension perk can be picked.

### Advanced empires

Advanced empires are AI empires that start with an advantage over human players. They get the following benefits to have a head start:

* 500 Alloys
* 200 Influence
* 1000 Food if not  Machine Intelligence
* 1000 Energy if not  Machine Intelligence
* 2000 Energy if  Machine Intelligence
* 500 Consumer Goods if not  Gestalt Consciousness
* 1000 Minerals if not  Gestalt Consciousness
* 1500 Minerals if  Gestalt Consciousness
* Planetary Unification technology
* 3–7 extra corvettes
* 2–5 extra systems with stations built over all deposits
* 0–3 extra Starport-level starbases
* Mining or research station over every deposit within borders
* Guaranteed habitable worlds are colonized and developed

### Game phases

The following events take place after **Mid-Game**:

* Ancient Mining Drones and Crystalline Entities can expand
* Pre-FTL civilizations advance through the ages as fast
* Space storms can occur
* Fleet Maneuvers event can trigger
* Fallen empires offer better gifts
* Spectral Wraith can emerge from the germinating pulsar
* AI rebellions can take place
* Marauder mercenary fleets become available
* Marauder empires can become The Horde
* AI empires discover L-Gate clues faster
* Enigmatic Cache can emerge from a gateway or L-gate
* Ancient Tomb archaeology site can appear
* The Crystalline Empire enclave can spawn
* The On the Shoulders of Giants event chain starts
* The Kaleidoscope situation can start
* The The Cost of Freedom event chain starts
* The The Fear of the Dark event chain starts
* Ithome cluster empire can open their wormhole
* Astral rifts can spawn

The following events take place after **End-Game:**

* Endgame crises can trigger
* Fallen Empires can awaken
* The Bemat Thalassocracy can appear
* Fewer random espionage events happen
* War in Haeven can occur after awakening of at least 2 Fallen Empires
* Marauder empires can no longer become The Horde
* AI empires discover L-gate clues faster

## Difficulty

The difficulty setting increases the difficulty of the game for a greater challenge, with higher difficulties granting bonuses to AI empires. Higher difficulty also increases the strength of the endgame crisis. AI vassals of human players receive bonuses as though difficulty were one level lower.

**Scaling Difficulty** causes the player or AI empires and spaceborne aliens difficulty bonuses to start at zero and scale up over the course of the game, reaching the bonus defined by difficulty level at the Mid-Game or End-Game year.

**Difficulty Adjusted AI Modifiers** multiplies empire-wide economic modifiers for AI empires on harder difficulties. Empire-wide economic modifiers includes things such as technologies which increase job output.

### Civilian difficulty gameplay changes

In addition to the large difficulty bonuses added to player empires, civilian difficulty also changes the gameplay to provide a less aggressive and disruptive experience:

* AI empires are 5 times less likely to be  Fanatic Xenophobe
* Gray Tempest L-Cluster outcome cannot happen
* Gish unique system cannot spawn
* Ithome Cluster cannot spawn
* AI empires cannot choose the Become the Crisis ascension perk
* Randomly generated empires cannot have the following civics:
	+ Genocidal
	+ Barbaric Despoilers
	+ Criminal Heritage
	+ Driven Assimilator

## Ironman mode

Ironman is an optional game mode that restricts the player’s control over their save file, effectively removing the ability to correct mistakes and change decisions made during the course of play. In ironman mode, saving manually is disabled and the game runs on a single save file that gets overwritten every time a significant action is taken. Console commands and even option to open the console are also disabled.

Achievements can only be unlocked in ironman mode. If the checksum is modified by the presence of gameplay mods, ironman mode will not grant achievements.