humans underpowered without cartography?

I'm not having problems conquering the aliens.

Umm that's because you have been playing this game ever since it ever started.

The aliens only know where the planets are, not what planets are good.  If you want this information, just research the "Stellar Cartography" tech, which is pretty cheap IIRC.

Seriously, Galactic Cartography is a rather weak tech, I would think there is cause for concern if Humans couldent see the stars but really all you need to do is point a colony ship in the general direction of a star and you WILL find a planet there.

Also the SC tech is worth only about 6 or so weeks worth of research even at the beginning.


You are just overrating that tech.

Is "fair start" a campaign option? (where aliens get absolutely no advantages over the human)

At least you can mod the game to take the tech out I think...

Yea, it's called play as custom race. You don't have to play as the humans. Each race has its own pros and cons. The humans don't get stellar cartography. But they get a big diplomacy bonus instead.

I personally like to tweak my humans a bit, the get a bigger bonus, legally of course.

W/R
Suralle

Of course, No one wants to play with just the default bonuses, You get ten points to turn humans into custom killing machines.

You could always pick a high sensor bonus for the humans too. You might not start knowing where things are but you'll have the edge on keeping track of things as the game goes on.