How bad can a starting position get?

Had a start today where I put my commander in the water, not noticing that the ground was fractured there. He ended up on a tiny shelf surrounded by fracture and basically could only build 1 mex. Luckily it was a FFA and I ended up having time to build an air factory, an orbital launcher and an astraeus before anyone attacked me. Vamoosed to another planet. (Game ended up stalemating...)

Let me fix that for you.

Notice that different start positions can be balanced just like 2 different races can be balanced.

The randomization is good for the galactic war, to be able to have many different planets. For competitive ladder there should be a map pool so randomness doesn't give someone a disadvantage.

There will be, let alone for competitions where it'll be about prize money.

In my opinion randomization is one of the biggest advantages and innovation PA.
Of course, is a problem in cases of tournament competition.
Devs have to deal with it if they wish to think seriously about esports.

I think the solution to the problem is not that difficult.
Enough to apply the symmetry axes when generating planets.
- 1 axis of symmetry for 2 teams
- 2 axes of symmetry for 4 teams
- 3 axes of symmetry for 8 teams
This is the simplest.
I can also imagine a planet divided into three, six or twelve identical areas. There are no limitations here.

There is also the possibility of leaving random planet, with more evenly or even symmetrical metal spots positioning. This solution is not perfect but I think it's interesting.

Anyway, I want to play on the planets designed by the community.
I want to play on a model of the earth, for example.
Such a possibility is necessary and from what I know will be implemented.
This also solves all the problems associated with fair start.