Independent empires finite or not ?

[Xkill]

Don't any new player that played this awesome game have seen the option: "Allow independent alien colonies to start new empires during the game" got confused ?

Here is what i want to know: There are "Infinite Empire Count" in this game? because the most far that i've gone was in a "Standard Galaxy Setting" ( Because my PC have 768MB memory ) and the maximum empires allowed was nearly 17/19 empires, but and the little alien populations that become Mighty Empires ? Is there a limit to that, Or they are infinite?

[shibdib]

i think theirs an infinite number as empires often split after long wars and a new faction will be formed

[frugaldude]

from a post created 3/16/2010:

quote:

ORIGINAL: elliotg

[blockquote]quote:

ORIGINAL: Gargantou
Best thing would be if Elliot saw this and could give a clear technical answer.
[/blockquote]
Here you go: the maximum limit on number of standard empires in the game is 50. You'll never see more than 50 standard empires in the game, in fact you're unlikely to even get close to that number. This does NOT include pirate factions (of which there can be dozens) or independent alien colonies.

The maximum number of *starting* empires in the game is 20, including your own. You can have as many empires with the same dominant race as you like, e.g. 20 empires that are all human.

The maximum hard-coded number of alien races is 20. All standard empires, pirate factions and independent alien colonies are one of these 20 alien races.

[Astax]

Do pirates count towards this 50?

[Shark7]

As far as I can tell they do not. Pirates operate on a completely different systen from the empires. Best I can tell, you will never run out of pirates to shoot at. They seem to reform at random (that is, you wipe one group out, another will likely take its place).

[Fishman]

An interesting quirk of empires that split is that if an empire splits due to a planet revolting, such as, say, a Human Empire, where a Teekan colony revolts and splits off, the new colony will STILL split off into a human empire even though there are no humans in it.