I know we've seen all the movies where humans struggle to survive but I uploaded
"Game_1364" and they seemed pretty much doomed from the start.

I think the humans have a plus 5 to luck factor to start in the sector of space surrounded by the least inhabitable planets in the galaxy.

The more I think about this, having them start next to a Gaia and super rich planet would be unfair or just over the top as well.

I'll play along and see what happens with all the new changes

It's RNG, and it can go either way. I've had some peach starts with Humanity in which I'd colonized almost half the galaxy before anyone else had really gotten started.

The new food rules are showing an effect also. I'm not seeing the same rate of expansion speed from the computer players at this point nor the same huge fleet sizes early on. Could just be rng tho...