Deffinitions (Not In Character...)

To understand the other story starting options you need to know a little bit about Master Of Orion II.

More details can be found in chapters below this one, but this will outline the galaxy setting options.

Number Of Players:

This can be set from 2 to 8, that is the total number of races in the galaxy excluding the Antarans. Higher numbers present a greater challenge but also more opportunity for trading tech and making trade and scientific research treaties.

Galaxy Age:

The age of the galaxy represents the dichotomy between young miniral rich worlds and an old, habitat rich, galaxy. This author recommends setting the galaxy to "young" for max minerals, as you can't change a planets mineral content but you CAN Terraform it to be more habitable...

Starting Tech Level:

This is a tricky one.
On one end of the spectrum you have "Pre-Warp" which is exactly what it sounds like, you don't have interstellar space flight capabilities.
At the other is "Advanced" where you start out with an already established empire as put together by the computer, which, BTW, is not nearly as good at this as you would be...

Difficulty:

This is where you decide how hard the game will be. The five modes are Tutor, Easy, Average, Hard and 'Impossible'. The harder the game is, the more random events are in play...

Galaxy Size:

This is completely inaccurately labled, you aren't deciding the size of the GALAXY, just the local area of it you'll be playing in... I always set it to maximum so there's actually some exploring and investigation to do.