What's different to the default setup?
 

Read the victory conditions!

When I configured the setup for my first ARENA game I wanted to create a game that reflects as much of the original game design as possible, but eliminates some of the fundamental shortcomings of the default setup.As most players will agree, the fighter races and the Borgs are relativly strong and will win most of the games if all participating players would be equally experienced.

Therefore I chose a mineral normal universe and gave the non-fighter races 2 free fighters each turn/starbase. The mineral normal universe shall strenghten the need of a good infrastructure and a healthy economy. You should know where and when to build a Merlin alchemy ship... ;-)
Besides the one large meteor, that is impacting each turn, will make a random planet a very valuable target for colonizing each turn...

The add-ons that I am using shall help you to move around a bit easier and faster. Sphere will maybe bring you in contact with one or more races that are located on the opposite of the map and with which you couldn't deal in a "normal" game. Jumpgate helps you too and will be of good use to analliance that plans to form a joint battle fleet. Starbase+ allows you to transfer money between your bases. The impossibility to do so in the original game design, is in my opinion one of the most unrealistic features (500 ship limit and one-to-one ship battles are strong runners up to place 2 and 3 ;-)

What else did I change? Well, ionstorms can be very nasty and are affecting a player randomly so I decided to ban them completely from my games! I slightly enhanced the ground combat abilities of the Birdmen. Do you have ever read the manual? Where Tim described this particular race? Well, than you know why...

Hope you have fun to play - and remember: not the setup or a specific race ability will determine who wins - the experience of a player makes the difference!

Max