Matrix Games Forums

I know this is technically not a bug, but wanted to post it here so it would get seen by the powers that be. There really needs to be something to spread the AI race start locations out and ensure a somewhat even distribution throughout the galaxy. My last game I thought was going well until I realized all the AIs had spawned in one corner of the galaxy and were tripping all over each other. Expanding unchecked throughout half the galaxy merely because no AIs spawned nearby is really not much fun.

I had the opposite thing happen. My explorers went out 1 sector from my start (in various directions) and found 2 or 3 civs (I'm playing on expanding difficulty).

Maybe this is just bad luck. I guess the RNG determines things.

Version?
Game start settings?

That's an old bug that seems to be less of an issue lately.

Leaving the starting distances for all the other empires on random gives the best distributions.

I was using random starting distances incidentally in the game that I found particularly lopsided. Using the latest beta with a small 400 star map and 7 AIs. This is an issue I've found since I first got this game last year, I've never been happy with the distribution mechanism, it starts AIs too close to each other and doesn't properly fill the galaxy way to often for my tastes.

Oh.  That's good to know. 
 
Personally I haven't any great problem with random starting distances but massive problems when I specify something other than random.
 
If you have a savegame that you can upload for the developers it may well help pin/track down the problem.