All questions that I have are about an unmodded BotE. I know I can mod things but I'm more interested [for now] to get a feel for how quickly your empires should be expanding.

For example about how many turns does it take to go from tech level 0 to tech level 10 [assuming there are 10 basic levels]?

Are there any tricks that I've been missing when it comes to building colony ships and terraforming planets?

Will minors ever terraform all of their own planets or should I do that for them?

Will minors [after another few releases] be able to build their own ships and will those ships belong to you after they join your empire?

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FYI: The reason I want to know this is so I can gague how much of the game that I understand and how much I need to work on ....

Thanks for the info man. I don't feel quite as stupid as I was earlier.

[Note I was comparing research & tech levels from BotF 1 and assuming it would be similar in BotE]

BTW: I agree on your advice to upgrade the shipyards as much as possible and make a hoard of colony ships because [IMHO] it takes too long without hoard tactics.

I'm considering starting to play with the building editor to see if I can make some tweaks that will change the pace of the game.

Before I invest lots of time though I'd like to know what the intended pace of the final game is.

Assuming you start off with a galaxy the same as in 0.45C Alpha at tech 0 about how long should it take to go from tech 0 to tech 10? How long should it take to go from tech 0 to tech 10 if I research special technologies at every opportunity?

Do people want there to be long enough gaps between research breakthroughs so you can build some ships or do something between tech levels instead of just constantly upgrading everything?

I of course have my own ideas on what I'd like the values to be [and I can edit them if I like]. However I'd like to do some testing to make a game that a lot of people are happy with.

Any feedback is appreciated.

my personal favorite would be a system close to botf where you can upgrade tech and buildings relatively simultaneously without too many lags, but everything should take twice as long so that you can build more ships from a certain era like the kirk era which was IMO too fast over with in good old botf.

increase the output of factories and you will be able to produce ships faster..
lower the resorce needed for ships.. i did that and i lowerd the initial output of low lvl reaserch buildings. Gives you more time to build ''older'' ships