Hi everyone. When it comes to space colonization games, I love to play out my fantasies of different "archetypes" of alien cultures. I want to do different playthroughs, one for example as hostile race that wants to eradicate everyone, another with a secluded race that just wants to do research and make peace with everyone.

However, with games like this one I always struggle to make the decision on what aspect to focus at a time. Like, early on, these pirates start harassing me and by the time they're there, I haven't built many ships but done more research because I found that more interesting so they wreck me. Then, if I build more ships, I tend to not know how much is enough. Any tips here?

Also, later on when you encounter different empires, will war be inevitable or can you make peace with everyone so they leave you alone?

What different winning conditions are there?

Thanks and a happy new year everyone!

EDIT: I'm playing on normal difficulty bc I don't really want a challenge, I just want to marvel at the beauty of space.