So I've finished research Artificial Gravity.  Still on a single tech track though.

Economic Improvements is part of what used to be the Planetary Improvements tech, which the Terran AI used to stumble over continually because of the 400tp cost, quite high in the early game.

Paired with Xeno Economics, it makes up Core Technologies I.  There are more Core Technologies all the way along the tech tree, the idea being that as you progress through the tech tree, you will always pick up or unlock some of the key technologies that you need to survive.

Anyway, the survey ship has arrived at the Amcor/Quendor system.  Not much here to see, a class 6 and class 7 planet, the asteroids make it sort of worth looking into, but the morale resource is the real selling point.

It'll take another four weeks to squeeze out a colony ship from Earth, or maybe a week less if I monkey with the sliders.  However, the slower I research, the longer it will take to get economic structures going, and that will be very bad for expansion.

One of the hardships in the modded early game is the lack of structures available to build:

At the moment, I can build a Galactic Trading Centre on Earth (+25% Economy Super Project) or an Entertainment Centre.  And that's it.  Hence the pressing need to keep researching!

Upon colonising Lacroix I, I receive my first ethical choice:

Now I figure that sicne the planet quality is fairly high already, there's no need to be greedy, and certainly no need to take a penalty just to get some light side points.

It's a fairly decent planet:

The bonus tile for farms matches up nicely with the two tiles with a morale bonus.  Since there are two other planets in the same system, I'm going to work on building a couple of colony ships so I can nab them first.

While I'm off exploring this fine galaxy, Lord Kona is patched through by one of his scouts.  His words are unintelligible because obviously I haven't got Universal Translator yet, so I yell back 'Me no speak Drenginese!' and sever the link.

Somehow I don't think he was calling to ask if I would like to change my long-distance carrier.

I'm faced with another ethical choice when I colonise Octavia II.  It's the class 6 world that my original colony ship found first of all:

Since even an 8% bonus on top of 6 doesn't help much, I decide to go for the good choice.

Octavia II turns out to be rather unremarkable with limited potential for improving in quality.  It does have two tiles with precious resources, granting a 100% manufacturing bonus.  Not useful right now, but it will be soon.

During my explorations I have found a couple of good planets:

Obviously, I'm sending a colony ship to the furthest planet first, because there is a chance that of the other civs has decided to send a colony ship there already.

The Drengin swoop in and snatch one of the planets I was after:

Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.  I've done a bit of exploring the pocket of Yor space which contains their homeworld.  I have found a planet that I could snag from them, but with speed reduced to 3 for some of the outward journey, I'm not sure if my colony ship will get there in time.

For the moment there aren't any good planets that I can see, and since I'm already bumping edges with the other empires, there may not be any that I can reach in time.  I'm going to build one more colony ship and a scout at Earth and try sending them off to the far left there, but otherwise the colony rush is over for me.

I'm finally at a junction on the tech tree:

Xeno Communications doesn't really do me any good at this point, but I will need to research it soon as it's a Core Technology.  Xeno Biology is one to think about, as Xeno Medicine will net me a fairly good 10% boost to population growth.  Plus, you never know when a deadly plague will strike, and it's a good idea to have the pre-requisite for plague cure in the bag.

Stellar Cartography would be nice if I hadn't uncovered so much of the map already.

Going for Xeno Research is my best bet at the moment, because otherwise I will lack any means to increase my research output (apart from maybe using Focus).

Another artifacty ethical choice when I land a colony ship on Mars:

Mars doesn't have a chance of getting a bonus research tile, and it doesn't have many tiles even when it's been improved in full, so I'm going to go with the good choice here because the 13% isn't really worth it.

I'll be interested to see how this goes. It's nice to see people's mods up close.

So you met everyone but the Arceans (and the minors, I suppose) in the first year? Seems fast.

I've finished researching Xeno Communications and Universal Translator.  That's parts 1 and 2 of Core Technologies II.

This is a zoomed-out view of the Terran tech tree:

Even at full zoom, it's not possible to see all the way to the bottom, where the lower branches of the tree are (if we're thinking on this as a tree on its side anyway).  It's just as well that all the possible choices are listed on the left-hand side of the regular view so you can just zoom to them:

I've opted for Diplomatic Relations since this branch of the tree unlocks Diplomatic Translators, the Restaurant of Eternity, and of course freighters.  Research Centres or Xeno Trade Centres would be great options too, but right now I don't have enough science output to finish them up in a reasonable time.  I'll need to wait for my first couple of Xeno Labs to be built and then see about improving the funding.

After the completion of the Xeno Labs and changing funding around, I've cut the research time for my current project to just two weeks.  The money situation looks like this:

Colony maintenance is costing almost two thirds what I make from tax.  I'm doing quite well in terms of population growth, so no need to go raising taxes just now.  I still have some market centres under construction, that should help a bit as well.  More importantly, I will soon have the ability to open up trade routes, which will help boost my coffers and foster better diplomatic relations with other races.  Well, that's the theory at least.  In practise, no matter how much trade I put in the direction of the other races, they always seem to get eaten alive by the Drengin.  But let's look on the bright side, they're not being devoured by life-sucking aliens from another galaxy.  Not yet anyway, heh.

Exploration is still coming along fairly well, I'm still waiting for that long-range constructor to show up:

I've uncovered the home systems of some of the major races, but none of the minors so far.  If I'm going to trade with them, it would be nice to know that my freighter's going to have the range needed to get there.  A lot of the map remains covered, since even with the nice +1 to sensors that being a Technologist gives, it's still a big galaxy.  By now a rush to secure the remaining resources will be on.  Sadly I'm likely to miss out, since I'm way off on one side of the galaxy, and all the good stuff is elsewhere.  I was lucky to snag the two that I got during the colony rush.

Having finished up Trade, I follow the Xeno Biology track like I said I was going to, and map out Lord Vega's small empire:

Lord Vega's empire borders on the more fruitful LMT Corporate.

What's the story with those guys, anyway?  Well, while we were all struggling with the idea of using hyperdrive to go to other planets, they were developing the tools to actually colonise those worlds.

In the era of star gate travel, trade was very limited and the cost of colonising another planet would have been staggering.  When it became possible to survey any star system with planets in orbit, it quickly became profitable to exploit these new planets for their natural resources.  It also become profitable to supply all those pioneers with medicines, chemicals and micro-organisms engineered to survive in those new habitats.

Working in partnership with colonists, the corporations gained useful knowledge without much risk to tehmselves.  However, since it was better to have their own pie than simply take a slice of someone else's pie, some of them founded their own outposts in deep space, away from the other major empires.  The LMT Corporate was one of them, and their outposts have flourished even in the most inhospitable conditions.  I have located their headquarters, in the Omyxis system:

See now this is great.  I bet that if I send a freighter over to those guys, it will be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Oh!  I knew there was something I had forgotten during that exposition... I haven't got any freighters yet!  Hmm, let's see:

You know, I don't know what it is, but I just don't like the design of this standard freighter, no matter what angle I look at it from.

After fishing through the archive of freighter designs, I find one that catches my eye and tell the engineers to get to work.

Now, this is more like it!

I get started on building a couple of freighters right away.  The one from Earth will be ready in six weeks, the other one, departing from Tiberius III (that's up in the corner near the Yor) will take thirty-eight weeks (that's the ETA for the moment) due to construction work going on planetside.

You know how I said I hate the Thalans?  Well, this is why:

Being an alien race, they are rather quick to start building warships and threatening other races.

I tell Hithesius in no uncertain terms, if he wants that many credits, he's going to have to make good on his threat.

Of course, there will be consequences.  But now that I think about it, the Thalans can't be the only race that has started to develop their military power.  I think back to Lord Vega and his small empire of hardy warriors.  Wouldn't it be great if he rose to glory by smooshing the Thalans into a thick green soup?

So you see, for a mere third of the price that Hithesius offered for peace, Lord Vega is willing to try and dispose of those troublesome reptiles.  I guess it's just my natural diplomatic charm!  I happily transfer the credits and rub my hands in glee.

The freighter from Earth eventually arrives at the Omyxis system and begins the profitable arrangement:

It's not a huge boost to my economy, and much of the route runs through the troublesome Thalan Empire.  It would be hard for a decent trade route not to go through them, they're a big purple blob in the middle of the map.  Well, I'll just have to hope that the next United Planets meeting addresses the issue of protecting freighters in times of war.

With the increased taxes from the economic boom, I have rushed the Diplomatic Translators, Restaurant of Eternity, and built a number of Research Centres.  Because I don't need any more buildings or ships right now, I can max out the research slider:

I'm running a tax rate of 59% because the populations here are quite close to maximum and I need every last credit.  When I have Xeno Farming and the next phase of population growth starts I'll be able to set them back to a more reasonable rate.

In this way I'm able to speed through research of Xeno Trade Centres and Xeno Farming.  I buy farms on the planets that will benefit from them, continuing on to Xeno Entertainment:

Although the 15% boost to Morale and Multimedia Centres will be helpful right about now, I'm also thinking about the occasional 10% bonus that I can snag by upgrading a class 10 planet to class 11 or higher using Soil Enhancement.  Oh and, having an extra tile to build on never hurt, right?

Beyond that as well, there is Core Technologies IV and V which are mainly military technologies and all are just about crucial to survive a dangerous galaxy.

No, that's part of the mod.  Changing the tech rate simply modifies the cost of researching a technology from its base cost in the XML file.  You accrue tps at the same rate on any tech speed, but the less a technology costs the faster you can complete your research.  So on Very Slow, you need to really pull out all the stops to get things done.

The economic boom and culture rage both end.  I'm still doing well for tax income, and I have a little over 10000 bc waiting to be used.  But it's not quite time yet.

The third meeting of the United Planets convenes to discuss the matter of colonies in foreign sectors:

I opted for 5bc/month because I know there's nothing more annoying to me than an outpost in my own space which is free to launch military strikes whenever it pleases.  So strongly discouraging settling on the few worlds which haven't yet been snapped up is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the other members of the UP seem to think that 1bc/week is more than sufficient, and that's the measure which passes.