I'm not sure if you're asking the players or the devs, but I can answer a few of those questions...
The homins arrived in the New Lands in 2483, and the game started in 2525, so the 42 years inbetween exist in lore only and are the time in which the current civilisations were build up from scratch to what they were at the beginning of the game.
As you say, now it is 2556, so 31 years since the game started. In those 31 years, the status of the civilisations probably has not advanced as much as the original game creators had hoped - whether their original plans were overambitious or they just didn't get enough subsribers to realise them, I think it's safe to say they had planned a rapidly developing world and instead the world is mostly in stasis since 2525.
The homins arrived in the New Lands in 2483, and the game started in 2525, so the 42 years inbetween exist in lore only and are the time in which the current civilisations were build up from scratch to what they were at the beginning of the game.
As you say, now it is 2556, so 31 years since the game started. In those 31 years, the status of the civilisations probably has not advanced as much as the original game creators had hoped - whether their original plans were overambitious or they just didn't get enough subsribers to realise them, I think it's safe to say they had planned a rapidly developing world and instead the world is mostly in stasis since 2525.