Quote Originally Posted by Olinser View Post
Uh... no, its exactly the opposite, early game is significantly faster.

Your base mineral income at the start of the game is increased +5 and with a Cold world start you generally have more minerals on your home planet.

I opened a new game and started at +17 on day 1. Even lucky games it took finding multiple quick minerals and spending hundreds on mining stations to get to +17.
the increased base income makes it less bad sure, but even that early snowball barely makes up for paying 50% more for most of your Mining stations than you otherwise would have had